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July 18, 2008
Advice from Google
Today is the last day of a 2 week graduate course I'm teaching. Right now, it's 10 minutes before the "final" presentations. The students are clicking away and consulting with each other. They are using technology and collaborating, so I feel happy!
Meanwhile, the Google blog has this to the point post today, Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning. This is a great finish to a class that started by looking at the now-classic "Shift Happens" and then a wander through The World is Flat, Everything's Miscellaneous, and Rainbows End.
Hopefully, they will all remember that while most of the tangible things I taught, they learned and we discussed will be old news by September, the core value is to continue learning and to inspire that in their students.
Thanks to Google for adding to my class!
And then keep on challenging yourself, because learning doesn't end with graduation. In fact, in the real world, while the answers to the odd-numbered problems are not in the back of the textbook, the tests are all open book, and your success is inexorably determined by the lessons you glean from the free market. Learning, it turns out, is a lifelong major.
Posted by Pat on 9:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 9, 2008
Think...Work Hard...Enjoy: My Rubric
I'm now two days into my graduate class for the summer, K-12 Technology Integration. I'm also part of the team on a 6-week program for inservice teachers to learn about how science and math are done in the lab and how that might inform what they do in the classroom, the NISE-RET Program.
Yesterday and today, I'm doing about 6 hours each day between the two groups and it got me thinking about what I'd really like them to walk away with. So, here are my 3 personal objectives every time I teach.
- THINK -- Did the participants think about things that they had never thought about before? Or think about things in a completely new way because of their experiences? (This one is a short- and long-term goal so I'd like this thinking to happen in class, that evening, three months from now, etc.)
- HARD -- Did the participants leave thinking they worked hard? I truly believe that learning new things is hard. That's not bad at all. Witness the energy that people put in to learning about their hobbies or sports or new video games. I hope that participants realize that hard doesn't equate with bad and that true learning usually is hard at some level.
- ENJOY -- So the third one is a bit of a twist on things. Once participants figure out that they are thinking differently and that they worked hard, I hope they also realize that they enjoyed the experience.
If all three of these things happen in our classrooms, life-long learning is possible. Participants (adults and kids) can begin to internalize and manage their own learning and seek out new opportunities.
The dirty, little secret is most of our classrooms is that what we teach on any given day probably doesn't matter much. (Take a look at the Fr. Guido Sarducci 5-Minute University.) But the experience everyday in the classroom does matter and that's what I hope happens when I teach.
Posted by Pat on 8:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 10, 2008
Saga of the Wiimote Whiteboard
Been having a good time this week really being a geek again!
My project has been to make my own Wii Whiteboard as developed originally by Johnny Lee of Carnegie Mellon and featured at the 2008 TED conference. This let's you use your $40 Wiimote, a homemade <$10 IR Lightpen, and any surface in place of a commercial $1000+ whiteboard system. You bring the computer and the projector and here's the rest of the story.
The basic idea here is to use the Wiimote's infrared camera to point at an infrared light source and relay that information back to the computer via Bluetooth. As with so many other projects, the Wiimote projects have had most of their development on the Windows side and there are many variants of the software around the web. Although there are fewer choices, the ones I found did the job just fine.
So, what's needed.
First, you need to connect your Wiimote to your computer via Bluetooth. On the Mac, that deed is done quite simply through the System Preferences. Fire up the Blootooth control panel and add the Wiimote by pressing both the 1 and 2 buttons simultaneously when it's time to have the device discovered.
Second, let's just try to use the Wiimote as a remote mouse. For this task, the best software I found was Darwiin Remote. Again, a few little tricks. Although the directions tell you to press the software's "Find Remote" button and then the Wiimote's 1 and 2 buttons simultaneously, I found it worked more reliably if you do it the other way around. So, press 1 and 2 and your 4 LEDs will be flashing. Press the "Find Remote" button and you get confirmation that the Wiimote is all hooked up.
One more thing to take care of here. You'll need to open the Darwiin Remote buttons and define the left click and right click. I used the A and B buttons since that felt most natural.
You could stop right here and have a remote mouse and amaze your friends! But let's get to the really interesting stuff!
Third, you'll need an Infrared Lightpen to turn the whole setup into an interactive whiteboard. The complete directions can be found on Johnny Lee's site but there are variations all over the place. The best directions I found were on Youtube. This will give you a good grounding in the electronics, even if you are as much of a novice as me! This other Youtube video gives a simpler version, but you need to find the right pen. I found it useful for the closeup of the diode.
Coolcatteacher, Vicki Davis, blogged about this and found a nice Flickr image. Here's my first attempt. (I know...but it works!)
Fourth, you need the software to turn that funky IR pen into a true Interactive Whiteboard tool. That's the Wiimote Whiteboard software. In this case, the Mac version. The simplest way to get this running is to press the 1 and 2 buttons on your Wiimote and then launch the software. You'll now be able to calibrate the pen and from there it can be used as a your Whiteboard mouse complete with left and right mouse buttons.
The biggest hurdles from here are tuning your setup of the projector, screen and Wiimote considering all our options.
For an educator's journey through all of this, you can read this post from Tom Sextro, the Technology Director for Holton USD 336, who is using these in the classroom. He does a great job of chronicling their journey.
Okay, it's not exactly simple, but it's $50 and a few hours or $1500. And, it's fun!
Posted by Pat on 8:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 4, 2008
New Knowlege...Collectively
This snippet came from Will Richardson's blog.
From "Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace" (600+ page .pdf) comes this passage by Robert Steele in his essay “Creating a Smart Nation:”
"Published knowledge is old knowledge: The art of intelligence in the 21st Century will be less concerned with integrating old knowledge and more concerned with using published knowledge as a path to exactly the right source or sources that can create new knowledege tailored to a new situation, in real time."
So much of interest here:
- Of course, the notion of the new intelligence is very compelling. This thread just goes on and on in the lesson reviews and training we all do, but just doesn't show up enough in the classrooms.
- Also, the whole 600 pages turn out to be a link to the entire book, available freely as a PDF, and licensed through Creative Commons.
I'm planning for my summer course this year and grazing for new ideas to really challenge the teaching of the inservice teachers. This one will certainly be part of the raw materials.
Posted by Pat on 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 7, 2008
No Words Needed
On my first day back from vacation, I have to get ready for two presentations this week. Here's a tool I've just tried for digital storytelling -- ToonDoo.com
I think this tells the story!
Posted by Pat on 5:37 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 21, 2008
Preparing my next presentation
I'm starting to really think about my conference presentation for this year's Delaware Instructional Technology Conference. My topic and blurb as submitted.
How Do We Know?
When we were in school, the question was "What do you know?" Now, for most of us, the question is "How can I know this?" and "how do I know it's true? " This presentation will go beyond searching to discuss some real-world dilemmas in Knowing in the 21st Century.
Of course, that was when I only needed 50 words and a catchy title!
When I started out, what I really wanted to focus on was how we help students "know" the difference between what's true and what's not on the web. I really liked the article from TechLearning by Kathy Schrock and it made clear a lot of the issues in learning on the web. I also want to include the powerful words of Bob Sprankle's third and fourth graders from a few years ago about using Wikipedia. Of course, the latest story along this vein is the tale of the college study group via Facebook at Ryerson University.
But with my recent use of Twitter, I'm finding another dimension of this topic. I've been "collecting" a number of local experts who help identify useful or interesting new bits of information. I'm also learning to look at other experts through the eyes (or tweets) of those I'm following. For example, David Warlick's tweet today led me to a great post More Twitter types from Martin Weller, a Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University in the UK.
I'm thinking this is a different kind of "knowing" that consists mainly of a kind of swimming in the knowledge base that is constantly swirling around me.
I've set up a wiki to collect other ideas for my presentation and would love folks to post their del.icio.us links for me.
Posted by Pat on 1:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 23, 2008
Prioritized spending
I just finished reading the article, Research Windows: The Two-Year Bump by Robert Kadel in the Dec-Jan issue of Learning and Leading with Technology, the magazine of ISTE. Kadel goes on to criticize the funding agenda and realities of the E2T2 provisions of NCLB. He describes how funding is generally used to purchase hardware and software in schools under the budgets of short-term grants. He goes on to question how this 2-year bump in tech spending really helps the schools, teachers and students.
The article is really focused on what research should be done to examine the effect of E2T2 spending and spending patterns. However, to my mind there is a much bigger question. Why do we in education still treat technology as a one-time expense? Why do we fund this with special, competitive grant money? Why does education regard technology as a "special" when every other business uses technology as the cornerstone of increased productivity?
If you leave your classroom and Windows 98 computers today, you might pick up dinner at McDonald's where the computerized cash register routes your order through the networked terminals at each station. Then stop off at Home Depot to have the computer mix paint for you. Is it any wonder that we often have trouble impressing our high schoolers that we know how to best prepare them for the future?
Posted by Pat on 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 18, 2007
Hats Off to Delaware Students Who "Rocked Our World"
Today I got a chance to really explore the contribution that the kids from Cape Henlopen school district made to this project. You can start your exploration at the home page. Then check out the Family Night video where the kids participated in an international chat.
Their entry into this world was a video that is now posted on Teachertube.com. Although there are several hits on a search for "horseshoe crab at YouTube, this is the only one at TeacherTube.
Bravo to all involved!!
Posted by Pat on 2:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 1, 2007
Thinking about Web 2.0 Tools
The Sept./Oct. 2007 issue of the Educause Review has an interesting article called Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs! Oh, My! What Is a Faculty Member Supposed to Do? by Patricia McGee and Veronica Diaz. What particulary caught my eye was a chart which relates the new "web 2.0" applications to the kinds of work that goes on in every class, the function or purpose for the task and the tools to get the job done.
Web 2.0 Applications
from the article
Type Function Tools Communicative To share ideas, information, and creations
- Blogs
- Audioblogs
- Videoblogs
- IM-type tools
- Podcasts
- Webcams
Collaborative To work with others for a specific purpose in a shared work area
- Editing/writing tools
- Virtual communities of practice (VCOPs)
- Wikis
Documentative To collect and/or present evidence of experiences, thinking over time, productions, etc.
- Blogs
- Videoblogs
- E-portfolios
Generative To create something new that can be seen and/or used by others
- Mashups
- VCOPs
- Virtual Learning Worlds (VLWs)
Interactive To exchange information, ideas, resources, materials
- Learning objectives
- Social bookmarking
- VCOPs
- VLWs
In working with schools and teachers, we get such a limited amount of time and so few opportunities to do professional development that we fall into the trap of talking about the tools and training on the skills for those skills. What we really need to do is to focus on the problem to be solved and then apply the appropriate tool. Of course, the ideal would then be to have the teachers be able to get support in using the software as they need it...
Posted by Pat on 2:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 17, 2007
But what will they do?
Today's eSchool News brought two interesting items to my attention today.
First, Low-cost school computing set to take off talks all about nComputing which is selling computers to Macedonia to enable 1-to-1computing. There are already 770 of these installed at one school.
California-based NComputing announces it will provide multi-user virtual desktop software and inexpensive computer terminals to 400,000 students in the Republic of Macedonia by the end of 2008. The move, the company says, is a step towards its goal to see every person and organization that wants 1-to-1 access to a PC be able to afford it.
The second article, Push for ‘net neutrality' stalls, outlines the Sept. 6th decision of the US Justice Department (DOJ) that internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority web traffic.
DOJ said imposing a net neutrality regulation could hamper development of the internet and prevent service providers from upgrading or expanding their networks. It also could shift the "entire burden of implementing costly network expansions and improvements onto consumers," the agency said in its Sept. 6 filing with the FCC.
Doesn't seem like we're all rowing in the same direction!
Posted by Pat on 1:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 28, 2007
Google Jockeys, Live Blogging, and Parallel Thinking
Recently, I've presented several sessions where I've used a Google Jockey and employed Live Blogging, as I learned from Karl Fisch and Anne Smith. The results have been mixed, but then again, these are educators in very large groups who are just getting their heads around the idea by the time the whole thing is over. I'm quite sure that a second day of this would yield better results. In fact, when I used the approach in my class this summer, things went very well by the second question.Two things occur to educators as they experience this. First, the big question of "how will I ever get this to work in my classroom?" This NYTimes article about using a laptop in meetings seemed right on point as people in the work force figure out the etiquette of using a laptop, maximizing efficiency, and participating in the meeting.
That brings up the other question. This one is "can they really split their attention like this?" There have been lots of experiments which prove that students can and do, and get better at it all the time. (Remember when we had to study in a quiet place???) (see Prensky, "Do They Really Think Differently?) The real proof is that after adults do this a little bit they start realizing they can do it. Then the fun can begin.
Posted by Pat on 1:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2007
Why WebQuests are so 20th Century
For many years I have been a great fan of WebQuests. They were really the hot ticket in the Wild West days of the Web back in the '90's. However, I think the time has come to move on and here's my reasoning.
First of all, the large number of educators who I meet still believe that a WebQuest is an online scavenger hunt. That was never true and the definition from 1995 bears that out.
Second, the benefits of WebQuests in the late '90's have largely been overcome in the wake of Web improvements.
- WebQuests were a great way for teachers to organize resources, but we now have del.icio.us accounts which are far richer and offer tag clouds that encourage broader thinking. We also have Wikipedia which predigests a lot of this for us and sends us off to great resources.
- WebQuests were a way for teachers and students to become more familiar with the Web...'nuff said.
- WebQuests provide a framework for scaffolding higher-order thinking...uh oh.
So now that we are in 2007, WebQuests no longer really do scaffold higher-order thinking.
- In most cases, the task is laid out for students right from the start so they are robbed of the higher-order thinking required to solve some problem set out for them and which the resources presented might support them in that thinking. To be fair, I looked at the WebQuest page and found these exemplars, which still have these problems. Tom March, one of the co-creators, tried to move the concept forward with his BestWebQuests.com and provides The 7 Red Flags: Warning Signs when Sifting WebQuests.
- The rich resources and search tools available on the Web now offer great opportunities for students collect, evaluate, and share resources. We'd be much better off helping students find resources that solve problems if the goal is to scaffold higher-order thinking.
If any more convincing is needed, just take a look at Instant WebQuests which encourages you to "Create a WebQuest in 15 Minutes." So much for thoughtful curriculum development.
But, I do believe (and taught for many years) that WebQuests were a great model for teaching with technology. I still believe that was true only now I think we've moved on by learning from these. Thanks, Bernie Dodge and Tom March! (BTW, both are still doing great work and a look at Dodge's Blog gives a hint that he might be sharing my point of view ... One Trick Pony!)
Posted by Pat on 12:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 13, 2007
Keeping Up to Date
I've been asked many times for suggestions on how to stay up-to-date with what's happening in technology. Here is a combination of what I use and what I'd recommend to get started. If these aren't your cup of tea, they will lead you to others that might suit you better.
- K-12 online conference -- This is a great place to see presentations by educators about how to succeed online. The conference was first held in 2006 and is now accepting proposals for 2007. Follow the links on the right side to browse presentations that fit your needs then sit back and enjoy a presentaton.
- Teachertube.com -- In the course I taught this summer, we used Youtube every day for videos that illuminated or extended what we were discussing. Unfortunately, this is blocked in most schools. You can find much of the same valuable content at teachertube.com, as well as many teaching specific videos. It also uses the same easy to search and view software.
- Edutopia -- This site is funded by the George Lucas Educational Foundation and is an online magazine. Its main focus is on how schools are meeting the challenges of the 21st century, but this also involves a does of technology. There are lots of great articles and videos of real classrooms in acton.
- EdTechWeekly -- This is a weekly discussion of the latest news and resources of interest to the EdTech Community which you can access either by subscribing to it as a podcast, by participating live via Skype, or simpl
- Del.icio.us -- This is a more general site for sharing bookmarks, but it is a great way to ride the coattails of any educator you might be interested in. To use it, first get a free login. From there you can add experts to your network. My bookmarks can be found at http://del.icio.us/sine. But I also take advantage of the work of a few expert and heavy users of del.icio.us. They are David Warlick, Will Richardson and EdTechWeekly. Even with just these three, I have an overwhelming number of links to follow at my leisure, but it makes the web so much easier!
Posted by Pat on 10:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 21, 2007
How do we know all that stuff???
One of the questions that I always get is how do you know about all of that stuff? I confess, I'm a hopeless geek who watches all TV and movies on my computer and syncs my podcasts as the first thing I do every morning.
Okay, so how do real people do this?
As I think about this, I always come back to the idea that we teachers have professed for years that we believe in "lifelong learning." Well, that's a noble goal, but with today's world we have more opportunities than ever before. Witness Ray's Personal Learning Environment. If we really are lifelong learners, then we should be building these kinds of networks for ourselves. I think the challenge for educators is to realize that we have those networks and to make them visible to our students. I also recently read Rainbows End, based on a recommendation from Mark Prensky. In this world, the personal learning environment is always accessible because the whole world is networked and searchable.
So, what happens in the classroom? It seems like we need to find a way help students think broadly and focus on a problem. One approach we've used in class is to employ a Google Jockey to model broad thinking and personal blogging to focus.
Here's the big payoff...It's way more fun to teach this way!
Posted by Pat on 11:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 23, 2007
Milton, Delaware & the 21st Century
The world just keeps shrinking! Today, I am sitting in a meeting in Arlington, VA. At this minute, I'm listening to a speaker from NASA Learning Technologies and we've just spoken with someone from England via the Internet.
Of course, I'm not just listening but also reading email. This just arrived.
I can't help but share that we are beaming with joy for our students who have been recognized on Will Richardson's blog! This has opened up a flood of comments not only on this site, but on their class own classroom Wiki! How cool is this?!!! Delaware is on world's map for some really awesome stuff! And we are so grateful for the DITC Teacher of Excellence showcase that propels these opportunities! This recognition is the payoff for all of our hard work!
Check out these comments! Better yet, make your own!
http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/business-cards-we-love-to-see/
Lori Roe
Instructional Technology Specialist
Cape Henlopen School District
http://web.mac.com/lori.roe/iWeb/Roe/
So off I went to check this out. Sure enough, Will Richardson, who was the keynote speaker at the Delaware Instructional Technology Conference last week, has commented on his blog. That's cool because he is one of the big names right now in using the Internet effectively in the classroom.
But cooler than that are the comments on his blog. The 8th graders in Milton, Delaware are commenting on the blog of the author of the textbook that their teacher used last summer in a university class. They are commenting along with many educators from around the world.
I spend a lot of time talking to educators about 21st Century Learning. This is happening now in Milton, Delaware.
Posted by Pat on 12:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 8, 2007
Does filtering protect kids?
In May, 2006, The Free Expression Policy Project "Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report, a detailed survey of tests and studies documenting how the widespread use of filters limits the free exchange of ideas necessary in a healthy democracy." This is the report updated from its original report in 2000. The report makes for some interesting reading regarding what our filters are protecting us from. As expected, many useful and legitimate pages get caught in the filtering algorithms and lists of blocked sites. But, so what for K-12 educators?
Under CIPA, any school that accepts e-Rate monies is required to employ filtering software to protect children from harmful content. Very few schools could afford to turn down e-Rate money so the reality is that we will have filters in the K-12 schools.
But private schools don't get the money and hence could opt to not install any filters. I don't know of any school that doesn't use a filter. Without a filter, the onus falls on educators to protect students (not that teachers are excused because filters are present). Certainly, teachers are still required to do that, but who can reasonably accept that as viable -- especially in 21st century classrooms where students are often working independently and often online.
A recent news story, Substitute teacher convicted in school computer porn case, takes us through an even more convoluted path. From the story,
A substitute teacher in the Norwich school system is facing up to 40 years in prison after being convicted of exposing students to pornography on a computer at the school. ... During the trial, Amero said any inappropriate images on her computer screen were from adware, which can generate pop-up ads and not from sites specifically keyed.
It further turned out that the computer was heavily infected with adware and spyware. The computer did have anti-spyware and virus protection, but the district had let the license lapse. BoingBoing has an interesting slant on the whole thing.
So, where does that leave us? May you live in interesting times!
Posted by Pat on 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 5, 2007
Education in the 21st Centry
The Time article from December 18, 2006 has been sitting on my desk for awhile. I'm glad I finally read it because it really brings a topic I've been thinking about to the forefront -- "How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century."
Commenting on the current state of K-12 public schools and the imperatives of NCLB, they make this comment.
Competency in reading and math--the focus of so much No Child Left Behind (NCLB) testing--is the meager minimum. Scientific and technical skills are, likewise, utterly necessary but insufficient. Today's economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines but also what might be called 21st century skills.
They go on to boil this down to four areas of emphasis:
- Knowing more about the world.
- Thinking outside the box.
- Becoming smarter about new sources of information.
- Developing good people skills.
Not surprisingly, these are quite close to the skills enumerated by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
Posted by Pat on 12:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Moving All Our Apps to the Web
Over the past several years, more and more apps are moving to the web. This year, we've seen Google put both a word processor and a spreadsheet on the web. These have gotten some bad reviews because they don't have enough power for business users. For our purposes, though they are just what the doctor ordered! The apps are free; they are always available as long as you have Internet connectivity; and they are built for collaboration. The only thing they are missing for us is the label "educational."
This week, I've found the two missing apps to make a complete online and free suite for education. First is empressr.com. This is an online PowerPoint application. It is pretty bare-bones at this point, but it's got the other attributes.
The second find is bubbl.us. This is a free online concept mapping tool. Again, it's got room for improvement but it is always available and it's free.
With these kinds of free apps and the announcement that we will be able to buy the $100 computer in the US by this summer, looks like we are getting closer to one-to-one and the real breakthrough in integrating technology.
Posted by Pat on 10:35 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 25, 2007
In the classroom with GPS
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to work with five classes of fifth and sixth graders to give them their first introduction to the world of GPS. I had anywhere from 35 to 45 minutes so I had to work fast. Here’s what we accomplished.
- Students took about 2 minutes to record in their science notebooks what they already knew about GPS. For some, all they could do was spell GPS. Others knew what the letters meant. And a few had a vague notion that the GPS would enable folks to find their way.
- I did a mini-lecture/questioning session to draw out prior knowledge and to get the very basics down. The knowledge was limited to these facts.
- GPS means Global Positioning System
- The system relies on 24 satellites.
- We did a student participation demo using students as the satellites, myself as a GPSr (receiver), and strings to represent the communication between us. Adding one satellite at a time, we discovered one more fact.
- It takes a minimum of 4 satellites to determine an exact point on the earth’s surface. (Here’s a great explanation.)
- This only works because the satellites are geosynchronous. (Took time out for examining the roots of the word.)
- Location is reported back in latitude and longitude, with reference back to prior geography lessons.
- Using digital photos of the screen of my GPSr from a previous day, we looked at the buttons to push and what was to be expected on the screen.
- Then we took a field trip. Actually, we walked out the door and teams of three got a GPSr each. From here, we accomplished the following.
- Each student got a fix by turning on the GPSr until it gave latitude and longitude.
- Then they walked to some spot in the field (about the size of a football field) and marked their location.
- Each team brought their unit back and another team tried to use the GPSr to go back to the location of the previous team.
- Back to the classroom and we took a quick look at the items hidden nearby on geocaching.com
WHEW!!! I never guessed we’d get that much done in the period and there is much to be followed up on, but overall the kids seemed to understand. Teachers now plan to follow up with other lessons and gradually incorporate the units for other purposes.
Posted by Pat on 4:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 21, 2006
A Gift of Information and Time
One of the things I stress to teachers that I work with is to "walk the walk." In this case, we continually preach about "lifelong learning." Then we set up 2-hour inservice training sessions or offer summer courses that are over and done. The biggest complaint I hear from teachers is "not enough time" to keep up with all the new developments.
Well, here's a gift from the The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Each year they create the Horizon Report which highlights six technologies that the underlying research suggests will become very important to higher education over the next one to five years. Of course, those same technologies will be equally significant to all educators and indeed any of us interested in improving our own learning.
The reason it is such a gift is that it provides a synopsis of each of the technologies to enable anyone to begin learning about them, great examples of the application to learning with links to online articles about the products. But the piece I found most valuable was a very short reading list on each technology that allowed me to really hone in on particular technologies and things I didn't understand about each one.
So here's a gift of information and time, the 2006 Horizons Report.
Posted by Pat on 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 5, 2006
Bookmarks in Del.icio.us
I've been reading about the folksonomy and darting over to del.icio.us for more than a year now. I've tried shared bookmark spaces like ikeepbookmarks.com many times in the past, but this is something different. Using del.icio.us should enable me to take advantage of reorganizing using tagging and sharing the finds of people all over the world.
So, I've now really started my del.icio.us tagging in earnest and I've even added a tag cloud to my Resources page. Over time, I hope to replace all of the links that I've maintained over the years, but there is much still to be learned!
Posted by Pat on 2:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 27, 2006
Managing the Free Flow of Information
Here are three interesting quotes I heard today.
The first is from Sasa Vucinic of Media Development Loan Fund, a New York nonprofit organization providing low-cost financing to independent news businesses in emerging democracies.
"More than 80 percent of people live in countries without a free press. In other words, more than 5 billion people can't trust what they read in the newspaper, hear on the radio or see on TV, and do not really know what is happening in their own country."
The second is the article "Blogs And Wikis Move In As E-Mail Overload Becomes Unbearable" from Information Week, which says that businesses are using these new formats to manage the transmission and receiving of information.
The third concerns schools and Social Networking sites from an article in eSchoolNews.
"More than three years after social-networking web sites such as MySpace and Facebook first began cropping up online, school leaders still struggle with how to set policies regarding the use of such sites both inside and outside of school--and many school systems lack these policies altogether, according to a recent survey."
I was struck by the three counterpoints. In the first, we have a group that is actively attempting to increase the free flow of information so that people can access and harness information for their own daily lives. In the second, the free flow of information has become so overwhelming that new strategies are needed to manage it.
But the third story was the scariest, we have already claimed that our students are Digital Natives who understand how to utilize the technology to manage their lives and information. They have clearly embraced social networking as a way to operate in the digital landscape. With 3 years behind us, educators are still baffled by the whole phenomena. Surely, there is a way to bridge these three ideas and harness the technologies to lead and support students to manage information.
Posted by Pat on 2:36 PM
October 23, 2006
An amazing class blog
I just stumbled across the most amazing blog I've seen in quite awhile. This is a team blog known as Smith's 9th Honors Class Blog. What's amazing is that it is used as part of the classroom discussion process. While students are using the fishbowl process to discuss the novel, others are using the blog to post comments and additional questions. In fact, in the single class period I just observed, there were 201 comments!
I just posted a link to this blog posting into their class site and invited them to help me understand the process a little better. What an amazing time to be in school!
Posted by Pat on 11:46 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Information overload
The other day I came across this new study, How Much Information 2003. The authors attempt to measure how much new information is created each year. From their site, here is the definition:
"Newly created information is distributed in four storage media: print, film, magnetic, and optical; and seen or heard in four information flows: telephone, radio and TV, and the Internet."
It turns out, that the answer for 2002 was 5 exabytes. Just to give us a sense of the magnitude of this, 5 exabytes is equal to the number of words ever spoken by human beings. Not easy to get our heads around!
Today, I'm in my office all day and I'm trying to make sense of all of the media that is piled up in the past few weeks. I have 64 podcasts, about 20 journals, four large texts, and about seven the e-mail messages. Of course, while I'm writing this more of each of those are arriving. And this count doesn't even include all of the blogs and webpages that are on my list to review.
If there is 5 exabytes of new information every year, how much of it is "new information?" Much of that reading that is piled up for me is repetitious. But I don't have any good way to ferret out just the great stuff that is working in each of those individual podcasts or journals. Beyond that, even if I'm conscientious in keeping up with this reading, what does it mean? Am I able to retrieve the information when it's needed? I'm hopeful, we are teaching students to ask these questions, and I'm really looking forward to a time when I can google my own brain!
Posted by Pat on 11:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 17, 2006
Conferences
In the past two days, I've attended to conferences. Today, I was at Delaware's kick off for Vision 2015. This is a 10 year plan to turn Delaware public education into a world-class system. Today's event was preceded by a number of mail packages and e-mail, as well as some glossy material presented as we entered the hall. About 300 people attended a two-hour presentation by the steering committee. Then everyone went back to their jobs. The next follow-up will be some meetings at the end of this month and into November.
The conference I attended yesterday was the K12Online conference. I attended the keynote sitting in my office and doing other work at the same time. Last night, there was an online meeting using videoconferencing software. Then to continually there is a wiki where conference attendees can record their notes and impressions.
Both conferences have lofty goals that I subscribe to. I am hopeful that both can maintain the momentum that started with these kickoff events and I hope that we can find ways to harness technology to move both of them forward.
Posted by Pat on 2:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Alternative Homework
Here's an idea for homework. After thinking about the value of homework and the problems that current strategies introduce, I stumbled across this site. It's part of The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. In the Invention Playhouse, visitors to the site can experiment with words, drawing or simple engineering. How about if we assign students 15 minutes at that site for homework? We make sure that they are thinking for 15 minutes and have some great starting points for conversation the next day in the classroom.
Posted by Pat on 12:37 PM | Comments (1)
October 16, 2006
Homework???
Finally, the debate is heating up again over the value of homework. Over the past few days I've seen a number of articles referencing new books and articles on the value of homework. Some of them talk about the value of homework in terms of the number of hours of homework different grades are required to do. There are anecdotal studies and a few scientific studies. However, most of them miss what I consider key issues in homework or any other assignment.
First of all, if their aim is to have students become better critical thinkers we need to make sure that all of our assignments encourage and support critical thinking. Too much of school and too much of homework fills time rather than pursuing goals. It's pretty easy to spot these kinds of things when you hear teachers talk about “sponge activities.” When I ask students about homework or even class work, many of them can't distinguish one class from another; they simply say “we did a worksheet" to describe math, social studies or English classes.
Second, it seems dangerous to me to send students off to complete tasks by themselves that they couldn't do well in the classroom. Under the watchful eye of a teacher, and veering off-track becomes a teachable moment. When left to themselves or assisted by parents who don't understand what is happened in the classroom, these same experiences become breeding grounds for incorrect strategies or misconceptions.
Wouldn't it be better if we all worked toward a time when school time was maximized to engage students in activities that really did move them forward in critical thinking? And, we made sure that all teachers were able to provide great assignments and great support.
Posted by Pat on 11:44 AM
Persistent Blogging
Well, I'm ashamed to say that I've missed almost a month now between postings. My goal was to post 200 words every day. Then I gave myself a break and said 200 words every work day. And, as you can see, I did that for a short while.
Seems to me, the trick is really to find one topic every day. So here I am making my next attempt at 200 words a day.
Posted by Pat on 10:44 AM
September 20, 2006
IT Doesn't Matter...in Schools 2006
IT Doesn't Matter
Last week my class Planning IT-enhanced Projects in the Public & Nonprofit Sectors discussed the article from Nicholas Carr that made such a stir two years ago. At the end of the class everyone was agreeing with Carr’s argument when refined by other commenters to emphasize that business processes utilizing IT are what matters. However, when I asked them to come up with a computer replacement plan for their hypothetical agency, very few tied their arguments to the business practice involved.
Today an article in our local paper talked about the new Philadelphia School of the Future. The students found this interesting enough to bring to the class listserv and to comment on; some are even blogging about it. Trouble is their conversation has been about the kids getting laptops and issues of the digital divide. While that's not to be ignored, it decidedly is not what this school is about. Much more important is the focus on collaborative, student-centered, critical thinking, problem-solving curricula. The principal is known as the "Chief Learner."
This really is about reinventing the business process of schools and is way overdue!
Posted by Pat on 12:54 PM
