Stop Cyberbullying Day March 30, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Edubloggers.add a comment
Today is “Stop Cyberbullying Day.” The Learning Is Messy blog has collected their public service announcements in support of the message of the day. This post chronicles the development of the videos and is well worth reading. The videos are well worth watching and may help spark classroom discussions on the topic.
http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=230
More of the Same? March 26, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion.add a comment
The New York Times has posted an interesting article about the trend to increase the school day, calendar, or both. The basic premise seems to be that if schools are failing, increasing the amount of school will make for better results. Would more of the same really be effective? Or would the return of programs like art, music, physical education, foreign languages, and others be a better approach. Maybe what we need isn’t more of the same, but less. We need a return to a balanced curriculum that includes the basics, but also includes meaningful choices. Here is a critical section from the article:
“At Matthew J. Kuss Middle School here in Fall River, the time has bolstered instruction in reading, math and science as well as opening the way for electives in art and drama, forensics, karate and cooking - “the fun things for kids,” said Nancy Mullen, the principal - that had been pared away as the school’s standing fell.”
Twittering about Twitter March 23, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Humor.add a comment
Very funny take on Twittering. Enjoy!
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/939.html
Code Orange March 21, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Book Review.add a comment
Just finished a book by Caroline Cooney called “Code Orange.” I don’t usually read medical thrillers, reading through this one I was struck by some of the insight it provides into contemporary students. For example, the characters, mostly high school students, spend time texting each other. There is one section where the main character is sending out emails to people, probably more so than a typical high school aged student, but he is finding people to write to by using an unnamed search engine. He also leaves a note for his parents written on his laptop. In school he listens to his iPod during class. His teacher gives an assignment and reminds the class that reading the first chapter on Amazon.com to have something to include in their notes won’t be enough. It was a quick read, and worth the time if you enjoy young adult fiction.
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385732598
All A-Twitter March 19, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Edubloggers, Tools.add a comment
Can you be too connected? Twitter is a new service that seems to combine the instant feel of instant messaging, with status updates, quick blogs, and even Google Earth locations all in a small package. Do you really need everyone to know what you are up to in minute-by-minute detail? I’m not sure about this one, but it is generating a lot of buzz. For more information, try this post from Infocult: Information, Culture, Policy, Edcuation.
http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2007/03/twitter_some_we.html
AssignmentZero March 18, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Tools.add a comment
AssignmentZero
Have you ever wanted the chance to be a journalist? Have you ever wanted a place for your students to be journalists? Take a look at AssignmentZero.
Inspired by the open source movement, this is an attempt to bring journalists together with people in the public who can help cover a story. It’s a collaboration among NewAssignment.Net , Wired , and those who chose to participate.
In other words, from the home page you can visit the assignment desk to see current stories under development, offer to participate, and if your qualifications meet the editors needs, you are assigned the story. Some assignments are given to only one person, while others are given to groups. You need to be a member to contribute. Assignments also include discussion boards to talk with other contributors about the story.
While I don’t think every student should flood AssignmentZero, wouldn’t it be an interesting format for a school to set up? In addition to the school year book or newspaper, students could select from assignments for curricular classes, contribute to group assignments or submit individual work. Imagine a portfolio developed over several years that includes documented participation in project-based learning.
http://zero.newassignment.net/
By the way, I’m trying a new tool, WriteToMyBlog, which is a free web word processor, to write this post.
Policies 2.0 March 13, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.add a comment
EdTechConnect is hosting an online presentation by Doug Johnson called Policies 2.0 - Rules for the Social Web.
In the radically-changing world of social networking, where an embarrassing photo can travel the globe in seconds, online predators are the topic of nightly news programs, students cite wikis as authoritative sources, and young adults travel as avatars to virtual worlds where anything can happen (and does), what policies do schools need to set and how do they set them?
The post below contains a registration link to participate in this presentation. theDENblog is sponsored by the Discovery Educator Network. The presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, March 21st at 5:00 EST.
http://discoveryeducation.typepad.com/discovery_educator_networ/2007/03/edtechconnect_w.html
Data in, Data out March 8, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Book Review, Data.add a comment
eSchool News online published an article reporting on an appearance by Bill Gates before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. He made a case for establishing an education data center to track trends, identify what works, and generally provide the long-promised data-driven instruction we all hear so much about in education these days. The call for more attention to education is laudable, and I hope good things come out of it. I’m also a little skeptical. Recently I read a book called The Future of Everything, the Science of Prediction (ISBN-13: 978-1-56025-975-6) by David Orrell, PhD. In the book, he makes a compelling case for why the fields of weather, health, and wealth have such difficulty in making predictions. He explores the historic roots of predictions and points out the impossibility of making certain types of accurate forecasts. While he does not directly address the field of education, I found myself wondering how if educational forecasts would be subject to the same limitations. I’m a firm believer in the individual nature of learning. Spotting educationally significant trends will hopefully provide some benefit to students as a whole, but I doubt that it will ever provide the necessary insight needed for each student as an individual.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryRSS.cfm?ArticleID=6935
2007 Horizon Report March 5, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.add a comment
Published by EDUCAUSE, the 2007 Horizon Report is an interesting summary of upcoming educational technologies. Each technology is listed in order of expected “time to adoption”, and includes helpful examples. Technologies listed include user-created content, social networking, mobile phones, virtual worlds, massively multiplayer education gaming, and the new scholarship and emerging forms of publication. While the article is focused on higher education, it is also helpful to see where the k-12 education community will be at some point in the future. Any other suggestions that should have been added to the list?
http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=CSD4781
You’ll Keep on Searching March 4, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.add a comment
Is Search Broken? Tom Foremski wrote an interesting article for Silicon Valley Watcher. It is an interesting exploration about some of the current problems with searching. The article reminded me of a book I read recently called Ambient Findability, by Peter Morville. Part of the book describes why we’ll probably never know just how accurate search engines like Google are due to the large data sets involved, and yet we trust it with our day-to-day searching all the time.
As teachers we are focused on providing our students with skills to validate sources of information, but we all fall into the Google-goo of accepting whatever our favorite search engine offers up to us.
By the way, the title of this post comes from a Steve Winwood song. I found the lyrics here:
http://www.lyricallegend.co.uk/songs.php?artist=steve%20winwood&title=you’ll%20keep%20on%20searching
http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2007/03/is_search_broke.php
