Bookmarking Old School January 31, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Tools.add a comment
Sticking with a sort of retro theme, here is a new tool called Instapaper. Not to be confused with ePaper, Instapaper is an online tool that lets you save web pages like you would bookmarks. It doesn’t share the items, nor does it connect you to a community of instapaperers. It just lets you collect pages for later review.
How it works
- You find something you want to read, but you don’t have time now. You click
.
- When you have time to read, you come here on your computer or phone and get whatever you wanted to read.
Teach an Old Dog January 31, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion.add a comment
Pete Reilly, on Ed Tech Journeys, explores the preconception many of us (myself included) that older teachers are less likely to integrate technology into their teaching practices. Turns out that veteran teachers are actually more likely to say that technology has changed the way they teach. This reminds me of two teachers I met my first year of teaching.
One of them actually taught my cousin (who is older than I am) when he was in first grade. She was a wonderful teacher who spent time learning about this new computer thing even though she was going to retire in a few years.
The other teacher, who retired about the same time and had about the same experience, did not want to use the computer and insisted that we were wasting our time and resources with something this expensive that could be better taught in the workforce in about two weeks. She had a point actually. Teaching ‘computer’ was and still is short-sided. Leveraging technology to teach and learn is not.
http://preilly.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/fact-or-fiction-are-older-teachers-slow-to-adopt-technology/
Netscape Is Dead! Long Live Netscape… er Firefox! January 31, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in History.add a comment
In case you hadn’t heard yet, the Netscape browser will officially pass away February 1, 2008. I remember it well, and even remember the earlier Mosaic browser. While this momentous event could provide the opportunity to wax nostalgic for the ‘good old days’ of Gopher or Archie, lets not forget that good code never dies, it just gets forked. In other words, check under the hood of Firefox, which apparently as many as 30% of you are using, and you’ll find more than a little Netscape under the hood. Any way, in honor of the passing of Netscape, let’s all roll our browsers back to gray time, when bookmarks were precious, and to ability to write html code made it seem like the world could be your audience.
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/01/netscape-the-br.html
The Sky Is Falling January 31, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.add a comment
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence…. Right?
- Yahoo News: AT&T data network fails
- Wired Blog Network: Fiber Optic Cable Cuts Isolate Millions From Internet
Free Knowledge January 26, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Fair Use, Opinion.add a comment
One of the issues I advocate for in this blog is free access to information. I’m not advocating that educators disregard copyright laws, but I do believe that those laws currently run counter to the original intent of the founding fathers and framers of the US Constitution. Virtually limitless protection of access to and use of information to the extent now codified is limiting creativity and innovation, not encouraging it.
Steve Borsch (Connecting the Dots) expresses some of what I’m trying to say in a much clearer way than I can. In his post ‘What if all human knowledge was free and accessible?’ he draws a parallel between the current trend of “Internet-centric knowledge repositories” and the distribution of food. What was once complicated and difficult has become (in the case of food) simple. That simplicity allows us to focus on something more important.
NOW imagine a world where “content and knowledge calories” are cheap and you can access baseline knowledge for some given subject or topic while having easy, shrink-wrapped-like access to the high value knowledge, presented in an easy to use and learn way.
I’m not completely sold on the idea that information and calories provide us with a good analogy (at one point Steve points out how we’re all getting fat — what does that look like for information?) but I do agree that Web 2.0 trends are simplifying access and use of information. Mashups and widgets are good examples of early Web 2.0 end-user tool building. I doubt that the person who first started using a wheel envisioned our global system of roads and rails for transportation.
Recognize that the Internet is making the inefficient, efficient and that’s the primary reason an initiative like an open education resource vision will get traction. Supply chains, processes, methods, collaboration, communication and a multitude of other key areas are being poked-n-prodded with new startups or approaches as people try to figure out how to leverage the Internet to get rid of the inefficient and allow us all to jump to the next level of creativity, innovation and human cognition.
What will be the end result of “Internet-centric” tools of today? What are the implications for the classroom?
We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning. Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.
Educating the world’s children is the right thing to do and is key to enabling and assisting them to achieve self sustaining status. But it also ensures that we have a hope the world’s knowledge will achieve equilibrium and thus higher standards of living, creativity and innovation will emerge everywhere.
Connecting the Dots: What if all human knowledge was free and accessible?
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The Art of Interviewing January 26, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.add a comment
Excellent post on “I’d Rather Be Writing” about 10 tips for interviewing. While the focus is on podcasting, these tips can be used for any sort of classroom communication such as school news, and digital story telling.
1. Do research beforehand.
2. Ask questions based on the interviewee’s responses.
3. Find people who have something to say.
4. Pick topics you’re interested in learning about.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask tough questions.
6. Let the interviewee speak most of the time.
7. Give the interviewee 10 questions to prepare, but don’t limit yourself to those questions, nor the order.
8. Avoid commenting on their answers.
9. If interviewing in person, don’t let the interviewee hold the microphone.
10. Keep everything informal.
The Art of Interviewing — 10 Tips for Perfecting the Most Important Element of Podcasting
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Twittering? January 26, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion, Tools.add a comment
I still think there can be too much connectedness, and I’m not sold on Twitter, but Vicki Davis (Cool Cat Teacher) has posted how she uses Twitter, and also how to Twitter effectively. If you are curious, or just want to start tweeting, check out her post.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/01/twitter-tips-from-1-tweeterboarder-uh.html
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Necessary Ingredients Part 4 – Identity January 22, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Opinion.add a comment
Successful technology in a networked environment, is highly dependent on the identity of the individual users. Identity is difficult to establish when the computer doesn’t know who you are, only what you click.
Authenticity is also connected to identity. Trust is a measure of how well you know someone.Online, OpenID is one online effort to help establish identity. Chris Harris, on Digital Reshift, posted a short piece on OpenID, what it is, and a few examples of how it is used. If OpenID is a new concept for you, head on over to Digital Reshift and find out more.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/840000284/post/1150020515.html?nid=3367
