The Village Green » Articles/Videos

Teach Yourself

Matthew Woolums — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:18:13 +0000

My philosophy of education connects the learner with their own learning independently of what is being taught. This comes from my own experience in the classroom, both as student and as teacher. This means that your students are learning what they want to learn, whether we like it or not, whether it is related to what we are teaching or not. Learning is personal and innate. We are always learning. If you are looking for an outlet for your inner student, Give one of these two online opportunities a try.

K12 Online Conference – The conference that never ends …

2009 K-12 Online Conference Overview

The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2009 conference theme is “Bridging the Divide.” This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote by classroom teacher and international educator Kim Cofino the week of November 30, 2009. The following two weeks, December 7-11 and December 14-17, over fifty presentations will be posted online to our conference blog and our conference Ning for participants to view, download, and discuss. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” are scheduled on our conference events page, and live events will continue in 2010 through twice-monthly “K-12 Online Echo” webcasts on EdTechTalk. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during and after the conference as well as asynchronous conversations. Over 120 presentations from 2008, 2007, and 2006 are available, along with archived live events!

Infinite Thinking Machine – Education in the Digital Age: A Tour of FRONTLINE’s Digital Nation

Date: Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day) (international times here)
Location: In Elluminate.http://tinyurl.com/pbscr20 If you haven’t used Elluminate before, you can make sure your computer is configured correctly to enter the room by going tohttp://www.elluminate.com/support.

PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 are hosting a free webinar for educators on Tuesday, December 8th at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern with Producer/Director Rachel Dretzin from FRONTLINE’s “Digital Nation” project. Rachel will share her insights and findings from the year-long, multi-platform project exploring the impact of the Web and digital media on life in the 21st century.

The Digital Nation Web site will include online video reports on how the Internet and technology are changing cultures, reshaping workplaces and creating new approaches to the way we solve problems. Issues to be examined include the Web’s impact on education, how social media has changed the way individuals interact, and Internet safety and privacy. Central to the site will be a mosaic of user-generated content designed to let visitors participate in the documentary process. The site also will feature a producers’ blog, embeddable video and other sharable content, and a schedule of live online events with expert guests.

Net Neutrality – It Still Matters

Matthew Woolums — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:31:44 +0000

I haven’t blogged about Net Neutrality for some time, but there seems to be more of an effort to get Net Neutrality codified by law under the current Whitehouse administration. Of course there are other priorities at the moment, such as the health care issue, that receive a higher priority. For those of you who are new to this blog, or just aren’t familiar with the term, I like to think of Net Neutrality as a freedom of access to Internet services. Those who provide the access should not determine what I can and can not access. Why is this important? Check out the video below to get a better idea of the issue of Net Neutrality.

My thanks to Open Thinking for pointing out this YouTube video

open thinking » Open Internet

Because They Care

Matthew Woolums — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:01:52 +0000

Much of the criticism of Wikipedia, and wikis in general, stems from the open authoring design that lets anyone contribute content. There are limitations, but the idea that anyone can be an expert is more than a little unsettling to some. Still, that openness is also the whole point behind wikis. Authorship isn’t an accidental process. Motivation to contribute mostly happens when someone cares about the content. Take for example the linked Washington Post article below. Seems Adam Lewis, an ‘amateur’ historian cared enough about the Washington DC Wikipedia entry to fix it up. I think we should all care about something like Adam does.

How an amateur historian rescued D.C.’s Wikipedia page – washingtonpost.com

Wikipedia

Is Broadband Access a Legal Right?

Matthew Woolums — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:54:39 +0000

TechCrunch is reporting that Finland has declared that broadband access is a legal right for all of its citizens. This might be a first world-wide. I’m guessing Finland won’t be the last country to declare broadband access a right. In an age where online participation in politics and access to government services is moving to the Internet, it only makes sense that we should all have access. Of course, how that is paid for is another question. How important is broadband access to you? To your country? What flavor of broadband access would you prefer? Wired, wireless, or cellular?

Applause For Finland: First Country To Make Broadband Access A Legal Right

Inventions for the Year 2020

Matthew Woolums — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:08:04 +0000

The BBC has a nice article on a project asking students to imagine helpful inventions for the year 2020. Among some of the 85,000 ideas submitted are magic pencils to automate their homework so they don’t have to do it, which sort of defeats the point of homework. Seems robots are going to be big in the future too. I’d like to see cars that drive themselves so we don’t have any more excuses for distracted or impaired driving accidents. In the classroom, I’d like to see a device that is a content delivery mechanism as well as a research tool and collaboration device, although I don’t think we’ll need to wait another 11 years to see that. What would you like to see? Besides magic pencils, what would your students like to see?

invention

BBC NEWS | Technology | Children draw own visions of 2020

Need More Bandwidth?

Matthew Woolums — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:31:00 +0000

Maybe I should upgrade to pigeon for my next network upgrade. I wonder how long it would take my ISP to offer carrier pigeon as an option. Just think of the bundle of services: satellite TV, phone service, and Internet pigeons! Read the BBC article for more details.

BBC NEWS | Africa | SA pigeon ‘faster than broadband’

Plan B and C and…

Matthew Woolums — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:58:17 +0000

I had the pleasure to present a few Web 2.0 tools to a group of Socials Studies teachers today, intending to use a ‘Jog the Web’ collection that a colleague of mine put together. Everything looked great. The accompanying wiki was set up, links to a PowerPoint they can download and use if they want, and links to two ‘Jog the Webs’. 5 minutes before the presentation everything was working just fine. 5 minutes into the presentation and Jog the Web stopped responding. Nothing. Checked the network, other pages were loading just fine. What to do? It is kind of hard to have people explore dozens of web 2.0 tools if the links to those tools are not available.

I started bringing up some of the tools I thought were in the collection. We looked at a couple of timeline tools, like xtimeline and Dipity. We talked about YouTube and how to request a teacher override. We checked Delicious, Animoto, and Blaberize. What tools would you show if you were under pressure to present and your original presentation was not going to work?

Maybe Jog the Web will be back up by the time you read this. If not, imagine a great collection of indispensable web 2.0 tools for the Social Studies classroom. So the simple solution would have been to list the links on the wiki as well to have a backup. It was a good reminder to myself to be prepared for problems. If you are committed to using technology, you always need a plan B and C, and…

http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/3wXQ2av1IcZl

Not Your Father’s Old Book

Matthew Woolums — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:38:35 +0000

Interesting blog post about a possible ebook reader with demonstration video. The video, embedded below, is a 9:21 YouTube video, so if you are blocked, you’re in luck. The poster, Mike Cane, has included screen shots and detailed comments. What would you want from an ebook? Do you think an ebook has a place in education? Does this change reading and writing literacy? Is this a fundamental or incremental change from the original? Sorry for all the questions. I’m hopeful, but not sure, about ebooks. I’m concerned that they won’t bridge the gap between book readers and those who don’t. I’m worried that book reading will become a lost art, and like Fahrenheit 451, we are responsible for it if that happens.

http://ebooktest.blogspot.com/2009/07/part-of-ebook-vision.html

Skill(s) + Community = Literacy

Matthew Woolums — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:05:12 +0000

I’ve always admired Howard Rheingold as an original thinker. As the education community continues to converse on the subject of literacy, or new literacies, Howard makes a case for defining 21st Century Literacies by placing skills within the context of communities. The July 2009 presentation is worth the 40 minute investment of your time.

http://blip.tv/file/2373937/

I Suspected, But ‘Did Not Know’ For Sure

Matthew Woolums — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:41:55 +0000

I’ve admired the work of Karl Fisch, especially his contribution (Did You Know, a.k.a. Shift Happens) to the discourse on the role of technology and connectedness in education, but there was always one section of the presentation that bothered me. The section that show the number of students in China and India in advanced classes far outnumbers the total number of students in the US. I’ve always felt uncomfortable about that. Should the US always have the highest number of advanced students? Is that even possible? In a world where the US makes up less than 5% of the total population, I don’t think so. Should we be concerned about this state of affairs in the US? Are we losing our ability to compete? Will we become irrelevant because other counties are becoming more capable, better educated? Or does the reverse hold true? Should we instead celebrate and support better education around the globe? Is this a win-lose situation, or is there a win-win outcome? Watch the embedded TED Conference video below and be better informed. I know I was; better informed that is.

Netbooks: Performance Review

Matthew Woolums — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:11:01 +0000

Nice article from CNET Webare testing out many popular free web applications on netbooks. Turns out they perform quite well with just one exception:

So is it worth buying one now, or waiting? As with any computer purchase, it depends on your needs. If you’re OK not viewing HD videos, it does everything else, and does it well.

So unless you need 3D imaging or high definition video, a netbook might be a reasonable choice, especially if it isn’t your only computer. For students? A dedicated lab for higher end work would be in order, but for most work in the classroom, where it should be about the learning and not about the technology, netbooks would work just fine.

How well do Netbooks work with Web apps? | Webware – CNET

Digital Impermanence

Matthew Woolums — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:33:51 +0000

I’ve been thinking about the issue of how the digital world changes information, and I find that, for myself, digital information is both more permanent, and less permanent. Much has been said about teaching our students about placing personal information online, and rightly so. On the flip side, we also need to teach our students how to make sure their work isn’t washed away like a sand castle with the next service interruption or lack of access to a particular site.

As a case in point, this morning I received the following email from Flowgram, a site that allowed users to create presentations from photos, web pages, and other files, along with audio and text annotations. This sort of sums up the idea that what I do, even in the digital world, may have a limited life span.

Dear Flowgram user:

Today is a sad day for us. We have decided to terminate the Flowgram service as of the end of the month (June 30th, 2009). The service received excellent reviews and had an enthusiastic core user base. However, we were not able to demonstrate (especially in these economic times) that Flowgrams would ever be prevalent enough for us to adequately monetize the business, either though ads or subscriptions. This is obviously very disappointing, but building the Flowgram platform was a lot of fun, and it was wonderful to see how many of you used our tool to express yourselves in a deep and meaningful way.

Although you won’t be able to play your Flowgrams after the end of the month, you can export them to video by clicking “share” from the website or “more sharing options” from the Flowgram player and scrolling down to the export to video section. It is very important, if you wish to keep your content, that you export to video and download the video by the end of the month. Please let us know at support@flowgram.com if you have any difficulties doing this.

Again, I would like to thank you for your support, for your Flowgrams and for your good wishes.

Best Regards
Abhay Parekh (Founder) and the rest of the Flowgram Team

I’ve heard the argument that we should be careful about choosing a tool that provides an option for permanence, a way to always save students’ work even if the specific tool goes away. After all, student work should be important, or we should be asking them to do something different. The linked podcast from Bud the Teacher was inspired by a conversation about the place for ‘free’ services in education. Free isn’t always the best option, and it isn’t reasonable to expect a free service to always provide access to our content, much like the Flowgram example above. It is a great point, but digital permanence is complicated, and not always desirable.

I think that digital permanence has a place, but I also think that digital impermanence does too. Change happens, even if we are not prepared for it, and that applies to the digital world as well. Temporary accounts, throwaway email, RAM, are all examples of impermanence. I think there is something to be said from approaching content as something that is fragile, that might disappear, that is special because it is here today and gone tomorrow. Sometimes the moment calls for being a moment, and not a permanent state. After all, why would a rainbow be spectacular and moving if it were always there?

I have an old computer in the basement. I’m sure it has some stuff on it that I should keep. I have a couple of hard drives in the closet. Probably need to check those too. But I also know that sometimes letting go of what I’ve created, what I’ve written, if it is truly important or moving, will come back to me. My content is a part of me whether it is etched in stone, or made from sand. Nature doesn’t like things to be too permanent. We need a season or process to break things down and start over. Sometimes we need to start over or growth isn’t possible. Wild fires seem terrifying when they happen, but the long-term health of a forest depends on periodic cleansing.

I think our digital footprint deserves a similar cycle of cleansing. I think there is a benefit to risking the loss of content by exploring a new tool, free or otherwise. Sometimes, like Flowgram, those new tools last only for a season, sometimes they become as big as Wikipedia. Getting in on the ground floor has its own rewards. Sticking with something that is safe and known can also lead to irrelevance, boredom, and end up as just another example of trying to control the learning process. Our learners also deserve the opportunity to fail spectacularly.

To sum it up, I think digital impermanence is okay, even desirable. I think we should encourage our students to try something new and unexplored, even if there is a risk of losing all the work. That which is learned becomes part of ourselves whether there is anything visible for others to witness. Learning is change, and I say embrace it. Dare your students to create rainbows.