Skill(s) + Community = Literacy July 18, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos.add a comment
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.
I Suspected, But ‘Did Not Know’ For Sure June 30, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Opinion.1 comment so far
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 June 17, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, OLPC, Opinion.add a comment
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 June 12, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion.add a comment
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.
Word Web June 8, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.add a comment
Seems to be a trend today. Lexipedia connects a word to a web of related words. Search results also include color-coded parts of speech. This one is fun to watch. This one is from Free Technology For Teachers which also links to Visuwords, a site which graphically depicts relationships between words. I can’t get it to load from home, maybe it is getting too much press.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/06/lexipedia-webbed-word-connections.html
What’s in a Word? June 8, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.add a comment
Wordnik is an interesting tool that aggregates information about words, definitions, pronunciation, etymology, etc. It also connects to flickr and most interesting to me, shows frequency of use through time. For example, education was ‘big’ around the year 1900. What is your favorite word? Interested in looking for some new ones? From a CNET article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10258929-36.html
Sharing Notes in Google Reader May 16, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.1 comment so far
I did not know this feature was even available. Check the video below to see how to collect parts of any web page as a note in Google Reader. If you share your notes, anyone has access to them. Think of this as a way quick way for a teacher to collect material for a lesson.
How did I find out about it? In YouTube, you can add subscriptions to specific user accounts. Just go to the GoogleReaderHelp page in YouTube, and click on the yellow ‘Subscribe’ button. The next time a new video is added, you’ll get an email notification.
303,398 May 5, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Hardware, Humor.add a comment
I thought my daughter texted a lot. At one time we calculated her texting in terms of hours per day. I guess those numbers are relative. Here is a CNET News story about Crystal Wiski, a California teen who averaged 7 texts a minute to wrack up an astonishing 303,398 texts in one month. Yes, that is a total for one month! In addition to texting, Crystal gets straight As in school, and works 40 hours a week at McDonalds.
Teen claims 303,398 iPhone texts in one month | Technically Incorrect – CNET News
