Edublog Awards November 24, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Opinion.add a comment
The end of the year must be getting close since the ‘annual awards’ announcements are popping up. Edublog Awards puts together a nice collection of the important and influencial each year in the realm of educational Internet. This years’ categories:
- Best individual blog
- Best individual tweeter
- Best group blog
- Best new blog
- Best class blog
- Best student blog
- Best resource sharing blog
- Most influential blog post
- Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
- Best teacher blog
- Best librarian / library blog
- Best educational tech support blog
- Best elearning / corporate education blog
- Best educational use of audio
- Best educational use of video / visual
- Best educational wiki
- Best educational use of a social networking service
- Best educational use of a virtual world
- Lifetime achievement
Great categories to be sure, but I think we need to include a few more:
- Most laughter from a site that you can share at work
- New online tool you shared with others the most
- RSS feed you added this year that you think everyone should follow
- Best new open source solution
- Best new technology that you can put in the hands of your students
I’m sure there are other categories to consider as well. What would you include in your ‘end-of-year-awards’?
Because They Care October 23, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion, Tools.add a comment
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? October 14, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, History, Opinion.add a comment
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
Not Your Father’s Old Book July 27, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Hardware, Opinion.2 comments
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
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.
TIE 2009 – Shifting Literacies – Karl Fisch June 25, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions, Opinion.add a comment
http://tieconference.wikispaces.com/3311
Something new: http://www.netvibes.com/theunquietlibrary#Iran_Election_2009
Rants and Raves
- It is important to continue to learn, and to share that learning process with each other and our students.
- Karl’s current cosmology comes from a dissatisfaction with a ‘good enough’ math classroom.
- 1994 computers came on the scene and so did student information systems. Karl began the transition from math to technology, motivated by bringing a better experience to the classroom.
- Money was a barrier to providing access to and integration of technology.
- Teachers wanted time. Cohort of brave teachers became a group of teachers teaching teachers how to use technology. Teachers developed the PD based on research, pedagogy, and (if time allows) technology.
- The Fischbowl was born.
- Lots of significant reading took place, Gladwell, Pink, Kurzweil, etc.
- August 2006, the conversation started with Did You Know? We get to see an updated edition for TIE.
- Presentation was posted to the blog and it started to spread from there. Scott McLeod posted new versions in new formats. Those spread to YouTube, I’m Bored, etc.
- System we use in education today based on an industrial model.
- Lots of questions:
- Education system designed when information was scarce. Information is now abundant. Now what should students know how to do? Content and skills are both important. We need to learn and relearn.
- What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? We don’t know. Not yet. Reading and analyzing books is not the same as reading and analyzing websites. We have a lot more information and a lot more access to information. We can do our own fact checking. Previously we filtered prior to publishing. Now we publish and then filter. Everything gets published, and all of us have to filter, we all need to be a media specialist. Consume and produce the media of the day. Our students (as well as we do) need an understanding of our digital footprint. Are our students ready for co-laboratory learning, for a world where professional networking is the communications tool of the day? Google Mobile for iPhone, and WolframAlpha as examples.
- Wisdom? What do we do with all of this? How do we help them create their own personal learning networks? A PLN is the new coin that separates those who are on the inside and those who are on the outside. Standards, but not standardized.
Examples
- http://www.lps.k12.co.us/schools/arapahoe/21c/21c.htm
- Use a fishbowl – outer circle of students taking interactive notes and live blogging the conversation. This can include students in and out of the classroom, outside observers, both when it happens, and whenever anyone wants to participate.
- Wiki-fied research papers. Discussion. Drafts. Links.
- Cover It Live posted in a blog – live text discussions with experts.
- Blog posts requesting comments to critical questions.
- Podcasting “This I Believe”.
- Commenting and editing with comments on documents.
- Google Groups for college essays.
- Scribe posting – assign a student to post to the class blog what happened that day.
- 2nd graders drew pictures, 6th graders composed music to fit, 9th graders wrote poetry, all from different schools, different states.
- Online projects – Flat World Projects.
- Reading anything school appropriate, with end of week oral report, podcasted, with feedback as comments on a blog.
- Language translations by students between classes for native speakers learning the corresponding language as podcasts and written examples on wikis.
- Email questions to an author, which turned into a Skype conversation.
- Ning, Moodle.
Audience Participation
What is the best way to ‘fix’ the system? Join tech dept.? How does 21st C. Lit. relate to math? Real world data-gathering. Is there any vocabulary that need adjusting like literacy? Writing is different. Local and global may also be changing. How does the general public respond to this presentation since there is no obvious consensus about what education is or should be? Once school parents can see the results of their children’s work, they become supporters.
Reflection: The very nature of change is changing. We are moving to a time, not of change, but of flow. We need to know how to stay on top and not be overwhelmed or marginalized by the sheer volume of information. I’ll probably blog more about this later.
TIE 2009 Keynote – Dr. Tim Tyson June 23, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions, Opinion.add a comment
Starts off with survey questions collected using eInstruction Classroom Performance Systems. With about 600 people in the room, most ‘votes’ are not registering. eInstruction presenter mentioned a previous virus on her computer and interference from the wireless network as excuses. We are using radio frequency models.
Theme: Gifts
Discrepancy between our belief in the impact the work our students do in schools to change the world and our belief that students actually do change the world. Cell phones are mostly banned in schools, but that will change. Cited diabetes testing on the iPhone. Screencast (screenflow) of the presentation will be available. Also using an xTag wireless USB microphone. If you text “TimTyson” to 50500 it will respond with his business card. As a principal, every public meeting he had he created a podcast and posted it. Also Ustreaming at ustream.tv/channel/iupgrade-tv. Can he get any more wired than this? Yes, by texting questions to 99503 using PollEverywhere. Start poll with 29710 and then the question. Free for fewer than 30 students at a time, or for NCLB failing schools for free. Also using iPhone to control computer. drtimtyson.com/clients/TIE-09 user id and password are the same as the end of the URL.
Tim thinks differently. Recalls something from The Phantom Tollbooth. “Well, it all depends on how you look at it I suppose…” and continues on with the story of the family whose members are born with their head in the air and they grow down to the ground. We all know what school looks like. We’ve been there. Tim is going to challenge that presumption today. Maybe no one knows what school looks like with all the tools that are available to us today. “Everything is about perspective”. The challenge is to step outside out professional practice to view that practice anew.
Tim is telling us about his family, starting with a picture of himself sitting on the lap of his great-grandmother who was born just after the Civil War. Things have changes a lot. Industry has expanded. Parking has shrunk. Fewer workers controlling larger amounts of infrastructure. Every business on Main Street was closed. Pritchart (sp) Alabama has changed in 25 years from a great place to raise a family to the worst place to live in the state. This transformation is happening everyhwere. One third of our workforce (US) works as independent contractors. Do rules, rituals, routines, and right answers prepare our students for their future?
The impact of everything we do in schools will long outlive us. Long quote from John Dewey about what learning is and is not. The big question: who owns the learning? Who is doing all the work? Our students increasingly do not believe that school prepares them for ‘real life’. We have to figure out what school needs to look like.
School 2.0
- authentically engaged learners
- Self-directed learning
- prject-driven instructino
- empoered by technology innovation
- collaborative learning community
- relevant
- contribution
Let’s define what best practices look like. “Value the instructional capacity within our students”.
First priority for students on summer vacation? Sleep. Tells story of Conrad, student who called on first day of summer vacation who wanted to come in and work on his school project. He already got an ‘A’ on the project, but he wanted everyone in the world to see his project. We should say is, and fulfill throughout the year, that the best of the best work will be considered for global distribution. MabryOnline.org and on iTunes, distributes over a million files a month.
what would you do differently in your classroom if your students really wanted to learn? to create? to connect with people to share something important? Students want to learn, especially with their tools. The classroom no longer has walls, it is now the Earth, the whole world.
Grading kills learning. Replace with authentic assessment. What is authentic assessment? Conrad working on his project all day, every day, until it was ready for global distribution. Milking the cow doesn’t earn a sticker, it feeds the family. Survival required it. How old do you have to be before your life is meaningful? Age doesn’t matter, it can start right now. What do you as a (fill in the blank) have to say that is so important that everyone needs to hear it? What do they (students) come up with? Create a movie on embryonic stem cell research. Students arranged a 2 hour interview with a leading researcher in the field. Video won at a film festival. Does any of this have anything to do with the test?
In their words: Easier to learn from an expert in the field. Our reserach wasn’t random. Our motivation was to teach the world something important. We wanted more people to sign up to be organ donors. We wanted people to be better informed about purchasing chocolate (child and slave labor).
It’s not about the technology and connectivity, but that is where we focus our PD. Effective education collapses the distance between the classroom and the world around them. Students want to make a contribution to their world today.
Finished with a movie about disabilty. Are we experiencing the most exciting time to be an educator? Is this a once in a lifetime opportunity? How will we define the uses of these tools in education? “This is your destiny”.
Reflection: Great points. I’m pretty sure that ’school’ as we know it, will not provide the answer to these questions. For the most part, it can’t in this era of standardized tests. It can’t in this era of state curriculums. It can’t until we understand that the students are really the ones who are in charge of their learning.
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.
