• The 8th Grade Editor in Chief – Positive Student Use of the Internet

    29Mar
    Categories: net generation, resources Comments: 0

    I have been asking for a positive article on students’ online lives for some time. Still waiting, so I wrote it myself:

    newsvine
    This is more than a post about a new website. It is a post about an 8th grader in Indianapolis who decided to run his own news service, using free and easy to use web tools. Kyle Bandy, a self-described “junior high computer nerd,” started his own news site using the new web 2.0 news site Newsvine.com.

    Since January 29th, Kyle has written 7 of his own articles, reviewed 6 other articles, and has received direct comments from over 111 readers from around the globe. Kyle has written on the possible creation of a .XXX TLD, cell phones being banned in school, Chinese government Internet censorship, President Bush’s State of the Union, iPods being banned in school, hypocritical enforcement school tech policies, and an article critiquing Apple’s latest iPod update.

    Kyle is going to graduate in 2010. He is online, and will be online for the foreseeable future. His online life includes a barely-used MySpace profile, a now defunct Xanga site (friends stopped using it) and his Newsvine site. He is certainly engaged with web sites that many think are ultra-dangerous for teens (and in some cases they are). But, Kyle is a great example of what is possible when young people are able to use the web productively. He communicates with friends, studies and writes about local and world issues, engages in international communication with readers and explores his interests in computers and technology.

    My rhetoric: There is something undeniable about the web. Young people flock to it, heck I flock to it. Culture is a strange thing, because those pushing it forward (read: young people) generally come head to head with those who developed it before (read: less-than-young people). We are there now. Let’s partner with some of the brightest minds to ever live, young people, and see how we can push the web to its limits together. One generation defining it for the other (in either direction) just has no chance.

    I interviewed Kyle via e-mail to write this, and here are some highlights from that interview:

    Question: Why did you start the Newsvine site?

    I started my Newsvine column because I wanted to show the world my opinions. I also wanted to see what other people’s views were on my opinions. Take my article entitled “Should iPods be Allowed at School?” for example—I wrote that article to get my opinion out to people that I honestly believe that if iPods were allowed at my school, it would be a change for the better.

    Question: Do you have any other websites?

    My father has made two websites…He lets me use some space on [example.com] for whatever I may need to put up on the web. For example, whenever I have a test in any of my classes, and our teachers give us a study-guide, I fill out the study guide and put it up online at www.study-guide.[example].com. (Note that my teachers do know that I am doing this, so I am not letting students copy my work or anything like that.)

    Question: Give me some examples of how you would like to see computers used in your school

    Well, I think there is a lot of stuff my school could do with computers, but they just haven’t. One thing is perhaps audio (or even video) podcasting of all classes so that if a student misses a class, they can just watch the podcast. Or to study for quizzes and tests, they could just rewatch their teacher’s lectures. I myself listen to many tech podcasts (e.g. thisWEEKinTECH, dl.tv, et cetera) and I know that they are very educational. (of course, I also listen to Newsvine’s own podcast, VineSeeders) I also, think teachers should incorporate technology even more into their curriculum. Of course, over time this will need to happen—after all, I believe that someday almost everything will be done with the assistance of computers, and I can’t wait until that day!!!

    If we as teachers can’t take advantage of this enthusiasm, do we really deserve our students’ attention?

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  • MIT Media Lab Guru Says No Computers in Schools

    25Mar
    Categories: future, news, software, teaching Comments: 0

    financial_times
    Michael Schrage, co-director of MIT Media Lab E-Markets Initiative, writing for The Financial Times openly flogged, “edutainers,” or people who claim that technology in schools can make learning fun – the article is, The ‘edutainers’ merit a failing grade (You have to pay to read it all now, so I will quote liberally. Another great reason to use ma.gnolia to bookmark, it saves a copy for you).

    Schrage acknowledges that, “state-run school systems require fundamental reform,” but, “Nevertheless, the shrewdest policy to improve public education while saving billions in government spending demands abstinence. Keep computers out of the classroom.” Schrage fails to draw some important distinctions between computers in the classroom, and “edutainment” software. But let’s read on.

    To hear the rhetoric of its champions, educational technology is a glittering silicon seducer that will lure learners into fun, engaging and “edutaining” experiences. “Edutainment” is an ideology. The “edutainers” assert that classroom computing should conform to the cognitive needs and constraints of the child. These technologists offer the false promise that learning should be fun and assert there is something wrong if it is not.

    I consider myself a champion of educational technology, but certainly not to just make learning fun. In fact, I wrote a piece called, Learning Isn’t Fun, Knowing Is Fun that deals with the “edutainment” issue. Software companies create, market and sell “edutainment” software. Educational technologists are trained educators, who help design curricula that utilizes technologies to enhance student learning. There is a core difference here that Schrage overlooks.

    Let’s take the most expensive technology programs out there, 1:1 laptop programs where each student has a laptop. Costed out over 4 years, a student can have a laptop for about $500 per year. The U.S. average for per pupil spending 2004-5 was $8,554 (source: National Education Association, Rankings & Estimates report PDF). Spending $500 a year represents just 6% of that budget. For 6% of our education budget, our we willing to give our students access to: spreadsheets, word processors, online libraries, digital media resources, world-wide communication and social networks, voice over IP and more? If the business world can utilize these technologies, why can’t schools?

    Schrage does venture a possibility for technology to help schools. He discusses educators in Seoul, South Korea who are considering having teachers text message with parents to deliver grades, schedules and homework assignments. His conclusion:

    Is it possible that parental involvement technologies may have a greater impact on educational quality than the most “edutaining” classroom software? These are the sort of questions that the “edutopians” rarely ask, let alone seriously answer. They are too busy trying to bring The Next Great Technology to your school. Do not let them.

    In fact, this is a question that many in educational technology ask all the time. How can technologies like the web, e-mail and mobile computing redefine parent roles in schools? Many schools communicate with parents regularly via e-mail and blogs, maintain up-to-date web resources for families and more. In fact, we are using these technologies to bring parents closer to schools, but most importantly we are using them to bring students more in control of their own learning. We expect students to be problem solvers, and to use powerful tools (laptops, PDA’s, video cameras, digital microscopes, graphic calculators, iPods, the web, and much more) to explore complicated problems and concepts.

    It’s not that learning needs to be fun, but that it needs to be authentic. This is the power that these tools deliver.


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  • Professor Bans Laptops, Students Protest

    23Mar
    Categories: news, teaching Comments: 0

    umemphis
    The Associated Press is reporting that a University of Memphis law professor banned laptops in her first year law classroom.

    My main concern was they were focusing on trying to transcribe every word that was I saying, rather than thinking and analyzing…The computers interfere with making eye contact. You’ve got this picket fence between you and the students.

    It sounds like the professor has a wealth of new tools in her classroom: powerful laptops. Instead of redefining the boundaries of her classroom, she sees the laptops as a “fence” between her and her students.

    Let’s play this problem out a little. You and your friend are on opposite sides of a fence. You want to work together. What can you do?

    1. Get rid of the fence
    2. Walk around the fence.

    2 sounds good to me, the tool remains, and you can work together on the other side. This professor has a genuine opportunity to engage students with tools that they find valuable to their own learning. My advice: walk around the other side of the desks, and partner with your students. You will keep the learning tools, keep the student interest and you may just learn something from your students.

    The students have formed a petition and plan to challenge the teacher’s decision with the school’s administration. Preliminary efforts have not yielded anything…

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  • Handpicked Websites for Education (and Technology)

    20Mar
    Categories: resources Comments: 0

    I read a lot of blogs, magazines, books and articles about education and technology. I also attend professional meetings, workshops, conferences and more. As a result, I have been able to collect online resources that I find tremendously helpful in my work. I also find web resources that could be helpful for other educators.

    I use two main tools to organize these links (both totally free): del.icio.us and ma.gnolia. Both of these fall under the category of social bookmarking. Basically, it means that instead of using “favorites” or “bookmarks” in my web browser, I post all links to all of my favorite websites into del.icio.us or ma.gnolia, and I share these with you.

    delicious_bookmark
    del.icio.us: I use del.icio.us for every single site I want to remember/come back to in the future. There is a shortcut button on Firefox 1.5 that makes it very easy. When I am at a site that I want to remember, I just hit the del.icio.us button, and up pops a window that lets me enter a description of the website, along with tags (I will get to tags, but click the image to the right to see more).

    In the example to the right, you can see that I tagged the website with “blog” “education” and “technology.” The beauty of tagging, is I can basically run queries when I am looking for old bookmarks. So, to see all my bookmarks, I might look at http://del.icio.us/agrover but if I only want to see the ones I tagged education, I could look at http://del.icio.us/agrover/education. The most powerful tool is the plus sign: http://del.icio.us/agrover/education+software+free. Starting to see the possibilities? While you can browse the linkroll, you can also just subscribe to the linkroll RSS feed, and let my prescreened, commented and tagged links come to you.
    del.icio.us is now owned by “Yahoo!”http://www.yahoo.com

    magnolia
    ma.gnolia.com: ma.gnolia is another social bookmarking website, but it seems to be more keyed in to aestheics. The site is definitely prettier than del.icio.us, but has some additional features like groups. So, you can join the Educational Technology group I started there, and we can all share bookmarks with the group. The best feature of this site, is that the moment you bookmark something, ma.gnolia goes out and saves a copy of the site. So, if it disappears, goes down, or moves, you still have a copy of the page. This is great for article at places like the New York Times who make their article go away after 7 days (and then they charge for them). I bookmark any interesting articles from newspaper sites with ma.gnolia so I know that I will always have access to them. They of course also allow tagging, which makes organizing a breeze. ma.gnolia even lets you have tags with two words, like “educational technology.”

    Both of these sites automatically create RSS feeds for you, either for all your bookmarks, for one of your tags, for combinations of your tags or for individual groups you are in. Amazingly powerful ways to share your links. I share my favorite links on my linkroll page, so enjoy, and please do the same.

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  • 3,000 Apple iBooks in 3 Days

    19Mar
    Categories: hardware, teaching Comments: 0

    miramar_ibook_stack
    Came across an image gallery of of Miramar High School’s 3,000 iBook laptop deployment. Apparently it only took 3 days, which seems impossible. I have been involved in my fair share of way smaller deployments (< 100) and I thought those were challenging.

    miramar_ibooks
    It is great to see so many 1:1 deployments happening around the country. I just want to hear a lot more about the faculty training programs and curricular changes that are going into place the year before the 1:1 deployments.

    images from Jaron Brass

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