March 31, 2011
Standing in the Back, Watching the Screens
Jonathan Martin,
Connected Principals, March 31, 2011.
Interesting observation - not a survey, but consistent with my own experience: "When the topics appeared relevant to students, the note-taking pages appeared; when the topics veered to the arcane and irrelevant, the screens veered to facebook, gaming sites, and other distractions... (when) asking questions to facilitate conversation, something else fascinating happened. Nearly half of the screens veered away from both note-taking pages and distractions; appearing instead were google, wikipedia, and other information source sites... I think of this as parallel processing, and it is going to be pretty hard to persuade me this is anything but positive practice by our students."
Blogging
Keith Lyons,
Clyde Street, March 31, 2011.
Kevin Kelly's six verbs, I think, are representative of a machine reality. "Screening, interacting, sharing, flowing, accessing, generating." Me, I'd rather see something more human. Finding, talking, sharing, playing, joining, creating. If, you know, I had to summarize all of human activity with six verbs. Which I don't. And as much as we need to resist mechanizing our image of ourselves, we have to also avoid trivializing it, and even more, we have to avoid over-theorizing it. While it is true that the unexamined life is not worth living, the unlived life is not worth examining.
A #blog4nwp in Which I Ask for Your Assistance. Urgently.
Bud Hunt,
Bud the Teacher, March 31, 2011.
Bud Hunt asks urgently for support for the (U.S.) National Writing Project. "As of October 1st, 2011, there will be no federally funded National Writing Project. In preparation for that, the NWP laid off 60 percent of its staff last week and announced to local site directors that they will have to reduce their local funding by 25 percent. And that breaks my heart. And I need your help to fix this mess."
Don't Filter Me - Letter to Rochester Community Schools
Jay Kaplan and Joshua Block,
American Civil Liberties Union, March 31, 2011.
The American Civil Liberties Union has written a letter demanding that schools cease filtering online materials posted by gay and lesbian student groups. "This practise violates both the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act, 20 USC para 4071 et.seq., and must immediately cease... The Rochester Community Schools do not have a legitimate pedagogical basis for censoring students' access to these websites." See also coverage from the Dallas Morning News. Also Ars Technica.
Emotional Surplus?
Dean Shareski,
Ideas and Thoughts, March 31, 2011.
A couple of weeks ago Alec Couros wrote Shiny Happy Internet about the support received by someone dying of cancer, and today Dean Shareski writes of the outpouring of support given to a girl whose video on bullying has touched a nerve. And these, I will say, are the things that keep me coming back to the internet. We can get news, advertising and programming anywhere - heck, we're inundated with it - but we can't get real stories about human sympathy anywhere else but on the internet. It's a sad commentary on the state of media that empathy is so devalued, that the only way we can see into each others' lives it to create that access ourselves. But the fact that we
Khan Academy is an Indictment of Education
Frank Noschese,
Action-Reaction, March 31, 2011.
Interesting commentary. "The fact that TED, Bill Gates, and the media love Khan Academy shows the failure of education." The failure alluded to here is that "our country has reduced teaching and learning to preparing students to bubble in answer sheets for multiple choice tests." It's not so simple as that, of course, and Khan Academy is but one part in a much more complex educational environment. Still, I think that the underlying criticism remains valid; the focus is on the 'quick fix' aspect of Khan rather than the role it plays in a wider learning ecosystem.
Khan Academy is an Indictment of Education
Frank Noschese,
Action-Reaction, March 31, 2011.
Interesting commentary. "The fact that TED, Bill Gates, and the media love Khan Academy shows the failure of education." The failure alluded to here is that "our country has reduced teaching and learning to preparing students to bubble in answer sheets for multiple choice tests." It's not so simple as that, of course, and Khan Academy is but one part in a much more complex educational environment. Still, I think that the underlying criticism remains valid; the focus is on the 'quick fix' aspect of Khan rather than the role it plays in a wider learning ecosystem.
Watch more than 300 videos in the Globe Life how-to library
Jill Borra,
Globe and Mail, March 31, 2011.
On the 'education is everywhere' front, now the newspapers are jumping in by offering free 'how-to' videos that "give you short, easy-to-follow lessons from trusted experts." It's a natural for the newspapers, as they look to move in on a market previously dominated by non-professional producers. There's plenty of grist in the videos for media critics, as the topics range from fitness, cooking, wine and spirits, beauty, hair and fashion. Do I detect an agenda here? And it's weird (isn't it?) that the videos (at least the ones that I watched) are sponsored by http://ontario.ca/kindergarten There's no way to embed the video, so you'll have to go to Canada's National Newspaper if you want to learn how to get puffier lips without injections.
MPP wants to ban junk food ads for kids
Tanya Talaga,
Toronto Star, March 31, 2011.
We hear a lot about wanting to keep children safe on the internet these days, and while I certainly support that aim, I think that people have misplaced priorities. Take harmful advertising, for example. I was in the hospital yesterday and saw that they are building a new 'Ronald McDonald' centre for families. Why would the hospital support this paragon of childhood obesity and early heart attacks? You may as well direct alcohol advertising at children, have them take up smoking, or perhaps encourage teen hook-ups. So I agree with the Ontario MPP that wants to ban junk food advertising directed at kids. And I call on child protection advocates to focus on all the dangers to children, not just the politically safe ones.
Welcome to the MobiMOOC course wiki!
Inge de Waard,
MobiMOOC, March 31, 2011.
If you are in MOOC-withdrawal then you will be happy to know that Inge de Waard is starting one on mobile learning beginning next week. The course is currently based mostly out of a MobiMOOC Google Group page. Contents:
- Week 1 - introduction to mLearning
- Week 2 - planning an mLearning project
- Week 3 - m4d mobile for development
- Week 4 - Leading edge innovations
- Week 5 - Interaction between mLearning and a mobile connected society
- Week 6 - mLearning in k12
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