We can't let educators off the hook | Dangerously Irrelevant - 0 views
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Successful technology integration only produces amplified results when in its integration agency is given to the learner, when it becomes a tool to help learners learn, not teachers teach.
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I would also like to add that that old belief about teaching and learning has been around for a very long time now and part of that belief, the part about the teacher possessing the knowledge and imparting it to kids, is in direct threat when faced with technology. A teacher who has been taught to believe that they are needed for the knowledge they have and that that knowledge gives them authority in the classroom is threatened by technology. That threat needs to be approached lightly. If one speaks the truth too harshly the faithful will simply label them a blasphemer and ignore the truth in their message.
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et me start by saying that I consider teaching among the most important professions on earth, but just as doctors need to be current on medical technology, teachers MUST be current on information and communication technologies. Those are the tools of the trade.
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Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix | EDUCAU... - 0 views
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A classroom portal that presents automatically updated syndicated resources from the campus library, news sources, student events, weblogs, and podcasts and that was built quickly using free tools.
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Increasingly, it's not just works of art that are appropriated and remixed but the functionalities of online applications as well.
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mashups involve the reuse, or remixing, of works of art, of content, and/or of data for purposes that usually were not intended or even imagined by the original creators.
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Lead article: How did a couple of veteran classroom teachers end up in a space like thi... - 0 views
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With social networking and media-sharing practices rapidly assuming a central role in our professional and personal lives, teachers have a responsibility to bring these practices into the classroom.
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technology uber-fans gush over their embrace of every new gadget, technology and practice, affixing computer-driven activities onto factory-model teaching practices as shiny appendages, resulting in a ‘technology façade’
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This does not mean that traditional literacies of critical reading, thinking and communication must make way for emerging literacies of collaboration, online communication and multimedia navigation. It does mean that we have to transform our teaching to accommodate them all effectively.
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Search Engines - Mr. Gary's Ideas - 0 views
News: The Evidence on Online Education - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views
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The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took "blended" courses -- those that combine elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction -- appeared to do best of all. That finding could be significant as many colleges report that blended instruction is among the fastest-growing types of enrollment.
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While the new study provides a strong endorsement of online learning, it also notes findings about the relative success (or lack thereof) of various teaching techniques used in online courses. The use of video or online quizzes -- frequently encouraged for online education -- "does not appear to enhance learning," the report says.
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But noting the caveats in the report about factors other than medium of instruction, he said that "we should not take the report as saying it is simply better to move to online learning. These results demonstrate why more research is needed -- broadly based research that moves well beyond case studies conducted by distance education practitioners, research focused on student retention in online environments and especially research that looks behind the instructional medium to isolate the characteristics of instruction that produce positive results. Successful education has always been about engaging students whether it is in an online environment, face to face or in a blended setting. And fundamental to that is having faculty who are fully supported and engaged in that process as well."
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Edreform Required Reading List - 0 views
Jeff Mao and Bob McIntire from the Maine Department of Education: Open Education and Po... - 0 views
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Recently, Maine has been engaged in some interesting and innovative projects around OER as a result of federal grant funds. For this installment of our series on open education and policy, we spoke with Jeff Mao and Bob McIntire from the Maine Department of Education. Jeff is Learning Technology Policy Director at MLTI, and Bob works for the Department's Adult & Community Education team.
Major New Study Shatter Stereotypes About Teens and Video Games - MacArthur Foundation - 0 views
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gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement.
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99% of boys say they are gamers and 94% of girls report that they play games.
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A typical teen plays at least five different categories of games and 40% of them play eight or more different game types.
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Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE - 3 views
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My experience in creating podcasts came through much nobler endeavors. It began with a research project in the working-class neighborhoods of North Belfast and a frustrated conversation over pints in a pub. I was on a research high after an interview with two women of very different political backgrounds. They were friends, brought together by the work of a local nonprofit, and their mutual admiration shone from the lightning-fast banter that they tossed back and forth throughout the interview. It was clear to me that they were a perfect example of a friendship from different sides of the political divide. But my friend at the pub just couldn't get it. He suggested that their friendship might be contrived, a mere show for my benefit, or that if real, it didn't mean as much as I thought. Exasperated, I pulled out my recorder and played the conversation back to him. As their Belfast accents filled up our corner booth, I could see his posture slacken and the battle turn my way. In that moment, I decided that only a podcast could finish telling my story. Over the next months, armed with just an MP3 player and some freeware suggested by a friend, I worked to piece together the story of North Belfast through interviews, conversations, and the sounds of the streets. The result was crude, elementary, and slightly difficult to listen to. But I was hooked.
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Student Use (and Misuse) of Podcast Technology
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In fact, the iPod topped the list of the most "in" things on campus in 2006, according to Student Monitor's Lifestyle & Media Study.
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How many in our class own an iPod? Other mp3 player?
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I don't have any of them, but after studying and teaching in an American university , I feel it is one of the important things that I have to own!!
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I own an iPod touch and I believe my cellphone is also part mp3 player
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I have 2
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I have a mp3 player, not an iPod and, anyway, I do not see why iPods are so popular...
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I own an iPod but I never use it!
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I don't have an IPod
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You made very interesting comments, Inas! Congratulations!!
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I own one but have yet to use it! :(
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Mine doesn't really work since I put it in the laundry. But I never used it much anyway because it's not compatible with .flac files.
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"Besides the entertainment value, Westfall and Finnegan say that the podcasts were especially useful for reviewing material. They used the podcasts as refreshers throughout the semester and during exam time. In addition, creating a segment meant that they had to brush up on their own knowledge of the subject."
Amazon Kindle: Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big R... - 0 views
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An example of how the use of annotation of an online book could be used to support differentiated learning and promote in-class discussion, by looking at and discussing what was highlighted by members within and outside the group (class) number of highlights and ranking of highlights for a particular book.
Deliberate Engagement of Laptops in Large Lecture Classes to Improve Attentiveness and ... - 0 views
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The value of in-class Internet technologies to student attentiveness, engagement, and learning remains both controversial and filled with promising potential. In this study, students were given the option to use LectureTools, an interactive suite of tools designed specifically for larger classes. The availability of these tools dramatically changed the mechanics of the course as over 90% of students attending lecture voluntarily brought their laptops to class. On one hand, surveys over multiple semesters show that students believe the availability of a laptop is more likely to increase their time on tasks unrelated to the conduct of the course. On the other hand, the surveys also ascertained that students felt more attentive with the technology, significantly more engaged, and able to learn more with the technology than in similar classes without it. LectureTools also led to a dramatic increase in the number of students posing questions during class time, with more than half posing at least one question during class over the course of a semester, a percentage far higher than achieved in semesters prior to the use of this technology. These results suggest that while having laptops in the classroom can be a distraction to students, students of today show confidence that they are capable of productive multitasking, showing that they not only can handle this technology when applied through "deliberate engagement" using tools like LectureTools, but thrive with it, as seen through improved attentiveness, learning, and overall engagement even in larger classes.
teachingvillage - Little Tech for Big Results - 0 views
How Teenagers Are Using Technology in Their Social Lives (REPORT PDF)| The Committed Sa... - 0 views
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I'm tempted to be skeptical because the information is from Ericsson ConsumerLab, a division of the mobile technology giant Ericsson - a company that has a vested interest in promoting the use of technology by teenagers. But some results may not be all that surprising, such as a decrease in the use of home phones and an increase in the use of mobile devices such as smart phones. Or that teens and adults use technology differently. Well, duh... spend any time with a teenager on a regular basis and that's obvious. It's also not news that video chatting is on the rise, but it may at the very least confirm perceptions and some opinions.
Tokyo Green Space | The Japan Times Online - 0 views
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In a sense, the blog is the antithesis of my academic training. Universities are about restricted knowledge. We study our own things, keep our research to ourselves so no one will steal our work, and we publish results in journals in a language no one understands. The idea of blogs is all about shared knowledge. I love sharing and getting feedback on my findings, and this blog has introduced me to so many fascinating people from all over the world — students, scholars, urban farmers — and it is really interesting to hear their takes.
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Tokyo Green Space is a public research project. It involves observing small public green spaces in Tokyo, sharing images and thoughts online in a diary format and connecting with other people online and in person. I've maintained the site for three years out of passion.
Calhoun School: Steve's Blog Is it Learning or Training? - 0 views
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proponents claim, the methods “work,” as represented by higher test scores. Because, they add, the methods are efficient, meaning you can produce results with brutal economic efficiency and large classes. And, in ed policy-speak, the systematized, highly structured methodologies are “scaleable,” easily replicated and exported to other schools.
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Anyone intensely “drilled” in facts or simple algorithms will demonstrate superior performance when tested on short-term retention. The students in programs like that at Williamsburg Collegiate are being trained to give the “right” answers, but they are learning little or nothing. Other evidence exposes the folly of these practices, as test score gains among younger students are not holding as the same students move into older grades. But the policy response in most places is reflexive, not reflective. Drill them more and test ‘em again!
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Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this approach to education is that it disregards, often punishes, the qualities that most characterize real learning. Children are discouraged from expressing a point of view – no time for that and it isn’t on the test. Creativity is irrelevant. Children who are sensitive and poetic are devalued, forced into quick, aggressive responses by a drill sergeant teacher. Critical thinking is not welcome. Where is the space for empathy and imagination? What about the child whose unique intelligence is the ability to visualize something beautiful, to see another possible way to solve a problem, to turn a history assignment into a song?
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Cell phone novels come of age › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion - 0 views
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“Teenage girls began messaging with pagers in the early ’90s,” says Mizuko Ito, a research scientist who studies cell phone use among Japanese youth. “Because of this, Japan was the first country to have widespread mobile communications, even before mobile phones became affordable and popular.” Ito sees in the rise of cell phone novels a high degree of media and gadget literacy, a cultural willingness to experiment with new technologies, and a desire for private space and intimate communication.
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The way it works is this: novels are posted by members of cell phone community sites to be downloaded for free and read on other cell phones. Reading often takes place in crowded trains during long commutes. The works are published in 70-word installments, or abbreviated chapters that are the ideal length to be read between shorter train stops. This means that, despite small cell phone screens, lots of white space is left for ease of reading. Multiple short lines of compressed sentences, mostly composed of fragmentary dialogue, are strung together with lots of cell phone-only symbols. The resulting works are emotional, fast-paced and highly visual, with an impact not unlike manga.
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Following Starts, other publishers like Goma and Asuki Media Works moved in to cherry pick cell phone novel sites online and put out the next big hit. The number of cell phone novels in print began skyrocketing in 2006, when 22 books hit the shelves; the following year, there were 98. Even a no-name author with a cell phone novel publishing deal enjoyed a first run of between 50,000 and 100,000 copies.
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