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Sean McHugh

Yes, There Are Many, Many, Many, Many Legal Uses Of BitTorrent | Techdirt - 0 views

  • if the metric you used to judge whether or not a new technology is a "pirate technology" is what percentage of its use was "unauthorized," you get a very skewed picture. Early on, all sorts of new and innovative technologies are mostly used for unauthorized copies... until the industry catches up. However, people don't often deal with trends very well, and they assume, quite incorrectly, that if a technology is initially used in an unauthorized manner, it must be a "piracy tool" and no amount of discussing how trends and adaptation works will convince them otherwise.
  • over time, things change. Content creators begin to embrace the new, realize that it might not be evil, and suddenly we see more and more interesting case studies. And that seems to be happening with BitTorrent. The recent MusicMetric analysis of BitTorrent downloads for the first six months of 2012 found that 31% of downloads were for authorized files. Now, you can argue that this is still less than half of all files -- but it's a big step up from the standard claims that somewhere between 1% and 10% were authorized. It seems quite likely that the trend is moving in the right direction.
  • the idea that BitTorrent is just for infringement may have to be officially considered debunked
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    If the metric you used to judge whether or not a new technology is a "pirate technology" is what percentage of its use was "unauthorized," you get a very skewed picture. Early on, all sorts of new and innovative technologies are mostly used for unauthorized copies... until the industry catches up. However, people don't often deal with trends very well, and they assume, quite incorrectly, that if a technology is initially used in an unauthorized manner, it must be a "piracy tool" and no amount of discussing how trends and adaptation works will convince them otherwise. 
Sean McHugh

How to help students spot misinformation | The Educator Asia - 0 views

  • a few guidelines to help understand how the study’s findings can be of practical use to students, and teachers who are looking to improve digital literacy in their classrooms
  • The internet has democratised access to information but in so doing has opened the floodgates to misinformation, fake news, and rank propaganda masquerading as dispassionate analysis.
  • read laterally, leaving a site after a quick scan and opening up new browser tabs in order to judge the credibility of the original site
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  • close reading of a digital source, when one doesn’t yet know if the source can be trusted proves a colossal waste of time
  • slower to reach their conclusions
  • more thorough evaluations
  • focused on credible information from news organizations like the New York Times and the Washington Post
Sean McHugh

Games, Standards, and Assessment: Staying out of the Toxic Mess | EdSurge News - 1 views

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    We can use games to make a new toxic mess if we use them merely as a shiny new delivery device for old, bad ideas about teachers, testing and learning. Just like books, games are a technology that can be used for good or ill. Textbooks are the least good educational tool ever made (VanLehn et al. 2007) because they seek to be a one-size-fits-all, standardized, single system, stand-alone delivery platform for facts fit mostly for testing. Games should, together with other tools and with good teaching, deliver customized and collaborative problem solving for a complex, high-risk and fast-changing global world.
Sean McHugh

Video Games Aren't Addictive - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Playing video games is not addictive in any meaningful sense. It is normal behavior that, while perhaps in many cases a waste of time, is not damaging or disruptive of lives in the way drug or alcohol use can be
  • This is true but not illuminating.
  • These areas of the brain — those that produce and respond to the neurotransmitter dopamine — are involved in just about any pleasurable activity: having sex, enjoying a nice conversation, eating good food, reading a book, using methamphetamines.
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  • On its own, the fact that a pleasurable activity involves dopamine release tells us nothing else about it.
  • A large-scale study of internet-based games recently published in the American Journal of Psychiatry bears out our skepticism about this “addiction
  • the diagnosis of addiction doesn’t make much sense to begin with
  • by treating the immoderate playing of video games as an addiction, we are pathologizing relatively normal behavior
  • We don’t deny that new technologies come with some perils. We understand the nostalgia for the halcyon days of, say, the 1950s, when people were not yet bound to their personal technology and were free to enjoy the simpler pleasures of life, like stickball and climbing trees — and getting polio and having to wait in line at the bank to check your account balance.We doubt most people would actually want to return to the good old days. We and our children are “addicted” to new technologies because, for the most part, they improve our lives or are simply pleasurable
  • indulging in panic about technology or nostalgia for a better past that never really existed does us no good
Sean McHugh

U.S. Navy: Video Games Improve Brains, "Fluid Intelligence" - 0 views

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    "Perez credits games and game-like simulations with giving people the ability to more quickly adapt new mental strategies for problem-solving. He says that, for 50 years, it was believed that no training could improve a person's "fluid intelligence" - the ability "to work outside your present mindset, to think beyond what you have been taught, to go beyond your experience to solve problems in new and different ways.""
Sean McHugh

Screen-time does not disrupt children's sleep, new study finds | University of Oxford - 0 views

  • new research findings from the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, has shown that screen time has very little practical effect on children’s sleep.
  • while the correlation between screen time and sleep in children exists, it might be too small to make a significant difference to a child’s sleep
  • Focusing on bedtime routines and regular patterns of sleep, such as consistent wake-up times, are much more effective strategies for helping young people sleep than thinking screens themselves play a significant role
Sean McHugh

Our new research shows that reading both in print and on screens benefits children's li... - 0 views

  • Our new research into digital reading has found that young people who are the most engaged with reading are more likely to read both on paper and on screen than their peers who have low engagement with reading
  • Pupils eligible for free school meals and boys with the lowest levels of reading engagement are two of the groups most likely to benefit from using digital formats
  • young people who read above the level expected for their age read fiction both in print and on screen
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  • Digital reading is becoming an increasingly important part of children’s literacy lives. It gives children new and exciting ways to access a wide range of reading materials and is particularly effective at getting disengaged groups of children excited about reading
Sean McHugh

Do Video Games Make Kids Smarter? - ABC News - 0 views

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    "When many adults think of video games, they envision bombs, bangs and blood. As a result, many parents try to restrict their children's gaming time. But according to new research, they might be missing some redeeming qualities."
Sean McHugh

Tony Wagner: All Students Need Digital Portfolios - Pathbrite - 0 views

  • [Students need] three things: they need content knowledge, but that’s the easy part today. It’s online; you don’t need a teacher to acquire content. The world simply doesn’t care how much you know anymore because Google knows everything. What the world cares about, now that content has become a commodity, is what you can do with what you know. And that suggests the two other education outcomes that are absolutely critical, and to simplify them I call them skill and will. Students need a new set of skills to thrive for work learning and citizenship in the 21st century; and they need will, meaning motivation, and arguably the most important is motivation. Because if you are motivated you will continuously learn new skills and new content knowledge, which you will have to in this era, and its the thing we do the most damage to in our schools today.
  • We’re not giving kids work that is intrinsically interesting in the vast majority of our schools, and we’re spending far too much time on test prep, and the tests themselves are predominantly multiple choice factual recall tests that tell us absolutely nothing about work learning or citizenship readiness in the 21st century. Kids know it, and they’re bored out of their minds.
  • I think the whole idea of a digital portfolio is part of what I call Accountability 2.0, moving away from an over-reliance on stupid tests and moving towards really looking at student work and having students meet a performance standard for passing on to higher grades and for graduating from high school. And it […] can be an important factor in motivating kids to want to do better work.
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  • teachers have to give students work that demands critical thinking, problem solving, and that they expect a high standard for communication skills and collaboration skills. And the digital portfolio provides students with an opportunity to show mastery. And also—this is very important—to show progress over time.
  • the skills you need to succeed in a competitive academic environment bear absolutely no relationship to the skills you need to succeed in an innovation economy.
  • in fact the real world is evidence-based, not merely data driven. And a digital portfolio can be one of the best forms of evidence of competency and accomplishments.
Sean McHugh

Technology in Education | American Federation of Teachers - 0 views

  • pedagogy (i.e., teaching practice) and not the medium (i.e., technological tools and resources, such as whiteboards, hand-held devices, blogs, chat boards) that made a difference in learning, stating that instructional media are “mere vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers our groceries causes changes in our nutrition
  • there was no proof to show that a medium was capable of ensuring that pupils and students could learn more or more effectively. He saw the medium as a means, a vehicle for instruction, but that the essence of learning remained—thankfully—in the hands of the teacher
  • it is not the medium that decides how effectively learners learn
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  • the effectiveness of learning is determined primarily by the way the medium is used and by the quality of the instruction accompanying that use
  • The crucial factor for learning improvement is to make sure that you do not replace the teacher as the instrument of instruction, allowing computers to do what teachers would normally do, but instead use computers to supplement and amplify what the teacher does
  • the use of both e-learning and contact education—which is known as blended learning—produces better results than lessons given without technolog
  • the medium does not influence the learning
  • the medium seldom influences teaching, learning, and education, nor is it likely that one single medium will ever be the best one for all situations
    • Sean McHugh
       
      But 'ordinary real life is mediated by computers! I'm still only in classrooms where the myth that this is not true still persists! 
  • students do not naturally make extensive use of many of the newest technologies, such as blogs, wikis, and virtual worlds
  • the main reasons young people use technology. These reasons are mainly social
  • Digital natives! Whenever the question of digital innovation in education is discussed, this is a term that immediately comes to the surface. But it should be avoided. Even the person who coined the term digital natives, Marc Prensky, admitted in his most recent book, Brain Gain, that the term is now obsolete.2
  • Prensky’s coining of this term—and its counterpart for people who are not digitally native—was not based on research into this generation, but rather created by rationalizing phenomena that he had observed
  • The students use a large quantity and variety of technologies for communicating, learning, staying connected with their friends, and engaging with the world around them. But they are using them primarily for “personal empowerment and entertainment
  • university students do not really have a deep knowledge of technology, and what knowledge they do have is often limited to basic Microsoft Office skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), emailing, text messaging, Facebook, and surfing the Internet
  • There is simply no experimental evidence to show that living with new technologies fundamentally changes brain organization in a way that affects one’s ability to focus. Of course, the brain changes any time we form a memory or learn a new skill, but new skills build on our existing capacities without fundamentally changing them. We will no more lose our ability to pay attention than we will lose our ability to listen, see or speak.
  • Note that many of these studies examined the influence of television rather than the influence of interactive technology, such as smartphones and social media
  • when people think that young people today read less, it’s not about reading online content or text messages, it’s about reading book
  • young people are still doing a lot of reading, and these statistics make clear that many of them are reading for pleasure. However, we need to be careful about making too many sweeping assertions, since the reading figures in many countries are falling. Even so, we know that reading continues to be important: both reading by young people themselves and parents reading to their childre
Sean McHugh

The Surprising, Research-Backed Benefits of Active Screen Time - 0 views

  • How about nine
    • Sean McHugh
       
      Outside of work? How is that possible? Get home from school at 4, bed at 9, even at that impractical extreme it's 5 hours, not allowing for meal time?
  • teens today are spending an average of nine hours a day online,
    • Sean McHugh
       
      Just like their parents; why is this key point so often overlooked?
  • sedentary screen time
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  • there is a very fine line between passive screen time, defined as when a child passively consumes digital content with no thought, creativity or interaction required to progress, and active screen time, which involves cognitive thought and/or physical engagement.
  • so vital for us to change how kids are using their computers and phones
    • Sean McHugh
       
      Again, only focused on kids, but if parents don't do likewise, how do they think they will have an effect?
  • As long as we ensure that our kids are actively using their screens, we can most likely avoid the problems that come with passive screen use
  • watching TV or videos
    • Sean McHugh
       
      What about the learning this offers? Specifically knowledge acquisition? Especially if that knowledge leads to hands on activity, like when kids use 'how to' videos?
  • learning a new skill like coding games or websites, creating music, writing and publishing stories or poetry
    • Sean McHugh
       
      Can you imagine many/and parents doing this? If they won't, how will they encourage their kids to do so?
Sean McHugh

New tech 'addictions' are mostly just old moral panic - 0 views

  • Not everybody in the medical community is on board with such an assessment
  • a group of more than two dozen doctors and researchers sent an open letter to the WHO in 2016, arguing that formalizing the disorder lacked scientific merit and could cause real harm to patients.
  • the current operationalization leans too heavily on substance use and gambling criteria, and the lack of consensus on symptomatology and assessment of problematic gaming
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  • Addiction is not a good term to be using with video games, because I would say unlike substance problems there is no substance that we're ingesting that directly affects your brain chemistry," Colder Carras told Engadget. "It makes more sense to talk about problematic video gaming.
  • The study found that the strongest agreement between participants' rankings and IGD characterizations were functional impairment, continued use despite problems, unsuccessful attempts to stop and the loss of interest in other hobbies
  • These games aren't necessarily causing the problems; it might just as well be the other way around. People are not functioning, they suffer from social anxiety, they're lonely, and they flee into the games because it's an excellent coping mechanism.
  • However, the official investigation report points out that the only game he played regularly was Dance Dance Revolution.
  • If anything, the current body of evidence suggests that gaming might actually reduce the rate of violent behavior rather than instigate it.
  • Luckily, moral panics don't last far beyond the lives of those who are outraged by them
  • The group of people who believe in the dangerousness of whatever they put on media eventually dies off," Ferguson remarked. "And then people stop talking about it, and they move on to whatever the next new thing is that older adults don't use and don't like."
  • newly defined diagnoses of Internet Gaming Disorder or Selfitis may be rooted in a modern-day moral panic. "It looks like from the data that some people probably do overdo gaming like they overdo a lot of other things -- like food or exercise or work or religion. There are even papers on dance addiction, of all things," Ferguson said. "But that seems to be more of a symptom of other underlying mental illness rather than a mental illness by itself
Sean McHugh

Determining Success of Technology Integration in Classrooms, Schools, and Districts (Pa... - 0 views

  • describing exemplars of technology integration is not synonymous with student-centered teaching. And student-centered teaching is not the same as “success” in student learning
  • Evidence of technology use in Europe, Asia, and the Americas  (see JECR PDF) have pointed out how powerful devices often end up being used to support teacher-centered instruction.
  • The all-important implementation question–too often overlooked, ignored, or forgotten by champions of new technologies–remains: have teachers altered their classroom practices as a consequence of using new technologies? Without such changes in teaching practices, then student learning and outcomes can hardly be expected to improve.
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  • determining to what degree teachers have altered how they teach as a consequence of integrating new technologies into their lessons
Sean McHugh

Nir Eyal on how to beat tech addiction: 'We need a new skill set' | Technology | The Gu... - 0 views

  • we need to stop using the word “addicted” when it comes to technology – because most of us aren’t addicted at all; we’re just guilty of overuse
  • It’s amazing, he adds, that people don’t see that the alarm around tech is just a repeat of a very old storyline. “In the 1950s, fearmongers were saying the exact same thing about comic books, literally verbatim: it’s reducing kids’ attention spans; it’s causing them to commit suicide; it’s leading to mental health issues.” Distraction, he stresses, is an age-old problem that is far bigger than technology
  • If we want to avoid distraction, we can’t just throw our phones away or go on a digital detox; we need to deal with the psychological reasons we’re looking for distraction in the first place
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  • stop blaming technology for your personal failings and start blaming yourself
  • the fact we’re all carrying smartphones means that “distraction is easier than ever to find”. But he stresses that “This doesn’t mean we’re powerless – it means we need a new skill set
  • There are only three reasons for a distraction,” he adds. “An internal trigger, an external trigger or a planning problem
  • Eyal calls email the “mother of all habit-forming products”, one of several technologies he refers to in the book as “slot machines”. The uncertainty of what’s in our inbox means we’re constantly checking it, but most email is a complete waste of time.
  • but it takes me for ever to figure out how to label my emails
  • “hack back” my iPhone by adjusting my notification settings, reducing “external triggers” from apps.
  • The route to a healthier relationship with technology isn’t necessarily going cold turkey; it’s learning moderation and good habits.
Sean McHugh

Moderate use of screen time can be good for your health, new study finds - Oxford Inter... - 0 views

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    "Screen time"
Sean McHugh

Opinion | Don't Go Down the Rabbit Hole - The New York Times - 0 views

  • the way we’re taught from a young age to evaluate and think critically about information is fundamentally flawed and out of step with the chaos of the current internet.
  • It’s often counterproductive to engage directly with content from an unknown source, and people can be led astray by false information
  • the best way to learn about a source of information is to leave it and look elsewhere, a concept called lateral reading.
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  • Whenever you give your attention to a bad actor, you allow them to steal your attention from better treatments of an issue, and give them the opportunity to warp your perspective
  • Internet users need to learn that our attention is a scarce commodity that is to be spent wisely
  • four simple principles:1. Stop.2. Investigate the source.3. Find better coverage.4. Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.Otherwise known as SIFT.
  • The question we want students asking is: Is this a good source for this purpose, or could I find something better relatively quickly
  • We’ve been trained to think that Googling or just checking one resource we trust is almost like cheating,” he said. “But when people search Google, the best results may not always be first, but the good information is usually near the top
  • The students are confused when I tell them to try and trace something down with a quick Wikipedia search, because they’ve been told not to do it,” she said. “Not for research papers, but if you’re trying to find out if a site is legitimate or if somebody has a history as a conspiracy theorist and you show them how to follow the page’s citation, it’s quick and effective, which means it’s more likely to be used
  • Use Wikipedia for quick guidance! Spend less time torturing yourself with complex primary sources
  • instill a reflex that asks if something is worth one’s time and attention and to turn away if not
Sean McHugh

Web Design with Google Sites: New! Add Google Drive Folder to Google Sites - 0 views

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    Add Google Drive Folder to Google Sites This is a feature we've all been wanting and it has been described on the Google Sites Help forum many times - a link between Google Drive and Google Sites. Google Sites, while it has those file cabinet pages, isn't the best document management system available, especially next to the incredible set of features in Google Drive.
Sean McHugh

BitTorrent and the Legitimate Use of P2P - 0 views

  • How can P2P networks go legit?'' My answer is, ``they already are
  • No one here would dispute that filesharing networks are used by those who would violate copyright. But this is not solely the domain of P2P; copyrighted software has been traded on electronic bulletin board systems (BBSs) since their inception and has permeated every public communication protocol on the Internet. Filesharing is a social phenomenon, not a technological one - demonizing P2P based on one use of the technology is a mistake
  • BitTorrent is a P2P system that allows large, popular files to be downloaded quickly
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  • a distinction can be made between a technology (P2P) and implementations of that technology
  • the system was not designed with illegal use in mind, but instead to faciliate transfer of large files in an economical way.
  • trading of copyrighted files is not central to the technology
  • While you could potentially upload a virus to a public tracker and provide a .torrent file for it, you'd still have to convince people to download and run the file just as if you posted it to a website.
  • Legitimate uses of BitTorrent
  • Open Source
  • Live-Taping
  • Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Tenacious D
  • bands are realizing that having a loyal following is very valuable and that they can both support their fans and still sell records
  • Slashdot
  • DIY Publishing
  • legitimate P2P use is here and has a definite role to play in the future of the Internet
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    "How can P2P networks go legit?'' My answer is, ``they already are.'' The world-wide-web is used to download illegally copied software, copyrighted music and movies as well as child pornography, yet we're not asking how the web can go legit. No one here would dispute that filesharing networks are used by those who would violate copyright. But this is not solely the domain of P2P; copyrighted software has been traded on electronic bulletin board systems (BBSs) since their inception and has permeated every public communication protocol on the Internet. Filesharing is a social phenomenon, not a technological one - demonizing P2P based on one use of the technology is a mistake in my opinion. P2P already has positive mainstream benefits in certain communities and new uses are being found all the time."
Sean McHugh

Tynker - 0 views

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    "Tynker is a new computing platform designed specifically to teach children computational thinking and programming skills in a fun and imaginative way. The cloud hosted system is now available to teachers, schools and districts."
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