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Ed Webb

Paperless Tiger « buckenglish - 0 views

  • Does this jettisoning of time-honored titles mean that the paperless classroom is also lacking a creator, controller and grader?  Is the paperless classroom also a teacherless paradigm?  The answer is in some regards, yes.  I have removed myself from center stage.  I have relinquished the need to control every class.  I have stopped seeing work as stagnant…completed and submitted by students and then graded by me.  I have let go of my need to pre-plan months at a time, in favor of following the path that unfolds as we learn together.  My classes are not, however, teacherless, just less about the teaching and more about the learning.  The students know that I am ready and willing to be student to their insights, that they can teach, create, control and even evaluate their own learning.
  • In the absence of my control, the students have many choices to make
  • Teachers often say that modern students are lazy.  I have long felt that as the shifting winds of technology began to gain force, we teachers were the ones who were unwilling to do the work of rethinking our roles and meeting the students were they were learning already.  Rethinking paper as the primary tool of class is a step in the right direction because it forces a rethinking of the how and why of teaching and learning.
Vicki Davis

Past Issues - UI Design Newsletter - 0 views

  • You can ask them what they noticed, but self reporting of this sort is notoriously inaccurate – if you ask people to point to what they look at, and meld that with an eyetracking overlay of where their eyes actually went there is a startling gap.
  • applied eyetracking methodologies to measure the attention-drawing effects of new and newly modified elements of search results pages.
  • there is a strong correlation where people look and where they click on search results pages
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  • They look a bit like hurricane maps. People get most excited about findings where the gaze patterns are highly organized... and look a bit like a well-formed hurricane.
  • The visual design works!"
  • So, the visual design objective of a website is to draw your attention to move around the page.
  • longest looking times may not. In fact, longest looking times can, in some cases, reflect multiple lookbacks and dwell time indicating confusion or uncertainty about a next step, a label or an interaction.
  • If there is no fixation we cannot possibly process the content. If there is no fixation we can't be influenced. Amazing, but the part we should pay attention to in our eyetracking results is probably the area that is NOT highlighted!!
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    Article about how people look at web pages.
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    As you design web pages for use with your students -- do you wonder why they don't sometimes SEE what you're putting in front of them -- it is because of eye movement. It is design!!! This paper writes about the effect of website design on eye movement. Those who are desigining online curriculum need to understand this. My sister, Sarah, has been an onlien professor for Savannah College of Art and Design for a while, ,and this is something she talks about in her courses and shares with me. This is why I emphasize wiki layout and design w/ my students (like having a table of contents and white space.) If it is not attractive, it just doesn't exist, because it IS NOT READ! Educators will do well to remember that!
Dave Truss

Stumbling Blocks: Playing It Too Safe Will Make You Sorry | Edutopia - 0 views

  • "We need to create places where teachers can take chances," Honeycutt says. “Every district needs to anoint some teachers to play with Web 2.0 tools in a safe, hypothetical environment. I call it taming the tool. Teachers need time to consider, 'Under what conditions would we allow this tool into the classroom?'"
  • “We realized that students don't see these as impediments, but rather as challenges,” Canuel says. "Students find ingenious ways to go around them." Rather than fighting to stay a step ahead of tech-savvy pupils, the district emphasizes online safety and digital citizenship.
  • Instruction in digital citizenship needs to start early,
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  • In the still-evolving Web 2.0 era, anyone with Internet access has the power to create and publish content online and interact with content others have created.
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    Content filters and firewalls are great for keeping kids away from pornography, as required by the Children's Internet Protection Act, or preventing them from updating their Facebook status during class. But the same filters can stop teachers from accessing cutting-edge widgets and digital materials that have enormous potential for expanding learning.
Caroline Bucky-Beaver

Footprints in the Digital Age - 0 views

  • It's a consequence of the new Web 2.0 world that these digital footprints—the online portfolios of who we are, what we do, and by association, what we know—are becoming increasingly woven into the fabric of almost every aspect of our lives.
  • A recent National School Boards Association survey (2007) announced that upward of 80 percent of young people who are online are networking and that 70 percent of them are regularly discussing education-related topics.
  • By and large, they do all this creating, publishing, and learning on their own, outside school, because when they enter the classroom, they typically "turn off the lights" (Prensky, 2008).
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  • This may be the first large technological shift in history that's being driven by children.
  • The new literacy means being able to function in and leverage the potential of easy-to-create, collaborative, transparent online groups and networks, which represent a "tectonic shift" in the way we need to think about the world and our place in it (Shirky, 2008). This shift requires us to create engaged learners, not simply knowers, and to reconsider the roles of schools and educators.
  • Publishing content online not only begins the process of becoming "Googleable," it also makes us findable by others who share our passions or interests.
  • Although many students are used to sharing content online, they need to learn how to share within the context of network building. They need to know that publishing has a nobler goal than just readership—and that's engagement.
  • These new realities demand that we prepare students to be educated, sophisticated owners of online spaces.
  • More than ever before, students have the potential to own their own learning—and we have to help them seize that potential. We must help them learn how to identify their passions; build connections to others who share those passions; and communicate, collaborate, and work collectively with these networks.
  • Get Started! Here are five ideas that will help you begin building your own personal learning network. Read blogs related to your passion. Search out topics of interest at http://blogsearch.google.com and see who shares those interests. Participate. If you find bloggers out there who are writing interesting and relevant posts, share your reflections and experiences by commenting on their posts. Use your real name. It's a requisite step to be Googled well. Be prudent, of course, about divulging any personal information that puts you at risk, and guide students in how they can do the same. Start a Facebook page. Educators need to understand the potential of social networking for themselves. Explore Twitter (http://twitter.com), a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to exchange short updates of 140 characters or fewer. It may not look like much at first glance, but with Twitter, the network can be at your fingertips.
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    Very interesting article regarding our need as educators to teach students how to build their own PLNs. Teachers need to lead by example. He gives quick tips in the end on how to establish a PLN.
Vicki Davis

In Florida, virtual school could make classrooms history - 1 views

  • A new law that takes effect next fall requires every district in the state to set up an online school for kindergarten through eighth-grade students. They won't have to get on the bus -- or even get out of their PJs -- to head to school at the family computer.
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    Florida takes a huge step forward (or backwards?) in virtual ed.
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    A new law requires every district to set up an online school for grades K-8th grade. I'm just curious about a few things -- why the arbitrary selection of ages? I'm not sure that virtual education is a good idea for k, 1, 2 -- would need to be convinced. To me, it has great application for high school -- but yet high school isn't part of it. Many virtual classes I've seen are NOT well constructed and the online teachers aren't accessible. The teacher must be there while teachers are learning. Just have a lot of ideas here but questions too!
Kristin Hokanson

The Strength of Weak Ties » Tragedy of the Commons - 0 views

  • At its best, Twitter is a place to share a resource, a link to a new blog post, or an insight, and even a place to have a little fun. It’s a place that could be about learning. At its very worst, Twitter is a self-indulgent exercise in self-promotion and pettiness.
  • Those people that have lived off twitter at the expense of their aggregator, have in my opinion, traded in full meals for snack food.
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      A great analogy for how Twitter falls into the menu of networked learning tools.
  • “God kills a kitten each time you count your Twitter followers. Please, think of the kittens.”
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  • We can decide what we want to read or what we do not want to read. We are big kids, right?
    • anonymous
       
      This is why I don't get most of the fuss about people not using twitter the way any particular person likes. If you don't like how someone uses twitter, don't follow them. What else is there to say?
  • Seriously, twitter is not OURS. If people want twitter to act and be used a certain way, it’s time to step up and create/find a service that allows this. For the record, I feel the same about blogging. Prescriptions for use bog us down and stifle creativity and innovation. But what do I know, I’m just a part-time teacher
  • I really enjoy my Twitter relationships
    • Kristin Hokanson
       
      The difference is you do have twitter RELATIONSHIPS and that is key. These are easy to develop with manageble followings ...when there are thousands of people "following you" like in the case of jakes, richardson...they don't need to follow back all the folks...because they do a good job of engaging in the conversation. without having to develop "relationships" with thousands. It would be impossible and would leave them as Shareski said, only constantly snacking
  • his post was about what I considered to be the abuse of Twitter by certain individuals, and the second grade playground mentality of who follows who, and who is in this group, who is in that group, etc. Because you know what, its there. It is, and its not pretty.
    • Kristin Hokanson
       
      I actually think this is a GOOD analogy. I have seen the ....can someone who follows @somebody please tell them.... because they don't follow me...posts...
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    At its best, Twitter is a place to share a resource, a link to a new blog post, or an insight, and even a place to have a little fun. It's a place that could be about learning. At its very worst, Twitter is a self-indulgent exercise in self-promotion and pettiness.
Reggie Ryan

My eCoach: Ten Steps to Effective Technology Staff Development - 0 views

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    How do you develop a plan for technology use if teachers don't know what they don't know? A staff development plan that embraces a variety of learning opportunities based on individual learning plans is the most effective design for teachers to use if they are expected to transfer the use of technology to their classrooms.
Marisa P

John Dewey: School and Society: Chapter 4: The Psychology of Elementary Education - 0 views

  • To refuse to try, to stick (97) blindly to tradition, because the search for the truth involves experimentation in the region of the unknown, is to refuse the only step which can introduce rational conviction into education.
    • Marisa P
       
      great quote
  • It should also be stated that practically it has not as yet been possible, in many cases, to act adequately upon the best ideas obtained, because of administrative difficulties, due to lack of funds —difficulties centering in the lack of a proper building and appliances, and in inability to pay the amounts necessary to secure the complete time of teachers in some important lines. Indeed, with the growth of the school in numbers, and in the age and maturity of pupils, it is becoming a grave question how long it is fair to the experiment to carry it on without more adequate facilities.
  • The aim, then, is not for the child to go to school as a place apart, but rather in the school so to recapitulate typical phases of his experience outside of school, as to enlarge, enrich, and gradually formulate it.
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  • Since the aim is not "covering the ground," but knowledge of social processes used to secure social results, no attempt is made to go over the entire history, in chronological order, of America
  • His experiments are modes of active doing—almost as much so as his play and games. Later he tries to find out how various materials or agencies are manipulated in order to give certain results. It is thus clearly distinguished from experimentation in the scientific sense—such as is appropriate to the secondary period —where the aim is the discovery of facts and verification of principles.
  • means to ends
  • These subjects are social in a double sense. They represent the tools which society has evolved in the past as the instruments of its intellectual pursuits. They represent the keys which will unlock to the child the wealth of social capital which lies beyond the possible range of his limited individual experience. While these two points of view must always give these arts a highly important place in education, they also make it necessary that certain conditions should be observed in their introduction and use. In a wholesale and direct application of the studies no account is taken of these conditions. The chief problem at present relating to the three R's is recognition of these conditions and the adaptation of work to them.
  • 1) The need that the child shall have in his own personal (105) and vital experience a varied background of contact and acquaintance with realities, social and physical. This is necessary to prevent symbols from becoming a purely second-hand and conventional substitute for reality.
  • The need that the more ordinary, direct, and personal experience of the child shall furnish problems, motives, and interests that necessitate recourse to books for their solution, satisfaction, and pursuit. Otherwise, the child approaches the book without intellectual hunger, without alertness, without a questioning attitude, and the result is the one so deplorably common: such abject dependence upon books as weakens and cripples vigor of thought and inquiry, combined with reading for mere random stimulation of fancy, emotional indulgence, and flight from the world of reality into a make-belief land.
  • The final use of the symbols, whether in reading, calculation, or composition, is more intelligent, less mechanical; more active, less passively receptive; more an increase of power, less a mere mode of enjoyment.
  • third period of elementary education
  • the second period
Jeff Johnson

Giving Students' learning Choices Through Technology « Education with Technol... - 0 views

  • I wonder what school would be like if we could have more options and choices available to students. Sure all students have to learn the same basic standards. How much choice do we give the students in how they go about doing it? Do we provide lectures, demonstrations, guided instructions, interactive activities, group activities, and self-tests in various digital formats for them? By using technology we can have many different forms of learning the standard available to the students. What, if instead of lock stepping the class in terms of the students’ learning, we freed up the class to make their own choices? They can select in what order or format to see/hear/experience the learning.
Brian C. Smith

Is Google Making Us Stupid? - 0 views

  • What the Internet is doing to our brains
  • A new e-mail message, for instance, may announce its arrival as we’re glancing over the latest headlines at a newspaper’s site. The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration.
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      Some might call this multitasking... but "good" multitasking needs to be purposeful. Those who can filter those attention scattering and diffusing interuptions just may be getting smarter.
  • Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake in collecting the crumbs of data we leave behind as we flit from link to link—the more crumbs, the better. The last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      All the more reason to educate students on social media literacy with a purpose.
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  • He couldn’t foresee the many ways that writing and reading would serve to spread information, spur fresh ideas, and expand human knowledge (if not wisdom).
  • And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.”
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      Nothing's different here. In fact, I might argue that it is even more important that we have "proper instruction".
  • They would be “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.”
  • emotionlessness that characterizes the human figures in the film, who go about their business with an almost robotic efficiency. Their thoughts and actions feel scripted, as if they’re following the steps of an algorithm.
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      Is this where education/teaching is headed if it does not embrace technology for the freedom it offers learners?
John Evans

Smithereens: All 331 Entries to Copyblogger's TwitLit Contest in One (Better) Place [ak... - 0 views

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    All 331 Entries to Copyblogger's TwitLit Contest all contained in a slieshow at the bottom of the page. Scroll down and enjoy.
Brian C. Smith

eSchoolNews - Students want more use of gaming technology - 0 views

    • Brian C. Smith
       
      Is it only the test scores? I worry about the actual translation of math skills to real world problems rather than having students do well on a test or beat their friends for bragging rights.
  • Nearly two-thirds of middle and high school students said “let me use my own laptop, cell phone, or other mobile device at school.”
  • While 53 percent of middle and high school students are excited about using mobile devices to help them learn, only 15 percent of school leaders support this idea. Also, fewer than half as many parents as students see a place for online learning in the 21st century school.
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      With a gap of 38% between students and admins you'd think the administrators might actually approach students, the most untapped resource in the school community, about how they might see the use of mobile devices to help or enhance thier learning and communication.
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  • And even fewer teachers, parents, and school leaders want students to have access to eMail and instant-messaging accounts from school.
  • Keeping school leaders well informed is the first step toward helping to bridge this disconnect
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      There are many, many timely and effective ways for school leaders to stay informed themselves. Why are they not taking advantage of these? Let's teach them to fish.
  • Hopefully, the results of this survey will reach them. If school leaders become more familiar with student views,
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      Suggestion: Listen and talk (sparingly) to the students in your schools, get to know them. One of the best strategies for learning I ever learned was to "know your students well". Listen to the students in your schools and you will learn a lot.
  • his vision for the ultimate school is one where the teachers and the principal actively seek and regularly include the ideas of students in discussions and planning for all aspects of education—not just technology.
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      Exactly.
Nancy White

ALA TechSource | The Digitally Re-Shifted School Library: A Conversation with Christoph... - 0 views

  • I also believe that a very important step lies in getting library boards, school boards, and other trustees/governing bodies on board with Web 2.0 ideas as well as the changes we are discussing here.
    • Nancy White
       
      Not just the tools - but how they can trasform learning in the classroom.
  • I think school libraries will also need to work to firmly re-establish themselves as the foundation of instructional practice. The library space will become more flexible, perhaps moving toward the idea of a university-like information commons with mainly digital non-fiction and reference collections, but still possessing high-quality fiction and picture-book sections. School libraries can work to embrace new technologies and become the iPod content hubs as well as the place for books. The school librarian will also become more flexible – moving in and out of the library and classrooms as a curriculum and instructional pedagogy-consultant teacher. As education works to meet the needs of the so-called "21st-century learners," school librarians will have a key role in supporting an increased demand for information literacy and knowledge management throughout the content areas.
    • Nancy White
       
      I agree - T-L as instructional consultant will become a more important role in using the AASL Learner Standards and helping to guide teachers toward more relevant, inquiry-based instruction that integrates 21st century tools and skills.
Brian C. Smith

The Games Teachers Play - Education Articles - 0 views

  • Perhaps there are many more distractions facing children today, but great teachers continue to create environments where their students want to be and to learn.
    • Brian C. Smith
       
      Designing for levels of engagement that grabs the attention of students is absolutely necessary. Levels of engagement need not, and won't, reach the level of video games, but enough to interest students in what they are going to learn.
  • Rather than take the steps necessary to make school more social, teachers more engaging, and curriculum more relevant, we either shift blame to parents, TV and hip hop, or seek salvation in the lessons of Grand Theft Auto.
Angela Maiers

Towards a Theory of Digital Literacy: Three Scenarios for the Next Steps - 0 views

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    Digital Literacy
Vicki Davis

This morning I came here before I went to twitter. This seems to be the place to be rig... - 1 views

  • Lisa Parisi This morning I came here before I went to twitter. This seems to be the place to be right now. Still not sure of all the groupings, taggings, etc. Reading what everyone writes and hoping to get it soon
  • Will play on Sunday with Karen McMillan and Alice Barr. Anyone else want to join? Anyone want to teach?
  • Kristin Hokanson Liz I think it may be too much ially for the newbie and I will continue to send to delicious.
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  • I was going to present 20 minutes on Del.icio.us, but I may show Diigo instead - or both - or 20 minutes is not enough....
  • This new version "appears" to have fixed that issue, plus I've been impressed with the new features.
  • Caroline Obannon I'm second guessing teaching only del.icio.us myself, too.
  • Liz Davis I'm wondering if Diigo is too much for the newbie. Delicious is so simple and obviously useful. I'm afraid Diigo would scare some people away. I'm still inclined to start with delicious and save Diigo for my more advanced users (of which I have very few).
  • Maybe overwhelming would describe my feelings.
  • However, I can defely think of quite a few people who would balk at it, too and favor the simplicity of Del.icio.us.
  • but most likely wouldn't participate in the social/sharing aspects they offer.
  • The nice thing about the Diigo toolbar is that you can select which buttons to see, so for those who might find the extra choices of tools overwhelming, it can at least be customized.
  • I'm feeling a Diigo obsession building. As soon as Explorer comes up I check to see if there are any messages in Diigo. How nice of them to put that number right on my toolbar!
  • I created my very first List last night,
  • Ryan Bretag I'll join in the fun if you'll have me. Let me know time when you know.
  • There is one feature that I REALLY like and that is that you can EMAIL something you are tagging so for folks who LIKE to get those sites emailed, you can still meet their needs without an extra step yourself
  • I second that. I like Diigo, but del.icio.us simplicity is so inviting.
  • The value of Diigo is that it brings a number of tools together allowing for multiple entry points. The old training model is show them a tool from start to finish that goes over every single detail. With Diigo, why show everything to those new to all this? It is rather easy to click into your bookmarks. From there, teachers have a space they can grow. It also provides a wonderful opportunity to differentiate with your teachers -- the whole multiple points of entry.
  • still I will have fun, exploring it and making effective use of it.
  • it is the ease of integration with blogging and twitter -- I annotated a page yesterday and pulled it directly into my blog. I can twitter bookmark that is important quickly -- AND I can use the tagging standards for the horizon project without having to remember the darn tags -- tag dictionaries are the most useful things to have been invented in a LONG time -- we need to set them up within one of our educational groups!
  • I don' t think I would not teach delicious. But perhaps starting with delicious and saving Diigo for later is a good idea.
  • I do find this site to be much more powerful and useful than delicious. I never really used delicious to its full potential. The fact that I am here just chatting with folks makes me want to stay and contribute to the collective knowledge.
  • We are conversing about the usefulness of diigo and I thought you might like to be included.
  • Maggie Tsai has invited Wade Ren to this conversation
  • Are you guys planning a Sunday get-together? If so, please advise the time - I'd love to join you and help answering any question.
  • Howdy! Wow, what can I say? Diigo is a lot more than delicious. If CoolCat Vicki hadn't written about Diigo again, I probably would have stuck with Delicious...and,if I hadn't been using Twitter, blogs, played around with Facebook, the social networking side of Diigo would have been just so much MORE to learn.
  • my concern would be to NOT limit learners in workshop sessions to the path I followed in learning these tools. Simply, folks, here is a tool that will grow as you grow and learn more about living and contributing in an interconnected world. The ability to have conversations like this, to annotate web pages, to share relevant quotes and tweet as needed...makes me wonder at the need for blogs at all.
  • A few folks are considering exploring Diigo on Sunday morning and having a conversation about it now...join in and learn with us!
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    This is a very honest, open discussion between educators about why diigo or delicious -- I think the fact we can have this conversation within diigo at all says a lot for the usefulness of the tool. Diigo is an emerging tool for social bookmarking and collective intelligence.
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    This%20is%20an%20annotated%20discussion%20of%20our%20discussion%20here%20on%20Diigo.%20%20Look%20how%20deep%20the%20conversation%20can%20go%20now!%20%20WE%20can%20analyze%20ourselves%20and%20extract%20meaning.
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