Group items tagged in Tools - Educational Technology and Change Journal

When "New" Gets Old: Redefining Approaches to Digital Literacy and Citizenship - 1 views

Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/when-new-gets-old-redefining-approaches-to-digital-literacy-and-citizenship/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=emai...

Internet digital literacy tutorial Canada ethical agents in a world. teaching tweeting

started by Bonnie Sutton on 15 Jun 11 no follow-up yet

PLAYBACK: News on Teens and Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Google+, And Schools That Don'... - 0 views

Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning PLAYBACK: News on Teens and Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Google+, And Schools That Don't Allow Them Posted: 03 Feb 2012 02:22 PM PST In this week's PLAY...

Facebook. Twitter and Google+. Parent's Guide to Facebook News on Teens Blogs

started by Bonnie Sutton on 05 Feb 12 no follow-up yet

Rupert Murdoch uses eG8 to talk up net's power to transform education | Media | guardia... - 6 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...g8-invest-education-technology

rupert murdoch uses

shared by Jim Shimabukuro on 02 Jun 11 - No Cached

Jim Shimabukuro on 02 Jun 11

"Rupert Murdoch uses eG8 to talk up net's power to transform education News Corp chairman claims 'Victorian' schools are 'last holdout from digital revolution' Kim Willsher in Paris guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 May 2011 18.10 BST Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation founder and chairman, used his address to the eG8 Forum in Paris on Tuesday to call for more investment in education and "unlocking the potential" of the world's children. Murdoch said it was not a question of putting a computer in every school, but concentrating on opening up opportunities for youngsters to flourish by using targeted and tailored software. News Corp moved into the $500bn (£310bn) US education sector in late 2010, paying about $360m in cash for 90% of technology company Wireless Generation, which provides mobile and web software to enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver personalised learning."

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"Rupert Murdoch uses eG8 to talk up net's power to transform education News Corp chairman claims 'Victorian' schools are 'last holdout from digital revolution' Kim Willsher in Paris guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 May 2011 18.10 BST Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation founder and chairman, used his address to the eG8 Forum in Paris on Tuesday to call for more investment in education and "unlocking the potential" of the world's children. Murdoch said it was not a question of putting a computer in every school, but concentrating on opening up opportunities for youngsters to flourish by using targeted and tailored software. News Corp moved into the $500bn (£310bn) US education sector in late 2010, paying about $360m in cash for 90% of technology company Wireless Generation, which provides mobile and web software to enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver personalised learning."</div>

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Jim Shimabukuro on 02 Jun 11

From Harry Keller

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">From Harry Keller</div>

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Claude Almansi on 02 Jun 11

Interesting contrast with Murdoch's attitude in 2009 - see http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google - but is it really a contrast?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Interesting contrast with Murdoch's attitude in 2009 - see <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google</a> - but is it really a contrast?</div>

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Harry Keller on 02 Jun 11

We've had Ely Broad, Bill Gates, and a host of other billionaires (even George Lucas) attempting to "fix" our education system. They're not doing so well. What is so interesting to me about Murdoch, despite his pirate-like business practices, is that he sees what I think is the real direction for the future of education. Oddly unlike his right-wing colleagues, he's not pushing for vouchers or more school privatization. Unlike the technocrats, he's not pushing for more and more computers in schools. He sees the solution to our schooling problems as "targeted and tailored software." Many (maybe most) countries, including the U.S., lack the political will as societies to fix education the way that Finland did. Software is the other path. Much discussion today centers around the platform. Will we use smart phones or e-tablets or netbooks? Will we see $1 apiece apps as the learning modules or cloud-based solutions? Will our new learning software run on iOS or Android? All of that is window dressing and barely worthy of discussion. For me, Murdoch hit the nail on the head. We have too little software "targeted and tailored" to education or, at least, too little highly professional quality software.

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">We've had Ely Broad, Bill Gates, and a host of other billionaires (even George Lucas) attempting to "fix" our education system. They're not doing so well. What is so interesting to me about Murdoch, despite his pirate-like business practices, is that he sees what I think is the real direction for the future of education. Oddly unlike his right-wing colleagues, he's not pushing for vouchers or more school privatization. Unlike the technocrats, he's not pushing for more and more computers in schools. He sees the solution to our schooling problems as "targeted and tailored software." Many (maybe most) countries, including the U.S., lack the political will as societies to fix education the way that Finland did. Software is the other path. Much discussion today centers around the platform. Will we use smart phones or e-tablets or netbooks? Will we see $1 apiece apps as the learning modules or cloud-based solutions? Will our new learning software run on iOS or Android? All of that is window dressing and barely worthy of discussion. For me, Murdoch hit the nail on the head. We have too little software "targeted and tailored" to education or, at least, too little highly professional quality software.</div>

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Claude Almansi on 04 Jun 11

Errh yes about Murdoch pushing "targeted and tailored software" , Harry. But see also: "News Corp moved into the $500bn (£310bn) US education sector in late 2010, paying about $360m in cash for 90% of technology company Wireless Generation, which provides mobile and web software to enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver personalised learning." So he is doing at software level what Microsoft etc were doing at hardware - and at times software - level: promoting his wares in a very juicy market. We've had "targeted and tailored to education" software for decades, now: LMSs, addons to office suites, etc. Some good, some bad. The problem with software that is targeted and tailored to education is that it is a) often boring; b) perforce based on an abstract general idea of education; c) often remote from what gets used outside school. Would it not be better to train teachers in adapting whatever software is generally available, be it desktop or on the cloud, to fit their and their specific students' needs?

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Errh yes about Murdoch pushing "targeted and tailored software" , Harry. But see also: "News Corp moved into the $500bn (£310bn) US education sector in late 2010, paying about $360m in cash for 90% of technology company Wireless Generation, which provides mobile and web software to enable teachers to use data to assess student progress and deliver personalised learning." So he is doing at software level what Microsoft etc were doing at hardware - and at times software - level: promoting his wares in a very juicy market. We've had "targeted and tailored to education" software for decades, now: LMSs, addons to office suites, etc. Some good, some bad. The problem with software that is targeted and tailored to education is that it is a) often boring; b) perforce based on an abstract general idea of education; c) often remote from what gets used outside school. Would it not be better to train teachers in adapting whatever software is generally available, be it desktop or on the cloud, to fit their and their specific students' needs?</div>

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Harry Keller on 04 Jun 11

My point is simply that Murdoch gets it. His motives don't have to be pure for us all to benefit from the light he's shining on educational technology. Regarding the software, your points are well-taken. However, one extra qualification must be added. The software must be "good." That means it must avoid the problems you list.

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">My point is simply that Murdoch gets it. His motives don't have to be pure for us all to benefit from the light he's shining on educational technology. Regarding the software, your points are well-taken. However, one extra qualification must be added. The software must be "good." That means it must avoid the problems you list.</div>

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Harry Keller on 05 Jun 11

"Would it not be better to train teachers in adapting whatever software is generally available, be it desktop or on the cloud, to fit their and their specific students' needs?' I disagree with this analysis. Software not created for educational purposes will only adapt so far. It is, for example, word processing substituting for paper and pencil. That's worthy of doing but really makes no difference in instruction. When software is created specifically for learning, it can reach much more deeply into the learning processes. It's not just peripheral but central to learning. You can adapt lots of software to education in lots of ways, and I've read of many very clever adaptations. Almost all could be done without the use of a computer, albeit somewhat less efficiently but nonetheless effectively. I read Murdoch's call, which echoes something I've been saying for many years, as meaning that we have to build software that answers the necessities of learning. We don't have much today.

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"Would it not be better to train teachers in adapting whatever software is generally available, be it desktop or on the cloud, to fit their and their specific students' needs?' I disagree with this analysis. Software not created for educational purposes will only adapt so far. It is, for example, word processing substituting for paper and pencil. That's worthy of doing but really makes no difference in instruction. When software is created specifically for learning, it can reach much more deeply into the learning processes. It's not just peripheral but central to learning. You can adapt lots of software to education in lots of ways, and I've read of many very clever adaptations. Almost all could be done without the use of a computer, albeit somewhat less efficiently but nonetheless effectively. I read Murdoch's call, which echoes something I've been saying for many years, as meaning that we have to build software that answers the necessities of learning. We don't have much today.</div>

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Claude Almansi on 05 Jun 11

Taking up your example of word processing as substitute for pen and pencil , Harry: true, and that's what I retorted in the late 1990's to a digitalophobe academic, when we met about the Italian translation of one of his books, and he boasted of having got a letter from a publisher saying he was their last author to deliver typescripts on paper and not as a digital file. I pointed out that cut and paste, copy and paste (the things he particularly hated the ease of in digital media) existed in the real world looooooong before computers, let alone PCs, let alone the Web. And yet... in 2007 I was asked to set up at very short notice an intensive preliminary French workshop for participants in a master course in intercultural studies: though in Lugano, the course was to be in French and English. I asked for access to the Moodle for the course, to store course materials there etc. The organizers refused: "The Moodle will only be explained to the students in the first week of the course proper". The idea that graduate students needed to have a Moodle explained to them in 2007 seemed peregrine, but rather than arguing, I set up a for-free wiki instead. At our first meeting, the students asked why we weren't using the Moodle, I repeated the official explanation, they laughed and got the hang of the wiki immediately. Then, for reading comprehension, they chose one of the assigned texts for the course: a longish book chapter they had received by e-mail as a grayish PDF based on a low-resolution scan, based on a reduced photocopy to make 2 pages fit on an A4 sheet: i.e. with no margin to take notes on. So we printed the PDF, separated the pages with scissors, pasted the separate pages with glue sticks on new A4 sheets, to get wider margins to write in. And then we made a wiki page for it, copied in it the subheadings, between which the students, added the notes they were taking, working in groups on the new paper version. Result: http://micusif.wikispaces.com/Vinsonneau

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Taking up your example of word processing as substitute for pen and pencil , Harry: true, and that's what I retorted in the late 1990's to a digitalophobe academic, when we met about the Italian translation of one of his books, and he boasted of having got a letter from a publisher saying he was their last author to deliver typescripts on paper and not as a digital file. I pointed out that cut and paste, copy and paste (the things he particularly hated the ease of in digital media) existed in the real world looooooong before computers, let alone PCs, let alone the Web. And yet... in 2007 I was asked to set up at very short notice an intensive preliminary French workshop for participants in a master course in intercultural studies: though in Lugano, the course was to be in French and English. I asked for access to the Moodle for the course, to store course materials there etc. The organizers refused: "The Moodle will only be explained to the students in the first week of the course proper". The idea that graduate students needed to have a Moodle explained to them in 2007 seemed peregrine, but rather than arguing, I set up a for-free wiki instead. At our first meeting, the students asked why we weren't using the Moodle, I repeated the official explanation, they laughed and got the hang of the wiki immediately. Then, for reading comprehension, they chose one of the assigned texts for the course: a longish book chapter they had received by e-mail as a grayish PDF based on a low-resolution scan, based on a reduced photocopy to make 2 pages fit on an A4 sheet: i.e. with no margin to take notes on. So we printed the PDF, separated the pages with scissors, pasted the separate pages with glue sticks on new A4 sheets, to get wider margins to write in. And then we made a wiki page for it, copied in it the subheadings, between which the students, added the notes they were taking, working in groups on the new paper version. Result: <a href="http://micusif.wikispaces.com/Vinsonneau" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://micusif.wikispaces.com/Vinsonneau</a></div>

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Facebook blocks Open-Xchange contact exporter tool | ZDNet - 0 views

www.zdnet.com/...2127

Open-Xchange exporter ZDNet blocks Protalinski Facebook privacy monopoly

shared by Claude Almansi on 11 Jul 11 - No Cached

Claude Almansi on 11 Jul 11

"By Emil Protalinski | July 11, 2011, 10:40am PDT Summary Facebook has blocked another tool that lets you export your Facebook friends so you can import them elsewhere, like to Google+. On Sunday July 10, 2011, Facebook blocked Open-Xchange's tool that lets Facebook users export their friends so that they can be imported into other products and services. As I reported last week, the tool used approved Facebook APIs and was not in violation of Facebook's Terms and Conditions, or at least that's what Open-Xchange's management thought. ..."

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"By Emil Protalinski | July 11, 2011, 10:40am PDT Summary Facebook has blocked another tool that lets you export your Facebook friends so you can import them elsewhere, like to Google+. On Sunday July 10, 2011, Facebook blocked Open-Xchange's tool that lets Facebook users export their friends so that they can be imported into other products and services. As I reported last week, the tool used approved Facebook APIs and was not in violation of Facebook's Terms and Conditions, or at least that's what Open-Xchange's management thought. ..."</div>

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12 Education Tech Trends to Watch in 2012 - 2 views

12 Education Tech Trends to Watch in 2012 FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Tech Tools http://mindshift.kqed.org/2012/01/12-education-tech-trends-to-watch-in-2012/ Looking ahead a...

Education Tech Trends educational ideas for the future

started by Bonnie Sutton on 05 Jan 12 no follow-up yet

Cell Phones - Time to Lift the Ban on Mobiles in the School Setting? by Thomas - 5 views

Cell Phones - Time to Lift the Ban on Mobiles in the School Setting? by Thomas Needless to say, the general consensus regarding cell phones and schools is that the two simply do not mix. However, ...

use of cell phones in school

started by Bonnie Sutton on 25 Oct 11 no follow-up yet

The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the... - 2 views

(Summer 2011) http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16509 The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the City reviewed by Noel S. Anderson ...

urban politics economy neoliberalism race city

started by Bonnie Sutton on 03 Sep 11 no follow-up yet

Why Johnny Can't Program - 1 views

Why Johnny can't program -- and how that can change Today's schools are actually turning kids away from computer science, and it will take innovative programs to reverse the trend By Neil McAll...

middle school children's programming agent sheets computer science computing

started by Bonnie Sutton on 05 Aug 11 no follow-up yet

Broadband, Social Networks, and Mobility Have Spawned a New Kind of Learner - 0 views

12/13/11 Students are different today because of technology. Every educator knows this, of course, but this change is about much more than agile thumbs, shriveling attention spans, and OMG'd vocabu...

ctia. broadband mobility social nerworks new learner smart phones

started by Bonnie Sutton on 02 Feb 12 no follow-up yet

How teachers Facebook & tweet for students - 2 views

Net Family News Anne Collier Facebook and Twitter are very different but social utilities just the same, so there are about as many ways teachers use them as there are teachers. And their creativi...

twitter social media use utilities groups individualizing the of Facebook

started by Bonnie Sutton on 10 Jun 11 no follow-up yet

Making Schools Work - 1 views

OPINION By DAVID L. KIRP Making Schools Work http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/integration-worked-why-have-we-rejected-it.html?ref=education AMID the ceaseless and cac...

Segregation integration transforming schools Brown vs Board of education

started by Bonnie Sutton on 23 May 12 no follow-up yet

Guest post: An 'Arab Spring' of free online higher education By Daniel de Vise - 2 views

Guest post: An 'Arab Spring' of free online higher education By Daniel de Vise http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/guest-post-an-arab-spring-of-free-online-higher-education/201...

Free Higher Education online college courses Udacity Startup

started by Bonnie Sutton on 03 Feb 12 no follow-up yet

How real school reform should look (or explaining water to a fish) - 1 views

How real school reform should look (or explaining water to a fish) By Valerie Strauss http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-real-school-reform-should-look-or-explaining-wat...

school reform not a standard body of knowledge political paralysis education change

started by Bonnie Sutton on 06 Feb 12 no follow-up yet

College-Made Device Helps Visually Impaired Students See and Take Notes - Wired Campus ... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...32527

Chronicle of Higher Education Wiseman Note-Taker visually impaired NFB Arizona State University

shared by Claude Almansi on 02 Aug 11 - No Cached

Claude Almansi on 02 Aug 11

"August 1, 2011, 5:51 pm By Rachel Wiseman College students with very poor vision have had to struggle to see a blackboard and take notes-basic tasks that can hold some back. Now a team of four students from Arizona State University has designed a system, called Note-Taker, that couples a tablet PC and a video camera, and could be a major advance over the small eyeglass-mounted telescopes that many students have had to rely on. It recently won second place in Microsoft's Imagine Cup technology competition. (...) The result was Note-Taker, which connects a tablet PC (a laptop with a screen you can write on) to a high-resolution video camera. Screen commands get the camera to pan and zoom. The video footage, along with audio, can be played in real time on the tablet and are also saved for later reference. Alongside the video is a space for typed or handwritten notes, which students can jot down using a stylus. That should be helpful in math and science courses, says Mr. Hayden, where students need to copy down graphs, charts, and symbols not readily available on a keyboard. (...) But no tool can replace institutional support, says Chris S. Danielsen, director of public relations for the [NFB]. "The university is always going to have to make sure that whatever technology it uses is accessible to blind and low-vision students," he says. (Arizona State U. has gotten in hot water in the past in just this area.) (...) This entry was posted in Gadgets."

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">"August 1, 2011, 5:51 pm By Rachel Wiseman College students with very poor vision have had to struggle to see a blackboard and take notes-basic tasks that can hold some back. Now a team of four students from Arizona State University has designed a system, called Note-Taker, that couples a tablet PC and a video camera, and could be a major advance over the small eyeglass-mounted telescopes that many students have had to rely on. It recently won second place in Microsoft's Imagine Cup technology competition. (...) The result was Note-Taker, which connects a tablet PC (a laptop with a screen you can write on) to a high-resolution video camera. Screen commands get the camera to pan and zoom. The video footage, along with audio, can be played in real time on the tablet and are also saved for later reference. Alongside the video is a space for typed or handwritten notes, which students can jot down using a stylus. That should be helpful in math and science courses, says Mr. Hayden, where students need to copy down graphs, charts, and symbols not readily available on a keyboard. (...) But no tool can replace institutional support, says Chris S. Danielsen, director of public relations for the [NFB]. "The university is always going to have to make sure that whatever technology it uses is accessible to blind and low-vision students," he says. (Arizona State U. has gotten in hot water in the past in just this area.) (...) This entry was posted in Gadgets."</div>

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Claude Almansi on 02 Aug 11

In "(Arizona State U. has gotten in hot water in the past in just this area.)" the words "in the past" are linked to http://chronicle.com/article/Blind-Students-Demand-Access/125695/ , about a Spanish work book inaccessible to blind students, with a reference to the lawsuit against Arizona State U over the adoption of the Kindle. So classifying this post in "Gadgets" is particularly paradoxical: in fact one reason why Arizona State U. was sued over the adoption of the Kindle was that Amazon presented its text-to-speech as a gadget.

<div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">In "(Arizona State U. has gotten in hot water in the past in just this area.)" the words "in the past" are linked to <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Blind-Students-Demand-Access/125695/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://chronicle.com/article/Blind-Students-Demand-Access/125695/</a> , about a Spanish work book inaccessible to blind students, with a reference to the lawsuit against Arizona State U over the adoption of the Kindle. So classifying this post in "Gadgets" is particularly paradoxical: in fact one reason why Arizona State U. was sued over the adoption of the Kindle was that Amazon presented its text-to-speech as a gadget.</div>

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Shared Tools for Teachers - 4 views

_As part of the Top 100 Tools activity that I run, I analysed the way people are using their online social networks, and it so much more than just for having fun with friends, people are using them...

common standards

started by Bonnie Sutton on 04 Aug 11 2 follow-ups, last by Bonnie Sutton on 04 Aug 11

'Mr. President, public education in the U.S. is on the wrong track' - 1 views

By Valerie Strauss This is the text of an open letter written to President Obama by Mary Broderick, president of the Arlington, Va.,-based National Schools Boards Association, a not-for-profit or...

educarion Public reform innovation and creativity testing no child left behind

started by Bonnie Sutton on 24 Apr 12 no follow-up yet

ISTE REPORT - 4 views

Web News Briefs 1. My ISTE 2011: Takeaways from a conference To me, ISTE - with some 13,000 attendees from 68 countries having converged on Philadelphia this week - is like looking out the window...

Anne Collier NetFamily News on ISTE horizon report

started by Bonnie Sutton on 01 Jul 11 no follow-up yet

GOOGLE PRIVACY CHANGES - 0 views

Written by Stephen K. Peeples Thursday, 01 March 2012 13:30 KHTS News Brought To You By: After warning users for weeks that changes to its privacy policy were coming, today is the day Google ...

GOOGLE PRIVACY INTUITIVE LINKING OF RESOURCES

started by Bonnie Sutton on 12 Mar 12 no follow-up yet

The Ironies of Teacher Appreciation Week - 1 views

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-ironies-of-teacher-appreciation-week/2012/05/09/gIQAjkjTEU_blog.html The ironies of Teacher Appreciation Week By Valerie Strauss Last Fri...

teacher appreciation dismissal ironic

started by Bonnie Sutton on 10 May 12 no follow-up yet

Ten Education Predictions for 2012 Answer Sheet - 1 views

10 education predictions for 2012 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/10-education-predictions-for-2012/2011/12/29/gIQAB2PbPP_blog.html By Valerie Strauss This was written by La...

Prognostications prediction teacher ratings social emotional learning peer assistance and review

started by Bonnie Sutton on 01 Jan 12 no follow-up yet

Group items tagged