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Blair Peterson

Dumbing Down : Stager-to-Go - 1 views

  • Nobody even bothers to ask the question Seymour Papert first posed 45 years ago, “Does the child program the computer or does the computer program the child?” This is a tragedy.
  • Today one merely has to promise 75 quick and easy things to do in 37 minutes with the hottest product being peddled to schools. Another popular topic is incessantly about how your colleagues won’t or can’t use the latest fad.
  • PLN, PLC, PLP, etc… are just fancy alphabet soup for having someone to talk with. We should not need an National Science Foundation grant to make friends.
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  • I had an educator approach me at a conference recently to volunteer that “Our school is not ready for Google Docs.” Set aside whatever you happen to think about Google Docs; it’s a word processor in a Web browser, right? I told the tech director, “Congratulations, your school district has apparently managed to employ the last breathing mammals in the solar system incapable of using a word processor.” Isn’t it odd that technology directors are not held accountable for such failure over three decades? Could they possibly be enabling co-dependent behavior and helplessness in the teachers they are meant to lead?
Blair Peterson

Code to Joy: The School for Poetic Computation Opens - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • The founders of the school say they want to promote work that is strange, impractical and magical. The school’s motto? “More poems less demos.”
  • “People are coming from a programming background, and thinking, how do I make art with these skills? Things that are whimsical? Dreams?” said Zach Lieberman, one of the school’s four founders and instructors, who has taught at the Parsons School of Design and like his collaborators, has one foot in the technology world and another in the art world.
  • The school’s first crop of students include both traditional programmers and designers, but also a beatboxer from Canada, and a Ph.D. candidate studying criminal justice who wants to use data visualization to highlight problems in the prison system, said Mr. Lieberman.
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  • Another instructor, Amit Pitaru, who has taught at New York University, is the creator of the Sonic Wire Sculptor a musical instrument that creates muted and dreamlike dissonant tones with a three-dimensional drawing tool.
Blair Peterson

Should Coding be the "New Foreign Language" Requirement? | Edutopia - 0 views

  • Coding, likewise, involves understanding and working within structures.
  • Memorizing rules and vocabulary strengthens mental muscles and improves overall memory. That's why multilingual people are better at remembering lists or sequences. Coding similarly involves very specific rules and vocabulary.
  • Likewise, programming necessitates being able to focus on what works while eliminating bugs. Foreign language instruction today emphasizes practical communication -- what students can do with the language. Similarly, coding is practical, empowering and critical to the daily life of everyone living in the 21st century.
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  • Currently Code.org is launching a campaign to provide a one-hour introduction to computer science for 10 million people "ages 6 to 106" during Computer Science Education Week (6).
Blair Peterson

Educational Leadership:Teaching Screenagers:One-to-One Laptop Programs Are No Silver Bu... - 0 views

  • These researchers attributed the poor implementation to lack of teacher knowledge and buy-in, concluding, "It is impossible to overstate the power of individual teachers in the success or failure of 1:1 computing" (p. 47).
    • Blair Peterson
       
      Very important point. Have to have teacher knowledge and buy-in. Won't be successful without it.
  • Technology alone," he observed in Good to Great, "never holds the key to success." However, "when used right, technology is an essential driver in accelerating forward momentum" (p. 159).
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    Current article that summarizes the research on 1 to 1 programs.
Blair Peterson

2010-2011 One to One Computer FAQ - Google Docs - 1 views

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    Castilleja School has a 1 to 1 laptop program like Graded's. Students can bring whatever laptop they wish. This is their FAQ page.
Blair Peterson

Big Data's Impact in the World - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • United States needs 140,000 to 190,000 more workers with “deep analytical” expertise and 1.5 million more data-literate managers, whether retrained or hired.
  • His research involves the computer-automated analysis of blog postings, Congressional speeches and press releases, and news articles, looking for insights into how political ideas spread.
  • Big Data has the potential to be “humanity’s dashboard,” an intelligent tool that can help combat poverty, crime and pollution. Privacy advocates take a dim view, warning that Big Data is Big Brother, in corporate clothing.
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  • What is Big Data? A meme and a marketing term, for sure, but also shorthand for advancing trends in technology that open the door to a new approach to understanding the world and making decisions.
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    New types of jobs that have been created that are related to data.
Blair Peterson

The new way we read: 10 ways digital books are changing our literary lives - The Denver... - 0 views

  • PRINT BOOKS: We joined book clubs. DIGITAL BOOKS: We discuss them in booklogs.
  • PRINT BOOKS: We find them in libraries, bookstores and bookmobiles. DIGITAL BOOKS: For people who own personal computers, e-readers, smartphones, iPads and other tablets, there's 2 4/7 access to libraries and bookstores for purchasing, borrowing and downloading material.
  • PRINT BOOKS: Scribble notes in the margins. DIGITAL BOOKS: We use Kindle's Public Notes virtual annotation application.
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  • But they could be. Imagine looking up the notes that previous students leave in e-textbooks. Or seeing Jon Stewart's comments in the margins of Sarah Palin's latest tome.
  • PRINT BOOKS: Write to a favorite author, hope for a response by mail. DIGITAL BOOKS: Visit a favorite author's Facebook page to send a message and a friend request; follow that author's Twitter feed.
  • PRINT BOOKS: Collect an author's autograph at a bookstore reading. DIGITAL BOOKS:Use Autography, which debuts next month. It's a software program that allows writers to autograph an e-book using an iPad.
  • PRINT BOOKS: Want to publish a book? You'll need a proposal, an agent, an editor, a publisher and a marketing department DIGITAL BOOKS: Want to publish a book? There's an app for that, and authors can be quite successful. Amanda Hocking, JA Konrath and Karen McQuestion all are authors as famous for their aggressive self-promotion as for their books. However, self-publishing isn't always a good thing.
  • PRINT BOOKS: Donate used books to charity, sell them to a secondhand bookstore. DIGITAL BOOKS: "Used books" don't exist.
  • PRINT BOOKS:Swap books with friends. DIGITAL BOOKS: Until recently, the options were mostly limited to loaning your e-reader (and the books on it) to friends, or resorting to pirated files. Amazon's Lendle allows users to share certain (not all) Kindle titles for 14 days, similar to the way libraries arrange e-book loans.
  • PRINT BOOKS: Find an unfamiliar word in a book? Get a dictionary, look up the meaning. DIGITAL BOOKS:Use your e-reader to highlight the word and click on it, and the definition will display at the bottom of the page.
  • PRINT BOOKS:Collecting rare books, including first editions and antiquarian books. DIGITAL BOOKS:There's no equivalent so far.
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