Group items tagged

For folks interested in STEM

One state's response to protect children from sexual predators. It doesn't seem very forward thinking to me. Why not change the rules around social networking in schools, rather than banning it?

That would have an unfortunate impact on projects like OneVille

This is a free polling website you can use in classrooms.

A pilot project in Ontario, brining iPad into the classroom. It is an interesting article to see how they are exploring with the idea.

Thanks for sharing this article. Looks like they have given some serious thought into integrating technology into the classroom than just say "let us throw some iPads in and see how it works". I like this quote - "Collaboration is part of our pedagogy - kids helping other kids, kids interacting and learning together," says McLellan. "That's not new, but the iPad facilitates it."

"School of One uses technology to develop a unique learning path for each student and to provide a significant portion of the instruction that is both individualized and differentiated." I liked the definitions of individualized (pacing), differentiated (learning preferences/methods), and personalized (pacing, preferences, and content/objectives).

This recent episode of "The Simpsons" addresses, incidentally (and in a way characteristic of the show), some of the issues we discussed in class. Nothing terribly profound, but I thought it had an amusing satire of modern teacher education programs.

While not an emerging tehnology per se, social networks can serve as indicators of how, why and who is using and CREATING web content. I think the creation part of this exchange is key in that it ishere that the disruptive element of the technology comes into play. In my studies of Podcasts for the wiki assignment I found that many first time podcasters subscribers experimented with recording their own Podcast before becoming regular consumers. How does this relate to the facebook vs. myspace arguement, you ask? SImple, myspace is a more customizable portal/page that allows users to express and communicate their own, often marginalized socio-cultural identity. Facebook on the other hand asks users to define their online persona via 'freinds', shared photos, profile text fields, etc. For many recent immigrant and children, the formation and identification of an imagined community is an attractive thing. Somalian wallpaper, Manga flash videos embedded, Dominican Republic Flag .gifs waving all over..and MUSIC.

Here's a brief article with statistics on online social networking divide. What does your online social networking preference reveal about your social class?

Will online social networking create or perpetuate a "caste system" within online communities?

Good article that plainly states, Web 2.0 and 3.0 are tools that if used properly can engage and effect teaching and learning beyond traditional classroom spaces.

Interesting.

Also, I can't imagine that education will make the fear of failure extinct. It may make failing a bit more tolerable with individualized instruction, but I can't image that the pressure on students to succeed will decrease; it seems more likely that it will increase.

I appreciated that they mentioned learning HTML. I wish I learned that in school -- I think basic web design should be a 21st century skill.

""The whole evening is about educating parents about the technology that's out there," said Laura Boss, director of communications for Newport-Mesa Unified School District, who stressed that parents should not be afraid of the every-changing technology and that being informed is the first step. "This is the world [today's] kids live in." The presentation encouraged parents to embrace their kids' digital world, support balanced use, monitor their kids' digital media use, and discuss what sites they are allowed to visit and what they can and can't download. A few tips shared during the presentation: Give kids a code of conduct. Remind them not to post/IM/text anything they wouldn't say to that person's face; Discuss cyber-bullying with kids and ask if they know anyone who has been bullied; Talk about the importance of privacy and how to protect it; and discuss their online identity and possible risky behavior. "Raise good digital citizens!" a slide stated."

"As technology speeds up and our children are raised more and more on video (like YouTube) and video games, they won't have the time or patience for reading, even on a fancy digital device. And they won't want to listen to others reading to them, either (see Audible). We're on a one way street to animation replacing text books."

Going back to our discussions on augmented reality, here's an app that takes us a step closer to the kind of future that was shown in a video in one of Professor Dede's presentations - instant translation!

I wonder if this type of technology might be augmented to "replace" physical QR codes and instead, if you hold up your phone to a building name plaque (e.g.Empire State Building) - could you get statistical/historical data associated with just the name text?

Cell phones are banned in NYC public schools, but it is the norm for students who attend schools without metal detectors to bring their phones anyway. If caught teachers are confiscating phones for up to a week, or longer, at their discretion. At schools with metal detectors small businesses have popped up around schools, storing students' phones for the school day for a small fee, similar to a coat check system. Instead of harnessing the power of mobile phones that almost every student already has, they are punishing them and/or causing them to pay money to keep them stored for the school day so that they can have them before and after school. I think this is a missed opportunity for the NYC school system not only because they are missing out on mobile learning opportunities with technology the district doesn't have to buy, but they could also be teaching the students responsible and appropriate use of mobile phones in public spaces.

Now this service/interface seems to offer real potential -- it's flexible, it's based on a dynamic interplay of different applications -- it's been around for a few years now -- anybody have first-hand experience with it?

Being a 2nd year part-time student, I already took David Rose's UDL course last spring. My group project for UDL was exploring VoiceThread-- understanding its current feautres and capabilities, testing it out in a real world situation with some students, and envisioning changes to fix shortcomings plus new features. Overall, we thought VoiceThread was really cool! Could allow students to communicate in different kinds of ways (text, voice, submitting video statements, drawing-- whatever someone preferred or was comfortable with) and enabled a growing transcript of student dialogue in reference to a piece of content. But there was a real learning curve- in figuring out how (as a 'teacher') to create an original VoiceThread using our media. And then students had to figure out the interface and tools available to them as they used VoiceThread to browse a stream we created and comment on it. As of last spring at least, I felt it was a bit cumbersome. Really wish it was more intuitive so both creators and viewers could jump right in and get right to communicating. Haven't gone back to using it as of late, but I hear they now have iPhone/iPad access!