Group items tagged

Designers of games need to consider the audience. Here is an example of a game that excludes left handed players. The DSi is a small hand held device with two screens. This game is played by holding the device open as you would a book. The problem is that numbers are moving from the left page to the right page and players are expected to use a stylus to interact with the right page. Left handed players block the view of the game and cannot play.

Some interesting commentary on the future of touch screens. Potentially has implications for educational uses as well: "Anyone who has used one for a long time will tell you that they quickly revert to using the keyboard and mouse. And it isn't because of the software or touch technology - both are fine.The problem is that you get tired keeping your hands up and on the screen for a long period of time. Touch experts I've spoken with say it's because your hands are above your heart, which isn't comfortable for very long."

On Monday, February 27, 2012, SIGTE is presenting a free webinar with Dr. Penelope Swenson discussing her use of iPad's with pre-service teachers. The basis of the discussion is a presentation by Dr. Swenson last Spring, entitled, "iPad-the Third Hand," asking a rather global question, will a select group of pre-service teachers incorporate the iPad into their lives, hearts, studying, and, eventually, teaching?

I have experienced this first hand. Adults find it cute to watch their young children staring deeply into their cell phones (iphones) as they pop digital balloons, etc. Disruptive? Def. if you are sitting next to this family at a restaurant.

A hands-on report with the $35 tablet (Aakash). Interested that they call it a "leap frog" technology, in that it's a modern technology brought into a society that didn't have related legacy technologies to begin with. Relates to our class discussion of 'disruptive technologies'- if a group is starting with nothing at all, the bar can initially be set very low and it's still better than nothing. From there, the only direction to go is up (improvement). The article was also updated with a detailed use report w/ video: http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/28/aakash-35-android-tablet/

This article describes the efforts that individual teachers in Utah are making to rewrite textbooks to be aligned to the standards that they are teaching in class. These teachers are writing eBooks and getting a lot of positive feedback from state officials because of the use of technology to meet student needs. They did not have a textbook that fit their integrated approach to teaching math, which they aligned to CCSS, so they took the matter of creating a textbook into their own hands. I think this is a prelude to how textbook creation is changing as a result of technology. Teachers are now able to construct books in a way that fit exactly the objectives they are covering and meeting there students where they are at.

The role technology can play in expanding the time during which learning can take place.

Another article about "expanded learning time" both online and via community-based "brick and mortar" locations like libraries, YMCA, and Boys & Girls Clubs. "Out-of-school programs can be strong partners for schools who want to leverage expanded learning time to help their students achieve global competence. Youth-serving organizations share the broad mission to promote student success in work and life in the 21st century. Out-of-school program organization and management is often based on an asset model that values diversity. In order to attract and retain participants, out-of-school programs are centered around youth engagement through hands-on and experiential learning, often with a focus on 21st century skills, service learning, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, and others."

I wonder what Helen Haste would think of this organization . . .

This article shows the dark underbelly of the educational policy world as it relates to technology. As schools are increasingly adopting online learning models in classes, companies are predictably lining up to get money from the movement. However, there are many companies who are taking it a step further and lobbying for policies that do not have children's best interests in mind and which operate under the simplistic and misguided assumption that "schools will not need teachers once computers become good enough." It should give us pause to consider what needs to be done in these early stages to prevent the edTech movement from falling into the wrong hands and killing our schools.

Cuban asks an important question that cuts through the apparent controversy: what level of technology use is best for children in school? I think his response also highlights how to frame technology as a tool and enhancement rather than a replacement for hands-on learning

"Dramatic mission creep on one hand, and the dissolution of families and communities on the other, have made teaching impossibly difficult and beyond the skill set of average people," writes Gisèle Huff.

Anything that involves 'instant' such as twitter, texting, and youtube, hurt your 'working memory' and thus make you dumber. Facebook, on the other hand, expands your working memory as you seek to keep in touch with all your 'friends'. Really?

But what if the people finding me on Facebook were better left fogotten.

The Flat Classroom Project is a global Hands-on working together project for middle and senior high school students. The Project uses Web 2.0 tools to make communication and interaction between students and teachers from all participating classrooms easier. The topics studied and discussed are real-world scenarios based on 'The World is Flat' by Thomas Friedman.

Fedora to provide scholarship. Incentive to contribute to open source technologies for high school students. Perhaps getting high school students engaged in open source projects is a means of putting the medium of technology into the learners hands.

Technology instead of hand writing? ok.

I think handwriting is already a lost art, but I'm sad to see it go. Perhaps teaching handwriting can go by way of the art teachers, and we'll be able to save it in schools as an art form.

Mutlisensory presentations are the way to go for future learning and gaming. Neuroscience studies show that increasing senses in learning process helps reinforce memory and improve performance.

Interesting that as we push for digital textbooks and online access to more resources on one hand, that man people still prefer reading non-digital text and we are looking at coming full-circle with a digital means to deliver the content, but with an affordable, quick, and easy way to convert the material back to its original format. 

Interesting list to reflect on. "Here are 8 signs that your online college is just another extension of the School of Hard Knocks handing out Masters Degrees in Gullibility."

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!

A heavy-handed kids view of education and what needs to be changed.