interesting point that the MBA admissions director from University of Iowa mentions. Admissions dept.'s are finding traditional application essays stale. New/social media outlets like twitter are bringing back originality and creativity.
Maybe embracing Tweets as a medium is like a page-limit on a paper assignment. The constraints force students to really hone in on their points, and convey it as succinctly and clearly as possible? Conveying an entire thought/argument in 140 characters... it isn't easy, and perhaps those who can do it best are really effective 21st century communicators, and are worth rewarding/supporting.
shared articles on the separation of church and state, pondered the persistence
of racism, and commented on tobacco regulation in Virginia now and during the
Colonial period—all in the required Twitter format of 140 or fewer characters
He and other teachers first found Twitter valuable for reaching out to
colleagues and locating instructional resources
short-form communications may have for students’ thinking and learning are not
known
Twitter has not caught on among school-age children as quickly or universally as
other Web 2.0 tools, such as Facebook or MySpace: Only about 1 percent of the
estimated 12 million users in the United States are between the ages of 3 and
17, although young adults are the fastest-growing group of users, according to
recent reports.
get students engaged in the content and processes of school.
“It’s getting kids who aren’t necessarily engaged in class engaged in some sort
of conversation.”
A recent study, however, renewed concerns about the potential negative impact
of the latest technological applications. The study, published in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that adults who
attempted multiple tasks while using a range of media simultaneously had
difficulty processing the information or switching between tasks.
Mr. Willingham, who is the author of the new book, Why Don’t Students Like
School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and
What It Means for the Classroom.
Connected to a few class discussions (including one in HT 500 about multitasking)...
*potential for greater/more diversity in discussion/participation than in person
*what do we mean when we say "multi-task"?
*weighty topics/140 characters
Somebody's got to create something worth tweeting
A high school senior, who faces a Monday morning deadline to apologize to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback for a disparaging tweet, has said she will not write the apology letter. Interesting look at how issues can arise when Twitter is mixed with schools and public relations.
Being really smart used to mean “how much do you know,” and “how much can you memorize.” Now it’s, “how good are you at finding information and contextualizing it.”
So when we’re teaching digital literacy, it needs to be a transliterate approach. It’s not about one experience, but how all of these things interrelate.
Are we transliterate enough when we are learning and experimenting things.
Another example I can think of for transliteracy is the awareness of updating one's status messages in various places. For example, a status message on one's FB page is quite different from one's LinkedIn Profile to one's style of tweeting to one's IM status message.
Being aware of what kind of thoughts go where is an important transliterate skill to have. Thoughts?
The "tweets" of Emmett Rensin and Alexander Aciman combine the knowledge of an English major with the snarky shorthand of a teenager's text message.
"It's funny if you've read the books," said Rensin, who has read them at his tender age of 19.
"I'm not going to say it's high art," said Aciman, whose favorite author is Marcel Proust. "There is some value to it, I feel, aside from the fact we're making available the idea behind great works of art."
This is going to bring out the inner nerd in everyone....
The Layar browser (video above) looks at an environment through the phone’s camera, and the app displays houses for sale, popular restaurants and shops, and tourist attractions
Where does this information come from? Who creates this information? Selected sources/companies who pay to have their information posted? A whole new competitive marketing strategy in the making.
it’s not truly real-time: The app can’t analyze data it hasn’t downloaded ahead of time.
I can only imagine crowds of people walking the streets staring at their apps, running into people and lamp posts, not to mention getting run over by cars... I think this technology might weirdly affect the health insurance industry.
You know more, you find more, or you see something you haven’t seen before.
this is supposed to be the advantage of using AR from a commercial perspective... it is still self-centralized.
Nokia is currently testing an AR app called Point & Find, which involves pointing your camera phone at real-world objects and planting virtual information tags on them
This can be a really cool feature for teachers if they have a closed-group option. If you are part of the large network, there is all sorts of things people might plant that you don't want to see or know about... Another thought, if there is a closed-group option, perhaps this will create a whole new way of drug trafficking and helping illegal organizations hide information from authorities.
the hardware is finally catching up to our needs
Nvidia Tegra, a powerful chip specializing in high-end graphics for mobile devices.
place (real) Skittles on the physical map and shoot them to set off (virtual) bombs
“It’s not a research-based tool,” said Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. “The most important thing to remember is that we have no idea what impact these tools have on learning, and it will take a decade to answer that question.”
A few studies have found some positive correlations between text-messaging aptitude and literacy. Research on gaming and educational multimedia programs have also shown some positive impact on learning. But few scientific experiments can show a direct link between the use of such technology and student achievement.
“The medium is not enough,” he added. “People talk about the vital importance of Web 2.0 and 3.0, and that kids have got to acquire those skills. But we can’t all just be contributing to wikis and tweeting each other. Somebody’s got to create
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.
"If we have experiences with an eye toward the expectation that in the next five minutes, we're going to tweet them, we may choose difference experiences to have, ones that we can talk about rather than ones we have an interest in"
Suddenly, I’m not just the one at the front just dispensing everything, and the students aren’t just sort of milling about doing their thing — we’ve actually got a team of people working together. And Twitter is the glue that holds the team together.”
It’s also a data-gathering resource. Live discussion threads, Campbell noted, give professors loads of data on the previously mysterious question of what exactly is going on inside the heads of students during a lecture. No longer is a student’s ability to participate in classroom discussions contingent upon whether he is willing to raise his hand and has the good fortune to be called on, he said.
A contrarian view. "Some education experts say that the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains."
Maung - I just tweeted this! The irony? I read it on my Android smartphone at the Apple store waiting to buy my iPad2!! Would love to talk more about this in class because I DID learn the "old fashioned" way and here I am as an adult, proficient at technology and attending Harvard...am I any less off for not being a digital native? Am I behind the rest of my HGSE because of it? Or has my learning technology as a late teen and adult benefitted me in some way that cannot be proven unless we conduct research with a control group devoid of technology
all together during those early formative years? Would love to continue this discussion!
First of all - the girl in the picture of this article is reading Nancy Drew - who else spent most of their childhood with their head buried in a mystery series? :-) Secondly, I cannot tell you how valuable mud was to my childhood. Had I not been at a camp every summer where I was able to play around in mud and run through the woods all day, I would not be the person I am today. I think I did most of my growing and much of my learning in informal environments such as camp. It sounds to me like this school is trying to replicate those learning experiences...in a classroom. Not saying it's the way to go...but certainly an interesting model. Thanks for sharing!
Waldorf philosophy is different approach. For example, children learn to write first before they learn to read. As a result children may learn to read as late as 8 or 9. It's based on the anthroposophy philosophy. Children's who parents value these things will do well in a school without technology. Children who are plugged in at home would have a difficult time. This is effective for private school but not public school.
Got something you want to find on the Guardian website? Tweet your question at our new @GuardianTagBot service to get an answer with the help of the Guardian's Open Platform The Guardian is experimenting with a new Twitter-based service, and would like your help to test it out.