HGSET561

Free webinar on Sept 23 to discuss skills for on-line faciltators

The follow up book to "Groundswell" is being offered as a free download through Amazon until tomorrow. I thought those of you in this class may have an interest.

What if...there were not internet?

NeuroPhones are really scary. True realtime? What will the not so distant future bring?

Challenging the classic infrastructure of workstations, laptops, and wires with mobile wireless broadband devices

Do you consider yourself a bookfuturist, a bookservative, a technofuturist, all or none of the above? Interesting to decide where you fall, and to think about where educators past, present, and future fall.

Interesting to see what kind of role educational technology will play in this conversation.

"National statistics show that 68% of eighth graders cannot read at their grade level; American students rank 25th in math and 21st in science compared to 30 other industrialized countries; and most college students are "non-traditional" - spending more than four years in college or enrolling well after high school." ...and they say the industrial school model doesn't need a makeover. Sheesh!

Summary: In a shift, professors from prominent colleges (including Harvard) are actually *encouraging* students to use Wikipedia.

Yes! This is a great way to harness a digital resource rather than dismissing it. More or less, everyone uses Wikipedia because if for nothing else, it's usually the first hit in a Google search. I agree with the article in that most students aren't allowed to cite Wikipedia but they do use it as a jumping-off point for their research. So in this sense, it IS valuable. One of the reasons I like it in a pinch is the colloquial tone in the delivery of the information. I usually feel like a buddy is explaining it to me rather than a Phd. If students could capture that tone but provide quality assurance on the facts, there's a real research gem to be had here.

I get really nervous about these "shifts" when they become sensationalized. Despite our insistence that students are not created equal, we keep searching for the one-size-fits-all solution to education, and in this era that solution is bolstered by anything containing the word DIGITAL. How much socioemotional development will students lose if this trend increases over time? How do we provide for human relationships, mentors, even confrontation and conflict resolution when we are all hiding behind computer screens? It has to be about more than convenience.

While this article does not address technology directly, I think this is the type of school community that could so benefit from emerging educational technologies. The traditional school model has been failing them, and they are prime for redesign. I'd be interested to see even how something like ecoMUVE could begin to change the classroom atmosphere.

A not surprising move on the part of educational publishers trying to keep from going extinct. But it does force us to ask, are they just in a rush to utilize the popular technology, or have they really explored its value for learning?

Wonder if this will impact how people search online/ gather info beyond just shaving off time from the act.

One example of using Ipads instead of math books. There is a brief mention of incorporating video, but the article does not go into detail about the format of the digital text books

A good resource for online learning from American Society of Training & Development.

This site might have some interesting application in a language arts or English class.

A cute video to get you through the week