(Reflections from David Thornburg, January 8 LHRIC TLI Session, "Open Source in Education")
If you’re like me, this is one of the many unrecognizable terms that we are building our careers and lives around. When David mentioned it in his keynote this morning, it was so intriguing to me that I had to “bold” it on my Word document. It turns out, that a Freedom Toaster (freedomtoaster.org) is a structure that resembles a vending machine. There currently is one sitting in a school in Indiana. Students built it. As a matter of fact, a student in the automotive program adorned it with yellow and orange flames, and I hear that this pattern nicely complements his tattoos. You could turn it on its side, put wheels on it and probably go from 0-100 in 45 seconds. (Back to this student – there’s no scratches on his machine. There probably never will be. No one is brave enough to touch it without the utmost reverence.)
Anyone, including visitors, can pop in a CD or DVD, access a touch screen, and choose what software they wish to download. Open Office, Project Gutenberg, you name it. The machine produces the CD, ejects it, and the user leaves ready to be productive and satisfied, whether they return to a Mac or a PC.
The best feature is what this machine does not have – a slot for money. It’s free. And this started in South Africa.
We’re talking about Open Source in Education this morning: what it is, what it could mean, how other countries (like Brazil) and states (like Indiana and California) are saving astronomical amounts of money by basing their instructional infrastructures on Linux rather than Windows operating systems. Here’s an interesting statistic: in 1984, the student to computer ration was 65:1, and in 2006, decreased to 4:1. Impressive, yes? But if you represent the data another way, we see that penetration of computers has seen no real change since 2000. We’ve essentially leveled out to the point where only 25% of US students have access to computers in schools. Basically, the replacement model has become a “zero sum” game.
David made an analogy to vaccinations: we don’t vaccinate some kids (unless of course parents object); we tend to vaccinate all kids. The same goes, theoretically, for access to laptops, which apparently have become ridiculously cheap, especially if you visit Tiger Direct and grab a laptop off a shelf for $ 395.
Whatever you think or believe about Linux, it certainly is a compelling story: it’s free, it’s reliable, it’s scalable; Apple “figured out a way to charge us for it by building a gorgeous interface.” Sustainability and scalability: two key prerequisites for realizing the goal of 1:1 computing.
David told us about a case study in Brazil. The whole country is moving toward open source technology. Microsoft wanted to be the operating system of choice but whey they met with the president and gave him a cost, the president of Brazil basically showed them the runway back to the US. (They have to sell 60 bags of soybeans to pay for one Microsoft “seat” per year.) This President decided to expand program to home and businesses ; a computer for everyone: Computer para todos.”
For those who have heard about the common objection, which represents a deep entrenchment in the world of beefy operating systems -
“I want kids using the software they will use when they leave school.” – David reminds us, simply, that the software kids will be using hasn’t been invented yet. And he also reminded us that it’s more ubiquitous than we think: Spring uses Linux for all their switches, and the software that runs the docking to the international space station is based on Linux. According to a Gartner Group study, 90% of the world’s 2000 largest companies will use open source software by 2010; 70% will have migrated to Linux. (companies such as Morgan Stanley and IBM.)
“Kyle” is a mischievous looking 4th grader whose picture David flashed on the screen. If you looked closely you could see the USB key around neck. On that USB drive was a bunch of software that Kyle brings from home because he likes using it. So how is he able to do this on his school network? He has Linux on pen drive.
The points of David’s talk this morning about Linux in education highlights the following value points:
• Easy to install and maintain
• Reliable
• Low TCO
• Graphical user interface
• Useful titles for all grades
He reminds us that “free” software can be reliable, because:
• It’s created by people who depended on it
• The support is truly global
• There is intense pride of authorship
• And hey, just look at Wikipedia!
There ‘s a lot more to this conversation. I’m going to stop writing and listen now. In the meantime, we can take a drive up to New Hampshire or Indiana and see what they’re doing. In the meantime – take a look at tcpdpodcast.org .
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
TLI Event 12/10 - Cheryl Lemke; The Metri Group
Cheryl addressed the group today on the concept of innovation. Innovation defined by industry talk about creativity and new thinking but it becomes an innovation when it is integrated in to a culture and adopted through a "ripple effect" as a new innovation.
http://www.metrigroup.com/presentations
Today she looks at the ripple effect around innovation. What are the windows of opportunity for innovation?
*Unexpected occurrences
*Incongruities
*Need for efficiencies
*Industry/market changes
*Demographic shifts
*Changes in perception
*New knowledge
Adopted from Peter Drucker.
Concepts for today's conversation:
1. Democratization of Knowledge
In the past to learn you took a class, today there is a shift to a more shared environment for learning. There has always been a balance between formal and informal learning but today there is a shift. Some powerful content that needs to be tapped in to:
Using Design and creativity to teach biology.
TED - Technology Entertainment and Design (Conference) http://www.ted.com
Harvard Biovisions Projects - http://www. Multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu
Adolescent Learning 2.0 (Barron, B. (2006))
Conflict Resolution Claymation project - Look through this project and ask yourself:
Is it worth instructional time?
What standards are/can be addressed via this website?
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001709/thinkquest_values/make_call/start.html?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0306
Digital Story Telling
2. Globalization
In your 21st century classroom, is multi-media truly available for all students or only those that have teachers that are proficient in multimedia.
Digital storytelling is a very powerful way to tell a story and it is the adolescent childs' media - why not give it to them? Here are some ideas to think about as we look at the democratization of knowledge:
Are your students;
More curious leaving school then when they arrive?
Are they adept at Learning?
Informed consumers? Skeptics?
Thinkers and analyzers?
Producers with their own voices?
Global Meeting Places
While looking at whether our students are ready, also ask if our teachers and assessments ready for students who are able to create digital stories?
3. Mass Collaboration
Most companies are small businesses and are now outsourcing R&D on the web various challenges for innovative thinkers to respond to.
www.inocentive.com/solvers-contract-research.php
In the following uTube video a gentleman explains his love for problem solving, he was awarded $20,000 for his idea. How many of our students could say "I love solving problems?"
YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ucQKWmxdk
Collaboration Research
Johnson and Johnson have been researching this for decades and the current iterations still conclude that students learn best in a collaborative environment.
Students grouped physically in small groups doesn't reflect true collaboration.
We need to understand what true collaborations is.
Cooperative Learning Success:
*Balance of formal and informal
*Positive interdependence which promotes personal responsibility
*Considerable promotive interaction
*Shared workspace
*Interactvie group reflection and processing to improve effectiveness
In collaborative environment what type of discussions are sustained?
In a average classroom there is only 1.7 minutes of sustained conversation.
Most classrooms go >Student>Teacher>Student>Teachers
A better model might look like: students>studnet>teacher>student>student>student (any pattern of random interaction but not teacher centered.)
One way to have student interact with each other in a real sustained interactive collaborative way is a blog or wiki.
Example:http://meyerapgovt.blogspot.com/
BOOK: Three Perspectives on Learning by Kai Hakkarainen, et al
Three Perspectives on Learning
*Acquisition (the individual)
*Participation (the group, community, network, culture)
*Knowledge Creation (the innovative knowledge community)
4. Technological Innovations
WISE - Scaffolding Deep Learning
Web-based Integrated Science Environment
http://wise.berkeley.edu/
When students have access and using visualization tools results increase dramatically when assessing student learning.
What do you think?
Is it malpractice when teachers do not use digital tools to enhance knowledge?
A. No
B. Yes
C. Yes, but....
If yes, who is culpable? Is it the leaders or the teachers?
Would "lack of access to information" be an acceptable excuse for your doctor?
Is the standard similar or even comparable?
4. Engagement matters
Flow - when you are in the moment, in your game, really learning, time stands still.
Kids should be in flow at least some of the time.
To get kids in to flow we need to balance the complexity of the task with the skill level of the skill. If the task is too high for the skill - students will be frustrated. If skill is high and task is low - students will be bored. If the task is just ahead of the skill - students are engaged.
Are you born smart or dumb or can you develop IQ?
Attribution Research- Dr. Carol Dweck
Institute of Education Sciences
Learning Designed to Engage
Content - Are you introducing content in ways that are relevant to the interest levels of your students? Are you able to connect content to prior knowledge of your students? Do students have choice?
Process - Are your classrooms intellectually safe? Can students take risks and feel safe with their exploration? Is there an opportunity to work with an affiliate or other group?
Product - Is there a product? Products related to standards with authentic tasks?
5. Authentic Learning
Authenticity
Deep Learing
Higher Order Analysis
Disciplined Inquiry
Elaborated Communicaiton
Student Construction of Knowledge
Three things you have to do for Authentic Learning:
1. Must have relevancy beyond the classroom
2. Kids must do something with what they learn
3. Ask intellectually stimulating questions about the content.
6. Visual Learning
From TED website - Visual Investigations
Hans Rosling - Explorations of Western World and Third World
Using visual tools for graphing, animated - is it a better way for students to track trends and patterns related to demographics and socio economic changes and discuss change and effects.
http://graphs.gapminder.org/
7. 21st Century Leadership
Hiring people know for what they know but their ability to see and tap in to the unknown and unseen. Ability to built collaborative teams.
Finally - A roadmap
Today's Challenges>Research on Critical Thinking, Collaborations, Leadership>District, School & Classroom Practices>Assessments>Tomorrow's Students will be educated for the 21st century.
A school in Seattle - set examples of model classrooms (Classroom 1, 5 and 10) as a way for teachers to see the difference in these classrooms and what the lessons look like as a comparative model to demonstrate the difference form 20th and 21st century classrooms.
http://www.metrigroup.com/presentations
Today she looks at the ripple effect around innovation. What are the windows of opportunity for innovation?
*Unexpected occurrences
*Incongruities
*Need for efficiencies
*Industry/market changes
*Demographic shifts
*Changes in perception
*New knowledge
Adopted from Peter Drucker.
Concepts for today's conversation:
1. Democratization of Knowledge
In the past to learn you took a class, today there is a shift to a more shared environment for learning. There has always been a balance between formal and informal learning but today there is a shift. Some powerful content that needs to be tapped in to:
Using Design and creativity to teach biology.
TED - Technology Entertainment and Design (Conference) http://www.ted.com
Harvard Biovisions Projects - http://www. Multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu
Adolescent Learning 2.0 (Barron, B. (2006))
Conflict Resolution Claymation project - Look through this project and ask yourself:
Is it worth instructional time?
What standards are/can be addressed via this website?
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001709/thinkquest_values/make_call/start.html?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0306
Digital Story Telling
2. Globalization
In your 21st century classroom, is multi-media truly available for all students or only those that have teachers that are proficient in multimedia.
Digital storytelling is a very powerful way to tell a story and it is the adolescent childs' media - why not give it to them? Here are some ideas to think about as we look at the democratization of knowledge:
Are your students;
More curious leaving school then when they arrive?
Are they adept at Learning?
Informed consumers? Skeptics?
Thinkers and analyzers?
Producers with their own voices?
Global Meeting Places
While looking at whether our students are ready, also ask if our teachers and assessments ready for students who are able to create digital stories?
3. Mass Collaboration
Most companies are small businesses and are now outsourcing R&D on the web various challenges for innovative thinkers to respond to.
www.inocentive.com/solvers-contract-research.php
In the following uTube video a gentleman explains his love for problem solving, he was awarded $20,000 for his idea. How many of our students could say "I love solving problems?"
YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ucQKWmxdk
Collaboration Research
Johnson and Johnson have been researching this for decades and the current iterations still conclude that students learn best in a collaborative environment.
Students grouped physically in small groups doesn't reflect true collaboration.
We need to understand what true collaborations is.
Cooperative Learning Success:
*Balance of formal and informal
*Positive interdependence which promotes personal responsibility
*Considerable promotive interaction
*Shared workspace
*Interactvie group reflection and processing to improve effectiveness
In collaborative environment what type of discussions are sustained?
In a average classroom there is only 1.7 minutes of sustained conversation.
Most classrooms go >Student>Teacher>Student>Teachers
A better model might look like: students>studnet>teacher>student>student>student (any pattern of random interaction but not teacher centered.)
One way to have student interact with each other in a real sustained interactive collaborative way is a blog or wiki.
Example:http://meyerapgovt.blogspot.com/
BOOK: Three Perspectives on Learning by Kai Hakkarainen, et al
Three Perspectives on Learning
*Acquisition (the individual)
*Participation (the group, community, network, culture)
*Knowledge Creation (the innovative knowledge community)
4. Technological Innovations
WISE - Scaffolding Deep Learning
Web-based Integrated Science Environment
http://wise.berkeley.edu/
When students have access and using visualization tools results increase dramatically when assessing student learning.
What do you think?
Is it malpractice when teachers do not use digital tools to enhance knowledge?
A. No
B. Yes
C. Yes, but....
If yes, who is culpable? Is it the leaders or the teachers?
Would "lack of access to information" be an acceptable excuse for your doctor?
Is the standard similar or even comparable?
4. Engagement matters
Flow - when you are in the moment, in your game, really learning, time stands still.
Kids should be in flow at least some of the time.
To get kids in to flow we need to balance the complexity of the task with the skill level of the skill. If the task is too high for the skill - students will be frustrated. If skill is high and task is low - students will be bored. If the task is just ahead of the skill - students are engaged.
Are you born smart or dumb or can you develop IQ?
Attribution Research- Dr. Carol Dweck
Institute of Education Sciences
Learning Designed to Engage
Content - Are you introducing content in ways that are relevant to the interest levels of your students? Are you able to connect content to prior knowledge of your students? Do students have choice?
Process - Are your classrooms intellectually safe? Can students take risks and feel safe with their exploration? Is there an opportunity to work with an affiliate or other group?
Product - Is there a product? Products related to standards with authentic tasks?
5. Authentic Learning
Authenticity
Deep Learing
Higher Order Analysis
Disciplined Inquiry
Elaborated Communicaiton
Student Construction of Knowledge
Three things you have to do for Authentic Learning:
1. Must have relevancy beyond the classroom
2. Kids must do something with what they learn
3. Ask intellectually stimulating questions about the content.
6. Visual Learning
From TED website - Visual Investigations
Hans Rosling - Explorations of Western World and Third World
Using visual tools for graphing, animated - is it a better way for students to track trends and patterns related to demographics and socio economic changes and discuss change and effects.
http://graphs.gapminder.org/
7. 21st Century Leadership
Hiring people know for what they know but their ability to see and tap in to the unknown and unseen. Ability to built collaborative teams.
Finally - A roadmap
Today's Challenges>Research on Critical Thinking, Collaborations, Leadership>District, School & Classroom Practices>Assessments>Tomorrow's Students will be educated for the 21st century.
A school in Seattle - set examples of model classrooms (Classroom 1, 5 and 10) as a way for teachers to see the difference in these classrooms and what the lessons look like as a comparative model to demonstrate the difference form 20th and 21st century classrooms.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
U Stream TV
Check out UStream TV - Live from Model Schools!
Ustream TV is a streamed video service over the Internet that is FREE and provides the ability to record live events or recorded events using an inexpensive web cam, cell phone, and a computer with Internet connectivity.
The recorded clips will show when we are "Off the Air". When we are on the air you will see a live stream from the event or session we are hosting. As new innovation in educational technology we will continue to unpack it and explore the relevance and implications for K-12 education.
Feel free to subscribe to this blog using the link on the right of the page, to receive updates to posts and scheduled UStream TV events.
For more information about UStream TV visit the website at http://www.ustreamtv.com or call Sarah Martabano at the LHRIC (914) 592-4203 x3411.
Enjoy the Show!
Ustream TV is a streamed video service over the Internet that is FREE and provides the ability to record live events or recorded events using an inexpensive web cam, cell phone, and a computer with Internet connectivity.
The recorded clips will show when we are "Off the Air". When we are on the air you will see a live stream from the event or session we are hosting. As new innovation in educational technology we will continue to unpack it and explore the relevance and implications for K-12 education.
Feel free to subscribe to this blog using the link on the right of the page, to receive updates to posts and scheduled UStream TV events.
For more information about UStream TV visit the website at http://www.ustreamtv.com or call Sarah Martabano at the LHRIC (914) 592-4203 x3411.
Enjoy the Show!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Live from TLI (Technology Leadership Institute) at Mohonk
Friday - Dr. Curtis Bonk
By day two of this invigorating and inspiring conference -- we were all drinking the cool aid from a flattened world.
Our guest, Dr. Curtis Bonk, a professor and published author out of Indiana University who addressed our crowd of 40 about how the learning world became flat.
Dr. Bonk shared concrete examples of how collaborative the learning world has become due to the technologies afforded us on a daily basis. The examples were explosive and voluminous starting with a quick pre-assessment of the group;
1) Who has shared music on an MP3 or iPod - majority of the room
2) Who has used collaborative software (Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, Etc.)
You get the drift. The room was filled with collaborators that appeared well versed on a variety of tools that are used in their work and play to communicate and collaborate on a variety of levels.
As the session continued we found ourselves chanting in unison "We Can Learn" prompted by Dr.Bonk on que after a summative on the ten forces that opened the learning community, tools and processes that are used to learn in collaboration on demand.
We saw a variety of solutions to gain access to higher Education courseware such as the FREE MIT courseware and the increasing numbers of universities doing the same! http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
There are almost unlimited sources of information as well as ways to store and present knowledge - collaboratively! We now have access to read and write to and from sophisticated search engines, ebooks, maps, timelines, blended learning environments, virtual worlds,
http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/
Dr. Bonk talked about the 10 trends that Opened the Learning World;
1. Web Searching in the World of eBooks
2. E-learning and blended learning
3. Availability of Open Source and Free Software (e.g. Moodle)
4. Leveraged Resources and Open Course Ware
and more....
Three hours of reviewing collaborative web sites and new innovations in the field has left me fuzzy headed to say the least. Some of the most intriguing are posted below:
http://www.diigo.com/ - collaborate around documents that you can collaboratively edit, highlight, etc.
http://www.librarything.com/ - Largest online book club
http://www.chinswing.com/ - Global message board - multilingual
http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/LearnMore - interesting, creative and effective educational materials that the global educational community can use for free.
Dr. Bonks Power Point presentation as .pdf file can be found at this URL below the link for this conference:
http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/news.html
Thursday - Steve Dembo
If the drive up the autumn tree lined country road wasn't spectacular enough - I have the pleasure of listening to Steve Dembo discuss 21st century tools, learning and blogging and what that means to us in our every day lives on the front lines of education.
This is the first conference I've even been to that I was invited to turn ON my cell phone because we would be using it, and of course my computer was great too! Shift Happens...
After about 1 hour of ideas and demonstrations we somewhat spontaneiously skyped with a fellow technologies Dean Shareski and talked about "outsourcing Teaching and Learning". The concept behind this is that Steve was able to bring Dean in to our day to share his thoughts on a topic of specialty - outsourcing a portion of the content. Similar to bringing an expert in to your classroom however now it is easy to do without the restrictions of time and place.
If that wasn't relevant enough - we searched on Twitter "Is anyone available to talk to us right now on skype about school policy as it relates to Acceptable Use Policies". We took a 10 minute break and by the time we got back we Skyped/Video chatted with several folks about how they are updating/addressing their local AUP. Isn't it nice that if the situation warrants it we can have these "teachable moments" in cyber space?
Major points worth noting;
It is the publishing and sharing of information that makes technology meaningful.
Is your school prepared to allow students to use the Web 2.0 digital tools of their
choice when approaching teacher assignments?
Do you have school policies that reflect a web 2.0/school 2.0 paradigm?
Do you or your teachers have the knowledge to unblock a website if warranted for
instructional purposes?
CIPA - Children's Internet Protection Act allows a level of local control as it
relates to school district implementation of filtering.
People of Interest...
Darren Kuropatwa - http://adifference.blogspot.com/
"Scribe for a Day" - classroom method turned to a blog.
Started as a class job, task and has now turned in to somewhat of a
competition that focused not only on creativity but the writing process and
technology tools.
Vicki Davis - Educational Technologist - Cool Cat Teacher Blog
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
David Langhorst - Guerrilla Season - Book project Blog
http://www.liberty.k12.mo.us/~elanghorst/
Jen Dorman - Collaborative Simulation between school in Bucks County, PA and
one in South Korea
http://cliotech.blogspot.com/
Presentation -
http://www.slideshare.net/cliotech/creating-online-connections-2008
Dean Shareski - Edublogger (skyped live from conference with us)
http://ideasandthoughts.org/
Lisa Parisi - 24 year educator who has been rejuvinated by technology.
http://lisaslingo.blogspot.com/
Maria Knee - Kindergarten Teacher (not a digital native but one of the most innovative teachers Steve knows.)
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=51141
Did you know...
Australia spent 84,000,000 on a country wide filter system for home - a 16 year old student cracked it in 30 minutes. The students message to everyone was, imagine what we could have done with that amount of money to educate the population.
A 17 year old student cracked the iPhone software and share that with the world.
Sites worthy of note...
http://www.bubbleshare.com
Wikis behind the firewall - http://mguhlin.wikispaces.com/walledgarden
http://www.ostube.de/en/ostube - Free open source "You Tube" type application. All you need is ability to download software and access to district web server.
http://www.mogulus.com/ - Live broadcast via website.
http://www.blabberize.com - simple tool for adding simply animations, voice over to photographs.
By day two of this invigorating and inspiring conference -- we were all drinking the cool aid from a flattened world.
Our guest, Dr. Curtis Bonk, a professor and published author out of Indiana University who addressed our crowd of 40 about how the learning world became flat.
Dr. Bonk shared concrete examples of how collaborative the learning world has become due to the technologies afforded us on a daily basis. The examples were explosive and voluminous starting with a quick pre-assessment of the group;
1) Who has shared music on an MP3 or iPod - majority of the room
2) Who has used collaborative software (Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, Etc.)
You get the drift. The room was filled with collaborators that appeared well versed on a variety of tools that are used in their work and play to communicate and collaborate on a variety of levels.
As the session continued we found ourselves chanting in unison "We Can Learn" prompted by Dr.Bonk on que after a summative on the ten forces that opened the learning community, tools and processes that are used to learn in collaboration on demand.
We saw a variety of solutions to gain access to higher Education courseware such as the FREE MIT courseware and the increasing numbers of universities doing the same! http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
There are almost unlimited sources of information as well as ways to store and present knowledge - collaboratively! We now have access to read and write to and from sophisticated search engines, ebooks, maps, timelines, blended learning environments, virtual worlds,
http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/
Dr. Bonk talked about the 10 trends that Opened the Learning World;
1. Web Searching in the World of eBooks
2. E-learning and blended learning
3. Availability of Open Source and Free Software (e.g. Moodle)
4. Leveraged Resources and Open Course Ware
and more....
Three hours of reviewing collaborative web sites and new innovations in the field has left me fuzzy headed to say the least. Some of the most intriguing are posted below:
http://www.diigo.com/ - collaborate around documents that you can collaboratively edit, highlight, etc.
http://www.librarything.com/ - Largest online book club
http://www.chinswing.com/ - Global message board - multilingual
http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/LearnMore - interesting, creative and effective educational materials that the global educational community can use for free.
Dr. Bonks Power Point presentation as .pdf file can be found at this URL below the link for this conference:
http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/news.html
Thursday - Steve Dembo
If the drive up the autumn tree lined country road wasn't spectacular enough - I have the pleasure of listening to Steve Dembo discuss 21st century tools, learning and blogging and what that means to us in our every day lives on the front lines of education.
This is the first conference I've even been to that I was invited to turn ON my cell phone because we would be using it, and of course my computer was great too! Shift Happens...
After about 1 hour of ideas and demonstrations we somewhat spontaneiously skyped with a fellow technologies Dean Shareski and talked about "outsourcing Teaching and Learning". The concept behind this is that Steve was able to bring Dean in to our day to share his thoughts on a topic of specialty - outsourcing a portion of the content. Similar to bringing an expert in to your classroom however now it is easy to do without the restrictions of time and place.
If that wasn't relevant enough - we searched on Twitter "Is anyone available to talk to us right now on skype about school policy as it relates to Acceptable Use Policies". We took a 10 minute break and by the time we got back we Skyped/Video chatted with several folks about how they are updating/addressing their local AUP. Isn't it nice that if the situation warrants it we can have these "teachable moments" in cyber space?
Major points worth noting;
It is the publishing and sharing of information that makes technology meaningful.
Is your school prepared to allow students to use the Web 2.0 digital tools of their
choice when approaching teacher assignments?
Do you have school policies that reflect a web 2.0/school 2.0 paradigm?
Do you or your teachers have the knowledge to unblock a website if warranted for
instructional purposes?
CIPA - Children's Internet Protection Act allows a level of local control as it
relates to school district implementation of filtering.
People of Interest...
Darren Kuropatwa - http://adifference.blogspot.com/
"Scribe for a Day" - classroom method turned to a blog.
Started as a class job, task and has now turned in to somewhat of a
competition that focused not only on creativity but the writing process and
technology tools.
Vicki Davis - Educational Technologist - Cool Cat Teacher Blog
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
David Langhorst - Guerrilla Season - Book project Blog
http://www.liberty.k12.mo.us/~elanghorst/
Jen Dorman - Collaborative Simulation between school in Bucks County, PA and
one in South Korea
http://cliotech.blogspot.com/
Presentation -
http://www.slideshare.net/cliotech/creating-online-connections-2008
Dean Shareski - Edublogger (skyped live from conference with us)
http://ideasandthoughts.org/
Lisa Parisi - 24 year educator who has been rejuvinated by technology.
http://lisaslingo.blogspot.com/
Maria Knee - Kindergarten Teacher (not a digital native but one of the most innovative teachers Steve knows.)
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=51141
Did you know...
Australia spent 84,000,000 on a country wide filter system for home - a 16 year old student cracked it in 30 minutes. The students message to everyone was, imagine what we could have done with that amount of money to educate the population.
A 17 year old student cracked the iPhone software and share that with the world.
Sites worthy of note...
http://www.bubbleshare.com
Wikis behind the firewall - http://mguhlin.wikispaces.com/walledgarden
http://www.ostube.de/en/ostube - Free open source "You Tube" type application. All you need is ability to download software and access to district web server.
http://www.mogulus.com/ - Live broadcast via website.
http://www.blabberize.com - simple tool for adding simply animations, voice over to photographs.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
NECC Tuesday p.m. - Programming for Elementary Students with SCRATCH
Christopher Michaud, Nebo Elementary was the facilitator of a hands on laptop session where we installed a program out of MIT called Scratch. According to Michaud,
"Scratch was developed by MIT to teach young students programming concepts and skill in multimedia communication. Using a visual system of "Tiles" that contain commands users can connect together to create scripts. These scripts direct the characters and objects in the program."
In one hour we created an animated game with sound in the form of a simple animated dog working his way through a maze and getting reward of food and barking when he makes it to the end. While this was a simple application - it required a significant amount of logical sequential, cause and effect thinking. Students will learn problem solving, project design skills and Scratch provides a way to teach fundamental ideas around technology and programming. Computer Science skills students will learn are sequencing, iteration, threading, variables, boolean logic, variables, conditions, algorithms and random numbers.
Scratch is a free download from the MIT site (hard wired suggested) at www.scratch.mit.edu.
Project examples
Presentation
Happy programming!
"Scratch was developed by MIT to teach young students programming concepts and skill in multimedia communication. Using a visual system of "Tiles" that contain commands users can connect together to create scripts. These scripts direct the characters and objects in the program."
In one hour we created an animated game with sound in the form of a simple animated dog working his way through a maze and getting reward of food and barking when he makes it to the end. While this was a simple application - it required a significant amount of logical sequential, cause and effect thinking. Students will learn problem solving, project design skills and Scratch provides a way to teach fundamental ideas around technology and programming. Computer Science skills students will learn are sequencing, iteration, threading, variables, boolean logic, variables, conditions, algorithms and random numbers.
Scratch is a free download from the MIT site (hard wired suggested) at www.scratch.mit.edu.
Project examples
Presentation
Happy programming!
Monday, June 30, 2008
NECC Monday p.m. - Wikipedia in the Social Studies Classroom
Professor Thomas Hammond from Lehigh University points out valuable ways to use Wikipedia as an information STRUCTURE and not as a SOURCe which is frequently debated in libraries and classrooms across the K+ community.
Hammond points out three classroom activities that using Wikipedia:
1) Compare Entries
Compare version of article entries using the history tab to determine edits that were made to articles and spur conversation around the purpose and validity of those edits.
Compare Wikipedia article entries to other sources such as social studies text book articles for conversations relative to content differences, descrepancies, and similarities.
2) Close study of an article,
Use the discussion tab to trace debate around article content and foster classroom discussions around that debate.
Use the history tab to trace and observe edits and editors. What might be the reason an editor has made an edit to an article.
Evaluate the references in an article for validity as a source of information. Have conversations with students around sources for research.
3) Create/adopt an article
Have student pick a topic where they do indept investigation of an article or if the article doesn't exists where they create an article for submission. This allows them to participate with a larger collaborative group on the creation and editing of a body of information. Local history might be a good place to begin this.
What was interesting about Hammonds point of view was that he took the arguement out of Wikipedia being a valid source for information and shifted it to be a structure for information. An interesting and important shift that allows classrooms to include this as a valuable resources as student discuss topics and build their own knowldge of a topic.
To view hammonds wiki on this topic visit http://hammond.seedwiki.com
Hammond points out three classroom activities that using Wikipedia:
1) Compare Entries
Compare version of article entries using the history tab to determine edits that were made to articles and spur conversation around the purpose and validity of those edits.
Compare Wikipedia article entries to other sources such as social studies text book articles for conversations relative to content differences, descrepancies, and similarities.
2) Close study of an article,
Use the discussion tab to trace debate around article content and foster classroom discussions around that debate.
Use the history tab to trace and observe edits and editors. What might be the reason an editor has made an edit to an article.
Evaluate the references in an article for validity as a source of information. Have conversations with students around sources for research.
3) Create/adopt an article
Have student pick a topic where they do indept investigation of an article or if the article doesn't exists where they create an article for submission. This allows them to participate with a larger collaborative group on the creation and editing of a body of information. Local history might be a good place to begin this.
What was interesting about Hammonds point of view was that he took the arguement out of Wikipedia being a valid source for information and shifted it to be a structure for information. An interesting and important shift that allows classrooms to include this as a valuable resources as student discuss topics and build their own knowldge of a topic.
To view hammonds wiki on this topic visit http://hammond.seedwiki.com
NECC Monday a.m. - The Wisdom of Crowds
Yes, we are finally here along with 18,000 other attendees in 96 degree weatger 00 exciting, hot and a bit overwhelming to be sure.
Sunday night's keynote kicked the NECC event off with the first of many thought provoking concepts, The Wisdom of Crowds by the author of a book with the same title, James Surowiecki.
Surowiecki has some compelling research that suggests that the collective knowledge of people as groups is better and results in more accurate results than any one of us as individuals. While this isn't necessarily new as a organizational decision making approach, Surowiecki emphasizes the importance of purposeful group formation of the group and that the variety of perspectives, thinking, background and experiences of the group is as important as social diversity.
This is relevant to education as we explore Web 2.0 as a way to get groups of teaches and students together working on issues relative to education. It is also important to explore as a way of providing the tools necessary for students to collaborate and network with peers, experts and mentors in their quest to build new knowledge.
This is a must read for anyone who either believes in or is intrigued by the collective intelligence and ability of groups and the role of Web 2.0 tools in the education landscape.
Stay tuned to see what is next.
Sunday night's keynote kicked the NECC event off with the first of many thought provoking concepts, The Wisdom of Crowds by the author of a book with the same title, James Surowiecki.
Surowiecki has some compelling research that suggests that the collective knowledge of people as groups is better and results in more accurate results than any one of us as individuals. While this isn't necessarily new as a organizational decision making approach, Surowiecki emphasizes the importance of purposeful group formation of the group and that the variety of perspectives, thinking, background and experiences of the group is as important as social diversity.
This is relevant to education as we explore Web 2.0 as a way to get groups of teaches and students together working on issues relative to education. It is also important to explore as a way of providing the tools necessary for students to collaborate and network with peers, experts and mentors in their quest to build new knowledge.
This is a must read for anyone who either believes in or is intrigued by the collective intelligence and ability of groups and the role of Web 2.0 tools in the education landscape.
Stay tuned to see what is next.
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