Nature in Numbers…a fantastic youtube video (note the block for those accessing at school) that creatively ties the math (mainly geometry) with nature. Good stuff for the science and math teacher.
Adapt or Decline…in which Anya Kamenetze puts forth the thesis that higher education only has these two options.
If social media had come first…a funny satire on what “experts” would be saying about “face to face” interactions if social media had been invented before…well, corporeal existence and conversations.
The Internet as an Operating System…IMO, it’s finally been the wide acceptance of smartphones that have shifted applications to the web (or cloud). Here’s an interesting article that defines the internet as an operating system…as well as the challenges the tech world faces with this rather large shift.
Study on how college students use Wikipedia…like many of us, college students use wikipedia as a starting point for research (but not as their research).
Video games may hinder learning for boys…so the Legend of Zelda is the reason I can’t do long division?
The Future of Education…I realize this a frequent link that appears in my link posts – but it’s still fun to try and read the tea leaves and see where our field is evolving towards. Here’s an artsy prediction by The Ed Techie.
Awayfind…here’s a nifty tool that lets you set filtering criteria on your email so that if you get sent an “important” email while away from your computer, you’ll receive a text or call on your phone. Now maybe you don’t want this kind of connectivity, but if you do, it’s there!
The End of Publishing…fantastic, simple video that makes you smile at the creativity. Here’s an excellent demonstration of how video can be a powerful tool in the classroom…and another argument for unblocking youtube!
55 articles on Twitter and Learning…in case you’re looking for reasons for using twitter in the classroom.
A university dedicated to the future singularity…it does actually exist! And apparently it has quite the concentration of brains (for those curious as to what the singularity is, think of it as the technological rapture – either utopian or dystopian depending on your views of humanity)
Many Eyes and visualizing data…lately I’ve been intrigued by the manipulation of data into visually appealing (and understandable) formats. Here’s a fantastic website dedicated to displaying data well. I can see a half a dozen uses for all subject areas…pretty cool.
Google Custom Search…say you’re a teacher who’s having their students conduct research. You want students to search the web for information – but you don’t want them to search the entire web (ie…research paper mills, etc). Google provides the answer! Custom search allows you to specify which urls Google should search through – and lets you embed your search easily into any web page (ie Blackboard, WordPress, etc).
TEDxNYED…the TED series always blow the mind a bit and this local variation focuses on education. Every once and while some REALLY BIG EVENT ripples across the education blogosphere and causes a feeding frenzy among the best and brightest. TEDxNYED is such an event. The site’s still being updated, but quite a few speakers are posting their content independently.
Easy. Fun. Free….in which Dan Myer tests this hypothesis: If [x] is going to change teaching practice at scale, then [x] needs to beeasy, fun, and free for both the teacher and her students. [x] needs to be all three of those things at the same time.
I already love using Cooliris for my presentations because it does such an excellent job with image/presentation manipulation.
Now I find out about Microsoft’s Pivot and begin wondering about it in terms of data and education.
So many interesting possibilities…
Daniel Pink on Carrots and Sticks…a long article getting at the science of motivation and how school policy is going in the opposite direction of what the science says.
1 to 1 computing programs is only as effective their teachers…and this is a surprise?
Won a battle, still loosing the war…if you haven’t already seen OK Go’s new video, you have to check this out. This is just crying to be used in every science/physics class. I enjoyed the student commentary provided by Dan Myer. Note: It is a YOUTUBE video, so those of you trying to access it at your schools…good luck. But seriously, check it out.
Literature in 60 second…short post on the website 60 Second Recap which seeks to engage teens in literature using a brief, visual recap of key books. What’s interesting about the clips is how well it integrates graphics, relevant questions, and scripting. I can envision more teachers creating such content in the future (it’s certainly memorable).
Building a better teacher…one of the good things about NCLB is that it’s generated a ton of data and, when you have data, you can start asking questions and testing hypotheses. The biggest question we face in our profession is what makes a good teacher? And don’t give me some fluff answer. I want an answer with some empirical evidence. This GREAT article is a long read that posits some thoughtful answers.
My conversations with colleagues and parents sometimes get into what computer skills schools should teach students. The conversations are almost always contain this bit of dialogue.
“We need to have Microsoft Office on student computers?”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll need it when they get into the real world.”
Setting aside the fact that we have no idea what the “real world” will be 10 years from now, I have serious issues with this conversation.
We should not confuse teaching a specific program (operating system, office programs, whatever) with teaching useful computer skills (or to use education lingo, 21st century learning).
Dan Grover’s most excellent post “Towards a Grand Uniform Theory of N00bs” does an excellent job and summing up the problem.
I think I can speak for most of my generation in saying that computer classes in high schools, colleges, and community centers are universally worthless. Courses for young people are usually taught by out-of-touch adults with a much less advanced understanding of the things they’re teaching than their students. The only kind of teacher likely to be more incompetent than a computer teacher is a gym teacher. But that’s not the problem.
The real problem is that these courses often teach a specific operating system or a specific office suite in an extremely facile manner. They’re glorified typing courses. That means when Microsoft changes the locations of buttons in Word, students’ knowledge is obsolete. Even programming courses in high school (and many colleges) are tied to specific programming languages, not general concepts. A good course teaches a mix of theory and application, but most computer courses can’t even handle application right.
His solution?
To create a computer course for laymen that does not do them a disservice, it should be rooted in things that we can reasonably anticipate will not change. I’m not quite sure what those are but the stumbling blocks outlined in the previous section are a good place to start. It should combine practical computer skills and general information literacy. It should be required and it should be rigorous, not a blowoff course.
Imagine how many fewer bank accounts or email accounts would be hacked if a section on the final exam gave students URLs and asked them to identify the domain name, the subdomains, the path, the port, and the protocol. This sounds like esoteric technobabble at first. But if high school students are expected to know how many valence electrons molybdenum has or how to define trigonometric functions in terms of each other, it’s highly practical by comparison.
Teaching students how a hierarchical file system works would make sense. It could even briefly cover the directory structures on each popular OS at the time and where things go. I have my doubts on how long the idea will last, but I’m betting at least another 15 years.
There’s a good bit more (I encourage everyone to read the article), but his post captures a lot of my background thoughts when it comes to computer education and learning.
Because the fact is that there are shared concepts to our digital world. Form and function work in very similar ways across different systems. Identifying what’s shared and consistent (and rooted) will help students prepare for the next big thing that comes their way.
