I found this embedded on Karl Fischs’ wonderful blog “The Fischbowl” and it pertains to side conversations we’re having in our district.
What’s interesting is that our conversations have focused more on the question of “who owns the content”? That is, who owns, who can copyright, content developed by teachers and used with their students? This is a particularly salient question as we move more of our classes online and, consequently, develop most (nearly all) our material in the electronic (ie “easy to distribute, cheap to distribute”) medium. Might we be starting with the view that the material we create is of the same vain as material created by artists and thus we deserve monetary compensation?
But perhaps we’re operating under the assumption, the paradigm, that Copyright as a means of profit is the only way to view copyright.
Lawrence Lessig (personal hero) argues that we, educators and scientists, need to stop this assumption. Because if we go with this assumption, we are doing more hurt than good.
The presentation is long – a good 60 minutes – but loaded with good thoughts and ideas.
Copyright laws hinder scholarship…actually, the article gets a bit more pointed and says it’s “destructive”.
Will Science and Engineering be a Good Career?…an incredibly fascinating article that points out that – contrary to public perception – the US has NOT been declining in the number of students who perform well in math and science. The shortage of scientists and engineer has more to do with bright students choosing job fields that pay better than the sciences or math. In other words, quit blaming educators for your shortages and increase your salaries!
Google focus on their Apps…a good product is getting better, increasing my desire to bring their offerings into our district.
Massachusetts school ditches their library’s print books for ereaders…is a library still a library without paper books (we knew this question would come eventually!)?
Why do people make bad slides?…aptly describe 95% of the powerpoints designed by teachers (myself included). Point #1: “Bad Slides are Less Work” fits the “why” for teachers crammed for time.
Stretch and Learn…no surprise here – but the brain learns better after 30 minutes of aerobic endurance exercise. PE should be before math class.
Neither snow nor rain…nor tonsils…skyping into your class while staying home with a sick child.
College for $99 a month…yet another article that thinks universities are in for some MAJOR changes in the future.
Google Wave…a report on a Wave that discusses the use of Wave for students…I still don’t get the draw.
Public Universities get expensive as states stop supporting them…no doubt forcing students to find ways to get their credit on the cheap.
10 questions about books, libraries and schools…some of these should freak librarians outs (personal favorite if school librarians aren’t actively and explicitly modeling powerful uses of digital technologies and social media themselves and also supporting students to do the same, should they get to keep their jobs?)
Web Technology is about to change education…in which Russel Moench argues why technology is the giant that will finally change education.
Online degrees viewed more favorably…it’s not just shopping for a piece of paper!
The Whitehouse expects 250,ooo education jobs will be saved or created with the stimulus…some might say it’s socialism, but I’m happy to have a job!
Using the internet boosts older brains…another handy statistic for professional developments.
The New Untouchables…are, apparently, the students who become workers that understand “entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity”. Uggh. Don’t know what to think of this link.
I’m not a parent (yet), but friends tell me about the wonderful world of YouTube for their children. Want that “rubber ducky” song from Bert and Ernie? Find it on YouTube. You’re child has a fascination with raccoons? Find some interesting clips about them in nature. In short, you have more control over what you can expose to your child.
Of course, there’s quite a bit on YouTube that you wouldn’t want you child to view.
But I’m not a big proponent of blocking YouTube completely. It’s not necessarily case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.
The NY Times ran a great article that serves as a guide for parents who want to use YouTube with their children. It’s worth checking out.
Cog Dog Blog’s very appropriate question: Why the heck are we using terrible paper forms?
I’m proud that our district finaly has gone to using EMA form online.
Zephyr Teachout argues that private colleges will drastically shrink in the next 10 years because of the proliferation and ease of online education. He predicts they will follow a similar trajectory of the newspaper business. It is a fascinating read (as are the comments).
As I write this a radio advertisment appears in my pandora tab: “Earn my degree dot com promises to match your educational goals with your personal goals.”
Zephyr might have a point.
This debate – whether students can get a real education online – is finally being taken seriously. Finance and convenience are the central reasons why people enter the discussion.
Take my situation as an example. I needed to obtain a masters degree. Once completed, my teacher contract specifies that I get a $2000 a year raise in my salary.
Some of the best programs in the area I wanted to study (educational technology) cost $30,000-$35,000 (and that’s not mentioning travel time, etc.). 15-18 years to recuperate my costs? That’s not a good investment. No thank you. I’ll shop around.
And find the best offering – that’s still legitamate and acredited – for my goals.
Now, add gobs of other students (undergrad and grad) into the same equation and you’re going to get some capitalistic pressures on the business structure of acadamia.
It’s not that brick and mortar have nothing to offer when in comparison. They certainly do. I value face time, physical interaction with classmates and professor, not to mention the thrill of visiting university libraries. Plus, it’s easier to build relationships when you’re in the presence of another human (at least for my generation…not 100% sure about the younger gens).
But we are consumers. It seems that college costs have always outpaced inflation. Sooner (rather than later), the masses are going to ask “is it worth it?”
Implications for Online Learning at the secondary level?
Are we next?
We’ll get to the point – eventually – when we’ll simply tell our students to bring their own wireless devices (laptop, iPod touch, etc.) and hop on the school network. I would guess that many students (not to mention teachers) would leap at the opportunity to use their own machines.
Of course, there are security issues.
But East Grand Rapids Public School found an interesting (and yes – open standard/source) solution to the problem of security and bandwidth. Perhaps something to file away for future reference.
Of course, we might skip the issue entirely and watch cell phone companies become “the network” before allowing students to use the school network with their machines. When Verizon offers their own (cheap) netbook complete with access it makes you wonder how long before some take advantage of the deal.
What would teachers do if a student showed up with their own netbook complete with internet (non district) access?
Do we tell them to put it away? Use it? Take notes? (Quit hanging out on facebook?).
Dan Myer opines that stock photo + quote = tacky lameness. I suppose from a purely intellectual stance he might have a point.
But sometimes we teachers love tackiness.
Scott Mcleod, technoedu evangalist supreme apostle, puts one up every week. Monday’s feature:
Um - Maybe
I’ve fiddled with the software called Freemind from year to year and, while being impressed with its abilities, never got around to using it with any kind of regularity.
That changed at the end of last year. I created a mindmap of everything needed in 8th grade social studies (check out the fun here).
Then I left the classroom for this new position and find myself using Freemind for everything!
I keep track of meeting minutes, to do lists, idea storming…even tennis matches. Once I got down the shortcut keys, I found I could fly through the program. It could actually keep up with my thoughts.
For that matter, it works like my brain.
In the end, you can export mind maps as pdfs, flash, html, pngs word…basically any format you want! And the maps contain a certain elegant beauty. A butterfly of connected thoughts.
A Mind Map of 8th Grade
I highly encourage teachers to check it out. It’s certainly not for everyone (it can get a bit messy…although I think it’s more of an organized messiness), but some might find it quite useful.
And, of course, it’s opensource and free!
The Program Freemind
Stanly Fish writes and interesting post on What Should Colleges Teach (short answer, “writing courses that teach writing…not everything else”).
In a follow up post, he mentions this quote from his comments section:
“Young people who can’t write can’t think.”
Where I to be teaching students, I would love to present this quote and seek feedback.
(And, speaking personally, I find the quote applies to myself. My best thinking – clear, concise, well-formed – occurs when I can apply it to the written form. Which only adds to the frustration when I can’t execute the words well…because that means my thoughts lack clarity.)
Daniel Pink gave an interesting TED talk on the science of motivation, particularly motivation in a world that places high value on right brain conceptual abilities.
To lift the main idea:
As long as the task involved mechanical skill, bonuses worked as they would be expected: the higher the pay, the better the performance. But once the task called for “even a rudimentary cognitive skill”, a larger reward “led to poorer performance.”
At issue is the age old dilemma of intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards.
What implications and questions does this raise for online education?
At least in the business community, Pink asserts that personal autonomy produces better results. I’m not certain how relevant this is to younger minds (which work differently than adults), but online learning certainly grants a larger degree of autonomy.
There’s also the question of how this plays out in my new job (which is considerably more reliant on “right brain conceptual abilities” and functions under a good degree of autonomy).
