Educational Technology and Change Journal

[Note: Snagged spotlights some of the latest and most stimulating articles on educational technology. This article by Sam Dillon was emailed to me by ETCJ associate editor Bonnie Bracey Sutton. Please send your catch of the day to me, jamess@hawaii.edu, for possible snagging. -Editor]

In his article, “In Washington, Large Rewards in Teacher Pay“* (NY Times, 12.31.11), Sam Dillon quotes Eric A. Hanushek, a Stanford University professor of economics: “‘The most important role for incentives is in shaping who enters the teaching profession and who stays. Washington’s incentive system will attract talented teachers, and it’ll help keep the best ones.'”

It’s tough to argue against attracting and retaining the crème de la crème, but is there a downside to this apparent solution to teacher quality? Dillon quotes Nathan Saunders, president of the Washington Teachers Union: “‘This boutique program discourages teachers from working together.'”

Bonnie says, “I am not sure what to do with this. In my mind there are lots of teachers who have worked under trying conditions, but in sharing this article I got a lot of push back from teachers. Here’s the thing: most people pointed out to me that the large rewards are not normal and, of course, that there are outstanding teachers who are run out of the school by the others.”

Bonnie asks, “What do you think?”

Please share your thoughts with us as a comment to this article. If you encounter problems posting, email your comment to me and I’ll post it for you. -Jim (jamess@hawaii.edu)
__________
* Click here for the Webcite alternative.

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[Note: Snagged spotlights some of the latest and most stimulating articles on educational technology. This article by Larry Ferlazzo was emailed to me by ETCJ associate editor Bonnie Bracey Sutton. Please send your catch of the day to me, jamess@hawaii.edu, for possible snagging. -Editor]

Valerie Strauss, in The Answer Sheet (Washington Post, 12.30.11), features Larry Ferlazzo’s “Ten Education Predictions for 2012.” The ninth concerns technology in K-12:

9. Strategies to use technology as a transformative tool in education will take a backseat as for-profit online learning charlatans and the Khan Academy take up the tech money and the media space.

What are your thoughts on this prediction? Are K-12 educators going to increasingly rely on outside sources for leadership in technology? Or are they going to take more personal responsibility for the technology that enters their classroom? Or is there a third or even fourth scenario?

Bonnie’s comment on number 8 is “See, I was right on Rhee.” She’s referring to her January 5, 2009, article, Michelle Rhee Has a Broom: Should She Use It to Sweep Out Experienced Teachers?”

8. Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee will continue her decline in public credibility and relevance. Her work with some of the most conservative, and anti-teacher, Republicans has made her highly unpopular among many Democrats. And, as her Republican allies falter in their own success and popularity across the country, she is, incredibly and unsuccessfully, trying to build a base here in California.

Can Rheeism rise from the ashes in 2012? Is it morphing into other isms?

Please share your thoughts with us as a comment to this article. If you encounter problems posting, email your comment to me and I’ll post it for you. -Jim (jamess@hawaii.edu)

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

As we teeter on the brink of the new year, we’re left with more questions than answers. In a way, that’s a good thing, considering the makeshift nature of technology in higher education. As we sidle into 2012, the same old questions will greet us. They’re about a world that’s rapidly changing and about our ability or inability to change with it. Let’s face it. The cat’s out of the bag, but some of us are still trying to lure it back in.

Issue #1: Can current leaders take higher education into the 21st century?

Most indications are no. They’re good at preserving the 20th century model and eager to add some technology glitz to make their brick and mortar campuses look modern. But it will be business as usual, with technology applied to brighten up the old way of doing things. Cost effectiveness will be the public mantra, but savings will be offset by the huge piles of money thrown at the makeover. The fact is that the overwhelming majority of today’s leaders have been formed and rewarded by the brick and mortar learning environment. They define themselves and what they do in terms of campuses, buildings, and offices. For them, technology is something to be brought into and added to their domain even if it means severely restricting and crippling its full potential.

Make no mistake. Change will come, but it will come from new leaders who realize that the paradigm for learning environments has shifted from the ground to the virtual. They realize that educational technology is no longer a single innovation or a group of innovations but a sea change based on the awareness that face-to-face (F2F) pedagogy is a subset of the virtual learning environment — and not the other way around. For these leaders, online is the world’s largest learning environment, and brick and mortar facilities are a shrinking part that’s becoming increasingly irrelevant. Continue reading →

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By Frank B. Withrow

In the United States of America, we are committed to the education of ALL children in appropriate educational settings. If possible this education should be in the least restrictive settings. At times this may mean individual tutoring to prepare them for broader educational experiences. The following is a case study of what might be for Orion, a child that is both deaf and blind. In the 1960s, due to a rubella epidemic and medical science learning how to bring pregnant women with rubella to full term, we created thousands of deaf-blind babies. Consequently, we have learned a great deal about the education of deaf-blind children. Some of those 1960 babies are now productive adults living interesting lives.

A Case Study

Perhaps a bit of genetics combined with environmental factors left Orion to be born both deaf and blind. Orion has a deaf older brother and a hearing sister. Both his parents have hearing losses. Orion’s family lives in a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC, not far from Gallaudet University and near excellent medical facilities. Perhaps there is no other place in the world that has a richer environment for Orion to grow in. In his first year, Orion received a cochlear implant.

Orion likes the Braille books, for blind children, with tactile pages. Heather, Orion’s mother, uses touch signs with him to begin his communication skills. He did develop stimulus response activities with the touch signs. Continue reading →

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By Frank B. Withrow

As we end the year 2011, we find our schools at best not reaching all students. In some instances we have excellent programs that are producing leading students, but far too often we have programs where students are dropping out and ending in a nonproductive stalemate of failure. At one end we have college graduates who are marrying one another and merging two reasonably well paying salaries and, at the other end, some poor kids just barely graduating from high school, failing to marry and often becoming struggling single moms with a dismal future that may include the increasing problems of single parenthood.

These trends are developing a bigger bridge between the haves and havenots. The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. This chasm is neither good for the individual nor society. Our current educational system is neither engaging, inspiring nor empowering many of our young people.

Alternate learning patterns are developing from home schooling to charter schools to virtual schools. Sometimes significant engagement comes in clubs and extracurricular activities. On Internet sites many learners are engaged in complicated games that even allow for team activities with distant partners. Many learners are engaged in blended learning activities, that is, traditional classes and alternative learning environments.

To understand the challenges in today’s school system, we will follow five students that are on a TLRI (Total Learning Research Institute) Mars City blended learning team creating a Mars challenge weather balloon. Josh’s parents are both scientists working on environmental changes. Josh is an only child and has done well in traditional schools. He often reads his parents’ professional journals and enters into their professional discussions at the dinner table. Sue Ellen is a child of a single mother and, while she is a reasonably good student, does not have a rich scientific environment at home. Continue reading →

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[Note: Snagged is a new feature in ETCJ to spotlight some of the latest and most stimulating articles on educational technology. The idea came about in an informal email exchange within the last 24 hours with Bert Kimura, who’s been sending me some of his best web snags for the last fifteen plus years. His latest, this article by Donald Clark, has moved us to develop Snagged, a platform for recognizing articles that hook our attention and, hopefully, encourage us to jump into a discussion. Please send your catch of the day to me, jamess@hawaii.edu, for possible snagging. -Editor]

Donald Clark, in “More Pedagogic Change in 10 Years Than Last 1000 Years – All Driven by 10 Technology Innovations,” asks, “What’s the real source of pedagogic change?” His answer: “The primary driver for pedagogic change is something that has changed the behaviours of learners, independently of teachers, teaching and education – the internet” (Donald Clark Plan B, 12.7.11).

Here are the ten technology innovations with excerpted explanations:

1. Asynchronous – the new default: Only after you’ve exhausted the asynchronous online options should you consider synchronous face-to-face events.
2. Links – free from tyranny of linear learning: It has allowed us to escape from the linear straightjacket of the lecture or paper bound text
3. Search and rescue: This pedagogic shift means more independence for learners, less dependence on memorised facts and answers to most questions, 24/7, for free.
4. Wikipedia and death of the expert: The radical pedagogic shift is not only in the way knowledge is produced but the fact that it’s free, seen as open to discussion and debate, and so damn useful.
5. Facebook and friends: Being networked means living within a new pedagogic ecosystem.
6. Twitter, texting and posting: Far from drifting towards high end media, text is alive and kicking.
7. Youtube – less is more and ‘knowing how’: YouTube has shown us how to do video, keep it short and that we don’t need big budgets to do good stuff.
8. Games: Gameplay is just another word for sophisticated, experiential pedagogy.
9. Tools: Tools [word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tools], pedagogically, allow us to teach and learn at a much higher level.
10. Open source: In this age of digital abundance, open and free content is the democratisation of knowledge…. Pedagogy, in this sense, has been freed from institutional teaching.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Clark? Disagree? Partially agree? Do you see it differently? If yes, how so? Please share your thoughts with us as a comment to this article. If you encounter problems posting, email your comment to me and I’ll post it for you. -Jim (jamess@hawaii.edu)

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Two recent studies on the educational use of Web 2.0 tools shed light on cultural differences between students in Japan and South Korea, on the one hand, and the U.S., on the other. The first, “Cross-Cultural Collaboration Through a Virtual Community of Practice Using Video and Social Networking,” by Bert Kimura and Curtis P. Ho, from the University of Hawaii, and Mary Kimura and Kenichi Kubota, from Kansai University, Japan, was presented at Ed-Media 2011, June 27 to July 1, in Lisbon, Portugal. The second, “Comparison of Web 2.0 Technology Acceptance Level Based on Cultural Differences,” by Sun Joo Yoo and Wen-hao David Huang, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, appears in Educational Technology & Society, 14.4 (2011).

The Japan-U.S. study by Kimura et al. reports the following differences: Japanese students are nonconfrontational, consensus oriented, shy and modest. U.S. students are the opposite: direct, task oriented, and outgoing and assertive. In communication style, the Japanese students were “indirect,” e.g., they “suggested what they wanted to do” and “would not object if their ideas weren’t considered.” U.S. students were “more direct,” e.g., they “stated what they thought would be a good direction” and “would explain why and how to use their ideas” (italics added).

The Korea-U.S. study by Yoo and Huang looked at specific criteria to explain the differences: communication styles, level of power distance, and level of uncertainty avoidance. The authors found that Korean students’ communication style score was “very high” in collectivism while their U.S. counterparts’ was “very high” in individualism. This difference was further described in terms of high context vs. low context (249). This finding is similar to the consensus orientation of Japanese students reported in the Kimura et al. study.

Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

This is the sort of article that you read and reread with a shake of the head in between. In “Onsite and Online Learning: A Meaningful Distinction Any Longer?” (WCET, 12.7.11), Gary Brown and Trent Batson claim that “the debate between online and traditional courses is over.” After repeated readings, I still find myself nodding in agreement with the conclusion that “almost all” classes include online components but shaking my head at the logical leap that, therefore, the debate is over.

In fact, in the statement that “almost all educational experiences, no matter where they occur, are now online to some degree,” Brown and Batson make a case for omitting the qualifier “almost” since, for all practical purposes, the web is an unavoidable, ubiquitous presence in all our lives. Thus, even when courses appear to be completely traditional with required physical attendance and no onsite web technology, they are still directly or indirectly associated with online learning resources and personal communications such as email. In other words, all courses are blended to some degree even when the online dimensions may not be obvious.

The authors also reiterate some of the main arguments that defend the quality of online practices.

Considering my agreement with their premises, why do I end up questioning their conclusion that the debate is dead? The problem may be in our perceptions of space in the learning environment. Brown and Batson say that “all learning now has become untethered from a single locus” and that “the locus of learning is not bounded by brick or LMS.” They add that, “unlike the traditional versus online debate,” the distinction between tethered and untethered matters. Continue reading →

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By Tom Preskett

Connecting formal education to social media/web 2.0 tools is a relatively new area. Educational institutions hope that by purchasing a virtual learning environment (VLE) all of their learning technology needs will be met. However, the world moves fast, and some educators find that our suite of communication and collaboration tools doesn’t cater to our teaching and learning needs as well as they might. Interestingly, VLEs are usually more suited to managing rather than learning (but that’s for another day). So there is an argument for looking outside of the VLE to expand and enhance our options for engaging students in learning activities using technology.

When it comes to thinking about social media or web 2.0 tools, we are looking at tapping into the affordances such tools have towards communication and collaboration. There’s a creative process involved in this, and it takes time, space and a certain amount of risk. However, it’s worth exploring if you want to keep developing as an educator and are always looking to improve the learner experience.

Usually the stimulus for such a process comes from seeing or hearing about a particular tools used in a particular context. In these instances, the process is focused and relatively easy. However, what if you want to explore for yourself what’s out there and make informed decisions on what tool to use?

Firstly, it’s useful to have in mind a set of criteria like the Sloan Consortium’s:

• Access
• Usability
• Privacy & Intellectual Property
• Workload & Time Management
• Fun Factor

Visit the weblink above for details on this. Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

In Zhang Yimou’s 1999 film, Not One Less, Wei is a 13-year-old girl who is called upon to serve as a substitute teacher in a one-room primary school. The setting is a small rural village in Hebei province, in present day China. Her qualification is that she’s a primary school graduate, which places her a step ahead of the 27 students.

Technology is reduced to the bare minimum: the shabby schoolhouse, tables and chairs, chalkboard, chalk, teacher, a single textbook for the teacher, and a tablet and pencil for each student. Teaching is the copying of passages from the textbook to the chalkboard. Learning is the copying of passages from the chalkboard to the tablets.

By today’s standards in developed countries, this scene appears primitive. In contrast, the vast majority of students have access to many textbooks, and an increasing number have access to web-based learning resources. Teachers have access to a wide range of instructional resources, including the web. Continue reading →

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By Harry Keller
Editor, Science Education

[Note: The following article originated as a comment (12.3.11) to Frank Withrow’s “The US Needs a Federal Learning Technology Program”  (12.2.11). -Editor]

If only we could have such a utopian society. Advocating government actions in the face of a government wherein many of its minions are set on dismantling the Department of Education seems a bit quixotic to me.

That said, I have specific issues with the initiatives proposed. R&D should not focus solely on social media content programs. That’s a limited perspective at best. There’s so much more to the potential for education technology. We can hardly claim that social media will not play a role, but we can discuss the magnitude of the role as well as its specific nature.

I’m all for broadband across all communities in the U.S. It’s not going to happen overnight however much we have to have it yesterday. Until it happens, online educational programs must be functional at lower bandwidths, and those communities with less bandwidth must be subsidized until they get the high speeds they deserve. This concept might possibly get past the political gridlock we’re seeing these days.

OK, how will you make the general public and “all elements” of the educational community aware of anything without spending lots of money on marketing? It’s just too easy to say these things. I’d be happy to see the money being spent on politically motivated nationwide competitions used in better ways. I just don’t believe that the will is there. That’s why I’ve written a book* on the subject of improving science education in the U.S.

Respecting assessment, it’s again easy to say “authentic,” but who decides on what is and is not authentic?

Overall, this prescription for fixing education relies too much on what’s been tried and failed. I see a pattern of attempts to fix education over the last three decades that uses all of these very well intentioned words and phrases but accomplishes little. It’s not because the ideas might work, it’s because the system won’t allow them to AND because some are just not viable here. Continue reading →

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By Frank B. Withrow

At a time when there are budget cuts in education at the local, state and federal levels, we need a well developed federal technology program headed and coordinated by an assistant secretary at the United State Department of Education. This secretary shall be a national leader capable of developing a vision and providing leadership to rebuild American education. Such a vision shall be built around a learner centric model of learning. There are today in place components of such a program, but they are loosely organized. A well-organized program will include:

1. Research, design and development programs.
2. Implementation and dispersion programs.
3. Staff development programs.
4. Assessment and evaluation programs.

Research and development programs: Funds should be available for the design, development and production of complex social media content programs that can reach learners in their homes and classrooms. These should be of sufficient size and scope to engage learners of all ages. They should include broadcast television and interactive Internet based social media. Grants should be made for no less than three years.

Implementation and dispersion programs: E rate shall ensure that all learners regardless of their location shall have the technological resources to receive and participate in these challenging new learning resources. This means the development and maintenance of a high band Internet system for every learner. Continue reading →

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Free Live Webinar from Education Week: “Deepening and Strengthening Teacher Education”
Thursday, Dec. 8, 12 to 1 p.m. ET
Also available “on demand” 24 hours after the event and up to six months after the original live-streaming date.
Free registration is now open.

University-based teacher education remains the engine of teacher preparation in the United States. Long criticized, it has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months—from outside reviewers, from the U.S. Department of Education, and even from accreditation bodies—all of whom are pushing for changes. This webinar will introduce participants to the approaches taken by two teacher education schools to make the student-teaching experience more relevant and to emphasize the specific teaching skills the teachers they produce are expected to acquire and demonstrate.

Guests:
Mari Koerner, dean, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, Arizona State University
Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean, School of Education, University of Michigan
This webinar will be moderated by Stephen Sawchuk, assistant editor, Education Week

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Bonnie Bracey Sutton‘s coverage of the 2011 Supercomputing Conference (More on SC11 – “Broadening Engagement” and Conferences Are About People – “Broadening Engagement”) brings one of the most critical developments in technology to the rest of the world. With supercomputing, we may begin to see change as a line that curves upward, beginning slowly but gradually accelerating at an exponential rate. As the curve grows increasingly steep, we approach the singularity.

Frank Withrow has mentioned Ray Kurzweil in a number of articles in regard to the latter’s work as an inventor. I’ve been intrigued by Kurzweil’s ideas about the singularity, a point in time when computers become not only faster but smarter than humans. At this stage, human history is transcended by AI systems that are capable of improving themselves at exponential rates. (See Kurzweil’s The Law of Accelerating Returns*; it was published over a decade ago, but it clarifies some of his basic ideas.)

Supercomputing is a step toward not only faster and bigger but to “wider” as well for increased accessibility. The speed, size, and breadth will make it possible for computers to become increasingly intelligent and, eventually, reach a point where they can begin to recursively learn and reproduce on their own.

The notion of intelligent computers creating even more intelligent offspring, exponentially and ad infinitum, is the stuff of sci-fi for most people, but the possibility is more than fantasy. The coming years — Kurzweil suggests by mid-21st century — will no doubt bring us closer to the singularity, but I don’t think the outcome or process will pit computers against humans. We’ll still be in control, using computers that may be thousands if not millions of times smarter than we are. Despite their power, they’ll continue to be under our control as extensions of ourselves, tools that allow us to transcend the limits of our biological intelligence. Continue reading →

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The theme for the 2012 conference is “Emerging Technologies in Education: Trends & Issues.”

Social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, have facilitated communication, sharing, collaboration and creativity among students and faculty.

Students and faculty have converged on the Internet to share their views and utilize Web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning. However, many issues and concerns have yet to be answered fully: How do faculty, staff, students and communities produce positive learning outcomes? Can students learn through virtual worlds, educational games, augmented realities, or the use of mobile devices? What technologies continue to reshape e-learning? How do we support our colleagues?

Conference dates: April 17-19, 2012
Pre-conference: April 5, 2012

Links: conference homepage; call for proposals.

UPDATE 1.12.12

TCC 2012, April 17-19: Call for Papers & Presentations, Extended Deadline

Best wishes for a prosperous 2012!

The deadline for submitting proposals for TCC 2012, held online from April 17-19, has been extended until January 24, 2012.

To submit a proposal for a general session or a paper:
http://tinyurl.com/tcc2012proposal

Info about preparing proposals:
http://tcchawaii.org/call-for-proposals/

Homepage:
TCCHawaii.org

Fees for presentations by graduate students will be waived.

TCCHawaii.org produces this event with LearningTimes and assistance from volunteer faculty worldwide.

Cheers,
– Bert Kimura for the TCC 2012 Conference Team

UPDATE 4.4.12

Aloha:

The 17th Annual TCC 2012 Worldwide Online Conference is open for registration. Join us for 100 live presentations over three days about emerging technologies, collaboration, online learning, and social media for teaching and learning.

Register by April 10 for $99. A special fee is available for students at $19.

Contact Sharon Fowler <fowlers@hawaii.edu> for group registration (unlimited participation).

Click here to access the secure online registration forms directly.

We look forward to your support and participation in TCC 2012.

Cheers,

– Bert Kimura for the TCC 2012 Conference Team

Continue reading →

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The amazing thing about the Supercomputing Conference is that it is still growing. I attended two parts of the conference and the exhibits, Education, and then Broadening Engagement (BE). Roscoe Giles chairs this part of the conference. The goal of broader engagement is to change the face of technology to be more inclusive. Remember I asked in my first take on the conference, “Where are the women?” Well, lots of women were involved in the Education and Broadening Engagement program.

Diane Baxter, Director of Education, San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD

We are mentored by these women — and the men. Diane Baxter, of the San Diego Supercomputing Center, is a friend and a mentor. She has been supportive through the years of my involvement, sharing, understanding and taking the pulse of K-12. Continue reading →

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By Melissa A. Venable

[Note: ETCJ’s Twitter editor, Jessica Knott, has been working with Melissa to develop this series. See Part 1: Getting Started, Part 3: Curating the Chaos, and Part 4: Participating in a Live Event. -Editor]

If you’ve set up your account and have had some initial experience tweeting, you may be wondering how you’ll sort through and keep up with the constant flow of information and resources brought to you via your Twitter account.

The main Twitter page can be frustrating to use since it presents long lists of incoming and outgoing tweets in non-sortable, chronological order, which can make data consumption a chore.

Ideally, Twitter will become a source of information when you need it, and not just another item on your already lengthy list of things to do. Dashboard applications offer one way to make the process not only more efficient in terms of your time and effort, but also more user friendly so you’ll want to return.

Try a Dashboard Application

Tools such as TweetDeck and Seesmic are popular options that take the main Twitter page to the next level by providing customizable screen layouts. You can choose what appears on screen: incoming tweets from those you follow, tweets in which you are mentioned, direct messages, specific hashtags, and more. You can also search for information by keyword and monitor multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously, which is helpful if you use multiple accounts for different purposes. These types of tools simplify how you receive information via Twitter, as well as how you share it. Continue reading →

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I should be in bed. I am tired. I am at the Seattle Supercomputing Conference, and in the few days I have been here my mind has been challenged to think, stretch, create and expand my ideas on education. It it not my first time at the conference. As I continue to attend, I gather friends with benefits who have the same mission of changing the world and sharing their expertise. I have learned so much, I had to think how to share. Look here at the conference site and examine communities.

I am part of a team of teachers. We are an affinity team, and we sit and talk after the sessions, to strategize what we will do during the year after the conference is over. Jesse Bemley has created the first Supercomputer Center in a neighborhood. Mano Talaiver is a great friend from Virginia; she works with a consortium out of Longwood University, educating the rural populace and sharing new technologies, gender education and such. Bob Plants is a learning science specialist who trained at Vanderbilt and who currently works at the University of Mississippi; we work together at SITE.org. And my husband, Vic Sutton, is a journalist-educator. That is the core of our group, but already this year we have found a few others to bring along on our journey. No one is in charge of the team.  Henry Neeman and Scott Lathrop are our main contacts within the SC community. Continue reading →

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I am in conference mode.

First was the SETDA 2011 Leadership Summit, Nov. 6-9, at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center On the Potomac in National Harbor, Maryland. U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, along with Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Laura Junor, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, and Richard Culatta, Education Fellow, Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Washington, and Steve Midgley, Deputy Director, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education, announced the launch (Nov. 7) of The Learning Registry. “The Learning Registry is a new approach to capturing, sharing, and analyzing learning resource data to broaden the usefulness of digital content to benefit educators and learners” (Learning Registry).

The next conference was at FOSI.org: “The nature of evolving technology sees the emergence of new trends and behavior among young people and new efforts by government and industry to combat harmful behaviors. FOSI provides periodic information to keep you informed about these issues.” Here are some featured publications:

• State of Online Safety Report: 2011 Edition (14MB)
• Increasing Youth Safety and Responsible Behaviour Online: Putting in Place Programs that Work
• Cyberbullying
• Sexting
• Self harm in the digital age
• Broadband Responsibility: A Blueprint for Safe and Responsible Online Use

I am currently at the Supercomputing Conference (SC11)  in Seattle, Nov. 12-18: “Connecting Communities through HPC [High Performance Computing]. To build a larger, more diverse, knowledgeable and skilled community, SC11 is focusing on innovating HPC applications and advancing scientific discovery for the local, regional, national and global society.”

I will share more about these in an upcoming article.

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Games and education seem not to fit for those who are traditional educators. For some reason they don’t think learning is fun. In a recent article, I shared how interactive demonstrations at museums captivate the interest of children. The interactive modules often integrated a short game. Here’s the thing. Games don’t write red marks all over the paper if you make a mistake. Instead, they are engaging in that you can continue to play to improve your scores.

Games let you explore different ways of working with data. I had a game, something about warlords, and I took the role of each of the groups to learn techniques that would let me play well. In some games, when you get a top score, you receive some type of special recognition.

Unfortunately most educators and administrators do not wade into games to understand the fascination, the intricacies and the methods that games use to entice, enchant and involve students, teachers and players.

I have worked with MECC, a group that started games in education. The great thing about it was that you had license to replicate the games in the school system. So, as fast as the ed tech people could copy, you could use the games. They were originally quite simple, but complicated enough to interest children. Continue reading →

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My wife and I took a cruise around Italy, Spain and Portugal this fall. We were amazed at the number of iPads, Kindles and other devices being used. There was on the ship the usual room of computers and email connections, but WIFI was also available for those who brought their own devices.

There was a cruise ship reporter who had her four-year-old daughter with her. They had been on five cruises this year. The daughter told me how she read her books on her iPad and how she wrote things on it, meaning she spoke to it about the things she saw. She showed me how she could get her favorite stories to come up on the tablet.

Port at Lisbon

Suzy was our youngest fellow passenger, but not the only one with an iPad, Kindle or other mobile communications device. I was impressed by many of our senior ladies and their skills and knowledge about these devices. As far as I could tell they used them in two ways. Before shore visits they did searches on points of interest, the history of the place and other background information. On the shore visits they took pictures and posted notes on what they were seeing. When they got back to the ship at night they shared their shore visit photos with fellow passengers. Of course, the pictures and notes would be shared with family and friends via email and social media or in person when they returned home. Continue reading →

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By Michael Biocchi

[See Educational Games Part I: A Way to Make Even Math Fun and Educational Games Part III: Their ‘Educational’ Characteristics]

Classrooms in high schools and elementary schools are embracing technology more and more as time passes. That being said, some do not yet have whiteboards, projectors and video conferencing equipment. However, all the schools do have one thing — a computer. As of 2008, it is estimated that 100% “of [public] schools [in the United States] have instructional computers with Internet Access.” In fact, the “ratio of students to instructional computers with Internet access” is 3:1 (Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools: Fall 2008, USDE, April 2010, p. 4). With these statistics, it is safe to say that technology is in the classroom. Nevertheless, it is not just about getting the technology into the classroom. It’s about how it is being used.

When looking at combining education and new technologies, such as games, with younger students, it is good to know that most have used a computer to complete homework. Furthermore, 18% of gamers are under 18 years of age (2011 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry, Entertainment Software Association, 7 June 2011, p. 2). This means that, while there are a lot of adult gamers, there is still a large portion of players in elementary and high school.

Combining both the classroom and games is a perfect fit. Parents think so as well with 68% believing that “game play provides mental stimulation or education.” Also, 57% of parents “believe game play helps the family spend time together” and 54% “believe game play helps [children] connect with friends” (2011 Essential Facts, 5). Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Jack Grove’s article begins with the phrase “Standardized teacher training,” and it goes on to say that 70% of British academics have rejected this proposal by the Higher Education Academy. The issue isn’t with teacher training per se. It’s with the whole notion of standardization. Grove cites Julie Hall, co-chair of the Staff and Educational Development Association, who defends the rejection: “Universities have designed their own programs over the past 20 years in this area, so this sounded like the HEA was telling ­institutions what to do. We are glad it has listened to us – a one-size-fits-all approach will not work” (“British Academics Reject Training,” Times Higher Education, 11.3.11).

Hall’s comment makes sense, until we realize that this may just be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. She is a staff development leader, and we have to wonder if the one-size-doesn’t-fit-all argument also applies to her work at her own institution. I don’t know the answer and can only hope that it does. However, my personal experience tells me that the vast majority of staff development programs are guilty of the same kind of top-down siloing. Under the guise of “best practice,” they relentlessly champion one approach or another, usually a FOTM with a catchy title. Convinced that they have the one answer for all pedagogical questions, they gather the weary classroom warriors on their parade fields and cheerfully attempt to get them to march in unison to their one-size cadence.

The problem is that “best practice” isn’t an answer. If it were, it would be static and old from the get-go. In other words, yesterday’s best would be today’s worst as a natural correlate of exponential change. The only viable take on “best practice” is that it’s a question, or more accurately, a set of questions. And the set would have to be open since tomorrow’s questions will be based on advances and conditions that we can’t begin to imagine today. Continue reading →

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There was a time in the early days of mankind when life spans were less than twenty years. Today we are seriously finding ways to slow down or stop the aging process. The world just reached seven billion persons. With life spans being extended and more babies being born, we must ask: Are we getting too crowded?

There are researchers that believe we can extend life to 250 years. There are serious questions we need to ask with respect to population and whether or not we are headed to a standing room only Earth. We saw in the 20th Century life spans extend to 100 or more years in one century. We saw women in 1900 on average having seven children to today’s woman having only two. We have seen demographic shifts worldwide and in individual countries. For example, Japan has the oldest median age at about 53 whereas Afghanistan has the youngest median age at around 17.

Nations with younger median ages tend to be more violent and aggressive whereas older median aged nations are more passive and conservative. As life spans expand, there is more time for education and lifelong learning. In fact, older aged societies are more likely to have the senior population engaging in more informal and formal learning opportunities. Increased life spans are altering the stages of life. More and more people are shifting how they expand their life styles. Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Even if the difference in learning styles between boomers and millennials is often ignored by educators in schools and colleges, it hasn’t gone unnoticed in the world of business. Douglas Dell, in “Changing Times, Changing Education Strategies: Ways of Learning Have Changed, So Have the Students” (PropertyCasualty360, 10.31.11), says that by 2015 the millennials will overtake boomers as the majority in the workforce.

This shifting demographic has consequences for training programs. Dell says that “traditional” classroom methods that work with boomers “will not suffice for Millennials, who are eager to learn and are used to seeking knowledge on demand. They will not wait to be assigned to classes, as they are true proponents of real-time learning.” Learning programs must therefore have the following qualities:

• Immediate – offering access to knowledge nuggets at the point of application.
• Specific – targeted to needs and focused on practical application rather than theory.
• Validated – with user ratings and feedback to establish the value of learning.
• Multi-channel – providing content in multiple formats, accessible from multiple appliances.
• Collaborative – offering the ability to supplement information with additional feedback and observations.

Continue reading →

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