Posted on February 6, 2011 by JimS
By Harry Keller
Editor, Science Education
As a scientist, you’d think I’d really be in favor of science fairs. A recent article by Amy Harmon in the New York Times (“It May Be a Sputnik Moment, but Science Fairs Are Lagging,”* 4 Feb. 2011), among others, laments the decline of science fair competitors. The Los Angeles County science fair, it says, has dropped to 185 participating schools, down from 244 a decade ago.
Teachers who support these event, who organize them, find venues, recruit judges, and so on do so without pay and may spend hundreds of hours preparing them. I should know because I did the same thing for the Department of Energy’s New England Regional Science Bowl. So I definitely intend no disrespect to these motivated and hard-working teachers when I say that the value of these events is marginal. Too many science fair projects are done partly or mostly by parents. Too many show a lack of understanding of what science is. A few remarkable projects demonstrate incredible dedication and creativity for the young people who do them. Continue reading →
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Posted on January 23, 2011 by JimS
By Guy Inaba
Educational Support Specialist
Kapi’olani Community College Library
[Editor’s note: One of the drawbacks of teaching completely online is that I seldom have an opportunity to drop in on Guy Inaba at our college library. He’s one of those who’s always at least three steps ahead of everyone else when it comes to advances in technology. I never leave our informal sessions without learning something new. In his first ETCJ article, Guy shares an email exchange that we had recently. -js]
On Jan. 11, 2011, at 12:31 PM, I emailed Jim Shimabukuro about a workshop presentation that we had worked on. I signed off with “Power of digital media – Nice!”
On Jan. 14 at 10:19 AM, Jim replied: Speaking of tech — I remember your introducing me to flash drives years ago. Yesterday, I picked up an 8GB flash drive for under $20 at Don Quijote.
On Jan. 19 at 6:11 PM, I replied: Hi Jimmy. Just got some interesting info from CES (2011 International Consumer Electronics Show) — Victorinox Swiss Army will put it out in a few months. Click on the pictures for the various styles. Don’t have a price on these but nice design for the tech person. Tech is really moving forward. -Guy Continue reading →
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Posted on January 21, 2011 by JimS
Eric Gorski, in “Students Not Learning a Lot in College, Tracking Study Finds” (denverpost.com, 1.19.11), reviews Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s study, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (University of Chicago Press, 1.15.11). From the perspective of a K-12 educator who has done some work at the post secondary level, this study brings to mind a number of scattered thoughts that I will hopefully bring together at the end of this article.
Let’s start with a key quote from the review:
The research of more than 2,300 undergraduates found 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.
One problem is that students just aren’t asked to do much, according to findings in a new book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.” Half of students did not take a single course requiring 20 pages of writing during their prior semester, and one-third did not take a single course requiring even 40 pages of reading per week.
I don’t see anything in this review that I would not have predicted based on my experiences decades ago while working as graduate teaching assistant in a major competitive university. While I was there, the chancellor emphasized that the faculty was to focus our time on research, not teaching. Teaching was something to do in one’s spare time. The required reading lists for courses generally focused the research area of the teacher and often had little to do with the title of the course.
Continue reading →
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Posted on January 18, 2011 by JimS
By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor
This is the start of the second week of instruction, and already the online classroom trolls are spreading their fear and panic among unsuspecting classmates. As a group, educators tend to think of trolls as infectious agents that prowl professional discussion forums. We seldom think of them as a problem in the completely online class. But they’re there, and all we need to do is look for the symptoms.
The most common e-student troll is one who posts misinformation about class activities and policies. The perpetrator can be male or female, but in this example, let’s say it’s a male. He posts an emotional message in a forum, claiming that the directions for completing learning activities are confusing and misleading and cites misinformation to support his claim. Before the instructor can respond or even after s/he does, a large number of students react with panicky posts and comments as well as email to the instructor. In short order, the class is in chaos with fear and panic spreading like wildfire.
Ironically, before the panicky post, all the students were in the process of completing the activity without any problems. They understood what needed to be done and were doing it. All it took was the one flaming message to create instant pandemonium. The fact that this can happen says something about the online learning environment. It’s vulnerable to trolling.
Continue reading →
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Posted on January 13, 2011 by JimS
By Harry Keller
Editor, Science Education
T.H.E. Journal has an article by David Nagel, “California Schools Pilot iPad Algebra Curriculum” (8 Sep. 2010), about a textbook publisher running an experimental effort using 400 iPads in four California school districts .
The publisher’s CEO trumpets that this “signals the beginning of a new era in curriculum development, where the goal is not just providing world-class content, but also delivering it in a variety of ways so that students and teachers can individualize the learning experience. We believe this pilot will provide the nation with a glimpse into the future of education.”
Maybe. Delving a bit more deeply into the article, you find that the iPad apps “provide feedback on practice questions, allow students to take notes and save them for later use, give students access to video-based lessons, and provide guided instruction. It also offers tracking tools focused on student comprehension, as well as real-time reporting tools for teachers.” Continue reading →
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Posted on January 11, 2011 by JimS
By Harry Keller
Editor, Science Education
An article in the New York Times (Sharon Otterman’s “60 First Graders, 4 Teachers, One Loud New Way to Learn,” 10 Jan. 2011), explains how a school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, has changed how learning takes place.
I specialize in science education, not in general learning theory. Yet, I’ve been advocating something like this for years. It’s nice to see someone actually doing it instead of just giving it lip service.
The concept is simple but not so easy to do well. It has two parts. I’ve often wondered why today’s teachers aren’t more like apprentices who work under the tutelege of a master in an actual work setting. That’s why putting three novice teachers in a classroom with a master teacher sounds like such a great idea to me. The master teacher splits time between teaching students and teaching teachers. I believe it’s much better than the usual “sink or swim” approach to learning to teach. I’d expect that you’ll have better teacher retention under this system too. Continue reading →
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Posted on January 5, 2011 by JimS
At the 2011 International CES, January 6-9, Las Vegas Convention Center, don’t miss Kids@Play and MommyTech, Saturday, January 08, 2011. Here’s a blurb that describes the event:
Play with the new toys and new tech designed to address the specific needs of kids and their families. Kids@Play explores the world of gear-toting digital kids who will become tomorrow’s digital citizens. We’ll reveal the latest games, toys and educational products certain to engage the most discriminating kids: from toddler to teen. MommyTech looks at how digital technology helps Moms do what they do every day: the impossible!
They’ve scheduled an awesome list of speakers.
Continue reading →
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Posted on January 4, 2011 by JimS
By Tom Preskett
I was struck by this header in Sarah Kessler’s “The Case for the Virtual Classroom” (Mashable, 1.3.11): “The Internet Empowers Self-Motivated Learners.” This is a good way of putting something that is blindingly obvious. But is it therefore not good for learners who are not so self-motivated?
The internet is well suited to learners who are completely self-regulated, aggregating learning resources from a variety of sources, seeking out their own channels of support and collaboration. There has never been a better time to manage your own learning experience. Continue reading →
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Posted on January 2, 2011 by JimS
By Lynn Zimmerman
Editor, Teacher Education
Tom Preskett’s article, There’s Blended Learning and There’s Blended Learning!, made two points in particular that started me thinking about group dynamics and how this plays out in face-to-face, hybrid, and online classes. First he said that in one model of hybrid courses “The course is explained, participants get to know each other, and bonds are formed.” Then later he commented: “Give a student in 2010 the alternative and F2F wins most of the time.”
I think that forming bonds is one of the necessary elements for success in hybrid and online courses, and this ability to form bonds is related to students’ preference, or not, for face-to-face. In some cases, the course’s success does not depend on whether the students form bonds – an introductory chemistry course of 300 students being lectured to in an auditorium comes to mind. However, for a course that is conducted seminar-style or in which the goal is for students to work collaboratively, creating bonds can be critical to success. Continue reading →
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Posted on January 2, 2011 by Claude Almansi
By Claude Almansi
Editor, Accessibility Issues
On Oct 29, 2010, the White House launched the http://expertnet.wikispaces.com wiki and announced it publicly on its blog on December 8:
One vexing challenge to engaging Americans in governance has been finding new models and tools for the next generation of citizen consultation. We want to take advantage of the latest technology to: 1) enable government officials to circulate notice of opportunities to participate in public consultations to members of the public with expertise on a topic; and 2) provide those citizen experts with a mechanism to provide useful, relevant, and manageable feedback to government officials.
That is why the White House Open Government Initiative and the General Services Administration, working closely with the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Performance and Personnel Management, are today launching a public consultation (through January 7, 2011) to obtain input on a design concept for a government-wide software tool and process to elicit expert public participation. In addition to making government more open
Continue reading →
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Posted on December 31, 2010 by JimS
Posted on December 26, 2010 by Claude Almansi
By Claude Almansi
Editor, Accessibility Issues
Disclaimer | Digesting grass | Digesting videos | Video and text | Read-Write culture and tools | Universal Subtitles | Copyright hits the fan | Lessig’s plea | Other obstacles |Solution?
Disclaimer
Non scientists should refrain from using scientific concepts as metaphors. I am fully aware of this, and actually, when a sociologist or other humanistic scholar thus hijacks terms or phrases like “black hole,” “big bang,” “DNA,” etc., I skip his/her text if possible.
Nevertheless, what little I understand of how the cellulase enzyme works for ruminants has been very instrumental in my first perception of how captioning videos helps all users digest their content, and underlies what I have written here so far about captioning. Hence the decision to come out explicitly with this subjective and uninformed perception of it.
Digesting grass
Cows can digest and assimilate the grass cellulose because they ruminate it, but not only: humans could chew and re-chew grass for hours and hours, yet they would still excrete its cellulose whole without assimilating any because we lack something cows have: the cellulase enzyme that chops up the molecules of cellulose into sugar types so that they can be assimilated Continue reading →
Filed under: Accessibility, Multimedia | Tagged: Accessibility, Captioning, cellulase, cellulose, copyright, ice, Lawrence Lessig, Lessig, text, Video, WIPO | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 26, 2010 by JimS
It appears the bulk (about 60%) of the influence on children’s education does not occur in schools. It occurs elsewhere. Diane Ravitch, in “The Myth of Charter Schools“[1] (New York Review, 11 Nov. 2010), says that, according to studies, “teachers statistically account for around 10–20 percent of achievement outcomes.” She adds, while “teachers are the most important factor within schools,” other factors outside of school have a greater impact on learning.
Ravitch says that, according to economist Dan Goldhaber, “about 60 percent of achievement is explained by nonschool factors, such as family income. . . . Teachers can have a profound effect on students, but it would be foolish to believe that teachers alone can undo the damage caused by poverty and its associated burdens.” Continue reading →
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Posted on December 24, 2010 by JimS
Posted on December 16, 2010 by JimS
After watching a young relative use the iPad, I had to think hard. This child can’t really read, but he used it to negotiate a story for himself.
Even more interesting was watching him learn to use a digital camera, looking into the lens and taking pictures of his eye and so on.
Amazing that he can take pictures and access an iPad to have it tell him a story. He still likes to have stories told to him (he likes being held) and sometimes enjoys passively looking at something on television. But his passion is for interactivity.
Bruce Newman, in “Rise of the iKids: Schools Test iPads in Classrooms“* (MercuryNews, 12.14.10), says that “iPads — the Apple of almost every adolescent’s eye — are being provided to students at several Bay Area public and private schools this year, including Hillbrook, which claims to be the only K-8 school in America using tablet computers in class and sending them home. This has led to a lot of 12-year-olds swanning around the wooded hillside campus, talking to their iPads” (MercuryNews, 12.14.10).
Our children are growing up digital and wired. Some schools are beginning to accommodate them. How will this new generation impact our nation’s schools and colleges? What do you think?
___________
* Webcite alternative.
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Posted on December 15, 2010 by JimS
In the aftermath of the recent PISA test reports, the common belief is (1) the scores bode ill for the US’s future in the global economy and (2) the answer to better scores is innovative instructional technology. What do our ETCJ readers think?
Marion Herbert, in “The United States Receives Average Rankings from PISA“* (District Administration, 15 Dec. 2010), underscores the relationship between PISA test results and America’s future in the global economy. She echoes U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who says:
Being average in reading and science — and below average in math — is not nearly good enough in a knowledge economy where scientific and technological literacy is so central to sustaining innovation and international competitiveness. The results are especially troubling because PISA assesses applied knowledge and the higher-order thinking skills critical to success in the information age. (7 Dec. 2010)
Central to the popular response to the test results is the belief that instructional technology will need to play a key role in America’s comeback. Herbert says, “Reactions to the PISA results have generally spouted the same message — the United States needs to raise the bar with education innovation to create college-and-career-ready students who can better compete in a global economy.”
__________
* Webcitation alternate link.
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Posted on December 14, 2010 by JimS
By Tom Preskett
Blended learning has lots of different definitions. In addition, there are the different balances struck between face-to-face (F2F) and online elements. I’ve reflected previously (in The ‘Open Mode’ – A Step Toward Completely Online) about different student attitudes in approaching blended vs. purely online learning. In the two models below, I will examine how the structure of a blended course, in the context of higher education in the UK, can have an impact on effectiveness.
Model 1. The course begins with a F2F day or two – often the preferred term here is “residential.” The course is explained, participants get to know each other, and bonds are formed. Importantly, the online environment is introduced with hands on practice if necessary. More importantly, the educator shows commitment to facilitation of any online activities involving communication or collaboration. The rest of the course is taught online with perhaps another F2F event at the end. So the only organised way students can interact or collaborate is by engaging in the online activities. Continue reading →
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Posted on December 12, 2010 by JimS
By Stefanie Panke
Editor, Social Software in Education
Since 2002, the annual Horizon report identifies emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching and learning. In 2010, the project advisory board, comprising international scholars, educators, policy leaders and industry representatives, described “open content” as a key trend, expected to reach mainstream within the next twelve months (p. 6).
In fall 2010, UNESCO launched online forums on OER-related topics, the discussion centered on the challenge of “Taking OER Beyond the OER Community.” As another initiative, the “European Consultative Group on Open Educational Practices” developed a roadmap towards quality management in OER. As these examples show, the idea of educational material freely and openly accessible on the Web attracts substantial attention.
One major reason why the concept of open educational resources has gained such prominence is the everyday experience of informal and incidental online learning shared by practitioners and researchers alike. Easy-to-use tools and wide access to networks result in informal learning becoming more visible as a part of learning in general. We use the World Wide Web as a convenient part of our everyday information infrastructure – in private contexts, for scientific purposes, in schools and universities, and at the workplace. Search engines and directories are often the starting point for navigating the Web. But where do users end up in their quest for easily accessible yet valuable content? At this point, OER comes into play, describing the open access to information for learning purposes. Continue reading →
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Posted on December 11, 2010 by JimS
By Lynn Zimmerman
Editor, Teacher Education
Recently, my university – Purdue University Calumet in Hammond, Indiana – installed media technology stations in the last two classrooms on campus that lacked them. As it happens, these were the two classrooms in which I have taught most of my classes for the last few years. However, I was not without technology. I was able to place an order at the beginning of each semester for a cart to be delivered each class period. It came with a computer with Internet access, a DVD player, and a projector.
The cart served its purpose, although it did take up space in the middle of the classroom and was rather noisy. Therefore, I am happy to have a stationary setup in the classroom now. It contains the aforementioned equipment as well as a document camera, which I have found very handy. However, my classroom in the US is not what I want to talk about here. I mention it because I want to contrast this technology with what I experienced in Haiti recently. Continue reading →
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Posted on December 11, 2010 by Claude Almansi
By Claude Almansi
Editor, Accessibility Issues
On Dec 8, 2010, I received the following e-mail, entitled “Alert!”, at my gmail address, apparently from “GMAIL <onlineupdatealert@gmail.com>”:
Dear Email Client,
There was a failed attempt to login into your account from a blacklisted IP. Kindly login below
http://www.gmail.com
It looked suspiciously phishy so I checked the source – click here to see the source.
The full header indicates that the sender might be spoofed, the chunk of code suggests a web bug that verifies that the message has been viewed, hence that the receiver’s address is valid and spammable, and the last two lines show that what appears to be the URL of the legit gmail login page actually links to a well-made duplicate: http://www.4dsystems.com.au/flashimg/gmail/signon.html. Continue reading →
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: cybercrime, cyco, Gmail, phishing, Report, scoci | Leave a comment »
Posted on December 11, 2010 by JimS
By Stefanie Panke
Editor, Social Software in Education
By virtue of their ability to link entries to authors and dates, weblogs are the ideal space for handling, networking, and archiving individual views that have the potential to impact larger communities. Educational researchers and practitioners have pointed out that weblogs may have great influence in instructional design: “Blogging has the potential to be a transformational technology for teaching and learning” (Williams & Jacobs, 2004). An impressive body of research and case studies has become available on the phenomenon of “edublogging,” the use of weblogs in educational contexts.
The purpose of the annual Edublog awards is to promote and demonstrate the educational values of social media. The 2010 edition of the “Eddies” marks the seventh year of Edublog Awards. The nomination lists provide various ideas on how social media is used in different educational contexts, with a range of different learners. The Edublog Awards consists of three stages: nomination, voting, and award ceremony. Anyone can nominate blogs – but self-nominations are excluded. Continue reading →
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Posted on December 10, 2010 by JimS
Young people use them. That’s a reason they use the hoodie – to conceal their cell phone use. The problem is that the schools don’t appear to want them on campus and don’t appreciate their educational potential. There’s often a sign at the entrance: “This is NOT a cell phone zone.”
I’m old, that is, years ago, I got into trouble for just using and having a landline to hook my computer into the internet. The principal used to lock that phone in a safe to keep me from using it. How far we have come.
Chris Dede and the FCC chairman think they will help to vault the digital divide. Will they? Maya Cohen is conducting an online discussion to answer this question: “Cell Phones at School: Should They Be Allowed?”
My question to ETCJ readers is, How can we, as teachers, incorporate cell phones into our curricula? Please share your strategies and ideas. It seems such a waste to ignore or even ban this extremely portable, anytime-anywhere communication medium.
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Posted on December 9, 2010 by JimS
By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor
Stephen Downes’s column in The Huffington Post has become a routine stop for me. His topics and comments are always probing the edge of ideas, inviting us to look over there, and from there, back to where we were. His latest, “The Role of the Educator” (5 Dec. 2010), doesn’t disappoint. If the role of educator is changing, then what is it becoming? What are the possibilities? Downes comes up with a staggering list of 23 roles, yet it’s obvious that this is just the beginning of a list that stretches to infinity.
And, as usual, he makes me think.
Yes, we definitely need to begin to explore all the developing roles of educators because the breadth and depth of our visions will determine the course of our schools and colleges. Perhaps the strongest influence on curricula and pedagogy is our conception of the teacher’s role, i.e., form follows function, and if we believe that the instructor’s function is to lead or guide a group of students, then much of the form of teaching and learning has been predetermined. Continue reading →
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Posted on December 7, 2010 by Claude Almansi
By Claude Almansi
Editor, Accessibility Issues
‘Operation in Our Sites II’ – Out of Sight for the Blind was about the inaccessibility for the blind and for people with print disabilities, of the notices added to the sites that were seized by ICE in the last week of November: because accessibility is what I write about here, normally and because this crass violation of the very first principle of accessibility was so odd, from a US government’s agency, that it suggested a hoax or a parody.
However, make no mistakes these seizures concern us all, and particularly educators. As Hartwig Thomas pointed out in
US-Attacke auf das System der Domänen-Namen (my translation):
…One consequence [of the seizures] is that average users must now learn about the concepts of IP addresses and domain names, in order to keep control of what happens with them (…).
Continue reading →
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Bush, Carroll, DoJ, ice, torrent-finder.com, torrent-finder.info, war against evil | 3 Comments »
Posted on December 7, 2010 by JimS
By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor
The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2009 survey results were released today by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Click here for the official press release. Click here for the “PISA 2009 Results: Executive Summary.” A separate document, Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for the United States, was also released by the OECD.
Pisa 2009 Results focuses on reading as well as math and science. The report consists of six separate volumes. Volume VI, Students on Line: Reading and Using Digital Information, will be published in June 2011. It “explores students’ use of information technologies to learn.” Continue reading →
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