Month: March 2003

A recent New York Times article examines the filtering issue.

Conclusion — there is no perfect filtering system.

A Benton Foundation report entitled “The Sustainability Challenge” has just surfaced. As the title implies, the report offers an analysis describing the concern that the underutilization of technology, growing budget issues in many states, and the flexibility allowed by No Child Left Behind to shift money from proposed funding categories may combine to encourage a slippage in technology commitments.

A number of useful issues and concerns are raised.
a) Budget issues – does the edtech committee understand the total array of costs that should be considered – Total Cost of Ownership
b) The disconnect between what students gain through quality educational uses of technology and what approaches are currently used to evaluate achievement
c) How we think about sustainability – is technology supposed to replace anything?

One personal irritation – I read these reports partly to identify useful primary sources. I want to access the research and documents that report writers are using to justify their claims. This paper has plenty of names and dates, but no actual citations.

Reposted from listserv:

As a new Internet-based activity in 2003, “Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project” (see http://www.rubythroat.org ) is encouraging individuals and teacher/student groups in the U.S. and Canada to participate in “Hummingbird Super-stimulus Experiment 2003.”

The experiment is an attempt to use a giant “fake” hummingbird feeder to get the attention of spring migrant Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) as they fly overhead. The idea for the experiment originally came from Gary Springer.

Guidelines for how to participate in “Hummingbird Super-stimulus Experiment 2003” are at http://www.rubythroat.org/FakeFeeder2003.html. We think this will be a fun way to get folks of all ages to learn more about migration dates and general hummingbird behavior. Results will be submitted via the Internet and posted on the Operation RubyThroat Web site. Please feel free to forward this message to friends–especially K-12 teachers–who may be interested in participating. For those in the southern U.S., it’s about time to implement; New Englanders and Canadians have a little more time.

Happy Hummingbird Watching, EDUCATION PROGRAM BILL HILTON JR. Executive Director Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History 1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA education@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

The “Open Source” movement has encouraged some to offer educational resources and tools for general use much in the same way that open source programmers offer programs or operating systems for common use. I have made reference to such resources (see previous post highlighting Merlot) in previous posts.

Edu-Source Canada describes itself as a repository of “learning objects” (note new vocabulary word). “A repository differs from standard web materials by providing teachers, students and parents with information that is structured and organized to facilitate the finding and use of learning materials regardless of their source location.”

Jeanie Olson is one of the teaches we featured in our “Integrating the Internet …” book (Our feature on Jeanie Olson’s class.). Our story about Jeanie’s classroom described her interest in the Iditarod and the online and hands-on projects she created using the Iditarod as a theme.

This year she realized a personal dream and is viewing the race as it happens. Her posts on her experiences appear on Jeanie’s own web site.

The New York Times Women’s History Site offers resources related to women’s history. Original articles describing actual events are a useful feature of this site. Lesson plans are also included.

Time for another post about hand helds. I offered comments a couple of weeks ago more complaining about a specific company than offering anything constructive concerning the educational potential of these devices I guess “potential” would be the word I would presently use to describe educational hand-held devices. I buy the arguments that ubiquitous technology is valuable and laptops are a little too expensive. However, I have yet to develop an appreciation for productive applications — my own personal experiences have not convinced me that handhelds offer the ease of use necessary for me to use one as a learning tool. Others feel otherwise — check out the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education at the University of Michigan (Hi-CE). I am still waiting for “good data” or a “killer app” I can’t live without.