I watched a brief spot on Public Television in which Sherry Turkle (MIT Prof – The Second Self, Life on the Screen) made some specific statements about the limiting effect of PowerPoint. I have heard others in casual conversation make statements about “power pointless.”
A quick Google search revealed several sources relevant to this issue. Here is a good wiki source (PowerPoint.) presenting both positives and negatives.
The Oct. Technology and Learning contains an interesting article addressing whether the recently published vision of 21st Century Skills and the core skills forming the focus of NCLB are compatible or contradictory. I have been waiting for the Technology and Learning web site made this article available to promote this article (Judy Salpeter).
One core challenge is the designation of “essential skills.” NCLB may have identified some, but not all of what is necessary. Another challenge concerns understanding the connection between “the basics” and “meaningful applications.” Is it necessary to assure that the basics are in place before more meaningful activities are attempted or is it more useful to learn what basic knowledge is needed in the context of meaningful learning tasks. How does the emphasis on “essential skill” testing influence the distribution of classroom experiences between “the basics” and “meaningful applications? If a balanced approach is recommended, what will encourage teachers to take the risk of developing activities that are not directly related to those objectives emphasized on tests?
A recent Christian Science Monitor article investigated what it calls the Great Escape – the escalating of teacher loss during the first three years. The article concludes the colleges of ed are generally producing enough teachers (perhaps not in the right specialties or willing to go where they are needed), but an increasing proportion leave during the first three years. Why? It appears there are many known reason – a sink or swim attitude, lack of decision making power, certification requirements associated with NCLB, etc.
Technology types may recognize a familiar name in this article – Tom Carroll, a name many of us associated with PT3, is now executive director of the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (NCTAF) and appears to be involved in addressing some of the issues raised here.
The guest on today’s TechTv ScreenSavers was Doug Engelbart. This humble 80+ old is possibly one of this country’s great thinkers. Cindy heard him speak at a convention a year or so ago and has had a new hero ever since (she has an autograph).
The show notes from ScreenSavers provided a link to Engelbart’s biography. If you are unfamiliar with the history of technology, this link provides a great source for becoming familiar with one of the real pioneers.
Friday afternoon and I have time to do some online exploration. It would be interesting to know if I post more frequently on Fridays than on other days of the week.The Apple Education Site has a feature on Digital Kids. The concept is essentially that our kids live in a different world and think different (I apologize, but I thought Apple might like that last comment. If you have no idea why that was supposed to be funny, you can still access the site on your Windows machine). Their daily experiences and their tools of choice are different than our own were or are and these differences shape motivation and priorities. While I can’t believe this is really true for all/many kids, it is an interesting challenge. I encourage you to explore the site (video clips, etc.) and see what you think.
Modern search engines make it easy to locate online resources. Some (Google) make use of data gathering techniques that even move supposedly “better” (translate “more popular”) sites toward the top of the list. Still, it is nice to locate a portal that offers a human touch – opinions and descriptions connected with web URLS. techLEARNING.com (the web site associated with Technology & Learning magazine) offers a resource of this type. This is a good site to explore.
This link falls into the category of “must see” and provides a virtual tour of the Sydney Opera House. The technology demonstrates both the potential and the practical application of Flash.
Cindy and I had the opportunity to visit Sydney in the summer of 2002 and these images take me back to boat trip we took past this very impressive structure.