Month: November 2003

I am exploring while recovering from today’s meal.

The Opti Project is an effort to map the Internet. A cool feature (unimplemented at present because of server pressure) will allow you to find your machine within this map.

When our kids were young, they would sometimes do something that was kind of cute and then do it again, and again, and again. We had a little saying that we applied in this situation – first time funny, second time stupid, third time a spanking. I don’t remember actually following through on the threat and I am not certain that our saying was original, but you get the idea.

I now have the same reaction when I hear certain expressions used in a professional environment (e.g., convention presentations). It is getting to the “third time” for “drill and kill”, “sage on the stage”. etc.

What is the “kill” in drill and kill supposed to mean anyway? Kill meaningful learning. Kill student interest.

If you commonly use “drill and kill”, I would recommend that you read a recent American Educational Research Journal article by Peladeau, Forget and Gagne (2003, 40, 769-801). The article concerns the use of practice items in college quantative methods courses. As part of the introduction to their research, the authors note that educators tend to belief that repeated practice has a negative effect on student attitudes and motivation and point to expressions such as “drill and kill” used by influential writers as part of the problem. They challenge the research community to produce a study showing such detrimental effects and point to several studies, including a study contrasting drill activities with other types of learning software, that appear to indicate a positive impact on student motivation. They conclude their article by returning again to the concern that focusing exclusively on complex learning situations (I assume such approaches as problem based learning) at the expense of sequenced instruction and practice may be counterproductive. Instead, they encourage a view that promotes how different methods might complement each other rather than focusing on differences and an either/or mentality. We have tried to say this same thing ourselves – it is balance among learning activities that we are promoting. We encourage greater, but not exclusive, use of project based learning and other experiences focused on promoting meaningful experiences.

The study itself demonstrates the value of practice and overlearning in the college classes studied.

A recent Washington Post article comments on concerns for the ephemeral nature of “knowledge” (I would call it information) distributed as web pages. The article laments the increasing use of the outlet by the scholarly community and the negative side of offering information that may not be available in the future.

A realistic concern I suppose. However, I would also suggest that the rapidly accelerating costs of scholarly publications has also made it impossible for many college/univerity libraries to maintain present collections. In addition, the proliferation of scholarly publications makes it unrealistic that immediate access in paper form will be possible again.

I guess the general concern involves the difficulty in following the chain of logic authors use because access to reference material is becoming increasingly unreliable (or impractical) for many reasons.

OK – I will admit up front that this entry is a stretch for an EdTech web site. So, if you are in a hurry, move on to something more relevant.

Music downloads, online music, pirated music, etc. have been a prominent topic for those with general technology or Internet interests. I have an interest in this topic on several levels – I purchase music online for immediate download in digital form, the topic of copyright is relevant to my professionl work, and I am interested in alternative models for the distribution and support of commercial products (open source models).

Magnatune has launched a new venture that takes a different approach to the distribution of music in digital form. While the approach to generating revenue is unusual, this is a company that assumes it will be profitable. You can listen to the music they make available online and download the music if you wish. The funding model is close to shareware — it appears as a user you make the decision to pay. What the artists receive is a much higher cut of the profits than would be the case through the major labels. The open questions is whether this will translate into a higher proportion of very few actual sales or whether enough people will support this less expensive approach and provide a reasonable level of income for the participants.

The government has released a summary of “research-based” web design and usability guidelines. This is worth a look to see what the document recommends and also for the extensive bibliography that is cited to support these recommendations.

Sebastien Paquet has authored a great summary of blog applications. Actually, this paper describes the transition as blogs have evolved from more primitive beginnings to a more sophisticated collection of uses described as Personal Knowledge Publishing. For those with a serious interest in blogs and blog applications, this is a great source.

One use Paquet describes as personal knowledge management is a good description of how I think about what I try to do with this blog. Personal knowledge management = “A weblog that you edit also serves as a chronological record of your thoughts, references and other notes that could otherwise be lost or disorganized.

CNET is running a series of features on Technology in Schools. The topics range from the impact of technology (this link) to corporate influence on school purchases.

The article on technology impact provides a current assessment of what is known about the influence of technology on student performance. Contrary to what is probably popular opinion, the % of school budgets spent on technology has declined the past few years. ‘