What happened to Java?

There was a time I was very excited by the Java programming language. It was not that I was going to ever learn to program in Java, but the concept and the potential seemed very promising. As I understand the intent, Java was to offer two advantages: 1) it was to be cross platform and 2) it was to be Internet friendly.

The first idea assumed that programmers would develop an application once and this code would be “interpreted” by a free application associated with each operating system (windows, Mac OS, UNIX).

The second idea was that some Java applications would be downloaded from the Internet as needed rather than being stored on individual computers. In certain situations, this would change the hardware requirements and reduce costs.

It simply did not happen. I am not sure why. It seemed that the various parties could not agree on the “version” of java that would be promoted. Perhaps the business opportunities for individual companies prevented a common vision from being implemented.

I can’t say that everyone has given up on the vision. However, I do know of one company (eZedia) that had embraced the idea has now moved to some version of C because they have concluded this is simply not going to work.

I remembered my previous interest in this topic when I came across some of the resources developed by the National Council Of Teachers of Mathematics. This organization was supporting the development of applets that would allow users to explore mathematics in an interactive fashion.

For example, one applet offers a functional spreadsheet (the following is an image and not the actual applet).

Spreadsheet Image

I do encourage you to visit this site and explore some of the resources. A warning – I did find inconsistencies in my ability to use the resources depending on operating system and browser.

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Serious Games

From time to time, I have commented on recent work being conducted exploring the potential of computer games. I have recently discovered a site associated with the Woodrow Wilson Center that offers great background information.

Wilson Center’s Foresight and Governance Project hosted a two-day workshop Game-based Learning Models & Simulations: Expert Blueprints for Project Success, to explore how the management and performance of three sectors ??? hospitals, high schools, and parks ??? can be improved using game-based simulation, learning, and training technologies.

The video streams provide some very interesting material.

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If it is good enough for us …

I am working on the book revision and attempting to address an issue that continually surfaces as a criticism – why isn’t the investment in technology having a stronger influence on learners? Part of the answer is – the learners do not spend much time using technology. Why?

I think we used to assume that the issue was a problem in teacher preparation. Cuban argued a counter position when he noted that technology integration was not really happening even when teachers were sophisticated users.

Russell, Bebell, O’Dwyer & O’Connor have reached a similar conclusion. In fact, their data seem to indicate that new teachers feel confident and skilled themselves, but use technology less in the classroom that teachers who have been in the system 6-10 years. Pretty hard to explain this away as an access or a teacher preparation issue. Maybe this just means new teachers just have too many challenges and don’t see tech integration as essential. Maybe this means personal technology skills are not the same as technology-based instructional skills. If this finding generalizes, this will be an interesting observation to explain.

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