Month: February 2005

You may have heard about podcasts and want to know and experience more. You will not find much on this site – I feel most comfortable writing. However, I can run down some resources that may be helpful.

You may be familiar with the work of David Warlick (writer, blogger, presenter and now podcaster). I would recommend this site to provide a meaningful experience with podcasts.

Every time I encounter his work, I wonder what he does for a living. I say this in a positive way recognizing the quality of the work he makes available and the time invested.

This is one thing I have noticed about some “experts.” I have the most respect for those who can do more than “talk” about what can be done with technology – those who have actually generated some content, completed some projects, etc.

This comment is mostly intended for my local readers – the argument I make may not apply to other locations.

There are simply too many institutions of higher education in North Dakota. Some are smaller than the high schools you may have attended. The various institutions continually push to expand their missions as a matter of survival. Funding for higher education has taken the approach here that appears evident everywhere. All institutions must act more and more like they are private institutions – they rely on the money they raise (mostly tuition dollars) rather than on funding from the state. The problem with doing this in ND is that there are too many institutions and too few students. In fact, the number of undergraduates represents a shrinking pool because of out migration.

The worse case of this problem involves graduate education. I am “old schools” so graduate education for me implies high standards for admission, demanding learning experiences, and an intense, mentored process. It is costly because of the faculty time and resources required, but it develops quality graduates. You should not get into this game unless you have resources and can attract a reasonable number of students.

It appears that some of the smaller institutions in ND feel they have the appropriate personnel and resources to offer graduate experiences. Obviously, this will not be done based on my “old school” model. In fairness, I suppose the question must be what alternative models are appropriate for graduate training in education.

It is not so much that different approaches are not worth trying (e.g., graduate school based on the junior college model). The problem is that distributing the pool of potential graduate students across more institutions will reduce the tuition resources available to any one institution. In areas in which there is competition (primarily education college programs), there will not be enough students to warrant the allocation of resources to run quality programs at any institution.

Grand Forks Herald Article.

I now have a Gmail account. I have heard the controversy regarding the ads and the reality that Gmail reads your messages. I decided to try a simple test. I sent a simple message to myself from another of my mail accounts – “Have you seen the new Mac Mini?” – just to see what would happen when I open the message. See below:

What do you expect for a free service?

It looks to be a nice system. I could not imagine the value of 1000 megabytes of storage space. The material that comes with system suggests you archive any message you may ever want to read again and then locate it with the Google search features. Makes sense.

The system appears to have some spam defense mechanisms. A good spam system on a free system would be impressive.

New York Times (Pogue) analysis (may need to register).

While it may appear that nothing has changed, I updated the blog to WordPress 1.5. Upgrades on a Friday are a big risk for me. Sometimes things don’t go well and then I am stuck trying to undo what I have done.

I am sold on WordPress and recommend this product to any of you wanting to operate a blog on your own server.

ISTE has collaborated with Microsoft to offer an NETS Online Technology Assessment. However, access to this service is allowed only if one invests in a certain operating system (see below).

Supported Operating Systems
?? Windows Server 2003
?? Windows XP
?? Windows ME
?? Windows 2000
?? Windows NT

Supported Browsers
?? Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
?? Other browsers including Netscape are not supported at this time

OK – so what is up with this? Microsoft can’t figure out how to offer cross-platform resources or ISTE will follow the money at any cost?

If this type of thing is not an issue for you, here is the link.

I contacted ISTE with my position on this issue. To be fair – here is the ISTE response:

On behalf of ISTE I would like to thank you for making us aware of your concern with the NETS Online Assessment Tool co-developed by ISTE and Microsoft. The voices of our members are very important and we appreciate the opportunity to discuss this concern with you.

We are collaborating with Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Initiative to provide educator resources to our membership including an example of a 21st Century, online, formative assessment tool. Please know that ISTE does not endorse “one” assessment tool. Our goal in sharing resources with our members is to provide options so members can make informed choices from an array of quality assessment resources based on what works for their students and/or teachers. ISTE has currently developed an “Assessment Initiatives” informational flyer that will list a variety of assessment offerings for both Mac and PC. We believe it is important to consider that not every resource worth considering is dual platform, and not every ISTE member needs both.

During our last phone conference, Microsoft shared their intent to develop a Mac solution for future releases. Although they are not able to pinpoint the exact date the updated release will be available, they are targeting one year from now so they can gain insight from the current limited implementation (The tool is version specific for Windows users, too!) in order to optimize the functionality of the tool.

We apologize for the inconvenience the limitations of this early version of the NETS assessment tool has caused you. If you have concerns you would like to discuss with us directly please contact Brenda Aspaas, Senior Executive Assistant in our Washington, DC Office (at 202.861.7777 or baspaas@iste.org) so that we can set a time to talk by telephone.

Thank you for being a member of ISTE and voicing your concern.

Here is a link to an article arguing we are ignoring the development of technology basics. Keyboarding is an example.

My wife does not like me to mention keyboarding. It is not that she is against keyboarding skills. She has a sense of a) the time available in schools, b) the resources available in schools, and c) differences in how teachers understand connections between “basics” and other skills. I think her concern is that these factors will constrain student experiences to “learning” keyboard, etc. and not getting on to learning with and not about technology.

So, perhaps one question might be – if students spend one hour per week using a computer in school (I wish), what would you have them do?

New Secretary of Education outlines Vision for Higher Education.

If you are a college student, I would encourage you to read this material and reach your own conclusions. Actually, I would encourage you to discuss issues that interest you (e.g., flat tuition fee) with your instuctors who may understand why institutions often take a different approach. Among other issues, the “vision” encourages a greater commitment to data based comparisons.

[begin quote]
One of our biggest challenges is a lack of compatible and comprehensive measurements???the kind of information parents have come to expect from K???12 schools. Parents see a mosaic of fine higher education institutions, each with wonderful qualities, but find it difficult to piece the puzzle together.

How do credit hours compare? Is the coursework aligned with the state’s K???12 system? Are there work-study programs? How long does it take on average to graduate, and does that differ by major course of study?

What if the student is African-American or Hispanic; what are their prospects? Is a student better off attending a less expensive state school over a five- or six-year period, or a more expensive private school that they may finish in four?

Publications like U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings are useful, but they do not tell the whole story. We need to encourage states and institutions to adopt common languages and metrics.

That way, both traditional and non-traditional education consumers can make smart choices, based on information, not anecdote.