Month: August 2005

Encouraging Exploration

I greatly enjoy listening to music while I work. iTunes is beginning to cost me a fortune. It appears I have little impulse control and often download several CDs within a couple of minutes on a whim. Evidently my spending habits are controlled by variables such as the cost of having to make a trip to the store or the effort required to pull out my credit card. Without these barriers I appear to be out of control.

My wife introduced me to an interesting online service that may feed this habit. Pandora is a service created by the Music Genome Project. It appears the concept is to “tag” a huge collection of songs with multiple descriptors. A Pandora user specifies a favorite “artist” or “song title” and Pandora first plays a song by that artist or version of that song and then offers a series of other songs with similar characteristics. I suppose the concept is to interest listeners in options that may expand the diversity of material that will be purchased (you can connect from Pandora to make purchases from other services). The cost is approximately $3 per month and you can listen to as much music as you want.

I find the tagging and exploration process intriguing (an XML application I think). I wonder what other set of resources could be explored in the same fashion. Maybe children’s literature – if you liked “Sleepy Time Bunny”, try “Train Coming.”

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Fargo at Street Level

The battle for visits among Internet destination sites appears to be heating up and each seems to be integrating new services. Often these new services seem a bit removed from the original mission of the site.

In keeping up with an interest in what I would call “realistic maps” (e.g., images from space)(BBC analysis), Amazon has purchased a company (maps.a9) that provide “street level” views of selected cities. I suggest you locate a city you are familiar with and see what you can recognize.

One blogger described the site in the following fashion:

There are a couple dozen cities here containing most of the usual suspects for major citydom — Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Miami, Fargo — Fargo??! Pick a city.

Be careful now – Fargo is a major city to those of us who live in North Dakota. Uff-da, don’t you know.

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Content is not king?

Jeff Jarvis challenges the perception that content and distribution are not king and claims that conversation is. I have been following a series of bloggers who appear frustrated with the money schools spend on commercial resources (i.e., books). For some reason, perhaps because I write books, such comments generate in me a need to respond. Maybe this need stems from a sense of guilt. However, it is also seems possible I see the issue from a different perspective.

I have absolutely no quarrel with the notion that “the conversation” is important. Conversation, discussion, interaction, etc. are great ways to encourage the learner to think, process, integrate, etc. However, the quest of some to bring the process of education down to certain “basics can become self-promoting. In such discussions, it seems possible “others” are trying to tell the learner” what is best for him/her. In fact, as an “adult learner” I often prefer to purchase a book and not have to listen to the comments of potential teachers who may have a different agenda than my own. I can interact with the ideas of the author and I can use the Internet to locate “free” humans with opinions to test my personal opinions and stimulate my thinking through discussion. In a way, a book and a teacher are both resources intended to assist and stimulate the learner. Just for sake of argment, doesn’t it seem as accurate to claim that both free content and free conversation are available online?

I would propose a different perspective. I agree that there is a reasonable quantity of useful online and hard copy information. Information is also present in the form of content experts and in life experiences. What both good authors and good teachers do is locate and organize quality information and encourage learners to “process” this information and generate personal knowledge. In this effort, the “face to face” teachers has the opportunity to respond to students rather than having to anticipate what issues, misunderstandings, needs, etc. students may have. In most cases, the “face to face” teacher does not have the time to continually develop the background and review the potential information sources an author must consider. The author takes the risk of expending this time hoping that whatever product (a book, video, multimedia product) is generated will be regarded to be of sufficient quality to attract a reasonable number of purchases. It is a very competitive process. In fact, it is a competitive process I must engage in as an author that I do not have to engage in as a teacher. My teaching job is not constantly in jeopardy because another individual decides he or she is willing to engage in some form of competitive process for the students who might consider enrolling in the courses I teach (sounds something like vouchers).

It is easy to make “commercial” sound like a bad thing. It is true – I make some money writing a textbook. But, to be fair, I also get paid to be a teacher. Perhaps I see writing to teach and talking to teach to be more similar than others do.

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Is Tech In Schools a Fad?

The Milwaukee Sentinel has what appears to be a “back to school” series on “Is Tech in School a Fad?”

The short answer appears to be – it is too early to tell.

Research results are mixed. But most studies conclude that for computers and other technology to have much effect on student performance, a number of conditions are necessary: Teachers have to be technologically adept; classroom assignments have to allow for exploration; and curricula have to abandon breadth for depth.

Although schools have made changes in some of those areas, particularly increasing teachers’ technical proficiency, the predominant uses of computers remain word processing, heavily filtered Internet searches and the occasional PowerPoint presentation. In addition, with pressure rising to improve test scores, more schools have embraced skill-drilling software that contributes little to long-term student learning, observers say

Among the issues raised is the frequent observation that actual student use is less than one might expect given the increase in access to technology.

I must add this. My next door neighbor (actually the kid living on the next farm down the gravel road) and high school friend was Lowell Monke. We have pretty much gone separate ways since heading off to college. Lowell is interested in ed tech too –

For Lowell Monke, an assistant education professor at Wittenberg University in Ohio and former advanced technology teacher, the lack of results and questionable uses of technology have destined them to become another educational fad.

For an extended comment by Dr. Monke see – The human touch. How ironic is that?

Anyway, article two in the series Critics say popular PowerPoint pushes students toward ‘infomercials’. Now don’t get me started, blog entries are supposed to be brief.

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College Is A Chance To Hang Out With Smart People – And Other Justifications for College Life

My university starts the Fall semester today. I love this time of year. People who are lucky enough to have jobs doing what I do have something uniquely positive – we are allowed to experience an annual return to youthful enthusiasm. No matter what the age of your body, each year brings the opportunity take on new challenges and to do so in the company of many others on similar journeys.

I find myself caught between what I think are some of true benefits of the “college experience” and trends that may be moving us in a different direction. The ideal for me is a full-time face-to-face experience. I regret that tuition costs require that some students must water down the experience with a heavy work schedule or attend part time. Despite my commitment to instructional technology, I am not willing to argue the equivalence of distance education. I think what students or parents pay for is an environment. The environment is as much a function of the diversity and capabilities of the other students as it is of the instructors. Class time is a small part of the experience and the curriculum is much broader than those topics listed by instructors.

If you are lucky enough to be “full time” and “live”, I hope you appreciate the experience. I do.

Welcome back!

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