Month: September 2006

Berkeley, self described as one of the preeminent public research and teaching institution in the nation, has decided to offer a variety of course lectures online. The range of topics is narrow (no educational psychology yet) but I took a look at several examples from biology (I have an undergraduate major) and information systems (perhaps the closest area to my present interests – one was with Sergey Brin – the Google guy). I must admit I cannot listen to Brin locally (I thought his name was spelled Sergi).

I think you should listen to a few examples with the intent of drawing personal conclusions regarding what such content might be good for. What might be of value in putting “regular” classroom content online? Perhaps you might ask the question this way – would I prefer these lectures in place of the lectures I might encounter on my local campus? If I was in a related course, would I watch both the local and the Berkeley lecture? Would I watch any of these lectures if I were a member of the general public and not a student?

My answer – sometimes. I found the access to the Brin presentation to be of personal value. Perhaps each of us would have that reaction to one video. Maybe one is enough.

eSchoolNews (Sept. 19) offers an article summarizing criticisms of colleges of educations based on a recent study. You may have read a similar article in your local paper. Among the many criticisms – school administrators find new hires poorly prepared to deal with a number of practical issues (including the integration of technolgy).

Access the full report – Check out Part II – pursuit of irrelevance (look carefully – there is a link to the pdf).
There is not a great emphasis on this report on the development of skills in the classroom use of technology. Principals and alumni are asked to rate how effectively teachers are able to integrate technology – 46% of principals and 41% of alumni responded with the top two categories of readiness. These values make more sense in the context of other issues that were raised. The only issue associated with lower ratings was preparation to work with students with limited English proficiency.

The overall tone of this analysis is very negative – we need more and more qualified teachers, teacher preparation is poor, those going into the profession are less capable than those entering other programs, teachers need more field experiences, teachers need better grasp of their content area, etc. It is the combination of demands and deficiencies that is disheartening. It is almost as if future teachers need more of everything and then the challenge becomes attracting students with the dedication and finances to take that challenge on.

I thought today was going to be a day like most other days. But no, today is OneWebDay. This day has its own entry in wikipedia. Today is the day to “celebrate online life.” If I was not on a diet, I would go looking for a piece of cake.

My toast – In a time when so many things tear us apart, here is to an effort that recognizes something that may bring us together.

Cheers! 🙂

technorati tags:onewebday

Blogged with Flock

When Apple upgraded iTunes and the iTunes store to offer movies I could not resist. I paid my $10 and downloaded Pirates of the Caribbean just for the experience. My problem is that I am one of those people who has a TIVO, netflix and several cable movie channels and watches about one movie a month. At present, I am not certain what this will have to do with classroom applications, but the convergence that some have long predicted may now be more obviously on the way.  The device for connecting computers to new large screen TVs demonstrated in the release announcement (to be released early next year I think) may be useful in classrooms.

The video experience reminded me of a topic I wanted to explore. Classroom video is changing. Cindy is presently implementing a grant intended to allow Grand Forks teachers to compare two commercial classroom streaming video systems and they content each provides. I will likely describe this project as it develops because the impressions of teachers may be informative to others.

Here is another resource that falls within this same category. I recently encountered the Dragonfly TV web site. Dragonfly TV is a PBS science program for adolescents I would describe as focused on hands-on science and the exploration of scientific principles as applied to daily experiences. I was aware of the program (see concluding comments) but had not encountered the web site. Among the resources the site makes available are segments from the program – each 30 minute program consists of multiple segments. Science educators might review these clips with the intent of locating resources for classroom demonstrations. The clips are even available as podcasts for collection within iTunes or on your ipod.

Here is the little twist. Tomorrow our son Todd starts his second year doing the Final Cut Pro work to edit Dragonfly TV. The frenetic pace of the program – complex multimedia, rapid pace, etc. – is what he and the other editors create from the raw video content. Those of us who have done simple video productions in iMovie may now appreciate just how much of the complexity in polished professional productions is created by the editors. Part of the concept of what it will take to make the program appealing to adolescents is the presentation. It is kind of like MTV meets Mr. Wizard (if this makes no sense Google Mr. Wizard).