#ISTE2014 begins earlier for us than for most. For the past several years we have driven from North Dakota to the conference. This gives us some time to explore and kind of represents our transition into summer. It is a more tech-intensive time than you might think. We listen to podcasts and sketch out ideas for projects we want to work on. This summer we are revising our book. This is also the first summer of our retirement. Aside from the lower registration fee for ISTE It still feels about the same.
The ISTE conference has a connection to this blog. ISTE 2002 was the beginning of this blog and the first posts were about the conference. I reread some of the posts this morning. The conference was called NECC at the time and was in San Antonio. My notes say we discussed claymation with Cindy’s friends from Tech4Learning. It is kind of enjoyable to review.
I have been writing about the writing process and improving the teaching of writing for the past few weeks. You do not see this work at present because most will be incorporated into the summer revision of our textbook.
This focus has led to deeper examination of Google docs. I use the service constantly, but do not investigate what new capabilities are available unless some activity prompts me to move beyond my immediate personal needs. One of the new ideas that I have been exploring in greater depth is the provision to supplement the basic tool (docs) with add-ons. This capability is new to docs, but familiar to those of us who have been extending browsers with plugins and extensions for years. The hierarchical nature of this situations strikes me as interesting – plugins within docs within a browser.
Anyway, the idea of tools within tools seemed worth a blog post.
Pro
I remember when there seemed to be multiple levels of tools for a general purpose. For example, I remember when a software company would offer simple and advanced products for authoring web pages. Then, it seemed, the lower end and less expensive tools seemed to disappear. What remained were expensive and bloated (for most purposes) tools. The tool within a tool category seems to me to be a return to a simpler time with an improvement. There is now the real opportunity to expand core tools (say Google docs) to meet specific needs. This seems a great opportunity especially with the tools and plugins are free or inexpensive.
A related interesting opportunity is the similar process of merging tools. Again, using a Google example, you can kind of expand the capabilities of hangouts by adding docs. Now you have a setting capable of powerful discussions (via hangouts) around a common, shared document.
Con
Here is what I have observed as a down side. It may sound like a complaint, but you really should not complain about free.
The motivation for those who generate the main and the supplemental level tools often differ (in other words some are third party providers) and this can cause incompatibilities when improvements are made to the main tool. The case that continually brings this to my attention is my use of Last.FM. This product might be promoted as a social, music discovery tool, but for me it is primarily a way to track my listening habits over time. I can account for nearly all of the songs I have listened to since 2006. When I listen to music on my devices or my computers a record of my “listens” is sent to Last.FM. This is a process that has been named scrobbling. I have never understood the origin of the term. Anyway, I pay Last.Fm $4 a month for a pro membership. For a service and the reason I use it, this is a lot of money. I assume Last.FM is motivated to make improvements to maintain my interest and my payments.
In order to scrobble my plays from my android phone, my iPads, my multiple computers and from many different music sources (iTune, Pandora, Google, Amazon, Grooveshark, YouTube, etc., etc.), it is necessary to rely on plugins (extensions, etc.) that must often be tuned (ha, ha) to the different music sources. I pay for none of these. I seem to have to constantly search for new plugins to fix what used to work. I attribute this issue to the differential motives of Last.FM and those who contributed the multiple supplemental tools. The base tool is being improved to attract my money and these enhancements seem to “break” the add-ons. Last.FM is likely not big enough to offer multiple plugins because the “scrobbling” feature is not perceived as the main role for their product.
It seems to me this situation is likely to create much more inconsistency than we tend to expect.
On June 2 Apple held its annual event for Developers (WWDC – watch the two hour event ). The keynote outlines Apple’s plans for the near future supposedly to guide and encourage software developers. Of course, the rest of watch as well and hope to learn what we might expect from the company in the next few months. Here are some personal comments mostly focused on revelations that may influence the use of Apple technology in K-12 settings. I encourage you to view the presentation and draw your own conclusions.
First, this event is primarily about Apple software development and how developers might take advantage of OS and iOS improvements (mostly) in preparing products and services to be used with Apple hardware. My impression and the impression of the comments of pundits I have reviewed is that Apple proposes some major new innovations. On a personal level, I will find it more convenient to use Apple-enabled software across Apple devices (back and forth between my iPad and Apple computers). I should find that software developers will find it possible to create more powerful services to operate within the Apple ecosystem and possibly I will be able to count on improvements in Apple’s use of the Apple cloud.
I do not necessarily see these changes as opportunities for the K-12 setting. My view of K-12 assumes the use of technology in the classroom and elsewhere (home) and assumes that students will be using multiple platforms (not just Apple). The power I see in the Apple announcements seem pretty much focused on Apple hardware and software (i.e., apps) running on Apple hardware. The use of the cloud appears to play a bigger role in Apple plans, but mostly to store and transfer files between Apple devices. This approach might be contrasted with the Google model in which the hardware is primarily a way to get to the cloud and Software as a Service runs “in the cloud”.
I think there are “work arounds” for the approach taken by any company. You can certainly use Google drive to store files as a method of moving data from one device to another. You can do the same with DropBox, Box and other cloud services. iCloud does allow me web access via any browser and allows me to manipulate files I have created with Pages, Numbers, etc. You can, in fact, use iCloud to store other file types. I must admit I have not used the service for this purpose.
I propose that an issue educators will have to consider is how much time their students spend working within the Apple ecosystem using experiences that require apps running on Apple hardware vs. how much time they use Apple hardware to work online or run software that creates files that can be stored in other ways.
If you have read many of my posts, you know that I lean toward open systems. What I value does not assume services should be provided at no cost. I believe there is value in the most flexible approach possible. It might be argued that the experience of using technology can be made most efficient when one organization controls the experience end to end. Perhaps this is true, BUT a) this requires everyone commit to what this environment will be and b) ad end to end approach has the potential to reduce competition that leads to long term development.
I use a variety of hardware. I do prefer Apple for computers and tablets, but presently not a phone. I have the opportunity to own multiple products in each hardware category. Not everyone is so lucky nor should their income level be a liability in learning with technology.
I have stumbled into an approach for advanced classes I like. I run my grad “tech for teachers” class using a kind of flipped model. There are reading assignments and tasks to be completed before class and then the class (online in this case) involves discussion, demonstrations, etc. I typically generate some talking points/notes I provide students at the beginning of class to provide some structure. The outline does not necessarily control the class but it offers some structure in case a structure is needed.
The topic for the week focused on productivity tools, the writing process, peer editing, etc. and one requirement to assure the students had explored the procedure was for the students to comment on a Google doc I had shared. I decided to use the document I was working on for the class outline as the target for the student exercise. The results were pretty interesting. There was no expectation of relevance just the requirement to demonstrate the students could use the comment feature, but the things they decided to add were interesting. I decided the tactic offers some interesting possibilities for the future.
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