Author: grabe

Does taking advantage of technology retard the development of important intellectual skills? I encountered an article today that addresses this issue on a broad scale (intelligence in the Internet age). It is an important question.

Whether we realize it or not, as educators, we make such decisions frequently. The elementary school teacher must decide whether or not students are allowed to use calculators and in what circumstances. The college statistics teacher must decide whether or not students are allowed to use computers or must rely on a calculator. We decide whether exams will be open or closed book.

A question I face concerns whether or not I should use technology to help students study more effectively. I design and evaluate computer supported study environments. As a simple example, I evaluate the benefits/detriments of providing notes (outline and complete) to students in introductory classes. I had a discussion related to this interest with a new faculty colleague today and it was like so many I have had with other colleagues over the years. The core issue in this discussion concerned whether providing notes to students retards the development of these students’ literacy skills. My colleague wanted to help students learn to process the increasing amount of material they encounter and suggested that by “making it easy” for students to identify key points and the structure of my presentations I may not be requiring the students to develop such skills. In addition, maybe the students would simply download my notes and not come to class.

It is not that I am suggesting that these are trivial decisions. Rather, I am suggesting that the positions people take are guided by assumptions rather than actual data. I cannot prove that by providing notes to students I am not undermining the long-term development of “learning to learn” skills. I think I can demonstrate that by providing notes I can improve student performance on exams. I am waiting for someone to demonstrate that “toughening students up” by providing them minimal support is a good long term strategy. If this turns out to be the case, I will have to rethink my position.

The Sept. 15 edition of techLearning offers a piece entitled “portrait of a digital native.” The digital native/immigrant distinction has been argued by Marc Prensky. In addition to the description of a world most of us are assumed not to understand, Prensky argues the digital natives are frustrated with the educational world they encounter. Perhaps the techlearning article will persuade some that young learners operate in a world requiring a different educational approach.

Are we really that different? (previous post)

Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat) uses his NY Times (editorial) to compare international educational practices. In this piece, he examines the progressive educational methods of Singapore.

Message to America: They are not racing us to the bottom. They are racing us to the top.

I find it interesting that Friedman seems to address his comments to parents as much as teachers. Perhaps his international perspective suggests not only an increased urgency for school reform, but also an expanded view of whom should feel the responsibility for this change.

American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches offers a ranked list of the top 100 speeches. Most of these speeches are also available through this site. Before you visit, see if you can predict the topc 5.

American Rhetoric home page.

The iTunes Music Store has started supporting video podcasting (there may be a cool name for this but I have yet to discover it). For those of you who are not iTunes users, iTunes is cross-platform and free. The podcasts from the iTunes Music Store are also free. You will need to download and install iTunes on your computer (iTunes Site) to explore the podcasts available through iTunes.

I was not aware that video podcasting was going on, but I read about it in one blog and checked it out. Sure enough. If you want to see what is presently available, visit the podcasts section on the iTunes site (again podcasts are free). I find it difficult to find things that might interest me at the iTunes podcasts site, but in this case all I did was enter “video” in the “search all podcasts” text box and what I consider a significant number of feeds were revealed (try SYSTM). As you might expect, some of the programming is not suitable for children. When you select the feed for a video series, the material is sent to the iTunes system on your personal computer. The video plays in the area of the iTunes screen display where the “album art” is normally shown.

Trading student videos among classes does not require this kind of technology. I do see this is as a way for the educational technology types who enjoy creating multimedia and those who podcast already to share ideas, how-tos, etc. Look for this soon. I am too shy and will stick to blogging.

I find the trend to digitize the collections of libaries, museums and other organizations which accumulate “stuff” truly amazing (e.g., National Archives). At one point, early in this process, a curator explained that you can see many things online that you cannot see at the museum. I did not truly understand this until I had the opportunities to interact with the staff of the ND State Historical Society because of grants and wonder about a bit in the storage areas. (See People of the Upper Missouri – a recent project developed as part of the Teaching American History grant awarded to the Grand Forks Schools).

I was reminded of this again today when I read a post promoting access to the digital resources of the University of Wisconsin. There is some really cool stuff in the back rooms.

Google offers another new service – Google Blog Search. Unlike services such as Bloglines which function by alerting you to new posts on blogs you have designated, Google searches for entries on any of the blogs it scans. I would suggest you go to the “advanced” search page and experiment. Educators might want to note the box for avoiding inappropriate blog content. Try searching for the following phrase – powerful techniques for searching blog content. If this search service works as I expect, you should end up back here.

BBC description