Author: grabe

A number of high-tech companies and other organizations are cooperating to push for the development of what they define as 21st Century Skills. The work of this coalition has resulted in a web site and several useful resources:
1) ICT-Literacy Map – a pdf document outlining standards and expectations by grade level
2) An interactive guide intended to help those who use the guide define priority skills.

I have heard organizations such as this criticized for what may in the long run be self-promotion – i.e., Apple, Dell, Cable in the Classroom, Time Warner have something to gain by the position that students need to be prepared to learn from new media sources and develop new information literacy skills suited to this new environment. However, I suppose the counter-argument would be that those institutions and companies invested in the status-quo also have a perspective to protect.

These materials contain some concrete language identifying the skills the coalition feels need additional attention and some good examples of classroom activities providing opportunities to learn these skills. I find this combination of specific skills and related activities is a useful way to understand what some feel need to receive greater attention.

I made the trip with Cindy to Chicago. She is attending a conference on digital portfolios sponsored by LiveText.

We walked by Millenium Park last night and I went back on my own today to take some pictures.

The main exhibit featured the a collection of photographs by Uwe Ommer titled “Family Album.”

Ommer has traveled the world to photograph families in context. Four years using nearly every from of transportation imaginable.

Uwe made it to South Dakota.

Learn more about Uwe Ommer at the Family Album Chicago web site.

I wonder if there would be a way to approximate this project virtually. Students from different locations could contribute images of their own families and a descriptive paragraph.

The July issue of eSchoolNews contains a headline article “Copyright: Can it hold knowledge hostage?” The articles takes its direction from an Annenberg School of Communication conference entitled Knowledge Held Hostage.

We emphasize student created multimedia products as a way for students to explore and process course content. When these projects were based in a physical location (e.g., a classroom, a school), existing “fair use” guidelines apply. You can use “small amounts” of material (text, music, images) within an educational multimedia product stored on a classroom computer. However, posting that same product to the Internet changes the rules. Works on the Internet are regarded as “publications” and are governed by the same rules that apply to commercial publication. This changed to some extent with the “TEACH Act.” The TEACH Act was enacted to allow on-line classes to provide similar experiences to face-to-face classes. For example, as a classroom instructor, I can take a small amount of material (e.g., a graph from the textbook) and display this material in class as part of a lecture. An on-line instructor would probably now be allowed to scan a graph from the textbook and post the image with comments on the web as long as access was limited to students from the instructor’s class.

The focus of the TEACH Act leaves unclear what students are allowed to create and post and whom would be allowed to review this material (e.g., parents).

Crews and Law analysis of the TEACH Act.

Indiana University – Purdue checklist of TEACH Act compliance.

Writing about legal matters is tricky. The best advice is probably to understand the punch line from the joke about the baseball umpire – “it ain’t nothing until I call it.” Laws are vague and comments about laws are closer to “opinions” than anything else. Court action often ends up defining what laws mean.

I am very interested in those willing to give their “opinion” regarding what content students are allowed to post.

Windows users – have you secretly lusted (in your heart) after the really cool digital media tools Mac users take for granted. Here is an opportunity to approximate iPhoto on your machine.

“Picasa works with the digital photo files on your PC to create a better, more organized viewing and editing experience. Picasa will not delete or move the location of pictures saved on your PC.”

Picasa has also been purchased by Google (like blogger.com) and is currently free.

Thanks to Craig Nansen for this suggestion.

CNN reports that an email hoax is circulating reporting that CNN has claimed Osama bin Laden has committed suicide. The email contains an image file that is actually a virus.

Beware

I was online recently with an acquaintance at Houghton Mifflin and she said she was taking this week off to avoid complications of the convention. Houghton Miffilin is located in Boston.

This election year seems extremely important in setting the future path for the country. Differences of opinion regarding the war in Iraq and how it should now be resolved will likely be quite influential. Fundamental goals for education will also be important to many of us.

I was curious about how the Internet might be involved in this process. Each party has a convention site – Democratic Convention; Republican Convention. The same is true for the candidates – George Bush; John Kerry.

The democrats promise a gavel to gavel webcast and blogs. The Republicans will likely provide the same sources.

Washington Post comment on this phenomenon.

I am Mark Grabe and I approve of this blog.

Cindy is in California at Apple Camp. She sent an email this morning saying I should connect to watch. It seems some of the sessions are being streamed. However, the stream is intended for ADEs only (which would also exclude me) so I cannot share.

Here is an early morning view from a session room.

When the room filled up I had Cindy stand up so I could find her. I later captured this image – she is the circled woman in the second row.