I came across this distinction in reading posts on the Read/Write blog site. This comparison is a clever way of describing a distinction that appeals to me. My personal priority in promoting ways in which students might benefit from technology is to use technology to explore the world around them rather than to attempt to create a digital world within which to explore. Each approach offers unique opportunities, but my opinion is that virtual experiences have yet to mature to the point that the efficiency and authenticity can match opportunities available within the physical environment available to all of us.
Some 32% of teenagers questioned had experienced one of more of the following: having a private e-mail, IM or text messaging forwarded or posted where others could see it, the victim of an aggressive email, IM or text message, having a rumour spread about them online or having an embarrassing photograph posted online without permission. (comment from BBC News)
The most common strategy appears to be forwarding an assumed private email or IM message. Participation in a social networking site appears to increase the probability of being bullied.
Before jumping to conclusions specific to online activities, it is important to note that teens state offline bullying is more common.
One of the consequences of the attempt to improve student performance by way of NCLB is that students learn less of content not promoted through legislation. Social studies has been one area that receives less attention because it is not tested. So, on this day when we remember the history of our nation, here is a plea from the National Council for History Education.
Your urgent help is needed by the National Council for History Education
As the future of No Child Left Behind comes to Congress those who care about the teaching of history need to be heard.
This is a moment when every voice can make a difference.
We all need to pitch in to ensure that History is Not Left Behind
Through History Matters! and our website, we have urged all who care about the teaching of history in our schools to write the members of the Educational committees in the U.S. Senate and House, and also their own representative.
As Congress considers reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act it is imperative that our voices be raised so that Senators and Representatives, and especially members of the two Education committees, hear from teachers and others about the importance of making History a meaningful part of the curriculum in our nation’s schools.
At http://www.nche.net/nclb you will find information about Congressional members and guidance for the letter-writing. This is an extremely important undertaking, which may well affect everyone who teaches history throughout the United States.
Strange, isn’t it?
Parade of Boats – a July 4 tradition on the lake we visit in the summer.
“We’re not selling the iPhone in North Dakota,” said AT&T spokeswoman Natalie Bauer.
This makes it official. I live in an outpost on the frontier. The GFHerald (you will have to register to gain access, but it is free and you may enjoy the comments on frontier life) ran an article on the iphone. Unlike most the rest of the US, the message was – you can’t get it here.
The problem:
The iPhone the much-hyped new product from Apple and AT&T will only be available with wireless service from AT&T.
My personal problem:
Personally, I am not much of cell phone user. My wife threatened to cut off my account last month after I accumulated less than 5 minutes of phone calls (I have an unlimited plan so I can use the phone to check my email and do web browsing). She calculated what that amounted to per minute. I like to think of myself as the strong and very silent type.
My wife is very different in her use of a phone – any phone – and I have been using the promise of an iphone to cover my wife’s Christmas and birthday presents (from last year). I may have to go shopping after all.
What is it that prompts individuals to share resources they have had to invest a great deal of time and expertise to create?
Today, I attended a session on the future of the book. While the general opinion appeared to be that the traditional book can no longer serve as the only source of information, there appears to be little consensus on what else should be available and how the development of these other resources should be financed. A teacher who relies on self-generated content was on the panel and presented samples of her materials. She contends that teachers are typically willing to share as long as other teachers reciprocate. I wonder. How many teachers would be willing to participate and how could it be assured that the requires types of content would be created. Can the open source model somehow be adapted to provide the content necessary for K-12 instruction?
The comment on sharing made me think of a session we attended yesterday. Mitchel Resnick from MIT was describing the work being done with Scratch. If you have not been exposed to Scratch, it is a visual environment within which the behavior of objects can be scripted (programmed). Programs are not developed using a language consisting of words, but rather objects. The objects are organized and interrelated by the programmer. The idea is to create a simple way to program that can produce impressive and thus motivating projects. Scratch is a free product. In addition to the software, the creators offer a site participants can use to upload completed projects.
The Scratch team has noticed something interesting about how the site has been used. Students download a project from the site, see how the project was coded, add an improvement of their own, and then upload the improved project back to the site. It is kind of a training ground for open source software developers. Put your project on the site and expect other people to modify your work. Maybe this is not only a way to reintroduce programming into the curriculum, but also a way to develop an appreciation of sharing.
This is kind of interesting. We happened by the MacKiev booth near the end of the day and stumbled into a presentation by Roger Wagner. Roger was the original developer of HyperStudio. After he sold HyperStudio (the details of why are a little vague), HyperStudio kind of faded. At one point, development ceased.
One of the reason we care personally is that HyperStudio was one of the main examples of a tool students could use for multimedia authoring in editions 2 – 4 in our book. The decline of the product required that we adjust our perspective. We changed over to eZedia products for our present edition. If we move on to another edition, we will probably try to provide examples of both.
While the competition must be tough in creating products for the education market, it is great to see a reasonable level of competition. A little competition pushes companies to continue to generate improved products and gives consumers greater choice to match specialized needs.
If I heard correctly, the upgraded product is to be available for an August release date. Welcome back Roger – good to see you at NECC again.
It appears that blogs are still in. Will Richardson’s session (webblog-ed) was filled to capacity. Presentation originated from a room offering participants the
opportunity to use refurbished old computers running a stripped down
open source operating system without a harddrive. Folks looking for
ways to contain costs and offer more equipment.
Blogging about blogging (metablogging) seems a little much and since I am assuming there will be 30-40 posts from this venue I will save my battery for another day (post).
Will did identify some wiki sites that he has worked on to offer information and resources related to educational blogging:
If there was one point from the presentation that I would regard as a kind of core message it was that you must be a participant before being an advocate.
Administrators feel blogs are just too much trouble – be a blogger and explain why this is helpful to you in your own professional development.
Want your students to learn from blogging – be a blogger and show then how.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
