Category: General

While we and others talk a lot about how various types of technology can be “integrated”, it is sometimes difficult to give educators the real feel for what this is actually like. Here is what such an experience would look like from Cindy’s perspective (this is what she did yesterday).

Middle school students in Grand Forks do a field study of macroinvertebrates. They are bused to a state park nearby and collect specimens from a stream. The specimens are identified, counted, and photographed. The instructors may explain the purpose of the lesson a little differently, but to me it is basically an ecology lesson focused on how characteristics of the environment (running water, water quality) determine the type and quantity of organisms living in that place.

What do the photographs add? The collection is “permanent” and specimens can be returned to the wild. There is an external record that can be examined after returning to the classrooms.

Cindy uses iPhoto and her .Mac account to organize and display some of the “artifacts

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The American Psychological Association has joined the discussion of teacher preparation. APA’s position is critical of the “soft science” that has typified recent research (the 1990s) and urges a return to student performance outcome studies of the 1970-1980s. “Legislators and the public have become interested in results again (p. 51).

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I started blogging using a product from Pyra called Blogger Pro. This was an inexpensive subscription service that was an upgrade from the free Blogger product. I was recently notified by Pyra that the Pro version was being discontinued and the extra capabilities were being made available for free. They are sending me a sweatshirt in compensation for the subscription fee. If you are interested in creating a blog, we have always recommended Blogger.Com and now the potential of this service is even greater.

Wonder how online services can be offered at no cost? Me too! Often the answer is that the service incorporates ads in some way. This does not seem to be a big part of the Blogger strategy. Blogger has been purchased by Google and the connection with Google is somehow responsible for the change in policy.

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The Chronicle of Higher Ed recently sponsored an interactive discussion with Dr. James Gee, author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. See my previous post 8/23 describing this book.

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I read on Slash.Dot that today is the anniversary of the first computer bug. The Navy historical archives retain primary source material on Grace Hopper and this event.

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Software companies wanting to promote their productivity tools and educational institutions in need of staff development offer each other some great opportunities. Tools that I know how to use or have an inexpensive way to learn how to use are more attractive to me. If I am aware of the opportunity, this would provide companies willing to provide me free or inexpensive training a great marketing opportunity. While some skills I would learn could be applied with similar tools, certain skills would not. All things being equal (e.g., price), I would probably also be fairly loyal to a company that was supportive of my development.

I happen to be a fan of Adobe GoLive (web authoring tool) and Adobe makes an attempt to use this approach. Check out Adobe’s online tutorials for educators and the program for high school students.

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Kids.us, the domain promising content appropriate for a young audience, is online. NeuStar, the company responsible for registering sites wanting to use this domain, requires registrants to submit their content for review prior to website activation. The only link I found was to the Smithsonian so we will have to see whether companies make the effort or see any advantage in this approach.

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