Blurts

I expect this study to generate some attention. The study tracked the differential of secondary student on homework relative to exams over the years. How does a researcher think of this or have access to this kind of data? The study found that in recent years the differential is much greater (exams are lower relative to homework scores). As tech folks might guess, the researchers speculated that many students had begun using the Internet to locate answers rather than generate them.

The researchers tested this hypothesis in the past couple of years by just asking students how they did their home work.

In the two most recent years of the research, students who benefitted from homework reported generating their own answers, whereas students who copied their answers from elsewhere, such as online sources, did not benefit from homework.

Recent years has seen a debate over the value of homework as a contributor to student learning. Clearly, if you let Google do the work, homework will be less productive.

I have not been able to read the original research as the publication requires a journal subscription not carried by the UND library.

This research does raise some interesting questions about the perspective learners have on homework and how this perspective may determine the effectiveness.

This study also reminds me of the work of Nicholas Carr and his proposal that Google is Making Us Stupid. Of course, this is not actually Google’s fault and the search capabilities they provide can be a great asset. The issue is substituting looking stuff up when the goal is learning.

I haven’t written about Brave for some time. It is my browser of choice, but I am guessing unfamiliar to many who read my posts.

Brave is pretty much Chrome as it is based on the same code base. Most of the extensions I run in Chrome I can also use in Brave. Since Brave and Chrome are pretty much the same, why bother with a browser that is less known. For me, there are two reasons. First, Brave was developed to block ads, scripts, and other data collection tactics related to the collection of usage data often used and sold for various reasons (e.g., targeting ads). Second, Brave does offer ads and an alternate way to compensate content developers.

Why block ads and then allow ads? Brave ads are simple text ads similar to Google ads. These ads are not used to collect information, but because companies pay for the display of the ads (like ads in general) these companies provide a source of revenue. If you want, I suppose you could pay yourself with this revenue, but I don’t think this is the idea. The revenue can easily be shared with content creators in compensation for their effort in providing content or services. This approach respects your privacy as a user of the Internet and also respects the work required to generate the content that provides you a reason to use the Internet.

You can just block all ads. If you do so, I believe it is important to add funds that are distributed to content creators. To me, this is the ethical thing to do. The money you contribute is converted to a cryptocurrency called BAT and you indicate the number of BAT you want to have distributed each month based on the amount of attention you spend on different web sites. Web providers must enroll to collect BAT contributed by Brave users. This is an issue I will return to at the end of this post.

I have experienced BAT funding and the experience has been interesting. When I first joined the Brave ecosystem. I put in $50 just to be part of the experiment. This was before I could collect money from seeing Brave ads and before I could register my web content with Brave. If you look carefully at the image above, you will see that I now own 390 BAT worth $125. How I got from $50 to $125 is mysterious. As I said, at first there was no way for me to earn BAT. I now can earn BAT based on my browsing and Brave users viewing my content. Neither source of income would possibly be responsible for bringing in more revenue than I have committed to provide others. The only thing I can propose is that I have accidently become a cryptocurrency investor and I got into BAT in the early days of Brave.

Regarding registering your content with Brave here are some final comments. As I said, you need to do this if you want to receive BAT in compensation when other users of Brave block ads that might appear on your content. Not enough content and service providers do this. I don’t lose BAT based on the time I spend on sites that are not registered (e.g., Amazon, Google). If you offer web content via a blog or web site, I encourage you to enroll with Brave. It costs you nothing. To make this system of blocking the collection of personal information AND the compensation of content creators work, users must both use this browser and ecosystem and enroll their content.

Teachers are headed back or will soon head back to their classrooms. I watch on social media as some promote or ask about tech opportunities for their students. In a recent tweet, a teacher asked if others could recommend free alternatives to Padlet and this started me wondering about the circumstances under which the teacher worked.

Those familiar with my writing probably understand that I am not necessarily a fan of free. I get particularly upset with those wanted to block ads as this attitude rejects the assumptions a content creator makes when offering content online. My reaction to free on a more general level relates to the recognition of the time and skill that go into crafting content and services. The ads that appear on this post are an expression of this position on my part. Google ads provide compensation only when a viewer clicks on the ads. My guess is that of the thousands of page views I generate a year I may get less than a click every 2-3 months. The dollar or so I generate is pretty much irrelevant. My inclusion of ads is intended more as a recognition that I value the time I invest and hope that those who read do so as well.

Consider that apps such as Padlet not only reflect a time commitment and skill level on the part of the developers, but also an ongoing investment in the infrastructure necessary to maintain the servers and store the content. Concepts such as copyright exist not just because of payment, but because of the recognition that the long term goal of encouraging development and innovation requires support. I like to encourage this same realization when thinking about paying for digital tools and content. What does the education community value in resources created by others?

I recognize that the circumstances educators work in and the attitudes of educators can be two different things. I don’t necessarily assume teachers should be expected to provide for the resources used in their classrooms out of pocket. Such support is the responsibility of administrators and ultimately the taxpayers of the district responsible for the education on learners. Apps should not be requested frivolously, but those apps used consistently should be purchased.

Padlet happens to be one of the apps/services I recommend within the category I call an embellished document. The price for an individual teacher is $12 a month, $100 for the year. I do think this is a little pricey and would personally value the product at about $8 a month. However, Padlet is versatile and can be one of those goto tools that is used frequently. The negative sentiments I have read associated with Padlet often seemed to originate in their initial free to teachers introduction that encouraged some to invest great amounts of time in creating content then to find that they could not continue to use all of this material when Padlet began to charge. Better to offer a trial offer focused on trial and not heavy investment. Lesson learned.

Not all devices offer the same opportunities when it comes to hosting a Zoom session. This source from Zoom provides tables offering helpful comparisons. Interpret ‘web client’ as chromebook.