Technology in Education

I am giving a technology workshop on reading and writing tomorrow and only three people are signed up.  It should be fun, but I have had to make the activity much more fluid.  I also just wrote an article and found it very difficult to write in two dimensions without using links and examples to describe this technology.  “Showing” has become much easier for me than “telling”.

I have been completing my technology portfolio for my Educational Leadership degree.  This has been a taxing process.  I disagree with the symbolism of printing out a technology portfolio.  I made the effort and spoke up that I thought this portfolio was a bit of a time capsule.  Now I have been asked to make a proposal for changes.

The technology standards for administrators are fairly clear, but how should they be measured in a prep program?  Should they be embedded in coursework?  I am grappling with how to design a program that can change with the times.  Deciding whether video, mobile technology, wikis, blogs, and social networks should be included is a challenge. 

Google is beta testing a web design software that comes with 100MB of space.  I tried it out and it is set up a lot like google-docs.

cross posted on shsweb

I have been working on my family history. I have a relatively small family. Both of my sets of grandparents had two children. My sister and I are their only grandchildren. I had a fair amount of history on my father’s side, but only back to around 1880 or so when that part of the family arrived from Germany and Ireland.

By using familysearch I was able to go back an additional generation, which was kind of exciting. But last night I started to work on my maternal grandmother’s side. I had a name Thaddeus Stocker and that he lived during the Revolutionary War. From that name I was able to use the site to travel back an additional ten generations!! I got all the way back to 1470 in England (John Wyllie). Needless to say this was pretty amazing to me.

I found out that our family lived in Fairfield, CT (Henry Jackson, Mary Morehouse, etc..) for over 150 years and were among the first European settlers. I found that parts of the family were Tories and parts were fighting in the Continental Army. And this was only in about an hours worth of work. I am probably related to half of Connecticut.

Much of this was inspired by the amazing PBS series by Henry Louis Gates which traced the history of several African-Americans. Now history can be enlightening, powerful, and painful. But the internet is a VERY powerful tool in this regard. I urge you to try to connect with your past.

Update: I think I got back to the year 1256!! Alexander de Forbes in Scotland.

Update#2: I think I can back to the year 50! Godwulf.

We published our first book on Lulu!  A Beginner’s Guide to Web Design.  This was totally student written and edited.  It was an interesting process.  I can’t wait to get the book in my hands (10-15 days).

Just bumping this page.  I have been doing most of my work on the class blog.

I am not writing that often in this blog.  I am doing most of my writing in my School Blog.  I felt I was duplicating many items over here.  Perhaps things will pick up later in the year.  If you are a regular reader of this blog, please switch your links to the above blog.

Thanks.

Does your school utilize iPods and technology?  I know that schools are worried about students “voting with their attention”.  And I understand administrators don’t want to spend the day dealing with missing iPods.

 But could we buy an old iPod for $100 and use them for podcast creation and broadcast, audio recorders, display of video, etc…?

When will we see the tipping point when educators insist on using these tools and force administrators to figure out all the issues?  I get frustrated sometimes…

cross posted on SHS Web Design.

There is an interesting article in the NYTimes. A teacher in New Jersey is assigning homework to his students and their parents. The parents need to log-in occasionally (once per week or so) to comment on the topics in class. Research is clear that meaningful parental involvement in school is very important for student success. This article seems to show that the teacher is providing thoughtful and productive assignments. I am certain that if teachers, parents, and students learn together it is a far more productive environment.

Shouldn’t our expectations be:

• Students learn something new.
• Parents learn something new.
• Teachers learn something new.
• Everyone shares and collaborates.

If only the student is learning something new I think it is much less fun, productive, effective, or efficient. Modeling life-long learning is probably the most important thing we can do in a world that will be changing drastically. Remember, we are training you for jobs that don’t even exist yet, to solve problems we don’t even know about yet (for example, the internet industry is HUGE; but didn’t exist ten years ago).

A parent in this article says “I’m too busy, and I’m done with school! I graduated.”. Lets accept as a truism that successful parents and student are way too busy. I agree. I also obviously agree that any “assignment” must be truly collaborative and meaningful for all.

But, shouldn’t parents be very involved in classroom work? Is this type of parental involvement more meaningful than helping with fundraisers or other activities? What do you think?

I remember how a few months back many bloggers were excited that a 17 year old student unlocked the iPhone.  Now I am not so sure it was a good idea. 

What part of the technology does the consumer own?  The actual phone, the software, or the concept that one can change anything on the phone?  As networks become wireless and we all keep our documents at Google, our photos at flickr, and our movies on YouTube will there be a push back from corporate America?  Apple and AT&T view the iPhone and the network as a tangible asset (hence the two-year agreements).  If it was my computer Dell would not care if I rebuilt the machine (but they would void the warranty).