NM Schools test podcast teaching

I ran across this article, "Schools help test podcast teaching" in the Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer. It tells about a pilot study in which Microsoft gave Zunes (analogous to Apple's ipods) to 100 students at a rural New Mexico high school. Students were encouraged to be linked to their devices at school, on the bus and on fieldtrips. They watched videos and listened to podcasts that their teachers recommended or had recorded. Test scores and data were shared with Microsoft.

I thought a couple of things were interesting - Teachers were given $400 monetary incentives to develop podcast lessons or recommend 20 relevant downloadable lectures. It may take ncentives like that to push teachers off their perch into using new technologies.

Yes, the school instituted a "grandma rule" to keep students from uploading to the devices anything their grandmothers would find objectionable, and teachers could designate "No Zune Zones".

I'm sure this was a novelty at first, but I could easily see this becoming an everyday part of students' learning. I think these podcasts could be particularly helpful for students who are poor readers or visually imparied, since they could listen to teachers reading or summarizing texts or review lectures.

Effective Interactive Websites

Last class we said that instructional websites should interactively engage learners. This week I think I found an example at http://www.nationalgridfloe.com/ . This is part of a New England power company's website. I believe it does an outstanding job of getting kids (and grown-ups, too) thinking about the environmental impact of our actions and simple changes we can make in our daily lives that will help the Earth. This site's superb graphics makes it even more compelling. It's all experiential learning. There are no screens of text to read. Instead there are educational games, quizzes and polar bear cubs that you can adopt and play with.

By way of comparison, here’s another site that covers similar material and allows students to calculate carbon footprints http://www.carbonfootprint.com , but it is not nearly as effective a teaching tool.

I also wanted to share a web quest that makes good use of incorporating student produced videos:
http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/kearny/greatgame/

I support the Web 2.0 socially-constructed-knowledge revolution

I’m for the Web 2.0 socially-constructed-knowledge explosion. At first I was wary of wikipedia - Breezing in there seemed too easy, it wasn’t like ploughing through the pages of Compton’s Encyclopedia. Could I trust the information? Was it accurate? Now, after a few years, I have relaxed a little, and I must admit that I often use Wikipedia as a “jumping off point” for my research. I have become more comfortable taking a collaborative approach to learning in general and trust others and at the same time myself a little more. I can deal with different opinions and a little ambiguity now and again. That uncertainty may push me to think harder, research more sources, form my own theory that I’ll go back and post to the site, and in that way I’ve benefited and have constructed a little knowledge in the process.

Last week, as I was looking for images showing Bennnington, VT street sculpture, I first ran across flickr www.flickr.com . Here people can upload their photographs and add comments. Last night I read that the Library of Congress has uploaded several thousand photos from their collections from 1910 and also from the Depression era and are inviting people to tag and comment on them. I looked at some of the responses and was amazed at the range and depth of comments. Some folks provided historical documentation, others asked questions about details in the photos that I hadn’t even seen until they mentioned them. I love how this project is bringing historical resources into an accessible popular forum.
http://flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/collections/72157601355524315/

I think I could use a Second Life

Not only could I get more done, I could be blonder, taller, skinnier, maybe even smarter in the virtual world. It was fun having the assignment of signing up for Second Life – games are fun, students like something different from reading texts and writing papers. But then the computer glitches began and my computer kept crashing. ARGGGGG. So I tried loading the SL software on two other computers around the house with even worse results. Chip said that memory and video cards are often to blame – I updated video drivers and at 1:30 a.m. things started working. The Rocky theme song “Gonna Fly Now” started running through my head. I felt invincible.

“Where’s the Beef?” How could I justify spending time playing a game? I knew there was an educational component here somewhere…… I just had to find it. I couldn’t even begin to fathom the educational possibilities of this medium until I read The Educational Possibilities of a Massively Multiplayer Virtual World (MMVW)
http://www2.kumc.edu/tlt/SLEDUCAUSESW2005/SLPresentationOutline.htm

This paper was written by ed tech people who work at a medical college. It explains,

"Students engaged in educational games and simulations are interpreting,
analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving. This approach
to learning is much more consistent with constructivist learning, where
knowledge is constructed by the learners as they are actively problem solving in
an authentic context, than with traditional instruction."

The authors discuss the benefits of constructivism and social collaborative learning and present simulations (online videos) showing medical students role playing doctor-patient interactions in a medical clinic they created in SL . Another video shows how a student might use her design skills to beautify a city space. I thought of Heidi building the Roman Forum and inviting her students to speak at the rostra or Bill’s students at Antietam…..Now I understand that the educational possibilities are boundless.

Blogging Is Good For You!

I’ve admired people who enjoy blogging, but I've thought it just wasn't my cup of tea. Did I really want to go public with my thoughts and reflections? Well, I did a little research, and I must admit that a 2 minute youtube video “Blogs in Plain English”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI bolstered my confidence, Maybe we could all inspire and motivate each other through our blogs. And then when I read the Scientific American article, “Blogging, It’s Good for You” http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-healthy-type&sc=rss which states,

"besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery“.

Well, I decided there might be some merit to blogging besides gaining course credit.

Blogging gives everyone the opportunity for knowledge sharing, debate and reflection. One day through blogs, we could be sharing ideas with students in another country.

I started off the week certain that our Moodle discussion board is a better forum for sharing ideas on a particular topic. It’s easy to chime in and follow up on Moodle. With a blog we have to rotate through the revolving door of 7 or 8 blogs spaces in order to link up with all our classmates. Yet, the more time I spend reading others' blogs, my ideas are shifting. Having our own personal space allows us to choose the issues that mean the most to us. Maybe in that way we can reflect best on our own learning and learn from each other. Discussion boards die off at the end of a course. Blogs (especially when written about something we’re passionate about) can live on forever. I think with time blogging might grow on me.

How has education changed since www dot?

[Last week due to a family emergency, I had to drive from Cincinnati to Massachusetts, and I’ve been catching up in my classes, so I apologize for being behind in my posts.]

During our first class meeting, Chip mentioned that the www dot protocol has been around for 15 years, and he asked how much has changed. We agreed that there's been "a ton" of change. During my 24+ hours of driving I thought about how the Internet has changed my life. Top of the list was that the very route I was driving was suggested by my computer and mapquest. I took my laptop with me, and the first thing my kids and I looked for when we checked into the hotel was the wifi Internet connection to check emails, get news, and of course my 11 year old needed to check on her neopets. I’m amazed at how independently she can use the computer. She types, solves problems and makes “economic decisions”. But if I were to think of one personal example of how the Internet has changed education, this story comes to mind. In 1995 Oma was quite upset. She had tried to help her granddaughter with a high school civics assignment to name the Supreme Court Justices and the Chief Justice . Oma called the public library for help, but unfortunately the reference librarian looked it up in a book and gave her outdated information. The granddaughter got a low grade on the assignment. Where did the blame lie? Today I did a Google search for “Supreme Court Justices” and got 1,190,000 results. Of course, to be sure, one has to be information literate enough to choose a reputable site (maybe check two or three to be sure you get the same answer)the website maintained by the Supreme Court of the US seems pretty good - http://www.supremecourtus.gov/security.html and the information there is amazing - biographies of the justices and the docket, decisions. I am wondering...Do we expect more of our students now that the Internet provides us with instant information? Are students learning how to organize and assimilate the information they acquire?