Twitter Book Club: Neil Postman (1996) The End of Education - Chapter 3

In this chapter, Postman discusses two gods that fail to provide sufficient meaning to the purpose of school: the god of Technology and the god of Multiculturalism. In his definition of the latter he makes a clear distinction between multiculturalism and cultural pluralism. He has no qualms with cultural pluralism and speaks highly of it as a way of enriching the cultural narrative but finds that multiculturalism seeks to invert the Euro-centric narrative that has been d0minant in this country since its inception. I find his critique of multiculturalism to be very Freirian in nature. Basically, he sets Multiculturalism up as being equally oppressive as Euro-centrism much in the same way Freire describes reactionary leaders as not shedding their internal oppressors but seeking to become them. I really appreciate how Postman approaches this but I did not find any passages that I could quote in a Tweet that did not depend greatly on the context of the surrounding text. But I did find a few on the god of Technology:

"What does it mean to say someone is bored with the real world, especially one so young? Can a journey into (cont) http://tl.gd/6c8jovless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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These questions were ones that I struggled with in 1997, a year after Postman wrote this, that led me to drop out of a computer science program in college and take up art education as my major (see the first chapter of my master's capstone on Virtual Worlds if you want to know how I came to this decision) . I was not familiar with Postman at the time and certainly had not been exposed to his books so I am finding it very interesting reading someone who was writing about what I was feeling around the time I made this decision. In my life, and in my career, I keep swaying back and forth on this issue of the role of technology. I know my life has been better because of the existence of certain technologies but I also know that it has suffered in other areas. Technology is no panacea. It seems whenever I start to feel myself getting sucked in by it I repel. I have written about this before on my blog, in fact, it has become sort of a running side story or theme here:

• Techno Lust Thursday, March 13, 2008

• What is Technology? Thursday, September 4, 2008

• Off the Grid Saturday, September 12, 2009

• Would you be able to unplug for 3 weeks? Monday, September 21, 2009

• Modernization & Fear Thursday, January 21, 2010

• Will you be my digital identity's valentine? Monday, February 15, 2010

• Does technology integration necessarily mean more technology in the classroom? Wednesday, June 9, 2010

• The Real Disruptive Innovation Thursday, June 17, 2010

• Is Technology Blaspheme? Monday, July 12, 2010

• #edchat You Ain't Got No Pancake Mix! Sunday, August 8, 2010

Actually, after going back through my archives, it is a bit scary how often this theme recurs.

"like all important technologies of the past, [computers] are Faustian bargains, giving and taking away, (cont) http://tl.gd/6c8l3dless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Schools are not now and have never been chiefly about getting information to children." Postmanless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"what we need to know about computers, television, and other important technologies--is not how to use them but how they use us." Postmanless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I need to write a technology integrationist manifesto one of these days. I have been serving school districts in this capacity now for four years and I almost always encounter the same misconception. Here is an early draft:

Technology Integrationist Manifesto:

My job is not to sell you on this tool or that. My job is not to promote anything. I do not work for Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Adobe, SMART, Promethian, Scholastic, etc. I have no vested interest in promoting their products and nowhere in my job description does it say that I ought to. My job is to help people working in schools to understand that about technology they need to make sound educative decisions regarding both its use and the impact it has on students, teachers, administrators, classrooms, schools, school systems, teaching, and learning. It is not OK to integrate technology just for technology sake or just because a school has spent a lot of money on it. If that becomes the purpose then I have already failed in my role.

It is my belief that technology is an important component of the learning environment. It shapes who we are and what is possible for us to do. It is important for our children to learn how to utilize it to their advantage but it is also important for them to learn to know when it is using them. It is not OK to ignore it or use the fear of its negative effects to justify not using it or keeping up with it, that reason is not sufficient. Technology is not something that was created after you were born, it is not something with a plug, and it is not devices operated by the manipulation of electrons; it is the knowledge and ability to manipulate that which is external to the self utilizing the knowledge and invention of yourself and others. Technology includes not only computers and mobile devices but also language, tools, customs, and rituals. It is through technology that man shapes and interprets his environment, an environment ever changing through the advancement of new technologies that allow us to see, hear, feel, create, and know differently.

Does technology integration necessarily mean more technology in the classroom?

Lately when I work with teachers I have been hearing a lot of them say that they would integrate technology in their classes more if they had access to it. These same teachers admit that it is difficult for them to invest too much time and energy in learning how to integrate technology in their classrooms when access is limited. Whether this is true or not (often on random walk-throughs I see only 2 out of 5 labs in use) it has had me thinking today. What is the ultimate goal a district hopes to achieve by hiring a technology integration specialist?

When I started working as a tech integration specialist three years ago I largely got the job because I needed work and I had an unusually high interest in technology. At that time I did not really think much about this question and I know the district I worked for didn't either. In later conversations it was clear that they knew they had to do something with technology and teacher professional development but were unsure what that was or what it should look like. I think a lot of school districts adding a technology integration specialist position to their schools have been in the same boat. In part this is a "chicken or egg" and a "forest from the trees" type of issue. I was told, "We don't know enough about what we don't know to know what we need you to do for us." I have had three years working with all kinds of teachers, studying policy, interacting with a network of great minds, and integrating technology in all kinds of educational settings to reflect on this question.

What I have currently come to believe is that technology integration is not about using technology in your classroom, it is about adjusting to the world shaped by technological changes. You don't have to use a lot of technology in your classroom to be a great teacher but what you do absolutely has to be relevant. If this calls for using more or different technology in your classroom then so be it. Part of that relevance is knowing enough about the social and economic impact new technologies are having on both your own profession and the world you want to teach your students about. From a curricular perspective this means keeping abreast of how social media is influencing the news, how the read/write/web and remix culture are changing the nature of communication, and knowing how to access and assess information wherever you find it. From a pedagogical perspective this means no longer doing things in your classroom that students could do with a simple internet search. Ultimately this leads us to more constructivist classrooms where students are engaged in meaningful projects and where a great deal of a teacher's job is assessment, feedback, and environment design.

I fear that the reason a lot of school districts decide to hire a technology integration specialist is in response to declining enrollment. They see the exponential rise in online learning and think, "We need to do something to combat this." I fear they look at online schools and see technology as the disruptive force. I have this concern because I often hear people from different school districts I meet across the state make statements like, "We are getting into the online learning business to try to retain students," or "We are investing more in technology so we don't loose more students to online schools." This is an apple and oranges issue. The fact is, just as moving the newspaper online won't save the newspaper industry, just moving what we do online or just placing more technology in the classroom won't solve this problem. The answer to this problem is not always more technology but a re-purposing of our schools, a shift from a delivery model to a support model of learning. If you need to integrate more technology in your classroom to help support student learning then I am here to help you but I am also here to help you understand what impact technologies you don't use have on your classroom too.

Weekly Tech Tip: Integrating Clustr Maps in the Classroom

This fall, Jodi Alper's 5th grade students worked on a "Fractured Fairy Tale" project. For the project they wrote their own versions of popular fairy tales. Then we took them to the lab where they recorded themselves reading the stories. The students edited their recordings using Audacity to modify their voices, add sound effects, and add music. The recordings were then uploaded to Podbean, a free podcasting service, where they were made available to anyone in the world who wanted to listen. Additionally, we placed a map on the site to track visitors. This week's tech tip explains how Mrs. Alpers uses this map to engage students in learning about world geography and I walk you through how to set one up for yourself.

Tech Tip:



Link Stew:

• Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality maps on TED Talks
• Lego Augmented Reality
• Educational Benefits Of Social Networking Sites Uncovered, summary of a UofM research project from 2008 on Science Daily
• 100 Ways to Teach with Twitter
• The Stupidest Thing You've Ever Heard of: All about Twitter Fantastic presentation about Twitter by Dean Shareski
  
• After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds on The Chronicle of Higher Education
• FREE PowerPoint Twitter Tools | SAP Web 2.0
• Symbaloo - start simple
• Send Large Files for FREE - Send unlimited files, up to 2GB each
• Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds - Kaiser Family Foundation
• Digitally Inclined: A Study done by PBS on Student Technology Use
• The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine on WIRED
• Are Social Networks Messing with Your Head?: Scientific American
• Facebook profiles for places - Interesting Facebook visualization tool comparing how people are connected
• iTunes U - in your web browser

Blog Carnival:

• Other teachers grade that way, too? by Matt Townsley on MeTA musings
• Are Stereotypes Ruining Our Kids? By Julie LaChance on The eJulez Perspective
• Beliefs and Change By Pete Reilly on Ed Tech Journeys
• Faceless on Facebook By sjtaffee on Blogg-Ed Indetermination
• Words Matter | Unit By David Jakes on The Strength of Weak Ties
• Dear E.D. Hirsch By Barry Bachenheimer on A Plethora of Technology
• What is Technology? By Ira Socol on SpeEdChange
  

School Technology Survey

I am conducting a survey of school district policies. My hope with this survey is that if I get a comprehensive look at school and district technology policies and compare them to other demographic data that we might be able to spot trends and correlations. If you work for a school or school district please take a moment to fill out this extremely short survey.

Thank You

Digital Backpack & Digital Briefcase

I need your help. Last year I created a tool for our students and teachers to use called the "Digital Backpack." This was meant to serve three primary purposes:

1. educate students about how different search engines work;
2. Bring all of the different web apps and web 2.0 resources into one place;
3. Serve as a bridge for students and teachers from proprietary software to free and open source cloud computing.

This fall I created a similar tool that is more teacher oriented called the "Digital Briefcase. " I consider this project to be in beta since I am sure there are a ton of resources I have overlooked. Please send any suggestions or comments to: canderson@goodhue.k12.mn.us

Here is what I would like: I want to hear your ideas, and success stories involving technology integration. I have added a link next to each item in the Digital Backpack to a page on this wiki. You can edit this wiki yourself: the invitation key is 'Pappert.' In exchange I am giving you the code to put the Digital Backpack or Digital Briefcase on your website.

Sincerely,


Carl Anderson

Get the Embed Code

Get the Embed Code

What is Technology?

A couple years ago, in one of my graduate school classes, I was assigned a paper where we were supposed to find and explain a metaphor for technology. In that paper I said that, "Technology is a Stick." I had in mind the opening scene to 2001 A Space Odyssey where the primitive man touches the monolith then begins using tools. My thinking at the time was that technology was a tool. However, I have been rethinking this lately and have come to a different conclusion.

Alan Kay says that technology is anything that was invented after you were born. This definition plays right into the same concept I held two years ago when I wrote that technology is a stick. Both of these definitions narrow the definition to objects (i.e. Computer, Cell Phone, Particle Collider, etc.). This definition is very practical and is easy to identify with. Shifting the onus of the term to the object removes individuals of necessary ownership of what truly lies within the term. It is empowering to say that you, your school, your town, your interest group, your professional organization, your country, etc. "has the technology." But does possessing tools constitute the possession of technology?

My dogs spend most of their time in my garage. In my garage I have numerous power tools, hand tools, an old computer, and a few machines (lawn mower, snow blower, etc.). According to the stick metaphor my dogs possess the technology to build pretty much anything. Do my dogs really possess this technology? I think not.

I have to admit that my summer indulgence were the TED Talks and taking my dogs on long evenings. Every week I would upload a new batch of talks to my iPod Nano and watch them on the go while exercising my dogs. Thus the way I have framed this idea. From these talks my mind has contracted quite a variety of memes and I think I finally have a definitive understanding of what technology really is.

When a foreign country says they possess the technology to build a nuclear weapon I don't think they mean that they have the materials. What they have is the knowledge and understanding needed to build one. And with this example I think I have solved the definition/metaphor problem. Technology is a meme, an idea, an understanding.

If technology is a meme then it can never really die or be destroyed. The only way we can loose our technology is if we forget how it works or how to use it. I think this notion helps explain a lot of behavior we see in schools. Try as we will, if a our students find a technology real useful they will find a way to use it even if it is banned or there are rules excluding its use. It also gets at the heart of a lot of tensions that can be observed between teachers and their students or one generation vs. another. It explains what is really missing from the digital native/digital immigrant depictions.

Technophobia is not the fear of new tools but rather the fear of not understanding. There is a nervousness that exists when those in a learning environment who are supposed to be subordinates are empowered with knowledge and understanding that those in authority positions lack. What it boils down to is technophobia is fear of loosing authority. It is not the tools that make the digital immigrant different from the digital native, it is the understanding of how they work and how they can be applied or the eagerness to learn new ways of understanding that makes this distinction. When we define technology as a tool we can say we have it but not know how it works or how to use it and we can easily just put it aside. If we see not the tool but the knowledge and understanding as the technology then for us to say we possess it means we must understand it. This is especially troubling in the field of education because educators are supposed to be inquisitive and celebrate knowledge, ideas, and understanding.

My job title at my full-time job is, "Technology Integration Curriculum Specialist." I am starting to see this as a bit of a misnomer given my new concept of what technology is. What I sense is expected of me by the educators I work with is that I am here to help them to bring new tools into their classroom and that is currently an accurate portrayal of what I do. However, am I integrating technology or am I integrating tools? If I were really to help teachers integrate technology my role should go beyond the tools and address understanding both of ideas and how they can be applied. This kind of integration transcends the tools and is much more about pedagogy than technical knowledge. That said, I still like playing around with new tools.




The following are some of the TED Talks that have influenced my thoughts recently on this matter:

Online Teacher Technology Training

I have been busy this summer. Our district started to implement a project I put together that teaches technology and technology integration to teachers online. Now, there are products out there like InfoSource that do this but our program is outcome based and follows a method that hopefully will align with what teachers need to do to prepare curriculum, activities, etc. for their practice. Feel free to utilize any or all of these online lessons. You can even participate in our discussion boards. However, some lessons are designed specifically for our district's needs.

1.1 - Understanding File Properties (5 pts)

1.2 - File Formats & File Extensions (5 pts)

1.3 - Hooking up a Periphials (3 pts)

1.4 - Burning CDs and DVDs (5 pts)

1.5 - Backing Up Your Files (5 pts)

1.6 - Wireless vs Ethernet (5 pts)

1.7 - Dealing with a frozen computer (2 pts)

2.1 - Search engines (7pts)

2.2 - Language Translators (5pts)

2.3 - Databases – ebsco, Google Scholar (5pts)

2.4 - Anatomy of a URL (5pts)

2.5 - Netiquette & Internet Safety (3pts)

3.1 - Fair use (5pts)

4.1 - Google Docs & Spreadsheets (7pts)

4.2 - Zoho (7pts)

4.3 - Presentation Programs (6pts)

4.4 - Online Storage (5pts)

5.1 - Digital Cameras + Digital Image Basics (5pts)

5.2 - Digital Image Software (Gimp, Photoshop, Picassa, Splashup, Picnik, etc.) (10pts)

5.3 - Image sharing – Flickr, Photobucket, etc. (5pts)

6.1 - Capturing Video (6pts)

6.2 - Digital Video Content (7pts)

6.3 - Video Editing (10pts)

6.4 - Publishing video online – YouTube, TeacherTube, etc. (7pts)

7.1 - Podcasts (5pts)

7.2 - Audacity (5pts)

7.3 - Creating a podcast (10pts)

8.1 - Concept Mapping Software (5pts)

8.2 - Wikis (10pts)

9.1 - Blogs (7pts)

9.2 - Social Bookmarking (del.icio.us) (4pts)

9.3 - RSS (4pts)

9.4 - Power of the comment (3pts)

9.5 - Skype (5 pts)

10.1 - Updating your website (basics) / webpage design considerations (5pts)

10.2 - HTML tricks to enhance your webpage (5pts)

10.3 - Embedding Video (2pts)

10.4 - Widgets (5pts)

10.5 - Online Quizzes and Worksheets (5pts)

10.6 - Digital Drop (3pts)

11.1 - Rubistar (4pts)

11.2 - Online Lesson Plan Sharing (3pts)

11.3 - SMARTtech lessons and teacher toolkit (5pts)

11.4 - WebQuests (3pts)

12.1 - Open Source vs. Proprietary Software (5pts)

12.2 - Serious Games (5pts)

12.3 - Virtual Worlds (5pts)

Free Software

Our school district is likely to make the shift to Linux next fall. Right now I do not know if this is going to be an all out shift or if we will still keep some Windows machines (right now the only Macs we have are dinosaurs). While I love open source and have written before about how the right combination of open source, online apps, and web 2.0 tools can create an ideal technology setup for school settings I still see a need not to totally sever the cord with Microsoft. If only because we still have some software that will not work on any other machine. However, by fall this might not be so true when you look at the rapid growth in the open source sector.

Since the beginning of the school year I have wanted to create a feature on our website where teachers, students, and community members could go and find free software they can trust. With our almost certain shift in operating system I anticipate a small learning curve come September. The biggest confusion will be what software to use or which programs roughly equate to what we used before. I think we can kill two birds with one stone if this downloads page on our website is presented as both a resource and instructive. I have spent the better part of today putting this together. If you have seen our digital backpack you will recognize the style since I hijacked the code to make this.


I am looking for feedback.

• What programs should I include that are missing?

• Are there better alternatives to the programs I included?

• What would you include in a resource like this that I have missed?

• What download links are faulty (I don't have a Mac to test the Mac downloads)?

P.S. I am still looking for feedback on the digital backpack.

Lorenzo on...Teaching Generation Y

I just came across this video, actually the author posted a comment on my youtube video, Why We Need To Teach Technology In School. The scenes with the two year old using the iPod are especially powerful.

Harnessing your Personal Learning Network(PLN)

Today I attended a conference and participated in a open forum discussion about Personal Learning Networks. This session was led by David Warlick and was held in North Carolina. The awesome thing is I attended and participated in this conference session from my desk in Goodhue, MN.

I first was made aware of this session by checking my Twitter account. David Warlick had just posted on Twitter that he was streaming his session on Ustream and invited other Twitterbugs to join. I clicked on the link and joined the session. In the session he placed an open invitation to all those attending the session virtually to Skype in their questions, comments, and feedback. A few of us did. Additionally, there is a backchannel on Ustream where virtual attendees can discuss the session with text.

Although there were issues with connectivity that I presume had to do with the bandwidth at the conference in NC causing my Skype conversation to be cut short and often caused the Ustream video to freeze at times this setup made me feel I was actually there. Can you imagine if this becomes standard practice for conference presenters? What would that mean for professional development? What would that mean for sharing ideas? If you could attend any session at any conference done by any person and could provide real time feedback, how valuable would that be?

On top of the cool tools this session used the content was engaging, relevant, and useful as well.

Techno Lust

I have been wrestling lately with the topic of technology over indulgence. Do we really always need the latest and greatest? At what point does a technology reach its point of maximum potential? Do I really need a pocket knife with 36 different blades, a place to hold a tooth pick, and silverware? At what point do we look at our televisions and say, "Do I really need 900 channels? I never watch more than 10 of them." At what point do we say, "This latest version of Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Windows, etc has cool features but I still only use the ones my old version had." Do we really need a faster processor when a Pentium 4 still does everything I NEED it to do? Does our school really need to have SMARTboards in EVERY classroom? Should we spend our money on one totally awesome gadget with ten million incredible features that also does your laundry for you and tells you when to use the rest room or could we take that gadget money and buy 5 slightly inferior products that do all that but only has nine million incredible features?


Sure, if I worked at Pixar and had the task of rendering the next blockbuster animated feature and had to include special effects that are more advanced than the last film I think I would take the one machine that folds laundry for me but I work in a school district. Our processing needs will never rival those of power users that exist in big business. Often the skills necessary to operate and utilize those obscure power options in most commercial software require study of the software beyond k-12 education. In fact, if we get too much into teaching kids how to utilize these power features we risk neglecting our primary goal as k-12 educators. Is our goal to teach technology or use technology to teach content? If our goal is to teach technology maybe we should invest in the high power machine and superfluous commercial software. However, we will have to have students work in large groups and have to find something else for them to do while others in the class have their turn at the nice machine. If, however, we are trying to utilize technology to better teach content our needs are better served with more simple solutions.


Enter open source and online apps. I have been playing around this year with both of these kids of applications and have fallen in love with both. I think they are perfect for education, at least k-12 education. Most open source software nearly mimics the look, feel, and functionality of commercial brand counterparts and whatever tech skills are necessary to operate one platform are also necessary to operate the other so skills are transferable. Online apps. answer another problem that I see all the time in schools. That problem is compatibility. If we encourage our students to use online apps. for their assignments then it won't matter what kind of machine they are using, everything is compatible. My goal is never again to hear, "I can't show you my PowerPoint because your version is incompatible with the one I have at home." or, "I couldn't work on my PowerPoint at home because I couldn't open the file."


If we decide not to renew our licenses with Microsoft, Adobe, and other commercial software providers we can save tons of money to reinvest in our network and hardware. If we replace it with a fully functioning, easy to use platform we can focus more on how it can be used to make learning reading, writing, science, art, social studies, math, physical education, etc. more engaging, authentic, and learner centered. We take that saved money and invest it in hardware that will serve our needs, not hardware that far exceeds our needs and we will be happy. I think I choose to do my laundry myself.

Digital Backpack - Killer online apps and resources for learning.

I just finished the prototype of beta version of a new feature on our school's webpage and I post this to gather feedback from other educators. This feature is a tool I call the Digital Backpack. Click this image to open the digital backpack:



The development of this feature is meant to solve or at least address a few problems I have observed. First, the major impetus for this was the frustration I have begun to feel seeing staff overwhelmed and sometimes confused after I had demonstrated too many different online applications for them. The Digital Backpack is first and foremost an attempt to cluster these tools in one place.

The second purpose for this feature is to illustrate how the majority of our computing needs can be delivered with free online applications by organizing them all in one space. I feel this tool will be nice for transitioning between single user apps and web apps. The drive here is to encourage teachers to have their students use these tools because they are cross platform and most of the programs themselves foster and encourage collaboration.

The third purpose for this tool is instructional. After an assessment of student use of technology it became apparent that digital literacy skills such as evaluating web content or performing search for credible information was lacking. This tool, through brief descriptions after each link, puts this information right out there in front of the student so when doing a web search they can make an informed decision as to which search engine to use. The tools for evaluating these sources will also be here in future versions.

If you like you can link to this tool for your own website. What I am looking for here though is feedback. What online apps/resources have I missed that should be here? What issues do you have using it? How effective do you think this is?

Thanks!

Knowledge Transfer and Public Engagement in Second Life - Dave Taylor

Knowledge Transfer and Public Engagement in Second Life - Dave Taylor

Prensky Rubish? A Response to a Skeptical Native

Back in January a post was made on TipLine - Gates' Computer Tips regarding a student response to Prensky's, "The Need For Change."
The following is my response to this blogpost. I don't normally repost my comments on others blogs but I feel strong enough about this topic to do so here:

I have always been skeptical of Prensky's work though I am always intrigued by his ideas and inspired by much of what he says. Prensky has a way of convincing most of us that our there is a neurological difference between the generations and that the current young generation is significantly different. He does this by pointing to things that all of us see and speaks to frustrations we all have. He does this in nearly every book or scholarly article he writes. I have to admit that I have at times been convinced by some of his arguments and I still think he has some valid points. Our students are different and the world is changing. That is nothing new. The world is always constantly changing. Change happens in different ways in different fields. Ask a 60 yr old in 1890 if the world was the same as when they were young and I am sure you would get a similar response. Ask an illustrator in the mid 1800s if technology is changing the world and I am sure you would hear an earful since photography brought that profession to a near standstill.

It is the nature of our brains to shape and form based on external stimulus. The stimulus that is around now is different than the stimulus that was around before and is different than the stimulus that will be around in the future. However, there is no affirmative evidence that the way we learn is significantly different today than it was in the past. The way we teach is changing and as Scott McLeod pointed out we have twenty years of research that affirms that a constructivist approach to teaching and learning is more effective than other known models. This does affirm what Prensky tells us about how we teach but what I have always been skeptical of and critical of is the method of content delivery Prensky prescribes. It is not that I don't think games have a place in education, to the contrary I think there is solid research to support their effectiveness (see Malone & Lepper, 1987). The problem is that Prensky represents a business interest that benefits financially from the adoption of a game centered curriculum. Also, as Jamie McKenzie points out, Prensky is not really a researcher and the whole basis for his Native/Immigrant argument is based on one study that he misquotes and spells the author's name wrong.

Prensky represents a polar end of the argument/topic of technology integration in school. I feel his writings are important for reflective practice but that we are building our houses in the sand by basing important pedagogical and curricular components of our practice on his iterations. The other polar end of this argument is represented by the student/teacher response to Prensky's article. I have to say I whole heartedly disagree with most of what this student/teacher writes, although I must admit that I had some similar responses the first time I read any of Prenskys work. I will address each point separately here:

1. he wrote: "The problem with constructing a "student-centered" curriculum where the
   students spend their time "learning" by connecting with their peers all
   over the world through blogs and whatnot is that this only works if the
   student knows the material already...The whole point of a teacher is that the teacher knows more about the
   topic than you do, and you need them to impart their knowledge to you
   before you can really do anything with it." -This response missed the point. The use of online publication tools in education is not always meant to be some kind of summative assessment. The value in activities such s blogging or collaborating on a wiki is that these tools are fluid. Students learn from interacting with others. A blog can be used to keep a record of progress on a project and to invite feedback from others outside the classroom community. These tools open up a whole world of human resources to students that were not available, or not easily available, before. Also, a student-centered curriculum is not one where the student dictates what is taught or what they will learn but rather a curriculum where the student interests drive the learning. Idealy this would look something like a student and a teacher both taking turns driving somewhere.
   
2. he wrote: "so just because kids seem disconnected in school doesn't necessarily
   have to do with technology. More likely its the usual reasons - they
   see us, like their parents, as authority figures trying to "keep them
   down"." I don't think this comment is totally off-base. I do agree that drop-out rates probably have less to do with technology than they have to do with other factors. However, technology can play a factor in possible solutions. I worked at an alternative school for two years. I have seen a lot of students drop out and understand the reasons pretty well in each case. Most of the time these students dropped out for reasons stemming from external factors such as homelessness, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, or involvement in organized crime. Of all the students I saw drop out of high school in the past two years I can only point to engagement as being the prime reason in two cases and those were two of the brightest students I ever encountered in eight years of teaching. In those two cases it was less about the technology but rather the methods of teaching and learning that were at fault. Had we been able to personalize their learning more and teach them, or rather guide them, in academic study that was more rigorous they may not have dropped out. However, both students were not motivated to do more because they knew it would not be sufficiently rewarded. I am sure both of these students will go on, much like this teacher/student's father, and have a successful career and life despite their drop-out status.
3. he wrote: "What matters is not necessarily how much technology you are using.
   Instead, what matters is if you are moving past pure memorization to
   higher level thinking. If you can use technology to do that, so be it,
   but if not, it doesn't make it any less authentic." I completely agree.

Firefox Add-ons

I may never log-in manually to my Blogger account again to publish posts. I may be slow to this and am feeling a bit like I missed the boat big time but I am just now discovering the extraordinary value of Firefox Add-ons.

My interest in Firefox Add-ons started about a month ago when I first del.icio.us buttons to my browser. Before then I was using Firefox as-is. It seems to me that add-ons must be a huge reason Firefox has taken off so well in the browser battle. Today I added three new add-ons to my browser that I think have great value for education.

1. ScribeFire - coordinates with your blog account to allow you to publish blogposts directly from Firefox without having to login yourself to your account. The post editor looks pretty good too.
2. Zotero - This amazing add-on is meant specifically for education and scholarly research. It is a way of keeping track of research and other literature that is out there in electronic format. There are just too many features this add-on offers to describe. Basically, it combines a bookmark feature with note taking and citation tools. You just have to see it.
3. IE Tab - Before installing this I had to use IE7 to adequately login to the course managemnt system for my part-time online teaching job. This would be a big problem if my full-time school district switched to Linux. What this add-on does is emulate IE in Firefox so Firefox will display IE only websites. I tried it and it seemed to work better than IE.

Free Image Editors

Yesterday I blogged about some of the online operating systems featured in PC Magazine's March 2008 article "The Best Free Software." Today I had a chance to evaluate some of the graphics programs they include in their list.

As an artist and art educator I have long had a love affair with Adobe Photoshop and for that matter most Adobe products but last summer when I first was introduced to GIMP I started to have a change of heart. I found GIMP inspiring because, just like most open source software, it leveled the playing field for those who cannot afford premium applications like Photoshop. However, I never really found myself using it. I still preferred Adobe because of the look and feel of the program. GIMP with all of its windows is cumbersome to manage. Commands are not located in the same place, or even very similar places as they are in Photoshop.

Today I found two other free programs that look and feel like Adobe Photoshop, offer the basic features that I use Photoshop for, and are more user friendly than GIMP. First is Paint.net. According to their website this program was originally developed by an undergraduate student with the help of Microsoft. It was at one time slated to replace Paint as the free image editing software to come with the Windows OS. Why they did not go with it I am not sure. Now it is in open source. This program looks and feels like Paint but has the functionality of an early version of Adobe Photoshop.
The only real problem I see with this program is it is only currently available on Windows. Our district is seriously looking at moving to Linux next year and if we do this program will not be supported.

The other program I found and am just ecstatic about is Splashup. Splashup is a flash based image editing program that looks almost exactly like Adobe Photoshop in your browser. It does all the basic things you need a good photo editor to do. Since it is web based you don't have to download anything. If you have an internet connection you can edit your photos. You also do not need to sign up for an account with Splashup the way you do with other online image editing tools. Since it is flash based it is then also cross platform. The only downside to this application is that it cannot be downloaded.

One cool feature that I like in Splashup is the webcam capture feature as demonstrated in this picture. The only big problem I found with Splashup is the inability to copy and paste between programs. I tried pasting this screen capture of Splashup in Splashup but it would not let me. I had to use Paint.net to save this final screen cap.

Online Operating Systems

In the March 2008 issue of PC Magazine there is a great article, "The Best Free Software." In that article they list, among many other things, free online operating systems. I spent a little bit of time exploring some of these programs. The first they list, ajaxWindows crashed my browser when I tried to use it. The second I used, eyeOS, worked well and seemed simple to use but was not all that versatile. The third one I used, Glide, sparked some excitement for me. This tool, while similar to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, is much flashier. It's graphic interface is very user friendly. Most interesting is how Glide seems to merge basic elements of an operating system with the collaborative potential of web 2.0 tools like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, del.icio.us, and online office programs. The 2gb storage space they give you free makes Glide a nice service for anytime, anywhere computing. The other nice feature that is present with Glide that is not readily present on other similar programs is the ease of creating websites with editable CSS templates. I can definitely see how this could evolve over the next five years into what the Horizon Report talks about when they say that social operating systems will greatly influence education in the future.

Glide Write

Glide Present

Glide Edit

Glide Publish

Cell Phones as Learning Tools

Croquet

I just learned of this new open source virtual world. It is called Croquet and in the next few weeks I definitely have to give this platform a whirl. If Croquet is as easy to use as this video suggests it might just be the perfect virtual world app for education (I am making this prediction prematurely I know). I especially like the ability to broadcast your webcam image over the top of your avatar and how the program appears to display the 2d web within the world(s).

Goodhue Techspo - Rescheduled

In January I posted that Goodhue Public School would be holding a Technology Expo at the end of the month. Due to a makeup day that event had to be postponed. It is now scheduled for February 18th. All are welcome to attend (teachers, administrators, parents, community members, etc.). I extend this invitation to anyone, especially teachers in schools in SE Minnesota. This will be an afternoon for us to share some new things we are doing with technology and a time for reflection. For more information on the sessions click on the links below.

Goodhue Techspo 2008 wiki - A public exhibit of educational techn... via kwout