Is YouTube to blame?

On the Today Show this morning, it was reported that a teenager was severely burned after attempting a stunt he saw on YouTube. The Today Show's response to this news? A reminder of ways to block kids' access to sites like YouTube. Really? Is blocking sites the best thing to do? In this particular case, I think that the best solution is to smack the kid upside the head.

Too often, I hear parents and newscasters blame the technology and discuss ways of keeping our kids away from it rather than blaming parents (and the kids themselves) and discussing ways of better educating ourselves and our children. In this particular case, would it not have been better to remind parents that we need to talk to our children about what they might see on TV, in movies, or online and that they need to be smart about how they respond to it? The same thing happened years ago when some teenagers decided to lie in the middle of the road after watching some movie.

Not-so-smart things like this are common in adolescence. They stem, in part, from a phenomenon known as the "personal fable." Teens sincerely believe that there has never been anyone on Earth quite like them, therefore the usual rules of physics, consequence, etc., simply don't apply. Additionally, the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, which is in charge of planning and predicting, is not fully developed in teens so they generally do not think actions through all the way to their conclusions.

This means that parents and teachers need to provide scaffolding - structure and support - to help kids think things through. They need to remember to occasionally remind their kids not to copy the things they see online. They should ask kids what they're up to. They should ask things like, "What do you think will happen if you do that?" The answer is not blocking content (teens did stupid things long before the advent of mass media), but good parenting and teaching.

Blocking sites like YouTube means that they will not get to see "good" videos such as tutorials that could help them with their math homework, digital stories about the Gettysburg Address, or podcasts from their teachers.

The answer here, IMO, is not blocking content (teens did stupid things long before the advent of mass media), but good parenting and teaching.

Digital Voice Recorders

This is something that I am newly into. I just got a grant and purchased an iPod classic, iTalk, lapel mic, speakers, headphones w/mic, flip video, etc., so that I can make podcasts and vidcasts of lectures, assignment descriptions, etc. I can also give these technologies to my students to create mini-podcasts, explanatory videos, etc. I'm really excited about the potential of these devices in my classes.

Smart Phones in Class

This is an interesting article about the use of PDAs and Smart Phones in K-12 classrooms. I especially love the quote from the 14-year-old at the end! So, what do you think? Good idea or bad one? I'm certainly trying to come up with ways to use them in my college classroom...

Ha, ha, ha!

This comic was funny enough to take a break from my vacation and blog it.

Future Classrooms

This article presents an interesting, forward-thinking yet practical vision of what future classrooms should/will look like. Of course, it includes a quote from perpetual doubter Larry Cuban, but I think his always-negative vision of technology integration helps innovators remember that realities are different from our aspirations and we need to scale back our rhetoric a bit in order to reach wider audiences.

The International Tech Race

Digital Directions has published an interesting article that I've been thinking about lately. I guess I just really haven't been thinking about technology skills as a competitive area, though my husband, a software engineer, certainly does. But it is a good reminder that technology skill is part of NCLB and of the important role of technology in 21st Century Skills, particularly problem-solving and creativity.

I **hope** that I am sharing this perspective of technology with my students. I teach them certain products and have them create certain products, but I also endeavor to talk about the changing nature of technology and the real power behind it. I defined technology in my dissertation as "any tool or collection of tools" and, believe me, I caught some flack for that! But I do not limit my vision of "technology" to "things that can be plugged in" as some folks do. I feel strongly that technologies are simply tools that we can use to solve problems. So, in reality, teachers are always using technology. The key is choosing the right technology for the job. As teachers, we need to use effective tools to convey information and encourage students to engage with content. In turn, our students need to learn how to use and choose technologies that will meet their needs.

Perhaps this is where America can show its strength in the tech race. We have always been a nation of innovators. We are known for our creativity. So, our pedagogy and standards should encourage the development of creativity and innovation in the selection and use of technologies to solve problems.

Twitter in the Classroom

For those of you who doubt the efficacy of Twitter in the classroom, Tech & Learning has posted a list of 25 ways to use it. I think I will try #6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 25. There is also a list of 9 reasons to use Twitter. As an admitted Twitter skeptic, I'm starting to believe...

On a similar vein, there's another article about effective uses of Wordle. I think this could be a really good tool for helping students see whether they're really writing about what they think they're writing about. Makes cool graphics for logos, t-shirts, etc., too.

And here's an article on creating Web 2.0 flashcards. I particularly like the options offered by StudyStack. I'll have to recommend this one for my Ed Psych students. All teachers should be aware of this technology. Students can go online and find existing study stacks or create their own custom stacks. Then they can review them online as flashcards or even play a variety of games with them or they can print them or download them to a handheld device.

Good stuff!

Bloom's Taxonomy for the Digital Age

Bloom's Taxonomy has now been expanded to include digital activities. Read the article on Tech & Learning. This should help my students as they create their Tables of Specification. It should also help me and my technology teacher colleagues to consider which tasks we are having our students complete and why.

Tech for Running

Thanks to my running friend for this link that should be of particular interest to my Physical Education majors and anyone who, like me, enjoys running a bit too much. This Gadgetwise column in the NYT talks about playlists that you can download for training as well as tools that you can use to help you choose music that will be most beneficial as you train. For example, a utility for Macs called Tangerine will analyze the beats per minute of the songs in your iTunes library, thus enabling you to choose songs for a certain running pace. Physical Education teachers and athletic coaches could also create playlists for their students' workouts. This is definitely something that I am going to have to try out. That is, I'll try it out if I ever buck up and get my own iPod instead of using my daughter's!

Iran follow-up

A follow-up to my earlier post: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31411475/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Makes me appreciate freedom of speech and other "luxuries" that I enjoy. I really take Internet use and the ability to use Web 2.0 to speak my mind for granted. Perhaps I should start using this luxury to do something truly worthwhile...

The Power of Twitter

Here is a testament to the power and utility of web 2.0 technologies like Twitter and Facebook: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31387533/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/. These technologies have given oppressed people in Iran the opportunity to speak out and communicate with the world. What a great resource for History students to be able to learn about the history that is being made right now. It is also an inspiration to the rest of us that everyone has something to say and now there are avenues for us to say it with.

Dabbleboard

My husband found this very cool online collaborative whiteboard utility. Could be very cool for working through things together (math problems, for example) and then saving the final product.

FETC 2010

The announcement for FETC 2010 just came out. May be a good conference to attend this year!

http://fetc.org/

Blogger on iGoogle

I just added a gadget that allows me to post directly to my blog from my iGoogle page. Doc Waters showed it in our TTIX presentation yesterday and I was inspired. The one I've chosen allows me to choose any of my blogs to post to and then type my post directly in iGoogle, making it much easier to keep up on everything.

Whale Education

The Onion's take on school funding and quality. Very entertaining!


In The Know: Are Our Children Learning Enough About Whales?

Digital Cameras and Picasa

One of my favorite tools to use in the classroom is a digital camera. Not only can I take pictures of students and activities, but I can also have the students use the cameras to document their own learning. They can take pictures of the steps and results of an experiment, examples of concepts we're discussing in class, etc. Here's a link to 1001 uses for digital cameras in the classroom for more ideas.

When it comes to buying a camera for classroom use, I recommend making your decision on three factors:

1. Ease of use - I don't have time in class to worry about which mode the camera is set on. I just want to point and shoot. Additionally, I may want my junior high school students to use the camera for a project and I don't want them messing with a bunch of features. Therefore, I'm first and foremost going to look for a camera that is very easy to use.

2. Picture Quality - The higher the number of megapixels, the better. These have come WAY up in the last few years. For example, the cameras our department purchased a few years ago are only 5 megapixels while the one I bought this Christmas is 8. Both are the same brand of point-and-shoot. Bigger megapixels means better pictures, so get the highest number that you can afford.

3. Price - As a teacher, price is always a consideration. If you are really interested in having digital cameras in your classroom, look for grants to help you out. There are several in small amounts for things just like this. For my money, The Canon PowerShot is the best deal. It is easy to use, has high megapixels, and just works really well. But you may find that you prefer something else.

To edit and store the pictures you take, you have several options. For Mac users, you have iPhoto already installed. This is a simple, very basic photo editing and storage program, but you can do some very cool things with it including identifying people in pictures for later recognition and sorting. Picasa is a similar tool that can be downloaded for free for the PC and, now, for Mac. Again, we can sort and store pictures as well as do some basic edits. Neither of these programs offers the editing power of something like Photoshop, but they are sufficient for the basic user. The coolest thing about Picasa is that it also has a Web Albums feature, enabling you to upload your pictures to the Internet for storage and viewing. You can then invite people to come and see the pictures you have uploaded. You can also embed these photo slideshows on your blog, class website, etc. Of course, this integration works especially well with Google Sites and Blogger as Picasa is also a Google product.

So there's a little bit about digital cameras and Picasa. Grab a camera, get creative, and enjoy!

Google Wave

Wow. Can I say that again? Wow.

Google Wave

This new Google concept is the future of online communication and I am REALLY excited about it. I see great power in bringing so many different forms of communication and collaboration together in one place and I like the graphic-centered interface.

You can sign up to be notified when it will be released or even to participate in the beta (which I did, of course).

I wrote the following haiku in tribute:

The tide rises up
The wave
Harbinger of spring

Hee, hee.

Web 2.0 the new Socialism?

An interesting article posted on FB by my cousin (yes, we're all geeks). It equates the collaborative nature of Web 2.0 tools (e.g., Google Docs, open source software, etc.) with socialism/communism in that the basic ideology is that everyone should have access to and share in the work.

What do you think?

Technology Integration Matrix

I stumbled on the Technology Integration Matrix today and think that it is an interesting tool for thinking about and evaluating our use of technology in the classroom. There are a lot of technology integration frameworks out there (my dissertation topic being one of them), but I like the usability of this framework and that it reminds me to make sure that I am using technology in a way that is Active, Collaborative, Constructive, Authentic, and Goal-Directed.

Evaluating myself on the matrix, I think my integration methods can be classified as follows:

Active: I would rate myself somewhere between Adaptation and Infusion. I try to encourage my students to select tools that will work best for the task they're trying to accomplish, but I do often require that they use certain tools.

Collaborative: I think I'm about the same here as above. Some of the tools I have my students use are collaborative while others are not. And I tend to require the use of certain tools just to make it easier on myself. I guess I need to be willing to introduce a number of tools and let my students choose which one best suits their needs and learning styles.

Constructive: I like to think that I'm between Infusion and Transformation on this one. I try to encourage my students to use technology tools to reflect, synthesize, make connections, analyze, etc. But I also use certain "push" technologies including PowerPoint, my class website, etc. And I'm not sure that my students always catch the vision of what I'm trying to have them do with the tools.

Authentic: Sadly, I'm at the adoption level on this one. I have my students use technology to create products, analyze scenarios, etc., but for the most part they aren't using the tools to actually solve real-world problems or contribute to the community. I definitely need to work on this one. How can I make my technology integration more authentic and meaningful?

Goal-Directed: Hmm...this one's a tough one to evaluate. I don't often explicitly ask my students to use technology to evaluate their progress, but I do ask them to reflect on an almost weekly basis. So, I guess I'd have to say that I'm at the Adoption level on this one. Another one to work on...

OK. So that's my self-evaluation according to the matrix. Do you agree? How are you doing?

Microsoft Publisher

Wait, a tech teacher is advocating Microsoft Publisher? Heck, yeah! I really like this program because it invites us as educators to think out-of-the-box about the types of products our students can create and encourages problem-based learning. Why have my students write a basic essay, country report, or book report when they could create an advertisement, brochure, newsletter, bookmark, business card, etc.? I also really like the ease-of-use that this program offers. As a teacher, I don't have to worry about a bunch of graphic design issues. I choose a template, choose a design, and that's it! This program caters to diverse learners and allows for differentiation and choice.

Start with a free, 60-day trial of Publisher if you don't already have it.

Here are a few more resources:

Publisher 2007 Tutorial

Projects and Examples

Publisher Lesson Plans

OK. Now it's your turn. How might you/do you use Publisher with your students or to improve your productivity? Let me know in the comments.

Inspiration

Inspiration and Kidspiration are two of my favorite tools for organizing content graphically. In fact, I used Inspiration to create some of the graphics for my dissertation! I like Inspiration for a number of reasons. First, it is very easy to use (which is always good if you're a busy teacher trying to use it with students!). Second, it allows me and my students to work visually or verbally, so it caters to different learning styles and also helps to differentiate instruction for students with special needs. Third, it has a lot of great export options so I can turn my graphic organizers into Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, graphics files, etc., thus making it easy to turn your planning document into a usable product. Fourth, it has numerous built-in templates on all kinds of topics, making it easy for me as a teacher to assign students to create a planning or concept document and ensuring a decent final product. I can also use Inspiration on my Interactive Whiteboard, allowing my class to collaborate on a document in real-time and save it for publication on our class website.

You can get free 30-day trial downloads of Inspiration and Kidspiration. You may even win a free copy!

Additionally, Inspiration has recently introduced an online, collaborative version of the software called Webspiration. This tool enables me and my students to work together to create a concept map. Hmm...I might have to try this out when I teach digital cameras on Thursday!

Here are some additional resources:

50 Uses for Inspiration and Kidspiration

Great compilation of ideas and links

Tutorial (PDF)

How could you use Inspiration with your students? I look forward to seeing your ideas under Comments!

Chastened by a student

OK, so a student emailed me this week and suggested that I start up a blog about all of this tech stuff and I felt a bit chagrined. Here I am requiring them to blog about all of this stuff and I'm not really doing it myself. So here I am, blogging about this stuff.

I guess my first step is to conceptualize what I want to have on this blog. Perhaps y'all could comment back and let me know what you would like to see. I'm thinking the following:

1. Profiles of cool tools and ways we can use them in the classroom
2. Tutorials
3. Articles
4. Surveys
5. Goings on including conferences and my own workshops and presentations

What do you think? Let me know what else I should add to the page...