Most kids love tech tools. Desktops, laptops, smart phones, smart boards, iPods, iPads, online games, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, texting, IM, SMS, MMS, RSS... you name it and they probably know more about it than I do. But there is one tool that is conspicuously absent from that list; email.
One of the teachers at my school shared this article that could have major implications for our virtual school:
The one tech tool they aren’t into …
Turns out Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg was right when he predicted that teenagers are just not that into email. Personally, I love email. It's just after 4pm and so far today, I have received or sent 66 emails at work (by contrast, I have received or made only about a dozen phone calls). I expect I will hit 100 emails by the end of the day once I check my personal and school accounts this evening. That's a pretty typical day for me. But what about the students at my school?
Being a virtual school, email is the primary vehicle for communication. Want to let the students know about an upcoming schedule change? Send them an email. Want to inform parents about re-enrollment for next year? Send an email. Want to ask your teacher a question? Email them. And so it goes. Now virtual school students may be atypical in their opinions about email, but if email use is truly on the decline among teenagers, as the article suggests, then perhaps we should reexamine our communication strategy.
I can see it now: "iQ Academy proposes equipping teachers with smartphones so they can text, video chat or Tweet answers to student questions."
I wonder what the school board would say...
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
You Can't Judge a Website By It's URL
During a recent visit to Wisconsin Dells, it occurred to me that a well-designed website can make any little flea-bag motel look like the Ritz. Creative writing and photography can make a tiny little inn with an algae-laden inflatable pool look like the waterpark capital of the world. Here's a tip - if the place advertises a poolside room for $39.99 per night, it ain't the Kalahari.
Some websites that appear to be totally legit can be completely phony. Others are much more subtle in their presentation but are nonetheless inaccurate or misleading. The amount of information available on the web is virtually limitless, making the ability to evaluate the legitimacy and usefulness of that information a critical skill. And before we can hope to help our students develop that critical skill, we must first understand and apply it ourselves.
That is why I paid particular attention to the exercise we undertook in this course to create and use a tool for evaluating Internet learning resources and the materials we studied regarding how to determine the validity of information you find on the web. I try to have a healthy degree of skepticism about everything I see on the web, but until now, I never really thought about how to determine with at least some degree of certainty which web-based information is actually true and useful.
The real challenge is that the Internet is so new, so vast and changes so rapidly that there is no precedent for processing this information. However, it is incumbent on educators who use technology resources with their students to make teaching proper information evaluation a priority.
Some websites that appear to be totally legit can be completely phony. Others are much more subtle in their presentation but are nonetheless inaccurate or misleading. The amount of information available on the web is virtually limitless, making the ability to evaluate the legitimacy and usefulness of that information a critical skill. And before we can hope to help our students develop that critical skill, we must first understand and apply it ourselves.
That is why I paid particular attention to the exercise we undertook in this course to create and use a tool for evaluating Internet learning resources and the materials we studied regarding how to determine the validity of information you find on the web. I try to have a healthy degree of skepticism about everything I see on the web, but until now, I never really thought about how to determine with at least some degree of certainty which web-based information is actually true and useful.
The real challenge is that the Internet is so new, so vast and changes so rapidly that there is no precedent for processing this information. However, it is incumbent on educators who use technology resources with their students to make teaching proper information evaluation a priority.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Blog About Nothing...
With apologies to all the Seinfeld fans out there, I sometimes feel like I am writing a blog about nothing. I try to reflect on how what we are learning in class relates to my life, but it turns out that my life isn't all that interesting. Still, Seinfeld was a self-described "show about nothing" and they ended up making something like 180 episodes over nine years.
Anyway, if you are looking to make our weekly blog assignment something other than a reflection on how we can incorporate the course content in our lives outside of grad school, perhaps we could post one assignment per week as a blog entry instead of a wiki page. In Week 1, for example, that could have worked for our reaction to the web links.
On second thought, I am in favor of keeping the blog assignment the way it is. I thing we will all be thankful when it comes time to review everything we have done and how we felt about it at the time.
Anyway, if you are looking to make our weekly blog assignment something other than a reflection on how we can incorporate the course content in our lives outside of grad school, perhaps we could post one assignment per week as a blog entry instead of a wiki page. In Week 1, for example, that could have worked for our reaction to the web links.
On second thought, I am in favor of keeping the blog assignment the way it is. I thing we will all be thankful when it comes time to review everything we have done and how we felt about it at the time.
The Faster I Go The Behinder I Get
Sitting in the lobby of a movie theater recently, two thoughts occurred to me:
1. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie in a theater, and
2. The way we experience movies has changed dramatically in the past 5-10 years.
Think about it. Technology has completely changed the way we watch movies. It wasn't that long ago that the only place to see a movie was in a theater or on TV. Then came VCR's, Blockbuster and HBO and suddenly we could watch movies at home at the touch of a button. There were a few missteps along the way (i.e. Laser Disc), but a couple technological advances more and we have DVD's and Blu Ray. Now factor in Netflix and suddenly we can download movies instantly and watch them on anything from a 40-inch plasma screen to a computer screen to a mobile phone. The changes happen so fast it is hard to keep up.
Maybe that is why the American education system has been so slow to implement technology in the learning process. The potential for technology to transform education and better prepare students for the future is hard to ignore, yet the behemoth educational bureaucracies seem to have done just that. Education is not keeping up with the world in terms of technological implementation and unless we pick up the pace dramatically, the impact on the next generation will be staggering.
That thought has been haunting me throughout this class on Using Productivity Tools Effectively. There are so many tools out there now and plenty of examples of how they can be used to facilitate student learning and equip students with 21st century skills. Yet there are far too many other examples of schools and districts and teachers delivering public education the same way it has been done for the last 50-years. Imagine if we were still watching movies the same way we did 50-year ago...
By the way, the last movie I saw in the theater was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 so it really wasn't all that long ago, it just wasn't a very memorable experience I guess.
1. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie in a theater, and
2. The way we experience movies has changed dramatically in the past 5-10 years.
Think about it. Technology has completely changed the way we watch movies. It wasn't that long ago that the only place to see a movie was in a theater or on TV. Then came VCR's, Blockbuster and HBO and suddenly we could watch movies at home at the touch of a button. There were a few missteps along the way (i.e. Laser Disc), but a couple technological advances more and we have DVD's and Blu Ray. Now factor in Netflix and suddenly we can download movies instantly and watch them on anything from a 40-inch plasma screen to a computer screen to a mobile phone. The changes happen so fast it is hard to keep up.
Maybe that is why the American education system has been so slow to implement technology in the learning process. The potential for technology to transform education and better prepare students for the future is hard to ignore, yet the behemoth educational bureaucracies seem to have done just that. Education is not keeping up with the world in terms of technological implementation and unless we pick up the pace dramatically, the impact on the next generation will be staggering.
That thought has been haunting me throughout this class on Using Productivity Tools Effectively. There are so many tools out there now and plenty of examples of how they can be used to facilitate student learning and equip students with 21st century skills. Yet there are far too many other examples of schools and districts and teachers delivering public education the same way it has been done for the last 50-years. Imagine if we were still watching movies the same way we did 50-year ago...
By the way, the last movie I saw in the theater was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 so it really wasn't all that long ago, it just wasn't a very memorable experience I guess.
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