Episode 16: How much has technology hurt the classroom?

Top of the show recommendations:
This week, I'm sharing stuff I like around the home

• The Week (best digest of all that is happening in one publication)
• Senseo Coffee maker (no mess and a consistent cup of coffee... every time)
• FlipVideo camera (small, convenient and decent output)
• Roomba (it really works and it's sort of fun)

Episode Notes: A look at if we're even in an education crisis and who says we are and the limitations of a techno-centric view of schooling.

Educational crisis

• In the 80s, it was the DOE publication A Nation at Risk that sparked "crisis" in US education.
• "There seems to be a pattern: when the country feels insecure, let's fix our problems with trying to reform education (let the kids fix it)".
• "NCLB which attempts to judge all things evenly (built on a concept that was the Houston [Texas] Miracle...later found to be a fraud...but not many people will talk about that..."
• "...and I still agree with Harry Wong and other who have said that you can't fix a society's problems with education."
• "Here's the problem: you have to dig really deep below the words and scary headlines and stats to see if there is really merit to how a school or a district or a state or a nation is doing in education."

So what about technology?

• "Well, it gets in the way and probably will continue to cloud the resources and energies and we "prepare our students" for the 21st Century..."
• "And I'm thinking: people are really viewing education as a business and how fast a business should be run..."
• "Instead, learning isn't fast; learning is much like the plateau where "better" learning happens over a long period of time...For who ever said that somehow you needed to know a lot more facts than you did 20 years ago...isn't the better ideal that people, our students, their parents, our colleagues and us...all can think and ponder and wonder and reflect and articulate ..."

Yeah, but...some practical upshot:
Download and participate in a FOSS community

• Firefox
• OpenOffice
• Moodle

Read about community

• Opensource Democracy (Douglas Ruskhoff)
• Open Sources: Voices from the Opensource Revolution (O'Reilly)
• Linux Journal, Linux Format

Show length: 32:33

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It begins with dropping the rhetoric

We use words to attempt to communicate to others what we mean and sometimes we honestly can't articulate what is in our mind. And, sometimes, we are so excited about what we want to say that we use words that have lost their true meaning. (I remember that I used the word "dork" in a Sunday School class in the early 90's and the leader informed me that "that word is not appropriate and I don't feel that it should be said in mixed company." We were visitors that Sunday).

Those who try and describe what is happening the classroom or those who want to "reform" the classroom are most guilty of using words and phrases that have lost meaning. For example, the word "portfolio" began as a wonderful way of a showing student "growth" with powerful "assessment" possibilities. Each of those words had, in their original "label" deep and powerful meaning, but as those labels were picked up by mainstream educational journals and educational product advertisements, the words were labels that became buzzwords.

Today, let's toss in "accountability" and "reflection" and "standards." In fact, if I see another mention (like I did today as dropped my son off at a science exploration camp) mention of the phrase "Best Practice" I will seriously hurt someone seriously. Why? Because the book the originally presented the phrase (Best Practice: Today's Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools) was an incredible, inspirational call of clear thinking and practice across the grade levels and curriculum; now, it's a buzzword that is tacked on to advertisements and mission statements.

Besides "21st Century Skills" (which I've mentioned a time or two already in this blog), the up and coming buzzword is "...that Works" (borrowed from an educational report and later popularized by Marzano et al [Data-Driven specialists]). Edutopia now has as their tagline a variation: "What Works in Public Education" and you can read the editor's passionate call for change here (more about that publication another time).

Part of bashingED is clear thinking about learning and technology. Whenever you see these overused "educational" words, labels or phrases, you'll probably getting some good old fashioned rhetoric which should be saved for the politicians and advertisers.

Episode 15: I went to a text file to live deliberately

Shelf Stuff
GoodReads.com
I noticed at our school corp year-end celebration that many of the retirees said that they'd now have more time to read and it seems as teachers, we like to read more. Nice layout, easy to use and great connection with other readers you know and perhaps meet. You can start your own reading group...students use it and what a wonderful way of making more connections with those whom we see each day in the classroom outside the classroom.

Goosh.org
And this is a bit geeky, but perhaps amusing: interact with most of the Google services through the command line...yeah, that's how I thought you'd respond. Anyway, it is amusing and somewhat useful...I think it continues the tradition of many ways to do one thing and I think that is a positive. So, instead of point and click, you enter commands (think back to the DOS 5.0 days w/o using PowerShell, et al). Hands are on keyboard and with a couple of commands, you are on your way.

Show Notes
What is plain text?
It's a file that doesn't have any other coding...it is only the letters and numbers and punctuation that is readable by humans...or at least normal ones. Basically, it's only the stuff of your keyboard. When you use a programs, to say, type a letter or lesson plan or handout (like MSWord or WP), that programs allows you do format characters and the document itself so that when you open it up again, it'll be consistent. But, you have to basically use that program to read that document and if that program goes through updates (like MS Word) the readable file format may change over the years. Most can import backward, but some formatting may change...no longer looks the same. Even RTF inserts code though many say it's the next best thing to plain text. Plain text will remain the same as long as computers can read plain text files

How can you use it?
Todo.txt (Organizing your life through a text file)

• Some folks like the Getting Things Done (GTD) approach
  
• One way of doing it: (http://todotxt.com)
  

Lesson planning

Arrange the way you plan the according to the way you think.

Some advocate all of your planning stuff, important stuff, in one file.
You could have the entire docs for a class in one file and then copy and paste for formatting. Or, if you are really daring, put everything in one file.
Sites referenced:

• Lifehacker
• 43 Folders

And can you make a convenient little metaphor for something bigger?
Thoreau for some reason went to Waldon pond to figure out life...or as had been quoted: "I went to the woods to live deliberately...to suck out the marrow of life" etc. Take a plain-text look at your classroom, strip away the extra modifiers and requirements and see the magic again.


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Next week: How much has technology hurt the classroom?
A look at if we're even in an education crisis and who says we are...and the limitations of a techno-centric view of schooling. Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 5:05 p.m.

EPISODE14 - Could texting and IMing be good for writing?

We'll be looking at the Pew Research Center's article that explores this issue. Reference: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/808/writing-technology-and-teens

Top of the show:

• A wonderful AIR app for Friendfeed is Alert Thingy Friendfeed is a way to keep all of your self-generated content in one place and a way for you friends to view and comment on that content. Alert Thingy is a clean app to manage Friendfeed from the desktop.
• I also mentioned Facebook as a way to keep connections with former students and reconnecting with former classmates.

The report is called: Writing, Technology and Teens (Teens write a lot, but they do not think of their emails, instant and text messages as writing. This disconnect matters because teens believe good writing is an essential skill for success and that more writing instruction at school would help them).


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Next Episode: EPISODE15 - I went to a text file to live deliberately
Time: 06/03/2008 05:05 PM EDT

EPISODE13 - Please don't let teachers blog!

How effective are blogs for the classroom? And, should teachers use blogs for educational reasons?

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Why not generate content through these services:

• Twitter
• Tumblr
• GoogleReader

Twitter in Plain English (CommonCraft)

Next Episode: EPISODE14 - Could texting and IMing be good for writing?

EPISODE12 - Why Wiki When We Write?

There's be lots of talk about wiki (wiki) and their popularity and that using a wiki would be cool for the classroom. Really? Let's take a look at some of the possibilities.

Top of the show:

• ChaCha (a really useful texting service: ask a question, get an answer).
• Utterz (audioblogging via your cell phone)

The creator of wikis, Ward Cunningham talks about wikis and other things on FLOSS weekly (with Randal Schartz and Leo Laporte)

CommonCraft explanation of how a wiki works. [video]

Popular wiki sites:

• pbwiki
• wikiplaces

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Next episode: EPISODE13 - Please don't let teachers blog!

EPISODE11 - Web Docs: But I like to upgrade

Is there long-term value to using web apps such as Google Docs and Buzzword? Is there a web app that will tie my shoes? This week we'll look at the growing list of standard desktop activities that are now available on the web (mostly free of charge).

Links from this show:
Google Docs
Buzzword
Writewith

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Next episode: Why Wiki When We Write?