This week, we talked about the idea of should a computer be merely a tool or can it actually teach our students? I got to talk with "Central Florida" about her experience with educational software with her special needs student. I also relate a conversation that I had with someone who works with a popular educational software company.
*iPhone envy but don't want to pay for the phone nor the data plan?You may take a peek at VirginWireless' Wild Card phone and their reasonable plans so you can text and send pix.
You can listen to this episode by using the TalkShoe badge to the right or download this episode here or from iTunes.
Next Week: EPISODE10 -- How do we know that they know? Moodle and assessment
Time: 04/22/2008 05:05 PM EDT Episode Notes: It's _the_ bottom-line question for a teacher: "How do I know that my student has learned?" Moodle has a wide-variety of ways to assess student learning and we'll take a look at a few of those ways.
Perhaps you're just hearing about it and you're using OpenOffice. Or, perhaps, you've heard that you can have good software without paying a dime for it. Better still, what does all this have to do with what happens in the classroom?
Listen to the episode here or on the TalkShoe badge on the right side of the page.
Show notes: Sorry about the quality of the recording, I'm working on a better sound.
Products/Sites mentioned at the beginning of the podcast:
Livewires: If you are looking for a good programming language to teach to kids, you may consider Python (OpenSource and very much used all over). A solid teaching series comes from our friends in the U.K. called "livewires."
Flock -- The "social" browser (it's build on Firefox code) which is getting better and better, is a nice "one-stop" integration with the major social sites on the web (including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and even gMail).
Probably the more popular FOSS programs known in the "mainstream": OpenOffice (a complete office suite | like MS Office without the pricetag; interface is fairly easy to catch on to). Firefox (a solid web browser that has taken over the browser market). Gimp (an image editor that is like Adobe Photoshop in that it probably has more features than you really need). Audacity (sound editor)
[and there's lots of other programs. Here's a few more: Thunderbird (email), Songbird (music library/listening), Miro (video library/listening), and Inkscape (illustration)]
Next week's topic:"But can a computer dance?" (Should a computer be merely a tool or can it actually teach our students?) Date and time: 04/15/2008 05:05 PM EDT (stop by and join the chat!)
And perhaps we're coming to the end of the blogging cycle, but you will still find at any technology conference for educators presentations on how to use blogs in the classroom.
If your colleague tells you that she is about to create a blog for her classroom, pull the plug from the computer and run away.
Do not let another teacher start an "educational" blog: it simply is a bad idea.
"But wait!" you exclaim, "there's so many cool ways to use the Web 2.0 in the classroom with your students."
(I've included the exclamation point because each explanation ends with that degree of enthusiasm).
The nature of a blog was not meant to be these things per se; the blog's power comes in the voice of the writer of the blog. For a teacher, who has not written online, to have a strong voice in a "class blog" is rare. Instead the expectation of instant "discussion" usually falls flat. And then most teachers are not prepared for the feedback component of a blog and become frustrated with the results.
To insist that "the classroom" be moved to the internet via a "class blog" is just asking for failure. Instead, teachers should resist the urge to start a blog for the classroom and instead, start a personal blog, or get a Facebook account, or a Twitter account or join and participate in one of many social networks out there. Experience how the interactivity yourself first for the summer, then, start thinking how a blog or an online learning environment (such as Moodle) could extend what happens in the classroom.
Students are much smarter than we think and they are certainly more sophisticated than we give them credit. If a teacher says that she blogs and invites students to her blog (and perhaps to comment on the blog) that speaks volumes. For one thing, it shows that the teacher is not merely jumping on the technological bandwagon after a conference or a staff training. Besides, how many teacher blogs out there haven't moved beyond "Hello, world"posts?
Episode Notes: What is the role of learning with technology in the 21st Century? Is it skill-based as the organization suggest? Will technology finally save our schools? Stop by and chat with us.
Note: For some reason, TalkeShoe drops after 10min. intervals during this case. The iTunes Store has the raw recording and you should listen to the edited on from TalkShoe.
Update: iTunes grabbed the cleaned up version; thanks iTunesStoreFolk.
Next Week: EPISODE7 - 21st Century Skills? Time: 03/30/2008 07:10 PM EDT Episode Notes: What is the role of learning with technology in the 21st Century? Is it skill-based as the organization suggest? Will technology finally save our schools? Stop by and chat with us.
Notes: We're still trying to apply older approaches to "digital literacy." Let's explore some more appropriate approaches to reading dynamic content.
Not much conversation from the outside, but we were talking about if there is a need for a different way to approach digital texts. Is there a fundamental difference in how we read print and non-print texts?
In answering that question (which I may or may not have really answered), we can recognize the tension between literacy pedagogy that either encourages reading for fluency (enjoyment) or reading for precision (skill).
One program mentioned in the podcast that addresses digital literacy (and that recognizes the skill-based view of reading) is the Big6. I also mentioned the Big6 Research Paper organizer in the podcast.
Next Week's TalkShoe: Episode 6: Moodle Chat: Capturing conversation in a blur. Episode Notes: Is there value in treading on the "kids" territory of IMing? Information overload with so many voices and the same time? Start Time (EDT): 03/23/08 07:10 PM EDT
Time: 03/09/2008 07:10 PM EDT Episode Notes: Using the Social Forum in Moodle is the at the heart of this idea of students constructing texts around other texts to create meaning. If that sounds interesting or confusing, stop by and have a listen.
Next week: Title: EPISODE5 - Taking another read of digital literacyTime: 03/16/2008 07:10 PM EDT Episode Notes: We're still trying to apply older approaches to "digital literacy." Let's explore some more appropriate approaches to reading dynamic content.
bashing education is more metaphor than literal and is a call for clear thinking within education and its use of technology. As a metaphor, bash is a reference to the shell in many *nix systems. Instead of relying on the GUI-eye-candy of the point-and-click way of computing, returning to the command line is a way of thinking--a way of returning to complete control and with that control, more power.
As it applies to education--and especially technology--we really need to return to the main focus of any tool: how to use that tool for learning. In short, let's uncover the rhetoric, the slick slideware presentations, the spiffy 4-color mailers that promise and promise, and return to the days of the command line. Enter a command, and things happen. Once we're comfortable with entering in a command, we can string a couple of commands together and then perhaps do some scripting within education. (from a previous post)
*Starbucks to offer free iTunes download of the week cards (again) from TUAW.
