How schools get it wrong
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 12, 2009
Some articles I am reading…
How Schools Get It Wrong
http://www.thestar.com/atkinsonseries/atkinson2009/article/718262–how-schools-get-it-wrong
Are Schools Preparing Students for 21st Century Learning?
http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/11/02/are-schools-preparing-students-for-21st-century-learning.aspx
Will the Digital Divide Close by Itself?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/will-the-digital-divide-close-by-itself/
Why Teenagers Are Growing Up So Slowly Today
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurtureshock/archive/2009/11/05/why-teenagers-are-growing-up-so-slowly-today.aspx
Drop by drop
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 11, 2009
A while ago, I wrote about how important it is to slow down (or even stop) to think. John Connell referred to this as slow blogging. The video above reminded me of this.
My take home message from the video: Slowing things down allows us to learn new things about ourselves and the world around us.
Smilebox
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 10, 2009
Someone from one of my ICT classes created a digital scrapbook with Smilebox to mark the end of the ICT course last week. Aww!
Here are some of my photos and videos from the final sessions.
Many thanks to all my trainees who made the course an enjoyable one!
What is your reach?
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 9, 2009
It never ceases to amaze me how people find ways to connect 140 characters at a time with Twitter. Read how Karl Fisch did so at The Fischbowl: How Many People in Your Family?
Maybe one day I’ll have the same reach as he does!
How/Why teachers use Twitter
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 8, 2009
At the 4min 36sec mark, the facilitator asks the panel, “What does it mean to tweet about education?”
The panel answers this question and goes on to describe the power of education in personal learning networks (PLNs).
Know your audience
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 6, 2009
I just read a TechCrunch article on something called Aardvark. Aardvark looks like a promising social Q&A tool, but it was the example (below) that Michael Arrington shared that caught my eye.
I had to laugh. I also thought how this was a good example of needing to know your audience.
I read this on the back of meeting my last ICT group today. This was the batch that was two weeks behind another batch, so things got confusing in terms of weekly topics. It had been a lot worse with the other course that I facilitate, EdPsych2 (EP2), overlapping by the same two weeks. I not only had to wear different hats, I had to wear different suits!
Or so I thought at first. I find myself blending the suits as I think of ways to integrate relevant forms of pedagogy and technology into the content-heavy course that is EP2. Why? It starts with knowing your audience.
I know that my audience comprises of future teachers, so I must give them opportunities to design, teach and reflect. I know that they are more technologically savvy with each passing batch. (My recent survey revealed that at least half were already users of Google Docs.)
I think I know my ICT audience pretty well as a whole. As I say goodbye to another batch of ICT classes, I am heartened by their tokens of appreciation, group photos, and their expressions on how they will miss the course. I recall some of their blog entries about how hard they are pushed to think, how their mindsets change and how much they look forward to attending class.
Now I think that if I can create half the energy and feeling for EP2, I’d be very happy!
To book or not to book
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 5, 2009
Bryan Polivka asked for input for a session titled The End of Book Learning: Why the Next Textbook… Isn’t One. He has already received some input and has responded with another blog entry. Here’s a choice quote:
I don’t think a textbook, by nature, is actually a book at all. It is in essence a wholly different creature condemned to the confines of a book because that’s the only sort of container that there’s been… the textbook will ultimately be freed from its cramped prison, deconstructed and reconstructed into other more suitable technologies that work better for the purpose. Books will be books. What we call a textbook will undergo a metamorphosis, flee the cocoon, and fly.
I’ll just say this: He is not anti-book, he is pro-learning.
Copyright, copywrong… you copy?
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 4, 2009
The Rambling Librarian has some interesting thoughts about what he labels Digital Civics and Intellectual Respect. With the current practice of mashups, this overall concept is even more important!
My only observation is nothing new: Technology evolves so fast that our laws cannot catch up. Thankfully, rather than wait for lawmakers, people co-evolve with the technology and socially negotiate acceptable practices. If we police ourselves, we don’t need the police.
Mobile now
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 3, 2009
The future is mobile. That point is moot considering how mobile we are already. I am talking about the prevalence of smartphones like the iPhone.
We have Facebook Lite to benefit people who have only Internet access via their phones. Sites like this feature how important mobile phones are for local economies, women’s rights, weather updates, etc.
Flickr regularly reports the cameras responsible for the highest number of uploaded photos. The iPhone is up there with Canons and Nikons. Some enterprising folks even found a way to make the iPhone into a “proper” video camera!
So what is the point? I have lamented the fact that mobile phones are often banned from classrooms. I have even asked if we are cheating our students as we do this.
At the moment I am aware of one of my colleagues who is actively researching the use of mobile phones for informal learning both in and outside classrooms in a primary school here. But most schools have not yet armed their students with netbooks or laptops nor have they tapped the phones that are already in pockets or schoolbags.
How long are we going to wait as we watch yet another powerful technology pass us by in education?
Hey Jude flowchart
Posted by: ashleytan on: November 2, 2009
If I was teaching anyone how to flowchart, I might use this!
I believe this is the original source of the flowchart.
