Archive for October, 2009
October 31st, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
Halloween is upon us. Did you see any memorable costumes at work or school today?
Here’s a roundup of the week’s interesting news and links:
Continue reading ‘Weekly Gathering–Boo!’
October 30th, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
It may have been a while since you’ve seen the movie Spies Like Us, but there’s a memorable scene, embedded below, where Chevy Chase and Dan Ackroyd attempt to cheat on their government aptitude test.
As teachers we’ve heard every excuse in the book. So when Chevy Chase says that he broke his arm after attending the reading of a will and found out he got nothing, we’re not too taken aback. Although the clip is humorous I want to ask what you think about cheating.
- Is it a problem at your school?
- If it is not a problem, what are you doing right?
- What steps do you take to ensure no one is cheating on a test or homework?
- How do you deal with plagiarism?
- Should teachers reward students for not cheating?
Here’s that clip from Spies Like Us.
Continue reading ‘Cheating’
October 29th, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
The Simpsons never lack social commentary, and when Bart got a new teacher this season who assigned the class twenty minutes of twittering for homework the writers obviously got the idea from real classrooms.
Their commentary often exposes blind spots or the hasty implementation of technology. A couple of episodes in season 11 satirize society’s embrace of laser eye surgery in spite of the dearth of long-term studies on its effects.
This article from edweek discusses how twitter is being used in the classroom. Daniel Cunningham warns that the effects of twittering in the class are not known and may not be known for a decade.
- What do you think?
- Have you used twitter in your class?
- How do you think twitter and texting will affect student thought?
I’m not against it as long as students practice long and slow thinking. Students need to develop quick thoughts and responses–that’s what social media thrives on. In order to compete in this world they should be proficient in this matter. However, students must know how to develop big projects over time–another invaluable skill. Big research papers, quarter long group projects, long term lab studies.
Continue reading ‘Twitter Lessons’
October 28th, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
Every teacher should watch this program on pbs. If you have access to Frontline: Growing Up Online
at your local library get it; otherwise you can purchase it on amazon. It may be worth purchasing if you plan to show it in class.
As always, use discerment before showing this in class. Any mature high school class can watch it, or at least seniors can handle the content.
There are abundant resources on PBS’ website, including the entire video in bits (at least at time of writing).
If you don’t end up showing this video in class I urge you to watch it as a teacher striving to understand his or her students. I encourage you to watch it because:
1. Teachers must understand how to utilize the tools that students use on a daily basis as educational technology.
2. Teachers are obligated to report abuse; yet cyberbullying remains a mystery and is highly unregulated. Frontline: Growing Up Onlineprovides practical tips to keep students safe online.
3. It provides a balanced view. Some teachers love the technology and incorporate it into the classroom, whereas other teachers discuss some of the concerns they have with educational technology, i.e., students not reading enough books.
If you’ve seen Frontline: Growing Up Onlinewhy not pass along this post to someone who hasn’t seen it yet?
Continue reading ‘Frontline: Growing Up Online’
October 27th, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
A maven is an expert. They’re the ones who know the best hotel to stay at in Paris and why. They’re the people you want to take with you when buying a house, a car, a computer.
But with the advent of sites like yelp and amazon
where the average user can rate everything are we going to lose mavens? If educators teach students how to critically analyse digital texts and compare ratings on different websites in order to arrive at an expert conclusion, will the mavens still be necessary? If we teach students to be mavens will we be producing super-mavens that will have narrower and narrower expertise?
I’ve already seen it happen. The 21st century literacy standards are producing super-mavens. The Net Generation knows how to find a deal on everything. Whatever they’re going to buy they research from every angle and viewpoint. They can seek out the expert’s opinion on a car, and they can also read reviews by satisfied or dissatisfied owners of that car. The result? Super-mavens.
Parents and teachers have teachable moments every day. They can teach critical analysis of digital texts on a daily basis. The best part about it is that you don’t have to tell your children or students that they are learning 21st century literacy standards. All you have to do is ask them to find the best product for you. They’ll learn from each other. They may think that they’ve found the best deal, but then their sibling or classmate may have found a better price or product. Whilst having fun they learn quotidian critical thinking.
Continue reading ‘Educational Technology and 21st Century Literacy Standards are Creating Super-Mavens’
October 26th, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
One thing I like about technology is that there is always an alternative. If your projector doesn’t work in class, get a TV. If the DVD player doesn’t work, grab your laptop. What if the projector is on the fritz and the DVD player has bitten the dust? What should you do?
Having an S-Video cable
or an HDMI cable
around will save you a lot of trouble. Depending on the computer you use at work (or at home as the situation may warrant), you can purchase either of the above cables to have around in case a projector or a DVD player breaks down.
Your laptop or PC can serve as the DVD player and a TV can be used in lieu of the projector.
If you have an S-Video cable, simply plug in the S-Video into your laptop and the video cord into the TV. Find the proper input on the remote for the TV or on the TV itself, and hold down “fn” and “F4.” What you see on your laptop should appear on the TV. The same process can be followed for the HDMI cable.
Continue reading ‘Always a Way Part II’
October 25th, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
My wife had a good idea. There was a long line for the changing room at an over crowded clothing store downtown. For me, the wait would have been too long and I would have said forget it.
Instead of doing things my way she did things her way, which is to always find a way. She took the items she wanted to try on and went upstairs to the men’s department, which of course had no wait. She liked one of the items and bought it in spite of the understaffed, overcrowded department store.
If I can extrapolate a lesson here, it is that there is always a way. For students, there is always a way to get your assignments done by their due dates. I did the wrong thing by thinking that it was too busy and we should just get out of there. Although it sounded reasonable at the time, it simply reflected my poor attitude and flippant judgment toward the entire situation. We went shopping for a reason. Leaving before we could achieve our goal would have been myopic at best.
Continue reading ‘Always a Way’
October 24th, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
How was your week this week? The school year is going by quickly already. As my aunt always says, no matter what time of year, “Pretty soon it’ll be Christmas!” She’s always right.
Continue reading ‘Weekly Gathering’
October 23rd, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
I saw the new Coen Brothers movie A Serious Man this week. Loved it. One of the best of their oeuvre.
This post is not a movie review, but rather I’m going to use it as illustrative of the failure of teacher-centered teaching. If there are any professors out there, or any teachers teaching at a conference or teacher meeting, this is a great illustration of why teacher-centered teaching crashes and burns every time.
Danny, the 12 year old son of the leading character, is clearly an auditory learner. In the first scene in which we see him, he’s listening to his portable radio through an earpiece. His teacher is teaching Hebrew by rote, parsing each part of a verb on the chalkboard. Danny’s classmates are all in a somnolent slouch over their books.
Later, we see Danny listening to popular cantors on his record player at home. He is learning the Aliyah for his bar mitzvah. He simply listens to the record, then stops the record and imitates what he hears.
We see the evidence of effectiveness of his auditory learning when he sings the Aliyah perfectly on the Shabbat after his 13th birthday, even though he’s under the influence.
All the parsing in the world written on the chalkboard could not have helped Danny perform the Aliyah. He’s an auditory learner. He needed those records. Danny’s dad, by the way, also puts his students to sleep as he fills ginormous chalkboards with math proofs at the local college.
What could Danny’s Hebrew teacher have done? How could he have taught differently to make his class a student-centered class? A few things:
- At the very least the teacher could have played the cantor’s records in class and have the students repeat it, as Danny was doing at home. Or have different students bring in their favorite records and talk about the subtle differences or interpretations of the cantors.
- He could have had the students work on a part of the Aliyah with a group and then have each group sing and teach the class.
- He could have gotten to know his students like Rabbi Marshak. Rabbi Marshak, though very elderly and retired from pastoral work, is connected with young people. In fact, he only sees boys after their bar mitzvah to impart some words of wisdom. The words of wisdom he imparts to Danny are quoted from “Somebody to Love,” the song Danny is listening to at the beginning to the movie. Danny is shocked and so is the audience. Other than that the Rabbi simply tells him to be a good boy.
- The teacher could have had students play a game. Get them out of their seats and moving around instead of dozing off in their seats.
I don’t think Danny would have been listening to Jefferson Airplane in class if his class were more student-centered.
Continue reading ‘The Failure of Teacher-Centered Teaching in A Serious Man’
October 22nd, 2009 by tic@technologyinclass.com
If you’re like me you create and thus have to save and store multiple
files—and that’s just for your personal use.
Teachers need plenty of storage space. Multimedia lessons, powerpoint, downloaded videos (since most schools block youtube, even for teachers), pictures etc. Most schools are happy to provide ample storage. But unless you back them up those files remain at school. Hence, some schools provide laptops for their teachers.
If teachers don’t have a laptop, and if they want to get any work done at home they’ll end up having to transfer files one way or another. Teachers will have to save files on a flash drive or some other device if they want to work at home and then bring that to work. Then they’ll have to save the work they did on their work computer and bring it home. That’s a lot of wasted time.
There’s a way to work smarter with dropbox. Dropbox allows you to save files in one place from multiple sources. If you’ve saved a file at home, you can access the storage from one place. If you’ve saved a picture on your phone, you can move it to dropbox. Then, wherever you go in the world, dropbox has you covered. Check it out–I think it’s a useful organizational tool for teachers. Best of all–it’s free!
This review is also located on our TIC Recommends page.
Continue reading ‘Store Your Educational Technology Files in Dropbox’
and I’m wondering what it would be like to have Pat Tillman in my class as a youngster. What do you do that energy? How would I channel his talents to bring out his academic potential? I’m sure I’d harness his kinesthetic intelligence.