bowie :: Blog

http://themobilelearner.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/my-wordle-word-cloud/

I’ve been experimenting with Wordle and have been impressed with it’s simple, yet powerful service.  Worlde takes a blog website or even a simple block of text and creates a word cloud from it, making more commonly used words larger than less commonly used words.  Here is this blog’s Wordle word cloud:I was quite surprised [...]

http://themobilelearner.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/ipods-in-education-part-9-rs

RSS has been an indispensable tool for me.  Being able to subscribe to web content and have that content come to me instead of me having to continuously find it has provided me with extra time to keep up with more content that I could have ever kept up with in the past.  If you [...]

http://themobilelearner.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/the-high-price-of-mobility-c

I feeling awfully torn these days.  There are so many devices that allow for so many wonderful learning possibilities.  Researching and publishing on the Internet from anywhere.  Accessings RSS feeds from anywhere.  Communicating and collaborating with one other person or many other people using text or voice or combinations of both.  With so many [...]

http://themobilelearner.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/alternatives-to-google-redis

With the majority of educators who I read online or talk to face to face going goo-goo, ga-ga, over Google, I often feel like a minority. That really comes into play (to my detriment may I add) when I want to collaborate with others online.  It’s always, “let’s collaborate using Google docs”, or “what’s your [...]

http://themobilelearner.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/major-obstacle-to-mobile-lea

Fresh from my trip back from Italy, I want to use this opportunity to share my little experiment in cell phone mobility.  My experiences can be summed up in this way: Don’t be fooled by the advertising -your cell phone is not as mobile as you think!
My experiment began about two months before I left [...]

Talking to a number of American teachers last evening as we debriefed about NECC, I was interested in knowing whether or not school boards in the United States have the same difficulty encouraging teachers to use technology in their classroom.  Bingo!  Despite weaker unions in certain cases where there may be more pressure to toe the line, many in the profession remain recalcetrant to embed technology in their teaching.  So this conversation with American colleauges centred around the question WHY?

There was a concensus that integrating technology can often be extremely time consuming.  We know that good prep of any kind can often call on several hours of work.  In the ccase of technology, the time reqirements may be much higher. For example, debutants would need to become more comfortable with the interface and how to use it, understand how the school board's network functions, learn the basics of software they wanted to use, plan out how to create an enriching, meaningful learning experience for kids that is solidly linked to the curriculum.  Then there is the actual preparation of the lesson and assessment.  This a,ll takes time and not all teachers are willing to invest the  time to integrate technology.  ArcView GiS is an excellent example.  It takes many hours to be comfortable with the program.  ESRI does provide great lessons, but it does not mean that they always fit in with  the curriculum. 

So the $100 question is how to convince colleagues, often with many years of experience under their belt, that the time investment is worth it?  No easy answer.  Should we tell them that they are selling kids short?  Should we encourage them to take baby steps?  Should we somehow get them to read some literature on the imperative of digital fluency in the 21st century?  Should we petitions teacher training institutions to add more meaningful content and courses that will prepare them to teach in the 21st century?  Should a tech ABQ become mandatory for all teachers already in the profession?  Should we offer more inservice?  Should we set up mentoring partnerships between colleagues?  Should we just go ahead and purchase more computers and place them in classes so that students can lead teachers to technology? (ironic eh?)   All of these are viable solutions to a certain degree.  None is a panacea.  The truth is that it is a complex issue that will probably only be resolved as the digital world itself continues to evolve.  Time is obviously not the only factor limiting tech integration in schools, but it is not our friend in 2008!

I did not know what to expect from Ian Jukes who presented three different sessions. I came away energized from two of those sessions.  In his first session, Literacy Isn't Enough: Digital Fluency in the Age of InfoWhelm, Ian presented compelling arguments for "digital natives" having a brain that is wired differently than 'digital immigrants".   As he predicted, my assumptions about education were severely challenged.  Mr. Jukes basically explained why our education system does not meet the needs of 21st Century students.  Sobering stuff.

Ian's second presentation was a follow-up of the first where he indicated seven things that need to be changed in education.  Instead of going into detail, I encourage teachers and administrators to visit Ian's blog.  (http://www.ianjukes.com)  The site includes an 83 paage handout on these two presentations.  All I can say is that his blog is one that I will follow quite closely.  You too can be a committed sardine!

I recently read in Monitor magazine (local Ottawa computer mag) that a 1.5 million dollar study of 1200 children by Harvard researchers revealed no link between violent video games like Grand Theft Auto and children acting out violently.  They found that parental education and awareness were paramount in importance.  I  would be interested in reading their book entitled Grand Theft Childhood:  The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games.  I am not sure that life is as cut and dry as the results proclaim.

On another note, but also in the light of children and media , I have always looked for studies that show that students can learn effectively while listening to music in the classroom.  Personally, I find it distracting, but most students insist that it is not so... love to see an in-depth study or two to prove me wrong.  Lots of anecdotal comments, but I would like to see quantifiable results where students were using headphones and listening to a variety of music.  I would loved to be proven wrong and am curious to hear what other educators believe on this topic.

http://themobilelearner.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/iband-it-was-only-a-matter-o

What do you get when you mix a multi-touch gadget, music software and a little creativity?  You get the iBand. An iPhone and iPod Touch band - mobile music at the creator level!
The software comes from MooCowMusic @ http://moocowmusic.com/. Not sure I’m thrilled with the song itself, but look at what’s now possible:

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http://themobilelearner.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/ipods-in-education-part-8-it

Disclaimer: I realize that we don’t need an iPod to utilize and organize educational content in iTunes. However, since iTunes is made to work with an iPod and since this results in the two working very well together, let’s look at the educational value of iTunes within the umbrella of using iPods in education. As [...]