GOing to Toronto – Out the Window
From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able by Wesch
Michael Wesch is a pedagogical hero of mine. I’ve watched videos his classes made; I’ve watched a video of him explaining his teaching, and I asked a question on Twitter, and even though he doesn’t follow me, got an anwser from him within a few hours! He understands the impact of the new communication ecosphere we swim in, applies his understanding to his teaching, and can explain clearly why this is urgently central to education.
Here is a link to my highlighted copy of his recent Academic Commons article – From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able which I discovered via Stephen Downes. Indeed, as Wesch says, you set up your network and information comes to you.
WebTools For Teachers 01/09/2009
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via Twitter
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Digital Storytelling Resources | Literacy Resources
Lots of web storytelling resources for the classroom
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
WebTools For Teachers 01/07/2009
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“YawnBuster brings alive your PowerPoint slides with Group Activities such as audience polls, games, group exercises and competitions. Now you can get your audience to think, enjoy, participate and identify key takeaways quickly and easily.” via Jane Hart
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Dropbox – Dropbox Tour – Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy.
This looks like a very interesting way to share files. Teachers and students with large files might find this easier to use than email attachments.
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Jing Features | Add visuals to your online conversations
Screencasting is free and fairly easy with Jing, and Jing Pro for 14.95 a year sounds lke a real bargain!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
WebTools For Teachers 01/06/2009
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An amazing research tool! Using VisualWikipedia can simultaneously open up a subject and give basic definitions of difficult vocabulary. It is especially good for exploring information. “VisualWikipedia is a visual, intuitive, and interactive web interface to encyclopedic knowledge/information. It is designed to provide a fun place to learn stuff in an efficient manner. Please watch the following video to get a good sense of how to use it.”
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
WebTools For Teachers 01/05/2009
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Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy – Borowitz Report
Amusing satire in American politics
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Adams 50 skips grades, lets kids be pacesetters – The Denver Post
What a good idea! – “In a standards-based system, time becomes the variable and learning is the constant,” Selleck said. “When a kid can demonstrate proficiency of a standard, they move on. There is nothing magical about a quarter, semester or the end of school. That becomes blurred. Learning becomes much more 24-7.” via Stephen Downes
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Studeous | The Free and Easy Way to Manage Your Courses Online
This looks very interesting, but I haven’t tried it yet. It sounds like it’s serious competition for the commercial LMSs. Let me know what you think of it please.
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10+ Web Tools To Save Your Butt In School | MakeUseOf.com – Annotated
What students may know, and teachers should know about. Some I love and use already, like BibMe.com; some that are scary, like File Destructor 2.0 – Via Stephen Downes
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Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day: My predictions for Top Tools in 2009
Jane Hart KNOWS tech tools for education, and these are what she predicts will go mainstream in 2009.
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BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Downturn ‘boosts teacher numbers’
Teachers with a passion for teaching are now facing competition from those with a passion for security, (especially as working with securities becomes less secure;->). The world will always need teachers, and I suspect that the increase in those looking for teaching jobs is increasing in Canada and the States too. Teaching always looks easier from the outside than it is when you are actually in a classroom. I’m ambivalent about this increase in interest. “Teaching has traditionally been a more popular career choice during recession – providing security when private sector jobs become more vulnerable.” via Stephen Downes
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Why Twitter Will Go Mainstream In 2009
More on Twitter – “2008 showed an unbelievable growth for Twitter as THE place for microblogging. ” If you go to conferences, or you like quick news updates, or you’re in business, you need to pay attention to Twitter. via Stephen Downes
WebTools For Teachers 01/02/2009
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Principles for a New Media Literacy – Center for Citizen Media – Annotated
What we all need to think about in using, as consumers and as creators, the new communication realities of the internet. via Stephen Downes
WebTools For Teachers 01/01/2009
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Yonkly – Create your own network
Create your own microblogging site. Perhaps for class, or for a work project – lots of possibilities.
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Learning in Hand Blog by Tony Vincent
Comparing netbooks like the Eee PC 1000HA to iPod touch. Via Stephen Downes
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SILENT BLOG: Downes Future of Learning – A summary
A Summary of Stephen Downes on the Future of Learning
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Marking with Voice tools | Virtual Canuck
What a good way to give feedback! via Stephen Downes
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Online Degrees from Accredited Online Colleges & Schools
The design alone makes it look credible, but Stephen Downes recommends it, and that’s enough for me.
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Presentation Zen: Is it finally time to ditch PowerPoint?
“Suggesting we abandon PowerPoint because it’s often (usually?) misused and abused to produce awful presentation visuals is like saying we should dump the idea of 24-hour cable news because so much of it is vacuous rubbish. But whether we’re talking about bad TV or boring presentations, shouldn’t we blame the content producers not the content medium?” via Stephen Downes
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Open Monologue » Blog Archive » Teaching taxonomy in the age of Wikipedia
Interesting observation on the impact of the web and Wikapedia on education. – “Then Something Big and Important™ happened. It was called the World Wide Web. And the Web begat the wiki, and the wiki begat Wikipedia. And it was good. But it makes the way I teach, and the way I was taught, archaic. Why should someone be forced to memorize endless hierarchies as outlined above. If I really wanted to find out the differences in the digestive systems of animals in Phylum Nematoda compared to Phyum Annelida, I could just look it up in Wikipedia or some other reputable online source.” I agree completely. Why is memorization necessary when good research techniques and familiarity with the topic is more than enough. But perhaps Plato would disagree – http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/wordscape/museum/plato.html – via Stephen Downes
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12.02.2008 – EEGs show brain differences between poor and rich kids
Look at these results in conjunction with the research Gladwell reports in Outliers showing that low-income children learn as well as the better off during the school year, but lose ground during the summer when the better off get enriching activities, and the low-income kids do not. via Stephen Downes
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World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others | Edutopia – Annotated
The reality of learning today (IMHO!) “For educators and the schools in which they teach, the challenges of this moment are significant. Our ability to learn whatever we want, whenever we want, from whomever we want is rendering the linear, age-grouped, teacher-guided curriculum less and less relevant. Experts are at our fingertips, through our keyboards or cell phones, if we know how to find and connect to them. Content and information are everywhere, not just in textbooks. And the work we create and publish is assessed by the value it brings to the people who read it, reply to it, and remix it. Much of what our students learn from us is unlearned once they leave us; paper is not the best way to share our work, facts and truths are constantly changing, and working together is becoming the norm, not the exception.” via Stephen Downes
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How PLEs make sense to me – Intro to emerging tech week 3 « Dave’s Educational Blog
An interesting post on an important current learning dilemma. “There is a sense in which the VLE debate does bridge into a larger discussion about the validity of top down knowledge distribution from the knowledge depot… a model that started to lose its validity 10 years ago and is now working its way to the margins. We are in a post-knowledge-scarcity society and the VLE as it is currently conceived is still designed for transimitting knowledge scarcity. It presumes that the ‘value’ is in the knowledge itself, in the content provided by the university ,and that the contribution of the students is transitory and disposable. This is the old model, the model, ACTUAL student centredness not the ’students get to talk’ model we’ve been sold for years, involves the student s creating their own knowledge in their own space… a PLE or Eportfolio or whatever you want to call it is created as a manner of course. It is the natural result of learning.” via Stephen Downes
Gladwell’s Outliers
I’m a fan. I admire Gladwell’s reader-friendly structure and prose, his style. I am intrigued by his unusual take on things that are both below the surface of what is (allowed to be) conscious and yet are common sense, once you’ve read the narratives and the research references and explanations. So I enjoyed reading Outliers, just as I was delighted by Blink and Tipping Point. Gladwell is a communicator who makes me think.
I especially like Outliers because it is so Canadian – it is Gladwell’s explanation of his own success, a statement that is both humble and proud. It is typically Canadian to be reticent in an obvious way, expecting others to make the connections. Gladwell started Outliers, his book about success, with a Canadian hockey story, included the impact of culture, and ended with his grandmother’s success, (which is part of the web that allowed his). All books are ultimately about their author’s and this one shows both that Gladwell knows he has done well, but he is clear that he also knows how lucky he has been in his timing and his community. He knows and demonstrates that community, culture, is the foundation for success – more than/ instead of – rugged individualism.
I have read some criticism of Gladwell’s success, much of it saying he’s not smart enough, his books are too “thin”. What I see is a wise educator, someone who understands the power of narrative as a base to set information in so readers will be able to recall it. I like popularists; I see them as educators and change-agents.
I also find Gladwell’s prose exceptionally easy to follow. People who structure easy-to-follow ideas and information are not asking their readers to do the author’s work. Authors who write easy-to-read sentences are skilled rhetoricians who understand their audiences. Many people appear to believe that “difficult-to-read” equals “deep”; I don’t. I admire Gladwell’s ability to compose material and write well.
I recommend Gladwell’s books, Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point.
WebTools For Teachers 12/27/2008
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globeandmail.com: Where everybody knows your teenaged musings
What all teens should know about digital content they post.
Learning Living 