Sunday, March 29, 2009

Stop Twittering, learn Latin!

Dumbing down the curriculum is not the way to go. Technology doesn't mean stupid. Imagine having students twittering to each other in Latin, or blogging in Spanish or French?

"it's exactly a lack of high expectations which underlies making the curriculum relevant to pupils. Lame attempts to engage them by trying to adopt their vernacular signpost attempts to win back disaffected pupils. Disaffected by poor standards, low expectations and weak curricula, rather than because Shakespeare didn't coincide with the MTV era. By secondary school, wooing lost pupils is totally futile. There is nothing less hip than a 'cool' curriculum – and missed opportunities in primary school spent messing around with pop culture will only mean less well-equipped secondary school entrants."

Read more here:

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter | Webdesigner Depot

The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter | Webdesigner Depot:

"Twitter isn’t just a cute way for keeping in instant touch with friends on mobile phones anymore. It has ramped up quickly to be the search engine of choice for some with its human driven results.

Applications galore allow you to find friends all over the world with similar interests and keep up with them in real time."


There's lots of educational uses of Twitter as well
From Twitter itself -
" Is anyone using Twitter in (or around) the classroom? If so, I'd love to hear how/what."
" I require my students at X College be on Twitter. "


- more links below:
http://twitter.com/education
http://web20teach.blogspot.com/2007/08/twitter-tweets-for-higher-education.html
https://explore.twitter.com/DEN
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1605
http://searchenginewatch.com/3630980
http://cooper-taylor.com/blog/2008/08/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-education/
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2699/a-professors-tips-for-using-twitter-in-the-classroom

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Six technologies for educators to watch � EducationPR

Six technologies for educators to watch :

"The authors of this report predict that by the year 2020 most people across the world will be using a mobile device as their primary means for connecting to the internet. It is clear that mobiles are already well on the way to becoming a universal tool for communication of all kinds.

This new edition of the Horizon Report discusses six categories of technologies to watch:

In the first adoption horizon (within the next year) we find mobiles and cloud computing.
In the mid-term horizon (two to three years), geo-everything and the personal web.
The far-term horizon (four to five years): semantic-aware applications and smart objects."

And in my EdTech course I am still being asked to teach MS Word! Not even Google Docs for collaboration!

Social media for education communications

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Do students need to physically go to class at all?

globecampus.ca ~ A Parent's View:

"Unlike my generation, thanks to laptops, podcasts, and the internet, my children can 'attend' virtual lectures, join in discussion boards with other students, and complete and submit assignments, quizzes, and tests.

They can also enroll in courses, drop courses, pay their tuition, and order their textbooks. All online.

Oh, and they can email any questions or concerns to their teaching assistants or course professors.

Uh, why bother ever showing up?"

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Podcasting Toolbox: 70 Podcasting Tools and Resources

Podcasting Toolbox: 70 Podcasting Tools and Resources: "Podcasting may not have lived up to the early hype, but with iPods and other MP3 players still selling like crazy, the potential audience for these audio shows is huge. We’ve compiled a monster list of 70 tools and resources for podcasters and wannabes."

This is from 2007, but a lot of the tools and links are still valid.

Blogs vs Social Networking

Blogs vs Social Networking: "What is the difference?
Most people (OK, most adults) don't know the difference between 'blogs' and 'social networking' sites."

And that is so true. Blogs are really a space on the web for someone to post their information (it's easy, much easier than creating a full fledged website, and more and more blogging tools allow you to add loads of interesting content, photos, videos etc)

BUT Blogs are NOT an interactive tool. That's a major misconception. People can comment on my blog, but I don't have to pay attention, respond, anything. If I do, they don't really get pushed to respond...

Interactivity is definitely a major part of a social networking site. They are built for people to interact with each other - thus the name.

This article is pretty good at explaining the differences and alos gives a couple of ideas as to how to use social networking in education.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Teachers on Target

teachers on Target:
A site that was referred by a reader of this blog - excellent resource.

"

Teachers on Target provides teachers on-the-job activities to help them not only gain a better understanding of their teaching skills, but also to help them appreciate the depth and range of what it means to be a teacher. The activities are designed to build connections: To connect with colleagues, to connect with students, and to connect with one’s professionalism. In total, these professional development activities work to meet the following objectives…

  • To improve teaching competence

  • To build greater collegiality

  • To understand and appreciate the art of teaching

  • To discover the interplay of self, career, and professionalism"