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:

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

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:

Social media for education communications

View more presentations from Paul Baker.

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?"

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.

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"

Free lesson plans, homework help and professional development for teachers, students and parents | Verizon Thinkfinity

Free lesson plans, homework help and professional development for teachers, students and parents | Verizon Thinkfinity: "FREE educational resources for everyone"

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - Home

Employers feel that to-day's graduates' of universities, two-year colleges, and high schools' are deficient in "applied skills" such as critical thinking, problem solving, written communications, leadership, and professionalism. An organization called The Partnership for 21st-Century Skills found as much in a 2006 study, "Are They Really Ready to Work?" The study identifies which skills students lack and how important those skills are today and in the near future
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - Home

Images: Zooming in on photo editing tools | TechRepublic Photo Gallery

Online photo editing services are more and more popular and feature packed. Stand alone tools are expensive. Here's a roundup of interesting and useful online photo editing tools that teachers and their students can use.

"While most photographs are rectangular, the tools we use to edit them come in all manner of shapes and sizes. We've looked at more than a dozen different online services that let you edit your photos and capture what each one of them looks like so you can get a preview before you dive in.

To see how they stack up against each other, click here for a complete comparison chart."

Images: Zooming in on photo editing tools | TechRepublic Photo Gallery

Welcome to The Year of Science!

(2009 is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species.) Can it be that you’ve forgotten this is the 400th anniversary of both Galileo’s first use of a telescope to explore the heavens and Kepler’s publication of the first two Laws of Planetary Motion?

Welcome to The Year ... :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs

\\ Screen & Media Studies - Writing essays //

Our traditional view of academic work is often very misleading. The process of study is frequently thought of as being primarily about reading. We speak of someone 'reading' for a degree: "She read Classics at Cambridge;" or "He's reading for a degree in Political Science." The popular image of the diligent student is of someone pouring(sic) over large tomes late into the night, surrounded by stacks of even more books, as yet unread. When this process of reading has been accomplished, it is assumed that the student will have completed his or her studies. They will have read their way through their discipline.It isn't like this. Being a student is a job like any other. Ultimately, it's not about consumption but production. Of course, reading plays a very large part in this; but it's not an end in itself. The purpose of reading is to gather materials in order to write.

\\ Screen & Media Studies - Writing essays //

'The Objective of Education Is Learning, Not Teaching'

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught." -- Oscar Wilde

How long ago did you teach your first class?"

I responded, "In September of 1941."

"Wow!" The student said. "You mean to say you have been teaching for more than 60 years?"

"Yes."

"When did you last teach a course in a subject that existed when you were a student?"

This difficult question required some thought. After a pause, I said, "September of 1951."

"Wow! You mean to say that everything you have taught in more than 50 years was not taught to you; you had to learn on your own?"

"Right."

"You must be a pretty good learner."

I modestly agreed.

The student then said, "What a shame you're not that good a teacher."

The student had it right; what most faculty members are good at, if anything, is learning rather than teaching. Recall that in the one-room schoolhouse, students taught students. The teacher served as a guide and a resource but not as one who force-fed content into students' minds.

'The Objective of Education Is Learning, Not Teaching' - Knowledge@Wharton

Really interesting article. Also ref the book - Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track, authors Russell L. Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg

Netsafe.org.nz

"NetSafe provides cybersafety education for all New Zealanders - children, parents, schools, community organisations and businesses.  NetSafe's aim is to educate all New Zealanders about safe, secure and responsible use of information and communication technology."

They also provide a toolkit of policies and resources for schools in order for them to implement cyber-use in the school safely.
Netsafe.org.nz

Welcome to the Web 2.0 Wednesday Challenge (WEB 2.0 Wednesday Challenge)

Excellent tool for educators to look at and try out Web 2.0 tools for use in the classroom.

Welcome to our Web.20 Challenge. Join us each week to learn about a helpful Web 2.0 tool and then take the challenge. Share your results and you could win great prizes and worldwide fame.

Welcome to the Web 2.0 Wednesday Challenge (WEB 2.0 Wednesday Challenge)

BrainStreet Learning from Guyana

BrainStreet Learning.com is based in Guyana. They have already developed systems for the UWI Cave Hill School of Business, as well as having major courses available for Guyanese students.
Here's a bit from their website:

"BrainStreet is a powerful, self paced online education environment that harnesses the power of the Internet to enhance the learning experience. It is specifically designed to provide timely online support to students in accordance with their learning abilities and fundamentals. It is a powerful flexible learning tool that provides instructors, students and administrators with a unique combination of state-of-the -art web technology and extensive education content."

R.I.P.: Lectures, Notes, and Tests (Scrapping the Old Ways)

This is a totally mind-blowing post on the Britannia Blog. Unfortunately I doubt I will be allowed to do anything of the sort at UTT anytime soon, but I will definitely be trying to get permission to do so!
Especially in Teacher Education, why not consider co-teaching with my students?
Things to think about.

Online document creation in a Flash

Online document creation in a Flash
Nice announcement about Adobe's online offerings. There is now Buzzword, Photoshop online and of course PDf creation online. All free to some extent.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free - NYTimes.com

Link by Link - Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free - NYTimes.com
Interesting article on the new trend towards free and open content...