RyanCollins.org

Apparently, instead of using the situation as a teaching tool, some districts and librarians are just banning Wikipedia outright:

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania’s Express-Times reported on a local school librarian who put up her own "Just Say No to Wikipedia" signs in the computer lab. The entire Warren Hills Regional School District in New Jersey has also blocked access from all school computers. The basic problem, according to officials, is that Wikipedia’s unverified accuracy and ease of use are making it too tempting for students to use as a primary source.

I agree that while Wikipedia should never be used as a primary source, it is still useful. The links at the end of the article are usually very valuable, and the discussions pages lend insight to the article.Students need to be taught how to evaluate the reliability of resources found on the Internet. Outright bans should never take place. Too often I hear stories where instead of dealing with the problem, the participants will hide/ban/sweep under the rug the problem, just because it’s easier.

Do you use Wikipedia in your school? How do you use it?

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One Laptop per Child is blaming politics for holding back the XO laptop, while the article goes into a little background how Microsoft and Intel are doing what they can to stop it. I believe the blame can be firmly placed on OLPC. Instead of just focusing on governments, they should also allow school districts to buy the laptops. While their goal is formidable, they also need the economics of scale to bring the cost down to $100 from the current $188. Loosening the purchasing restrictions would go a long way toward this goal.

Does anyone know their reasoning behind not allowing school districts to buy the XO?

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From Miguel Guhlin who got it from Leonard at the Mobile Learning Blog:

TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia Studio (one of the best screen recording and video editing tools around) are offering the full version of Version 3.1.3 for free download. This is a terrific tool for all educators to create resources as well as for learners to create their own digital stories and videos - so get it while it’s hot.

Click here to download Camtasia Studio 3.1.3.

Click here to request a software key to register Camtasia Studio 3.1.3 as a fully licensed version.

Windows only, unfortunately.

Tags: Professional Development, Software by Mr.Rcollins
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This is a test post using Microsoft’s free Windows Live Writer. Unfortunately, it is Windows only, so I’m stuck running it under VMware on my Macbook. So far it seems ok… Let’s put a picture with this post too.

It can upload graphics directly to the blog (Wordpress in my case). I may have to try it out on more posts.

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Need a quick an easy way to convert html code to the html entities so you can post online? Check out the online XHTML Character Encoder. It will let you take something like this:

<h1>This is a test</h1>

into something like this that you can post:

<h1>This is a test</h1>

Tags: Online Tools by Mr.Rcollins
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Making the rounds today I read about a site that will display your blogs readability level. Here’s mine:

While there is nothing on the site that lists how they come to this conclusion (I already knew my writing was pretty juvenile), what it looks like is a clever way of boosting a page rank for a cash advance place. At the bottom of the code to post this into your blog is the following:

<p><small>Get a <a href="http://www.cashadvance1500.com">Cash Advance</a></small></p>

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Never Friend Anyone Over 29 - Blog Maverick:

Technology. Digital Communications. They are not new. They are not news. They are old news. But thats not what is interesting about these articles. What is interesting to me is not that articles are written showing surprise that the geriatric generation and their kids are going online , despite the protests of their grandkids. What is interesting to me is how few in the media, regardless of platform, be it TV, Newspaper, magazine , blogger or twitterer, have more than a rudimentary knowledge of the history of the technologies we are using.

Mark Cuban has summed it up pretty succinctly. We should not be surprised when we hear about baby boomers using technology. The personal computer is over 30 years old. It was here long before Myspace, Facebook, even Google. Isaac Newton said it best, “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants.” Just as the automotive industry builds on Henry Ford’s ideas of the assembly line, our current technologies build on the work of Darpa, Vint Cerf, and Tim Berners-Lee.

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” - George Santayana

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Games that can educate: SimCity donated to OLPC project:

Electronic Arts announced yesterday plans to donate the original version of the SimCity computer game to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project so that it can be distributed to schoolchildren in developing countries on OLPC’s XO laptop.

Although they haven’t hit their $100 goal, the OLPC XO laptop is a very interesting laptop. With it finally shipping, we can wait and see how successful it will be. Unfortunately, for individual school districts, they will have to look at different offerings, such as the Eee PC from Asus. The addition of SimCity does make the project more enticing.

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Asus Eee PC in pink, green, blue, and black:

Anyone waiting until next year to purchase the entry-level Asus Eee PC 2G Surf ($299) will soon have a new decision to make: Pure White, Lush Green, Sky Blue, Blush Pink, or Galaxy Black.

Combined with a 1-to-1 initiative, what an interesting way for students to gain ownership of their laptops than by offering them a laptop in their favorite color.

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This is a test from my mobile phone, this is only a test.

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