I picked up an iPod Touch on Saturday, and am I impressed. I have been testing out the Nokia N800, but when it comes to Internet usability, the Touch wins hands down. Surfing is very, very usable.
I’m still getting used to the onscreen keyboard, but it is already a lot better than the N800. The question I have remaining, “Is the touch more useful I’m the classroom than the Asus eeePC?
After reading John’s blog post yesterday, I realized that not only haven’t I posted anything, I haven’t even begun to look at what sessions I want to go to at the eTech conference. Since I present at 8:00am Monday morning, I’ve been more focused on that.
Through the Online Conference Planner I’ve begun to setup the sessions I want to go to, and I will be publishing my calendar through Google Calendar.
One nice aspect of working with technology in education is being exposed to a wide variety of skills and operations outside of the educational realm. Today I stumbled upon a process model of software development called CMM, the Capability Maturity Model.. The acronyms mentioned in the article can get quite thick, but we’re more interested in the 5 levels.
How many schools do you know that are at this level?
Success in these organizations depends on the competence and heroics of the people in the organization, and not on the use of proven processes. In spite of this ad hoc, chaotic environment, maturity level 1 organizations often produce products and services that work; however, they frequently exceed the budget and schedule of their projects.
Success in these organizations depends on the competence and heroics of the people in the organization. I find myself guilty of this. Instead of putting processes in place for technology implementation and integration, I rely on a core group of teachers who are successful to learn how to use technology and how to implement it. My hope is that other teachers will see the successes and wish to emulate them. In reality, too many believe that there is no value in technology and don’t see the value in learning. How often is the hiring process based only on finding the best employees, without spending the time and effort to put procedures in place to help the entire district become successful.
My goal in the upcoming months is to move out of Level 1. Put processes in place on technology literacy and help the staff AND students become successful. This will take time to map out where we are and where we want to go, but I believe that will make us a better district.
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?
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?
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>
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
With the announcement of the Nokia N810 and the shipping of the Asus Eee PC, one to one computing projects in education just got a lot more interesting. Imagine being able to provide students with a portable device capable of doing a majority of the work done with computers.
The Nokia N810 is a palmtop Linux based computer with all the necessities, including wifi, a 800×480 screem, and a slide out keyboard. No prices have been announced yet, but the N800 sold for $400, so this one might be in the same ballpark.
The Asus Eee PC is a Linux based computer in a laptop form factor. For $400 you get 512MB of RAM with a 4GB flash drive and 7″ screen at 800×480 resolution. I prefer the form factor of the Eee, especially since it should provide some protection for the screen when closed. It also has a keyboard that would be more conducive to typing. Rumors are lower end machines will be available for as low as $250. It would be a lot easier to implement machines at $250 a piece than the cost of current laptops in the $500-$1000 range. These also have no moving parts and should have a higher reliability.
While school district struggle with coming up with a balance of cell phone use in schools, here is one solution that may work. Require all cell phones to be on a lanyard at all times when on a student. This removes the secrecy of the cell phone while making it a lot easier for teachers to monitor inappropriate cell phone use. The cell phone must always stay on the lanyard, even when in use. The length of the lanyard would need to be decided, but this would crack down on text messaging under the desk or trying to hide the cell phone from the teacher while texting.
Ninety-five percent of incoming college freshman have cell phones, and we as educators, should use these as tools in the classroom. Having a policy that supports cell phone use is one step in that direction. Text messaging is very underused in education. From what I’ve seen, most people over the age of 25 don’t understand how short text messages can be relevant. 
Creating Passionate Users: How to host a product/feature design party:
Forget focus groups. Forget endless meetings and brainstorming sessions. Throw an ultra-rapid-design party, and do it in a single day. This approach exploits the wisdom-of-crowds through a process of enforced idea diversity and voting, so no consensus, committe, or even agreement is needed. And it’s way more fun.
Although the article is talking about businesses planning, couldn’t some of these same ideas be used as a replacement for meetings and planning sessions in an educational setting?