Ryan Collins

🕹️ Do Something Great! 😄

Author: ryan

  • Jumping the curve in education

    Education 3.0: Embracing Technology to ‘Jump the Curve’

    …the education sector is focusing far too much about what existed yesterday, some about what exists today, and very little about what will exist tomorrow. He challenged the “Choice Architects” of today to stop creating employees for the jobs of yesterday and start focusing on careers of tomorrow.

    When the available quantity of information in almost every field and with regard to almost every concept doubles every 4-5 years, it is impossible not to have significant change arise.

    “Focus on the careers of tomorrow…”

  • And you think you know someone who hates Microsoft Word

    Why Microsoft Word must Die

    I hate Microsoft Word. I want Microsoft Word to die. I hate Microsoft Word with a burning, fiery passion. I hate Microsoft Word the way Winston Smith hated Big Brother. Our reasons are, alarmingly, not dissimilar …

    Microsoft Word is a tyrant of the imagination, a petty, unimaginative, inconsistent dictator that is ill-suited to any creative writer’s use. Worse: it is a near-monopolist, dominating the word processing field. Its pervasive near-monopoly status has brainwashed software developers to such an extent that few can imagine a word processing tool that exists as anything other than as a shallow imitation of the Redmond Behemoth. But what exactly is wrong with it?

    I’ve moved to formatting with Markdown in most of my writing, with a smattering of Google Docs. I don’t remember the last time I used Word (although I do fire up LibreOffice from time to time). In a lot of businesses Word is integrated into a lot of workflows that would be hard to replace.

  • See what happens when a father decides to do his daughter’s eight grade homework

    My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me

    I have found, at both schools, that whenever I bring up the homework issue with teachers or administrators, their response is that they are required by the state to cover a certain amount of material. There are standardized tests, and everyone—students, teachers, schools—is being evaluated on those tests. I’m not interested in the debates over teaching to the test or No Child Left Behind. What I am interested in is what my daughter is doing during those nightly hours between 8 o’clock and midnight, when she finally gets to bed. During the school week, she averages three to four hours of homework a night and six and a half hours of sleep.

    Three or four hours of homework a night is crazy!

  • The little computer that could

    Raspberry Pi: one million units made in Britain landmark passed

    The Raspberry Pi started life as an idea to bring computing in schools back to the era of the BBC Micro in the early 1980s, which inspired children to learn how a computer worked and allowed them to discover what was possible through learning to code.

    “What was needed was a return to an exciting, programmable machine like the old BBC Micro; and it had to be affordable, say around £20, so every child could potentially have one,” explained Eben Upton co-founder of the Raspberry Pi at its launch. “Computing wasn’t being seen as the exciting, vibrant subject it should be at school – it had become lacklustre and even boring.”

    I’ve been studying how we could use the Raspberry Pi in out classrooms. The lack of monitors with DVI or HDMI connectors have been a stumbling block, along with the lack of Flash and mediocre performance as a desktop. Although, that’s not the role the Raspberry Pi was designed to fill, it would be a good entry into the classroom.

  • Finding a school Chief Technology Officer is hard

    Education Week: Talented Chief Tech Officers Hard to Find for K-12

    Like technology itself, the job description of the district chief technology officer is changing rapidly—and often dramatically—as public education transforms around it, and through it.

    That’s why keeping up with the demands of the K-12 CTO’s job can be difficult, because relatively few of these professionals are schooled in the perfect marriage of skills on the instructional and technical sides to make the best decisions for districts.

    Probably related to the article I posted yesterday. It’s amazing how difficult the problem of managing educational technology in schools can be today trying to bridge two worlds.

  • Half of districts don’t have have a full time technology director

    Many Districts Go Without a Chief Tech Officer

    Even as schools juggle a daunting array of evolving technological demands, federal data show that roughly half of districts do not have a full-time chief technology officer or technology manager whose sole job is to oversee all digital needs. Those needs include ensuring that technology contributes to improved classroom instruction, as well as making sure it works properly.

    I applaud those districts that are able to make it work without a technology coordinator.

  • Quotes about progress

    As I am working on our district’s 1:1 plan, I have come across several quotes about progress that I liked (in no particular order):

    “If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress” — Frederick Douglass

    “Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

    “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

    “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” — George Bernard Shaw

    “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” — Frank Zappa

    “Never confuse movement with action.” — Ernest Hemingway

    “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” — Rosa Luxemburg

  • Classic literature boosts empathy and emotional intelligence

    For Better Social Skills, Scientists Recommend a Little Chekhov

    “It’s a really important result,” said Nicholas Humphrey, an evolutionary psychologist who has written extensively about human intelligence, and who was not involved in the research. “That they would have subjects read for three to five minutes and that they would get these results is astonishing.”

    Dr. Humphrey, an emeritus professor at Cambridge University’s Darwin College, said he would have expected that reading generally would make people more empathetic and understanding. “But to separate off literary fiction, and to demonstrate that it has different effects from the other forms of reading, is remarkable,” he said.

    Pretty amazing results from only 3-5 minutes of reading.

    Via: @PurplePenning

  • Behind the iPhone unveiling

    And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’

    It’s hard to overstate the gamble Jobs took when he decided to unveil the iPhone back in January 2007. Not only was he introducing a new kind of phone — something Apple had never made before — he was doing so with a prototype that barely worked.

    No matter what your opinion of Steve Jobs is, you can’t deny he had guts.

    via: Daring Fireball Linked List: Behind the Scenes of the Original iPhone Launch

  • Just like cameras, the best technology is what you have

    MOOCs don’t benefit developing countries. Phones do

    Parachuting in the ‘latest and greatest’ device or gadget may have strong political appeal, and fatten the bottom lines of certain firms, and may possibly even be effective in some cases, but it may be useful to ask, How can we innovate using what we already have?

    …

    Treat teachers like the problem … and they will be

    Some great snippets on integrating technology.