Archive for the 'Education' Category

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Classroom Connections: The Role of Technology in Schools

Published by Jarred on April 29, 2008 in Education and Gadgets. View Comments

I have class tonight and so won’t be able to post very much until tomorrow night, but I did want to throw two related thoughts at you guys and hopefully generate some discussion.

First, I learned that my old high school is getting ready to implement “Smart Board” technologies in some of its classrooms.  Smart Boards combine a whiteboard, a computer, a projector, and some sort of touch/motion sensor to know when your hand or marker makes contact with its surface.  The result:

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Namyy_RAnxM">http://youtube.com/watch?v=Namyy_RAnxM</a>

The Smart Boards also allow you to save notes taken on the whiteboard.

Second, Ars Technica has a write-up on Abilene Christian University’s plan to give out iPhones to incoming freshmen this fall, ostensibly for academic use.  Some say it’s a gimmick, others see great potential.

With those two blurbs in mind, what do you think of technology in the classroom?  We’ve recently discussed blogging as a learning method.  Where do you draw the line between a cool gadget and a real tool for teaching and enrichment?  Could this money be better spent in other ways?  Speak your mind in the comments!

P.S. — Bonus points to whoever can figure out where that guy is browsing in Google Earth.  I don’t have the answer… but if you recognize the buildings on the board then speak up because I, for one, am curious!

Schoolhouse Blog?

Published by Jarred on April 24, 2008 in Blogging and Education. View Comments

We’ve talked about the future of reading here in the past.  But what about the future of writing?  Or more specifically, the future of writing abilities?

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new report today that demonstrates what it calls an “interesting paradox” in teen writing habits:

Teens are utilitarian in their approach to technology and writing, using both computers and longhand depending on circumstances. Their use of computers for school and personal writing is often tied to the convenience of being able to edit easily. And while they do not think their use of computers or their text-based communications with friends influences their formal writing, many do admit that the informal styles that characterize their e-communications do occasionally bleed into their schoolwork.

The study goes on to cite several interesting statistics gleaned from a phone survey last November of 700 teens and their parents.  Again, from the press release:

  • 87% of youth ages 12-17 engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending email or instant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites.
  • 60% of teens do not think of these electronic texts as “writing.”
  • 57% of teens say they revise and edit more when they write using a computer.
  • 63% of teens say using computers to write makes no difference in the quality of the writing they produce.
  • 73% of teens say their personal electronic communications (email, IM, text messaging) have no impact on the writing they do for school, and 77% said they have no impact on the writing they do for themselves.
  • 64% of teens admit that they incorporate, often accidentally, at least some informal writing styles used in personal electronic communication into their writing for school. (Some 25% have used emoticons in their school writing; 50% have used informal punctuation and grammar; 38% have used text shortcuts such as “LOL” meaning “laugh out loud.”)

    • Richard Sterling, chair of the advisory board for the National Commission on Writing that co-sponsored the report, asks an interesting question: “How can we connect the enthusiasm of young people for informal, technology-based writing with classroom experiences that illuminate the power of well-organized, well-reasoned writing?”

    My answer?  Blogging.

    Continue reading ‘Schoolhouse Blog?’

    The Liberal Arts Graduate in a Specialized World

    Published by Taylor on April 15, 2008 in Careers and Education. View Comments

    specialistJarred and I really don’t intend to focus this blog on career changes any more than the environmental, technological, political and social changes that share this space. But if you’ve been reading lately, you can tell that career and life decisions weigh heavily on the minds of your trusted bloggers as we contemplate the close of our first year in the wild blue yonder.

    As a proud graduate of a venerable basketball academic-powerhouse liberal arts school, I’ve heard all the jokes and all the criticism of non-technical or “practical” education: that art history majors make for enlightening bar tenders (and little else); that English majors are destined for grueling lives in middle management; or that the only reason to major in sociology is if you dream of teaching…sociology. Har har, we get it. I’ll admit that there are times when I start to wonder whether what I assume to be my most desirable skills, finely tuned in a liberal arts pressure-cooker (critical thinking and analysis; writing; articulating ideas; synthesizing information; approaching issues with a multi-disciplinary perspective) are not enough for careers or jobs I might enjoy. I, like many people I know, have tried my damnedest to be as well rounded as possible…could it be that I’ve missed the boat on something even more valuable: specialization?

    Fortunately, I’m not the only one worrying about this; most fortunately, other bloggers on this theme are smarter and wiser than I am. On her excellent blog Twenty Set, Monica O’Brien feels my pain:

    [C]ompanies say they want well-rounded employees, but here’s a secret that might better your career: what companies really want are employees who can bring a broad perspective to one area of expertise.

    What’s the difference? Well-rounded employees dip their toes into everything, but don’t ever jump in. They are easy to replace, because they haven’t developed expertise in one area. They are the employees who support top performers rather than become them. They are the employees who get described as “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

    Having a broad perspective is much different than being well-rounded. Employees with broad perspectives have one area of expertise, but continue their education in other disciplines to gain new concepts, which get applied in their daily work. These employees are the innovators, the top performers, the “big picture” people who get promoted to high-level positions in their industry. They are the inspired ones who strive for constant improvement of processes; who get paid for their ideas rather than their grunt work.

    Continue reading ‘The Liberal Arts Graduate in a Specialized World’

    Monday Links: April 14th, 2008

    Published by Taylor on April 14, 2008 in Business, Cooking, Culture, Education, Energy, Environment, Monday Links and Search. View Comments

    Happy Monday. I decided to start the week (sharing with coworkers, naturally) with Whole Wheat Apple Muffins, following this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Del.icio.us. (nerd joke!). Enjoy a few links as you consider how good an apple muffin would taste right now (answer: unbelievably good).

    • Could Google benefit from asking users to input their race before searching? The NY Times reports on Rushmore Drive, a new search engine that delivers search results catered to specific racial groups. The company behind Rushmore Drive started with an African-American focus, but plans on expanding to other races; from the article:

    [The site] offers search results that, at first glance, border on stereotypes. A search query for “Thanksgiving recipes,” for instance, yields sites featuring recipes for sweet potato pie and collard greens. But according to Johnny Taylor, the chief executive of Rushmore Drive, the results are based on years of search data from IAC’s Ask division.

    Rushmore Drive analyzed search results for 3,000 of the most popular search terms in areas with large black populations and found that when people in those areas searched for recipes, they were much more likely to click on pages with soul food. Those searching for hair products, dance, cars, fraternities and sororities also ended up on vastly different Web sites than people who lived in areas with smaller black populations.

    • Here’s a quick Fast Company featurette on the new D.C. Nationals ballpark. It’s the first professional ballpark to receive LEED certification. Can’t wait to catch a game (or 3) there in May
    • This is old news, but in case you missed it (or didn’t understand the details), here’s a Washington Post article describing the new partnership between Google and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The U.N. will use Google Earth to draw attention to the plight of refugees around the globe and to illustrate their forced emigration.
    • [slaps head for not thinking of this]: Here’s a simple idea for storing your ever-growing list of frequent flier/hotel reward program/valued shopper numbers…file them away in your cell phone under a specific heading. Brilliant…the Internet is a beautiful thing.

    Happy Monday.

    Whoa whoa whoa…. dunces?

    Published by Jarred on March 5, 2008 in Culture, Education and Reading. View Comments

    The Argument 

    A week or two ago, author Susan Jacoby wrote an opinion essay in The Washington Post called: “The Dumbing of America.”  The tagline for her article: “Call Me a Snob, but Really, We’re a Nation of Dunces.”

    Jaconby introduces her three-part argument:

    Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture (and by video, I mean every form of digital media, as well as older electronic ones); a disjunction between Americans’ rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.

    She goes on to flesh out her argument by discussing how video (and all other “digital media”) reinforces the continuous shrinking of our attention spans and the general disintegration of our reasoning and intellect.  Indeed, she segues into what she observes to be an ”erosion of general knowledge” among Americans.  She reports that

    nearly half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. More than a third consider it “not at all important” to know a foreign language, and only 14 percent consider it “very important.”

    One can’t help but point to the unfortunate episode from the Ms. Teen South Carolina pageant as an illustration of Jacoby’s point.

    Finally, she concludes that Americans are comfortable with their lack of intellectual drive.  She sees this as “a syndrome that is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse.  Not knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure anti-rationalism.”

    My Take 

    Jacoby makes some good points in her column.  Arguably, people are reading less.  We rely more and more on gadgets and the web to be our second brains.  Americans do exhibit a certain ignorance about the rest of the world and what happens in it.  And I can personally attest to a shortened attention span.  But I disagree with the foundation of her argument, the smugness with which she delivers it, and her general lack of ideas for solving the problem she has highlighted.

    Continue reading ‘Whoa whoa whoa…. dunces?’