Report with Good Stats

The following link gives excellent data and statistics. The report was done by the National School Boards Association (US) and is title:Creating & Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social – and Educational – Networking.

For example:

"Nine- to 17-year-olds report spending almost as much time using social networking services

and Web sites as they spend watching television."

http://www.nsba.org/SecondaryMenu/TLN/CreatingandConnecting.aspx

Future Trends - Portability and Cloud Computing

Future trends - Portability and Cloud Computing

 

Recent articles on technology indicate the move in the future is towards increased portability, wireless and cheaper devices to get onto the Internet (mini laptops and PDAs). Also there is a trend towards Cloud Computing (such as Google Apps) where application programs such as word processors and spreadsheets and documents are located on Internet servers - not on a computers hard drive. These trends not only improve learning but are a less expensive alternative to traditional computer workstations, hard wiring, software licencing and computer servers

 

"Cheaper laptops are part of the accelerating trend to greater portability. The cell phone is growing keyboards (or should they be called "thumb boards"?) and laptops are getting lighter and smaller. Meanwhile over-the-air Internet access is morphing from Wi-Fi to WiMax, as well as traveling over the same pathways as cell phones. These are the other components of cloud computing -- the wireless connections that define the cloud"

Read Article

 

The following article is about program that uses mini laptops in a school:

"The laptop program has always been well received," South Meadows Principal Lisa Nickel said. "Once the novelty wears off for the kids, it is seen as a great learning tool. It does not replace great teaching, but rather enhances it."

Read Article

Using Youtube to Teach Math (or anything)

When my son went to his formal he wanted to know how to tie a tie. Solution Youtube.

We have started to use youtube videos (some we produce ourselves) to help students learn everything from podcasting to math concepts.

The article below entitled "Need Help With Class? YouTube Videos Await" discusses how Youtube math tutorials can help students.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/12/11/208825bctecyoutubetutoring_ap.html

Google Apps - a free spreadsheet for math students

I implement Google Apps Education Edition in my school.  

 

One of the best things about Google Apps is it gives any student with a gmail account a free spreadsheet. I polled students in math classes and only about 1/3 has spreadsheet software at home. Teachers now can assign math homework that requires the use of a spreadsheet - because now all students will have access to a spreadsheet at home. The spreadsheet also is very good at graphing and is used in both math and geography classes. The Google Apps spreadsheet can both export and import Microsoft Excel files.

Math teachers do not need Google Apps Education Edition to be set up for their students to access Google Docs spreadsheets.  Math teachers only have to ask their students  to get a free gmail account (they automatically get a free spreadsheet as part of the gmail service).

Web 2.0 Tools

Here is a link to 2.0 tools.

Many them are great. The one challenge is that if KPR educators all decide on different tools (for example there are 5 recommended tools to create wikis) then it becomes more difficult to provide PD and support for each other.

http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/About+This+Wiki

Some years ago I had the chance to get a tour at River Oaks Public School in Oakville - which had one of the top reputations in Canada and the world - (many international educators toured it) in the successful use of technology in the classroom. See Wikipedia article on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Oaks_Public_School

I interviewed the Jerry Smith, the principal and asked him what is important for the successful implemenation of technology in schools. He said one of the most important things to do is standardize the use of the technolgy so both students and teachers can teach each other how to use it. He  also said it very important to choose technolgy that will last into the future. From the list of web 2.0 tools in the above link how many will still be around in five years ?

Student View Summary

Here is the student summary of the 3 questions that were asked, complete with spelling and typos.

1. - having laptops in school
- creating a school network and instant messaging program from the students to use, somthing peer-to-peer, similar to msn or facebook.
- also a student to teacher, school based networks
- smart boards for every class ; implying more modern technology can make people more interested in the lesson and some students can relate to it and can learn faster, also having easy access to notes is a great innovation.
- using music/mp3 players in class (durung a study period not during lessons) ; with this students wouldnt be descussing to eachother about off topic conversations and students can consentrate more of their work.
- all textbooks on the computer ; having a virtual textbook would be much better, there would be less weight on childrens backs. because they wouldnt have to lug around all the different textbooks their teachers give them

2. - not very convinient ; many student going to enss (like myself) dont have high-speed internet, downloading pod casts would litterally take hours to download especially if they were video podcasts.
- if they were perhaps put on the school network it might be better
- not too many students own ipods so the entire thing seems redundent. you would be watching the videos on your computer.
- they could be used for reviewing lessons for texts and come podcasts could be created for a unit or exam review

3. - all depends on the class ; certain classes would obviously interperate more technology than others, any tech class will obviously be leading but math and science classes really benefit by the smart board technology, while classes like english wouldnt benefit much from smart boards and other technology, it would of course be used but not as much as other specific classes.
- everyone but maybe a select few, uses technology at home daily. there hasnt been a single person who hasnt used google search or wikipedia. obviously technology is a major advancement in everyones lives and is interperated into every students lives at home.

Interesting Links

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
http://www.heppell.net/weblog/stephen/
http://www.heppell.net/
http://www.iste.org


Have a look at some of these links. They are very infomative and highlight initiatives and thinkers who can inform our process. Onn the ISTE site have a look at NETS link and have a look at NET(S) and NET(T). These also might provide insight into some of the thoughts out there milling around.