Archive for category News and Commentary
Wikipedia now offering printed books
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on May 7th, 2010
Wikipedia has enabled a new feature that allows you to create print based books via the wikipedia website. The books are a collection of wikipedia articles that you choose. You can see all the details of how it works below.
Does this idea have any merit whatsoever? Or are traditional print texts on their way out in favor of ereaders? Only time will tell for sure but I wouldn’t count the traditional book down for the count yet. What is more fundamentally interesting about this idea though is the interface that allows the end user to create a new compilation of content from existing articles. I could see this same interface used very effectively to customize textbooks whether they are in print or ebook form. What are your thoughts? Is Wikipedia on to something?
Paid Google Books Coming This Summer to a Browser Near You
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on May 4th, 2010
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google will be releasing “Google Editions” this summer. This service will compete directly with Amazon Kindle, iBook and B&N’s bookstores. While not entirely surprising, it is great to see a company that knows how to manage and organize content getting into the book business. Hopefully this service will be an “everybody gets to play” type of service where authors will be able to directly market to consumers taking out the middle man of the publishers. What could be even more compelling is if Google editions is combined and tightly integrated with ChromeOS tablets and Android devices. You can get more details in the video below.
Ning Update: (Ning Mini Free for K-12)
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on May 4th, 2010
Ning released details today about its ending of free service. You can get all of the pricing details here. There is a major surprise in the announcement though:
“We’ve also heard from many Network Creators who use Ning in the classroom as an integral part of their curriculum. I am particularly excited to announce that a major education company will be sponsoring Ning Mini Networks for educators in primary and secondary education. Ning will remain free for K-12 educators and their students. We’ll have details on this program soon!”
I applaud Ning on at least trying to make good with the education market. However the fact that this free service is sponsored by an outside donor is somewhat disconcerting. What happens if that donor pulls their funds? I would advise educators to proceed with caution with any Ning adoption for integral learning activities.
Horizon 2010 K12 Edition is out
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on April 28th, 2010
The 2010 K12 Horizon report is out today and there an some very interesting insights inside. The report is the product of the work of the New Media Consortium and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). You can take a look at the full report as well as add you own comments on the reports website.
Looking at the key trends identified in the executive summary one really stood out to me, “The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing. Innovation is valued at the highest levels of business and must be embraced in schools if students are to succeed beyond their formal education.” The main point that I draw from this is that the factory model of education no longer cuts it. We have moved from being an industrial nation to a nation of innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs. It is no longer acceptable to provide a cookie cutter education that produces cookie cutter workers for our factories. As educators we must start to examine the structures that we have set up and determine if they are still valuable in our rapidly changing world. As the report identified,”A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment.”
One point where I think the Horizon report may have missed the mark is in its predictions on flexible displays. Horizon sees flexible displays being integrated into textbooks in 4-5 years. I would like to suggest that instead we will see the death of the traditional textbook in the next 5-7 years. Textbooks are simply becoming too inflexible and non-dynamic to be relevant in 21st century education, and the technology to move to dynamic texts is here right now. Ipads, iPods, netbooks, kindles, sony readers, nooks, etc are all solutions right now. What we need is for textbook writers to change the way that they think about textbooks. Otherwise, students and educators will find other resources that provided an integrated rich multimedia experience.
There is plenty more to look at in this report, so feel free to comment and let us know what you think.
TedX Presentation on patient problem solving
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on April 21st, 2010
Math educator, Dan Meyer, recently gave a presentation on teaching algebra at TEDxNYED. His presentation is incredibly insightful and frames a problem that I have seen for a long time. Our kids are not learning to solve real world problems. Dan provides some very simple ideas that can revolutionize the way that we teach math. By framing problems differently and by using multimedia Dan has devised a strategy to enable kids to learn how to create equations and use math to solve problems. Take a look at the video below.
Ning shuts down its free network service: What are the alternatives?
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on April 16th, 2010
Ning announced today that it will, “…phase out our free service. Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning.” This obviously has some very important ramifications for the thousands of educators that use Ning to network with each other and with their students. In the short term, alternatives will almost definitely pop up. Already, there are several competing products on the the market such as http://www.socialgo.com/.
The bigger question however is, will users continue to trust free services online. Some free services have definitely carved out a space and have a defined business model, such as gmail. However, other services have attempted to get buy in through offering their service for free before they begin to monetize. Ning’s strategy, obviously not inspire confidence in the company as a whole and will likely leave many users with a sour taste in their mouth. The argument can be made, that it would be better and perhaps even more reliable to self host community spaces. There are several benefits, you have complete control over your site, you can choose which product you want to use and when you want to migrate between them and if you already own or rent hosting space or a server you have everything that’s needed to set up an online community.
One popular tool in higher ed is http://elgg.org/. This is a powerful application that let you set up your own online community. It does, however, take a bit of technical expertise to install. An even simpler option is buddypress.org. Buddypress is actually a set of plugins and themes for Wordpress that turns your Wordpress blog into an online community similar to Ning. With wordpress’s super simple install process and simple online plugin install this option has come within the reach of technical novices. The payback is huge. With either of these open source projects, you have a site that is completely under your control and cannot be canceled. In addition, you can choose how and if you want to monetize your site.
I know I have only mention a few options. If you have other ideas, please include them in the comments section.
A very cool usage of multitouc…
Posted by Chris in News and Commentary on October 7th, 2009
A very cool usage of multitouch tables in education. A virtual autopsy http://bit.ly/1Lt4rF
We are recording a new episode…
Posted by Chris in News and Commentary on October 6th, 2009
We are recording a new episode tomorrow. @ reply us with any links or topics you would like us to talk about!
RT @zemote: Very cool project,…
Posted by Chris in News and Commentary on October 6th, 2009
RT @zemote: Very cool project, http://www.skypeforeducators.com/ could potentially let classrooms connect with experts on topics.
Do you want your students to be consumers or creators?
Posted by Matt in News and Commentary on July 12th, 2010
The new space of mobile / tablet computing has brought along with it some interesting choices for educators. Apple has done an extraordinary job of marketing its iPad as the mobile device of the future. My purpose here is not to argue for or against this claim. What I would like to talk about are the ramifications of using these types of devices in the classroom.
What Should the Classroom Be?
This is of course an enormous question. However I would like to present two polarizing views. Each of these views are going to be a bit of an extreme or caricature of the real world. However, I think they will reveal some fundamental differences that we can identify when selecting technologies.
The first view of the classroom is that it is fundamentally a place where content is delivered to students. The students then digest that content and retain it. Some may refer to this as a “Sage on the Stage” type of mentality. Textbooks, lectures and educational videos are all delivery mechanism of this type of model. The student becomes a consumer of content. There is a clear line between those who create content and those who consume it.
The second view of the classroom is that it is an essentially creative space. In this view, students are active participants in creating and directing their learning experiences. Digital story telling, role playing, simulations, wikis and blogging are just a few examples of creation centric learning experiences.
With these two views in mind we must now turn our eyes to technology. The first assertion that I will make is that certain technologies (including hardware) will tend to lean toward vision of the classroom or the other.
The First Option
For the sake of example I would like to take two pieces of technology that I have been working with lately and contrast them. The first device is the iPad. This device I would assert is in general designed to be a consumer’s device. Here are a few reasons why. Read the rest of this entry »
dell, ipad, netbook, tools
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