World's Best Classrooms Light on Technology

These days, we often hear about how the education system in the United States is failing. We're falling behind other countries and there are many theories why. According to Bill Gates,

"American education has been the best in the world, but we’re falling below our own high standards of excellence for high school and college attainment. We’re living in a tremendous age of innovation. We should harness new technologies and innovation to help all students get the education they need to succeed."

A common lament is that we used to be the best in the world, but our glory days have come and gone. On October 11th, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced they'd be giving $20 million to develop educational technologies to help American students succeed in the classroom. But is the lack of technology in our classrooms the real reason we're falling behind? Here's an interesting perspective:

http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/10/21/worlds-best-classrooms-are-light-on-technology

I encourage you to also click on the links that the author references in the article, especially Amanda Ripley's from Slate.com. Taken from her article:

"...school systems in Singapore, Finland, and Korea recruit 100 percent of their teachers from the top one-third of their academic cohort... In the United States, about 23 percent of new teachers—and only 14 percent in high-poverty schools—come from the top one-third. It is a remarkably large difference in approach, and in results."

It seems to me that spending the money to attract top talent to the teaching profession should be a higher priority than equipping our classrooms with cutting edge technology. What do you think?

Incentives for Teachers

I teach in a very rural school. 33% of the children in my building are on free and reduced lunch. We are a title one school that receives help from the state. I have several children in my classroom who come from very difficult home lives. Their parents are either not involved in their life or they are constantly working to provide for them. Regardless of these children’s up bringing they come to me for about 8 hours a day to be taught. I have no control over what happens from 4pm-8am, but I do control 8am-4pm. I am a teacher. I have chosen a profession that I don’t leave at 5:00 every day. I often bring work home with me, stay late or arrive early. Being a teacher requires a lot out of you.

We can’t control what students we have in our classes each year-we can however make the best out of what we are given. I say this because news travels fast. I currently teach in King William County, a neighboring county-Henrico County, just recently received an incentive grant they are offering to 8 of their counties schools. Each teacher (core subject areas and special education) are being offered an $8000 incentive for student achievement. If their students are successful on their standardized test then they will receive a bonus check of $8000.
Check out these two links to learn more about the grants they received and the schools that qualify.

http://www.whiteheadchioccalaw.com/blog/new-incentives-for-teachers-in-henrico-county.cfm

http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/Newsroom/NewsReleases/2010-11/101510A.html

Now I have some questions for you. Is this a fair program? It appears to be offered only to the lower schools in the county. If we as teachers can’t control who is placed in our classrooms then is it fair to offer monetary incentives to certain schools? Certain teachers?
I truly have no set opinion on this matter. I think an $8000 incentive for student’s achievement is something I would bust my tail to get. Who wouldn’t want that extra pocket change? However it is my firm belief that all children can be successful-but can all children be successful on an SOL?

Do you think the counties are offering this money trying to simply keep “great” teachers in these buildings? What is your take on this?

I teach in a school very much like the schools that qualify for these programs but our county didn’t receive this grant?

What if some of these schools don’t have the resources, staff members and even technology that other successful schools have? Is this an even playing field? I have teacher friends at two of these schools and they both teach collaborative classes. Both qualify for the money and both have said-I’m giving it my all because it’s such a great incentive, however I have some kids that I am just not sure if they are going to make it. I do know that if you are hired in Henrico County you aren’t allowed to change schools until you have completed three years at your hired school-then you may request a transfer.

Any comments on this?

Is 3D TV Really That Great?

With the massive marketing push behind 3D TV you've almost certainly heard all the upsides to watching television in 3 dimensions.

Over the last several years, flat panel HD TVs have seen significant price drop. Today, it’s not uncommon to find a 50" flat panel TV for under $1000. Manufacturers originally stated that 3D viewing wouldn’t add any additional price to the TV but research has found that this is not necessarily the situation. The 3D enabled model TVs make up the top tier of most manufacturer's offerings this year (Samsung has the most different 3D capable lines). It seems that many family households just recently upgraded from standard definition to high definition television and HD components such as a Blu Ray player. To go from 2D to 3D requires at minimum a new, expensive television purchase. Consumers may also need to purchase new components although some recent Blu Ray players will be able to download a firmware update that will make them 3D ready. 3D glasses will also be required for each viewer. For a family of 4 this could add up to nearly $1000 in glasses alone. There has been a number of concerns associated with theses new 3D TVs including, lack of content (amount of media compatible for 3D viewing is small), eye-strain, headaches, and nausea. Considering these factors, the question that I pose is whether or not these 3D TVs are as good as they are “hyped” up to be? What are your thoughts surrounding the new advancement on technology?

For more information check out http://3d-tvbuyingguide.com/3dtv/3d-tv-problems.html

HTML5’s New Privacy Concerns

HTML5, the new webcode poised for dominance on the internet, comes with a bevy of features to enhance our online experience. With the ability to imbed multimedia without relying on plug-ins like Quick Time, application caches that allow offline access to online apps, and geolocation features, HTML5 can provide a robust, integrated end-user experience.

But the superior user experience does not come without cost. In her New York Times article, Tanzinia Vega highlights some of the privacy concerns inherent in HTML5.

Most of us are familiar with the ubiquitous cookies, which save our usernames and passwords (I, for one, would be lost without this feature), permit the use of online shopping carts, and so on. I remember a time when my spyware tracker was constantly popping up “allow cookie?” messages as I went about the web. Initially, I was very cautious about my cookies, and routinely cleared them. As time has gone by, I find that I don’t even think about them; I accept them as almost a cost of doing business. HTML5 allows trackers to set super cookies that can track weeks of personal data, including “a user’s location, time zone, photographs, text from blogs, shopping cart contents, e-mails and a history of the Web pages visited” (Vega). One hacker has created an “evercookie” that is difficult for even experts to delete. He claims it is in the interest of preventing unauthorized tracking, but such a persistent and stealthy tool is hardly something most of us are comfortable with.

Where should the burden of privacy protection lie? With the enduser? It gets harder and harder to find, let alone manage, privacy settings. With the browser, the provider, or the developer? That seems against their own self interest. With an external regulatory body? Perhaps ease of privacy settings should be mandated. Or, maybe, the public will consider the flash and ease of the new technology worth the trade off of privacy. After all, the browser Opera tried to implement more stringent cookie controls, but users complained that it disrupted use of a social networking site.

Second Life in Real Life

This post should strike a cord with my peers and others who are in Professor Snow's "Intro to HRD" class this semester. The class was introduced to a program called "Second Life" (SL). I personally had never heard of SL before this particular class. My initial question was, "What is SL?" Professor Snow explained it as a virtual 3-D world that you can interact with other real people using the mouse and keyboard of your computer. The phrase he used that sticks out in my mind is, "Anything you can do in real life, you can do in second life!"

Take a look at a quick demo of SL if you need a visual explanation:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/

So after seeing how it works in Professor Snow's class, he also made another point. Professor Snow said you can actually hold a class via SL. You would have to create a character, and go as far as logging in the program to be at the designated class meeting location (within SL) and sit down to have class with your peers and the professor. The setting is an actual classroom or other location of choice. You can see the characters of your other classmates and your professor as if you are actually sitting there. There is the ability to actually upload and play real PowerPoint presentations within the SL interface. Apparently, there are universities currently already using this method to hold classes. There is an actual site that someone engineered to mirror our very own James Madison University. The layout, buildings and traditional JMU symbols and paraphernalia all scattered throughout the interface. So essentially on a snow day where campus is closed, we all could be in our respective homes in Harrisonburg (or anywhere for that matter), log into SL and still actually meet "in-person" in SL to have class instead of fighting icy and snowy roads!

That seems a little extreme to me. How is this any different from holding an online class or a class using Eluminate? Are there any benefits to using SL over one of these methods? Do you think this will eventually be a widely utilized tool to hold classes at JMU? And would you consider this method E-Learning?

As if that didn't blow my mind enough, SL is now being taken a step further. Instead of using the mouse and keyboard to control your character as I initially mentioned, now technology is being developed to control your character with the movements of your own body. Moving around is similar to how a Segway works (lean your body forward or backwards and your character will walk forward or backwards). Check it out below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t52gkAwJq8

Almost everyone has a cellphone these days, including those as young as eight years old. Texting is undoubtedly one of the most popular features of the wireless phone. Before last year, I was hardly knowledgeable about the world of texting. It took me over ten minutes to send a one sentence text. Needless to say, this is not the case anymore. Today, texting is one of my primary ways of communication and this is hardly a surprise for my generation. Earlier in the semester we discussed Facebook in the classroom, but what about cellphones? The debate about how young is too young for one to get a cellphone is somewhat old but relevant nonetheless. I have posted a link to a YouTube clip discussing this debate. Check it out.

htt://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvzRpTdY3is

After watching this clip, I am still convinced that the issue is not age but the level of responsibility one possesses. Some children are more involved and away from their parents for longer periods of time and a cellphone is necessary. I was fourteen before I was allowed to get a cellphone and my little brother was eleven. Even my ten year old cousin has a cellphone and she probably uses texting more than I do! With texting having gained such a popular interest, I believe that there has to be a way to utilize this in the classroom, for the benefit of young students/cellphone users.

Do you guys thing that texting/cellphone use can be positively used in the classroom? What place does cellphones have in education and what age do you think it is appropriate to mix it with their learning?

PDF Annotating software vs Textbooks

There has been considerable speculation about the impact mobile reading devices such as the iPad and Kindle could eventually have on Textbook usage. One of the main critiques of PDF readers has been the users inability to mark up, take notes, and highlight these documents. When a book is on paper it's much easier to make notes all over and personalize the pages.

A new version of Goodreader allows ipad and iphone users to do just that. The upgraded app allows users to annotate their pdfs. Users can add comments on the document with sticky notes, as well as highlight, draw, and underline to their hearts content. These notes are saved on the document and can be edited later. Readers can cut and paste portions of the text onto their clipboard, which can then be inserted into other documents.

Here is the full article.

I think this is an exciting development. Unlike textbooks, which in the K-12 environment are usually banned from being written on, these PDFs can be written on as much as is desired. Textbooks are a great expense for schools, and perhaps some costs could be reduced by purchasing an electronic version of the text.

Do you think applications such as Goodreader are a viable replacement for school textbooks? Do you think this would be a more useful application for higher ed rather than k-12? Do you think it could be cost effective and practical over a period of several years assuming the expense of purchasing an ipad or other e-reader for each student?