Living and Learning in Central Oregon

I clipped the part about kids not bringing their laptops to school each day because teachers don’t encourage their use. From my experience the teacher PD needs to happen first before any laptops are given to kids.

clipped from www.dallasnews.com Lighter laptops may also help combat student complaints about the computers being too heavy to carry to school. District surveys have shown that many students don’t bring their laptops to school every day – but that’s also because teachers don’t always encourage their use. The high schools plan to conduct meetings and set goals to improve student use of the laptops. A key goal is to improve training for teachers. Mr. Hill said one challenge is that some teachers continue to resist using laptops in class. Owen DeWitt, a former school board member who pushed for the laptops, said more affordable units should have been looked at from the beginning. “We were spending huge dollars for something that wasn’t well adapted yet for any of the regular high schools,” he said. “You’ve got to weigh functionality vs. cost.”

Popped open my email today to see that the latest edition of technology and learning is out. One of the articles in this month’s issue was a top list of trends. Cyberbullying was #2. It just so happens that last night I had the opportunity to sit in on a community forum on cyberbullying that was filmed by our local cable company. The audience was a cross section of educators, parents, law enforcement, and students. It was interesting to hear the perspective of the kids and what they are experiencing or had experienced. However, listening to their stories made me wonder where the parents are in this whole thing. What I believe is that, like any bullying, parental involvement is key. If parents are not playing an active role in their child’s life and taking some simple measures cyberbullying can be decreased.

links – COTV, Technology and Learning

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From eSchool News a collection of science videos from actual scientists.  At first glance the videos seemed to stream smoothly with little lag time.  The topics are beyond my science capacity but I did find this one on where water goes when it rains:

http://www.scivee.tv/node/4177

This question was recently asked to some middle school students in the area by our local newspaper.  They printed the responses of six of the students and ALL of them said they accessed some sort of internet/web resource to keep up on current events.  Google, YouTube, email, and MySpace were just some of the sources of information they used to keep up on the headlines. 

 Question – as teachers are we using these resources to keep current?  Are we using them to communicate and teach?

Does it matter how we teach writing and what kind of modes we use?  Blogging and twittering might use non-traditional, less formal language but my take is that we want students to access the higher level skills of Bloom’s Taxonomy.   Some of these new tools allow them to create, evaluate, and analyze content so I say go for it.  What do you say?

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On October 24, 1861 Chief Justice Stephen Field, of California, transmitted the first transcontinental telegraph.  The message was sent to President Abraham Lincoln. 

I can’t help but find this interesting for a number of reasons.  First, I was talking with my sister yesterday on my cell phone. It was such a beautiful day I was outside for a noon walk.  As I was walking and talking a very loud truck drove by and I wondered if that driver ever considered that the noise from his truck was not only being heard by me but by someone 3,000 miles away.  It was just an interesting and random thought I had.  Second, could Lincoln have ever imagined that the telegraph message he received from Field was just the beginning? did he ever think that 150 years later we would be video conferencing with people half way around the world?  If Lincoln was unable to imagine that occuring what are we unable to imagine? In 150 years what will we be doing?  Man, I wish I could be around to see it!

Do cell phones have a place in schools?  Can they help build 21^st Century learning skills? I can remember a few years ago worrying about cell phones in the school. How as a principal could I control their use? I quickly realized I could not completely control their use.  Because guess what, almost every kid has one and if they do not have one now they will have one very soon.  So what do we do as teachers?  Do we waste our time trying to police them or do we figure out ways to use them in useful ways to promote teaching and learning? Now I am not advocating kids being on their phones during class time but this is a technology I don’t think we are not currently utilizing to support instruction. Can it be used?  I recently brought up the topic of cell phone to the Hartman staff.  At the time I was just talking off the top of my head and no ideas or tangible thoughts on the subject.  But one of the today’s presentations at the k12 Online Conference talks about cell phones in the schools.   

Question – As a high school teacher is this a technology that you should look into accessing to communicate with your students and parents?  I do not have the answer to that.  But at least I think it is something to investigate and consider. 

Visit http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=152 to watch the presentation and to visit the website the presenter has set up.

Laptop With a Mission Widens Its Audience – New York Times

They are not $100 but $188 is still pretty cheap.  And the laptop that was designed for only 3rd world kids is now available to all – you just have to buy two, one for you and one for a poor child.  For $400 you give one and you get one.  Follow the above link to learn more and to see this laptop in action.

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Check out this story about a professor teaching her entire class on YouTube

Can we please get rid of our filter?