History and Social Studies links for educators

http://www.census.gov/schools/

This is the US Census Bureau’s site for teachers. It includes links to other sites within the Census, including populations, maps, and guides for teaching

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Blog that includes lots of free resources for teachers.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/

History and education site from the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/

Primarily UK and European history/archaeology.

Great Site for Teachers

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Week 4

a. What was the most significant thing you learned in class this week?

I learned about Fathom. The application looks to be very useful sorting data.

b. What questions do you have and what do you want to learn more about?

No questions this week.

c. What applications do you see to classroom practice based on what you learned?

I see that Fathom could be useful sorting census data, organizing historical demographic data, etc. I would be handy for students’ papers. Unless the school has it or the students have it at home, I don’t know how useful it may be in the classroom.

Observing a Child Using Technology

The child I observed using technology is two years old. I observe him regularly. At the most basic, he is like other kids his age and loves to push buttons. It’s even better if the button is connected to something and he can see the result.

Some time ago, he was watching a movie trailer for Toy Story 3 on my laptop. When it ended, he wanted to see it again. And, again. I finally left the cursor on the screen and told him to push the left button. He got the hang of it quickly. Each time it ended, he clicked the left button (this is a PC, not a Mac).

This has continued with almost anything he likes to watch on my computer. He likes to watch movie trailers for animated films and cartoons on YouTube and IMDB. I set it up for him, and each time it ends, he clicks to start it again. This goes on until he gets board or his parents decide that it’s just time to stop.

Recently, he learned how to move the cursor. Clicking on something else on the screen may cause something new to happen. At this point, I stepped in to show him how to move the cursor by moving his finger across the pad above the buttons. He is now able to choose what he wants to watch by setting the cursor above a new item and click on that. An example is YouTube. To the right of the screen you are watching is a list of icons of similar videos. He is able to move the cursor over and pick something new to watch.

As he is only two years old, guidance is needed to show him how it works. If he were a little older, he would easily figure it out for himself. At that point, guidance of a different sort would be needed to explain what he should and shouldn’t be looking at online.

For me, this is interesting. When I was that age, computers took up whole rooms and the general public didn’t have access to them. Television had three channels and they didn’t have buttons. They had knobs.

He will continue growing along with the technology as it grows. What is needed from adults is not necessarily explanations as to how these things work. Children will figure that out on their own. What will be required is guidance to use the technology properly and not abuse it. To define what is proper and what is abuse will change between parents, schools, communities, etc. As educators, we will have to work with the needs/wants of those parents, and schools, and communities.

Week 3

a. What was the most significant thing you learned in class this week?

The digital story. I also learned that no matter how hard you work on something, Microsoft will find a way to screw it up for you. Thankfully, I had already emailed my story to myself. When I made a change and tried to save it again, it erased the contents of the file. The shell was still there, but nothing else. Since I saved it to email, it did get viewed in class.

b. What questions do you have and what do you want to learn more about?

There is a concern that I would like addressed at some point during the quarter. The internet provides a great resource for cheating. What resources do teachers have to tell if something has been copied from the internet or doesn't have a proper citation?

c. What applications do you see to classroom practice based on what you learned?

The digital story may be a way for students to submit reports. Instead of just turning in a paper and maybe a few visuals, this could be a fun alternative.

Laptop for every pupil in Uruguay

"Uruguay has become the first country to provide a laptop for every child attending state primary school."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8309583.stm

Delay formal lessons 'to age six'

Children should not start formal learning until they are six, a review of primary education in England says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8309153.stm

Does your social class determine your online social network?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/13/social.networking.class/index.html

Twitter backs wine sales to help kids read

I'm not a fan of Twitter, but this, I think, could be a good thing.

"The popular micro-blogging service is partnering in a unique fund raising drive with Room to Read, a San Francisco non-profit organization that establishes schools and libraries for children in developing countries in Asia and Africa. According to its Web site, Room to Read has established 765 schools and filled 7,168 bilingual libraries with more than 5.7 million books since it was founded in 2000."

http://blog.seattlepi.com/techchron/archives/182135.asp

14 October 2009

This may not sound like the epitome of modern technology, but I have found that the advent of audiobooks and the iPod has made getting around much more pleasant. I never thought I would listen to a book. When I found so much of my reading was taken up by non-fiction (which I do enjoy) and I had a long commute, I discovered I could listen to fiction on my way to and from work. I can put several books on my iPod. Since I walk to class after work, it is another opportunity read another chapter in a book.

Week 2

a. What was the most significant thing you learned in class this week?

Learning how to work on a digital story.

b. What questions do you have and what do you want to learn more about?

Audio and video for the digital story.

c. What applications do you see to classroom practice based on what you learned?

I don't know yet. I think it is interesting. I'm just not sure how I would apply it in my classroom.

Youth 'cannot live' without web

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8305731.stm

13 October 2009

Sometimes I find the low tech/no tech ideas hold a lot of validity. Even though I drive to work in the mornings, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I get to class by walking from my office to campus. It's cheaper than paying for parking each time and I get a bit of exercise in.

Something I would like to do with my students, when I have a class of my own, is low tech. A fellow archaeology student once told me that what got him interested in archaeology was a history teacher who took has class on a field trip to his backyard. The students excavated his backyard. He had previously dug up his yard and planted materials. The students learned how to perform an archaeological dig. History can be hands on, not just something out of a book.

12 October 2009

Nothing of any great interest to report today. I usually use my laptop to check on the news. News online is easier, more up to date, and less expensive than older methods of getting news. I have a hard time imagining trying to keep up to date with the BBC, CNN, The Seattle P.I., NPR, KOAT TV in Albuquerque, ITAR/TASS from Russia, The Nation from Kenya, and several others. It's easy online, however.

11 October 2009

Today's experience with modern technology centered around class assignments. The first situation had to do with this blog site. When I created my blog site for this class, I goofed and created two blogs with the same name (and the wrong name, too). To fix this, I typed in my question and the answer was pulled from an archive of similar questions and responses. The experts were not the manufacturers, but the users themselves. I found the information I was looking for and corrected my problem with the help of other users who knew more than I.

My other experience, also with classwork, was just reading. The readings are posted online. They are not hard-copies. Printing out enough copies for everyone can be time consuming and expensive. The readings can be accessed online, or if you're like me and like hard-copies, then the readings can be printed out. All of this sounds so simple and obvious, but 20 years ago it would have been easier to print out the readings. 30 years ago, it would only been possible for a handful of people. 40 years ago, it would not have been possible at all.

Technology and Music

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8294355.stm

It looks like something played by the alien musicians in the bar in Star Wars.
It can be made to sound like it too.
This is the Eigenharp - described by its developers as "the most expressive electronic musical instrument ever made".
One of my colleagues calls it more simply "a sci-fi bassoon".
The Eigenharp is the brainchild of John Lambert, a musician and software entrepreneur, whose Devon-based team has been working on the project for eight years.

10 October 2009

Today, the most interesting use of what I guess I should call modern technology, was at the cinema. My family and some friends went to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2. The fact that these movies were created entirely on computer is amazing. They are animated but the animation is quite different from the hand drawn animation I grew up watching. The characters and the sets appear to have depth. They don't appear to be two dimensional drawings pasted onto a painted background. To top it off, the movies were just re-released in 3-D. They handed out polarized glasses when we entered the cinema and it was very impressive to watch these movies in this format. Certainly, these movies could not have been made without computers.

9 October 2009

After the class discussion last night, I had to ask myself what I thought was technological before I thought about how it affect me. I woke up this morning on a mattress made by some sort of machine, to an electric alarm clock, dressed in clothes made by machine, drove to work in a car, sat in front of a computer, made copies on a copier, answered a networked telephone, and on and on.

All of that certainly makes my life easier but that's what I'm used to. I couldn't imagine my life without some of these items. If I lived one hundred years ago, I couldn't imagine a life with these items. Prior to the invention of the refrigerator, we never needed one. Prior to the invention of the computer, we never needed one either. Now, our lives would be dramatically altered without them.

I would find my job very different/difficult without the phone and the computer. At the same time, I don't think my job would even exist without the phone and the computer (or it would have completely different responsibilities).

Twitter Assignment

I still don't like Twitter. I had a Twitter account and after months of rather dull snippets of people's lives, I canceled my account. This new assignment did not improve my view of Twitter. I was in Olympia this weekend at a series of workshops for teachers which I found very informative. I was not able to elaborate since Twitter only allows 140 characters. All I could do was say I was there and enjoyed it.

I remember a couple of recent studies about Twitter. One study showed that almost half of all tweets were trivial chatter. Now, how they defined trivial, I don't know. But, most of the tweets I remember were just that. Not quite the Twitter joke of "I'm breathing." or "I'm walking, now." but close.

The other study followed the Tweets coming out of Iran during the election protests. Of all of the Tweets reporting from the protests, it turns out that most of the posts were re-post or, re-Tweets. Very few were original.

Let's face it. Twitter is a neat marketing idea. A Tweet is nothing more than a text message. With so few characters, you often need to eliminate vowels and use grammar shortcuts to cram as much information as possible. Since you can post on computers from your phone and to phones from a computer, there is no difference. Tweet just sounds so much better than txt msg.

All social networking and blog sites are, by their very nature, egocentric. They are there to tell other people what we are up to. If we really thought about it, we might wonder if anyone really cared that much. A blog does allow one to write more in depth, whereas Twitter doesn't allow much. You can't write anything in depth so posts tend to be rather shallow.

Week 1

What was the most significant thing you learned in class this week?

I'm not sure there was one significant thing that I learned in class, but I did have some ideas that I hadn't thought about in a while reinforced. I am glad that there is a class that focuses on the technological aspects of the students. The Apple IIe was the height of classroom technology when I was in school. There were no cell phones, no internet. Even though I do use these now, it will be a challenge integrating them into the classroom.

What questions do you have and what do you want to learn more about?

Nothing this week. I'm sure I will have many in the weeks to come.

What applications do you see to classroom practice based on what you learned?

There are several things I think social studies and history students could use. The internet is, of course, ideal for research. I do not think Wikipedia, or other encyclopedias, is a good source. It is a good starting place to find sources, though. I think that students keeping an online journal of their activities is a great idea. Not through Twitter, though. Something that provides for more substance like a blog or LiveJournal.

What animal I want to be, and why?

I am quite happy being a Homo sapiens. This is the animal I want to be. I like my opposible thumb. The ability to create art and to think critically is something I enjoy.