Class,
Many of you have already done the assignment for this week, so this might be too little, too late. But I have heard from a couple of students that some of the videos are too long, and some of the videos won't allow you to stop and rewind videos so you can reflect during the video like I suggested. I'm sorry on both accounts. I've seen some of the videos, but not all. I'm especially less familiar with the Nets Digital Video Library videos. Granted that this is only a one-credit class, don't spend more than about 2 hours doing the homework this week (that's what they tell us is reasonable). If the videos are longer than 20 minutes or so, don't bother watching the whole thing, or maybe just skim through what you don't see to get the idea. That should leave you enough time to reflect as a group, type up the reflection, get it posted, and deal with any technical issues along the way.
Sorry if this assignment became burdensome to some groups. In class I said the videos would be 15-20 minutes because the ones I had seen were that long. I'm sorry some of the others are longer than that.
Saturday, October 09, 2004
Moving ... but going nowhere (BYU game)
Could anything be more frustrating than losing to 1-4 UNLV at home? I will say this for BYU: they keep the games interesting. Remember the good ol' days when we were up by 30 at halftime? Do we really think we could ever do that with our current offense?
So what I want to know is who greased the pigskin? We really could not hold onto the ball. But take away the turnovers and our offense really did well (except score points -- I'll get to that). Curtis Brown was a monster with his second straight nearly 100-yard rushing game. Beck threw for 350+ yards. So if we gained all those yards, why were we moving the ball but not going anywhere near the endzone all night long? Take away the defensive interception return, and we only scored one touchdown. Against UNLV. Oh yeah, and did I mention they were only 1-4 before tonight?
So here's my question: Why can we move the ball but not score? Is it playcalling? Do we get jittery on third down? Do we get scared inside the 20? Do we have too much confidence in Payne and would rather just let him take care of scoring for us? Is it miscommunication? Miscues? What? Some of you might say turnovers, and tonight that might be true, but we haven't had many turnovers this year, but scoring touchdowns has still been a night-in, night-out problem. Our only real arrow in our quiver is deep to Watkins or Collie. Other than that, we really struggle to get in the endzone.
Thanks for letting me vent. I feel better already. What was your take on the game?
Bring on the basketball season!
So what I want to know is who greased the pigskin? We really could not hold onto the ball. But take away the turnovers and our offense really did well (except score points -- I'll get to that). Curtis Brown was a monster with his second straight nearly 100-yard rushing game. Beck threw for 350+ yards. So if we gained all those yards, why were we moving the ball but not going anywhere near the endzone all night long? Take away the defensive interception return, and we only scored one touchdown. Against UNLV. Oh yeah, and did I mention they were only 1-4 before tonight?
So here's my question: Why can we move the ball but not score? Is it playcalling? Do we get jittery on third down? Do we get scared inside the 20? Do we have too much confidence in Payne and would rather just let him take care of scoring for us? Is it miscommunication? Miscues? What? Some of you might say turnovers, and tonight that might be true, but we haven't had many turnovers this year, but scoring touchdowns has still been a night-in, night-out problem. Our only real arrow in our quiver is deep to Watkins or Collie. Other than that, we really struggle to get in the endzone.
Thanks for letting me vent. I feel better already. What was your take on the game?
Bring on the basketball season!
Friday, October 08, 2004
Wikipedia passes 1 million pages!
A milestone recently for Wikipedia. The online encylopedia that is really just a big wiki now has over 1 million pages. Read more about this at E-School News Online. The best part of all of this is that it is free -- free knowledge to anyone who wants to read it. Isn't that a neat characteristic of the Internet, the ability to chip in together as members of a worldwide community and give each other free access to knowledge.
BTW - Rich Culatta here in the College of Ed helped create a wiki website for worldhistory.com where you can go to a specific date in history and add important events to the timeline. Someone needs to go there and post April 6, 1820!
BTW - Rich Culatta here in the College of Ed helped create a wiki website for worldhistory.com where you can go to a specific date in history and add important events to the timeline. Someone needs to go there and post April 6, 1820!
Best Educational Websiteshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
The Center for Digital Education just released their awards for the best educational websites of 2004. Go check them out! There are some for students, some for teachers. This goes back to the discussion I started earlier this week about whether you might not need to know web authoring as teachers.
BTW - Look closely and you'll see one of the websites is actually a BLOGSITE!
BTW - Look closely and you'll see one of the websites is actually a BLOGSITE!
Blogs in education
E-School News just published an interesting and lengthy lists of reasons why you would want to maintain a blog as a teacher, reasons why you would want to have your students blog, and reasons why you would want a class blog. There are many good ideas that I think could be applied to many different disciplines to check it out! At the bottom of the page is a link where you can respond to this article and post your own ideas. I encourage y'all to do this! After several weeks of blogging, you should all be able to have some good ideas about how blogs could be used in the right context.
More on Podcasting
Another online article on Podcasting (audio blogging using an IPod). This is really a good example of how blogs can be useful as a learning tool. Podcasting is something so new that it hasn't been written about in anything except internet articles and blogs. Ask around - in fact ask computer geeks who aren't bloggers and they may not even know about it (many of my computer-crazy friends don't). It's growing super fast too: in this article, a guy said the number of hits on a Google search for "podcasting" is growing by leaps and bounds every day (I guess I'm adding this post to that hit list).
Anyway, if we were to wait for the "traditional" way of learning about this new technology, we'd have to wait for some researcher to hear about it, then he'd do a 6-month study about it, then he'd take 6 months to write his article, then the journal would take 6-12 months to review it, accept it and publish it, and then it'd finally get published so we could read it (if we happened to be subscribed to that journal). But with blogging, the technology could be invented today, and maybe we'd know about it tomorrow (if we were subscribed to the right people). When you start using blogging as a way to keep up-to-date on new ideas, you can learn about things really, really fast.
Anyway, if we were to wait for the "traditional" way of learning about this new technology, we'd have to wait for some researcher to hear about it, then he'd do a 6-month study about it, then he'd take 6 months to write his article, then the journal would take 6-12 months to review it, accept it and publish it, and then it'd finally get published so we could read it (if we happened to be subscribed to that journal). But with blogging, the technology could be invented today, and maybe we'd know about it tomorrow (if we were subscribed to the right people). When you start using blogging as a way to keep up-to-date on new ideas, you can learn about things really, really fast.
Turning in group evaluations
Danielle and others have asked how to turn in your group evaluations of this week's assignment. Please email me them, or if you want, hand them to me at class next week. Don't put them on the discussion board because I want you to be honest and not afraid that your groupmates will see what you write!
Go Cougs tonight! Any predictions on the game? A candy bar if anyone nails it. I'm predicting BYU 31, UNLV 10.
Go Cougs tonight! Any predictions on the game? A candy bar if anyone nails it. I'm predicting BYU 31, UNLV 10.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Web Authoring as an educational technology
Macromedia, the people who make Dreamweaver and Flash, the two best programs for producing websites, have now released a site license for K-6 schools. I read about this in E-School News Online. This means that getting these programs for K-6 schools will be cheaper, so more schools will be able to do it.
We have used blogs and wikis in this class, but we haven't done real web design (we do teach it in the 2-credit class). I did mention to you that if you wanted to do cheap and easy web design, you could download Mozilla Composer for free.
My question is this: How important do you think web design will be in your future teaching? I have talked and surveyed many of my students from the elementary education section of this course, and they usually tell me that they thought the web design part of the course was the most important thing they learned and that they plan to use it as elementary teachers.
What do the secondary teachers think? Do you plan on ever using web design? Would you use it as a teacher? Would you have your students use it in their homework? Is this something that would be valuable to your careers?
Just to get the conversation going, here's what Carla and Sheldon said in their reflection for hte assignment this week:
BTW - if it is something that you are interested in, you could do web design for one of your upcoming class projects ...
We have used blogs and wikis in this class, but we haven't done real web design (we do teach it in the 2-credit class). I did mention to you that if you wanted to do cheap and easy web design, you could download Mozilla Composer for free.
My question is this: How important do you think web design will be in your future teaching? I have talked and surveyed many of my students from the elementary education section of this course, and they usually tell me that they thought the web design part of the course was the most important thing they learned and that they plan to use it as elementary teachers.
What do the secondary teachers think? Do you plan on ever using web design? Would you use it as a teacher? Would you have your students use it in their homework? Is this something that would be valuable to your careers?
Just to get the conversation going, here's what Carla and Sheldon said in their reflection for hte assignment this week:
"A classroom website can be very effective in allowing students to collaborate and share information. We would like to have a classroom website for our classes to publish work on, see updated information, communicate outside of class, and show parents/families/friends what they are doing in class. A website expands classroom learning to a larger scope. "
BTW - if it is something that you are interested in, you could do web design for one of your upcoming class projects ...
Visual Internet Searching?http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
I just read about vivismo.com and Grokker, which are tools that represent internet search results visually by stacking the search results into categories so you can pick the category that best represents what it was you were looking for.
An article by e-school news describes it this way:
An article by e-school news describes it this way:
"Let's say, for example, you're curious about accommodations in France and enter a search for "Paris Hilton."Google recognizes this as a search in the category of "Regional-Europe-Travel and Tourism-Lodging-Hotels" but still produces page after page with links about celebrity socialite Paris Hilton and her exploits. That's because Google's engine ranks pages largely based on how many other sites link to them, sending the most popular pages to the top.
If you run the search on Grokker, however, the resulting circle shows all the possible categories of information the internet offers on a search for "Paris Hilton"--including reviews, maps, and online booking sites for the Hilton hotel in Paris, which are all but buried in the Google rankings. Now you've much more quickly found not what is popular among internet gawkers, but what is genuinely useful to you."
I tried out vivismo.com, and my initial impression was that I liked it. I'm interested in what you guys think. Why don't you try it out and tell me if you think Vivismo or Google would be more useful for your students.
Can't find it on google?
Well, we talked digital resources last week, and Google is an awesome digital resource for teachers or anybody. The next week, I showed the early birds how to use Google more effectively. For those who missed it, here are some URLs.
For better Google searching that gets more specific results, try either:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en or
http://www.google.com/dirhp
There is lots more stuff Google can do, and if you're interested, you might look here.
Anyway, as awesome as Google is, there are times when you still can't find something on Google! What do you do (after shaking and pounding the computer, of course)? Well, you can now go to http://www.cantfindongoogle.com/ and post on the discussion board what it was you couldn't find. Maybe someone will find it and respond to your post. Maybe they won't. Either way, Google gets better by finding out where the bugs are (if they are checking this site, like they should!)
For better Google searching that gets more specific results, try either:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en or
http://www.google.com/dirhp
There is lots more stuff Google can do, and if you're interested, you might look here.
Anyway, as awesome as Google is, there are times when you still can't find something on Google! What do you do (after shaking and pounding the computer, of course)? Well, you can now go to http://www.cantfindongoogle.com/ and post on the discussion board what it was you couldn't find. Maybe someone will find it and respond to your post. Maybe they won't. Either way, Google gets better by finding out where the bugs are (if they are checking this site, like they should!)
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Podcasting and application to foreign language
Well, if you like blogging, and if you like IPods, you'll love Podcasting. You can post audio files, which are sent by rss feeds to all your buddies' computers. They can then download your daily, or weekly, or whatever, audio file into their IPods and listen to it. If you want to read more, here's a news article, and here's Adam Curry's blog, where he posts a daily audio essay.
How cool would that be? Can you imagine getting a daily audio file from, say, lds.org? How about if your professor posted things to you every day? What if your best friend, or boyfriend/spouse, did that? Could this be better than email? What if you could record your voice into your computer, and then send it by rss to your friend's IPod, and they would hear it the next time they plugged their IPod into their computer. Fun!
Will Richardson started talking about some educational possibilities for this technology on his blog:
Let's continue the discussion! How could Podcasting be used to help you teach your subjects? I know IPods are expensive right now, but in a few years they'll be as cheap as $10 walkmans (remember when portable CD players were pricey?). So let's be futuristic and assume our students have IPods or could have them.
In closing, the article says this about Podcasting and why it might take off and get popular:
How cool would that be? Can you imagine getting a daily audio file from, say, lds.org? How about if your professor posted things to you every day? What if your best friend, or boyfriend/spouse, did that? Could this be better than email? What if you could record your voice into your computer, and then send it by rss to your friend's IPod, and they would hear it the next time they plugged their IPod into their computer. Fun!
Will Richardson started talking about some educational possibilities for this technology on his blog:
"..now let's take this into the classroom, huh? Foreign language students can now read their homework responses which automatically get sent via RSS feeds to their teachers who download them to their iPods or other player to listen to them. Or, the teacher creates a daily broadcast that his students download and listen to. Or, each day, one student does an oral reflection on the class that then gets sent around to kids who miss the class."
Let's continue the discussion! How could Podcasting be used to help you teach your subjects? I know IPods are expensive right now, but in a few years they'll be as cheap as $10 walkmans (remember when portable CD players were pricey?). So let's be futuristic and assume our students have IPods or could have them.
In closing, the article says this about Podcasting and why it might take off and get popular:
"But Podcasting -- like blogging -- seems to combine the best of the Internet with the best of traditional media. It's a way for someone to create and distribute a show to 40 people. And it also would allow a media company to distribute audio content to millions."
Podcasting and application to foreign language
Well, if you like blogging, and if you like IPods, you'll love Podcasting. I guess there is a way now to post an audio file, have it feed (through rss, just like our blogs) into other people's computers. They can then download your daily, or weekly, or whatever, audio file into their IPods and listen to it. If you want to read more, here's a news article.
How cool would that be? Can you imagine getting a daily audio file from, say, lds.org? How about if your professor posted things to you every day? What if your best friend, or boyfriend/spouse, did that? Could this be better than email? What if you could record your voice into your computer, and then send it by rss to your friend's IPod, and they would hear it the next time they plugged their IPod into their computer. Fun!
Will Richardson started talking about some educational possibilities for this technology on his blog:
Let's continue this discussion. How could you use this technology in your teaching? Now, I know IPods are expensive and not very many have them. But eventually they will be as cheap as $10 walkmans. So let's think futuristically here.
In closing, the article says this about Podcasting and why it might take off and get popular:
How cool would that be? Can you imagine getting a daily audio file from, say, lds.org? How about if your professor posted things to you every day? What if your best friend, or boyfriend/spouse, did that? Could this be better than email? What if you could record your voice into your computer, and then send it by rss to your friend's IPod, and they would hear it the next time they plugged their IPod into their computer. Fun!
Will Richardson started talking about some educational possibilities for this technology on his blog:
"..now let's take this into the classroom, huh? Foreign language students can now read their homework responses which automatically get sent via RSS feeds to their teachers who download them to their iPods or other player to listen to them. Or, the teacher creates a daily broadcast that his students download and listen to. Or, each day, one student does an oral reflection on the class that then gets sent around to kids who miss the class."
Let's continue this discussion. How could you use this technology in your teaching? Now, I know IPods are expensive and not very many have them. But eventually they will be as cheap as $10 walkmans. So let's think futuristically here.
In closing, the article says this about Podcasting and why it might take off and get popular:
"But Podcasting -- like blogging -- seems to combine the best of the Internet with the best of traditional media. It's a way for someone to create and distribute a show to 40 people. And it also would allow a media company to distribute audio content to millions."
The Eternal Tale
As I mentioned in class, I'll start a story here, and please post your additions to the tale as comments to this post. Other sections might do this as well, and maybe we can have a fun time seeing which class writes the best story!
BTW - I apologize for the lame start -- I'm just going to go with the first idea for a story that comes to my mind. It's up to y'all to make it good!
The Eternal Tale
By IPT 286, Section 5
"Who's that?"
"I don't know, but I think he plays for the football team."
"He is so freakin' hot! I hope he is in my American Heritage class."
Ryan ignored the comments, but he couldn't help but crack a wry smile. Like anybody else, he enjoyed the flattery that often accompanied him around campus. Being a student at BYU is going to rock! he thought to himself So many girls ... so few weekends for dates!
Only 19 years old, Ryan was just beginning his first semester at Brigham Young University. Now two weeks into his newfound freedom as an adult, on his own for the first time, Ryan was enjoying the social scene at BYU. Maybe a little too much, he thought as he grimaced at his Palm Pilot, which beeped to remind him he had a test in a half hour -- a test he hadn't really studied for.
After snagging a gordita from Taco Bell in the Cougareat, Ryan scanned the dining tables to see if he knew anybody with an open chair at their table.
Then he saw her.
And he kept looking.
He couldn't stop.
She was perfect--the most perfect girl he had ever seen. I have to meet her, Ryan thought, because ...
BTW - I apologize for the lame start -- I'm just going to go with the first idea for a story that comes to my mind. It's up to y'all to make it good!
The Eternal Tale
By IPT 286, Section 5
"Who's that?"
"I don't know, but I think he plays for the football team."
"He is so freakin' hot! I hope he is in my American Heritage class."
Ryan ignored the comments, but he couldn't help but crack a wry smile. Like anybody else, he enjoyed the flattery that often accompanied him around campus. Being a student at BYU is going to rock! he thought to himself So many girls ... so few weekends for dates!
Only 19 years old, Ryan was just beginning his first semester at Brigham Young University. Now two weeks into his newfound freedom as an adult, on his own for the first time, Ryan was enjoying the social scene at BYU. Maybe a little too much, he thought as he grimaced at his Palm Pilot, which beeped to remind him he had a test in a half hour -- a test he hadn't really studied for.
After snagging a gordita from Taco Bell in the Cougareat, Ryan scanned the dining tables to see if he knew anybody with an open chair at their table.
Then he saw her.
And he kept looking.
He couldn't stop.
She was perfect--the most perfect girl he had ever seen. I have to meet her, Ryan thought, because ...
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Educational technology in conference
O.K., so it's a little cliched by now. Every professor at BYU asks you to watch conference and look for evidence of ____________ (whatever your class topic is about). For me, my professor wants me to watch conference and look for evidence of evaluation.
Well, I know it's cliche but I'm going to ask you to do the same thing with our class. What things did you notice that might apply to technology in education? I just watched Elder Miller talk about Neal A. Maxwell's counsel about how to bring peace. Do you remember how he had images and video clips of Elder Maxwell play while he was talking? Do you also remember how he showed a clip of Elder Marion Romney when he read a quote from Elder Romney? I don't know about you, but didn't that help his message stick in your memory a little better? Didn't it make it more enjoyable to listen to him and easier to be engaged in what he was teaching? I also was thinking it would be even better if when the leaders of the Church quoted a former prophet, if they actually played the audio clip of that leader talking. That way we could have heard Elder Romney's actual voice. I know there are time constraints, but it's just a thought.
In what other ways does the Church use educational technologies to help teach the gospel message (there are many, so you should be able to think of several). I look forward to hearing your ideas!
Well, I know it's cliche but I'm going to ask you to do the same thing with our class. What things did you notice that might apply to technology in education? I just watched Elder Miller talk about Neal A. Maxwell's counsel about how to bring peace. Do you remember how he had images and video clips of Elder Maxwell play while he was talking? Do you also remember how he showed a clip of Elder Marion Romney when he read a quote from Elder Romney? I don't know about you, but didn't that help his message stick in your memory a little better? Didn't it make it more enjoyable to listen to him and easier to be engaged in what he was teaching? I also was thinking it would be even better if when the leaders of the Church quoted a former prophet, if they actually played the audio clip of that leader talking. That way we could have heard Elder Romney's actual voice. I know there are time constraints, but it's just a thought.
In what other ways does the Church use educational technologies to help teach the gospel message (there are many, so you should be able to think of several). I look forward to hearing your ideas!
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Home Economics resources
Shauna Jackson, another IPT TA, is going to start doing searches for useful stuff for teachers of different disciplines. She'll do a different discipline each week. I'll link to her posts whenever she does this, so you can benefit from her research. This week, she focused on home economics and found the following:
Family and Consumer Science Wiki
A website full of useful links
From Cornell University, a website about the history of Home Economics
Family and Consumer Science Wiki
A website full of useful links
From Cornell University, a website about the history of Home Economics
Transparent technologies
There's one topic I wanted to bring up sometime this semester. It's the idea of "transparent technologies." To illustrate, I'll quote a comment to one of my posts about Jared's question of "whether technology is helping or hurting" (which, by the way, is a topic I think we could all think a little more on. If you need to do some posting for participation points, you might consider reflecting on this topic).
Anyway, a student responded with a great comment, and part of her comment was that:
Did you catch the "transparent technology?" She said computers keep us from socializing face to face, and then she gives the example of emailing instead of calling someone on the phone. But isn't using a phone a technology? Talking on the phone isn't socializing face to face, but we think it is. We all feel this way, I'm sure, to some degree. Why is this so? Why is email, blogs, or discussion boards a "new," "radical," and "unnatural" way of talking to each other when phones aren't? Either way, we're not actually face to face.
The point I'm making is that after a technology has been around long enough that we have all adopted it, it becomes transparent. That means we don't even notice it's there. Many people don't even consider audiotapes or videotapes a technology anymore, and teachers don't have any hesitation using these technologies, but they won't touch computers (sometimes). But someday, the new technologies of today -- like wikis, for example -- will become transparent too.
As technologies get more and more transparent, it's easier to use them in the classroom because you don't have to teach the students how to use them. For example, all students know how to take a picture, so using cameras would be an easy technology to use. While I'm a huge fan of new and exciting technologies, we shouldn't ignore the transparent technologies that might be easier to use and could still be effective.
That said, I've told some of you that I want your wikis to be about "new" technologies. Transparent technologies are great, but we already know all about them. In your group projects the rest of this semester, focus on learning new technologies that may become transparent to the younger generation very quickly, maybe even by the time you graduate and start teaching ...
Anyway, a student responded with a great comment, and part of her comment was that:
"I totally agree with Jared that blogging and communication through computers escalates the amount of time spent away from others in a conference or socializing setting. I find myself falling into this trap. It is easier for me to write an email to my friends than to call them on the phone"
Did you catch the "transparent technology?" She said computers keep us from socializing face to face, and then she gives the example of emailing instead of calling someone on the phone. But isn't using a phone a technology? Talking on the phone isn't socializing face to face, but we think it is. We all feel this way, I'm sure, to some degree. Why is this so? Why is email, blogs, or discussion boards a "new," "radical," and "unnatural" way of talking to each other when phones aren't? Either way, we're not actually face to face.
The point I'm making is that after a technology has been around long enough that we have all adopted it, it becomes transparent. That means we don't even notice it's there. Many people don't even consider audiotapes or videotapes a technology anymore, and teachers don't have any hesitation using these technologies, but they won't touch computers (sometimes). But someday, the new technologies of today -- like wikis, for example -- will become transparent too.
As technologies get more and more transparent, it's easier to use them in the classroom because you don't have to teach the students how to use them. For example, all students know how to take a picture, so using cameras would be an easy technology to use. While I'm a huge fan of new and exciting technologies, we shouldn't ignore the transparent technologies that might be easier to use and could still be effective.
That said, I've told some of you that I want your wikis to be about "new" technologies. Transparent technologies are great, but we already know all about them. In your group projects the rest of this semester, focus on learning new technologies that may become transparent to the younger generation very quickly, maybe even by the time you graduate and start teaching ...
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Images in your wiki
One student asked me how to post images in a wiki. I thought others might have the same question, so I'll tell y'all. You just right click (pc) or control+click (apple) on a picture and copy the picture's URL. Then you paste the URL into the wiki. So you're really not putting the picture in the wiki, you're putting the picture's web address in the wiki, and the wiki is smart enough to do the rest. A very few pictures have not showed up. If this happens to you, just pick a different picture.
You'll notice on the wiki assignment page, that you need to have an image on each page. I was really hoping everyone would do a screenshot of the technology they are talking about, especially if you're doing a description page. Seeing just explains things better than telling. However, I forgot that you would need to somehow get the screenshot on the internet so you could then put it in the wiki! You could do this, of course, by putting your screenshot on your BYU U-drive space (the part of your U-drive reserved for website stuff), and then it would be on the internet and you could link to it in your wiki.
But I haven't expected you to use your U-drives or anything like that. So disregard my strong counsel to use screenshots and just use any images you can get off the internet that will help us see what the technology is that you are describing.
However, if some of you WANT to put your pictures on the U-drive and then put them in a wiki, it'd be cool. Once you knew how to put picture on your U-drive you'd be able to put pictures in your blog too. Here's a tutorial to help you do it (it's not hard) and the lab assistants in the McKay building are very good and could probably help you with this.
You'll notice on the wiki assignment page, that you need to have an image on each page. I was really hoping everyone would do a screenshot of the technology they are talking about, especially if you're doing a description page. Seeing just explains things better than telling. However, I forgot that you would need to somehow get the screenshot on the internet so you could then put it in the wiki! You could do this, of course, by putting your screenshot on your BYU U-drive space (the part of your U-drive reserved for website stuff), and then it would be on the internet and you could link to it in your wiki.
But I haven't expected you to use your U-drives or anything like that. So disregard my strong counsel to use screenshots and just use any images you can get off the internet that will help us see what the technology is that you are describing.
However, if some of you WANT to put your pictures on the U-drive and then put them in a wiki, it'd be cool. Once you knew how to put picture on your U-drive you'd be able to put pictures in your blog too. Here's a tutorial to help you do it (it's not hard) and the lab assistants in the McKay building are very good and could probably help you with this.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
The NEW Internet
Well, we all know how cool the Internet is and you all just found some great resources to help your teaching.
But what if a new Internet came out that was even better? So much better, in fact, that it's creators say it will revolutionize the way we do everything --just like the original internet did?
Well, it's happening. It's called Internet2, or the Semantic Web. I really don't understand it completely myself, but it uses a new language called XML instead of HTML, and the basic idea is this: Right now computers can search through webpages and find words, but they don't know what they mean. For example, If you search for Civil War, Google will find webpages that say Civil War alot. But what if the computer knew what you meant by Civil War, knew what kinds of pages you wanted, and what other words are related to Civil War? What if the computer knew what words meant and how they relate to other ideas? "Semantics" basically means "the meaning of words and symbols."
Anyway, like I said, I don't understand how they're going to make it work exactly, but I know that they are really excited about it. If you want to learn more about this, read this interview with Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the Internet. You can also look up Tim Berners-Lee and the Semantic Web in Wikipedia.
If you can catch the vision of what Berners-Lee is trying to do, what kinds of opportunities could this present in education? How would this impact research and learning and access to information?
But what if a new Internet came out that was even better? So much better, in fact, that it's creators say it will revolutionize the way we do everything --just like the original internet did?
Well, it's happening. It's called Internet2, or the Semantic Web. I really don't understand it completely myself, but it uses a new language called XML instead of HTML, and the basic idea is this: Right now computers can search through webpages and find words, but they don't know what they mean. For example, If you search for Civil War, Google will find webpages that say Civil War alot. But what if the computer knew what you meant by Civil War, knew what kinds of pages you wanted, and what other words are related to Civil War? What if the computer knew what words meant and how they relate to other ideas? "Semantics" basically means "the meaning of words and symbols."
Anyway, like I said, I don't understand how they're going to make it work exactly, but I know that they are really excited about it. If you want to learn more about this, read this interview with Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the Internet. You can also look up Tim Berners-Lee and the Semantic Web in Wikipedia.
If you can catch the vision of what Berners-Lee is trying to do, what kinds of opportunities could this present in education? How would this impact research and learning and access to information?
More on laptops in schools
Well, you all probably think I am pushing for every kid to have a laptop. I'm not. In fact, I don't believe that giving every student a laptop is necessarily a good thing nor would it automatically improve learning. But laptops in schools is a hot issue right now, and one you will probably encounter sometime as teachers. I thought you might want to read this article from e-School News on the subject about a school doing away with paper textbooks. They claim that over time it will actually be cheaper to give out laptops:
Like Rich Culatta said recently, my thoughts are, why all the fuss about laptops? There are lots of other technologies that can be very powerful. In fact, many of you are learning about them as you write your wiki pages.
What do you guys think? What technology do you think could have the greatest, most general across all subjects, impact on a school? If your principal asked you what technology he should purchase for everyone to use, what would you say?
BTW- you might consider signing up for e-School News because it's free!
"Instead of spending hundreds of dollars per student on individual textbooks, which have become increasingly difficult to update given the ever-changing world of state standards, district administrators opted to put the money toward laptops so the curriculum could be modernized digitally alongside evolving requirements, at little or no additional cost.
Lee said the technology should help provide a more relevant curriculum while preparing students for the central role technology likely will play in their lives after graduation."
Like Rich Culatta said recently, my thoughts are, why all the fuss about laptops? There are lots of other technologies that can be very powerful. In fact, many of you are learning about them as you write your wiki pages.
What do you guys think? What technology do you think could have the greatest, most general across all subjects, impact on a school? If your principal asked you what technology he should purchase for everyone to use, what would you say?
BTW- you might consider signing up for e-School News because it's free!
Friday, September 24, 2004
A Smurfin' bad ending on the blue turf
OHHHH BUMMER! I just listened to the end of the BSU/BYU game. Can you believe it? Matt Payne, the epitome of dependability, our team's MVP. Who would've thought. I hope he's not too hard on himself, because he's still the best kicker in the nation, in my opinion.
Well, after the Notre Dame game, I asked whether you thought the game was a positive or a negative. I'm going to do the same for this game. What do you think, is it going to be a good thing or bad thing for BYU?
The good:
- Best game BYU played all year
- No turnovers, low penalties, few mistakes
- BYU has an offense again!
- Watkins and Collie, you can't guard both and they're both runnin' down the sidelines!
- Beck plays two full games and it finally looks like we have a BYU quarterback again. Is this a return of the legendary Y signal callers?
- The defense snuffed one of the nation's elite offenses
The bad:
- A big blow to Matt Payne's confidence?
- A loss is a loss - we're now 1-3 and facing a big challenge if we want to go to a bowl game
- Is this a big blow to team morale?
It seemed like the game had so many positives. But I know that when I play a game of some sort, and only lose by a point or two, it hurts WAY worse than a blowout because you get so emotionally tied to the game that when it doesn't pan out, it really kills you. Do you think this game will boost Cougar morale or destroy them just before we start conference?
What was your take on the game, Cougar faithful?
Well, after the Notre Dame game, I asked whether you thought the game was a positive or a negative. I'm going to do the same for this game. What do you think, is it going to be a good thing or bad thing for BYU?
The good:
- Best game BYU played all year
- No turnovers, low penalties, few mistakes
- BYU has an offense again!
- Watkins and Collie, you can't guard both and they're both runnin' down the sidelines!
- Beck plays two full games and it finally looks like we have a BYU quarterback again. Is this a return of the legendary Y signal callers?
- The defense snuffed one of the nation's elite offenses
The bad:
- A big blow to Matt Payne's confidence?
- A loss is a loss - we're now 1-3 and facing a big challenge if we want to go to a bowl game
- Is this a big blow to team morale?
It seemed like the game had so many positives. But I know that when I play a game of some sort, and only lose by a point or two, it hurts WAY worse than a blowout because you get so emotionally tied to the game that when it doesn't pan out, it really kills you. Do you think this game will boost Cougar morale or destroy them just before we start conference?
What was your take on the game, Cougar faithful?
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