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:

"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!)

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:

"..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:

"..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 ...

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!

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

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:

"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 ...

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.

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?

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:

"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!

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?

Back to the well ... (laptops on campus debate)

Well, one of our best blogging discussions this semester was about whether a school should/could require students to have a technology device, like a laptop. Rich Culatta on his blog made the point that there are many other mobile devices besides laptops. For example, PDAs. Many people already have them, and it wouldn't be too expensive for a school to buy a few more to check out to students. I've often wondered why PDAs aren't used a little more in schools. With all the money we fork out for computers, why not use some of that money to buy 20 PDAs? If you go to Palm's website, you'll find a wealth of ideas about how to use PDAs in education. I also saw a presentation at the SITE conference last year where they sent students on a virtual excavacation with PDAs. The PDAs acted as a map to tell students where to go, and then they collected data and entered the data in the PDAs and then made decisions about the data.

Anyway, I digress. Rich says he believes the real issue shouldn't be whether we should require a certain technology, but whether or not a certain technology would improve education. If it does, we should use it. In his words:

"This is another issue that may seem like a minor wording change, but I think it's an important paradigm shift. It's also a perfect example of the backwards thinking that we do so often in educational settings. Find the best way to teach [period]. If that requires mobile devices, then students will get them. If it requires a mechanical pencil, they will get them. If it requires a paintbrush, they will get them. To be cliché, cure the problem, don't just try to treat the solution. If the cure means that students will be walking around with Blackberry devices (which I think it may) then so be it."

I agree with Rich that we often "look beyond the mark" and don't realize what we're really all about as teachers: finding the best way to teach. But I think we also need to be sensitive to the students' situations. I may feel that a certain technology improves learning, but if it's too expensive for some of my students, then I disadvantage the poorer students. So I think it's a balance. The solution, I think, is an obvious one but one that is often overlooked: use the technology that students already have! For example, most students use instant messenger--in fact most of you said on the pre-class survey that you do. So why don't we find ways to use instant messenging in education? The students already have the technology, so let's use it. Another example is cell phones. Everybody has them! So why don't we find a way to use them for an educational purpose?

Some other examples of technologies that students probably already have or know how to use:
blogs (outside of Utah, blogs are popular, believe it or not)
digital cameras,
Word (there are tons of things you can do with Word besides just type a letter)

Examples of technologies that students may not know about, but are free so they could all have them if we wanted them to:
Drawing programs
Imovie
Online simulations and virtual tours
Transana, Anvil, and Annotape are free video-analysis programs

Okay, I can't think of any others because Matt Payne just missed the final kick and I'm now in mourning! :-(. So help me out! What technologies are already in the hands of students (or could be) that we could take advantage of?

Blogs in social studies

Okay, so I'm a loser without cable, so I'm listening to this very exciting BYU football game and blogging on my computer.

My colleague in my department and another IPT 286 instructor, Rich Culatta, blogged today about how he is reading the newspapers less and is instead getting his news from blogs and wikis. While he admits that these sources are not necessarily always accurate, they do have the benefit of being to the point and directly from the source. For example, if you want to know about the situation in Iraq, would you rather read a newspaper reporter's spin on it, or read about it from an Iraqi who is blogging about what is happening in his backyard?

This makes me think that blogging could be a powerful tool in a social studies or foreign culture class. Instead of just reading about Spain, or Palestine, why not have your students find kids their age in those countries, and then read their blogs? Learn about the people FROM the people, not from a third-party source.

Anyway, in case you wanted to check them out, Rich posted a few blogs from Iraq. I want to look them up when I get a chance.

* Iraqi Blogs (BBC)
* US Soldier Blogs (CNN)
* Convention Blogs (CNN)

Putting it all together!

Well, now you all know how to blog, and you've all learned a little bit about searching for effective digital resources.

Now let's see you put them together!

Up until this point, the majority of the blogging in this class has been reflective in nature--students are talking about things I mention on my blog or in class. That's excellent, and that's one of the things we hoped you would do on your blog. However, blogging can be really powerful when you start to synthesize things you learn on the internet, push and stretch your own ideas, and create new theories. The blogging model goes something like this:

1. Find good ideas and sources on the internet
2. Synthesize what you are learning by referring to multiple internet sources
3. Create your own knowledge by rephrasing what it is you have learned
4. Post your new knowledge on your blog.
5. Then others start the process over again by reading what you wrote, synthesizing it, creating their own new knowledge, and posting it on their blog. And the conversation rolls on and on and on.

I challenge you to do this! Find ideas related to your teaching emphasis (it it's about using technology in your teaching emphasis, even better), think about these ideas, and post them so your blogging buddies can read and learn too. If you find a source that's especially good, put it on your blogroll (now that you know how to do it).

USB drives -- the next fashion statement

Okay, this has nothing to do with class, except that you were all required to purchase USB drives. I had to laugh when I read this on Slashdot (a flash or thumb drive is the same as a USB drive):

"In some cases, flash drives have suddenly become so commonplace that, as with cellphones, their owners are adding fashion touches [DNA must be on file to read] to lend them a personal identity." Apparently, the most important thing about thumb drives is not that they are cheap, fast, durable, easy to use or hold a lot of data, but that wearing one around your neck identifies you as one of the techno-congniscenti, especially if you personalize it with stickers."

So there you go! USB drives are chic now. Who would ever have thought that wearing your homework around your neck could be in style?

Do something fun and new for your wiki pages!

Over the next two weeks you are going to have an opportunity as groups to learn about two technologies so you can write wiki pages about them. Part of the reason why we created this assignment was so you could see the breadth of technologies available for your specific discipline after it was all done, and so you could have the opportunity to learn a new technology.

I've seen some groups plan to do wiki pages on the Internet, movies, even magnets. Yes, these are all technologies -- but everybody already knows about them! The wiki is meant to be a collection of descriptions about technologies that aren't as well known ... so that we can teach other and give each other new ideas.

I STRONGLY suggest that when you're deciding what wiki pages to do as a group, that you don't do something easy or lame like the Internet. Talk as a group about what technologies are used in your field, technologies that maybe you don't know very well but would like to. Then you can study these technologies as you write wiki pages about them. If you have no clue what technologies might be good for your field of study, then ask your professors, practicing teachers, etc. As a last resort, you can brainstorm with me. I can maybe offer some ideas, but I'm not going to know your specific field of study as well as your professors would.

Have fun! And be bold and branch out--let's explore some technologies that may be unfamiliar!

Is blogging helping or hurting?

Jared brings up a good question on his blog about computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). He specifically is talking about CSCL, but others have made the same argument about other forms of CSCL, such as discussion boards, instant messenging, even email. He said:

"Now don't get me wrong. I have really enjoyed my blogging experience. But I can't help but question, in a classroom setting, does blogging unify the class, or separate it? Let me qualify that question. We are in an age where communication is easier than it has ever been. We can follow the news in myriad mediums. We can send and recieve emails rather than wait for days or months to receive snail mail. But it seems to me that technology leads to a downgrade in communication rather than an upgrade. We spend time every week sitting at a computer communicating in writing precisely so we don't have to sit down in person with people who walk around all day on our same campus! We say, "isn't this convenient that I can get all the benefits of talking to Danielle without ever really having to talk to Danielle?" ... It seems that technology is doing more to separate us from the world and from eachother than it is doing to unite us."

I responded to Jared by saying:

"Really good comment, Jared. This debate is hot in educational technology research right now. Some people argue that technology increases collaboration and interaction, some argue it doesn't. I think a key is, does the computer-supported collaboration replace face-to-face interaction? If so, then it might not be a good choice. However, does it add interaction that wouldn't be there otherwise? For example, if the choice was no interaction because we don't have time (or whatever our excuse is), or interaction through the Internet, which is better?

Another example, I'm interacting with teachers from Australia and England right now on a project. They met me through my blog, and we are collaborating by working together on a wiki, discussion board, and through email to accomplish a project. I'd never talk to these people for real, so being able to communicate through the Internet is helpful. But I agree that emailing my wife or close friends here at BYU is less effective than actually talking to them."

I'd like to hear from some of the rest of you about this. People make a similar argument about what technology may or may not be doing to our writing. Some people say it makes us worse writers because we get lazy and use spell checker instead of really learning to spell, and we use weird internet lingo like "R U going 2 go?". Others argue that technology is helping us become better writers, or at least more frequent writers, because EVERYBODY seems to be emailing, instant messenging or blogging these days, whereas they used to not do any writing at all unless for school.

So back to the original point Jared brought up: Is technology helping or hindering?

Reminder on the blogrolls assignment

Memory wrote to me this about the blogrolls assignment:

"For some reason the Blogrolls (and a few of the other links) link on the assignment page isn't working. I tried to check the rubric to make sure I had completed all of the requirements for the assignment, but I couldn't get to it! (It was working in class, so I'm not sure what has changed.)"

I've fixed that now, so it should work--thanks Memory!

By the way, I checked the assignment and remembered that part of the assignment is to also put your blogging buddies' blog URLs on your blogroll. This should be a snap, because once you've figured out how to put a link in a blogroll, it's not hard to just put a few more. Just copy the code, and change the URL. Anyway, we did this so that if me or Alyssa ever go to your blog, we'll be able to easily know who else is in your blogging group and we could go to their blogs easily because they will be linked to yours.

SO DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR BLOGGING BUDDIES TO YOUR BLOGROLL!

In case you need it, here's the link to the blogroll tutorial again.

Answering some questions

I met with a few students yesterday, and thought I might answer a few questions that they had here on my blog in case anyone else had the same question.

Remember that each group does two wiki pages -- and ALL members of the group work on each page. You only have to outline what you want to do this week. You actually make the wiki pages next week. For these page, you can do 2 description pages (describing a technology, like Inspiration) or two integration pages (describing how to use Inspiration in a class), or one of each.

Some students worried that all the pages were taken up for what they wanted to do. To clarify, only one group can do a description page on a technology. For example, if someone else is explaining Excel, what it is, and so forth--why would you want to do that? There's only so much you can say. However, there are hundreds of different ways to apply Excel to school situations. So there could be hundreds of Excel Integration pages. If someone is already doing an Excel integration page, and you want to, just make a new link to a new page and do it!

Remember that if you don't understand wikis (for example, you don't know what I was talking about when I said, "make a new page"), then go to the wiki sandbox and learn! Here's the link to the sandbox: http://ipt.byu.edu/~wiki/28x/Main/WikiSandbox

Go there and at the bottom of the screen are some brief directions on how to write and create in wiki. I'll give only one tip here. If, when you're typing, you mash two words together, like this: "RickWest," it will create a new page and link to that page. It's that easy!

Ask and ye shall receive ...

Remember how a week ago the question was brought up in class why when you read something in Bloglines, it disappears when you go back there? I explained that this is a good feature to keep only new, unread stuff in your aggregator so you don't fill it up with a bunch of old stuff. But I agree there are times when you want to save something for later, and not have it immediately disappear when you log out.

Now you can do something about it.

Bloglines just introduced a new feature tonight that you should be able to read about the next time you log into Bloglines. To quote them:

"When reading your feeds, at the bottom of each entry is a checkbox labeled Keep New. Check it and that entry is marked unread, and will stay that way until you uncheck the box. This is useful for entries that you decide you don't have time to read right now, but that you don't want to save in your Clippings folder. You can also use the mark all new link that appears at the top of each feed in the right pane when reading subscriptions to reset all the currently displayed items to unread."

So if you check this box, it will not erase a post you want to go back and reread later. Too cool! That's what I love about Bloglines. There are many different brands of aggregators out there, but Bloglines is continually trying to fix things to make their customers happy.

Your homework groups

One of the crazy curveballs I threw at you this week (once again, apologies for introducing so many new things this week) were new groups. Let me explain:

- You have blogging groups to share ideas. You did one homework assignment in blogging groups, this was the Intro to Tech Integration assignment. You will do no more homework assignments in your blogging groups. You should still read each other's blogs and comment to each other, but you will not be doing homework together.

- You have homework groups. Many of the assignments in this class are group-based projects. We do this because we know many of the assignments can be complicated, and the groups are there to share the workload and help each other out so that you are not so overwhelmed. We also agree with Vygotsky, Leve, Wenger, Engestrom, and other learning theorists who believe you learn more effectively in social situations. We have learned by experience that groups of 2-4 work best. It is important to work well in your group and to communicate often because you will do several assignments together.

Here are your homework groups for the rest of the semester. I really hate my naming scheme, and I'm sure you do to. If you want to have a unique name for your group, rather than "Science 2.1" then tell me what you want to call yourselves. I've had some fun groups in my classes before, from the Spongebobs to the Gryffindors.

Homework Groups

Dance
Megan A./Nicole K./Elaine T.
Science 2.1
Memorie D./Sarah E./Rosie
Science 2.2
Carla Goodman/Benjamin Sheldon
Science 3
Jill S./Matthew Z./J'Nette N./Rachel F.
English 4.1
Jonathan B./Hayley B./Elisa Findlay
English 4.2
Joseph G./Camille M./Natalie C.
English 5.1
Tiffany M./Thomas Jared R./Danielle S.
English 5.2
Bonnie S./Caroline U./Fran Masino
History/Social Sciences/Geography (HSG) 6.1
Molly B./Jeremy J./Lindsay B.
HSG 6.2
Amy E./Savanna W./Emily D.
Languages
Roxana L./Mary M./Alise P./Elaine D.
Health/Home Ec/Family and Consumer Sciences (HHF) 8.1
Lindsay B./Jamie C./Rachelle D./Jessica M
HHF 8.2
Sarah B./Erin C./Elisa F.

This week's assignments

Whew! Today was definitely a cognitive overload day. I could tell it on your faces, and I'll definitely be adjusting the schedule for the future. Sorry about that everyone--what was I thinking introducing html AND wikis in the same week?

The consolation to you should be that while the cognitive load is very heavy this week (i.e. there is a big learning curve this week for what we're doing), the actual workload is light. The assignments really are easy. So spend your homework time trying to figure out how to work a Wiki and how to do your blogrolls (if you haven't).

To summarize, there are two things due this week. I won't describe the assignments in detail because we've described them in detail on the assignment pages. If you have questions, however, write them as comments here and I will answer them within 24 hours.

Due this week:
1) Blogrolls — Post your digital resources to your blogrolls so your blogging buddies can see the sources you've found. The purpose of this assignment is also to get your feet briefly wet in HTML: what it looks like and how to write in this language. You should have done most of this in class.

2) Outline your wiki pages — Learn how to wiki, what the wiki language is (which is different from html), and decide as a group what wiki pages you will do. This is described, again, in much more detail on the assignment page. The important thing that I think lacked in many groups today is you didn't coordinate when you would meet, or call, or email, or whatever to set this up. You have to somehow communicate as a group and decide what wiki pages you want to do, and outline them very briefly on our class wiki website.

BTW- Many of you, it seemed, did not even look at the assignment page for the intro to technology integration assignment. How come? We basically gave you the specifics on how to do the assignment and get your points. We do that each week, so I encourage you to follow the rubric and you will probably have fewer questions and more points.

Double BTW — I have office hours but nobody ever comes! I can visit with students Mondays from noon to 2 p.m. or Wednesdays from noon to 2 p.m. All I ask is that you email me beforehand and then I'll meet you in the computer lab. If those times don't work, suggest another day and I'll meet you then, if I can. I want to help you this week because I know there was a lot of confusion, so just email me or post a question on my blog and I'll help you, if I can.

What good technology integration is

Thank you all for your insightful ideas about what constitutes good technology integration that you posted last week. We are grading the intro to technology integration assignment still, but here is my list of Principles for Good Technology Integration, gleaned from all of your postings (yes, I read everybody's "rules"). This might be worth clipping and saving and then pulling out to remind yourself every summer before you charge into a new school year.

I've linked to each blog that provided the idea. If none of your ideas are listed here, don't be disappointed. Many people had the same good idea, but I only linked to one student, just because it was easier.

Principles for Good Technology Integration

1. Always keep trying new things, do not remain stagnant on your own techniques. Keep integrating new tools every year.
2. Integration should help students prepare for the workforce by educating them in adapting to new technologies
3. Technology integration should enhance cognitive learning through added interaction among students and applying knowledge to create something using technology
4. Technology should help create higher thinking skills and critical analysis
5. Students should be the main users of the technology (as opposed to the teacher); teachers should be available to give examples and guide the students, but students will learn (the technology and the subject) best if they are the primary users of the technology.
6. Teachers should understand the subject-matter to be taught, as well as the technology/programs being used before they attempt teaching
7. Be creative- enough powerpoints, already!
8. I think all of us agree it is most important that the technology that we use has to increase the child's learning. It can't be a hinderance to the learning process.
9. Technology should understand that some students won't respond to technology and computers and should provide a variety of learning activities at all times.
10. Assess students’ acheivments and what they are learning through a variety of technology techniques.
11. A tool is only as good as the person behind it - technology should be used to help the students think, not to avoid thinking
12. Technology should be interactive: students should be able to respond to the material.
13. Just because a technological tool is there, doesn't necessarily mean that it adds to the educational experience
14. As an educator, take advantage of every opportunity to learn more; study different techologies, improve your own skills, and constantly work to get better
15. Using tehnology should not replace the need for improvement or interaction from the actual teacher
16. Technology should help students see and experience the real world that a traditional classroom setting cannot provide by helping students construct knowledge instead of just reproducing it
17. Activities involving technology should build on what the students already know so that they can see its relevance and application, but it should also offer something they wouldn't get from regular classroom activities in order to expand their learning experience

About the digital resources assignment

At least one student wondered whether you were supposed to turn in your homework this week as a posting on your blog. You know, that probably would have been a good idea ... if I had thought of it! In past semesters we have always had students turn the assignment into Blackboard, and I guess I just didn't think about changing that. Maybe next time I will.

But for THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT, turn it into blackboard, just so that everyone does the same thing and we're uniform. Here's how:

Go to the assignment page if you haven't yet.

Download the template.

When you've filled out the template, post it in Blackboard under the "digital resources" assignment. It may be near the bottom until I get a chance to move it to the top.

Any questions? Post them as comments to this post.

How technology can help the disabled

We spend most of the time in class talking about how technology can help regular learners, but there will probably come a time when you will have a disabled student of some sort in your class, whether that disability is physical or even a learning disability. There are many kinds of technology that assist the disabled to do many of the things we take for granted. These are often called "assistive technologies." I heard about one such technology today. It's called a Nouse, and it's like a computer mouse but is steered by your nose and eyelids. This is of course very useful for people who can't use their hands. There are other technologies too, and I even heard about an email program for special needs students, who normally can't type or sometimes read. In this program, they select pictures--kind of like emoticons -- to express what they are feeling at the moment, and they push a button to email these pictures to another person. I had another student last semester who created a simple learning game using PowerPoint that teaches letters to severely mentally handicapped students.

About students with learning disabilities. I have a hunch, but I'd need to do some research to see if this has been tested, that students with ADD or ADHD difficulties might do better with technology assignments than regular assignments. I have had some personal difficulties with my attention span and I've found that having a laptop with me in class gives me something to do with my hands ... and I actually learn a lot more from my professors. I used to sleep in almost all of my classes, and teachers probably thought I was being disrespectful, but I couldn't help it. Now I work on my laptop, and it helps me stay awake and listen better.

I won't talk much about assistive technology in this class because we're more focused on other things. But you should be aware of the possibilities and if you ever have a student with special needs, there might be a way some kind of technology could help you teach that student.

Is student agency a good thing?

Hmmm, there's been some good posts today. I'll pick out one that some of you may be interested in. Rosie refers to a report by KSL that there is a new charter school in Salt Lake that gives students complete freedom and agency to choose their educational experience. They decide what subjects to study, and how to study them.

Rosie was unsure of what to think about this and said:

"I have mixed feelings. I think that it is good to give students the opprotunity to send time on things that they enjoy and to allow them to learn the things that interest them. However, its kind of scary too. No structure at all could lead to a lack of learning."

I also have mixed feelings, however I think there should be more freedom than there is now in public education. Rosie critiques this new charter school by saying that "These student may end up not learning anything because they don't feel like it." But to be honest, these students won't learn much in traditional schools either if they don't feel like it. I guess that's one plus for more student agency and choice: people tend to learn when they are motivated, and they are motivated when they are learning things that are important to them. So why not give students some more freedom? Let them have a little more leeway to choose what they want to learn, and they might be more self-motivated and be better students.

Now, after saying that, I do agree with Rosie that some structure is good, and we do have to encourage students to get a well-rounded education, or else they'll learn a lot of one thing and not much of anything else. But perhaps a little more choice and agency than is currently allowed in schools would be a good thing?

Now to tie this to technology. I believe technology can give students that freedom to explore, experiment, participate, and choose topics of study. What do you think? How could technology give students some of that freedom?

An option for digital resources assignment

BTW- Here's an option for the digital resources assignment, even though it doesn't talk about it on the assignment page: You can count an educational weblog or an rss/atom feed as one of your digital resources. Why not? Some of my best digital resources that I use weekly, even daily, as a teacher are weblogs from really great sources that have really good ideas.

Remember that you'll have to establish the credibility of the blog. Normally website credibility is established when you look for things like government sites, non-profit organization sites, sites by trusted authorities, etc. Weblogs are different because most weblogs are run by normal people. So I'm thinking you could probably justify a blog as a good digital resource if you can explain to me why:
1) It is useful
2) you trust the ideas from this person
3) you would read it often enough to gain value from it
4) you would use the source as a teacher

You might also look for whether the person quotes other sources or is quoted himself, and what kinds of conversation does he/she have on the blog? A blog that is widely read by many people and has many people commenting on it is probably a good blog .

I know what you're thinking, and no, the Dilbert feed I showed you does not count as an educational resource! :-)

Have fun exploring! There are many good thinkers out there and many of them have weblogs!

Question: How do I add links to posts?

Here's a question emailed to me that I thought others might have too:

"I have not figured out how to make links to stuff yet."

Here's my answer:
"The biggest key to being able to put links into a post is to use MOZILLA as your browser (it is on all of the computers in the TLSC computer lab and can be downloaded for free for your home computer at mozilla.org). When you are using Mozilla instead of Explorer, there are some cool buttons in blogger that help you edit your post, for example, you can change colors, add links, bold or italicize words, and do bulleted lists, etc. For some weird reason, those options are not in Explorer as far as we can tell.

Besides, Mozilla is a safer, more secure browser anyway and you'll get less spyware and adware with Mozilla."

Just to show you want you can do if you blog in Mozilla, here's some examples (you won't see these in your Bloglines aggregator. You'll have to actually go to my blog to see them):
You can bold, italicize, put in links, and change text color.

Center text

• bullet text

1. number text

or indent quotes

You can also add pictures, but you need to do a few extra steps that I won't explain here. If you want to learn how to add pictures to your posts, Blogger has some help pages, or you can meet with me sometime and I'll show you how!

Intro Survey is graded

I will try to always post when I am done grading an assignment so you can check your grades. I just graded the intro survey assignment. If you did it, you got full credit. And thank you to most of you for being willing to let us use your data in the research study! Four students elected not to let us use this data, which is fine, but they then forgot to put their names on the survey. Without their names, we can't give them credit for doing it (the names wouldn't be used in our research anyway--they are strictly for us to give you points for doing the survey). Anyway, if any of those students are in my class, or if anybody else did the survey and did not get credit, email me.

You can check your grades by going to Blackboard.

One last note: Emily Day, are you signed up for our class? I thought you were, but you didn't show up in my Blackboard gradebook so I couldn't give you credit.

Interesting posts for Sept. 14

Hey gang, here's some of the interesting posts I read this last week. These are not necessarily the best posts, because it's just my opinion of what jumped out to me. But I thought I'd share the ones that you might not have read that I have enjoyed.

Carla's blog, Surprise!, is a great place to have a good discussion. She started a discussion on stem cell research and then this week posted this:

"Houston has purposed (and really wants to) build a school just for immigrants. They have a large group of students whose needs are not being met by the traditional school system, and so they want to make a school with the flexibility and focus that immigrant students need. More info on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/09/08/immigrant.school.ap/index.html

What do you think? Will this meet the need or will it further isolate ethnicities?"

Megan probably has the same thought many of you do:

"Well, that is my post for today. No one has come and read any of my posts so far so it kind of feels like I am just talking to myself. I hope that someone eventually checks this out! Until next time...."

I commented that at least I am reading her blog (and enjoying it too--she's putting some personality into it, which is nice). Blogging brings up an interesting point about audience. It's out there on the Internet, and you never know who might be reading you--even if they never comment on your blog. I posted a comment similar to Megan's on my other blog, wondering if anybody was reading my blog, and a lady from Melbourne Australia said she was reading it -- and enjoyed it! Who else could be reading, and we don't know? I posted my thoughts on my other blog about how just the potential of having an audience, even if we don't know how big that audience may be, forces me to be more thoughtful and careful about what I say.

At least for this class, hopefully your blogging buddies will be reading. After that, who knows?

"Luma" (still my favorite screen name :-) had a thoughtful response to the Mindtools article by David Jonassen that we all scanned for last week's assignment. In the article, Jonassen says that:

"When learners use computers as partners, they off-load some of the unproductive memorizing tasks to the computer, allowing the learner to think more productively."

Luma disagreed with his evaluation of memorizing as "unproductive." Her reasoning is that

"Although memorizing often seems like busywork, it is very necessary in education. There is no way to get along without at least a few rudimentary memorization skills. The very ability to read comes from memorizing letters, combinations, and sounds. How much longer and more difficult will homework assignments take if students are not required to memorize? Students would be constantly looking up information that should be found in the cannon of knowledge of an educated person."

I thought she had a great point, and there is power in being able to quote or recall information from memory, but I responded with the reasoning from the other side of the fence:

"This is actually heavily debated in education right now. Do we teach students to "know" things by having them memorize procedures and facts, or do we help them learn how to "do" things with knowledge that is stored in computers or databases? For example, should students have to memorize calculus equations, or simply know what the theories are and how to apply the correct equation to the correct situation?"

I'd like us as a class to discuss this further. And don't be afraid to share your opinion, even if it's different from mine. I'm still developing my ideas and like to hear your perspectives!
Here's some possible questions for discussion:

• Do you agree with Jonassen that technology should be used as mindtools and not for drill-and-practice, memorization, etc.?
• What kinds of learning and knowledge do our students need to learn the most?
• Should we have students memorize facts, numbers, formulas, etc.?
  
• How much memorizing should we do and how much other types of learning should we encourage?
  

BYU vs. Stanford

We had a lively discussion last week after the BYU game, so I'll post another discussion about last week's game. This is totally off-topic, so if football doesn't interest you, skip this post!

I almost didn't want to post after last week's game. What is there to say? It seems that BYU football just isn't as much fun anymore. It used to be that even if they lost, you were glued to your seat, mostly because we had such explosive offenses that you never knew that the game was really over. I mean, the Miracle Bowl could ALWAYS happen with old BYU offenses. It just doesn't seem that we have that offensive swagger anymore.

Really, our stats were almost identical to Stanford's. What was the difference? Mistakes. Interceptions, Fumbles, Penalties, Missed assignments, Poor decisions. We really weren't that overmatched, and Jason Beck didn't do that bad--we just had too many mistakes.

Go ahead and post your thoughts--I want to hear them! However, remember to be nice. Anybody could be reading this. Critique the game and the team, but let's not bash individuals.

Cool blogging tip

Katy from another section of IPT 286 found a great way to expand your blogging circle. She writes:

"If you fill out your extended profile, you can list your interests and hobbies. I did this, and then viewed my updated profile. It sets apart your interests and highlights and underlines them. If you click on them, then it brings up every other blog that has the same interest as you listed. Thus you can find people from all around the world with the same interests as you"

Cool Katy, thanks!

BTW - if you find a great blogging tip or feed from a good blog, or if you hear about a great new technology that you think we might be useful in, post it on your blog and spread the news!

Discussing digital resources

In a previous post, I explained what you needed to do for this week's assignment. In this post, I'd like to discuss a little why digital resources are so important. Ideally, we'd hold this discussion in class. I'd usually pair you up, you'd discuss things as a pair, and then we'd share our ideas with the rest. We'll have to do the best we can online, and I hope many of you share your ideas as comments to this post, or as posts on your own blogs.

Why do we want you to learn how to find things on the Internet? Doesn't everyone know how to do that already? Yeah, but like I mentioned in class today, there is too much information out there in the world. The problem is many don't know how to use it. The people who really know how to find good, useful, and credible websites fast are usually much more productive than the rest of us. In an article called "The ABCs of Website Evaluation," Kathleen Schrock gives 26 (one for every letter of the alphabet) criteria for evaluating websites. She talks about criteria such as authority (is it a credible author?), dates (is it current?), bias (why was this site created?), and citations (does it have them?). She also gives the 5 Ws for evaluating websites:

1. Who wrote this material and put this website together? Are they credible sources?
2. What is the purpose of this site?
3. When was this site put together and last updated?
4. Where does this information come from?
5. Why is it useful to me?
   

This is a really great article and I'll send a copy to anyone that asks me for one by email. Once again, I'd post it here, but for copyright reasons I shouldn't.

Here's the discussion questions I'd like to ask you, and I hope you'll answer!

• How do you know a good website from a not so good one? What do you look for?
• What types of websites are the BEST ones for helping you as a teacher?
• What search techniques do you have for helping you find good material in a web search?
• How could we teach our students how to find information quickly and recognize good information when they see it?
  

Digital Resources assignment - due Sept. 20

Well gang, I am sorry we ran out of time before we fully discussed this week's assignment. I'm used to teaching IPT 287--a 2-credit class. I'll try to manage class time better!

Because I didn't get to explain the assignment in class, I'll do so here. If you have questions, you can post them as a comment and we can carry on a Q and A here on my blog.

First off, the direct link to the assignment is right here. However, you can always get it from the "calendar" or "assignments" link on the right of my blog. You can read the details on the assignment page, but here's the brief low-down:

Purpose: Find a lesson plan and two good educational digital resources (with the emphasis on good).

How:
1. Go to uen.org and find the standards for your teaching emphasis.
2. Pick a standard and find a lesson plan to teach that standard
3. Pick another (or the same) standard and find two educational websites that would help you teach that standard
4. Post your Word document to BLACKBOARD as an attachment to a post in the discussion forum called "Digital Resources."

Like I said, there's more detail on the assignment page.

Once you've found your digital resources, you need to evaluate them and explain why they are good resources using the template we've created for you. On the template, it asks you to what category of educational website your resource belongs to. These were the papers I had available for you in class. You can also download these 11 categories of Educational Websites here. I attended a conference just a week ago where Trey Martindale, a blogger himself, explained these categories. He admits that many really good websites fit into multiple categories, so if the digital resources you find fit into multiple categories too, that's fine--just explain your reasoning.

Trey describes the 11 types of educational websites in the article you can download, but it might still be helpful to get a second take on it, so here's my stab at explaining the categories:

1. Instructional
A website with a learning activity that asks a student to do something, has specific instructional goals, and a way to assess or give feedback on the student's performance.

2. Learning Activity
A website similar to instructional sites, but perhaps lacking the goals or assessment aspects.

3. Content Collection
A popular form of website that simply has a bunch of material on one subject. Example: A website on Shakespeare that has tons of stuff on good ol' Will.

4. List of Links
A website that has the main purpose of providing links to other great websites.

5. Reference/Archive/News/Database (RAND)
A website that is a reference tool, such as an online dictionary, encyclopedia, or the like. Different than content collection because it has information on many subjects and not just one.

6. Teacher and Parent Resouces
A website geared not towards students, but those who teach them.

7. Shared Experience
Websites where students can experience things togethers, such as virtual tours.

8. Personal Expression and Interpersonal Interaction (PEII)
Websites that allow people to interact, express themselves, and communicate.

9. Informal education.
Websites not meant to be educational, but which have educational components. For example the Hogle Zoo probably has material on its website that would be great for elementary lessons.

10. Research and Service Organizations and Projects (RSOP - boy you gotta love his acronomyms, huh?)
Websites that are organized as part of some massive research project

11. Commercial. Example is Microsoft's education page.

Go forth and conquer!

A lesson learned from the music industry

An interesting observation was made by Timothy on Slashdot recently. Have you noticed that for the first time, the next big thing in the music industry is NOT better quality but better mobility? In the past, the next big thing in music has always been more Hi-Fi, better sound, higher fidelity. Now the future is mp3, which is poorer quality than the current CDs, but is a whole lot easier, more mobile, and more convenient.

Can we learn something from the music industry about using technology in education? I think we can. I think we often think we need BETTER technology, MORE RAM, MORE memory, FASTER processors, the MOST RECENT softwares, BIGGEST upgrades, and so on and so forth. Many times teachers complain that they can't integrate technology into their teaching because their school doesn't have enough money. But it seems that the technologies that sometimes make the biggest impacts on education are the small ones that are so ubiquitous, so transparent, so assimilated into our society that everybody already has these technologies and knows how to use them.

For example, which technologies are used the most in education today? Video. Internet. Audio. Word processing. Why? Because these are easy technologies to use and most students already know how to use them so we don't have to teach them.

What will be the easy, simple, and everybody-has-one technology of tomorrow? Can we start planning how to use those technologies in the schools?

This also ties back into our laptop discussion we had last week. Many students posted that having laptops for every student was a bad idea because of cost factors. So what kinds of technologies are so cheap, simple, and available to everyone that we CAN expect most students to already have them and to know how to use them?

Not everyone plays nice

Hey class bloggers! Just a warning: Not everyone in the blogosphere plays nice (duh, right? That's a common problem anytime you deal with people--not everyone wants to obey the rules).

What I'm talking about is there's a chance someone could post a nasty comment to your blogs. It's never happened to me yet, but it did happen to another instructor. If it happens to you, send me an email, and I'll explain how to delete the comment. It's not hard to do, so if it happens to you, it's easy to fix. If we get time in class and you want me to show everyone how to do it, I can.

Wouldn't it be nice if we all just were nice to each other? We won't have that problem when we're blogging in the millenium ... :-)

The link to this week's assignment

A student informed me that one of my links to this week's assignment is broken. I'll fix it today. You can actually access the assignment through the "calendar" link on my blogroll, but just to make it easier for you, here's the direct link to this week's assignment:

http://msed.byu.edu/ipt/west/intro_TI.html

A laptop on every campus

"As college freshmen head off to campus this year, they're toting cellphones in one pocket, iPods in another. And that click-clack you hear isn't the jingle of new dormitory keys - it's their fingers pounding instant messages back and forth."

Here's a debate for you! The Christian Science Monitor reports in an article today that about 3% of colleges are requiring their students to have a personal computer. A lot of universities are considering doing this, but they are not sure they want to. However, one professor said that they would never go back because it has helped their students so much:

"Everybody in the community talks with each other more frequently," says David Brown, a professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. "Students run into trouble, they e-mail one another, e-mail the faculty. The whole culture changes."

However, Donald Heller of Penn State takes the other side of the fence.

"There are much better ways to improve learning on campus than telling students they have to buy a laptop.

What's your take on this argument? The real issue here is should educational institutions require students to have a technology that they think will enhance learning? We require students to buy textbooks because we think it will enhance their learning. What if we did studies and found that IPods can be used for educational purposes. Should we then require everyone to have one? Some departments and classes here at BYU require students to purchase a remote-like device that helps them interact in large classes (physics 100 with Dr. Turley does this). Is this a good thing to do or not?

Taking it one step further, what about in high school? Should students ever be required to have a technology ... just like they are required to have paper, pens, etc.? Should schools provide technologies to students? If so, which ones?

Italkin' with your IPod

Okay, this doesn't really have much to do with technology in education, but then again, maybe it could. Now it appears that you can get a program called ILingo for the ever-popular IPod. It will translate and pronounce important phrases like "Where's the bathroom?" into 450 languages!

So the next time you're stuck in Spain and can't find el bano, you'll know what to say ...

I originally was thinking this didn't have any application to education because most people don't have IPods. But then I thought, what if they did? The trend in technology is that the price really bottoms out after a few years. For example, I saw a digital camera on sale at Wal-mart for less than $25. I swear it! So what if IPods ever became cheap enough that everyone had them--just like everyone has personal CD players now?

What ideas would this open up? If you, as a teacher, realized most or all of your students had this technology already, how could you utilize it in your teaching? I expect the foreign language teachers to just pipe right up, but how about the rest of you? The IPod has many potential uses--how could you use it?

Are you confused?

A student in another section of IPT 286 posted this on his teacher's blog:

"The set up of this class is very confusing. It would work much better if I had a hard copy of the syllabus instead of having to spend time on many different pages trying to figure what and when something is due."

I haven't heard any similar concerns in our class, but maybe I should ask directly: Are you confused about the setup of the class, and what websites are good for what? This is how I have set up the class:

• All class discussions and announcements are on the weblogs
• Turn in homework to Blackboard, unless the assignment sheet tells you to do it as a blog post
• Links to the syllabus, calendar, assignments, etc., are on my blog roll (the list of links on the right of my blog). FYI, I have updated the calendar and assignment page with links explaining a little more clearly WHAT you have to do with your blogs and what I EXPECT to be able to get the blogging and attendance points.
  

BTW, if you want a paper copy like this student did, of the class syllabus, you can just print one out, because it is linked on my blog.

Granted, it's always a little confusing to learn a new technology, so you have to give it a couple of weeks to get things going. I also know that new students who just added aren't in blogging groups yet, so they're a little outside of the loop. We'll fix that this Monday. Other than that, are there any questions? Post them here, and I'll try to answer them!

These blogs aren't working!

FYI, I couldn't subscribe to these blogs. I'll bet you haven't posted anything yet. If you post something, it will probably work!

emd26@blogspot.com
http://www.jamiecoons.blogspot.com/atom.xml
jmillerhealthed.blogsport.com

Survey assignment for this week

Here is the link to the survey that you need to take before Monday. Sorry it took us so long. The survey might take up to 20 minutes, so plan on that. It's very helpful for us, so please be thoughtful and thorough in answering the questions.

Click on the link to take the survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=75365608220

The first question of the survey asks whether you want to participate in a research study. Basically, we're researching some methods for improving the IPT 286/287 classes. If you want to participate, all we'll do is use your data--WITHOUT YOUR NAMES--to help us in our research. It won't be any extra work or anything, because everyone has to do the survey anyway. It just gives us permission to use your data in our research. If you have questions about that, you can email me! Thanks!

WARNING! If you start the survey and then close the window, you will lose everything and then have to start over again, so beware!

An alternative for this week's assignment

Class, remember that you need to do the Intro to Technology Integration assignment this week, and there is no class, of course, today. You will also need to do the Survey assignment, when we finish the survey and send it to you (I don't know when that will be).

On the assignment webpage, it tells you to read the Roschelle article. I think this is a really good article, and this is still my preferred choice for you. But I'm all about options, and I think it would be good to get some other ideas into our discussion, so here's a second option. If you want, you can read the material on the George Lucas Foundation website about technology integration. If you do this, I want you to look over ALL the information fairly thoroughly and then check out a video or article about the use of technology in a discipline similar to your own. If you do all this, it should be comparable to reading the Roschelle article.

I hope at least a couple choose this option--I'd like to hear what you think of this material on this site!

BTW- I know many of you are not blogging and/or checking your aggregators very frequently. The biggest flag is nobody is posting their blogs to my post asking you to do so. Warning that not reading my blog will get you very lost, very quickly because all class announcements (like this one) come through my blog.

I know I'm preaching to the choir on this!

Did you like the football game?

Sorry class, I have one more thing I just have to get off my chest! I just finished watching the BYU vs. Notre Dame game. Just for kicks, if you care about BYU football, respond to this post and tell me whether you felt optimistic after the game- yay or nay.

On one hand, we beat Notre Dame, the team of Rudy, Fighting Irish, Knute Rockne, Joe Montana, and the like! One of the most storied football programs in the history of football. We might possibly (honestly!) be the first team to hold Notre Dame to 11 yards rushing.

On the other hand, didn't that second half look sickenly like last year?

So what is it? Did you feel yay or nay after the game?

Accessing our Blackboard site

Hey class, I got this email explaining an easier way to access our class blackboard site. We don't use blackboard very often, but I do post some articles there for you to read (such as the one for the assignment this next week) and you can access me during virtual office hours (Monday/Wednesday, noon to 2 p.m.) under "communication" in blackboard.

Here's the email:

Hi!
As you all know BYU is now using a new version of BlackBoard. One of the nice things about this version is that it is not tied into Route Y at all. Please encourage students to access BlackBoard directly by going to the Blackboard link on the main BYU page, or just by typing in the URL blackboard.byu.edu. If there are any problems with logging in, students should call the Instructional Media Center (the number is right above the phone in the TLSC).

A high school blogsite

I've never seen this before, but I thought I'd pass it along to you. Turns out a high school has made its website a giant, massive blog! Yes, it's true! Notice how on every page it says when it was posted. At first, I thought, "weird!" Then I thought, "Way good idea." Think about it. With blogs,

• Any teacher could be a webmaster and add things to the website. It's so easy. If you were assigned to make a post on the school website, you could easily do it.
• Even students could be assigned to post information on the school website.
• The trademark timestamp that is characteristic of blogs instantly tells everyone how old each page of the website is. This is helpful to know when you are judging how accurate and current the material is. Don't we wish EVERY page of EVERY website had a timestamp on it?

What other benefits would you see from this? Now let's take it a step further: What would be the advantage of a class weblog? How could this be a good thing?

Imagine the future

Slashdot reports (it was from an article in internetnews.com, however) that there is a new internet speed record:

"The old record was nearly cut in half: the two parties, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), 'transferred 859 gigabytes of data in less than 17 minutes.' InternetNews goes on to say, 'This record speed of 6.63Gbps is equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD movie in four seconds.'"

What options does this hold for education? What if we could transfer simulations, video, multimedia, and ANYTHING as fast as we transfer text? Would this change the way we designed instruction? In what ways?

This could be a fun discussion. Anyone in our class want to be the visionary? What do you think educational technology will be like in 10 years? What options will be available to teachers that aren't available now? How would you teach if there were no technological barriers?

EVERYBODY COMMENT - Blog URLs

Just to make things easier for me and Alyssa, will everyone please take a sec and write a comment to this post. In your comment, give me your name, blog URL, and teaching emphasis. This is mainly to help me and Alyssa make sure we are subscribed to everyone's blog. However, it'd also be a good resource to all of you. You are only required to read the blogs of your blogging buddies and this blog, but if you want more good ideas, you can subscribe to a few more if you want.

September 6th

Once a week or so, I'll try to do a "roundup" of some of the discussions going around our class blogosphere. I'll do this since you won't be reading all of your classmates' blogs. Hopefully your discussions will get specific in your blogging groups, and once a week I'll give the general picture of the class discussion as a whole, with my commentary included!

To start out, Jared had a thoughtful idea on (http://learn2serve.blogspot.com/2004/08/changing-world.html) about "Changing the World."

"The combination of ideas and dialogue are the catalysts for meaningful positive change. Diversity of thought properly represented increases the worth of ideas, propositions, arguments, etc. Let the dialogue begin."

I commented on his blog and said:

"Whether you're quoting someone or made it up yourself, that's a great way to explain why blogs can be powerful. It allows a much greater diversity of thought. Anyone can work a blog--they're easy! So now anyone can put their thoughts out there to be read. Who knows who's going to ready YOUR blog this week? Could be anyone. That's why I like blogging. I get to hear many different ideas from outside my little BYU world."

Another student, Roxana, wrote about Technology-assisted Language Learning:

"I guess I'll just write how I think that technology can help in teaching a foriegn language. I figure that it can also mean using videos and things like that which can be very helpful because the students can see what they've been hearing. Since everyone learns different ways that would be very helpful for visual learners."

I think Roxana has hit on a key for why technology can help her in her subject—Visualization. In what ways could technology help YOU in YOUR teaching emphasis? Visualization is pretty general and applies to many different subjects, but maybe other learning styles are more emphasized in your discipline. If so, how can technology aid you in these learning styles?

A third student, "Luma," was semi excited, semi nervous about class:

"Well, for some of us, like me, this is my first and only shot at learning classroom technology. I'm more into the paper, the book, the flutter the pages and smell the print kind of English teacher. So the name Luma Solem, taken affectionately from Rowling's Harry Potter, describes the sunlight... a light I hope will come to my mind as I try to learn about these crazy things called computers!"

How many of you feel this way (silent show of hands! :-). I regret that we only have 1 credit to discuss these ideas — that's not a lot of "sunlight" as Luma says. But I hope you will leave this class with some good ideas about why we should consider using technology and some general ideas for how to do it. Then you can go out and apply the principles of this class to your own situations!

A fourth student, Rosie, responded to my post about the future of super high speed Internet.

"If simulations like that could be available on the internet and transfer fast enough to be brought into lecture at a spur of the moment (if the students had a particular question that the teacher did not anticipate) learning and understanding could certainly be better served in the moment, rather than waiting till next class period to explain now questions."

I think simulations in particular have an exciting future in education. I believe students learn best by practicing authentic problems -- real life problems. Since students can't always be blowing things up in the chemistry lab while doing their homework, having a chemistry simulation like Virtual Chemlab allows them to practice "real" chemistry while at home. Wouldn't that be more effective than worksheets? What do you think class?

A final note, surprisingly, the discussion this week that had the most participation was my post on the BYU game. I don't know if this means my other posts on education were that bad or if my post on the game was that good. Or maybe we just love our Cougars! Go Cougs!

Homework for this week!

Hah, just kidding, there is no homework for this week. But there is homework for next week (2 assignments) and so you may want to get started early. The survey is not ready yet, so nobody can take that yet, but it will take about 20-25 minutes, so plan on that for next week.

The Intro to Technology Integration assignment IS ready, so start working on it, if you wish by looking at the assignment rubric. It's also linked to my calendar page but NOT my class assignments page yet. One last thing-The Jonassen article you are supposed to scan is not available on Blackboard yet. Blackboard and the BYU server has been so slow lately that I'm not dealing with it yet.

Which, BTW, is one advantage of blogging! We move forward with the class even when the BYU server is down and out!

This is just FYI: There's a good conversation at SecEd German about how to use technology to teach language, and another off-class topic about stem cell research at Carla's blog. If those topics interest you, check them out!

How is credibility on the web establishehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifd?

Here's a thought I have been having today that concerns blogs and wikis (which we will be using later this semester). Many people criticize the blog/wiki trend because it means we are reading stuff that is written by normal people -- not smarty-pants academics or "authorities." They worry that if we used blogs and wikis in K-12 settings, we may be exposing students to incorrect information.

Will Richardson says that

"This is one of the most interesting changes that blogs and wikis are bringing about, the idea that we must learn to seek our own truths and not just rely on the interpretations of truth by others. The read/write Web by its very nature creates unedited texts that are going to have more and more influence and impact on how and what we read and believe. And, it requires us to think about new ways to teach students (and ourselves, for that matter) to find truth"

He then quotes Colin Brook of Syracuse, who says that

"credibility is something you earn and develop, not something you simply have. When we ask our students to do research and to prepare the results in written form, we are teaching them to earn credibility through breadth and depth of research. You don't earn credibility by citing an "authoritative source," whatever that means. You earn it by testing your sources against one another, understanding what the reasons are for differences of opinion, and figuring out how to resolve them or to choose among positions, etc."

Yes, I think it's still good to teach students to quote sources and to find ideas similar and different from their own. But we should also teach them that THEY themselves can have much knowledge and truth that they can teach others. That's what blogs and wikis do: they make everybody an expert and everybody can have an audience. If you have good thoughts, more people will read you. For example, I read Will Richardson's blog every day because he has established credibility with me. I trust him and his ideas as much as any encyclopedia.

What do you think class? Am I messed up? Is it too dangerous to let students pretend that they know something? Should we require them to stick to the knowledge already created in the past, by "authorities"?

If you want to read more about this, go to my other blog, or Will's blog.

Week 1 - Setting up our blogs!

Well, this week we discussed our new IPT 286 class and I'm excited to be teaching such a variety of majors! Last semester I was teaching all elementary education majors, so this is exciting, especially since my only experience teaching in a K-12 setting is with high school kids.

Today we shared ideas about how our teachers used technology when we were students. We then discussed David Jonassen's article "Mindtools," where he discusses how we should have our students learn WITH technology, not from technology nor about technology. We also discussed weblogs in education and got started with our own weblogs and aggregators. If you missed class and aren't sure how to do this yet, or if you were in class and got lost, read my post about blogs, and then download the tutorial and follow the directions. And don't forget to subscribe to my blog and all the bloggers in your blogging buddy group.

BTW, when I said you need to be blogging this semester, you need to do a suficient amount of blogging about technology in education. I hope you blog about personal things too, for example one of our students got engaged last week! (I don't know how much she wants to publicize it, or else I'd link to her post here). I like to hear about things like that--it helps me get to know you as a real person, not just a student. So go ahead and blog about personal stuff, but remember that it doesn't substitute for your blogging about class topics.

TWO USEFUL TIPS--If you log back into blogger and go to "settings" and "comments" you can tell it to email you when someone comments on one of your posts. This is the easiest way to know when you have a new comment on your blog. The second tip is to blog in Mozilla, when you can. Mozilla is an Internet browser, like Explorer. It's free (at mozilla.org) and it's more secure and better than Explorer. When you log into blogger in Mozilla, there are cool formatting options that make writing a post even easier. We have Mozilla on all the computers in the TLSC lab (It's the big "M" on the dock at the bottom of the screen).

How often do you need to post to your blog to get the points? I don't know and can't say. It depends on how good your posts are. You should post and comment enough to convince me that you are conversing with your blogging buddies, using your blog to learn, and being diligent about it. It doesn't have to be every week, however.

Have fun-- I look forward to reading about your ideas!

p.s. if you have questions on anything this semester, post them to your blog and either I, the TA, or your blogging buddies will answer it for you. Whoever gets to it first.