delicious.com

Need to organize your bookmarks so you can get to them from anywhere online?

Try delicious.com

Here is my list of bookmarks.

This is a very dangerous tool! I can see this taking up a lot of my time!

Read my review of Tim O’Reilly's article What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.

Blogs and RSS Feeds along the Cone of Experience

Using a blog: I look forward to spending some time delving into how to design my blog to make it more personal (heading, links, pages, etc.). The online tools certainly made it easy to set up. Duplicating the information in the discussion forum will mean that our blogs will not be as interactive since replies will be posted in e-learning.

Where are blogs and RSS feeds on Edgar Gale's Cone of Experience? I would place blogs and RSS feeds, to begin with, in the iconic or looking area. However, creating a blog would be a direct experience. If we assume that we are teaching using these tools, then reading a blog or RSS feed involves looking (learning through observation, not direct experience or hearing) and using symbols (learning through abstractions--words, photos) to understand what is being portrayed.

We cannot expect technology to be the "cure all" for all learning experiences. There is a place and a time for technology and it cannot blanket the entire curriculum as the solution to problems in learning and teaching.

Imaginative use of blogs and RSS feeds. Let's say I am teaching a budgeting class for new moms. We are specifically trying to find the best deals at the grocery store. We could purchase a Sunday Kalamazoo Gazette with all the ads and sit down and make up our grocery lists, paying particular close attention to what is on sale. Going through all the store ads could take quite a bit of time. In addition, we would be searching for coupons, trying to match our coupons to the sale items to get the best deal possible.

To save ourselves the time of researching sale items through newspaper ads, we search for blogs where someone has already done the work for us, listing sale items at the various stores and where to find the coupons for those items. We sign-up for RSS feeds from those blogs so that this information comes to us automatically every week. Checking those RSS feeds each week, we can click to the blog to see what other shoppers have posted about the deals and if they have found other deals.

Rather than using the simple or low-tech tools (newspaper ads), we save time and effort and come up with more options for low-cost groceries than we may have been able to find on our own. The blogs allow the students to save on their groceries and avoid wading through information in the ads. Effective interaction in this learning experience would include stories that teach (blogger experiences), learner interaction and collaboration (students share with each other, and on the blog, the latest good deal that they find and if the deal worked or not, and just-in-time resources (internet coupons and weekly deals).

Reflection on “Beyond Technology Inegration: The Case for Technology Transformation” by Charles M. Reigeluth and Roberto Joseph

This article explores how new technology is typically used to support the prevailing methods in a field but end up resulting in new methods and improvements in performance.

The authors begin with a statement that technology has had a minimal impact on K-12 education in the U.S. I wonder…Is that also true for other industrialized countries? Are we all in the same boat?

And what has caused technology to have a minimal impact? Is it the lack of technology in schools? Is it that technology cannot add anything to how children are educated? What, really, is the impact we are hoping technology will have on education? If it is to better educate, are we sure technology can do that? Is it to educate faster or in a different matter (more one-on-one)? Are we confusing technology as the cause of something that has really been wrong for a long time?

The article goes on to state that we need to invest in ways that technology can transform the way we teach, resulting in improved learning. Certainly, technology can assist in learning in the event that the experience is only available through technology. For instance, watching a 3-D movie on open-heart surgery is much more informative than looking at photos in a textbook. But assisting in surgery would be even better than a 3-D movie. So the goal seems to be to better prepare the student for a future experience.

The author brings up another issue: Our current paradigm of education is not designed for learning, but for sorting. Has this always been the case in the U.S.? If not, what has changed? Has our general educational system always been “flawed” and we are only now figuring this out?

The question is asked, “How can a teacher help 30 children to all learn different things at different rates and in different ways utilizing authentic tasks?” The article goes on to pursue the ways methods could change. Should we also ask, “How can change education in order for one teacher to help 10 children”? Is it only the method of technology that will better meet the needs of the children or a change in structure? Can we come up with a way to educate all students that is individually-based. Are we missing an important step in the process to use technology by sticking with mass education?

Reflection on Of Luddites, learning, and life By N. Postman

I rather enjoyed this article and Mr. Postman’s thoughts. Maybe it is because the older I get the faster the world (and technology) seems to move! It also touched on what I mentioned above—separating technology from education and seeing technology as one of many tools. I don’t see this article as a pessimistic view of technology and education, though others might not agree. I differ with Mr. Postman’s indifference to technology in that I really am interested in the new and improved gadgets and software that seem to appear daily.

What would Mr. Postman think today? After all, this article was written in 1993. I was disappointed to find that he passed away in 2003 (Wikipedia).