Changed forever?

How does the iPad change things? What is its impact on public education? Here's one take (and an excerpt):

"The nature of personal computing has changed. Until recently, we mainly used our computers to run software programs (Microsoft Word, Quicken) installed on our hard drives. Now, we use them mainly to connect to the vast databases of the Internet—to “the cloud,” as the geeks say. And as the Internet has absorbed the traditional products of media—songs, TV shows, movies, games, the printed word—we’ve begun to look to our computers to act as multifunctional media players. The computer business and the media business are now the same business..."

If We Hear Only a Single Story, We Risk Critical Misunderstanding

Another great site that I sometimes visit ikiw.org offered this TED talk from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author who offers this incredible piece of perspective for us all. Well worth spending the 19 minutes viewing, even if it isn't totally related to our blog.

The kids are online

According to a new Kaiser media habits study, kids are spending 7 1/2 hours (yup!) with media every day. You can read more about it in the NY Times here.

Interesting to note that the cell phone is growing in importance as the default media device.

What does this mean for us as educators? How many hours a day do we adults spend online?

McLeod's Blog "Dangerously Irrelevant"

Before I get on to comment on some of the other fine posts, I felt it necessary to post Scott McLeod's blog post entitled "13 Technologies I can't live Without."

Enjoy!

ISTE Priorities

The ISTE* has posted a "Top 10" list of priorities for Technology in Education. You can read them here. What do you think, do we agree with these at Souhegan? JR


* (description of the ISTE from their web site) "The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. Home of NETS and ISTE's annual conference and exposition (formerly NECC), ISTE represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide."

Jenkins & Chaplin

Thanks to a reminder from Jenny, I spent some time this week reading Henry Jenkins' blog. He's an MIT guy we've mentioned here before as one of the thought-leaders in "new media" education, and that I've referenced in my Career Growth work. He recently posted a 2-part interview with Heather Chaplin, who makes a lot of idealistic (but worthy) points about "new media" education in public schools. I posted a reply to her interview in the Comments section of Henry Jenkins' blog, if y'all are interested. JR

How is the Internet changing the way we think?

The Edge has just published the responses to its annual question - which is the title of this post. I have just managed to read through the first dozen essays (you can find them here), and found two that I think are particularly interesting for we teachnologists, one by Jonas Mekas and one by Kevin Kelly. As a teaser, here's an excerpt from Kelly's essay:

"(The internet) is one thing now, an intermedia with 2 billion screens peering into it. The whole ball of connections — including all its books, all its pages, all its tweets, all its movies, all its games, all its posts, all its streams — is like one vast global book (or movie, etc.), and we are only beginning to learn how to read it. Knowing that this large thing is there, and that I am in constant communication with it, has changed how I think."

Enjoy! JR

Free Documentaries!

Check this out:
"At freedocumentaries.org we strongly believe that in order to have a true democracy, there has to be a free flow of easily accessible information. Unfortunately, many important perspectives, opinions, and facts never make it to our televisions or cinemas (you can watch movies in our media category if you want to know why)."

http://freedocumentaries.org/

Online Technology Workshops

Simmons Library School: Continuing Education

A great selection of (mostly) online technology and information-related courses offered through Simmons' grad. program:

http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/careers/continuing-education/workshops/index.php

Verizon Math

I couldn't resist posting this video, and if you'd like to follow the whole story you could follow the link to this story:
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/01/importance-of-proper-mathematics.html



Enjoy!

I was celebrating the holidays with some friends, and was really digging the diverse selection of Christmas music playing in their home. As it turns out, they were tuned into Pandora Internet Radio, an amazing customizable internet radio station.

Here's the link:

http://www.pandora.com

From their website:

Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

With Pandora you can explore this vast trove of music to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.

You can create up to 100 unique "stations." And you can even refine them. If it's not quite right you can tell it so and it will get better for you.

The Music Genome Project was founded by musicians and music-lovers. We believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it. We like all kinds of music, from the most obtuse bebop, to the most tripped-out drum n bass, to the simplest catchy pop tune. Our mission is to help you connect with the music YOU like.

We hope you enjoy the experience!

There's more to publishing than meets the screen....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03galassi.html?hp