As the 2010 Olympics are just a few days away, I'd like to embed this Olympic Widget here for giggles and information.
I'll post it on the SHS Wellness Blog as well so that it will be in a place that students may access it!

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