johnhendron.net: hendron’s digest - a weblog

Kevin Lim recently posted a presentation he created on using the Wikipedia in academia.

Thanks to Slideshare, you can see his visual aid (the link above will actually show you a video of the talk).

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It’s a great idea to invite college students (undergrad or higher) into a high school to tell high school students how they conduct research for their classes. I always felt I had to sort of “teach myself” the ropes of research when I was in college. We knew how to use the card catalog and the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, but were wholly unprepared to deal with academic writing, an electronic card catalog, and journals.

What I found missing from Kevin’s slides, and it’s likely missing in a lot of other places too, is the detail surrounding what he mentions around his discussion of “berry picking.” The Web is an excellent research tool because you can link to all these other sources of information. But it’s also a poor one: there’s so much stuff (good and bad), you may not be able to easily distinguish expertise from good marketing, and how to you manage all the webpages you do find?

I can imagine the kid hearing this (honors or not), and thinking… “Gee… this is kind of like… you know, wearing your seat belt. It’s good to do it, because it can save your life. But… I mean, last week, I got away with it. I drive safe enough. I didn’t get killed. I didn’t get caught.”

More research? Yeah, research isn’t typing “G O O G L E” or “W I K I P E D I A” and printing the first thing you find. I’d advise any teacher to break up research projects by stopping kids at every step and doing mini-evaluative assessments. Maybe, even, kids can draw a meta-map of their research process (there are many tools to do this, my favorite, Omni Graffle, another popular in schools, Inspiration).

I’ve been working with our technology resource teacher on a “Research for the 21st Century” initiative. It’s a work in progress, but it gives students actual concrete tools for reporting what they find (verbatim), how they have backed it up (found confirming sources), what they know about the source(s), and how what they found expands their initial research idea (thesis). I figure if we do well enough, it could be a nice guide or better, a book. We cover advanced techniques with Google. We cover non-traditional media. We cover domain lookups. We also suggest methods of digital collection and bookmarking (using folksonomization tools) and here’s another idea–getting feedback from peers.

Kids need help with research more than ever. It’s too tempting to believe the first thing you read. (Many adults need reminded of this, too.)

I think too many educators “feel” and consequently block Wikipedia when there’s nothing to fear. Like Lim says, quoting his former professor, Alex Halavais, the search ought to begin with using a encyclopedia (read: Wikipedia), but never end that way. It’s funny, but I’ve heard that same advice in our own libraries and media centers for years, referring to the World Book and Encylopædia Britannica.

Tonight while looking at several MIT online courses, I came across one by Mitchel Resnick. Of course, he was behind a project I’m real fond of, Scratch, which is a simple programming environment that is appropriate for elementary and middle school learners. (I personally think Scratch can be introduced a grade 3, but it will likely become limited after 3 years of use, i.e., use at grades 3-5, 4-6, or 5-7).

I also came across a reading he lists, from the Alliance for Childood, their Tech Tonic. The brief is highly suspicious of corporate entities (read: Intel, Apple) and some organizations like CoSN and ISTE.

Some points are valid questions. They are opting for less screen time and more people time. In today’s American culture, I don’t think anyone would argue that “quality” time from/with caring adults could ever be in excess, harming a child. Instead, we often identify problems with children in situations where parents are too busy, missing, or abusing.

In a section of the report centered on “Developmental Guidelines” (see page 79-82), they suggest middle school age children just might be introduced to educational uses of television after they understand how TVs work. And suggest high school students be able to perform research on the Web, at the same time that they become involved participants in community-based ethical norm setting to help them deal with both the obvious and hidden aspects of using technology.

I’m all for helping develop literacy, ethics, and technology fluency in schools. But, to suggest that we deal with the ethical issues only at the high school level, or research at the middle school level, is rather novel. Naive, perhaps, too. Parents who aren’t card-carrying members of the Alliance may not have TVs or Internet at home, and certainly don’t give their children cell phones. But what about those misguided parents who do have broadband Internet, have 2nd graders who can load DVD players, and a copious pile of cell phones at the ready in the home?

I feel this “tonic” assumes that the only technology students have access to is in school. And it is highly suspicious about most of it. The premise, assumed, is: “It can’t be good if its good hasn’t yet been proven. For the sake of Mother Earth, technology is of course assumed suspect!”

The reality in many communities is that students and their families are quite fluent with the use of a variety of technologies. And the effects of assuming a digital lifestyle aren’t always traditional, healthy, or advantageous. Yet, we push forward, for a variety of reasons–reasons that schools are inadequate to significantly influence. Instead, as some have called for, we might turn to the “tools in their pockets” as a new means to educate them.

I felt that this report gave some valid concerns about current-day society, without fully accepting what society has become. It’s far too late to turn Luddite and think we can make our digital reality go away. Their call for “giv[ing] our children and youth the full opportunity to get to know themselves through play, the arts, and hands-on learning, so that the have a solid sense of self–and confidence in their own creativity and competence–before tackling the major issues of the world” need not be exclusive of a world that communicates, emotes, sings, dances, solves problems, and sees itself with digital technology.

I am really excited about what may come with new apps being written for Apple’s iPod Touch/iPhone.

If this any example, I have a real reason to be excited.

I was quoted in an article that appears this morning in the State.

Of course, Dr. Morgan was our former superintendent who rallied behind our teacher blogging initiative. As many of you who read this blog already know, VoiceThreads aren’t special podcasts, but rather, are suped-up slideshows available only through VoiceThread.com. Their popularity stems from the fact that you can embed these multimedia creations into blogs, webpages, etc., just as easily as you can with other Web 2.0 multimedia, such as YouTube videos.

It was cool to appear in a South Carolina newspaper supporting what we do in Goochland County.

Tim recently posted about being Googley, and as much as I admire Google and all, I decided to read into the list for profound underpinnings.

As it turns out, these are good traits, no matter if you work for Google, want to be a good citizen, or simply want to change the lives of young people.

To paraphrase,

1. Focus on people,
2. KISS,
3. Engage,
4. Innovate,
5. Design for those outside your reach*,
6. Plan for today and the future,
7. Be worthy of our trust,
8. Human touch.

I think #10 is most important. It’s that #6 I want to spend just a couple sentences on, however.

Their #6 is design for the world, but I changed it slightly. When I design things in my job (a screencast, an after-school class, or a writing I do) I look beyond its immediate use. I don’t intend it just for my immediate, intended audience, but instead, a far-wider, far-reaching net.

After all, what I publish invariably ends up online. But shouldn’t we all aim higher, and take the extra effort, to make world-class things? If you speak of it another way, “Well for us here, I only would have to…”, you dumb it down.

I think one of the more important things I can do is share the fruits of my labor with more than just the 220 employees who are in instructional positions. Someone once said of me, “You’re always willing to share, you put so much of what you do out, online, for others to use.”

That’s right. I’m aiming for those outside my typical reach. And shouldn’t this be something we all go for? How are we to compete for the recognition of our ideas in an Internet-accesible age when our ideas aren’t good enough for a wider audience?

Be Googley. It can’t hurt.

Wow. This is significant.

Microsoft’s IIS servers have been hacked, sending malicious code to you through your browser, if you visit an affected website.

This report says perhaps over .5 million web servers have been compromised.

johnhendron.net uses the Apache web server.

I have had sore feet for most of my life (that I remember).

I took special interest then, in this article in the New Yorker on walking and shoes. It suggests the best “medicine” for your feet is walking barefoot!

I put together an entry for the Dangerously Irrelevant button contest! I like what I came up with.

We live in interesting times, and yesterday I came across something I think is representative of these times.

Many years ago I remember reading an article (online, it wasn’t that long ago), where Francis Ford Coppola was remarking how incredible some new iMac was, because he had iMovie, and boy, it would inspire people to create films (or videos).

Maybe that was an interview, or a commercial. But I also remember reading about an argument Jeffrey Katzenberg was having with Steve Jobs… Jobs wanted to give movie-making tools to the average consumer; Katzenberg stated “he owned animation,” and basically, as I remember, he thought giving movie-making tools to the masses was a “bad idea.”

So, just yesterday, I run across this: instructions for making your own newspaper.

Now, when you think about it, yes, RSS feeds are kind of like that; you collect together various sources into one place, thereby creating your own digital “newspaper” of sorts. But this tip was more profound to me, for some reason, because it automated the process of collecting content together and making a new, “I could hold this in my hands” document.

I actually haven’t tried it yet, but it’s on my weekend to-do list, alongside upgrading some blogs to WP 2.5, reading some articles, and checking out sketching software… oh yeah, and mowing the lawn might be in there too.

You Tube now hosts a series dedicated to the story behind the Gutenburg press by Stephen Fry.

Lots of free content!

Today, the New York Public Library opened a collection through iTunes!

An interesting video with technology writer Walt Mossberg, talking about broadband in the U.S., AppleTV, and iPhone.

A recent New York Times article discusses whether or not blogging is bad for your health. (via BC)

Moreover, it really confesses, is a “21st century job” dangerous to your health? A colleague at work says she had to tell her husband that the Blackberry was “banned at the dinner table.” I often see e-mails in my box from my boss that were sent after 11 p.m. And I myself have been known to blog at 1 AM on a work night, when I cannot sleep.

Technology makes it easy to work at all hours, from different places (home, on the run, or at the office) but our work lives haven’t changed so much since, at least in terms of hours and time “on campus.”

What worries me is this change: used to be, you couldn’t work unless you were at work. Teachers often have been taking work home, for years. But now if businesses expect work to happen 24/7 because it can, are we on the verge of massive burn out because of competition?

Perhaps a new 21st century skill for our students will be stress and lifestyle management strategies.

I’m writing this in an airplane to Vancouver from Chicago. When I get home and read my mail, if recent trends continue I will hear about a few new Twitter followers, bringing the total up over one thousand. I think that with Twitter, something important is happening. But I’m having trouble figuring out what.

I like his analogy of Twitter being like background noise at a cafe.

Technology integration approaches that do not reflect disciplinary knowledge differences, and the corresponding processes for developing such knowledge, ultimately are of limited utility and significance, ignoring as they do the full complexity of the dynamic realities of teaching effectively with technology. Understanding that introducing new educational technologies into the learning process changes more than the tools used—and that this has deep implications for the nature of content-area learning, as well as the pedagogical approaches which teachers can select among–is an important and often-overlooked aspect of technology integration approaches to date.

– TPCK: Curriculum-based Technology Integration Reframed

(via Steve Hargadon):

Word has it David Thornburg used this video to help break the ice at a conference, speaking about reluctance to embrace open-source software.

When I’ve talked to audiences about the so-called remix culture of students, the so-called “digital natives,” it’s also worthwhile to share examples. It’s a culture that is labeled “prosumer” by some, and it shows the potential of creativity that connected folks have.

I am not sure the age of the creator of this video (it says he is 37), but it’s best described as the epitome of creative, prosumer culture. It uses the LineRider Flash-game to create quite a show. Enjoy!

Tim at Assorted Stuff recently wrote about the power of the inexpensive digital camera. He thinks we should put one in every classroom (he says as much, in how, for the elementary classroom).

He feels it’s one of those technologies that’s personal, handheld, and emphasizes what you do with it, over the object itself.

I agree with Tim. How many of us take the time (and have the fun) of playing with our cameras? To photograph water, change speed settings, and see what we can come up with? If they aren’t learning about photography doing that, they are learning something, the properties of water, the effects of exposure time, etc.

Which got me thinking about all the cameras we have now in our schools. Apple puts a reasonable digital video camera into every computer. I recently asked a teacher for a photograph, and they told me they’d get someone to take one of themselves… I suggested they take their own.

• “How?”
• “Your built-in iSight?”
• “Oh!”

Got a laptop cart? You have 15 cameras! Sure, you’re not going to pick up the computer like you would a point-and-shoot; but there is still quite a bit of utility built-in to that little guy.

Tim Lauer notes a new plugin for Flickr that can show your photos (or someone else’s) in 3D and in full-screen mode. Looks pretty cool.

The tool is called PicLens.

I’ve noticed a few suspect things with the iPhone. First, looking at two this morning, our weather widget/app was broken. The temperatures are different for Richmond (they were updated 3 minutes apart, yes). But they were updated during the 10 o’clock hour, and they indicate nighttime icons. Other cities appeared in daylight with sunshine. Incidentally, it was very bright sunshine when these were taken.

Also, on the stocks widget, sometimes the graphs are messed up: the range is off, or the stock is headed in the wrong direction despite the day’s rise or plummet of one particular stock. Quizzical.