Kindle or OLPC?

Here's the deal: You have just received a $400 certificate with the limitation that you can redeem it for either the Kindle or the OLPC laptop. Which would you choose?

Thank you to Barbara Greenstone for bringing up the discussion on books and the Kindle in an earlier post. Thinking about the difference in the experience in reading from the extremely long-lasting technology of the book to the portable digital version brings up a series of issues.

A number of people have not missed the point that the OLPC device and the Kindle can be had for the same price. The discussion that has ensued is fascinating. Check out these discussions:

The Future of Reading

Do Not Fold, Bend or Kindle

Think Macro . . .Kindle vs. XO

More on Kindle/OLPC

So . . . which would you buy?

Teampedia: Tools for Teams

Here is an excellent wiki that is collecting activities to use in helping to grow teams: Teampedia: Tools for Teams

Additional Process Skills Resources

Choosing, Doing & Sharing

I just got back from our Telstar Group 1 session this evening. I've been working with this group of 15 diverse participants for about a year now and couldn't ask for more interesting and friendly humans beings. The title of tonight's session was "Choosing, Doing & Sharing." The agenda essential question: What are the implications of choice and freedom in our society and classrooms?

To kick off the discussion, we watched two contrasting videos. One was the trailer for Pleasantville and the second was Barry Schwartz's The Paradox of Choice talk.

And a great discussion it was! I really believe this is an issue that needs to be brought more into consciousness. With choice increasing at exponential rates according to people such as Ray Kurzweil and other futurists, we need to become more self-aware of the implications. The Pleasantville/Schwartz combo makes a fine springboard for powerful discussion. Give it a try.

How do we deal with making decisions?

Session Agenda

NERC 2008 Conference on Social Studies

The 39th Northeast Regional Conference on the Social Studies, titled Social Studies: Global and Local Connections, Shared Responsibilities, will be on March 26 - 28 at Yale. More Information

The Maine Council for the Social Studies Conference

On April 2, 2008, MCSS will have its annual conference titled No Citizen Left Behind: Teaching Resources for Maine Teachers. Check it out here. It is still not too late to send in a presentation proposal.

Workshops/Conferences at Maine Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Check out the upcoming workshops and conferences through Maine ASCD here.

Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance Workshops

MMSA has a very interesting series of workshops lined up for the next few months. Check them out here.

So, what about the Kindle?

by Barbara Greenstone

eReaders have been around for a while but I've mostly been ignoring them. I keep telling myself that, given a choice, I'd rather read from a printed page than from a screen. In my work, of course, I do read from a computer screen - whether it's emails, chats, web articles, blogs, NoteShare notebooks, or other digital documents. I seldom print anything. But when it comes to reading for pleasure, I'd rather sit down with a book. I've been a reader for more than half a century and why change now?

Having said that, I have to admit that Amazon's Kindle has me thinking... What is it I really love about books? Is it some kind of kinesthetic pleasure from holding it and turning the pages or is it purely the content? Do I prefer print books because it's really a better reading experience or is it a bias from years of habit?

If you walk into my house you will know right away that I am a book-lover. There are bookshelves everywhere. But I don't think of myself as a true bibliophile. I think true bibliophiles love the books themselves. They care whether it's a first edition. They care about the binding and the typeface and the quality of the paper. I don't care about any of these things. I do like seeing my books on the shelves but I'm not sure why. Maybe because scanning my eclectic collection gives some clues as to who I am, or who I have become over the years.

But now I'm thinking about that Kindle and thinking I might like to try it. David Pogue gives it a mostly favorable review in the NY Times and his is an opinion I have learned over the years to trust. I'm also thinking about whether eReaders like this have a future in education. I think many of our students do not have the same print prejudices that I have and might welcome an alternative to those heavy textbooks that fill up their backpacks.

The Paradox of Choice

Barry Schwartz presentation at TEDTalks



Are there any implications for education?

The Promise of Teaching by TV

Is there a lesson here?

Dentistry, Car Maintenance and Online Work

I am sitting in a dentist chair as I write this. The other day I was doing my online work at Rowe Hyundai in Auburn as they changed the oil in my car. When I work late into the evening I can drop into the Market Square Restaurant for a bite to eat and borrow bandwidth, if needed, from the South Paris Public Library across the street. Very quickly access is almost to be expected in public spaces. Hotspots are increasing at a rapid rate, even up in the Western foothills of Maine.

What are your favorite WiFi hotspots in Maine?

Maine WiFi HotSpots Directory
Wifi 411

Adult Education & Online Learning

One of my side jobs is to work with adult educators and students at Oxford Hills to investigate the possibilities of online (distance) learning for the adult ed student. The idea is to develop some options for students who might have difficulty with transportation and/or scheduling.

I'm working with Ramsey Ludlow on a U.S. History I course. We have been experimenting with the use of Google apps in delivering the instruction, trying to find out what does and does not work in using distance learning with the high school adult ed student.

Of course, as expected, we have had to punt several times for a number of reasons in order to meet the goals of the course. Initially the idea was to meet with students f2f in the evening once per month and do the rest of the course via Google groups and email. The students were very comfortable with the technology, but some had issues with the difficulty of organizing their time, due to a number of factors, to complete the assignments. So now we are back to having weekly f2f classes for that extra encouragement that being in the same room creates. The digital tools are being used within that meeting time.

We did a reflection during last evening's gathering:

Reflection on history online

1. not as independent learners as we thought
2. in class support is helpful
3. online support /discussions don't work
4. more people to respond to is better
5. support/discussion require us to make an appointment at time
6. helpful to work with others-"community of learners"

This is what the students came up with. Of course, there were the usual issues of technology reliablity and access, and all of the students hold full time jobs . . . and some are taking other courses as well. However, I'm not convinced that it simply "won't work." Ramsey and I, as well as other teachers in the OH group, will be chewing on this for the next year as part of the MARTI grant.

We'll be looking at appropriate tools, teaching methods, and scaffolding.

Please do offer your suggestions and wisdom.

Sustainable Living

Anyone for sustainable living? I'll confess I've slipped terribly in my consideration for the planet earth since I was a young man. It is time for me to re-develop some balance. With that in mind, here are some links I found that speak to the issue:

Tiki the Penguin - Let's Make a Kinder World for Everyone
Sustainable Living Literature Collection for Children
NWEI - Changing Our World One Conversation at a Time
Wikipedia - Sustainable Living
Sustainable Living Network
EarthEasy - Ideas for Environomentally Sustainable Living
EnviroLink - Sustainable Living

No thought control

by Jenifer Van Deusen

Great line of thinking here! Fits in with the book, A Whole New Mind, that administrators here in Kittery have been reading. The blues tune illustrates some of Daniel Pink's point, that to thrive in this new century we need both our traditional Western logical-mathematical way of thinking AND more intuitive, creative, and playful thought - and a bunch of new resources. Consider/ respond to my reflections on this topic at http://notanotherbrick-kittery.blogspot.com/
and continue playing!

I've Got The Dial Up Blues

by Martha Thibodeau

The Dial Up Blues

Remote is my geography,
So make your photos small.
If it takes too long to load
I may not look at all.

CHORUS:
I've got the dial up blues.
My modem's 56 K,
Hardly fast enough for work,
Way too slow for play.

Watch a movie or a vlog?
You've gotta be crazy
Show me a transcript,
Download's slow and lazy.

(CHORUS)

Eliminate Elluminates,
My modem can't keep pace.
The video procrastinates
and the voice is in a race.

(CHORUS)

Even my beloved Skype
sometimes chooses to be bad,
so I drive the 2 miles to my school
for the WAN, of which I'm glad.

(CHORUS)


I wrote this about equity and access to online educational opportunities in rural vs. urban areas.

Add your own verse....

Reflecting on Sputnik

"The first educational question will not be 'what knowledge is of the most worth?' but 'what kind of humans beings do we want to produce?"

-- John Goodlad, director of The Center for Educational Renewal, University of Washington

Educational reform or educational renewal? Goodlad delineates the difference in the following article. Which approach do you prefer?

Reflecting on Sputnik: Linking the Past, Present, and Future of Educational Reform
Beyond McSchool: A Challenge to Educational Leadership

Grim Prospects

"We are engaged in a grim duel. We are beginning to recognize the threat to American technical supremacy which could materialize if ___________ succeeds in its ambitious program of achieving world scientific and engineering supremacy by turning out vast numbers of well-trained scientists and engineers...We have let our educational problem grow much too big for comfort and safety. We are beginning to see now that we must solve it without delay."

Anyone care to guess who said this, when it was said, and to what country he is referring?

Hint: It is not China, India . . . or even Japan.

Thoughts?

"Playing with Time"

Playing with Time is a great site for learning about the possibilities in time-lapse photography.

A neat piece of software for time-lapse video is call iStopMotion. Try the demo to see what you think.

Other Links:

Create a Time-Lapse Movie
CreativeTech: Create Time-lapse Videos with iMovie HD
Time Lapse Photography in Education

Will Transliteracy Be Coming to Maine?

by Ernie Easter

I read David Warlick's 2 Cents Worth this morning and was struck by his comment about transliteracy.

From David Warlick 2 Cents on 11/9/07

"I continue to be encouraged by the momentum that seems to be building toward modernizing classrooms with technology, but focusing on the why, and fueling with information and information skills. I opened up my chat program for the workshops yesterday, and someone who signed in as ASaylor started with a comment, “transliteracy is the topic.“ I’m still rolling this one around in my mind, but, according to the Production and Research in Transliteracy group blog,

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks."

I've always been uncomfortable with the concept of “digital literacy” - feeling that something was missing as I've taught and discussed this concept with my class of 7th and 8th graders. It has always seemed to me that students (and their teachers) need to be more than just literate in today's digital world. It is the concept of the ability to “interact across a range of platforms, tools, and media” that I skirted with without being able to identify or articulate it.

This concept of transliteracy piqued my interest, but will it be the next development that pushes the envelope and causes some teachers to expand their ideas while simultaneously threatening to overwhelm others?

For further reading and discussion about Transliteracy see Production and Research in Transliteracy and Participatory Media Literacy

Ernie Easter
7th and 8th Grade Teacher
New Sweden School
New Sweden, Maine

New Sweden Student Exhibits at Maine Memory Network

Student-Led Conferences

I've been a fan of student-led conferences since the first time I used it as a fifth grade teacher. Until that time I had no idea of the power of this simple approach. Of course, like anything, preparation and practice make all the difference. Here is some background information:


Student Led Conferences
The Highs and Lows of Parent-Teacher Conferences
Student-Led Conference

What is your experience with student-led conferences?


TLC, itziane's photostream. 7 Mar 2007. 12 April 2007 <http://http://flickr.com/photos/fitziane/456273432/>.