למידה, אינטרנט ... ומה שביניהם

• check Google Street View when they're not home to make sure their house is not on fire
• They can only type with two thumbs, but they don't care, because typing is for old people
• They believe whatever google tells them to believe

I asked students how many of them thought they would be likely to subscribe to a daily newspaper when they grew up. About 70% of the hands went up, which took me aback a bit. I asked students why they thought they would prefer (or already do prefer) reading their news in print instead of online. As they started talking, I realized how relevant some of their comments were to the discussions I’m having with other teachers and ed tech types. So out came the Flip and I captured the rest of the conversation...

תוויות: דיגיטאליות, נייר

So this year, one of my students suggested we try to level the playing field a bit. And so, as a class, we started scouring the Web for good info about the Celts themselves. We found bits of folktales and records of archaeological digs, we unearthed ancient artworks and explored even more ancient mythologies.

You might find some of the annotations to be a bit bland or too general. That's fine: go ahead and scrub 'em out and write your own. A wiki is only as useful as its readership is vigilant.

You may find the rating system a bit limited (as we only allowed sites that scored a '3' or better in our class discussions); so perhaps you will change that or find a better solution.

Perhaps you'll do any or all of these things. Because wikis aren't just about information; they are about the constructive argument that unfolds in the process of making decisions.

תוויות: ויקי, מידענות, ספרי לימוד

The challenge I think, is to educationally consider the culture being recorded in these mediascapes, in such a way so as to ask let alone answer more than the obvious questions. The obvious (and pointless) questions are "how can we use these tools to do what we're doing more effectively?" Questions like this miss the bigger issue. In depth engagement with social media seems to lead many educators to the question, "is what I am doing even relevant anymore? what is my new relationship to this culture - if it becomes dominant in my society?" Journalism has asked itself, the entertainment industry has asked itself, the retail sector has itself, the government arena is asking itself, why not the education sector? So far, too few of us are asking these questions, fewer still are exploring answers.

We (inside the institutions) need to go into social media and networked spaces to find out how it works and what our relationship to it might be. This means having an account on Wikipedia, Youtube, Slideshare, Twitter, uStream and Blogger or Wordpress and engaging with the networks there and at least finding a synergy.

From a management perspective we should stop setting up internal systems that duplicate these cultural mediascapes, and sidetrack our engagement by catering to irrelevant institutional concerns. If the only reason you're using a Learning Management System is to easily manage assessment and feedback, then you're not asking a relevant question. If you haven't stopped to think if an "ePortfilio" service isn't already being offered in the "gift economy" market, then you're not asking if there is even a need beyond our institutional assessment methods. Is there really any benefit to having an internal blogging system beyond brand awareness? Same for a social networking system, or a wiki etc? What do we gain by having our own small and inadequate versions of the wider space?

תוויות: כלי ווב 2.0, פני החינוך

המורה הדגימה באמצעות המקרן כיצד להכנס לספריית כותר וכיצד לפתוח תיקייה על מנת לשמור בתוכה את הפעילויות והתרגול. היא הדגימה כיצד בוחרים נעצים ומקלידים את התשובות במקום המתאים בחוברת.

תגובות התלמידים המתלהבים לא אחרו לבוא: "cool", "שווה", "איזה גדול", "זה כ"כ מגניב"!

תוויות: דיגיטאליות, ספרי לימוד, קריאה

When having audience is no longer novel, simply having one is no longer motivating. We still must help kids have something powerful to say.

Many students still are driven to do well with the knowledge that they have an audience. But this is changing. Now, as many students already have an account at a place like Facebook or YouTube before they come to my classroom, the idea of posting content of your own online is not as novel as it used to be. The idea of having an audience is not as appealing.

Many bloggers seem to take the view that all that matters is numbers: the bigger the audience the better. This lack of discernment and discrimination is both disappointing and, more important, damaging to students' potential achievement. It is essential to make students understand that there is a right audience, and a wrong audience.

תוויות: כתיבה

Beyond the unresolved legal questions, there are philosophical ones. Joseph McDonald, a professor at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University, said the online selling cheapens what teachers do and undermines efforts to build sites where educators freely exchange ideas and lesson plans.

Could this be the beginning of freelance teaching? a return to the time when a teacher found a good spot in the center of town and hung up a sign that said "Great knowledge here. Be enlightened for small fee?" This sounds odd, yes, but think of how easy it is to set up an online portal that tracks student progress, provides immediate feedback, exposes their work to a global audience, and allows for real-time collaboration and communication. It's something we all might be able to create with a web server, a good friend who can code and will work for food and beer, and a little marketing savvy. Is this the future of learning as we know it?

תוויות: הרהורים, פני החינוך

In the comments section of the article, one user posted a single word response referring to a part of a woman's anatomy. Of course, the site's moderators quickly deleted the comment but it soon reappeared - obviously this juvenile was intent on having their say.

Any attempt to manipulate the scientific literature, which can in turn mislead doctors to prescribe treatments that may be ineffective and/or cause harm to their patients, is very troubling.

Arthur L. Caplan, director of the Penn’s Center for Bioethics, said there was a difference in degree, if not in kind, between ghostwriting and plagiarism. Faculty members who sign their names to ghostwritten papers for research credit usually have some agreement with the paper, he said, even if, improperly, they did not write it. Students who plagiarize a paper may know nothing about the subject.

תוויות: אתיקה, העתקה-הדבקה