Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
[This is the text of the Toronto Star article from a couple weeks back. They never posted it on their web site, so I thought I'd put it here. Typos are, I think, theirs.]Blog is effective teaching tool -- Education Q&A The Toronto Star
Thu 21 Dec 2006
Page: R05
Section: GTA
Is blogging the new way to help students learn? How can teachers incorporate blogging into their lessons? The Star spoke with Jason Nolan, an assistant professor at the School of Early Childhood Education at Ryerson University, about educational blogging and learning with technology. If you have a question for Nolan, submit it to www.thestar.blogs/education....
Q Could you start by telling us a bit about your research?
A I've been exploring the use of blogging tools in higher education since 2001. After completing a pilot project, and developing an open- source blogging platform called Edublog, the project was put aside because we felt that there wasn't yet the interest in higher education for the wide-scale use of blogs in teaching and learning.
Q How can technology like chat boards and blogging be used by teachers/students?
A In the past we have used bulletin boards and courseware to allow students to discuss topics. The dialogue was always situated around the classroom and the course content. And usually, when the course is over, the content was erased. As with essays and tests, students sometimes ended up with the impression that learning was about performing for the teacher and the class, and not part of a personal exploration of growth and development.
Blogging looks at communication in a different manner. Blogging is all about me. The location of the discussion is on the individual, not the class. As a student blogger, I would write about my personal experiences within the learning moment; how the lectures, discussions in class, readings intertwine with my own reflections and thoughts on the topic. The result is that a blog post can become a unique document of the learning process; one that is particular to each learner.
Blogging in university can become the start of a lifelong learning experience, as the student's blog can follow her from class to class, year to year, and then follow off into the world of work.
When the blog is an academic, personal and social tool for communication, students learn about the variety of ways they can express themselves, and they learn to negotiate between personal, private and public forms of communication. They also get experience, in a safe environment, in controlling the information that is made public about them, which can help keep them safe, but can also help them in their careers.
I use blogs as to learn what my students think is important in the reading, and what I need to focus on in my lectures. In one scenario, I have students write a 350-word blog post on the readings before class. I can skim these posts and pick out any insights or omissions that I would like to take up. I can, at a glance, know that 120 students have done the readings, and, unlike other instructors, I don't have to hope that a significant percentage of students are prepared for class. I can use their blogs as raw material for developing quizzes and exam questions. I can use them as the starting point for research papers. And the blogs become invaluable in identifying potential problems with plagiarism. When you have 12 weeks of writing by a student it is very easy to see if something that appears anomalous in an essay is a problem or not.
Q As a professor of early childhood education, do you believe these technologies can be used with preschoolers?
A Children are keen observers and have a sense of what is important to them; though it can be hard for adults to know what's going on. Digital photography is a great opportunity for them to creatively interact with the world around them, even before they can describe what is interesting to them orally or in writing. Children, even under the age of 3, are able to understand what is worthy of capturing on camera, though their attitudes are somewhat different from adults.
Research suggests that they are less interested in photographing people, framing the shot or even focus, but they are interested in documenting their world; taking pictures of what's important to them. This is often possessions and pets.
Of course, there is the issue of protecting children's information online. However, that does not mean that children cannot express themselves and share that information publicly. In fact, it's very good for children and parents to know from an early age what's appropriate to share online.
© 2006 Torstar Corporation
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
an article on the E-Commerce News site [E-Commerce News: Trends: Generation M's Surprising Struggle With Tech Literacy] about techno-literacy problems with incoming college freshmen. Some schools, like CSU, are planning on including a technology comprehension test alongside their English and Math evaluations for new students.
From the article: "Not all of Generation M can synthesize the loads of information they're accessing, educators say. 'They're geeky, but they don't know what to do with their geekdom,' said Barbara O'Connor, a Sacramento State communications studies professor involved in a nationwide effort to hone students' computer-research skills. On a recent nationwide test to measure their technological 'literacy' -- their ability to use the Internet to complete class assignments -- only 49 percent of the test-takers correctly evaluated a set of Web sites for objectivity, authority and timeliness. Only 35 percent could correctly narrow an overly broad Internet search."
I can't wait to see how this plays out in my senior courses this winter on Children and Technology. I've had a running argument with anyone would didn't run away on what it takes to have a useful level of technoliteracy since I was first a TA around 1990. Knowing how to set up the VCR is nothing in comparison to understanding how to subvert the proscribed functions of the VCR. Merely following a manual is to technoliteracy what phonics is to reading Proust.
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
Nice thing to watch on Christmas day. Instead of opening presents we're watching the docu How the Kids Took Over: "The fight for your children's money & influence." Wonder how I can get this into my course.[related: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood]
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
Nice thing to watch on Christmas day. Instead of opening presents we're watching the docu How the Kids Took Over: "The fight for your children's money & influence." Wonder how I can get this into my course.[related: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood]
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
Nice thing to watch on Christmas day. Instead of opening presents we're watching the docu How the Kids Took Over: "The fight for your children's money & influence." Wonder how I can get this into my course.[related links: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood | Connect for Kids]
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
Updates from Jamacia where our great aunt and uncle have been missing since December 13. It is a night when people often think of people who are not able to be home for the holidays. I sometimes think of my brother. Yuka and I have never met the Lyns, being relations by marriage, but I feel for sMom and grams and family.Jamaica Gleaner News - Search for missing Lyns continues without success - Saturday | December 23, 2006: "The police continued their search without success yesterday for missing Mandeville businessman Richard Lyn and his wife Julia at the Martin's Hill dump in Manchester."
Christmas likely to be dirty for cops in Lyns search
a report that the search has been called off, but with no further information.
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
Originally published at Lemmingworks. You can comment here or there.
"Dr Temple Grandin has a legendary ability to read the animal mind and understand animal behaviour when no one else can. But this is no feat ... all » of telepathy; her explanation is simple. She's convinced she experiences the world much as an animal does and that it's all down to her autistic brain." I've read some about Dr Grandin, and I need to know more.
