Inspired?
Add comment Posted in 1 August 19, 2009
Native Americans in Jamestown
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/YrIJ3MvlZ70" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Add comment Posted in Uncategorized August 29, 2007
Gcast
Add comment Posted in Uncategorized March 19, 2007
Communication: What is the Best Tool?
An explosion in communication tools is spreading as technology springs forward. There have been many tools for much of human existence, so in a sense nothing is really new. Yet communication streams and networks are in rapid
transformation. New vehicles for exchange include blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, and wikis, with more on the way- each with potential for variable distribution or containment.
What is the best tool? Well, obviously it depends on the content of the message and plans to extend the content or broadcast it. But fundamentally, an agreement to communicate with a given tool set is the primary determinant of communication quality. Tin cans and string work better than other options if that is what the parties wish to use.
It is not unusual for people to say, “I don’t check my email.”
It is not uncommon for people, even ones who know each other, to walk past one another.
The fundamental question is, “Do we want to communicate?” All too often, the answer based on the evidence is negative. And then what are we saying?
But the trend is hopeful, leading toward more articulate and varied communication using new communication and networking tools and information resources. Young people are linking with friends near and far, learning to callaborate around common interests. Many of us are building personal learning communities, and creating relationships that formenrly could not exist due to geography.
Add comment Posted in fun ,Uncategorized January 29, 2007
A Ramp to Learning: Text to Speech
I believe tools like text-to-speech can open things up for ALL learners.
Imagine what it would be like if computers could be set to speak text easily. Reading difficulties and vision impairments would be much less of an obstacle to learning. This option is now available on Macintosh computers running OS X (ten), and the capability can also be easily added to Windows computers. Students can then have text in front of them on a monitor and easily make the computer speak the text.
To enable this feature in OS 10.4:
• Open “System Preferences”
• Open “Speech”
• Click on the “Text to Speech” tab
• Check the box beside “Speak selected text when the key is pressed”
• Close the “System Preferences” window
Now, just highlighting text and pressing the Apple-period key combination will start the computer speaking.
To obtain the feature in Windows, go to www.readplease.com and download the free software. You will need to copy the text, paste it into a place in the ReadPlease software, and press “Play.”
Add comment Posted in Uncategorized January 16, 2007
Just to Round Things Out- Is the World Flat, or Will We Let it Grow Drab?
This is my take on Thomas Friedman’s book. Let me know what you think by commenting.
I have been listening to Tom Friedman’s book on my iPod as I bump around the house. While the waves of flattening he describes are as relentless as the ocean’s, part of me is inclined to see the flattening as gray, dull and drab. For those unfamiliar with his book, he illuminates many technology driven trends which are rapidly changing our economies and relationships, rendering them independent of geography. He heralds the opportunities “flattening” offers, and cautions about the risks. Being both a natural optimist and a tecnology afficianado, I find myself in a bind; I like the color of a culturally differentiated world. I don’t want to be flattened.
One aspect this flattening takes on is a corrupting militarization of schooling summed up by a local school official who recently declared that we are “in a global economic war with our classrooms the battlefield.” There is an erosion of educational values associated with Friedman’s flattening. While Yeats wrote that “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”, No Child Left Behind is about the filling of pails. The full pails seem to have the outcome, if not intent, of extinguishing many a fire.
This is not as it need be, given many of the the same flatteners at which Friedman gazes. Smartboards, blogs, and innumerable other applications of technology to education offer opportunities for unparalleled engagement and productivity in our schools, personal and social lives.
1 comment Posted in Uncategorized January 16, 2007
Second Grade Communities Blog Project
We have kicked off a great project at http://kidscom.wordpress.com where students can display some drawings and writing related to their communities and then get comments. The commenting has been going well, and I am particularly excited to see if we can grow this and some similar projects to, as Will Richardson says, “give the students’ work some wings.”
If you are reading this, hop over to that blog and make a comment. (Note: your comment will not appear until approved; comments are moderated.)
Add comment Posted in Uncategorized January 10, 2007
