Internet Opens Elite Colleges to All (aka Thing 14 ROR)

Colleagues-I would like you to read the following article: Internet Opens Elite Colleges to All by Justin Pope at: http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/M/MEGAUNIVERSITY_WORLD_CLASSROOM?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-12-29-12-49-41

I learned that the it is has been a long time in the works for the world's top universities to finally get on board with online education. Now a person can go online to learn more through open coursware. The following two paragraphs in the article really caught my attention:

As with many technology trends, new services and platforms are driving change. Last spring marked the debut of "iTunes U," a section of Apple's popular music and video downloading service now publicly hosting free material from 28 colleges. Meanwhile, the University of California, Berkeley recently announced it would be the first to make full course lectures available on YouTube. Berkeley was already posting lectures, but YouTube has dramatically expanded their reach.

If there isn't yet something for everyone, it's only a matter of time. On iTunes, popular recent downloads include a climate change panel at Stanford, lectures on existentialism by Cal-Berkeley professor Hubert Dreyfus, and a performance of Mozart's requiem by the Duke Chapel Choir. Berkeley's offerings include 48 classes, from "Engineering Thermodynamics" to "Human Emotion."

Like the experiences we are having in our information literacy cohort, it seems that not only secondary education but higher education is also changing due as a result of the Internet. That anyone can now go online to pick a lecture they are interested in hearing and viewing to learn more about a particular topic-is amazing. Apparently what is happening at Berkeley is catching on as further in the article it mentions that their eight YouTube courses drew 1.5 million downloads in the first month. The first month? Amazing. What will be the long term implications of the use of technology and highter ed? How might this change or otherwise alter the style and methodology of instructors? What about how people learn? The more I think about this the more mind boggling I find it.

For an example of these programs check out the one at MIT: http://ocw.mit.edu/ I also need to check it out.

In the meantime . . ."Happy New Year!!" I hope that all of you have a great 2008! I know you will wish me the same!

Blogger reaction ramblings. . .

Colleagues-I have had a wonderful Holiday break. However, in regards to Bloglines, I still do not know how to reply to peoples blogs. We have such a great group of colleagues in our Information Literacy cohort but I cannot resist not wanting to reply to a few people. The problem is I can't figure it out. If someone can let me know-please do so. Otherwise I will check with LMC Lady next week.

I do need to reply to two people:

Lindsay (I think) aka Lindsay's 23 and Brad aka twentytreetings

First Lindsay:

I agree wholeheartedly with Lindsay when she states that she has learned so much already about technology due to her participation in this program. I have too! I didn't know how to navigate this much with technology before all of this. The transfer of some of this technology based information that I have learned to my students has been beneficial to them as well . . . I hope. I also like Lindsay's analogy of the acquisition of technology to dance. My interpretation is then when Lindsay dances she learns through trial and error. Not knowing how to dance, my guess it is "One step at a time" as they say. Lindsay has pointed out that this is a similar experience when learning how to navigate through all of this new technology that none of grew up with and have no prior (or little) prior knowledge of. Thanks for "The Last December Postings" Lindsay!

Brad:
Message to Brad: Hello? Drop the dial up access. Do you know how unrealistic it is to be fooling around with that in this day and age? My understanding is that the software and hardware we use is at its optimal best with either DSL or Cable. In both cases, their high-speed is no match for dial up and never will be. I have talked to many people who have had nothing but frustration with dial-up at home. Do you really have time to wait and wait to do things on-line? Not to mention the fact that you tie up the line for people trying to contact you via your land line. So PLEASE consider the switch as it is money well spent. The fact that you will feel better about technology, your participation in the Information Literacy cohort you are in, and your computer and projector.
Go to: http://www.qwest.com/residential/internet/special_offers.html Try it for 30 days. If you are not completely satisfied you can cancel with no further obligations. Also see below:

KEEP A LOW $26.99/MO. PRICE FOR LIFE Sign up now and keep this price for the life of your Internet service with a two-year commitment, or get this price for one year with no commitment. Get up to 1.5Mbps — 25 times faster download speed than 56Kbps dial-up — for $26.99 a month. (When bundled with a qualifying home phone package, $31.99 a month without).

I am very happy with Qwest DSL. It is not as expensive as Comcast's high speed cable but it is a bit easier on the pocketbook. It is also much faster than dial-up. I know that LMC Lady is happy with hers as well.

Best wishes to all of you! "Happy New Year 2008!"

Thing # 8 Dribbling lessons

I was thrilled to see that there is a Dribbling content areas lesson for the social studies. Social studies frequently takes a back seat to math and science at the secondary level unfortunately. This is not the case however with Metronet. I am in the process of creating a lesson with my Hmong History and Culture class which will hopefully make the same real-world connections between students and their community and achieve the same goals that the MN Department of Education has set. To that end, I will blog my results as soon as I have them.

On a separate note, I recommend to SPPS staff that they check out the the recentSPPS bulletin (12 14) to staff regarding titled Healthy Alternatives to Chairs and Desks. The Mayo Clinic's obesity reseacher Dr. James Levine has developed several concepts after two decades of international research. Among other things he recommends: Video-streamed pod-casting as a teaching aid. So the distribution of pod casts as school lessons seems to really be gaining speed. The question I have is will the use of podcasts encourage our students to continue to reinforce television and related media as the only source of gathering information and in lieu of reading books, textbooks and otherwise.

Thing #19 Audio: Steve and Audio Podcasts

According to Wikipedia ". . . a podcast is a digital media file, or a related collection of such files, which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. The term, like "radio", can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or authorof a podcast is often called a podcaster."

Being a Social Studies teacher and a student of History, I love all things U.S. History. I am also a follower of the Gilder Lehrman Institute but never took advantage of the podcasts they offered. In fact, until I became involved with the Information Literacy Initiative I did not know what a podcast was. Then a few weeks ago on staff development day, Leslie came over to como to share with staff some information on podcasts and podcasting. Even after that it was still a bit fuzzy in my head. Well early this morning (about 2:00 a.m.)I woke up and was wide awake. So what better thing to do then learn new things about the equipment we were given-in bed! I went to the Audio Podcast from the Gilder Lehrman Institute and listened to an audio podcast created on 2-28-07 by one of my favorite contemporary historians and featured lecturer at The G.L. Inst.-Doris Kearns Goodwin. The lecture? Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. I LOVED it! I learned so much and did not have any distractions-just a dark room, my earbuds on, and my mind back in the 19th century. In summary I learned that in in today's information age when presidential candidates are vetted through the media-one wonders if we will ever see the likes of an Abraham Lincoln again!

I definately will be listening and watching podcasts in the future. If for no other reason than to learn more about history. Upcoming podcasts at G.L. include lectures by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Gordon Wood, among others. You might check out: www.gilderlehrman.org

Lastly, I do have one question. Are YouTube and CNN vidoe clips I enjoy viewing podcasts? I don't know.

Thanks LMC Lady # 11 and more . . .

I finally met with colleague LMC Lady aka CPSHS Librarian Linda (LL-cool eh?) Wise and we went over some very helpful and important information about Google: How to conduct an advance search option to narrow down information that students are looking for; the domains of .edu, .org, and .gov . . . these may have more reliable information than always defaulting to .com; I also picked up on information regarding the link to organize information by asking a question of Google and hence make researching easier. For example -"the year of the Indian Removal Act was"; lastly the cool "cached" option that allows students to highlight key words and/or phrases in long text, etc. So thanks Lady LMC!

CYBER MONDAY!
How many of you went shopping online yesterday? Did you know that Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday? Have you ever been to: www.cybermonday.com ? It is the unofficial holiday kick-off of the online-shopping season in the US. So instead of the brick and mortar shopping did you warm up that computer . . . and burn up that wallet? For my part, I shopped on-line last week at Amazon.com and dropped a cool 75.00. on books for our Association. I guess I jumped started Cyber Monday. . . unlike Black Friday. Have you ever foughtI was crowds in downtown Chicago the day after Thanksgiving? I don't know which I could not stand more-throngs of shoppers or the PETA crowds marching along State street protesting the use of animal made products in shoes and clothing! Only in America though . . .

Have a good week all!

Postings- I just found them the other day . . .

I have recently taken the time to create two thoughtful posts, only to lose them in cyberspace. So suffice to say I have been discouraged somewhat. That said, I am going to very briefly summarize a few recent tech events:





11-13 I was sick and unable to learn more about what is available in regards to Google but look forward to rescheduling this with our librarian, Linda.





11-14 Information Literacy meeting aka Mili meeting-it was good to learn of the number of educational sites available to SPPS staff. I especially liked partnering up with a district colleague and learning more about Groliers.





11-19 This was a great Urban Planet workshop with Leslie. We learned the very basics of how to manage our very own school website. I need lots of practice for proficiency here but I look forward to the challenge.





Well I must close. It has been the very best of Thanksgiving weekends! I wonder if had anything to with the fact that I left town for a few days and not much of a care in the world. We need those some days . . .

Lost It! aka Thing 14

I am mad. Yesterday I wrote a great blog singing the praise of the productivity of our our 11-14 Mili Meeting. I worked collaboratively with a fellow district colleague analyzing the pro and cons of one of our SPPS Online Learning Resources-Groliers. I share all of this in a post yesterday and somehow I lost it in cyberspace. So this blog is much shorter. Let me just reiterate that I thoroughly enjoyed AND appreciated the Info. Literacy aka Mili meeting of 11-14.



One more thing . . .tonight CPSHS offered an Urban Planet training so that staff can set up their own school web page. Very cool. I look forward to working more with Urban Planet because this really is an invaluable tech tool!

The November 14 Mili Meeting aka Thing 14

I really must say how productive the Mili meeting was on 11-14. I really like the hands on format and the collaborative work we did. We worked with Grolier's Online. While our Librarian in the LRC had exposed us to the world of Groliers at least two years ago, 11-14 provided us with time to really analyze it more. I feel that while still overwhelmed, Groliers and the other online learning resources we were exposed to will continue to encourage and indeed reinforce me to work with technology AND students in a more efficient way in regards to online research. I did also register for the passcode for Unitedstreaming (with a little help from LRC librarian Linda) on Thursday as well! Whew! Oh . . . and how very handy to have the laptop at conferences! Very good!

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives

Today was an interesting one in regard to the use of technonolgy. I sent my Hmong Culture and society students to: www.cia.gov for lots of great information on the country of China. I am teaching a two week unit on China and the technology timing could not be better. I was able to share information at the CIA and also share some other websites. Things go so much faster at in the computer lab if one can first demonstrate with the use of a computer and projector.

In my history classes I shared a wonderful short dvd piece that was produced by American Family Insurance called Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives. Very good. It visually cited people who overcame hurdles and went on to do great things. Included were Michael Jordon, Michelle Kwan, and Henry Ford to name a few. Students in all classes wanted to see this approximately four minute piece-twice. I believe the "big scree" appeal was one reason but not the only one. Everyday seems a new techy adventure. I am fortunate to be able to share these great things!

This and that with technology

For about a year now I have had an opportunity to dabble with the use of an LCD projector now and again. Well now that I have one to use all the time, I increasingly use my software that accompanies The Americans the district textbook for teaching U.S. History. Every chapter and section has pre-fabricated power points that are very cool. BUT. . .you can also create your own power-points if you know how and use them with their template. So I am excited to learn as I just had my first exposure to power point at last Friday's staff development day. I need to look more closely to see if these are one of our Things too! I desperately want to learn how to use power point.

And still loving the wirelessness of my laptop in my condo! See everyone tomorrow!

More thoughts on information literacy and technology

Several things I would like to ramble on about briefly


Tuesday, November 6 (Election Day)



Several weeks ago I was asked to be the building coordinator of the on-line version of Kids Voting (check out http://www.vote.spps.org/) this year at Como Park. From the get-go I had the sense that most staff were probably not to enthused as to bring their students to vote in our computer lab at Como Park Senior on Election Day. Non Social Studies teachers (unfortunately) really don't make connections with their classes and the need for Civic involvement and responsibility in many cases in my opinion. It is like me not getting all worked up about "green" stuff like Global Warming, etc. in my classes and Advisory.



After about one or two weeks I decided to move participation into the relm of Social Studies teachers. I requested that they send their students to the computer lab during their respective classes. I received no opposition to this at all in the days since my request was made. Well come right before Election Day (a day or two before) sure enough, there were several reasons why my Social Studies colleagues could not bring students to the lab to vote. So I "let go" and brought my students. A few other colleagues did as well. It seems that Como Park's participation mirred that of other high schools. See below:



'Kids Voting St. Paul' mock election has its lowest turnout ever

Pioneer Press

Article Last Updated: 11/07/2007 12:36:24 AM CST
First-time candidate Keith Hardy got the most votes for school board, and fellow newcomer Kevin Riach edged incumbent Tom Conlon in the Kids Voting St. Paul mock election Tuesday. Melvin Carter was the top vote-getter among City Council candidates.
A bit more than 3,000 secondary students in district and charter middle and high schools participated Tuesday. The voting was done online at school sites.
This year's turnout - about 17 percent - was the lowest ever for Kids Voting St. Paul, executive director Roger Barr said. It's hard to generate interest among students - or their parents - in a year where there are only local races and no mayoral contest, he said. "I think our turnout is going to mirror the city turnout."
Kids Voting St. Paul, which was formed in 2000, is a chapter of Kids Voting USA, which seeks to educate K-12 students about the electoral process and allows them to vote in simulated elections.
The students' picks for the board were Hardy (2,089 votes), incumbent Kazoua Kong-Thao (1,835), incumbent Anne Carroll (1,493) and Riach (1,098). The four not making the cut were Conlon (1,045 votes), David Peterson (936), Jennette Gudgel (831) and Bernard Ruppert (790).
The City Council results were as follows:
Ward 1: Melvin Carter, 431; Debbie Montgomery, 69
Ward 2: Bill Hosko, 286; Dave Thune, 140
Ward 3: Pat Harris, 340; Gerald Mischke, 107
Ward 4: Russ Stark, 190; Terrance Bushard, 60
Ward 5: Lee Helgen, 208; David Haas,





So the bottom line is that I will try to market Kids Voting more in advance next year. I do think I will run it again through the Social Studies classes. Additionally, I am well aware that there will be much more excitement furing a next year's election because it is a "Presidential" year.





The last few items briefly:



Friday, November 9 (Staff Development Day)



I took crash courses on how to create a Power Point (I have lots to learn) and how to create a Podcast (sorry I had to leave early Leslie). Then I showed interested staff how to put music onto a computer from a cd and then transfer it from the computer library and load onto an IPod. This was a bit challenging because I have loved owning an IPod but much of my musica was initially put onto the machine by a former student. My participation Friday reinforced my skills in how to do this.



Friday evening I purchased a Microsoft LifeCamVX-6000 camera for my computer AND A Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router. Now I can see my friends "real time" that I correspond with in Vietnam on my desktop computer AND I can go wireless with the MacBook all over my condo. Very cool toys/accomodations. . .expensive but cool.



Whew! This has been the week of technology!



Bye for now!

Thing # 10 Google/You Tube

Well I took the real You Tube plunge this weekend. You see I have shown students some You Tube clips in recent weeks including Shift Happens, and some campaign '08 soundbites from the candidates on their Road to the White House trail. I found out (at home this weekend) that some You Tube searches could not be viewed due to the mature nature of the subject entered into their search engine. This led me to registering (and creating a User Name and Password) with You Tube so I can access those. I do feel however that I cannot and will not show any You Tube clip requiring me to log-in. This means the due to the mature subject matter my audience at school is too young and thus it is inappropriate. This makes sense to me perfectly. Additionally, I would never share a clip with students before viewing it first myself.


Lastly, why can't we share video clips from CNN? Frequently they have the clips I really want to share but cannot show at school due to the firewall that has been put up in SPPS to block their videos.

In any case, it is all very informative and also important for me to continue to learn how these search engines work. Also we all might want to discuss the nature of ethics and the appropriate use of these videos in our school.

Thing #4 Getting to Know My Public Library

What is your experience with public libraries and librarians? Long time user? Scared away by mean librarian in your youth?
My affiliation with the Saint Paul Public Libries goes all the way back to my childhood days. I used to regularly go to the old Hayden Heights Branch Public Library (now the House of Clocks?) at Arlington and White Bear Ave. Scared away by a mean librarian? On the contrary. I remember how kind and gentle Mrs. Kramer was to me. I can even remember telling her how excited I was to get ready to take my big trip to California (1975). She in turn would tell me different stories or otherwise assist me.

What would you improve about your library and its services?
I would not change a thing. You see my library for some years has been the Lexington Branch Library. Now a new library Rondo Community Libary has replaced it. I would not change a thing that I can tell thus far. It is a great library! The only thing I have misgivings about is selling food and treats in it! I don't think I agree with that. But it is a great library and under the fine direction of Alice Neve.


How do you use your public library to support your teaching?
Mainly checking out dvd's or videos. I do also use their books from time to time. I also like to go there with the laptop and take advantage of the free wi-fi service. Though today it was down.

Thanks for reading!

I appreciate everyone's patience. I am still trying to feel my way around blogger.com, bloglines. com etc. I get so terribly tired of pin numbers and passwordss. Life seemed so much less complicated before. In any case expect to hear lots more from me!

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