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!