Inventing Learning

Amazing tool from the Smithsonian

2010-08-11T10:04:00.000-04:00

Okay, so let's say that Piaget, Vygostky, Papert, and others were right, and that knowledge is constructed by our experiences from the world and one another. And, let's say that apart from being a powerful delivery system for gossip and pornography, that the Internet allows, facilitates, and develops these types of learning interactions. You should look at the new tool from the Smithsonian,

It Looks Like Learning to Me

2010-05-09T15:54:00.003-04:00

I just watched this great video of a DJ, Rana Sobhany, demonstrating her new set up featuring 2 iPads.It was certainly great to hear her talk about how she works, and then seeing her work (at least in her house). As I was watching, it made me think about her learning process and how turned on she was. The technology is nothing but a way for her to express herself.So, I thought of my

Tinkering

2010-05-09T15:51:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Cory at Boing Boing, here's a video of a presentation by Geever Tulley on his work. He teachers kids to make things. He even has a book, 50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do.Check it out:

The Commonplace Book and Education

2010-04-27T04:16:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading this piece by Steven Johnson. He posted a talk he recently gave at Columbia's School of Journalism on his blog. He is talking about Commonplace books: In its most customary form, “commonplacing,” as it was called, involved transcribing interesting or inspirational passages from one’s reading, assembling a personalized encyclopedia of quotations. It was a kind of

Dan Meyer and Developing Patient Problem Solving

2010-04-22T05:56:00.000-04:00

I just saw this video (thanks to O'Reilly Radar). It features a math teacher, Dan Meyer, talking about how to interrupt the impatient problem solving fostered by textbooks and developing patient problem solving in his (and our) students. The talk is amazing. I especially appreciated his take on using media and social media to create powerful learning opportunities. And check out Dan's blog.

Blogging in a Living Room in Cuba

2010-04-10T08:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning, NPR ran this story about a woman in Cuba who has established a school -- she calls it a blogging academy -- in her living room. Twice a week, Yoani Sanchez transforms the living room of her small Havana high-rise apartment into what she calls the Blogger Academy. About 30 students cram inside to learn how to use WordPress, Wikipedia and the other tools of a digital

Leaders and Followers

2010-04-06T17:55:00.000-04:00

What can we learn from this about our classrooms?

Clay Shirky and Complexity

2010-04-05T10:41:00.003-04:00

Okay, first, it's been a million years since the last post. I have been involved with my doctoral research and generally way too busy. Nevertheless, it seems time to get back to work.Thanks to Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing, I found this article/broadside by Clay Shirky. He talks about complex systems generating more complexity until there is a collapse:When ecosystems change and inflexible

The Machine is Us/ing Us

2009-05-09T11:25:00.000-04:00

Again, just watch!

Anthropology of You Tube

2009-05-09T11:22:00.000-04:00

It's simple: just watch!

A Different Kind of Distance Learning (and Teaching)

2009-04-24T06:05:00.000-04:00

I recently saw this piece in Ode Magazine that talked about people from Guatemala providing online language instruction via the internet. Twice a week, Margo Griffin, who lives in Denver, Colorado, has a one-on-one Spanish lesson with her teacher, Mayra Juárez, who lives miles and miles away, in Antigua, Guatemala. Both attend from the comfort of their homes via the Internet, a webcam and an

Telekinetic Twittering

2009-04-24T05:59:00.000-04:00

Here on CNN.com is a very cool article about people being able to Twitter by just thinking. Wilson, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering, was confirming an announcement he had made two weeks earlier -- his lab had developed a way to post messages on Twitter using electrical impulses generated by thought.

Testing Out SlideRocket

2009-04-21T23:18:00.002-04:00

I have been playing with a new Web 2.0 presentation tool called SlideRocket. It is pretty slick and pretty easy to use. Here is a presentation I put together.

Now THIS is Digital Storytelling

2009-04-21T20:48:00.003-04:00

Digital Storytelling

2009-04-11T12:14:00.002-04:00

This morning, I found this amazing presentation about using Digital Storytelling with students via the Fireside Learning Community. Check it out. Digital Storytelling Presentation

Little Bloggers

2009-04-08T11:46:00.002-04:00

The blog Rising Voices recently posted a story about children in Uruguay being trained to blog using their XO Laptops. Pablo Flores of Ceibal, the governmental organization in charge of distributing OLPC laptops in Uruguay, will organize a series of workshops which will gather national and international bloggers with the young laptop-toting students to show them how to set up a blog and take

Extreme Collaboration

2009-04-06T08:45:00.000-04:00

The New York Times has a nice piece today about a group of elementary school students who played chess with an astronaut on the International Space Station. After their game, and after he returned to Earth, they all met to talk about the experience. Now, that's extreme collaboration via technology!

Analog Blogging

2009-04-05T20:40:00.000-04:00

It is now so important to be connected via wired and wireless devices. We can, for example, blog from our desktops, laptops, cell phones, Blackberry devices. In the office, at home, in libraries, in coffee shots, on the subway, etc. And this is assuming that blogging is fast enough for our communication needs. But, what if you were in a non-connected place and wanted to comment on the world

The Odyssey on Twitter

2009-04-05T20:35:00.000-04:00

This is really clever. A guy named Eric Alt re-imagined the Odyssey if Odysseus had been sending updates via Twitter. Here is an example: Here's a link.

Cool Science Classroom

2009-03-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

The Scientist recently reported about a high school science teacher who is doing incredible things with Web 2.0 tools, especially blogs and podcasts, with her biology students. Check out the article here. Check out this science teacher's work here.

Tweeting Surgery

2009-02-28T05:05:00.000-05:00

CNN.com recently posted this story of a surgeon who Twittered during a complex surgery. It make me wonder how I might use Twitter as a teacher. Any ideas?

You are Here?

2009-02-17T18:19:00.000-05:00

An article in today's New York Times talks about the extensive use of maps as tools in various cell phone/SmartPhone applications:It has been 25 years since the desktop, with its files and folders, was introduced as a way to think about what went on inside a personal computer. The World Wide Web brought other ways of imagining the flow of data. With the dominance of the cellphone, a new metaphor

This is a phone? This is a computer?

2009-02-05T19:56:00.015-05:00

David Pogue had a nice piece in the NY Times celebrating a very cool application for the iPhone called Ocarina.The application lets you hold down virtual "holes" and blow into the device (yes, blow). You are able to create music by doing this. Check out the video:But there is another cool feature. I'll let Pogue describe it:If you tap the little globe at the bottom of the screen, the screen

The Wrong Question

2009-02-03T21:28:00.015-05:00

This article reports on a study that looks at the difference in college student performance between students in a traditional Psych 101 class and peers who took the same class online. Here are some results of the study: The online model, the study found, was particularly successful for disadvantaged or underprepared students - low-income students, racial and ethnic minorities, and those with low

I always forget the Read of Read/Write Web

2009-01-31T08:26:00.034-05:00

As I may have shared before, I am a doctoral student at Pace University in Computer Science for Education Professionals.We are currently taking a class in Web 2.0 tools. So far, we have been dealing with blogs, wikis, RSS, and social bookmarking. I have been using these tools with my middle school science students for about 3 years and have been blow away by the work my students have done.While

Nice Model

2008-11-09T14:16:00.003-05:00

I saw this image posted at BoingBoing.An artist put together real objects to model the user interface for Photoshop.Very nice.

Join me

2008-09-30T22:54:00.001-04:00

View my page on Classroom 2.0

Unofficial, metaphorical history of classroom 2.0, Part 1

2008-09-27T11:27:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time (so we are told by those of us inspired and beguiled by Web 2.0) some people talked and others listened, passively.Maybe it was those ancient Druids who made sun cakes for one another in the middle of winter to beg the Sun to return. Maybe it was thoseOr maybe it never really happened. Picture this: a mistral wanders into some Middle Age village with his voice, instrument, and

Did you miss me?

2008-09-27T11:22:00.003-04:00

After a very busy teaching year and my first year as a doctoral candidate, I decided to take the summer almost entirely off. And I was completely off from the blog.In that time, I had some time to reflect on my practice as a teacher as well as my dissertation topic.It seems time to get back to work.

An Amazing Tool

2008-06-22T16:05:00.005-04:00

Earlier today, I ran into Dipity, which is a free tool to create timelines. I can see all kinds of possible uses for my students.One nice feature is that it creates a timeline from blog posts. Here is one from my class blog:Suddenly, what has been a stack of information (which was never intended, at least, to be random, is ordered and tells a story.I feel like I want to use this for all of my

Wireless and Beyond in Education

2008-06-22T12:07:00.002-04:00

Some colleagues are I put together a presentation on innovative uses of wireless technologies in schools. We focused on elementary schools, middle schools, and school administration.Have a look. Let us know what you think.

User created art

2008-06-08T16:52:00.002-04:00

Speaking of giving students a voice, this week the new NPR news show The Takeaway did a piece on some art installations that directly involved the voices of the audience.One of the exhibits is an installation in Queens.... visitors to Olafur Eliasson’s "Take Your Time” exhibit at P.S. 1 in Queens can don cellphone cameras and document their movements through the exhibit, in turn becoming part of

Gmail Labs and Classrooms

2008-06-08T15:41:00.004-04:00

The Bits blog at the New York Times had an interesting piece the other day. Entitled "The Hidden Danger of Gmail Labs," it described another Google initiative, where regular folks can develop software connected to Gmail and have it pushed to those interested.The blog discussed the archetypal conflict between freedom and chaos which seems to be the hallmark of Web 2.0. I mean, what does happen/

Newsrooms and Classrooms

2008-06-01T20:28:00.002-04:00

I heard an interesting story on NPR's On the Media todayThe theme of this week's show was the physical newsroom, and the particular story dealt with two responses to changes in the newsroom.One part that was very interesting talked about technology, especially computers, has changed the soundscape of the newsroom. Once noisy, with the clacking of typewriters and phones and other equipment, they

What if it's true?

2008-05-26T13:52:00.003-04:00

A recent article in eSchoolNews discusses the top searches performed by students in about 20,000 U.S. schools. These schools use a search engine called Net Trekker to catalog their students' web search queries.According to the article, here are the top 15 searches being performed by students in these schools:1. Games2. Dogs3. Animals4. Civil War5. George Washington6. Holocaust7. Abraham Lincoln8.

NYSCATE Ning Social Network

2008-05-18T17:58:00.003-04:00

A NYSCATE member, Brian C. Smith, has started a Ning social network which aims to bring together a community engaged in NYSCATE's work and mission.You can check it out here.

NYSCATE 2008 Metro Conference Presentation

2008-05-18T12:59:00.003-04:00

Here is the slideshow from my NYSCATE 2008 Metro Conference Presentation, entitled "What Happens When Students are Given a Voice?" | View | Upload your own

NYSCATE 2008 Metro Conference

2008-05-18T10:47:00.004-04:00

I was fortunate enough to present at and attend the NYSCATE 2008 Metro Conference this past weekend.I will post later about my presentation (as soon as I have a chance to turn it into a podcast). For now, I just wanted to say how struck I was by presentations that I attended. Here are some highlights:A librarian (and her colleagues) in a Rockland County, New York district came up with a low cost

It may seem strange

2008-04-13T12:37:00.002-04:00

I just saw this commercial for Cisco (well, I saw the English language version, but YouTube only had this Italian version).I don't care that much about Cisco and I don't care that much about skateboarding. But I do care about the possibility of using technology for collaboration. Now, as you are watching, replace the skateboard with ANYTHING from our curricula or learning environment.What happens

A Cool Tool

2008-04-06T19:25:00.003-04:00

Thanks to the folks at AcademHack, I have been playing around with Evernote, a combination desktop/web tool for capturing and managing notes of all types. You can add tags (of course). You can search and collect all kinds of notes, pictures, sounds, etc. It can search for words within pictures. The biggest thing for me, however, was watching the getting started video. As I watched it, I thought

Who says?

2008-03-16T21:04:00.003-04:00

I know that it seems to be common knowledge that state-mandated curricula and assessments mean we can't really teach the thinks we all believe are important -- like critical thinking and communication (thanks Alan November whom I got to hear at TechExpo 2008).Here's someone (else) who is willing to question common knowledge. Check it out. It is great.

Engagement

2008-03-09T09:55:00.002-04:00

Geekymomma had a recent post about 21st century learners which was definitely worth reading.Here's part of what she said:The difficult part is where teachers have to come out of their comfort zones. I've taught a few classes for some local college "education technology" classes and the instructors usually ask me to teach their students about the "stuff" we have and how to use it. I'm often

Two Million Minutes

2008-03-02T13:02:00.003-05:00

Here is the trailer for a film called "Two Million Minutes."From the makers:Regardless of nationality, as soon as a student completes the eighth grade -- they have just Two Million Minutes to prepare for college and ultimately a career.This important documentary examines how students in India and China are being better prepared than American students to compete in a flattening world.

People Power

2008-03-02T10:55:00.004-05:00

An ongoing question for me continues to be: "What happens when people are given a voice?"I ask it often of myself about my students in a middle school science classroom. But the power of the internet to allow for easy, free collaboration and networking takes the question to an entirely new level.This week, NPR's series On the Media interviews Clay Shirky, who has just published a book called

Constructivism with Pete Seeger

2008-02-23T20:14:00.006-05:00

This weekend I heard Pete Seeger interviewed on Bob Edwards Weekend (thanks to the folks at PRI and XM Radio).During the interview, Seeger mentioned two anecdotes that were all about education (at least to me).1. He talked about Woody Guthrie and the composition of "This Land is Your Land." He said that the song never ended up on the radio. It ended up being shared by teachers in schools with

One from many or Many from many?

2008-02-10T21:11:00.000-05:00

Scott McLeod recently published an interesting set of diagrams on his Dangerously Irrelevant blog (which is incredibly worth reading, by the way). He uses them to tell a story.The story he wants to tell is about what seems to most effectively contribute to a creative economy.I certainly agree with him, but saw them as telling another story as well. I saw them as depicting the ends of a spectrum

Buy this Book! Now!

2008-02-03T21:24:00.000-05:00

I am three chapters into the new book, Reinventing Project-Based Learning by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss. Here is a link to their blog. It is essential reading for any one of us interested in bringing Web 2.0 and other technological tools into our classrooms and schools in order to give student opportunities for authentic learning. You know how ideas sometime quietly get under your skin and just

Some amazing art

2008-01-28T13:27:00.000-05:00

A colleague shared some of Peter Callesen's art with me today.In some of it, he creates 3-dimension paper sculptures. The rule is that each one is made from only one piece of paper.There's an example of one above.Here is what the artist says about his work:My paper works have lately been based around an exploration of the relationship between two and three dimensionality. I find this

An example of what can happen

2008-01-19T21:57:00.000-05:00

As had been widely reported, the Library of Congress has launched a pilot program with Flickr. The pilot has placed 3100 of the Library's photo collection with the photo sharing site.Here a report from the Library of Congress blog: Let’s start out with a few statistics, as of last night: • 392,000 views on the photostream • 650,000 views of photos • Adding in set and collection page views,

Social networking as power learning

2008-01-19T12:54:00.001-05:00

This article from the Economist.com looks at some students who are using social networking for learning (as opposed to all the other things they could use it for.Here's great quote:The high schoolers took a more direct approach. They felt that world peace cannot be obtained without global understanding and respect. Working with a German foreign-exchange student, they decided to collaborate on

I'm in love!

2008-01-14T21:38:00.000-05:00

Today, I had a chance to spend some time playing with the XO Laptop (aka, the One Laptop Per Child Laptop).There have been many (and more detailed) reviews/praises/criticisms published, (like the one below from David Pogue) so I'll not try to compete with them.What struck me most was the revolution of the interface. [You can read their interface guidelines here. And check out an online demo here.

A Study on Blogging

2008-01-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

Jeff Felix, a superintendent for a California school district, has completed a study on the use of blogging with K-12 students. Here is a summary (from Jeff) of his findings:The study on teachers in the United States who are using blogging as an instructional practice has finally been completed. The study shows that teachers perceive a significant increase in student learning through motivation

How does learning work?

2008-01-05T10:25:00.000-05:00

This morning my 3 1/2 year old looked at this picture, the cover from the latest issue of Wired.Then, he said, "Look, there's some juice in the snow."It reminded me that we learn new concepts by piggbacking them on what we already know. Then, as we go on, we fix any misconceptions (or they are fixed for us) -- hopefully.

Amazing use of tools to visualize statistics

2008-01-04T22:57:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!Here is a video from TED which shows global health expert Hans Rosling looking at trends in the developed and developing worlds.What he says is cool, for sure.How he says it, using some amazing tools to visualize the statistics is really impressive.What if we did this in our classrooms?What if we taught our students to do this in (and out of our classrooms)?

It may seem strange, but ...

2007-12-13T23:20:00.000-05:00

This year in my science class I have been focusing on designing activities to help the students model and visualize important concepts.So, when I came across this video (thanks to BoingBoing) which demonstrates a software tool for designing plush toys (stuffed animals), it piqued my interest.Enjoy!

Visualizing a technology divide

2007-11-23T11:36:00.001-05:00

The education/technology blog Dangerously Irrelevant has an interesting visual display and analysis of the gap between home and outside of home usage of technology across various constituencies. One of these is students, and so is of interest to me.Here is an interesting analysis:Speaking generally, the people in charge of implementing technology initiatives likely are high users at both home and

The pinata model of learning

2007-11-18T22:25:00.001-05:00

This weekend I got to spend a lot of time with my 3 1/2 year old son. We were talking about his friend's upcoming birthday. His version went something like this:His birthday party is next week. We are going to sing "Happy Birthday" and then he'll blow out the candles. We'll all wear hats. Yours will be pink and mine will be purple...And on and on the story went.Only later, it dawned on me that he

Breaking the Model

2007-11-03T19:39:00.000-04:00

I have been interested in investigating the places where learning happens (and this usually involves technology in some way) that goes beyond our traditional model of education (teachers in classrooms, homework, etc.).Here's some things to report --Will Richardson posted this piece on his blog about ways that he and his wife are trying to extend their children's education:Every Tuesday afternoon

Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom

2007-10-21T14:13:00.000-04:00

Here is a presentation I put together for a workshop I did this week for teachers in my district on Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.The slideshow has clickable links to the various tools I discussed.Enjoy! | View | Upload your own

What if....

2007-10-21T08:27:00.000-04:00

Here is a quote from an interview with Harvard's Harvey Cox on the NPR show, Speaking of Faith.I have a hunch that congregational life is going to move in a more conversational direction — study groups and, I might say, a less kind of pulpit-centered audience format into a way in which people can sort through their concerns and their doubts and their aspirations for other people. Periodically,

Inventing New Boundaries

2007-10-08T22:24:00.000-04:00

I just finished watching the Pre-Conference Keynote for the K-12 Online Conference. The presentation was called "Inventing New Boundaries" and was "assembled" by David Warlick.What can I say? Here is one quote that just knocked me out (I am sure they are not entirely perfect):These digital natives have invisible tenatacles that connect them to the rest of the world. The problem is, when they

A Powerful Video

2007-10-08T22:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a fellow teacher, I was able to watch (and be moved by) this video. It is called "Education 2.0." Here is what the author says:Education used to be about transfer of information from teacher to student. Now there is too much information available in the world. Much of this information is being used by people trying to sell us something: an idea, a product, a political agenda, a way of

One Teacher's Digital World

2007-10-05T02:37:00.000-04:00

Thanks to this article from Education Week's Digital Directions, which is an introduction to the use of wikis by teachers, I found this class/teacher wiki. Ms. D., the teacher, has used the wiki has a bit of a mission statement:The learning community in Mrs. D's classroom will use this collaborative space to connect with each other and create the tools we will use to construct our understanding

An Amazing Class Blog

2007-09-23T18:42:00.000-04:00

I just came across this class blog for an AP Biology class.This (brilliant) teacher has invented a role for the students. They are sherpas, and their jobs (like the actual sherpas in the Himalayas) is to be a guide to the other students and to generally contribute to the learning in the class.What will the sherpa do here? 1. Summarize the day's lesson. 2. Highlight the important points of the

So, what happens next?

2007-09-20T10:38:00.000-04:00

This eSchool News online article reports on a pending breakthrough in extremely low cost computing.... small, California-based company NComputing, predicts that by 2009 many schools will be able to provide their students with portable, online capabilities for as little as $100 each--and perhaps as little as $30 or $40 per user for non-mobile devices. Wireless capacity, says Dukker, should be a

More than a thousand words

2007-09-16T10:11:00.000-04:00

We can talk about the world getting smaller, but here's a video from Google that shows how email goes across the world.P.S. It would make a great class project for something.

He stole the words from my mouth

2007-09-16T09:01:00.000-04:00

I have been talking about blogging in the classroom for over a year.Here is somebody (Mark Franek in the Christian Science Monitor) saying what I have been trying to:My own evolution from Luddite to digital Lazarus has transformed the way I teach in my English class. I used to think that a blog was a large clog in my kitchen sink. Then last year, I took the plunge and required my students to

Does this ring a bell? Stuff from Edutopia

2007-09-14T10:02:00.001-04:00

Two things really hit me as I was reading through the recent issue of Edutopia.The first was an editorial discussing the opportunity this editor sees in what's happening in education. He is responding to this summer's National Educational Computing Conference (NECC).The educational community is filled with innovative thinkers, but sometimes you have to look at the margins to find them. Or just go

Knock Knock Joke

2007-09-10T23:37:00.000-04:00

I have been interested in how it is that we give our students an opportunity to develop not just understanding, but ownership.This afternoon, I listed to my 3 year old niece and her 5 year old brother (try to) tell me "knock knock" jokes. As often happens, they had the pattern, but didn't get the punchline (so to speak).It make me think of what it takes to cross the bridge from knowledge to

An Amazing Tool

2007-09-10T23:00:00.000-04:00

I was catching up on Will Richardson's blog and found a posting about Voicethread. I have just spent a few minutes with it and my head is spinning (in a good way).The idea is this: you can post a photo or photos or other images and then record a voicethread over it. Cool enough. But other users can record voicethreads over the same image, effectively adding a multitude of voices to one images (or

Welcome to the new home

2007-09-10T22:46:00.000-04:00

Welcome.This blog has been around for about a year as Teaching to reach every single student. My goal was to explore the role of various Web 2.0 technologies in education.I am still interested in this topic, along with other issues in education, and will continue the conversation here.Thanks for visiting.