There's certainly lots to consider about the subtle effects of the school system, but one of the immediate take aways is the suggestion that increasing persistance and sophistication of surveillance of students will result in an arms race between students and the administration. As schools take ever greater measures to observe and monitor their students, those students reluctant to be a part of such doings, will resort to greater and more underground efforts to avoid detection. Thus, there would appear to be a natural limit to how much policies such as lanyards and closed circuit televisions can curb student behaviour.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Foucault vs. Education
We've attached a link to an article applying the ideas of French philosopher Michel Foucault to education. Much of it is taken from his work on the underlying philosophies of prison systems, Crime and Punish, and it's somewhat scary to consider how similar the two institutions are - however, if you remember that the purpose of education is (considered by some) to be the development of the individual while that of prison is the rehabililation (redevelopment) of a corrupted individual, the analogies become much clearer.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Facebook is the New Outlook
Last week Techcrunch posted a story on the troubles of Microsoft in maintaining it's market position under the headline, "Facebook is the New Outlook". Granted, the Techcrunch article is a lot more about Microsoft, taking Facebook's status as the dominant communication platform among younger online users. This was something our colleagues over that The Daily Wenzel already speculated about.
Why is this important to educators? If Facebook is the new Outlook, where is your District positioned if it still bans student email?
Why is this important to educators? If Facebook is the new Outlook, where is your District positioned if it still bans student email?
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Lessons from Google Chrome and the Changing Landscape of Science Education
As we mentioned last week, we were very interested in what Google Chrome had to offer. Since it's release, it has essentially been our default browser. The user experience has so far been similar to that of Firefox or Safari, but perhaps a little faster, a little more stable, but since we don't really do anything fancy with our browser, it's basically the same. However, Google Chrome has nevertheless provided us with an "Ah-ha!" moment. As part of their backstory, they mentioned how the nature of what a browser does has evolved dramatically over the last few years, and the inherent structure of a web browser was designed to do something different. Imagine the efficiencies, Google asked, if you started from scratch, knowing all the current things a browser had to do.
That idea became particularly poignant yesterday for two reasons:
1. The District server went down yesterday and our office was stunned by how little physical work we had to do. All of our correspondence had transitioned to email, all of our referring documents were hosted on the server. Once all the face-to-face meetings were over, and we caught up on filing, there was little else to do other than old-fashioned pen-and-paper planning for the upcoming week. It was shocking how much had changed - five years ago the office would have been far more functional in the absence of online connectivity. For teachers in the classroom, the effect was more muted, but there nevertheless.
2. As part of our job, we are tasked with providing the School District with equipment lists to stock all new schools before they open. Since the District opens a new school almost every other year, the Science equipment list is something of a running item. I inherited my list from my predescessor three years ago, who last had to revise her list the year before. It is, and was, a pretty basic list of material, posters, books, beakers, test tubes, thermometers, chemicals, pendulums and so forth. However, within even the last three years, the numbers of smartboards in our District has mushroomed, and bluetooth connectivity has appeared in printers, smartboards, projectors, and laptops. Looking at the school start-up lists, I wondered if it was time to go digital?
Certainly such a change cannot be made without consideration: can digital equipment such as multi-sensor handheld probes over a more diverse student experience? Are there physcial skills from more "analog" equipment that students are still required to learn? What are the effects of Jr. High students working in an all digital environment as they transition to high school and post-secondary institutions that might not have made similar changes?
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Google Apps Follow-Up
Last week we gave an inservice on the potential uses of various Google applications for teachers and students. One of the teacher participant mentioned that it appeared Google was trying to create a seemless user experience to keep people within the "Googlespace". Little did we know how much of a reality this would be as Google announced it's new browser this week, Chrome.
Promising a smoother and more memory-efficient environment, we at Exploding Beakers are currently testing Chrome out. Chrome can be downloaded here.
We also know that graphic novels are a new area study for some schools and programs, and so we would recommend checking out the comic book that Google developed to explain how Chrome functions. What we liked about it was that it is a good example of how technical information can be communicated using the same techniques we usually associate with fiction. Check it out here.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Off and Running
Tomorrow we'll be at St. Brigid's School offering two professional development sessions for teachers: the first on video-conferencing and telecolloborating, and the second an introduction to Google Apps.
A brief outline is as follows:
Introduction to Video-Conferencing:
1. Brief overview of the two main uses of video-conferencing, the first as a chance to level the equality of access to different experiences, specifically bringing content to the classroom. Perhaps more rewardingly though, is the role that video-conferencing can play in furthering school-to-school projects.
2. The main system - our District chiefly uses the Polycom Video-Conferencing hardware and software, with stand-alone, portable, and desktop units in use at different locations.
3. The alternative - SMART's Bridgit software allows users to link up and share what's happening on their SMARTboard screens. Not really "video-conferencing" but collaborative all the same.
4. The potential alternative: Skype, or other voice-over-internet-protocol has the potential for some great one-to-one interactions.
5. Resources such as 2Learn.ca and www.CILC.org that promote video-conferencing and school-to-school projects.
Introduction to Google Apps
1. Setting up a Google Account and iGoogle.
2. Gmail, Google Calendar.
3. Google Docs - creating, sharing, collaborating on a document.
4. Blogger.
5. Google Lively.
6. Google Reader, RSS in Plain English as a metaphor for teaching in the 21st Century.
A brief outline is as follows:
Introduction to Video-Conferencing:
1. Brief overview of the two main uses of video-conferencing, the first as a chance to level the equality of access to different experiences, specifically bringing content to the classroom. Perhaps more rewardingly though, is the role that video-conferencing can play in furthering school-to-school projects.
2. The main system - our District chiefly uses the Polycom Video-Conferencing hardware and software, with stand-alone, portable, and desktop units in use at different locations.
3. The alternative - SMART's Bridgit software allows users to link up and share what's happening on their SMARTboard screens. Not really "video-conferencing" but collaborative all the same.
4. The potential alternative: Skype, or other voice-over-internet-protocol has the potential for some great one-to-one interactions.
5. Resources such as 2Learn.ca and www.CILC.org that promote video-conferencing and school-to-school projects.
Introduction to Google Apps
1. Setting up a Google Account and iGoogle.
2. Gmail, Google Calendar.
3. Google Docs - creating, sharing, collaborating on a document.
4. Blogger.
5. Google Lively.
6. Google Reader, RSS in Plain English as a metaphor for teaching in the 21st Century.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Beginning of the End?
An interesting idea has been floating in the back of our minds this week, based on three separate incidents, two of which came our way via Google Reader and RSS feeds (something we point out, only because we are preparing a small presentation on Google Apps for teachers and administrators on Wednesday, something we'll talk about shortly), and the third based on a chance encounter earlier this month.
The first bit of news was that Amazon is set to offer a student edition of their Kindle reader, to tap into the growing demand for digital textbooks. Having dealt with some of the possibilities inherent in placing digital versions of texts in the hands of teachers and students, we believe that increasing the availability of digital textbooks will ultimately increase the number of teachers and students who take advantage of the manipulative and impermanent nature of digital text and use to craft more engaging, interactive learning experiences.
The other bit of news came from TechDirt, in which they mused about letters to the editor, and in fact the whole process of hard-copy letter writing in the digital age. One of the interesting aspects of the article was an excerpt from Vice Magazine in which the magazine complains about the lack of letters they receive, as compared to earlier in the magazine's history (presumably before email became commonplace). One of the oft-echoed complaints about "correspondence" in the Internet Age is that it does not translate into action, and in fact, masks a kind of passive consumption of media (as if it were somehow greater than the passive consumption of television). During the past year of writing this blog, we have yet to hear any feedback online. We are, both here and at The Daily Wenzel, to write our blogs in the middle of an actual geographically based community and often encounter people on the street who offer their comments. For the record, The Daily Wenzel, publishing since 2006, has received perhaps a dozen comments in that time, chief of which was a hard-hitting critique of their interpretation of philosopher Paul Virilio (see, Virilio vs. Facebook).
The last piece of the puzzle stems from an encounter with a pair of much older teachers who firmly endorsed the criticism's mentioned above. Modern technology, they offered, created isolated individuals - a point that we would agree with, though we were surprised at our surprise at watching them make entries in their paper dayplanners.
How will these teachers relate to students who arrive to their classes to with their Kindles and their iPhones looking to compose assignmnets online and then email them to their teachers?
The problem, as we see it, is partly as follows. If students are embracing digital technology to the extent that within five-to-ten years high school and college students will exist in world that is comprised almost exclusively of digital resources and digital communication, to purposely exclude oneself from this world is dangerous and, one might say, irresponsible. Yes, reliance on modern technology, as with anything, requires balance and guidance, part of what the teaching profession is meant to offer to students. Teachers need begin their engagement with students at the place where the students are, and then begin to move them towards a desire destination (hopefully arrived at through a combination of student goals, teacher goals, and government regulations). The teacher that stands imperiously at the front of the class demanding students to be at a particular location, claiming perhaps that they are holding the line on "standards", is facing a very hard uphill battle.
Many industries are facing difficulties in dealing with workplace cultures that span generations ranging from the so-called "Greatest Generation" of the Depression and the Baby Boomers, to Generation X and the Millenials. Unfortunately, it seems that in education, the stakes are higher.
The first bit of news was that Amazon is set to offer a student edition of their Kindle reader, to tap into the growing demand for digital textbooks. Having dealt with some of the possibilities inherent in placing digital versions of texts in the hands of teachers and students, we believe that increasing the availability of digital textbooks will ultimately increase the number of teachers and students who take advantage of the manipulative and impermanent nature of digital text and use to craft more engaging, interactive learning experiences.
The other bit of news came from TechDirt, in which they mused about letters to the editor, and in fact the whole process of hard-copy letter writing in the digital age. One of the interesting aspects of the article was an excerpt from Vice Magazine in which the magazine complains about the lack of letters they receive, as compared to earlier in the magazine's history (presumably before email became commonplace). One of the oft-echoed complaints about "correspondence" in the Internet Age is that it does not translate into action, and in fact, masks a kind of passive consumption of media (as if it were somehow greater than the passive consumption of television). During the past year of writing this blog, we have yet to hear any feedback online. We are, both here and at The Daily Wenzel, to write our blogs in the middle of an actual geographically based community and often encounter people on the street who offer their comments. For the record, The Daily Wenzel, publishing since 2006, has received perhaps a dozen comments in that time, chief of which was a hard-hitting critique of their interpretation of philosopher Paul Virilio (see, Virilio vs. Facebook).
The last piece of the puzzle stems from an encounter with a pair of much older teachers who firmly endorsed the criticism's mentioned above. Modern technology, they offered, created isolated individuals - a point that we would agree with, though we were surprised at our surprise at watching them make entries in their paper dayplanners.
How will these teachers relate to students who arrive to their classes to with their Kindles and their iPhones looking to compose assignmnets online and then email them to their teachers?
The problem, as we see it, is partly as follows. If students are embracing digital technology to the extent that within five-to-ten years high school and college students will exist in world that is comprised almost exclusively of digital resources and digital communication, to purposely exclude oneself from this world is dangerous and, one might say, irresponsible. Yes, reliance on modern technology, as with anything, requires balance and guidance, part of what the teaching profession is meant to offer to students. Teachers need begin their engagement with students at the place where the students are, and then begin to move them towards a desire destination (hopefully arrived at through a combination of student goals, teacher goals, and government regulations). The teacher that stands imperiously at the front of the class demanding students to be at a particular location, claiming perhaps that they are holding the line on "standards", is facing a very hard uphill battle.
Many industries are facing difficulties in dealing with workplace cultures that span generations ranging from the so-called "Greatest Generation" of the Depression and the Baby Boomers, to Generation X and the Millenials. Unfortunately, it seems that in education, the stakes are higher.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Paradox of Education
We are in a society that values the results of education.
We are a society that believes that education is the right of every child.
We are a society that believes education can unlock the potential of every child.
The role of teachers is to help maximize the potential of every student.
Research consistently points to the in-class impact of out-of-class problems related to immigration, language acquisiton, social integration, employments, diet, abuse, and notions of "class perspectives" on the role of the home in education.
Processes are already underway to extendthe reach of educational insitutions into the spheres, often in colloboration with health, welfare, and police agencies.
The conclusions that can be reached is that the best educational results can be obtained in situations where the educational system assumes control for all aspects of a child welfare, establishing a baseline of expectations.
This raises the spectre of the return to residential schools carried out on a grand scale for the majority of families.
If phrased this way, the above mentioned scenario is not only undesirable to parents and teachers, but reprehensible.
Some educators used to make reference to "equality of opportunity" relying on interventionist educational policies that aim to redress educational deficiencies stemming from out-of-school factors; i.e. schools with large populations weakk in reading or math receive considerably more time on these subjects, often to the detriment of others like history, science, art, and physical education, since the length of a school day is finite.
It has been suggested that the end result of this will be a kind of apartheid class-based educational system where students of upper class families are taught management techniques, middle-class students learn team-work and role-playing, while the lower classes are rewarded with lessons on following orders.
This then becomes the teaching paradox: if we can not stomach to support the best methods available to achieve our desired results, then what is it we really desire from our educational system?
We are a society that believes that education is the right of every child.
We are a society that believes education can unlock the potential of every child.
The role of teachers is to help maximize the potential of every student.
Research consistently points to the in-class impact of out-of-class problems related to immigration, language acquisiton, social integration, employments, diet, abuse, and notions of "class perspectives" on the role of the home in education.
Processes are already underway to extendthe reach of educational insitutions into the spheres, often in colloboration with health, welfare, and police agencies.
The conclusions that can be reached is that the best educational results can be obtained in situations where the educational system assumes control for all aspects of a child welfare, establishing a baseline of expectations.
This raises the spectre of the return to residential schools carried out on a grand scale for the majority of families.
If phrased this way, the above mentioned scenario is not only undesirable to parents and teachers, but reprehensible.
Some educators used to make reference to "equality of opportunity" relying on interventionist educational policies that aim to redress educational deficiencies stemming from out-of-school factors; i.e. schools with large populations weakk in reading or math receive considerably more time on these subjects, often to the detriment of others like history, science, art, and physical education, since the length of a school day is finite.
It has been suggested that the end result of this will be a kind of apartheid class-based educational system where students of upper class families are taught management techniques, middle-class students learn team-work and role-playing, while the lower classes are rewarded with lessons on following orders.
This then becomes the teaching paradox: if we can not stomach to support the best methods available to achieve our desired results, then what is it we really desire from our educational system?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
