I seem to be on an anti-trend thing lately. I enjoy the excitement of the new, but struggle with implications of adding more and more.
Anyway, I am still a big fan of writing to learn (now often implemented as blogging) and I think it useful to highlight new posts or tools facilitating variations of this theme. Here is a recent presentation by Wes Fryer.
If you are a Chromecast owner, you may find this information page of value. Chromecast is really at the mercy of other companies, but it is a great product and I hope more companies add the feature to their app. The one limitation I have found is the demand placed on your wifi when tab casting (computer or tablet must both download and send data).
I find it interesting to identify educational trends. What topics seem to be receiving the most attention? Topics such as STEM, coding and making would be my nominees. I sometimes wonder if traditional goals fall out of focus because we require novelty. Have existing goals been satisfied or replaced?
What has happened to reading and writing? Are students or the rest of us reading and writing as much and as proficiently? This recent post on reading skills caught my attention.
This is kind of interesting. Tech coordinator Ben Rimes goes through the Common Core standards and highlights the frequency with which technology (in one form or another) is mentioned.
This end of year article from ComputerWorld offers data on the increasing sale of Chromebooks in 2013.
By NPD’s tallies, Chromebooks accounted for 21% of all U.S. commercial notebook sales in 2013 through November, and 10% of all computers and tablets. Both shares were up massively from 2012; last year, Chromebooks accounted for an almost-invisible two-tenths of one percent of all computer and tablet sales.
ComputerWorld concludes that the increased sales of the Chromebook comes at the expense of computers running the Windows OS.
For you digital natives who may wonder where this tech stuff came from or you immigrants who would like to relive the good old days, Walter Issacson is working on material offering a context or the tech tools we enjoy today. It is not clear how far he will take this work, but here is the first installment. If you came of age in the 60s, this should bring back the memories.
