Blurts

The “Does Google make us stupid” question receives another (but delayed) rebuttal (Campus Technology). I include this link as much for the comments as the analysis. In a way, I am collecting these posts because I want students in my graduate class on web experiences to sort through the various arguments. 

So you have Carr and Bauerlein on one side of this argument and Tapscott, Rheingold, etc. on the other. What are the issues here? Potential vs. reality. Changing values. Changing priorities. Higher order thinking skills not keeping up. Superficial learning tasks.  

The list grows and grows. 

It appears Cisco is expanding and has purchased the Flip Camcorder. I think the Flip is a great product with tremendous potential in classrooms (or when students venture from the classroom).

My wife has been lucky and productive enough to have many professional international ventures. She has the social, technical, and educational expertise and motivation to turn these visits into long term opportunities for herself and others she works with. In 2003, she spent several weeks in Japan as part of an educational exchange. She became friends with her interpreter Miyako and continues this friendship to the present.

Miyako has an interesting story. From what I can tell, she works primarily as a translater and expert in English language issues. She has some very interesting ideas – i.e., I want to spend time with American elementary school students so I can learn how they converse.

Most recently she has become involved in Skype conversations with students from a Grand Forks 3rd grade classroom. The activities associated with these interactions have generated multiple classroom activities that span a variety of skill areas. This link to the classroom blog (hosted by the teacher Mrs. Benjaminson in collaboration with Pam Carlson Curriculum Technology Partner) offer some insight into the topics Mrs. Benjaminson and her students, Miyako and Cindy have explored.

Mrs. Benjaminson’s blog also offers interesting ideas for how this participatory web tool can be used in elementary settings.

ND legislature is blessed with a surplus in the state budget and access to stimulus money (story from Minot KXnet). Unfortunately, North Dakotans have a way of finding the flaw in the silver lining. Some in the legislature seem offended that the stimulus money is intended for specific things (schools, roads) and some are concerned that spending this money implies a commitment down the road. So you do some repairs to buildings and highways. Now you have better infrastructure. How is better infrastructure a future burden? I guess adding a few lanes in Fargo means in 10 years the city will be asking the legislature for repairs. Technology came up (and I was quick to notice). I suppose if we purchase better infrastructure or laptops for students the schools will expect to maintain these opportunities. Let’s simply not offer opportunities and call it good. How about for once we take a risk and push our advatage? We are losing population – few move in and many escape when the first opportunity presents itself – and I see nothing from the legislature that will reverse this trend. We have more institutions of higher education than we have local students to populate them. You simply do not attract young people by settlng for average or good enough. Why not press our advantage while we still have a few people who care.

The idea that we can replace money in our existing budget with stimulus money verges on the unethical. It is very similar to banks taking money, but then not increasing their willingness to offer loans. The idea of stimulus money is to increase the money circulating in the economy. Pretend you don’t understand if you can find a way to spin the directive, but most should have mastered the intent of the proposed economic tactic by middle school. People who earn money spend it allowing others to earn, etc. You do not increase the amount of money circulating when you replace funding for existing projects with federal money and then put your own money back in your pocket. This is not a save for the future fund, this is a stimulus fund.

I have been following the announcements of new features that will eventually be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I was surprised that Apple would announce this product, make a big deal out of new capabilities, and then inform you that the product will be available in the summer. Normally, you can finish watching (I guess not in this case) the presentation, connect to the store, and buy. I guess there have been some occasions on which a product was not immediately available, but it seems in those instances other products were immediately available. I am not certain that this means anything, but it does seem to be a change in the normal way of doing things. Is the developer community so large, that the go ahead on development is news for consumers? Perhaps there is just intense interest and the company felt it might as well chart a course for the future. I would rather have something definite about a netbook?

Show offers a way to depict nation and state information by altering the size of the nation or state. In the image (see below), country size is based on CO2 emissions (with the United States appearing as the largest). Very interesting way to present data. Many variables are provided and a variable is selected by using the menus.

Show – here depicting CO2 emissions by size of country.