Friday, January 26th, 2007

Alan November–Global Communication

Alan November tells the story of being taught Skype by a 16-year old student after he had presented a workshop. I learned about it at another session he presented a little over a year ago. He has some good recommendations for classroom applications of Skype. (The first thing he advocates, by the [...]

Friday, January 26th, 2007

No More Textbooks?

Alan just showed us The Encyclopedia, a huge wiki being undertaken by South Africa. According to Alan, they have decided to do away with all textbooks, and are setting up a wiki, instead. Very ambitious, to say the least! I wonder how likely/unlikely the chances of this ever occurring in the US might be.

[...]

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Automation

Alan just defined what is typically done with technology in schools as automation. He defines this as doing the same thing you’ve been doing with “technology bolted to it.” This is not, as Bernajean Porter describes it, transforming education. It is merely substitution, and it is putting terrible limits on the possibilities when we [...]

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Alan November–Information Tools

Organizing Information
Certainly a part of organizing information is learning to evaluate the authenticity and reliability of information. Alan is sharing information on using ezWhois.net to learn about the creators of a website. This is a valuable tool for evaluating the authenticity/reliability of websites–knowing who built a website is akin to learning about the author of [...]

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Alan November–Emerging Importance of Librarian Skills

Today I am attending a conference by one of my favorite educational technologists, Alan November. The session is directed at librarians, and focuses on technology resources that librarians can and should use in working with students to create products and with teachers in professional development.
Alan is discussing the problem we are facing as a society [...]