edulicious

I’m working on a short brief about technology literacy.  What is it?  How important is it that schools have technology literacy goals?  What does it mean to be technology literate?  The task of definining technology literacy (if there is even such a thing) is not as easy as it would appear.  Teachers, students, administrators, employers, and parents all have slightly different definitions… I want to know what you think:

What is technology literacy?  What role should schools play in ensuring students are tech literate?  How important is it that teachers are tech literate?

Please leave a comment and let me know your opinion.  Thanks!

Anyone who has ever taught knows the importance of recess (or some sort of non-academic break).  However, it is nice to get some validation.  In today’s NYTimes:

The best way to improve children’s performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it.

New research suggests that play and down time may be as important to a child’s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior, concentration and even grades.

The part that really jumped out at me was this…

Sometimes you need data published for people at the educational level to start believing it has an impact,”

Again, teachers have been saying this for years but why would anyone believe us

I was watching the movie “Before Sunrise” yesterday and the character played by Ethan Hawke says:

There’s always people talking about how great technology is and how it saves all this time but what good is saved time if nobody uses it?  If it just turns into more busy work?  You never hear anyone say “well, with the time I’ve saved with my word processor I’m going to go to a Zen monastery and hang out”

Nothing more to say here really, it just made me think.

I think this movie and the sequel “Before Sunset” are really excellent.  Watch “Before Sunset” first. then watch “Before Sunrise”.  I think it works better that way.

I was reading through my backlog of education-related blogs today and came across what I thought was a good post over at Assistive Principles that was about (among other things) the consequences of praise (or at least the over use/misuse of praise).  According to the author of the post:

…[students] feel they deserve high praise and accolades for ordinary, mundane things.

…It’s now politically correct to praise failure; how could they understand [achievement] in a time where even the losing teams get prizes?

…that self-esteem-motivated praise ends up devaluing ALL praise, and praise can be a powerful tool when used properly.

This got me thinking about the Pygmalian Effect and the role of expectations in the entire process.  We have to have clear, realistic expectations for our students AND create the environment where students internalize and believe in these expectations.  I’m sure that the judicious use of praise plays a role in here somewhere.  It really got me to thinking about how I set expectations for my students and how other teachers do the same thing.  We do this, right? The author ends the post with a touching story that reminds us that all students come to us from different places and we need to know the person in order to determine what praise to apply and when to apply it.

We motivate some kids to get to college; we motivate others just to get to tomorrow. Some of these kids get praised for little things because it’s all they get a chance to do. Not all of them, and certainly not some of them . . . but a few–a very specific few–deserve the pat on the back for trying.

As a teacher, I’ll try to be more conscious about setting expectations and applying praise at it relates to those expectations and to the particular student to whom the praise is intended.

Seems like change is the current hot buzzword.  The folks at Kaplan University are using it in their new ads.  Ads that are very critical of the current teaching methodology.  What do you think?  Do you agree with the tone and message of these ads (ignoring the fact that they are for a University).  I do like the idea about using technology to enhance and transform the way that we learn, however I worry that many “traditional” classrooms simply re-create this model in a digital, online form (ex. Blackboard).  This is not exactly transformational.  Transformational happens once we start teaching students how to think creatively.  Also, GO UNCLE PHIL!

Kaplan University Ads

I know that President-elect Obama is promising change but what if I don’t want to?  What if I think everything is fine and dandy.  Thankfully, Steve over at LifeHack is here to help with his timely post on “5 Ways to Avoid Change“  Personally, I’ve been a lifelong fan of point #2: Set your expectations low!

Remember we are all in this together.

probably pretty accurate

I came across this article on Lifehack today.  Makes me reflect on how/if I’m helping students to “live artfully”.  I like the simplicity of this list:

1. Pay Attention
2. Surround yourself with inspiring people and inspiring things
3. Capture your dreams
4. Be appreciative

Great way to start the holiday season.  Cheers.

What do you think?

Blooms Digital Taxonomy v2.12

This looks to be a nice collection of resources that pulls together actual research re: students and the Internet.  In is maintained by the Research Advisory Board (RAB) out of Harvard University.  The RAB is comprised of scholars and researchers whose research addresses children’s online safety.  I think the article titled: Online “Predators” and Their Victims: Myths, Realities, and Implications for Prevention and Treatment is a must read.