Portable Technology: The Kindle Comes To K-12

Desktop?  Cell phone?  Laptop?  Netbook?  PDA?  What form of technology (if any) will make the most difference in student achievement?  No one seems to know.

Despite the uncertainties involved and the bad economy, a few schools and districts around the country are experimenting with an even newer form of technology:  e-readers like the Kindle.  It's not just colleges and universities who are giving them a try. 

Andrew Trotter has the story in the latest Scholastic Administrator:  Will the Kindle Change Education?.

Technology: More Of What To Do, Less Of What's Prohibited

Will Richardson came up with a great technology "do" list to replace the long lists of prohibitions that make up most schools' acceptable use policies.  Some of my favorites:

“Do use our network to connect to other students and adults who share your passions with whom you can learn.”

“Do use our network to help your teachers find experts and other teachers from around the world.”

“Do use our network to collaborate with others to change the world in meaningful, positive ways.”

Don’t, Don’t, Don’t vs. Do, Do, Do (via Faqcebook)

MEDIA: How To "Do" Twitter

Some unsolicited, half-informed (but seemingly authoritative) instructions for readers and Twitterers who care about education and journalism.*

Read, absorb, implement.

Additions and disagreements always welcome. You may know better.

*No foundation funding was used during the making of this post.

TWITTER: Add Your District's Twitter Feed

Here's a helpful shared document showing a lot of different districts' Twitter feeds -- check out who's on there, add your district if it should be on the list (School Districts on Twitter).  See how districts are using Twitter differently (lunch menus, press releases, calendar updates, etc.)

MEDIA: Education Organizations And Twitter

The Associated Press and the British government have already put out rules and guidelines for employee use of Twitter, hoping to engage employees in productive uses of Twitter while warning them against mistakes and goofs that could embarrass everyone. New York Times, too.  What about state education departments, local agencies, and nonprofit organizations?  What about classroom teachers and school-based staff in general?  Free to Tweet, or banned entirely, or something in between?  Dare I even ask, what's the USDE's Twitter policy? Is anyone besides Duncan allowed to get in on all the fun?

ONLINE: "Pants Go Down. Pictures Are Sent."

"A boy chats with a girl he's never met. Pants go down. Pictures are sent."

This feature from GQ (SEXTORTION AT EISENHOWER HIGH) is worth a read not so much for the scandal or the vilification of the confused and creepy kid who extorts shis classmates -- 39 of whom sent at least partially undressed pictures, seven of whom allegedly had sex with him. 

It's the other, more unexpected elements:  the use of Facebook, which many consider safe and tame, the stunning obliviousness of the DA's office to mask victims' identities effectively, the victims' decision to continue at the school, and -- most of all -- the strange world in which we live in, where naked pictures among teens are a normal thing.

Previous Posts:
Watch Out For Teachers (& Student Profiles). Not Internet Pervs
New Stats On Internet Dangers Dispell Many Myths

TECHNOLOGY: Genealogy Of The Pencil

"I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write."

I, Pencil | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

LIBRARIANS: Twitter Scandals At Chicago ALA Conference

 Maybe this Twitter thing is getting out of hand. (Or maybe it's finally getting interesting.)

Last week's ALA conference in Chicago included an unofficial (and somewhat hook-up oriented) Twitter hashtag (#ALA2009) so that participants could share their insights about things other than the panels.  (Hashtags let folks search by very specific topics rather than just by name or word.)

I pity conference organizers and classroom teachers who have to deal with this.

There was also a shared/anonymous thread that was -- get this -- apparently censored and shut down by one of the ALA's own.  Yes:  hot librarian self-censorship.  Read all about it here.

SOFTWARE: A New Search Engine To Play With

 Maybe you've tried one of those newfangled Internet browsers (like Firefox, Flock, Camino, or Chrome). 

Maybe you've tried Feedly or one of the other new RSS feed readers that are competing with Bloglines and Google Reader.  But the changes never stop coming. 

Now the New York Times' David Pogue is encouraging you to try Bing, a new search engine on the scene.

Not quite ready to go for it?  I don't blame you.  But you can get a taste of the new arrival by trying out this side by side Google Vs. Bing page where you can enter terms and see how each site responds. Fun!

EDTECH: "Live" Twitter Projection During Conferences (& Hearings?)

Projecting Twitter feeds onto a screen during meetings and conferences is the cool thing to do in some circles these days.  You hear and read about it all the time these days -- most recently in that TIME magazine article from last week that I'm too lazy to look up for you. 

The 140-character comments of those at the meeting and those watching in online scroll past as panelists drone one. No one has to hit refresh on their iPhone keep up on what the Twitterati have to say about the event, even as it happens.  No one has to worry about being mocked on Twitter without knowing it's happening, in real time. 

I have yet to experience it first hand, but it sounds like it might feel sort of like being telepathic, in the sense that it lets you know what people are thinking (saying) even if they don't utter a single word aloud during an event. And it's not all that different from Google jockeying or Google talking, which people do all the time. Perhaps soon the President and his Cabinet officials will have Twitter updates posted to their TelePrompters (or to aides holding cue cards in the back of the room) so that they can know what we're thinking about as they speak to us, and adjust accordingly.  Hell, a Twitter screen up on the wall at a hearing or markup could be in the works already. 

The real question is whether the practice is simply reflecting the distracted, frenzied way people think and communicate these days, or is it actually making the conversation more fractured for those who are actually at the event?   What do those of you who've experienced it first hand think about it?

VIDEO: What If FedEx Ran Homeroom?

In its review of these Nextel ads, Slate says "I would like to see a sequel in which the kids wise up with their own walkie-talkie-coordinated escape and then spend an awesome skip day drinking Mountain Dew and doing whatever it is kids do these days—Twittering naked pictures of themselves onto the Xbox chat room and what have you." (The weird populism of Nextel's new ads)

FUTURE: "Education Today and Tomorrow"

Here's a video that a couple of people have sent to me -- thanks!  It's meant to be mind-expanding, and maybe a little frightening, even though it's already somewhat dated.  

Whether in the case of 2 Million Minutes or this or STEM or Flat World stuff in general, my usual thought is that we shouldn't take our eyes off the basic prize:  literacy and numeracy and some basic content knowledge for as many kids as possible. 

Technology doesn't change that.  Demographics don't change that. But maybe I'm missing something. 

TECH: Texting...Sexting...Sextortion?

For years, educators and parents focused on the perceived threat of adults -- Internet predators -- coming into children's lives via technology.  More and more, however, it's becoming clear that the dangers are closer by.  Creepy!

New Berlin teen accused of using Facebook for sexual blackmail Journal Sentinel
Anthony R. Stancl, 18, posing as a female on Facebook, persuaded at least 31 boys to send him naked pictures of themselves and then blackmailed some of the boys into performing sex acts under the threat that the pictures would be released to the rest of the high school, according a criminal complaint.

Student Fights Record of ‘Cyberbullying’ NYT
A student who was suspended from high school for ranting against a teacher on Facebook is suing to have the blemish removed from her record.

TECH: Facebook Without Fear

"Oh no! Your [LEAST FAVORITE STUDENT] just joined Facebook and what's even worse, she wants to be your friend...It's time you learned how to use Facebook's friend lists." (How to Friend On Facebook...Safely)

Now if only there was an easy solution to 25 Things. 

TECH: Netbooks, Cloud Computing, Open Software, Virtualization

Good roundup of game-changing technologies and market trends out there, with clear ed tech implications ($200 Laptops Break a Business Model NYT)

TECH: Grown-Ups Like Mini-Laptops, Too

Call it One Laptop Per Grown-Up.  Small and inexpensive mini-laptops are all the rage, according to this Slate article (The future of laptops).  These sub-$500 "netbooks" suit adults who want something smaller than a regular laptop that still has a regular keyboard.  Me, I'm still rolling with my little 12" Powerbook G4.  But I'll get one of these next time out -- assuming there's a wireless broadband card inside.  WiFi is so 2003, don't you think?

FACEBOOK: Suspended Student Sues School

It was a Friday night, and Katherine Evans, a senior at Pembroke Pines Charter High, was fed up with her English teacher.

To vent her frustrations, she logged onto Facebook and started typing.

''Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever met!'' she wrote. ``To those select students who have had the displeasure of having Ms. Sarah Phelps, or simply knowing her and her insane antics: Here is the place to express your feelings of hatred.''

Two months later, Evans -- an honors student with no disciplinary problems -- was suspended for three days for cyberbullying and disruptive behavior, pulled out of her Advanced Placement classes and ''forced into lesser-weighted honors classes,'' according to a federal lawsuit filed on her behalf this week by the American Civil Liberties

Facebook face-off: Student, suspended for blog rant, sues

TECHNOLOGY: The Rise Of The "Cell Phone Novel"

If you read it on a cell phone, is it still called reading -- and can the words be called literature?

Check out this New Yorker article about cell phone novels.

Yes, novels. 

They're incredibly popular in Japan and could be headed here anytime soon.

I ♥ Novels
 
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