What Do You Think School is For?

Seth Godin writes a blog. Not just any blog. It’s a blog that I have in my list of “Must read no matter what” blogs. He’s a very smart man and he writes terrifically intelligent and thought-provoking articles but don’t take my word for it.

Recently he asked, “What is School For?” and provided a list of 27 purposes for school. Mind you, he’s not providing the list as a definitive answer but as the starting point for continuing discussion. Who will discuss this? He suggests that readers should take action and send the list to the local school board(s) and continue the discussion there. I’m taking it in a different direction for right now but I’m going to keep in mind that this list and this discussion really should take place with the people who run schools and the people who want schools run well.

But for now, take a look at the list and see what you think. Consider taking it to your Mommy & Me group or your PTA or your school board. Consider continuing the discussion online with one of your postings. Consider taking it to the students in your classroom or to the students who are in the classroom with you.

I like that his list has a dark side that addresses teaching children to become manageable, obedient, unquestioning citizens. I fear that California schools are headed in that direction. I want schools to be more about learning for the sake of learning and becoming a better-informed person and less about getting the piece of paper that tells future employers that you are educated. I see colleges trying to weed out the lifelong learners and the remedial students in order to make room for students on the transfer track. As the financial crisis continues and the price of education drops in relation to the benefit of a higher degree, the purpose of education will change. If I no longer benefit enough from an advanced degree then I either don’t go to school or go to school to take classes that fulfill my personal objective. These students are what I call the ala carte students. I see them at my local college and their numbers are increasing. Maybe these are the students that we should be wooing instead of discouraging.

Those are my thoughts, what do you think?

Collaborative Art Using Google Docs

I just love this idea. That’s all. Oh, and the music is addictive.

more about "Collaborative Art Using Google Docs", posted with vodpod

Web 2.0: The 24 Minute Documentary

Take a look at the original post at http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/08/web-20-the-24-minute-documentary/

The topics discussed included:

1. What is Web 2.0?
2. Are we in a bubble?
3. What are the business models that will work on the web today?
4. What is the role of publishers in a user generated world?
5. How important and how big is the early adopter crowd?

Check out the video at Web 2.0: The 24 Minute Documentary

Posted using ShareThis

Here is a short version:

Runtime: 9:08

And here is a remixed version:

Runtime: 3:22

Why Are Teachers Learning about Connectivism?

Connectivism is one approach to using Web 2.0 methodology in the learning environment. Do you understand why Web 2.0 is where education is headed or do you have colleagues that just don’t “get it?” Try this on for a concise explanation.

E-Teaching with Andrew Mercer

Can you teach music over the Internet? Andrew Mercer, School of Music, Memorial University, does.

Runtime: 9:05

Can’t fix it…

It’s too late to fix (update) the education system as we know it. It is too far out of date and no longer serves the needs of our society or our future. But don’t take my word for it…

more about “Can’t fix it… “, posted with vodpod

If…

If you were born around 20 years ago, how would you be different?

Would you be one of the digital natives or would you have rebelled?

Would your family have been able to afford a computer? What kind?

Would you have majored in a different field?

Would you have been as successful or more successful or less successful with all the distractions of social media?

Think about the historic events of the last 20 years. Would you have grown up more fearful, less fearful, or with about the same amount of fear on various levels? Consider fear at the national, regional, local, and intimate levels.

Would you be confident that your country could win in any conflict?

Would you believe that you would be safe in your city, neighborhood, school, or home?

My point is that so many of us look at digital natives as though they have had everything very easy. They, like every other generation, have had their challenges. Their lives will change more dramatically than mine did. I hope they are up to it. I hope we are up to providing them the skill sets to succeed.

Happy New Year.

Hello WordPress.com!

“Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!”

Thanks, WordPress.com. I appreciate being able to move my blogs from Blogger.com to WordPress.com — at least those to which I still have access.

I want to alert anyone using Blogger in a learning environment might want to re-think this decision. Students who start blogs for a class may lose access to the blogs simply by being an active and enthusiastic author. By “lose access,” I mean lose all access — no one can view the blog, the author cannot view the blog, the author cannot retrieve any of the articles, the author cannot export the articles to another blog site, the author cannot import the articles to another blog site. Shut Down. DEAD. But you can restore your blog by clicking the button to restore your blog and following a few simple steps. Then you will see this message:

Blogger’s spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What’s a spam blog?) Since you’re an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

We received your unlock request on December 10, 2008. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.

Find out more about how Blogger is fighting spam blogs.

I am on my second “please restore” request. After a week of waiting, the system resets and I had to re-request “please restore.” I have read the forums. There are many articles from people who waited months to have their blogs restored. I need my material now because I am teaching a class to my colleagues in January. I had hoped to have the material available to them after the class. The material, at least most of it, will be available because I have redone the work on WordPress. It has been a tremendous amount of work because I cannot get access to my material. I am angry and very frustrated but having to move on.

Google has a zero-tolerance policy on spam:

The disabling is a result of our automated classification system marking it as spam. Because this system is automated there will necessarily be some false positives, though we’re continually working on improving our algorithms to avoid these. If your blog is not a spam blog, then it was one of the false positives, and we apologize.

If you have an automated system checking things, wouldn’t it be great if you told people what not to do to avoid triggering the block. Not in generic terms –

Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.

– but in specific terms. You see, my blog did not have any of these features but it was still identified as spam. Clearly, there are some other parameters by which the bots put a block on the blogs. Tell me and I won’t do it because putting in this much work just to have it shut down because the bots “made a mistake” is too frustrating and having Blogger apologize but not restore access — at least at the back end — is not helpful.

Copyright – Licensed work under Creative Commons

xkcd.com

Copyright 2008 AJ Tivol

Emoticons Are Not Writing!

I know that emoticons are not writing because they don’t follow the rules of grammar. Still, should we disregard these silly, sometimes confusing keystroke combinations as useless? What if I could convince you that emoticons can tell an entire story? Don’t believe me? Good. Don’t take it from me, watch this -

8-D.

Check out Emoticons Dictionary if you are interested in learning more.

CWYL, :-7

Copyright 2008 AJ Tivol