Archive for the ‘Education and Technology’ Category

We have talked a lot in the past about the benefits of social media in education. We’ve also talked about some of the risks of social media, in terms of cyberbullying. One thing we haven’t talked about, however, is the caution required when teachers (or public figures of any sort) engage in these social networks in their personal lives.

One thing to remember when going online is that it is not a private space. Even if you designate something to be private, you should consider that it may not stay that way. The BBC has written an article on this topic, which warns teachers to be wary about the dangers of putting personal information online.

Social networking between teachers and students is becoming a regular occurrence – as part of an aim to increase the learning experience. However, a teacher must be aware of which tools to use when working with students. It may be prudent, for example, to not connect with students directly via any social networking site.

Teachers in Scotland have been asked to adhere to a new code of conduct created by the General Teaching Council of Scotland. It asks teachers to be wary of online exchanges with students. Some fear teachers could land in situations with accusations that have ruined careers. Teachers should avoid situations where online relationships could form with students.

“In school there are guidelines to say don’t be in a classroom alone with a pupil, all doors should be open, and from that point of view we are covered.

“Online we are not and teachers should be wary of involvement with pupils, particularly through social networking sites.” – Gary McDonald, teacher at Balerno Community High School

Finding the balance between rapport and educational support with distance and formality has been difficult, and is only more complex now with the advent of these social networking tools. Codes of conduct can go far in helping to define what is, and what is not, appropriate behavior online, and how to deal with circumstances that may arise.

If you want to understand more about Social Networking, check out this great video by Commoncraft:

John Page has put together a great article advocating for the use of technology in education. The article outlines nine reasons why to adopt technology in the classroom. As it stands, sometimes schools offer up laptops and other technologies for use in education but without a plan as to why they are doing so or how to use them. That leaves teachers with access to technology, but no visualization of how to use said technology.

So, how would education be better by using technology? Here are John’s 9 reasons:

1. Expansion of time and place - students have limited access to teachers and only in the classroom, but unlimited access to the Internet (for class resources and the Internet at large)
2. Depth of understanding - learning can become interactive, allowing students to play with simulations of a concept at any time
3. Learning vs. Teaching – students can pull the necessary materials themselves, rather than learning being pushed on them
4. New media for self-expression – making a presentation, a podcast, using photos, or running a blog are just some ideas
5. Collaboration – students can work together on their homework, no matter where they are. Teachers can formalize this, teaching students how to collaborate better in the virtual world.
6. Going Global - direct dialog and collaboration around the world can enhance the understanding of global cultures
7. Individual pacing and sequence - students can set their own pace, and follow interests, allowing for customized learning without disrupting class flow
8. Weight - a laptop is not as heavy as a bag of binders and text books
9. Personal Productivity - to write, read, communicate, organize and schedule.

As John eloquently states at the end of this paper, “if education is about knowledge and intellectual skills, then information technology lies at the heart of it all.” Technology offers up a new way to learn, and will greatly expand the possibilities of education.

How have you seen, or how do you see, technology affecting education outside of these 9 ways?

Tags: education, technology, schools, edu learning, learning, technology in schools

The New Media Consortium (NMC) has published the 2008 Horizon Report, the result of a project that annually charts emerging technologies for teaching, learning and creative expression.

The 2008 Horizon Report describes six emerging technologies or practices that will enter into mainstream educational use in the next 1-5 years. Some technologies are well on their way to mainstream adoption.

1. Grassroots Video - to capture, edit and share video clips. The tools range from the cellphone to free easy-to-use editing software to video sharing sites such as YouTube. Application to news, tutorials for teaching, as well as outlets for creativity and digital knowledge
2. Collaboration Webs – small, flexible tools to edit group documents, hold online meetings, share information and more. Many programs are open source, thus giving users tools to tailor their own requirements. Complimentary infrastructures make collaboration seamless.
3. Mobile Broadband - phones with increased capabilities for mobile computing and web access
4. Data Mashups - custom applications that combine data from different sources into a single tool, transforming how we understand and represent information. From data visualization (e.g. tag clouds) to understanding connections. Tools such as Google’s Mashup Editor and Yahoo! Pipes give people easy access to make their own mashup.
5. Collective Intelligence – knowledge that emerges from large groups of people that emerges from data that has been made freely available to all. With the sharing of such “open data”, and tools to mine this unstructured data, new insights can emerge. Knowledge becomes participatory – to consume and to contribute. Examples: Wikipedia, search patterns, community tagging
6. Social Operating Systems – social networking based around people, not around content. “Relationships are the currency of these systems…. [they] will change the way we search for, work with, and understand information by placing people at the center of the network. The first social operating system tools… understand who we know, how we know them, and how deep our relationships actually are. They can lead us to connections we would otherwise have missed.”

The report looks in detail at these six trends, as well as certain obstacles in the Education field towards their adoption and use. Examples are given for each trend and how it is or could be used in the learning environment. Further reading is provided for all trends. It’s a very interesting report at the technologies that will be impacting all our lives, and how those technologies can be used in the education sphere.

Download the 2008 Horizon Report here.

Via campus technology Tags: technology, education, emerging technology, social technology, collective intelligence, learning, web 2.0

MySpace is undergoing scrutiny for a series of recent security breaches and oversights. The sequence of events, as reported on Wired.com, is as follows:

• January 15 reported – MySpace issues press release announcing new safety measures after a year of looking at safety issues on the site 
  • 49 states joined with MySpace to help eliminate online predators
  • MySpace profiles for those under age 16 will be set to private
• January 17 reported - ‘private’ MySpace teen photos leaked  
  • A bug allowed anyone access to see photos of users with private profiles, including users under the age of 16
  • Photos made their way to message boards, including those of pedophiles
  • Knowledge of the bug, and how to exploit it, circulated on message boards for months
  • Websites were created to automatically exploit the bug for anyone who entered a Friend ID into a search field
  • This is not the first time a bug of this sort has exploited private photos
• January 18 reported – MySpace fixed the bug  
  • No public acknowledgement of the bug or the fix
• January 24 reported – more than half a million images from private MySpace profiles leaked to BitTorrent 
  • 17-gigabyte file of images lifted from MySpace profiles during the period of the access bug was uploaded to BitTorrent (peer-to-peer file sharing)

The appearance of the file on BitTorrent signals this as one of the largest privacy breaches MySpace has had so far. MySpace has yet to acknowledge this issue.

In 2006, MySpace had to react to privacy issues surrounding registered sex offenders using MySpace to prey on minors.

We used special software to expose hundreds of registered sex offenders with accounts on MySpace. That prompted the social network to run its own computerized search, which turned up at least 29,000 registered sex offenders.

Wired was partly responsible for triggering a year-long investigation into safety issues on MySpace – but this photo-hack was missed. A bug that should have been found through testing or online monitoring of MySpace privacy issues. The January 17 Wired.com story triggered the fix of this bug that either went unnoticed or was ignored by MySpace. However, the privacy concern has not gone away. That file has made its way online in a permanent way.

Particularly for youth, and their parents & teachers, it should be cautioned not to trust the privacy settings of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. If there is a photo or video you don’t want anyone to see, don’t put it online. Period.

Via CNet, Wired (1, 2, 3)Tags: myspace, privacy, online information, online privacy, social networking, facebook, myspace profiles

The West Virginia Department of Education has received a $48,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation to provide training to teachers on how to use the free online education resources on Verizon’s Thinkfinity.org. The goal of the program is to impart 21st century learning skills to students.

The grant will be used for training and an awareness program. Educators across the State will receive training on how to use the free resources available to them – to make them comfortable integrating technology tools into their lesson plans. Thinkfinity.org is made up of 55,000 educational resources for all grades and was created in partnership with educational and literacy organizations across the US.

The program offers a range of resources for K-12 classes in eight academic disciplines. Materials include lesson plans, interactive tools and other materials to improve student achievement; the site also provides a professional development program.

“Teachers are often our unsung heroes” said B. Keith Fulton, president of Verizon West Virginia and a former member of the 21st Century Skills board. “They work many hours outside of the classroom to prepare the best possible lesson plans to engage their students. Through Thinkfinity.org, teachers can gain immediate access to quality educational resources to more efficiently develop their lesson plans, giving them more time to work directly with students.”

West Virginia has been a national leader in incorporating technology into the classroom. They were awarded by Education Week’s Technology Counts 2007 a grade of A for access to technology and a grade of A- for the use of technology.

Via webwire Tags: west virginia, doe, department of education, thinkfinity, thinkfinity.org, technology classroom, education technology

Internet Safety is an important topic for educators, and a number of resources are being developed to aid teachers.

A number of videos are being created around Internet Security, and these videos are being uploaded to sites such as YouTube or TeacherTube. Videos aid with visual learning and are great to engage students in dialogue.

Here are some great examples of Internet Safety Videos.

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Here is another great list of back-to-school technology essentials for high school or college students. The Vancouver Sun’s top 10 list of techno-savvy gear includes:

1. Laptop computer – as low as $399. Back-to-school bundles often include extra software or price reductions.
2. Software – A good Office set, anti-virus (set to auto-update), locking cables, and a product such as Absolute’s Lojack
3. Printer – consider just black & white to save on ink costs
4. Communications – cell phone, Skype account
5. Music & Entertainment – iPod with speakers
6. Memory Drives – flash drives.
7. Backpacks – suited for laptops
8. Camera – to capture memories of a once-in-a-lifetime school experience
9. Flat-Panel Monitor – can double as a tv
10. Extras – wireless mouse, keyboard

All of this technology should come with security education. It is important to teach teens about Internet Safety, about protecting personally identifiable information, and preventing laptop theft.

Tags: technology, student technology, school, back to school

The Kansas City School Board has approved a new program to supply all high school students (5,550) with laptop computers for the school day. The program will cost the district $6.4 million over 4 years.

“This is a bold, bold move and a difficult decision for the board,” acknowledged Superintendent Jill Shackelford.

The School Board has approved the program in order to “bridge the technology gap.”

As of yet, it has not been decided if students will be allowed to take the laptops home at night. Admittedly, this poses a greater security threat. If the lending program goes ahead, $10 computer insurance will be bought for each computer, and data security software to remotely wipe data will be installed.

Absolute Software’s Computrace products allow you to recover lost laptops, and also to remotely wipe data if needed.

Via KansasCity.com Tags: kansas city, laptop program, education, education technology, laptops in schools

Miami-Dade County Public Schools rolled out a new version of their web portal on Monday which provides increased online resources to parents, students and teachers.

On the new portal, you can look up school bus routes, check grades, report a dirty school bathroom, or even order groceries. Information is tailored for Students, Parents, Employees & the Community. Under community, you can learn about local blood drives, mentoring and more.

Students have unbounded resources. From news to academic assistance, resources for learning, career prep, a virtual library, and a portal they can log into for private information such as online collaboration, assignment postings and online versions of their textbooks. Parents have access to the same information, including textbooks to assist in homework.

The information for students & parents is immediate and up-to-date. Achievement can be monitored more closely on a single organized site, and resources for improvement are more readily available. Grades are available online, as well as information on missing assignments and absentee listings.

To set up an account, parents have to obtain a PIN number from their child’s school. Parents must get a PIN number for each child and, for security reasons, must go to the school in person. ”The schools know which parents belong to which children,” said Debbie Graper, a technology administrator with the district.

The Miami-Date project is designed to get parents more involved in their children’s schoolwork, a key to student success. The project, which cost $3.2 million and was done in partnership with Microsoft, serves 53,000 employees and 342,000 students.

Earlier this year, 13 Miami-Date schools were named in Newsweek’s Top High School list.

Via Miami Herald ; Tags: miami dade, miami dade school district, school portal, education portal, education technology, school technology, online learning

We recently referenced an education technology piece on Absolute’s website, and I wanted to highlight it over here. The article by Westchester1 is called “High Tech Checklist for A-plus Students” and covers all the latest back-to-school technology for high school and college students – and what you need to keep it all safe.

All the latest technology (and what you need to protect it) for back-to-school:

1. Laptop Computer - for homework, research, and social networking.
   • Laptop Tracking & Recovery Software - such as Absolute’s LoJack for Laptops
   • Security Software & Hardware – includes the other basics like anti-virus, anti-spyware, encryption and firewall software, and a good cable lock
2. MP3 Player - one with good audio recording for recording lectures. Effective learning is both visual and aural.
   • Protective Materials - a case, screen protectors, & ID tags (or engraving)
3. Portable Gaming - for play and multi-purpose applications including Internet access
   • Lock it up – keep it in a locker, even in your dorm room. Out of sight is a plus, locked is a preference.
4. Cell Phone - one complete with a camera phone or video capabilities. Get a good data plan. Communication is vital to social learning, and for families too.
   • Protect it - most people overlook this. You can password-protect your address book or other personal information & pictures. Consider a replacement policy if the phone is lost or stolen.

Via Westchester1 Tags: back to school, technology, school, education technology, kids technology