Educational Technology Ray Schroeder, editor, OTEL - University of Illinois at Springfield |
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News, Techniques and Theories of Effective Use of Technology in Education 
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Saturday, May 21, 2005
PSST, THE SECRET'S OUT — CHEATING GOES HIGH TECH - JAMES A. FUSSELL, The Kansas City Star
Every year, especially during the pressure of finals, certain students take a time-tested academic shortcut: They cheat. And while cheating is nothing new, the way some are doing it is. Crib notes? Peeking at someone else's paper? How last century. Today's well-equipped cheater is armed with high-tech tools that have ushered in a new age of digital deception. Even as schools have started using technology to fight an epidemic of downloaded papers and cut-and-paste plagiarism, new threats have arrived: Camera phones can take and transmit pictures of tests or send silent text messages to request or provide answers. MP3 players can hold downloaded notes as easily as they can hold music. (0) comments
Phone-bully pupils targeting teachers - EMILY WATT, New Zealand Stuff
Forget about throwing darts, the latest classroom craze is "teacher baiting" - pupils deliberately enrage their teachers and record their responses on cellphones. Technology safety group NetSafe reports some school children are pursuing teachers, recording their reactions and sending the recording to their friends. Netsafe also said young children are being text bullied as children as young as five take phones to primary school. NetSafe runs a phone bully line and said increasing numbers of young children were calling to report text bullying. (0) comments Friday, May 20, 2005
School technology status good now; future uncertain - South Carolina State
South Carolina schools are holding their own in a recent national comparison of students’ access to technology. The journal Education Week looked at the ways computers are being employed in education for its review, Technology Counts.... A good example of that today is S.C. ETV’s initiative, StreamlineSC. Any teacher in any South Carolina school can access the service’s library online, free of charge. The content includes ETV’s educational productions. State Department of Education-approved K-12 programs, and Discovery Education programs, a digital library of more than 26,000 video clips. The information on Streamline is correlated to South Carolina’s state K-12 curriculum standards. The online library includes interactive quizzes, classroom activities and teachers’ guides. Such 21st-century offerings are in keeping with ETV’s historic mission, to extend educational opportunities into the more rural, far-flung and poor communities of our state. (0) comments
Integrating Computers and Science Inquiry: The C4E Model - Kevin Wise, techLearning
We are now in an era where computers are as common in classrooms as chalkboard and desks. Students, parents, and the community at large now expect computers to be used as tools in instruction, much as they have traditionally expected textbooks to be at the heart of the classroom routine. This is an expectation that has only developed over the past twenty years. Our problem as educators is how do we integrate computers into our instructional practices to maximize student learning? (0) comments Thursday, May 19, 2005
Ubiquitous Computing, Ubiquitous Inattention - Craig Ullman, techLearning
When computer engineers draw schematics, they always represent the Internet as a cloud. The origins of this iconography are pretty simple: the Internet is a distributed network, so if you want to send a some data from point A to point B, the data gets broken into bits (so to speak), and the individual packets are sent any which way, to be gathered up and re-assembled at point B. So you enter the Internet Cloud at one point, you come out of it at another point, but how you got there is totally obscured. Over the years, the Internet Cloud has enveloped the surface of the Earth with wires. You had to plug in, get connected, be in a place where you can connect. You had to go to the Cloud, but now the Cloud comes to you: wireless technology is becoming ubiquitous. Coffee chains and fast food outlets, public buildings and private homes, are all unplugging and connecting to the Internet Cloud via several different wireless formats (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.). The different formats ultimately don't matter; no doubt they will be replaced as even more robust technologies reach the market. The point is, we will soon be living our lives subsumed by the Cloud. (0) comments
Fair use sought under DMCA - Robert Brumfield, eSchool News
A trio of Democratic and Republican congressmen is pushing a bill that would amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) to allow for so-called "fair use" of copyrighted digital materials by educators, librarians, students, artists, scientists, and other technology users and consumers. The bill to amend the DMCA, the Digital Media Consumers Rights Act, was introduced in the House by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va.; Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas; and Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif. If passed, the bill would permit users to make copies of DVDs and other digital media for educational or research purposes. Supporters of the amendment, including education and consumer advocacy groups, say it would rightly extend the fair-use doctrine now enjoyed by users of print and analog media into the digital realm. But critics, including groups that represent digital content providers, argue the bill would weaken the copyright-protection measures that guard against digital piracy. (0) comments Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Paper Plate Education
The Paper Plate Education website, created by Chuck Bueter at DePaul University, offers hands-on activities covering a range of science topics and education levels. With an abundance of paper plates and a few other common items, students can learn about the seasonal and latitudinal changes of the altitude of the noon sun, correct depictions of the phases of the moon, the interior of planets, and much more. Visitors can view images of a few individuals' paper plate projects. Because the author is always adding more materials, regular users should visit the What's New link to easily obtain the latest science activities. This site is also reviewed in the May 13, 2005 _NSDL Physical Sciences Report_. From The NSDL Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2005. http://scout.wisc.edu/ (0) comments
Access Excellence: Learning in Cockroaches
Housed in the archives of the Access Excellence Fellows' Collection, this website contains a lab lesson plan about cockroaches by veteran high school biology teacher Mary Colvard. The lesson is geared towards high and middle school students, and asks students to look for signs of learning in cockroaches. An additional "purpose is to provide students with the opportunity to carefully observe and work with an insect they normally find offensive. Thus students will develop a keener appreciation of the complexities of experimental design and of animal life." The lesson plan includes background information about cockroaches, procedural instructions, teaching tips, a couple extension ideas, and several references. From The NSDL Scout Report for the Life Sciences, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2005. http://scout.wisc.edu/ (0) comments Tuesday, May 17, 2005
First Schools Using ''Making History'' Report Results; Interactive Video Game Impacts Learning in Real World Classrooms
A new kind of interactive software is being used for the first time in high school and college classrooms across the country. "Making History," a PC-based learning simulation from Muzzy Lane Software, has debuted this spring at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Ill., Salem State College in Salem, Mass., and Oak Hill High School in Converse, Ind. Nearly 300 students participated in multiplayer game sessions. Grade levels ranged from high school Freshman taking Social Studies to college Seniors majoring in History. "It has taken us two years to engineer the game platform to the point where we believe it is ready for mainstream use in schools," said Muzzy Lane vice president Nick deKanter. "The results we're seeing from these first in-class projects are very exciting, proving that the technology is ready but, more importantly, that the teachers and the kids are ready." Unlike any lecture or homework assignment these teens have ever had, "Making History" literally put students in charge of France, England, Germany, Russia and Italy during the momentous decades of 1930 to 1950, the period before, during and after World War II. In teams and individually they made decisions of war and peace and everything in between. (0) comments
Mich., Ind. mull 1-to-1 computing plans - Robert Brumfield, eSchool News
One-to-one computing--and the educational possibilities that arise when each student has access to his or her own machine--has been the dream of many school officials for some time. But budgetary realities have kept most school districts and states from achieving this dream. Now, as one state moves toward implementing a one-to-one desktop computer program, another appears poised to cut funding entirely from its statewide laptop initiative. Federal and state budget cuts have led Michigan state officials to consider ending that state's far-reaching one-to-one laptop program for sixth-grade students. Similar budget concerns have led Indiana state officials to go ahead with what many call a less-practical, desktop one-to-one model for the entire state's high schools. (0) comments Monday, May 16, 2005
Court red-flags anti-piracy tech - eSchool News
A U.S. appeals court on May 6 threw out new federal rules requiring anti-piracy technology that would have limited how educators and other consumers could record and play their favorite television programs in the future. The three-judge panel for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia determined that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had exceeded its authority when it announced it would require such technology in digital televisions and other consumer electronic devices sold after July 1. This opens up the future for consumers to have more wide-ranging video experiences," said Art Brodsky, a spokesman for Washington, D.C.-based Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group. "They will be able to take advantage of new products and features that won't be dictated to them by the entertainment industry." (0) comments
The Web and Hurricane Survival - Rosemary Shaw, techLearning
It's tough living through a hurricane! Its tougher living through two! Students at Millennium Middle School, in Sanford, Florida recently lived through two hurricanes: Charley (a category 2) and Frances (the longest storm in Florida history) When my own daughter started exhibiting signs of stress after Hurricane Charley pounded our home I realized how important it was to help all of my students de-stress. I first found some online sources (which I immediately posted to the school's Website) and then I tried to put these good ideas to use. (0) comments Sunday, May 15, 2005
Technology, learning unite at PSJA - James Osborne, the Monitor
http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Sitting in front of a computer program that allows students to complete a course without ever listening to a teacher, PSJA North High School lead teacher Martha Romero admits her profession has changed dramatically since software entered the curriculum. "The teacher’s becoming more of a facilitator," she said. "Nowadays, the kids need a spark, and these programs seems to provide it." Bright graphic displays, streaming video footage, an entire semester’s worth of material a mouse click away — students are increasingly learning the principles of genetics and causes of the Revolutionary War through computer programs designed to prepare them for state administered tests. While school administrators claim such software alleviates the strain on overworked teachers and closes the gap between wealthy and poor school districts, observers wonder whether it comes at a cost to the students’ overall education. (0) comments
Schools await 1,650 laptops - Tony Dobrowolski, Berkshire Eagle
The city will receive 1,650 laptop computers for use in the Berkshire Wireless Laptop Project this fall. All but 114 of those will be used by students. The rest will be used by teachers, James Stakenas, vice president for administration and finance at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, told the School Committee on Wednesday night. He is a member of the initiative's executive board. (0) comments Educational Technology News Blog Archives OTEL - Ray's Home Page - Notebook - UIS Online - U of I Online - UIS Home Fair Use |
