Posted in How teachers use technology, In the fox hole on May 29th, 2008 No Comments »
A wicked problem is defined as one with a complex solution, and that the solution itself will probably open up more problems to tackle as the solver works through the original problem. The variables make the solution very hard to figure out; add to that the changing nature of technology, and you’ve got a “wicked [...]
Posted in Student Use of technology on May 29th, 2008 No Comments »
Many folks will say no to this question. I’ve just finished a section of TPCK. In 2003, there was a study by Heeter that compared educational and commercial computer games. That study found that educational games were “easier to learn, less complex, shorter, less challenging to play….” This resulted in a need by [...]
Posted in Student Use of technology on May 28th, 2008 No Comments »
Yesterday I finally got to play with some computer programming with a younger set. A few weeks ago, I heard about Scratch, an object based software programming tool. What fun we had! I spent no more than five minutes of their hour with me giving them the intro. They’re all on laptops, so I just [...]
Posted in Moving The Cheese on May 23rd, 2008 No Comments »
Two weeks ago, a 6th grade science teacher and I worked with his students as they learned about the solar system. On of our first tasks was learning how to modify a search. We googled the phrase “solar system.” On Tuesday noon, the Google search gave 40 million sites. The next day [...]
Posted in Student Use of technology on May 22nd, 2008 1 Comment »
I’ve been noticing the last several years the gender differences related to technology use. In our lab before school, about 27 students (grades 5 and 6 mostly) can be found interacting with each other and the Internet games they have found on sites like MiniClip. (I don’t allow point and shoot or fighting games if [...]
Posted in How teachers use technology on May 8th, 2008 1 Comment »
Historically, educators have been expected to know their subject matter. This hasn’t changed, of course, but the amount to know has. When teachers come into the computer lab, they often feel out of place. A 500 page manual on how to use Office is overwhelming. Teachers haven’t had time to study it, to really learn [...]
Posted in Platforms on May 2nd, 2008 3 Comments »
I’ve been receiving listserv items this year that are full of comments about these different operating systems. There’s a lot of excitement in these posts, and the authors are enthusiastic, positive and seemingly determined. I wouldn’t call them evangelists, but some posts seemed to be “over the top” to me. I’m reminded of the platform “wars” of the [...]
