The iPhone and Education

Posted on October 10, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

If you have some time to kill, click over to eSchool News and read about educators that are looking at ways of using the iPhone in school.

The article sites new potential applications on the iPhone: world weather, encyclopedia, simulations, widgets, blogs, etc.

Consider the cost of implementing a project like this. The iPhone is $400 even after the $200 drop last month.  The least expensive plan is $60 per month with a two year agreement required.  That adds up to $1840 for a portable computer with a screen the size of a deck of cards.

If you can get past the cost, consider this.  I don’t know of a school in Ohio that permits cell phone usage during school.  Who will stop the kids from texting all the time?  And I won’t even mention that there will be no way to filter web content on each of these cell phones that can easily bypass the schools wireless network.

For the same money, buy everyone a high end laptop.  It will do more and fit into the environment better.  I thought the iPhone hype was over.

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Latest From OHS

Posted on October 9, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

I received a message from the Ohio Historical Society explaining how to see a map with all the markers for the state.  If you know how to do it, the feature has been there all along.

fullmapohs.png 

1 – Go to the search site – http://www.ohiochannel.org/your_state/remarkable_ohio/search_markers_01.cfm

and click Submit without entering any search criteria.  This will find all the markers in the state.  Be patient, it takes about a minute to load them all.

2 – When the full list appears, click the Map Markers link at the top of the list.  This will display the map shown above with over 1200 markers.

This is a regular Google map so you can pan and zoom.

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Are You Paying Attention?

Posted on October 8, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

I watched the pre-conference keynote presentation by David Warlick today.  There are video and audio versions available for download.

There were topics in the talk I expected to hear.  There was a lot of the “times have changed” and we need to understand we are educating children for a future that is uncertain to us.  This is an online-educational-technology conference and these topics go with the territory.  There was a lot more content in the presentation.

David’s talk spent a lot of time talking about how our students have a higher understanding of digital content.  They know how to manipulate digital information into new content.  They can create new learning experiences by reshaping content.  Using technology we can enable teachers to teach more effectively in this new environment.

And he summed it up with this line (about 35 minutes in).

“It is so much within the grasp of those of us who are paying attention.”

To invent new boundaries, many of us are going to have to pay attention.  As we are exposed to new instructional tools, we must identify the ones that can make a difference in the way we teach.

Technology is empowering.  Using technology a few people can make a great impact on education.  These people can even be students because our students can take learning into their own digital hands. 

As a teacher there is nothing better than a student excited about learning.  Are we paying attention?

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The K-12 Online Conference

Posted on October 7, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

This week is the start of the second annual K-12 Online Conference.  This is a conference you don’t want to miss.  The theme is “Playing with Boundaries” and registration is free.

There are only a few live events (schedule is here) so scheduling shouldn’t be a problem.  The pre-conference is this week followed by two weeks of the regular conference.  The strands for the regular conference are here.

If you are looking for ways new technologies are being used in schools, give this conference some of your attention in the next few weeks.

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Polar Bears at Toledo Zoo

Posted on October 6, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

We managed to make it up to the Toledo Zoo today to see the new polar bear cubs. The exhibit is very nice. They have one mother with two cubs and a second mother with one cub.  All the cubs are almost a year old. We snapped off a few pictures. Here is one of the cubs.

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