An Obvious Model

According to Rob Eissler, Texas Republican legislator, classrooms will have to change . He sees the coming generation as a whole different species; “Their culture is different, and so is their mode of communication. Rather than have us force kids to the old way, we need use their way of learning and communicating.” And so a new Bill has been drafted and accepted, which should push the move from paperback to electronic book. But is the next generation that different? Our means of communication have changed; we have different tools and learn to use those at a younger age. And yes, schools need to participate and supply and use those tools as well. It starts with the support of the school management; the principal has to support the teachers, and supply the tools as well as the technical back-up. Then it’s a matter of learning new skills, for both teacher and student. Nothing is impossible - as long as we desire to do something, see the need for it; this is where motivation kicks in. Hopefully Mr Eissler has thought about how to get the teachers to use the electronic tools. That brings us to the third requirement: training. If the teachers aren’t trained, they can’t train the students. Obvious? Yes. In order to maintain these skills and use them regularly in their teaching practice, there has to be gratification; the students learn better, show an increased motivation, research and present their projects, in short become independent and self-assured learners. Wouldn’t that be an ideal world?

Knight in shining Armour (1)

I just spent three hours working on a proposal. It's off the cuff, I'm inspired and just keep writing, doing the odd bit of e-search in between. I am hammering away on my conclusion with a silly little smile stuck on my face ...hahaha, how witty I am. Then disaster strikes. I press the shift key for too long, I don't know what on earth happens, but the file is gone. AWOL, or should I say AWOB, Absent WithOut Backup. I cry, I scream, shout, hit my laptop, shake it and twist it, but to no avail. The document is lost forever. I vow never to touch a keypad again. That was last year. Only now I find this knight in shining armour who helps out digi-damsels in distress. His name is Brian Kato and his version of Excalibur is a program called RESTORATION. It promises to restore files which are deleted from the recycle bin or deleted while holding down the Shift key by mistake. Thanks Brian, does it also work after 10 months...? Click here to get RESTORATION: http://www.aumha.org/a/recover.php

Oh and charmingly, this program has another function that makes it almost impossible to restore all deleted files. You can use it after deletion of confidential documents, embarrassing files and so on. Now surely a knight in shining armour has no embarassing files in his castle?

The beauty of education

Sometimes I miss being a teacher. For instance when I read that Apple has offered an educational desktop machine at a lower price point than the rest of its desktop line. Apple has replaced the 17-inch polycarbonate education iMac with a new, low-end 20-inch aluminum model and it's a beauty.

Let's have a look at the technical details, straight from Apple Mecca: The new model includes a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a SuperDrive, and the NVIDIA 9400M graphics package. It sounds good to an untrained ear like mine (I may pretend to be a Cyberella, but when it comes to hardware I'm a total softie), yet it turns out that - compared to the higher-end iMac "Core 2 Duo" (Early 2009) models, this model has a slower processor and half the shared level 2 cache, a smaller hard drive, less RAM (and half the maximum RAM capacity), less shared DDR3 video memory, and no support for internal Bluetooth. Boohoo!! And catch this; it ships with a keyboard without the numeric keypad. Now how about that? This model is for educational institutions only - but by the way it does not come with a numeric keypad. So perhaps we shouldn't look at the specs but only at the visuals...

e-Learning?!

"What is it you do?" You organise e-learning conferences?? So that's like.. people learning at home... with computers or something?"

"Well, no it's rather Technology and Learning, or technology-enhanced learning; think Web 2.0, open educational resources, digital natives versus digital immigrants - although forget that one, that's old. It's more like - there's a digital comfortzone and you are either inside it or outside."

"A digital comfort zone?" Next thing you'll tell me is you want me to be some sort of Cyberella?"

" Well, first of all Cyberella is the EU-term for girls in the field of technology - although if you Google it, most Cyberella sites have nothing in common with the EU but everything with sexy cyberchicks. Secondly, as long as you think that Twitter is only for birds and the Web for spiders, you can stay in the suburbs of the digicomfortzone and ask your children to keep you informed...."

Usually something like that is the end of the discussion, at which point I still haven't managed to explain what e-learning is. So it's official; I dislike the term e-learning. It's too broad, too generic, too vague and I will try not to use it anymore. Instead let's call it TE-learning for Technology Enhanced, or New Learning - why not? It's a warning to all those reluctant teachers out there; New Learning involves new technology - even if new is not so new at all - but let the kids explain that to the teachers :-)

The Internet is Guilty

I'm a member of many networks, from dedicated networks such as Classroom 2.0 to monsters like LinkedIn. I have a Hyves page (yes, I'm originally Dutch), a Facebook Account, and Twitter. I have several blogs, three of which are completely neglected. I love to read, but when? All we have time for nowadays is a quick scan through the latest news. Not by reading papers, but newsletters and blogs. My friend R. calls it grazing. I also have a job. And a family. It's way past midnight and I managed to update one of my networks, not by communicating with others but by updating my bio. I've been on LinkedIn for years but have never done a thing with it. Now I found many old friends and colleagues, from Hilversum and London to Atlanta... if they join my network, I'll have even more people I know I will neglect. Is this the time when everyone feels guilty about not having enough time to do all the things you want to do and know you could do, but never will be able to include in your schedule? Are we never making the most of the Internet, and does it slowly dawn on you that you will never be able to - that we're not kitted out for it? Not have two brains, four hands, 48 hours in a day? I guess my contacts (there was a time when I simply called them friends...) will just have to wait until I am a Silver Surfer, sitting on my retired behind on a lovely beach with wLan - yes, of course the whole world will be wireless by then, it'll be as common as using the sidewalk, like Prof Dueck from IBM likes to reflect. So, in about 25 years I'll be bombarding my friends with emails and entries, updates on my wonderfully quiet and peaceful life, about the latest novel I read, or the tweets my grandchildren sent me. See you then!