WebedtecH

• HowStuffWorks “How Ultralight Backpacking Works”

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I’ve been looking for a way to combine the interests of my two core audiences here at WebedtecH.com, the educators and the organizers. So…let’s see what happens when we specifically apply these techniques to students, teachers, and administrators. My darling 15-year old daughter got the ball rolling for me when she sent me a text asking if she could have one of my “little black notebooks.”

Now, as most teenagers do, she carries a cell phone around with her almost all the time. Combined with internet access on the phone and you would thing she would be a perfect candidate for web based solutions she could access while mobile. But here’s the rub. School policy doesn’t allow use of the cell phone during class. I’m not debating the merits of that policy (that’s for another time) but it poses a problem. What is the easiest way to keep things organized when you’re NOT always connected?

I spend a fair amount of time with teenagers and have found (as many of us know already) they can be random thinkers, desiring to fit with others while stretching to show their own identity. Structure can be limiting and limiting means disuse. So what’s the solution?

A plain Moleskine (or inexpensive equivalent) is a great start. They have the freedom to customize the books however they like. They are not bound by forms and templates and can capture what they need to know and how they need to know it. I’m sure there are many who feel without structure the students will be lost and miss valuable information. Ah, but do they have to?

By teaching our students the value of just capturing information rather than getting hung up on the formatting and structure, we curtail the “Hunh? I don’t remember that.” When they ask, “When’s the test again?” you can respond, “Check your book. You did write it down didn’t you?” Some may argue it is coddling the students…I disagree. Far too many professionals in the “real world” can’t handle basic information management and consistent capture is the key starting place for this skill.

We are in the midst of a project requiring us to ask our parents and staff a series of questions and aggregate the results in a very short period of time…and for free. We’ve used SurveyMonkey and others of that ilk in the past but I thought this would be a great opportunity to use the Form function in Google Spreadsheets.

Here’s how it worked. We created the form in Google Apps using the New: Form option. It’s a basic questionnaire with only six questions. All but one question is a rating scale response, in this case a scale from one to four. The form was ready within 15 minutes and I created a TinyURL pointing to the form to be emailed to the survey respondents.

Here’s where we hit a snag. No matter how I set the access permissions on the survey it kept asking users to log into Google Apps to complete the questions. Now since this is NOT what we wanted we needed a workaround. Our solution was a hidden content page on the school web site with an embedded copy of the form (there’s a button that generates the Javascript for copy and paste ease) and then send the link to that page to the recipients. Bingo! Responses started to flow in.

I would be interested to see if anyone is willing to take a stab at creating a quiz or test for students using the same methodology (or has already and is willing to share).

For years now I have wondered about the term “educational technology.” What does it mean? What does it contribute to the world at large? Does it actually make a difference to the students as they graduate and move into the real world?

There is a reason the word technology takes second billing in the phrase. Technology is a tool for helping deliver the education. The hammer and the pneumatic nailer are both tools that reach the same result. One is technical, requiring understanding and practice to use safely and at peak efficiency. The other is a hammer. Are we teaching our students and staffs how to use the nailer at the expense of the hammer or at the expense of being able to choose the right one at the right time?

Each new technology that comes down the pike with furor and fanfare will be replaced by another “superior” technology. Chalkboard to whiteboard to interactive multimedia presentation system. Has the message on the media changed or are we just pandering to a perceived short attention span mindset? “This is the computer generation people! They can’t learn without digital tech!” Funny, I still see groups of kids sitting around a teacher as she reads aloud and turns the pages of a (GASP) book! Why do we have such a hard time accepting the fact sometimes a teacher just wants to use a whiteboard?

Listen, I’m not damning all educational technology. You know me better than that. What I am challenging us with is getting off the high horse that technology is THE answer and look at it as AN answer. We must spend time working with our staffs and helping them think through their options. We also MUST be willing to accept part of a technology solution is the willingness of the user to use the system. We must also accept sometimes the most technical answer is not the best one.

Stop screaming in the echo chamber. Prove you know what you are talking about to people outside the technology field. Present intelligent discussion and options to your staffs and stop the Luddite branding if technology isn’t the chosen solution. In the end it’s all about Benjamin, baby.

Think I’m wrong? Bring it on.

I recently received a question from a parent about how it would be best to manage and filter their child’s web site explorations at home.  Here’s my response:

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Sit down with your child at the computer and ask him to teach you about Webkinz and Neopets and the other sites he is interested in.  Don’t take it from the position of evaluating the sites but rather from a sincere interest in learning more about them and what he is interested.  By doing that you will gain several things:

1. You will have a better understanding of these virtual worlds and the types of interactions that can happen in them, both positive and negative.
2. You will be able to spend some time and observe his/her interactions with the games and see what aspects of them he tends towards.  Boys by nature gravitate to more action-oriented sections of games where girls traditionally gravitate to puzzles and interactive environments.  (Of course there are always exceptions to the rule).
3. Gaming environments can be very engaging, especially if a child has a vivid imagination or tends to get immersed in things easily.  Compare his game reactions to the reactions he has to movies and cartoons.  Are they similar, stronger, or weaker?
4. Look for common themes in the types of characters he/she chooses to play.  If he/she chooses one over another, don’t hesitate to ask him why.  There may be commonalities in his decisions, such as powerful versus weak, a specific look, gender association, etc.
5. This may be the biggest stretch for you…but ask him/her to help you set up your own characters and take you through the world.  Aside from it being good quality time you will be establishing credibility with him when it comes time to execute parental control on worlds and places he should not be entering.  Do not hesitate to try the sites he is visiting on your own when he is not around.  The more you learn about the sites the better off you will be.
6. Check in with him.  Every so often ask him/her how his characters are doing (make a point to learn the character names and the names he/she gave them).

There are systems available that can be used to filter web sites from kids (we use one at the school called OpenDNS [http://www.opendns.com] that is free and provides a great deal of control at the machine level.  However, no technological solution can replace building the understanding between you and he as to the types of things you consider appropriate and not.

The sites he/she has identified so far are known kids sites and many have protections in place for child safety.  (Gaia is targeted for PG-13 so I’d recommend against that.)  Most sites that draw kids will have some sort of parental information available easily from their home page.

He/she will want to explore and try new things, that is a given.  Working with him/her is the best solution in preparing him/her to be responsible as he/she grows on the internet.  I equate it to when he/she starts to drive.  The driving lessons will be invaluable since at some point he’ll have to leave the parking lot.

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