Why Schools Should Stop Banning Cell Phones, and Use Them for Learning

MediaShift blog on pbs.com:

The findings of this Pew research -- the reliance of adults on their cell phones -- stands in sharp contrast to the policies of many schools, where cell phones remained banned or restricted. Students likely have these same needs as adults: to get online and find information they need right away. But often students are banned from using their cell phones in schools, something that students themselves list as one of the greatest obstacles they face in using technology in the classroom.

For many schools, these are formal rules, written in school policy or in student handbooks. But as phones become more like extended appendages in everyone's lives, schools are rethinking their policies. MindShift asked teachers how or whether these rules were changing and received some interesting feedback.


Last week, a  study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that cell phones have become "near ubiquitous": 83 percent of American adults own one. Over half of all adult mobile phone owners had used their phones at least once to get information they needed right away. And more than a quarter said that they had experienced a situation in the previous month in which they had trouble doing something because they did not have their phones at hand.

Read more:    SHIFTING POLICIES

How to Deal With Complex Diagram in PowerPoint

I have to work with complex diagrams all the time, so this video is especially beneficial to me.  What about you?


Presented by Dave Paraidi of  http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/

Google Maps Adds A Weather Layer

I love Google Maps and I love this feature. (Can't wait to get an Android) My hubby says the Google Maps Pro has had this feature for a while, and if there's much cloud cover, you have to turn it off, but it's really cool to have the option.

Location and weather go together like peanut butter and jelly. So it only makes sense that our favorite map tool, Google Maps, starts to bring weather into the picture. According to the official Google Blog, that’s exactly what’s happening. The weather layer will not only show you temperatures and conditions in your area, but display weather info for the entire globe, which should make planning your next trip a bit easier.

Courtesy of weather.com, the weather layer will display current conditions with various icons for sun, rain, clouds, etc. Cloud coverage will also appear on the weather layer thanks to the folks over at the U.S. Naval Research Lab. Sun and moon icons also appear to show whether its day or night in other parts of the world.

To add the weather layer, all you need to do is hover over the widget in the upper right-hand corner and choose the weather layer from the list. If you click on a weather icon for a certain city, more detailed information such as humidity levels and wind conditions will appear, along with a forecast for the next four days.

The weather integration also makes it easy to keep tabs on family and friends in other parts of the world. After checking out the weather channel, my grandma calls me every day to talk about how I’m fairing in the rain, or during the heat wave, and if she had any idea how to use a computer or what Google was, this would be a must-have feature.

Click here to see a demo video.

Online schooling seeing explosive growth in Oklahoma

By ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
Published: 8/15/2011 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 8/15/2011 7:44 AM

From promotional radio and TV commercials and direct mailings aimed at parents to newspaper headline-making controversy and explosive enrollment growth, "virtual schools" and "virtual students" are this back-to-school season's buzz words.

A Tulsa World analysis of state records shows that the number of Oklahoma public school students doing schoolwork through computer-based programs has increased nearly 400 percent over the last three years.

The state's most recent official count of virtual students for 2010-11 was 5,429. That's about the combined student population of Tulsa Hale and Broken Arrow high schools.

"Everyone is trying to get their arms around the scope of what's being offered and how fast it's moving," said Damon Gardenhire, communications director for the Oklahoma State Department of Education. "While this is something we think education as a whole should embrace, like anything else, it is something we should be taking a close look at in terms of quality and consistency.

"There is a lot of excitement and also a desire to ensure that we're doing all the right things."

While the programs are offered at no cost to students, most are operated by for-profit companies that contract with public school districts.


A Tulsa World analysis shows that the number of Oklahoma public school students doing schoolwork through computer-based programs has increased nearly 400 percent over the last three years. 

White Oak, an unincorporated community between Chelsea and Vinita, boasts the most virtual students in part because of its early foray into online education as well as its partnership with K12, a Virginia-based company that invests in radio, television, online and direct-mail advertising.

K12 offers virtual programs in more than half of the U.S., and most are named for the state they serve. So when you see a commercial seeking out students for the "Oklahoma Virtual Academy," they are actually seeking out kids in grades 1-8 to transfer into the White Oak district and kids in grades 9-12 to transfer into Wynona Public Schools, the company's virtual high school partner.

Those districts keep 5 percent of the state funding for virtual students and send the rest to K12.

The arrangement is similar for Oklahoma's first virtual charter school, Epic One on One, which is preparing to open its inaugural academic year in early September.

Graham Public Schools, the small Okfuskee County school district that sponsors Epic, gets to keep 5 percent of state funds as an "administrative fee," but the rest will be overseen by the charter school's independent governing board.

Questions and concerns about profit-driven motives and accountability for public dollars are the most commonly raised ones by leaders of school districts losing students to other schools' virtual programs.

Rick Mansheim, who is employed by K12 as head of school for Oklahoma Virtual Academy, said the company is actually losing money on the venture right now.

"There is no management fee for K12 in Oklahoma because there isn't enough funding in Oklahoma to make that work," he said. "The money basically all stays in Oklahoma in the form of salaries and curriculum materials, and K12 actually contributes some money. We do believe that at some point there is a future here. We believe in what we do. We view it as an investment in school choice."

Mansheim is also frank when asked about reports of high turnover rates among virtual students.

For example, the state Department of Education had White Oak's official virtual student count at 973 for 2010-11. Those official numbers were used to determine state funding, but Mansheim said they ended the school year with only 837 students on the rolls.

"That's really the norm with online," Mansheim said. "The students sign up for it, they get into it and find out it's not as easy as they thought. We end up losing a lot of students just because of the rigor of the program. Also, there is a lot more involved for the parent or learning coach. We also lose a lot during state testing."

Dusty Chancey, superintendent of Graham Public Schools, Epic One on One's sponsor, readily admits to having concerns that online learning is simply "not for some kids."

"Most kids can text, but not all of them can learn the core curriculum in the virtual classroom," he said. "They need the personal interaction. A lot of these students need the opportunity to try this mode of education but soon decide it's not for them."

He said he thinks one way to address concerns about the accountability of public funds would be to check virtual student enrollment or attendance quarterly instead of just twice a year.

"We have also taken the initiative and decided to drop students (from the rolls) ourselves after 16 days of no activity on the Internet," he said. "You could sit there and let them run the whole 180 days, but that's not ethical."

Epic, which had billed itself as a strictly online program, caused red flags to go up last month when it began advertising an elementary school site in north Tulsa and full-day pre-kindergartens in Oklahoma City and Norman.

State officials informed the school that physical locations outside of its sponsoring district would violate the charter school law, so Chancey said parents who were going to use those sites have since been notified that they won't open after all.

He added: "I would rather do it right the first time and ask permission than have to go back and beg forgiveness. From what I've seen in other states and what they're doing with virtual schools, I want the one in Oklahoma to succeed. If you look at post-secondary education, you can get your bachelor's and master's online from probably 90 percent of the colleges in Oklahoma. Why not get them ready to do that in high school?"

---

Expansion of online learning in Oklahoma

• Growth trend in students enrolled in virtual classes: 1,102 in 2008-09, 2,600 in 2009-10, to 5,429 in 2010-11
• Number of school districts with virtual students during same three-year period: 20 to 48 to 154

Districts with most virtual students, as of February:

1. White Oak: 973

2. Tulsa: 508

3. Hanna: 350

4. Wynona: 170

5. Graham: 157

6. Oklahoma City: 133

7. Midwest City-Del City: 122

8. Muskogee: 108

9. Bartlesville: 104

10. Berryhill: 101

Largest providers of online programming in the state: Advanced Academics, E 2020 and K12

Source: Oklahoma State Department of Education (www.school.com)

(I included the whole article here, since readers can only access Tulsa World articles a limited number of times without a subscription, but here's the link if you can get in:  http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=19&articleid=20110815_19_A1_CUTLIN958405#)

70 Years of Supercomputers [Infographic]

From ReadWrite Enterprise, comes . . . . (da da!)  Click graphic to read the whole article.

How To Create A Virtual Gmail Drive On Your Desktop

Wow!  So cool!  From Beta Byte

If you need extra storage space to store files, the Gmail Drive utility is your answer. And it's not just for email, either. Here's how to create a virtual Gmail drive, which lets you store files and acts just like a physical drive connected to your local machine.

First download GMail Drive.

Unzip the file and run setup.exe.

You'll have to restart to complete the install.

After the restart, log back into your system and head to My Computer. There you'll see the Gmail Drive.

Double-click on Gmail Drive. Enter your Google username and password. Check auto login so you don't have to sign in each time.

Your Gmail Drive will be empty--just waiting for you to load your files on it.

Just drag and drop files into Gmail Drive. Treat it just as you would a physical drive on your system.

Now wait while the file uploads to your Gmail account. Once it's uploaded, you view the files in the GMail Drive.

When you log into your Gmail account, you'll see the files you've uploaded listed in your inbox--they will look just as if they were messages. The subject head will be GMAILFS. Filter them as you wish or put your documents into folders.

You see? There's no reason to let all your Gmail space go to waste. The Gmail Drive utility is an efficient way to get your data off your local system and into the cloud.

Dario Dulic is a senior contributor at BYTE. Email him at Dario.Dulic@BYTE.com.

Do You Live In An Android State Or An iPhone State?

TechCrunch has us all figured out.  I live in a "nuteral" state, and I'm an iphone getting ready to be and Android.  What about you?   Read the article here.

New Service From Harvard Aims to Replace Classroom Lectures

In the workshop I conducted for the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education this week, we discussed flipping classrooms and the use of  Facebook Questions in the classroom to measure the effectiveness of what is being taught, and then, on the ReadWriteWeb, up pops an article that covers both of these topics.  It seems one professor at Harvard is embracing both of these techniques:


http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/learning_catalytics_classroom_mobile.php

Flipped classes:

"Lectures made sense before the invention of the printing press, argues Harvard physics professor Eric Mazur, but at this point in history they are far from the best way to transmit large amounts of information or to make use of face-to-face time in the classroom.
Over nearly 20 years, Mazur has developed an innovative teaching methodology and is now testing software to support its application in any classroom. The basic idea is that the bulk of information consumption should be done outside the classroom and in-class time should be spent doing guided, measured, optimized peer-to-peer discussion in order to maximize retention of knowledge. Mazur's National Science Foundation-backed startup Learning Catalytics looks like a very cool way to facilitate that class time using web and mobile devices."

The technique discussed here could be employed easily using Facebook Questions:

Pierce described how Mazur demonstrated his methodology with attendees of an education conference last week in Boston. Mazur asked a physics question of people in the room.

Pierce :

"After briefly explaining why metal expands when it's heated--the atoms move more vigorously, and so they spread out because need more space in which to move--he asked attendees to imagine a rectangular piece of metal with a circular hole in the middle: Would the diameter of the hole increase, decrease, or stay the same if the metal were heated uniformly?

"Participants logged their responses, and then they huddled to confer with their colleagues. Those who thought the hole would shrink explained that the atoms in the metal around the edge of the hole would want to move away from the atoms in the rectangle's interior, thereby contracting the hole.

"But others correctly argued that the atoms around the hole's edge would not move toward the hole's center, because that would create even more crowding among themselves; instead, those atoms would move away from the hole's center in an attempt to create more space for themselves, thereby expanding the circle's diameter.

"When Mazur posed the question a second time, the number of correct responses nearly doubled as a result of this discussion. And when he shared the correct answer, many attendees affirmed they'll remember this concept much more vividly for having participated in the discussion."

Mazur's method aims to come up with questions that between 30% and 70% of students in a classroom answer correctly. If fewer than 30% get it right, then he revisits the concepts behind the question. Once more than 70% get it right, then he moves on to the next question."

Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths About Blocked Sites

When I presented a workshop for Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education this week, the teachers and I discusses social media and blocking. This article  should help them make decisions and influence decisions in their institutions.    You can find the entire article at http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/straight-from-the-doe-facts-about-blocking-sites-in-schools/, but I've included an excerpt here"

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hearing from frustrated teachers about surprising websites their schools block — everything from National Geographic to Skype. One even wrote in to say that CommonCore.org was blocked.

A few readers questioned the judgment of teachers who use their own mobile devices to allow their students access to blocked sites. One reader, identified as Cwells67, goes so far as to claim: “If we do not block inappropriate sites ‘to the extent practicable,’ meaning ‘if you can block inappropriate sites, you are legally bound to block them,’ we will lose ALL FEDERAL FUNDING.”

To clear up some of the confusion around these comments and assertions, I went straight to the top: the Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology, Karen Cator.

Cator parsed the rules of the Childrens Internet Protection Act, and provided guidance for teachers on how to proceed when it comes to interpreting the rules. To that end, here are six surprising rules that educators, administrators, parents and students might not know about website filtering in schools.

1. Accessing YouTube is not violating CIPA rules. “Absolutely it’s not circumventing the rules,” Cator says. “The rule is to block inappropriate sites. All sorts of YouTube videos are helpful in explaining complex concepts or telling a story, or for hearing an expert or an authentic voice — they present learning opportunities that are really helpful.”
2. Websites don’t have to be blocked for teachers. “Some of the comments I saw online had to do with teachers wondering why they can’t access these sites,” she says. “They absolutely can. There’s nothing that says that sites have to be blocked for adults.”
3. Broad filters are not helpful. “What we have had is what I consider brute force technologies that shut down wide swaths of the Internet, like all of YouTube, for example. Or they may shut down anything that has anything to do with social media, or anything that is a game,” she said. “These broad filters aren’t actually very helpful, because we need much more nuanced filtering.”
4. Schools will not lose E-rate funding by unblocking appropriate sites. Cator said she’s never heard of a school losing E-rate funding due to allowing appropriate sites blocked by filters. See the excerpt below from the National Education Technology Plan, approved by officials who dictate E-rate rules.
5. Kids need to be taught how to be responsible digital citizens. “[We need to] address the topic at school or home in the form of education,” Cator says. “How do we educate this generation of young people to be safe online, to be secure online, to protect their personal information, to understand privacy, and how that all plays out when they’re in an online space?”
6. Teachers should be trusted. “If the technology fails us and filters something appropriate and useful, and if teachers in their professional judgment think it’s appropriate, they should be able to show it,” she said. “Teachers need to impose their professional judgment on materials that are available to their students.”

Thousands of Old-Tyme Radio Shows

Before televisions appeared in every household in the US, children like Ralphie were huddled around radios to listen to their favorite programs. Long ago those programs stopped being broadcast, but you can still listen to them. The Old Time Radio Network is an online collection of more than 12,000 old radio shows. The catalog is organized alphabetically by program title. Next to each program title you'll find the number of episodes available online. To get started havea listen to Hopalong Cassidy or Abbot and Costello.

Applications for Education
Visit the Old Time Radio Network and check out a recording or two for your next lesson on 20th Century history and culture.

And here's another link to Old-Tyme Radio Shows online

Here is what you'll find on this website:

• 2,500 old time radio mystery shows, free download for everyone
• 48,000 shows of all genres for download to everyone who supports this website with a small donation
• Many rare shows that can't be found anywhere else on the Internet
• Friendly, active old time radio discussion forum
• Mystery show podcast and easy podcast player page
• Club news blog to stay updated when we add new shows
• Many old music shows
• New shows being added all the time
• Lot's of fun!

Adobe Launches HTML5 Web Animations Tool (Free Download)

I've been experimenting with HTML5 in Dreamweaver.  I can't wait to try this:  

Adobe released a public preview of Adobe Edge, its new web motion and interaction design tool, on Monday (That's today!!).

Edge enables users to create animated content using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript — not Flash. It’s the first professional-grade HTML5 editing tool on the market and is currently available for free, as the company is looking for feedback from developers.

Interestingly enough, Adobe Edge shares the name with Adobe’s free newsletter, which is bound to create some confusion among users.
The product, which relies on strict HTML standards and does not incorporate Flash, is not meant to replace existing web design tools like Dreamweaver or Flash, but to coexist with them, enhancing Adobe’s position as a leader in the future of Web infrastructure, especially as HTML5 becomes increasingly important in the world of mobile.

When Mashable spoke with Paul Gubbay, Adobe’s VP of design and web engineering, last September, he made it clear that the company is interested in supporting both platforms. The following month, Adobe launched a Flash-to-HTML5 converter, a first step towards supporting HTML5.

Adobe is further backing up that position with the launch of Adobe Edge, and promises fast-paced updates to the software to keep up with frequent changes to HTML5 itself.

Adobe released the video preview embedded above last month. Take a look, download it, test it out and let us know what you think about it.


From Mashable