Category Archives: technology

Post Pencil?

21st Century Skills, New Media, Old Media, Paradigm Shifts, technology,

Sharon has been writing eloquently about Sherry Turkle’s book Simulation and Its Discontents, which I also read as part of the “choose your own reading” part of the course. Go read Sharon’s posts, particularly the one about socks, and then come back…no, really, go…

Turkle’s book is a microcosmic look at experience of the analog to digital transition. I am part of the generation that is living through that transition. Like Turkle’s engineers and architects, I face the fundamental question: As technology replaces so much of what we do “by hand,” what analog practices do we want to keep around? I know that some of my colleagues would probably say none, having developed digital lives for themselves.

But, as I face the transition, I find that there are certain things I like to do with a pencil in my hand and the digital alternative is simply not as satisfying. The main one: my to do list. I use it, in conjunction with a print calendar, to map out my months, weeks, and days. It’s the way I’ve always done it and I have yet to find an online alternative that satisfies me. I begin my day by jotting down what I want to accomplish and still get a thrill when I can draw a line through it at day’s end.

I also prefer using a pencil and paper for brainstorming and drafting. Like Turkle’s folks, I sometimes feel as though word processed text looks too complete and the highlighting and commenting tools do not provide the same level of contact with the text in order to complete detailed editing. Of course, my advisor and I used these tools to pass drafts of my dissertation back and forth but my own work on the draft often include lots of handwritten work from outlines, to diagrams, to chunks of text. My spiral bound notebook is included in the archives of the project because much of the thinking about themes was concocted in its pages. At some point, I tried using a digital graphic organizer but somehow the technology got in the way. I wanted to scribble, to draw wavy arrows, to circle words, to jot pictures, to create messiness, and the software seemed to demand neatness and order. I wasn’t creating for someone else but instead trying to dig into my own thinking and the pencil was more inviting than the mouse as the tool to facilitate that process.

While these activities seem mundane compared to Turkle’s folks who are grappling with the meaning of simulations for their very work, they illustrate in a very practical way the decisions we make each day about our use of technology. I think it’s important to consider these decisions and provide opportunities for kids to understand them as well, lest they become like the younger designers who see no value in the old ways and rely, sometimes too completely, on the simulation.

21st Century Skills: Data Manipulation

21st Century Skills, programming, technical skills, technology

These days, the world runs on data. In our class, we looked at how data drives geography, moving from creating a very simple graph of earthquakes in Excel to incorporating data into Google Maps and Google Earth. We saw how text data can be separated from its format in order to be read by an aggregator. I think learning how to manipulate data and create databases is an important 21st century skill.

Here’s an example from the real world, aka my own life: As part of the programming I’m doing, I use a lot of comma delimited files, which allow me to quickly populate tables or create merged documents. Formatting becomes important here in terms of learning to escape certain characters and making sure there are enough commas for blank fields, etc. etc. etc. I also had a “Microsoft moment” when we discovered that the reason the csv file couldn’t be read was because its first field was labeled ID and that causes an error message. Since most databases have an autoincrement field as the first field and that field is often called ID, this seemed a bit problematic. But we have discovered that Numbers, the Mac spreadsheet program, has no such problem so we can manipulate the data there.

21st Century Skills: Programming

21st Century Skills, technical skills, technology

If you know me or have read this blog at all, you probably know that I find the term “21st century skills” a little annoying especially since they include things like creativity and problem solving. As though we have some corner on the market of those things because we live in a time in which you can watch Philipinno prisoners do the Thriller dance on your iPhone.

But as I’ve worked at various projects lately, I have been thinking about what specific kinds of skills might be useful for students to learn and while they eventually lead to those more generic skills (like problem solving), they are very much situated in a 21st century context.

One skill that I think would be very useful for students to learn is some kind of programming: whether it’s game creation using Scratch or Flash or web-based data work using php/SQL, programming is a wonderful way to be introduced to a worthwhile skill that demands great problem-solving skills. I’ve been working with a variety of programming, lately mostly of the database variety, and I move from finding myself knee deep in frustration when the code breaks go head-in-the-clouds excited when something finally works the way I want it to.

I’ve learned that there are always several different ways to do the same thing and that semi-colons are very important pieces of punctuation. I’ve also learned that there are many very helpful people out there who are willing to offer advice and guidance but I have to know how to ask the right questions and provide the right kinds of information. Finally, I’ve learned that I should go to bed when things are working, because when they’re not, I dream about them and sometimes the answer arrives in those dreams but more often than not, I just have a restless night.

I’m going to introduce my students to some very basic programming by using Scratch. We don’t have a lot of time (the biggest problem with the courses I teach) but we can get our feet wet and maybe a few of them will pursue it or, even better, let their kids give it a try.

My March Resolution

blogging, Education, technology

First a word to my students: do as I say and not as I do. I know that this semester, I’ve really asked you to stretch yourselves in terms of using technology. You’re blogging and twittering and participating in a Ning. Tonight, we’ll be exploring Second Life as well. And you’re doing a good job. I appreciate your thoughtful blog entries, your forum posts and your willingness to even give twitter a try. Mostly, I’m writing to apologize that I haven’t been keeping up. I’ve been resting on my laurels as it were…after all, I have blogged and twittered and ninged before. But that’s just not fair: I need to be doing all that with you this semester. I’m asking you to make time; I must do the same.

And, there’s really the rub: virtual communities have two qualities that make them require special attention: they are virtual and they are usually voluntary. Turn off Tweetdeck and Twitter essentially goes away. Forget to visit iGoogle and the blogging world is somewhat distant. They aren’t calling on the phone or bouncing in my launcher bar.

So, for me, the issue is one of just making time and the commitment to being more active in all these communities. Finding something to write about, posting articles of interest to Twitter, and reading and commenting on the Ning. Maybe over that first cup of coffee in the morning…harken back to reading the paper with breakfast?

And then I wonder, if I struggle to keep up my connections with the virtual world, what’s going to happen to may students when they leave the course? Will they have found enough in this virtual world to continue their work: how many of them will blog? or tweet? or be part of the Ning? What do they need to experience in the next two months that will convince at least some of them to continue to use these tools to teach and learn?

140? We Used to Do it in 8!

Education, New Media, Old Media, technology

I had a funny, when-I-was-their-age moment. I had found my way to this Teachers Network website and saw this headline: IF U CN RD THS U CN LRN TO RITE, which linked to an article about adding a twist to the typical “what I did this summer” essay by having students start with texting their responses. For some reason, I flashed to an old, rainy day worksheet I used to have that gave a list of vanity license plates that the kids had to decipher. Maybe they represent the original text messaging, and a little googling showed that having students create personalized license plates for themselves or other characters was a popular lesson plan. Everything old is new again, this time around with a few more characters allowed.