gary stager
Dr. David Thornburg will lead two workshops at Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge January 22, 2009 in Philadelphia prior to Educon 2.1.
Read more and register here
Genius game designer Will Wright's new computer game, Spore, is available today. Will Wrights it the inventor of SimCity and The Sims.
According to the fascinating description in Wikipedia,
[Spore] allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation.
The flexibility, customization and extensibility of Spore may make it truly worthy of the "edugaming" hype touted by many educators. Spore benefits from the efforts of a singular vision. It's many forms of gameplay may be attractive to a wide range of users.
Take a look at Spore here.
Click the graphic above to learn more about this exciting Educon 2.1 preconference event!
As I watch the last day of the Summer Olympics, I just heard the TV host tell the American audience that China increased their medal count by 59% over the haul from the Athens Games of 2004.
Uh oh!
I wonder how long it will take before a conference speaker or professional development consultant tosses out that useless Olympic statistic to demonstrate how American teachers conspire against excellence, American students are videogame-addicted zombie slackers and principals all recite from "The World is Fat," the next pop-business BS written by the physical education equivalent of Dan Pink or Thomas Friedman.
Wake up America! World dominance in rhythmic gymnastics is at stake!
Here he goes again.
Wes Fryer's latest blog post, This is why we have so few laptop initiatives in Oklahoma, is a rallying cry for the technocenctric who think schools and universities should use any and all information technology available or our children will be left behind.
Wes is a nice guy, but I must confess that I am occasionally confused by his prolific blogging. He seems to justify any application, regardless of its quality or educational practice it supports, while simultaneously working tirelessly to scare the pants off parents and educators afraid of all the "bad stuff" out on the Web.
Fryer's blog states that Oklahoma Christian University and Abilene Christian University "are among the first colleges in the United States to implement initiatives which involve ALL students in entering classes purchasing and using either Apple iPhones or iPod Touches." Then he goes on to say...
I almost passed out on the spot, but I was torn by a simultaneous urge to weep.
Question: What is Wes so upset about?
Answer: He met a professor at Oklahoma Christian University who "broke my heart"
It seems that the professor Wes spoke with was less than enthusiastic about the prospect of iPhone use in his classes. This in turn resulted in Fryer condemning the academic's disinterest in 21st Century skills (assuming they exist) and accusing the professor of all sorts of crimes against modernity.
Putting aside the generalizations drawn from a conversation with one academic, Wes' attempt to persuade the professor to embrace technology is as ridiculous as the institution's iPhone/iPod requirement.
Wes reaches into his bag of free Web 2.0 tricks and asks the professor if is aware of PollAnywhere. That's right. In Wes' world of plug kids into anything that plugs-in (as long as you remember that they may be abducted), PollAnywhere is just the ticket to "enthralled" [Wes' term] students.
On my planet, PollAnywhere sustains medieval educational practices. Thanks to Wes and PollAnywhere, a teacher can give a multiple choice quiz in class and get responses instantly via cell phone or other mobile device. WHO CARES?
Justifying classroom technology use with such weak examples as PollAnywhere does not represent progress as much as it does desperation on the part of the evangelist. I am only worried about the professor if he is in fact persuaded by this argument.
Lots of institutions of higher education require students to have a personal mobile computer. Pepperdine University, where I work, required student laptops during the Clinton administration and I began working in K-12 1:1 schools before the first Gulf War. This however is not why Abilene Christian and Oklahoma Christian is being singled out by Wes Fryer. Wes is touting their requirement that each student have an iPhone or iPod Touch.
It is ridiculous to suggest that an iPhone or iPodTouch is an adequate learning tool.
These devices are great for looking up answers to easily answered questions or even blogging. However, they offer VERY little of the potential of computers as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression.
Why does an institution of higher education make such requirements? Because these devices 1) APPEAR cheap and 2) APPEAR modern and groovy.
So, the institution doesn't have the courage to ask kids to buy a multimedia laptop. Instead they suggest an iPhone and then shift the ongoing expenses to the student anyway in the form on monthly fees.
It might also be true that Abilene Christian and Oklahoma Christian have higher priorities than "21st Century Skills" or epistemological pluralism. To quote Hebrew National commercials, perhaps they "answer to a higher authority."
No matter what you think of the arguments above, I hope we can find common ground in stating unequivocally that neither the requirement that every college student own an iPod or the fact that professors don't embrace them has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Wes Fryer's blog title, "This is why we have so few laptop initiatives in Oklahoma."
Note: Here are a few recent examples of blog interactions to support the analysis above:
- Wes Fryer on Animoto vs Gary Stager on Animoto
- Gary Stager, Sylvia Martinez and others vs. Wes Fryer regarding interactive white boards
- Wes Fryer vs. Gary Stager on the "power" of Voicethread in education
Click here for links to MicroWorlds project ideas, plus four video tutorials I created for learning to get started with MicroWorlds EX and to create your first really cool Pacman-stye video game.
Some of my best writing is in response to other people's blogs. I must get in the habit of turning my comments on other people's blogs into articles of my own. Here is an attempt at doing so...
A recent Will Richardson blog hipped me to a teacher named Dan Meyer who videoblogs.
Does this guy have a crew? I can't find the time or bandwidth to point a tripod at my keynotes. If I do, I can't find the time to edit the video and put it online. People ask me if every one of my sessions will be uStreamed. I use my computer for presentations and unless I want to publish a surveillance video, I can't control the camera while I'm presenting either.
Keeping my content current, amusing and maintaining a sense of narrative is difficult enough. I'm not Al Franken reporting for Weekend Update from his One Man Mobile Uplink.
I marvel at the output of people like Meyer, but am not sure that I find the content particularly compelling. Questions such as the following pop into mind:
• Who is HIS audience?
• Why should we care about his day?
• Is the content interesting or the production values enviable? etc...
I'm grappling with another problem that may be related, but is causing me mental paralysis. I have too much I want to say, write and blog. This leaves me obsessing about what to do first and I don't get around to doing any of it.
I also face the questions of:
• Who is MY audience?
• Why should people care what I think?
• Shouldn't I spend my time writing my book or magazine articles?
Isn't writing a book a lousy return on investment?
• Why won't magazine editors leave my jokes and personal "voice" in my articles?
• Will I be "the mean guy" because I don't follow the herd?
• Why don't people understand that just because I debunk the should-deep BS in edtech that I am an unapologetic advocate for its (largely unrealized) potential and that I get up every day to make the world a better place for kids?
David Warlick is a swell guy and one heck of a programmer. I read his blog regularly. Tw recent blog posts caught my eye.
David Warlick recently wrote the following in his blog:
Mostly, I’m catching up on e-mail and preparing for a keynote I’ll be delivering at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Conference in State College on Monday. Don’t ask me to explain — by I’m really struggling over what to talk about.
In June, David Warlick blogged about his forthcoming featured presentation at NECC.
The session description reads:
Description: The world is flattening, and not just economically. Learn about three converging conditions that are redefining education?and providing windows to the future. In this presentation, I will seek to examine and factor together three foundational disruptive conditions that are converging on our schools, each serving to disrupt schooling as we know it, yet also providing direction as we work toward new models for teaching and learning — Learning 2.0.
Warlick then goes on to ask the blogosphere to tell him what those "fundamental disruptive conditions" happen to be.
Am I missing something? Is David being humble or are conferences booking major speakers lacking the preparation or expertise required to educate and inspire the audience?
