It's been 6 weeks, but I'm still alive!

I've had several thoughts recently about what I could post and talk about. But instead of posting my brilliance, I've kept it to myself. But today I sit, watching Carolina football, and thinking about the impacts of social networking on education.

I have to make a presentation Monday on new technologies that teachers can use to help increase student engagement. I've used Facebook myself--I have two pages for students and parents to use for communication and current event announcements. Now I'm venturing into Edmodo and Glogster, two sites that are very new to me. These sites have great potential for improving student engagement in our classrooms. We are moving away from pen and paper and getting students to interact with their knowledge through the use of authentic assessments.

So I'm expanding my repertoire and trying to take some of my colleagues along with me. More authentic assessments lead to more authentic learning, right?

The end of books?

I adore Jenn Lancaster! She is one of my favorite authors and really turned me on to memoirs. I used to hate reading true life--even though I adore trashy reality TV shows and really like it with Law & Order is "ripped from the headlines." But memoirs were never my cup of tea until I read Jenn Lancaster's Such a Pretty Fat. Now I follow her blog fairly regularly and keep up with her antics online while I wait for a new memoir. Today, she posted a link to this. And it got me thinking.

I don't have a Kindle. Nor have I looked at a Nook. For starters, I try to stay away from technology in it's first generation. There will be bigger and better versions soon to follow. But more importantly, I love books. I love the crack of the spine. I love that my shelves are bulging, both here and at school. But the Kindle might have some merit for me, if Jenn is telling the truth.

See, about two days ago, I finished every book that I brought home for the break, plus one that I bought at B&N. So I'm in a lull. I haven't picked up anything new. I sometimes go through these commitment issues. I just finished the House of Night series and I'm anxiously awaiting the newest installment. None of my fave authors have anything new out. So I'm in a rut. According to Jenn, this wouldn't happen with the Kindle. There would be another book at my fingertips, some of them free, and I would be a happy reader once again.

Some may think that the Kindle signifies the end of reading as we know it. I'm not buying into this. There are enough of us that still have to have that paper/hardback feeling at our fingertips. But the Kindle might be a little bit more convenient. It surely would stop all that fussing that my kids do when they get their 30 pound textbook at the beginning of the year. And if all of their textbooks fit in one place, they might actually bring them to class everyday.

Imagine that? Students WITH books EVERY day. That doesn't sound too bad to me at all.

When Technology Goes Awry

I've found myself with very little to say these days. But today, my temper got the better of me and my printer took a licking for it.

The long and sordid tale began last week. I installed new ink cartridges. They seem to run out so quickly these days! After I put in the new ones, I noticed they were a little more noisy than usual. To really spell it out for you, I felt like a machine gun was shooting right beside me and I found myself cowering in my chair for fear that it would take me out. Once I got used to it, I was then subjected to the embarrassment as people wandered by my office door and wondered what in the world I had gotten into now. One student insisted that it would go away with time. The same thing had apparently happened at her house. Well it didn't just go away.

In fact, it got worse. No, it didn't actually start shooting at me, but it did start to take paper in. Over and over and over again. Let me go in depth here--if I tried to print, it would pull the paper halfway through the printer and then stall. I would press the resume button and it would take off. It would just pull through piece after piece until I either took the paper away or pulled the plug. (At one point I thought it was possessed. I swear it was working without the plug, but no, I had pulled out the computer cable. That would make for a better story, though.)

This went on all day today. Not even the person at HP Tech Support had any idea what would cause this poltergeist to attack my printer. So I did the only think I could do--I went a little Office Space on it. Nothing actually broke, although I'm not beyond that yet. But I did slam it around a few times. Surprisingly enough, this did not make it want to work for me! I know, the mind reels!

Luckily I had a back up and we are up and running. It's tempting, though, to take that ol' printer out to a field with a baseball bat and give it a piece of my mind.

Rights vs. Responsibilities

A public university recently banned a website, juicycampus.com, from its campus servers. This is similar to what public schools try to do with social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. There are groups of people who want to cry "Free Speech" at the university and insist that it violates their Constitutional rights.

But where do our rights begin and end? What are our responsibilities as public institutions? The website in question is quite controversial. Students can basically write whatever they want, and they don't have to put their name on it. In fact, when you visit the site, here is the banner at the top of the page:

This is the place to spill the juice about all the crazy stuff going on at your campus. It's totally anonymous - no registration, login, or email verification required.

The posts range from the mild to the XXX. Some posts even have students' names as the subject line. Now I love a good story. I've been known to engage in a little tell-all. But, with verbal gossip, there's accountability there. When it comes out of your mouth, people can see your face. They can repeat it with your name attached. But when you log online, anonymously, it's out there for everyone and there is no accountability.

I think I applaud the Texas school for banning it from their servers. I think that young people need someone to lay down control once and a while for them--they often make decisions that aren't in the best interests for anyone. I'm all about free speech, but students and adults alike have to remember that with that right comes heavy responsibilities. And using this site to shirk those responsibilities is not good.

Podcasts in Education

I worked with a new tool recently. Podcasts. Sure, I'd heard of them and even subscribed to Robin Meade's for a while--though I never really listened/watched. So I was intrigued at how Podcasts could be used in education.

Basically, a podcast is a series of audio or video digital media files, distributed over the Internet through syndicated download. Students can use programs such as Audacity to create their own audio file, upload it to the internet, and then send it out for public sharing.

What a great way to do book talks! Students can prepare their book talks, and since teens so often don't want to get in front of their classmates, they can get on a computer and create their own podcast to be downloaded. Also, what a great way to record book club conversations. Students can plan out the skeleton of their conversation and then record the meat of the talk. It's a great way to increase accountability.

Podcasts are easy to use. If they're easy for adults, then no doubt students will be able to figure them out with little to no guidance. This is just one more thing for students to run with and showcase their learning.