Tech Waves

These are certainly exciting times to be involved in education technology. Amazing things have happened in the past 10 years, and even more profound, exponentially-developing changes are on the horizon. I mean literally; like many will begin tomorrow… and some began yesterday, like Google Sites!

But as exciting as things are, the rapid pace of technology change happening right now has a lot of tech teachers and facilitators feeling like hamsters on an ever-faster-spinning treadmill; There’s too much to absorb, digest, and then regurgitate into something educationally-beneficial. How can anyone keep up with what’s going on tech-wise, when there are so many other immediate demands on our time?

I can’t do anything about the pace, but I do feel that over the past few years, I’ve developed a way to keep up with tech developments reasonably efficiently in terms of time and effort — Tech Podcasts. I started out downloading one or two to listen to on long runs, and soon realized that I was learning A LOT and able to bring that new knowledge to the classroom.

Through trial and error, I found that one of those tiny, inexpensive 1GB iPod Shuffles works best for me while running. I can clip it on, scroll through the various shows easily while moving, and don’t have to worry too much about losing it, as it costs under $50. I like to be able to hear what’s going on around me, so I cut one of the earpieces off of an inexpensive pair of earbud-type earphones. I don’t like the ones that come with the iPod though, they tend to fall out while running. So I use the type with the rubber gasket that stays put inside the ear.

Here then, in no particular order, are the tech podcasts that through trial and error I have found help me comprehend, keep pace with and even be entertained by on long runs, commutes, or any down time.

Techie Stuff & News

• Buzz Out Loud from CNET
• Leo Laporte’s The Tech Guy
• This Week in Tech
• Windows Weekly
• Net@Nite
• Business Week Technology & You
• Marketwatch Take On Tech
• NYT Tech Talk
• The Real Deal from CNET
• Tech5
• TechnologyIQ

Educational Technology

• Connect Learning with David Warlick
• EdTechLive with Steve Hargadon
• Moving at the Speed of Creativity with Wesley Fryer
• The Tech Teachers

Global Impact of Technology

• Digital Planet (BBC)
• NPR Technology
• PRI’s The World: Technology

That might look like a pretty long list, but not every show is updated weekly, and some are quite short. If I could only listen to one a week, I would have to make it Leo Laporte’s The Tech Guy. This 2-hour show has been around the longest, and covers a little bit of everything. I always get something out of this show, and often so many things that I have to stop my run to scribble something down so I won’t forget!

Do you know any good shows that I haven’t mentioned?

One Laptop Per Child’s XO is one of a few simple, rugged laptops soon to appear on the market. I hope they’ll appear, that is. So far, only prototypes have been built. The AMD-chipped XO might get killed off by Intel who also has a small, tough school-ready laptop, the Classmate PC. In a previous post, I argued against laptops in schools because currently-available laptops are just too delicate and complicated, with mercurial wi-fi capabilities and a very high price-tag. And for the majority of school uses, they are like using an elephant gun to hunt mice; they’re overkill. Desktops should be used for heavy-duty computing such as video editing, etc., and supervised labs are still the best place to get that stuff done. But either the XO or the Classmate PC seem to me to offer the promise of a cheap and simple laptop built to withstand the rigors of the schoolhouse.

There is great debate currently about the success that OLPC and Intel will have in implementing their laptops by the millions in schools in the developing world. Many argue that most of these countries should spend their limited funds on rural health programs, AIDS and malaria prevention, etc., rather than on “laptops” for school children. The idea sounds nearly-preposterous to me too, when I think too hard about it. I mean, shouldn’t laptops be provided to the developing worlds’ doctors, engineers and teachers first? Hmmm… But still, I can’t help but admire the vision of OLPC. Founder Nicholas Negroponte does argue that in many of these countries, a large percentage of kids never get the opportunity to go to school, so providing them with a laptop is in a sense giving them a school in a box, which is far better than nothing. That does make sense to me.

But the OLPC program, if it’s competitor Intel doesn’t do it in first, will likely only have a chance of success in semi-poor countries like Brazil and Thailand, with some basic infrastructure, and not so much in Niger or Nicaragua, with little. You’d think booming, technology-loving India would embrace something like OLPC, but last year they decided to spend their education money on other things, like books, paper and pencils — so far the only tools proven to actually increase student achievement. But I digress, again.

Only by selling the XO to developing nations in HUGE quantities can the endeavor be sustainable and the price come down to anywhere near affordable, which has been targeted at $100.00 per XO (still a lot for a poor country to spend). If not enough nations decide to buy the machines by the millions, the XO will never be affordable, to anyone: the prototype will never lead to mass production. And that would be a shame, because even though I am supportive although skeptical that the XO will prove a success in achieving it’s original goal in the near future, the XO and Classmate PC seem to be ideal school laptops for the DEVELOP-ED worlds’ schools, today. They are simple and rugged, and would be inexpensive if enough schools in, say, North America and Europe would commit to purchasing them.

Now I’m sure someone could politically correct me and say “Steve, you should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting essentially that the Developed world should “steal” these laptops from the Developing world,” but I’m not saying that. Though I hope OLPC is a success, I’m skeptical that the price per XO can come down enough to make it’s original objective possible. So instead of letting what I think is probably a great technology fade away, perhaps schools in the DEVELOP-ED world, who are also in need of this type of laptop, can provide OLPC with enough business so that somewhere down the road, it may have a better chance of reaching it’s original goal of large-scale implementation in the DEVELOP-ING world.

For more on OLPC, the XO and Intel’s Classmate, check out this segment from CBS’s 60 Minutes, which aired on May 20, 2007. It makes me want to cheer Negroponte and his dream of OLPC, and hiss at Intel and that greedy-seeming b$*&@!d, but who knows the real truth behind it all.

Ouch. Did I just say that? Aren’t I supposed be a technology “evangelist,” a super-geek promoter of all things computer-centric, bleeding-edge and complicated? Aren’t I “HiTechHall,” after all?

Well yes. And no. I AM an evangelist for using “appropriate” technology in order to make life and learning simpler and more enriching. Let’s face it, even a Luddite would agree that technology is rapidly changing our lives and “flattening the world,” to use Friedman’s too-often quoted term. Schools need someone on staff to help interpret, translate and integrate all of these new tools and techniques into meaningful learning modules. But I am far from a connoisseur of technology for it’s own sake. In fact, my style is to hang back from the bleeding-edge while closely monitoring other schools that are brave, moneyed or foolish enough to risk being technology early-adopters. They say that wisdom comes from learning from mistakes, right?

One technology development I’ve been watching for awhile now has been the establishment of laptops in schools, in a move toward so called “one-to-one” computing. The idea sounds good to me, which is to use laptops to provide a new platform for learning that offers much more than textbooks can, while incorporating all sorts of useful communication, collaboration and research capabilities. But maybe educators are starting to realize that laptops in schools are not such a great idea after all, as evidenced by these two recent articles:

• “Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops” New York Times

• “Laptops in Class Not Necessarily Helping Study” Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

And I could have told them so. Though I will only focus on one part of the problem − maintenance — after several years of struggling with laptops as a technology coordinator at a large magnet school in the US, I gave up on the idea of moving toward a one-to-one program. The bottom line is that k-12 students are just too punishing on these delicate devices. The maintenance costs for broken screens and keyboards, neither of which are normally covered under warranties, are astronomical − and these are by far the most common forms of laptop damage in schools.

My school had several sets of wireless COWS (Computers on Wheels) carts, Mac and PC, and at any one time 25-75% of the machines where inoperable, despite huge outlays of money and time constantly troubleshooting and repairing them. Other machines mysteriously disappeared, batteries were defective (especially in the Macs) and the wireless routers almost never worked, so students had to go hunting for Cat-5 cables and Ethernet ports wherever they could find them. They also had to make sure an electrical outlet was close by to compensate for the poor battery performance. Cables and wires were strewn everywhere, creating hazards and mayhem throughout the school. And this was and is still a common problem according to many other technology educators I talk to.

Things got so bad that our technology committee decided to salvage what we could of the laptops and then use a cable lock to fasten the surviving laptops to desks, in effect creating a “desktop” out of a more expensive laptop. Not an ideal solution, but I bet that those machines, chained up as they are, are still being used for learning by students today.

Look, there is no doubt that the convenience and portability of laptops is hands down a great improvement on stationary, immobile desktop computers, in theory. I certainly recommend laptops for administrator and teacher use, and I use laptops myself. And at home, I know most students do as well. But in reality, when the school is footing the bill, the solid, immobile desktop is still the most practical solution and investment for student use.

I look forward to the day when the price of “bullet-proof” laptops, such as the Panasonic ToughBook, used in law enforcement and the military, drops to something more affordable. As I’m sure that anyone who is reading this (is anyone reading this?) who has experience teaching middle schoolers will agree that that environment can often resemble a near war zone. When schools can afford Toughbooks, I will be the first to jump on the one-to-one bandwagon. For now, I’ll sit back and watch the laptop mayhem continue at the early-adopter schools, sitting safely behind my clunky Dell GX620.

It’s been awhile, but I haven’t been slacking. Sometimes you just have enough time to DO; the writing about it, or writing about anything else for that matter, has to wait. Over the past 3 weeks I’ve been updating my old original Web site, choosing to keep the original structure and graphics that I created back in ‘99 when I first started it. I admit it has an old-school look and feel, but I think it’ll still get the job done in this Web2.0-mad world. And besides, it reminds me of the good-old Web1.0 days.

A lot of the work involved changing the URL from the old “Stevendhall.com” to the new and, well, maybe not too much more excitingly-named “HiTechHall.com.” I hope I never, ever have to change the name again though. It was a major pain. No wonder many people have gone to Content Management System (CMS) type sites lately. In fact the software that powers this site, WordPress, is a CMS. I’ll be spending some time getting to know it, and maybe even spruce up the look and feel of this blog a bit.

In addition to this blog, HiTechhall.com now includes a wiki (Wikispaces), a learning management system (Moodle), a video area, a podcast section, and even an Intranet, which is basically a secure, password-protected part of the site where I can stash things that I don’t want the whole world to see, at least not yet. Many schools have such a restricted area where staff can log-in and access school documents and resources that aren’t desired on the main school Web site. This area can be reached from any Internet-connected machine.

So what I’m aiming at with HiTechHall, if you haven’t noticed, is not only an introduction to who I am and what I do, but what I think are important tools for schools and students to have access to. In a sense, I’m trying to shape HiTechHall into what I believe a modern school’s site should look like, not physically, but in terms of the technology resources and structure that I see all schools needing. I’ve got a long way to go in developing this idea, but hey, at least I’ve started.

And I’ve started this blog again. I’ve read that it takes about a year of consistent writing to develop one’s true writing “voice,” so I’d better get cranking. Be sure to check out my Blogroll links to the right. These are fellow technology educators and thinkers whose voices I feel are worth keeping up with.

Ok, now I’m ready to create the podcast of this entry, using Audacity to create the mp3 file and Listgarden for the RRS feed. Both are free tools, and free is good.

Obesity rates are skyrocketing in most developed countries, and in many underdeveloped ones. Even nations traditionally famous for their healthy diets such as Japan are seeing a real increase in childhood obesity and related diseases.

When I was in Tokyo a few years ago, I remember witnessing a group of chubby school kids trundling out of a McDonald’s, just like kids do back in the States, where being overweight is less of a surprise. It occurred to me then that this might have grown to become a worldwide phenomenon.

Since then, I’ve read studies that confirm my suspicion. I also recall reading that some health researchers predict that mortality rates in many countries may reverse their normal downward course and actually begin to rise due to this increase in caloric over-consumption.

Another worldwide phenomenon, the dependence on labor-saving technology tools, is also on the rise. Is our modern sedentary lifestyle, focused largely around the computer, to blame for our increase in obesity? There’s no question in my mind that it is. But here I’d like to discuss a few ways that schools are actually using technology tools to try to combat the “success” that computers have had in making all of our lives too physically “easy.”

Crooms Academy of Information Technology, a magnet high school in Florida, has created a technology-rich PE curriculum which not only uses technology to keep kids healthier and better coordinated, but reinforces math, science, reading and writing skills as well. Their PE curriculum uses a mix of stationary FX Cycles, Sony PlayStation with ATC Motocross, Dance Dance Revolution (a video game that directs players to where to dance on a wired floor pad), and pedometers and heart rate monitors.

Students are trained to calculate their stride length and heart-rate zones. Then they use this information with a pedometer and heart rate monitor to calculate the number of calories burned during exercise. While wearing the monitors, students engage in activities that include riding the FX Cycles while watching the ATC Motocross on a video screen, or playing the Dance Dance Revolution game.

After these sessions, kids wirelessly connect their monitors to computers and upload their individual health statistics, which are displayed in a multitude of ways using installed software. Every sessions’ stats are recorded by the software, providing a health time-line for each student.

Another program that connects technology to physical education and health is taking place at Tuttle Middle School in Indiana. This 1:1 laptop school initiated their “wellness program” for grades 6-8 in 2002, but due to it’s success, has expanded it down to 3rd grade and up through high school.

The program is based on partnerships with Polar, a major manufacturer of heart-rate monitors, and a local hospital. The Polar monitors record student’s cardiovascular data, and the accompanying software lets them measure various data such as flexibility and upper body strength. The school also uses a body fat analysis machine.

Another unique feature of Tuttle’s program is quarterly visits by EMTs and nurses from the local hospital, who provide blood pressure screenings for the students. This information, and all the rest, is combined, analyzed and ultimately put into an 18-page health profile for each student to continually update.

These are just two programs using technology in unique and creative ways that I wanted to tell you about. I think that technology, when thoughtfully and appropriately applied, really can make our lives better. And possibly even longer.

If you are interested in learning more, check out the Polar Education site, which has lesson plans, free training information, etc.

Hi y’all, it’s Friday so must be time for the 2nd installment of HiTechHall. I will return to this post to discuss the above, but now I’m off to International Day at Marian Baker School here in San Jose, Costa Rica. There will be free food, but just as important, I need to finish the school’s new anti-virus installation I started too long ago!

I shall return.

Ok, I’m back. And full. The food was great, (I really liked the Togolese spicy sauce the Lohrman’s brought), and now all of the 50 or so computers have the latest version of McAfee. While I was there, I ended up talking to the school’s business manager for almost an hour, learning about the history, plans and problems with the technology on campus. One of the issues that came up was student use, or over-use, of instant messaging. Administrators and teachers were annoyed and concerned that the computers were not being utilized sufficiently as learning vehicles. I’ve heard about this IM problem at almost all of the schools I’ve been associated with. And I agree it’s a problem, but one with no easy solution.

Sure, IM software can be be removed. Here’s how to remove MSN Messenger and some others. And there are many others, such as Yahoo, AOL, Gaim, ICQ, IMSecure, Trillian, Windows Messenger, Google Talk, etc. What’s worse (for those averse to IM), is that a new Web2.0 site called Meebo allows users to connect to the IM service of their choice though a browser only, there is no need to have these services installed on the computer the student is using. (I sure hope no students are reading this, but heck, they probably know about Meebo already).

So, I recommended that if the school heads really wanted to eliminate IM for the short-term, they would need to have a technician log on to each computer as administrator, remove all the IM software installed (and being familiar with the school’s machines, I know that every one had multiple versions of these programs), and then have the school’s content-filtering software configured to block Meebo’s IP address. But this solution would work only so long as another similar site didn’t come online, and I’d bet there are some Meebo-like clones out there already. Those would then also have to sought-out and blocked by the network content-filter. And who was going to do that job, anyway? This school, like many, doesn’t have a full-time network administrator.

In the end, I suggested that it would be far wiser to try to control “the problem” rather than try to snuff it out entirely, which would be futile. Besides, aren’t schools supposed to be trying to prepare our students for a work environment where collaboration and group-based problem solving is the norm? Most modern work environments have already successfully incorporated tools such as IM, wikis, podcasting, screencasting, videoconferencing, etc. This stuff comes naturally to our digital-native students and they will be using these tools when they join the work force. And they will certainly find a way around any technological barrier schools try to put up.

We educators need to focus on trying to master these modern tools ourselves and then use them to teach the traditional curriculum. That is a HUGE challenge, and we have a long way to go. But it’s just a matter of slowly chipping away at the stone. Eventually, we will get there. To be honest, I could not offer many solutions to control the “problem” of student IM use, other than to suggest more vigilant teacher monitoring during class time, possibly with the help of a tool such as NetSupport: School, which allows teachers to monitor all classroom computer activity from the teacher’s computer. But I did try to stress to the business manager that simply trying to ban all instant messaging use was a bad idea, and one that would surely fail both the anti-IMers AND the students.

A Great Firefox Extension

I used to be a terrible speller, but when I started using spell-check religiously on my emails, I became a much better one. I think it’s the same for students. So here’s a tool that I think is neat, and which I’m pretty sure will help my and most students’ vocabularies as well. It’s an extension to the Firefox browser, which most of us are using these days. (You are using Firefox, aren’t you?). The program is called Dictionary Lookup. It’s a tiny piece of code that basically adds a dictionary to your browser.

So after the install, when you are reading something online and come across a strange word, just right-click your mouse and you will see the option Define. A small pop up box will contain the words “to state or set forth the meaning of…”, for example, if you hovered over the word define above. It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s what computer geeks call elegant. I agree. This is what computers are supposed to do: Help us learn more and whenever possible, to keep it simple (KISS).

Hi, I’m Tech Hall and I plan to use this blog “Tech Waves” as an opportunity to keep people that are interested in educational technology up-to-date and aware of interesting ed tech developments, as well as document my opinions on a range of education technology subjects.

I started out many years ago as a high school Social Studies teacher, and became very interested in using the emerging “Information Highway” as a tool and resource for my classes. In the late ’90s, I developed several lessons incorporating email exchanges between my students and friends of mine who lived in Southern Africa. At the time, it seemed absolutely “magical” to be able to send and receive messages so quickly across such great distances. Today, that kind of stuff seems ho-hum to students, and most adults as well, and that just illustrates how rapidly technology is advancing.

Since those days, I’ve been a tech teacher, coordinator, computer/network repairer and Web designer, and I spend huge amounts of time struggling to keep up with insanely evolving tech developments. I know that most teachers and admins just don’t have the time to keep up with this stuff, but would like to know how to incorporate and use more technology and they just need some trusted person to advise them. It occurred to me that I might as well put all of my research to good use by documenting my observations, discoveries, recommendations, rants, raves, tips and tricks for anyone interested to see, right here at Tech Waves. So please check-in once in awhile.