Gerry davis's Blog (16)

One of the conversations developing in cyberspace is the need to address "the new liberal arts", what it is to be socially, culturally, spiritually aware in the 21st century. As I have tried to follow this dialogue I have begun to sense the very strong need by young people for relevance. Young people spend vast portions of their lives in places that don't exist, but yet do. In these places they are not constrained by physics as we know them, nor by the need for mutual self interest. Part of… Continue

I just downloaded the video "Who Killed the Electric Car" to my iPhone. Every time I visit iTunes I am amazed at how fast online content has grown and its quality improved. We have gone from static webpage’s running on huge desktops, to full blown movies and apps running on handhelds (such as, but not limited to my iPhone) ; attached to nothing but the air. The age of new computing is near upon us, we can clearly hear the thunder.

Beyond the very cool fact that I can acquire and use… Continue

I been working with in service teachers and doing workshops on Web 2.0 for the past year. I am amazed at how fast this technology has been adapted. Hard held computing in the form of phones, e-books, $100.00 laptops and thin clients all running 2.0 apps will become the new paradigm. The time to build another dinosaur lab, buy expensive laptops or spend any more money on local resources has long passed. Let the big players like Google support the applications, it's time for schools to… Continue

This was my first presentation via distance so I hope you will forgive any blunders that might have occured during the course of this event. Feel free to post comments / question or ask me to post any videos that I might have missed. Cheers Gerry

The Children’s Internet Protection Act. Last week I gave a presentation at OLEMA (Ohio Library Educational Media Association) and was shocked to hear of the number of books and articles that are or have been either challenged or banned in libraries. The ALA (American Library Association) site in “Second Life” has some great exhibits on this subject. The assault on free speech is relentless.…

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I am not sure how many people are using these in a K-12 environment but at the university level thay are being used to good effect. They allow teachers to see (more or less) how they are doing, as they teach, by giving students the opportunity to answer questions throughout the lecture. The ability to quickly survey knowledge can help determine (on the fly) how the content needs to be adjusted.

My experience, having been on both ends of the SRS is that, as a student with a clicker…

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My experience with Classroom 2.0 as tool for learning and professional development has been a good one. I have been using it with my classes in conjunction with Blackboard (a LMS) for several weeks. The beauty of Classroom 2.0 thus far, is that it has provided my masters students with a collaborative environment to discuss with peers the pedagogical…

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There is a very interesting conversation going on regarding Marc Prenskys hypotheses on digital natives and digital immigrants it is worth reading and thinking about. Also if you haven't already seen one of the many videos on change, I have included a link to an oldie but…

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Voicethread is a new web 2.0 application that gives the user the ability to combine audio with photos in a unique manner. You post your photo story with comments and others can add "voicethreads" to your story, to give one picture many view points. The software is very easy to use and seems effective at what it does. Give it a try, it is worth looking at. At very least it has restored my faith in ease of use for 2.0 applications. Here is a link… Continue

This Friday when one of my colleagues was looking for a good 2.0 program to use with her digital photography class, she looked a Flickr, I guaranteed it world be blocked in the Ohio K- 12 environment, it was, and then suggested she look at Voicethread. Reluctantly she agreed and discovered this is a nice bit of software. It encourages storyboarding and reflective writing by its nature and…

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I have posted a sound file created using a podcast program called "propaganda" it is running at 2x speed within classroom 2.0, which means I sound funny. If you play the linked file within my last post it sounds normal. I imagine that this is a Classroom 2.0 issue rather than a Propaganda issue but to verify I am going to see of the problem continues by creating a file using "audacity" and podcasting it. If the problem continues then I have a 2.0 issue in an environment with limited support.… Continue

I have posted a new audio cast to this forum. My initial desire was to make it a podcast but is seems that classroom 2.0 dosen't know how to handle the xml file, so it is a link file from the website, To subscribe to it as a podcast click here . As I evolve from a desktop local apps user to a 2.0 (the internet is the computer) user I am finding that the transition is not as easy as one might be led to believe. The next week or so is… Continue

My spin on web 2.0 is that it is the future of computing in schools / k-12 education. The real question is when? 2.0 has great potential, the question is, how will districts manage access and who will host what apps. Will we be using Google apps in the form of a premium service such as business are starting to do now or will this be a local issue. There are some every important discussions that need to take place at…

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One of the biggest problems with web 2.0 apps is the user interface. There are no standards for navagation button placements or naming conventions. Each 2.0 application we use often has a different look and feel. Compare this to wordprocessing programs or spreadsheets, most have a very familiar look. In contrast to web 2.0 programs, it is easy to intuit you way through new word processors of spreadsheet programs. Compare Open Office to MS Word, very simular. Is there a solution?

I am going to use this site as part of my EDTL 638 class, mostly because of the excellent information linked to it and the relevant forums shared by like minds. One of the key issues will be how well we are able to connect to these resources from schools. Content filtering and bandwidth shaping are huge issues in the conversation surrounding the use or ability to use 2.0 tools. I am leaving this post open to the world rather than just my class (friends) so it will be interesting to see if… Continue