The New York Library blog is maintained by a small group of librarians, curators, and staff associated with the NYPL.Their goal is to establish an up-to-date database featuring librarian expertise to help take advantage of the library’s collection.The “About the blog” section provides an interesting metaphor.They say that the library is like an iceberg and that the part above water only represents a small portion of the overall size.The blogs are there to highlight some of the treasures hidden beneath the surface.
The Library of Congress Blog provides and wide variety of posts regarding anything with historical value.Several posts include the announcement of new exhibits coming to the Library.An 1860’s photographs of the West display, a NAACP exhibit, and the playing of antique violins are examples of events announced and detailed by the blog.A nice reading-themed poem was posted two days before Christmas.It seems the purpose of this blog is to provide news and announcements regarding the Library.
I am not sure if the Annoyed Librarian counts as a “Library Blog”, but it is written by a librarian.The blog is written through the Library Journal; the bloggers bio states “The Annoyed Librarian is possibly the most successful, respected, and desirable librarian of her generation”.Basically the posts are this lady’s rants, complaining and making fun of all topics librarian related.I, knowing very little about the job responsibilities of librarians, struggled to relate to the posts or find them entertaining.The Annoyed Librarian comes off as controversial, seems to have a lot of readers and a lot of haters (a few posts addresses her critics).I suppose that if I were interested in finding out more about what a librarian does then I would read her posts because they do have an essence of an entertaining wit.If she were a man and Adam Corolla was a librarian, then this would be that blog.
The PE Update blog provides a wide variety of topics regarding exercise, PE, sportsmanship, and anything else remotely related.Most of the posts are from the Dick Moss, the editor of PE_Update.com.Here is my favorite post so far:Teachers receive excuse notes. Lots of them But the excuse notes for physical education class can be the most creative and entertaining of all. Here are some examples of actual excuse notes from parents—including the original spelling—collected by schools from all over the country.
My son is under a doctor’s care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him.
Please excuse Joanne for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.
Please excuse Stephanie from Jim today. She is administrating.
Please excuse Sam from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.
Mike has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.
Brad was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.
Dana could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.
Please excuse Jim Friday from school. He has very loose vowels.
Please excuse Albert for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea and his boots leak.
Brent was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.
Please excuse Andrew for being. It was his father’s fault.
Please excuse Kim for missing school yesterday. We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday.
Please excuse Darren for not being in school yesterday. His father is gone and I could not get him ready because I was in bed with the doctor.
I was crackin’ up reading some of these!
All in all, this guy Dick Moss does a great job of a well rounded blog, keeping it full of PE success stories, his thoughts on legislation’s effects on PE, and obviously some posts to keep us laughing.
The New Jersey Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (NJAHPERD) blog provides pertinent news regarding PE in NJ and the US. Posts discuss Obama’s plans to battle obesity, information on upcoming NJAHPERD conventions, and nationwide child exercise programs.
The NYT > Education blog is the New York Times feed of all its education related articles. All articles from the online news section are fed to this blog. Therefore, it provides an extensive range of topics regarding national and regional news. Topics include how to educate an aging brain, the cost of college, and why it will soon be harder to earn an ‘A’ at your high school. I found the blog interesting because not only does it provide applicable national news, it also provides news from a non-familiar region so that I may compare to what is going on in Maryland.
The New Media Literacies video discusses the changing world of media delivery.Media was once produced by a few select groups and consumed by the masses.The freedom of the internet has allowed the power of producing to shift to the masses; anyone can now be a producer of media.This change has prompted the genesis of a new set of skills and terminology.New Media Literacies’ goal is to provide the tools for people to thrive in the evolving media world, similar to the goals of SLM508.
The NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) ’09 link featured 5 videos discussing technology in education.In “Disrupting the Traditional Classroom” Harvard University Professor Chris Dede delivers some interesting thoughts regarding the implementation of technology in our schools.Dede looks at online classes as a disruptor of traditional classroom settings because it allows for the complete customization of the learning experience.He speaks of the educational system as a business, and online classes have no competition.The ability for technology to meet individual needs is highly attractive and, as Dede puts it, vastly superior to classroom education.Once the consumers (the parents) take note of this alternate, superior method, the supply will have to meet the demands.
In the “Ed Tech Classroom Climate” video, University of Michigan professor Elliot Soloway discusses the role of technology for students outside of the school versus the role of technology inside the school.He notes that the industrial worker of the past is a “Knowledge Worker” today, and these knowledge workers use mobile devices.Therefore, the disconnect between technology inside of school and technology outside of school needs to be eliminated in order to give students the best learning experiences.Soloway believes the “dam is about to break” regarding personal technology in the schools.
The “Paul Sanfrancesco: Training Teachers On The Use Of New Technology” video outlines the needs and methods of educating teachers on the new technology of the classroom.His school offers a week long academy that trains teachers how to use the technology that they want implemented into the learning processes.Because the students are often more technologically savvy than the teachers, these types of training are vital to keeping up in the cutting edge world.
“Keith Krueger: Investing In Technology During Tough Times” speaks of the importance of demonstrating the value of technology in our classroom in order to receive appropriate funding.Title I schools and special education departments benefit greatly from technology funding and exhibiting this need helps to secure these funds.
“Susan Patrick: The E-Learning Challenge” is excited about the implementation of virtual learning in K-12 schools.Online training and classes are utilized at jobs and colleges, respectively, so that same technology should be available to K-12 students.Policy and funding models need to recognize the value of this and accommodate the demand.
The Newly Agent blog had a post titled “Educating Producers”.In it, the failure of the school system’s ability to educate producers is addressed.The author notes that the system is very good at teaching consumers, so that they may consume more knowledge more efficiently.The author calls for a reform of the educational system so that the needs of producers are met.For example, authentic practice needs to be allowed for producers to work on writing books, creating music, producing business, writing programs, etc.
One common theme leaped out at me while exploring this media.My eyes were opened to the business-like viewpoint of K-12 education.All of the videos/articles reviewed made some reference to a business term.The New Media Literacies video discussed the increasing numbers of producers.The Newly Ancient blog was entitled “Educating Producers”.Consumer is to producer as is demand is to supply- very business-y terms.The “Disrupting Class” video referred to online learning as a product that would soon be in high demand once parents (not students) realize how awesome it is.It is funny to think that parents are the consumers here; I like this idea.They typically are the ones demanding what they want from the school board, and the schools boards tend to listen.In this scenario, if the parents are the consumers and the governing bodies are the producers, then what are the students?Pawns?
How does what you read align to your thoughts on teaching and learning technologies?
This little bit of exploration has gotten me super pumped for the future of technology in education.In my other online class, Issues in Inclusive Education, we were discussing where we think the future of special education laws are heading.One student thought that eventually every student would have an IEP.As soon as the “Disrupting Class” video mentioned the customization ability of online education I thought of special education.If anything can assist in the crisis of IEPs, high stakes testing, and learning disabilities, it is the massive implementation of technology.
In Bloom’s Taxonomy, the second highest order of thinking skills is synthesis.Synthesis refers to the act of creating, predicting, and estimating based on ones understanding of the material.When I saw how much technology allows the masses to become producers, I became a big fan of its implementation in schools.The higher order thinking skills incorporate the lower ones, so synthesis includes analysis, application, comprehension, and knowledge.The more we can have students operating at these higher levels, instead of just memorizing facts (knowledge level), the better they will learn, they better they will demonstrate their mastery of the content, and the better citizens the system will produce.
In conclusion, I am glad to be becoming a young teacher in the technological age where everyone needs to become a “techie” on some level.My experience thus far has raised some concerns.Will having a teacher for every subject in every school become obsolete?If there is a nationally renowned teacher teaching a highly regarded online course, will parents demand that their child learns from him/her rather than some 22 year old fresh out of college?Fortunately for me, I am a PE guy so I think it might take a little while longer before they figure out a way to replace me with an online super-instructor.Nonetheless, I think it’s possible.Additionally, because I am a PE guy, all of this technology scares me a little bit.I feel that its part of my job to get kids away from the screen in front of them and outside being active.“Screen time” refers to the amount of time a person spends in front of a TV, computer, etc.The problem with screen time is that one is typically sedentary during this time.I do realize that this is changing with the Nintendo Wii, and that exercise videos have been available for a long time, but for the most part people are sitting still while using a computer, watching TV, or playing video games.I worry that there is so much interesting technology available that it would be very easy to get caught up in ones “online presence” that you lose several hours of your day sitting in front of a screen.I fell victim today while working on this assignment.I stumbled upon TED, a website that has several very interesting video lectures, and added a few hours to my screen time for the day.This could be a slippery slope…
