...BUT STILL IN SCHOOL

computers, classroom, climbing, etc.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Catchy title: because

How pathetic we all are at blogging. I'm trying to refrain from adding anything - just click the link.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Twitter = .....er?

It took me a while to notice this, but the folks at OK Cupid have laid it all out.



Wednesday, October 12, 2011

"There are no Apple people"

Freddie deBoer's piece on the role of the Internet in culture deserves a read. Really, even if the middle (partially US-specific) bit could use a little tightening.

Got this via Dan Meyer who sees this as a complement to the way Will Richardson sees the 'net, but I wonder if this isn't instead some kind of critique of Will's thinking.

The plugged-in generation?

I've noted in previous posts how my pupils seem much less plugged-in than the gurus wish they were.  Things may be changing.

A couple of years ago, I asked a class how many of them had seen something on YouTube within the last 24 hours.

Thirty hands.

How many have ever uploaded anything to YouTube?

One hand.

The rest just looked at me. Upload? Wasn't I saying that wrong? I didn't even bother to ask my planned question about YouTube channels. Queries about other media like Wikis got the same reponse - they look, they don't participate. My conclusion was that teenagers may be on the internet, but they are passive there, not active. I've even made this a topic for analysis in sociology class a couple of times.

This year, however, I asked a year 11 class similar questions and got radically different answers. Half the class actually had their own YouTube channel. Other questions about, say, Wikis showed a similar trend. (Well, except blogging which seems to be getting less popular. And teenagers still don't tweet much.)

So - maybe things are changing. I suspect so.

Update: Interestingly enough, after I wrote this, Ann Michaelsen published a piece that is quite in line with my original post, particularly in its conclusion. 

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Dan Meyer

I keep trying to stop wasting my time reading a math teacher blog.

Then he posts something like this shot at Sal Kahn and I know I'm still hooked.

Thursday, April 7, 2011