Moblog

Here's a picture of me, in period 6, wearing my boy and talking to some scholars. This is interesting (maybe) because I blogged it from my phone.

video online

OK, this is a video of my kid but I am trying out technology that we will use in our class. This sort of thing has got a lot easier since I started in DTSE way back in ought-five.

feedreader

I think feedreader is cool, you can import the opml file of all our student blogs at once! I just wish I could find an online service that worked as well, and let me publish the resulting agglomeration so that everyone didn't have to set up their own service.

what did I learn tonight

Get to class in time enough to set up my own computer! It seems that my laptop does not like to connect to the rutgers wireless network. When I stole a wired connection from a nonworking desktop I couldn't use it because the DHCP is protected. Bah. I will file a support request and I'm sure the helpdesk guys can fix that.

what do I want to learn?

I would like to learn better ways of getting the class to work together to produce content that's as relevant as possible to their own needs.

I want to figure out the best way for people to make Vernier projects without having access to a full assortment of probes.

I want to learn ways to build community so that students do as much as possible for each other.

innovation, efficiency, community

Yesterday while driving to school this short and punchy version of the course mission statement finally occurred to me. The idea of the three-pronged approach was well developed in my head, but I wanted a way to get the idea across as succintly as possible.

I like this because it's an easy way to get a grip on the goals of an activity. The idea builds on a concept I learned in Eugenia's class too: a lesson must fall somewhere on the graph of innovation vs efficiency. Too much innovation and you make no progress, too much efficiency and there is not much excitement for students.

In my own teaching I usually go way too far in one direction or the other, but being aware of these ideas is helpful. Like the lines painted on the side of the road. A beginning driver might veer back and forth between them but in time you learn where your lane is, I suppose, to torture a metaphor.

I like the layer of community over both of these. Good relations, real engagement, will bind all your other goals together. If your classroom is a community your students will help you through any tight spot. And god knows, you can't build a society of friendly people through technology alone but in the busy modern world of the high school student it's very natural to connect online.

how to help someone use a computer

Words of wisdom. Or at least I think so. What do you think?