Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Take a look at Catherine Hiltz’ blog Learning Excellence. Catherine is a vice-principal at a small K-12 school in southern Saskatchewan. The addition of fresh voices is critical in continuing conversations and avoiding the struggles of banality and lack of relevant, original posts. I certainly struggle with that and rely on these new voices to keep us vets fresh.

Technorati Tags: blogs, catherinehiltz, grahamwegner, darcynorman, saskatchewan, coronach, prairiesouth

So while listening to Stephen Downes’ presentation today from the Connectivism Conference, I admit to doing some multi-tasking. My mind drifted in and out. Not a reflection of Stephen, more of my need to get about 12 things done at once. I did focus in on a bit on his thoughts on pattern recognition. So my mind drifted from this to consider Stephen and David Crosby. I’m sure Stephen’s been told a time or two that he looks like David Crosby but combine this image,

with these Crosby, Stills and Nash lyrics:

“Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me larger voices callin’
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten

(I’ve been around the world) I have been around the world…”

I’d really like to say that this weird thought about the global context of the song and the likeness in appearance is a really interesting, meaningful example of pattern recognition or even connectivism but I suspect that my lack of focus disqualifies me from making a legitimate post. I probably don’t quite get it yet. “But you know I will, and you know I will”

Technorati Tags: downes, crosby, southerncross

In the past 5 days here are three videos impacting the world.

• The Machine is Us…read Jeff Utecht’s take
• Brian Crosby’s class….this is what technology is for
• Franklin Police…to catch a thief

If we still think reading and writing are the cornerstones of literacy, you might want to rethink that.

I presented yesterday to the Western Staff 2007 Conference, a gathering of provincial teachers’ association executive members from 4 western provinces and territories. I recorded my presentation and right at the start I let everyone know it was being recorded and that I would be posting it later on my blog.

The session went quite well, there was some good discussion and received some very good feedback. Today I received an email requesting I not post my presentation. The presentation did contain the voices of the participants but in no way were identified.

I contacted Stephen Downes who immediately responded this way:

I would say that you have the right to post your words but not those of the others, unless you stated you were recording it and posting it ahead of time.

My sense is that most of the participants would not object and it may be only one or two that have a problem. So should I post it?  Has anyone ran into this before?  What are the legalities/rights surrounding this?

Two years ago today I began blogging.

A post filled with deep, intellectual sweat.

As the shift towards one to one computing continues, I’m advocating we move to more laptops for teachers and students. I’m in a bit of a debate with our IT department as to what the minimum requirements should be for a laptop. Ads for laptops under $700 abound. He claims this would not work well in our environment.
Here’s some of his thoughts on our discussion.

Acquisition costs for a notebook computer is typically 15% - 25% higher than that of a desktop computer. That would mean a substantial increase in IT budget per year… something I doubt the Board would endorse given the current financial situation within the division.

• Notebooks are typically MUCH slower than a desktop computer.
• Notebooks are MUCH less reliable than desktops. Downtime would increase significantly.
• Notebooks have VERY limited expansion capabilities and those items are more expensive (memory, hard drives, etc).
• Notebooks do not last as long as desktops. Our current replacement policy of 4 years would most likely have to be reduced to 3 years.
• Some programs WILL NOT RUN (or at least run so poorly on a notebook that they are unusable) AutoCAD, etc.
  

Maintaining security and standard configurations on notebooks that go off-site would substantially increase IT support costs

How would you see these notebooks being connected to our networks… wired… wireless? If it is wireless millions of $$$ would need to be invested in wireless infrastructure to support this model…

What about future directions within technology? We are in a time where this is a huge concern for the entire industry. In fact, Microsoft just released Vista today… the next version of their desktop operating system. Likely a third of the computers in our division won’t even run it right now while another third can run it but not the video-editing and multi-media (i.e. the “cool”, engaging parts) features. That leaves one third of the computers that can take advantage of new IT based opportunities and tools. The $600 - $1,000 notebooks would fall into one of these two-thirds… either they couldn’t run Vista of they would run it V E R Y S L O W L Y and/or some features would not be accessible.Also, the Thinkpad system that you spec’d out would struggle running Windows XP and our Office products… it would choke on Vista. I checked the Lenovo (the new name for IBM notebooks and PC’s) web site out and couldn’t find this configuration anywhere… where did you find this? The lowest priced Thinkpad T60 ( the T40 is no longer available) was $1,299 Canadian and only came with a one year warranty and no accidental damage coverage… a huge issue with notebooks.

I understand his concerns about performance and support. Many of the blogs I read do not speak highly of their IT department. This is not the case for me. I work closely with them and while we may not agree on all things, we’re all focused on our desire to provide the best experience and opportunities for all learners. The debate we’re having is whether we can make the shift from the standard desktop to laptop without increasing costs dramatically.

I’m wondering if those with experience in this can respond.

Technorati Tags: laptops, one to one, 1to1, notebooks, change, shift

This from David Jakes touting the beauty and power of Doritos latest campaign of using user-generated video for their SuperBowl commercial. This video is one of five finalists and it cost $12.79 and none of the creators was over 22 years old.

I’m sure we’ll see more and more of a trend towards validating user generated content. We’ve already seen this with blogging and journalism; this is a natural progression.

It also tells me that people are learning this stuff on their own. The tools used to be the hard part. Now the focus is on content and in a flat world everyone’s got a shot at success.

You can watch all five finalists here…you can also find them on youtube and probably a jillion other sites as well.