Cell phones and education

Yet another post about educational technology... this time, it concerns an article in eSchoolNews about how some schools/teachers are posting homework assignments or other "bite-size" chunks of information that students can access via their cell phones.

Because Koreans are so into technology, especially cell phones, I have thought for some time that there must be a way of utilizing the phones to deliver education-related content. Aside from the suggestions in the above-mentioned article, I imagine that you could develop mini English lessons - about vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, or expressions. Students of all ages (including working adults) could sign up for a monthly subscription to receive these lessons on their phones. If such mini lessons were presented by "veepers" (see my first post), those 3D talking images, I think people would take a real liking to the way the content was being provided.

I wonder if my school would ever be interested in developing these kinds of ideas for our students.

Pods and Blogs

In my weekly eSchoolNews update this week, there were two articles about technologies that I have been thinking about recently: podcasting and blogging.

Will Richardson's Podcast Nation summarized where the state of podcasting in education is at the moment. His article linked to some important sites (including blogs) where teachers are sharing ideas for how to use podcasting in the classroom. One very good point that I read somewhere in the links was the reminder that we as educators need to make sure that there is educational value in a particular kind of technology. We often like to jump on bandwagons without knowing where we are going. Still, I feel the same way as many of the contributors to the Podcast sites feel - that experimentation and research will be valuable.

Tom Hoffman's article about Students' Personal Blogs also raised a valuable point about the use of this new technology in the classroom. Blogs are online journals that allow people to post their thoughts about anything they like, and have other people read and comment on those thoughts. While similar in nature to a personal diary or journal, the obvious difference is that they are online, thus open to public viewing.

I do like their potential for creating communication among classmates and teachers, and I think students could be creative in the topics they discuss. Personally, though, I do believe that one has to be careful about what he or she posts on a blog. This technology is so new that we haven't really fully realized the implications of posting our thoughts online. For instance, if you post thoughts that are controversial, you shouldn't be surprised if those thoughts come back to haunt you down the road. So I as an educator would want to talk about that with my students.

In short, I am happy to see educators out there who are thinking like me about the possibilities of podcasting and blogging. These technologies are fairly easy to use, apparently, but their value in education is not yet proven.

Lots to think about.

Surprising Day - New Computer!

On Sunday, I had an interesting and exciting turn of events take place. After work, I met Heather at her mother's restaurant. The kids were asleep there, so the two of us walked into Carrefour. I usually like to stroll through the electronics section - that's just me. I mentioned to Heather that there was a Toshiba notebook computer for a very reasonable price, so with eyes rolling, she followed me.

Now, I often do stuff like this as a way of laying the groundwork with my CFO (that's Heather) for some unnecessary electronics purchase down the road. But today, we ended up talking to the sales person about a bunch of different computers, and after about 30 minutes of discussion, we decided to buy a new computer! Our current desktop, which is four years old, has been fixed and refitted with so many new parts that we thought we had a new computer. However, it has been giving us trouble, and now was a good time to upgrade to a more powerful machine.

Thus, our new Compaq computer will include a DVD burner, surround-sound (7.1 channel) audio, 1 GB RAM, plus the other standards of a P4 computer. We could have added a 19-inch LCD monitor for an extra hundred thousand won ($100), but we already have a nice 17-inch LCD. Hmmm, as I write this, I wonder if it doesn't make sense to get that bigger screen at the reasonable price.

Anyway, that computer is supposed to be delivered on Thursday. I look forward to the newest addition to my electronics collection when I get home!

The weirdness of technology

I did a master's degree in instructional technology. I own a variety of digital toys. I love reading about and learning about emerging technologies. But sometimes I just don't understand technology.

Why does my wireless keyboard suddenly adopt strange behaviour (such as when I press the letter Q, and Netscape starts up)? Then after a couple days of head-scratching, the problems seemingly disappear?

I sometimes feel helpless when a relatively simple problem pops up, but I can't fix it. Should I take a course to learn about the insides of computers and computer maintenance? Is it possible to make a computer that actually works?

Arrrrgghhhh!!!!

International Living

Although I can't see it happening soon, I am intrigued by the options in Latin America for retirement living. I've had an interest in Panama's Boquete region for about a year now, and I received an International Living postcard (e-mail) today about the great opportunities for real estate investment in Ecuador. Also, Argentina seems to be a popular place, along with Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico these days.

I would love to even visit some of these locations to get a first hand look. My buddy Patrick is, hopefully, in that region now or soon will be. If he can find out what the real deal is down there (especially in Panama), then the future just might hold a chance for international retirement.

Einstein and thinking

I determined about a year ago, while writing a paper for my M.A program, that the number one goal of education should be to assist people to become strong, independent thinkers. The ability to analyze, debate, and innovate is a key to not only developing one's potential but also to ensure the continuance of democratic political systems. I especially found value in the ideas of Edward de Bono, the developer of lateral thinking theory. Despite his obvious love of himself for thinking of such a creative thought process (see his web site for evidence), his ideas further strengthened my belief in the need for thinking-based education.

Today on CNN.com, there was an article about the legacy of Einstein. 2005 is the centennial anniversary of Einstein's miracle year of 1905, when he published a series of papers that changed the way the world thought. Now, I actually know little about Einstein, and I have only a passing understanding of his theories of relativity, but it seems that his approach to thinking again supports my beliefs about where education should go.

Einstein was not a man without issues. He wasn't a family man, quite obviously, based on the article in CNN, and he apparently felt isolated by the end of his life. Does his obsession with thinking provide an argument for or against thinking-based education?

Anyway, these are my own muddled musings on the matter. Suffice it to say that in practical terms, I believe in inquiry-based learning with the use of essential questions to guide lessons, particularly at the higher levels of education. I have no personal experience, though, since I have been teaching English as a foreign language in Korea for most of the past ten years. Down the road, I hope to get into a different situation to see how my thoughts actually play out in a classroom.

First Post

I picked up on an interesting story today about a teacher who was using technology in the classroom to aid his students' writing skills.

Seemingly thrown onto the end of this story was a reference to Pulse Entertainment software. The simple solution they offer is the ability to turn 2D photos into 3D talking images at a fraction of the file size of a video. This is something I want to explore further to see how it might work with my students, in terms of announcing homework or even providing mini lessons.

Thus, not only am I now getting into blogging myself, but I am now checking out this new Pulse technology, as well as thinking about the possibilities for Podcasting as it relates to learning English. All in all, this first day back in the realm of educational technology has been a good one.