Teacher Bytes

Normally I don’t advocate illegal or unethical activities but this one is too hard to pass up. George Hotz, 17, of Glen Rock, New Hampshire gained fame last week as the first person to successfully unlock Apple’s iPhone so it can work on other networks other than AT&T. Cell phone companies in the United States are notorious for disabling features or locking their phones so they only work with the carrier who sold you the phone. I can also rant and rave about blocking features so companies force you to purchase add-on services and increase revenues but life is too short.

Well young Mr. Hotz has profited by his ingenuity to the tune of 3 more iPhones and a new sports car. CetiCell, a mobile phone repair service purchased Hotz’s unlocked phone for the above mentioned items and an offer of a job consulting for the company. Not bad for someone who recently graduated high school.

It should be no surprise that AT&T and Apple are not happy about what Mr. Hotz has done to their prized product. However, this is an example of a digital native using technology skills he probably gained outside of school and profited by it. While I am sure Phone Hacking was not a course at Mr. Hotz’s high school, I do wonder how teachers put his skills to use in his education. Did the teachers allow Hotz to use his creativity or did they hold him back? Teachers, I am sure there are other George Hotz’s wandering your halls. Now are you willing to channel that creative talent by tapping into technology skills they obviously possess?

It has been busy here so I am a little late getting this edition out. Here is what I cover in this episode:
Curriki.org
Yahoo Teachers
Firefox Campus
Google Sky

I also talk about a program that helps young girls get excited about science and technology, where do students go to first when starting a research project, and Gmail invades college campuses.

Here is the link to the podcast:

It has been busy here so I am a little late getting this edition out. Here is what I cover in this episode:
Curriki.org
Yahoo Teachers
Firefox Campus
Google Sky

I also talk about a program that helps young girls get excited about science and technology, where do students go to first when starting a research project, and Gmail invades college campuses.

Here is the link to the podcast:

Many schools in the United States are debating making students wear school uniforms but in the United Kingdom school uniforms have been around for many years. However, Lancashire-based manufacturer Trutex will be selling uniforms with tracking devices so parents can track their children’s‘ movements. This decision was done after an Internet marketing survey showed 59% of parents would be willing to purchase the high-tech uniforms. While 50% of elementary-aged would wear the uniforms, teens are naturally more reluctant. This move by Trutex is based on parents’ fears of children being abducted or leaving campus with the wrong people. You can be sure civil libertarians and conspiracy theorists will see this as evidence of “Big Brother” taking another step towards spying on citizens by of tracking their every movement.

Sydney Morning Herald article

Many schools in the United States are debating making students wear school uniforms but in the United Kingdom school uniforms have been around for many years. However, Lancashire-based manufacturer Trutex will be selling uniforms with tracking devices so parents can track their children’s’ movements. This decision was done after an Internet marketing survey showed 59% of parents would be willing to purchase the high-tech uniforms. While 50% of elementary-aged would wear the uniforms, teens are naturally more reluctant. This move by Trutex is based on parents’ fears of children being abducted or leaving campus with the wrong people. You can be sure civil libertarians and conspiracy theorists will see this as evidence of “Big Brother” taking another step towards spying on citizens by of tracking their every movement.

Sydney Morning Herald article

ARS Technica reports on a study done at St. Mary’s, a small liberal arts college in California and can be found in First Monday that shows Wikipedia and search engines such as Yahoo or Google are not the first place students look when starting a research project. Only 13% of students surveyed went to search engines and 3% went to Wikipedia first. This is compared to 40% who went to course materials for information and 23% who went to their library website first. Not surprisingly confusion and procrastination were cited as the top two things students first do for a research project.

Before you Wikipedia haters start celebrating, this is only one small college that attracts above average students. The article says instruction on proper research methods is still needed.

Research tools online and offline make for a harrowing research experience, according to a new study. While students are wary of Wikipedia and the like, there’s also a clear need for resources like it.

Read More…

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ARS Technica reports on a study done at St. Mary’s, a small liberal arts college in California and can be found in First Monday that shows Wikipedia and search engines such as Yahoo or Google are not the first place students look when starting a research project. Only 13% of students surveyed went to search engines and 3% went to Wikipedia first. This is compared to 40% who went to course materials for information and 23% who went to their library website first. Not surprisingly confusion and procrastination were cited as the top two things students first do for a research project.

Before you Wikipedia haters start celebrating, this is only one small college that attracts above average students. The article says instruction on proper research methods is still needed.

Research tools online and offline make for a harrowing research experience, according to a new study. While students are wary of Wikipedia and the like, there’s also a clear need for resources like it.

Read More…

Blogged with Flock

ARS Technica reports about the announcement of Yahoo Teachers, a website to help teachers use the Internet for doing lesson planning. First, to help collect materials for lesson planning there is widget called the gobbler. The gobbler has three buckets on the side of the website assigned to lesson plans and teachers drag highlighted text, images, or entire websites into one of the buckets. The information is then formated and saved into the teacher’s portfolio. The saved information can then be formated into lesson plans with search tags. There are other lesson plans teachers can search and use. The lesson plans also have information on what state standards are covered in the lessons. The site will also allow teachers to network so they could collaborate on lessons. The goal developers at Yahoo are after is to create a tool that allows teachers create lesson plans easily. Yahoo Teachers not available yet but you can sign up to receive notification and view preview videos. If Yahoo Teachers works as promised this would be a great help to already overworked teachers.

Hacking education with Yahoo! Teachers

At the recent User Experience Week Conference, Yahoo showed off Yahoo! Teachers, a new collaboration space for educators, and talked about what went into its development.

Read More…

technorati tags:Yahoo, Teachers, Education, lesson, planning

Blogged with Flock

ARS Technica reports about the announcement of Yahoo Teachers, a website to help teachers use the Internet for doing lesson planning. First, to help collect materials for lesson planning there is widget called the gobbler. The gobbler has three buckets on the side of the website assigned to lesson plans and teachers drag highlighted text, images, or entire websites into one of the buckets. The information is then formated and saved into the teacher’s portfolio. The saved information can then be formated into lesson plans with search tags. There are other lesson plans teachers can search and use. The lesson plans also have information on what state standards are covered in the lessons. The site will also allow teachers to network so they could collaborate on lessons. The goal developers at Yahoo are after is to create a tool that allows teachers create lesson plans easily. Yahoo Teachers not available yet but you can sign up to receive notification and view preview videos. If Yahoo Teachers works as promised this would be a great help to already overworked teachers.

Hacking education with Yahoo! Teachers

At the recent User Experience Week Conference, Yahoo showed off Yahoo! Teachers, a new collaboration space for educators, and talked about what went into its development.

Read More…

technorati tags:Yahoo, Teachers, Education, lesson, planning

Blogged with Flock

What Google Earth did for teaching World Geography, Google Sky can do for teaching about the universe around us. ARS Technica reports Google has added to Google Earth a view of over 200 million galaxies and 100 million stars that can be explored with the click of a mouse. Google is using material from the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Digital Sky Survey Consortium, CalTech’s Palomar Observatory, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre, and the Anglo-Australian Observatory to recreate the universe. Some of the other features of Google Sky include searching for a celestial body by name, viewing constellations, accessing Hubble Space Telescope pictures, views of the Moon and planets, a guide to the galaxies, and the life of a star. Science teachers should make great use of this latest offering by Google.

Google Earth

Google launched Sky today, a new feature in Google Earth 4.2 that lets users explore not only our home planet but other galaxies, too.

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Blogged with Flock