Michael Misha's List: Educational Technology

• Yet, after 20 years, curricular approaches and the impact of the computer on student learning are still unclear.
• These activities can be divided into five categories: 1) drill, 2) software application, 3) accessing information, 4) computer-aided instruction, and 5) communication. A number of the activities can be utilized in a variety of ways and, therefore, fall into more than one category.
• Diane Dusick claims that the impact of technology on achievement in other subjects is not the relevant issue, as there are benefits to the use of computers that are not directly measured by specific learning outcomes. In her view, “the development of technological skills and self-efficacy with computers is as fundamental to education as English, math or science.”
• We worry about teaching keyboarding today, but it won’t be needed when voice activation becomes common in a few years. The dogma will only be replaced when people realize how quickly it is all changing. Kids don’t need years of computer exposure to succeed. People with no computer background generally catch on in a few weeks – a few months tops. (Cuban, 2000, p.1)
• Gavriel Salomon takes a more pessimistic view. He reports that a survey of 374 studies in which the achievement of learners using computer mediated communication was compared to the achievement of learners using conventional methods reveals that only 5% demonstrated any significant difference. Of these, 1/3 favored conventional methods while 2/3 favored computer-mediated instruction. Salomon concludes that “very little, if anything, has happened so far as a result of computing in education.”
• A most powerful and innovative technology is taken and is domesticated such that it does more or less what its predecessors have done, only it does it a bit faster and a bit nicer. Consequently, nothing really happens, which comes to prove what skeptics have argued all along and what misguided research tends to show: Technology makes no difference in learning (Salomon, 2000, p. 2).
• Cuban points out that
• computers are hard to master, hard to use
• Learning as Context Bound – Many educational researchers have come to question the ability of learners to transfer knowledge and skills acquired in a decontextualized setting. Salomon claims that “in the competition between a well mastered abstract skill and rich knowledge of a particular field, the latter comes out the winner.”
• Teacher use of computers is directly related to access to the computer within the classroom. Classes taught in classrooms having a ratio of at least one computer to every four students utilized computers significantly more than classes taught in classrooms having less computers and access to a computer lab. We might have assumed that teachers would prefer to work with students in a lab setting in which each student, or each pair of students, has access to a computer. Becker points out, however, that “the scheduling of whole classes of students to use computers at wide intervals determined well in advance of need (i.e. weekly or every-other-week use scheduled weeks in advance) makes it almost impossible for computers to be integrated as research, analytic, and communicative tools in the context of the central academic work of an academic class.” (Becker, 2001, p. 3) Thus, a critical aspect of accessibility is flexibility.

8 more annotations...

• Seventeen leading Web sites have agreed to put in place safeguards to protect young people from unwittingly risking their privacy and safety in Europe

• Under a deal signed during a ceremony by the European Commission, the 17 companies agreed to ensure that:

   
   
  • Users can report abuse with a single click;
   
  • The default setting for online profiles and contact lists is set to "private" for users younger than 18;
   
  • Private profiles of users younger than 18 will no longer be searchable; and
   
  • Privacy options will be more prominent so users know who can see what they've posted online--only their friends or the whole world

• DimensionM adventure games (Tabula Digita, 2006) help students understand math concepts and hone their problem-solving skills. And have fun doing it.
• The games assume players’ familiarity with the embedded math concepts, so the relevant subjects usually have to be introduced beforehand.