Cell phone research

Here is was sitting at my computer doing some paperwork when one of our tech's cellphones buzzed. "It's a text message." he said. And he added he has no idea how to use text. One of our other techs who routinely communicates by text with her daughter showed him how to access the message. It was a request for assistance from his daughter who was sitting in her history class and needed a song from the Vietnam era.

We quickly did a bit of research for her... finding Animals - We Gotta Get Out of this Place for her and sent this URL as a text back to her.

Now to my mind, this is a student who has learned how to work with outside sources for her research and found a way to get an answer without the use of a school computer. I wonder if her cell is capable of browsing the net and what the implications would be for her doing that in class with an open wireless network.

Getting started with classroom blogging

I had a workshop yesterday morning for an hour and a half with seven teachers from the local high school. They were interested in finding out about blogs and how they might use them to communicate with parents and students. I showed them a few moments of the video which we were given as a link in our class last week and also played a podcast which I had created with some grade 7 students last spring describing how they value blogging. By the end of the session, three of the participants had a blog that they were ready to publish, three more were working on their ideas, and one was convinced that blogging was not for him and his teaching style.

Some good questions that I have heard before but are worth reporting. I wonder what your responses to them would have been.

1. I have a lot to do in my day as it is. What is the value of reviewing student blogs and marking them? Can't I just continue to do that with them at their desks?

2. Some of my students don't have computers at home and I don't have enough computers in my class to make this worthwhile. Am I treating those kids without access fairly, even if I make blogging optional?

Comments?

Stop Cyberbullying - My story (repost)

I thought I would take this opportunity during this week of being aware of the cyberbullying issue repost the following from a blog I wrote last spring.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

My workshop toolkit is spread amongst a number of black bags.

Facing the realities of bullying

I read this blog and the associated news story yesterday. One thing it has done for me is to move me another step towards working with students and parents to understand the way social networking and personal communication on the internet work in practice. Many of the things I speak to parents about ways to monitor their child's interactions on the net can use some minor revisions. It is clear to me that it is not only in the realm of research that students need to learn how to validate what they read online, but also in their personal lives.

A week to combat cyberbullying

I was at a meeting today and discovered that this is bullying awareness week.

One of my colleagues at the meeting gave a quick tour of a great site with lots of ideas for teachers to use with their students to explore this topic.

Visit the website at: http://www.bullyingawarenessweek.org/. This site is a creation of the developers of cyberbullying.ca. The theme is Stand Up to Bullying and there are activities for every day of the week.

I gather that the Langley School District in British Columbia has organized challenges for its schools to compete with one another over the week. Good for them!

Having browsed through a number of the activities, I can see that all of them can be used at other times in the year, even if you don’t participate this week.

Electronic Commerce and Technology Survey

It arrived in an official looking government envelope this morning... a survey for me to complete regarding the use of the internet by our organization with respect to gathering data and exchanging information from/with clients. The letter stated that,

It is vital to the success of this survey that you complete the questionnaire...

I filled in the obligatory radio boxes and added my comment, "An survey about the use of the internet to collect and distribute data, using paper ... what a concept."

The American vs Canadian Dollar

I got a bit of a rude awakening yesterday with respect to the decreasing value of the American dollar compared to the Canadian dollar.

While it is encouraging to note that our trip to the US in February will probably cost less than anticipated, I discovered the opposite effect yesterday when I got a settlement document for an investment which I sold.

Apple stock has been riding high lately and I decided to sell 25 shares. The gross proceeds for the sale was $4645.25 in US$. The net proceeds were $4405.52 in CDN$.

What irks somewhat is that most of my shares in Apple were purchased when the dollar was skewed in the other direction! At least I have made a profit on the sale, but it still hurts to see the negative exchange.

Image Credit: jburwen's photostream