Back Row

So I went to Columbia, SC tonight to hear one of my Yale Div prof's talk about Paul (btw, Prof Adela Yarboro Collins was her amazing self). I love that my cohort Thomas Whitley snapped this on his new Instagram account....
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I just have to wonder how this would appear to most of the teachers at my school... would I be that annoying kid "texting" on the back row of class (we were on the back row after all) or would I be that kid engaged enough to be feverishly taking notes via the Plain Text app on my iPhone so that my notes would sync up to my DropBox account so that I could quickly send them out to my fav people and start a discussion? Ah, the internets...

Exaggerated Fear of Social Change

Good read for educators and parents (and most anyone)...

‘Juvenoia,’ Part 1: Why Internet fear is overrated | NetFamilyNews.org: "It’s one thing to say that the Internet has dangers on it; it’s a very different thing to say that the Internet increases dangers, David Finkelhor said early in his talk. The problem is, that second view has become the dominant narrative in the public discussion about young people online. The ‘risk-promotion narrative,’ he also calls it, doesn’t say that ‘when kids go online bad things can happen because they can happen anywhere,’ like in a city – which of course is true. What the narrative says instead, and incorrectly, is that ‘intrinsic features of the Internet increase risk and augment vulnerability.’"

Looking forward to part 2.

Dogfooding

After two happy years as a Wordpress self-hosted install, I'm moving our 8th grade science class site/home/hub, GriffinScience, to Blogger:

GriffinScience: "Because we'll be using Blogger as a main platform of interaction with the 8th graders next year due to our school Google accounts making that a no-brainer, I've gone ahead and moved GriffinScience from a self-hosted Wordpress install to Blogger."

I don't think the students will mind or notice much, and it does make a good deal of sense to eat my own dog food if I'm going to encourage students to make use of our school's Google Apps accounts and use Blogger (or Google Sites) as their digital portfolio's home (of course I don't mind if they want to venture out into Wordpress or Tumblr or Posterous land as well). For some reason, this makes me sad in a "but I'm a real geek!" way. It's not that Blogger isn't a proper blogging engine or geeky enough site... but I've always encouraged folks to dive into code and make their own templates or sidebars. Those are possible in Blogger, but it's a little too graphical and "easy" in my mind. I need to get over myself, clearly. Nevertheless, here's to another few good years of GriffinScience.

Engineering Creativity

So how do we as teachers cultivate and encourage creativity in a human existence that doesn't require as many gigs of organic memory?

LRB · Jim Holt · Smarter, Happier, More Productive: "It’s not that the web is making us less intelligent; if anything, the evidence suggests it sharpens more cognitive skills than it dulls. It’s not that the web is making us less happy, although there are certainly those who, like Carr, feel enslaved by its rhythms and cheated by the quality of its pleasures. It’s that the web may be an enemy of creativity. Which is why Woody Allen might be wise in avoiding it altogether."

Fascinating read.

Headed to Apple Seminar at 1 to 1 iPad School

Four of us from Spartanburg Day School are headed to Savannah on Thursday/Friday to see how St. Andrew's School is running their 1 to 1 iPad program...

Apple - Education Seminars & Events - Digital Learning Environments in Action!: "St. Andrew's School is one of the only K through 12 independent schools that is currently implementing a 1 to 1 iPad program for all students, preK through 12, as part of their new digital learning environment. During your visit, you will see how iDiscover 21c has engaged students and allowed them to take more responsibility for their own learning. You will meet with faculty, students, and administrators who will discuss the planning stages, infrastructure changes, rollout, and the overall impact on student learning."

I'm sure I'll be sharing more reflections before and after the event as we process our next steps in (hopeful) iPad implementation (at least for Middle School or 8th graders). Exciting times.

I'm Sure @Jangro Would Appreciate notes.pinboard.in

On my iPhone home-screen I now have a link to a "2 Do" file that is a Pinboard Note...

Pinboard Notes

Pinboard is the bookmarking service that fills the hole Delicious left in our hearts years ago by selling out and becoming too bloated. However, Pinboard now has a notes function that allows for quick note jotting and has Markdown support. Win. I had kept my years-old "2Do.txt" file in Dropbox up to this point but for some reason this seems easier. We'll see how it goes!

Why I'm Sticking with AT&T (and Glad to See BUMPzee Back)

My pal Scott Jangro had an amazing site in late '06 and early '07 called BUMPzee that I loved. Basically, BUMPzee was an early hybrid of Delicious, Digg, and what would become the Facebook newsfeed. Scott and his team were a little ahead of the curve and the platform should have gone mainstream. So, I'm glad to see BUMPzee back up and running as it allows for great conversations along the lines of this (my response to Scott's question about staying on AT&T or jumping ship for Verizon for his new iPhone)...

Iphone 4: At&t Or Verizon? - Bumpzee: "I had the exact same thing happen with my 3GS and the mute button. It's pretty annoying to be a teacher and not be able to mute your phone, btw. However, beyond the concrete Faraday cage that is my school, I don't have a problem with ATT. They actually have been improving things quite a bit here in the Western North Carolina region to the point that I get few interruptions in service. We don't have 3G everywhere, but we chose to live in a pretty remote and non-metropolitan region of southern appalachia, so I can't complain. My contract was up on the 12th as well (how's that for timing!). So, I went to the ATT store thinking I'd be treated like royalty for staying with them. Interestingly enough, the ATT stores here were all out of stock and playing catch up after the holidays. My 4 came in yesterday and it's everything I imagined it would be. So yeah... stay with ATT. The ability to browse the web while on a call has been a great feature (one I thought I would never use) and the wifi at airports or places like Starbucks is a great feature-add. I think this has been a big learning opportunity for ATT as they continue to grow and scale their network, so hopefully the benefits will continue as some customers offload to Verizon. Truthfully, I think Verizon has behaved with too much hubris from their 'Droid Does' days to acting as if the iPhone is finally worthy of their great network. The biggest plus out of all this is that iOS on Verizon will put a big dent in the Android market!"