Research

In the June 2008 issue of Macworld, Maryann Jones Thompson reports on a study by the University of Utah and NEC demonstrating some efficiencies in having larger computer monitors.

Apple, except for education, has all but eliminated the 17" model and starts with a base model iMac of a 20" monitor. The advantages of large monitors have been evident to many educators for years, but trying to convince those in charge of budgets that a 20" or 24" monitor isn't just a frivolous luxury has been an exercise in futility... until now.

First of all, if you aren't subscribed already, subscribe to the TEDTalks video podcast. If you haven't heard of TED, it's the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, for "ideas worth spreading." Particularly interesting is the section of presentations on the theme of "How We Learn". (A "big up" to my friend Mark Battley, who turned me on to this fantastic resource.) If you do click on the links just provided, you may as well go and get yourself a tall cool drink right now, because your going be glued to the site for quite a while. Maybe a few drinks, actually.

Dean Ornish, in a presentation of Feb. 2008, points out that four elements can increase our brain functioning: love, healthy eating, exercise, and managing stress. He also lists specific items that have been shown to increase brain brain cells (see above). And yes, rasta, "cannabinoids" are what you think they are! In short, "lifestyle" can affect learning.

Second, you may find SIr Ken Robinson's presentation "Do Schools Kill CreativityDo Schools Kill Creativity" a frighteningly astute argument for the idea that "if you're not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original", and that schools are presently employed the task of deliberately discouraging creativity, the one skill we have that may still save our species. But don't hold your breath that we'll ever change... especially by using a set Scandinavian cantilevered purple toboggans in a bowl of jello.

In his short essay, "Time to Cut Class" in the UTNE Reader, Eisentein enumerates several school-indoctrinated bad habits and false beliefs that need to be reconsidered. For us, particularly in the context of educating with technology, I contend these are interesting points as there has always put a more relativistic perspective on education given that the technology educator's field is in constant flux.

So nothing for us to learn here. Stop reading.

Eisenstein suggests avoiding:

1. Seeking "credit" for the right answer.

2. Seeing problems as having a right answer, and thinking that by articulating the solution, I have solved the problem.

3. Seeking external validation for choices, as in "What should I do?" (I can't just choose, can I? How do I know it's the right choice? I had better go ask someone.)

4. Work: a matter of completing assignments.

S. Life: a process of graduating from one externally provided program to the next.

6. Status: defined by rank within an institution.

7. Personal worth: dependent on external evaluations.

He continues:

Wait! As you read through these points, do you notice any habits of schooling operating within yourself? Are you skimming them to simply check if you "know" them already (as if for a quiz)? Are you evaluating each one to determine whether it is right or wrong?

Frighteningly, I had been doing exactly that.

His penultimate advice:

What creates rich and fruitful relationships is not being right, but providing things to people that are useful to them-in other words, givinge wrong.

I think we can agree, he's right.

And you're wrong.

First of all, an admission: if there's an easy way to do something I like it.

Sorry, did I say "easy"? I meant "efficient."

This comes from growing up on a dairy farm. Anyone who grew up on a farm knows what I'm talking about. Especially a dairy farm. But I digress from one form of shovelling to another...

Every time I need a quick look-up for a spelling, synonym, or definition, I've been using "F12" and launching my handy dictionary widget. I was reasonably unhappy with this work-flow. But what else was I to do? I didn't know any other solution. One of the biggest problems I found with this approach, apart from too many keystrokes, was that I really like beginning to type a word and seeing all the words that begin the same way. Good for scrabble, and good for when you really have no idea how a word is spelt.

"Chihuahua" anybody?

So, it came as quite an epiphany when in my recent copy of the Journal for Research on Technology in Education there was a study on supporting reading with an electronic pop-up dictionary. In brief, it shows that "The pop-up dictionary reading was shown to be a statistically effective method for improving student test scores. The results suggest pop-up dictionaries may provide a helpful intervention for increasing middle-level learners’ reading comprehension."

Who knew dictionaries were good for students?

This jogged my memory about Mac's built-it spell-checker, and thus its dictionary. A simple right-click (control-click) on any word, in almost any application, will bring up a selection of actions, one of which is the dictionary.

Dictionary may be one of our most under-utilized exceptional educational built-in Mac apps. (When I say "our", I probably mean "I". I'm always the last to know.) The Dictionary application provides you with a built-in dictionary, thesaurus, Apple search, and Wikipedia search. A couple of neat features are that nearly every word in a definition is hyperlinked to its own definition, and, most happily for me, typing in your suspected spelling will provide a live updating of all the words with that beginning.

Teachers, start your dictionaries!

Ayt leezt i whill.

Frank Bures in an a two-page world map in Wired Magazine demonstrates that technology may not be the great leveler after all, at least when in comes to internet access.

In a Cnet News.com post The Internet's new Dr. Spock?, Henry Jenkins, an MIT researcher, comments in one of his interview responses about the general attitude of blocking access to technology rather than teaching to it:

We need to be governed by knowledge and not ruled by fear. So, yeah, there are bad things out there in the Internet, but there is so much good stuff going on that it would be a shame to lock it up and shut down social networks or shut down access to gaming technologies because of concern for the negatives.

The article is worth a read, as is his MIT site, where there is plenty of information on current research on technology and learning. Some interesting findings: