Blog Juice for Educational Technology

OK, I’ve been reading through additional comments on my demand that we stop using the “T” word. ..and it occurred to me,
Why don’t we just tell all the teacher to find another job.
Now I do not mean to quit teaching and go take another job. Instead, we ask teachers to go to […]

Some bloggers find it easy to take one aspect of something that another blogger says and then launch into a tirade about it, and even insult the writer or speaker based on that one idea. I can’t do that. However, sometimes someone says something that causes such an itch along my spine, that […]

Apple’s recent release of machines loaded with Intel processors is the third revolutionary change in its Macintosh-era history. The first, back in the 1990s, was the move from Motorola 68000-based chips to the speedier PowerPC line. Then, in 2001, Macinto

Schools all across the country are searching for cost-effective solutions to reduce the overhead of monitoring and managing their computer networks. Indeed, budget cuts force schools to solve problems with open source solutions — such as Cacti, an open so

Question: Several of the staff in our technology department have recently heard a great deal about Moodle. As a free CMS — Course Management System — it looks appealing compared to commercial options like Blackboard. Where do you recommend we get more inf

Kaironews was shut down tonight by our ISP for very excessive use of CPU resources on the server. I believe the problem was caused by spammers and ill-behaved search engines (I found one such instance of the latter).

Since those of us who use the site don’t want this to happen, I’ve

• Temporarily enabled the bad behaviour module. This blocks some spammers at the Drupal level; it may or may not help reduce CPU usage.
• Banned the offending IP range which occupied 11 of the top IP’s in terms of page visits this month at Kairosnews and used .99 GB’s of the 4.7 GB’s used this month. (Sorry Platypus Matt. If that happens to be you using multiple computers at your insitution to see if anyone replied to your posts, you are now effectively blocked at the server level )
• Limited news aggregator and search access to logged in members.
• Enabled Drupal’s caching and throttling mechanism for anonymous users. If you are logged in, it won’t affect you. But if you visit Kairosnews without logging in, you may not see the most recent content as Drupal will pull some pages directly from its cache. This should help as these tools were designed specifically for drupal.org and other popular sites using Drupal to survive a Slashdotting.

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School started here last Wednesday. Although it comes out each weekday and is free, today is the first day I picked up a copy of our student newspaper, the Daily Illini, which I read over my lunch break. This past weekend I had read a book review on Fr…

I’ve been contacted by a local reporter to talk about blogging as an educational tool. If you’ve got some suggested talking points, I’d be happy to hear them, ASAP!!!!

Off the top of my head, I’ll emphasize writing for public consumption and collaboration; teaching writing in environments that students may write in on their own, more authentic pedagogies that fit what students will do outside the classroom, technological literacy at various levels so as to empower students socially, politically and functionally; and I’m not sure what else. Suggestions? Please?

Wow. There’s some great things going on at USF these days–check out this podcast with Joe Moxley and two of USF’s best graduates, Ryan Meehan and John Nieves. It’s a fun listen with some good tips for composition teachers looking to integrate wikis and collaboration into their programs. Now, if only one of them would start jumping on the couch, we’d have a hit on our hands here.

“Something is happening this semester that has never happened to me before,” writes Kristin Luker, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, on a forum for professors. ”[M]ore than half of my lecture class is just not showing up.” Judging by the responses to Ms. Luker’s observation, she’s not alone.

A number of professors at Berkeley say their lecture halls are looking a bit more spacious lately, and most agree that online forums, course-management sites, podcasts, and even e-mail are largely to blame.

If classroom attrition is, as the Berkeley forum suggests, a virtual inevitability, professors will need to decide if it’s a troubling trend or simply a fact of 21st-century life. There is no consensus. Diane Harley, a researcher with Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, tells the Contra Costa Times that professors should embrace technology that makes students’ “concepts of space and time much more fluid.” But another Berkeley professor admits that dwindling class sizes have given him something of “an existential crisis.”

A question for professors: Have you noticed an exodus from the lecture hall? If so, is that cause for concern? —Brock Read

I want to welcome you to the world of educational blogging. You are about to enter a journey that will take your learning to new heights. I am so impressed with your professor’s blog, Bridging Literacies. The objectives she has listed on her welcome post are excellent. I have to admit though that this […]

“Something is happening this semester that has never happened to me before,” writes Kristin Luker, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, on a forum for professors. ”[M]ore than half of my lecture class is just not showing up.” Judging by the responses to Ms. Luker’s observation, she’s not alone.

A number of professors at Berkeley say their lecture halls are looking a bit more spacious lately, and most agree that online forums, course-management sites, podcasts, and even e-mail are largely to blame.

If classroom attrition is, as the Berkeley forum suggests, a virtual inevitability, professors will need to decide if it’s a troubling trend or simply a fact of 21st-century life. There is no consensus. Diane Harley, a researcher with Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, tells the Contra Costa Times that professors should embrace technology that makes students’ “concepts of space and time much more fluid.” But another Berkeley professor admits that dwindling class sizes have given him something of “an existential crisis.”

A question for professors: Have you noticed an exodus from the lecture hall? If so, is that cause for concern? —Brock Read

Much has been written lately about technology in the classroom — as to whether it is optional or even relevant. This conversation is understandable, given the time of the year. I ask myself two questions in reaction.

Can a teacher be a good teacher without using technology? A resounding “YES!”
Is a teacher who […]