Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Let me tell ya’ something. Back in my day, we had a think called Discipline. It did NOT involve a prescription from a licensed dope dealer. “Being sent to the office” didn’t mean the psychiatrist’s office for a few pills and a bill; it meant the Principal’s Office. Sittin’ in that office was a big fat bald man with a purple face and a paddle. If you didn’t behave, you’d discover the business end of his perforated “Attitude Adjuster” connecting with the soft tissue of your tender and soon-to-be repentant backside. Back then, “Sit down and shut up” meant something. Of course, that kind of thing is now as ancient history as Coca-Cola with real sugar, and kids are being told to let their ADHD run rampant for the sake of fighting flab. That’s right–no need to sit still and listen; heck, let’s jump around while listening to iPods instead of this multiplication and spelling crap.

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Well, looks like the Feds are about to start hitting school networks where it hurts: in the wallet. There’s a bill afoot that’s designed to protect kids from “social networking” sites, i.e., those online dens like Facebook and MySpace where evil predators lurk in the shady maltshops of cyberspace. Schools and libraries receiving gov’ment “me too” money for internet access will see those funds dry up unless they agree to block these deadly sites–and they’ll probably want to ban Trapper Keepers, too. Link via Boing Boing.

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I have no idea what I think about this. No, that’s a lie. This is amazing. I…only…wish…I…had…been…there. I would definitely have been proud to be one of the 80 pseudo-Best Buy employees wreaking havoc in New York! All my base belongs to these folks. What really gets my juices flowing is thinking about how all this pertains to identity (yes, my panel just finished revising our proposal for 4C’s). How can we possibly place this in a theoretical framework?

But seriously…Take a few minutes and see the wonder that is Improv Everywhere.

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Well, thank the FSM, here’s an mp3 player for the rest of us. These things are built to withstand the assaults of a fully functional 3 year old. For those who don’t know what havoc a 3 year old can wreak on a humble piece of electronic equipment–well, I suppose you’ll just have to ask Mr. Richter. (Anybody ever get a cheeseburger shoved in their VCR?) Anyway, what question being asked at Boing Boing about this player is whether it’ll come with Digital Restriction Management included. Wouldn’t it suck if you bought this for your kid and then ended up having to actually pay some jackass for “Frere Jacques”? But who am I kidding–they’ll hack the thing and be listening to Mobb Deep a few days later. It’s just a matter of chewing.

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Looks like more profs are getting fedup with students using laptops in their classrooms. It’s the usual suspects–students are abusing classtime to gamble in online casinos, plan keggers over IM, and take so many notes that they…er…Don’t listen? (I don’t know much about stenographers, but apparently they ain’t too bright.) I guess I can symphathize with Intern Travis here. After all, if a prof is okay with my bringing in an inflatable child’s wading pool, filling it full of frat punch and getting s-faced during his PowerPoint, then I can’t imagine what the heck his problem is with just finishing a few levels in WoW. I mean, it’s not like we’re using hair dryers in the bathtub or anything. Geez, profs be so uptight sometimes.

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I just watched Voices from the New American Schoolhouse trailer at YouTube after hearing about it at Boing Boing. The clip concerns a radial experiment in education taking place in Fairhaven. It’s a school where kids (of all ages) make the rules and decide what they want to learn and when.

Of course, I’ve heard about projects like this before, and we can find parallels in the history of universities (such as those of Bologna). Somehow, though, I’m skeptical. If I were 12 and allowed to “make my own lesson plan,” it would consist entirely of videogames and the occasional SF flick.

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Okay, I made up the part about illegal aliens. But, here’s a report that claims “Wal-mart lobbyists have successfully waged a war against a fair viewpoint on Wikipedia’s Wal-mart page.” Apparently, hundreds of anonymous users are taking it upon themselves to keep the Wal-Mart Wikipedia page free from those leftist wackos who try to smear Wal-Mart’s plutonium image of dedicated public service. (What are they thinking?) Anyway, it’s a really interesting dilemma here that I think cleary demarcates the point where it’s difficult (if not impossible) for Wikipedia to maintain a neutral point of view. My prediction is that in a few years (or months?) all pages with a strong corporate interest will suffer the “Propagandistic Wal-Mart Wiki Mis-Editing Syndrome,” (or “I buy everything I need from gas stations and garage sales” for short).

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Well, looks like everyone’s second favorite social software is opening its pages to people who, like aren’t in school anymore. Seems like the Facebook crew is getting restless and looking to expand beyond the tower. Just think–pretty soon facebook junkies could get their fix in their cubicle, reliving those glory days of facebooking in the computer classroom (like OMG, why can’t that stupid prof buzz off??). And this will no doubt spur productivity. Oops–sorry, I’m shaky. Been ten minutes since I last facebooked. If you want your name written in the facebook of life, you gotta stay active and try to get random people to be friends with you and stuff.

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I’m sure that everyone has heard about Apple’s new BootCamp dual-boot system for Intel-based Macs by now. The reason I’ve been trying to learn more about it is that I’m naturally skeptical of the miracles I’ve been hearing about this product. I’ve been surfing for awhile trying to get the “lowdown” on Boot Camp, but all I can seem to find are pro-Mac reviews that seem more concerned about the benefits Boot Camp poses to formerly restricted Mac machines. Yeah, I’m sure Boot Camp is great if you’ve been restricted to Mac software and, suddenly, you can play Doom 3 and Quake IV on your iMac. What I’m trying to figure out, though, is whether it’s better to have a dedicated PC if you intend to run Windows software. I understand the dual-boot system, but I’m not so sure about the hardware question. I’ve heard a few reports that some Apple peripherals won’t work in Windows even with Boot Camp, for instance–but what about the other way round?

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