education & tech

Learning, Knowledge, Tech, Social Media

Education + Tech

TonNet is a 30-something educator and blogger. He's the administrator of Education & Tech which was created to build hope that Education still can make you rich not only spiritually but economically. TonNet is Milton Ramirez. He has a Doctorate in Education from National University of Loja-Ecuador (UNL), and he hails from NYC. For any questions, tips or concerns please e-mail us to: contact(at)miltonramirez(dot)com

Who's TonNet

If you are a regular at Education & Tech, you shall remember that I'd written a post almost everyday since 2003 and before, it even had different names such as Blog For Spanish Readers, BPLE, and so. You'd find posts in Spanish because that's how this blog started. Education & Tech covers tender questions of human living and rougher matters rotting the educators core.

Showing posts with label search. Show all posts
Showing posts with label search. Show all posts

Teachers Challenge: Be In or Be Out

I've delighted to read her letter-post and this is the very first time we quote Sheryl from 21st Century Learning, but today's post is a Open Letter and we want to share it with you, particularly some paragraphs we were really impressed about our takes on technology in the classroom:

...If you can be replaced by a computer then you probably should be! The truth is that technology will never replace teachers, however teachers who know how to use technology effectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not.
[..]
Sylvia Martinez says we are trying to solve this 21st C PD issue in schools with 6% of the population (teachers) when 94% of the population (kids) are better positioned to help us learn what we need to know to be successful. Turn your classrooms into learning ecologies- learn with and from your students. Get rid of top down, expert driven instruction methods and nurture self-directed discovery- both your own and theirs. Turn your passions into classroom curriculum. Get excited and mentor your kids integrating your passions with core content and foundational knowledge. Help them develop a love and understanding for culture and our rich heritage. Advocate hard to get the metrics we are using to measure classroom effectiveness changed- for we teach what we measure. Leverage NCLB to push for personalization of curriculum in an effort to meet AYP and all the various needs of your subgroup populations.

Teachers wouldn't be replaced by computers(robots), rest assured that even when that's entirely possible, no machine can make intellectual work as teachers have to do it on a daily basis. We do agree, we teachers, have to learn a lot from students on technology knowledge and skills. The challenge is yours(ours), we can still keep peace with those eight years Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach talks about, educators can and they have to re-learn and act under a redefined concept of professional development!

Education seen from the 1937 through the 2000 year

A Columbia university educator, addressing students at the University of California at Los Angeles, predicted that "by the year 2000, we won't send children to school until they are 10 years old." He said that "while they are young, we will keep them busy building healthy bodies in the fresh air". Evidently, he doesn't know the mammas. They want to get their children into school as early as possible. One of the reasons for the development of the kindergarten is to hasten the time when even devoted mothers can get a little freedom from the demands of their children. But the year 2000 is a long way in the future.



Post writen by Matt at Paleofuture.com

Struggling to Keep Afloat your Blog? Read Away.

This is the second part of a Spanish post we published here. The authorship correspond to John Metzler, head of Fresh Promo; which we reproduced, because TonNet considers many bloggers are still in the first steps to build up credibility and authority with their blogs.

The post in reference can be traslated in the same other Spanish page and it was referred to: How to create Search Engine-Friendly Content and Choosing Your Keywords Wisely.

Get Others to Link to Your Blog



In theory there are countless ways, some traditional and some quite innovative, to get other web sites to link to yours. In practice, it can be easier said than done. Google defines a link as it pertains to rankings and SEO as a "vote" from one site to another. The more quality votes your site receives, the greater chance you have of ranking well. If a well established site links to yours, that link carries more weight than one would from a mom & pop shop or less reputable page.

If your blog has useful content and is doing something unique, you're already ahead of much of the competition. People need a reason to link to your blog, as very few will do it out of the goodness of their heart. Trading links can work, but link exchange networks have decreased in value and won't be of much use in competitive fields. Buying links, if you haven't heard, is a big Google no-no. While entire articles could be written on this topic, here are a few popular methods of acquiring incoming links:

>Issuing special event releases with a link back to your site.
>Submitting to reputable business directories such as Yahoo! and Business.com
>Be active on related blogs by commenting and exchanging ideas.
>If you have friends with blog sites, ask if they would mind adding your link in a "visible" section
>Participate in relevant forums and discussion boards with a link in your signature.
>Write and submit original articles to web publications in your field with a link in your bio (Guest posting).
>Get involved and active in social media and bookmarking.



Don't Fall Behind to the Social Media Revolution



The collaboration between Internet users and the development of online communities is at an all-time high. Social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Furl, Reddit, and Technorati offer users a way to store their favorite pages and media online, and share it with others. These services also provide a way to promote your own blog or create a buzz over a event or service. Creating a Myspace page or Squidoo "lens" is also a way to network and share information.

The key to using social media and bookmarking sites to your advantage is to not be shy. Network with other users, bookmark and share useful content, create eye-catching titles for your entries, and tell your friends and co-workers to vote on content you have on these sites.

These points are a general guideline to follow for SEO. If you want to perform a profesional search engine optimization, experts are a good outsourcing option in competitive blogosphere, while the DIY attitude can yield great results for blog owners with small income budgets. So, if you're in the latter group, hopefully this post will help you to get started.

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CIBER: Youngsters View Rather than Read the Internet

Consequences of being involved in a hoax like the Psystar one, are events that must be avoid at all costs by bloggers and professional writers. We think that's one of the reason why the life of the professional blogger isn't as easy as much may be suspecting.

And now that we are talking about professionals, do you remember you've been told many times the Gen X. are all literate about the Internets? Well, don't fall for everything you hear, particularly on the Internet. A recent study shows that this same generation are only capable of viewing but not technically reading, they rely too much on search machines and don't exercise what in the American schools is called critical thinking.

...Research-behaviour traits that are commonly associated with younger users – impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs – are now becoming the norm for all age-groups, from younger pupils and undergraduates through to professors.


I am ashamed how these conclusions can be applied to big cities where broad band is accessible. My question is, what about those other cities where they don't even have dial-up. Latin America, for example has a very low Internet coverage and I don't want to quote what's happening on other regions where this service is still a luxury and they have to spotlight through radio waves.



Google Isn't a Source!

And we should add, Google is not the Internet or a browser (although many still use it as such), nor the only search engine, etc., etc..


Picture credit to Unshelved & uploaded by milt

Trends And Tendencies for the 2008

Is customary at the beginnig of each new year to make wishes, perdictions and promises. In Education and Technology, first of all we want you to have a prosperous New Year and that all your wishes come through.

In this blog you will find more content filtered and sumarized in some cases of the tendencies in technology and of course our core knowledge, education. You can, beging this year follow or subscribe to our Shared Items in Google Reader. We've updated the way you can subscribe to this page. Now you're going to be able to get notifications by email, Skype, AOL Messenger and Twitter, thanks to the good guys at FeedBlitz(Pinch the blue email icon at the top right corner).

We are not changing gears but this year you're going to be able to advertise in Education and Technology, on any of our other blogs, websites and Squidoo lenses. Not that were trying to get rich but we will try to bring up the number of visit per day, RSS subscribers, Technorati and Alexa ranks.

TonNet will pay more attention to the uniportant bloggers, some of them might become stars and examples I do have more than one. I will stick to the quality of contents, that's all. More attention will be paid to the edition of our posts, as others bloggers think, the ones where I thought about the post for minutes or maybe hours turned out to be great. The ones I banged out really fast without thinking too much, were not good at all.

I emulate what Scoble has written in his 'What I've learned in the 2007' particularly points 10 & 11: "The one who has the most friends on Facebook, Twitter, Upcoming, Yelp, Plaxo, Flickr, etc does NOT win the game. But, the one who FOLLOWS the most people on each of those DOES have a better life! When people were courting me to join them invariably they’d pitch me with 'do you want to make a lot of money?' I always hesitated on that question. Why? I know lots of miserable wealthy people. The right question? 'Do you want to have a ton of incredible experiences and great friends?' Now THAT I can say yes to, and do often."

I want to thank all of you dear readers, visitors, subscribers and bloggers. Without YOU, this blog won't exist and TonNet won't pursue his happiness. Let's hope economy gets better in the States and the prognosis made at Searchblog become 99% certainly true. And that before all birds fly away, Blogger works hard to bring up its positioning from the 9th to the first level.

In the meantime, have you all a great day and a Happy New Year!

Joost: Best SEO Plugin for Wordpress

I am really inspired by what geeks did this weekend in the San Francisco Foodbank and brought my attention specially what Scoble ended up writing in the bottom of his post:"it’s the kind of testimony that reminds us that some people don’t just have jobs, they have callings."

Based on this concept and being a reader of Joost's SEO Blog. I want to support his job in The Best Search Blogs of 2007. I am not a Wordpress user yet but I really enjoy reading the advice Joost had offered in his blog during these two last years. He's a young and talented Dutch SEO and a Webdeveloper. He wrote a Meta Meta Worpress plugin during this year and now he's being nominated as The Best SEO plugin for WordPress.

So, if you still have questions about the SEO concepts and want to keep Joost de Valk working for his field and our interest, please head up to Search Engine Journal and follow the instruction to vote for our dear blogger.

Go straight to the votes page and look out for the category No. 4 (Best SEO Plugin for Wordpress : Run a Wordpress Blog? Which of these plugins do you feel is the most important for SEO purposes?) and pinch the number 5 in front the top first nominee: Vote Now!

Hope great results and the best for our fellow Dutch blogger: Joost de Valk

Cheers in the 2008! Welcome Gen Y.

When Talking About Google, Size Really Matters

I am a old subscriber of this blog in Spanish and today the author came whith a interesting idea about Google. He's Jaime Roca and I had to translate his original post titled: Google. El El tamaño sí importa.

Reading Eduardo Collado, crossed my eyes his post in which he explains his decision to switch to Windows Live, when times come to "search". The truth is that Google is accumulating power at very high speed.

This growth and accumulation of power does not conform to the typical pattern of growth in a conventional market economy . To begin with, we are talking about an economy based on the attention, who gives the revenue to Google is not the one who uses the service. In a conventional market economy, there are some conventional natural limits to the accumulation of power, that comes from the market capture. The natural but well-known limit is the geographic distance. Another important natural limit is the relation price - spending power of that one who acquires the service. But ... as well as we cannot use the best restaurant if it is more than a reasonable distance, we can use the best finder, wherever it is, so the first limit is neutralized. Secondly, who uses the service, he does not need spending power, he acquires it because of its attention, that is becoming a change currency. When these limits do not exist, the rules that govern economic [un]balance, have changed. And in the new scenario, other risks, other fears fit and demands another criterion of regulation (or contemplation).

I think that in the short term, all this begins to be debate subject, but in the medium and long run, it's a very serious problerm, as the economy is getting divided. Alvin Toffler already warned in its Power Shift, that the new Capitalism, which is based more on knowledge possession than money possession, it was going to be (or could get to be) much more wild that the previous one.

But in the attention's economy, based on digital goods and services, occurs another characteristic: the capital possession, the intellectual capital - knowledge- by an economic agent, does not imply necessarily the dispossession by another agent. This, and the lessons that are come off the evolution of the models based on, for example, Microsoft on the one hand and in the Open Source on the other, I believe that they will light some clues on acting in the generation, management, possession and property of those huge repositorios of knowledge that are the search engines.

It is also possible that there is another problem - I guess - and is that all this requires an implemented legal frame from politics and, we already know that the politics are incapable to take the pulse (rationally speaking) in real time.

Glad you've reached this point.

Why the so popular Scoble isn't getting comments on his blog as before

These statements were placed by Scoble himself and I would like to reproduce without his permission:
1. I seriously am not doing as good a quality of blogging. My best creativity is spent doing video nowadays.

2. Twitter. Twitter is where we comment now. Lots of my friends have noticed that we don’t comment on blogs anymore we just go to Twitter.

3. Commodification. I’m reading 903 feeds every night. In the past week that’s more than 15,000 items!!! There’s so much more great content out now than in the past that it’s spreading the audience out and people have less time to chat on a specific blog.

4. I’m posting less. If you don’t post a lot you don’t build a community and people get distracted.

Today he's being posting about a new video service and includes two videos where he explains the reverse engeering of TechMeme, which thanks to one of his commentors, Allen Stern these videos can be sum up in six points(TM = TechMeme):
1. Gabe puts a weight on every blog - this is why TC and ENG will always be in the top 2 slots, it’s designed this way.

2. Those with a higher weight can get on TM without links.

3. Stories outside the native area for a blog may not hit TM with as much force as within the native area.

4. More weight on a blog pushes out the other smaller blog by default.

5. Some of the large blogs rarely link out to other blogs discussing the story because doing so might move them to related instead of the lead - by leaving out the other blogger links, it allows the larger blog to push the smaller blog out, even if they are later to the story, and therefore get the “TM Credit” - you didn’t mention this but I believe this is a HUGE part of the gaming.

6. You also fail to mention network sites and how they can game TM easily as TM considers them separate sites.

I am not reading TechMeme with such a frecuency but it really deserves our atention since they present the most hotter topics in technology.

How economic class can affect children’s education

I've been reading Catherine Gewertz' post in Education Week and reminds of my Doctoral thesis I'd written a few years ago precisely about the impact of the family income in the learning process. The conclusions were almost the same but the difference is that our study was conducted in our mother country and now this study has been made in the United States.

The study conducted by Joshua S. Wyner, John M. Br idgeland & John J. Di Iulio, Jr. under the title of Achieventrap (pdf) analyses data of 3.4 million k-12 children in American schools. They've found that children who come from households with incomes below the national median had score in the top quartile on nationally normed tests. They start school with weaker academic skills and are less likely to flourish over the years in school than their peers from better income families.

Civic Enterprises LLC, a Washington-based research and public-policy group, and the Lansdowne, Va.-based Jack Kent Cooke Foundation establishes that higher-achieving children from lower-income families enter school with a disadvantage that shows up in their national test scores. More than 70 percent of 1st graders who score in the top quartile are from higher-income families, and fewer than three in 10 are from lower-income families.

In the ensuing years Catherine writes, the higher-achieving lower-income children are more likely to lose ground, 44 percent fall out of the top quartile in reading between the 1st and 5th grades, compared with 31 percent of high achievers whose family income is above the national median ($48,200 in 2006). They are also more likely to drop out of high school or not graduate on time than those from economically better economically positioned families. The difference persists through college and graduate school, with lower-income students less likely to attend the most selective colleges or to graduate.

However, the report does offer some optimistic notes. "Of the higher-achieving students, it says, 93 percent of those from lower-income families, and 97 percent of those from higher-income families, graduate from high school in four years. Those rates are much better than the 70 percent of all students on average that researchers estimate get their diplomas on time. But the data still show too many 'unrelenting inequities' that harm the prospects of capable children from lower-income families."

They -the authors, even say that Asian students perform better than Africa-American kids (not mention of Hispanic students) but Hewertz brings into discussion to Michelle M. Fine, a professor of social psychology and urban education at the City University of New York who says: "Something is clearly working for those lower-income Asian kids that isn’t working for the lower-income black kids".

Get Your iPhone Work ing On T-Mobile Networks

This week I was talking with a friend of mine about his iPhone. He was very disapointed with the very first bill he just received, the deal was closed and the clerk told him that the increase in his bill will be only 40 dollars but he was reading a large bill that overpassed the 700 hundreds! Why the iPhone has to be so expensive and so closed?

Europa has already mastered a way to get the iPhone working in their networks, copying information from the Subscriber Identity Module, a small card with a chip that identifies a subscriber to the cell-phone network. Being this expensive gadget available only in the US for now it's quite useful to have George Hotz from NJ, to get your iPhone unlocked an working with the only carrier which is compatible with, T-Mobile. This young teen outlines 10 steps to unlock the iPhone but you better be careful it is not that easy and you screw it up then your phone will become a piece of junk. The hack is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software, and missteps may result in the iPhone becoming useless, so it's unlikely to become a household procedure.

Once again do not intent to unlock it by yourself, Hotz had four more guys for helpers, two of them from Rusia. He didn't waste his summer, as some of his friends have been saying. The following promise to be a easier way to unlock this phone trhought software implementation.


Open Search: Jimmy Wales Says!

Hey, we all love the concept of open source. It excites us. Despite the fact that the vast majority of computer users rely on creations born of a proprietary nature for most. In an ideal world, everything should be “open”. I’m sure you’d agree. If not. please make me eat my words.

From Ubuntu to Wikipedia. I am sure you all are familiar with these names. The brainchild of Jimmy Wales has grow prominently and is one of the most widespread online sources. He also has wikia for business porpouse and lately has being said he's bought LookSmart. Why? Because he's thinking of a Open Search Machine, a new search engine that focuses on quality results, rather than complete and total crawling. "Search is part of the fundamental structure of the Internet and should be transparent and open." says Wales.
According to Reuters, "The new Wikia search service will combine computer-driven algorithms and human-assisted editing when the company launches a public version of the search site toward the end of 2007".

However, according to search analyst Greg Sterling, he has doubts about how successful the venture can be. For Wikia’s open-source search engine to work, he said, the quality of search results will have to stand out. Previous open-source efforts, such as the Linux operating system, have worked and have managed to threaten proprietary technologies such as Microsoft’s Windows. But the situation with Google and an upstart like is not quite the same, Mr. Sterling said.

As for ourselves, we still have confidence in the open source. I will be a prominent user of this new project at the end of this year when it's planned to be launched.

Sex is Not the Same as Love. What Do you Think?

Wanting To See Vaginas Is A Crime,Your Honor, Am Guilty!

But please do not do it in your job place or even near to your office. Follow through. See also these statistics.

Network Proximity to Everything is Miscellaneous

You and I pretty much know how important is to get into networks nowadays. The contacts you have will determine the level of success you get and while more connected you are the most chances you have. Explanation no necesary if you take as example what's going with Twitter, MyBlogLog, Explode, Spicy or Virb.

Today elearnspace starts talking about the learning side of social software. However, the study presented by Ideant shows deeply understanding of networking as it's a transitioning process from being merely a way to describe social realities to serving as a model for organizing them.

Others like Webblogg-ed are interested in new books about the new Theory of Digital Disorder, Will makes a good introduction of Everything is Miscellaneous written by David Weinberger.

Teacher Magazine will be read online only. I was expecting to go there and try to understand bette the concept explained through a meme: Differentiation.

Ahh... Do not forget to check out the The Best of the Blogs brought by Alexander Russo.

Looking for more geek blogs?

Not too late. Check out the elaborated list in Computerworld. It doesn't show our blog but you will see many of those we read almost daily.

And if you like gadgetry, head up to abhatnagar. See what he's saying about the Google phone buzz. He's an expert in the cell phones field.

And if you like this blog design, do not hesitate to pay Ramani a visit. Now you can get NEO for Free! Kudos Ramani!

Did you hear that... new profile change of one of the most respected guys in the tech world, Guy Kawasaki?

I know you will be asking what is this all about, 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b -d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0. Well, keep reading to learn about this censorship.

Why do you need an online identity?

Paul Stamatiou has written a excellent post about the answer to this matter.  I can't do more than certify that Paul's exposicion is correct and certanly true.   More and more people is getting online and when they need to find something, in this case YOU, your person or your name, the very first thing that comes to their mind is to google it to see what it comes.  Google does  its searching and voilá, there you go.  Zero results or myriad of information about yourself.


In other ocasions we had discussed the oportunities for people who are looking for  moving up in the labor stairs, we had also linked to articles about the cons of having an online identity. However, our own experience tell us that it's a good thing to have your own website, especially whether the domain is your name or if you at least can have your blog where on a daily basis publish and let the internauts know about your interests and opinions.


There you go then, keep it up!


 

Academic Work Without Google

This comes from a personal experience dealing with written articles on the Web . Nobody asks for help anymore.  Kids don't think they need help when they've got Google or Wikipedia. Their searches are over.

Diana Day  on Getting kids off Google.

"It worked like a charm. Suddenly, students were asking for help. (Of course, they also asked why they couldn't simply use Google.) But the teacher and I held on, demonstrated advanced search techniques and helped the students improve the precision of their keywords. When they located articles, we helped them skim the material and judge whether the information was appropriate for the assignment. A-ha! Research skills, taught in context. What a concept."

"Now, I'm not saying the kids loved being limited to an online database with an unfamiliar -- and sometimes wonky -- search interface.  But I am saying that the experience forced them to become more strategic searchers." (underlined is ours)

Relevant Linking Are Not the Same as Link Baiting

Sure. You'd be noticed more than once our spell check problems but when it comes from a college academic level then you should start to think what's going on around here.

So, what about relevant linking. Eric Enge from Search Engine Watch has a very compelling post about why is so important not only point to relevant links in order to compete on search terms that you want to rank for, but focus on getting solid, high quality links to your site(how hard is that!). If you still want to keep the game of link baiting, please make sure that your link baiting scheme will bring you good relevant links. As Eric posted "think of it as building a serious business by offering something of value that tons of people are going to want to link to". Amen.

Yahoo has been buzzed lately because of its pipes. I know you are aware of it. However, Hackosphere being busy as he is now had come with a very useful tweak for our Blogger templates fans, it is the Feed Corrector: Yahoo Pipes based. Still in progress, though.

Yesterday, our fellow blogger Ilker Yoldas was calling all bloggers to participate about her blog usability concerns and got plenty of answers. She had pay attention to her visitors and now you will see a different thinker blog, included a huge RSS icon that I wasn't authorized to steal it because she said openly and frankly: No, you can't steal anything. They are mine!. May be you might want to try it at your own risk!

Update:
In an interesting interview S. Rubel said: Don't be concerned with the rankings, stay focused on publishing relevant content.

Steve Jobs speaking about his products but not computers

I've following what is said in SF and what it looks a little bit surprising is that this time Mr Jobs did'n speak about computers but his long waited iPhone. He also explain ed why the company was switching names from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple, Inc.

W. Richardson explains why we should keep an eye on a social bookmarking tool that works more eficiently tha Delicious, even though it is a bit slower. You can grab a portion of any page and post it to your or even publish your bookmarks right there in you personal blog. We are talking about Diigo. Give it a try!

E-learning is a concept wide proposed nowadays, that's why is so important to publish a blog in three different language, not simultaneously but every other post. Look out E-learning, conocimiento en red y web2.0. Thanks to BizDeansTalk.

Just in case you've forgotten it pays to give you a remainder: Be a Blogger. But for any reason just blog without following at least a few minor Code of Ethics.

Tired of being searching through Google, Yahoo and all other big search engines? Well, no more. Check out a real search helper according to LibraryClips. This new Beta search engine is called ChaCha (Not, no the song!).

Search 2.0. What does it mean?

No se puede desconocer que la búsqueda de información de hace un lustro no es la misma de hoy en día. Sin embargo de estar todos familiarizados con Google principalmnete, Yahoo, ASk y Live; existe un gran trecho por recorrer y para optimizar nuestras búsquedas, los algoritmos que existen no son suficientes para encontrar esa minas de oro que se encuentran tan dispersas. Eso hace precisamente que surjan día a día nuevos soniadores y miren la posibilidad de tumbarle el negocio a Google. Eso sin considerar que esos buscadores o indexadores no hacen absolutamente nada por medir y monitorear a los lectores que nos leen mediante feeds y que no necesariamente deben entrar a nuestras páginas.

El interesante reporte está en Readwriteweb y a parte de mostrarnos un listado de los buscadores mas relevantes (fuera de los ya conocidos) presenta sus conclusiones y hay que leer los comentarios que se han de seguir monitoreando para el efecto. Según el autor la apertura de los API's y the citizen developers serán las mas grandes dificultades a los que tendrá que enfrentarse Google no solo con Microsoft, Yahoo and Ask sino con esos ambiciosos startups que frecuentemente aparecen.

Concomitantemente a ésto y gracias a la prueba diaria de nuevas aplicaciones por parte de la comunidad online (léase blogs) el parecimiento de aplicaciones, nuevas plataformas y mayormente sin son de caracter abierto (Open Source) es de esperarse entonces un despegue y desarrollo de el concepto 2.0 muy de moda por cierto pero aplicado a la búsqueda inteligente de información.

Conste que en los párarfos anteriores ni hemos mencionado en aporte de los bloggeros con conocimiento en disenio y codificación, tampoco con aquellos que dan rienda suelta a su imaginación y que gustan sino de desarrollar de recoger los hacks para la feliz construcción del conocimiento mediante blogs; como tampoco hemos mencionado siquiera del poderosísimo paradigma so called: socialnetworking.