education & tech

Mike anticipated this document before I have. He not only cited to the Downes's Speech in Spain (Internet in the Classroom), but has also translated part of his speech. Job we were pending with gabinetedeinformatica.net However, to fill Fernando Santamaría's expectations, here we present our work based on Esperanza Román's blog [es], she writes:


I agree with all those who praise Downes' figure, because of his genuine and indisputable commitment to the education world (although some prefer to concentrate solely on the most folkloric of his so evocative edupunk speech, also too eduhippie atrezzo and his digital shop much edupop ). Also, like Diego [es] said, I don't think Downes simply took neither a good nor a bad impression of the audience by the questions that were done to him. Nor do I believe that Downes is aware of how strange some of his answers sounded, in interpreter's mouth (I haven't had time able to hear the original audio) or how difficult it can be for many teachers and professionals to follow his advice on how to steal time to the clock.

That is why I applaud from here that we talk and write about what it's been really thought of the affirmations, both, of Downes(certainly not to radical at this time) and any other person of the stature of this educator. As many have said, some of the ideas presented by Downes are anything but innovation (which does not mean that they are not valid). Others may be debatable and others, improved after some restatement. But the most important ideas, in my personal opinion, are:

- Think about all of them.
- Look for the applicability it has in our immediate surroundings.
- Try to answer all by ourselves, those questions that provoked certain strange in Downes, like the assuption that in the conference room where he pronounced his speech, there weren't more laptops among the audience.
- Recognize with no shame that our standard of "connectivity" is lower than the U.S. but even so, we have many ideas on how we work and collaborate in the web, even facing immense technological limitations from our countries in general and our work environments in particular.
- Follow up the conversations, so that all the voices are listened, not only those in agreement with the majority or with the state-of-the-art fashions.

These are the reasons why I've committed, voluntarily and in a altruistic way, to the Conectivistas [es] group (Connectivism). We sincerely believe that the most appropriate way of advancing knowledge in this field is collaboration and dialogue among people interested in improving education, maximize technology, analyse the influence it has on society and, commit to these benefits, so they can be enjoyed by all sectors of the population.

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We've already posted on Edublogs but, this weekend while we set aside some time to read our subscriptions, we've found Edublogs joins in to the big leagues in provinding video hosting (TeacherTube, YouTube, Blip.tv). This is really useful beacuse teachers need their very own channel.

The next screenshot, shows the progress of Edublogs.tv from Wednesday night to Saturday after noon:

The ideant of 'transforming teaching, learning and leadership through the strategic application of technology", Miguel Guhlin shares his experiences using the brand new service and he still looks for some answers: a) How many video/audio files can be stored in an account? How much space? I'm looking for a replacement for Podomatic.com, on which I'm about to reach the 500 meg limit for my podcasts; b) When will Creative Commons integration -great question Derekeb tweeted- be added to this? c)Can we change "My Music" to "My Podcasts?" d) Could you make the description box a bit bigger? It would be nice to paste in URLs to the text that goes with it; e) Is it possible to embed images in the podcast description? and, f) How about adding recently uploaded audio/podcasts to the front page, in addition to the list of videos there?

James Farmer was paying attention to Edublogs.tv buzz and he already aswered some of Mike questions in a comment posted in Around the Corner, administrated by Guhlin.

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This video is about Wesch's Web 2.0 wisdom presented at the University of Manitoba on June 17th. 'It is all about media literacy and how he engages his students at Kansas State University. This 66 minute video is well worth the time in order to get a glimpse of how he tries to make students knowledge-able' says Stephen Downes

During his presentation, Michael Wesch, an cultural anthropologist, explains his attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future.

'It’s basically an ongoing experiment to create a portal for me and my students to work online,' he's explained. “We tried every social media application you can think of. Some worked, some didn’t.”

If you are not yet familiar with professor Wesch work, consider subscribing to his YouTube channel.

Update:

Jack Chorowski also says, 'Web 2.0 shows that everyone is better than anyone; a large group working together can create information rivaling the content of experts.'

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These series of videos as usnews.com has promised to publish, are part of their America's Best High Schools and of this list had sent them in, to probe them wrong!.

Watch the video and tell us what you think by dropping your comments.



Gold Medal & Blue Ribbon Schools.

Heavy Sounds and The Abstract Truth, guides me to an interview of Junot Diaz who's been awarded as first place in the Pulitzer Fiction category. His book, for now in English only, will available in Spanish to the ending of this year. The author recognizes have been raised in NJ, in a poor latino neihgborhood and that The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was inspired on her mom. Even though, he's a professor right now and many Dominicans living around tri- state area are very much happy.

Our congratulations to all latino residents in the U.S. and particularly two fellow bloggers: Planeta Atavex [es] and B@b@ [es].

Technorati: pulitzer, dominican, junot+diaz

Video produced and distributed by UTPL under MIRADAS

This is the story of a foreigner in Loja, who discovered that growing older not necessarily means being invisible to the opposite sex.

She went to a party where, for the first time, she received not a glimmer of attention from any man there. She was happily married by then, but still, she remembers how stunned she felt to go unnoticed. Suddenly, she was out the game. After years, she confess, she loves male attention as much as ever.

This was an experience in Loja's (not far from Vilcabamba) not much crowded immigration office. Holding her ticket, she sat for about one hour, resigned to a long wait. A young man, half her age had completed her paperwork and asked her if she was married or single. She said 'single' and watched as he checked the box marked 'divorciada'. Wait. "Actually, I am a widow" she pointed out.

"Oh, seniora", he said, "I am so very sorry. Please accept my profound apology. I have made the most egregious error". Now here he was, spotting her in the back of the room and waving me up to his window. The bunch of visa-seeking gringos parted, then, she floated by, to be received by a courteous Ecuadoran male who took his time explaining the final steps in the visa renewal process. She will be able to come back into two weeks to pick up the visa, he concluded. "Until then", he said, taking her hand in his and cocking his head ever so slightly. "que le vaya muy bien, seniora".

This expression in Spanish means, "I hope that all goes well for you" and it's a standard good-bye in Loja and Ecuador. To the 70 and something old American woman, it feels like a resurrection from the dead. It hasn't been too long ago that she waited in a store in the States and her testimony goes about a middle-aged, balding clerk, who helped a 20-something, long haired blonded pick out a flat TV screen. The clerk was all charm with all information on every set in sight. When she finally got her turn, the employee barely made eye contact and offered minimal data on only the sets I asked about. Of course, she didn't buy a TV and walk out feeling upset and humiliated.

In Loja and the little town of Vilcabamba, She is born again into a world of easy-smiling men who give her a two handed hello or a peck on the check and people who always take the time to chat. Part of all this is custom; regardless of their sex, people stop and exchange pleasantries. A typical "hi, How are you?" flyby is a bad form for Ecuadorean culture; you learn at least to stand still and wait for an answer.

What you can experience down South Ecuador is more than good manners. Men you don't even know smile openly at you, make eye contact and say, "Buenos dias." Occasionally, they will give you a sly up-and-down glance as you pass on the street. The top video, at the beginning shows you the point of view of people living in Vilcabamba and this story reflects how nice and polite Vilcabamba residents are and continue to be.

The other day in Vilcabamba, the man behind the counter at a small hardware store felt free to place some extra gaskets on the hand of the history's woman and declare, "No charge , seniora. I ask only that you return soon to look at me again with your beautiful and rare green eyes around here". She had to laugh at this nonsense.

Remember, if you happen to come to Ecuador, go Loja and ask to be driven to Vilcabamba, you won't see only ancient people but surely you will feel younger as ever!

This post was inspired on the video shown up here and in Remember Sweet Things by Ellen Greene.

Technorati: vilcabamba, loja, ecuador, latin+america

Downes begins the thread quoting and getting his opinion on a post written by Joanne Jacobs and it has to be with a legal issue aroused in California, whether it is or enough to have a kid homeschooled. Downes has said it all depends on the parents' credentials to 'train' these kids in David Friedman's understanding but 'indoctrination' in the Jacobs conception. Many of his readers had get him in hot waters because it seems they misinterpret what he had said in this post and which is answered in the video we add at the bottom.

The problem is the conception we are having for education, instruction and maybe training. Are our kids getting trained or instructed, not matter what the law says. it all depends what we as educators understand as our main goal when we have kids in the classroom trying to pay attention to all what we have to say or in this particular case their parents. If what we conceive is training then parents can do that job, let them to the professionals but if it's instruction, parents are qualified to do that but of course, this is where we agree with Downes position, if those same kids are going to get involved in the 'official' system, then their parents will need to be credited to do that job. Period.

Technorati: education, downes, california, homeschooling, indoctrination

Set aside 6"32' to watch the video. Maybe Governor Bill Richardson wasn't wrong at all endorsing Obama.

The following is a translation from a blog post of Borja Ventura and we've decided to include it in our blog because this is a evaluation of the students time not elaborated by an insider but an Spaniard

Aside from the erroneous perception of Europe on the American policy, there are other major differences between this portion of the pond and the other (no, I won't speak about the use of weapons, or of patriotism or other things known). One is certainly education, so battered and discussed in our country. And to sample this button.

This is the time's distribution of the time American students:

They sleep 7 hours per day
Watch television an hour and a half a day.
They are on the Internet three and a half hours a day.
Listen to music two and a half hours a day.
They talk for two hours a day through cellphones.
Three hours a day in class.
Three other dedicated to the study.
Use two hours to eat.
They work on average two hours per day.

Altogether, 26 and a half hours because there are things they do at the same time other stuff. They are part of the findings of this video, created by Michael Wesch in cooperation with 200 students from Kansas State University. In principle it does not seem so different customs huh? Now, look what's happening in their classes and how they run.

Technorati: dotsub, education, video, Kansas, KSU

One of the things I hate about politics is that in this arena everything is acceptable. Today I saw a magazine where the subtitle said 'How Hillary will win' this democratic nomination and immediately it pointed it out, is better to ask 'How Hillary lose' the nomination?. All media is talking about how all the political machinery of the Clinton's has failed, many reports even say the same advisers are not happy about themselves because they don't know (they weren't prepared) to fight the Obama phenomenon. Just today is circulating a picture that nobody knows how come it hit the net, surprisingly now the Hillary feels behind even in Texas where Hispanics that regularly were loyal to Clinton are jumping ship according to an interview to a member of Davila's family over the south of Texas, he had pictures showing in his terms, that one third were white, the other third Hispanic and the remaining black. In Ohio, workers need answers and they think the Clintons already had their opportunity and now it's time for a change, no more outsourcing jobs from Ohio manufacturing plants.

CBS and the NYT poll found Obama ahead of Hillary nationally, 16-points ahead. Now they want to stop Obama telling Americans that cultural heritage is bad. Everyone already knows the spiritual origins of Obama ancestors, Muslim. So, what is wrong about to wear something is part of their spirituality and culture. What American living in another country can be diminished just because he/she likes to celebrate Thanksgiving in the very American way?

Why they don't show and comment about The Clinton Chronicles? I want to save your time, just click the video and make your very own conclusions.

Technorati: obama, clinton, video, politics, primaries+elections

High quality teaching really matters. Education Week brings the last week Report and says: "Although student achievement is linked to good teachers, there is no system for attracting, training, and supporting the best people for the job."
Hem...

This short video has 150, 413 views at this point and 971 comments. Obama is really good at this. Will he be as President?


More on Barack Obama at [http://elisanders.net/blog/]

This is the speech Steve Jobs had to present in the Standford Graduation Ceremony '07. Pay attention to the histories he's being sharing with MB's rockies. The video is a bit old but I've just discovered and I think it deserves to be watched once again.





Unfortunatelly, this is a priveledge, Megan Meier won't have thanks to the issues with cyberbulling at some schools in North America.

I just got the report for the first marking period and after checking out percentages of my son I came to the conclusion that being a 10 years old kid, he's in charge of what he wants to learn. I know, many of you might be saying: yeah alright! Of course as David Warlick points out, our kids now are using the internet in a very different way that we were familiar 5-10 years ago:

Today, however, our children seem to be spending more time interacting in their social networks, and, in my opinion, discovering and even inventing new ways to learn through those interactions. But we don’t understand this.

However, the older generation still thinks of resourceful and ruthless process of learning. What about those kids without the computers, do they have to fall behind in knowledge just because the lack of skill and resources when other people don't even know what to do with their computers? We do have to rely on internet and our kids socialnetworking skills but please do not forget about those families without internet access or even those poor kids worldwide.

The following is an old video but D. Warlick wants to refresh our memory with a Vision of Students Today.



Thanks Mr. Warlick.

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.

As I watched the video went to Yahoo for seeing the new features and what I've found is the "n" and "c" but not the "t" for text messages! Anyone can explain that?


Thanks to Digital Inspiration