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Another one of those 'impact of technology on teaching' studies is released as the research agencies line up to be included in 'back to school' specials in newspapers and magazines. This one reveals by now familiar trends: "Computer technology has changed teaching 'a great deal.' (but) Teachers increasingly cite computers as effective teaching tools, but just over half integrate computers into daily curriculum." Via EdNA. [ From OLDaily on September 2, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..

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Report based on 'Speak-Up Day for Students' held in late 2004, an event where students were asked to describe their (ideal) use of technology, and Visions 2020, a polling of some futurists on what they expected to see. A profile emerges. "Every student would use a small, handheld wireless computer that is voice activated. The computer would offer high-speed access to a kid-friendly Internet, populated with websites that are safe, designed specifically for use by students, with no pop-up ads... In completing their schoolwork, students would work closely and routinely with an intellige From OLDaily on September 2, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..

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This is a pretty good example, it seems to me, of how to use games productively in learning. Instead of trying to create a game specifically designed to teach math, a teacher has adapted an existing game - fantasy football - to draw out those elements that foster the learning of math. The idea here is that the foundational knowledge is not taught on its own, and in the abstract, but rather, that it emerges through the process of attempting to succeed at some other (more interesting and relevant) activity, in this case, fantasy football. [ From OLDaily on September 2, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..

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Description of the development and deployment of s number of e-learning titles by the Azim Premji Foundation along with a summary of a study. "The findings of this research carried out over a twelve-month period by the Spastic Society of Karnataka,showed that there were improvements in social intelligence, social behavior, communication and motivation in most children. This finding is echoed across the other research findings. Moreover, these aspects are also reinforced with anecdotal evidences that one comes across on visits to these schools." Thanks to Roger Casselman for the link. [ From OLDaily on September 2, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..

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Good list of important trends, including open source business, complexity, social networking and the wisdom of crowds. This is also a pretty good list of important trends in e-learning, and regular readers will have noted that i return to these themes again and again, trying to tease them out and explain what they mean. [ From OLDaily on September 2, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..

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Leigh Blackall has a happy discovery while giving a presentation at TAFE NSW Illawarra. "I came across the usual things that make TAFE a bit of a joke... access denials, not being set up to play MPEG4 movies, and other stuff I can't really recall just now, but then the joke turned on me! It was when I was up to the bit about wikis - using wikipedia, wikiversity, and the South African Curriculum wiki as examples. I thought I'd be smart and type in 'TAFE NSW' as a search in wikipedia. Cocky as always I pre-empted the results expecting a no show for my search when BAM! There i From OLDaily on September 2, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..

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Welcome to the weekly readers, who have missed out on the great move to the new system. Today I flex it a bit, beginning with this page, which lists the most popular ten links from the last week. You'll also see the beginnings of my rating system, not fully operational (use the 'Back' button after you vote) but generally functional. Also, if you mouse over the author's name and the publication, you'll notice that they, too, are links to pages featuring links from those respective sources. This is still just the beginning of the new functionality - what we went through From OLDaily on September 2, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..

Seb Joins Socialtext (Ross Mayfield)
I'm completely stoked to share the news that longtime M2M contributor Seb Paquet has joined Socialtext. I've wanted to bring him on board since we started the company and was pleasantly suprised to find us at the top of... From Corante: Social Software on September 2, 2005 at 7:45 p.m..

New Orleans
There's obviously no sense in trying to capture in words what's happening in New Orleans right now. As someone said yesterday, "this is our tsunami." The death toll may not rise as high, but the devastation and the scars that will be left make the comparison understandable. Not to minimize what happened four years ago, but this even seems more poignant somehow. The faces of the "refugees," the children, the hopelessness. The Trade Center bombing happened in an instant, and it&apo From weblogged News on September 2, 2005 at 4:46 p.m..

The Thin Brown Line
Sorry, but it is about race. The New Orleans neighborhoods in which black people live were always more likely to be flooded; those who "refused" to leave town were the ones who had no cars or money to get out; those doing the looting were - originally - those told to gather in spots like the Convention Center but left with no food or water; people used to depending on authorities for direction and care begged for someone to show up with a bullhorn and tell them what to do; those doing the shooting are mostly drug addicts in the insantiy of withdrawal, for whom rehab has been replaced by From rushkoff.blog on September 2, 2005 at 4:45 p.m..

Mayor of News Orlean interview
EthanZ says this radio interview with the mayor of News Orleans is "extraordinary." I haven't heard it — I'm sitting in the audience at the Ars Electronica conference — but I trust Ethan when he blogs: He's extremely critical of the disaster response thus far, and offers a number of details that aren't being widely discussed about the situation in Louisiana. It's worth your time to listen to it [Technorati tags: katrina EthanZuckerman]... From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 1:48 p.m..

Showcasing New Technologies
So, if you had an hour in front of your full faculty to do a show and tell of some cool sites/tools out there, what would you show? We have a staff in-service on September 23, and I've got that hour. I'm thinking: Google Earth Wikipedia Bloglines/RSS What else??? The nominations are open! From weblogged News on September 2, 2005 at 1:47 p.m..

[ars electronica] Donatella Della Ratta
Donatella Della Ratta examines the "war of civilizations" assumed by Western media by looking at Arab media. During the first Fulf War, there were no local Arab media, so the region relied on CNN. Now there are local media. Because of their ownership, it's hard to tell the difference between private and public; in this, it's not all that different from Western media, she says. Three major networks absorb most of the advertising dollars from smaller nations; they are Saudi Arabian (the Lebanese one is headquartered there) and entertainment-focused. What's on these three networks? From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 12:48 p.m..

[ars electronica] Carlo Formenti
[via translator] Carlo, with whom I had dinner last night (along with Roger Clarke) talks about the links between the Internet and democracy. Democracy, he says, is a compromise that's worked for a long time. The Internet can be seen as a new platform that could strengthen democracy or as a new social sphere that's integrated with political and economic reality. [I'm not trusting that the translator is getting this exactly right.] So, what new political forms can we choose? Do we have to assume a class conflict? Manuel Castells says ____[missed it!]. Richard Florida says there i From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 12:48 p.m..

[ars electronica] Neil Gershenfeld
Neil Gershenfeld of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms talked (via video) about Internet 0, but my laptop was up on the podium, so I couldn't take notes. Internet 0 is a lightweight P2P network that enables objects (light bulbs, appliances...anything electrical) to communicate with one another within subnets. From a PC Magazine article: By storing essential IP data at each node (say, a light switch), along with rules for updating the data, the house doesn't need to route messages through servers. So as you plug in lights and appliances, you're building a giant distributed-data From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 11:45 a.m..

[ars electronica] Vincenzo Susca
Vincenzo Susca, whom I met during my fantastic weekend with Derrick's grad class in Capri, is in Toronto for the year. He talks about the current technological change in political and power terms. There is a power in the Net, he says, that transcends traditional political structures.Our present culture is like Frankenstein's monster: It transcends and exceeds its creator's intention. What type of power does that entail? He introduces a new term: Communocracy. He means both physical and virtual communities. [Sorry for the crappy blogging of this interesting talk.] [Technorati tag From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 11:45 a.m..

[ars electronica] Aminata Traoré
[via translator] Aminata Traor&ampeacute; of Mali begins by saying that she's representing the African perspective. There's been no genuine hybridzation in Africa, she says. Rather, there's been a cultural polarization. Poor countries are getting poorer. "We are left alone with our fear and our loneliness, and you are left alone with yours." We don't believe in globalization, she says. To us this is nothing but Westernization. The West wants to be the center of the world. [Maybe we should retitle Friedman's The World Is Flat as The Sun Revolves around the Earth.] Globa From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 11:45 a.m..

[ars electronica] Wen-Jean Hsueh
Wen-Jean Hsueh is Director of the Creativity Lab in Taiwan. Her theme: How do we use the untouched power of creativity within us? There is, she says, a single Chinese word that means both danger and opportunity. Taiwan found a "creativity gap." The engineers and scientists need to be more creative. They're not in touch with users and customers. The Lab brings together snthropolgoists, writers, architects, and animators. When the Lab was set up, within the mega-complex of the Technology Institute, they painted their doors different colors with interesting calligraphy to announce that thing From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 7:48 a.m..

[ars electronica] Roger Clarke
Roger Clarke is the lead-off speaker. He's an Australian IT guy who's been thinking about digital personas for a long time. (From his home page: "I'm a consultant specialising in eBusiness, information infrastructure, and data surveillance and information privacy.") His theme is that "artefacts are already infilitrating the human. E.g., prostheses (external, exo-, endo-). He presents a survey of the field. e.g., there's Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who runs the 200m in 22 seconds using two prostheses and spring-steel feet. And the "three-armed" artist Stelarc. And coch From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 6:48 a.m..

Day-After Pill Exposes FDA Rift
Although scientists have determined that the so-called morning-after pill is safe enough to be sold without prescription, the head of the Food and Drug Administration overrules them, prompting the women's health chief to resign. From Wired News on September 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..

Craigslist Versus Katrina
In hurricane-relief efforts, the net is proving to be much more than a communications network. By Keith Axline. From Wired News on September 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..

Hulk Smash Game!
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction avoids most of the pitfalls of licensed games, but some remaining flaws make the big green guy's adventure less than smashing. By Chris Kohler. From Wired News on September 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..

When It's Good to Be a Tease
'America's favorite burlesque game show' goes online and finally feels like it's in the right place. Commentary by Regina Lynn. From Wired News on September 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..

Flood Waters Can't Sink Net Link
New Orleans may be underwater, but one internet company in a downtown high-rise has been able to keep the lights on. It's even publishing live, on-the-street reports. By Joel Johnson.Plus: Resource: Katrina-Related Links From Wired News on September 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..

Burning Man's Founder Looks Ahead
In the 20 years since he first burned an effigy on a San Francisco beach, Larry Harvey has seen Burning Man grow into an international phenomenon. In an exclusive interview, he discusses the event's history and what its future holds. By Daniel Terdiman. From Wired News on September 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..

Sonic 'Lasers' Head to Flood Zone
Experimental speakers that can send audible messages up to a mile away or disperse a crowd with ear-splitting pulses could face one of their biggest tests yet in the Katrina disaster zone. Xeni Jardin reports from Edwards Air Force Base, California. From Wired News on September 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..

Massachusetts boots Microsoft
From the Financial Times: The state of Massachusetts has laid out a plan to switch all its workers away from Microsoft's Word, Excel and other desktop software applications, delivering what would be one of the most significant setbacks to the software company's battle against open source software in its home market. The state said on Wednesday that all electronic documents "created and saved" by state employees would have to be based on open formats, with the switch to start at the beginning of 2007. Wow. The Commonwealth joins Beijing and others. Anything that spurs competition and From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 5:48 a.m..

The poorest
Brendan Greeley is in Lake Provdence, once of the poorest regions in America. Relief efforts are not reaching there. So he's set up a PayPal account for donations. From his blog: Since Sunday, hundreds of evacuees from New Orleans have arrived in Lake Providence and the surrounding area. They can't get to Red Cross shelters in Monroe, the nearest city; they are out of gas and money and energy. Providence Church has emerged as a shelter, not because the town planned for it, but because evacuees stopped at the church and stayed. The most immediate priority is food, water and... From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 5:48 a.m..

Community Develops Online for Families Searching for Victims - NANCY CHANDROSS, ABC News
Two days after last hearing from his mother-in-law in New Orleans, Maryland resident Walter Harris on Wednesday logged onto a message board to ask, "If anyone on this message board can help us, please respond From Education/Technology - Tim Lauer on September 2, 2005 at 4:50 a.m..

The Flood, in Austria
The flood continues to be front-page news here in Austria. The stories focus on the suffering, the looting, and the political impact. The scale of the disaster is horrifying. It's not that I thought the US was safe in a "Bush to Nature: Bring it On!" sort of way. But I would have thought that we could ameliorate the effects far faster. This is horrifying, scary, humbling, sad beyond words. My hotel room looks out over the Danube, a river peaceably within its banks, making it even harder to imagine the suffering of my fellow citizens. The Red Cross donation... From Joho the Blog on September 2, 2005 at 4:48 a.m..

Social Network Analysis: What to Map
Es ist gefährlich, auf die Seiten von Dave Pollard's Weblog zu gehen. Man folgt einem Link, fängt an zu blättern, zu stöbern und vertieft sich, ohne dass man es merkt, in Geschichten. Zum Beispiel in - ganz aktuell - Anmerkungen... From www.weiterbildungsblog.de on September 2, 2005 at 3:50 a.m..

Education Law Is Loosened for Failing Chicago Schools
It was the second time in a week that Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings had extended new flexibility in her enforcement of No Child Left Behind. From New York Times: Education on September 2, 2005 at 3:45 a.m..

What makes a strong post
Today the main task was to set up blogs, but we had enough time to open a conversation about content and the question of what makes a good blog post. I asked students to read three prominent bloggers in three different fields for about 10 minutes, then jot some notes about their first impression of what makes a good blog entry. I like to downplay the teacherly authority in different ways, as many teachers do. Sometimes I take notes about our class discussion, for example, leaving... From Weblogs in Higher Education on September 1, 2005 at 11:46 p.m..