(with gratitude to Bloglines) Thanks Michael Stephens for mentionining J. Lewandowski's new blog, her post at Teaching and Thinking With Technology: Bringing Back Civility and the article that stimulated her post didn't ask or answer why students are tempted to split their attention from the class.
Attention is too often not essential in order to pass or even excel in the course.
1. Ensure the class presentation is riveting
BUT
2. Only require class attendance if content is not able to be obtained any other way
a) big example: don't repeat (including repeat in advance of) written information.
(i) to be fair some people need to learn auditorily rather than from text, so if the class is available to present the same information which has or will come in written form the unit outline could specify read this and/or attend that class.
b) if class attendance is required for assessable participation in discussion then have a legitimate method of evaluation of participation - not just attendance.
Whether attendance is required or optional what ought to be the codes of conduct then? I lean toward a compassionate democratic needs/solutions based approach: ie each class determines the needs of teacher and students and develops creative agreements to meet those needs.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Protopage (v.3) has Tabs
Hooray for protopage v.3.
Now I can express my delight unequivocably. With that little wrinkle ironed out protopage walks all over startpage alternatives. Movable resizable overlappable sticky notes - can't beat that.
I wondered whether being able to include my del.icio.us page of bookmarks as one of my firefox homepages would take the place of my startpage. However I just recently added a couple of quicklinks to my private protopage quicklink sticky - I guess because when I do want to use those links I don't want to have to search for them. Perhaps it is only the other pages (now under named tabs) - unless I can figure a way to place links or content there automatically (eg mash from specific del.icio.us/Flickr tags and Bloglines folders)
It's also now got TO DO list stickies - niftier than the text sticky I was using... although with text I would format the text to highlight priority items.
Now I can express my delight unequivocably. With that little wrinkle ironed out protopage walks all over startpage alternatives. Movable resizable overlappable sticky notes - can't beat that.
I wondered whether being able to include my del.icio.us page of bookmarks as one of my firefox homepages would take the place of my startpage. However I just recently added a couple of quicklinks to my private protopage quicklink sticky - I guess because when I do want to use those links I don't want to have to search for them. Perhaps it is only the other pages (now under named tabs) - unless I can figure a way to place links or content there automatically (eg mash from specific del.icio.us/Flickr tags and Bloglines folders)
It's also now got TO DO list stickies - niftier than the text sticky I was using... although with text I would format the text to highlight priority items.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Puzzle Pirates - my second MMORPG
As I've mentioned at Counting Everything, I've had the opportunity to try another MMORPG. If you get addicted to tetris-type or hit-the-dropping-items-before-they-get-to-the-bottom or cleverly-manoeuvre-icons-into-groups-of-3+-colours-before-they-crowd-to-the-top games Puzzle Pirates will very kindly remind you how long you've been playing and remind you to take a break and stretch.
Puzzle PiratesJoin a crew of friendly pirates in this massive multiplayer game. Update 10 June 2021: Removed broken referral to Miniclip.Tuesday, November 21, 200643 Things I might want to do this year
Bloglining by The Questing Librarian today I peeked back at Stephen Abram's 43 Things I might want to do this year...
I've yet to finish my 23 Things, but when I do perhaps I'll check back on some of these. It feels good to see how many I've already done. 1. 2. 3. 4. Look at Facebook and see the next generation of social networking. 5. 6. 7. 8. Register at MSN Photo Album and build an album to share with friends, family, or colleagues. {why when Flickr is so great?} 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Learn about iFILM and viral video. 15. Get a PubSub account and start searching the future. 16. Make a map of all the countries or states you've been to at Visited Countries. {not really worth it for me} 17. Experiment with some sound and picture search engines like Podscope. 18. Try some new Web search engines like Exalead, Wink, Gravee, Clusty, Mooter, Kartoo, etc., or others you can find at Search Engine Watch's list. {google does me fine} 19. Learn more about visual display tools like Grokker. 20. Check out Google Base and see what the fuss is all about. 21. Register with NetFlix and rent a movie. Learn how to deal with streaming media. 22. 23. Play with Blinkx and learn about searching TV shows, video and podcasts. 24. Try MovieFlix too. There are plenty of free movies here to learn to do this. 25. Set up a Google Picasa account. Post a picture and then edit it. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Visit the Google Labs site regularly. (love google spreadsheet) 32. 33. Play with JibJab. 34. Play with Wikipedia. Edit an entry, feel the network. 35. Play with Copernic and extend your searching. 36. 37. Take an e-learning course from Click University. Sunday, November 12, 200623Things #16 So what’s in a wiki?
Something I did notice was the heavy text base combined with spartan and non-intuitive presentation of most wikis - a definite down-side. I wonder whether it is at all possible for a wiki to mash with other tools (eg Flickr, YouTube, del.icio.us for better effect). If so could someone send me examples? Thursday, November 09, 200623Things #15 Library2.0
I didn't realise it at the time, but I pre-empted (for myself) this step.
Library2.0 to me means only: libraries serving community members in the Web2.0 environment - upon the same rationales that have ever defined quality library service. 23Things #14 Technorati
So... I claimed my blog at Technorati today ...
To properly participate though will be a little fiddly, but let me compare... to tag with Technorati I include easy html in my blog post ... to tag with del.icio.us I click a button in my toolbar. The sooner I can migrate to Blogger Beta the better. Almost wish I'd bitten the bullet and gone with Wordpress from the start. It might be interesting to search sometime, though I have no real need presently I enjoyed a brief diversion thanks to Serena at Talk Nerd posting a YouTube of Walking on Sunshine. moonflowerdragon technorati tagging blogging learning2.0 23Things Wednesday, November 08, 2006Silkroad Online ... my first MMORPG FUN The boys and their friends have introduced me to Silkroad online and I've had a very interesting, engaging week adventuring around Jangan.There are always new skills to learn, and I'm thinking maybe it is just a little repetitive trying to level to meet something new, but it is very fun "meeting" people from all over (ages 14-43): helping (it feels wonderful knowing and sharing the little bits even newer plays want to know) and being helped.  Right now I'm trying to sell some of the treasures monsters have kindly dropped for me - I'd like to be able to afford a pet wolf. It is not easy calculating a fair price for goods, and timing is probably off as I set up stall when I'm going to be away from the keyboard rather than take up playing time. Scenarios for Internet Ethics
Thanks to my Bloglines account, and Francey from Gargoyles Loose in the Library, I now have a bunch of new scenarios to raise when discussing internet issues with my boys.
Our local library gave us material from the government's initiative to promote internet safety (can't remember what it is called), which didn't really address anything we hadn't already discussed ... but finding the material prompted a refresher discussion in a timely way for our exploration of Silkroad (about which more later, right now I want to PLAY). IT goddesses If I'd had daughters instead of sons, this calendar would be my first purchase.  I love the eye catching way it "smashes through perceptions of geeky technologists", and in the process aims to: # Raise awareness of the diversity of Women in IT
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