Stinto looks like an interesting tool. It’s a quick easy way to set up a chat room. No email addresses or passwords are necessary for users. The whole thing disappears after a short period of inactivity. It might be useful in classroom situations when a teacher needs a quick and short term chat solution. It could be easily set up on the spur of the moment.
I spend a lot of time thinking of how education needs to change–to modernize. This article in the Globe and Mail regarding schools in Afghanistan reminds me of how fortunate I am to be able to think about these things.
School enrollment in Afghanistan is up despite attacks on students and teachers by the Taliban.
Today I read Karl Fishch’s post The Invention of Air, PLNs, and School Transformation. In it he says, “I believe one of the big hurdles for getting folks in my building to blog professionally is their fear of not having a polished piece of writing, or of being not completely correct about something.” His post resonated with me because that’s how I feel.
It’s not a fear as such, it’s more of an expectation on my part. My education drilled into me that what I write needs to be well thought out, accurate, and complete. I like blogs to be the same. Karl challenges my thinking by pointing out that science is not that way and has never been that way. It’s worth a read.
This article leaves me with many questions but it quotes a study which suggests that students that watched a podcast of a lecture scored better than students that actually attended the lecture. It’s worth a read.
Several weeks back Google announced job cuts and cuts to some of its on-line apps. Among others it announced that Google Notebook will no longer accept new users and Google Video will no longer accept user-uploaded content. I use Google Notebook with my classes.
I’m not surprised it’s getting shut down. Of all the apps I use with students and teachers it’s the least understood. Many people are happy just to make their notes in Google Docs. Though Docs and Notebooks are similar I like the ability to right click on content and have it saved to a notebook. Regardless of how one feels about Google Notebook it points out the potential downside of cloud computing.
Cloud computing put users at the mercy of others. Other than more traditional websites that schools control, cloud based sites can be shuttered quickly and with no guaranteed input from users.
I find the concept of cloud computing very attractive. Someone else has to worry about the cost of storage and data backup. Also, it makes client software support easy because it’s browser based. But as attractive as I find it, the fact that someone else controls accessibility makes it not a viable option for schools as a primary solution. Anyone who suggests otherwise has their head in the clouds 
Stinto looks like an interesting tool. It’s a quick easy way to set up a chat room. No email addresses or passwords are necessary for users. The whole thing disappears after a short period of inactivity. It might be useful in classroom situations when a teacher needs a quick and short term chat solution. It could be easily set up on the spur of the moment.
The BBC reports on a study that states, “A major review of the curriculum for England’s primary schools
suggests that six broad “areas of learning” could replace individual
subjects.”
The areas of learning are:
The report also recommends that, “the level of lessons in information, communication and
technology (ICT) currently taught in secondary schools should now be
taught to primary-age pupils.”
Thanks to Stephen Downes for linking to the article.
I’ve heard rumors that Edublogs in unblocked in my host country. I’m not seeing it. Too bad. I find the whole blocking thing makes me choose to write in other places.
I spent some time this morning reading and thinking about Brian Lamb’s post Content. I agree with most if not all that he says on an individual level. I’m just not sure how to move an institutional, like the one in which I work, toward the ideas he expresses. Like one commenter said, I agree philosophically but I’m not sure how to make it work practically.
Perhaps it’s not a matter of making it work completely but more we need to move institutions in the directions he suggests. We need to trend them in the direction of syndication, PLE’s, openness, or re-use.
