Face-off with the dinosaurwhat this site is all about
As a high school science teacher, I have often been asked how I find time to integrate technology into my life. Good question, when you consider the amount of time it takes to be an effective teacher. Well, for one thing, I don't look for technology— it finds me. I work to improve learning in the classroom and increase collaboration between teachers. Our world is always changing. Adapting to new environments often requires mastery of new technologies. One can easily become a dinosaur if you neglect to change. Avoiding extinction is my motivation.
Frequently, I hear teachers yearn for access to YouTube in their classroom. Yet, I question if this really is a good idea. Below are eight things we need to worry about if YouTube is allowed in the classroom:
copyright infringement: it’s so easy to get videos that were posted to YouTube illegally. You can’t expect students to do their own work when you showed them a pirated video yesterday. However, I am afraid that the temptation will be too great for many teachers.
students waste time: YouTube is the ultimate playground for procrastinators. Students can waste class period after class period wandering through videos.
teachers waste time: like we’re any better- have you even been emailed that “must-see” video? Now imagine this stuff streaming into you classroom.
sucks up bandwidth: with everyone in the school browsing through video after video, network speeds at you school will come to a crawl.
inappropriate material: everything from pointless to tasteless- much of YouTube is not appropriate for school
here today, gone tomorrow: not all the videos on YouTube stick around forever- you might send students off on a wild goose chase that leads them to videos that you weren’t expecting
spam and scam: spammers and scammers are posting video all over YouTube to entice people to click over to a website that may contain viruses, malware or worse
lies, lies and more lies: 9/11 conspiracies, miracle water, the real truth about the Holocaust- anyone can make a high quality and convincing video for YouTube that can fill your students’ heads with lies
Some times I think what is hip and cool is not always right for school. The latest trendsetting gadgets are Flip Video’s digital camcorders. It seems like everyone is in love with the Flip. These little camcorders fit in your pocket and have a handy flip out USB connector so you can transfer your movies with ease.
I think the Flip camcorders are a little overhyped. It might be a great little camcorder to carry in your pocket for a night out on the town but we’re not sending our students to shoot video in the clubs. If you’re looking to just record short video clips, many affordable digital cameras can do the job and you’ll be able to use that camera to take great still images too. Here are a few reasons why I don’t flip for the Flip:
No removable battery: Yes, you can recharge it but when the Flip’s non-replaceable battery stops holding it’s charge you’re finished. School shelling out money for the Flip might think twice if they knew the Flip’s days are numbered. (UPDATE: Flip’s older model- the Ultra- uses AA batteries)
Missing expandable memory: Need more memory? Too bad. Flip’s memory is also non-replaceable. I want a camera that you can pop memory cards in and out of. Then you can have students record video, take out their card for editing and pass the camera on to the next group so they can start recording with another memory card while the other group is editing.
Too expensive: starting at $150 and going up and over $200, the Flips are too expensive for their limited set of features. Instead, spend your money on a digital camera that also does video or you might want to consider spending $300 on a real digital camcorder.
If you must have a camcorder with the flip-out USB feature, check out the Kodak Zi6. This camcorder is slightly bigger but it has an expandable memory slot and macro mode. It’s powered by standard rechargeable AA batteries and it comes with a free charger. The Zi6 is a little cheaper too.
Not a week goes by without one of my colleagues asking me how to show a YouTube video in class. Because of it’s history of inappropriate content, ranging from pointless to tasteless, YouTube has been blocked in schools across the nation. However, the same content filters that are supposed to be blocking the bad sites are preventing “…teachers from accessing cutting-edge widgets and digital materials that have enormous potential for expanding learning.”[1]
I think it’s time for schools to take another look at YouTube’s use in the classroom. Here are a few reasons why we should let YouTube into our schools:
viewing is easy: there are a lot of video sharing websites out there, but YouTube makes the experience simple and seamless
uploading is easy: posting videos to YouTube is incredibly easy, no need to worry about file formats and frame rates
great content: sure there are dogs on skateboards but YouTube also hosts an impressive amount of top-notch material
inspires creativity: as the the premiere site for user generated video, YouTube demonstrates the creativity that the world has to offer
learn from feedback: learning doesn’t just stop after a video is posted, a steady stream of comments on your video can provide more opportunities to learn
gives people a voice: tools like YouTube, “…make it easier than ever for people to make a difference and become civically engaged” [2]
the real problem still exists: blocking YouTube doesn’t stop inappropriate video from being circulated in school via cellphones, email or other video sharing web sites
I just discovered that our copy machine works as a scanner too. Below is a video demonstration that shows how the copier at my school can scan documents and send them as emails.
I’ve been on a quest to digitize all my materials for class in an effort to save paper and backup everything I have. Now that scanning multiple pages is so easy, here are a few things I’ve been scanning:
answer keys: for worksheets and study guides
students’ quizzes: like it or not some students cheat, now I have a record of what each quiz looked like before I passed it back
old worksheets: I have few gems that are only in hard copy, now they can be backed up digitally
workshop handouts: I still get a lot of paper from workshops but now I can file this material in folders with my other digital work
clippings and comics: preserving the stack of newspaper clippings and comics that I’ve collected over the years is now a breeze
extra readings: I like to share excerpts from books with my students but I was never happy with all the paper wasted when students read something once and then discard it
Those are just a few examples of how I’ve begun to digitize my classroom. If you have any other ideas, share them in the comments.
I was watching The Simpsons a few weeks ago when I saw this perfect example of inertia:
A Milhouse in motion will stay in motion
unless acted upon by an outside force.
(UPDATE: Bummer. Hulu took the episode down. I guess using Hulu is only good for recent shows. I’m sure this is a licensing thing. My guess is that things will get better as more and more video goes online.)
As a huge fan of The Simpsons, I’ve been slowly buying the DVD sets for each season. I have always thought about going through each DVD and pulling out clips that I could use in class. Perhaps I could create a log book to record the timestamp for each clip. I’ve even considered using some DVD ripping software to make a master DVD to hold all my physics-related Simpsons clips. Of course, both of these methods would take a lot of time.
However, I think I’ve found a better solution. More and more content is being put online for viewers to watch on demand. I think the service that does this best is Hulu.com.
At Hulu, you can find clips and full episodes of many of your favorite shows. They have movies too. It is only a matter of time before this method of delivering content becomes the norm.
One of the best things about Hulu, is that they allow you to pick the start and end time for the clip you want use. This is how I isolated the clip of Milhouse’s unfortunate flight above.
This works for movies too. Here are a few of my favorite scenes from the movie Ghostbusters:
With clips that are relevant and entertaining, we can now demonstrate concepts from our curricula with precision and ease. Get started by creating your own clips at Hulu.
In a recent episode of Stuff Happens, a new show on Planet Green, host Bill Nye explained how simply reducing the margins on the documents that we print can decrease the amount of paper we use by five percent.
If everyone in the U.S. shrunk their margins from ½ to ¼ inch we would save six million trees. This would prevent ½ million tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere. That’s like taking 133,000 cars off road. (Check out the project these kids did; they got similar numbers.)
But it’s not just about trees; paper isn’t cheap. Many schools are looking for ways to cut costs. Here is a five percent savings that can be done with just a few clicks.
You can almost always find the margin settings under File → Page Setup.
Have you seen the video where they popped popcorn with cellphones? Seems hard to believe? Well, you’re right. It was created by a marketing company and it’s known as a viral video. Viral videos spread across the web so quickly that they often wind up on regular television news programs. Even the MythBusters have taken on a few of these online gems.
I’ve had some success using viral videos in the classroom. This past year I used two videos; one with my ninth grade physical science students and another with my 12th grade physics students.
With the ninth graders, I showed a video that demonstrated a glow stick being made out of Mountain Dew, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. The students were thrilled to see the video and even more eager to give this claim a try. So we did! I provided the supplies and off they went. However, none of the students were able to light up their lab tables like the video suggested. With only a few minutes left in class, I told my students that their homework was to go online to find out what went wrong.
In my ten years of teaching, I’ve never had so many students come back the next day talking about yesterday’s lesson. Students rushed into class exclaiming, “I know how they did it” and “it’s fake, it’s fake!” Now that I had their attention, we explored how chemical reactions can give off light and made our own glows sticks that really worked.
In physics we investigated a video that claimed six volt lantern batteries contain 32 AA batteries. My students began to see if this was possible. I gave them the challenge of designing a circuit that used 32 AA (1.5 volt) batteries but still produced an output of six volts. With the help of an online circuit simulator, students were able to design the circuit. However, after measuring the volume of a lantern battery and a AA battery, students realized that the 32 AAs take up more space than one six volt lantern battery has to offer.
Viral video lessons do three important things:
use media that students find attention-grabbing and familiar
raise interest and give purpose to examinations and investigations
teach skepticism so students can spot rip-off artists and scammers
Viral videos are a perfect way to engage students. After all, the videos were designed to capture people’s attention. So the next time you see a video that makes you say, “no way” bring it into class.
I’m currently with my family on vacation at Walt Disney World so today’s Boing Boing post titled, “Disney’s 10 rules of theme-park design” really grabbed my attention.
I’ve tried to read Moby Dick several times but I’ve always been interrupted. I start off strong by reading a little every night but then I skip one night. From there it goes down hill and I never finish.
That’s why I was happy to find DailyLit. Here’s how they describe their service:
DailyLit sends books in installments via e-mail or RSS feed. We currently offer over 750 classic and contemporary books available entirely for free or on a Pay-Per-Read basis (with sample installments available for free). You can read your installments wherever you receive e-mail/RSS feeds, including on your Blackberry and iPhone. Installments arrive in your Inbox according to the schedule you set (e.g. 7:00am every weekday).
With DailyLit, a short installment of Moby Dick shows up each day in my Google Reader. Each installment is short enough to read in under five minutes.
Final exams are next week so that means many of my students are anxious about reviewing the semester. In the past, I’ve given students a packet that outlined the learning objectives for the past semester. From the students’ perspective, this is quite the passive experience.
This year I’m trying something different. I created a rough outline that students can add to, update and modify online. It is essentially a ‘Wikipedia’ for my semester review.
I’m using the wiki that our school’s SharePoint service provides; it allows me to track what changes are being made and who’s making them. It also let’s me see which students are actually looking at the study guide.
However, you don’t need SharePoint to do this. Here are two other places you can get started with your own wiki.
Between fatherhood and teaching science, Dale Basler is
an independent consultant, podcaster and web page designer who specializes in work for
institutions and organizations in education.
Frequently, I hear teachers yearn for access to YouTube in their classroom. Yet, I question if this really is a good idea. Below are eight things we need to worry about if YouTube is allowed in the classroom:
Some times I think what is hip and cool is not always right for school. The latest trendsetting gadgets are Flip Video’s digital camcorders. It seems like 
Not a week goes by without one of my colleagues asking me how to show a YouTube video in class. Because of it’s history of inappropriate content, ranging from pointless to tasteless, YouTube has been blocked in schools across the nation. However, the same content filters that are supposed to be blocking the bad sites are preventing “…teachers from accessing cutting-edge widgets and digital materials that have enormous potential for expanding learning.” 
I’m currently with my family on vacation at Walt Disney World so today’s Boing Boing post titled, 
I’ve tried to read Moby Dick several times but I’ve always been interrupted. I start off strong by reading a little every night but then I skip one night. From there it goes down hill and I never finish.
