Monday - Jun 21, 2010
For the last two years I’ve had the opportunity to teach English at a summer camp in northern Spain. The opportunity to teach children in the picturesque foothills of the Pyrines mountains for a third year was too compelling, thus putting me at the camp yet again.
It must be noted that the teaching experience at the camp is extremely low tech. In fact when you cast preconceived notions about Spain and its architecture aside, there’s little that is high tech about running a typical summer camp in the country. White boards, tables, and chairs comprise most of the classroom tools at the teacher’s disposal here.
Yet despite all the discussion on and investment into technology in schools around the world, the low tech summer camp in Spain isn’t to be considered a failure by any means. While the teaching of English is one of the key focuses of the camp, the lack of technological devices doesn’t detract from the the process. If nothing else, it proves that the teacher’s arsenal of creativity, resourcefulness, and flexibility are still valuable tools.
At this point I can imagine some readers stating that GPS scavenger hunts and Internet research have their places in a well-run summer camp. I wouldn’t disagree in full but would argue that installing these options into a camp merely for the sake of making the camp more high tech has its own share of pitfalls. Without compelling curriculum and educational implementation such tech is useless at the English summer camp.
Additionally, the modern-day insistence on tech in the classroom need not extend to the camp. For many the typical English summer camp incorporates many elements of the outdoors and nature. With increasing numbers of people taking their Blackberries, iPhones, and laptops with them on their outdoor excursions, the connection with nature seems hopelessly lost. Why extend that need to be always connected to the camp?
I admit that even for me, this disconnection from technology is difficult. I’m typing this entry on a laptop late in the evening here at the camp. I’m even using this laptop to organize lesson plans. But I have no Internet connection; I’ll have to go to the nearest town for that. And this laptop isn’t an integral part of my classroom either. I depend on my wit, knowledge, and creativity far more than I do this laptop.
In all, I realize that the heady talk of implementing tech in the classroom can be addictive. But when it comes to teaching an English class in the Spanish foothills, I realize that tech doesn’t have to infiltrate every classroom in the world. What are your thoughts on low tech teaching and applicable applications?
Wednesday - May 19, 2010
When I told my editor that I was going to write about GPS and the classroom this week, he half-jokingly asked me if it was going to be about “teachers tracking the whereabouts of students.” Well, he was partially correct.
The fact is that the fueled interest in GPS technology has brought prices down for people looking to invest in it. Additional advances such as integration with WIFI, Bluetooth, and radio, all on a single chip, means that cell phones and other mobile devices will be able to easily act as GPS devices. The tech can even be accessed cheaply using the USB port of a supported computer or mobile device. Educators have been quick to catch on that this affordability and portability makes GPS an interesting tool to include in the class curriculum.
GPS (which stands for Global Positioning System) has been around since 1978, when the first satellite was launched. The system was added to regularly until in 1994 there were 24 separate satellites, completing the intended “constellation.” Since then, replacements and updates have been planned and made at regular intervals. The constellation of satellites has served a plethora of uses for military, commercial, and independent entities around the world.
Educators have also gotten into the act, using GPS technology to teach a wide range of topics. At its roots GPS has numerous scientific principles which can be taught, including how physics and general relativity can be practically applied to it. When students first learn that there’s a minute but important time difference between the satellites and Earth-bound equipment, a wide array of responses and discussion typically evolves.
When teaching the science of it isn’t applicable to educators’ classes, then they still can turn to using GPS as a tool in a wide variety of geography, history, math, or science lessons and projects. Gerry Swingle, a high school science teacher in Arnold, Nebraska, has found a way to combine GPS with history and science, encouraging the creation of Web pages as part of a project-based approach to learning.
The EarthCache program offers another way for educators to include GPS into lessons and projects involving a variety of disciplines. “EarthCache sites … are ‘virtual’ caches that provide the visitor who finds them with new knowledge or insights about the location itself…” states the teacher’s guide. A person or group uses the EarthCache Web site to find caches that are accessible and uses a GPS device to track it down. “However, because they are meant to be educational, all EarthCache sites that are posted on the EarthCache Web site must provide some scientific information about the site,” states the guide.
Even debate and critical thinking skills can be enhanced when discussing the ethics of GPS tracking and monitoring. With some chronically truant students in Texas being forced to wear GPS trackers and other people fearing being tracked through their cell phones, there are plenty of issues to be debated about the ethics of GPS usage.
Educators and not-for-profits have been collecting a wide variety of lesson plans and curriculum suggestions for GPS in the classroom. Below are a few additional resources at your disposal. What other creative ways can educators use GPS in the classroom? Are there any additional online resources that you would suggest to educators and enthusiasts alike?
The GIS 2 GPS Portal: http://www.gis2gps.com/
This site is a one-stop shop for all things GIS (Global Information Systems) and GPS. They even have an extensive list of GPS-related lesson plans and materials for educators.
Linda Ferguson and the Geo Literacy Project: http://lovinfifth.com/gps/index.html
Ferguson has put together this site, explaining not only the educational theory behind GPS in the classroom, but also listing a wide variety or activities and lesson plans involving GPS.
(Photo used under Creative Commons attribution license: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aggie94_amy/ / CC BY 2.0)
Wednesday - May 12, 2010
It seems that schools are venturing farther down the technological road than ever before, adopting hardware and software to keep students and staff tied into real world skills. But a few schools are making big splashes by adopting more advanced tech strategies like cloud computing.
On April 28, Google announced that the state of Oregon was adopting Google Apps in all of its school districts as a way to cut costs and take a step up the technology ladder. The Oregon Department of Education estimated that by moving to Google’s cloud-based applications, the state would save nearly $1.5 million a year.
But what is cloud computing and what does it mean for schools? For the uninitiated, cloud computing is an increasingly popular method of computing which takes software and data outside of personal confines and puts it on a server, accessible with an Internet connection. This means users are required to install little to nothing to access applications that handle e-mail and a wide variety of other documents.
For schools and universities, this means that some focus can be shifted from on-site distributions to other areas. “Such an approach transfers responsibility for software updates and maintenance away from the institutional IT department, freeing IT staff from a considerable amount of software support,” says nonprofit EDUCAUSE (PDF file), in reference to Google Apps.
“The resources saved can be directed at making the IT department more innovative and agile, attributes that are increasingly important in responding to rising student expectations of technology on campus,” they added.
Web site Mashable.com gave other reasons why schools are migrating to cloud computing and Google Apps. Aside from saving money, some schools have cited a boost in student motivation and performance with the adoption of such technology. The money saved on the cloud-based Google Apps has allowed education staff in Oregon’s District 207 to pair at-risk youth with a laptop to help raise reading scores. The combination of Google Apps’ collaborative nature and children’s interest in technology seems to have ignited the district’s children’s interest in learning.
“It’s critical that students learn how to use the kind of productivity technology they’ll need throughout their lives, and Oregon is helping students across the state do just that,” said Jaime Casap, Google’s Apps Education Manager.
But will the adoption of Google Apps and other cloud computing technologies expand rapidly? Many IT managers at primary, secondary, and higher education facilities are wary of jumping into the fray for many reasons. Art Wittmann, a writer for InformationWeek.com, expressed some of these concerns after participating in a conference in Indianapolis.
“The managers I talked with are very concerned about user training and the fact that they have no resources to retrain their users on new systems,” said Wittmann. “There’s a lot of pragmatic loyalty to the vendors they’re already selected, and when these IT managers consider moving to new systems, the payoff had better be substantial and immediately apparent.”
Another major concern is how schools will handle unscheduled outages from their cloud or Internet provider. Strict dependency on external software and service could yield cynical teachers and staff, who often are already struggling with integrating technology into their classrooms.
It’ll be imperative that education and IT staff formulate a backup plan or alternative lesson plans should such outages strike. And outages will happen. Sardar Khan of StartupMeme.com has documented the many outages of Gmail, Google’s cloud-based e-mail client.
With IBM predicting that by 2012, spending on cloud computing software will soar to $126 billion globally, it doesn’t seem like cloud computing will be going away any time soon. However, it remains to be seen in these rough economic times whether more states will adopt Oregon’s strategy of adopting the free cloud services of Google.
Has your school or university adopted Google Apps or other cloud computing software? What has the experience been like for you? Do you think the advantages outweigh the risks?
