- the Awesome Highlighter >> Highlight text on web pages
Really is awesome. Easy way to highlight and annotate web pages.
- Telecoms Korea News Service - Home
- Edge: THE IMPENDING DEMISE OF THE UNIVERSITY By Don Tapscott
Good jumping off point for discussion about the future of education
- Query Voice
This is a voice corpus for non-native English speakers. - An Open (Institutional) Learning Network
- Connectivist Learning and the Personal Learning Environment ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes
Presentation - Multiple Intelligences
Neat quiz that maps out your intelligences. No info here on how this was developed or whether it has been validated, but could be a fun conversation starter. - The Psychology of Attention
Some nice links primarily debunking multitasking claims. At least simultaneous multitasking. - BeFunky.com - Photo effects with one click, Turn your photos into artwork.
fun photo effects
- University of the People > Home
Something to watch. Is this the future? Plays on my fears for traditional universities. If you're in academia, it may be time to start considering what you are going to have to do to survive through the next 20 years (or so).
The following was a response to a comment on my posting about Ombama's education agenda (at the time of publication). Given the length (it wouldn't completely publish in the comments), I thought that I would just make it a post.
It reads a lot like a comment. The organization could use a lot of work, but this isn't a paper now, is it? :)
The original comment was criticizing social promotion (age-based grouping) in schools.
I agree that age-based tracking is the wrong approach. The justification is that students who are in classes with younger OR older students have affective issues. This is certainly possible (and even likely), but I feel that the greater good will be served by ability-based tracking. This is also an issue of socialization. When this becomes the norm, those affective issues with fade to a large extent.
Of course, we could just do nothing, just stay the course. We can continue to sail straight into the abyss :)
I'm not one of those people who scream 21ST CENTURY SKILLS down the halls of the schools. I don't really believe that 21st century skills are fundamentally different than 20th century skills. The tools are certainly different, but the skills of critical thinking are the same now as they always have been. The greatest difference is the ability to filter out all the junk. However, I do believe that 21st century schools should/will be significantly different than 20th century schools. This view comes from the landscape of changing technologies, societal needs, and global competition/resources.
Changing technologies enable, and even promote, decentralized learning. 20th century schools were about aggregation of staff, resources, and students. This model was based on logistical realities of the time. Resources had to be localized in order to interact with them. Great teachers in Paris couldn't serve students in rural Illinois. Schools, therefore, had to do their best to bring the mountain to Muhammad.
The costs and skills necessary to do this required increasing amounts of money and education's version of mergers and acquisitions. Districts (School Corporations) grew increasingly larger and more complex to manage these items and issues. At this point, we are seeing the fallout from this model. Districts are finding that they cannot continue to fund everything that they need to do to keep going. These massive organizations are finding that they are top-heavy, but there is nothing that they can to to solve this. It is the natural progression of the business model. You can restructure the business as much as you want, but aside from completely systemic change, the business will never recover.
21st century schools will be about accessing the widely distributed knowledge and abilities of the global populace. Information is no longer scarce and, thus, schools are no longer the owners of that information. Schools will be more about decentralizing education, thus localizing education. This localization, however, comes in the context of access to global information and interaction.
So, what does a 21st Century school look like? I don't know. Why don't you tell me.
My vision would be a flexible space that is both virtual and real. The "classroom" would cease to be a room and more of a concept where people gather to share information. Classes in this view are more about collections of diverse lessons, tasks, projects, and so forth. The class then becomes an aggregation of activities than address standards as well as steps to achieving short and long-term goals.
The greatest change, though, must be the change in social expectations of what education is. For instance, standardized assessment and social promotion must die. As long as these exist, the above changes can never succeed. These are the tail wagging the dog. Standardized assessment is not inherently problematic. The implementation is the problem. Standardized assessment encourages educational systems to strive for improvements on test performance. Therefore, you get test effect on curriculum. When this occurs, the freedom of exploration necessary in my vision is not possible.
As for social promotion (age grouping), this approach assumes that learners benefit most from learning with their age grouped peers. This is certainly possible in my vision and could even be implemented in some ways, such as "homerooms" or classes that focus on making sense of the learners' places in society. These kinds of age-based striations could be beneficial for establishing a sense of community and for socializing students (still a role for schools). Aside from these, strict, curriculum-wide age-based grouping stifles flexible learning initiatives by effectively requiring that age, not ability/interest/goals/etc drive grouping.
This is much more than I intended to write and the organization is terrible as it is largely stream of consciousness, but my thoughts (in a rudimentary form) on the direction of education are here. Let me know what you think.
It reads a lot like a comment. The organization could use a lot of work, but this isn't a paper now, is it? :)
The original comment was criticizing social promotion (age-based grouping) in schools.
I agree that age-based tracking is the wrong approach. The justification is that students who are in classes with younger OR older students have affective issues. This is certainly possible (and even likely), but I feel that the greater good will be served by ability-based tracking. This is also an issue of socialization. When this becomes the norm, those affective issues with fade to a large extent.
Of course, we could just do nothing, just stay the course. We can continue to sail straight into the abyss :)
I'm not one of those people who scream 21ST CENTURY SKILLS down the halls of the schools. I don't really believe that 21st century skills are fundamentally different than 20th century skills. The tools are certainly different, but the skills of critical thinking are the same now as they always have been. The greatest difference is the ability to filter out all the junk. However, I do believe that 21st century schools should/will be significantly different than 20th century schools. This view comes from the landscape of changing technologies, societal needs, and global competition/resources.
Changing technologies enable, and even promote, decentralized learning. 20th century schools were about aggregation of staff, resources, and students. This model was based on logistical realities of the time. Resources had to be localized in order to interact with them. Great teachers in Paris couldn't serve students in rural Illinois. Schools, therefore, had to do their best to bring the mountain to Muhammad.
The costs and skills necessary to do this required increasing amounts of money and education's version of mergers and acquisitions. Districts (School Corporations) grew increasingly larger and more complex to manage these items and issues. At this point, we are seeing the fallout from this model. Districts are finding that they cannot continue to fund everything that they need to do to keep going. These massive organizations are finding that they are top-heavy, but there is nothing that they can to to solve this. It is the natural progression of the business model. You can restructure the business as much as you want, but aside from completely systemic change, the business will never recover.
21st century schools will be about accessing the widely distributed knowledge and abilities of the global populace. Information is no longer scarce and, thus, schools are no longer the owners of that information. Schools will be more about decentralizing education, thus localizing education. This localization, however, comes in the context of access to global information and interaction.
So, what does a 21st Century school look like? I don't know. Why don't you tell me.
My vision would be a flexible space that is both virtual and real. The "classroom" would cease to be a room and more of a concept where people gather to share information. Classes in this view are more about collections of diverse lessons, tasks, projects, and so forth. The class then becomes an aggregation of activities than address standards as well as steps to achieving short and long-term goals.
The greatest change, though, must be the change in social expectations of what education is. For instance, standardized assessment and social promotion must die. As long as these exist, the above changes can never succeed. These are the tail wagging the dog. Standardized assessment is not inherently problematic. The implementation is the problem. Standardized assessment encourages educational systems to strive for improvements on test performance. Therefore, you get test effect on curriculum. When this occurs, the freedom of exploration necessary in my vision is not possible.
As for social promotion (age grouping), this approach assumes that learners benefit most from learning with their age grouped peers. This is certainly possible in my vision and could even be implemented in some ways, such as "homerooms" or classes that focus on making sense of the learners' places in society. These kinds of age-based striations could be beneficial for establishing a sense of community and for socializing students (still a role for schools). Aside from these, strict, curriculum-wide age-based grouping stifles flexible learning initiatives by effectively requiring that age, not ability/interest/goals/etc drive grouping.
This is much more than I intended to write and the organization is terrible as it is largely stream of consciousness, but my thoughts (in a rudimentary form) on the direction of education are here. Let me know what you think.
- 80 Million Tiny Images
This is interesting. There are a lot of junk nouns (mostly proper), but users/learners could spend a lot of time clicking around in there and trying to get an idea of what the noun means from the pictures given. - Type IPA phonetic symbols online
could be useful
Congratulations Dong-A Ilbo! You receive the dumb &%@ editorial award for the week.
To summarize, people should be punished for publishing anything that results in "negative" outcomes for society. This editor seems to believe that the Internet is a super-special forum where the audience has no responsibility to judge the accuracy of information.
So, if I say here, on this blog, that aliens will visit the Blue House tomorrow and take over the government and there is a subsequent social disturbance, I should be responsible. Well, I say to you, Mr. Anonymous editor--yeah who are you?, that the people (those mass of innocent fools in your perception) need to take on more responsibility for their actions. It is their fault that they are so easily misled. I'll also cast blame on governmental and media outlets that play on these sentiments to advance their own agendas (considering that these institutions should be sources of reliable information--though they certainly are not).
GOD! These editorials drive me nuts!
To summarize, people should be punished for publishing anything that results in "negative" outcomes for society. This editor seems to believe that the Internet is a super-special forum where the audience has no responsibility to judge the accuracy of information.
So, if I say here, on this blog, that aliens will visit the Blue House tomorrow and take over the government and there is a subsequent social disturbance, I should be responsible. Well, I say to you, Mr. Anonymous editor--yeah who are you?, that the people (those mass of innocent fools in your perception) need to take on more responsibility for their actions. It is their fault that they are so easily misled. I'll also cast blame on governmental and media outlets that play on these sentiments to advance their own agendas (considering that these institutions should be sources of reliable information--though they certainly are not).
GOD! These editorials drive me nuts!
- How To Nail An Interview
Would pass human subjects committee, but good advice came out of it.
- complexity science map
Great resource for learning a little more about these collection of theories
- Tomatillo - 토마틸로-멕시칸그릴
Cali-Mex food in Seoul. Haven't tried it yet, but the price looks good and so do the offerings
- Learn Korean Language :The Official Korea Tourism Guide Site
Korean language learning site
- Create Oral Quizzes & Speech to Text Transcripts with Google Voice
Nice overview of the possible use of the new Google Voice for oral assessment. The widget looks like an easy thing that can be added to a class web page. Not sure how it will work internationally.
I went to dinner tonight with my family to a great buffet. It's a little depressing that I seem to only be writing about buffets lately, but those seem to be where we've been going :)
유라 (Yura) is a "Meat" buffet at the Novotel Doksan (SW Seoul). This is a relatively small restaurant (public tables), but does have a large number of private rooms. The tables are great, stylish grilling tables (Korean-type with round grill in the middle). If you go, try to get one of the marble tables...really nice.
This is really a meat buffet. There are about 12 different kinds of meats available. All the usual suspects (inc. beef/pork ribs and bulgogi), plus some. I liked the "tenderloin," thick, tender, and juicy. Good stuff. We were also able to get the hanwoo (Korean) beef, which was fantastic. Obviously, not part of the buffet, but worth it for anyone looking to splurge.
The rest of the buffet is primarily sides and not very extensive. They have some different soups, rices, and jeon. There is also a small fruit and ddeok section, with traditional drinks. If you haven't gotten the picture yet, it's really very Korean :)
I really do recommend this place if you are in the mood for a good meat-fest. It's really good quality meat, a great atmosphere, and great service. The price is reasonable, I think. I hedge there because my wife paid and I can't remember whether it was 31,000 or 39,000. You could certainly get Korean BBQ for less, but there's no way that you could get it for less in this amount, with this quality.
유라 (Yura) is a "Meat" buffet at the Novotel Doksan (SW Seoul). This is a relatively small restaurant (public tables), but does have a large number of private rooms. The tables are great, stylish grilling tables (Korean-type with round grill in the middle). If you go, try to get one of the marble tables...really nice.
This is really a meat buffet. There are about 12 different kinds of meats available. All the usual suspects (inc. beef/pork ribs and bulgogi), plus some. I liked the "tenderloin," thick, tender, and juicy. Good stuff. We were also able to get the hanwoo (Korean) beef, which was fantastic. Obviously, not part of the buffet, but worth it for anyone looking to splurge.
The rest of the buffet is primarily sides and not very extensive. They have some different soups, rices, and jeon. There is also a small fruit and ddeok section, with traditional drinks. If you haven't gotten the picture yet, it's really very Korean :)I really do recommend this place if you are in the mood for a good meat-fest. It's really good quality meat, a great atmosphere, and great service. The price is reasonable, I think. I hedge there because my wife paid and I can't remember whether it was 31,000 or 39,000. You could certainly get Korean BBQ for less, but there's no way that you could get it for less in this amount, with this quality.
- Get Animated: Review of Go!Animate - KAMALL Newsletter Spring 09
Review of animation application, Go!Animate with a focus on language learning.
Professional Networks in China and America
Great interview discussing differences between how executives perceive and use their social networks in China and the US. For much of the discussion, you could replace "China" with "Korea" and come to similar conclusions.
For years Americans have be pushing a view of business as disassociated from the rest of one's life. Work is work and home is home, the two shall not meet. However, in a world where the lines between work and personal life have already blurred so completely, how long until we see that the two are not separate, nor have they ever really been.
The next generation of successful business leaders will be those who live their work (for better or worse) and do not distinguish between the professional and personal in the ways that we do today.
Does this mean that you are going to send public love notes to your romantic interest? Possibly, but likely not. It is going to meet that purposeful distinctions between the two worlds will be the exception and not the norm as it is today.
Great interview discussing differences between how executives perceive and use their social networks in China and the US. For much of the discussion, you could replace "China" with "Korea" and come to similar conclusions.
For years Americans have be pushing a view of business as disassociated from the rest of one's life. Work is work and home is home, the two shall not meet. However, in a world where the lines between work and personal life have already blurred so completely, how long until we see that the two are not separate, nor have they ever really been.
The next generation of successful business leaders will be those who live their work (for better or worse) and do not distinguish between the professional and personal in the ways that we do today.
Does this mean that you are going to send public love notes to your romantic interest? Possibly, but likely not. It is going to meet that purposeful distinctions between the two worlds will be the exception and not the norm as it is today.
language education...instructional technology....blah, blah, blah...
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