Author: abendelow
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Gmail, or its like, SHOULD conquer the world
Why? Because gmail really is “intuitive, efficient, and useful” at helping people organize and communicate ideas. Because we all want a more peaceful and productive world, and gmail makes that more possible. Because as of now, gmail is quantitatively and qualitatively far ahead of the yahoo and msn/hotmail alternatives. In a tense time the world…
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More proof that online education will work
if you let it: this February 1st article describing the gains made by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Psych students over their peers attending traditional classes and labs. It’s true now at the college level because, as Mary L. McNabb puts it in her 2006 book, Literacy Learning in Networked Classrooms, it was also true with these…
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Good teachers are the most important factors in student learning
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swfand yet, as Bill points out, as a country we have not been serious about identifying, understanding, and trying to replicate good teaching. Bill suggests something that I’ve suggested, and that web 2.0 tools make feasible: video recording classes to analyze and reflect on teaching. What better reflection than that done on accurate data? And…
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Can the American Dream of an equitable public education
be furthered by the web? I do not see why not. As an experiment, I am going to try to help students on the wrong side of the digital divide with web 2.0 tools. My hopeful hypothesis: that the read-write web will meet kids from disadvantaged homes where they are, give them proximal learning zone…
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A memo from the bosses to their Commander-in-Chief
Readers of this blog know that I have been an active supporter of US President Barack Obama, and have heeded his call to reach outside my comfort zone and help “rebuild America.” Well, two weeks ago, Barack emailed me asking that I host a “get-together” for folks to discuss the economic stimulus package currently being…
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By Jove, I think the British Schools have gotten it!
or so suggests this video from British Education Department types of last October suggests. With impressive spokespeople like these, I would think they’re enthused. So, where is the American version of this public education initiative?
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Would that I were a springboard for my colleagues,
one that could power them toward connecting and communicating in new, collaborative ways with web 2.0 tools! Instead, I’m afraid I’m an annoyance when I speak about the benefits of the read/write web for literacy teachers. And right now, without the benefit of electronic media at all they are maintaining learning gains each year as…
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Game theory already at play in curricula!
One of the great things about the net is that you get to follow the evolution of ideas from many differing places. And in a good discussion thread, there can be more solid information than one can find in a book. In a post last month, I described my hopes for the gains available when…
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They tell me you are wrong, and sometimes you are
Wikipedia. But your wrong does not stand long, with your thousands of assiduous editors jumping in and correcting false or misleading information as soon as it appears. And they tell me you are wicked, Wikipedia, that you trick information seekers, and bias them into your politically-motivated, left-wing mind-control. But I looked for it, and I…
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Why Saul Bellow works for me
is that in the two novels of his I’ve read, the hero somewhat resembles me. And we all like to identify with a protagonist, right? Like me, Bellow’s hero is a thoughtful middle aged American man living in or around Chicago. But I also like his books because his hero is distinctly unlike me, and…
The Wikiness 