Tuesday 1 February 2011

Educational Technology Change

When I was an A level student, there were no student computers in college, and very few for staff use.

What educational technologies have changed in the last 15 years or so?

Shelf of Library Books vs Rows of Computers
Paper Prospectuses for Universities vs A Website for a University
Whiteboard vs An Electronic Whiteboard
A File of notes vs VLE
Newsletter vs Flat screen TV notice board

Create a Photo Story explaining some of the changes. (Instructions are available online.)


Family switch off IT

SUSAN MAUSHART reached digital breaking point two years ago when she saw how the virtual age had become her family’s real life. She would text her three teenage children to come to the dinner table and hadn’t had eye contact with them for months. When she struck up a conversation, it was usually with the back of their heads, so engrossed were they in their gaming consoles and laptops.
Ms Maushart has now written The Winter Of Our Disconnect, which charts a six-month experiment in which she pulled the plug on all digital devices. It confirms what many parents fear about the adverse effects of electronic media on family life.
- The Northern Echo: Cut Off Point

Sunday 30 January 2011

Trying to describe the internet in 1994


In a Today show flashback from January, 1994, Katie Couric and Bryant Gumble debate how to pronounce @—“is it at or about?” Couric seems even more perplexed by the bigger idea of the internet, which she acknowledges is “becoming really big now.”
Found here via@ on Twitter

Tuesday 25 January 2011

BBC: How has Social Media changed your life?

BBC: How has Social Media changed your life?

Homo Interneticus

The first few parts of the fourth episode of the BBC's Virtual Revolution looked at some of the concerns over how 'Generation Web' might be being changed in their ways of thinking and relationships as a result of heavy use of the web at an early age.

Watch the clips and make notes on positive and negative aspects.

A positive counterpoint is this column by blogger and author Cory Doctorow describing how he and his daughter use the internet:

Jack and the interstalk: why the computer is not a scary monster