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

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@tonyveitchUK on Twitter

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

Hopefully, blog posts will start to show up on the Facebook page now.

Assuming I pressed all the correct internet buttons.

How big are online communities?

• Map of Online Communities 2007
• Map of Online Communities 2010

The digital reading revolution

Books have come late to the digital party, but change is now happening at such a furious pace that even conservative members of the trade are starting to realise that their industry is being snatched away from them before their eyes. The undisputed leader in the race to sell digital books is Amazon. Its Kindle e-reader was a late entry into the race but it used its redoubtable marketing muscle to gain a 76% share of all digital books sold. It could have been much more but for the arrival of the iPad, which now has a 5% market share, though rising fast.

Guardian: The digital reading revolution

ecommerce example

One example of an ecommerce site is Amazon. This started off as an online book store but now sells much more, including an ebook reader called the Kindle which allows users to download books and browse the web in black and white.

Class 3 - Group blogs

• Commerce
• Entertainment
• Communication
• Download
• Real-time
• Education
• Mapping

Class 4 - group blogs

Research activity

In your groups, you're going to be researching an online service area, as given to your group in class. Search for useful links and blog them when you find them.

Online services:

• communication, eg email, instant messaging, newsgroups, online conferencing, blogs, social networking
• real time information, eg train timetables, news services, traffic reports, weather
• commerce, eg shopping, banking, auctions
• government, eg online tax returns, e-voting, applications for services/grants, revenue collection
• education, eg online learning/training, VLEs
• business, eg videoconferencing, collaborative working, business networks
• entertainment, eg multi-user games, radio players
• download services, eg music, film, upgrades, software web storage
• online mapping and route planning (not Sat Nav)

The links could be examples of the online service, people describing their experiences of using the services, reviews, news articles, etc.

There are lots of types of sources of information:

• extracts from websites
• screenshots
• journal articles
• sound clips
• discussion groups
• blog posts
• reference sites, like wikipedia
• online video
• Twitter

Set up a blog

Each group needs a blog. It's dead easy: one of you needs to go to blogger.com and follow the destructions! Then, invite everyone else in the group to join the blog. (Getting everyone to type in their own email address at this point is probably easiest.)

The getting started guide is useful, as is the help section on setting up a team blog.

Virtual Revolution - More

Because the BBC is ace, they've put a load of stuff related to the TV programme on their Virtual Revolution website. You can explore the programme in various ways, and the make your own documentary clips will be useful for your ebook.

Virtual Revolution Episode 1, Part 6

Virtual Revolution Episode 1, Part 5

Virtual Revolution Episode 1, Part 4

Virtual Revolution Episode 1, Part 3

Virtual Revolution Episode 1, Part 2

Virtual Revolution Episode 1, Part 1

The first part of the first episode of BBC series Virtual Revolution.