Random

Internet Bookmobile at Etech

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Brewster Kahle is currently speaking about the Internet Bookmobile. It'll be downstairs after the session and you can get your own book printed. Donations for the continued operation of the Bookmobile are appreciated.Update: My photos of the Bookmobile. (Journalists and others: feel free to use the photos with attribution. Thanks!)... [kottke.org]

Yesterday, Jason Kottke posted about the Internet Book Mobile.An effort by Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive. A very interesting project from the Brewster Kahle and the folks at the Internet Archive. If you haven't seen the Archive, take a look. Is fun to look back at various generations of a web site. For example, the Buckman School in the fall of 1996. I forgot about a lot of that stuff... :-)

6 Articles From The Feature highlighting Mobile Computing and Education

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TheFeature :: It's Education Week
The feature has six articles dealing with mobile technology and education. Two are highlighted below...

Learning with the Simputer details the development and use of a small handheld computer that is being developed in India. The Simputer is XML based and running Linux. Will sell for about $190.

The Simputer project was founded four years ago with the purpose of providing low-cost, portable computing and connectivity to poor and illiterate people who are currently untouched by personal computing, cell phones and other existing mechanisms.

 

Teaching in the Wireless Cloud, discusses the changes/disruptions that are taking place in higher education with the advent of wireless technology.

The most controversial instance of m-learning occurs in the traditional classroom, when students gain access to wireless connectivity. Some professors report frustration at students' wandering attention, as Minesweeper or instant messages become more attractive than a lecture.

[by way of...[alterego]]

Presstime Article on RSS Feeds...

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Presstime If it hasn't happened already, the person who runs your Internet operation will walk into your office and share a concept that sounds like a complete fantasy. Really Simple Syndication, better known as RSS, is legitimate and living up to its name for those who've launched their own news feeds. The online manager will say there's an easy-to-create, low-cost method for increasing the distribution of your editorial content through the Internet. RSS can build loyalty among current visitors to your site and help attract new ones.

Nice article that explains some business reasons for the use off RSS. Every benefit they relate to business use, can also be related to schools, their audiences and "customers."

Educational uses of trackback

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Some thoughts from Ryan Eby on educational uses of trackback. When students have assignments they have to do on their weblog, it'd probably be helpful to have a page that describes the assignment which they can ping when they post... [Brooklyn BloggEd]

Joe Luft points to a post by Ryan Eby (Ryan's site is great) regarding the possible uses of Trackback in educational settings. Joe mentions that he utilizes an RSS aggregator to read his students' work. I do this too, but one of the things about Trackback that is interesting is that with assignments, the instructor can leave it to the students to make the connection to the assignment, instead of having to subscribe to each students RSS feed in a newsreader. Also I'm thinking of some of the teachers out there who may not be familiar with a news aggregator.

I've been spending some time learning more about Movable Type and some of the plug-ins that others have written to expand its capibilities. For example MT-RSS feed is a Movable Type plug-in that allows for the import of RSS feeds into pages. On the Buckman home page are two examples of this. The school media specialist is using Movable Type to create a list of recommended books. This feed is incorporated into the school home page. In addition, Helen Nolen, the school principal, has been keeping a Movable Type page and this too is noted and fed to the school index page.

Learned of another MT plug-ing called Otherblog. Otherblog allows you to incorporate posts/info from other blogs on the same Movable Type installation. I hope to find some time today to incorporate this one to bring the latest book recommendation into the school home page.

HP's Create-a-Calculator Contest

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A terrific idea, the HP and Scholastic Create-a-Calculator Contest asks K-12 kids to design a better calculator.

Students may already be familiar with the useful and timesaving tasks that calculators can perform. Now, you and your teachers can challenge them to stretch their engineering, math, and design skills to invent the calculator of their dreams! There's no limit: Ideas can range from practical to fantastic, artistic to scientific. Entries may focus on a calculator's cosmetics, design, functionality, or a mixture of all three. Younger kids, for example, may wish to develop the shape, dimensions, colors, or the overall look and feel of a calculator. Older students and those with advanced math skills may wish to gear their entries more toward functionality: technical features, performance factors, or scientific and graphing abilities. They may even want to invent a new application or function key to enhance performance.

[raelity bytes]

Instant Messaging: Away Statements

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Making a Statement, in Absentia Away messaging, a function of instant messaging, has become something of an obsession on college campuses, providing communication, entertainment, procrastination and social life all rolled into one. "Students go online just to read their friends' away messages," said David Jacobson, a professor of anthropology at Brandeis University, who has taught courses examining away messages. "It's a whole new dynamic that's really remarkable."

Book chapters out in the wild.

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The cover of Content Syndication with RSS I find this oddly terrifying, but sample chapters of my book Content Syndication with RSS are appearing all over the web. Support your local syndicator by visiting Syndic8, who have Chapters 2 and 4 for download and Newsgator who has Chapter 2 for online perusal.
[Ben Hammersley.com]

O'Reilly is publishing Ben Hammersley's new book Content Syndication with RSS. A couple of chapters are available for viewing at the sites listed above. Ben's site is a good source of information on issues regarding RSS and how people are using it to share information.

About

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I am the principal at Lewis Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. I use this site mainly to make notes to myself about technology and how it can be used by teachers and students to gain a greater understanding of their world, and as a means to tell their stories...

Questions or comments can be addressed to
tim at lauer dot com

Books and Publications

"Innovative Approaches To Literacy Education: Using The Internet To Support New Literacies" (International Reading Association), Contributor, Chapter 10, Bee Stings, Wooden Blocks, and Web Browsers

Images Laur Betancourt4C"Bringing Children and the Internet Together (Bill Harp professional teaachers library)" Tim Lauer, Kathy Betancourt

Screenshot 04-1Scott Foresman Internet Guide:
ISBN 0-673-62225-8

Recent Articles/Interviews

"What is a Blog? Educators Discover the Newest From of Immediate Communication",
by Craig Colgan , American School Board Journal, July 2005

“Google Maps inspire creativity”
by Corey Murray, eSchool News Online, June 15, 2005.

“How do you communicate with students who have grown up with
technology? Schools are looking to technology for the answer.” by Kevin
Delaney, Wall Street Journal, Jan 17, 2005, pp R4.

Recent Presentations

Lessons Learned: A Panel Discussion about Creating Educational Communities Online,
National Education Computing Conference - June 30, 2005

Effective Weblogs in Education: How to Create, Manage, and Communicate!
National Education Computing Conference - June 28, 2005

Remixing Wikis with Rendezvous, Web Services and SchoolTool,
O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference - March 16, 2005

Where in the World is Buckman School...

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IMG_0304.JPG

Paulina locates Buckman School on an ariel photograph of the Buckman School neighborhood. This was part of a reading activity on writing and following directions using beginning map skills.
[Student News From Room 101]

Lynn Leake's classroom is starting to move with their classroom weblog. We hope to have a new design ready for her in a few days. This will include editing the index template to incorporate RSS feeds from several classroom weblogs that will flow into her main web site...

Test post from Class

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This is a test. This is only a test... Yesterday I taught my class at Pacific University . It is a survey course of technology use in education. It is for pre-service teachers.

As part of the days activities I introduced them to weblogs. Spent some time explaining what they are and how they work. Visited several education related sites include Will Richardson's Journalism class, and Pam Prichard's classroom.

Then had each of them set up a weblog on Blogger. By the end of the class a few of them were using their Blogger site as a note taking space. Example: Marlie's Blogger Site...

Only wish the free edition of Blogger generated RSS. Next term I'm going to have to talk to the IT folks about installing Movable Type for student use...

ASCD Presentation

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Will Richardson has a post about my ASCD presentation up on his site. During the session Will shared some of the work that he and his students are doing. Tonight he and I are going out to dinner with Pat Delaney... Has been great to have a chane to meet them.