Woot! Google comes out with Android App Inventor!

The buzz on the internet this morning is about this little gem, Google App Inventor, which will give us all the power to create apps for our Android smartphones!  Me, well, I'm very interested in using it in my Interactive Multimedia curriculum at the high school level.  While I haven't gotten to play with it yet, per se (you have to register and then wait for acceptance/approval), I am surprised how much it looks like Scratch! And what I love is the open, block architecture (it's based on the Open Blocks Java Library) and how it is really a continuation of the work of Seymour Papert and the MIT Logo Group began way back in the '60s. 

Take a look at this simple, yet enticing video that Google posted on YouTube. Anyone else excited about the possibility of weaving this into current curriculum??

Women in a Men's Tech World - An Educator's Summarized Perspective

I don't know about you, but I can relate to much of what this article, Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley, is saying.  Bravo - an excellent article, Claire Cain Miller!!  I wanted so bad to leave a comment about the gender biases I've seen in the Wired magazine (a pretty ironic magazine title, if you think about it).
So often I perceive this magazine as catered to sex-starved male geeks. I'm referring to the the ads - the little side articles, etc. This type of content doesn't help to break any stereotypes that women are just toys, pastimes -- objects to be manipulated and used when bored with other things made and manipulated, now does it.  But alas, no comments allowed at the end of Clair's excellent article (what gender made that editorial call??).  The tech world, despite it's aura of innovation and forward-progress, seems to have its share of gender-biased neanderthal thinking, for sure.  Let's hope great things for our granddaughters, because both you and I know, it is really that far off. Claire, ever thought about starting a gender equitable tech magazine called "Rewired"?  I'd subscribe in a heartbeat!!

(oops - forgot my place there for a second...I am, after all, only a little 'ol tech usin' female teacher writing a silly little benign education blog...don't worry, my hand is going back to rocking the cradle. It is - it really is. ;)

If you ever feel like you're being used...you are

At what point is social media to our benefit, and at what point is it exploiting us? Oh, it's not anything new - a new spin on an old trick.  Let the public freely advertise your product for a coveted item. I dreaded the day when business began salivating over Twitter.  They'll ruin it all.

Teacher's Digital Briefcase | Diigo

Teacher's Digital Briefcase | Diigo

A very nice collection of digital teacher tools! Check 'em out!

You simply must read if you teach....well written and extremely perceptive

Okay, below you'll find one of the best articles I've read in some time. LOVED IT!! Well written, insightful and beautifully retold (you will love the two-handed strawberry eater). May Anthony Mullen continue to speak loud and clear for those of us in the trenches. The race to online education is really about money, meaning a race to NOT lose local/state/federal funding, and/or the thought that a turn to online ed will save tons of taxpayer money. It is not necessarily about pursuing sound or even better pedagogical practices for students which..excuse me..is the real goal, is it not? And that is the rub. (Diigo bookmark and my highlights listed below)

• Teachers should be seen and not heard - Road Diaries: Teacher of the Year - Education Week Teacher

  tags: education, future, future_technology

  • "I think we need to consider the role of teachers in the classroom," she replies in a soft voice. "We are headed toward a teacherless classroom and must be guided by this fact." A teacherless classroom? I look around the table and hope one of the esteemed guests will ask her to clarify or possibly expand upon her statement. Instead, the guests just nod their heads in agreement.

    The strange little man interrupts. "I agree. Technology is making the traditional classroom teacher less relevant-possibly obsolete. Soon students will be learning at home from online classes on their laptops." I silently question who will be teaching the online classes.

  • The Harvard professor tugs at his chin with his right thumb and index finger and compliments the senator. "In the future," he says, "students will be learning at home using their computers. School buildings and classrooms will not be the primary learning environment." Really? Could any sane person envision millions of school children staying home and learning a full curriculum online? I foresee a stay-at-home mom or dad spending most of the day trying to keep their children away from Facebook.
  • Where do I begin? I spent the last thirty minutes listening to a group of arrogant and condescending non educators disrespect my colleagues and profession. I listened to a group of disingenuous people whose own self-interests guide their policies rather than the interests of children. I listened to a cabal of people who sit on national education committees that will have a profound impact on classroom teaching practices. And I heard nothing of value.
    

  • "I'm thinking about the current health care debate, "I said. "And I am wondering if I will be asked to sit on a national committee charged with the task of creating a core curriculum of medical procedures to be used in hospital emergency rooms."

    The strange little man cocks his head and, suddenly, the fly on the wall has everyone's attention.

  • "I realize that most people would think I am unqualified to sit on such a committee because I am not a doctor, I have never worked in an emergency room, and I have never treated a single patient. So what? Today I have listened to people who are not teachers, have never worked in a classroom, and have never taught a single student tell me how to teach."

    An uneasy silence cloaks the table. The governor from the South looks at his watch, the governor from the North bows his head, the governor from the Midwest stirs his coffee, the diminutive senator stares at me, and the strange little man grabs another strawberry. One by one the lunch guests leave the table.
    
    I return to being a fly on a wall at a table.
    
    I wonder how many other teachers have been treated in such a manner.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Challenging Ourselves

Wonderful graphics, wonderful message by Stuart McMillen!

BaseKit: Helping Photoshop and Designers Be All They Can Be

I love Photoshop. I've come in contact with lots of software, webware and freeware over the years, and Photoshop still is my favorite. I've not yet mastered it after 10 years, but that's why it remains at the top of my list. I use it for so many things, but at work primarily to teach web design. So you can understand my excitement when I ran across a recent Twitter referencing BaseKit and its current beta signup. There seems to be a chasm-ed divide these days between those who design and those who code the designer's ideas into the end result. Perhaps BaseKit will bridge that divide at bit. Click on the image below to see what BaseKit has to offer. Very promising indeed -- an all from within the browser window.


















We live in a day and age where we shouldn't have to be super-geeky to put our design ideas into play on the Internet. I'd like to say we've evolved past that...or have we? Check out the following Vimeo video. With a mantra of "Stop coding, start designing - create a website the BaseKit way", how could you not hope for its wild success? Where is it all heading? I think we'll soon have some hyper-combined version of SiteGrinder/Artisteer/BaseKit before we know it -- and it will be revolutionary. It might even make coders want to learn design. ;) Definitely a company to keep an eye on.


BaseKit from BaseKit Team on Vimeo.

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