Thing 23 and I am All Done Thank You Very Much

I liked Flickr, Ning, wiki and Delicous, but I will probably only use wiki and maybe flicke. I really believe that just because you experience something, you don’t have to share it with the whole world. Just sayin.
I don’t know about the Life Long Learning thing. I mean I don’t strive to be a life long learner. I just want to keep from being a stick in the mud. Plus, to focus on digital stuff I think is a mistake. When I was working on my MA at Doninguez I presented a proposal to a professor for curriculum for middle school kids to learn how to work on bicycles. She ripped it apart and said I was setting low expectations for African American kids and yada yada yada. This was 1991. I mean what did she expect me to do have them make pac man programs on Apple IIEs. At any rate, I think they have take virtual stuff way too far. These kids could have gotten jobs right away at $20 and hour. Plus remember Orville and Wilbur were bike mechanics. The virtual is based upon the real. Without the real, there would be now virtual. Comuters spread around stuff, but they don’t create much.
I realized this most acutely when I worked in New Orleans. We had more that one computer per student. The kids were reading on the 2nd or 3rd grade level in the 8th grade and we had more than one computer per student. Got that. Plus the kids were angry, antisocial and abused. They didn’t need computers. They needed warm caring human beings to show them to read, do math and teach them how to get along with one another. I kind of agree with Clifford Stoll. Kids do not need computers until high school.
I don’t think much was unexpected. I always approach these things with more than a little bit of skepticism. I am always on guard for slick marketing and info mining. I would never pay for any of the items in the Web 2.0 Except for a wiki for study guides, but then I will see if our tech guy can to this for us.
The format is ok. John Dewey, Learn by doing. I would participate in another discovery program.
ONE WORD: Adequate
ONE SENTENCE: The 23 things were better than watching TV, but far less enjoyable that a walk in the woods.

Thing 22 Week 9

This applies to the entry below.

The World Public Library, Ebook Project and Project Gutenberg make available thousands of books and other printed material that would be out of most people's reach without digital technology and the web. It is really quite amazing. However, I do think that the majority of the titles are things very few people will ever use. Thorstein Veblen? Just lots of esoteric stuff. Although I think this will benefit some, these titles will seldom be used by the students at my school. In fact, we have a subscription to a Questia which is a research tool that has a number of similar resources. The problem is that they are all fairly old and mostly very academic. I have watched the students try to use them with very little success. Most of them are more suitable for upper division or graduate students. At any rate, if they are needed these resources are available for the entire world.

Week 9 Thing 21 Podcasts

Podcasts are very handy. I have been using them since about 1999. I upload radio programs that I cannot hear live for listening at a later time. I use the Google Reader and Subscribe to a number of subscriptions. A Couple of them are:

Left Right and Center from KCRW, and National Security with Ian Masters on KPFK, Los Angeles. I also found many new podcasts of interesting programs and will listen to them when I get a chance.

You Toob

I tried to imbed and this is what happends:

YouTube - Cochon and Liuzza's in New Orleans

YouTube - Cochon and Liuzza's in New Orleans

Week Nine You Tube Video Thing # 20

Here is a video of my former school system. I worked in NOPS for two plus years and it was beyond doubt the worst school system in the country. I could tell you stories you would not believe. You would thing I was making them up. Like for example the valedictorian at Fortie High School who could not pass the exit exam. Any way I will try to put a you tube video about this on my blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WUes3Qgxy4

I don't know how to imbed it. Or, you know have it play and show right in the entry....Where can I find out how to do that? Anyway, I use you tube for entertainment instead of tv. It is real reality TV. Plus, it can be used to show current events and other things to students.

Ciao