If Video Killed the Radio Star, Will the iPad Kill the Printed Book?

Yesterday morning one of my 6th grade advisory students asked me what the next big thing in technology would be. I just happened to have my latest issue of MacWorld sitting on my desk with a picture of the iPad on it claiming it to be a "revolutionary" tablet. I boldly replied to her question that the iPad is the most exciting thing coming out and that it would be out in just over a week.

As I was talking about the iPad one of my favorite trivia questions popped into my head. The question is what is the first music video ever shown on MTV? Of course in my discussion with these 11 year olds I had to teach them about the fact that MTV originally showed music videos all day as opposed to the reality mix they show today. Of course these students also thought that MTV had just been around "forever" since it launched in 1981 and they were born in 1998 (feeling really old now?). The answer to the trivia question of course is the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. Enjoy the music video.

Now my students were really confused... so I started to tell them my thoughts on the iPad and how I feel it will affect print media. I have thought for a long time that I would never see the end of the printed book in my lifetime. I have always felt it would be something that my children would see but not me. The release of the iPad is a huge step towards the death of the printed book and makes me think I just might see this in my lifetime now. People have gotten used to the idea of carrying their music around with them wherever they go. They will soon be able to do the same with their book collections using the iPad. Unlike my collection of books that fill the bookshelves in my home and a shelf at work I could have all my books together and most importantly searchable as they are digital. This device will revolutionize how people interact with the written word.

I know that many people are in love with the concept of curling up with a good book and the tactile joy of holding it in your hands. I've also been told that the smell of a book is another alluring feature. I personally feel that people will get over these issues and find the convenience of electronic books much more powerful. The other issue will become the economics of electronic books. As more and more people engage in the purchasing of electronic books the prices will fall. The expense of printed books will not allow publishers to make enough profits and force them to cease printing books to remain solvent.

My only question as I think about this is why will we need publishers when anyone can publish? How will the removal of print books democratize publishing. This is not that dissimilar to the music industry and independent bands. What are your thoughts?

Who Is The Best Teacher You Ever Had? Why?

Katherine Schulten recently wrote an article for The Learning Network in the New York Times, "Who is The Best Teacher You Ever Had? Why?". I found the comments to this post tremendously interesting.

I used to do an activity in my course for pre-service Elementary Education students asking them to think about the two best teachers they ever had. After giving them a few minutes to think of those great teachers and the qualities they possessed that made them great I asked each student to give a quick talk about one of the two.

After completing this discussion we talked about the similarities these teachers had. Typically the discussion centered around these characteristics:

• Demanding
• Caring
• Passion
• Supportive
• Fostered Critical/Innovative Thinking

Many of these characteristics were detailed in the comments of the post mentioned above. What I found most interesting (since it was a technology course) was what happened next. I then asked them to think about their two teachers again and raise their hand if either of them used technology in their teaching. On average one to two hands (out of typically 20 students per class) would be raised. This translates to me that many of our young future teachers do not equate technology use being part of "good teaching".

I found this theme to continue as I worked with these college students over the course of each semester as I met resistance to the idea of using technology to reach all learners. These students see technology as a social tool (Facebook, IM, texting, YouTube, etc.) - not a learning tool. Over the course of the semester they tend to slowly change their thoughts about this concept. I have found that most teachers use the modeling they received as students to mold the style of teacher they will become. Will these younger teachers carry us forward in the advancement of 21st Century Skills?

Image Attribution:

Image: 'write like the wind'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64503058@N00/2199226160

How Secure Are Your Passwords?

As we use more and more online services, we use passwords on a regular basis. How hard would it be to 'hack' into one of your accounts?

The New York Times has a great article about password security, "If Your Password is 123456, Just Make it HackMe".

Is your password on the list of most popular passwords? Or is it something like your initials or first name?
Do you use a combination of letters (upper and lower-case) and numbers in your passwords for extra security?

Some password tips:

Use a random word that you'll remember and substitute numbers and/or symbols for some of the letters.
I attended Boston University which has the viscious Terrier as it's mascot. I could use 't3RR!3r' as a password.

or

My favorite song is "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave me Lucille" (sorry for putting that song in your head). I could create an acronym for this set of lyrics. 'yp@ft2lmL' would be hard to forget but even harder to guess.

Image Attribution:

Image: 'locking nothing'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53611153@N00/443924168

What Will You Do This Year?

I took a course this week on Digital Storytelling. My project for this course is posted below. I created it for use with the faculty at Frank Harrison Middle School as they begin the upcoming school year.

Enjoy.

Google Study Tips for Students

Google has posted a great page of tips for students to use as they complete their research. This is a great resource and is tremendously useful for teachers as well.

Once you have read the tips on this page make sure you check out the 15 second search tips the Google Team has added to YouTube. You may also want to start following the Google Student Blog.

To Twitter-finity and Beyond!

Astronaut, Mike Massimino, is the first person to ever post to the popular micro-blogging service Twitter from space. He's currently on the space shuttle Atlantis heading to make repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.

You can follow Mike Massimino on Twitter by his username, Astro_Mike.

Apparently, he does not have his Blackberry with him on Atlantis. He often posts to Twitter with it using Twitterberry. Those roaming charges were probably too much to handle. This post was done from the Twitter web site.

Thank goodness there wasn't a fail whale out when he posted!

It's the Little Things We Do and Undiscovered Talent

Many years ago I taught middle school math in a small K-8 school in Central Maine. Each year our 8th grade students had a ceremony that celebrated their transition from this K-8 building into the high school. It resembled a high school graduation in many ways (although no one in the school dared to call it one but that is a conversation for another day) including speeches by some of the top students.

One of my last years teaching in that school I found myself listening to Nick, one of my students, give a speech about his years in this building. In his address he noted me particularly for being a caring teacher who looked out for his students. My initial responses to this statement were pride and joy that Nick felt that way and expressed it in this venue. One of the examples he cited was a situation earlier in the year when I called his house when he was injured playing with some friends to see how he was doing. At the time I didn't see this phone call as a tremendous feat of caring. I really didn't think much of it at all. I just wanted to make sure he was ok, find out if he knew when he'd be returning to school and to see if he needed anything from school.

As I thought about Nick's statements my pride and joy turned to anxiety. I started thinking about how many little interactions had I shared with students that I didn't think much about that were not so positive? It really hit me how powerful my interactions, as an educator, are with students. It really is a matter of all the little things we do that makes all the difference in the world. From that day on, I have tried to be more careful of quick flip responses and how I interact with students (as well as other teachers).

Now... why am I writing a blog post approximately ten years later about Nick and his 8th grade speech?

I read a great post today by Scott McLeod about Paul Potts and Susan Boyle who have shown tremendous talent at later ages on the hit show, 'Britain's Got Talent.' In the post Scott writes...

As schools and societies, we often fail to create the conditions in which talent can be nurtured, recognized, and utilized.

Reading this made me think about the little things we do (and don't do) with kids and how so many students can slip through the cracks - flying under everyone's radar like Potts and Boyle. Let's reach out to the Nick's of the world and look carefully for those little things that happen everyday as students show up glimpses of their talent.