Photo by Judy Baxter (cc)
Well it's happened again. A couple of recent tweets have me thinking about my days in the classroom and my role as a mathematics teacher. In this tweet Karl Fisch is looking for advice to help his students overcome some challenges in their math class. Frustrated. I'm not being successful helping my students when they don't immediately get something. They just stop and give up. — Karl Fisch (@karlfisch) April 3, 2012 In particular he is struggling with creating a culture or a mindset for his students of determination. It also reminds me of the theme from yesterday’s #mathchat. The topic is: "How do/should we measure success in mathematics, and in schools?"#mathchat — Colin Graham (@ColinTGraham) April 2, 2012 In my days at Cary Academy I remember a conversation the math department had about what were the specific characteristics we wanted our students to develop through their experiences at Cary Academy. I have always felt that one of the most important skills (if it is even a skill) that we could encourage our students to develop is a sense of determination, a...
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Khan Academy
While the trending topics on Twitter over the past 48 hours have revolved around The Bachelor, March Madness, and NFL free agency, most of the people in my timeline, who tend to focus on education and technology, have been tweeting about Khan Academy and the recently announced TED-Ed video series. Last night I was caught up in a conversation among a few of my favorite math educators (Dan Meyer and Karl Fisch) and a supehero. Without doing the conversation justice, I’ll simply summarize it as a debate about the merits of online video lectures. Dan and the EdTech Hulk’s perceptions are that TED-Ed and Khan Academy are emphasizing lecturing as the fundamental purpose of educators. On the other hand, Karl was suggesting that it was a bit early to prejudge, especially in the case of Ted-Ed. If you haven't had a chance to visit the blogs of Dan and Karl, I strongly suggest that you do. Over the past several years I have followed the work of both men as they relate their...
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Working in an industry that provides goods or services to education can be a bit tricky. Obviously companies must operate in a manner which ultimately supports the financial well-being of the organizations, its shareholders and its employees. However, when working with schools we must also remember that it is important to keep in mind the significance and magnitude of the work being done by educators. As the #1 PC manufacturer in education, Lenovo has a responsibility to build hardware appropriate for education that enhances the learning environment and enables educators to improve learning outcomes. Recently we announced two new product lines that do just that.
In January at BETT Lenovo showcased, its second offering of Classmate Plus. Based on the Intel Learning Series, we are offering a clamshell version as well as a Lenovo-enhanced convertible Tablet PC. Both systems are built on Intel's Atom Processor technology and both are ruggedized to meet the demanding needs of classrooms. In addition, the classmates have a full suite of education optimized applications, including classroom management tools, creativity applications, and e-reader.
Also for those schools looking for more computing power, Lenovo has released an 11.6” notebook, the
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Evernote and Lenovo
I recently came across a video of a partner of ours, Evernote. Prior to seeing the video, I was unaware of our relationship, so when I saw it I was very pleased, not just because it is nice to hear compliments from a satisfied Lenovo user, but because the feeling is mutual. Without knowing of our relationship, I have been trumpeting my love of Evernote (and Stitch) during every presentation I do that involves our ThinkPad Tbablet.
I first became aware of Evernote in my previous life as a teacher and Instructional Technology Director. During that time, I was an avid Tablet PC user and a diehard Microsoft OneNote enthusiast. I was often asked for alternatives for those without access to Microsoft Office applications. Evernote was the closest I could find, and its multi-platform approach made it a wonderful solution for many. Now that I am a multi-device user, I have come to rely more heavily on Evernote. For example I am using Notes Mobile on my ThinkPad Tablet to handwrite this blog post (my typing skills are so bad). Once it is completed,...
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A tweet I saw this morning and a news article I read last night got me thinking about YouTube and schools. With our recent SpaceLab collaboration with YouTube I have been wrestling with the challenge that faces many schools and districts: To Block YouTube or Not To Block YouTube?
In previous years, when there was some focus on getting educational content from TV programming, due to the regulation of cable companies and the availability of Public Television, it was relatively simple to manage the content such that inappropriate content did not find its way in to classrooms. However, when we look at modern media, the gateways to content are largely unregulated and not easy to manage. As a result, many schools simply block them (or attempt to block them). The most prominent example is YouTube. While there is certainly a lot of content on YouTube that has no place in a classroom, there are also incredible resources and it allows access to wonderful content there.
Obviously, the devil is in the detail, but it will be interesting to see to what extent schools currently blocking YouTube content are willing to use this feature to allow...
