Call for tech-sanity

Here is a small rant placed on InsideHigherEd today:

Despite the seeming validity of the statement, getting an iPhone won't necessarily "seal the deal" for enrollment. One or two out of a Freshman class, maybe, but these are niche schools to begin with. If you are a Church of Christ member, depending on your degree of conservative evangelicalism, you will go to ACU (insert school of choice here) because of your desire to be around like-minded folk. ACU happens to be on the moderate end of this radical group (Pepperdine is the most liberal; Harding conservative).

That aside, educationally I applaud this move. Where Duke was a little early (audio-based), the iphone is perfectly suited for web-based integration with BlackBoard, web-apps, etc. Instead of bemoaning the move, how about exploring the possibilities offered to address (read: be seen as relevant) the digital natives. Like the dot-coms, some ideas will fail miserably. Others (whoever heard of Google 10 years ago) may very well revolutionize.

So, let's discuss how we can use technology to teach, eh?

Are you a teacher or an Educator

[copied from an e-mail forward]

According to a news report, a certain school was recently faced with a unique problem.

A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the washroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. He called all the girls to the washroom and met them there with the maintenance man.

He explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, he asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers, and then there are Educators

WIKIs in the classroom

I am ambivalent about the use of WIKIs in general. Don't get me wrong, I think that they are useful (see my query about a Grace Slick song here), but to be used in the classroom seems to be an exercise in busywork.

WIKIs work by employing those with knowledge and time. It also appeals to a certain strata (who I am glad are around, but I am just not one).

Now, if I force my Freshmen to go to a WIKI to compile a set of collective knowledge about something, I will get some interesting results, but I wonder about the utility. Will a classroom be a large enough pool to gather "expertise"?--without which the whole endeavor, from the student's point of view and my own, seems to be only mildy interesting.

Would I create a grammar WIKI? God no! Horrible, horrible idea. A style WIKI? One shade up from the pit of Hell...

I see no real use.

BUT, if you do know of a use, please let the fellow below know. He works for WetPaint, a free WIKI hosting service, and he is interested.
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My name is Michael Bolognino and I'm writing to you from Wetpaint Central in Seattle.

I'm working on building out a dedicated area at Wetpaint.com to help guide educators through the benefits of creating wikis in the classroom, and I'd love to get your input.

If you are an educator, please take 3 minutes to answer a few questions about using wikis in Education. If you are not an educator, please disregard this email.

Cheers, Michael

Michael Bolognino
Community Manager
Michael@wetpaint.com


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