In my last post I sort of mused about the problem of criminalizing technologies in schools (and viewing them, rightfully, as an opportunity to disengage as well as engage). The problem I have with some of the standard views I’ve seen in schools is that they decide that because something could be used for ill (a kid could, potentially, use a laptop in class to look at a social networking site or something) that they need to block the possibility entirely. Grade schools and high schools are not alone in this unfortunate action. My graduate work at a state university … Continue reading →

I think it’s fair to say that technology has been wonderfully beneficial for all of us in a great many ways. The simple fact that I’m writing this blog from my chair at my desk in my home and all of you are able to read it when I press a single button is amazing. You don’t even have to be associated with a wonderful place like families.com as there are so many free blogging sites and micro-blogging sites you can sign up for in mere seconds and share your ideas with the world. This is a powerful thing. Just … Continue reading →

If you’ve followed this education blog for the past couple of years you would have accompanied on my journey through my qualifying exams. It was an extremely long and stressful process and one that I felt was very much behind the times and counterproductive (to be honest). One of my pet topics throughout my time posting here has been evaluative methods in the digital age. I’m certainly not a scientist by any means, and I haven’t conducted trials or quantified results into bar graphs, but I have been a teacher and a student during a time of great change (as … Continue reading →

One of my side interests is technology. I’m specifically interested in software. I’ve explained before why this came about. The quick recap is that my best guess is that my interest in software (specifically free/libre software) stemmed from not being able to spend money on the proprietary counterparts (in addition to an affinity with the ideals of the movement). This turned out to be a fortunate circumstance to be in because I was able to learn (at essentially no cost) a great deal about programming and computers. Enough that I’m now a confident user, experimenter, and all around handyman when … Continue reading →

It’s not until you pack up your entire life, all of your possessions, and fit them into a very small space for transport on a truck across the country, that you realize how much stuff you actually have. I had no idea how much stuff I had. I wrote about it last week, but it bears repeating. It’s amazing how many things we tend to carry with us from place to place but never look at in between the long moves. While I recently wrote about something I did take a look at (I had just forgotten) there are a … Continue reading →