Stephen's Untold Stories

Interesting use. I might have to try this for organizing articles for my classes.

Radiologists at at Renji Hospital and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine in Shanghai are using iTunes to save, sort, and search PDF files.

“Most published medical papers are available on the internet in a PDF format now,” said Li Jun Qian, MD. “For radiologists, these electronic papers provide richer information (e.g. various cases, reviews and abundant, valuable images) than conventional textbooks and can be easily found and downloaded for further reading via online databases. However, managing PDF files is troublesome and it is difficult to find software designed for organizing them,” said Dr. Qian.

Generally speaking, most people sort PDF files in folders on their PC by topic. However, using this approach does not solve the issue of how to file multi-subject articles, said Dr. Qian. Researchers have found that iTunes can address this issue due to its powerful search and sort functions, its ability to remember a user’s favorite articles and its capability to support customized shortcuts for different topics and/or categories.

“One day I just happened to drag and drop a PDF into iTunes and was surprised to find that it was supported by iTunes. This means that you can search, describe, and rate PDFs just like you do the music files,” said Dr. Qian. “We no longer need to keep PDF files in redundant folders.”

Link to article

How many of you are suprised to see Canada at #1? I was!

Cuil (pronounced “cool”) is a new search engine created by some former Google employees. It has a neat interface, so you should definitely check it out.

http://cuil.com

I have a break of a couple of weeks before my fall classes begin. This fall will be crucial for me as I begin to develop ideas for my dissertation and begin forming a dissertation committee. I’ve got a few ideas in mind for possible topics, but I’m open to other suggestions.

Here are a few that I am considering. Feel free to comment:

• Examining dropout rates in schools where there is a strong technology presence. Does technology have any effect of keeping kids in school?
• A study on how school system technology directors influence student learning. Some technology directors are former educators, while others come from industry. School districts have different qualifications for the role of technology director, and is one certain set of qualifications more ideal to enhance student learning?
• A case study of a rural school district I’ve been working with. In each of the past four years, this district has been awarded Title II-D grant funds to purchase modern classroom technology and ongoing professional development for the grant teachers. How has this added technology changed teaching and learning in this district?

Please let me know your thoughts on these and suggest some others. If you don’t want to comment here, shoot me an E-Mail at sbrahn at gmail dot com.

Interesting article on reading habits. Has the Internet changed yours?

As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.

But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

Even accomplished book readers like Zachary Sims, 18, of Old Greenwich, Conn., crave the ability to quickly find different points of view on a subject and converse with others online. Some children with dyslexia or other learning difficulties, like Hunter Gaudet, 16, of Somers, Conn., have found it far more comfortable to search and read online.

At least since the invention of television, critics have warned that electronic media would destroy reading. What is different now, some literacy experts say, is that spending time on the Web, whether it is looking up something on Google or even britneyspears.org, entails some engagement with text.

Link to article

One of the problems we “connected” types have is that we sometimes have files spread out over our hard drive, shared network drives, flash keys, online storage places, etc. It can become difficult to keep up! Here is a great list of over 30 tools that will help.

• 30+ Tools for Synching Files and Folders

My personal favorite is the Windows Sync Toy.

A great list you should bookmark or, even better, put in your Del.icio.us account!

• 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers

I rode up to Fort Mountain State Park with some friends this past Saturday. As you can see, it was a typically hazy summer day.

Here is a great site where you can legally download all sorts of sound effects.

http://www.soundsnap.com/

Bravo!!  Be sure to say for the end!

Interesting news on the handheld assessment front.

Whatever educators collectively decide about the utility of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom, one simple little device that received some notice during the conference’s last day may be on its way to delivering on its hype: the humble clicker. The small, handheld wireless input tools that resemble a miniature remote control have gradually found their way into high-tech classrooms over the past several years — especially in business-oriented fields — with some instructors swearing by them and others dismissing them as yet another needless gizmo.

But what if they’re not? Recent studies at Ohio State University, for example, found that students in physics classes making regular use of clickers — in quizzes, for example — earned final exam scores that were about 10 percentage points higher than those without. The gains also seemed to minimize differences between the sexes.

At the session, 34 percent of the audience said (through their clickers, of course) that they had used the devices either as students or as instructors. Another 24 percent had used them only as instructors, while an additional 24 percent had never used clickers at all. (The rest had never seen or heard of them before.) And, in a quick clicker survey, the audience was mainly (62 percent) from four-year colleges.

Link to article

If you know anyone in the Metro Atlanta  who would be interested, download the application. The deadline is September 26th.

Girls Incorporated of Greater Atlanta proudly announces the solicitation of nominations for its annual “Strong, Smart & Bold” Scholarship Award. As part of the “8^th Annual Girls Summit” program, these Awards recognize young ladies between the ages of 14 – 18, whose positive attitude is an inspiration to all who meet her.

For the first time, Girls Inc. will also award an additional $2,500 scholarship for a winning essay that relates to the theme of this year’s Girls Summit, “Community Leadership.”

2008-ssb-awards-application-final

I’m sure you’ve all seen the popular “Guitar Hero” video games out there. But what about the other instruments?

Here is a gallery of other instruments…and you can even order a T-shirt!

Thanks to the ever resourceful Vicki Davis for this one!

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge. At the heart of the TPCK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Content (CK), Pedagogy (PK), and Technology (TK). See Figure above. As must be clear, the TPCK framework builds on Shulman’s idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

The TPCK approach goes beyond seeing these three knowledge bases in isoloation. On the other hand, it emphasizes the new kinds of knowledge that lie at the intersections between them. Considering P and C together we get Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), Shulman’s idea of knowledge of pedagogy that is applicable to the teaching of specific content. Similarly, considering T and C taken together, we get Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), the knowledge of the relationship between technology and content. At the intersection of T and P, is Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), which emphasizes the existence, components and capabilities of various technologies as they are used in the settings of teaching and learning.

Finally, at the intersection of all three elements is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). True technology integration is understanding and negotiating the relationships between these three components of knowledge. A teacher capable of negotiating these relationships represents a form of expertise different from, and greater than, the knowledge of a disciplinary expert (say a mathematician or a historian), a technology expert (a computer scientist) and a pedagogical expert (an experienced educator). Effective technology integration for pedagogy around specific subject matter requires developing sensitivity to the dynamic, [transactional] relationship between all three components.

Check out the TPCK here.

It’s true. I haven’t seen them all, but some of them look really good.

To use a template in Google Docs, choose the new button and select “From Template.”

Not a bad effort. I’m getting better at this!

Larger version here.

It’s called MoFuse, and it’s free!

Here is what my site looks like on a PDA or standard mobile phone.

http://stephenrahn.mofuse.mobi

And here is what it looks like if you have an iPhone!

http://stephenrahn.mofuse.mobi/iphone

Google France celebrates!

I wish these uses for technology would get more publicity. It seems like if it doesn’t help to raise a standardized test score, nobody cares about it. We sometimes forget why we do what we do. Articles like this serve to remind us.

A free, open-source online screen-reading program that gives visually impaired students the ability to surf the web from any internet-connected device, and a system that enables students with severe physical handicaps to control computers or wheelchairs with only their tongues, are among the latest developments in assistive technology (AT) that aim to lessen–if not completely obliterate–the gap between the able and the disabled.

“We are seeing exciting trends that open the door to increased access with greater simplicity for less cost. The emergence of open-source tools and hardware that is easy to use will enable more people with special needs to have access to technology that will improve their quality of life,” said Tracy Gray, director of the National Center for Technology Innovation, which advances learning opportunities for persons with disabilities.

New AT developments are giving disabled students anytime, anywhere access to tools that can help them learn from wherever they are, freeing them from having to sit at a particular computer workstation.

Link to article

Online courses were already gaining in popularity in most places. The rising gas prices have simply accelerated it.

First, Ryan Gibbons bought a Hyundai so he would not have to drive his gas-guzzling Chevy Blazer to college classes here. When fuel prices kept rising, he cut expenses again, eliminating two campus visits a week by enrolling in an online version of one of his courses.

Like Mr. Gibbons, thousands of students nationwide, including many who were previously reluctant to study online, have suddenly decided to take one or more college classes over the Internet.

“Gas prices have pushed people over the edge,” said Georglyn Davidson, director of online learning at Bucks County Community College, where Mr. Gibbons studies, and where online enrollments are up 35 percent this summer over last year.

The vast majority of the nation’s 15 million college students — at least 79 percent — live off campus, and with gas prices above $4 a gallon, many are seeking to cut commuting costs by studying online. Colleges from Massachusetts and Florida to Texas to Oregon have reported significant online enrollment increases for summer sessions, with student numbers in some cases 50 percent or 100 percent higher than last year.

Link to article