The Daily Mail (UK) offers up Silver surfers beat the young as Web wizards:
So-called "silver surfers" dedicate an average of 42 hours a month to the World Wide Web, compared with 37.9 hours among 18 to 24-year-olds.Wow! Fourty-two hours a MONTH! That's over an hour (average) each day. Pardon my cynicism, but these statistics totally under-whelm me.
The people over at go.funpic.hu posted the image on the left. A close Nashville geek friend alerted me via email (thanks, Bob). If ever an image defined "generational technology gap", I believe this one comes closer than anything I have ever seen. This one will show up in a presentation slide/video, I guarantee it. So many metaphors, so much sarcasm, and a touch of irony...this is irresistible!
I am off to ponder, "How shall I best use this image". Microsoft, fasten your seatbelt!
(Warning: some other images on go.funpic.hu are not suitable for children or General office audiences...and I know you'll rush over there in spite of the warning *grin*).
Blame that prediction on a quip by Bruce Sterling at this year's South-by-Southwest conference. It is a translation of:
"I don't think there will be that many around in 10 years"As it turns out, what Bruce was really saying is that the trendiness of blogs will have faded even though the simple publishing platform will survive. The trend-groupies will move on to whatever the new "cool" trend may be.
Although I believe the failure rate for blogs is a good indicator that the "coolness" of having a blog fades for about 60% of those who start blogging, there are notable exceptions of success that may be indicators that blogs will survive adolescence and will mature into something even better than a one-to-many publishing tool. If I could re-purpose Bruce Sterling's quip, I would say that blogs as we know them now will evolve into something (or multiple 'things') far more powerful in 10 years and will bear little resemblance to the current delivery system.
Blogs have been able to accomplish a level of online community building (even learning community building) that discussion boards, list-serves, and chat rooms have struggled to achieve. And no, I do not have hard evidence to back that statement. I have observed a serendipitous trend in some blogging communities where individuals who may never have met in-person actually choose to meet-up as a result of connections made via aggregated blogging communities. Oddly enough, many of these individuals (and groups) may rake each other over ithe coals via posts and comments but manage to demonstrate a friendly (or at least civil) level of respect and understanding when meeting in-person. For me, that is encouraging and I see it as a positive model for community discourse.
More on this later...
From one of my favorite movies:
Smee: I've just had an apostrophe.
Captain Hook: I think you mean an epiphany.
Smee: No... lightning has just struck my brain.
Captain Hook: Well, that must hurt.
During yesterday's late afternoon session at the Tennessee Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (TACTE), I listened as higher education leaders expressed their concerns over the state of teaching as a profession and the challenges that teachers face... many of those challenges have little to do with academics in the classroom. The situation is far more complex than most people realize. Colleges may be preparing teachers better than ever to teach, but I have my doubts that anyone can prepare new teachers for the mountain of obstacles they will face that will keep them from teaching effectively. Our best and brightest may seek a better paying profession...and one that is better respected.
The lightning strike came from conversations that followed my presentation on Belmont's recent experience in preparing an online, electronic exhibit room/web site for NCATE accreditation. My definition of technology in education has been fractured. I dare to generalize that most of the TACTE members are not assimilated into the world of online communities, blogs, social networks, or Twitter*. On the other hand, I sensed a keen desire to know how technology can facilitate the jobs of teachers and administrators. Of the approximately 40 higher education institutions represented in the room, only two have experienced an electronic accreditation process...but the concensus is that electronic assessments are a reality. The questions that I fielded following my presentation revealed a huge gap between those who are frightened by the idea that they might have to create an online assessment and those who embrace the idea as an arena for personal growth.
Let me get back to my fractured definition of technology in education. Echoing through my brain (no doubt due to a Smee-like lightning strike) is something that one of the speakers said about students. His comment was something like ,"students are distracted...they are wired-up with little headphones...they are anxious to talk on their cell phones...they are text messaging each other on hand-held devices...and they are telling their teachers that they are bored." I believe every word from this speaker and I believe the students as well. For me, these comments expose a generational gap in the diffusion of technologies between current teacher educators and the students in the classroom. While my generation is still trying to figure out how to use technology to improve the quality of their professional lives (and indirectly improve the education of students), students are integrating technology into their lives at a much faster pace and in ways that are foreign to their teachers. Closing that gap and venturing into the world of online transparency is scary, uncomfortable, and requires a commitment of time that most teachers (and teacher educators) can not justify. Although I stand on the extreme perimeter believing that we should be teaching future educators how to teach their students to use technology for more than word processing, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint; I understand the disparities between socio-economic situations well enough to know that many students would be left behind. Somehow, feeling that a generation of students who are left behind matches up well with a generation of teacher educators who are not keeping up technologically, does not give me much comfort...nor does it help me with my technology in education definition.
I am not done yet. That is just as far as I can process for the moment. My head hurts...I may be having an apostrophe.
*At the bottom of the TACTE home page is a link to Google Groups where there is a TACTE forum...3 posts (two of which are spam), total, since October 27, 2007 2005
This may not be a first of its kind, but Announcing The Blogging Scholarship - Scholarships Around the US looks legitimate and would be a terrific opportunity for a college student blogger to pick up an extra $1,000 just for blogging. There are a few rules and requirements, but nothing that looks out of the ordinary. If you know of a candidate, the requirements and nomination form are available on the bottom of this page.
I am trying hard not to be offended by the flippant title of Stephanie Rosenbloom's article: I Spy; Doesn't Everyone?:
"There was a time when unearthing someone’s private thoughts and deeds required sliding a hand beneath a mattress, fishing out a diary and hurriedly skimming its pages. The process was tactile, deliberate and fraught with anxiety: Will I be caught? Is this ethical? What will it do to my relationship with my child or partner? But digital technology has made uncovering secrets such a painless, antiseptic process that the boundary delineating what is permissible in a relationship appears to be shifting."
She is right. The boundaries are not as clearly defined as they were a generation ago. I do not recall every asking my children to share the contents of a note that may have been passed across a school room full of desks or worrying about the early days of AOL's instant messaging. Unfortunately, today, there is considerable room for concern over who might be sending messages to children across various electronic media... and I believe it is important for parents to monitor what children are doing via IM, cell phone text messaging, and email. I am not so sure that it should be done without the child knowing that electronic communications might be monitored, rather than spying or snooping in a more covert fashion. That trust, however, that monitoring is about security and safety only, is a sacred trust...and if violated can be disasterous.
Continue reading "Spying, Snooping, and Monitoring" »
There is a trend/prediction worth noting: all fifty year-olds aren't looking toward a sit-down retirement and many are headed Back to College. You might take a look at some of the comments that follow the story...some students are enjoying the age diversity that results from older generations appearing in the classroom.
"For years, the one-hour photo shop was at the cutting edge of photo developing and printing technology. But that gradually changed with the advent of digital cameras and printers. As prices for digital cameras and equipment have come down, consumers chucked their old film cameras for the new technology. And that in turn has meant a sharp decline in business for many traditional photo developing shops."
I remember the days of paying a font shop to do typesetting for camera ready copy...good grief, am I a dinosaur, or what?
'just thinking about businesses that have not been able to evolve into something else and wondering how that might apply to education. Any thoughts??
Mention facebook.com to a univerity student and be prepared for instant conversation...mention the term facebook to a faculty member (or a mom or dad) and be prepared for a deer-in-the-headlights look. Last week, I did just that with my Media Studies students at Belmont and what I gleaned from the discussion is that facebook is not a fad, but a phenomena that has spread like wildfire across US college campuses...and as one student explained, it is apparently "useless to resist". Everyone eventually signs up.
Continue reading "The Facebook Generation and How We View One Another" »
Charlie over at Charlie411 is hopeful that 2006 will see an increase in the number of seniors who join the blogosphere...and his assessment of the generational gap is on target:
"One reason for this may lie in the fact that youngsters have grown up with rapidly advancing technology, as opposed to experiences of their elders. Or, maybe people of my era just don't feel the need to express themselves endlessly on a plethora of topics."
Handwritten letters and diaries were the order of the day for Charlie's generation and personal expression tended to be, well, personal and not something that was broadcast.
Since joining the Ageless Project a year or so ago. I have noticed a major jump in the number of bloggers who claim birthdays in the 1950's. The number has swelled to 16 or so from the 4 or 5 when I first discovered the listing...and I suspect that there are many more who simply are not aware (or particularly interested) that there is such a site. I'm with Charlie on this, I would like to see more seniors listed (and that would include Charlie as well).
Continue reading "Charlie 411 and the Search for Ageless Bloggers" »
I find it interesting when newspapers fill the empty spaces between political punditry and crime news with stories about technology in the classroom (insert snark). Two such articles appeared recently: an IndyStar.com article, Teachers' new pet is today's technology and The Gainesville Sun article, Keeping up with Tech-Savy College Students. In all fairness, both artcle provide a fair assessment of where technology use is today, but I sense generational differences between the two perspectives.
Here's what I am talking about...
Continue reading "Generational Perspectives on Adopting Classroom Technology" »
A west Georgia man gets high school diploma...and should be honored for not giving up his dream...
"Thurman Barnes, clad in his graduation robes, walked a little slowly to get his diploma Monday. He needed some help - he's 96 years old."
They may be banned from the classroom, however, iPods are coming (insert echo: iPods are coming)...'just wait until college students return from Christmas break! I am predicting that those little white wires dangling from ears will be the new symbolic tattoo, piercing, or exposed mid-section. There is hope. Some educators believe that the technology has possibilities:
A survey of more than 70 public and private high schools in the Indianapolis metro area showed that most do not allow electronics of any kind to be used during the school day. Rather than trying to beat it, though, some educators are joining the hand-held technology boom, allowing certain personal electronics to come to class. "Part of our professional responsibility is to understand what each generation brings into our school building," said Robert Albano, principal at Hamilton Southeastern, a high school of 2,400 in Fishers (IN) which this fall began allowing limited use of iPods and other portable music devices. "Utilizing electronic devices (is) appealing to this generation," Albano said. "Our responsibility is to be on the edge, to take risks."
Some of the best videos I have seen on Internet safety are available online from NetSmartz...check 'em out! Be sure to view Tracking Teresa (about mid-way down the page). A wag of the tale to Daily News Tribune (Waltham, MA) - and Carrie Simmons for a good introduction to Internet safety and an extended commercial for NetSmartz.
Of the 30 million children in the United States who use the Internet, one in five received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet, according to a 2000 report by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, while one in 17 was threatened or harassed... An increasing number of after-school relationships are maintained through instant messenger and chat rooms, according to Sandra Roby, the district's director of educational technology. "It is really how kids communicate," she said. "It is so fascinating for them."
Parents and teachers alike would benefit from a visit to the NetSmartz web site.
I feel so much younger today after reading the USAToday.com article, " Senior citizen bloggers defy stereotypes":
"It's too easy to sit in your own cave (good grief, they have seen my office - PMC) and let the world go by, eh?" said Vancouver's Ray Sutton, the 73-year-old Oldest Living Blogger. "It keeps the old head working a little bit so you're not just sitting there gawking at TV."...Bloggers say their hobby keeps them thinking about current events, makes them friends to strangers around the globe and gives them a voice in a society that often neglects the wisdom of the elderly.
I'm pretty sure this select group of seniors are exceptions within their respective generations, but they definitely get it, just as well as our own John Jay Hooker (bless his heart).
Joe Jenett, a Detroit-area Web designer who has been tracking the age of bloggers for a personal project called the Ageless Project, said he has noticed more older bloggers in the past two years. "Isn't that phenomenal? And their writing is vibrant," Jenett said. "The Web is diverse and it breaks across generational lines."
" In the two years since 92-year-old Ray White started Dad's Tomato Garden Journal, the blog has been viewed more than 45,000 times. Some of those who click on the site are regular readers who know they can rely on White six days a week." Even 80-year-young, Millie at My Mom's Blog received mention in the article...we exchanged emails a few month ago (I can attest to the fact that she's a sweetheart).
For anyone who want to 'pooh-pooh' a bunch of old fogeys who are writing cute stories, be aware that the AARP Blog is rapidly approaching it's first anniversary and from the looks of their Issues and Elections section, they realize the power of citizen journalism. The AARP crowd may be aging, but they will not be silent.
The quote of the day comes from Ray White: "It's just like one big family."
Excuse me. I need to whine. This new US Census Bureau Internet Use report (16 page PDF) came out this month... it is well written and interesting, but the data is from 2003. I feel like I just opened a newly purchased box of Ritz crackers, expecting something crunchy and tasty, but ended up with stale mush sticking to my teeth. Akkk!
Whine continued: the above mentioned report is presented in a British PCpro article as NEWS:
"New figures from the US Census Bureau show that the digital divide is still alive and well across the Atlantic. While the figures are the most up to date released so far by the organisation, they are for the period 2003. But they throw up some interesting statistics nonetheless."
I believe the key words here are: throw. up.
Senator Edward Kennedy's floor statement on the death of 2000 American soldiers includes a long shopping list of items comparing the $195 million spent each day in Iraq to how that money might be spent domestically. Since one of those items involves information and communication technology, I quote it here:
One day in Iraq could close the financing gap for interoperable communications in 41 small cities, 36 mid-sized cities, or 6 large cities so that federal, state and local first responders can talk to one another during an emergency. Source: U.S. Conference Of Mayors, June 2004 Interoperability Report (PDF). (Cities under 100,000 in population needed $4.7 million on average, cities between 100,000 and 400,000 needed $5.4 million on average, and cities over 400,000 needed $30 million on average.)
In all of the reports over the last year or so from countries struggling to overcome the Digital Divide, the numbers, often quoted in the billions of dollars are difficult to comprehend. Numbers like those quoted in the Conference of Mayors study, although large, are at least digestible. The digital divide cannot be overcome with money alone, however, understanding that many of the pieces of the solution have price tags and determining those costs is a worthy endeavor.
Please do not construe my posting of this speech or this particular report as an endorsement of the Senator from Massachusetts...I have an unpleasant personal memory of an encounter with his organization that dates back to a 1972 (or '73) visit to Auburn University. Unfortunately, that memory still shades my opinions of the man's fiscal realities...ask me about it sometime.
A San Bernardino County Sun article, Seniors learn to get wired , speaks of an interesting technology gap between older senior adults and the baby boomer generation :
As Web users of the baby-boomer generation age, experts predict they won't give up their savvy ways. Governments and businesses are bracing for this so-called "silver tsunami" by making their Web pages more user-friendly.Earlier this week, industry leaders gathered for a conference in Massachusetts called Aging By Design to discuss the impact of the elderly population on Web page design and technology. Participants, including representatives from Fidelity Investments and the Social Security Administration, presented research on the needs of older Web users.
I have been reading though the PowerPoint presentations from the Aging by Design conference and there were a couple of statistics that surprised me: First, there is mention that the fastest growing segment of internet users is over 60; Second, by 2008 over 27% of the workforce wil be over the age of 50. There are implications in higher education for both of those statistics, but I am not sure what exactly they are. For certain, baby boomers will need support and encouragement to adapt (and adopt) technologies that they did not use in college and earlier career positions.
Back in the technology dark ages (translation: last year), before the really good email filters were commonplace, I received tons of what is known as Nigerian Fraud (419) Email. If you follow the previous link, there are some 540 different examples to choose from. My personal collection of 50+ email texts rests quietly in a scams folder on my laptop awaiting an Ig Nobel Prize worthy, qualitative research project that would wear out my soon-to-expire-copy of N6 (formerly NU*DIST)! I am confident that with research in hand, I could create a software application to generate countless variations that could spoof the fraud bearing spam...and perhaps acquire a hefty grant for doing so...ah, the delusion of it all.
Every such delusional project requires a logo (those of you who know me should not be shocked). Here's my thinking: the 419 number, so chosen for the Nigerian law identifying fraud, has already been used and the perpetrators are considered an evil, ruthless bunch. This new software would be pretty evil (probably comical), not quite as sinister (It's ME for cryin-out-loud), and created with far less (i.e. non-existent) criminal intent. So, how about 665, just shy of the devil himself? Introducing: Scam-O-Meter 665... Can't you just envision the infomercial already??
Paul's Rx: Reduce coffee intake immediately!
UPDATE: After months of not receiving one scam 419 email, today I heard from Miss Sonia Kone (Ivory Coast..yea, right) who wants to split $12.5 Million
OK, so I have said this before...We are fooling ourselves to believe that a student's highest priority in acquiring new technology is something educational rather than social. There. I said it. It IS a generational thing!:
For kids, technology isn’t just a productivity tool. It’s a way of expressing themselves. If they’re buying a computer, they’re more likely to care about what it looks like on the outside or if it is beefy enough to run the newest computer games.“There is a huge generation gap on technology,” said Kathleen Gasperini, senior vice president at Label Networks, a Los Angeles youth culture marketing intelligence and research company. “Kids are growing up with electronics in every aspect of their lives, and parents just don’t understand that culture.”
Now, that doesn't mean that the "educational tool" argument won't be used against a parent for the purpose of acquiring some new technology nor does it mean that students will never use technology for learning. But watch your BS Meter peg-the-limits when something like this comes out of your student's mouth, "There are so many great lectures available on podcasts...IF I ONLY HAD AN I-POD, I could download and listen to them while working out in the gym." I would challenge anyone to count the times that overheard IPod conversations include something like, "you'll never believe how many lectures I can store on this thing!" (insert sarcasm here)
Software developers have known for years that users will do things with their creations that were never anticipated...sometimes that is good news and sometimes that is bad. So, too, goes the perspective of technology between generations, we hope for the best. It does make me wonder if the reverse psychology might work..."son, here's your new Ipod. I hope you can get all of your CD's on there...but be extremely careful about storing any lectures on it, ok?" (and try not to wink)
I am ready for real 'news' about the Digital Divide...the same studies from the Pew Internet and American Life Project keep popping up in newspapers (as filler, I suppose). One of the more recent comes from IndyStar.com: "Many hurt by digital divide want to be there, study says". If we depend solely upon the Pew statistics, "32% of american adults remain unconnected from the Internet (narrowly defining what digital divide means)." Let's expand that 32% of americans to see who is missing out:
1. 15% of non-internet users live in a household with an internet connection
2. 78% of people 70 years old and older are not using the internet
3. Blacks and those without high school education seem to lag behind
4. There is a group that is simply not interested (too busy)
5. Approximately 30% of the non-connected simply do not have access available to them.
Continue reading "Is one third of a 'divide' still a 'divide'?" »
With all due respect to the Soup Nazi, technology can now help parents control what their child may purchase (and when) in the school lunch room via MealPay. I am scratching my head on this one, remembering back when lunch money was a last minute panic as my children walked out the door headed for school each day...without the least concern over what they might actually do with that money. MealPay allows a parent to monitor what foods (i.e. how many desserts, drinks, pizza) that are purchased at school and actually reject that second dessert at the cash register.
Honestly, I do not have a problem with a technology that will help a child monitor spending habits (that sounds like something in the real world)...I do have issues with Big Brother scenarios in cases like this. I'll be quiet now...it is too early in the week to vent.
Leading Educational and Blog Search Companies Launch Safe Blogging Tool for Schools "Schools demand a safe, collaborative environment for their communication and Web browsing needs," said Tim DiScipio, chairman and co-founder of ePALS Classroom Exchange. "The combination of ePALS's large global classroom community and collaboration technologies and PubSub's unique prospective search capabilities allow us to bring safe, secure blogging to teachers, students, and schools worldwide for international cross-cultural collaboration and project sharing. More than 80,000 new blogs are created every day; for education to ignore this phenomenon would be to risk putting our kids behind the technological times. Blogs enable deeper, richer interaction among community members and encourage students to explore, express, and collaborate."
There are so many positives for students in this project...writing, thinking, global communications, collaboration. I do hope that there is fun in there somewhere...students who enjoy blogging at earlier ages will be the ones more likely to view it as a tool for other ideas, news, and commentary. It is perhaps an attitudinal change, a paradigm shift from: "Junior, go do your blog!" to something like, "Have you hugged your ePal today?"
A proposed "Study (that) evaluates kids, technology" caught my attention with the phrase, "it will not look only at the impact of different technologies on intelligence and psychological development, but also at how they affect children's morality and social lives."
Yong Zhao, director of MSU's Center for Teaching & Technology, said many schools aren't doing a particularly good job of teaching kids how to survive in the "new world" of information technology."If you look at most schools, they are trying to teach kids how to use technology, but they do not help kids understand the dangers and the complexity of this environment."
"Hopefully this research can shed some light on what we can teach, how we can teach, what are the exact problems with gaming, online chatting, the whole technology environment."
I wish this team of researchers the best of luck and would love to see how they will adapt to introductions of new technology, existing technology that evolves into something different than anticipated, and older technology that takes on sub-culture characteristics from abandonment by the mainstream. I will be watching for reports from this group, this is much needed research.
Back in the dark ages when I attended an unnamed, southern, public university, the grey-haired-matriarch-dean-of-women ruled over her chaste flock, protected them from the aggressive, amorous male species, and reprimanded any associated public displays of affection (PDA's) via strenuous rules of what was acceptable behavior and what was not. Today at Wake Forest University, we witness a similar, non-sexual-revolution, 'Little' Experiment in the world of (PDA's), Personal Digital Assistants.
There are behavioral patterns here. My generation and newer generations will agree on these, regardless of PDA definition (with a small dose of sarcastic irony on my part):
1. PDA is acceptable in specific locations
2. Faculty find too much PDA to be distracting and/or annoying
3. PDA remains a method for one gender to connect with another
4. Those new to PDA can find it perplexing
Without getting all Freudian over this, I believe that PDA (the term) has carved it's historical niche across generational lines...with room for varying cross-generational interpretation definitions of the role of digits in the definition (ahem).
Perhaps some people are completely fooled by the idea that they can buy their child's way into being smarter, making better grades, scoring better on standardized tests, and becoming a responsible Netizen. However, "Gizmos do not a Hemingway or a Copernicus make", writes Greg Sandoval, AP Technology Writer. I would suggest that we take to heart what Mr. Sandoval has to say. The good news: parents are still an essential 'plug-in' for a child's venture down the technology trail...the bad news: there are viruses of the 'over-zealous-marketing' variety that can lead an unsuspecting parent into spinning a child's technology compass:
The Internet age has ushered in some valuable digital learning tools, some educational experts say. But parents must be choosy to find truly useful software programs, handheld devices or educational Web sites.Where is the harm, you ask? The keyword in the Gizmos article is distraction:Parents should consider whether a product really addresses a child's weaknesses and strengths, and be sure the software is compatible with their computer, says Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children's Technology Review.
"The biggest problem that students have is that technology often ends up being a distraction," says Robin Raskin, the founder and former editor of FamilyPC magazine (which, strangely enough, doesn't seem to have a web site - my note). "In an information society the smart person will be the one who can shut out all the distractions (my emphasis)."
Note to self: how are you doing on shutting out distractions? Hmmm, 'not feeling very smart at the moment.
Reaching technology goals for schools systems is an incessant task. There is at least a recognition of the task, without the incessant aspects in Kinston, North Carolina...via the Kingston Free Press:
"We have to put the teacher on the same wavelength as the students," Sharon Kimrey, Banks Elementary School Principal, said. "Technology helps us to do this."Lenoir County Schools has no plans to change curriculum yet. Individual schools initially will be responsible for using new ways of teaching. The county would look at more advanced technological programs within five to seven years.
FIVE TO SEVEN YEARS? Wow. Let's see (stay with me for a moment). If one calendar year equals three years in technological time (it's really not linear, it's exponential), Kingston will only be 15 to 20 years behind the curve once the school system looks at more advanced technological programs. OK, I am not being fair to Principal Kimrey, there are other ways to advance technology without the school system's support and I wish her great success in achieving her goals. If indeed the 5 to 7 year portion of the article is true, that's pretty sad. Go ahead and tell Lenoir's 8th graders not to expect too much more in the way of technology until they are off to college...but the next class will be looking at something more advanced (whatever that means).
Maybe this IS a tortoise-and-hare kind of chase...but if the technology Dragon wins, someone will be asking, "Do want fries with your Hasenpfeffer and Turtle Steaks Marchand de Vin?"
This is worth the read, "Is technology in schools the future or just a fad?"
But most studies conclude that for computers and other technology to have much effect on student performance, a number of conditions are necessary: Teachers have to be technologically adept; classroom assignments have to allow for exploration; and curricula have to abandon breadth for depth.Although schools have made changes in some of those areas, particularly increasing teachers' technical proficiency, the predominant uses of computers remain word processing, heavily filtered Internet searches and the occasional PowerPoint presentation. In addition, with pressure rising to improve test scores, more schools have embraced skill-drilling software that contributes little to long-term student learning, observers say.
Let's grade ourselves on the three conditions identified in the rubric above: