Sean Sharp’s ITRT Blog

a walk in the park is good for the brain: http://bit.ly/Evz0p

Instructional Technology Resource Teacher: Guidelines for Teachers and Administrators

This was released yesterday and though I haven’t had enough time to go through it all, it does say something about my position in a rural school division here in Virginia:

One of the principal findings of the Virginia Tech study (2007) was that ITRT are spread too thinly, particularly in rural areas (p. 36). Ideally, there should be one ITRT per school or per two schools; this would require increased funding for additional positions in rural areas. Even when ITRT are spread too thinly, they can be used more effectively through organization and planning. When an ITRT is split between locations, effective planning is essential. For instance, ITRT can conduct face-to-face training at centrally located sites; information about these sessions needs to be disseminated widely in advance to give teachers and administrators time to plan their schedules. Another strategy is for ITRT to work at a different location each day; again, communication is important so personnel know where the ITRT will be on a particular day.
Another option is to alternate weeks at different schools. This works only if the ITRT has only two or three locations; otherwise, there will be too much time between visits to each school. This strategy also requires advanced planning and scheduling of professional development.

I agree with this wholeheartedly in my situation. Given that there are 133 school divisions in Virginia, everyone’s experiences in this position are probably quite different. I travel to three schools each week, and then float as needed on the other two days of the week. It keeps me busy and at the same time I have to work at being organized to stay on top of everyone’s needs for technology integration and support.

Tags: words

NOVA | scienceNOW | Dark Matter | PBS

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts this excellent science show. watch, learn, enjoy!

How we read online. – By Michael Agger – Slate Magazine

This article was good, short, readable online. Possibly some good links, too. I’m considering a Kindle and this makes me continue to consider. Good read.

Lazy Bastards: How we read online.
By Michael Agger
Posted Friday, June 13, 2008, at 1:00 PM ET

You’re probably going to read this.

It’s a short paragraph at the top of the page. It’s surrounded by white space. It’s in small type.

To really get your attention, I should write like this:

• Bulleted list
• Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
• Short sentence fragments
• Explanatory subheads
• No puns
• Did I mention lists?

Below is a checklist of questions about email, from Seth Godin. When I read it, I thought, “hmmm . . these are good reminders.” At least I think so, especially when email is the major way of communicating with colleagues. Enjoy!

Seth’s Blog: Email checklist
Email checklist

Before you hit send on that next email, perhaps you should run down this list, just to be sure:

1. Is it going to just one person? (If yes, jump to #10)
2. Since it’s going to a group, have I thought about who is on my list?
3. Are they blind copied?
4. Did every person on the list really and truly opt in? Not like sort of, but really ask for it?
5. So that means that if I didn’t send it to them, they’d complain about not getting it?
6. See #5. If they wouldn’t complain, take them off!

Teenagers and the Internet | Salon Life

Teenagers today read and write for fun; its part of their social lives. We need to start celebrating this unprecedented surge, incorporating it as an educational tool instead of meeting it with punishing pop quizzes and suspicion.

Good read.

Youth Online 2007

Just The Facts About Online Youth Victimization

Researchers Present the Facts and Debunk Myths

Thursday, May 3, 2007
This is very good. check it out when you can–there’s an mp3 file and a ‘Real Video’ file. It attempts to separate out the myths from the facts and I like a good debunking of myths whenever it is possible. There is so much ‘fear-mongering’ that is going on out there and that really has to change. We can’t have the fear mongering attitude as educators if we are going to be helpful to our children. Plus we need to embrace the goodness that the Internet brings to our lives. Check it out–insightful.

Welcome to a worldwide learning network — OER Commons

This looks pretty cool. Open Lesson Plans . . .

Nice!

THE MORE TIME PEOPLE SPEND USING THE INTERNET

THE INTERNET STUDY: More DetailWhat do users do on the Internet? Click images for larger view

We asked each of our 4000 respondents to select among a list of 17 common internet activities and tell us which they did or did not do. This is what we found:

E-mail is by far the most common Internet activity, with 90% of all Internet users claiming to be e-mailers. Note: the corresponding table has been updated from the previous version of the press release

For the most part, the Internet today is a giant public library with a decidedly commercial tilt. The most widespread use of the internet today is as an information search utility for products, travel, hobbies, and general information. Virtually all users interviewed responded that they engaged in one or more of these information gathering activities.

A little over a third of all Internet users report using the web to engage in entertainment such as computer games such as online chess, role games, and the like. Thus, the current Internet is also emerging as an entertainment utility.

Chat rooms are for the young and the anonymous. While a quarter of internet users claim to have used chat rooms, this activity substantially decreases after age 25. And the chatters report that the overwhelming portion of their chat room interaction is with anonymous others whose identities remain unknown.

Consumer to Business transactional activity– purchasing, stock trading, online auctions, and e-banking–are engaged in by much smaller fractions of Internet users, with only a quarter reporting they make purchases online and under fifteen percent doing any of the other transactional activities. Despite all of the sound and fury, business to consumer commercial online transactions are but in their earliest stages.

This article is very interesting. The part that struck me was the social interaction piece. How much time have we lost to socializing with others because we use the Internet so much? Or is it that we could be doing something other than the Internet and the same thing would happen? How much time do we spend socializing on the Internet, too? Good questions and some good perspective to ponder.