Lightning in a Bottle

USA Today has a profile of a 15-year-old student in Pennsylvania that just finished high school through an online academy based in Yakima. He’s also class valedictorian. It’s a brief read (this is USA Today, after all), but the student’s comments about his experience are interesting. He’s tired of working by himself, and is looking forward to going to real classrooms in college next fall.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-05-29-homeschool_x.htm.

If you’re a health or biology teacher (or just dieting yourself), this USDA-created database looks quite useful. It lists calories, carbohydrates, fats, fiber and more for over 6,000 different foods. You can download to your Windows PC, or install it on a Palm-based handheld to take with you when you go grocery shopping or visit a restaraunt. Probably not a good idea to check the foods in the school cafeteria, though…

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/.

Those busy folks at eSchool News have posted a new online report on handhelds at http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/hhc/. This looks like one of the fastest-growing areas of educational technology right now, with lots of new education solutions being developed. Rather than a list of “what-ifs”, this paper mainly discusses actual implementations. It’s worth a look!

The History Channel has assembled an online archive of historic speeches from the collections of the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. You can access the archive at http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/, complete with teachers guides and other educator resources.

ESD 112 in Vancouver has selected and put out to bid a variety of multimedia equipment, including projectors, digital cameras, camcorders, and document cameras. The prices on the projectors are particularly good. You can read about the products and download a price list at http://edtech.esd112.org/bids/index.html.

TERC has published a study comparing the results of two classes on science education. One took place on campus, the other online. You can read about it at their website at http://www.terc.edu/TEMPLATE/publications/item.cfm?PublicationID=92.

I just took a quick spin through the research, and I don’t think I’d give it too much weight in terms of proving the value of online learning. The populations were small (only around 15 online participants and 17 on-campus) in each of the sections), and they self-selected which treatment they were in.

There was some very interesting information, though. There is a comparison of the experiences of the instructors and participants, and where they felt there was benefit to online versus face-to-face instruction. I think there are some aspects of learning and interaction that are truly enhanced in an online environment. However, what this study does more than anything is create a great list of questions that need further research.

Personally, I still think the best approach will be a combination of face-to-face and online interaction!

Education Week has published a set of articles on states that are exploring (or already trying) to replace paper standardized testing with computer-based systems. The results so far are mixed, but that’s what makes it so interesting to read about! The articles are available online at http://www.edweek.org/sreports/tc03/.

EDUCATION WEB SITES NOMINATED FOR WEBBY AWARDS
The list below reflects the five best education Web sites for 2003 as
selected by members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and
Sciences. These nominees exemplify the very best that the Internet has
to offer:
BrainPOP http://www.brainpop.com.

NASA Earth Observatory http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov.

Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus http://www.visualthesaurus.com.

sodaplay http://www.sodaplay.com.

The New York Times Learning Network http://www.nytimes.com/learning.

For more information about Webby Awards: http://www.webbyawards.com.

eSchool News has a new report on the potential educational applications of Tablet PCs. It focuses on a large private school that has adopted the devices as standard student equipment. You can read the article at http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/TabletSpec403/index.cfm.

It all sounds pretty good, except for the idea inherent in the article that handwriting recogntion will replace the use of a keyboard. Most kids can type significantly faster than they can write, and that doesn’t count the time wasted when the computer can’t read the handwriting. The annotatable electronic textbook and paperless classroom idea sounds pretty exciting, though!

One of several companies seeking to develop cheap, flexible computer displays has shown a prototype of a rollable plastic screen. You can see a picture and read the details here. Pretty cool!