Future of Education website

It was difficult for me to focus on reading and writing during the last couple of days due to me catching an annoying head cold. I was, however, able to play around with a free web hosting/making site to create our "one pager" for our multimedia project. After some loosing of my stuff a few times, some swearing, and lots of nose blowing, I managed to create a product that all though not perfect, I am please with. I learned to copy and paste photos, which wasn't as easy as I hoped, to drop in text, and to move images around to make a visually pleasing layout. Although it was not working on the IMovie, I still felt like I was learning some new technology!

check it out:
http://futureofeducation.webstarts.com/index.html

The Future of the Internet

Umm, so what will the internet look like in 2020? I did a bit of googling and reading myself and this is what I found:

Google won’t make us stupid

Reading, writing, and the rendering of knowledge will be improved

Innovation will continue to catch us by surprise

information will flow relatively freely online, though there will be 

flashpoints over control of the internet

Anonymous online activity will be challenged

This is based on an online survey of 895 technology stakeholders’ and critics’ expectations of social, political  

and economic change by 2020, fielded by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life  

Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2010/Feb/~/media/Files/Reports/2010/Future%20of%20internet%202010%20-%20AAAS%20paper.pdf

Another youtube about the future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q41HJTsCoI4

On the “next” Google

Susan Crawford, former member of President Obama’s National Economic Council, now on the law faculty at the University of Michigan is “optimistic that Google will get smarter by 2020 or will be replaced by a utility that is far better than Google.” Others surveyed described new ways of searching (perhaps without realizing that’s what they were doing). Rich Osborne, Web Innovation Officer, University of Exeter, for instance, predicted that “it will become commonplace to be able to overlay reviews of a product simply by pointing a screen at it, or check the weather forecast by pointing your phone at the sky.” (And you can do some of that now with products like Google Goggles and Shaazam.)

http://searchengineland.com/the-future-of-the-internet-search-looks-bright-36585

December 22nd, 2009 by Arley McBlain

OK Internet, let’s call a truce for a minute or two.

As anyone who has spent time on a site’s comment section knows, the Internet can be a cruel place. Articles with the word "Prediction" in the title can invite some pretty terrible and/or amusing flame wars, but I want this article to be just friendly enough that you, the reader, are feeling comfortable enough to jump in with some predictions of your own! There are no wrong answers in a brainstorm. 

1. Audio web surfing

2. We surf on any device

3. Input revisited

4. Mobile networking

5. The end of .com domination

6. IE6 stops being used

http://sixrevisions.com/web-technology/6-predictions-for-the-future-of-the-internet/

EDUCAUSE: Reflections on Play, Pedagogy, and World of Warcraft

I just ran across an article that talks about Warcraft - which is interesting to me as I speak about how my children played Warcraft in my previous post.

Link to the article: http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/ReflectionsonPlayPedagogyandWo/213663

Warcraft and Toontown taught my kids a heck of a lot

Okay, so I was one of those moms, and still am I suppose, that doesn't particularly monitor my kids with time watching TV or while on the computer. I found that just when I would be at the point where I'd start to worry about how much time they spend in front of a screen, they then mellowed out all by themselves - or got bored or moved on - without me fighting with them about it. Well, I guess video games and the X-box have been the big influences of their time over the years. Warcraft was first, then Toontown, on to World of Warcraft (WOW) and then Halo - with a short stint of rock band (my favorite). I have to say that my kids learned a ton from playing (obsessing about) these games.

Strategy, collaboration, and accuracy was learned and practiced as they built armies and spoke online with their teams. And, they learned to type might fast as they learned their way around a keyboard at a young age.

Tootown is where they learned about meeting strangers online and begun social networking - years before Facebook took over that function. They created their toon (profile) and while mastering different tricks they met up with people in different rooms.

My youngest graduated to World of Warcraft and continued to build armies and meeting online friends and about this time my oldest became a member of the YMCA and focused on soccer - leaving the gaming world behind with only a few stints of FIFA Soccer when a friend came over. Not to worry though, he is now in-tune with his Facebook account.

And then came Halo (which I admit was a bit too violent for me) and Guitar Hero - my youngest got so good at Guitar Hero that he started taking drum lessons. He was already playing the violin so he knew how to read music, but his drum teacher was impressed on how quick he learned the drumming techniques (Guitar Hero isn't suppose to be anything like actually playing the drums, but I do believe it at least helped create the passion to learn how to play correctly). He has now found his bike and at 13 is extremely social as he runs around with this pack of friends - with only occasional X-box challenges as part of their activities.

So, I believe that video gaming provides valuable opportunities for learning. Kids love to play video games (as do many big kids, aka adults) and if playing a game online or with a console motivates a person to learn math, strategy, team building skills, and or a new language, then let the games begin! My kids are comfortable with the computer, new software, and use it as a tool for school daily. And so, I may have not been such a bad mom for letting my kids have unlimited amount of time on the computer after all - well, maybe I don't have to feel quite so guilty anyways!