If you want a nifty little tool for teaching basic information literacy in these days of the Read/Write Web, go to Blummy, create a bookmarklet with the links outlined below, and put it on every computer in your school. Why? Because not only can you replicate much of Alan’s multi-post bookmarklet (which I’m still keeping, btw,) but you can also add links that will (using my homepage as an example):
automatically look up who owns any website you’re on (pick the “Whois” bookmarklet.)
show who is linked to a particlular site (pick the “who’s linking” bookmarklet with the Google logo.)
and shows (literally) the page that every link on the site, well, links to, creating a page of active mini-browser windows. (Pick the “linked sites” bookmarklet) This takes a while, but it’s worth the wait, and you can even set the size of the screenshot that comes up. Amazing.
As Alan November likes to point out, those are three basic pieces of information that every teacher and student needs to begin to evaluate the authority and accuracy of a particular site. Knowing who owns the site tells you something. If every outgoing link is a link back to the originating site, that tells you something. If every incoming link is a link from some spam blog, that tells you something too.
There’s more to talk about here, and I’m sure this isn’t any huge programming marvel, but the big news is that I haven’t seen an easier way yet to get this crucial information. Very cool.
David Weinberger blogged the Irving Independent School District Symposium in Texas and included this little eye-opener:
Robbin Wall, the school’s principal, welcomes us. The school is 5 years old. Every student has a laptop… Principal Wall says that this school is focused on training professionals; it offers no extra-curricular activities.
Whoa! Did he say NO extra curricular activities?
This week, our Educational Technology Committee will make a recommendation on what route to take regarding the classroom model pilot we’ve been running here the last two months. For those that may not have caught my previous posts about this, our pilot model is a teacher Tablet PC, wireless network/Internet connection, and a wireless, ceiling mounted projector with screen. In preparation for the meeting, we’ve been collecting the responses from a survey of our pilot teachers, reflections the superviors at our school, and the report of an independent researcher we had come in to observe and interview the teachers. Hopefully, I can give a more complete picture of what the results a bit later on, but I just wanted to share some of the early feedback from the teachers. I will tell you that all of it, 100% has been positive. Here’s a sampling:
“It is simply amazing - access to information, always having everything WITH you, students having hands-on engagement.”
“The level of student interest and comprehension has never been higher when I am using the tablet.”
“This has changed education, and special education specifically, in my opinion. It easily brings out the best in a teacher.”
“When I haven’t used my tablet, I feel like I’m not teaching correctly anymore.”
“In teaching a special ed class, the level of participation & interest that this tablet has generated is AMAZING.”
“My students and I both use the tablet function every day. We keep classroom notes on it, we annotate documents, we read documents together and implement closer reading strategies. Next quarter I plan on using the tablet to grade and respond to student work. I think the tablet function is invaluable.”
“The versatility is excellent–I have annoated college essays for students wanting extra help, without having to set up dates and times that students usually miss. There are many time-saving and student-helping results from the inking aspect of the tablet.”
“I believe that the students are volunteering to answer questions far more frequently because they don’t have to walk up to the board with the eyes of every other student in the class at their back.”
“The writing tablet function of the PCTablet has opened up many doors for curricular as well as personal uses. Taking notes on student presentations, having students define terms right in the tablet, and a personal calendar that translates my writing into word document print are just some of the great features offered by the Tablet.”
Now I know there are other solutions out there, and I’ve been getting into some “debates” with people about interactive white boards and tablets. (I think tablets win, hands down.) But I have to tell you that even though I personally would never be without a tablet PC, I never dreamed the response from my staff would be this positive. And it has the whole school buzzing about what the future might hold.
Ironically, I saw my first ever Tablet PC commercial over the weekend, for Gateway’s new model. Now I really wonder if Michael Dell will read our pilot report when we send it to him in January…