TECHNOS

August 21, 2008

2007 ‘Best-Of’ List of Ed-Tech Trends Includes Popular Podcasts

In case you haven’t had time lately—say, in the past year or so—to look up every new educational technology trend and tool, the folks at the George Lucas Educational Foundation—Edutopia —have put together a mega-list of “best-ofs” from an April 2007 readers’ survey. The results are fascinating. Here’s a snapshot of ed-tech information you can find at their Web site.

Best source of classroom freebies (an overload of free stuff for teachers to use)
Best open-source software for education (Moodle vs. Audacity)
Best blog for educators (David Warlick’s “2¢ Worth” is still on top)
Most overrated buzzword or idea (NCLB won the poll)
Best tech tool (Surprise, surprise—it’s the computer!)
Best educational podcast (Have you heard of the Education Podcast Network? Grammar Girl ranked highly, too.)
Best way schools can keep new teachers from burning out (Mentoring is the winning idea.)
Best new book about education (Everyone’s reading The World is Flat!)
Hottest topic in the teacher’s lounge (One guess? Testing!)

There are many other results posted with details and links—interesting information and resources—plus, it’s just fun to read survey results.

Speaking of podcasts, if you haven’t checked out the Education Podcast Network, it’s worth a visit. Plan to spend some time, however.

The EPN is a product of David Warlick’s Landmark Project/Landmarks for Schools. Developed to serve “as a hub for…resources available to teachers to help them prepare students for the 21st century,” the project is well-respected among educators and cited often in education and ed-tech articles.

Many of the podcasts on the EPN are produced by teachers and their students. A quick look into the subject-specific podcasts index yields podcasts for all grade levels on topics ranging from the Alaska Readers Theater, in which Alaska youth present some of their favorite stories, to Mr. Blake’s Class Podcast, in which students highlight what they have been learning in science. Some podcasts are pretty professional—like the Science @ NASA Feature Stories Podcast, and some are more on the amateur side (but nonetheless interesting and most surely educational)—like the EdTech Posse.

(Consumer warning: As the EPN site clearly states, the podcasts are not endorsed by EPN nor have all postings been vetted. So don’t direct students to any podcasts without checking them out first. Good advice for any podcast, actually.)

Also cited in the Edutopia Readers’ Survey is the NPR podcast directory—a treasure trove of podcasts about news, business, talk, music, hobbies, radio theater, and anything else you hear on NPR. And you don’t have to be an English/language arts teacher to love Grammar Girl podcasts. Although each podcast starts with a short ad, teachers or anyone who writes or wants to write well will learn from podcasts like “Verbification of a Noun,” “Simplify Your Writing,” or, everyone’s favorite, “Misplaced Modifiers.”

You can dismiss podcasting as a fad or, worse, a dangerous diversion from “real education.” Or you can think of podcasting as another new form of publication. One thing is for sure: Kids are learning from podcasts and learning how to make their own podcasts, and teachers all over the world are finding out how powerful the activity can be for real, meaningful learning. It’s worth checking out.

Reminder: ISTE Launches New Technology Standards for Students

The International Society for Technology in Education has launched its new National Educational Technology Standards for Students: The Next Generation (NETS•S). The result of a year’s worth of feedback from educators in the United States and around the world, The Next Generation marks a significant change in “what educators think students should know about and be able to do with technology.”

Whereas the old NETS•S focused heavily on technology tools, the focus of The Next Generation standards has shifted to higher-level thinking skills, covering six key areas:

Creativity and innovation
Communication and collaboration
Research and information fluency
Critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making
Digital citizenship
Technology operation and concepts

Clearly, students know how to use technology tools. It is essential that the focus of the standards shifts from mechanics to methods. As the subtitle of the new standards says, students need “to be able to…learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital world.” So we know they can use the technology—now, can they think, and learn, and problem solve, and collaborate as 21st-Century citizens? This seems to be what the framers of the new NETS•S standards are aiming for.