16 Jun 11 Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains?
USA Today: Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains?
Great article from a few years back in USA Today. It gives some interesting insights into the impact technology is having on individuals today versus just a few short years ago. Scientists have gone as far as to say that the brain has literally been rewired. What do you think about it? Do you agree with the findings presented in the article? Do you notice that students today are lacking in social skills? Is technology making it harder, if not impossible, for people to be aware of non-verbal cues in conversation? Do you notice younger people having a struggle communicating face-to-face with others?
25 May 11 Herald-Dispatch: Recovery school lets students catch up
An article featured in the Herald-Dispatch newspaper discusses the Recovery School program implemented this year by Cabell County Schools.
(http://www.herald-dispatch.com/life/schools/x1656187967/Recovery-school-lets-students-catch-up)
24 May 11 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education
The following text comes directly from a blog post by Carol Cooper-Taylor. It can be found here: 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education.
First Steps
- Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, the name of your school/college/poly/uni, and words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
- Add a picture of yourself. People want to see you. What type of picture – up to you, there is a whole load of diversity out there on this.
- Don’t just tweet about yourself, talk to other people about their interests, too.
- Point out interesting things happening in your classroom (whatever form that takes).
- Share links to neat things in your institution and/or community.
- Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead.
- Be wary of always promoting your stuff. Your fans (aka mother) will love it. But hopefully you are reaching out to others as well.
- Promote your students’ stories, but be careful to maintain anonymity, particularly with kids.
- Be human.
- Talk about non-education stuff too, there is life outside your institution.
Ideas About WHAT to Tweet
- Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
- Have more than one twitterer at your institution. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
- When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
- Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
- Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
- Tweet about other people’s stuff. Make you human
- When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
- Share the human side of your institution. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
- Don’t toot your own horn too much.
- Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.
