Apr 04, 2007 @ 03:10 pm by Dr. Bruce Spitzer
The Federal Communications Commission today voted to continue banning cell phone use on airline flights! Hooray for the quiet folks . . . I cannot imagine enduring a 2 or 3 hour flight having to listen to someone talking on their cell phone.
I once took Amtrak from Tampa to Orlando, Florida, and had to listen to a woman speaking on her cell phone the entire two hour trip. It was nothing short of maddening!
Click here for CNN’s story on the ban and FCC vote.
Note though, that the FCC reserves the right to revisit the ban in the future if additional technical information becomes available. . . . so it’s peace and quiet . . . . for now.
Dec 07, 2006 @ 12:38 pm by Dr. Bruce Spitzer
So we’re headed into Finals Week here at Indiana University South Bend and all its accompanying emotional ups and downs.
First, the ups . . .
- The Winter Break
Students (and faculty, too!) look forward to a few weeks of “pressure’s off.” Of course, students find themselves catching up on all that’s been put aside for the last several weeks (or months? (laundry? cleaning out those green growing things in the back of the fridge?)), and faculty get a chance to dig into some serious writing that’s been neglected due to the demands of teaching and committee work piled on their plates since late August. It’s a time, though, of setting one’s own schedule and taking advantage of large blocks of uninterrupted time.
- A Clean Slate
With the coming new semester, everyone gets a chance to start over . . . old habits developed over the past term can be broken with self-promises of doing things differently next semester. As a faculty member, I always look forward to the start of a new semester and a new group of students (not that I don’t like my soon-to-be former students!).
- Holiday Celebrations
There’s a lot to be said for celebrating the holidays, whether you’re a lover of Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannukah, or just a fan of celebrating family and those close to you. Building lasting relationships and celebrating those relationships seems to be much keener in our minds and hearts at this time of year. My wife and I will spend time with my family this year in Iowa, and I’m looking forward to that very much.
Of course, there are always some disadvantages to Finals Week . . .
- Stress . . .
The media talk a lot about “high stakes testing” in public schools brought about (or made more critical) by No Child Left Behind. At the collegiate level, students find themselves pressured by high stakes testing every semester at this time. Faculty, too, find themselves stressed over grading work quickly so that grades can be submitted in a timely fashion (IU requires final grades within 48 hours of the final), yet grading thoroughly enough to make a competent assessment of students’ knowledge.
- End of Class
I’ll admit it. I really like my students. I spent several years in corporate training and didn’t much like it. Why? Training sessions of 1 to 5 days didn’t allow for the types of relationships that are built when I see students over a 15-week semester; I really missed that. Now that classes are coming to an end, I wonder if my students know how much of an impression they’ve made on me? I hope they know how much I enjoy being their teacher, mentor, and guide.
Whether you focus on the ups or dwell on the downs, Finals Week is here . . . keep smiling, and think about Thursday, December 14. Sometime late that afternoon, it’ll all be over.
Nov 20, 2006 @ 12:08 pm by Dr. Bruce Spitzer
You gotta read this posting . . .
It’s on a site called “Creating Passionate Users” and I think it says much that is directly related to my most recent posting, “Good Enough Probably Isn’t.”
Dilbert and the Zone of Medocrity
Nov 16, 2006 @ 02:28 pm by Dr. Bruce Spitzer
Qualitatis sine modem – - Quality without standards.
Excellence in medocrity
Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of students (and some faculty) involved in some project/assignment/work get to a point where they sigh and proclaim, “Well, that’s good enough.”
Unfortunately, good enough probably isn’t. And that’s what’s become an issue with education in American society. Stakeholders have accepted “good enough” as the standard to which they’ll aspire. No longer is “excellence”, “perfection”, “superior work”, or “outstanding” the goal . . . “enough to get by”, “that’ll do”, “well, no one else makes me do it again”, and “but I’ve always gotten As in my classes” are the accepted standards.
Several years ago, I listened to a speaker discuss a program for creating excellence in public schools called “TESA,” an acronym for Teacher Expectation-Student Achievement. I believe when we as teachers (both faculty members at teacher preparation institutions and public school teachers in practice) expect more, set the bar higher, our students will achieve to the standards we set.
Try it . . . expect more, accept no less than the best work.Â
And never say “good enough” again.
Nov 01, 2006 @ 05:59 pm by Dr. Bruce Spitzer
I wish I knew who to credit for the following “cut-and-paste” that I’ve kept in my inbox for several months. I do not . . . but if you read this and can add a comment about the originator, I’d really appreciate it!
Defining instructional technology in broad perceptive helps educators, especially inexperienced teachers understand the pedagogical issues to be considered when using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Leh (2005) also calls for the “the national organizations involved in teacher standards to recognize that teachers need to … develop a foundation upon which to build their understanding of technology integration†(p. 46). It is also necessary that teachers consider how the technology selected fits into the objective of the lesson, methods of instruction, evaluation, feedback and follow-up initiatives. Fletcher (1996) explains thus:when you go to the hardware store to buy a drill, you don’t actually want a drill, you want a hole, they don’t sell holes at the hardware store, but they do sell drills, which are the technology used to make holes (p.87).
That’s what I do . . . I help you pick out the best drill for the job . . . and I love what I do!
Oct 16, 2006 @ 01:05 pm by Dr. Bruce Spitzer
OK, AECT is in its final day (for me). There are still some post-conference workshops set for tomorrow, but I’ll be heading home.
A colleague of mine from Oklahoma State University, Dr. John Curry, blogged on his site about being “a member of the club” and how much he enjoys the social aspects of the conference. I, too, am delighted to be in that club as well. Though we get together just once a year, the relationships and professional connections we make here turn into real-world research projects and help us become contributing members to the field of instructional/educational technology.
We are a diverse group! We range from uber-geeks whose role is deep behind the scenes making sure that the hardware and network operations function flawlessly on a day-to-day basis to researchers who ask questions about what we do and (maybe more importantly) why we do what we do to those like me: faculty member who use technology and encourage others to use technology wisely and in ways that make sense.
Another AECT annual conference is “under our belts” and I’m taking away a number of great ideas, a renewed excitement about what I do, and sense of “being in the club.”
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Oct 11, 2006 @ 04:11 pm by Dr. Bruce Spitzer
I’m listening to John Couch, VP for Education at Apple Computing. Apple is a tremendous friend of education and I’m always amazed at their willingness to work with educators on advancing student learning. Couch talks heavily about a “digital” student who creates and distributes digiital content. But my experience doesn’t support his assertions.
I might agree that students are wired. In my classes of undergraduates, the moment I announce a break for 10 or 15 minutes, a large number of my students immediately turn their attention to FaceBook. There, they post photos of and commentary on their lives. These digital life portfolios are updated constantly; it is fast becoming the communication medium of choice for students.
What is bothersome, though, is how unable students are to transfer their knowledge of FaceBook (or MySpace or Friendster or other social networking software) to what we faculty believe are the common tasks for completing work in an educational technology course.
IU South Bend is a LiveText school. All students subscribe and are taught basic LiveText skils in the foundational technology course. Yet students struggle mightily with simple skills such as attaching a file to LiveText document.
Students can easily create slide shows of digital photographs from FaceBook . . . but to create a PowerPoint slide show is stretching their skills.
Students “blog” their life activities on FaceBook, but reflection on academic work beyond a single sentence such as “this activity was fun” is beyond them.
Why are our future teachers so digitally skillful outside the classroom, but so digitally timid inside the classroom? What can we as faculty do to better engage students in their digital environment while maintaining our desire to align to standards, evaluate dispositions, and produce teachers who are skills, knowledgeable, and professional?
Oct 10, 2006 @ 07:50 pm by Dr. Bruce Spitzer
Today is the first day of the 2006 edition of the annual meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technologies. This is an organization devoted to the advancement of research and utilization of educational technology and an organization in which I participate as an active member.
This year, I am presenting a 1/2 day workshop with Dr. Susan Stansberry, my dissertation advisor from Oklahoma State University, a roundtable with Dr. John Curry, also from Oklahoma State University, and presenting a concurrent session developed by Ms. Sydney Bontrager, IU South Bend; Ms. Joanna Azar, South Bend Community School Corporation; and me. Syd and Joanna aren’t able to be here in Dallas, but are participating in the presentation via video.
It’s always a joy to come to AECT and connect with colleagues from across the country and around the world. AECT is truly an international conference with representatives from a variety of countries outside the US.
In addition, I always learn something new to bring back to my daily work. In this particular case, I’ve just learned how to set up and deploy a blog on my website (www.spitzertech.com) and am writing here for the first time.
AECT! Always a great experience.