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connecting

"What is one item of technology that the world would be better off without?" I ask one morning for Bell Work. It feels like a soft ball question, but a few students struggle with it. "Let's get to work," I implore two boys. "I'm sorry, I'm thinking," Read More...
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2010 03 2

John Spencer

3 Comments

shaking the dust off a vapor existence

A man with an unrefined voice and a slightly hick accent stands before the crowd and offers his thoughts on the universe. How did this ever go viral? How did he ever attract these outcasts? Where are the three points? Where are the fill-in-the-blank answers. Read More...
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2010 01 12

John Spencer

5 Comments

congratulations, it's a blog!

I'm a big fan of NPR and their project "This I Believe." So, I thought I would explain a blog with a few belief statements: I believe that fiction can be as true as fact and that satire can be as honest as a critical analysis. Thus, I go back to A Brave Read More...
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2010 01 5

John Spencer

8 Comments

hour-glasses and e-readers

It's easy to confuse accuracy for truth, efficiency for effectiveness and novelty for innovation. Case in point: an hour glass is less effective than an atomic clock, but more effective than a sun dial. Yet, the medium itself manipulates people either Read More...
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2009 12 29

John Spencer

5 Comments

iCrack

Intoxicated drivers are eleven times as likely to cause a car accident as sober drivers. People who text while driving are twenty three times as likely as those who aren't texting. I'm not surprised. I've had awkward conversations with people who bust Read More...
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2009 11 17

John Spencer

0 Comments

an unexplored area of bias

Recently I wanted students to examine if they could identify a fictional story on a website. I used one "neutral" website with true information. I then created two articles, one that was true and one that was false. In the first website, I created a very Read More...
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2009 11 10

John Spencer

0 Comments

computer class

My goal, at a technological level, is not to teach skills. Rather, I want students to become technologically literate. This means, they will learn to analyze how technology is used, evaluate its effect on society and blend it in creative ways. I'd like Read More...
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2009 09 29

John Spencer

0 Comments

Creative Commons

We had a great dialogue the other day about Creative Commons, intellectual property and what exactly does "belong to the public." One of the hardest issues is the concept of mixing and borrowing, especially when information now feels essentially free Read More...
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2009 09 15

John Spencer

1 Comments

the horcrux

So, I allowed the students to create their Metaphor of Technology a day early if they had finished their first Social Voice article. To me, metaphors capture what a child thinks about an abstract concept in a way that I can't get in a concept map or an Read More...
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2009 08 31

John Spencer

0 Comments

what if "old" doesn't mean inaccessible?

I'm reading a fresh translation of an older work. I'm convinced that Tolstoy is a genius in analyzing the human psyche and so, despite the daunting appearance of a massive text, I plunge into book with reckless abandon. The book is deep on a personal, Read More...
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2009 08 5

John Spencer

0 Comments

the attention span myth

A well-intentioned teacher (whom I respect greatly) comments at a training, "We have fifteen seconds. In a digital culture, that's all you get. They are the point and click video game generation." I've heard this before. It's the idea that the medium Read More...
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2009 08 4

John Spencer

4 Comments

the loneliness of blogging

poor guy just can't compete with a flat screen The hardest part of having a blog is that I never know how public it really is. Sometimes I feel like one of those crazy bullhorn preachers, yelling out gigantic curses at ongoing traffic. It's been a long Read More...
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2009 05 26

John Spencer

12 Comments

Techno-Tuesday: A Video

For this Techno-Tuesday, I'm going to embed a video that's also on my Musings from a Not-So-Master-Teacher Blog . I take no credit for this video, but I'll post it here anyway. One of my students (a member of our Legion of Pisspoor Scholars Who Nonetheless Read More...
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2009 05 19

John Spencer

6 Comments

Techno-Tuesday: Why I Wouldn't Ban Cell Phones

I'm surprised how few students know that they can create podcasts on their own. For example, I asked them if they wanted to do a "Social Pulse" activity, where they asked a series of questions and allowed people to offer a quick answer. When they asked Read More...
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2009 05 5

John Spencer

2 Comments

Techno-Tuesday: Starting a Class Blog

I've had a few people ask me about creating a classroom blog / website. I'm no master at it. My class doesn't win any awards. I don't speak at conferences on blogging. Idon't get a million hits per day or anything like that. However, I'm going to toss Read More...
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2009 04 28

John Spencer

8 Comments

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