EastBaySchools.Net

Leveraging group dynamics, is a lot like coaching. One of the most fun aspects of coaching is to leverage off of the combined effort of the team, to take it farther than any one individual could have gone on their own.

So it is no wonder that the beginning of chapter 6 starts with a group activity revolving around physical activity and team involvement.

As a part time youth coach, my preconceptions in this section were to ask such questions as:

• How large is the parent group?


• What size, or sizes make sense in sub groups, based on what is to be accomplished?

As summer roars in with tempearture in the 90s, the heat or keyboard of a (mostly) online credential program replaces my recent focus in technology/K12 integration. I find myself reliving an earlier period in my life with the continual rushing to make it to the next class replaced by the rush to absorb enough of the material in each class to allow me to make reasonably intelligent analysis and reflection.

In this particular course, on content literacy, I found myself at first asking the whys and hows of learning content literacy as it relates to teaching math. Certainly, the department is not attempting to make all of the candidates math literate. (not a bad idea) But soon, after reading through some of the text, I'm beginning to see this course as the foundation of all learning - the ability to read, absorb, and comprehend information.

EastbaySchools.net is being created to support my research into the potential use of Open Source tools in K12. As the former editor of Web Techniques Magazine during the Internet boom, I've learned much about the interworkings of the Net, and wish to bring some of that expertise to the classroom. I've written a few editorials on Open Source, while at Web Techniques, and more recently, about the potential use of the net as an enabling tool. I am also a contributing author to O'Reilly's Programming PHP

Just a quick update on this site, and my masters project. I am currently finishing a department proposal for an "action research"
based study. I will be looking for three to five schools to work with during the spring, to help initiate open source based technology and pedagogy. Please write me for details.

Note also, that if you are reading through some of the blog posts found on this site, that some of them were class assignments during
my classwork for a K12 credential in 2007, and some are from other students that are now, or have been enrolled in the Masters of Education Technology Leadership program at CSUEB.

In an interesting article found here Microsoft asks for a modification to the $100 laptops so that they can run Windows XP.

XP can be added to the system.

The XO currently runs on a Red Hat Linux operating system. Making the laptop compatible with XP would give students in poor countries access to "tens of thousands of existing educational applications written for Windows," said James Utzschneider, a Microsoft general manager, in a blog post Wednesday.

These are just a few notes related to various materials across
subject mater, that I want to track for possible opening week
activites for my class:

1) Even if it would be impossible to jump right into collaborative/coop learning, when I start teaching math,

here are some ideas, and links to reflect on:

1) Great intro article at:
http://www.co-operation.org/pages/overviewpaper.html

2) Suppose I just open with some coop activities:

1) Determine pre-class assumptions on
i) smartest
ii) most challenged
iii) Average

Both in ability, as well as motivated, dedicated and not motivated/dedicated.

One of the areas of open source development in a learning context
that I see as important is the bridge between open source applications, and open content. eXe, or The eLearning XHTML editor, will help in this area, and can be found at: http://exelearning.org/

I've mentioned in a previous post that the tools for educational content creation need to come up a level, so that educators can
create applications with as little effort as a powerpoint presentation.

One of the tools that I've found worth watch is Laszlo, an xml based framework for creating rich flash interfaces for web applications. While it's not the tool that I'm imaging, it is worth looking at.

Feeling that I need to address these questions directly in brief, least I forget:

a) How can the Web be an interactive educational tool?

As they say in math classes...

"Certainly this is obvious..."

But when we look at the question closely, we need to figure out at what level the interactivity exists.

With web sites that promote community involvement, the learning takes place by taking part in the community.

For sites that want to promote a behaviorist model of learning, aka present the material, provide status quizzes and evaluation, feedback, and retesting, the web can not only simplify this process, but can make it economical as well. (See www.sakaiproject.org )