English Education Professor

The iPad forwards the Old Model of Passively Learning

Todd Finley — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:40:46 +0000

The problem with the iPad:

…the reason that mobile learning is consistently overhyped, despite its obvious defects, is that implicit in the image of a student watching a lecture on his phone in a bus is the idea of higher education as a distributor of content, rather than as a community hub. It’s a way of going forward technically while doubling down on the old paradigm.

That is to say, the problems that Schank and Downes have articulated around it are precisely why it is attractive. A world without keyboards is a world where the old paradigm can survive. — Mike Caulfield

via abject learning — social learning, open education, and petty battles with rivals over power and money….

Grammarman Comics – Another Way to Teach Grammar

Todd Finley — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:15:22 +0000

Grammarman Comic

I’ll leave it up to you to determine if this is an effective approach.

DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (9781603582346): Anya Kamenetz: Books

Todd Finley — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:32:28 +0000

Jeff Jarvis, from Buzzmachine, and ProfHacker have clued me into the Edupunk movement that this author, Anya Kamenetz is describing. I’ve ordered my copy in advance!

The future lies in personal learning networks and paths, learning that blends experiential and digital approaches, and free and open-source educational models. Increasingly, you will decide what, when, where, and with whom you want to learn, and you will learn by doing. The university is the cathedral of modernity and rationality, and with our whole civilization in crisis, we are poised on the brink of Reformation.

…it’s time for the monolithic, millennium-old, ivy-covered walls to undergo a phase change into something much lighter, more permeable, and fluid.

via Amazon.com: DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (9781603582346): Anya Kamenetz: Books.

Author’s Craft – Literary Devices – Irony

Todd Finley — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:17:21 +0000

Irony

What is it? | Why is it important? | How do I do it? | More about irony

via Author’s Craft – Literary Devices – Irony.

The Dude’s Beverage

Todd Finley — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:05:51 +0000

3BgKU.jpg JPEG Image, 380×304 pixels.

Curriki – Language Arts Lesson Plans

Todd Finley — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:22:26 +0000

Curriki – FocusOn_LanguageArts.

I am impressed by this site! Beautiful design and content is located here.

Teacher’s Facebook Comments Lead to Suspenion

Todd Finley — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:41:40 +0000

Hussain wrote on the social-networking site that it was a “hate crime” that students anonymously left a Bible on her desk

via Middle school teacher suspended over Facebook comments – CharlotteObserver.com.

Twitter Spectrum is a Cool Comparison Visualizer

Todd Finley — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:06:22 +0000

Can Edupunks Fight Against The Man?

Todd Finley — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:00:23 +0000

But higher education remains, on the whole, a string quartet. MIT's courseware may be free, yet an MIT degree still costs upward of $189,000. College tuition has gone up more than any other good or service since 1990, and our nation's students and graduates hold a staggering $714 billion in outstanding student-loan debt.

via How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education | Fast Company.

A Colonization Fight Going Down at Avatuesdays

Todd Finley — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:00:49 +0000

If you replace the certified teachers with the Blackboards of the world, you start to see the connection. It’s a confusion of needs and skills with products and processes, the ultimate perversion of industrial and post-industrial society.

via The Glass Bees at bavatuesdays.