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Archive for June, 2009

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Cell phones and internet can be used to cheat.

Illustration for Cheating
Image via Wikipedia

Anybody shocked? In a report from Common Sense Media, 35% of students admitted to cheating via cell phone, and over half the students surveyed admitted to using the internet to cheat in some way. There are plenty of people who would say that this is a fantastic reason to ban cell phones in schools. I only hope that those same people ban the internet too.

Seriously though, I’m not sure anybody is all that surprised. And before any suggests we start banning technology because it can be used to cheat, I suggest they do a few Google searches. Cheating has evolved into quite the art form. Taking away their phones won’t stop anyone, any more than taking away the graphic calculators would. If someone wants to cheat, they will.

A few other key findings from the study:

* 41% of teens say that storing notes on a cell phone to access during a test is a serious cheating offense, while 23% don’t think it’s cheating at all.
* 45% of teens say that texting friends about answers during tests is a serious cheating offense, while 20% say it’s not cheating at all.
* 76% of parents say that cell phone cheating happens at their teens’ schools, but only 3% believe their own teen has ever used a cell phone to cheat.
* Nearly two-thirds of students with cell phones use them during school, regardless of school policies against it.
* Teens with cell phones send 440 text messages a week and 110 a week while in the classroom.

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6/22/2009 23 Comments
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Glogster and Schooltube partner up

shania_glog
Image by room202isb via Flickr

Nice move for both of them. Key paragraph from the press release:

The partnership allows the students and teachers using Glogster EDU �” now more than 450,000 around the world �” to share their Glogs using the popular SchoolTube sharing site, and also allows them to easily import multimedia elements found on the SchoolTube site into their Glogs. All student-created materials on SchoolTube must be approved by registered teachers, follow local school guidelines, and adhere to the company’s high standards.

So it provides them a moderated means of publication, and also a way for Teachers to browse for edu-safe glogs. Kudos all around. Hope more sites go this route. There’s so many great Web 2.0 tools that educators COULD be using, but because of red tape and policy issues, they’re unable to leverage them.

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6/17/2009 13 Comments
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Eye to Eye with the Great White

When people refer to the ‘big five’ in Africa, we’ve learned that they’re making a gigantic mistake. Because if the Great White Shark doesn’t deserve to be on that list, then somebody hasn’t done their due diligence.

In Chicago, we have a fantastic aquarium, and one of the tanks has quite a few sharks swimming the reef. The powerful yet graceful swimmers never fail to generate a visible, emotional stir amongst viewers. And while everybody always spends a few extra minutes in front of that tank in hopes of seeing the deadly beast in action, it seems most of us have always ‘just missed’ a feeding.

Our cage dive with the sharks couldn’t have been a more different experience.

While the marine biologist who shared her unique perspective on the great white called them ‘elegant’ and ‘largely misunderstood’, I’d say that outside the Hollywood sensationalism, they’ve earned every ounce of reputation that they have. And after yesterday’s adventure, I’ve seen their viciousness firsthand.

After taking the boat out to Shark Alley, they dropped the cage into the water and 7 brave souls suited up and took the dive into the frigid waters of the Indian ocean. The crew chummed the water, and then threw out a decoy that cast a sea lion shaped shadow as well as a line with a fish head the length of my arm. They would toss them both into the water, leave them be for a while, and then when a shark was sighted, they would reel them back in towards the cage, entice the shark to swim closer.

How close? Close enough for us to stare it in the eye. And believe me, I blinked first.

To read the rest, along with student accounts of the day, visit the Discovery Student Adventures: South Africa blog!

6/7/2009 3 Comments
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Nothing kills jet lag like 2 straight days of travel.

Cape Town Waterfront Harbour. In the back you ...
Image via Wikipedia

After three continents and three flights in two days, I’m not exactly sure which way is up. But a small price to pay for the adventure of a lifetime. For the next two weeks, I’m traveling with 3 teachers and 12 students on the Discovery Student Adventures program to South Africa! Right now I’m in Cape Town, and getting ready for our first day of activities. I most likely won’t be blogging much over here, but wanted to point you over to the DSA South Africa blog, where you can read blog posts by me, the teachers and students, as well as see our videos, photos and tweets.

I strongly encourage you to join us there, and if time allows, leave a few comments for the students. We all know that there is nothing more motivating to a new blogger than knowing that somebody is reading.

Thanks, and I look forward to sharing our adventures with you!

DSA South Africa Blog
My DSA South Africa Twitter Account

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6/4/2009 3 Comments