Update 10: Appliance Fail

28. July 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized

This summer has been the summer of appliance failure.  First, our water heater died.  And unfortunately, we didn’t tell the plumber to get one that will get us the tax breaks and the rebate from the utility company, but it works really well.  Then, over the weekend, I was supposed to make something for a party.  It was supposed to bake for 30-40 minutes at 350.  When I opened the oven at 30 minutes, it wasn’t done, so I left it in for another 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, I opened the oven and it felt practically cold, even though I’d cranked it up to 400 (to speed things up).  We probably could have replaced a part and been fine, but we have the world’s cheapest oven.  I looked it up: new it’s the cheapest one Sears sells.  The contractor who remodeled the house put in really cheap materials.  We replaced the dishwasher almost immediately because we couldn’t watch tv and run the dishwasher at the same time, or have a conversation, or do anything where you needed to be able to hear.  So yesterday, we trucked over to Sears after consulting Consumer Reports (who don’t really like any of the gas stoves anyone makes) and bought a new oven.  We got a mid-priced one that has a couple more features than the one we have–a warming drawer and convection, yay!

But damn, appliances are supposed to last 20 years, yes?  We’ve replaced two in less than 7 (and they were new 7 years ago).  One of these days, I want a dream kitchen with professional appliances, but until then, I don’t want to have to replace them.  And please don’t let the refrigerator fail; we like it.

Update 9: Creative Computing

24. July 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
The mascot for the Scratch programming languag...
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For the last 3 days, I’ve been at MIT at a Creative Computing workshop.  I applied for this a while back in hopes of getting some ideas for using Scratch in my classes.  I got a lot more than that.  You know how you go to a workshop on using technology a, and you end up going through a step by step walk-through of how to do things?  And you spend the whole time with your face staring at a computer screen?  Well this wasn’t like that at all.  The focus of this workshop was clearly on pedagogy and learning, thinking about how kids/people learn and then how the technology fits into that paradigm. When I use technology in my teaching, that’s how I approach it.  And I’ve always tried to do that when I teach others how to use technology, to a greater or lesser level of success.

The first a-ha moment I had was during the introduction and Mitch Resnick showed a chart that illustrated the decline in computer science majors.  Industry and others have bemoaned this fact.  As he talked about this decline, he noted that while it was real, it probably wasn’t the whole story, that perhaps people who study other topics go on into careers related to computer science.  He then connected computing to writing, suggesting that when we teach a writing class, we don’t expect those students to go on an become professional writers, but we do expect them to use writing in their schoolwork and jobs, and to have a reasonable understanding of the principles of writing.  The same should be true of computing.  We should expect that while a few students may go on to become computer scientists, everyone should have developed skills in computational thinking through a computing class.

There’s always been a real tension between those who espouse a “hard core” approach to teaching computing, and focus on students learning a particular programming language and those who are more interested in having students grasp computational principles.  The former approach tends to turn people off to computing, especially those in underrepresented groups, while the latter is interested in spreading computational thinking concepts more broadly as well as potentially attracting different kinds of people to the field of computer science.

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A second a-ha moment came during a storytelling talk by Kevin Brooks.  As he talked about telling a story to audiences that spoke different languages, I started thinking about the way that technology and computing are a foreign language to many people.  So there’s sometimes a disconnect between what we are talking about and what our audience (kids or teachers) hear.  We have to use different tactics to make the connection.  And we also have to be sympathetic to the learning curve.  No one learns Japanese in a day.

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My final a-ha moment came when Eric Klopfer started talking about games.  As someone who is a gamer and reads the literature on gaming and education, I had heard a lot of the ideas he was talking about.  To most people in the room, though, it was all new.  These ideas have been around for a long time, but they’re just barely out there and they’re certainly not filtering very well into our education system.  It struck me that it takes a very long time for ideas that come from research to get put into practice.  And sometimes that lag is seriously detrimental.  The kids are mostly already there, but they’re only there outside of school.  If we can apply these ideas in school and sooner, we might be able to better meet the kids where they are.

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Notice that none of my a-ha moments had anything to do with figuring out some specific aspect of Scratch, though I did figure some of those out, too.  And I got some great ideas for how to use it in my classes.  But mostly, I learned that my thinking about education and learning applies to computing as well as it does to writing and that gives me a really strong foundation to work from.

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Update 8: In defense of “technomom”

19. July 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized

Renee Hobbes, a professor at Temple University, writes an opinion piece in today’s Inquirer about a recent study that shows that kids where a computer has been introduced into the home actually lost ground in reading and math skills.   I agree with most of what she says, which boils down to what a lot of us in the educational technology field have been saying for years: access to the technology does not automatically make kids smarter.  We’ve spent a long while debunking the myth that kids today are Digital Natives who automatically know how to assess information online and then remix it into their own fabulous creations.  Unfortunately the “digital native” voices are the ones that were louder, or were the ones that were picked up by the media.  It’s a much easier story to say we old people are clueless about technology and these young people are going to save the world with the techno-knowledge.  It was also easier for schools to pop in computer labs and smartboards and institute laptop programs without considering what to do with them.  At least they could say they put the technology into kids’ hands.

So I agree with her on that point and her criticism of schools for not addressing critical thinking skills when it comes to technology.  There are exceptions to that, of course, but until recently, many schools added technology fairly blindly.  What I take most issue with is her characterization of parents.  Early in the piece, she says this of mothers (not dads, notice, but moms):

THESE days, the “soccer mom” has long been replaced by the “techno mom” who buys a Leapfrog electronic toy for her baby; lap-surfs with her toddler; has a Wii, Xbox and PlayStation for the kids; puts the spare TV in the child’s bedroom; sets her child down for hours at a time to use addictive social media like Webkinz and Club Penguin; and buys a laptop for her preteen so she won’t have to share her own computer.

This pisses me off, quite frankly.  We had electronic toys for our kids fairly early on.  And yes, we have a Wii and a Playstation, but I bought the Playstation originally for me, not my kids, thank you very much.  There’s no TV in either of the kids rooms or computer either, and there never will be.  Our kids have played online games, yes and yes, my son has his own computer.  Because I have to do work on my computer, actual work, and he has homework that has to be done, and yes, he uses Facebook and plays online games, etc.  Yes, we could share.  In fact, we tried that model, but it didn’t really work for us.  I suppose we could have pushed Geeky Boy into something that had nothing to do with computers, and that would have been fine, but it would have cut off his social life.  We limit our kids online activities.  We’re not perfect about it, but we do our best to help our kids balance their computer activities with sports, reading, and other interests.  Quite frankly, most of the parents I know a) don’t have as much technology in their house as we do and b) also severely limit their kids’ online activities.  For good or ill, most of the parents I’m around (which I realize is very class-specific), bought into the media fear-mongering long ago and have gone into the other direction of being fairly restrictive about computer activities.  There are certainly kids I know of who are online constantly, mostly not because their mom is too busy blogging or facebooking to pay attention, but because their mom is working long hours.  So I take issue with this new stereotype.

Hobbes continues this characterization toward the end by saying, “Unfortunately, many parents are too distracted with their “constantly connected” life to pay much attention to how the computer is used at home.”  Again, most parents I know aren’t “constantly connected.”  I can barely find moms on Facebook.  Most parents who are distracted are distracted by work.  While some see that as a negative thing, in this economy, many people can’t afford not to stay connected to work.

I think it’s a good idea to point out to educators and parents that just putting a computer in the house or classroom isn’t going to magically transform a kid.  But I don’t think it’s a good idea to degrade parents and educators for “not paying attention.”  Many are paying attention and we should help those that aren’t, rather than making them feel like bad people.

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Update 7: Murphy’s Law

16. July 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Besides paperwork, this has been a week of mishaps, continued issues, and missteps.  On Tuesday, the basement flooded again, taking out our hot water heater.  Thankfully, I’d had a shower before that happened.  I made an attempt to re-light the heater myself, but chickened out after I’d found the pilot light.  I had images of myself going up in flames.  Mr. Geeky was out of town until late Wednesday night.  I might get a hot shower Thursday.

Wednesday night, Mr. Geeky called me from the airport.  He couldn’t find his car and he and his students were stranded.  His plates had just expired, so he was worried he might have been towed.  A cop told him they wouldn’t do that, but that they might have moved his car for construction.  So, I went and picked him up.  The next day, he made some phone calls.  Turns out, they were looking on the wrong level.  All the levels look the same, with the same letters to indicate the area you’re in, with no indication of what level you are on, except at the exit.  I took him back to the airport to get the car, dropped him off and zipped back home.  I didn’t have my phone with me, so he couldn’t call me to tell me that his battery was dead.  Luckily, they have a guy for that, but it took him a while to find Mr. Geeky.

Meanwhile, my computer had started to flail.  Considering that I’m trying to prepare some computer science/technology courses for the fall, this was a very. bad. thing.  After some diagnostics and suggestions from the Apple forums, I’m happy to say that it’s working just fine now.

But. Still no hot water.  Someone’s coming today around lunchtime to look at it.  When I called Mr. Geeky to tell him about it, I was ready to go out and buy a new one.  That might happen anyway. Sigh.  So, let’s see–3 days without a shower.  I have washed my hair in cold water, but do not have the fortitude to put my whole body in.

And. Still having neck issues.  Trying to do my physical therapy exercises, but I need to go back to actual physical therapy.  And said issues keep me from doing too much at the computer.  I need a new chair, I think, and a keyboard drawer.  Suggestions welcome.

We joined a new pool this summer, but we’ve yet to go.  We just haven’t had the time.  Aside from the above-mentioned issues, we’ve had appointments and lessons and whatnot.  Next week gets even worse, with meetings for me and then a trip to a workshop.  Maybe August.  Sigh.

Update 6: Paperwork, paperwork

14. July 2010 · 7 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

I’ve spent the last few days dealing with paperwork of all kinds, but mostly paperwork for school crap.  There are health forms–for school and for sports–registration forms, emergency contact forms.  You name it, there’s a form for it.  What I wouldn’t give for some automation of all this crap.  It’s gotta be a pain for the data entry/filing people to receive hundreds of forms, figure out if they’re complete, etc.  And I don’t even have forms yet for Geeky Girl’s new school–did I mention she’s going to go to the school where I teach?  (Yes, yes we’re excited.).  And I don’t have any kids with issues–as Laura at 11D pointed out in a Tweet.  Just navigating the regular forms is a pain.  I can’t imagine filling out other forms, especially in situations where the system tries to hide behind its bureaucracy.

I find the health forms particularly painful.  In my ideal scenario, my kids’ health records (or at least their immunization records, which is what most schools really care about) would be stored at a statewide data center.  Every year, I’d have the option of doing the form by hand or simply going to a web site, finding the school to send it to, and then clicking the send button.  Hell, I’d even pay a fee for that; I already pay my doctor for the records, so I’d be happy to pay someone else.  Emergency contact information seems like it could be automated too.  Every year, I fill out the same information (and yes, there have been years when the info has changed, but still).  An online form seems like a much nicer option.  Having spent the better part of today building my own online form, I know they can take some time, but surely, the time saved in the end for us all would be worth it.  Pop that info into a secure database and be done with it, I say.

Update 5: The weary traveler returns

12. July 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized

London Phone BoothWe’ve been on the road for the last couple of weeks.  We went to the beach and then were home for 24 hours before heading off to London.  The trip was a gift from my dad (Thanks, Dad!) and we stayed with friends of his outside of London.  It was exceptionally nice of them to put us up for a week.  The kids had a great time even though we shuffled them off to every tourist attraction possible.  We did the Eye of London, the Tower of London, and the Natural History Museum.  We also made a trip to Oxford and to Hampton Court.  Now it’s back to reality, with some housework to catch up on, school forms to fill out, and more.  Half the summer is really gone (at least for me).  It feels weird.  I hope everyone else’s summer has been relaxing and fulfilling.