When the Bad Guys Win: No More Ethnic Studies in AZ
By RR | January 16, 2012
A recent Salon article reports on the results of the ban on ethnic studies in Arizona. The law, signed last year by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, went into effect at the beginning of 2012. According to Salon, schools have been asked to remove particular books from their libraries and their curricula. This is more than a shift in focus or materials; this is an all-out ban on certain texts. Censorship, plain and simple. What makes this so unsettling is that unlike most cases of censorship, this is not a case of an individual school caving to the demands of parents or community members. It is the state, or State if you’d like, pulling materials that don’t coincide with its narrow ideological vision.
No more teaching The Tempest, which apparently address race and ethnicity just a little too directly. And certainly no Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire’s foundational text on social justice and education.
My suggestion would be to fill all of those empty spaces on the shelves with copies of Fahrenheit 451.
Categories: News | Tags: censorship | 1 Comment »
Print from your Ipad 2 with AirPrint Hacktivator
By RR | January 8, 2012
The above headline means that I have officially joined the iPad Revolution–whatever that means. After playing around with a loaner for three weeks, I decided to purchase a new iPad 2 and a logitech bluetooth keyboard. I bought the keyboard because I believe that before we side widespread adaptation of tablets in schools, they need to be viable production tools. In other words, students need to use them for creating and editing documents.
The iPad 2, for all of its fanciness, is not really set up for this purpose. To date, there is no Microsoft Word app for the iPad (makes sense), but Apple does offer an anemic app version of Pages, its underwhelming word processing software. I guess the idea is that no one is really going to spend time typing on the iPad. So why would we need tables or section breaks?
So here’s my workaround. First, I downloaded the Dropbox App for the iPad. If you are not using Dropbox to backup and sync your data, you should be. The Dropbox app allows you to grab your document from your synced folder.
Then, I reluctantly purchased the Pages app. Total waste of $10.00, except that it does open Word documents. So, when you download from Dropbox, Pages will open up your document.
Here’s where it gets a little tricky. As usual, Apple is not keen on anyone using non-Apple products in conjunction with their iPads. That means that the iPad does not recognized printers that are not part of their Airprint line. My Samsung wireless printer is not, off course. Enter the Airprint Hactivator from Neputing.
This cool piece of software tricks your iPad into thinking that your printer is indeed an Airprint printer, allowing you to print your documents, via Pages, to the printer you already have. The instructions for installing and using are here. Be sure to use version 2, since version one no longer works. And enjoy printing from your iPad (and sticking it to the man, Apple, with due deference).
Categories: iPAD | Tags: hactivator | No Comments »
My iChristmas, Or Some Thoughts on the iPad Tablet
By RR | December 28, 2011
One of my former students, now the Technology Coordinator at Meadowbrook Elementary, was kind enough to lend me an iPad 2 over Christmas break. Her name is Megan Bowen, and she is also contributing to a book about first-year teaching that I am editing with my colleague Lindsay Ellis. Megan spent her first year in a basement computer lab in a GRPS. Suffice to say, her new job is a world away. Meadowbrook will soon be receiving new iPads for its students. And to get back to the main idea of this ramble, Megan lent me one to let me have some fun this break.
The curb appeal of the iPad 2 is amazing: it is so sleek and so light, you can barely resist picking it up. It has been a very popular item at our house, as my wife and my first-grader fight for screen time. I’ve also spent a few (ahem) hours or possibly days plugged into the iPad. I can’t see any student not being motivated, at least initially, to get his or her hands on this beautiful machine.
A few other observations–First, surfing the web is amazing, via either Safari or Google. What’s cool about the iPad is its portability. Set it on the counter, lean it up against the wall, or hold it with one hand. Everywhere you need the web, the iPad can go. And the quality of the browsing is amazing, every bit as good as with a laptop.
As a reading device, the iPad probably comes in second to the Kindle or Kindle Fire, since these have been designed to reduce eye strain. But still, you can get the Kindle App to make all of Amazon’s library accessible. Same with the Google Books Reader. iBooks, the built-in reader for the iPad, looks pretty good, though I have yet to download any books with it. THus far, I’ve stuck with the free Google Books.
As a writing device, well, you’ve just gotta get used to the virtual keyboard. It has a few surprising oversights–like the position of the apostrophe on the secondary number page–but overall, it does a decent job. You can also buy an accompanying keyboard, either via Apple or a cheaper vendor. These connect into the main port of the iPad, and make typing a whole lot easier.
There is no built-in word processor, and most in the App Store are not free, so I’ve been using Google Docs, which works nicely on the iPad format.
For media consumption and production, the iPad is nicely equipped with a built-in webcam that is capable of recording high-def video. There is no suite of software such as Garageband or iMovie, but there are a few freebies (VidEditorFree) that can help out. Still, it would be nice to have these included instead of having to pay $14.99 at the App store.
And that brings me to the next point: money. As much as I respect Steve Jobs, his real legacy may be the monetization of what was formerly available for free. Everything good in the App store costs money. This is a sharp contrast to the Android Market, where most apps are free. There are buy-ins for the free software, too: you want the next level of that game? Just purchase for $2.99 at the App store. This is a disappointment, but it is the Apple model. When you do purchase something, it works, which is more than I can say for the dozens of busted freebies I’ve downloaded from the Android Market.
A few favorites so far: Adobe Photoshop Express, Flipbook, G-Whiz Google Browser, and Pandora. My son likes the Niinjago game, Angry Birds, and Rainbow Draw.
I’m writing this from my Macbook, which is looking a little jealous these days.
Categories: News | Tags: ipad | 1 Comment »
Digital Text Intervention with Hackasaurus
By RR | December 5, 2011
I just heard about the educational tool Hackasaurus (Mozilla) at NCTE. The tool reveals the code behind web pages–the html and css make up the text and images of any given page. Any browser offers something similar (just try viewing the source), but Hackasaurus takes it one step further: it lets you change pages and publish them. This makes Hackasaurus an ideal tool for aspiring web designers, and indeed, this is what Mozilla intends. Mozilla even includes a lengthy curriculum guide for educators, as well as a HackJam tool kit for users who want to organize meetups to work on Hackasaurus projects.
But what is really fun, I think, is engaging in what Rob Pope calls “textual intervention,” or the deliberate and meaningful manipulation of an existing text (in this case, a web site) to change its purpose or audience. Hackasaurus is really the ideal tool for this. Just change an image or language and publish your result. Hackasaurus even provides the URL. I’m planning on using Hackasaurus in my writing methods courses as a part of our study of critical pedagogy. One quick caution: be aware that Mozilla, to date, has not really explained whether a hacked site violates copyright law.
What I would do in a secondary writing environment is get students to write about why they changed things and what resulted from their changes. To be safe, I’d say have students do a screen capture rather than publish the hack to the site. But this tool is definitely worth checking out.
Categories: News | Tags: hackasaurus | No Comments »
What I Learned at NCTE 2011
By RR | November 20, 2011
My stay at NCTE 2011 was uncharacteristically brief–only two days at a conference that lasts almost a week. Still, I attended some valuable sessions, networked with friends, and got a better idea of how to pitch a new book I’m working on. A few random observations from my experience at the centennial convention:
- Graphic novels are here to stay. Ten years ago, I would have been hard-pressed to find graphic novels at the NCTE Convention.
Then, graphics novels (except perhaps for Maus) were not really a part of English language arts teaching. This time, all of the big publishers had their imprint of graphic novels, and many of the featured authors were actually illustrators. I picked up a few new titles, including a graphic take on Anne Frank–the The Anne Frank Authorized Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, the creative pair that gave us the graphic version of the 9/11 Commission Report. I also picked up a new graphic adaptation of The Odyssey by the artist Gareth Hinds, who was kind enough to sign my book. There were dozens of sessions on graphic novels, too, along with practitioner texts on how to teach them. And here’s a quick plug for a course I’m offering this spring–if you want to learn more about graphic novels, consider taking my English 624: The Graphic Novel in Contemporary Culture. Undergraduates are welcome. - The 2.0 revolution is over . . . and we’ve won. Digital technology has become transparent in the ELA classroom, at least for the most part. Teachers are using 2.0 tools galore–podcasts, blogs, wikis, social networks, social bookmarking sites, photo sharing, and even Twitter have become commonplace. Second Life, alas, has not. But English teachers everywhere know that they must use digital tools in their literature and writing classroom. In 2011, it is unthinkable not to.
- Tablets are not here yet. I looked in vain for good sessions on tablets. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough. But I think only the really cutting edge people are using them right now. They are still very expensive for what they offer (as laptops were in 2000 or so), and no one can really figure out how to write on them. As keyboards improve and tablet prices decrease, we’ll see a steady flow of tablets into schools, so that by 2015 or so, they will be just as commonplace as laptops are today. But for now, we are still waiting. Someone needs to write the book on using tablets in ELA.
Categories: News | Tags: graphic novels, ncte | No Comments »
Badges as Alternate, Real-World Assessment
By RR | October 19, 2011
Today, my students and I were talking about alternatives to standardized tests. I was making a case for local, authentic forms of assessment, developed and analyzed by individual schools and districts. The example I used was portfolio-based grading in an English language arts class. This way of measuring student growth in writing, I argued, lets students write with real purpose and audience, while letting them develop their own writing process and experiment with multiple genres. Teachers within the school could devise a means to measure student success–and the results would be more reliable than writing scores on standardized tests.
On the way home, I was mulling over other forms of assessment, and I began to think about the relatively new concept of badges. If you haven’t heard of a badge–other than the kind that police officers wear–the idea seems to have emerged from the open-source culture on the web. The most substantial badge project is the Mozilla Open Badge project
A badge is a reward for an achievement of distinction, given by a professional organization or entity that is removed from traditional educational settings. Badges are developed by companies are other entities that want to encourage particular kinds of skills or accomplishments.
So, for example, if a student creates a brilliant YouTUbe parody, he theoretically could submit his work to a badge-granting organization who could evaluate his work and reward the badge. The student could then display the badge or multiple badges on a range of social media, including Facebook and Twitter.
The whole thing sounds just a bit like the Boy Scouts, but I like the idea as an alternative or addition to a traditional grade. I also like the idea of students creating badges, judging submissions, and rewarding badges. This could be pretty easy to do in a course management system, a multiuser blog, or a wiki for that matter.
Categories: Web 2.0 | Tags: badges | No Comments »
A Quick Way to Share Big Files–JustBeamIt
By RR | October 14, 2011
Here’s a cool tool–and proof that the spirit of Web 2.0 lives on, despite the explosion of mobile computing. I admit that when I hear about a new web-based service, I sometimes think, “Well, that’s quaint. How does it work on my smartphone?” But this one looks extremely cool.
If you’ve ever worked collaboratively on a project that produces huge files (e.g. video), then you know what a pain it can be to share those files. Sure, there are great cloud-based sync and data backup services like Dropbox, but these all involve uploading the file, sharing it, and hoping that the person on the other end is savvy enough to download it. Most email programs don’t do well with big files, either, setting fairly low limits on size and bandwidth. Enter Justbeamit.
For those of us who grew up using Napster before it was regulated, the idea of Justbeamit makes a ton of sense: it’s simple peer-to-peer file sharing, whereby one user is downloading a file directly from another user’s computer. If you have a 5 GB video file, for example, you can head to Justbeamit, drag and drop your file, and send it to an email address. The receiver gets a download link which grabs the file directly from the sender’s computer. Presumably, all this data transfer is happening in a secure way.
Check it out.
Categories: Cloud Computing, Web 2.0 | Tags: File transfer | No Comments »
Remember When Sharing Was Simple?
By RR | September 29, 2011
Call me slow. Or call me old. But I just can’t figure out the new Facebook feed, lists, and real-time ticker. Don’t get me wrong: I understand how it works in theory. What I don’t have, though, is an instinctive feel for the new interface. Now I am never quite sure who is getting what I share, or why I get notifications on items that I never commented on to begin with. Don’t get me started on the Top Story feature, which replaced the perfectly functional “Recent” or “Top” links from the old interface.
And the changes keep coming: soon, FB will roll out a new timeline feature which will let users extend their acts of complicated online sharing all the way back through time. Let’s see: should I share my 7th birthday party pictures with my close friends or just my acquaintances?
Google Plus, the soon-to-be-extinct rival of Facebook, is not much simpler to use, despite the claims of its advocates. The circle feature was novel–and interesting enough for Facebook to copy with its new lists–but never intuitive. Let’s get this straight: I add you to a circle of mine, but you can’t see the stream of the other people in my circle, unless you add them to your own circle? Now Google has added a “share circle” feature, which lets other users grab the circle for themselves. You might also just be “following” someone–that is, getting their posts without having them in a circle. Don’t forget to setup your “sparks,” or areas of interest, and feel free to “hangout” with anybody you choose. And pay attention to those notifications! People could have added you to a circle without your knowledge.
Remember me? The original Facebook interface
The whole thing gives me a headache. If I sound too much like Grandpa Simpson (“I wore an onion on my belt, as was the fashion at the time.”), consider the following: simplicity is a virtue. We do not need sixteen different ways to share information. Yes, our social circles can be complex, as we realize anytime we attend a wedding or funeral: “Oh, you know so-and-so? Well, I worked for his father for twenty-five years!” That does not mean, however, that our online social lives need to be complex.
From a Darwinian point of view, Facebook, Google Plus, and perhaps even Twitter have become overspecialized. Originally, remember, FB offered a cleaner interface than MySpace. The first publicly available FB was minimalistic (see image), even spartan in comparison to the many-tentacled monster it has become. I’d like to say that natural selection would take over, with FB getting eaten by some rough beast with no real-time ticker. But its domination is too complete for that to happen.
Not that I’ll leave, of course. I’ll just sit around and tell long, rambling stories about the good old days.
Update: Looks like I’m not the only crank. Here’s the same rant, from Mashable.
Categories: News, Web 2.0 | Tags: Facebook | No Comments »
Developing Local Apps for Android
By RR | September 20, 2011
I’ve been digging into app development over the past few weeks. I do not have much coding experience, and certainly none with Java, so I’m really starting from scratch. So far, it looks like the Eclipse editor is the best tool for Android App development. It’s too bad that the Google App Inventor, a WYSIWYG online editor, seems to have one foot in the grave.
On Thursday, I’m meeting with Pete Coco and Matthew Reidsma, both library tech people at GVSU, to talk a little about application development. I’m thinking about tools that allow for easier collaboration between GVSU students, the vast majority of whom have smart phones. I’d like to see an app that lets students form groups easily, share files, and send search results (via text) to one another. I’ve seen students scrambling to write down email addresses of group members–and wondering if a group member would show up for a presentation. So, that’s one idea.
What other apps would make academic life at GVSU a little easier?
Categories: Smart Phone | Tags: apps | No Comments »
New Mobile English Site Premier
By RR | August 25, 2011
Over the past few days, I’v been working on a stripped-down version of the English Department site that looks good and functions well on tiny smartphone browsers. It took a little doing–developing for mobile devices is still a pretty confusing business, at least to a non-tech person like me. But I have a prototype. There were two keys: first, I included a javascript redirect at the head of the regular site. I found one online–
< script type="text/javascript">// < ![CDATA[
var mobile = (/iphone|ipad|ipod|android|blackberry|mini|windows\sce|palm/i.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase()));
if (mobile) {
document.location = "http://gvsu.edu/english/mobile";
}
// ]]>< /script>
This detects whether the incoming browser is a smartphone or a regular web browser. Next, I coded a new index page for the mobile site, using the following tag at the top, again snagging the snippet from an online source. What can I say: I’m a hack at best. Here it is:
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD XHTML Mobile 1.2//EN"
"http://www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/DTD/xhtml-mobile12.dtd">
This tells the browser that this is a site specifically designed for mobile browsers, if that makes sense. Then, it was just a matter of finding content to include. The sensibility on mobile sites is lean and mean: include only what is absolutely necessary. The result are shown in the image here.
If you point your iPhone or Droid at the regular English site (http://www.gvsu.edu/english), you should automatically be redirected to this mobile version. I’m the happiest with the “Who We Are” page, which includes clickable phone numbers that should bring up your phone’s dialer.
Categories: Smart Phone | Tags: mobile | 1 Comment »