Early Graduation and Technology

I came upon a great article on Yahoo! News the other day about New Hampshire school officials' plan to let prepared sophomores skip the last two years on high school. In Should Kids Be Able to Graduate After 10th Grade?, Kathleen Kingsbury explains that students graduating early are expected to pass "rigorous state board of exams", or if they plan to attend a competitive university, they may stay the final two years and take even harder exams. The idea is that students leaving early can attend technical schools or community colleges on their own money, thus saving the state millions of dollars.

What does this have to do with technology? Everything! In addition to cutting the years spent in high school in half, technology can help educate those still in the classroom. With those students graduating after 10th grade, using distance learning or online classes can help speed up the process by limiting them to the amount of classes they can take a day. If they are determined to take their boards at 16, online classes can serve as refresher courses and tutorials. They can download podcast lectures or movies that their teachers create in order to keep them on the early-out track.

Technology can most definitely be used the cut the overall costs of educating students. Since more states are considering the New Hampshire plan, it is necessary to include educational technology in the overall discussion. It may cost money to buy the technology and maintain it, but it will help students leave the public school setting earlier, and in many ways, help prepare them for a world outside of school that is full of technological advances.

Is Second Life the Way to Go?

Everything I have heard about Second Life is negative --mostly about the sketchy worlds involving adult content. I guess part of my opinion stems from World of Warcraft which is a virtual game, while Second Life is purely social. Whenever I think of WoW, I think of geeky, anti-social gamers who spend their time and money meeting with members of their "horde," or whatever, and going on quests when they could be out in the "real world" being productive. On a personal level, I do know people who play WoW and they are not anti-social or slobs or geeky --well, maybe just a little. They are real people who enjoy the competitive and social aspect of going online to meet people from around the world.

Second Life takes away the "gamer" aspect and indulges in the social networking of Web 2.0. When my Technology professor stated that more educators are using Second Life as a way to connect to each other and to their students, I was, to be honest, surprised. I didn't realize how the virtual world connects those in the real world. According to Sim Teach's wiki on Second Life Education, colleges and universities, national organizations and institutions, and collaborative education groups can be found in the world of Second Life.

If educators are going the way of the virtual world, will they continue to use social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook? It is my opinion that more students can be found on these sites rather than on Second Life. Both have groups to which people of the same organizations can become members, just like Second Life, and there are precautions that can be taken to ensure privacy. On the other hand, you create an anonymous character in Second Life and chat live with the members of your group. Myspace and Facebook groups chat via a message board which is not live or up-to-date.

Second Life seems to be the most technologically savvy way to interact with students and teachers. If other social networking sites pay attention to the success of Second Life, it makes good business sense that they will, eventually, have to improve their features or fall by the wayside.

My First-Ever Podcast

As an assignment for my Technology class, I had to create a podcast based on a unit of study or a specific VA SOL. I chose the 2nd grade Science SOL, 2.6, about understanding weather. Please be kind with the comments. I am not used to using GarageBand, or Macs for that matter, but despite those limitations, I think it is pretty good. Maybe in the future, I'll have more experience with this format, and thus use it to its fullest potential. Here she is: 2nd Grade Weather Report.

While trying to figure out the ins and outs of GarageBand, I came across a helpful document produced by Penn State's Information Technology Services called GarageBand 3: Creating a Podcast. This tutorial contains major sections on recording and editing your audio. I found it especially beneficial when trying to delete portions of my track or moving a portion from one place to another. Apple's tutorial was a simple explanation of navigating around GarageBand, adding sound effects, and using the different voice tracks depending on whether you are a male or female. If I could recommend one tutorial over the other, I would have to say that Penn State's is more comprehensive and use-friendly for those with little to no experience with GarageBand or podcasting in general.