Chat Roulette

Nothing can really prepare you for the latest online phenomenon, Chatroulette...
So starts Nick Bilton, lead writer for the New York Times Bits blog, who posted a very interesting article on this with a version of it appearing in print on February 21, 2010, on page WK1 of the New York edition. (You may read it on http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/weekinreview/21bilton.html)
In this article he points both to the good and the evil this new type of social network may breed, and how in just a few weeks its use was tenfold.
It is basically a game of roulette applied to chat, where upon accessing this website, chatroulette.com, your webcam is open to anyone on line who talks or not to you (language and more may be issues here) and whom you see in whatever garment (or not) they may choose to be. This can happen as many times and for however long the users may want it to happen. The most identifiable difference with Twitter and Facebook being that you may watch, and whoever you're chatting with may watch you too. But, further than that, Chatroulette does not require registration, names, or any form of information to be given prior to access; thus a major allure for those who are still naive to believe in total anonymity on the Internet, and a fishing competition in a fishbowl for predators.
I can easily see where this trend may be soon be outlived, however its immediate evil repercussions can spawn into 2 or 3 generations, and like Bilton pointed from another New York Magazine article on the same subject, this may end up as another home for pornography on the Internet.
In any instance it should be said that the possibilities and ease of use of existing technologies towards improving communications and serve other purposes is enormous, this just being a tiny example of what ingenuity and ease of use from a 17 year old from Russia can do. However, I can still see how this may develop or better yet evolve into a use that may serve an educational purpose in the long run. Can you imagine a round of Q&A between classmates, totally random, to get students to ellicit learning skills to create peer-to-peer collaborative learning?

Four things every student should learn … but not every school is teaching

Now here's an article that's right on target...
Four things every student should learn … but not every school is teaching
I couldn't have summarized it any better; however, I would add one more thing:
Building criteria to make the best media choices in order to improve on product and communication delivery.

2010 - Feb 03

Ok, so I lagged behind... But I'm ready to start over
So much to read, so little time. I'm enjoying this new learning path I'm going through. Learning to coach people one on one is a totally different take from trying to do it in a classroom. And I can't stress trying enough, because no matter how hard we try, any teacher can tell you that differentiated instruction and personal attention in the classroom is a challenge!!
There's a heavy emotional process going on in coaching and I'm sure that we teachers in the classroom and in life have a head start in this. However a BIG difference is in the LISTENING! Yes, that is something that is being stressed in teaching today; however to the degree listening is carried on in coaching it is a bit foreign to teaching.
I can't yet say that I would go one way or the other, but I can definitely say that I'm really enjoying the learning process and although I'm working on it long distance, the personal coaching I'm getting through it makes it a very unique experience.
If I were to make this the ideal situation it would be to find the means to create the coaching experience addressed to the business of creating schools that are real Learning Organizations. This would kind of fit in into my New Year resolutions to write that long overdue book on CURITE and who knows what may come off of that.

New ed-tech tools and techniques mark FETC 2010

New ed-tech tools and techniques mark FETC 2010

Excellent update!

Closing the year 2009

Trying to keep the pace has been the biggest challenge this year. Things went in different directions early on the 1st trimestre and although I managed to grab a lifeboard, it wasn't what I expected it to be at all. The learning curve abrupt!
However, it has been an important learning experience for me, one that will serve me for many years to come. There will be for me always an opportunity to learn; my motto being, if I can't learn anything, or grow from the experience, it's time to move on. In the academic world most believe it is all a matter of either getting credit or recognition. I believe this year has been for me a Phd in life management and skills, 21 century skills!!!!
I am changing professional gears and going head into business training and development. I have been on that track the last few months and closed the year with a Conflict Management Workshop in Barra da Tijuca, Brasil. A big bang and from the top closure to otherwise hard and unfulfilled year.
I'm starting 2010 with new training to be a consultant/coach and will continue on with developing courses and facilitating contents in business management and skills.
To all a very Happy Holidays and a fruitful 2010 too.
Cheers!

Updating and Regrouping

It's been a while and many things are going on...many others just took a different turn.
I'm on an independent adventure now... Still working on curriculum development and editing. I miss working the classroom a lot and feel that the creative sparks dim out when not able to try things out at once... That's me thinking out loud...
Standards... It seems that we fall short (or too long, really!) when thinking about what should be done in the classroom and what actually happens thereafter. I truly believe that both sides are right, only that it should be more a matter of options. Standards...keep them to the point: short and precise and let teachers elaborate and adapt as required. Should there be a national standards, Yes, and by all means international too. We need to agree on the minimum to get our generations prepared for the future; NO, we don't need to spell out every little detail so that we suffocate creativity, adaptability and flexibility.
Textbooks... Uhhh the irony!! When I was in college, the one thing that kept turning my budget inside out was the issue of books. I still want to kick myself for shelling out the $$$ for a handbook that I should have kept dragging just one more semester out of the Library.... after graduation I never went back to it... Textbook buying or not can keep students without sleep or making it through a course, and there is no easy way around that either; however, the Internet has changed all this and publishers have to come to terms with it. Students need not buy a whole book if what is needed is 2 - 5 chapters.. let them get it on line for a fraction... "Oh, but these mean students dare to share!!" Oh come on, you'll think something to make up for it! If the music industry has been able to do it, so will the publishers... Besides, we all know that information goes by, and knowledge changes so fast, that editing and printing textbooks cannot possibly get done at the same pace. That doesn't mean that the classics and new novels shouldn't be printed... on the contrary, those are a different matter and should be treated differently altogether. I couldn't imagine my world without a good novel to curl up with on a lazy afternoon.
Until next time

Price Is Right 2009 Etech

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Chuckfull of tips on resources for teachers.

Price Is Right 2009 Etech

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