Angela Calabrese Barton

The learning sciences and place: transforming how we think about urban science education why is it so difficult to bridge everyday science with school science? Bridging efforts: connected science Understanding what children bring -youth culture --- Instructional frameworks --- successful teacher content and youth focused Pigeon project KWL real pigeon documentation detailed drawings content analysis graphs/concept maps final KWL chart Then interviewed students focus was that they maintained original concepts and didn't see the purpose of studying the pigeons one student wanted to go to clean neighborhood and see pigeons there... even in class with master teacher doing reform-based science... AGENCY, as a place based construct... Agency - (Holland) Agency, place and learning Barton's perspective scoial cognition critical/feminist perspectives transformation, both what youth know and how they use what they know is deeply rooted in space... Place - physical, biological, political, social, and cultural with multidimensial histories and identities. science as tool and context in efforts to enact agency... Transforming Identity i.e. reptile boy, from class clown to expert through science and video project and done in a playful way, grades didn't improve but participation subtly shifted, how was space in afterschool program constructed that provided this opp? Bone Song - she used artistic skill to create bone song, and song was shared as a heuristic to teach the whole 6th grade, 95% on test. Transforming Worlds Extending human capital -science and tech knowledge Extending material capital - tech, etc. Expanding their social capital - experts, etc. made movie about animals because they wanted to go to zoo

John G. Hedberg

Disruptive Technologies - disrupting pedagogies elearning effective elearning requires rethinking of learning activities and identifying the right technologies for the tasks the extent to which a student gains the same pedagogical benefit from a printout of your web resources... How teachers use elearning top is access to materials, etc. information presentation bottom is the group and interactive experiences teachers not using creatively but students find use important and personal benefits learning connections discuss ideas stay connected to others gauge progress on discussion board see other students qs benchmarking against others ask uncomfortable qs connected to instructors Disruptive innovations a new technological innovation that displaces an existant dominant technology (clayton christensen, 2003) John used photography as example other examples -the decline of aristotelian dialogue with ther rise of textbooks -ramus and his "method" in the 1500s On the surface seems great but with example of textbook, has gone from all text to almost all images and unless activity is set up so that student puts narrative back together then it doesn't make sense, look at worksheets that require one word answers... the obverse of disruptive innovations, horse drawn automobile, street sweeping machine. look at interactive whiteboard - sustaining innovation that doesn't change pedagogy and its this sort of technology that is easily adapted in classrooms Mediating tools... -increasing the ways in which the tools can be used -instant movies -conversion between representational formats -rethinking the visual and interactive froms to create new interactions with content (cf Amazon vs. traditional bookstores) Using what the technology affords! -technology has enabled visual and aural informatin display within software -tech supports constructivist philosophical orientation -increased recognition of social cognition... ... Anatomy of elearning New learning taxonomy Outcomes | Interactive activity | digital asset | support | assessment add the descriptors Examples -games -learning objects -digital repositories -creative uses of the tech )building on multiple modalities and multi literacies -social networks Games Quest Atlantis - disrupts pedagogy, talking across grades, devising shared resources rather than working in silos, neg responses from those who weren't invited or those who were dragged in, much more interesting world for students Digital asset reusability there are some real probs with learning objects they can do: -information display -conceptual models -contextual rep -LAMS - pedagogical assets, more meaningful than simple learning objects LMS vs. Digital repositories (libraries) G-portal project PBL with digital libraries Social networks and -discussion forums, adding little photo totally changes the nature of the interaction Authentic tasks for collaborative elearning -cell phone activity of orientation and debate w/evidence sent back to class -exercise in communication and geographical landscapes -lenght of argumentative text messages were interesting and rather full considering small screen Virtual field trip -NASA, ACA, and ICT Innovations Centre -overview of the site and resources -focus on data for scientific exploration and inquiry processes -extended CD resources with wiki ******************************** this makes me think about RETA curriculum, we should look at this and see if its possible to add collab tools to our existing stuff... Activity types rule focus ... Searching for the disruptive! Teacher use | Student use presentational | Using ppt in a lecture |ppt to report back generative representational (transduction) elearning possibilities find chart engagement | passive interest | dynamic interaction | Flow state elarning | transfer | translate | transcend applications | lists of activities learning outcomes | lists of outcomes he recommends blogs and wikis next steps recognize students' time poverty increase authentic integration activities ...

Analyzing Collaborative Learning

Assessing the quality of collaborative argumentation present and discuss range of ways evaluative criteria insights into both: -group -individual illuminates both" -function -structure -content provides both: -quant info -qual pic Transcript of class discussion provided coding speech acts typical cats are: positions argument debate Diagram speech acts Evaluating speech act analysis based on the previous criteria Individual | yes Group | partly etc. An Argument Network/diagram/flow chart with arrows shown broad but shallow argumentation found illuminated by shallow chart deep argumentation has richer diagram/chart applying charting to this research showed fairly rich chart Analysis of Reason Types Examples methodology sample size study duration presence of comparison... Evaluation analyses of reason types Chart with criteria Example: Masked observation Goal of strategy | To evaluate whether observations are valid underlying mechanism or explanation | scientists are objective, fair, and unbiased...Scientists don't care about outcome Causal factors | biases might arise if scientists did care about outcome ''' Evaluating reason schema... Implications and conclusions no one method of assessment meets all criteria use comb of methods explore new methods use methods to link processes to learning explore other methods to link to discourse... Representations for anlayzing tool-mediated collaborative larning -sociocultural theory as theoretical framework -analyzing complex learning environments -representations for dealing with complex data ... Conceptual Framework -learning embedded in sociocultural context and activity system (cole & engstrom, 1993) -cultural artifacts help mediate thinking and interactions (kozulin, 1998) --material objects, such as computers --symbolic tools such as language --help org and constrain activity -knowledge constructed through social interaction (palincsar, 1998) -need to study using multiple perspectives and analytic techniques (hmelo-silver, 2003) Studying Collaboration Reps for understanding complex collaborative learning environments -diagram )larkin & simon, 1987) -sna (martinez, dimitriadis, rubis, gomez, adn de la Fuente (2003) in CSCL environment -directed graphs (strom, kemeny, lehrer, forman (2001) -CORDFU -CORDTRA STELLAR online learning environment for pre-service teachers with screenshot -knowledge web -library of videocases and problems -PBL online student module -online tools - notebook, group whiteboard, commenting collaborative space, discussion forum Understanding Learning in STELLAR Contrasting cases of a successful and unsuccessful group (how determine success?) group 1, 5 studs Group 2, ? studs ... Frequencies charts: Tool Use, Discourse Codes HIstograms CORDTRA Diagrams looking at collaborative phase of the activity multiple methods needed to understand CORDTRA pros and cons successful use to correlate relationship between discourse and tools use... A perpsective on collaborative learning informed by peers learning from each other vygotskian: scaffolding by a more skilled learner Piaget cognitive Tther conceptualizations fo peer learning distributed cognitions excessive sharing of common knowledge is prob co-construction of knowledge conceptual change The goal of this study was to examine if and how influence is accomplished within a group Specific questions do peers influence one another during group discussions in such a way that input from others is recalled later? does peer interction increase... 76 3-person groups given case material f2f discussion, consensus plan Automatic Coding of Communication in Collaboration Protocols CSCL CSCL environments offer tools to facilitate… Analysis of collab dialogue protocols Qual – necessary but subject and biased Development of systematic coding system -problem of unit coding, segmentation prob -reliability and validity probs Automatic coding happiness :) Use of discourse markers - limited set of them, such as "oh, by the way, well, however..." MEPA, Multiple .... email them and you can use it Segmentation Filter: 300 Production rules punctuation connectives starting discourse markers exception/restriction rules splitting messages Dialogue Act Coding (DAC Filter): 1250 production rules Coding messages argumentativeness responsives informatives elicitations imperatives RQs Reliable? Valid? Tests they ran say it is ran it on VCRI groupware environment ... Brigid Barron from Stanford referenced Resnick Used Case Studies Studied distribution of scores used videotapes compared written work to conversations groups as "ensembles" use of workbook as center broadcast of work individual and group work going on at the same time conversational metrics - joint attention ... Lots of phenomena to investigate gestures strategies intention and motivation to co-regulate, collaborate, dominate, etc. both speakers and listeners haver consequential roles to play questions peer -idea generators? -groups develop own participation methods cordtra -relations between contributions ... argumentation -metrics for argument quality agreement would be helpful ... MEPA - Multiple Episode Protocol Analysis -how and when to use it? -compare with cordtra? -combine this with qual case approach would be powerful... key question to consider is how between person phenomena are being represented... what do we mean by term quality, this was my question about success...

Complex Systems in Education:

Conceptual Principles, Methodologies, and Implications for Research in the Learning Sciences Complex individual agents in system look at rules that define interaction with each other and at the environment they are in, sometimes those rules are very simple, what seems to make it complex at macro level (emergent properties)... Michael Jacobson Challenge: Updating Education, 2nd Revolution in Education Before Education Cognition and Learnability -can students learn complex systems Just Plain Folks & Experts notes: Pushing the theoretical and research how people learn... fostering far transfer of knowledge Paolo NorthWestern http://ccl.northwestern.edu Argument for widespread adoption of complex0-systems perspectives and methods in the field of education - to reformulate ed experience/content agent-based modeling James provided me following definition via Skype "In agent-based modeling (ABM), a system is modeled as a collection of autonomous decision-making entities called agents. Each agent individually assesses its situation and makes decisions on the basis of a set of rules. Agents may execute various behaviors appropriate for the system they represent—for example, producing, consuming, or selling. Repetitive competitive interactions between agents are a feature of agent-based modeling, which relies on the power of computers to explore dynamics out of the reach of pure mathematical methods (1, 2). At the simplest level, an agent-based model consists of a system of agents and the relationships between them. Even a simple agent-based model can exhibit complex behavior patterns (3) and provide valuable information about the dynamics of the real-world system that it emulates. In addition, agents may be capable of evolving, allowing unanticipated behaviors to emerge. Sophisticated ABM sometimes incorporates neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, or other learning techniques to allow realistic learning and adaptation. agent as entity variables ... Affordances of agent-based modeling modeling vs. equational modeling 4 areas ripe for picking School Content -each model has list of agents and emergent ? NetLogo Connected Chemistry EconLab ProbLab MaterialSim BEAGLE NIELS Educational Policyschool change/choice Cocial Learning Cognition Grounded Idealization..Goldstone Systems that look different may instantiate the same deep principle if cognition is tied to perceiving and interacting with particular scenarios, then how can we hoepe to have transfer from one scenario to another that looks so different from another? i.e. different systems, same diffusion-limited aggregation How can transfer be fostered across simulation Formalism-based Transfer Interpretation of grounded situations -case studies -online interpretation of simulation elements -perception+interpretation -perceptual learning Figurative descriptions of similarity using space vs. literal and concrete use of space...Pattern Learn When does transfer occur and not occur? Conclusion -Just because something is perceptual does not make it superficial -Grounding principles and education

What else do we want to know?

Q1. *What is urgent? Given all the various dimensions of differences between case studies, along which dimensions should we contrast cases? ---your research question will help make this choice. *Include study of very successful communities, such as informal CoI's. What makes them "hot"? What makes them more engaged? How can these hot items inform successful online communities? What are their goals? What are the goals of education? How do these goals compare or inform each other? *Include emergent data analysis as well as approaching them with specific questions. Q2. *What are the discontinuities in the continuum of scale from micro to cultural-historical? Where must one change theories and methods? *What does it mean to generalize - what forms of generalization are desirable? *What is the language to describe the phenomenon so we can meaningfully share results? *Operationalizing terms. Are we talking about the same phenomenon? *Coherent picture of how/when/why you mix methods and theories -perceptions about methods, is the conflict amongst the methods or the social group? *Being able to contrast and compare -need a lot more conversations like this! (Bridging disciplines/international/etc.) Q3. *Need a common language to describe the phenomena so we can meaningfully share results --"everything is vague to a degree; you don not realize it until you try to make it precise." --theory co-evolves with language *Not a "coherent theory," but coordinated collection of theories applied at different scales *Would like to see theories that can address significant problems in this world *

Studying Engaged Learning in Online Communities: Q1-Q3

Question/Group 1. what can we learn from contrasting cases of engaged learning in online communities? charge: identify three contrasting cases based on the experiences of group members; explain on what a project studied across these contexts might focus? 1. Georgia - space based on critical friends model of interaction, teachers bring problem, dilemma, etc., facilitator takes them through a protocol to engage the issue, space is being built - chat or discussion, hetero and homo groups, lots to look at, interactions of variety though structured, developing teacher PD community. 2. stellar: online integrated learning environment with media cases, online collaborative tools, activity structures, preservice education initially, thinking broader, online course community - groups that work, groups that don't within. Theory-based tool, structured. 7. texplorers - open source software for teachers to explore, resource based repository, prefer f2f, peak in activities right after gather, bring in gaming to platform, have difficulty inspiring online interaction, teachers lack access, 3. wikipedia community 4. myspace: organic growth 5. netlogo users group 6. educational community using collaborative tool 8.fostering community purposefully - IT community established with course project but then died, difficulty in discussion - time constraints, school priorities, life priorities... 9. inquiry-based HS community of 400 that had to do 6-week science project, virtual summer camp, volunteer participant, form 4-6 person groups, people coming in and out poses challenges, though not good at scientific conversation, they deeply engage in participation in this community - LAIN in University of Taiwain, home computer use... 10. GLOBE run by David Perkins and Wisk, cognitively oriented, theoretical basis 11. Walden University, alternative way to re-enter classroom for masters, cohort of students 12. U of Wisconsin-Madison, Master of Science for Educational Professionals, cohort, huge waiting list, very successful 13. online community of (CoP)i.e. ski club, biking, (developing community of interest) trying to set up weather community) enthusiastic communities, run by volunteers, dues, community education Discussion Notes: research that we do needs to be appropriate for world that is coming feedback has indicated that utilizing f2f with online for some may be important there are some communities working completely online, but there is research about blending being positive established international successful communities of teacher professional development communities of interest developing vs. existing communities communities within social networks gaming community information creation/repository moveon.org support group for cancer community political activity communities that support passion/passion education Dimensions of Constrast engagement levels: low > high formal > informal learning blended > online only Design (theory > open tools Ownership: Top down > grass roots high facilitation > minimal facilitation developing > established Identity: anon/avatar > self tool set/community channels: what tools for what purposes 3 selected 1. TPD - GLOBE, Tapped In, ILF, grass roots/university PD orgs: uganets listserv, RETAzens, 2. Community of Interest - Cancer support, ski club- madnorski, moveon.org, LAIN, NetLogo, wikipedia, etc. 3. Course/Cohort - STELLAR, MSEP/MSPE?, TERC program (walden) why contrast? Dimensions, generalizability, factors of success, transferable elements, what are the natural groupings/dichotomies... Question/Group 2. Given differing methods, questions, time scales, grain sizes, philosophical orientations and site contexts, how much generalizability of findings about engaged learning in online communities is possible and/or desirable? Select a topic for study and consider how much generalization is possible and/or desirable given differing methods, questions, time scales, grain sizes, philosophical orientations and/or site contexts. Reporter Notes: what do we mean by generalizability? can we generalize? diff types of community? how define community, what types? interest driven, professional v. student, online v. blended, CoPs... Our notes need taxonomy for online community concept Riel & Polin Barab Fisher - Center for Learning and Online Design CoPS more homogeneous Interest driven more heterogenous -want to look at diffs and sims across community -review of literature to develop taxonomies -could help to have a community of researchers developing generalizability of taxonomies, test concept of engaged online community of researchers about engaged online communities -individual/independent studies and meta studies, what should be measured and what are the goals 1. mixed -qual -quan 2. should define & operationalize our variables 3. collect multiple data for complete picture, triangulation of data possible Question/Group 3. What do researchers need in order to develop a coherent theory of engaged learning in online communities? Does this differ from other learning science contexts? (Redbud Room; Gerry) Charge: Identify at least three types of theoretical issues that need to be addressed. Select one of these and describe what would be needed in order to study it. Reporter notes: brainstormed all theories they could CoPs, Vygotsky-related, issues about context, small group theory out of social psychology, communities... picked small group theory out of social psychology to focus on and put in context of work done in Second Life -what are people saying to each other -what are people doing -what what questions ask of each other -how people learn whether or not they are given efficiency or adaptive expertise goal, focus more on efficiency -do members build theory of what they did or not in order to make small group theory usable, need to look at theories based on post interviews and behavior in the environment, something about herd theory, leadership v. followers... Sharon what are appropriate goals for education, for researchers, finding self looking for theory to help people engage in important endeavors/outcomes, what engages in getting together in context of doing important work, where is the theory that helps people get together in communities for socially important work...

Studying Engaged Learning in Online Communities

Theory Methodology levels of granularity are different for different methodologies can we view a scomplementary? conversation analysis, discourse analysis of coded exchanges, structured interviews, etc. comparison between engagement offline and online Research must work together given that rqs suggest the utility of multi-site/contexts studies communities of researchers needed 3 guiding questions 1. What can we learn from contrasting cases of engaged learning in online communities? (Oak Room; Sharon) Charge: Identify three contrasting cases based on the experiences of group members; explain on what a project studied across these contexts might focus? Take a few minutes to talk as a group about how each of you will then share the content of your discussion with those from the other groups. 2. Given differing methods, questions, time scales, grain sizes, philosophical orientations and site contexts, how much generalizability of findings about engaged learning in online communities is possible and/or desirable? (Walnut Room; Dan) Charge: Select a topic for study and consider how much generalization is possible and/or desirable given differing methods, questions, time scales, grain sizes, philosophical orientations and/or site contexts. Take a few minutes to talk as a group about how each of you will then share the content of your discussion with those from the other groups. 3. What do researchers need in order to develop a coherent theory of engaged learning in online communities? Does this differ from other learning science contexts? (Redbud Room; Gerry) Charge: Identify at least three types of theoretical issues that need to be addressed. Select one of these and describe what would be needed in order to study it. Take a few minutes to talk as a group about how each of you will then share the content of your discussion with those from the other groups.

The Power of Mindful Learning

Thanks to Vicki, I'm reading the Power of Mindful Learning (posted lower right). As educators, I think we should always be thinking about how we could improve/evolve teaching and learning for the sake of all students. This book provides some ways to think about how we could be doing that. More later...

International Conference of the Learning Services

Cool conference with a Doctoral Consortium and my friend Bethany says that they pick award winning dissertations and post them...haven't found that yet, but maybe one has to be a member... International Conference of the Learning Services ~julz

Making Money with Amazon Hacks

Chapters 4&5 are the money related chapters for Amazon Hacks. I'm working on those. The first things I did were join the both the Amazon developers and associates groups and aquired my IDs. I also joined the Amazon Honor System for Hacck #57 If you have products to sell, join Amazon Advantage More to come... ~julz

Keeping Us in the Race by Thomas Friedman

Keeping Us in the Race By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN NY Times What if we were really having a national discussion about what is most important to the country today and on the minds of most parents? I have no doubt that it would be a loud, noisy dinner-table conversation about why so many U.S. manufacturers are moving abroad - not just to find lower wages, but to find smarter workers, better infrastructure and cheaper health care. It would be about why in Germany, 36 percent of undergrads receive degrees in science and engineering; in China, 59 percent; in Japan, 66 percent; and in America, only 32 percent. It would be about why Japanese on bullet trains can get access to the Internet with cellphones, and Americans get their cellphone service interrupted five minutes from home. It would be about why U.S. 12th graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries in math and science, and it would be about why, in recent years, U.S. industry appears to have spent more on lawsuits than on R.&D. Yes, we'd be talking about why the world is racing us to the top, not the bottom, and why we are quietly falling behind. And late in the evening, as the wine bottles emptied, someone at the national dinner table might finally say: "Hey, what if we were really thinking ahead? What if we asked some of the country's best minds to make a list of the steps we could take right now to enhance America's technology base?" Fortunately, two senators, Lamar Alexander and Jeff Bingaman, asked the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine to form a bipartisan study group to produce just such a list, which was released on Wednesday in a report called "Rising Above the Gathering Storm." Because of globalization, the report begins, U.S. "workers in virtually every sector must now face competitors who live just a mouse-click away in Ireland, Finland, India or dozens of other nations whose economies are growing. ... Having reviewed the trends in the United States and abroad, the committee is deeply concerned that the scientific and technical building blocks of our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength. ... We are worried about the future prosperity of the United States. ... We fear the abruptness with which a lead in science and technology can be lost and the difficulty of recovering a lead once lost - if indeed it can be regained at all." The report's key recommendations? Nothing fancy. Charles Vest, the former president of M.I.T., summed them up: "We need to get back to basic blocking and tackling" - educating more Americans in the skills needed for 21st-century jobs. Among the top priorities, the report says, should be these: (1) Annually recruiting 10,000 science and math teachers by awarding four-year merit-based scholarships, to be paid back through five years of K-12 public school teaching. (We have too many unqualified science and math teachers.) (2) Strengthening the math and science skills of 250,000 other teachers through extracurricular programs. (3) Creating opportunities and incentives for many more middle school and high school students to take advanced math and science courses, by offering, among other things, $100 mini-scholarships for success in exams, and creating more specialty math-and-science schools. (4) Increasing federal investment in long-term basic research by 10 percent a year over the next seven years. (5) Annually providing research grants of $500,000 each, payable over five years, to 200 of America's most outstanding young researchers. (6) Creating a new Advanced Research Projects Agency in the Energy Department to support "creative out-of-the-box transformational energy research that industry by itself cannot or will not support and in which risk may be high, but success would provide dramatic benefits for the nation." (7) Granting automatic one-year visa extensions to foreign students in the U.S. who receive doctorates in science, engineering or math so they can seek employment here, and creating 5,000 National Science Foundation-administered graduate fellowships to increase the number of U.S. citizens earning doctoral degrees in fields of "national need." (See the rest at http://www.nationalacademies.org ) These proposals are the new New Deal urgently called for by our times. This is where President Bush should have focused his second term, instead of squandering it on a silly, ideological jag called Social Security privatization. Because, as this report concludes, "Without a renewed effort to bolster the foundations of our competitiveness, we can expect to lose our privileged position."

The Tech Part of Technology Literacy

Bonnie Bracey sent this report out today. It’s an old report, but I think it remains relevant. ~julz Date: Jan. 17, 2002 Contacts: Vanee Vines, Media Relations Officer Chris Dobbins, Media Relations Assistant (202) 334-2138; e-mail [ EMBARGOED: NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE BEFORE 10:30 A.M. EST THURSDAY, JAN. 17 ] Publication Announcement Improving Technological Literacy Needs National Effort; Potential Benefits Are Many, Report Says Most Americans know little about the world of technology, yet from day to day they must make critical decisions that are technologically based, such as whether to buy genetically engineered foods or transmit personal data over the Internet. Moreover, the use of technology as a learning tool in the classroom is often confused with the broader concept of being technologically literate -- knowing something of the nature and history of technology, as well as having a certain level of skill in using technologies and thinking critically about them. Neither the educational system nor the policy-making apparatus in the United States has recognized the importance of this more comprehensive view of technological literacy, says a new report from the National Academies' National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. It calls for a broad-based effort to increase the technological literacy of all Americans, a goal that will have many benefits including more informed decision-making by citizens and business and government leaders about the development and use of technology, and a more erudite population that will be better prepared for the demands of today's high-tech work environment. Read the more at http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309082625?OpenDocument

That's one smart child :)

More bots at http://aimtoday.aol.com/aimbots/index.adp Here's my first conversation with my new bot friend, SmarterChild: http://smarterchild.conversagent.com/3:23 PM hello Hi Principesajulia, I'm SmarterChild! I'm your new robot friend. I bring you the info you want faster and easier than ever! Click here to see my privacy policy. During the course of our conversations you may see sponsored messages. These messages have the word "sponsorship" at the end. Sponsors help me remain free of cost to you! To learn more about sponsored messages, click here. I can't wait to show you what I can do, but first I'd like get to know you a little. May I ask you a few general questions? (To do this later, type skip. You can also skip any question.) ask a question Sorry, I need to know if I can ask you some questions first. Type yes, no or skip. yes Cool! OK, let's get started. To skip any question, type skip. To exit the interview, type exit. What's your first name? (If you want me to call you Principesajulia, type none.) Julz Cool, I'll call you Julz now. Do you go to school? I do Sorry, you have to answer yes or no. Please try again or type skip or exit. yes Are you in high school? skip OK, let's go to the next question. What's your favorite hobby? research Research? Cool. What's your next favorite hobby? spin class Sorry, I don't recognize that as a hobby. Please try again or type skip or exit. skip OK, let's go to the next question. Do you have a pet? yes What kind of pet is it? 3:25 PM puppy Is your dog a he or a she? he What's his name? Frankie Frankie the dog! Great... That's it! Thanks for letting me get to know you a little. There is one question I have to ask you, though. How old are you? 1 Over 17 2 13-17 3 Under 13 1 Cool! Here's what you can do: 1 Get info such as sports, weather and movies 2 Visit my library including U.S. presidents, an encyclopedia and U.S. geography 3 Have fun with ASCII art, reversi, hangman and more 4 Use tools like thesaurus, conversions and calculator 5 Join in - find out how many people are IMing me, take a poll, create a poll and more 6 See what's new - I've got something new to tell you about now! You can make your window bigger and scroll down to read better. Next time you want to see this menu, just type home. What would you like to do? info Here's the info I can show you: 1 News 2 Movies 3 Sports 4 Weather Go ahead and make a selection. 4 For what city, state, country or zip code do you want the weather? 88005 Current weather conditions for Las Cruces, NM: Currently: 64 F Condition: Scattered Clouds Dewpoint: 41 Humidity: 42 % Visibility: 10 mi Wind: N/7 mph To get the forecast for Las Cruces, NM, just type forecast. forecast Weather forecast for Las Cruces, NM: Monday: Partly cloudy. High 71F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Monday evening: Generally clear. Low 46F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Tuesday: Sunshine. High 73F. Winds light and variable. Tuesday evening: A mostly clear sky. Low 48F. Winds light and variable. Wednesday: Sunny (High:76 Low:52) Thursday: Thunderstorm (High:71 Low:49) Friday: Thunderstorm (High:70 Low:48) Saturday: Thunderstorm (High:72 Low:51) Sunday: Thunderstorm (High:73 Low:45) >>> Missed an Episode? - Download South Park episodes to watch at any time. (sponsorship)

Bots, Bots, Bots

Doin some research on bots, what the hell are bots anyways... Amazon Bots http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/479 Wikipedia definition for bots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_bot Tutorial on AIM Bots http://www.wiredbots.com/tutorial.html Googlematic http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/public/article.php/10817_1012411 Interesting phrase about web services from Build Your Own IM Bot... http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/public/article.php/10817_1015731 Googlematic was created last September, and was a hit almost right away, Webb said during an IM-based interview. He said creating the bot was "fairly easy" to do because it is built in the Perl language. "The beauty of Perl is it's just gluing together different people's code," he said. "That's why Web services will create the next layer of the Web, really unexpected applications -- because glue is easy to write." posted by julz @ 8:23 PM1 comments

Had to recreate my Julzworld blog...

...and I'm feelin lazy, so most of what was there is here in one long post :( Monday, October 03, 2005 Intelligent Searching I was reading an article about cool search engines and thought that I'd like to have that info in my Pep World Blog. Intelligent' tools lead to smarter searches Links: Cuadra Associates Inc. http://www.cuadra.com Google Inc. http://www.google.com Scirus http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/ Blinkx http://www.blinkx.com Gnooks http://gnooks.com Dashboard http://www.nat.org/dashboard posted by julz @ 11:04 AM0 comments Friday, April 29, 2005 Dissertation Schedule Link Put in your start and end dates for dissertation and this tool helps create a timeline... http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/disscalc/ posted by julz @ 9:30 AM2 comments Monday, April 25, 2005 Matusov, Activity Theory, etc. Matusov complements Wenger and Engestrom http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/publications.htm Activity Theory Sites Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition: http://lchc.ucsd.edu/ CSAT (Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research--http://www.education.bham.ac.uk/research/sat/default.htm International Society for Cultural Research and Activity Theory--http://www.iscrat.org/ Martin Ryder, Activity Theory--http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/activity.html posted by julz @ 3:01 PM0 comments Mind, Culture, and Activity Journal Resource XMCA is a listserv I used to require my classes to sign up for. It is where the hardcore of the social learning theorist hang out. Usually the convo is carried by the second tier. but the big guns get lured out periodically when the topics get hot. sometimes the group gets political, because as you might guess, they are both international and more left than right. i tend to just blow away the political crud because i just don't need to hear more of that. the theoretical discussions are quite rich however. XMCA is intended to support discussion around the Mind, Culture, and Activity journal, produced out of UCSD. Here's the URL if you want to join. You will see theses folks at AERA, for sure. http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/ posted by julz @ 2:54 PM0 comments A resource Talon is an interesting project. There are some resources here for us to look at as educators as well as some models for what we are looking to do with our mobtech resource. TALON Web Guide for K-12 Teachers ~julz posted by julz @ 2:24 PM0 comments Linda's Informative Email Back when I was a wee grad school lass, I heard Lee Schulman speak about how to find a research topic. This afternoon I was cleaning off my desk and found my notes. (Yeah, kind of an archeological dig thing, but that's how I live). 1. Examine things that don't fit predictions and ask why. Most people see the world as a 2 x 2 table and study the diagonal. 2. Look for gaps in the intersection of problems typically treated separately, e.g., cooperative learning and performance assessment. 3. Examine unexamined analogs, uncritically examined analogies, e.g., teaching is like medical education (clinical). 4. Question the unquestioned, e.g., if you don't know a subject you can't teach it. Blessed Passover to the M.O.T. out there, Lindax posted by julz @ 2:00 PM0 comments Informative Email from Mirwais Hello team, Today I attended a couple of sessions including the Exhibition at the Fairemont (got a couple of freebies). Two of the sessions were very productive for me. Session 1: "Getting Published while in Graduate School" Session 2: "Support Opportunities for Training and Small Grants in Education Research". Jane Klingner from University of Colorado-Boulder was great. The presenters discussed in great detail on how graduate students can go about getting their commentaries, class research papers, book reviews and dissertations published. I thought the presentation was very informative. The reviewing process for submission and critiquing was discussed in great detail. Students were advised to begin the process early, check each journal's web site for submission requirements and have their manuscripts read by several people before submission. APA style was emphasized. Depending on what journal you select, the process can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months or even longer. I took several handouts and copious notes from the presenters. If anyone of you are interested in getting a copy of the handouts, please drop me a line. There was a lot of information to grasp. One of the presenters, Janette Klingner was kind enough to give her office info and was very eager to assist anyone with questions about getting published. If you want additional info, call or email her. Janette Klingner University of Colorado at Boulder School of education 249 UCB Boulder, CO 80309-0249 Telephone: 303-492-0773 The second session was just as informative since here the discussion was on how to get $$$ to do research and how to get that research published eventually. Representatives from AERA, Spencer and NSF were there for the group presentation and discussion. Several tips were given on what these organizations look for in a research proposal. 1. Clarity of the proposal (What is it that you want to do?) 2. Your abstract is very important (Don't copy the first sentences or paragraph of your paper) 3. What methods you are going to use 4. Time-line 5. Outside letters (Not so much on how great you are, but what the research will do - descriptive about the project) 6. Importance of the project on the field (Description) 7. Its affect/significance on education 8. Be creative, clever and unique 9. DON'T GIVE UP if you get rejected !!! We also discussed the various grants that are available to graduate students. These grants can range anywhere from $1000 all the way to $40000. The review process is rigorous, so be creative, well prepared and have your proposal looked at by several people (Professors/Classmates). Most important of all, be patient and keep trying if you get rejected. You can visit the AERA web site as well as Spencer.org for more details about these grants. Again, if you guys need any additional info, please let me know and I will make copies of all the notes and hand-outs that I got from the sessions. Regards, Mirwais posted by julz @ 1:59 PM0 comments