Individualized Educational Technology Tools for Literature

A blog post titled "My Students' Top Ten Essential Digital Reading Tools List" by Sara Kajder was recently shared among our Reading and Language Arts teachers. It includes some great ideas for using technology to learn about literature. As I read through the list, I realized that we often get caught up in new tools without thinking about how we can accomplish the same learning goal using the tools that teachers and students are already using. Because I like to simplify things, I created an alternative list individualized for our school.

What about your school? What tools are you already using that you could use to accomplish the same thing?

Moving from Microsoft Office to Google Drive

As I help teachers learn Google Apps and use Drive with students, I have found that many people are confused about what happens when they put their Microsoft Office documents in Drive. To help them conceptually understand what's going on, I made the following infographic. Feel free to edit and share it with people you work with if you find it useful. I imagine that Google Drive will get better and better at dealing with Office docs and this graphic won't be necessary anymore! But until then...

PDF file   |   original Pages file

Updates
Thank you Susan Reeves for your suggestion. Files have been updated.
Robie Jayawardhana extended this infographic to include Google Drive desktop version.
Volodymyr Volodin traslated this into Russian. Pages file - GDoc file

SAS Middle School Laptop Program BootCamp

Here's one reason why I haven't blogged lately. Over the past two days, we launched our Middle School Laptop Program in grade 7 with a BootCamp, thanks to +Patrick Green and many other people at SAS. Here's the story of the past two days...

Team Teaching - a learning symbiosis

Discussing what makes a good blog comment

Mr. Riley (grade 6 RLA) and I recently team taught a lesson on what makes a good quality blog comment. It was an interactive lesson which ended with students coming up with a list of what makes a comment a good comment. The student list included everything on our list. Students also made connections between the new idea of blog commenting and another process they had learned for providing feedback in RLA class. So, in effect, their list was even better than ours. If you are interested, see the mini-lesson below for details.

I had two big take-aways for the day. One - team teaching is a great thing. Mr. Riley sees the students every day. He knows them. He knows what they've learned and where they're going. I come in for one quick mini-lesson on blogging. I know where we want to go with blogging at our school. I can model the good blogging values we hope to foster in our new bloggers. But, Mr. Riley knows how to tie what I'm saying in with everything the students are doing. He knew to ask the right questions to call up prior knowledge from RLA class. Together we made accomplished the learning objective and we reinforced prior learning. It was a good partnership.

Two - Mr. Riley is not only a great teacher, he is a fantastic new blogger. In his new role as literacy coach, he has started blogging for the teachers he supports. As I stood in his classroom talking with students about the importance of commenting in blogging, I realized once again that I need to live up to what I say. I need to blog more often so that when I talk to teachers about how valuable public reflection on teaching and learning can be, I've got something to prove it. Thank you Mr. Riley.

Continuum of comments

Blog commenting mini-lesson

Before class

• Students read teacher blog posts and pick one to comment on. Write comment on sticky note and bring it to class.

In class

• Today’s goal
1. learn about the qualities of a good comment
2. Talk about importance of comments - That’s where the conversation happens!
3. One of the unique things about blogs is that bloggers are looking for comments.  They want to hear from their readers.
• Hand out real comments from the middle school blog and other classroom blogs to each pair of students.
• Students put comments on continuum on the floor. (String across the floor with markers for exemplary, meeting, approaching, below.)
• Walk through continuum and read comments.
• Do a think pair share on what makes a good comment.
1. write results on butcher paper
2. compare to commenting guidelines
• Students look at their sticky note comment and line up on the continuum where their comment should be.
• Revise comment and then go type comment on teacher blog.

A comment should add to the conversation.

In September, the Google Apps for Education Singapore Summit team hosted a Demo Slam where people took three minutes each to wow the audience with a new tool or idea. It was high energy fun and the perfect way to end a successful Google Summit.

This month, we decided to hold our own mini demo slam at the middle school faculty meeting to share some of our learning from the previous months. Nine teachers presented 60 second summaries of something they've found useful lately. Some are productivity tech tips and some are helpful teaching ideas. Feedback from other teachers is that it was interesting, helpful, fun, and they want more! Have a look through our slides to see the tools we presented. Don't miss 8th grade science teacher Bill Hoffman singing the praises of Flubaroo.

Using Google Sites as ePortfolios with Middle School Students

It's been awhile since I've blogged. I have excuses, but mainly, I just haven't made time for it. After starting a new job and a new country, I am beginning to settle, and there have been many motivations for me start again. My colleagues are blogging and asking for advice. I attended an educational technology workshop last Saturday and met many other teachers interested in tech integration. I've been connecting with them and my new colleagues on Twitter again.

And then @lfrehlich asked me:

I realized it was time to get back to it!

First I'll start with the why. Why are we using ePortfolios with middle school students? The effort at our school has been teacher led. Teachers want to replace traditional portfolios used for student led conferences with digital portfolios. They want to help students collect their best work over the course of the year. They want to prepare students for a world in which they will send college admission committees a link to their work and who they are as a student. They want to teach good digital citizenship and how to have a positive digital footprint. Yes, I work with great teachers; I am fortunate!

So, what are we going to use for eportfolios? We recently adopted Google Apps for Education. We wanted to stick with Google as much as we could to simplify things. So, we decided to go with Google Sites. We've created a fairly simple template as a starting point. We're thinking about long term and we'd like the portfolio to go with them to high school.

I created the following step by step guide to help our students and teachers go through the process of setting up their eportfolios. Still, it has been time consuming to get to every class and help set this up. It has been taking about 45 minutes of class time to get everyone going. Some of that time is lost to slow internet. When we're up and going, though, we should only have to set this up with our new 6th graders at the beginning of the year. Also, we are looking at a product called Google Teacher Dashboard which we think has the ability to automate some of this. We are going to start a trial of it soon.



We are at the very beginning of this process. We started with a few classrooms wanting to do eportfolios. Through discussion among teachers, it has expanded to every language and science class in 8th grade. It will be a good test to support a whole grade, and students will see some connections between classes. Teachers seem genuinely excited to have students start posting major projects into their eportfolios. I think it's great that teachers will see what students are doing in other classes as they look at the portfolios. This is sharing at its best.

Future questions for discussion include: What do we have students put in the eportfolio? How can we use it as an authentic assessment of student learning? How should our school approach the privacy issues so we can open our student eportfolios and blogs to the world and gain a global audience?

How about you? Is your school doing eportfolios? What tools are you using? What have been your successes and challenges?

Travels in Africa

I have not been a good travel blogger. I had big plans to post
updates every few days, but that is much harder than I thought.
First, it's hard to find time to put pictures online and write an
update. And second, the internet connection is slow and unreliable as
I travel around. Connecting can be a pain. So, those are my excuses.
But, I will post better updates with photos after I get home. It will
be delayed news.

The short update is that we have been spending time exploring
Swaziland which is a beautiful country with rolling hills, mountains,
forests, river areas, etc. Stephanie took us to some great shops
where women create beautiful handmade things like baskets, jewelry
and weavings. The income helps them stay at home and care for their
household and make money at the same time.

We've also been taking trips into South Africa to Sodwana Bay
(Beach), Kruger National Park (game reserve), and the Drakensberg
Mountains (mountain hikes and more). I'll post more pictures later,
but here are a few snippets of my trip so far.

Tonight we are headed to the Confederation Cup Finals (soccer), USA
vs. Brazil, in Johannesburg, South Africa. I fly out tomorrow for
London.

the beach at Sodwana Bay, South Africa

relaxing after a day of diving/snorkeling in Sodwana Bay with our South African friends

crafts at the market

handmade glass at the Ngwenya Glass Factory in Swaziland

the streets of Mbabane, Swaziland

Phophoyane Falls Lodge in Swaziland

Phophoyane Falls Lodge

Tintsaba, handmade baskets, jewerly and weavings that provide income for rural families

children learning outside a school in Swaziland

a zebra at Kruger National Park

a Kruger sunset

the Drakensberg mountains, South Africa

First full day in Mbabane

Thursday, June 11, 2009

We arrived yesterday in Mbabane yesterday after a morning at the
Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. I learned a lot. To enter the
museum, you could only enter through the door marked with your
'category', white or black. In reality, Apartheid had four
categories, white, black (Bantu), colored and Asian. Everything was
segregated. One of the ultimate goals was to move all non-white
categories outside the cities and build high speed rails to transport
them in to work each day. There is so much more to it, but I will
save it for another time.

Today was our first full day in Mbabane. This photo is us having
lunch at Nando's, one of Stephanie's favorite lunch spots. In the
photo are Stephanie, me, and Amy. The three of us met in Japan when
we were all teaching English with the JET program. Stephanie is a
pediatrician who works here in Mbabane at an HIV clinic for children.
She gave us a tour of the clinic today. It has beautiful architecture
and is new and modern. It opened in 2006 with a grant from Bristol-
Myers. Stephanie also gave a presentation on malnutrition in children
to some of the student doctors who are visiting. She deals with many
patient problems that just don't exist or are very rare in the US.
Many of the resources here for children with HIV comes from foreign
aid. The HIV drugs typically come from the Global Fund or PEPFAR. The
Clinton Foundation donates PlumpyNut, a food source for children with
malnutrition. All HIV/AIDS care in Swaziland is free. Depending on
the statistics you use, between 25 and 40 percent of the population
has HIV. This trip is already an eye-opening experience. It makes me
very thankful for the resources and comforts I have at home. As Amy
said, "Thank you universe for my life."

The Swaziland landscape is beautiful. It's hilly and green with
concrete buildings all around that remind me of Mexico. I'm still
waiting for the sun to come out and really show the beauty. Amy and
Stephanie think it looks a lot like Scotland. The grocery store in
Mbabane has pretty much everything you could want. Stephanie's life
here reminds me of my life in Monterrey in some ways.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Sodwana Bay in South Africa. The others
are going to dive. I'll hang out by the beach. After that, Amy and I
are going to try and head towards Durban, South Africa. One of the
former students from my school in Mexico (ASFM) is in Durban with a
college group from Yale, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up. It's
such a small world. So, I will probably be without internet for
awhile, but I'll post again when I can. (Speaking of internet, I've
realized how much I take high speed for granted...how frustrating to
wait for each page to load....ugh!) I've posted more pictures on my
flickr account, so click the see more photos link on the side to see
more.

Until next time....

Day One

Tuesday, June 9th

I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa this morning after a long journey that had me in 3 countries on 3 different continents in 24 hours. My route was Chicago - Raleigh/Durham - London - Johannesburg. I spent a few hours in London with a JET friend catching up, seeing the theater district, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and eating Korean food. It was a nice way to spend a 12 hour layover. Thanks Jamil.

My flights weren't too bad. They still serve meals on international flights and the British Airways flight had a TV with many movie and music choices for each person individually. (Why is it that every non-American airline I've ever used is so much nicer than an American airline? Although nothing beats the video game controller that popped out the side of the seat on an Asian flight I took once.)

We are in Johannesburg for only one night until we fly out tomorrow for Swaziland. The South Africans I've met so far have been friendly and helpful. The security guard down the street appreciated that I smiled and stopped for a few minutes to chat with him.

The picture is my first meal here. I bought it at the supermarket down the street. It's not particularly African, but I have no idea what African food is yet. I will find out and share. Note that I had to pay for the plastic bag she packed my groceries in. Maybe we'd waste less if we had to pay for our bags at the grocery store. I don't know how much I paid though because I don't understand the money yet. I just held out my hand and let her take the right coins!

Off to Mbabane to see Stephanie tomorrow!

Blogging from cell phone

Enjoying a coffee before heading to joburg via london. To swaziland wed. Refreshingly, no starbucks there i think?

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Packing for a Trip

I am leaving next Sunday for Swaziland, South Africa, and London. I started gathering things I want to bring with me today. You would think I'd have the art of packing perfected, but it seems more difficult every trip I take. This time, I am determined to pack as light as possible forgoing fashion and extras luxuries. I hope I succeed. (My running shoes will make the cut...I can't lose everything I've worked for after 26.2! Besides the Bix and the Rock 'n' Roll Half Chicago are waiting for me.)

I called the hotel I booked for the first night to arrange airport transportation this morning. When a woman answered, I realized that none of my extra languages will work in South Africa. I quickly remembered to slow down my English to communicate with her. In the end, she told me that she had my reservation and to call back tomorrow to give someone the details of my arrival. As native English speakers, we are lucky. Many people in other countries do have some English ability. We call these countries assuming someone can help us in our own language. But, can others assume that about our country and their language?

Other preparations include buying extra health insurance and sharing my emergency contact information with the friends I am traveling with. My friend Amy brought these things to my attention. She looks at travel differently now that she has a career in a study abroad program for a university. We never thought about these things throughout all our Asian escapades.

I am getting excited for our plans to visit a game park, go diving/snorkeling on the coast, and learn about African culture in general. I hope to post updates and photos here when I have internet access. Thanks for reading!

Going to Africa - I need your input.

Mbabane, Swaziland
picture by Stephanie Marton

I am going to Swaziland in Africa for three weeks in June. Yippee!! A good friend of mine is a pediatrician in Mbabane, and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to visit her. Her experiences have been amazing, and I am excited to see her life there first hand.

When the idea of taking a trip to Africa became a reality (thanks to frequent flyer miles), I realized that I want to do more than just tour the country. I want to learn about education in Swaziland, connect with African teachers, share my skills and possibly turn this project into an independent study credit to complete a master's degree in instructional technology.

At the Illinois Computing Educators conference in February, I attended Sharon Peter's session "Professional Development Without Borders". Her presentation started the process of thinking about what I can offer teachers in Africa (and what they can offer me). She gave me many great ideas like bringing flash drives full of teacher resources. The schools Sharon worked in had computers, but bandwidth was an issue. She recommended downloading what I can here and bringing it on flash drives. I take my broadband connection for granted knowing I can download what I need when I need it. But, schools in Africa are not so lucky. I hope I can make contact with teachers in Mbabane before I go, so I can learn about challenges they are facing and how I might be able to help.

So, I need your help. Do you have any contacts who can help me? Do you have ideas or advice? I am still in the brainstorming phase and I also want to tailor what I do to match the needs of the area. With that in mind, this is my current to do list. It may change, but I wanted to share it so I can make it better with your input.

1. Connect with Swazi teachers by searching for blogs. (K-12 and/or university)
   
2. Download free teacher resources to put on flash drives.
3. Download open source software that is useful for teachers and bring on CDs or flash drives. (Open Education Disc)
4. Start a PayPal account and take donations for flash drives, flip video cameras and inexpensive netbooks (XO or others).
   
5. Put together materials for professional development workshops for teachers (focusing on technology integration and/or science/math.)

Please help me solidify my plan. Thanks PLN!

As the Yukili Evolve...on planet Newtonia

The semiotic domain of video games is new to me, but I started to get my feet wet this week playing Spore as a class assignment for the graduate class I am taking. I began playing the game in a frustrated state of mind as it took at least 30 minutes to install the game. After installation, Spore downloaded update after update before I could play. I spent the second 30 minutes alternately thinking "What? There has to be more than this. It's too easy," and "Why can't I get my creature to do this? I don't understand that." I did not read the manual at first. Manuals never make sense to me until I have already seen and touched the product. However, as I progressed through the first hour of play and began the second, I picked up the manual and read the sections that pertained to the stage of the game I was in. The game itself has a built in system for leading the player through each new thing. There are many pop ups that display at the appropriate time. The manual simply added a few things I hadn't noticed. And, I have a feeling I'll look at it again as I get to new stages. (Or maybe I should say IF I get to new stages.)

After hour 1

During the second hour of play, I was pulled into the game. It became more difficult. I graduated from the cell stage and became a creature and walked out of the sea.
The progression through the creature stage is taking quite a bit longer than the it did through the cell stage. More thought about what features my creatures need to achieve different tasks is required. It's as if the game was designed to let the players mess around and learn in the cell stage, but makes them get serious in the creature stage. (And, it probably was designed that way.) Once creature stage ends, I will no longer be able to vary its physical features. The next stage is the tribal stage and there will be different concerns. So, it's important to make the right decisions now, because those decisions will affect how my creature survives during the rest of the game.

After hour 2

In his book titled "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy," James Paul Gee talks about the Design Principle on page 41. I can see why this is so important as I begin to play this game. If I become too frustrated with not figuring things out, I may just give up on the game. And if it is too easy, I will be bored and also give up. It's a fine line to walk between the two. And, I think a successful game (and classroom lesson) finds that line.

Playing Spore reminds me of another simulation I've mentioned on the blog before, Oregon Trail. I have a goal and I have to make decisions that affect my success in achieving the goal. One difference is the quality of the simulation. I loved Oregon Trail, but I never did quite figure out what the right combination of food, tools, etc. was in order to make it. It never connected for me. In Spore, I am already learning how to read the clues around me to make the right decisions.

I also started playing World of Goo which is a delightful game. I will post more about it another time. Meanwhile, here are some screen shots and videos from my experience so far in Spore.




Evolving in the Cell Stage from Heather Dowd on Vimeo.


A Siren Call from Heather Dowd on Vimeo.


Eating Meat from Heather Dowd on Vimeo.

It's Official, I'm a Science Geek

It's not like I didn't already know that, but it's confirmed yet again. For my graduate class this semester, I needed to buy a video game to play and reflect on all semester. I looked at many of the games on Gamestop and Amazon, and in the end, I ordered Spore (a kind of evolution game) and World of Goo (physics based puzzle/construction game). I heard about Spore on NPR last fall and it sounded really interesting to me, someone who usually isn't interested in video games. This class is the perfect excuse to buy it. The user reviews on Amazon were not great, but I get the feeling that is because the game was so hyped up to everyone and people were disappointed with the final product. I was not aware of the hype, so we'll see how I like it.

I did look at some of the other popular video games that everyone talks about like Grand Theft Auto, Sims, World of Warcraft, and Halo...honestly. I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try one of these. But the only thing I wanted to spend money on were the science games. Go figure.

World of Goo was a side purchase just for fun. I noticed it on a list of the best PC games in 2008 while looking for other reviews of Spore. The reviews for World of Goo were superb and I really like the graphics. I'll be playing Spore for class, but I may throw in a couple of posts on World of Goo as I get time to play it. (Crazy Machines is another physics/problem solving game we played a little bit during my first grad class. Physics teachers might be interested in World of Goo and Crazy Machines.)

Games and Simulations in Education

by Telstar Logistics

Today was the first face to face session of the hybrid graduate class I am taking called Games and Simulations in Education. We will be reading, reflecting on blogs, collaborating on a wiki, playing video games, and connecting it all to education. I'm looking forward to it!

I am not a gamer. I don't really like video games. But wait. Stop. I think my view of what constitutes a video game is too narrow. I loved playing Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo. (My parents refused to buy us one, so we had to settle for only playing when visiting cousins.) I loved Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego when I was younger. And, there was Strawberry Shortcake and Sneak 'n Peek for our Atari. Maybe I do like video games? I was excited to find out that we are required to play a game for this class. I have really wanted to play Spore since I heard about it on NPR. And the more I hear about some of these other games, the more I think I may just pick up another addiction. Uh oh.

by Now and Here

I want to gain some exposure to more games in this class. I want to break the preconceived ideas I have about certain games. I want to learn about new games. I want to know how the design of games can be applied to an educational situation. Like mentioned earlier in class, gaming companies are not always interested in teaching anything, but they are interested in holding the attention of the players. Shouldn't we be interested in doing the same thing in education?

In Marc Prensky's "Don't Bother Me Mom - I'm Learning,", he says:

If you are game player today, all sorts of people are courting you, trying to get you to spend money for their game, and they know they have to work hard to do it.

As a game designer, you're focused on one question: How can I keep a maximum number of players on the edge of their seats for hours and hours?

If you publish games, you are always thinking about your audience. What do they like? What experiences can you give them that they haven't had or can't get elsewhere? What additional aspects of the players' lives can you relate to with a game? How fast can you incorporate the latest technologies? In short, what will sell your games to the player?

Aren't all of these things ideas we should be considering as educators? Maybe we need to do a bit more marketing for the learning we want to happen in our classrooms. I think we can learn a lot from digital games that we can apply to education. Digital games won't replace a teacher or a classroom, but why not learn what we can and make our classrooms a better learning environment.

Turn Your Lens Around

Many people in my PLN have been participating in a 365 photo challenge by posting a picture a day in 2009. (View more 365 photos at the EdTech 365/2009 Flickr group.) In that spirit, I thought I would pass on a little trick I learned from a photography teacher. If you have an SLR camera (one that has removable lenses), turn your lens around and see what happens. What you get are close up (macro) pictures with a very shallow depth of field. (The aperture is zero in fact.) I snapped a few today of things I found around the house for my photo a day posting. I haven't tried it, but I think you may be able to take a lens, turn it around backwards in front of a regular point and shoot camera and get the same effect. If anyone tries it, let me know. This is a good way to take close up pictures of things related to curriculum and then have students guess what they are. It could be an intro or concluding activity for a unit. Can you guess what my pictures are?

Maybe we need to do this in our classrooms as well. Turn things around to view them from a different perspective. Look closer and see what is there.

7 Things Meme

by Leo Reynolds

I started this blog as a class assignment, and to be honest, I hadn't decided whether to continue now that the class is over. But then, two things happened. Paul Blogush linked to me in a blog post, and Wendy Sigele and Valaina Maher tagged me in the 7 things meme that is spreading around the blogosphere. So, I figure I can keep blogging...for now!

So, here it is. Seven things you may not/didn't/don't need to/don't care to know about me.

1. I never wanted to be a teacher. After college, I went to Japan to teach English and fell in love with teaching and learning.
2. I am NOT a shopper. I really really don't like it unless I get to go to my favorite store, Anthropologie, and not worry about price tags. (But that doesn't happen often, or ever.)
3. When I want to forget about life, I play Rachmaninoff preludes or anything in a minor key on the piano. I'd rather take out a loan for a Steinway piano than for a car (but haven't done either yet.)
   
4. I've lived six months or more in Australia, Japan, and Mexico (and of course my home country!)
   
5. I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans once.
6. My sister is my best friend.
   
7. I still have my "blankie" from childhood. Friends tease, but on the cold nights in Japan and Mexico in apartments without central heat, it made a great head warmer.

I tag Theresa White, Pam Nielson, Jennifer Dorman, and my friend Monna.

Web 2.0 and Diverse Learners

How does web 2.0 address the needs of diverse learners? I asked my PLN on Plurk:

From Ed Tech Learning Reflections

Our class discussion started with the following voice thread. Feel free to add your own comments.



For some of our classmates, it was the first time to participate in a collaborative environment outside of Blackboard. Others were more familiar with web 2.0, but learned about a new tool. But, I think we all agreed that the tools we discussed have value for learning. They are not without disadvantages. Not all students have access to using these tools. Some students are not willing to do what is necessary to gain access (come early or stay late at school, walk to the public library, etc.) But, as one teacher put it, "my students somehow find access to look at MySpace and Facebook." So, maybe if we engage our students in the same way, they will also find a way to access the Internet for homework!

I truly believe that web 2.0 tools can help teachers differentiate learning in so many ways that we are not able to do without the tools. I challenge teachers of all levels to allow your students to use these tools to demonstrate their knowledge. A written solution to a math problem or an essay are not the only ways we can do this anymore.

Readings and resources:

• Meeting Needs of Diverse Learners with Technology
  Joyce Pittman, Ph.D.
• Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Learning Styles
  Wikibooks
• ETT 552: Diversity and Web 2.0
  Our project wiki for class (This wiki is a perfect example of a teacher differentiating learning. Our final project is supposed to be a paper, but we are allowed to create a wiki instead. This has increased my own motivation for completing this project! Web 2.0 and differentiation works at the graduate level also.)
  

Internet Censorship

Quotes:

Net censorship spreads worldwide
Mark Ward, BBC News

Mr Pain said the world's dictators have not remained powerless in the face of the explosion of online content. By contrast, many have been "efficient and inventive" in using the net to spy on citizens and censor debate.

However, noted the report, governments have woken up to the fact that the people they regard as dissidents are active online. Many are now moving to censor blogs and the last year has seen many committed bloggers jailed for what they said in their online journal.

Experts: Internet filtering and censorship rife
Mike Steere, CNN

She said governments could use purpose-built filtering technology, censor Web sites, filter search results -- with the assistance of multinational corporations, and block applications and circumvention tools -- to stop online applications like Facebook, YouTube or Voice Over IPs that enable social networking.

Most democracies, and particularly those of the U.S. and India, had unrestricted Internet, though more than 40 countries were known to filter content, he said.

And it's not just governments involved in filtering. Search engine Google has been heavily criticized for working with the Chinese government to block searches for material about Taiwan, Tibet, democracy and other sensitive issues on its Chinese portal.

How the Mind of a Censor Works: The Psychology of Censorship
Sara Fine

Whether on the Right of the Left, censors share a complex psychological profile.

Behind each attempt to remove a book or video, or block an Internet connection is the magic wand beliefe: if the item is eliminated, the thought is gone.

After our class discussion on Internet censorship, I realized that I have been taking my Internet access for granted. I usually assume that I can find whatever I am looking for, good or bad. I have the freedom to read what I want to read. Not everyone has this same freedom. Many countries ban areas of the Internet. Some ban just pornography. Some ban sites critical of the government. Turkmenistan does not allow its citizens to have the Internet at home, restricting them to Internet cafes only. In Burma, screen shots are taken every five minutes in Internet cafes. Do countries have the right to do this? I don't think I'm the person to say yes or no, but I do know that I am happy to live in a country that allows me to find what I want to find on the Internet. Long live freedom.

Women, Minorities and STEM

Why are women and Hispanic minorities underrepresented in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields? This was the topic of our class a few weeks ago and it is a great question.

In 2003, 18% of physics PhDs were awarded to women. While those numbers are growing, the number of women obtaining PhDs in engineering and physics lags behind other sciences. I mention physics and engineering specifically, because I was a physics major as an undergraduate student. I did not continue on to the graduate level in math or science despite my ability and encouragement from professors. I never felt discriminated against because I was a women. I was given every opportunity that my fellow students were given. Why didn't I continue? I have my reasons I guess: I didn't want to work in a cubicle, I wanted to travel, I wanted to work more closely with people, I wanted to make a direct difference in people's lives. But, looking back, I could have done all of those things as a physics PhD. Was there something more unconscious that prevented me from going to graduate school in physics or math? I didn't give up on science and math completely. I became a physics teacher and taught physics and math until recently. I'm proud that I was a science-loving, female role model for both male and female high school students. But I still wonder why I didn't continue on in physics - a subject I love to learn.

As we discussed in class, we all seemed to come back to one issue: lack of good role models. I think people do what they are comfortable doing. What they are comfortable doing sometimes depends on what they see people around them doing. Maybe Hispanic minorities and women don't pursue STEM careers because they don't see others like them there? Maybe I didn't try to obtain a PhD in physics because no one in my family is an academic? Maybe the math and science homework problems we solve in school typically appeal to certain students, so that women and Hispanic minorities are turned away? I'd like to share the following section from "The Secrets to Increasing Females in Technology":

The Value of Technology
The Extraordinary Women Engineers Project, a coalition
of engineering organizations, academic institutions,
corporations, and individuals, asked why high school girls
with the academic preparation to major in engineering
found tbe profession so unappealing. Among the several
interesting results uncovered by a study of this segment
by WGBH Research, was the preference for working in an
area that "makes a difference.." Any technology teacher can
discuss how everything from our planet's ability to sustain
its population to the ubiquity of mobile phones is thanks to
technology. However, the value of technology is not common
knowledge, nor is it frequently reflected in the exercises in the
classroom or in after-school programs. Have your students
solved the problem of a "bomb dropping from a plane" or
a "CARE package dropping from a plane"? Am I building
a robot that will fight with the other team's robot, or is my
team collaborating with another team to build a single robot
that will help the elderly continue to live in their own homes?
The technology and science is the same, but the girls will
find the benefits of the end product something compelling
to address the collaboration with other teams rather than
attempting to make competition more enjoyable. One ITEA
member described how he transformed a project to design
a BMX park into a project where the students could choose
to design a BMX park, a skateboarding park, a zoo, or a city
park. Although all students had comparable experiences in
design, innovation, and applying their knowledge, the boys
almost exclusively chose the BMX park and skateboarding
park while the girls almost exclusively selected the zoo
and city park. His experience not only showed the gender
differences, but also showed how a creative solution can be
effective without being more costly or involving significantly
more effort.

When does this change. When will we have enough role models that value this kind of differentiation in the science and math classroom? Will we finally reach a point where we have enough role models to ensure more equal representation in STEM fields? What is your view?

Readings:

• A System in Need of More Than Tweaking: Inequities Persist for Minorities in Math, Science, and Engineering
  Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• The Secrets to Increasing Females in Technology
  Betty Shanahan
• Why women choose information technology careers: Educational, social and familial influences
  Sandra V. Turner, Phyllis W. Bernt, and Norma Pecora