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Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?

While listening to NPR the other day, my ears perked up to a story from On the Media called “The Pleasure Principle.” In it, Ethan Zuckerman (blogger and internet theorist) described a condition called homophily, and its potential danger while using the internet.

In short, homophily describes how we tend to flock together, seeking out ‘birds of a feather’. Perhaps Aaron Retica (NY Times) describes it best as “…our inexorable tendency to link up with one another in ways that confirm rather than test our core beliefs”.

Online, this tendency can be amplified. Ironically, with a wealth of diverse voices available to challenge our own ideas, we tend to use the internet to reinforce what we already believe - like an electronic pat on the back.

Thus, Zuckerman warns that homophily threatens to make us stupid. If we only seek out things with which we agree, then are we really using the internet as a tool to expand our own humanity?

This has obvious implications for anyone who has built up a social network like Twitter. I’ll be the first to admit that most of the tweets I harvest are from professionals involved in science or education (or both). And I can also see how easily homophily can infect my RSS reader too, as I direct it to intentionally pull out only RSS feeds that I want to read.

As I get the majority of my news from Google Reader, I have to wonder if my feeds are too homogenized and narrow-minded. I also have to wonder if my Twitter friends allow me to accept my own perspectives on life without confrontation or question. Are these tools just amplifying my own stupidity?

Of course, I am painting a fairly grim picture. Of course there are many benefits in developing social networks with kindred spirits; if anything, the internet is quite a useful tool in fostering this type of kinship. The danger lies in blocking out things that we need to see – diverse ideas, differing opinions and news from around the world.

Zuckerman suggests visiting sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbledUpon – sites that collect interesting stories and allow us to discover the world in its serendipity. I’d also suggest broadening your news feeds to include international news originating from different countries. Broaden your social network to include people from different professions and cultures. Allow yourself to be challenged by different opinions when people comment on your posts.

Why might we be concerned about homophily as educators? Think about it this way - you may seek out online diversity to become a better person, and in doing so, become a better teacher that is open minded, compassionate and has an abundant collection of fresh ideas. While you may not actually unearth a ready-to-go lesson plan, you may actually be able to share something about life that cannot be assessed on a standardized test.

Posted 06 May 2008 † Brian Bartel § Communication § Social Networks § Web 2.0 ‡ Comments (0) °

Setup an RSS Reader

Want to keep up with current news in your subject area? Try Google Reader (or other RSS readers) to get constant, up-to-date RSS feeds from various news sources, blogs and podcasts. As May 1st is RSS Day, now is the perfect time to start.

Before we begin, what is RSS? RSS stands for “Real Simple Syndication”. Basically, an RSS Feed is an address assigned to content that is updated frequently on the web (such as a blog post, podcast, newspaper article, etc). An RSS Aggregator seeks out content from these RSS feeds and pulls them into a handy reader. In short, it brings the web to you, instead of you going to individual addresses on a regular basis. Need more explanation? Check out the RSS Entry in Wikipedia. Or, simply setup a reader and learn by doing.

Setup
There are many different RSS readers (some are even integrated into browsers), but I suggest Google Reader for its ease of use. First, you will need to setup a Google account. Go to: http://reader.google.com. You will need to follow the instructions to setup an account.

Once you have Google Reader setup, you can add subscriptions by clicking on the ‘Add Subscriptions’ link. There, you can search for new content, and Google Reader will seek out content from these RSS feeds. Alternatively, you can add RSS feeds automatically from websites that have the orange RSS logo.

When reading your feeds, use the “J” key to scroll through the content, and “K” to go backwards. If you want to look at the information more closely, you can simply click on the title or link to the original content.

You can star noteworthy articles, and come back to them later. As some sites are blocked by my district, I will star interesting news feeds and then access them later at home. The more advanced user can do other things, like create folders, tag, read feeds offline, and share your feeds with your friends. Click on the Google Reader Thumbnail (right) to see what a standard display might look like.

Got more questions? Check out the Google Reader Help Center, and you will find many short articles to help you use Google Reader more effectively.

Uses
An RSS reader/aggregator can be an extremely useful tool for a science educator trying to stay abreast of current discoveries and news. This is extremely useful for teachers that want to stay informed for their own teaching, but you can also encourage your students to setup RSS readers to discuss current events.

But what about for other subject areas? RSS readers have obvious applications for history and political science teachers. Try searching for your local paper to see if it has an RSS feed for their top stories. If you are a foreign language teacher, you can get foreign news daily. But RSS readers can also connect you to blogs that might relate to your teaching. Entering the search string “teaching math” reveals a “forum for mathematics teaching for students from upper secondary/high school level through university”.

Enjoy
Go ahead and Read your Feeds! I find that Google Reader is my favorite newspaper; it is a collection of what I want to read, delivered to my desktop automatically. But be careful - if I don’t go through my feeds on a regular basis, I find that I can get thousands of posts behind!

Posted 01 May 2008 † Brian Bartel § Professional Development § RSS § Technology ‡ Comments (0) °

Buy CFLs for Earth Day

In our recent interview with Bill Nye, he reminded us that “the hardest thing for everyone to understand about the environment is that every single thing you do affects everybody in the whole world.”

Inspired by his words, I decided to replace some lightbulbs in my house with CFLs (compact flourescent lightbulbs). While I have been slowly replacing lightbulbs with CFLs as they burn out, I finally replaced a good number before they were burned out. It also helps that many companies are offering CFLs in different sizes and more attactive casings (i.e. flood lamps, decorative bulbs, etc). Thus, more than 90% of the lightbulbs in my house are now energy efficient.

Many stores will make this conversion easy for you with multi-packs and rebates as well. Energy Star even has a “choose a light” guide for you to help you decide which CFL suits your needs best. Nye suggests finding CFLs of the color you like, but with all things, the higher quality ones are usually more expensive.

Hear Bill Nye’s Opinions on CFLs at www.nsta.org/laboutloud

So you go to the store and you buy one [compact fluorescent light bulb]. Ok, but if you replace every lamp in your house, or every lamp in the main rooms… Replace every one of those lamps, and you will see your power bill go down… Now there are some whining, unbelievable-freakin’ whiners out there who tell you that we can’t change to compact fluorescents because of the mercury - “there’s no way to get rid of the mercury that’s in those lights and it’s gonna kill everybody.” So let’s keep in mind that it was the year 1951 when American industry went to buying more fluorescent lamps than incandescent lamps. That is to say, if you work at any sort of factory anywhere, they have fluorescent lights – ‘cuz it’s so much cheaper. And so those lights are required by law to be recycled and the mercury recovered. And there are services that recover the lights and recover the mercury. So we just gotta do the same thing for domestic consumers – for people that buy ‘em for their houses. For cryin’ out loud – this is not, if I may, rocket surgery. This is actually a little more complicated that: trying to motivate everyone to do the right thing with regard to their old lamps. And of course it can be done; it’s a metal. Who doesn’t want to recover a metal? It’s valuable, it’s shiny, you can see it – of course you can do it. Download the Podcast

CFL Links:

Posted 22 April 2008 † Brian Bartel § Environmental § Resources/Recycling ‡ Comments (1) °

Grant Writing Tips

With shrinking school budgets, educators might consider looking to grants for project funds. Here are some tips (from the links below and from personal experience) for you if you are thinking of applying for a grant.

Preparation

  • Make sure your idea fits the grant criteria (location, non-equipment, etc)
  • Look for full grants and mini-grants too
  • May need to become member of professional organization(s) to be considered
  • Grants have two broad categories:
    • New proposals
    • Help to buildup existing projects
  • “Less is more” in proposal
  • Find colleagues as collaborators, community support
  • Look at successful proposals of other grant ideas
  • Find multiple uses of money, if possible
  • Involve students
  • Is your project sustainable beyond funding?
  • Gather ‘writing tools’
  • Success breeds success in grants

Writing

  • Use technical writing, not a creative writing style
  • Be clear and concise in writing style
  • Make sure to plan ahead and make the deadline, if not before
  • Display confidence & enthusiasm
  • Do your homework: research, cite studies that support your project
  • “Jargonize” appropriately
  • “Less is More” in writing
  • Develop specific, attainable goals in your project
  • Provide and timeline and a means for evaluation
  • Be prepared to showcase your successes already related to grant
  • Discuss potential problems and pitfalls
  • Consider your funding needs
  • Proofread! Avoid simple typos, misspellings, or awkward formatting
  • Critique your own proposal
  • Have others read your final draft as well
  • Turn in ON TIME (or ahead of time)

Follow-up

  • Some grants will contact you regardless of acceptance
  • Don’t get discouraged – a good idea is still worth doing. Look for other funding, try again next year
  • You may have a perfect idea/application and still get rejected
  • If rejected, ask grantor for comments/suggestions
  • If accepted, make sure to follow criteria for follow-up: report, publicity, etc

Links

Grant Sources (specifically science)

Do you have other ideas, or grant sources to share?

Posted 16 April 2008 † Brian Bartel § Grants ‡ Comments (0) °

Using the Photocopier as a Scanner

At West, we are fortunate enough to be able to scan documents directly into a PDF file that can be e-mailed to our school accounts using a photocopier. Here’s How:

  1. Use the 1st copier to the left as you enter the copy room on second floor (scanning can still be done in synchronicity with someone else copying).
  2. On the left-hand side of the control panel, select “Scanner”.  Then, scroll to find your name on the display.
  3. Load documents like you are making copies (using the document feeder or one at a time on the glass) and press “Start”.
  4. When you are finished, press the “#” key on the keypad.
  5. The document will be sent to you via e-mail as a PDF file.

See video for a demonstration:

Using Photocopier Scanner @ Yahoo! Video

Posted 11 March 2008 † Brian Bartel § At School § Productivity § Technology ‡ Comments (0) °

Student Discussion Boards

My district has recently installed Microsoft Sharepoint.  This is a dynamic tool (albeit from the MotherShip) that allows me to create and control groups where users can collaborate though shared documents, discussions boards, blogs, and wikis (and many other features).

My initial observations of Sharepoint made me realize that it has a distinct Microsoft footprint - heavy on tools, but clunky to use.  It reminds me of that spoof video fantasizing if Microsoft had packaged the iPod.  In any case, I futzed around with it for a while until I was semi-satisfied.

I have to admit - the discussion board is a powerful tool.  It engages my students on a level that they would not comfortable with in the classroom.  It challenges them to raise questions they would not ask in class.  It actually brings more discussion into the classroom.  And this was only after a week of discussion.  (NOTE: the power of a discussion board is not new to me, but this is the first time I am able to use one under my district’s IT reign).

This is exactly a tool I have been looking for, as I have a colleague in Sweden who wants to have our classes collaborate on a project.  Since SKYPE is blocked, this would allow the students to actually have that collaboration - supervised by me and my Swedish colleague.

Sharepoint is quite powerful in that it allows multiple configurations for its users with many layers of permission.  There are a few no-brainers that I already have setup to protect my students.  First - they can only post, but can’t edit or delete their entries.  This helps to reinforce the idea that once something is posted on the internet, it is always there.  Secondly, I don’t allow anonymous outside registration either - outside registration would have to be added by me or would have to be requested.

But I am not clear how to setup other student permissions/identities and if I should allow outside access for viewing.  I have a few options:

  1. Lock down the site so that ONLY students in my class can see and participate in the discussions
  2. Lock down the site as above, but allow it to be viewed by any student or teacher in the district
  3. Allow outside viewing, but protect student identities - make them create unidentifiable usernames
  4. Other options?

If you use student discussion boards, what advice do you have?  What are the benefits and drawbacks of these configurations?  I want students to be safe, feel free to speak their mind, but I also want to emulate the outside world as well.

You can see what I’ve done (and what the students have done) so far.  Their identities are protected - so I am currently using option #3.  Most likely, these settings will change in the future. [Link]

Posted 29 February 2008 † Brian Bartel § Appropriate Use § Collaboration § Education § For the Classroom § Technology ‡ Comments (0) °

Wind Ensemble on Morning Show

WHS WindEnsemble @ Yahoo! Video

Posted 26 February 2008 † Brian Bartel § Misc ‡ Comments (0) °

Interactive Whiteboarding

This school year, I was fortunate enough to have an interactive whiteboard (from Interwrite) installed in my classroom. I was hesitant to get it at first, as I would lose some valuable front-board real estate to have it mounted.

However, once I started using it, I soon found out some interactive and intriguing ways ways to enhance my instruction. Here’s what I like about it:

  1. More Student Interaction. I often find myself working too hard. That is, teaching to my students instead of working with them so that they can teach themselves. The IW has really helped to get students out of their seats and truly be more interactive in the lessons. Students love to write on the board, and it’s a great way to get students to contribute to the class.
  2. New Technology WOW Factor. There are only a handful of IW’s in the school right now, and students still think it’s a pretty cool gadget. It’s like I have the iPhone of education hanging on my wall (sorry for the metaphor).
  3. Great for Graphing. As a science teacher, I always have my students collect and graph data to analyze in class. The IW allows me to display graphs and write on them for analysis. The ‘write-on-able’ feature and the fact I can go back or save make the IW far superior to an overhead and some markers.
  4. Import Work and other Media. The IW allows me to easily import many types of media. This is particularly nice when working with online or CD-ROM textbooks, as I can incorporate media directly from student texts into my lessons. I can also use non-digital media, as we have a copy machine in our building that will scan documents and e-mail them to teachers.
  5. Save and Export Work. As I mentioned, I was a little cautious about losing some traditional whiteboard space. But I found that the IW actually expands this space, and I can create multiple pages and scroll back and forth. I can also record my movements on the IW to export them as a movie, and export the pages to a PDF file.
  6. Demonstration and Interactive Use of Programs. I particularly like to use RasMol for molecular imaging. I can use the same basic mouse functions on the IW to manipulate the molecule on the board, as well as certain structures with the IW pen. Here’s an exported video of me manipulating a GFP molecule with the IW.

  7. Interwrite Board + SMART Airliner Tablet = Extreme Whiteboarding! I still use traditional whiteboards integrated with the IW. I can assign multiple tasks for student groups to tackle on their own whiteboard, then take a picture of each and upload them to view. The students can present it on the board as I bring up their whiteboard picture. All the while, I am sitting in the back and can correct or add comments with a SMART Airliner Tablet or wireless keyboard/mouse. Again, the students produce, review and critique their entire lesson with my guidance.

Picture of Student Work:

Picture of Corrected Student Work:

If you can’t afford an interactive whiteboard this year, check out the economy solution - made from a Nintendo Wii [Link].

Posted 15 February 2008 † Brian Bartel § For the Classroom § Science Communication § Technology ‡ Comments (0) °

Darwin Day Celebration


Saturday, February 9th @ 7:00 PM
Lawrence University; Appleton, WI
Science Hall, Room 102
See Attached Flier

Please join us for this special Darwin Day event on Saturday, February 9th at Lawrence University. This event is designed to celebrate Darwin’s birthday and contributions to science. All students, educators and scientists are welcome. Food and door prizes will be provided.

Event Schedule
7:00 PM Keynote Presentations & Discussions (below)
8:30 PM Movie: Flock of Dodos
10:00 PM Social at the Viking Room on campus

Genetics and Speciation
Beth De Stasio, Raymond J. Herzog Professor of Science
& Associate Professor of Biology, Lawrence University
Using one or two recent examples, we will explore the connection between genetic change, phenotypic change, and speciation. Advances in our ability to dissect the genetic component of complex traits such as an organism’s morphology and color have allowed scientists to understand the changes that have led to reproductive isolation and subsequent speciation within particular populations. We will discuss the importance of reproductive isolation to speciation and mechanisms by which organisms can be isolated even when living in the same environment. Two examples will be explored.Evo-devo and its contributions to Darwin’s legacy
Brigid O’Donnell, Postdoctoral Fellow of Biology, Lawrence University
Evolutionary developmental biology (or “evo-devo”) is a relatively new field of biological inquiry that elegantly illustrates both common ancestry and descent with modification in organic beings as envisioned by Charles Darwin. Evo-devo has provided us with a powerful perspective to explore the proximate mechanisms underlying the genesis of form as well as the evolutionary “tinkering” of developmental pathways across multiple scales of biological organization (from genes to entire structures!). I will highlight two specific case studies that have supplied exciting insights into the origin and evolution of the phenotype: the origin of body plans and the developmental basis of eyespot patterns in butterfly wings.

Coevolution of hosts and their parasites
Judith Humphries, Assistant Professor of Biology, Lawrence University
The coevolution of parasites and their hosts is often described as an “Arms Race”, where for example, the parasite evolves to increase the probability of infecting its host but in response, the host coevolves to better defend itself against the parasite. This is consistent with the “Red Queen Hypothesis” where both host and parasite must continually evolve in order to maintain fitness relative to each other. The relationship between parasitic brood birds such as cuckoos, and their hosts is often used to exemplify this hypothesis.

Please respond to president07@wsst.org if you plan to attend
Sponsored by Lawrence University and
The Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers

Posted 03 February 2008 † Brian Bartel § Science Communication ‡ Comments (0) °

Hawk at School

Here’s a video clip of the hawk that perched outside of my window during homeroom today.   Mrs. Schadrie believes it is a Cooper’s Hawk,  Mr. Emerine believes it is a red-tailed hawk and you can clearly see it has some prey at its feet.

Posted 29 January 2008 † Brian Bartel § At School § Misc ‡ Comments (0) °