Direct instruction, home broadband, and more – Of bits and bytes for July 3, 2023
Internet Travels
Of bits and bytes is my weekly round up of interesting links and ideas I discovered on the internet. It is published on Mondays for the previous week
Pedagogy
There are a lot of times in education where instructional techniques are pitted against each other in some sort of Highlander situation where “there can be only one”. However, there is more nuance than on technique to rule them all and Mike Kaechele looks into it when he discusses direct instruction and project based learning:
The direct instruction vs. inquiry debate falsely assumes that they are mutually exclusive.
Technology
One issue that came to a head during 2020 was the lack of internet access for our students. While cellular can be option, and it’s better than nothing, it can’t compete with some from of wired internet. Now more access may become a reality with the release of $40 billion in from the federal government to increase broadband access. My state of Ohio is scheduled to receive over $700 million. Broadband access has gotten easier, I now have 200/20Mpbs access in my house, which I never thought would be available. But even my access has a problem, and that is the slow upload speeds. And as I shop around, trying to get the upload speed from some providers is like pulling teeth. They’ll talk about their download speeds all day, but once you get 35-50Mbps, most people won’t notice any more speed. They will, however notice how long it takes to upload photos and videos.
Forced password changes are a pain for everyone involved, but sometimes it needs to be done. However, if you want to know how it shouldn’t be done, check out this high school that changed every student’s password to ‘Ch@ngeme!’. Several problems here, starting with the appearance of a secure password when it isn’t very secure.
Tips
John Spencer’s insight is always welcome here at the Eduk8me’s headquarters, and here’s his 5 ways to leverage A.I. for student supports and scaffolds
Pop Culture
If you’re on Tik Tok and are a certain age, you’ve probably seen a ton of videos talking about how GenX was raised. This is the last generation to have so much unstructured playtime that TV aired public service announcements at 10pm asking parents if they knew where their kids were. Vox looks at the decline of playtime and the effects on the mental health of kids.
Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies and I didn’t know that Bill Murray’s improv on one line changed English.
Pot Pourri
You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with, and if they can be negative nellies,it can affect you more than you realize. For some reason, life seems to breed cynicism.
When something is beeping, there probably is a reason, and you should research before turning off a freezer and ruin 20 years of research. The freezer was labeled with a message to not turn it off or unplug it, but apparently this message should have also been posted at the circuit breaker box.
Why would I be posting about what makes one person attractive to another? The research goes deeper than just attractiveness.
Extra Credit
Here are extra links that I found interesting that may or may not be education related or interesting to you and I didn’t want to lose them.
- How AI Influences What You See on Facebook and Instagram | Meta
- AI-generated tweets might be more convincing than real people, research finds – The Verge
- Unlocking AI’s Potential: Live Blog #ISTELive
- AI is killing the old web, and the new web struggles to be born – The Verge
- How people are really using AI (and what they’re afraid of)
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