31 March 2009

The Production of Knowledge

I was struck full in the face just how quickly we can access information about society in this day and age. I was watching American Idol (of course we DVR it so we don't have to watch the commercials), and Adam Lambert sang an old Wild Cherry song, "Play that Funky Music White Boy". I thought Rick James had done that song and I knew Vanilla Ice covered it at one time. I decided to google the song and found this article on wikipedia. I could not believe that the page had been updated with information about Lambert's performance of the song before the show was even over! I was blown away!

I talk in my class about how quickly we are able to access knowledge and this is just a really fine example of how quickly our society produces knowledge. According to @mishelleyb "Not only can we be consumers of knowledge, we can be producers of it and that production can be instantaneous!" I sit writing this post, thinking that someone, somewhere MIGHT be interested in reading what I have to say and the information I have to share is available within seconds of putting it into the keyboard of the laptop. Absolutely amazing. At no other time in history have people been able to say so much so quickly. I love it! Web 2.0 is the best!

22 March 2009

Spring Break is over

Time for the (short) haul to May 24th. I can't believe there are only 9 weeks left of school. Absolute insanity. I don't really understand what happens with the space-time continuum, but after I finished school, it was definitely interupted because I am definitely experiencing time dialation.  Last year was a blur and this year has been even worse.

I had a good break by doing some work in my kitchen (just paint) and just enjoying spending time with my @mishelleyb. She and I watched a ton of movies, did some shopping, and enjoyed each other's company.  It was great!

Now its time to think about work again. Time to get serious about the wiki. Time to get serious about preparing for the AP exam and plan some study sessions. Time to enjoy students again. Time to try to get students excited about Physics. I am going to plan a trip to a local amusement park next month. What better way to get them interested in physics than go to an amusement park? Should be fun.

Last, and certainly least, time to turn 40 next week. Yuck.

10 March 2009

A myopic look at our reality

This picture totally sums up technology in the class room. When you look at the situation in a different context, it sure is funny! I found this picture on Twitpic.

The future is now!The future is Now!

09 March 2009

Feedback on our classroom wiki

Today we started editing our wiki. I inserted a poll to find out what students reaction is to the wiki. Here are the results:

This is not the overwhelming excitement I was hoping for, but at least the largest portion of them are somewhat excited.  I guess students are not as excited about ICT and web2.0 as I thought they would be.

I teach Physics. My students are the best in the school. These kids really like science. They usually enjoy math. They are usually college bound. If these students aren't excited about publishing to the web and acutally learning skills that will help them in the technology crazy world in which they will work. Insane! Help. What now? Maybe the wiki wasn't my best bet for the first foray into this new world.

05 March 2009

An incredibly busy week

Mishelleyb and I have been quite busy this week.  We are the class sponsors of the sophomore class at SNU. That means we really just work with the class council to manage and plan the events for which our class is responsible. Its not a big deal unless (like us) you have to plan a totally new event from scratch which just happens to coincide with a band concert on the same weekend in the same venue.  This makes setup and rehearsal almost impossible. So this weekend is our event. It is called "who's the Man" and will be held in Herrick Auditorium at 1930 on Saturday night. We are excited about what it will look like, but its gonna be crazy for the next day or two. If we can make it to midnight on Saturday, we will be okay.

Maybe by then, my headache will go away.