Chris, Jamie and Michael discuss the articles of the week and share their edtech tips.
Quotes We Discuss
-“A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” – New York Times, 1936.
-“Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” – Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
-“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” – Decca Recording Company on declining to sign the Beatles, 1962.
-“With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.” – Business Week, August 2, 1968.
-“Radio has no future.” “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” “X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” – Mathematical physicist Lord Kelvin (the first scientist to be promoted to the House of Lords), 1896, 1897, 1899.
-“It’ll be gone by June.” – Variety Magazine on Rock n’ Roll, 1955
-“Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” – Dr. Dionysius Lardner, 1830
-“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Examples of successful innovation and change in Education:
“By now, Salman Khan’s transition from hedge fund analyst to education technology mogul is well known in Silicon Valley.”
-Lauren Hepler, Economic Development Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal
Quality of production
It’s entirely possible that you are very good at (and have the tools to perform) a job that was really difficult to do a while ago.
The problem is that some difficult things keep getting easier to do.
Star Trek was cancelled twice during its original run for the simple reason that the ratings didn’t justify the cost. Today, fans are making original Star Trek episodes for free. Many elements of the production are simply stunning.
Or you might be a wedding photographer with tons of fancy equipment, competing against the fact that every single guest at the wedding has a camera in his pocket.
Consider the fact that many restaurant meals weren’t actually made by a chef, at least not in the restaurant in which you’re eating.
Even people who sell real estate have discovered that much of what they did all day is now being done, sorted and presented, for free, in real time, online.
That doesn’t mean that the game is over. What it does mean is that we have to figure out how to obsess over things that are truly difficult. Access to tools alone is not sufficient.
Tech Tips
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RubiStar Home 4teachers.orgRubrics are essential … period. RubiStar is as good as one is going to find. Teachers create and share for free.
video notes is a free web tool that allows students to take notes on a video they are watching. The notes are synchronized with the video being watched. The good thing about VideoNotes is that it is integrated into Google Drive which means that students will be able to save their notes directly to their Drive account and access, edit, and work on them anytime they want. All the notes are time-stamped.
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