beyondchips

A quarter of the 21st century will soon elapse, and we must reflect on how we first got acquainted with what we now know as everyday technologies. Did we take formal classes, or did we learn by ourselves through errors? Truth be told, the children in our classrooms and homes have reached levels of proficiencies many of us are choosing not to achieve. The use of technology is a journey to a destination unknown, yet WE KNOW the milestones. Having passed mile markers known as search engines, mobile apps, and social media, how are we going to make meaning of the latest waymark of Artificial Intelligence for ourselves? With all the talk about Artificial Intelligence these days, it can be difficult to find a handle for making sense of it all. As a futurist, technologist, and educator, I strive to find opportunities to reveal a point for understanding technology. On the topic of A.I., the PBS documentary linked below is an excellent primer for getting started.  

State testing starts on Monday and we must take the time to acknowledge and understand the anxiety and stress some of us may be feeling at the moment. The pressure to ensure our students perform well can be overwhelming, and the responsibility we carry on our shoulders is immense. It is also important that we prioritize our well-being at this time. Our mental, emotional, and physical well-being are of vital importance, as they directly impact our capacity to provide the best possible support for our students.   Consider engaging in self-care activities that help manage stress and maintain a positive mindset. This could include mindfulness and relaxation practices, spending time in nature or engaging in hobbies you enjoy, additional sleep and rest, proper nutrition and hydration; exercise, etc. Please remember the power of reaching out to colleagues, administrators, or a counselor for support.   We serve as role models for others and especially to the young people we are surrou...

I start this morning with a personal acknowledgement, I too have room for growth in this area! Consider this... Might there be two types of individuals in our work life? Those we communicate with and those we don't. The reasons we choose not to connect with others vary from one individual to the next. Perhaps we're not feeling like it right now. Everyone gets weary, irritable, busy, and not in the mood to engage in a conversation. Think about what kind of change can we affect by taking a few moments to get to further get to know a student or a colleague. We are humans after all, and we naturally put up barriers that prevent us from interacting with those around us. For many, it is a function of self-preservation, a coping skill. We protect ourselves and grow accustomed to our regular social circles. In the process, we lose sight of the need to reach out and serve those in front of us. Too often, we become mired in our own spheres spending much time in our own moments, that we i...

I initially hesitated to share this article as it may underscore certain biases or predispositions one might have. In the interest of teacher efficacy, we are better educators when we are open and honest about the potential limitations of our perspectives. By acknowledging our predispositions, we can work towards minimizing their impact on our teaching and create a more inclusive learning environment for all students. It is important to constantly reflect and challenge our own beliefs to ensure that we are providing the best education possible.   This LA Times article ( linked below ) is a short read and describes the generation of students now occupying seats in our classrooms. This generation of students is known for their technological prowess and adaptability, which can be both a blessing and a challenge for educators. The article touches on illiteracy, parenting, social skill development, behavior the role of YouTube, and how students learn. Educators must embrace these change...

Modern brain research says we humans have a neurological system that is hardwired for comfort. Conversely, we are also have a primordial predisposition for growth, risk-taking, and change which science argue as essential elements for evolution. In Plato’s allegory, he describes the condition as the difference between remaining shackled in the cave and venturing out for genuine enlightenment. Unlike others life forms, we have the ability to manage or regulate the natural want to leave our comfort zone with the necessity to stay in it. Our daily interactions suggests some are better skilled in doing so than others. As educators, we work with each other and young learners who are intelligent and can make good decisions. The question is, do why people make “bad” choices? This week, I invite you to take a moment to learn, relearn (or unlearn) about the frontal lobe of the human brain by viewing the TEDx video liked below (18 mins).   https://www.youtube.com/embed/v1ojZKWfShQ?si=wq45IDxg...

Stay in your seat. Think before you act. Get a hold of your emotions. Organize your materials. Manage your time. Sounds familiar? These are just a few statements repeatedly shared with some students. At the root of the problem are skills collectively known under the category of Executive Function. Executive function skills develop naturally and through experience. Student needs to work on their executive functioning skills, just like they need to work on their math facts, reading understanding, and other learning objectives we present to them. If we are to extend this thinking, do we then have a duty to help students develop these skills?   Executive functions are processing skills that help us get things done. Every classroom has a wide range of students with different levels of executive functioning skills. Skills such as starting a task, organization, metacognition, inhibition, planning and setting priorities, time management, emotional control, sustained attention, flexibility,...

Think before you act. Get a hold of your emotions. Organize your materials. Manage your time.   Sounds familiar? These are just a few statements repeatedly shared with some students. At the root of the problem are skills collectively known under the category of  Executive Function . Executive function skills develop naturally and through experience. Student needs to work on their executive functioning skills, just like they need to work on their math facts, reading understanding, and other learning objectives we present to them. If we are to extend this thinking, do we then have a duty to help students develop these skills?   Executive functions are processing skills that help us get things done. Every classroom has a wide range of students with different levels of executive functioning skills. Skills such as starting a task, organization, metacognition, inhibition, planning and setting priorities, time management, emotional control, sustained attention, flexibility, and ...

Students getting up from their seats seems to be a thing these days, and many struggle when students get up and leave with or without permission. Rather than react, consider a more fundamental and proactive approach. When was the last time the classroom looked transformed communicating a shift in mindset?  Some say, offering students agency over their seating arrangements, promotes students thinking about the learning environment and the freedom to make their own positive decisions. This, of course, can be seen as a difficult departure from the control of the seating chart and not everyone is ready. The seating arrangement impacts the dynamics and flow of instruction. Lessons in a U- or circle-shaped classroom encourage greater student participation and interaction than those taught in rows. Standing desks, exercise balls, and beanbag chairs are just a few of the flexible seating alternatives that provide kids the freedom to learn in the most productive setting for them. Each learn...

  In the book How Children Fail, the author likens students belonging either to a group of hopeful travelers on a journey with wonderful thoughts of an eventual arrival at a destination, or prisoners in a chain gang forced to work under threats of punishments with no knowledge of where they are at the moment, or will be down the line. Here’s the book: http://www.schoolofeducators.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/HOW-CHILDREN-FAIL-JOHN-HOLT.pdf   Many students perceive schools as a place where they are forced to go, where they are told what to do, and where their lives become miserable if they don't comply. For these students, the primary goal of school is not learning. Rather it is a place where mundane activities are performed with minimum effort and unpleasantness. They are often labeled as those who don't care.   Here’s a way forward for your consideration…   https://ace.edu/blog/new-kids-on-the-block-reaching-and-teaching-generation-alpha/   Key points of the ...

  Once in a while articles find me and I am compelled to share. This one is about how to deal with people who may be hostile. We perceive them to be angry, antagonistic, abrasive, harsh, etc. and we are often times called to engage similarly thereby increasing the propensity for an escalation.   The brief article allows for a brief reflection on how we deal with hostility. The best part is, there is a way out. The answer starts with the person in the mirror… I invite you to read on.   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-at-any-age/202307/understanding-the-abrasive-individual

Christensen, E. W., Anakwe, U. P., & Kessler, E. H. (2001). Receptivity to distance learnings The effect of technology, reputation, constraints, and learning preferences. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 33 (3), 263-279. https://doi.org/10.1080/08886504.2001.10782314  While this article was written some time ago, it continues to reverberate with timeless ideas that remain relevant today. In the context of technology and education, the best indicator of students' openness to distance learning has to do with how valuable they believe distance learning tools are. The article emphasizes the importance of assisting students in appreciating the benefits and use of platforms and technologies for online learning. Technology that promotes interactivity and collaboration is of utmost importance. In addition, features that foster flexibility, relationship-building, and student-centered learning attract further engagement. When promoting online learning as an option to in-per...

My learning environment is in the midst of change. A significant number of new families have settled in the neighborhood during the course of the last ten years. The neighborhood is now densely populated as single-family houses become a rarity in favor of multi-unit dwelling complexes. A significant number of students are learning English as their second language and hail from a broad range of cultural traditions from various parts of the world, including Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Although it remains a working-class neighborhood, the area immediately around the school has experienced an increase in both property values and rents as a result of young professionals moving into newly constructed apartments. Within the walls of the educational institution, administrators and teachers are struggling to genuinely collaborate to find ways to meet the needs of an ever-evolving student body. Although new programs have been implemented for those who are learning English, there ar...

Truth be told, I have not heard of geocaching in over twenty years. I remember it was quite popular with those with interest in technology, the outdoors, and adventures. At the time, GPS devices were just beginning to enter the consumer market and early adopters were installing them in their vehicles replacing paper maps. Handheld versions were standard equipment for extreme hikers who venture towards the unknown.  Apparently, geocaching enthusiasts have maintained its popularity since its inception. Originally called, “geostashing”,  geocaching traces it origin in the forests of Oregon, where Dave Ulmer described the activity in an online forum where GPS coordinates of hidden repositories or caches may be shared online, enabling other individuals to navigate to these repositories and acquire various items (Telaar et al., 2014). Much has happened since geocaching’s early days and the activity has now made its presence beyond recreation to other sectors including  educatio...

I started my career making websites for schools and colleges back in the 1990s. At the time, building web pages always started the same way by typing the characters “<HTML>” onto an empty text editor. From there, the web page development can be as simple as a static page displaying text, hyperlinks, images, and media files, or as complex combinations of the same files, resulting in interactivity that attracts users to return. Decades later, I cannot imagine making the web pages we visited today by manually editing the publishing language of the World Wide Web. Since the early days of the internet, websites have come a long way. HTML is a very simple language that does not permit much customization or interactivity. In recent years, there has been a trend toward developing websites that foster interactive and engaging user experiences. The solution for developing these websites is software, and Articulate 360 serves as a perfect example. The advent of such tools for the automated ...

 The children of the 1980s seem to have had it all. They had leisure time outdoors playing sports riding bicycles and skateboards until the sun went down. Indoors, they spent time watching television and playing video games of the time. Children of today, however, spend significantly less time outside than children of any previous generation. Average American children play outside for 35% less time than their parents did when they were their age, and those between the ages of six and seventeen only engage in free-form, unstructured play outside for seven minutes each day on average (Lee et al., 2021). Some say technology is to blame. Advances in technology have led to a rise in the amount of time that young people spend interacting with screen-based technologies, such as watching television, playing video game consoles, or using a mobile device, a computer, or a tablet. There is no doubt that children find technology engaging. There is also no doubt that prolonged use of existing t...

Instantaneous, brief, multimedia, public and posts, instantaneous, and words that begin with the pound sign. For those new to the format, these are the hallmarks of microblogging. Microblogging is the practice of posting in real-time brief messages that may contain text, links, images, or videos on social networking platforms (Dijck, 2011). The number of posts on these platforms is staggering. Consider the most well-known of the platforms, Twitter (now known as X). On average, over five hundred million posts are shared on the platform, making it difficult to identify authoritative and reliable sources. The ease of sharing any information through microblogging can facilitate the dissemination of false information that conceals the truth. The counterspeech doctrine enshrined in a landmark 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case sets forth a principle for addressing dangerous and threatening expressions through discussions where more speech is preferred than enforcing silence (Howard, 2021). In the ...

Disseminating information arguably started with verbal storytelling, singing songs, and conversations. Absent technology, this act is transitory or short-lived. The transmitter of knowledge and receiver must be at the same place at the same time and within earshot of each other. Outside these parameters, communication is impossible. Then came writing implements resulting in images and characters on things like caves, rocks, and other durable objects making it possible to communicate across time. The problem is, the receiver of information needs to be at the location of the message to receive. The printing press, which was invented in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg, resulted in a revolutionary change (Wheeler, 2019). The manner in which information could be disseminated. Suddenly, the availability of printed, books, newspapers, libraries, and pamphlets made it possible for ideas and knowledge to travel to a greater number of people, at least those who could read and have access to these mat...

For my second trip to Thailand a few years ago, I decided to tour the countryside and visit the areas surrounding Chaing Mai. Located near the borders of Laos and Myanmar, this northern part of Thailand is mountainous and home to a number of hill tribes living in dense rain forests. One village in particular was quite proud of its new school built in the middle of the jungle. Soon after our arrival, village elders were notified that we were visiting educators and they immediately invited us to see the new school and its computer lab. Many of us were in disbelief that a computer exist in the village given its primitive agricultural characteristics, remoteness, and the lack of infrastructure. Days before departing for the village, we were warned that the village has electricity for only a few hours a day and there are times when there are none. Extreme political rivalries have led to regional instabilities and a decline of governmental authorities as various forces in the region struggle...

 Liberty and Justice For All. These are the last five words of the American Pledge of Allegiance. Written in 1892 and recited everyday by millions of people, including students in the United States, the pledge is a statement of patriotic sentiment, national unity, and allegiance (Westheimer, 2006). If the citizenry is to enjoy the blessings of liberty and justice, access must be universal. Universal access refers to the removal of obstacles that hinder anyone from using or benefiting from the various systems, including educational opportunities. “If you don’t have access to information in the first place, it is very difficult to protect education, health, the safety of journalists or the other right in the digital ecosystem” - Guillerme Canela Claims have been made about online learning and its ability to remove or mitigate teaching and learning barriers such as distance, geography, building designs, and transportation issues (Appana, 2008). Efforts to address these obstacles shoul...

Let’s start with a short activity. Close your eyes and think about these words: “computer lab.” Open your eyes and continue reading… The mere mention of a computer lab these days connotes a nostalgic vision of a dedicated room in the school containing several rows of long tables with desktop computers for use by students and somewhere in the room is a teacher's station with a computer connected to a projector and a printer (Julian, 2013). To use the computer lab, teachers from across the campus took turns and made reservations for students to use the resources in the room for a specific activity.   Computer labs started appearing in schools decades ago when computers were expensive, and school budgets were tight. Schools aiming to provide the campus community an opportunity to learn basic computer skills, research, or perform schoolwork electronically carved large swaths of funds from the budget to create computer labs. As funds became available, the school upgraded its labs with f...