Info. Tech and Learning: What's the Connection?

That's the topic for the next two weeks in one of my grad. classes. We're to read this news article and interview our Media and Tech folks and observe what's going on with technology in the Media Center.

I find the article depressing because these people are blowing a ton of money on stuff they'll have trouble keeping up to date and I seriously doubt all of it is even being put to good use. I hope I'm wrong about that.

I would also like to see some rigorous studies that prove this is even a good thing. There are many many studies that prove more books and more access to books improves student achievement. Are there any solid studies showing the same thing for the technology? I do know that when I lived in the county referred to in the article, the graduation rate was hovering around 50%. Has it improved since this infusion of technology (assuming that's the only big change)?

Are we throwing good money after bad?

$1.6 million for tech. That's equivalent to 80,000 $20 books.

I'm just sayin'.

LHC

This is sad, but something to think about.  It's a link to a post by Phil Plait.  He talks about the need for critical thinking skills and links to an article about a girl from India who has committed suicide because she feared the world would end when they turned on the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider, one of the cooler things we, as humans, have done.  The thing was turned on two days ago and we're still here.  Here's Phil:

"I’m a parent. I sometimes think the most important thing I can do for my daughter is love her, keep her healthy, protect her. But in all of those, there is an overarching responsibility for me to teach her how to live in the real world. And that means showing her how to think. Not what to think, but how.

Question authority. Be skeptical of claims. Ask for evidence. Apply good logic. Avoid bad logic. Analyze the results. Look for bias.

And doubt. Doubt doubt doubt. It’s one of the greatest strengths of the human mind, and perhaps the least used of all."

To learn more about the amazing work of the LHC, Brian Greene has the goods here.  There's also this cool, funny, and accessible 15 minute video from "rock star physicist" Brian Cox talking about it, "the biggest scientific experiment ever attempted."

It's nothing to fear.  It's something to be proud of.

Who Is the Biggest Loser?

I was listening to the SGU this week and they were rehashing their Dragon*Con experiences and of course got to talking about the costumes. Bob mentioned these movie quality Iron Men and there were plenty of other characters that looked like they just stepped off a movie set, especially Star Wars folks like Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Steve joked about a kid in a lame Halloween mask and black t-shirt, wondering why he bothered when there were these pros walking around and Rebecca said she thought the guys in the expensive suits that clearly took many man hours to manufacture were bigger losers in her eyes.

Yes, people go over the top for that stuff and no, that's not why I was there. But I still have to respectfully disagree with Rebecca. The guy in the Boba Fett costume walked into one of the venues and beside me someone shouted, "Boba!" Boba turned and a bunch of us took pictures. For all I know the guy is a night shift manager at a Wings and Weenies. He really could be a total loser. But his costume rocked and for that weekend at least, he was Boba Fett. What's so wrong with that?

The Intenational Year of Astronomy

At the Skeptrack at Dragon*Con after hearing Phil Plait's talk and wandering through the vast event, I came across a table dedicated to The International Year of Astronomy.  Check out their site.  They want to impress upon us the advantages we have gained by studying astronomy and one of their big goals is to get everyone to just look at something out there through a telescope in 2009.  A fun and worthy idea!

Of course hanging around the table had nothing to do with it being manned by Phil Plait himself!  Noooo.

Of course it did!  I asked him about his recent promotion to President of the JREF.  I'd heard he and James Randi interviewed about it and one of his ideas is to get more involved with curriculum development in the schools to teach science, skepticism and critical thinking.  He's a great guy, so friendly and open and affable.  It was an honor to meet him, let alone his taking the time to lay out some of his plans.  Be on the lookout on the JREF site in the next year or two. He'll be wanting input from educators!

The Dragon*Con SkepTrack

It was cool. Friday evening I saw Michael Shermer's talk and got him to sign my copy of Why People Believe Weird Things. Outside his talk, I got my picture snapped with three of the Skeptical Rogues. I wanted to chat them up, but I'd been at school late and driven straight to the talk. It was like 8pm and I was loopy with hunger, so I thanked them for the pic, and took off looking for food.

Saturday I went to see DJ Grothe do a live Point of Inquiry podcast, but stuff had gotten shifted around and it was now a science and skepticism podcasting panel discussion with Dr. Novella (the silver-haired one wearing the black tshirt in the photo above), DJ, Derek from Skepticality (and a big round of applause to him--he ran this whole thing), Dr. Pamela Gay from Astronomy Cast, Richard Saunders from the TANK and Dr. Ginger Campbell from the Brain Science podcast. These are all wonderful, thoughtful people and shows. It you're the type to listen to NPR or something like that on your commute, you should really check out these folks. It was great and I got to sit next to Evan and Bob (the other two guys in the photo not wearing the red shirt--that would be me), so got to chat them up a bit after all.

Next was Dr.Phil Plait's presentation that goes along with his new book, Death from the Skies! He's so enthusiastic and fun. One of the reviewers said:

"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, yet oddly exhilarating."
- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising

Goes for the talk as well!

Last I took in Dr. Novella's highly informative talk on Science-Based Medicine. I learned a lot and will definitely be checking out that blog.

But then my head was full, so I wandered around weirdo-watching and shopping in the exhibition hall. I went by the Skeptic's Table at the Mariott, but never did run into the Podblack Cat. She said she'd be there, but had probably gotten tired of sitting like I had. Good thing she skipped out on Phil's talk. Jokes about Aussie's and all. Maybe next time.

The Stupid: It Hurts

Why do I even read the news anymore?

It's ok to carry guns in this Texas school.

And so My Lovely Bride doesn't think I'm picking on Texas, here's some dumb Georgians that think they have a bigfoot, even though there is no such thing.

I'm turning off the computer now. Have a great weekend.

More Airbourne Silliness

More about that crazy "Airborne" creating 2nd grade teacher who thinks she knows more than doctors and scientists. She doesn't. She obviously doesn't know more than lawyers either.

"Airborne, however, when used as directed does not prevent class-action lawsuits, charges of deceptive advertising -- or, according to the government, the common cold.

"There is no credible evidence that Airborne products . . . will reduce the severity or duration of colds, or provide any tangible benefit for people who are exposed to germs in crowded places," said Lydia Parnes, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, which filed a complaint against Airborne's makers.

The remedy prescribed by the FTC is for Airborne to pay consumers back for as many as six purchases, a nationwide total of as much as $30 million."

Read Research, NOT Newspapers

The great Ben Goldacre over at the Bad Science blog takes journalists (and obviously nutritionists which he labels with the synonyms "clown" and "dilettante") to task. Basically if you see an article about food written by a journalist you should feel free to ignore it.

"The newspapers are so profoundly overrun with pseudoscience about food that there’s no point in documenting it any longer. They will continue with their Sisyphean task of dividing all the inanimate objects in the world into the ones that either cause or cure cancer, and I will sit at the sidelines, making that joke over and over again."

The latest is this article claiming that "Red Wine could help prevent breast cancer."

In fact, exactly the opposite is true. "There is unlikely to be a safe level of alcohol which doesn’t increase the risk of breast cancer. Some studies have found that drinking just one unit a day can increase a woman’s chances of developing breast cancer."

(You can look up the Bad Science post but be warned it contains graphic images.)

More From the NYT

There's some great food for thought (or debate) in the Letters page devoted to that article about reading books vs. the internets that had so many hyperventilating.

And this list of stuff to NOT worry about on summer vacation (even though that's ending for me) soothes my skeptical soul.

No Danger From Cell Phones

Orac, as usual, has a great summary of why the recent "warnings" are a bunch of hooey.

Dr. Steven Novella tackled this last fall.


As far as the science shows, cell phones are as dangerous as a Yeti.

PZ Does Atlanta!

Here are images from last night's meeting of Pharyngulans and Atlanta Skeptics at Manuel's Tavern. At least a hundred smarties packed the place and a good time was had by all. And he says we win! That's Masala Skeptic speechifying. I also met Tim from What's the Harm? and many other wonderful people with their critical thinking faculties intact. At least until they had to split up the bar tab...

This Is The Harm

When I go off on the occasional skeptical rant about some nonsense like astrologists or psychics I always get the, "What's the harm?" question.

Here's the harm.

A single mom struggling with all her might to raise her 11-year-old autistic daughter and is called to a meeting in which the principal and vice-principal thought it was appropriate to scare her to death with tales of her daughter's alleged sexual abuse. They'd already called Child Services. Good thing the Child Services folks had cooler heads than these moronic administrators.

Why were they morons? The only evidence came from a psychic.

"The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'"

That anyone would put this woman through that is the harm.

Whenever you think or hear someone ask, "What's the harm?"

Send them this link.

Robert Ingersoll!

Wow, this is a fun, short, breezy read. It's completely brilliant and, unfortunately still quite timely. Robert Ingersoll was a massively popular speaker for his day. Mark Twain and Thomas Edison were big fans of his. He's slipped into obscurity because he didn't write much and his collected speeches are voluminous. This short--130-some pages!--collection is just the ticket for a good overview of some compelling arguments. What a great American!

PodBlack Blog

Say "PodBlack Blog" three times real fast!

But no, it's awesome. Another dedicated educational ninja blogging away at about 20x the rate I do. I think over the summer, since my blogging will obviously slow down due to being a slack summertime sloth, I'll focus on other (and probably better) teacher ninjas that are spreading the word about reading and critical thinking. Maybe I'll even try to interview a few of them.

Kylie over at the PodBlack Blog is my first victim. She just commented on a couple of posts here and here), so I felt compelled to check her out. You could spend hours over there trying to sponge up a small portion of her immense braininess. It's an awesome display of insight and thoughtfulness. Check out her great list of Educational Resources and her tantalizing list of Skeptic Readings which are all required! Get to work, people! (Why do I just love lists like this so much?)

And Kylie, if you're reading this: I'm still teaching ELLs. I'll probably be doing it for at least two more years. I only just got accepted to take my Media Specialist classes and won't even start those until August. Working full time and taking classes, I'll be lucky to be a newly minted school librarian by 2010. But to be sure, I''ll be making sure your Skeptic Readings are an essential part of my collection! (I actually already own a good chunk of them myself...)

Most Popular Children's Books? Really?

Over at 100 Scope Notes, he reprints part of a list from the Washington Post. It uses data collected from Accelerated Reader to determine the most popular kids books. Go take a peek, then come back. Jay Mathews has a commentary in the paper about it as well.

All good books, right? No argument here. Stephen Krashen is skeptical, though:

"The survey was based on books children chosen for the Accelerated Reader program, a program in which children are tested on the content of books and earn points, which are exchanged for prizes. It is likely that their motivation is to earn points and get prizes. The results of this survey do not necessarily reflect what children read for their own intrinsic pleasure, but might only reflect what they read in order to earn points on quizzes and get prizes.

After reviewing the research, I have concluded that Accelerated Reader has not been shown to be better than simply providing good books and time to read.There is also evidence suggesting that providing rewards for reading results in less reading in the long term: Rewards send the message that reading must be unpleasant, and people have to be bribed to do it."

I agree, in part. I read aloud to my students quite a bit. They almost always check to see if what I've read is a an AR book. I think that list is based on what the teachers are choosing to read aloud.

Just look at the fifth grade list. Hatchet and Holes? I love those books, but I seriously doubt those are the top self-selected reading by most fifth graders. Either Diary of a Wimpy Kid doesn't have an AR test, or kids are taking tests on what they hear as well as what they read for themselves.

If 25 fifth graders took between 5 and 20 AR tests all year and they all took the one on Holes because it was a read-aloud, of course Holes will show up as the favorite.

Full Moon

No, it's doesn't cause the kids to go nuts. This article should prove it for you. For you guys interested in teaching critical thinking or logical fallicies, this is the big one: confusing correlation with causation. There's plenty to say about this. One example is the MMR/autism connection. There is none. But let's say you're not sure. You break down and give your kid the MMR shot. Soon after, you find out he does in fact have autism. Was it the shot? No, of course not. But it's the only thing you know that could have caused it, right? You didn't notice any of the indicators before the shot.
The indicators were there all along. Your pre-disposal to fear the shot made you think it was the shot. But a whole gob of scientists have been studying this for years and have proven many times and in many ways that it couldn't be the shot. They took out the heavy metals thought to be the problem ten or twelve years ago. Autism rates should have dropped dramatically in that time if it had been the shot, but they haven't.
You're not dumb if you think the moon causes lunacy or the MMR shot causes autism. You are just doing something humans are meant to do: look for reasons. That's why teaching critical thinking is so important. These mistakes are easy to make and we need to train ourselves to be reasonable.

Snopes!

Snopes is a great critical thinking resource (and may help you cut down on emails). You know all those forwarded emails? I'm not talking about the cutsy, silly ones. I'm talking about the ones that purport to make factual claims. You can (and should) verify them on Snopes before you forward it on. It's most likely bogus. Snopes (and there are other sites like it) collect and verify the veracity of these claims. It's a fun read and nice to know that you don't need to sign up for a cell phone Do Not Call list and that Target is not owned by the French (if that matters) and that Jay Leno didn't actually say the things reported in the email. It's also nice to send the link back to the forwarder and do your part to stop the spread of these spam emails.
At my school folks now send it to me to check on rather than forwarding it to the whole staff! Slowly, I'm trying to get them to check it out for themselves but at least all of our inboxes aren't full of this fluff.
Great site and entertaining to read. The internet equivalent of Mythbusters. (And yes, there really is a lightbulb from 1901 still burning to this day).

Death of a Ninja

Perry DeAngelis has died. He was a funny, thoughtful educator and skeptic (of some note, as he would have joked). He wrote a wonderful review of Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, in which he had this to say:

"Thinking critically is a chore. It does not come naturally or easily. And if the fruits of such efforts are not carefully displayed to young minds, then they will not harvest them. Every school child must be implanted with the wonder of the atom, not the thrall of magic."

Cheers, Perry. You are missed.