Comments for The Thinking Stick

Comment on Advice for Parents of 1:1 Programs by Josee

Josee — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:10:33 +0000

Hi Jeff,
Fantastic advice. Thank you so much for all the practical advice. I’m an educator and mom, and tech lover (not necessarily in that order) but I’m very aware of the time we are consuming on computers in my home.

My father visited a few weeks ago. He laughed when he came down the first weekend and we were all on our own laptops engrossed in different activities: my husband reading the news, my daughter playing Club Penguin, and myself trying to catch up on emails. We do have ‘disconnected’ times – but now I’m thinking we could have better guidelines at home.

I also want to suggest your parent ‘training sessions’ to my school. You are absolutely correct: parents don’t need to be tech savvy to make good decisions but having the opportunity to get this advice from school is empowering and I would also add the chance to talk to other parents about their situation at home, frustrations and other issues. Parents can learn from each other. Is your PTA involved?

Your story about taking away the technology on a field trip brought back this friend’s story. She said her father was fed up with how much TV she and her siblings were watching. One day, they came home from school and the TV was gone! Their father said it had broken and was at the shop being repaired. Every day, for a week they asked ‘when will it be fixed’ but during the second week they asked less and less. Finally, they stopped asking. The TV never came back. Later, her father admitted that he just gave the TV away.

Comment on Advice for Parents of 1:1 Programs by Abigail Cooke

Abigail Cooke — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:28:03 +0000

Hello again Jeff!
I am glad that you have decided to address this question. Although I am not a parent, yet, when I lived with my dad, there was a constant battle between us about when I could be on the phone, when the phone had to be turned off, and how long each day me and my brother could either be on the computer or playing video games. I can even remember having to give him my phone at a certain time of night just so he would know that I wasn’t on it. Of course, this was a few years ago and homework was still done with pencil and paper and the only time the Internet was open for school was for research, and texting hadn’t taken over talking on the phone. Now, children use their computers constantly for school. In fact, I was doing homework last night over at my dad’s house waiting on dinner. When dinner was ready, this is considered “family time”, the computer was to be turned off. I was not done with my homework, so I proceeded to finish only to irritate him even more. I understand that there is time to be a family and time to be “plugged in”. I do not think that children should always be on the computer or playing games. I cannot stand to sit at a computer for hours it literally drives me crazy. There definitely has to be a happy medium. Great post, I think I will direct some parents that I know to read this. It will be helpful for them and their kids! I will be posting mu summaries February 12. Here is a link for my blog: http://cookeabigailedm310.blogspot.com/ and for our class blog: http://edm310.blogspot.com/. I am also on Twitter at @AbigailCooke1.

Comment on Advice for Parents of 1:1 Programs by Colin

Colin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:48:20 +0000

I love how you’ve presented your information; here’s the “Advice for Parents” page from our website: http://www.asl.org/page.cfm?p=2033

I’d like to hear more about your Certificate for Parents program. I do a couple of one hour sessions for parents over the course of the year, so I’d be interested to hear what you spend 10 hours covering in these sessions and how the sessions are structured.

Comment on Advice for Parents of 1:1 Programs by Lindy Buckley

Lindy Buckley — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:33:48 +0000

This is really useful Jeff! Thanks so much for these thoughts,

Comment on Why I still want MS and HS to have a Laptop by Advice for Parents of 1:1 Programs | The Thinking Stick

Advice for Parents of 1:1 Programs | The Thinking Stick — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:24:30 +0000

[...] left a comment on my blog post about 1:1 program with MS and HS students that [...]

Comment on Flipping History by Britt

Britt — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:27:19 +0000

Hi Jeff, As you know I’m new to “proconsuming” but I read your article and I am baffled as to why you call it flipped or reverse instruction. You’re style is an inquiry based style, which is a known and popular model and parents will be all over it if you call it inquiry. I think calling it reversed or flipped sounds as if the teacher was originally a terrible instructor who needed a “180 degree erase all that you do” mentor like you.

I’ve taught for 11 years now and when I fall into lecture mode, I suffer the consequence as I lose their attention: even though I’m extremely animated. The TCRWP model for reading and writing, with continual partner share, reminds me to facilitate partner and small group discussion and to keep the whole class share and lecture based lessons as short as possible.

Thanks for sharing the lessons for this class. It’s a great model…

Comment on Perpetual Beta vs. Perpetual Education by The Wave of Information | COETAIL Online Cohort 2012-2013

The Wave of Information | COETAIL Online Cohort 2012-2013 — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:28:10 +0000

[...] 2. Because of #1 you will always be a beginner. Those that will succeed will be those that understand they are always beginners, therefore always learning. [...]

Comment on Why I still want MS and HS to have a Laptop by Anna

Anna — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:48:32 +0000

My son attends a school where MacBooks are required from grades 8-12, and students use many different assistive technology tools. I believe that 1:1 is great as a learning TOOL, but because students have their laptops with them all the time, there is no “down” time when they have to use their own initiative to think, dream, plan, create w/o a screen. He gets up and will open the laptop before breakfast to play, he will play or noodle around with his iTunes in the car on the way to school, on the way home from school, and every other time that kids used to be unplugged. He is not creating, he is consuming. It is a huge fight in our household.

What advice do you have for parents in dealing with this dark side-effect of a mandatory BYOL environment?

Comment on Best Plan for SIM Unlocked iPhone in the USA by Jeff Utecht

Jeff Utecht — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:01:31 +0000

Thanks for the update! That is great news if it works.

Comment on Best Plan for SIM Unlocked iPhone in the USA by Dan

Dan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:46:28 +0000

I’m heading to the US soon, and just saw that as of this week, Straight Talk is offering a $45/month bring-your-own-sim option at http://www.straighttalksim.com.

$45 covers unlimited talk + text + data.

And since Straight Talk is an MVNO of ATT and T-mobile, user can choose ATT and get a micro-sim as well.

iPhones are supported and wireless prepaid service works like it does in any OTHER country. Use it when you want. Stop when you want.

This will make those trip to the US easier.