The Intersection of Technology and Law

Technology and law are two things I enjoy and teach! So, I’ve been following the US Supreme Court case of United States v. Jones. This case involves the government’s use of a GPS device to track a vehicle. Yesterday, the Court held that “the Government’s attachment of the GPS device to the vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment.” In delivering the decision, Justice Scalia reasoned that “this type of encroachment on an area enumerated in the Amendment would have been considered a search within the meaning of the Amendment at the time it was adopted.”

The government did get a warrant authoring the installation of the device within 10 days in the District of Columbia. According to the opinion, “on the 11th day, and not in the District of Columbia but in Maryland, agents installed a GPS tracking device on the undercarriage of the Jeep while it was parked in a public parking lot.” The Government admitted they didn’t comply with the warrant and only argued that a warrant was not required (no reasonable expectation of privacy in movement on public streets).

I’ve been watching online and following the story on NPR. They are all talking about the dissent among the concurrence. As I review the opinion, comments like “the concurrence begins by accusing us of applying “18th-century tort law (that is a distortion)” seem to reveal a feud. From my reading, there seems to be disagreement about whether a trespass is required. Most of the objections seem to hinge on the ability of current technology to track the same information without a trespass.

I do wonder how this area will look in only a few short years. We already have the ability to track vehicles through their own GPS system or to track cell phone information. We’ve got pacemakers, embedded devices and even tattoos that can transmit data. This information is in a different category than public Four-Square check-ins, Nike Plus runs and Facebook updates with location. Please comment and share your thoughts about how far the government should go to track you!

Apple’s Education Event

Screenshot from new iTunes U App

Just followed the Engadget Live Blog (love the new interface) on the Apple Education Event. They announced:

1. iBooks Textbooks for iPad
2. iBooks Author
3. A New iTunes U

I’ve already downloaded the ITunes U app and updated iBooks on my iPad. Can’t install the free iBooks Author on my laptop because it apparently takes Lion (guess I’ll install it on the iMac at home).

Since I had already started the IPad and iPhone App Development course through Stanford, I downloaded it to the iTunes U App. This is a much richer experience!

Next, I downloaded a sample textbook in iBooks (Physics, McGraw-Hill). Again, richer than the common eBook experience. My son is into iPads, skateboarding and (believe it or not) physics. He’ll love it! I’m already thinking about how this can all be pulled together in the home-school and online teaching arena. Think about creating your own video and text, publishing it directly and displaying it in such an interactive way. I really feel Apple (and publishing partners) went above and beyond when they added the ability to assess learning.

Screenshot of Physics Textbook

 

 

MCCVLC Webinar Series – Online Developmental Education

I’ve been attending a great monthly webinar series sponsored by the Michigan Community College Association’s “Virtual Learning Collaborative.” Hosted by XLENTS.COM , the webinar featured two experienced online educators (Barry Dahl and Donna Gaudet) who shared “good practices” in online developmental education.

Ronda Edwards (Executive Director of the MCCVLC) shared the following resources from their presentations:

Link to archived webinar – http://www.mccvlc.org/~staff/content.cfm?m=86&id=86&startRow=1&mm=0

Link to Donna’s Prezi – http://prezi.com/pmdrq48dzqi1/teaching-pre-college-math-online/

Link to Barry’s Slideshare -  http://www.slideshare.net/barrydahl/mccvlc-webinar-good-practices-in-online-delivery-of-developmental-ed

The ITC eLearning 2012 Conference, held in Long Beach California from February 18 through 21, 2012, will include Donna’s pre-conference workshop “Can Developmental Math be Taught Online?”.  A favorite of the conference is the Great Debate and this year’s topic, featuring Donna Gaudet, is “Developmental Students Can’t Succeed Online.”

This webinar series, the ITC Conference, and the two presenters are worth following! In fact, you’ll find Donna (@donagee) and Barry (@barrydahl) on Twitter.

Speeding up the Grade Center

Advanced Blackboard Tip #1

Do you have other tips? Please share them in the comments!

Reflections on Lessons Learned

I’m attending a retreat at GRCC today. We are reflecting on lessons learned. Our prompt is this poem by Gary Snyder:

“WHAT HAVE I LEARNED

What have I learned but
the proper use for several tools?

The moments
between hard pleasant tasks

To sit silent, drink wine,
and think my own kind
of dry crusty thoughts.

-the first Calochortus flowers
and in all the land,
it’s spring.
I point them out:
the yellow petals, the golden hairs
to Gen.

Seeing in silence:
never the same twice,
but when you get it right,
you pass it on.”

One thing I learned from my father is a hard “work ethic.” Some say you should work smarter, not harder. He always worked harder and smarter! When I reflect on the lessons I’ve learned, I think about what I will pass along to my son. Two things come to mind:

1. Work hard and play hard!
2. Resist your temptation and the world’s influence to focus on yourself.

There’s a whole lot of focus on “sitting at the feet of your own life” (Polly Berrien Berends) and I disagree with it. Don’t get me wrong … I see value in reflection. I just don’t see a lot of value in esteeming yourself!

Learn, make memories, love and serve others. I certainly haven’t got this right, but I’m working hard.

Chapter 24

Chapter 23

Chapter 18

Chapter 17 – Part B

Group Discussions, Camtasia Relay and Blackboard

Many of the lecture capture discussions I hear involve making content available to students who missed (or want to review) class. I have to admit that I was first drawn to Camtasia Relay because I wanted to make my classroom lectures available to my online students.

Once I decided to view Relay as a potential solution to “instructional challenges”, I began to see measurable results. My challenge came in the form of poor performance on an essay assessment. Students would attend my lecture and then fail to apply what they were learning to the scenarios or cases I gave them. In short, my lectures were taking up all the class time and leaving little time to work directly with them to improve their critical thinking skills.

For several semesters, I have moved to delivering the lecture for this activity through Blackboard® and meeting with small groups to go over the scenarios. This leaves me with much more time to interact with each student, both teaching and assessing learning. With the help of our IT area (especially Szymon Machajewski), I’m able to pull my Camtasia Relay videos directly into Blackboard with a “mashup tool.”

Students have been consistently performing 20-30% better on this assessment. While that’s great news (that addressed my instructional challenge), my group discussion today made me change my thinking even more! Rather than just seeing a challenge, I really got to see how instructional technology could help my students be successful. A group came in today and added their own presentation to the discussion. They used the whiteboard and a handout to share their group solutions. It dawned on me that Blackboard and Relay are not only giving me more time to work with students, but it’s actually giving them more time to prepare and share their learning!