Testing iPad

Yesterday I got my schools iPad for testing. We hope to give computers to our students because the matriculation exam will involve using computers as early as 2014. I have never actually use a Mac before and this is a whole new adventure to me. All the things I am accustomed to are different and I am still having hard times finding things. If Windows is filled with folders and subfolders and buttons, iPad seems to be lacking them. I have used several touch devices before; my phone is Nokia N900, my husband has an android based touch phone and I use the smart board daily. Still I don't seem to handle this device well. Choosing text is weird. Tapping on the screen may choose one word, one chapter, or the whole screen and the text "copy" appears on a black bubble. Now I am wondering how I will accomplish that when I really want to copy something. Also the predictive writing gives me hard times. The default language is now Finnish and typing English creates funny sentences. The odd thing is that if a suggestion appears, I have to close it. If I don't, the suggested text appears. That is so different from all my previous Nokia phones where I have to choose the suggested word if I want to take advantage of it. The funniest suggestion yesterday was changing my username " lekahe" to ketale, which is Finnish and could be translated as a crook!

Why Do We Have to Use Social Media in Schools?

Why Social Media?

My blog has not been updated like it used to and the reason is just lack of time. I started all my social media activities at the same time I started this blog, August 2007. At first it was just a hobby to me, but connecting to other people in the digital world, I realized that this is the way the younger generations see the world. All the phones they know are mobile, they manage their life through Facebook, write and read blogs and  use text messages instead of emails. 

On the other hand in schools we teachers would like to keep the teaching the same it has been for decades. We have the new text books, which are somewhat more colourful than in my schooldays. We prefer black boards and photo copies and some advanced teachers have adopted the documentaty cameras and projectors or even have their notes on Power Point. Luckily the overhead projectors are dying.

Digital Age

What we should realize is that the digital age is here. Instead of writing everything down on their notebooks, students want to use tablet computers or netbooks. Those are something they use on their free time but the schools make them go back to the ancient methods. Textbooks can be digital and even interactive and we could save lots of trees by not printing them. Using the internet does not limit ourselves to just one book but we can use all of them. 

The teachers are still needed to guide the students to choose the right paths and explain things the students don't understand. However many teachers are very reluctant to adopt any technology in their teaching. I can understand them. They were students in the old world and did not use computers while they studied. In fact no one really taught them to use computers unless maybe their own children did. 

Now it is time for all teachers to update their technological knowledge and reverse their thinking because the digital generation is growing up! See for yourself.

Merry Christmas from Finland

I have clearly neglegted my blog this year. I hope I will continue blogging soon to tell all about mt activities meantime. Now some Christmas photos.

I actually found a department store window which was designed for Christmas. When I was a child it was more usual but stores have given up these themed windows.

Our Christmas tree is very thick this year! Thank you Tuula and Hannu!

Taking photos of the dogs was not very succesful. The best one I got when I had actually given up.

The beautiful lights on the graveyard. We went there to light candles for my father, grandmother and aunt. This is a place where they don't put stones with names on them. My family has preferred this option.

Turku Bridge is falling down

Tomorrow I probably have to rethink my way to work. Before yesterday Turku had 5 bridges for crossing river Aura by car. Yesterday morning one of the bridges, Myllysilta, started to fall down. Here is a picture of the bridge taken earlier.

Image by Anssi Koskinen

The bridge was built in 1975 and it developed many problems for the city in the very beginning. It was praised as the the most beautiful and the cheapest bridge ever built but the arch like structure was not as strong as it should have been. The engineers had made a mistake in the calculations and the bridge fell some centimetres before it was even taken in use. The bridge was finally repaired in 1987 by Turku with 4 million Finnish marks.

Yesterday morning someone noticed that the bridge had fallen and it was taken off use. In the morning it had fallen 15 cm but by the end of the day the middle of the bridge was 94 cm lower than originally. Here is a short video of my walk near the bridge about noon. I could not get any closer because of the police tapes.

Here is the situation in the evening. The picture is taken by my friend mvallius.

Now it is not certain if the bridge will collapse or not. It probably has to be rebuilt and it takes more than a year before the new one can be taken in use. Meanwhile, the other one-way bridge nearby has to be converted to two-way traffic. A chaos will be expected anyway. I do not use the bridge in question very often, but the traffic will be transferred to the one I use. I think I will start driving the motorway instead of the shortest option.