GSB's Weather Station

     Did you know that we have a weather station on campus?  It is attached to the flagpole at Thomas Court, in front of the Athletic Center and the Cox Lower School.  The weather station measures temperature, wind speed, humidity, precipitation and barometric pressure.

 The GSB Weather Station at Thomas Court

 

     Truthfully, there seems nothing earth-shattering about the fact that a small weather station is located on campus.  But it gets more interesting.  Our weather station is one of several hundred connected stations that collectively offer a snapshot of weather worldwide.  A "weather collective," the Weather Underground, collects and organizes data from stations around the globe.  Information is posted on www.wunderground.com.  In other words, this is a weather wiki site.  A great many individuals and groups contribute time and effort towards building a body of knowledge useful to others.

     Additionally, each participating weather station site can host a site with station-specific information.  At GSB, for up-to-date campus weather, go to http://www.weatherlink.com/user/gsb (For your convenience, there is link on the home page of KnightSite.) Here, you'll see, in real time, the temperature, humidity, etc. for the Gill St. Bernard's School campus.

     Everyone is interested in the weather from time to time, so there is real utility in these sites for everyone.  But in classes, particularly in the Lower School, the information becomes part of the curriculum.  In April, the LS science program turns its attention to weather, and our own weather station can provide data of use to students in their studies.  With a few clicks, students can access historic data for our weather station and measure data against local norms.  It's just one more way that technology can help deepen students' understanding and interest in a topic under consideration.

 The GSB Weather Station's web site - access via KnightSite's home page

 

     It's worth a mention that Hope Preston deserves a special commendation for our participation in the Weather Underground program.  She spearheaded the effort to obtain the weather station hardware and integrate it into the global weather network.  Thanks also to Ryan Roque for his work setting up the web sites that provide the information to the rest of us.

Three Views of Technology

     Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.

Arthur C. Clarke, author

     A vacation week, or two, allows for lots of things; rest, travel, catching up on reading, sleep, entertainment, etc. But time away from the workplace also offers the gift of perspective. With a little space placed between yourself and your job, you sometimes can see things in a clearer light. Checking on an unrelated topic of interest, I ran into the above quote by Arthur Clarke, an author best known for his science fiction work. Instantly, I saw a workplace issue come into more clear focus.

     It's easy to become enamored with the latest, greatest hardware. For anyone with a bit of historical understanding, it's hard not to conclude that we live in a particularly exciting, fast-changing era that is redefining peoples' connection with technology. Technologically, I believe that the current era is unique in human history in terms of the widespread effects technology is having on humankind. But as Clarke observes, the hardware is only important insofar as it helps create sources of information that can be used to promote knowledge. And knowledge must be applied judiciously if one is to be wise. Even wisdom can be misused if if it mistaken for a predictive ability. In short, technology now as always, should be examined for the ways it can serve our needs. 

     It seems to me this is especially true in schools.  We should embrace new technologies, but only so far as they help forward our core mission: to help students learn.  That said, the promise of new pedagogical frontiers that utilize technology creatively and effectively continues to rapidly grow.  It's an exciting time to be involved in education. 

     After pondering Clarke's comments, I looked for other insights into our technological world. 

     There’s a set of rules that anything that was in the world when you were born is normal and natural. Anything invented between when you were 15 and 35 is new and revolutionary and exciting, and you’ll probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re 35 is against the natural order of things.

Douglas Adams, author 

          Remember The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe?  If you're a certain age, you probably remember the title, even if you never read the book.  Before the phrase "cult classic" came into vogue, this book was a cult classic.  The author, Doug Adams, seemed to have unusual insights into the workings of the world.  The above quote, from an interview, seems to bear out the characterization of Adams as a savvy observer.

          The quote gets at the current conversation about digital natives vs. digital immigrants.  Adams understood a generation ago that you are defined, at least in some measure, by the accident of the timing of your birth.  And in a world of rapidly changing technology, the implication is that people of different ages can have distinctly different understandings of what's expected technologically.  We certainly see this in our school.  In this respect, students are different than teachers, and younger teachers can be different from old teachers.

          My thinking on this issue is simple; we all need to be learners.  We work in a school, after all, so learning should be embraced by people of all ages.  New technologies can be exciting and useful.  Be willing to explore, no matter how old you are.  But there's so much to learn!  The steady stream of new hardware and software has become a waterfall...

      The number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. (known as Moore's Law)  

Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel

     The actual provenance of the quote seems in debate, but there is no doubt that thinker behind the idea of processing speeds increasing exponentially over time is Moore.  The implication?  That into the foreseeable future, we will continue to see faster, more portable devices that do more.  Over the last couple of years, there has been a serious migration away from the traditional computer to tablets and phones for basic computing functions.  What comes a few years down the road?  Who would dare predict?

     What all this implies for schools remains unclear.  And as Arthur Clarke suggested, the wise do not try too hard to guess.  But it is certain that our job is to continue to be open to new possibilities and follow the research on learning.  Students deserve the very best tools to meet learning goals, whether the tools were invented this year or last century.  Teachers deserve no less.