Entries Tagged 'Web 2.0' ↓

I am amazed, amused, and awed!

• “I got my truck stuck in a Blog
• He looks naked without a Starbucks cup next to him.
• What system is Halo on?
• Halo who?
• does the audio sound like…chipmunks to anyone else?
• the minds of our school board members are boundaries
• their boundaries are in their minds
• …..and in our firewalls
• I think we are sometimes our own limiting boundaries!
• I can’t search google images or right click!!!
• The IT department often are boundaries
• I think his point today about needing to create and define new boundaries given the “loss of boundaries” was an important statement
• my boundaries are clear and blocked
• Ignorance is a boundary… must educate more teachers!
• networks are our information
• traditional school has focused on information, but david is right, the focus on OVERWHELMING quantities of info is new
• remind me to thank my district IT guys tomorrow…despite our differences in vision, they are nowhere near as obstructionist as what I am reading here…
• We discussed the value of YouTube for education at school today.
• I can act individually with information but its nowhere near the experience if I work with that same information in a network of people.
• Policy’s simply need to be more accomodating. Things don’t move in 5 year plans anymore.
• we just rewrote our tech plan around ideas instead of tasks
• who will decide the content?
• they can’t make decisions ahead of the changes
• Kids may not all be more information literate but they are actively engaged in social networking. That’s why I think David said we need to provide the traction and learning to help them learn to teach themselves.
• intellectual capital will be the value
• that point David is addressing is the ATTENTION ECONOMY
• relearn, unlearn & Learn
• Our IS department was pointing out that their own jobs are now 24/7
• Educators can’t be afraid to right/click
• creativity almost entirely defies traditional measurement methods
• Hard to assess W 2.0 using AD 1950 multiple choice
• we can each recognize creativity, but we can’t put that in a bar chart in the same way we can with test scores
• opportunities to fail and learn
• How do we emphasize balance video games with real world experiences?
• I think a big part of having a learning engine in the classroom is writing hyperlinked texts
• effectively writing hyperlinked texts is a measurable outcome of the learning engine classroom
• digital doppler
• I’m a proponent of gaming, but balance is so important
• Something wrong with my kids, they don’t like gaming
• I’m TOTALLY unbalanced, but I love it (though I need to exercise more than my mouse-finger)
• they have treadmills with computers built in to the front now.
• We had some success with getting them to participate in gym class by using DDR.
• Wii rocks!
• i think “digital discipline” is a good term in this context. we all need it. balance fits in there too.
• DDR is a blast
• I think we all strive to have some “grounding” with the flexibility to fly a bit (or more)!
• Heard a discussion on ReadingTeacher this week where they said balanced doesn’t mean equal time for everything (as in balanced literacy).
• if you ban it, kids never learn to balance their lives. We have to let them fail. That’s where lessons are learned
• how do we bring down the walled garden at school?
• I think the best advice is to throw out the textbooks
• I still see way too many teachers thinking integration is focusing on the technoogy instead of the content…
• I’m launching a year-long classroom blogging unit (major overhaul from last year) - key elements: they claim their blogs on Technorati, they link to at least one blogger from the real world that they admire, they blog about what THEY’re interested in (within limits), and their goal is to grow readership network and extend self-directed learning.
• if only we had time to learn with the kids - partners
• I’m finishing a degree in assistive technology, and I signed up for a lab class this semester that has no lab… its all lecture
• it’s because librarians don’t get enough partnership with teachers!!
• so the teacher becomes the affective filter
• The teacher is the model - not the information giver
• I’m finding that it’s really tough to move students beyond the “consume and remix” stage in information processing. They love the creative aspect of playing with the tools, but to many the tools are more important than the message. I’d like students to take the time to “digest” the info and build it into an existing framework, or better yet, make a case for revamping the framework - then creatively communicate the learning.”

WOW!

For more on filtering there is a very thought provoking article on Doug Johnson’s blog.

Today was just a day but wow - exhausting, frustrating, exciting, enlightening. I was busy all day because grades were due to be exported and it was taken a little more seriously than the three weeks progress reports so there were a few problems to be ironed out underlining the value of that first export. Troubleshooting that should have been done happened today when we were under the gun.

The day that seemed to not end did and I came home and ate supper while I signed in to Elluminate for the K12 Online Conference Fireside Chat with David Warlick. This was my first experience with Elluminate which is a fee based meeting software package that donates the space to the K12 Online Conference. There are multiple windows. On the far left is a window that contains first a picture of an old-fashioned microphone, To speak you click on the picture and then click again when you are done. There is a hand icon that you can click to virtually raise your hand. There are emoticons and as people enter the session the list of names grows and automatically adjusts to remain in alphabetical order. There is a running tally of how many people are in the session. When things got going there were 105 people from all over. Mostly from the U.S. but some from other parts of the globe as well including Sudan, Seoul, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and Scotland Click the thumbnail to see a screenshot.

There was a white board and video and as the session went on, questions were asked on the white board as a rapid, unending discussion by the attendees. I went crazy trying to concentrate on what David was saying as well as keeping up with the “stream of consciousness” instant messaging. I managed to speak a bit when we were divided into separate rooms at the beginning and I was able to text once or twice but by the time I could type a question the conversation would have changed. There was serious energy. These folks are jumping in the deep end of the pool and splashing for all they are worth. They are calling out to the rest of us to tell us to come on in - the water is fine. Some of us are dipping a toe in and shivering, some are paddling around with nose plugs and life preservers. Some of us are sitting it out and some are underwater with flippers and scuba gear.

There was a 14 year old student in the session and the possibility of adding a student strand next year was mentioned.

My favorite quote was ” become the guide on the side not the sage on the stage”. I saved the chat transcript so I could go back and read it and when I have that processed I will talk a little more about it.  One exciting thing was recognizing names of people that I have communicated with through blogging.

I watched the keynote by David Warlick this morning and I’ll blog about it later. I want to let it marinate a bit but it was awesome. It is well worth the time - if you right-click and save link as you will have a copy of it to view whenever you have time. - which is the beauty of an online conference!

I should have already posted on my study but I have been distracted! I am planning to follow the PISD staff and their blogs. I want to see how many who originally started blogs, whether in this class or in one of my blogging classes, will follow though. I am interested in how many people will read other blogs and how many might even end up starting personal blogs. I am interested to see if teachers will eventually see this as a valid learning vehicle.

I’m hoping to see more communication between campuses. There is such an awesome body of talent in this district and not being from here I don’t know may folks at other campuses very well.

I’m like to see more cross communication between districts in the area and this seems like a great way to facilitate that but so far I can only find librarians playing.

I am teaching a class on the sixteenth on blogging the next step - hoping that folks who have started a blog will come learn some ways to tweak things, how to create and use static pages, upload pictures, and more.

My subject is still vague but I’ll work on that. I don’t teach students so I had to improvise a bit.

I have a secondary possibility - I have access to computer usage data but I’m not sure what I could do with it so unless I get some inspiration it will be blogging.

This school year is flying by. I can’t believe it is already October! I have been so busy I haven’t had time to write. I have been learning new things and making notes to blog about but I am going to have to make a quick entry so I don’t forget these wonderful things!

This was fun - go to BeFunky.com and apply for an invite - it only took a day before I received mine. Upload a photo of yourself and turn it into a cartoon. I’m not sure what the limit is for how many pictures you can “cartoonize” but it would be fun for students and younger students might be amused at you - the cartoon professor in your own presentations! there were more techniques - this was a quick example. Please don’t judge the website by the picture - they had to work with what I uploaded!

Yahoo has several trailers for the movie “The Kingdom” and the first one would be great to show in a history/social studies class. It shows some of the history of United States involvement in Saudi Arabia.

I have started learning Excel 2003 online via LearnKey. So far I am very impressed. Excel has 5 sessions and I have completed one along with taking the test for that section. It is very detailed. The lessons are presented by video with an instructor lecturing and using screencasts. There are documents and links to extra tips and a “lab” area. I chose to do Excel first because I use if on a regular basis and while I want to fill in the holes in my knowledge I also wanted something I had some familiarity with the first time so I wouldn’t be completely lost in the material while I got used to the teaching interface. I’ll blog some more about LearnKey as I get closer to completing the course.

A great article on writing blunders  at Bohemian Word Werks.  The site is hosted on LiveJournal so it could be blocked if you are trying to get there at school but it is definitely worth  checking out.

It will be here any minute!! well pre-conference starts October 8

3 Reasons Meme

three reasons to participate based on my experience from last year!

1. It is staff development the way I like it - at home, in my jammies, with a cup of decaf latte.

2. No Crowds! No driving! No hotels! No airports! (yes I know - technically that’s four - so sue me)

3. You can go back and review the sessions at anytime (unlike virtual conferences where you have to get everything you can right then because when its over, it’s over)

Ya’ll come!

I have made use of Google tools for several years now and I have used Google Calendar and GMail more than anything else but I have been using Google Docs more and Google Docs now has a presentation piece! If you aren’t familiar with Google docs they are a word processor and a spreadsheet. They are fairly compatible with Microsoft products but their real power lies in the ability to make them public or share between specific users which makes is easy to collaborate with people in the next office or people on the other side of the world.

The wonderful folks at Common Craft have a new video out - Google Docs in Plain English. There are other great videos out there if you are able to access YouTube just search on Google presentation or Google Docs and you can find plenty of support and tutorials.

Merlin Man on 43Folders uses Google Docs as a collaboration/communication tool.

My favorite use right now is to use a single shared document as a common space that 4 or 5 people have access to and that they can use to give each other to-dos, ask questions, etc.

Vinnie Vrotny from Illinois over at Multifaceted Refractions got messages from several colleagues to go on over to Google Docs where he talks about how 6 - 15 people were collaboratively learning Google Presentation. They were learning and posting their findings as they learned.

For an example of collaboration visit this unique presentation that has been created and edited by a group of educators on using Google Presentation. You can go view the presentation, chat in real-time if any of the presenters are online, even add your own tips to the presentation.

There is also a revisions button that allows you to track changes and revert to older versions.

I created a short presentation to play with called BrandNew - it includes a link to a text doc which contains a link back to show you how you can integrate the two apps. To make the link in the document work you must click preview.

Go to Google and click the More button. You will see a list - click on Reader. If you do not have a Google or Gmail account you need to sign up for one now.

Click Create an Account Now. There will be some information to fill out including your current email address so they can email your password to you.

Once you have created your account you can log in to Google Reader and start adding things to read.

On the Google Reader page there is a blue button that says “subscribe“. You can drag this button on to your browser bar and when you get to a page you want to subscribe to just click the subscribe button in your browser toolbar. When you see the preview in Google Reader, click subscribe to confirm that you want it.

That’s it - you have a start in Google Reader.

Addendum August 20, 2007

If you are on a computer that others use and can’t drag the button to the toolbar you can just click add subscription on the page in your reader and it will give you a box in which you can type or paste the URL for the blog you wish to subscribe to. Click enter and you should be subscribed.

I am going to talk a little about del.icio.us online bookmarking site and show you a few tricks on how to make it work for you.
While teaching a blogging class the other day I was explaining about feed readers and I showed some teachers Del.icio.us and how you could actually have feeds set up to work for you. An example would be to type in a URL like this: http://del.icio.us/tag/scotland then look at the bottom of the page for the orange RSS button. If you right click on it and go to properties you can copy the link into your news aggregator (feed reader) and as people add links to their del.icio.us accounts tagged scotland, you will see those links as a feed. You can also do the same thing but add another criteria to the search http://del.icio.us/tag/scotland+history you can narrow down the search to items tagged scotland and history.

If I wanted to keep up with what sites are popular on a particular subject I could type http://del.icio.us/rss/popular/scotland and this would generate the most popular links tagged on del.icio.us for scotland.

You can do the same thing with people instead of tags. If you have someone who is in your “circle of learning” you can subscribe to their tags (unless they have designated them private).

These and other tips can be found at Likehack.org if you would like to read more.

I am in the 406 lab at Paris High School. We are having a class in blogging and wikis as I write this. This is a practice post to show the class the process.

There are a lot of ways to subscribe to blogs and news. I’m going to talk about the three web-based readers that I am most familiar with. If you have a different preference I would like to hear about it.

The first one is Pageflakes. Signing up for an account is free. Pageflakes allows you to create multiple pages with tabs across the top for moving between pages. You also have the option to make pages private or shared. There are multiple “flakes” you can add to your pages like local weather, message boards, and calendars. You can add feeds to blogs you read and any other site that generates an RSS feed.

Another site that lets you do many of things is NetVibes. NetVibes is a free web-based news aggregator and also lets you do a lot of customization. Both NetVibes and Pageflakes are very visual. Both will let you drag the pieces around the page to rearrange them any way you want. For me this usually means that the ones I read the most migrate to the top of the page.

A free newsreader that is not so visual but lets you sort your reading into folders is Bloglines. Here is a tutorial for using bloglines but there is also a lot of information on their website. I have used all three of these and find them all to work great - it just comes down to a matter of personal preference.

The best way to find blogs that interest you is to check out the blogroll on the sidebar of the blogs you have seen. Another way is to do a search by category on Technorati or Google Blogs.

You can see an example of a PageFlakes page here.