Friday, June 27, 2008

The End in Mind

Last evening, Carla shared with me the weblink to an online book she was interested in using for our U.S. Government class. When I Googled the author, Jonathan Mott, I found that he not only has a Ph.D. in Political Science, but that he is also a well-known proponent of the use of instructional technology! Jon’s blog, The End in Mind, is a fascinating dialogue of how to truly reform and transform education by reversing the focus from teaching to learning. This is the same concept outlined by renowned educator Rick DuFour in a podcast that I originally was going to share with you this week, but cut out of our agenda in the interest of sanity.

Hopefully you can find the time to take a few minutes and read one of Jon’s blog posts, Roger Schank and the Tyranny of Grades, which reminds us that Learning is our ultimate goal. And I find myself reiterating that, as we rewrite courses, we should do so with exactly that in mind: the End, the Standards, the Goals--the Learning--that is supposed to be the “take-away” for our students.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Hi this is a demo for...

Hi this is a demo for Dian of posting my Blog from Jott. listen

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Adobe launches free online photo editing and gallery service

eSchool news reported that Adobe has launched a web-based version of Photoshop, called Photoshop Express: eSchoolNews article

I signed up and tried it out—it’s pretty good!

Easter KittyBunny

But beware of the terms:

8. Use of Your Content.
a. Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

Photoshop Express online service

(but then, perhaps the other photo-sharing sites have similar EULAs?)

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Hi, this is a demo of...

Hi, this is a demo of new nerdy discovery, where I can blog using my cell phone at Jott.com. Give it a try. listen

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

ITSC Notes v3
When does meaningfulness start?

When does meaningfulness start?

Dr. Tim Tyson, in the closing conference presentation, challenged everyone to transform their teaching practice into what he describes as School 2.0:

  • Authentically engaged learners
  • Self-directed learning
  • Project-driven instruction
  • Independent problem-solvers
  • Empowered by technology innovation
  • Collaborative learning community
  • Relevant

Spurred by the request of a middle school student to work during the summer to perfect his project to share globally, Dr. Tyson created Mabryonline.org so that student projects could be distributed globally on iTunes. He asked his students, “What do you have to say that’s so important that everyone on earth needs to hear it?” Their responses, in the form of student-produced videos, exemplify the potential results of true educational reform and should serve as motivation for all of us:
Mabry Middle School Videos

ITSC Notes v2 The View from Google Earth

Instructional technologist Lynn Lary of Oregon’s Springfield School District presented a dynamic workshop on the use of Google in education. The 3-hour workshop focused mainly on the powerful spatial representation capabilities of Google: its advanced search capabilities combined with mapping tools and Google Earth.

Dr. Lary led collaborative activities in which participants acquired hands-on experience in utilizing Google’s amazing power to locate and analyze various types of data. Most importantly, Lary shares, through her blog, exemplary activities in utilizing the power of Google to transform education by providing students with relevant, meaningful project-based learning that can be replicated across the curriculum: http://handheldcomputers.blogspot.com/

If you haven’t yet delved into Google Earth, Lary’s blog gives you the power and the incentive to do so.

Monday, February 18, 2008

ITSC Notes v1

This weekend, I have had the privilege of attending ITSC, the annual conference for instructional technology geeks held in Portland.

The Keynote Speaker, Marco Antonio Torres, was absolutely riveting! His presentation is entitled, “Now What Do We Do With IT?” He has accomplished phenomenal things with low income students in a huge inner-city school in southern California.

Be sure to check out his websites:
sfett.com
flickschool.com

The two premier workshops that I have attended so far were by Leslie Fisher, a self-proclaimed technology geek, and the infamous Kathy Schrock. Both of these workshops were fantastic! Here is a link to Leslie’s presentation handout.

Be sure to follow the links back to the root domain and see all the free information and funny stuff Leslie has to share!

Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until this evening for Kathy to upload her presentation handout. But she has so much other cool stuff on her website, it’s worth a look anyway: KathySchrock.net

Don’t miss out on Springfield Middle School teacher Eva Lamar’s website; she has wonderful tips and tricks for promoting literacy using Microsoft Word and Firefox, as well as projects that integrate technology.

Happy surfing!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Google Doodles contest

Google is famous for innovation. Here's a new contest that encourages art, innovation, higher order thinking skills and literacy, all rolled into one!

Picture this: You're standing in front of your class, but instead of keeping their eyes on the blackboard, the students are all sitting there doodling.

For once, though, they're actually working on an assignment -- namely, the Doodle 4 Google competition www.google.com/doodle4google which offers young artists the chance to play around with the Google logo and perhaps have their artwork seen by people all over the world.

The theme for our U.S. doodling competition is "What if...?"

What if...I could live underwater, or in outer space, or in Colonial America?
What if...I could see into the future?
What if...I could build any kind of invention I wanted?

Google will display 40 finalist doodles on their site and invite the public to vote for their favorites. The winning doodler will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and their design will take over the Google homepage for a day (the winning school will also receive a $25,000 technology grant).

Want to get in on the fun? You'll find everything you need, including detailed lesson plans, at www.google.com/doodle4google Registration closes on March 28th.

Have fun and good luck! You can check out Google for Educators @
http://www.google.com/educators

Saturday, January 26, 2008

By George, I think they've got it!

Recently, the Library of Congress began posting some of their photos on Flickr. Their reasoning? To gain a wider audience and to harness the power of community. LOC Director of Communications Matt Raymond, on the LOC blog (Wait! The Library of Congress has a BLOG too?!), states: “We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves.”

Obviously, the LOC “gets it”! And not only do they blog and participate in Flickr, they have podcasts as well!

What awesome leadership! Now if only we can get more people in the education community to follow suit…

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Keeping the lights on

Not too long ago, a conversation with a colleague about the effect of people’s careers on the world made me stop and think. Sometimes, we teachers take teaching for granted. As teachers, we have a unique opportunity to make a difference in the world; to influence others’ lives in a significant way. What will our students remember about their experiences in our classes? How will their online learning experience influence their lives?

Perhaps the New Year is a good time to reflect on each of our contributions and to the built-in influence that is part of a career in teaching. Michael Dell, CEO of Dell, Inc., states in a recent article in PC Magazine that “Most IT departments spend around 70 percent of their budgets simply ‘keeping the lights on.’” Social anthropologist Dr. Jennifer James, in her speech to COSA last June, explained that one of the differences in the Digital Generation is that it is the first generation to grow up with all their basic needs fulfilled. This generation has more time, opportunity, and money than any previous generation to fulfill their need for self-actualization, and they intuitively know this. I believe that to reach these students, we have to do more than just “keep the light on.” Social networking, multimedia, and Web 2.0 provide us with tools, but it is our job to create opportunities for our students to use those tools to develop the communication, innovation, and creative skills that life in the 21st Century requires.

It is our challenge as technology-using educators, delivering education over the Internet, to do more than just “keep the lights on”. It should be our mission to lead by example and to create best practices on how this can be accomplished. Our challenge is to structure our lessons and our courses to reach beyond the basic, beyond the norm—to tap into the self-actualization and innovation that each of our students is capable of; to create meaning by creating new content and repurposing old content in new ways, using the tools of the 21st century.