Tomorrow morning, October 13, 2008, at 12 pm GMT (that’s 7 am for me here in Oklahoma, USA) Dr. Stephen Heppell’s pre-conference keynote will be published “live” on the K-12 Online Conference website. As a co-convener as well as participant in the K-12 Online conference, I am VERY excited we’re about to kick things off!
On behalf of the conveners, I’ve shared a new post on the conference blog (“Presentation publishing procedure changes for 2008″) addressing some changes to our internal processes for transcoding and publishing presentation files this year, as well as the question which came up last year of cross-posting “mirrored copies” of conference presentation files to other servers. (The short answer is: Please don’t do it.) Please read the post for more complete details.
Tomorrow our 3rd year of K-12 Online begins. Let the networked learning continue! 
Please remember to forward and share our marketing flyer for K12Online08 with all the educators you know!
Technorati Tags:
k12online, k12online08
Several years ago when we were living in Lubbock, Texas, I worked with 2nd grade students to create seven podcast episodes in a channel we called the “Mills Murfee Podcast.” After we left Lubbock, however, this channel joined the ranks of the podfaders.
Today I received an email from Mrs. Wieland, a 2nd grade teacher in New Jersey and the facilitator of “Mrs. Wieland’s Class podcast.” Students are using their PodoMatic channel to show what they know:
Our class posts here as we learn new things. We hope to post here as much as possible. All of the posts are written, directed, and recorded by the second grade students. Enjoy!
This is the type of transparency and regular publication I’d love to see in my own children’s classrooms here in Oklahoma!
The most recent epsiode from Mrs. Wieland’s class was titled “The Incredible Life of a Monarch Butterfly.”
When I worked with 2nd graders in 2005-2006 on the Mills Murfee podcasts, we learned quickly that students HAD to work from a script. Listeners will be able to tell Mrs. Wieland’s students are reading scripts in their podcast as well. Tony Vincent’s classroom podcast segment planning guide (PDF) is one of the best planning and scriptwriting resources I’ve encountered for classroom podcasts like this. I have this and other resources relating to classroom podcasting included on handouts.wesfryer.com/podcasting.
When students “show what they know” via podcasts, they not only revisit the ideas and concepts included in their podcast script but other students and parents do as well when they “tune in” to listen. Perhaps in 20 years recording our voices and publishing them to the Internet like this will be less exciting because it will be common, but today it remains a fairly novel and unusual learning practice in many schools. Podcasting can be used to help motivate and engage students in the process of reflecting on and sharing their learning with others.
Want to encourage students and parents to visit your classroom website more regularly? Publish a steady stream of student work there!
In addition to PodoMatic, consider using Podcast People if you’re wanting to get started with your own classroom podcast. Cheryl Oakes, Bob Sprankle, and Alice Barr’s K12Online07 presentation “Flat Agents of Change” as well as their Seedlings Ning social network are also great resources for teachers to utilize who are creating or want to create regular classroom podcasts. I also recommend that teachers consider starting audio-publishing with VoiceThread, and then consider whether or not it seems appropriate to advance “beyond” VoiceThread to create and publish a classroom podcast channel.
The Support Blogging wiki includes not only a list of classroom blogs but also a much shorter list of classroom audio podcasts. Does anyone know of another wiki (or other open, collaborative document) which lists links to classroom podcasts and invites others to contribute more?
The subject of this recent podcast from Mrs. Wieland’s class, the Monarch butterfly, reminds me that I need to scan and share photos I took in 1993 in Michoacán of the Mexican National Park to which thousands of Monarchs migrate for the winter months in North America. It was AMAZING to see millions of them together in the trees. It would be fun to remember that trip and share those photos both in static form and as a VoiceThread.
I’ll add that to my to-do list after K12Online08 is over!
Technorati Tags:
podcast, podcasting, k12online07, k12online07nt04
The power to “publish at will,” digital citizenship, citizen journalism, a working understanding of intellectual property rights, and digital ethics are all important topics for 21st century learners. Subjects from each of these areas were raised by the following NowPublic.com request I received recently via FlickrMail from Terri Potratz in Vancouver, Canada:
Terri wanted to use a photograph I took in September 2007 of Chinese organic milk in her September 23, 2008, article for NowPublic, “China’s Toxic Milk Update: More Recalls and Bans.” Now that I’ve authorized the photo to be used in this article, it shows up with its own linked page on NowPublic in addition to its original online home in Flickr.
Terri was able to find this photo and correctly hypothesize I’d be willing to share it on NowPublic because of two things:
I think the way in which NowPublic solicits direct permission from photo sharers (in this case, Flickr users) is a conservative best-practice for citizen journalists. While it is true I’ve already granted permission for Terri or anyone else to use and remix that photo as long as attribution is given to me as the photo’s author, it is conservatively safer to ask for permission to republish a photo online for a citizen journalism article. Virgin Mobile Australia didn’t take this step when it used a Flickr image of teen Alison Chang for a national advertising campaign, and the result was a big mess and lots of embarrassment for the company. (For more on that case and others, see my post from January 2008, “Understanding and respecting copyright a problem for many.”) While I agree with those who hold asking for permission to republish images that are CC licensed attribution-only (as mine are) is NOT required, I do see the utility in asking permission “just to be sure.” I think it is wonderful NowPublic.com has created a streamlined way for citizen journalists to ask for re-publication permission from original copyright owners and integrate documentation of that permission as well as proper attribution within their website.
I’m wondering if use of the NowPublic.com writing functionality could become part of a StoryChaser’s teacher professional development institute down the road? I’ve been exploring options for facilitating a StoryChasers’ summer institute this summer along with several partner organizations. Things are not fleshed out yet, but prospects are looking hopeful. I’m very glad to learn more about NowPublic. It’s a site I’ve heard about in the context of citizen journalism, but hadn’t previously joined or explored in depth. Now I’m a member, and I’m hoping to write some articles for/on the site in the weeks ahead.
Technorati Tags:
nowpublic, flickr, copyright, permission, writing, journalism, news
ZaidLearn: 27 Inspiring Women Edubloggers
An edubloggers list of women edubloggers - not a ranking, just a list. There are some new people to "meet" here for me.
LOL - at Karl Kapp included at the end. Not sure why, but he and I both think it is funny.
Some flat classroom teachers were having problems w/ Ning and this is what they found was causing it -- thought it might help the some of you if you saw it as well.
Dwayne and I had trouble with the way our nings looked at school compared to home. Yesterday our technicians had time to look at it, and Dwayne, Nathan (our technician) said he had to unblock static.ning.com for it to work. Now our nings are easy to work with, appear as they should etc. Hope that helps you and anyone else who has problems with its appearance.Anne MirtschinHawkesdale p12 CollegeAustralia
The Connectivist learning theory, developed by George Siemens and others, focuses on the value of knowledge residing on the network, the value of connecting to both networked knowledge and other individuals via network connections, and the value of collaboratively contributing to this networked knowledge base. In his post “Connectivism squares with our experience,” Ken Carroll writes with respect to neural networks:
No one can really know what goes on in learners’ synapses, but we all know that it is possible to induce learners to mobilize their cognitive faculties to a greater or lesser extent. More cognitive and affective experiences lead to more thinking, more synaptic connections, and more learning. To this end, we have sought to leverage guesswork, repetition, stories, context, in-depth discussion, etc, to offer what Siemens might call ’frequency, diversity, and depth of exposure’ to the content. I’ve always maintained that learning is multi-dimensional, and deepened when you approach the subject from different angles. The connections around the subject should be many and varied, a position consistent with connectivism: ’The act of knowing is to be in a particular manner of connectedness’.
Ken and other teachers affiliated with his ChinesePod learning initiative are leaders of the learning revolution. The way in which they perceive and define their identities as educators is different in a basic way from the traditional “sage on the stage” model. Ken writes:
The teachers and practitioners on ChinesePod do not see ourselves as lecturers or teachers who impart knowledge in the old sense. Instead, we are connectors, or resources who point learners at key patterns or elements that help strengthen their connection to a piece of information (and emphasize the skill of being able to identify patterns).
This redefinition of the role and self-perception of the educator is critical in the 21st century learning revolution. I had a conversation with our 9th grade babysitter last night, and heard her relate how the majority of the time she spends in high school today is taking written notes while teachers lecture. Teachers do NOT provide digital access to notes and materials, and students are quizzed regularly about the content on which they have taken textual notes to see if this traditional “broadcast/spray model” of learning has been effective. (Or at least if the items included in the quiz have temporarily been stored in short term memory.) We MUST move beyond this traditional “banking model” of education, and I’m convinced the impetus for these changes is NOT coming and is not GOING to come from “inside the system” of traditional education.
Earlier this month Chinesepod reached a milestone with the publication of its 1000th Mandarin lesson. The success of Ken and his team help answer one of the questions asked by an adult learner in my class on “Lifelong Learning with iTunes University” this past Wednesday: “Why are so many things online free?” Glyn Moody noted:
He [Ken Carroll] understands that in the digital age, the secret to making money is to give away the entry-level stuff to attract interest and build a vibrant community, and then to make money by offering premium content to people who are already know the value of your free resources.
In our flat-world landscape, there are more opportunities to learn, teach, educate, AND make a living than ever before. I’m here as a witness for the case, “Do more connections lead to more learning?” Of course they do. Ken knows this, and you likely do as well if you’re reading this post online.
How many of the teachers we work with on a daily basis understand the foundational elements of connectivisim? VERY, VERY few in my estimation. Why don’t they understand? Because they have not EXPERIENCED connectivisim. It is not enough to show or be told. One must EXPERIENCE the power of networked learning to understand it and appreciate its potentials.
To that end, I’ll again exhort you to participate and share the upcoming K-12 Online Conference which starts next week with our pre-conference keynote. The conference is free, it’s global, and the co-learners involved (that includes YOU as well as presenters and other participants) are all providing a rich context for experiential, connectivist learning. Certainly we can take courses in Connectivism, but we can also experience connectivism through the blended learning conference event which is K-12 Online. And, if your local educational organization agrees, you can even earn professional development credit for your participation and time! What a deal.
Ken Carroll challenges me in several ways through his work on Chinesepod as well as his blog. First of all, he reminds me that just because I did not take Mandarin Chinese in school, and it is not available for our kids to take in their current public school, we are not limited in our access to expert teachers and co-learners if we want to learn Mandarin. With a fifth of the world’s population speaking Chinese, it should be clear this would be a real good idea for us.
Secondly, Ken challenges me by thoughtfully connecting his educational practice with learning theories which build on and powerfully extend those which I’ve studied in graduate school. Instead of simply talking about educational theories and practices in abstract forms, however, Ken and his team are operationalizing these philosophies and strategies in powerful, transparent ways which can be educative for us all.
In February of 2005, I heard Alan November challenge a large group of Texas superintendents to require all their students to take an online course before graduating from high school. I think the idea of mandating a basic level of experience with online and blended learning is a good idea. I am not currently a legislator, elected official or appointed governmental official, however, and I feel confident the vast majority of readers of this post are not either. We’re not in a position to “mandate” anything to ALL the students and teachers with whom we work in our communities.
While we cannot practically mandate blended learning experiences, and the potential value of MANDATED learning experiences is itself certainly subject to question, we CAN do two things related to these issues which CAN have an important impact:
Blended learning, because it offers the possibility of appropriating best practices from BOTH face-to-face as well as online/virtual learning contexts, can provide greater opportunities for authentic learning and meaningful connections than any other educational modality.
The learning revolution continues.
Technorati Tags:
learning, podcast, chinesepod, connectivism, blended, november, kencarroll, georgesiemens, siemens, teacher, teaching
One laptop per child is attempting to get small, portable computers in the hands of children in impoverished areas.
The past several weeks I’ve been working on facilitating a high profile, bridged H.323 videoconference that takes place next week on Tuesday. We’ve had two successful test calls with each remote endsite. From a technical videoconferencing perspective things have worked ok and will work for the event, but in our 2nd test call last week our connection had more pixelation than it had in the 1st call which took place at a different time of day. The network we’re connecting on has not implemented QoS and the bandwidth for the organization is shared. (It is a university.) They do have a videoconferencing room with a dedicated T-1 connection, but that cable is evidently pulled directly to that room and can’t be used in the auditorium where we are hosting our event. I’ve requested that we use that dedicated connection, but that’s not possible since a class meets in the videoconferencing room each day– including the day of our event. So, we are in a situation where we have to use shared bandwidth at the university. We are making this videoconferencing connection over IP and the commodity Internet, so it is subject to local as well as outside bandwidth utilization fluctuations.
I have requested that requisite ports be opened on the network firewall for the university, and they have been opened (according to the network gods) but we are still having to make the videoconferencing connection using a H.323 gatekeeper. The 768 kpbs connection this week was too pixelated to use, so we had to connect at 512, and even then there was some pixelation. If we can avoid using the gatekeeper, the packet loss should be reduced since the connection won’t have to traverse the gatekeeper.
The university in question is using the Packeteer PacketShaper network appliance, which permits IT wizards to monitor network traffic and “shape traffic in real-time with flexible policy-based QoS control.” Unfortunately the university we’re working with has not implemented QoS on their network, so the packet-prioritization we’re wanting and needing for this videoconference is not (apparently) supportable with their current infrastructure configuration. Bummer. I’ve suggested that they enter an exception for the port, IP address, and/or MAC address of the videoconferencing codec we’re using, or configure that IP to be in the DMZ of the network, but it remains to be seen if any of those suggestions can be implemented.
According to Blue Coat, the new company that owns Packeteer:
74 Percent of the World’s Largest Companies use PacketShaper.
One translation of this is: In three-fourths of the world’s largest companies, big brother is watching, and if you try to do something the network gods don’t want or like they’re going to shut you down like a garage door.
photo credit: Marcin Wichary
The support info for Packeter provides a phone number to call for support, and I’ve recommended that the local IT department contact them. This was the same recommendation we received from Tandberg technical support:
Currently Tandberg has no documentation for your 3rd party equipment Packeteer Packet Shaper. Please try your vendor.
This situation highlights several things about videoconferencing and educational networks. Two that come to mind right away are:
I toyed with the idea of actually making this connection over my cell phone computer data card, but given the stakes of this videoconference I’m not confident enough in it to try that for the real event. I might try it to see how the connection is, but hopefully a solution will be found which will let us connect at 768 on the university’s network. If we had an available WiMax connection, that might have enough speed, but again reliability would be a big factor and that is quite different comparing a consumer cellular wireless data connection option and a paid, dedicated hardwire connection. The best my 3G cell connection can do at this point is 384 kpbs up, and we want more quality than that for this connection. I’d like to have high definition quality, since our hosting codec and the conference bridge supports HD, but with our limited bandwidth at the site that is not a remote possibility for next week. 
Technorati Tags:
videoconference, packet, packetshaper, networkneutrality, smart, network, smartnetwork, bluecoat, h323, gatekeeper
I watched Hector Ruiz’s moving TedTalk “The power to connect the world” at lunch today.
I resonate with his passion for the 50×15 project, which seeks:
…to enable affordable, accessible Internet connectivity and computing capabilities for 50 percent of the world’s population by the year 2015.
Yesterday at our monthly Oklahoma Creativity Project education committee meeting, we discussed the role which rural electric cooperatives (RECs) could potentially play in bringing high speed connectivity (via fiber) to every part of our largely rural state using power line communication (PLC) or broadband over Power Line (BPL) technologies. These possibilities are very exciting as well as practical.
What I found most compelling in Hector’s talk, however, was the story he told about his father reminding him of his generational responsibility to do better. To be a better student and scholar than his parents had been or been able to be. (Hector was the first person in his family to graduate from college. All his sisters followed his example.) To be a better father than his own dad. To leave the world a better place each day, because of the actions he made, the conversations he had, and the people’s lives he influenced. What a fantastic challenge, and a great reminder of the perspective we should all not only have but also pass on to our own children and students.
Our focus must not JUST be on connectivity as we advocate for the thoughtful uses of digital technologies to support learning. What we choose to DO with the connectivity we have is also critical. In our committee discussions yesterday, I was reminded of Dr. Larry Cuban’s studies of schools in Silicon Valley about 10 years ago. You would think those schools, with the latest in connectivity and computer technologies, would have been doing (at the time of his studies in the late 1990s and early 2000s) just amazing, transformational things with the technologies at their fingertips. Not so. On pages 178-179 of “Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom,” Cuban wrote:
As for enhanced efficiency in learning and teaching, there have been no advances (measured by higher academic achievement of urban, suburban, or rural students) over the last decade that can be confidently attributed to broader access to computers. No surprise here, as the debate over whether new technologies have increased overall American economic productivity also has had no clear answers. The link between test score improvements and computer availability and use is even more contested.
Nor has a technological revolution in teaching and learning occurred in the vast majority of American classrooms. Teachers have been infrequent and limited users of the new technologies for classroom instruction. If anything, in the midst of the swift spread of computers and the Internet to all facets of American life, “e-learning” in public schools has turned out to be word processing and Internet searches. As important supplements as these have become to many teachers’ repertoires, they are far from the project-based teaching and learning that some techno-promoters have sought. Teachers at all levels of schooling have used the new technology basically to continue what they have always done: communciate with parents and administrators, prepare syllabi and lectures, record grades, assign research papers. These unintended effects must be disappointing to those who advocate more computers in schools.
I would add to Hector Ruiz’ impassioned call to connect the world together and specifically the students of the world together with connectivity an equally passionate plea to seek TRANSFORMATIONAL uses of digital technologies rather than simply accommodating uses. Transformational changes to our predominant paradigm of teaching and learning are needed, shifting our focus away from instruction and instead on learning. Accommodating uses of technologies to replicate traditional practices with newer, perhaps fancier gadgets are a waste of money and time. We don’t need more digital bells and whistles in our classrooms. What we need are passionate educators, focused on inspiring students to be creative and curious. We need school administrators who understand that EVERY DAY, students should be creating, communicating, and collaborating. Digital technologies wedded to the high speed connectivity available to us today can only transform education and our world if we choose to use these tools in constructive, transformative ways. In this process, our personal learning journeys are critical. To change the world, I must first change myself.
This is the learning revolution. We are not merely the soldiers, we are the strategists as well as the tacticians. Our tools are far more powerful than weapons designed to injure and kill. Our tools are our ideas, and their power to transform far outstrips the abilities of our limited minds to imagine and predict. Marx was wrong, historical progress is not inevitable. Change requires leadership, not just the kind occupying formal positions of power and authority.
Never before in the course of human history have we had the tools we have today to connect us and focus us. To connect to each other, and to bring our ideas together. At the speed of light, with the tap of a finger, to send one-to-many (broadcast) messages to a global audience. To send specific, targeted messages to single individuals or smaller groups. To be inspired by the thoughts and actions of others to think bigger at a global scale, yet continue to act locally in our unique contexts were we live and work. To organize and conduct a free, two week conference about web 2.0 tools and learning strategies, and invite the world to participate. To keep in touch with microblogging tools like Twitter and Facebook. To videoconference with others across town or across the planet. These are just some of the tools and capabilities on “this side” of the digital divide.
We are living amidst titanic changes in communication and information. Our prospects for meeting the challenge shared by Hector Ruiz’ father: to make the world a better place, have never been brighter than they are today. We have more possibilities and potential before us than ever before. But who can open these doors of opportunity for our students? Teachers. Mentors. Parents. Co-learners. We all have a role to play, but our part has not yet been written. As my friend Miguel Guhlin likes to say, ours is the responsibility, challenge, and opportunity to “write the future.”
You and I change the world one conversation at a time.
If you haven’t already, take 20 minutes and listen to Hector’s message. Be inspired. Then go share your inspiration with someone else.
And have a marvelous weekend, wherever you happen to reside on our blue planet.
photo credit: Aaron Escobar
Technorati Tags:
hector, ruiz, ted, tedtalk, bandwidth, connectivity, rec, regional, electrical, cooperative, plc, communication, blc, broadband, rural
This podcast features an impromptu interview with Dr. Peter Sherwood of Oklahoma State University, who is the proud owner of a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier automobile powered by both CNG (Compressed Natual Gas) as well as regular gasoline. Dr. Sherwood explained how he came to purchase this amazing car and the benefits of it (CNG is currently $1.19 per gallon in Oklahoma and yields about 30 miles to the gallon in his car.) I never knew cars like this existed until today. I had heard of CNG-powered cars, but assumed they were not “dual fuel.” Now I want to find a company which can relatively inexpensively install a dual-fuel setup for me in my old 1993 Toyota Camry!
Show Notes:
Subscribe to “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” weekly podcasts!
Receive an email alert whenever a new Speed of Creativity podcast is published!
We’ve got lots of amazing people in the great state of Oklahoma, and I met another one today who drives a fantastic car. If you were reading my blog back in November, you probably recall my post “The Mac Jedi’s Homebrew Mobile Commander” and podcast “Pimp My Ride (digitally) Southeast Oklahoma Style (An Interview with Lance Ford: Mac Jedi.)” Today’s automotive-inspired interview with an Oklahoman was with Dr. Peter Sherwood of Oklahoma State University, who showed and explained about his compressed natural gas (CNG) Chevy Cavalier following our education committee meeting for the Oklahoma Creativity Project. This small logo on the back right bumper means his car is CNG powered and therefore MUCH more affordable to operate as well as environmentally friendly.
From a distance, the car looks like a “normal” Cavalier.
Under the hood, however, the differences are quickly evident. CNG burns much cleaner than gasoline, so there are not buildups of “gunk” on the engine like you see on vehicles which are purely powered by gasoline.
Underneath the back left taillight, a door can be opened permitting the natural gas tank to be refilled.
The CNG tank is in the trunk, and fills most of it up.
This is the view of the natural gas tank from the back seat, which holds six gallons.
Dr. Sherwood pays now $1.19 per gallon for compressed natural gas, and the car gets about 30 miles to the gallon. So he can go about 150 miles on a full tank of CNG. The car ALSO has a fifteen gallon gasoline tank, however, and automatically switches between the two fuels as needed.
Natural-gas vehicles typically cost about $4000 to $5000 more than gasoline-powered models. Gasoline-powered vehicles also can be retrofitted at a cost of $2000 to $6000.
Before today, I had never heard of a dual-fuel vehicle that could use both gasoline and CNG. I saw a television program about Brazil’s cars which are required by federal law to be capable of using both ethanol and gasoline, but had just assumed that CNG cars would not run anything else. I’m glad to learn I was wrong!
To learn more about CNG cars, check out the WikiPedia article for “Natural gas vehicle” as well as the website CNGchat.com We have an old (1993) Toyota Camry that has a shot engine not worth repairing. If it is possible to put a rebuilt/reconditioned engine in it that would burn both CNG and gasoline for a few thousand dollars, I’d LOVE to do it. It does not seem practical to have a car today which is ALL electric or ONLY powered by CNG, since long road trips could be delayed or cut short if the batteries get drained or a CNG refueling station isn’t handy. That would not be the case if the car could alternatively use gasoline if needed, however.
I learned about the Pickens’ Plan several weeks ago, which seeks to shift our fuel consumption from predominantly foreign-purchased oil to North American purchased natural gas. (The WikiPedia article for the plan is also worth checking out, btw.) It seems silly that we don’t have TONS of cars like Dr. Sherwood’s CNG and gasoline powered Cavalier on the roads today!
We need to make some MAJOR changes in the ways we use energy in our nation, and I agree with those who support a short term shift to natural gas. Ultimately, I agree with Dr. Sherwood that hydrogen power offers an even better solution for automotive energy needs. Perhaps as he suggested today, wind power can make the electrolysis of water required to separate hydrogen from oxygen so it can be used as an energy source more affordable and practical on a large scale.
Dr. Sherwood gave me permission to record an interview of him discussing his CNG powered vehicle, and I’ll publish that here shortly. It was a bit windy outside when we did the interview, so hopefully it will turn out ok.
I think this car is so cool! I want one, but I also want the price of new CNG cars as well as “retrofit” costs to be much less!
Technorati Tags:
cng, car, gas, oil, gasoline, energy, oklahoma, vehicle, pickens, plan, pickensplan
Seven Steps to a Flat Classroom - Movies
7 steps to a flat classroom is being given away free from Atomic Learning through the end of October. Let me know how you like it!
This tool can be used to make quizzes for cell phones.
TimeRime - View, create and compare timelines
This website lets students create and compare timelines.
My proposals are in at last for NECC 2009!
Last year I think I submitted seven proposals and had two accepted. In addition to those shown in the picture above, Karen Montgomery is submitting one on district social networking policies and Lance Ford is submitting a workshop called “Kids in Control: Top Tools for Empowering Student Directed Learning” in which I hope to co-present.
I certainly don’t expect all these to be accepted but hopefully a few will be. The most out-of-the-box proposal I submitted this year was definitely “The Power of our Family Learning Blog.” The short description is:
The best assessments provide sustained and differentiated windows into student understanding and performance. Our family learning blog meets these criteria well. Come learn how.
The longer description is:
Blogs are misunderstood by many educators, parents, and administrators as simply personal diaries. This undervaluation is unfortunate. Blogs permit students and teachers to maintain (with relatively few “clicks” and effort) a running record of student learning. Our family learning blog provides a mechanism for our children to “show what they know” with interactive digital stories (using VoiceThread as well as GarageBand-produced podcasts), text posts about books they are reading and topics they are studying, and hyperlinked references to other online resources of interest to them. In this session we will demonstrate and show how a family learning blog can be created to complement assigned homework and in- class assignments at school, and provide a rich digital portfolio of student learning with extends beyond a single school year. Our family learning blog is active on http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org.
Outline: This session will be presented primarily by my two children, 11 year old Alexander (5th grade) and 8 year old Sarah (3rd grade). They will explain how they use our family learning blog to post text, create hyperlinks, and embed interactive media files including VoiceThread digital stories to demonstrate to their teachers, their grandparents, and other interested parties the things they are learning and exploring inside and outside of school.
Of all the proposals I submitted I hope this one is approved most of all, since it would be a blast and thrill to present in D.C. this summer with my two oldest kids. Now it’s time to sit back and cross my fingers!
Through the end of October, Atomic Learning is giving away the 7 Steps to a Flat Classroom video series that I did for them, FREE!
I love atomic learning and got it for our teachers this year. If you want to know about how to "flatten" your classroom, then have fun with these videos (and let me know your feedback.)
What is this? A videoconference scheduled for 11 November 2008 from 9 - 11:30 am CST for students, teachers, and U.S. military veterans to share their experiences as participants in the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project. Presenters will be past and current participants in the COV oral history project or similar oral history projects. Participants do NOT have to have any prior experiences with Veteran oral history interviews. This is a great opportunity to recognize military veterans and learn more about their sacrifices and experiences on the day our nation celebrates Veteran’s Day.
Who can participate? Any K-20 school is welcome to participate, but priority will be given to Oklahoma schools if we receive large numbers of requests. We anticipate connecting 6-8 schools via H.323 videoconferencing equipment and a maximum of 30-40 schools via a webcast/webstream.
Who is organizing and sponsoring this event? The Oklahoma Heritage Association is the lead partner of the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project and is facilitating this event in cooperation with Tandberg and project participants.
How can our school submit a participation request? Complete our online Google form. The form will remain open through October 31st, but we anticipate making selections for sites by October 23rd, so please submit it as soon as possible.
More information about this event is available on this published Google Document as well as in a PDF file. Please forward this information to other educators who may be interested in this videoconference/webcast learning opportunity.
If you have questions and comments you can also add these to the forum announcement post on our learning community website.
Technorati Tags:
oklahoma, veteran, military, videoconference, school, learning, celebration, cov, cov08
Feeling like you can’t learn new tricks with educational technology tools at school? Do you know other teachers who have similar sentiments? Perhaps you can try and recommend some of the top ten downloads from the British site My Mobile Guru.
The following popular topics might be appropriate and needed at the next technology-related workshop or conference event you attend, or to just cope with the daily stresses of classroom teaching!
I’m thinking the third suggestion above might be perfect for a few superintendents and school board members I know. 
Unfortunately these short audio downloads are not free, they cost £3.00 each. According to Google’s estimate with today’s exchange rate that is about $5.25 US. Seems a bit steep. But perhaps these audio messages ARE truly transformative? They could provide the missing ingredient needed to help get you and teachers you know on the right track with effective technology integration and digital learning strategies.
I doubt it, however.
Thanks to Clark Boyd on The World Tech Podcast #211 for sharing this site. I’m thinking this would be good to share in my introductory keynote remarks next week at TechCon in Chicago.
Technorati Tags:
mobile, phone, cell, counseling, therapy, gury, mymobileguru, technology, stress, education, teachers
Gmail Goggles: No More Drunk Emailing on Friday Nights
I'm laughing at mail goggles, but do agree, that even though I don't drink, sometimes when I'm angry, I need some sort of goggles to keep me from flaming and sending a bad email!!
This new feature from google labs is something you can enable on your gmail account - at certain times of day it will check your reflexes and if your'e a little slow, it won't let you send the email but will save it for later.
I find this interesting and funny but the truth is that when we talk to a person who is inebriated, we know not to take what they say seriously -- there is no such thing on email -- you cannot see their state of mind. Isn't this why emoticons evolved?
I discovered the collection of technology-related video tips for parents on the Common Sense Media website recently, and was glad to see so many important issues addressed via short messages. I was disappointed, however, to NOT see several recommendations in the video about WikiPedia narrated by Liz Perle (Editor in Chief of Common Sense Media.)
Liz warned parents that Wikipedia contains user-created content anyone can edit, but she did NOT encourage the following:
1. Encourage your kids (and/or students) to use the “external links” at the bottom of WikiPedia articles to locate other sources which may be more authoritative and recognized and are related to a topic of inquiry.
2. Encourage your kids and students to not only use WikiPedia as consumers (reading and utilizing the content) but also to CREATE content as prosumers. Liz conveys the idea that the only contributions a young person could make or would want to make to WikiPedia are vandalistic edits. This is ridiculous! Certainly there are a fair number of folks who find it fun and amusing to deface WikiPedia, but there are MUCH larger numbers of people making meaningful contributions to the project every day.
By the time students graduate from high school, it is my contention they should have accumulated a documented body of edited WikiPedia pages (viewable on their user contributions page - this is mine) which can be included as a link on their online, digital portfolio. What topics are students interested in and passionate about? Can young people make meaningful and helpful contributions to the project which seeks to bring the world universal access to the sum of human knowledge? Certainly. User contribution pages can provide documentation and “proof” (as individual track records) of prosumer activities on WikiPedia.
3. Encourage kids and students to appropriately quote and cite sources in WikiPedia as well as other sources, both online and offline. In her video, Liz makes it sound like anyone who copies text from WikiPedia is committing an act worse than one of the seven deadly sins. This is ridiculous. As both an educational blogger as well as an aspiring academic researcher, I use full quotations from digital as well as analog sources constantly. When I do, I also attempt to properly document and cite my sources.
4. Use WikiPedia to follow breaking news events when and after they happen. The page for the 2005 London bombings is one of the most often cited examples for this. Timeline and rumors pages add to the value and depth of research and conversations which can be catalyzed by these WikiPedia resources. Monday’s historic TC3 meteoroid impact on earth is a more recent example. Utilize the WikiPedia current events portal to follow breaking and ongoing news events along with thousands of others worldwide.
5. Use WikiPedia to explore, research, and discuss controversial issues. Media literacy is one of the most important skills for us to practice as 21st century learners. WikiPedia’s “List of controversial issues” and “Guidelines for controversial articles” are good pages to utilize. See my November 2007 post “Ideas for student research and digital stories in 2008: Controversial topics” for more ideas along these lines.
The WikiPedia article for “Citing WikiPedia” is a great resource to use when discussing and exploring how WikiPedia can and should be cited for different writing purposes and contexts.
The English WikiPedia articles “Comparison of reference management software” and “Citation creator” are good resources to also use to show the utility and and power of WikiPedia and also learn about available software and web options for citation assistance.
Hey, my addition of Son of Citation Machine by David Warlick from August 2008 is still the most recent edit of the “Citation creator” page! I’m happy to have made that contribution. Your students can and will feel proud of their constructive contributions to WikiPedia as well. Encourage them to build their personal WikiPedia contribution record as responsible prosumers and digital citizens of the 21st century.
Despite these omissions, I think this collection of parent video tips from Common Sense Media is a good resource to use and commend to others. I additionally wish, however, that the videos were shared in an embeddable format. I’m convinced (as I’d hazard Alan Levine, author of “50 Ways to Tell The Dominoe Story” is) that embeddable videos and video sharing sites are the most powerful options for message sharing in today’s media landscape.
If we want our ideas to be relevant, increasingly it’s fair to say we need to make them embeddable. While there are lots of choices for video sharing tools that support embedding, I’ve seen few for documents. Scribd is one tool which DOES permit embedded document sharing. (Nod to Bud the Teacher for this.)
Common Sense Media appears to be using Amazon S3 (part of Amazon’s Web Services) to share their flash-based videos, but they appear to be using a proprietary, licensed flash-player built by ISL Consulting rather than a video sharing service like Blip.tv, YouTube, Vimeo, or DotSub. Perhaps someday they’ll change this and permit embedding. If they did, I’d embed some of their videos here on my blog for you to access and view more easily. For now, however, you’ll have to visit their website to find them. I’m sure this is a desired user behavior created by their site designers, but it’s not the one I prefer as a video consumer.
Technorati Tags:
wikipedia, school, parents, homework, students, commonsense, media
My daughter’s 3rd grade homework assignment this evening was completing the following “Listening for Syllables” worksheet.
Sarah has a fantastic teacher, and my perception of the value of this homework assignment is not reflective of my perception of the overall quality of the educational experiences I think she’s having regularly in her public school classroom.
I do think, however, that this particular homework assignment is worthless and a waste of everyone’s time. When do people of any age, outside of a classroom, ever need to “count syllables” of words? They don’t. We don’t. This is not an activity of literate people. This is not an assignment which encourages the activities of literacy: reading, writing, speaking, thinking, and communicating. This is a fake, silly, and time-wasting activity representative of some of the kinds of activities we ask students to do at home because we have misplaced faith in the value of busywork.
Will homework assignments like this improve my daughter’s levels of achievement on standardized tests? Will it help her learn more about Charlotte’s Web, the book from which these vocabulary words are taken? Will dutifully completing assignments like this night after night at home after school help her develop self-disipline (which Kohn defines as “learning to manage freedom”) both at home and at school?
I think not.
Alfie Kohn, in his outstanding book “The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing,” addresses this question on pages 51-53:
The most common nonacademic rationale for homework is that it, like competition, has character-building properties. Specifically, it’s said to help students “take responsibility for school work… to build ’study skills’ through homework assignments to develop students’ perseverance, ability to follow directions, neatness and completeness, and overall level of responsibility.’ Others have asserted that homework promotes “self-discipline” as well as “initiative” and “independence.”
…So does homework have such an effect? No one has a clue. As far as I can tell, no experiment of either type has ever been conducted to investigate common claims about responsibility, self-discipline, and so on. To that extent, no evidence exists to support those claims.
Kohn’s book was copyrighted in 2006.
What is the effect of worthless worksheets like this which are sent home as homework? They WASTE our time. Time is one of the most precious resources each one of us has, whether we are 38 or 8. Time is limited. We never get our heartbeats back once we choose how to spend them. Did my daughter take a long time to complete this worksheet? No, she did not. But there WAS a real temporal opportunity cost to this homework assignment. Sarah could have been playing outside with one of her friends. She was prohibited, I will note, by my wife (and I don’t hold this against her since finishing your homework before you go out to play is a rule in our house) from playing with a friend who came over after her theater practice this evening, prior to dinner. Sarah had homework which was assigned, and regardless of what it was, she had to finish it before playing outside. Had she NOT had the homework assignment (or had we looked at this assignment and made a decision analogous to that of a conscientious objector and said “Forget that assignment, don’t worry about it. It’s silly…”) she would have been able to play outside before dinner for awhile with her friend.
So, what is a father and educator to do in such a homework quandary? Merely write a complaining blog post after the kids have gone to bed? Of course not! We spent about an hour together planning and sharing a short VoiceThread reflection about Charlotte’s Web tonight that she posted to our family learning blog.
Here’s a little background about what we did to create this. I estimate we spent about 30 minutes planning this together (mainly at dinner while we were eating) and 15 minutes actually recording and creating the VoiceThread.
I first asked Sarah about writing a post on our family learning blog about Charlotte’s Web. She has never seen the movie, and so far they’ve just read the first three chapters of the book in school. I love many of E.B. White’s books (especially “Trumpet of the Swan” which was a big favorite of mine growing up) and am glad Sarah is having a chance to experience Charlotte’s Web. She was NOT eager, however, to write a blog post about the book and her perceptions of it. Sarah is not yet an adept keyboarder, so this response is not entirely surprising. Like many young learners, Sarah has more ideas and is able to communicate them more capably when she is able to verbally communicate rather than when her expressive options are limited to text-only formats.
Rather than force her to go ahead and write a blog post (something I admittedly DO at times) I gave her some choices. “Would you like to record your ideas with a microphone?” Her response was an enthusiastic “Yes!”
Giving students and our own children CHOICES about the ways they express their ideas and demonstrate their mastery of knowledge and skills is not just fun, it’s an educational best practice. Part of differentiating learning should mean providing students with different options about how they express themselves and communicate. Will Sarah need to learn how to proficiently keyboard an essay before she graduates from high school? Of course. Would forcing her to type her ideas about Charlotte’s Web tonight at age 8 have effectively accomplished the learning goal of encouraging her to think summatively as well as reflectively about what she’s learned so far by reading the book? I don’t think so.
Alfie Kohn cites research from the 1970s which supports this idea that the best teachers provide the learners in their care with CHOICES about how they express themselves and show what they know. On page 44 of “The Homework Myth” Kohn writes:
…back in the 1970s, New Jersey educator Ruth Tschudin identified about three hundred “A+ teachers” on the basis of recommendations, awards, or media coverage. She then set out to compare their classroom practices to those of a matched group of other teachers. Among her findings: The exceptional teachers not only tended to give less homework but also were likely to give students more choices about their assignments.
As a parent as well as an educator, I think differentiated learning is something we should do together at home as well as at school in formal learning settings. Thankfully, we’re on the digital side of the digital divide with access to multiple computers, microphones and cameras at home. Just HAVING digital tools is not enough, however. It’s critical we invite others to USE them imaginatively to create, collaborate, and communicate. These were some of the learning goals I had in mind for Sarah as a homework activity I thought could be much more meaningful and valuable (both instrumentally as well as intrinsically) than her worthless worksheet which was sent home today in her class folder.
I started to think about different web 2.0 services which allow direct audio recording with a computer microphone to an immediately web-published, Flash-player embeddable media file, and didn’t have any luck locating some initially. I tried to remember the website “Springdoo,” which like Bob Sprankle I miss and lament in its passing, but at the time couldn’t find it, think of it, or locate similar websites. I knew we could use VoiceThread, but I really wanted to just record AUDIO and not use any images.
Eyeing my Sony flash-based video camcorder, Sarah asked why I couldn’t just shoot a video of her sharing her reflections, transfer that to the computer, and then she could put that on her blog. This led to a good discussion about “the Internet safety worst-case scenario nightmare,” which would be someone seeing her video and then deciding to kidnap her. I don’t know that anyone has ever been kidnapped because of a video reflection about Charlotte’s Web that they posted to the Internet, but at this point I do still think it might be wise to use some discretion publicly posting videos of my kids online. So, the search for a web 2.0 site that allows direct microphone audio recording and publishing continued.
Over dinner, we brainstormed a “planning sheet” for her recorded reflections which broke into two parts. First, she would summarize what she remembers happening in the book in the first three chapters they’ve read. Second, we’d brainstorm together (as a family) several “thinking questions” which would not have easy, factual answers. Sarah started out writing a rough draft, but I volunteered to write for her as we brainstormed at the dinner table. This is what we came up with. Some of the “thinking questions” were contributed by my wife and 10 year old son:
After a short walk in our GLORIOUS Oklahoma fall weather after dinner, Sarah and I got my MacBook Pro and my M-Audio Producer USB microphone and found a quiet room to do some recording. I
