Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Thanks to Lee Anne of The Eighth Floor in Tulsa, Oklahoma for drawing my attention today to the marvelous TeacherTube video “6 & 7 Year Olds and BLOGS” (from Nelson Central School in New Zealand) via her post, “What About Blogs?”

My favorite responses from the students to the question “Why do you like having a class blog?” were:

We enjoy showing other people what we have learned.

My parents can look at what we have been doing in class.

You can write on it and you might become famous.

Thanks to Rachel Boyd for posting and sharing this video!

Technorati Tags:
blog, blogging, school, classroom, classroomblog

Christy Tvarok, in her post “Make Noise, Make Change,” encourages teachers around the United States to share their vision for educational change in our nation, particularly as it relates to digital literacy and technology integration. She is going to mail the aggregated responses directly to the current US candidates for President. Please add your perspectives and ideas as comments to her post. The following is my contribution.

Christy: Thank you for your willingness to extend these conversations beyond the blogosphere and directly advocate for constructive, sensible change in our educational institutions with our political candidates running for President in the United States. Clearly there is a great deal which can and needs to be said. I’ll try to be succinct.

1) We must cut down and reduce our curricular standards and instead focus on cultivating habits of mind in our schools. TIME is the number one obstacle we face for any type of proposed educational change. The elephant in the room, as Dr. Robert Marzano pointed out in his keynote at the Oklahoma state leadership conference in July 2007, is that we don’t have enough time TODAY to teach all the content standards and curriculum we are required to as teachers. In response to the demands of these mandates, high stakes testing, and mania continuing from “Nation at Risk” (2 Million Minutes is the latest example) we have people calling for simply more time in school. We don’t simply need a new wrapper on the same old “sandwich” of school learning. We don’t need food coloring, And we don’t need new flavoring added. We need a new sandwich. This begins with addressing the primary drivers of learning tasks in our schools today: Curriculum standards and high stakes testing.

2) Educational technology must play a fundamental role in this learning revolution. Every teacher and student in every school, from grade three on, needs to be equipped with a laptop computer capable of not only accessing content in various media formats (permitting media consumption) but also permitting media PRODUCTION and PUBLISHING. Creating and collaborating must become hallmarks of learning in the 21st century classroom. These tasks can be performed safety, respecting the privacy and rights of both students and parents. There are many choices and paths forward to advance these goals. Our vision of digitally infused learning in the 21st century must go beyond CAI (computer aided instruction) and using Microsoft Office. The 21st Century Skills our students require include media literacy, multimedia publication and communication, and collaboration with diverse team members separated by space and time. The OLPC costs $180 per unit today, but was developed for the developing world. The EEEPC costs $500 per unit today. Amortize those costs over three years. One to one learning IS financially reasonable for our students TODAY. This is a path we need to follow today, not tomorrow. The textbook industry is NOT going to lead this change, in fact they will continue to oppose it as they did in Texas with House Bill 4. The textbook industry should not dictate our educational policy in the United States, just as the oil and gas industry should not dictate our foreign policy. Without our vocal advocacy, the lobbyists for educational corporations will continue to try and call the shots. This must end. The open content movement will continue to grow and offer higher quality, comparatively better alternatives to paper-based printed textbooks as time goes on. The time to embrace 1:1 learning is now. We do not simply need more desktop computers in labs and in classrooms. We need one laptop computer for EVERY teacher and EVERY student in our schools (grades 3 and up) NOW, not tomorrow. And we need a vision for the constructive uses of these tools for learning, which involves regular CREATION and COLLABORATION as well as consumption.

3) As Phil Schlechty argues in his books and publications related to school reform, we must fundamentally redefine the role of the teacher in our 21st century classroom. Rather than defining the teacher as a fount of knowledge, we must define teachers as DESIGNERS and INVENTORS of engaging work for students. Often, the work students do will have a digital face, but that should not be universal. This is one of the most important elements in the learning revolution we need: Teachers must change their own view of themselves and their role in the classroom (in many cases, for those who remain the “sage on the stage”) and parents need to understand the reasons for this change. There are my reasons accounting for high rates of dropouts in our schools, but one of the primary ones we must address directly is BOREDOM. Many kids are bored in school. As teachers redefine their roles as DESIGNERS and INVENTORS of engaging work, this situation can be remedied.

4) Everyone wants a high quality education for students rhetorically, but the fact is in many states our legislators refuse to pay for it. This strikes home for me here in Oklahoma, where we rank 48th in the nation in teacher pay. We are living in an era of all-time high profits for oil and gas companies in the world, and Oklahoma is a major producer of oil and gas. Yet this year, in 2007-2008, our schools in Oklahoma are facing a $40 million shortfall. This is not just ridiculous, it is a crime. We must exhort our leaders at both state and national levels to pay our teachers higher wages. The economics of our educational situation do not require the analysis of a Rhodes scholar. To address the achievement gaps, we have to pay our teachers in more challenging / lower SES schools more money. We absolutely must not pay teachers based on the test scores of their students. ALL K-12 teachers, regardless of the socio-economic level of the students they teach, deserve and NEED to be paid more. As taxpayers we need to put our money where our mouths are (or should be) and pay teachers high wages so we can keep them in the profession.

There are more things that I could write, but those are some of the main points that come to mind. Thanks for your advocacy and being willing to speak out.

Technorati Tags:
accountability, activism, education, politics, nclb, testing, sizer, habitsofmind, schlechty

• Amazing storm and tornado photos
  (tags: photography weather image tornado)
• WebTools4u2use ” home
  Great list of web-based tools and software
  (tags: software web2.0 ReadWriteWebTools)

I posted the following as a response to Corey White’s comment on my February post, “Advocating for differentiated content filtering.” This was a lengthy comment, and seemed to justify its own post. Hopefully my tone here is not too confrontational.

Corey: Like many in IT in our schools, your comment reflects an assumption that part of your job should be filtering out websites that students could use to be off task and “not productive.” My position is, that should not be the role of the IT staff. Teachers have the responsibility of designing engaging work for students, and in MANY, MANY cases, they are not doing this. See Phil Schlechty’s excellent book “Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents” for more about this.

As far as your idea of “leaving creativity to the art department,” I strongly disagree. Encouraging and supporting creativity should be EVERYONE’S job at school. Unfortunately many teachers and administrators have a “fill the pail” mentality when it comes to schooling. They view their job as trying to fill the pails (brains) of kids with a fixed amount of content, rather than trying to provide students with opportunities authentically engage in meaningful work with interesting content. Creativity and curiosity play a natural role in authentic learning, and that is why I continue to maintain that we should emphasize creativity in our schools.

You lament how kids can’t use a spreadsheet, create a webpage, edit an image in PhotoShop, do a mail merge, or create a formula in Excel. My questions are:

1- What problem-based learning contexts are teachers providing for students which require and invite them to use Excel as a tool, to solve REAL problems– not simply equations that a teacher pulls out of a textbook, out of context, or invents but doesn’t relate to the real world students understand? I agree students should be able to use spreadsheets to analyze and chart data, identify trends, predict outcomes, etc. How are teachers at your school regularly challenging students to do these things in meaningful contexts, where students are genuinely interested in doing the work and finding the answers?

2- In relation to students not knowing how to create a webpage… Have you checked how many of your students have profile pages on MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, and Myyearbook? Chances are quite a few of them do, certainly a high percentage should if they follow national trends like those highlighted in the summer 2007 National School Boards Association Report “Creating and Connecting.” Creating and maintaining a profile and webpages on a social networking website IS “creating a webpage.” Are you wanting students to use a program like Frontpage or Dreamweaver to create a website? Gaining experience creating content on a social networking site, keeping your profile private, and carefully monitoring the content that is published and “tagged” by you as well as your peers to monitor the electronic portfolio which Google is amassing about everyone are all important skills.

3- In terms of photo editing, has anyone at your school created and sponsored a digital photography contest for students? Having a contest like that could be pretty affordable and yield some great benefits. Setup categories for the types of skills you want students to develop. If you want them to learn photo compositing, then have that as a category. Rather than limit them to PhotoShop, which is very expensive and likely beyond the computing budget of most families, introduce students to free, open source photo editing programs like Gimp which they can use legally both at school and at home for zero dollars.

4- In regard to your lament about students apparent inability to do a mail merge, how many teachers at your school can independently do a mail merge? How many local entrepreneurs in your community can do a mail merge independently? Certainly it is great if people know how to do a mail merge, and I am a big fan of learners of all ages knowing how to powerfully manage and manipulate data not only in spreadsheet programs but also in flat as well as relational database programs. How sure are you that “doing a mail merge” is a critical 21st century skill, however? Many times in school, I think we make assumptions about things EVERYONE needs to know how to do– from memorizing the quadratic formula to writing a haiku, that really seem pretty silly and irrelevant when you consider the skill sets of people living and working quite successfully out of school.

I do appreciate your input and comments on this thread, Corey, but I continue to maintain that tiered content filtering is essential and an overall focus on both creativity as well as authentic student engagement in our schools is direly needed. You raise some points that are valid: My challenge to you is, DO something about them, rather than just lament them.

Start a digital photography contest at your school.

Help a teacher develop an integrated lesson which involves so much data to process, that students ASK for a tool (like a spreadsheet) which can help them aggregate and analyze it. Invite students to help design the project so it focuses on a local issue of real importance, in which they, their families, and/or others in their community have a genuine stake and interest. If their learning is situated in that type of context, I think you’ll find the impact of their learning experiences will be far greater, and many more of them will learn digital literacy skills alongside traditional literacy skills. Teaching in a problem-based learning environment is a lot more work than simply lecturing and delivering content to students, but it is the type of learning environment our students need to remain engaged in school work. Too many kids today are BORED by school. As the adults running our schools, it is our responsibility to remedy this situation.

As a last suggestion, please consider introducing all the teachers at your school to EduTopia. They publish a free, monthly magazine for educators and have a fantastic site dedicated to helping teachers learn about new ways to help students engage in project-based learning, cultivate digital literacy skills, and improve the opportunities for learning in our schools in other ways. The price is right, the resources are free, and chances are high if you share this with your faculty you’ll find at least a few teachers who will love some of the ideas and actually implement them for the benefit of your students.

There are many things we can lament when it comes to schools and students, but there are also lots of good things we can DO to try and improve things. We’ve all got to do what we can.

Good luck.

Technorati Tags:
filtering, internet, schools, education, edutopia, creativity, engagement, reform, schoolreform

• Chandler Project - Welcome
  an open source, standards-based personal information manager (PIM) built around small group collaboration and a core set of information management workflows modelled on Inbox usage patterns and David Allen’s GTD methodology.
  (tags: email EmailManagement organization organizer gtd)
• Accordent Technologies :: Enterprise Rich Media Solutions
  (tags: coursecasting webcasting podcasting distributedlearning)
• Tandberg Mobile Commander
  For about 200K videoconference from anywhere on the planet via a satellite uplink
  (tags: distributedlearning Videoconferencing DistanceLearning)
• iStat menus
  free app for Mac OS X to monitor system performance, goes in the upper right menu corner, better in many ways than using the utility application system monitor
  (tags: software mac osx system monitoring utility)
• VbrickTV Podcast Service
  solution from VBrick for transcoding Windows Media format files to QuickTime and placing those files into an iTunes compatible podcast feed
  (tags: podcasting podcast podcastingtools webvideo)
• VideoLAN - Free Software and Open Source video streaming solution for every OS!
  VideoLAN is a software project, which produces free software for video, released under the GNU General Public License.
  (tags: video iptv OpenSource software webvideo MultimediaVideo multimedia)
• Xenarc Technologies - MDT-X7000 - 7″ IN-DASH Touchscreen LCD VGA Monitor
  the world’s first 1-DIN touchscreen monitor / DVD receiver that was designed with In-Car Computing in mind. (This is the car stereo Lance Ford has in his Honda Element for in-car videoconferencing on his Mac mini)
  (tags: auto mobile mobility gadgets)
• Lance Ford’s website - lanceford.net
  Lance Ford is the director of technology for Howe Public Schools in Howe, Oklahoma, and an Apple Distinguished Educator (class of 2007)
  (tags: innovation creativity education school technologyleadership leadership learning distancelearning distributedlearning videoconferencing)
• Student ‘Twitters’ his way out of Egyptian jail - CNN.com
  article from 4-28-2008
  (tags: twitter news)
• Star Wars Trilogy Sound Bites and Other Tit Bits
  (tags: starwars audio)
• Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test
  Good website to measure upstream and downstream bandwidth speeds for your current Internet connection
  (tags: speedtest speed tools bandwidth test network broadband)
• Microsoft Silverlight: Light Up the Web
  Silverlight is Microsoft’s effort to combat Adobe’s Flash format in the webspace and make both Windows Media files as well as Microsoft applications like .NET compatible with Linux and Macintosh platforms, providing a Javascript front end and serving like
  (tags: silverlight microsoft video webvideo internet future)
• Technology Review: Una Laptop por Niño
  Article about Peru’s OLPC rollout
  (tags: olpc xolaptop laptop laptoplearning)
• VBxStream Press Release - VBrick Systems - Live Streaming Video - News
  VBxStream is a portable, remote all-in-one solution which functions with cell network data cards
  (tags: videoconferencing webcasting webcast virtualfieldtrips)

This podcast is a recording of a presentation shared by John Copeland of VBrick at the Oklahoma Distance Learning Association (ODLA) spring conference on April 28, 2008, in Oklahoma City at MetroTech Springlake. John discussed the company VBrick as well as their products, but also provided an excellent overview of streaming video formats, standards, technologies, and considerations to keep in mind when working with streaming video solutions. Thanks to John for both sharing this presentation as well as granting permission to share the recorded audio and his slides, which are linked in the podcast shownotes. Slides 14 through 20 are particularly good in providing an overview of what is available in terms of streaming video options today.

 

 Podcast250: An Overview of Streaming Video Formats, Standards, Technologies, and Considerations from John Copeland of VBrick [51:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1374)

Show Notes:

1. PDF of John’s presentation slides (5.9 MB)
2. VBrick Systems Inc. (main corporate website)
3. VBxStream (VBrick’s portable streaming solution announced on 15 April 2008, which works with cell network routers and permits live, remote streaming from any location with cell network coverage)
4. Recording Calculator (Reference tool to calculate the required disk space for recording video)
5. Internet Streaming Cost Calculator (Reference tool to calculate approximate cost of live streaming events using an hosted reflecting service)
6. ethernetv.com (VBrick’s video portal test site, login with userid: demo, password: demo)
7. Brick Systems Product Selector (includes questions as drop downs to help product selection based on needs and resources)
8. Multicast (WikiPedia)
9. Unicast (WikiPedia)
10. Microsoft Silverlight Overview

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Technorati Tags: videoconferencing, odla, oklahoma, video, streaming, vbrick, silverlight, format, standards

This podcast features an interview with Oklahoma K-12 educator Lance Ford, who has recently custom modded his Honda Element with an in-car 7″ touch LCD screen, a Mac Mini computer, and an AT&T wireless network card to create his own mobile commander: A vehicle for mobile computing, desktop videoconferencing, and webcasting. In this interview (conducted from inside his Honda Element) Lance describes the functionality, hardware, software, and development process for his digitally pimped ride. Lance Ford is the director of technology for Howe Public Schools in southeastern Oklahoma, and won an Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning award at the USDLA 2008 National Conference held in St. Louis Missouri last week. Lance Ford is the Oklahoma Mac Jedi. I aspire to be his Padawan!

 

 Podcast249: Pimp My Ride (digitally) Southeast Oklahoma Style (An Interview with Lance Ford: Mac Jedi) [23:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2047)

Show Notes:

1. Homepage of Lance Ford
2. Howe Public Schools, Howe, Oklahoma
3. Flickr Photo Set of Lance Ford (Mac Jedi) Mobile Commander
4. The Honda Element
5. Xenarc Technologies - MDT-X7000 - 7″ IN-DASH Touchscreen LCD VGA Monitor
6. Mac Mini computer
7. Sierra Wireless AirCard 881 USB Modem
8. AT&T 3G Cellular Network Technology

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Technorati Tags: videoconferencing, honda, element, mobile, network, cellphone, 3G, jedi, macjedi, lanceford, oklahoma, ichat

There are few people alive (or who have ever lived) who combine the passion for education, the digital saavy, and an amazing (and) beautiful geekiness together the way Lance Ford does. Without a doubt, Lance IS the Oklahoma Mac Jedi. I, along with a chorus of others attending the Oklahoma Distance Learning Association (ODLA) spring meeting in Oklahoma City today, are ready to pledge ourselves as Lance’s Padawan Learner. (Technically today, I think we would all be most accurately classified as “Younglings.” Sadly, I think true Jedis are only permitted a single Padawan at one time. Here is the Mac Jedi himself, standing this morning behind his customized Honda Element. (AKA “The X-Wing of the Oklahoma Mac Jedi.)

Tandberg’s mobile commander trailer solution costs around $75,000, and includes the capability to use H.323 videoconference equipment anywhere on the planet.

Unfortunately, the price point of that solution is slightly beyond the “normal” edtech budget of most K-12 teachers. Functionality: Great. Price point: Not realistic.

Enter Lance Ford, the Oklahoma Mac Jedi. Lance has reconfigured his own Honda Element for a total cost of about $1000 with a Mac Mini, a Xenarc touchscreen car stereo, and an AT&T 3G (USB) wireless data card. Here is Dawn Danker, another of Lance’s “Younglings,” speechless after this morning’s demo:

This next image shows the car-mounted Xenarc touchscreen car stereo, where Lance has clicked (using is finger, of course, not a mouse, since this IS a touch screen) to connect to the local AT&T 3G network:

The computing heart of this system is a Mac Mini which Lance purchased off eBay for about $300, which is mounted in the car’s ceiling just above the rearview mirror. Notice Lance’s winning smile in the mirror!

Lance does not yet have his USB webcam mounted within his vehicle, but that mounting system should be worked out soon. This image shows his webcam on the dashboard, prior to an iChat AV videoconference. Lance’s iTunes library (synced to his .Mac account) is open in the following image:

Lance has installed VGA and audio input and output ports to his Mac Mini both in the front of his Honda Element inside the glove box…

…as well as in the back of his vehicle, so he’s ready for a mobile presentation via a data projector sitting on his tailgate:

No word yet on Lance’s plan for powering the projector on the tailgate, however…..

If Lance has a co-pilot or navigator in his car and the need to enter text onto the screen, he has a Bluetooth keyboard connected and configured for the Mac Mini. Here is Youngling James Deaton in the back seat of Lance’s Honda Element, trying out the keyboard:

To cap off the demo of his homebrew mobile commander, Lance connected via iChat to videoconference with a friend. (The quality of this image is poor, and I apologize, but you get the idea.)

Lance Ford continues to redefine and literally reinvent the concepts of mobile learning and distributed learning. WOW!

We asked Lance if he’s available for a road trip to NECC. Could there be a more powerful vehicle for a group of geeks to use driving to the National Education Computing Conference?
I’ll try and conduct an audio interview with Lance later in the day for a podcast.

Lance Ford is the technology director for Howe Public Schools, in Howe, Oklahoma. Lance was recognized last week at the USDLA conference in St Louis with an Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning award. Go Lance!

Technorati Tags:
mobile, learning, jedi, lanceford

These are my notes from David Rogers’ presentation at the ODLA 28 April 2008 spring meeting in Oklahoma City. My thoughts and comments are in ALL CAPS.

Communication / Collaboration tools
- web collaboration
- video conferencing
- live and on demand rich media streaming (limited interactivity)

we capture audio, video, and any presentation materials

Accordent was founded in 1999, is still managed by all original founders
- have been profitable since 2001
- this is not
- headquartered in Los Angeles

Accordent creates hardware and software solutions for automating the capture, editing, and management of multimedia presentations on the web

Accordent has 450+ students

Why use classroom capture technology?
- meet student demand for online class review, without burdening staff and faculty
- increase interactivity during class
- assist studetns who were unable to attend class
- preserve the knowledge of faculty
- extend your reach via distance learning programs
- one more…

What is the viewer experience?
- audio/video
- Q&A
- VGA images
- full screen images
- thumbnail navigation
- full screen video
- chapter navigation
- event description
- downloadable docs

Sync with any VGA source

An Accordent presentation can be viewed with any client machine: Windows, Mac or Linux
- Internet browserj
- delivery options: Live, On-Demand, CD
- Podcast

within next 30-60 days we will offer enhanced podcasts

Accordent Capture Station
- 3 options:
1- Turnkey appliance (ease of use, is a computer with an Osprey capture card and VGA card)
2- Rack Mounted: scalable, centralized rich media capture
3- Mobile edition

Full price of the unit demoed today is 15K plus 3K per year for maintenance

Technorati Tags:
apreso, distributedlearning, distancelearning, coursecasting, podcasting, lecture, webcast

• Cell/Mobile Phones in Education from wwwtools for Education
  Extensive listing of links and resources
  (tags: cell cellphonelearning mobile mobilephone education school)
• Change Congress — Blog
  Blog of Larry Lessig’s organization Change Congress, a movement to empower and support the reform efforts of multiple organizations focused on changing the US Congress
  (tags: activism Politics changecongress)
• Google Reader -”education” via Wesley Fryer
  My Google Reader feeds tagged “education” now shared as a public webpage. Glad to see Google Reader has added this functionality!
  (tags: rss blog blogs)
• Change Congress — Track
  We need your help tracking down politicians and getting them to sign on to our cause. The first step is researching candidates and finding their views on these crucial issues of reform. The second is contacting them to get them to sign the pledge. Each st
  (tags: Politics activism changecongress unitedstates)
• MyFox Lubbock | Students in Floydada Mourn the Death of Classmates
  2 high school students in Floydada Texas were killed in a motor vehicle accident following a local prom after-party
  (tags: floydada texas)

I’m not sure how long this has been available, but I was glad this evening to discover that Google Reader permits users to share subscribed feeds by tag:

To do this, click MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS below your list of subscribed feeds in Google Reader and click the TAGS link. Click the checkbox beside the tag you’d like to publicly share, and then choose PUBLIC under the “Change Sharing” popup menu at the top.

Once public sharing is enabled several links are automatically created by Google Reader, including a public page showing all updated posts in feeds to which you are subscribed under that tag, and the option to add a “clip” or blogroll to your website.

The “clip” option lets you select how many items to show, the color, and whether the source feed should be shown. This is my current clip from education blogs to which I am subscribed:

For some time I’ve kept a Google Reader clip of blog posts I’ve chosen to share in the right sidebar of my blog. I am continually adding new blogs to my “education” blog category in Google Reader (Google Reader calls this a “tag”) as I read and process ideas on the web. I have created a new page on my blog, which is accessible from the top drop-down menu under “Resources,” for Education Blogs I read. I’ll be the first to admit there is more here than I ever have time to process, but these are the feeds to which I’m subscribed today. I was curious how many there are, since Google Reader doesn’t show that number readily, so I copied the blog titles and used TextWrangler to count the lines– there are 237 as of tonight. I am not sharing this to brag or or in some way say “wow look at how many feeds I read” — because the truth is, I do NOT read all these feeds every day and stay up on all the content here. Even if I just read non-stop all day, I don’t think I could process all this information. I was interested myself in this number, and continue to wonder how our conversations and idea sharing interactions are going to continue to change in the years ahead as still more educator voices and perspectives are added in the edu-blogosphere.

I reflected a little in my April 14th post “Here for the learning revolution” about how my own process for subscribing and reading feeds in my professional learning network differs from those of others (specifically David Warlick as he discussed in his post “10 Ways to Keep your PLN from Running Amok!”) David may have the good advice here, and I may be following the wrong path when it comes to blog subscriptions and reading. I’m inclined to continue thinking, however, that it is essential to always be open to not only reading and listening to “new voices” one time (like when I visit someone’s blog link after they comment on my blog) but also subscribing to those voices (blog web feeds) so the likelihood of being influenced by the ideas of those individuals in the future is much higher.

As I’ve written previously, I continue to consider information access and processing in our digital information landscape via the analogy of a radar screen. Information is flowing all around us in streams that are too large to be fully digestible and comprehensible, so our challenge is to find and utilize radar screens which permit us to remain up to date, effective, and “digitally enlightened” as we can and want to be. Google Reader is a CRITICAL element of my personal information radar array.

I continue to struggle with email, and am in the midst of a transition from Yahoo mail to GMail. I certainly don’t keep up with all the latest buzz and discussion in the edu-blogosphere, but I do feel pretty satisfied with my use of Google Reader. The option of being able to access my Google Reader subscriptions on my iPhone has definitely been a MAJOR benefit, since it has permitted my iPhone to become my “use anywhere” digital newspaper.

I do not have a current statistic for this, but I’m very confident the number of Oklahoma teachers currently using some type of RSS/feed reader like Google Reader on a regular basis is very small– less than 25 percent is a reasonable guess. The actual number is probably far smaller.

As information flows and the quantity of information available and moving around us continues to grow, I think it will become more and more important to utilize feed readers. I love Oprah’s definition of RSS: “Ready for Some Stories.” Our family continues to take the local Oklahoma City newspaper on Wednesdays and Sundays, but one of the main reasons we did this through the winter was so we’d have newspaper to use when we had fires in our fireplace. Now that spring has officially sprung here in the midwest and our chances for evening fires at home have dwindled, I think we’re going to cancel that subscription. This is the future of newsprint: Canceling the paper subscription because of easy digital access to news feeds via a smart phone. I know plenty of folks who will probably NEVER cancel their print subscription to their local newspaper, but none of those people (as far as I know) have an iPhone or other smartphone either.

Literacy and our access to literature in various formats continues to morph and change. Thankfully, the tools at our fingertips (like Google Reader) continue to mature and grow in power as well.

I wonder how I’ll be reading my news in thirty more years?! It’s going to be a dynamic and exciting ride into the future.

• Technology : NPR
  All technology related articles and episodes on NPR. Great updates!
  (tags: technology news)
• Study: Apple Logo Stimulates the Brain : NPR
  Weekend Edition Saturday, April 5, 2008 · A new study shows that just being exposed to the Apple logo can make you more creative. Duke researcher Gavan Fitzsimons talks with NPR’s Susan Stamberg about his study on logos and the brain.
  (tags: apple creativity Macintosh news)
• Phone Commenting Remote Control: VoiceThread - Blog
  A demo using VoiceThread of how people can use a cell phone or landline phone to share a comment on VoiceThread
  (tags: voicethread voice audio CellPhone cellphonelearning mobilephone)

Welcome to episode six of the Technology Shopping Cart podcast where educational innovation thrives on the food of creative ideas! This week Karen Montgomery and Wesley Fryer discuss the important but controversial subject of using cell phones and other mobile devices for learning in K-12 as well as university classrooms. This podcast is the first of three parts, our next episode will focus specifically on iPhones and web applications for the iPhone which are relevant for classroom learning. In this episode we address the reasons it is important to utilize cell phones for learning, including helping students learn digital etiquette with cell phones (part of digital citizenship.) Mobile devices like cell phones can be used in various ways to blend learning and extend learning beyond the traditional boundaries of the bell. Refer to our podcast shownotes for links to the resources and websites we discuss in this show.

 

 Podcast248: Technology Shopping Cart Podcast06 - Cell Phones and Mobile Devices for Learning (Part 1 of 2) [58:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2379)

Show Notes:

1. Follow Karen Montgomery on Twitter
2. Follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter
3. Asterpix - Interactive video (add hyperlinks to web-based movies)
4. Jott.com - Speech to digital text translation (mobile phone to your to-do lists!)
5. Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools - Liz Kolb’s K12Online07 Presentation
6. Highway 40 Twitter Group (St Louis area construction updates via Jott.com to Twitter)
7. Think Mobile Phones for Learning - Karen Montgomery’s wiki for cell phone use in education
8. Cell Phones for Learning - Wesley Fryer’s wiki for cell phone use in education
9. Digital Etiquette from Kansas State Digital Citizenship Project
10. Teens Take Advantage of Online Privacy Tools - NPR report from 3 April 2008
11. NPR Technology Podcast
12. Tips for avoiding identity theft
13. Mogreet The Vote (Send a personal video message to the US Presidential candidates - Warning: Look a the terms and be aware of commercial charges!)
14. Project K-Nect by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
15. Gabcast - Record by phone straight to the web and a podcast channel
16. Gcast - Record by phone straight to the web and a podcast channel
17. The Story of Richard Ivie (Celebrate Oklahoma Voices digital story recorded in part with Gcast)
18. Echo360 - scalable coursecasting solution
19. Podcast Producer (publish audio podcasts, video podcasts, screencasts, or upload files to Mac OS X server and “publish at will” within a subscribable web feed)
20. Speaking of History: Eric Langhorst’s blog and podcast (US History teacher and 2008 Missouri state teacher of the year, Eric models use of “studycasts” for students)
21. Kevin Honeycutt’s website and blog
22. VoiceThread commenting via a phone call
23. PollEverywhere - SMS text message polling
24. .mobi article on WikiPedia (domain name for mobile compatible websites)
25. Winksite: Build a website compatible with mobile devices / mobile phones
26. Vanderbilt website for iPhone
27. Rave Wireless Campus - applications for university students, faculty and administrors for mobile phones
28. Mobile Learning website from Abilene Christian University (includes link to their movie, “Connected”)
29. Convergence and the 21st-Century Classroom (from Abilene Christian University)
30. Mobile Campus - opt-in features for university students

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I’ve added a new session entitled “Digital Storytelling as THE Disruptive Change Agent for the 21st Century Learning Revolution” to the EduBloggerCon San Antonio 2008 Session Offers wiki page. The description I suggested is:

The digital connections now possible via blogging and other social networking technologies are phenomenal and potentially transforming for educators around the world. To change schools and learning paradigms more broadly, however, digital technologies which permit content creation as well as collaboration must gain not only the attention but also the support of school administrators and board members. How can we do this most effectively? In this session we will explore and discuss the proposition that digital storytelling projects (by students as well as teachers) may offer the greatest hope we have to constructively disrupt and extend the perceptions of multiple stakeholders within our communities about learning and school. If we want to contribute meaningfully to a 21st century learning revolution, how can we do that in our local contexts and keep our jobs? How are school district leaders’ minds positively changed about topics not just limited to educational technology, but student-centered learning more generally? Is digital storytelling the answer? Let’s explore the possibilities.

Thoughts or responses?

My experiences to date with digital storytelling and specifically our statewide oral history project “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” are major influences on my thinking along these lines.

I’m always wary when someone says “this is the answer” with respect to the challenges we face as educators, parents, and/or community leaders. If I have to point to a single type of technology use in which I have the most hope for its potential to move the school reform agenda forward in a constructive direction, I’d have to say it is digital storytelling. For more background on this line of thinking, see my post from February, “Why Celebrate Oklahoma Voices Matters.”

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