Moving at the Speed of Creativity

We learned this lesson several months ago in our learning community for the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project, but I had it reinforced again today on the Storychasers site. When you have an online learning community, a best-practice to avoid spammers is to moderate all new members. This can be a hassle, but given the persistence of spammers in seeking to join learning communities so they can post garbage there, it really is essential.

As spam messages go, this one wasn’t horrific since it dealt with credit cards, but still it is unwanted content that should NOT be in our learning community.

As a Drupal site administrator, after choosing to EDIT and DELETE that specific post I changed the default new user settings so administrative approval is required for all new member sign-ups on the entire site.

I next checked the Drupal user list, and saw there were a bunch of accounts which were created by spammers in the past few months. These were clearly spammers because when I clicked to view their account details, they were either gibberish or the fields were empty. People joining a learning community and wanting to actually share/participate on a legitimate basis will typically share SOME type of personal information about their contact info and interests in the site/project. Spammers usually won’t.

I deleted those accounts next.

If you’re administering a site on Ning, you can require new member administrative approval by choosing MANAGE, NETWORK PRIVACY and clicking the checkbox at the bottom of the page.

Hopefully these privacy settings will stave off further spam comments on the Storychasers Drupal site. Later in the summer I plan to set aside some time to work on both content and design for the site. I am considering using a service like Rent A Coder or Get a Freelancer to find someone to help with the coding/design work. I learned at EduBloggerCon09 that Mark Wagner successfully used “Rent A Coder” to have the application “Google Docs Mass Uploader” created. The coder he hired works in India, and the total cost for the software project was around $300. Outsourcing in action!

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learning, spam, moderate, moderation, drupal, ning, community

I learned today it’s possible to edit a previously posted Audioboo and make the recorded location private. When you do this, all location information for that particular Audioboo is deleted.

By default, Audioboo posts both the iPhone photo you select as well as your location on the planet (via Google Maps) on the post which is created after you post a recording. This is the photo and Google Map result from Alexander’s report yesterday from Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C.

For a recording like this, at a public venue, location information is most likely fine to share. If you’re recording with Audioboo from your house, a grandparent’s house, or another location you’re not keen on sharing directly with the world, consider deleting the location information from that Audioboo. Audioboo account settings do not presently support levels of privacy access, but this is an active topic in the Audioboo forums.

Audioboo now lets you connect your account to both Twitter and Facebook for auto-posting. I just use the Twitter feature, since I use a Facebook application to auto-post my Twitter feed there.

If you’re new to Audioboo, check out this video introduction “Walking through Audioboo” to get started.

Walking through Audioboo from Mark Rock on Vimeo.

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google, googlemaps, record, audio, audioboo, privacy, location, maps, edit, travel

Happy Independence Day, everyone, from our nation’s capitol city!

The following UStream video was recorded the evening of July 3, 2009, at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C. At the start we had some audio feedback for a few seconds because of a second Ustream window I had opened, but after closing that window the feedback problem was resolved.

The video runs 34 minutes. Since I had my Macbook Pro laptop and AT&T 3G data card, I figured we might as well give this a try, and I was pleased with the connectivity speed. Unfortunately the US Park Service would not let us hold an “open laptop” on the memorial at the level of the Lincoln statue, but we were still able to show and discuss the memorial (as well as other things we’ve seen this week in the D.C. area) from the platform below the upper memorial steps.

It was fun to be able to share this video as storychasers!

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#necc09, broadcast, history, iste, laptop, lincoln, mall, necc, necc09, ustream, washington, dc, memorial, national

This was the video I submitted today as part of my application for the August 5th “Google Teacher’s Academy” in Boulder, Colorado. Not sure if this will be good enough, but we’ll see. It was fun to make!

I titled it, “Lincoln in 60 Seconds.” Video submissions for the GTA can be a maximum of 60 seconds in length. Mine’s exactly a minute long! Unfortunately I look like a shadow for the video segment from Ford’s Theater, but oh well. Next time, perhaps, I’ll bring supplementary lighting! I also said “Lincoln in 30 seconds” instead of “60 seconds” in the intro, but I realized that too late to re-record.

If you want to apply for the GTA August 5th in Colorado, you have until midnight, tonight to submit your application via a Google Form.

This video was edited from the porch of Robert E. Lee’s home (Arlington House) at Arlington National Cemetery today, and uploaded to YouTube via my 3G card. Mobile computing can be a good thing!

Technorati Tags:
google, history, gta, lincoln

Kudos to students and educators from Howe, Oklahoma for being featured this week on “George Washington Wired” for their live broadcast last Saturday from Mount Vernon!

(Mobile blogged with Wordpress for iPhone in line for tickets at the Washington Monument.)

If you’re in the Washington DC area at some point and would like to have a WONDERFUL culinary experience, Alexander and I highly recommend Zed’s Ethiopian Restaurant in Georgetown.

We were last able to eat at Zed’s in March of 2008 during the CoSN conference.

This evening, the food and beverages were even better than we remembered in the past! Note how much better this photo taken with the iPhone GS is, compared to the above image taken with my 1st generation iPhone. Wow. The subject has gotten more handsome too!

Alexander even let me record a short video about this scrumptious food, eaten with delicious sponge bread!

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#necc09, necc, necc09, washington, washingtondc, food, zeds, ethiopian, ethiopia

These are my notes from Erin Gruwell’s closing keynote at NECC 2009. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. This was the program description:

Wednesday’s keynote wraps up your conference experience with an inspirational look into the 10+ years’ worth of technology-supported projects initiated by Freedom Writers founder Erin Gruwell. Born and raised in California, Gruwell has been inspiring students and teachers alike since beginning her teaching career in 1994.

By fostering an educational philosophy that valued and promoted diversity, she transformed her students’ lives. She encouraged them to rethink rigid beliefs about themselves and others, to reconsider daily decisions, and to rechart their futures. With Erin’s steadfast support, her students shattered stereotypes to become critical thinkers, aspiring college students, and citizens for change. They even dubbed themselves the “Freedom Writers”—in homage to civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders”—and published a book.

In January 2007, Paramount Pictures released “Freedom Writers,” a film based on this remarkable story, featuring Hilary Swank as Erin.

2009 marks the 10th anniversary of the original Freedom Writers project, and at NECC, Erin will connect the ways in which her ongoing work with the Freedom Writers Foundation has promoted digital citizenship through storytelling and has influenced teachers and students worldwide.

Freedom Writers Foundation
The Freedom Writers Diary
Film: Freedom Writers

Story of Maria Reyes inducted into a gang at age 11
- little girls like her could care less about a number 2 pencil and a scantron
- with more money, she could visit her daddy more often in prison
- repeated visits to juvenile hall
- she saw her life path options as VERY limited

Wanting her to understand we do not live in an “undeclared war”
- we don’t have to reach for weapons
- instead we can reach for pens
- I thought about Anne Frank
- I decided we would have a “toast for change” with sparkling Apple cider

Like so many teachers in our country, I had been brainwashed to teach to a test

Maria was teaching me a valuable lesson: teach to me, not to a test
- she said she wanted to change, not be pregnant by 15 like her mom, not go to prison like her dad

I’d like to bring you into my classroom in room 203
- share how a little girl was able to find her voice

Movie of Maria telling story of how she read “The Diary of Anne Frank”
- she didn’t think she had anything to relate to in that book
- every day she brought in new questions
- started to relate to Anne when things started to go bad
- I was able to link to that feeling of knowing the outside world was out there, but I just had this small connection to it
- from then on I wanted Anne to make it

One day Maria came in ad threw the book across the classroom, asked “Why didn’t you tell me?”
- I asked what? She said “you didn’t tell me she didn’t make it.”

Maria: I felt that same feeling of disappointment that I had felt with so many other disappointments in my life

Darius stood up and said: she did make it, because she wrote about it she is going to go on living even after she is dead
- that was real turning point
- that realization that writing makes you immortal, that was huge

Darius came up with an idea of getting lots of books in the library
- for so many kids who are transient, they may have missed out on show and tell

He learned that a woman who had helped save Anne is still alive, and thought they could write letters to her and she would come fly to the U.S. to come talk to 150 gangster students

Darius asked classmates to pony up cash to bring her from Amsterdam
- raising coins each day
- we sent 150 letters

She DID come from Amsterdam
- started talking about where she would stay, what we would feed her
- students repainted the graffiti covered walls of the school

Darius asked if he could be the MC of the event

Saw Maria holding her torn book (Diary of Anne Frank)
- she asked if we could get the book in Spanish because her mom wanted to read the book that changed her life

Darius who was so street tough, was deeply touched by this little, old lady telling this story about Anne

Most important thing she put into that attic was hope
- she looked at Darius and got very upset
- she said “No, I am not a hero. I simply did what I had to do because it was the right thing. Please make sure Anne’s death was not in vain.”

This made us realize perhaps we have a story, and someone would listen to us
- kids started talking about the stories they wanted to tell
- I made this desperate plea, my kids have no money, there are no computers in their homes, the librarian is afraid of my kids, they are afraid they will write on the keyboard and screen

If you tell a kid over and over again they are dumb and stupid, they will believe it
- so many people had stereotyped my kids they actually believed it
- that was a true until this one lady told my kids they were brilliant

If you don’t ask, you’ll never receive
- I was ready for a couple computers
- Two days later 36 computers arrived at my school
- it was like that new car smell
- My kids were wondering, “Are these for us?”

My kids wanted to have voice, they wanted to tell their story
- all of my kids could tell their story

As everyone began to write, I recognized those stories couldn’t be contained in room 203, in Long Beach

We decided to call ourselves the “Freedom Writers Diary”

Darius saw a video with the US secretary of Education
- asked if they could send their stories to them

Erin had just showed a video of civil rights leaders in 1950s and 1960s
- Darius wanted to take this message to Washington
- The sec of education would have to pay attention: this wasn’t about teaching to a test, this was about teaching to kids

I never envisioned that book would transcend our classroom, and become the #1 book
- all books sold, money was put into a fund to send all 150 of those students to colleg
- the first of their families to go to college

Right before we walked into the capitol we went into a juvenile hall
- they are treated like max security offenders
- people viewed those people and viewed them as bad because they had done bad things

Education is the only way to equalize an unfair playing field

you have a story

write your story down, give it to me, and I’ll take it there

Next thing we know, w

Being a dreamer, having that dream
- having kids who were written off, who were not supposed to make it

that blank screen gave them the power to become immortal

we walked into the halls of Congress
- Maria said, “Oh my God, there are so many old white men in here!” (with no script)

Maria was giving a face to millions of kids
- she recognized a man who had been a freedom writer
- he was a Congressman from Atlanta, Georgia
- he realized they had taken Freedom Writers as their name

If you teach 1, they will teach another

Yet again, just like the woman who had saved Anne Frank, the baton had been passed

So I wanted to create an organization that would teach teachers what they need to know, to reach and help each and every student that enters their classroom

150 teachers, from all over the nation, came to Long Beach and went through our boot camp
- Maria, Darius and others said come walk into our world
- doing bad things doesn’t make you a bad person
- if you tell a person they are dumb and stupid long enough they will believe it, imagine what will happen when you tell someone they are brilliant

THE POWER OF WORDS

last video in a virtual classroom with
- gave 150 teachers laptops from HP, software from Microsoft
- challenged them to tell their story
- we are underpaid, we are not validated
- help people realize our profession is a calling
- it could be a revolution, it is the only way to change society

These teachers realize education is not about a test, number 2 pencils, NCLB
- it is about reaching each child and believing each one can make it

Movie about the workshop for teachers, laptops provided by HP and Microsoft

THIS IS A TESTIMONY TO MANY THINGS. THE POWER OF WORDS. THE POWER OF HOPE. THE IMPORTANCE OF PASSIONATE TEACHING, LEADING AND LOVING. THE POWER OF STORIES. THE NEED TO ACT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. THE VITAL IMPORTANCE OF TELLING OUR STORIES. THE POWER OF VOICE. THE POWER OF 1:1 COMPUTING IN THE HANDS OF PASSIONATE CHANGE AGENTS. WOW.

NOW I’VE GOTTA GO BUY THE BOOK AND READ IT, AND SEE THE MOVIE. ERIN’S STORY REMINDS ME SO MUCH OF MARCO TORRES. LIKE MARCO, SHE’S A PASSIONATE EDUCATOR WHO IS CHANGING THE WORLD BY LOVING, NURTURING, MENTORING, CHALLENGING, AND SUPPORTING KIDS.

I AM INSPIRED. LET THE STORYCHASING BEGIN.

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These are my notes from Tony Vincent’s NECC 2009 presentation, “Do So Much with an iPod Touch!.” His notes are available with all the links! This was a fantastic presentation in all respects. Tony is a model presenter, very engaging, so relevant with specific classroom examples, has such depth of experience as a classroom teacher with his extensive Palm background, I could go on and on. If you are looking for a professional development guru to work with teachers and students and the iPod Touch, look no further than Tony Vincent.

Survey prior to the session using Google Forms

I am a former 5th grade teacher, last year as an independent consultant I visited 28 states and the US Virgin Islands

In 2001 I started using Palm Handhelds with my 5th graders
- we developed our own applications, and had applications for us
- a PBS affiliate came in and did a documentary about our class
- had lots of fun using handhelds for learning

2 years ago I spent 18 weeks working in the US Virgin Islands working with schools using iPod Touches
- palms had worked really well
- smaller devices were needed, great for smaller spaces

showing name of App from website
- http://mkaz.com/nametag/ lets you create a nametag on your iTouch!

URL shorteners are great, esp when using handheld devices

tr.im is an example

I enjoy using the Google Form Summary feature (FORM - SHOW SUMMARY)

My website: Learning in Hand, click iPods

Use the twitter tag #LIH

Handhelds
- Palm technology with stylus looks so ancient!
- portable, dependable, easy to troubleshoot, ulta-cool, battery life, multipmedia
- #1 reason iPod Touch is great is ALL those apps that are available
- easy to install from the App Store application
- you can also get to apps via the iTunes Store

In the Palm days it was harder, you had to HotSync
- didn’t always work
- example of contraction timer for pregnancy
- teacher who was pregnant had a funny

iTunes Store has a ‘as seen on TV’ section

There are LOTS more apps now
- it took Palm 10 years to get 30,000 apps
- today there are over 50,000 apps for the iTouch in less than 3 years
- this is AMAZING application

148apps.biz keeps track of app activity each day on the store
- perday 238 apps are added to the app store!
- 3,514 education apps today in the iTunes Store with that education category

18% of all aps are games/education entertainment

Way to NOT have a credit card in iTunes
- log out of your account
- go find a free App in the store
- click GET APP
- you will be prompted to create a new account
- THEN and ONLY then (when you are signing up to get a free app) you can get an account without putting in a credit card

THAT IS A HUGE TIP!
- you can also just use iTunes gift cards in the future to buy paid apps without a credit card

Another bugaboo: trying to understand syncing
- iTunes account syncs to 1 computer and iPod, that makes sense
- what about the classroom: multiple iPods?
- you can sync as many iPods as you want to 1 computer
- then you can sign in on up to 5 computers with 1 iTunes account
- Apple has this setup so if you buy the software once, you can sync it as many times as you want
- the system is not setup to take multiple payments for multiple devices

Web directories for apps:
- mobxlix
- AppShopper
- iEducation Apps Review

On my site I’ve setup Google Moderator site, now have 38 ideas from 31 people

tr.im/appvote

right now gFlash and Stanza are top

iPod Touch graphic

Google Application: you can use your voice if you have an attachable mic

Let’s see these Apps in action

For Language Arts
- Whiteboard
- 2 devices can share 1 whiteboard
- similar to an app we used to have on the Palm

For language arts I like to do a game called crosstalk
- write a word on the whiteboard
- another student thinks up a different word that is a synonym, perhaps better for elaboration

If you want a stylus, you have to get a special stylus for the iTouch

YouTube has tutorials about how to make your own styluses on the cheap

Next demo: Quickword
- good Word processor, still not fantastic on the mobile devices but this one is pretty good
- peer review together
- have students trade handhelds
- this apps lets you highlight words, make some bold (highlight HOT words red, highlight words that could be revised blue)
- then when we trade handhelds I can see what my peer reviewer thought was awesome, and what I need to improve
- in this case my peer reviewer hasn’t changed anything

Dictionary.com is a huge dictionary, several megabytes in size
- all downloaded, doesn’t require active Internet connection
- Thesaurus too!
- More than 275,000 definitions
- WARNING: they have those words that you know students will look up first!

Social Studies apps

great videos online that you want to put online, YouTube may be blocked
- you can install and sync videos
- if YouTube is accessible there is a YouTube app right on the iTouch

To get it off of YouTube and convert to MP4 so iPod touch will use
- example: Schoolhouse Rock video
- Trick: just add the world “kick” in front of “youtube” in the URL
- on that website (KickYouTube.com) I can directly download the site
- be aware this could be against Google’s terms of service
- then go into the Videos app to watch it

Another way to get videos, get them from iTunes

Let’s talk about Safari
- you’ve seen the ads: this is the FULL web
- this is probably the application students will use most

Teachers may want to create their own homepage
- mobile homepage: my favorite is a web editor too: wirenode.com (kind of like a wiki, but ideal for iPod Touch, accounts are free, you can pick out your URL)
- my site: http://lih.wirenode.mobi/
- fonts are big
- I can link to different things
- can put direct links to podcasts (audio and video) to download

Social studies app: Inflation
- 99 cents
- I was wondering about Presidential Pay
- inflation tables just go back to 1913, President’s salary was $75,000
- today he makes $400K plus expense account of $50K

Google Maps
- let’s find the President’s house
- I am using the iPhone 3.0 software, I paid $9.99 for the update
- it allows Google Maps streetview in Googe Maps
- can add a drop pin to the map, and go right to Google Street View right on the iPod Touch

WOW THIS IS GREAT

Can take a screenshot of ANYTHING on my iPod Touch by holding down both buttons on the device
- it took the picture, now it is in my photos
- great geography links here!

I like to

LifeStrips ($5)
- vocabulary is great
- can be used to create comics
- some people will decry the lack of a camera
- two fingers to twist and stretch images where you want them to go
- double tap to add text
- screenshots from Google Maps, combined in LifeStrips

Comic touch also lets you make

Ali’s Jigsaw Puzzle
- save comics back as photos
- turn any photo into a jigsaw puzzle

Tip:
- extra power
- can use an iPod Touch connected to computer or power (Apple chooses
- battery back can give you about 3/4 of a new
- Get one that takes the same dock connector, so no cable is required

You want a powered USB hub to make your own inexpensive charging station

Hilarious photo on EdTechBytes with chargers

You can sync on a Mac more than 1 mac at a time
- for some reason on Windows, you can just sync 1 at a time

THAT IS HUGE! NOT AN ACCIDENTAL “FEATURE OMISSION” FOR WINDOWS I’D BET

Earbuds: Walmart has them for 99¢ each
- get earbuds for everyone
- they get tangled constantly: get adhesive hooks and put numbered tags on the wall

Another management tip: email
- Apple would really like you to get info with email
- so you can issue each iPod Touch its own email
- start a free GMail account for each iPod Touch

ACTUALLY I THINK YOU CAN CREATE AS MANY SUBACCOUNTS AS YOU WANT WITH 1 GMAIL ACCOUNT, THO IF YOU CHECK THE ACCOUNT I DON’T THINK THEY ARE DIFFERENT

My podcast “Learning in Hand iPods”
- don’t leave an iPod in your hot car! That diminishes the battery big time.

Have an App called “Beard Me”
- now using app “Talking Heads”
- commercial example Billy Mays style!

Power down your iPod by holding down the top power button for 6 sec

Math Applications
- lots of drill and skill
- research shows students who are using a handheld will remember their math facts better than if they are using paper
- it is more engaging

Math Drills
- they also give you visuals
- has a light version

Make Num Lite
- also called “Sum It Up”

Lemonade Stand (99¢)
- practice supply and demand, make the posters
- same algorithms from the Apple II days, but updated graphics
- you can actually go back to the Apple II graphics if you want to

Science Apps
- there are cheap thumbtack microphones
- I have a Belkin one
- for science, do a “sound seeing tour” when you are on a field trip
- come back and research it, add more sounds with an audio editor on a “grown up computer”

Flipbook
- Sketchy was my favorite palm app
- full version is $10
- old style Palm
- draw directly on the screen
- make it animation
- anything my kids made an animation about they remembered it forever
- they would watch it over and over, show it to their friends
- they turn out with a great product
- Flipbook

At flipbook.tv you can see lots of examples

Now ready for an unbelievable example: made by an amazing artist using Flipbook (Foodchain)
- you can pinch in and zoom in to make changes

You can make your own database with HandDBase
- can use for observations
- checkboxes
- any types of notes
- once I save it, it joins my database, can be synced back to the desktop computer
- doesn’t have to be bahvior, it can be what did you observe

Something I miss from the Palm days: the fold-out keyboard
- currently there are not any attachable keyboards for the iPod Touch, but I hope we might see those

Now for each student: iPod Touch for $229 or Netbook for $289
- tradeoffs: battery life, portability, all the apps, cool factor

http://handheldlearning2009.com/
- Oct 7-9 2009 in London, everyone gets an iPod Touch!

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#necc09, 1to1, apple, education, ipod, itouch, necc, necc09, onetoone, school, technology, touch, tutorial, tonyvincent, app, apps, itunes

These are my notes to the “Classsroom 2.0: What Is Web 2.0’s Role in Schools?” at NECC 2009. This was a panel discussion. I captured the entire backchannel for this session as a PDF file. Thanks to Vicki Davis for setting up the backchannel in Chatzy!

Julie Lindsey: I covet the learning connections and networks which I make now as a result

Darren Draper: I use the Internet as an extension of my brain

Steve Hargadon
- is this a passing fad or a sea change? How big of a change is it?

David Jakes:
- it has potential to be a sea change, but if we just focus on tools it won’t amount to much
- citing article “Have you considered the Internet as literacy, as a context for reading, writing and communication”
- those things are timeless and we understand as
- better to talk about a new context to read, write and communicate, rather than talking about “web 2.0 tools”

Chris Lehmann:
- the notion of a collaborative, participatory culture is definitely out of the box
- no one is going to give that up once they’ve realized/experienced it

Sylvia Martinez:
- first step is to define web 2.0
- dictionary would say: a very specific way webpages handle entry and access
- what we have done is expanded the definition
- that is dangerous because we’ve expanded the meaning, to the point now that it can be meaningless

Darren Draper:
- evidence pointing to the idea it’s not a passing fad: this panel
- we have public and private, U.S. based and international

Steve Hargadon:
- audience, is it here to stay or passing fad?

Audience: “Here to stay”

Steve: “Cool.”

MY THOUGHT: HOPEFULLY THAT IS NOT THE INTELLECTUAL DEPTH OF THE CONVERSATION WE ARE GOING TO HAVE HERE. (I.E. WEB 2.0 IS COOL. WITH THE PANEL HERE I KNOW THAT WILL NOT BE THE CASE, THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT CONVERSATION

Chris Lehmann:
- we need a defined pedagogical conversation about this

Jakes:
- should focus on the skills: writing and collaboration, not the tools
- the tools are going to come and go

Julie Lindsey:
- web 2.0 has changed how people change their strategies for instruction in the classroom
- allows you to communicate, collaborate and create at different levels
- is transforming what we can do in the classroom

Darren:
- web 2.0 focus can bring in sharing, collaboration, and digital citizenship which may not be on our state core curriculum standards yet

Jakes:
- we are having those conversations throughout our school community
- we focus on intersection of literacy and technology, and what that means
- I like to ask, “What does it mean to be well educated in the 21st century?”
- we have moved away from information fluency, information literacy
- what does it mean for instruction when we are focusing on what it means to be well educated today?
- what changes does that invite/require in curriculum and assessment?

Lemann:
- transformation is taking ideas from Dewey, Connectivism ideas from Siemans, is a new paradigm
- what do these things mean for how we teach and learn?

Darren:
- interesting that I learned about Michael Jackson’s death via Twitter first
- our students are learning with these tools NOW whether we like it or not
- it makes sense to integrate and implement those technologies in the ways we teach

Sylvia:
- we have to fill the vacuum with appropriate ways to use these tools, or students will fill the void with inappropriate ways
- we need to point out the glib ways web 2.0 tools are sometimes “claimed” to be used (SMARTboards are not web 2.0 tools)
- ask “how is that student centered?” and “how does that empower the child?”
- web 2.0 can enable that renegotiation of the relationship between students and teachers

MY THOUGHT: AREN’T WE TIRED OF SAYING “IT’S NOT ABOUT THE TOOLS YET?!”

Vicki Davis:
- why do we need to have a Ning workshop to use Ning?

I AGREE WITH THAT. CELEBRATE OKLAHOMA VOICES IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF USING TOOLS CONTEXTUALLY TO ACCOMPLISH A TASK.

Workshop on “here’s how to use this tool” is less powerful than a workshop on “here is a core value of our school, and here is a way we can/are using tools to accomplish that” is better

Question

Jakes:
- what do you do when the walls around you become permeable
- this is a climate and culture issue
- how comfortable is the school letting students step outside those walls as they produce and publish content
- connections for schools begin locally
- learning community begins first, not just in a social way but also in an academic way

THIS REMINDS ME OF THE GORE-TEX CLASSROOM ANALOGY I DEVELOPED AWHILE BACK. GOOD METAPHOR.

Chris Lehmann:
- our kids need mentors. badly. We need to be and provide mentors for our kids

Sylvia:
- you can’t convince others with words about the value of web 2.0 tools
- there is not a way to fight this in terms of trying to fight liability fears directly
- best way is to make these models of success as visible as possible

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE. AMPLIFYING SUCCESSES IS THE KEY. EXAMPLES ARE THE KEY.

Jakes:
- this is a school community issue
- this involves a group we don’t talk with often: the kids
- recently asked adults at a panel about how many have recently had conversations with their kids about what they know, are doing, etc online

Lehmann:
- simple things we don’t yet do: it’s mind boggling every school in America doesn’t have a listserv of all parents to send out the daily announcements
- we wrote a Moodle hack so parents could go to our website and find out the homework each day
- at EduCon conference we have students
- give students small reasons/steps to come into the school
- going from “I grew up in this community” to “my kids at school are talking to someone in Belize” is a huge leap

Sylvia:
- sometimes the horrible, legal AUP is the only thing we send home to parents
- messaging of technology has to be positive, constant, to the students
- if you are not bringing your students in as allies, you need to
- if kids are going home with the message you want to send, that will trump your AUP every time

Darren:
- asking what kind of efforts we are doing to try and teach our parents

THAT IS A GREAT QUESTION. SOMEONE SUGGESTED DOING SMALL, SHORT COFFEE CHATS FOR PARENTS AT SCHOOL VIA THE PTO/PTA.

Julie:
- we have a teaching parents Ning
- helping parents make informed decisions

Chris:
- At SLA we have a culture of laptops up / laptops down in class, we have talked about whether we need to do that at times in faculty meetings
- what do we want our kids to be able to do, and what tools can harness their ability to do those things?

Sylvia:
- to assume that kids don’t already have a backchannel in their heads already is a mistake
- having kids communicate about what they are doing, and the classroom experience, is a way to harness some of those energies
- often kids are buzzing in their heads and much of formal education is going over their heads now

Very impassioned comments by a participant (name I don’t know)
- point was: find tools LATER AFTER you set your goals
- disagree with the message “you have to use blogs, you have to use wikis”

Someone else: we are putting up walls now with laptop screens

Lehmann:
- we are focused on teaching communication skills, students are communicating with each other, organizations in our local community
- last year was “Change the World” project, last year was “Change Philadelphia” project, based on “think globally, act locally” mantra

Sylvia:
- this today is not a classroom, this is an experiment

Julie:
- I have seen this (backchanneling) work extremely well in classrooms, in conferences (for Flat Classroom conference), in different languages

Vicki:
- when you have a backchannel you need to have a moderator

THIS IS A COMMENT I MADE IN THE BACKCHANNEL:

I really push back on this idea that “we should never talk about the TOOLS.” It is ok to talk about the tools at times. We start with an awareness level knowledge of tools, move to a personal use, then go to the instructional level of use, both taking other’s ideas and inventing our own. It is a process. It is ok to talk about the tools. We shouldn’t feel guilty talking about the tools, esp with people who are not familiar with them AT ALL.

Jakes quoting Lehmann: “What is the worst consequence of your best idea?”

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#necc09, collaboration, necc, necc09, technology, web2, schools

These are some notes from my session today with Karen Mongomery at NECC 2009, “RU In My Space? Y Have A Social Media Policy?” You can get a link to these resources by sending a SMS message to the number 50500 and using the text “wfryer” without quotation marks as your actual message.

Join Facebook group: Social Media Guidelines for Educators

Drexel University is developing courses in social media for public relations folks

Twitter for Teachers was created by Gina Hartman

Is your school providing guidance and guidelines for teachers as well as students when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites?

Referenced articles in the presentation, “making the case” for talking about social media guidelines in our schools

Current Facebook statistics, for:

General Growth:

More than 200 million active users

More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day

More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college

The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older

User Engagement

Average user has 120 friends on the site

More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)

More than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day

More than 8 million users become fans of Pages each day

Mobility:

There are more than 30 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.

People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

There are more than 150 mobile operators in 50 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

May 2009 Issue of Learning and Leading with Technology
- free article: Is Blogging Worth the Risk? by James Maxlow and Lisa Nielson
- ISTE member only article: Should Your Students Be Your “Friends”? by Diana Fingal

WI Schools Ban Facebook, IM Fraternizing Between Staff, Students
- Lauren Barack — School Library Journal, 2/23/2009

Ryan Bretag, “Should We or Shouldn’t We: Teachers and Students Friends on Facebook,” 25 March 2009

ISTE Ning forum post “READERS RESPOND: Should you “friend” your students?” (responses due by 6 July 2009 to be included in September/October issue of L&L)

Court Backs Teacher’s Firing for Online Chat By Matthew Heller - 10/21/08

Fired For YouTube Video

All schools should be in the business of “shameless promotion”

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education, social, technology, media, guidelines, public, relations, publicrelations

These are my notes from the panel session “21st-Century Learning: The New Visionary Administrator Speaks Up!” at NECC 2009, facilitated by Julie Evans of Project Tomorrow. This session is being audio recorded and will be posted/shared on the Project Tomorrow website after the conference. The official session description was:

A new breed of visionary administrator is transforming education through technology. Learn about their visions and strategies for 21st-century education.

MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Project Tomorrow is on Facebook.

Panelists include:

1. Paul from North Schuylkill SD (Ashland, Pennysylvania
2. Ryan from Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts (Baltimore, Maryland)
3. Gerry from Chicago Public Schools
4. Brian from Digital Harbor High School (Baltimore, Maryland)

Intro from Julie Evans
- Nick Nicholson from Chicago PS: “We want technology to be almost a thoughtless, seamless process. When you go to a classroom, you pick up a piece of chalk…”

Going to talk about “Speak Up” project, review national data findings, intro report findings, hear from panel of experts, discuss new report on visionary administrators

What is Speak Up?
- polling effort for constituents on use of technology in and out of school
- started in fall 2003 because of seeing a disconnect with how schools were using technology and kids were using tech outside schools
- Oct 12 - Dec 18 is open dates for survey this year (2009)
- will have a new survey for preservice teachers this year

THIS IS THE SAME AS WHAT WAS PREVIOUSLY CALLED “NET DAY”

with a new edtech plan, we’re asking for student’s ideas about designing the ideal school of the future
- received over 150,000 responses from kids
- video responses available on our website

Using Senteo clickers to get audience responses in the session

Many people are surprised by the ubiquity of access to technology to even young students, access to gaming, young girls too, not just teen boys

Kids look at technology as a productivity tool, they are constantly looking at being more productive and using tech for productivity

We hypothesize our kids are functioning as a “digital advance team” and can give us a guide about where tech in schools should be
- we are watching US K-12 students, adopting/adapting technologies for learning
- students first use it in their personal lives and bring it into the classroom

Now we are going to look at stats

Digital disconnect is alive and well at many levels

I WISH I HAD THAT SLIDE SHE JUST SHOWED, GIVEN THE “BRIDGING THE DIVIDE” THEME FOR THE 2009 K-12 ONLINE CONFERENCE, THIS INFO IS VERY RELEVANT FOR ME!

Most of our adult respondents consider their tech skills “average”

What percentage of 9th graders consider themselves “advanced tech users?”
- most people say a majority, real answer is between 22-24% do
- vast majority consider their tech skills to be average

Our paradigms for “advanced users” as adults is very different from the kids

This presentation will be fully available online!

What are kids doing to use technology for schoolwork?
- taking online tests
- using online textbooks
- taking online classes
- playing educational games
- more…

Kids are generally not very happy with technology use and access at school

top responses
- school filters and firewalls block websites I need
- teachers limit our technology use
- too many rules

Many kids report they had better access to technology BEFORE professional development was provided for teachers

Biggest things kids want
- let me bring my own laptop, mobile device, cell phone at school

Digital advance team trends
- the mobile learner
- it’s a web 2.0 world

WOW, JULIE IS WHIPPING THROUGH THESE SLIDES WITH LOTS OF TEXT AND NOT PROVIDING SUFFICIENT TIME FOR AUDIENCE MEMBERS TO PROCESS THE CONTENT. NO PRESENTATION ZEN APPROACH HERE.

Question: What are the behaviors, values and aspirations of our nations ADMINISTRATORS regarding tech use and 21st century skills?
- key finding: there is a new cohort of emerging visionary administrators who share common behaviors, values and aspirations for 21st century learning
- this is very interesting and new (these perspectives are closer to those of students than to many parents or teachers)

Beliefs of this group of admins:
- believe tech can help student achievement
- model and use tech personally
- doing lots of communications
- also doing videos and podcasts
- downloading more music, similar to how students do
- are doing some game playing

Almost 100% say tech use within instruction is a “wake up issue” for them at night about something they need to address better
- they have higher expectation for incoming teachers
- are more interested in new teachers using digital aides, incorporating digital resources
- are looking for incoming teachers to have created podcasts, have taken an online class
- they have greater intense interest: mix of operating systems and hardware is not as big an issue
- spending a ton of time on school or district websites is not as important

Visionary admins are working on:
- funding
- PD
- evaluating emerging technologies, seeing how those fit into their instructional plan
- very interested in the assessment of tech skills (most say this should be looked at from a 21st century skill focus)

We ask all participants, if you could design the ultimate school what tools or elements would you include:
- K-12 students for past 6 years response has not changed for urban and rural, across the nation: “Give me a laptop for my personal use at school and at home”

THIS SHOULD NOT BE A SURPRISE: KIDS WANT 1:1 LEARNING. WE NEED TO GIVE IT TO THEM.

students with this response are looking for control over their learning environment
- they see us having control to contacts, resources, our work destination

ISN’T IT INTERESTING HOW MANY OF THESE CONVERSATIONS COME DOWN TO CONTROL?

Visionary administrators believe their vision sets their school apart from other schools
- parents and teachers are not as supportive of the role of technology in helping prepare students for the future

Students are looking for:
- untethered learning
- new learnign spaces
- social based learning
digital resources add relevancy
- …more
- learning that is enabled, engaging, and empowered

So how do we get to that, and meet these expectations? We are going to turn to our panel for answers

From Ryan:
- we are trying to build a culture of experimentation
- I have been at Perry Hall
- we recognized we were NOT listening to our students
- we pulled together a student forum

Brian at Digital Harbor
- we select students by lottery to come to our high school
- we have 4 media pathways, like a tech-based votech
- students are in their track for 90 min per day in grades 10-12
- vision of our school began in 2002
- we wanted to give kids both the honors/AP classes as well as technology exposure, so they can have a choice about whether they wanted to go to college or enter a technology career fields
- reading skills are a big challenge for many students, reading at a college level
- tech integration skills for teachers are a big challenge
- we are one of the most popular lottery schools in the district, about 1200 students in 9th grade compete for 250 slots, as a result next year we are restructuring to a school-within-a-school model, each tech pathway will be on tis own floor, collaboration is encouraged heavily between teachers
- another challenge is state industry test, we haven’t been very successful there in the past but are working on that

Now going up to the district level

Paul at mid-level sized PA district, 2100 students
- our economy has been in decline for the past several decades
- our focus is to afford our students the opportunities they could have anywhere else in the world
- we are struggling economically, and view technology as a way to level the playing field

I AM HAVING TO LEAVE THIS SESSION FOR A BLOGGER CAFE MEETING. THIS WAS A GREAT SESSION, I’LL TRY AND LINK UP THE PODCAST WHICH WILL BE POSTED LATER BY PROJECT TOMORROW.

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These are my notes from Dr Scott McLeod’s NECC 2009 presentation, “Effective Leadership in an Era of Disruptive Innovation.” This content is similar to Scott’s 20 min presentation for the 2008 K-12 Online Conference, “Current leadership models are inadequate for disruptive innovations,”

Disruptive innovations are game changers

to understand Christiansen’s thinking here, we need to understand two different lines

the “more than needed” line
- plain ole phone line was fine for most people for many years
- phone companies tried to convince people they needed more

second line: the good enough line
- remember when first bag phones came out
- over time it got better and better, lighter and lighter
- at some point it crossed the “good enough” line

Sustaining innovations continue until the disruptive innovations cross the line

I’d like you think about K12 education
- what is living in the in this “not good enough” area today?

It is important to recognize when an organization is confronted with a disruptive innovation
- when it first comes out, it is never good enough
- so existing organizations sneer at it, it isn’t good enough or taken seriously

As the new thing gets better, eventually it totally replaces the old model

What school leaders need to know:

1. Good organizations with good people will disappear if they don’t understand the ‘natural laws’ of disruptive innovation

many educators are trying to retro-fit disruptive innovations into the old system, and that doesn’t work well
- the current system has been fine tuned to do A, and now we are trying to do B
- this doesn’t work well because every time you make a decision about resource allocation, organizations tend to invest in their existing processes and infrastructure rather than the emerging/developing models which are not yet viable yet
- present day demands mandate this
- we have very difficult time doing the new thing, even if the leader of the organization believes it, persuading people in the organization is hard

3. It is much easier to create a new organization, or buy one, than it is to turn an existing organization around

IBM is big example Christensen uses

It is very hard to evaluate the unknowable
- example is online education: it is not yet good enough for the mainstream public

Look at the seismic effect the Internet has already had just being 10-12 years old for most of us
- so much is unknown: it is very hard to know how to allocate resources

think about kids who are being underserved today
- those are the ones to do pilot projects
- the mainstream kids will buck that system, but underserved kids and their parents will embrace new opportunities

Where is the alternative to online learning NOTHING
- those are the groups to embrace for pilots

We also need to use different metrics for success
- old metrics often don’t make sense
- it is hard to access creativity and innovation with bubble sheets

think of other ways you can insert disruptive innovations
- get rid of textbooks
- give everyone 1:1 learning

as IBM did, allow the disruptive innovation to compete directly and proceed unfettered with existing organizations
- delaying tactics don’t stop the inevitable

What is going to push the paradigm forward
- severe teacher shortage is coming because of aging baby boomers
- how are we going to come up with other kinds of efficiencies to meet learning needs of students
- students wanting more technology options
- stresses on government budgets
- are going to have to find other, alternative ways to meet needs given accountability pressures

Big takeaways
- things seem stressful today: but today it is still “business as usual”
- disruptive innovations are continuing to mature
- either we are going to change and get replaced, or we need to move now

Scott sees that kids don’t need us for content yet: they can get it elsewhere
- teachers can facilitate that process

We are never going to walk away from standards entirely
- at the start of the standards movement, we defined them in exhaustive detail
- what makes sense from a learning standpoint: what are the big ideas in the discipline or grade level
- what are the key ideas or focus skils

Iowa Core Curriculum project is focused on this
- it is not like open education models of 60’s and 70’s that were too unstructured, “go learn anything you want”
- currently we are too broad, without enough depth

Question from the audience: “Problem when we train the teachers is they learn hands-on with help, but they go back to their room and they are on their own with no support”
- Scott’s answer: it is a leadership issue with resources and support
- it is also a problem to just send teachers back into their existing paradigm

New York librarian wants a “tech guru” Assistant Principal focusing on full-time, on staff technology integration coaches

Scott says there is research supporting that

Virginia is the first state to mandate those instructional support folks: ITRT program

Book “Nudge” - we can change a few defaults and make changes that are unexpected
- organ donation is an example

“The Implementation Dip” is research finding that when people adopt a new technology, they lose some productivity and efficiency learning the new technology

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innovation, leadership, technology, innovator, dilemma, christensen, mcleod, scott, smcleod

These are my notes from the NECC 2009 session “Best Practices for Encouraging Learning 24/7: Models that Work!” Official program description is:

Several distinguished educators will offer actual examples of 24/7 learning approaches to educational practice. Can these technology-based, best practices inform your classroom teaching?

Presenters are: Michael Searson, Kean University with Judith Beaver, Andrew Gardner, David Gibson, Kevin Jarrett and Elaine Wrenn. MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. FOR MORE RELATED TO THIS SEE MY APRIL 2008 PODCAST, “Transformative Project Based Learning in a 1:1 Laptop Initiative: 10 Years of Lessons and Best Practices at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii”

Comments from Judy Beaver, Punahou School in Honolulu, HI

Looking a lot at language acquisition and Marzano’s strategies for our intensive summer PD
- using Garageband
- when the kids heard themselves, they raised the bar and challenged themselves to try again
- focusing on how to reach kids that are hard to reach
- using Kidspiration to record ideas/answers to questions
- using tech to capitalize on student’s natural observational skills
- outside: what do they see, hear, smell, feel
- using cameras to capture what they experience, using those photos as prompts for later writing

Research shows providing audio books for students really helps
- students who were groaning at reading time, are now groaning when it is over

After school literacy is a part of our normal year programs
- not a sustainable program year after year
- these are kids whose reading level is not up to grade level
- Using “Read Naturally” and Lexia

Now have a Robotics program that has moved from an after school program to an elective
- the teacher reports he sees very different uses for robotics programs in the during-school versus after school

Also have an “Entrepreneurs in Residence” program
- last year 2 of the entrepreneurs in residence are film directors, and together they put together a school film festival

Student travel opportunities
- also have opportunities for faculty travel that have greatly impacted our learning in classrooms
- this summer is the first time we partnered with summer lab school to offer credit for student
- working with Earth University in LeFlore, Costa Rica
- focus on observations and developing research questions, and sharing those with the University
- outfitted students with iPod Touches, GPS units, photo here is a “practice hike” in Manoa
- doing a Google Earth project prior to their trip to Costa Rica

Next comments from David Gibson

What would happen if we didn’t have a school anymore, we just had the web?
- would students work for several months in a collaborative project
- yes, thousands of kids do and have gotten involved with projects like this

www.globalchallengeaward.org

Core units involve students and adults
- our goal is to reach high school students worldwide through the web, who are interested in having an experience collaborating together in global teams focusing on a single problem: solve global warming before you go to college
- many of them have very good ideas, many of which are globally scalable
- we use open ended problem solving, leverage advanced technologies, applying knowledge, designing and implementing climate change solutions

We organize activities into things that look like webquests and then organize those into tracks
- we are trying to get a key concept out of kids that they want to turn into a project and a business plan if possible

Students decide and take actions based on interests
- spread awareness: take action / design a solution
- schedules, collaborators, and products
- game and simulation-based online learning experiences
- work is evaluated by scientists and educators

this will be the largest data set on the supply side
- project was student initiated
- students can take it to the level of a global business plan
- projects being done by 14 year olds

We use a lot of games and design our own
- we have A CD coming out in July
- very interested in having more students, we have about 4000 now
- we’d like more adults aware to support student success

We have final products
- my background started in performance assessment
- critical feedback from the scientific community also at the end

Global challenge bridges informal and formal learning
- easy to implement with flexible units of study
- self-directed, open-ended, problem-based, guided inquiry
- interdisciplinary
- action-oriented, authentic, community engagement

4 ways to bring us in:
- curriculum enhancement
- elective courses
- independent studies
- productivity centered service learning

Have linked up to state and national standards

Comments on “Game Design and Social Networking: Learning Outside the Walls”
- Andrew Gardner
- works as 3rd - 5th grade technology integrator at the School at Columbia
Twitter: agardnahh

I had a university background in game design
content question: what interests students?
context: what do we provide to facilitate communication, collaboration and continued conversation away from school?

PLAY really interests students
- playing out their social situations
- so we wanted to give them something somewhat play-oriented

How are we going to let them connect outside of schools: with new media tools

Gamestar Mechanics
- Afterschool
- GLS conference: Games, Learning and Society, associated with Arizona State University
- Gamestar Mechanic is a web-based game that teaches you about game design, game design principles
- social network powered by ELGG

Institute of Play in New York

At my school we have our own social network we host on our own site, our own Flickr, our own YouTube, (based in Drupal)
- all walled-garden applications we run ourselves

GameStar Mechanic: Five core design elements you have to “fix”
- rules
- core mechanics
- components
- space
- goal

We are seduced by goals, we need to have some

When you are in Gamestar Mechanic, you become aware meta-cognitively of these complex, interconnected pieces
- this is a very authentic way for getting kids thinking with a “systems approach”

Gamestar Mechanic was in beta and went down, so we went to Plan B
- deconstructed the turn-based game: Ayiti: The Cost of Life
- we deconstructed the game and physically created an alternative

New Media Server: 100% open source

newmedia.theschool….

Social network
- academic context not social
- accountability
- documentation
- communication

Now comments from Westley Field

Skolaborate: global project
- 40 schools from around the world
- collaborating with a variety of tools, virtual worlds, meetings
- exploring how you can engage students in learning, change your practices
- creating global curriculum

showing map of our virtual world

anyone can contribute curriculum and content, we end up creating units together

in our virtual world we have rules and structure
- kids said they didn’t want structure and rules
- so we created a “Lord of the Flies”

Kids will say they want structures from adults

future strategy: start looking at structures you have in place that are holding you back from the future you want
- need to get rid of those which are obstacles

Unexpected outcomes
- when kids are given freedom from their avatar: students are more disconnected from their Avatar
- less peer influence in the virtual world for students, they seem to share and follow their own ideas

Now comments from Kevin Jarrett
- media and journalism/newspaper club
- school struggled last year to use iWeb and publish a newspaper
- my thought was: why should kids be held back by technology
- I proposed to the education foundation that we use web 2.0 tools and

The T-Bird Times: The Northfield Middle School Newspaper / Multimedia Club!
- http://tbirdtimes.org

Kevin did an animoto on the way here, just showed it:

Find more videos like this on The T-Bird Times

Kids did an interview with Bob Webb, who knows the history of their school

Find more videos like this on The T-Bird Times

Did with a Flip camera, public version of “When September Ends” in the public domain, and Windows Moviemaker

My question is: When do our kids have chances/times to learn these things and do these things?
- they do NOT during the regular school day
- this is why after-school programs like this is so important

At end of they year, student used website Wix to create websites with a Flash-based drag and drop interface

Now entire class is producing animoto videos

Tools used by Columbia for open source walled garden apps:
- Elgg
- JetPhoto (For photo sharing)
- Drupal (for YouTube, also powers school website)
- Blogs (use mostly Blogger, don’t use home grown blog much)
- also use iWeb for student blogging
- Google Docs also used

Technorati Tags:
education, school, technology, afterschool, innovation

These are my notes from the last part of the NECC 2009 session, “:1 Laptops and Seamless Integration: Peek into the Frontier” by Howard Levin. Howard is with The Urban School of San Francisco. Howard’s presentation links are available, including his slides for this presentation and many of the video links he referenced in this session. FANTASTIC SESSION, WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN HERE FOR THE WHOLE THING!

discussing motion sensors in physics and the student’s own data
- there is real power in this, the relevance of the student’s own data
- students comparing and contrasting data from when they were on the trapeze

Paradigm shift we are living in now: we have the ability to record and share anything we want now
- the delivery of information no longer has to be syncrhonous

HE IS SO RIGHT! THIS IS A KEY SHIFT/CHANGE IN OUR LEARNING LANDSCAPE TODAY

Most schools in this country do NOT let students install new software on their laptops
- we do
- we have students sign an agreement, have

some of the best software being used in our school now is software that was discovered by students

iFlash is an example (flashcards, you can share virtual decks of flashcards)

the idea of locking computers down so kids cannot mess with them is so 20th century

I am passionate about software that helps with student production
- can be in many, many forms

Production is generally what teachers assess in terms of what they have learned
- too often we give kids 1 way to do it
- even with technology often we constrain their choices

what we see as we give kids more opportunities to express how they are learning, we are getting better information and data about what they are learning
- example: letting students do oral composition (instead of written compensation)
- in one example, a student was nervous communicating in class and was a horrific writer, but something magic happened when the student was in their room by themselves and able to record their voice
- is an example of a teacher who has found a way to reach the kids

Another of my mantras: apply the same tools and techniques that we use and apply to students who are defined as “disabled” and apply those for other students

There is magic for many of us as deliverers of knowledge as we verbally express it
- 1 on 1 in a small group it is harder for me to express myself with writing
- I am becoming a better communicator because of the ability to verbally express it

My project I am most passionate about, which is the pinnacle of student production
- Telling Their Stories: http://tellingstories.org
- entire interviews are recorded and transcribed by students using their computers
- you can click on any part of this story and listen to it
- there are now about 100 hours of video on this site
- this is an example of the far end of what you can do with these tools with vision, to enhance and extend what you were not able to do previously in the past

this is a community service to the world
- these interviews are being used across the country in history classes
- students are doing “authentic doing”
- publishing of Internet-based video is now essentially free

Example of a class who interviewed others and researched environmental issues, the audience for their report were environmental experts in the San Francisco area
- now there is dialog as a result of the research and interview work that was done by students and posted to this website

search for “greening SF” - very impressive student wiki

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These are a few links and notes from “Teaching 2.0: Engaging the Interactive Generation” by Chris Moersch at NECC 2009. I did not attend this full session, but got in on the end.

Links and resources from this session are available
- Handout of PowerPoint is available in PDF format

Dr Chris Moersch on HEAT walkthroughs

- identifying similarities and differences
- summarizing and note-taking
- reinforcing effort and providing recognition
- homework and practice
- nonlinguistic representations
- cooperative learning
- more…

Digital Age Learning Best Practices
- promoting shared expertise with networked collaboration
- bolstering inquiry through student questions
- making authentic connections
- more

Do we see HEAT taking place in the classroom?

Near the end of the session Chris showed the EduTopia video “Dollars and Sense: Kids Invest in Funds — and Their Own Future”

What continuous improvement plan are you using to promote digital age teaching?

may the LoTi be with you

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