Archive for the ‘disruptive-technology’ Category:


Underwhelmed by iBooks Author Software

This afternoon I started a new eBook project using a collection of favorite Bible verses from the Friday morning men’s group at our church. The idea is pretty simple: Include verses from the NLT and MSG translations, complying with the copyright permissions for each provided on the YouVersion.com Bible website. Along with the verses, include

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The Dangerous Nexus of Cyber Charter Schools & For-Profit Curriculum Companies

On November 13, 2011, Ali Carr-Chellman (@aac3 on Twitter) shared an important and courageous message at TEDxPSU. Her 13.5 minute message was titled, “A Closer Look at Cyber Charter Schools.” Among other things, Ali challenges us to question the growing nexus between non-profit “cyber charter schools” and for-profit curriculum companies. As we continue hear different

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A High School Student Tweet Heard ‘Round Kansas

What do you do if you’re a high school administrator and one of your students uses a personal Twitter account to criticize your state governor? What do you do if you’re the state governor who was criticized? How about the director of communications for the criticized governor? The answer might be “nothing,” but that was

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Janet Barresi’s ODLA 2011 Keynote

These are my notes from Janet Barresi‘s luncheon keynote presentation on November 9, 2011, at the fall Oklahoma Distance Learning Association (ODLA) conference. Dr. Barresi is the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction. (AN ELECTED OFFICE IN OUR STATE, SHE TOOK OFFICE IN JANUARY 2011.) MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. HER PRESENTATION WAS SHARED WITH

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Podcast384: Michael Wesch at Heartland eLearning 2011

This podcast is a recording of Michael Wesch’s keynote presentation at the Heartland eLearning Conference in Edmond, Oklahoma, on March 8, 2011. This was a superb and provocative presentation about teaching, learning, lecturing, engagement, student interests, meaning, identity, recognition, and many other issues. In his keynote he suggested we need to move from simply getting

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eBooks The New Normal: how libraries are leveraging the eBook opportunity

Please mark your calendars now and register to attend the webinar, “EBOOKS The New Normal: how libraries are leveraging the eBook opportunity” scheduled for Wednesday, October 12, 2011 and presented by Library Journal/School Library Journal. Presentations will take place throughout the day online, from 10 am to 6 pm EDT. The official event description is:

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Smart Networks #wildtech

These are the presentation slides I’ll be using in Monday’s presentation, “Smart Networks,” at the the 14th Annual August Institute, “Technology Runs Through It” conference at the University of Montana in Missoula. The official conference “blurb” for this session is: Strategies to support a web-based learning environment such as filtering, infrastructure, bandwidth and safety issues.

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The Pivot to Personal Digital Learning by Tom Vander Ark #innov8

These are my notes from Tom Vander Ark‘s keynote presentation at the Oklahoma State Department of Education Innovations 2011 Conference in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on July 8, 2011. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Tom’s blog is www.edreformer.com. Tom started by joking he’s here with a contingent from Seattle looking for something they

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Open Educational Resources: Share, Remix, Learn #iste11

These are my notes from Karen Fasimpaur’s session, “Open Educational Resources: Share, Remix, Learn” at the 2011 ISTE conference. Resources from Karen’s session are on http://www.k12opened.com/wiki/index.php/Iste2011. Open Educational Resources: Share, Remix, Learn (v4) View more presentations from Karen F Creative Commons has had a HUGE impact on the work I do, helping teachers accomplish their

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No Internet Election Campaigns for NJHS Candidates in Lubbock

Students running for offices in the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) at Evans Middle School in Lubbock, Texas, are prohibited from using Internet websites, Facebook pages, or other forms of social media to get out the word about their election candidacy. The following is the guidelines page provided to students by school officials:   It’s

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Waiting for a Cator Tweet

In writing today’s post, “Do your school administrators REALLY understand CIPA?” I noticed Karen Cator (current U.S. Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology) has a Twitter account but has never Tweeted. The dynamics of serving in an appointed, government role like Karen’s are obviously multi-faceted. We certainly have more “lurkers” than “contributors” online across

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Do your school administrators REALLY understand CIPA?

Tina Barseghian’s recent post, “Straight from the DOE: Dispelling Myths About Blocked Sites” is a great read on the topics of content filtering, liability issues for school districts, digital citizenship, etc. The current U.S. Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology, Karen Cator, shared six clarifications regarding CIPA and content filtering which Tina elaborated on

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Create a Moderated Classroom Phonecasting Channel with iPadio

Any time teachers or librarians ask students to submit media files for web publication, it’s a good idea (conservatively speaking) to utilize tools which permit MODERATION of content. This means the educator gets to PREVIEW submitted content and approve it before it “goes live” online. VoiceThread is a great example of a web-based digital storytelling

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Heartland eLearning Conference with Michael Wesch: 7-8 March 2011 in Edmond, OK #HeartlandConf11

Make plans to attend the 2011 Heartland eLearning Conference March 7-8, 2011, in Edmond, Oklahoma at UCO. Today is the last day for discounted pre-registration. The keynote speaker on March 8th is Dr. Michael Wesch of Kansas State University, and I can’t tell you how enthused I am to hear him present in person! Up

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Considering Options to Reduce Monthly Wireless Bills

Since giving our 13 year old son my old iPhone 3GS for Christmas, I’ve known his SMS (text message) use was going to go up. Previously, he’d had a Motorola Razr phone and sending text messages was cumbersome for him. Getting our family on the AT&T “family plan” for unlimited text messages has been on

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UCO Dumps Epic One on One Charter School

The fascinating and unusual saga of public, online, K-12 charter schools in Oklahoma continues. According to today’s NewsOK article, “Oklahoma online charter school has new sponsor,” the University of Central Oklahoma will no longer serve as the official sponsor of Epic One on One Charter School: A University of Central Oklahoma spokesman says UCO has

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Learning about Glass Blowing in Santa Fe, New Mexico (videos)

Did you know a “freezer” for cooling glass can be one thousand degrees fahrenheit?! This past Christmas break, our family stopped in Santa Fe, New Mexico and visited Jackalope. Our favorite part of the store (which is fantastic) is the glass blower’s demonstration area, where we learned numerous things about this intriguing art form. I

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Misunderstanding Information Abundance at Oklahoma State University

Journalism leaders at Oklahoma State University need to read (or listen to for free as an an Audible member) Chris Anderson‘s outstanding book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price.” According to John Abell’s article in Wired yesterday, “College Newspaper to Erect Paywall: It’s Academic:” The Oklahoma State University newspaper, in the belief that it

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Learning Culture Change the Critical Focus for iPad 1 to 1 Projects

Craig Grannell’s December 30th article for techradar.com, “The school that gives every student an iPad,” presents a compelling summary of the 1:1 iPad project at Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland. On their school website, built with the open source software platform MediaWiki, they proudly proclaim: We are the first school in the world

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Mark Zuckerburg: Time’s Person of the Year

There are some eye opening statistics in the Time article, “Mark Zuckerburg, 2010 Person of the Year.” This year, Facebook — now minus the the — added its 550 millionth member. One out of every dozen people on the planet has a Facebook account. They speak 75 languages and collectively lavish more than 700 billion

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