Moving at the Speed of Creativity

This video podcast is a short screencast describing how you can use the free website management tool CPanel (provided by my own webhost, Siteground, as well as many others) to set up a subdomain on your website. The main reason to set up a subdomain is so you can use a subdomain web address to tell other people how to find your website. As an example, my main website is speedofcreativity.org. I have Wordpress installed at the root level of my domain. I have other instances of Wordpress installed into subdomains of my website, however, which gives these sites their own unique addresses. Of course I could have simply installed these programs in subdirectories of my site, but I think it looks more professional and its handier to use subdomains. Examples of subdomains on my main website are our family learning blog: learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org, my personal Moodle site: moodle.speedofcreativity.org, a Christian team-blog to which I contribute: eyesright.speedofcreativity.org, and my personal wiki: wiki.speedofcreativity.org. I have installed (but not used lately) the free wiki engine TikiWiki on my personal wiki site. More recently I installed and have worked with MediaWiki on the StoryChaser’s project wiki: wiki.storychasers.org. If the ideas and information included in this podcast are helpful and of interest to you, please leave a comment on this blog post. Good luck!

 

 Podcast279: Setting up a SubDomain with CPanel [4:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (122)

Show Notes:

1. Subdomain defined (WikiPedia)
2. cPanel (WikiPedia)
3. Siteground (my web host)
4. Screenflow (the program I used to create this screencast)

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I had a thought provoking conversation recently with Karen Montgomery about some terms and dynamics relating to educational technology in our schools. Vicki Allen had shared this after talking to a Tandberg system engineer. In our schools, we have “obtainers” and “maintainers” when it comes to educational technologies. The obtainers are teachers, instructional technology directors / coaches / mentors, and grant writers. Educational constituents that obtain and actually USE educational technologies fit into the “obtainer” category. These are the end users.

Another group is “the maintainers.” These are IT directors, technicians, and other IT staff members. Those who maintain and support educational technology networks, infrastructure, hardware and software in schools are the “maintainers.” Often the priorities, success metrics, and even values of the “obtainers” versus the “maintainers” are quite different.

In talking with Karen about this, I realized there is a third group which is essential in the nexus of influence which develops within school cultures relating to educational technology use and non-use. This group might be called “the sustainers,” borrowing from a Six Sigma term. (Thanks to Karen for this reference.) The sustainers are the positional leaders in schools. The superintendent, assistant superintendents for curriculum, and campus principals are all sustainers. These are the people in positional authority roles.

I created the following graphic to help illustrate the nexus of influence between these three groups: The sustainers, the obtainers, and the maintainers of educational technologies in schools:

In many, many cases in my experience, among these groups it is the MAINTAINERS who have the most power and influence over how educational technologies actually get used or not used in our schools. Are all wikis blocked on the district content filter? Is skype blocked? Is videoconferencing readily available and useable by teachers for virtual guest speakers and classroom exchanges? Are teachers permitted to access outside email accounts from school? I am not laying the “blame” for technology non-use in our schools entirely on the shoulders of “the maintainers” because I recognize there are a variety of outside inputs and influences maintainers are responding to (legal requirements and mandates being one) but I do think this is NOT an even power balance in most schools. In my experience it is the “maintainer” group which has vastly more control, authority and influence over technology decisions and district policies. The “sustainers” may have the positional authority, but they most often defer to the recommendations of the “maintainers” rather than the “obtainers” when it comes to technology decisions. Perhaps this diagram more accurately represents the ACTUAL, relative power distribution in this nexus of influence:

This framework for thinking about educational technology policies at the district and campus levels reminds me of several things. Going back ten years, it reminds me of my TechEdge article in 1998-1999 “Wagging the Dog in Educational Technology:
Elevating ‘IT’ Into the Classroom.” As an “obtainer” in my school district as a 4th grade teacher, pointing out some conflicts between the worldview and operational priorities/policies of our districts’ “maintainers” was NOT well received by the “sustainers.” There is more to that story that I have never told publicly before. For now I will simply share the following “Underachievement” slogan: “The tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut by the lawnmower.” The price of public dissent in a public school can be high.

The second thing I’m reminded of is some sessions and conversations from NCCE 2008 in Seattle. My presentation “Lead Differently - Digitally Informed School Leadership for the 21st Century” addressed these issues. It also reminds me of my podcast interview with Julia Fallon (titled “Building Bridges for Conversation Between IT and Instructional Leaders in Washington Schools”) at the NCCE 2008 conference. That podcast description was/is:

Instead of sponsoring separate technology leadership summits for IT and instructional administrators this year, NCCE conveners (including Julia) coordinated a joint leadership summit. This provided an excellent opportunity, through panel discussion and small group breakout sessions, to build bridges for conversations between educational leaders in these different areas. In this interview, Julie discussed the formative results of the 2008 NCCE leadership summit as well as the outstanding work being supported through educational technology grant initiatives in the state of Washington. Educational leaders in other parts of the United States should follow the lead of NCCE and Washington department of education leaders in fostering these critical conversations between different educational leadership groups. Our educational system has many goals, and to insure groups within it are not working at cross-purposes regular communication is vital. Julia and others in Washington are working to capture video vignettes of innovative educational technology projects in their state which will be showcased online later this year. Kudos to these educational leaders in the state of Washington for their leadership in fostering these conversations between IT and instructional administrators, and making plans to follow-up on those conversations in the months ahead!

Conversations like that one facilitated at NCCE between maintainers, obtainers, and sustainers are essential for school communities to constructively address the dynamics (which are often dysfunctional) of this influence nexus when it comes to educational technologies.

NCCE member-readers: Does anyone know the status of that video vignette project?

For anyone: What do you think of this “nexus framework” using maintainers, obtainers, and sustainers as categories to help us explore, understand, and improve communication between those constituents who influence educational technology use and non-use in our classrooms? Do you know of other examples at local, state, regional or national levels where sustainers, maintainers, and obtainers are coming together at a common table to have discussions about educational technology use and non-use issues?

Technorati Tags:
technology, education, school, leadership, nexus, conversation, ncce, ncce08, sustainer, maintainer, obtainer, edtech, influence, influencer

If you are teaching a college or university course and interested in bringing a guest speaker via videoconferencing into one or more of your classes this term, check out the Virtual Speakers Bureau of MERLOT. (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) If you are willing to serve as a virtual guest speaker for college students consider registering with MERLOT and the Virtual Speakers Bureau. Registration is free. Although the bureau is set up primarily for university faculty and student use, you certainly could join and contact bureau members as a K-12 teacher as well.

One of the challenges for me in updating my MERLOT account profile was deciding what to list as my “primary discipline.” Should I list Education with a subcategory of TeacherEd, faculty development, or Library and Information Services? (One of the biggest projects on my plate now is a digital archives initiative.) If I choose TeacherEd, should I choose Instructional Technology, Teaching Methods, or Diversity and MultiCultural Education as a sub-category? Some of the videoconferencing sessions I hope to create / offer / facilitate in the next 6-8 months for the Oklahoma Heritage Association will fall into all those categories. Instead of Education, perhaps I should choose Science and Technology, with Information Technology as a subcategory? Or perhaps Humanities as the primary discipline, with History as the first subcategory? These are all viable options for my current educational role. Fitting into a narrow taxonomy can be much more challenging than simply tagging. If I was to “tag” my primary discipline I might use:

history, oralhistory, storytelling, digitalstorytelling, archive, web2, library, collaboration, videoconferencing, blendedlearning, research, literacy, writing, blogging, media, multimedia, socialstudies, civilrights, research, heritage

Of course many of those tags are not formal “primary disciplines” in higher education. For now, I had to make a decision so I just registered under “Education.” I’m not sure if this is the best choice or not, but it’s the one I’ve made for now. Having to select a “primary discipline” is like answering the question, “Academically, who are you?!” Being a rather eclectic person, it is a bit of a challenge to select just ONE area of emphasis.

The issue of identity is both an important and interesting one when it comes to online profiles. Who do you say you are, and who do your students say they are? What do the virtual artifacts you and your students create and publish say about who you are and what your interests are, both professionally and personally? This might be an interesting student assignment this year to consider: “tag yourself” with respect to your professional and personal interests. If you use this assignment idea with your students, please drop me a line and share a link to the results of your work if you publish it on the open web.

If you’re not familiar with the MERLOT project overall and have any connections to higher education, you need to check it out. According to the project’s about page:

MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, searchable collection of peer reviewed and selected higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT’s vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.

One of the people I met yesterday at the Oklahoma Creativity Project’s monthly Education Committee meeting is Dr. Phil Moss, who is connected to the MERLOT project and works here in Norman. Dr. Moss served as the Interim Chancellor for Higher Education for the Oklahoma State Regents from June 2006 through January 2007. He is currently the Director of Educational Partnerships and Planning for MERLOT.

I’m looking forward to learning more about MERLOT in the weeks ahead and appreciate the facilitative role they’ve taken on through their Virtual Speakers Bureau. I plan to register later in the fall in the CILC Content Provider Programs database also. The CILC is another fantastic resource to definitely check out if you’re looking for videoconferencing options or offering / willing to offer videoconferencing content and collaboration opportunities in the future.

Our adventures with blended learning are just beginning!

Addition: On the subject of videoconferencing, check out Robin Good’s post “Best Video Conferencing Tools That Anyone Can Use.” (Nod to Larry Kless.) Robin used the website tablefy to create the following comparative table of tools, which is both helpful from a content-perspective and notable from a tool perspective.

go to the table!

Technorati Tags:
merlot, resources, multimedia, guest, speaker, virtual, videoconference, skype, ichat, collaborate

I learned recently that Dr. Renee Hobbs, director of the Media Education Lab at Temple University, will be one of the keynote speakers at the September 19th Oklahoma Teacher Enhancement Program’s annual reading conference. Unfortunately, this conference conflicts with our statewide EncycloMedia conference, which runs September 18-19, 2008. I am so bummed I will not be able to go hear Renee speak in person.

This is a perfect example of educational conference presentations which need to be recorded and shared as podcasts! We need StoryChasers and PodCorps Stringers to assist in situations like these! I’ve emailed conference organizers Sylvia Bryant and Deena Thomas to see if it might be possible to record both Renee’s keynote along with Dr. Cathy M. Roller’s keynote. Cathy is the director of research and policy at the International Reading Association. It’s wonderful the Oklahoma Teacher Enhancement Program (OTEP) is bringing these two outstanding literacy experts to Oklahoma. Hopefully it will be possible to facilitate the recording and asynchronous sharing of their keynote messages so those who cannot attend the OTEP conference this year in person can still benefit from the idea sharing that will take place there.

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reading, literacy, media, oklahoma, conference, teacher, professional, development, otep, grant, professionaldevelopment

School law attorney Celynda Brashner shared a good presentation at METC 2007 entitled “Technology in the Schools: Policy, Privacy and Practical Issues for Teachers, IT and Others.” With Celynda’s permission I posted a podcast recording of her session and also shared text notes from her session at METC in February 2007. In those notes I included the following statement:

DON’T PUT THINGS IN AN EMAIL THAT YOU WANT SUBPOENAS [TO OBTAIN]

I was typing fast, so perhaps I should have stated this idea bit more clearly. The point I was trying to make is made quite succinctly in the following email footer appended to a message I received today forwarded from an Oklahoma teacher:

Under Oklahoma’s “Public Records” law, absent a specific exclusion, written communications to or from [NAME] School District employees are considered public records. E-mail communication with this correspondent may be subject to public and media disclosure upon request.

Reminders like this are important for not only teachers, but also parents and others who communicate with teachers, principals, and other school employees via email. Don’t assume an email message is going to remain private with the person to whom you are intending to send it. If a subject is touchy or sensitive, don’t address it with an email. Meet face-to-face or discuss it on the phone. Not only can email messages be readily misinterpreted (especially when they concern sensitive topics) and readily forwarded to others (intentionally or unintentionally)– they can also be subpoenaed as public records. This may happen most frequently in school contexts with students who qualify for special education and mandated accommodations, but it can happen in other contexts as well.

Don’t assume your email inbox is a space for private communications.

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email, school, oklahoma, metc, law, legal, issues, privacy, subpoena

I unilaterally declared a “no screens” afternoon today at our house, and the results were great although my announcement was initially not enthusiastically received.

My wife and I have noticed that left to their own devices with access to Internet-connected laptops, television and to a lesser extent our family Wii, our children could easily spend over 90% of their discretionary time plugged-in to a screen of some kind. When we discuss our “on-screen” time, I certainly am indicting myself, as I tend to spend a huge amount of time each week “on-screen,” mainly on my laptop. There are so many important things to do in life which do NOT involve a computer, television, or game system screen, however, that I think it’s important we as adults and parents provide some boundaries for our children when it comes to their their permitted screen-time. It’s also important that we model “no-screen” time as well. This relates to the evening technology fast my wife and I agreed to during the 2006 holidays. It also relates well to Network for a Healthy California “Champions for Change” prescriptions to BE ACTIVE. On their website’s “Be Active Tips” page they recommend:

Limit screen time to two hours or less each day. This includes TV, computers, and video games.

Two hours per day?! Are they kidding?

No, they are not. I probably should count the number of hours each day I spend “on-screen.” I’m guessing the result would be a little scary, and certainly out of compliance with “Champions for Change” best practices.

As a result of our family’s unilaterally declared “no-screens” afternoon, our kids spent much of the afternoon playing outside, as well as building with blocks, playing chess, drawing pictures, and reading books. A sizable amount of yard work was also completed by yours truly. While perhaps not entirely a “day of rest,” it was a welcome respite day (for the most part) from the lure of the prolific television and computer screens in our home.

I wrote a related post in June following our family camping vacation titled “The benefits of unplugging.” A 21st century vacation is largely defined, for me, by the degree to which I am able to disconnect from technology for an extended period of time.

The website Limit TV claims that television “hinders a child’s imagination, independence, inquiry and interaction.”

According to today’s English WikiPedia:

In 2008 Adbusters changed the name of TV Turnoff Week to Mental Detox Week to reflect the growing predominance of computers and other digital devices.

White Dot is “the international campaign against television.” For additional reading on this theme, check out Adbusters:

…a global network of culture jammers and creatives who are working to change the way information flows and meaning is produced in our society.

I am not planning on throwing away my computer, television or iPhone anytime soon, but I certainly DO plan to have more “no screens” Sundays in the weeks ahead. Digital discipline is important, and that means intentionally unplugging on a regular basis.

Technorati Tags:
screen, television, computer, limit, parenting, discipline, digital

Our family had a great time this afternoon at the annual Septemberfest event sponsored by the Oklahoma History Center. Here are a few of the highlights I caught with my camera.

My favorite moments of the day were listening to cowboy re-enactor Whit Edwards tell about life for the cowboys working on the great plains following the U.S. Civil War until the open range closed in the early 1890s.

We learned that cowboys had two kinds of rope which were best used in different conditions. Grass rope worked better in wet conditions but could break when it was dry. Rawhide ropes, like the one shown below, were less desirable to use in wet conditions because they would stretch out and could break. Rawhide ropes could hold strong when dry, however.

I hadn’t realized that cattle drives in the late 1800s had to keep going farther west because eventually townspeople hired marshals who refused to let the cowboys bring their cattle and wild ways into their towns. This coin from a Dodge City brothel listed prices for some of the offered services for cowboys, which were among the economic pursuits generally unwanted by towns folk:

It’s always a treat to get to see the cowboy’s tools of the trade up close.

We even got to see a demonstration of whip cracking!

Medicine has certainly come a long way in a short time. Many times nervine like this contained little more than alcohol and cocaine, and couldn’t actually “heal” any ailments.

Since moving to Oklahoma in 2006 I’ve heard a little about the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show, but hadn’t until today known that Pawnee Bill was at one time teamed up with Buffalo Bill Cody. Evidently Pawnee Bill was a better businessman than Wild Bill, who (according to the cowboy historian who was telling us this story) was better at spending money than managing it. Since my dad grew up in Powell, Wyoming, near Cody, we used to visit the fantastic Buffalo Bill Historical Center every few years. I never heard of Pawnee Bill growing up, however.

Wayne Spears has played the part of Pawnee Bill in the show’s annual re-enactment in June in Pawnee, Oklahoma, but this summer was his last in the lead role. Today he was leading horse rides at Septemberfest:

I hope next June our family will be able to see the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show for the first time!

I was glad to learn today what a beaver skull looks like, because I found a skull just like this when I was going to college in Colorado and had it tied to the front of my Jeep Wrangler for years. I still have it somewhere in our garage, but I was never sure in the past what type of animal it had been. Now I know!

Chris Capstone amazed us all with his magic show. I was particularly impressed with his rope tricks!

The highlight of the day for my wife was being able to tour the mansion of the Oklahoma governor and his family. The governor’s mansion is right across the street (23rd street) from the History Center. We were even able to speak briefly to the first lady, Kim Henry, when we were touring the second floor of their beautiful home!

I’m not sure if this was the most memorable moment of the day or not, but it’s likely Rachel won’t soon forget milking (only briefly) a cow for the first time!

What a fun day of hands-on learning! Many thanks to all the volunteers and the Oklahoma History Center staff for putting on this wonderful, free event for the citizens of Oklahoma!

I am considering finding a historical character from Oklahoma and working on becoming a character actor myself in upcoming months. Character actors certainly can bring history alive in ways textbooks and even films cannot.

I always have wanted an excuse to legitimately wear and carry a Colt Peacemaker. Perhaps as a character actor hobbyist this dream can finally come true.

Technorati Tags:
history, oklahoma, septemberfest, cowboy, governor, mansion

This is a cross-post from TechLearning today.

Affiliated with the 501(c)(3) non-profit Conversations Network, PodCorps is a:

…worldwide team of producers who record and publish interviews and spoken-word events that would otherwise be lost forever. Podcasters and videobloggers join PodCorps.org to learn, share experience with others and give back to their communities.

This sounds like a perfect group to affiliate with StoryChasers: “a multi-state (and potentially multi-national) educational collaborative empowering students and teachers to responsibly record and share stories of local, regional and global interest as citizen journalists.”

I’ve added PodCorps to my social bookmarks for “citizen journalism.” I recently ran across the short and informative “7 Things You Should Know About Citizen Journalism” publication from EduCause. It includes links to several citizen journalism projects I had not encountered previously including Scoop08, a 2008 U.S. Presidential election coverage site started by university students from Yale and Andover. The website byline is, “The first-ever daily national student newspaper,” and it involves both high school as well as college students as citizen reporters. The paragraph on page two of this EduCause PDF under “Why is it significant” captures many of the reasons I think all of our students would benefit from involvement in some aspect of the StoryChasers initiative or a similar citizen journalism project:

Citizen journalism epitomizes the belief that the experiences of people personally involved with an issue present a different—and often more complete—picture of events than can be derived from the perspective of an outsider. Due to limitations of access and time— and in some cases ulterior motives to present just one side of a story—traditional reporting risks at least the perception of being skewed. By granting access to anyone to cover the news, citizen journalism presents a more personal, nuanced view of events and has the potential to cultivate communities of people with a common interest. Through blogs, citizen journalists have broken stories about political corruption, police brutality, and other issues of concern to local and national communities. Research has shown that traditional news outlets believe that participation by readers improves the quality of the news, and such participation tends to increase the trust that the community has in the news. Citizen journalism forces contributors to think objectively, asking probing questions and working to understand the context so that their representation of events is useful to others. These activities get people involved in new ways with the world around them, forming a deeper connection with the subjects of their investigations. For students, these are the same kinds of activities that lead to deeper learning and to taking more responsibility for contributions made to a collective understanding.

Critical thinking, deeper learning, taking responsibility, and becoming truly engaged in learning tasks versus “temporarily enthralled” are all great reasons to consider involving your students in a StoryChaser’s project or another type of new-media citizen journalism initiative.

I hope to add some additional elements to the StoryChaser’s project wiki soon, including more “digital backpack” ideas, and will encourage participants to create a profile and a wish list on Digital Wish. (It’s free.) Through a website like Digital Wish, teachers can now apply DIRECTLY for funding for their classroom educational technology hardware and software needs and wants. Educational technology funding for classroom teachers is being “disintermediated.” I love it!

If you are an event producer of any kind (this can certainly include school events) check out the PodCorps.org page for Event Producers. Post your event to eventful.com and use the tag “podcorps.” Within 24 hours available “stringers” in your local area should be notified of the event. Hopefully one or more will contact you to record and web-post the event on your website, the Internet Archive, or another location.

Not familiar with the term “stringer?” According to the English WikiPedia today:

In journalism, a stringer is a type of freelance journalist who contributes reportage to a news organization on an on-going basis but is paid individually for each piece of published or broadcast work. As freelancers, stringers do not receive a regular salary and the amount and type of work is typically voluntary. However, stringers have an ongoing relationship with one or more news organizations to provide content on particular topics or locations when the opportunities arise.

Got “stringers” in your school community? Consider empowering some with StoryChasers!
Background note: I stumbled across PodCorps today when I was downloading the free Levelator software program to use with the latest Technology Shopping Cart podcast “Digital Wishes, Flip Video Labs, and Manifest Destiny for Educational Technology.” It worked REALLY well to even out audio levels in the finished podcast. Thanks to The Conversations Network for offering The Levelator free! It is available for Windows, Macintosh, and some Linux distributions.

Technorati Tags:
citizen, journalism, storychasers, storychaser, news, media, newmedia, podcorps

Welcome to episode 9 of the Technology Shopping Cart Podcast, a podcast (and now live webcast) where educational innovation thrives on the food of creative ideas. This episode features a conversation with Heather Chirtea of ToolFactory, Vicki Allen, Karen Montgomery, and Wesley Fryer about podcasting, digital storytelling, mobile podcasting labs, mobile flip video labs, “ushering” technologies which encourage teachers to extend their journeys of learning with educational technologies further, and “manifest destiny” for educational technology use in our 21st century classrooms. Of course we also include a variety of “geek of the week” websites, resources and tips, which includes a discussion of the superb “Global Nomads” organization which facilitates engaging videoconferences for students on a diverse array of subjects. Check out our podcast shownotes for links. We are tentatively scheduling our next live webcast for Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 10 am US central time to discuss challenges and pitfalls of integrating web 2.0 technologies in school districts. We’re asking some special guests from Missouri to join us who are in the trenches of IT and have some interesting perspectives to share. Whether you joined us live or catch the recorded version, we welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions as always!

 

 Podcast278: TechShoppingCart Podcast09: Digital Wishes, Flip Video Labs, and Manifest Destiny for EdTech [73:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (926)

Show Notes:

1. Tech Shopping Cart Wiki resources for this show
2. Digital Wish
3. Mobile Podcasting Lab (Digital Wish / Toolfactory)
4. Flip Video Mobile Lab (Digital Wish / Toolfactory)
5. Podcasting Grant Program from Olympus and Toolfactory
6. Toolfactory
7. Global Nomads
8. Loopt
9. drop.io - share files to the web by phone, email, web, widget or fax
10. Jog The Web
11. Phonevite
12. Textmarks
13. Amazon Buys Shelfari - 26 August 2008
14. CaseLogic SLR Camera Backpack (Heather’s favorite)
15. Our Ustream text chat for this episode is available, which includes referenced links.
16. Using a Mac, how to webconference using Ustream and skype (thanks Ryan Gordon)
17. VickiWiki: Presentation and Workshop Curriculum of Vicki Mongomery
18. Gomeric Hill: Blog of Karen Montgomery
19. Thinking Machine: Presentation and Workshop Curriculum of Karen Montgomery
20. Vicki Allen on Twitter
21. Karen Montgomery on Twitter
22. Wesley Fryer on Twitter

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Please join us for another episode of “The Technology Shopping Cart” podcast/webcast on Friday, September 5, 2008 at 10 am US Central time.

We’ll convene on Ustream, and will be joined by Heather Chirtea of ToolFactory. Among other topics I’m sure we’ll discuss ToolFactory’s Flip Video Mobile Lab and Podcasting Mobile Lab. I’m very interested in these tools particularly as they relate to the StoryChasers project.

If you have questions about these mobile lab solutions or other things for Heather and can’t participate live, please leave questions here and I’ll pass them on to her during the webcast.

Technorati Tags:
toolfactory, podcast, webcast, technology, integration, school, learning

This is too good to not share.

Last weekend our family attended the wonderful wedding of my cousin Devin Henley and his beautiful bride, Andrea. This evening as my wife and I watched “The Red Violin” (a great flick, btw) I caught up on my photo and video uploads to Flickr. I’m in the habit of limiting access to photos of our kids to family and friends (those designated in Flickr) and I did with the wedding photo set, but the video set is too adorable (and not really that identifiable like a photo can be) to not share.

Of the six videos in the set, this one of Rachel dancing to YMCA is our favorite:

This second video of her YMCA dancing, including some breakdancing moves she certainly did NOT learn from her dad, comes in a close second:

Did we ever have a BLAST together at Devin and Andrea’s wedding or what? Boy this was a lot of fun! Clearly our family (led by our youngest members) needs to get out and go dancing more often!
Again I say “thanks” to the flash-based camera and camcorder I picked up several weeks ago for enabling me to capture these memorable moments.

Technorati Tags:
dance, dancing, wedding, family

Emily Vickery in Alabama reports via a tweet that her IT department is telling her VoiceThread “is a security threat because it searches for open ports to use.” That is a new one for me. I can understand IT departments blocking peer-to-peer file sharing software programs which search for open ports, but a digital storytelling application like VoiceThread? P2P programs certainly can bring a wealth of windows-based malware onto your network, but I’ve never heard of anyone downloading or obtaining any type of malware by using the VoiceThread website.

Emily, my recommendation for your ensuing conversations with the IT department would be to ask if the concern over port searching is malware? If it is (which seems most likely) I would explain to and show the IT department that VoiceThread is not a P2P program and file transfers to and from the site are very limited. Users can upload images and video to use, and users can view images, video, as well as text comments and hear audio narration. The only file downloads from the VoiceThread site as far as I know are the “archival VoiceThreads” which can be downloaded as QuickTime files for offline playback.

I would hypothesize the port searching which VoiceThread does is for webcam video support. I do not think the standard photo upload and voice recording/commenting functionality requires additional ports to utilize beyond the standard port 80 for web content. I could be wrong on this, however.

The IT department may have concerns about users being able to upload audio and video comments, and if they are insistent about that “lack of control” being the real issue why they are blocking VoiceThread.com then you might consider having your school pay for an account on ed.voicethread.com. That is a controlled environment in which all users are registered and accountable, both teachers and students.

Has anyone else run into this same situation with your IT department when it comes to using (or trying to use) VoiceThread? For those of you in IT departments or leading IT departments, what are your thoughts on this situation?

Technorati Tags:
security, threat, voicethread, malware, it, schools, education

In his follow-up presentation / facilitated conversation after his keynote at BLC08, Ewan McIntosh asserted that no single image or video can represent what the new era of teaching and learning looks like. I agree there are multiple ways of thinking about blended learning and what an ideal learning environment in the 21st century can and should look like. I also agree with Ewan’s point that as educators we need to teach, facilitate, and lead in the ways we believe are best for learners and learning and share that with others. I also think there is value, however, in reflecting on images of teaching and learning, as well as technology, and discussing how those images reflect or fail to reflect what is best and needed for learning inside and outside of classrooms today.

Dr Sara Kejder recently asked students in a graduate humanities class to share and reflect on pictures they selected which addressed “teaching and learning 2.0″ ideas as a VoiceThread conversation. I invite you to listen to some of their ideas and then join the discussion on one more more slides.

One of the things which struck me as I listened to the students was how many of them seem to view technology as an isolating and even dehumanizing force. Many of them also seem to have had negative experiences with online courses as well. There is a sentiment in many of the comments that technology serves largely to distance and distract us from one another, rather than bring is closer together in learning communities and communities of practice. That was a contention I remember from John Naisbitt’s book “High Tech/High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning.” Certainly technologies can and do distance and distract, but I think they can also powerfully join and connect.

Rather than share only images which communicate an isolated and impersonal view of technology for this assignment, I would opt to share an image like this one of Brian Crosby’s students in Reno, Nevada, using Skype to connect with one of their classmates who was homebound due to cancer treatments.

The 3 minute video a professional crew from Skype created about Brian’s class and their use of desktop videoconferencing to include Celeste as a participating member of their class represents, to me, a powerful vision of what teaching and learning 2.0 SHOULD look like and does look like in (currently) a very limited number of classrooms.

To help others imagine and even imagineer the future of learning, we need to provide them with opportunities to experience it today. Few teachers are as powerful or as memorable as personal experiences.

To learn more about this story, check out Brian’s keynote in the “Overcoming Obstacles” strand of the free 2007 K-12 Online Conference.

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A friend recently let me know about the July 2008 report “Third-Year (2006-2007) Traits of Higher Technology Immersion Schools and Teachers” published by the Texas Center for Educational Research for the Texas Education Agency.

While the report points out that three of the four “high immersion” sites in TxTIP are using Apple Macintosh laptops instead of Dell Laptops, it evidently does not mention that only 7 of the 21 studied sites went with Macs initially. With just one-third of studied TxTIP campuses using Macs, three-fourths of the identified “high immersion” campuses are using Macs. Is that merely a coincidence? I think not.

Selection of a computing platform is one of MANY issues to consider when embarking on a 1:1 project, but it is a highly significant decision which impacts multiple aspects of a laptop initiative. If I was in a formal position of authority in our state or any other and was considering a laptop initiative for large numbers of students and teachers, there is no question Apple laptops would be at the top of my list for hardware. The iLife suite and the overall approach of Apple Professional Development is much more constructivist and project-based than what I’ve I’ve seen and heard about from campuses in TxTIP and other 1:1 projects which selected a Windows-based operating system. To be fiscally responsible I would certainly consider Windows-based alternatives as well as open-source laptop options as well, but based on my past experiences along with educational research findings like these I’d be highly-biased to favor the Apple platform. As I heard one of the leaders at the University of Texas’ College of Education share in April 2005, a successful laptop initiative is based on SO much more than just the question, “How inexpensively can you deliver that hardware to my loading dock?”

This is not to say that 1:1 initiatives can’t be successful and very learner-centered / project-based on a Windows-platform or on a Linux platform, but I will contend it is more difficult and much harder to find these types of success stories at schools using the Windows platform. All Macs come with software which naturally lends itself to creating, collaborating and communicating with others. On the Windows platform that is not the case. Software from Tech4Learning, ToolFactory, and other companies certainly CAN be included in the software package included with Windows-based laptops in 1:1 projects, but all too often project directors fallaciously assume “Microsoft Office is really the only software program our students and teachers are going to need.” That assumption is both false and ridiculous if attaining “high immersion” levels as measured by TCER in this report is a desired project outcome.

I’ve had this perception for several years. It’s interesting to see my perception is now supported by the year 3 report of TCER for TxTIP. This report and others published by TCER for TxTIP are available on the TCER website for download.

Earlier this year I heard that only three of the initial 22 middle school TxTIP campuses were expected to be sustainable (continue their laptop initiatives) past the four year grant period, and of those all three were using Mac laptops and two were in West Texas. (Floydada ISD and Post ISD) Can anyone involved in TxTIP confirm or deny this rumor?

As far as I know Floydada ISD is the only district out of the 22 original middle school/junior high campuses in TxTIP to use local funds to extend the laptop initiative to the high school level. Floydada High School was named an “Apple Distinguished School” last year because of the exemplary successes the district has had with technology immersion both via TxTIP as well as locally supported and funded efforts. It was no coincidence that in March 2008 Floydada superintendent Jerry Vaughn was named one of the national “2008 Tech-Savvy Superintendents” by eSchoolNews.

The need for and positive impact of good, strong, visionary leadership in our schools is evident everywhere, and it is certainly clear to see in a success story like Floydada ISD. I look forward to reading this entire TxTIP year 3 report in the weeks ahead, and will post more about this report as I make time to consume, digest and analyze it.

It’s been almost four years since this news broadcast segment ran in Lubbock, Texas, in October 2004. It is extremely gratifying to see those seeds of technology immersion flourishing in West Texas!

Check out the “Opening Doors!” video from Floydada High School to learn more.

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For a few months I’ve been on a quest to find a website which aggregates user-created software how-to guides / quickstart guides and tutorials. I mentioned this last night in my recorded iChat conversation with Carol Anne McGuire: Someone needs to create a website that is an open-content version of AtomicLearning. YouTube and other video sharing websites DO already include a wealth of “how-to” videos, but they also include a lot of other “stuff” which guarantees most U.S. school districts will continue to block those sites on their content filters for the foreseeable future. In addition to how-to videos and screencasts, many learners (especially older ones but sometimes younger ones too) want and need step-by-step guides to use new software programs and websites. It doesn’t make sense for educators around the world to reinvent the wheel when creating how-to guides about software programs, but where can we turn for help besides Google, our delicious networks and twitter networks? Those are great options, but I think there is an empty niche for a website which aggregates “just in time” open-content screencasts and printable how-to guides for learners. (No, teachers and others do NOT need to print all these guides, but let’s face it, in professional development workshops with teachers a MAJORITY tend to want/demand printable how-to guides that cover things step-by-step.)

Cheryl Oakes mentioned CustomGuides as her “Geek of the Week” in the latest Seedlings webcast and the site appears to be a step in this direction, although CustomGuide materials ARE still traditionally copyrighted and the site does not currently embrace Open Educational Resource (OER) licensing terms. While CustomGuides does provide a wide variety of Microsoft and Adobe quickstart guides, tutorials are NOT provided for PhotoStory3 or Audacity. Those two programs are the primary ones we use in our statewide oral history project, Celebrate Oklahoma Voices. Before our summer workshops, we revised both our Audacity and PhotoStory3 handouts and started uploading them to a shared Google site “file cabinet” page.

I’m glad to learn about CustomGuides. Hopefully we’ll see more websites like this develop in the months ahead which not only provide free access to tutorial/quickstart guides, but also invite user-submissions and remixes of submitted quickstart guides for different software programs and websites under OER licensing terms.

For more about OER, refer to Karen Fasimpaur’s outstanding NCCE 2008 presentation “Free Content + Open Tools + Massive Collaboration = Learning for All.” Also note that the Seedlings podcast (one of my top favorites - Bob, Cheryl and Alice ALWAYS have great ideas to share with teachers) has become a new regularly scheduled webcast on EdTechTalk for Thursday nights when Lisa Parisi is not broadcasting her regular show. Yeah! Go Seedlings!

Check out the post on EdTechTalk about the Seedlings show and expected schedule for more details. Time for the shows will be Thursday nights 7:30-8:30 EST.

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