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

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

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!

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, necc, necc09, washington, washingtondc, food, zeds, ethiopian, ethiopia

Here’s the full story.

I had a wonderful opportunity last night to join about ten educators from Crescent Public Schools, which is one of the most innovative districts in Oklahoma, for dinner. They’ve just immersed (last year) all their high school students and teachers with laptops in a 1:1 initiative using Macbooks. We went to Phillips Seafood restaurant (an amazing place) and were headed back “home” for the evening on the metro. I was the last one to get on the train, and I guess I was a little slow. The metro door started to close just as I got on the train, and it actually closed on my backpack as well as my right arm.

The announcer’s voice came one saying the train was leaving, but my backpack and arm were stuck in the door. I had visions of the train starting to race into a tunnel, and both my backpack and arm being sheared off. The moment was a bit stressful, to say the least.

Finally I got my arm out of the backpack and door, and tried to pull my backpack into the train. It wouldn’t budge. Since it couldn’t come in, and I didn’t want it to be destroyed by the tunnel sticking out of the train, I decided to push it out of the train door and launch it onto the outside platform. I was able to do this, and the train door completely closed. Then it immediately opened.

I was able to jump out of the train, grab my backpack (containing my laptop) from the platform, and jump back into the train. The doors closed again, and we were off. Whew!

This experience may have been the ultimate test and testament to the durability of my MacBook Pro laptop, my Incase neoprene laptop sleeve as well as my Tripp-Lite padded backpack. The only damage my laptop appears to have sustained is a small bend in the metal to the right of my ethernet port and by my video adapter port. The video adapter still works, and it looks like the ethernet should as well, so I’d consider this a MAJOR close call with laptop damage. Disaster thinly averted. (Of course the fact that my arm wasn’t sheared off by a speeding subway train and something hanging out from a tunnel wall is the biggest good news.)

For future reference, DC metro trains have a red button above each doorway, as you can see in the image below which I snapped this morning. Pressing the button opens the doors, I think. That would have been something good to know about 10 pm last night.

The first photo in this post, btw, is a screenshot from the free iPhone/iTouch app, DC Metro Map. Hat tip to Karen Montgomery for letting me know Metro map applications are available for the iPhone!

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, iste, laptop, necc, necc09, pro, train, metro, accident, macbook, macbookpro, sleeve, backpack, closecall, stress

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.

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, education, inspire, iste, keynote, movie, necc, necc09, reform, school, story, transform, transformation, gruwell, erin, anne, frank, freedom, writers, freedomwriters, love, inspiration, expectations, hope, gang, gangs, diary, hp, microsoft, gangster

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!

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

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?”

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, collaboration, necc, necc09, technology, web2, schools

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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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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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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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

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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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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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My big lesson from Rock Our World: One person CAN make a difference
- the power there is in these kinds of networks, at NECC, your local area, there is power in our networks

Video by David and Cameron Barrett
- only civilians that can dress in fire garb and take videos of burning buildings
- got a grant from someone who wanted to help RockOurWorld with a video

parent of filmmaker is showing this video to President Obama next week

project “Rock Our World” is centered on music and sharing
- every country starts a 30 second drum track, and that track rotates to another country
- then keyboard added
- then guitar track added
- strings, vocals, jazz, free choice

By the time my drums travel around the world, it has been added to multiple times by kids in different countries

Kids LOVE talking to each other over video in different countries
- asking each other questions about their countries

Stories of food exchanges, Vegemite from Australia

Carol Anne’s husband, speaking about the relationships which are created
- kids not just sharing information to learn, also to work together

Sept 2008 Rock Our World conference, John Couch VP of Apple sharing an address telling about “Rock Our World” project

What do kids really need to be learning, and how can technology be leveraged to help provide those kinds of experiences for kids

Rock Our World for the past 5 years is about learning, it is curriculum-standards based
- students in Portugal singing
- partnering with NASA, Apple, others
- started working with National Film Institute

Study for the sun, get an expert from NASA on loan for 4 months for the project
- can contact him and ask questions

Story of teacher in Israel developing relationships with teachers in Germany, in Palestine
- Israel dept of education called: You’re promoting peace in our country, how are you doing it?

Harmony is a good word to use for this project
- how children collaborate in core content areas, and in music
- brings cultures into a harmony with each other

I want my students to know harmony is possible, and it is within their hands to do it

I have shared Rock My World across states, region

We are always standards-based, we pick a central topic or theme
- we are in our 11th round
- I never thought that would be possible

Projects
- getting to know you
- resource and aid gathering and sharing (operation compassion)
- what is for lunch
- rock and soul partnering with NASA
- finding things that are common threads between these schools

Entire project culminates in a family night
- started off as a TV show
- talk about the GOOD things happening in education, what did different people learn as a result of this project, and what can they share with others
- this really solidifies the international team
- we don’t have 3 days to film all the teams
- we have 1000s of teachers following us on our Moodle site
- all our lessons we create as an international team we upload to our Moodle, so all teachers can have access to those resources
- then when we have a family night as a live webcast, any school in the world can log into that family night and connect

We have been on all 7 continents
- 1 classroom next door had just started talking about Shackleton, and Carol Anne’s students wanted to share their knowledge, their photos, and information about Antarctica
- it was because of that connection with scientists they had that knowledge

The world has changed
- we need to capture and engage our students
- in ways we didn’t used to have to do (we didn’t have TV channels like we have today, Nintendo, etc)
- as teachers we have to compete with these outside influences, we need a new hook, reading the chapter and answering the questions at the end of the chapter is not enough of a hook

When kids study today like Macy, they have TV, are online, texting, etc at the same time
- our learners are changing, the way they get information is fast
- kids are all connected and doing these wonderful things

Shift happens
- as teachers we need to make that shift to a digital age

Now daughter, Macy, is going to share some of the videos from the project which were very impactful
- New Zealand example
- solar car example: Australian summer sun was the most intense and took top honors
– our kids were checking worldwide weather during the race time
- example of video from Antarctic scientists

This project has shifted thinking about addressing racism and discrimination
- possibility, appreciation, tolerance, respect, compassion, acceptance

This is the video that was put together for Will Smith’s acceptance into the Museum of Tolerance, in cooperation with Rock Our World
- there are human dynamics/pscyhology to squash others, be cruel to others: these were addressed through the project

If you create a tolerate home, we hope our children will go out and desire a tolerant classroom, a tolerant workplace, a tolerant world

Biggest hope: people will see the potential for us to have dialog, recognize situations in a grade school classroom before it gets to the streets
- definition of tolerance

“Shine Your Light”

First connection with Peru, Carol Anne hadn’t told them they’d be talking with Will Smith

If you have the opportunity to bring the world into your classroom in any kind of way, do it
- start connecting
- start little
- start connecting with others across your district
- you will learn so much more than you ever thought you could
- we all have so much to learn from each other

We all hear a lot about education “being bad” in different places
- these stereotypes are often wrong

Audience question: where do I go to connect with other educators

Answers
- ePals
- Taking It Global
- Global Nomads
- Magpie has lots of good videoconferencing services
- Global Education Collaborative Ning

Summer technology camp called “GADGET” to get teachers inspired to get technology into the classroom

I feel like I am learning again, I feel like a brand new teachers all the time

Question: Can a PC school participate in Rock Our World?
- yes or no
- it would be difficult to do a GarageBand project

Sony has asked to partner with Rock Our World
- until a person materializes to answer PC questions, we can’t move forward with Windows-based participants

MY COMMENT: I’M THINKING WINDOWS-USERS COULD USE M-AUDIO SESSION INSTEAD OF GARAGEBAND? ROCK OUR WORLD WOULD NEED A SOFTWARE EXPERT ON SESSION THO.

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We are really whole brain people
- I know everyone in this room believes in the whole brain concept, we are not easily labeled
- some courses like to label kids, and measure kid with data

Great teaching is about loving kids, enjoying our jobs, not about measuring kids with data

Who here likes to make stuff? That is what today is about

I’ve written a couple of books
- “The Dot” is about a little girl who says she cannot draw, and a teacher who thinks differently in more ways than one

Most powerful thing that a teacher, adult, care-giver can do
- notice me
- tap into my interests
- connect my abilities, skills, and interests to learning

Another sign of a great teacher: you have the idea first, and you figure it out later
- this is really what today is about

today we jumped into new tools and started learning them

I have a company called Fablevision in Boston in the Children’s Art Museum
- a children’s museum is not a place to drop your kids off, the best parents are in there playing with their kids

We need to show those around us that creating is really fun
- if we want our kids to read, they need to see us reading
- we need to be creating for our kids to be creators
- we have to be brave to do this
- that is what the book “The Dot” is about

If you don’t have a computer tablet to use for drawing, get one

On purpose we called this program “Animation-ish”
- I use this approach to get kids and adults to relax
- story of helping Todd who was drawing a tiger see that it was “tiger-ish”
- that helped them see they were constructing their own representations of reality

The “ish” concept allows you to tell the world to back off, because you’re doing it your way
- we cannot get better at anything we don’t do
- expertise is not handed out at the vending machine, you have to earn it

Wiggle-doodleish

Everyone can doodle
- doodling kind of takes the pressure off
- these lines can wiggle
- I am on purpose not getting things “just right”

vision is to see something that does not exist
- this is the superhuman power we all have

At fablevision we believe stories are one of the best ways to teach
- we are all dabbling with storytelling with many of these software programs here today

Film “He Was Me”

There are 2 kinds of people
- adults
- grown up kids

WE have got to be change, the ones exposing kids to big ideas
- encouraging kids to have big ideas

real focus is to be able to transmit your ideas, you have to have an idea first

Multimedia projects often fall into 2 categories
- completely aimless
- violent

I am really worried about these violent stories
- we encourage children to have a mission, a goal, a story

WPSA: World Problem Solvers Agency
- let’s create Public Service Announcements
- only 30 sec, may be 60 sec long

A blank book is our best selling book
- I show this to kids and tell them it is my favorite book
- I ask kids why you think this is your favorite book
- the big message: it is all about possibilities
- you are in charge of writing the next chapter

I am always encouraging people to write children’s books
- children’s books are read by children as well as adults
- adults are the gatekeepers
- in our bookstores

Best children’s books are wisdom dipped in stories
- reason you love that book is because it moved you

If you have a personal mission you are trying to move forward, see if you can share that big idea with stories
- pictures can do a lot of heavy lifting

we are in a new age, a visual age
- we got used to text-based age
- we now have access to film, animation, art
- you can make those ideas come to life in ways that were impossible 10-20 years ago
- open up that blank book, plank down that mission in a way that is congruent with your vision and mission

share it with those who might need a reminder that kids are not data, not there to be tested to death
- teachers are there to be inspired, not to test kids to death

“there are so many great kids out there that don’t get recognized by the testing camera”
- standardized testing is like a Dept of Motor Vehicles camera that takes your photo for your driver’s license
- kids get saddled with labels
- it takes a long time to believe that you have something to offer
- we need compassionate teachers who can see beyond all that and connect with kids
- if you give kids animation tools, a language for expression, you will see them bloom

I am on Facebook
- my brother Paul is on Twitter

We are in Boston, we are revolutionaries, we are where the revolution began

Keep having fun!

If I could have designed my own classroom when I was a teacher, it would look like Fablevision today

I encourage you to bring your toys into your classroom

Don’t ever self-deprecate yourself in front of students!

Be brave about your own work!
- don’t denigrate it
- just enjoy it
- follow your mother’s advice, if you don’t have anything nice to say
- be supportive
- art is not a solo sport

Story about the book “North Star”

what is the “cool stuff?”
- if you look at the really great 21st century skills, they are the things that are very challenging to assess
- it is ok if you say “it doesn’t click”
- it may not be clicking right now, the way you are teaching it, or that I haven’t seen the relevance of it yet

So often when people talk about data driven decision making, they lose sight of the fact we’ve got to love the kids

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#necc09, art, creativity, drawing, necc09, software, #ccdc09, ccdc09, stager, gary, peter, reynolds, fablevision

Hat tip to Peggy George for sharing this original photo!

My posts for the day were:
- EduBloggerCon: Web 2.0 Smackdown
- Wish a particular tool existed? Learn how to get it made! We’ll design a tool together
- Leveraging social media tools for social change (includes Ustream video archive recordings)

Tomorrow I’m off to Gary Stager’s 3rd Annual Constructivist Celebration @ NECC !

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#ebc09, #necc09, blog, ebc09, education, iste, necc, necc09, school, technology, bloggercon

www.thelifeyoucansave.com
- website for the book Mark read enroute to NECC which relates to these ideas of social change, social justice, etc.

Danger can be creating an “us” and “them” mentality

Idea can be helping groups already focused on “service learning” to use digital technologies

changing perceptions from a charity focus to a learning focus is important

UNCG.edu
- Greensburg model: encouraging students to be a part of the community rather than just going in and coming out
- encouraging students to do “community abroad”
- not just overseas, another part of their state

helping students identify their biases

doing a “privilege walk”
- starts everyone at the same level
- then as things are announced, you take a step back or forward
- you end up on a spot on the spectrum, really have to have a good reflective and debriefing time
- need to help identify the biases you have

Obama’s website as a push “to serve” element
- has activity suggestions
- United We Serve

Here are the Ustream archives of the videos I webcasted today from this session. Unfortunately the NECC WiFi connection disconnected this session five different times, so it was recorded in six different parts. My apologies for this not being a continuous recording, I probably should have used my AT&T 3G connection! I will likely do that for Ustreams I share during the “regular” NECC conference. The good news is that my Ustream setup worked VERY good overall, especially my Nady wireless microphone! I adjusted the volume level during the session to amplify voices when Mark Wagner (who was wearing the mic) wasn’t talking. Part 5 is less than 15 seconds long, so perhaps I should have deleted it entirely, but I’m leaving it because of the naming syntax I started to use.. (”of 6″).

Leveraging social media tools for social change (part 1 of 6)

Leveraging social media tools for social change (part 2 of 6)

Leveraging social media tools for social change (part 3 of 6)

Leveraging social media tools for social change (part 4 of 6)

Leveraging social media tools for social change (part 5 of 6)

Leveraging social media tools for social change (part 6 of 6)

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, ebc09, education, iste, justice, learning, necc, necc09, web2, ebc, socialjustice, social, service, servicelearning, socialnetworking

Google Docs Mass Uploader (free from Mark Wagner)
- Mark paid $300 to have a coder in India create this tool, and used Rent a Coder to find this person (got bids, etc)

Dr Z is now using for content in his courses: Read, Watch, Listens, Doings (RWLDs)
- looking for a tool that can create new RSS feeds for different items to use in class, media files are transcoded for iPod compatibility, and also interfaces with Facebook as a Facebook app

podchains.net used to do some of this, but it is no longer with us
- blip.tv does do transcoding but doesn’t let you create custom RSS feeds

Vodpod lets you collect videos and make playlists from different sources

Juicy Studio: Readability Test

My wish: database apps online
- Blist is now Socrata

Rubric Machine (created by David Warlick awhile back)

Rubistar

Potion Candy ($14 app)
- like PhotoBooth for your microphone

WordPress + Education = ScholarPress

Math247 screencasting project for Mathcasts

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, necc, necc09, #ebc09, ebc09

Google Similar Images: now integrated with regular image search

Similar Images allows you to search for images using pictures rather than words. Click the “Similar images” link under an image to find other images that look like it. Try a search of your own or click on an example below.

CompFight: Flickr image search which yields easy to scan thumbnails, can limit searches to creative commons only

FlickrStorm: Lets you search for Flickr images and add them to a saved URL, great for works cited page, unfortunately doesn’t let you search for CC only

http://tv.wibeset.com/ - Search for YouTube videos in a format similar to CompFight

issuu - “Explore a world of publications by people and publishers alike. Collect, share and publish in a format designed to make your documents look their very best”

fur.ly - shorten multiple URLs to one, like browsing through tabs in a single window

toogle: google and twitter results shown

woot

twitalyzer

Retweetist: how often you have been

Google “David Pogue expansion software”
- Typing-Expansion Software NYT article by David Pogue

Tag galaxy

tineye.com - finds original image sources

noteflight.com - online Finale or Sibelius
- music can be collaboratively edited

Jamstudio: put in chords

Extension for Firefox: Wolfram Alpha results shown beside google results

Bump iPhone app for exchanging contact info

Tinypaste.com

Todaysmeet for backchanneling

Here was Kevin Honeycutt’s YouTube submission from the train to the session:

Here’s the Ustream of this session

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, iste, necc, necc09, epc09, #epc09

What is the backstory? Is this the German invasion of Russia during World War II? What ARE the words of the singers? I am enthralled and want to learn more. I need to reach out to Russian language speakers.

One of my USAFA classmates speaks Russian and lives here in DC. If I’m able to meet up with him this week I’m going to ask about this. Actually I think I’ll email him too.

If you have any further info on the backstory of this video, please let me know.

This is a phenomenal example of passionate, artistic expression. At times it reminds me of a multimedia Guernica.

Technorati Tags:
art, communication, creative, creativity, story, video, youtube, russia, war, passion

In addition to the reflections on the new UAV exhibit at the Smithsonian which I posted earlier in the day directly to YouTube and my blog from the museum over 3G, I shot two short (less than 90 second) videos which I posted to Flickr this evening.

The UAV video required almost 30 minutes to upload to YouTube over the AT&T 3G network here in Washington DC at the Air and Space Museum, and the battery on my iPhone GS was VERY sapped by the experience. After uploading that video, I received the following text message from AT&T. Note how low my battery level was in the screen snap! This was at 2 pm, when I had started the day with a full iPhone charge.

Apparently when our family visited our local AT&T store last weekend to switch the phone numbers on my old 1st gen iPhone with my wife’s newly upgraded line to an iPhone GS, the AT&T store staffer did not switch the data plans in the system. As a result, I spent 45 minutes on the phone with AT&T today from the Smithsonian FINALLY getting this straightened out. (At least I certainly hope it’s fixed.) I have NOT been at all happy or satisfied with the competence of AT&T phone support in the past several weeks, with either land-line phone support or wireless support. This phone call should have taken 10 minutes, it took 45. I’ve been on the phone two different times for over an hour each trying to get my home landline bill charges fixed, and they are still not resolved. At this point, if I had a choice for an iPhone carrier I would definitely give someone else other than AT&T a try. As it is, I can’t, and I understand the AT&T contact with Apple is for five years. Sigh.

The mobile video highlight of the day was likely the following sequence which Alexander agreed to record, sharing some of his reactions as well as learning points about the Hubble Space Telescope replica at the Smithsonian:

Since it took so long to upload a 5 minute video to YouTube over 3G earlier in the day and my iPhone battery had been sapped so severely by this activity, I chose not to upload Alexander’s video “from the field” but rather upload it this evening over WiFi. I’ve also posted this over on Learning Signs. I’m not going to leave my Sony GC-1 Netsharing Cam behind tomorrow, in fact I may shoot the majority of video footage from EduBloggerCon with it tomorrow.

We need scientists and engineers to devise MUCH more powerful and efficient batteries ASAP! The impact of those inventions and breakthroughs will not only be huge for mobile storychasers, like us today, but also for many other much more practical applications that affect our lives, societies and economies.

I’ll close with some comparative photographs.

March 2008, when Alexander and I were in DC for the COSN conference:

June 2009, in DC this week for NECC:

I see some noticeable, comparative height changes here!

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, iphone, iphonegs, iste, mobile, museum, necc, necc09, publish, smithsonian, space, youtube, air, recording, battery, disappointment

This was recorded on an iPhone GS and originally mobile blogged on site (at the Smithsonian) with the free Wordpress for iPhone application.

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washingtondc, uav, unmanned, aerial, vehicle, usaf, airforce, aircraft, plane, smithsonian, washington

In addition to seeing and enjoying the interactive multimedia exhibits in the Spy Museum today, we also had a few other technology-related moments I thought I’d share.

We rented a Toyota Prius for this first day in D.C., and it was REALLY amazing to have a rearview video camera to help me with parallel parking. Alexander felt like we were really in the movie “National Treasure 2″ having this technology to use!

The other thing that was amazing was Google Maps on my iPhone GS. This iPhone, unlike my first generation model, has true GPS technology built-in. This means that when using Google Maps, the phone can display a “live” dot for your location on planet earth. Current location is shown as a blue dot.

It will be much more difficult to get lost this week in Washington D.C. with this high tech wizardry in my pocket!

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, iphone, iphonegs, necc09, video, youtube, washingtondc, googlemaps, google, map, international, spy, museum, spymuseum, reflections

Technorati Tags:
k12online, k12onlin09

I won’t be using the Ustream mobile application from NECC to webcast, but do plan to:

1. Use my iPhone GS to record some video interviews which I’ll post directly to my YouTube channel.
2. Record some interviews and sessions with my digital audio recorders, for later editing and publication.
3. Webcast some full NECC sessions live over my Ustream channel using a DV camcorder as well as a Nady wireless lapel mic setup.

I’ve been concerned about my camera situation, since the DV camcorder I was going to borrow from my father-in-law stopped sending a DV signal over firewire for some reason last week in the middle of our stopmotion filmmaking camp. Today after our COV workshop finished up, I visited a couple Oklahoma City pawn shops in hopes I could find a relatively inexpensive DV camcorder that could work for webcasting.

I was VERY impressed at the camcorder selection in the second pawn shop we visited. The question is, of course, how many of these camcorders were actually stolen?

This is the camcorder I ended up buying for $104, along with a six month warranty for $10. It’s a Sony with a 40x optical zoom, and it works great with my MacBook Pro over Ustream! It also included a case, two batteries, and the AC power supply. Given that you can’t buy a consumer-level camcorder with a DV port anymore in our area, this was a GREAT deal and find.

I will not be an official participant / contributor to the ISTEconnects webcasting and livestreaming efforts from NECC, but I would encourage everyone to check out the schedule Joe Corbett posted yesterday on ISTEconnects for their planned coverage from D.C. I’ll still be sharing posts on the ISTEconnects blog through next week, and I’m sure there will be a LOT of new content posted there and elsewhere as NECC gets in full swing.

I went ahead and deleted the session I’d planned to share on “Webcasting, Live Blogging & Backchannels” during session 1 of EduBloggerCon on Saturday, because I want to attend the “Web 2 Smackdown 2009″ session Vicki Davis is organizing during that same time block. I missed that session last year, and don’t want to miss it again! I shared a similar session at our Oklahoma Distance Learning Conference in November of 2009 titled, “Webcasting on a Shoestring,” and that is available as a Ustream archive.

I added an EduBloggerCon 2009 session in the 1-1:45 pm timeblock titled “The 2009 K-12 Online Conference: What’s New and What Should We Do.” If you haven’t already, please read, forward, and retweet the post, “K12Online09 Bridging the Divide: Call for Proposals, Keynotes, and LAN Party Plans.” I’m hoping this session at EduBloggerCon 2009 will provide a good opportunity to discuss ideas for the 2009 conference, both sharing new elements proposed by conveners this year and also discussing other, new ideas we may not have considered previously. I am VERY excited about our proposed LAN party “live events” for k12online09 in partnership with EdTechTalk!

NECC 2009, here we come!

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#necc09, iste, k12online, k12online09, ustream, webcast, necc09, necc

How sad and unfortunate.

Technorati Tags:
century, digital, literacy, skills, p21, twentyfirst

“Innocence Lost” by Andrea is the story of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, with a superb introduction which really helps establish a good frame of reference for the context of this tragedy.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

“Oklahoma City’s Underground Chinatown” by Regina Hartley (RSHartley on Twitter) tells an amazing story about an underground world where Chinese Oklahomans lived during the early years of our state. I was amazed to learn that the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States was in effect from 1882 to 1943. Good grief. Racism is not new to us, is it?

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Regina noted that her video is an incomplete draft, but I think even this initial version is REMARKABLE. Add this video to the digital witness scorecard for Storychasers and Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, along with Kenneth Osborn’s video “Indian Jack Jacobs” from this week. (By the way, Regina is an elementary librarian. Woo hoo, let’s hear it for library media specialists modeling the way forward with digital literacy and 21st century skills!)

“Jack Applegate” is a video by another librarian leader (Perri) about the amazing experiences of her father-in-law as a member of the 101st Airborne Division in the Second World War. Can you imagine going AWOL with a broken knee cap so you could parachute into enemy-occupied France with your brothers-in-arms? This is a remarkable and inspiring story. Perri said it took 5-6 hours for her to write this script, and about 8 hours total to record and edit just the audio track for this video. What an effort! Those hours of work certainly paid off.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

“The Long Road to healing” by Lori Nelson is another veteran story, but this one discusses a return after 42 years to Vietnam.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

“…And Then There Were Nine” by Meisha Prince is an amazing story of how her in-laws ended up adopting four orphans from Russia. This video is certainly a “story of faith,” which is a separate digital storytelling project I’ve been working to start in the past year. This is really a touching tale.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Great job Oklahoma educators! Our digital storytelling efforts continue and are really just getting started!

Technorati Tags:
army, history, okc, oklahoma, oklahomacity, story, veteran, orphan, adoption, vietnam, worldwarii, 101st, airborne, chinese