Will Richardson's Workshop-Empowering Practice: Leveraging the Read/Write Web for Professional Growth

Notes to Self in parenthesis (Doing this reminds me of how bad a note taker I was in college. Obviously not a very good live blogger either). This is an introductory workshop for the tools of the read/write web. It is about how to use the tools for the educators own professional practice.
BTW-Working on a PC and yes it is killing me. Dang noisy keyboards. These are hugely disruptive times because of these technologies.The important piece to this is learning to create your own learning environments, because this is what are students are going to need to learn to do. A little discussion about blocking the tools, etc. First working with Wikis. Using Wikispaces. The intelligence services of the US are using a wiki. Difference between wikis and blogs. Blogs about conversation, wikis about dumping information. Wikispaces not cooperating so we're switching to Google. Looking at Google Reader. Describing RSS and how Google Reader Works. Going over how to subscribe to feeds with Reader. Spending a lot of time on features of Google Reader (Shared Items, Tags (which I haven't used, but great idea). Now looking at Del.icio.us. (It too is being a little balky. I actually think it is the network here). Now playing with PageFlakes. Haven't done so before, kind of like Google Reader on steroids. (Will is doing a great job of handling all of the hiccups). Going back to Wikispaces with the hope that it will behave now. It is working much better. (I have been a pretty strong proponent of PBWiki, but I am thinking that Wikispaces is easier to use. I need to do a wiki bake-off). Now looking at blogs. Using LearnerBlogs or Edublogs. They too are being flakey. Will thinks these are due to actual problems at the sites. Will wishes that things were working better so he could show his workflow. I wish so too. Going through Wordpress features. Addressing how to get these tools used effectively in schools. It's all about the personal networking and learning. As usual the conversation at the end makes the difference. Great job Will! n07s688 necc07 necc2007

Lunch with Ron Clark

Our team was invited to a luncheon sponsored by Promethean. The lunch speaker was Ron Clark, author of The Essential 55. He really was inspiring. It was fun to see someone who is so energetic and passionate about working with kids. I tried to record it, but screwed up of course. Thanks to Jeff Anderson from Audio Enhancements for inviting us to attend. necc07, neccprep, necc2007

Where is it Happening?

Be warned, this is a rant post. Somethings I have observed this morning. Why would you make it so it takes 7 minutes to get out of a session room. Hopefully that will not be so bad as people get more spread out. If you only have one major way to get out of an area keep it as clear as possible.
I spent my first little bit of time on the exhibit floor, went to see the new HyperStudio. It is supposed to be out later this summer. Again I may question its relevance in today's world, but I still want it. I think I just spent the most money per ounce for any soft drink I have ever had. It is worse than the airport.
By the way, if you want to know where it is happening here, stay close to the Blogger Cafe on Level 2.

Leslie Fisher–Gadget Queeen

Leslie Fisher–Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets

Utility Software

SnapzPro Adium (www.adiumx.com)

Fonts–Fontreserve.com

If you have more than 215 fonts the system will only give you access to Times Roman Italics

Clip Art

Art Explosion 750,000

ClipArt. com

www.istockphoto.com

www.dreamstime.com

High end photos

www.jupiterimages.com

www.gettyimages.com

Digital Cameras

Canon Powershot TX1

7.1 MP

Image Stabilization

HD Movies

ISO 1600 for low light

$499

Sony DSC T100

8.1 MP, 5x Optical Zoom

11 Scene Modes

3 in. Monitor

$399.00

Camera Slow?

It could be the card

Memory cards have speed rating

Cheaper the card slower the picture taking

Buy professional level cards–about $10 extra per card

Use a card reader to save on camera battery life

Use www.smugmug.com for uploading pictures

Free-$99.00 per year

When something goes wrong with your card

Image Rescue from Lexar

Television and Music

Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick

USB to Cable or RCA $129.00

Mac and PC

www.pinnaclesys.com

Speakers

Soundsticks II–$199

www.harmanmultimedia.com

TivoTivo to Go is basically a web server $299-$899

Slingbox

Hooks up to TV and Internet

Login anywhere via internet and watch your shows

Also allows you to watch live TV

$199

Home Theatre Nuts

Logitech Harmony 890 Remote

Universal Remote

Web Interface to set up remote

iPod

Mecca for iPod people

www.everythingipod.com

www.belkin.com

Old School Music

iTTUSB–USB Turntable $134.00

http://ion-audio.com

Phone Tidbits

iPhone–Is there anything else right now

Virtual Laser Keyboard–http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com

Verizon and Spring Aircard

Keyspan Presenter Remote $59.00 www.keyspan.com

Solar device charger–www.solio.com $99.00

Computer bags

Messenger Bag $125.00 www.timbuk2.com

Sling Bags www.sfbags.com

LoPro Double bag, computer bag/camera bag.

Motivational–www.despair.com

GPS–Magellan Maestro

n07s135

necc07, neccprep, necc2007

The Educational Mac Podcast #41-June 24, 2007

Day 2 for NECC–Get the Podcast Here Workshop-Finding Successful Solutions for Technology Staff Development Many great ideas for making SD more productive and more fun. Brief interview with Janet Corder of j2Training NECC Keynote–Andrew Zolli, founder of PopTech conference. Things we as educators need to work towards in the near future. It seems like this particular audience is getting a little tired of constantly looking into the future. The Atlanta Drum Line was fantastic! Opening Reception at Georgia Aquarium–Crowded as usual, food not scarce but hard to get to. What I am doing tomorrow. Leslie Fisher Arnie Abrams and more. See You in a Few! necc07, neccprep, necc2007

The Educational Mac Podcast #40-June 23, 2007

Get the Podcast Here
From Atlanta EduBloggerCon 07 What a great start to NECC! See You in a Few! necc07, neccprep, necc2007

Not even conference time yet and great news

Well we made it to the ATL and managed dinner at the Hard of Hearing (err, Rock) Cafe.≤br> Before the conference or even the EduBloggerCon starts I have seen the best news in a long time. Mackiev has purchased the rights to HyperStudio and will be producing the long awaited version 5. The best news though is that Roger Wagner himself is going to be working with Mackiev on the update. I hope they can make it relevant in today's Ed-Tech environment, but if anyone can I think this combo can. I can't wait to get to Mackiev's booth(#316) next week.
Well tomorrow starts off with EduBloggerCon and then a group of us are off to see the Braves and the Tigers. I will try to capture some audio from the Con tomorrow and share it in a podcast.
See You in a Few! necc07, neccprep, necc2007

Off to NECC

Well the countdown is nearly over. I will be leaving with our district group in the morning for Atlanta. Yeah, I still haven't gotten a podcast out in over 2 months. It seems I went straight from kids housing problems, to new grandson, to baseball and softball and more baseball and softball. I am looking forward to a few days off from it actually.

I will be blogging and podcasting from NECC again this year with a new set of tools that will hopefully make it easier for me and better for you. So I really mean it this time when I say...

See You in a Few!

necc07, neccprep, necc2007

An interesting lesson...

This post and comments on David Warlick's blog don't quite make my head hurt, but come close. I do believe the nature of information is changing, but more obviously the delivery of that information has changed as well.
I was teaching a Jr. Achievement lesson in my son's class today. It was basically about information and how delivery has changed. For part of the lesson the students were to copy the text of a paragraph much like a scribe previous to the invention of a press would. They were to copy it exactly as it appeared in their books and the passage was done in a pretty crazy font. I had them work on it for about 10 minutes and most only got the 1st line done and their hands were pretty cramped.
I want then to show how today we could make contact and get information directly and nearly instantaneously. I had fired up iChat earlier hoping someone in my buddy list from outside of Utah might be available for a video chat. There wasn't so next I Twittered a request and got a couple of responses, but no one was available at the time I needed or had the necessary equipment available. I was resigned to using someone in the district. However, as I fired up iChat while the students were scribing, David Warlick himself appeared as available and I imposed upon his time. I really appreciate the 10 minutes David spent with us.
It was pretty cool for the kids to go from feeling what a scribe might have went through to get one single copy of information ready to being able video chat. Keeping in mind that this was a video chat from Riverton, UT to a distinguish North Carolinian who happened to be in Toronto, Canada today. The funnest part for the kids was that they found out their teacher was also from North Carolina. So we had to North Carolinians talking to each other, one in Utah the other in Toronto.
David made a point during our chat that left an immpresson on the kids. He talked about how when he was their age, his world was his town basically. He knew few people outside of his world. They didn't even make long distance phone calls because of the cost. Yet today these kids talked to that same person via video conference without (directly) paying anything.
Thanks again David, it made for very interesting lesson!
See You in a Few!
david warlick

NECC Schedule...subject to slight modification!

Two posts in one day, don't anyone faint.

Beyond the planner information I am excited about the Edublogger Con on Saturday the 23rd.

Conference Planner for Kelly Dumont

Sunday, June 24
8:30-11:30am

SUA204 Finding Successful Solutions for Technology Staff Development [Workshop]
Location: GWCC B211

Monday, June 25
8:30-9:30am

Almost All New Return of the Gadgets! [Session]
Location: GWCC Murphy 1

8:30-9:30am

Personal Computing: New Solutions for the Classroom @ Web 2.0 [Session]
Location: GWCC B211

11:00am-12:00pm
AFI Screen Education Center: Digital Filmmaking in the Core Curriculum [Session]
Location: GWCC Murphy 4

12:30-1:30pm

Cool Tools: Incorporating Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom [Session]
Location: GWCC B302

12:30-1:30pm

Making the Laptop Disappear: Moving to Seamless Integration [Session]
Location: GWCC B212

2:00-3:00pm
Digital Photography and Video Projects for Improving Learning [Session]
Location: GWCC B217

3:30-4:30pm
Innovating the 21st-Century Learning Environment [Session]
Location: GWCC Murphy 1

Tuesday, June 26
8:30-11:30am

TA414 Empowering Practice: Leveraging the Read/Write Web for Professional Growth [Workshop]
Location: OMNI International C

11:00am-12:00pm

iChat, iSight, therefore iFix: Integrating Sound, Video, Jabber for Support [Session]
Location: GWCC B208

12:30-1:30pm
New Tools, New Schools: Starting the Conversation about Web 2.0 [Session]
Location: GWCC B207

2:00-3:00pm
Podcasting for Professional Development: Innovative Strategies for Syndicated Success [Session]
Location: GWCC B208

3:30-4:30pm

Starting From Scratch: Building School 2.0 [Session]
Location: GWCC B201

3:30-4:30pm

Constructivist Teaching with Technology: Learning with Laptops [Session]
Location: GWCC B208

3:30-4:30pm

The REAL Work of 21st-Century Skills [Session]
Location: GWCC B217

Wednesday, June 27
10:30-11:30am
I Didn’t Know You Could Do That with an iPod! [Session]
Location: GWCC B208

1:30-2:30pm
Expanding Boundaries of Learning: Designing Rigorous and Globally Connected Assignments [Session]
Location: GWCC Murphy 1

2:45-4:00pm
Closing Keynote [Session]
Location: GWCC Murphy Ballroom

necc07, neccprep, necc2007

Darren Draper–TTIX Keynote

Teaching in the Digital AgeIntroducing self, T4 Site, Podcasts, National University, Blog http://drapestakes.blogspot.com, family

Talks about the fact that he is preaching to the choir.

70 Million blogs- some of them have to be good - david sifri, Technorati

Tags ttix07, presenters name (firstlast)

Todays topic is change, not money, school change, student change, teacher change

40% of teachers in Utah are older than 50

Teachers are stuck in a rut

In helping teachers, we help students

Technology for teachers
PowerPoint?
Other things are out there.

Times have changed, we're not in the 90's

"We live in a world where the only thing constant is change!" Ian Jukes

Just 2 years ago life was different

2 years ago... There were nine planets Brad and Jen now Brad and Angelina Tsunami New Orleans pre Katrina Virginia Tech just another school
Technology
No Windows Vista No XBOX 360, PS3, Wii Just beginning video podcasts AJAX just beginning No YouTube, TeacherTube No Twitter

Back to Jukes quote.
The only question is how do we keep up.

Karl Fisch-We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet. These are amazing times Students have changed...

Two year-old daughter on computer clicking mouse–Who taught her?
The kids pick it up.

Photo of daughter showing grandpa how to use his iPod-Who is teaching whom?

Children today are growing up immersed in media.

83% Children 0-6 use a screen media in a typical day
65% Live in a home where the TV is on at least 1/2 the time

Kids are active consumers.

77% turn on the TV by themselves
67% ask for particular shows
62% use remote to change channels

4-6 year olds

70% have used a computer
27% use a computer in a typical day
56% without parents

Kids want to Create

They've created a new language
IM Speak

Abbreviations all parents should know http://www.netlingo.com

Books now being written in IM
Lauren myracle

Dying Language

IM Speak vs Latin

Kids don't care that the language is dying

No one can stop them from doing it. Not even teachers.

"These teens were born into a digital world where the expect to be able to create, consume, remix, and share Lee Raimi-PEW

65,000 uploads per day to YouTube, 2700 uploads per hour, 45 per minute

57% of online teens create content for the internet

Sharing-Creative Commons

Showing videos from YouTube

Guitar Canon–20.9 million views
Hey Clip–14.7 milion views
Fast Food Freestyle–6.6 million views
Toto Africa Machinima–14,000 views

Lot's of creativity–Can't we harness that in our schools

Remixes
Mashups
Sunday Bloody Sunday–President Bush

Is it goofy?
Is it Useful?

Generation D
Millenials
Digital Natives
iGeneration
Button-Pushing Generation

One Key Question

Are we Engaging Them?

More times than not we are not.

Our schools are changing (slowly)

One way we can adapt is to use the technology that our kids already love.

Keynote handout will be available at http://www.ttix.org

ttix07, darrendraper

A Long Time Ago in A Galaxy Far Away... (or not)!

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted anything here. I missed an April podcast altogether and will miss May if I don't get going. Spring seems to be the busiest time for me overall. Work tends to start slowing down (except for one project that I will talk about in a moment). However, the rest of my life seems to kick into high gear.
I am coaching my twelve year-old son's baseball team (7-1 so far). I am trying to keep up with my 15 year-old daughter's softball team (8-2 or so heading into tournament season). I have received a new church assignment which is keeping me busy. Trying to spend time with grandkids. Moving Daughter, Son-in-Law, and Grandsons out and back into their home (a long story I need to tell here someday). Moving 20 year-old son back into our house after 8 months away. Painting (them not me), re-carpeting (which for me mainly means moving a lot of heavy stuff). After 5 months of a house in chaos, I would sure like to be able to get it back together and keep it that way for more than a day. Okay, enough whining.
As I mentioned, this time of year tends to slow down a bit at work. The exception to that being the Elementary Film Festival that I have organized for the past 4 years. This is a project that takes a lot of my time for about a month. Part of it is my fault, I haven't included my co-workers much in it and probably should more. It is just that this feels like my baby and you know how that is. Wow how un-Web (School) 2.0 that sounds. Anyway the festival was held last Thursday and we screened 26 films and honored 7 of them with our humble awards. You can view the winners here.
Tonight most of the winners joined me at The Apple Store, The Gateway for School Night at The Apple Store. The only problem was that the store wasn't expecting us. I had signed up for the event over two months ago. I never had a response though. So I talked to an assistant manager 3 weeks ago and she emailed me and told me that we were on the schedule and I should receive some information shortly. I never receive the information and had planned to visit the store yesterday or earlier today to make sure we were still on. Today I received the invitations that Apple sends out to give to parents, etc. Nice timing! Anyway, I assumed that since they did at least make up the invitations that we were planned on. Well, you know what happens when you assume. And sure enough when I arrived at the store they were in a panic. One of the kids arrived before I did and showed the managers the invitation I had made up for our award winners (since I had not received the official ones yet). So when I arrived they were scrambling madly. They were very apologetic and managed to pull it off for us in a nice way. The biggest problem was that they didn't have enough t-shirts for the kids. So they took names and will ship shirts to me for those who didn't get one tonight. For all of the panic it still ended up being a great event for the kids. I have to thank the crew at The Gateway for pulling it together for us. Here is a picture of the kids during the presentation of their films.

There are a lot of things I still have not mentioned that are going on or upcoming, but I will save those for the podcast.
See You in a Few!

Lots are "Paying Attention"

My co-worker Darren Draper wanted to create a motivational presentation for us to use in our district. A "Did You Know" type of presentation. He did a great job and it is called Pay Attention. It has been amazing to see the response to this presentation, not necessarily in our district but from the world. I am seeing the views on TeacherTube go up about 100 every hour now.

See You in a Few!

Please Welcome to The Educational Mac Family...

This blog and podcast are a little over 2 years old. One of the first posts to the blog was about the birth of my 3rd grandchild, Kaden. Well, today I am announcing the birth of Kaden's little brother, Cole. Cole was born on Tuesday, March 20th at 12:39 pm. Mom, Baby, Dad and adoring big brother are all doing well. See You in a Few!

The Educational Mac Podcast #39–March 19, 2007

Get the Podcast Here
ShowNotes
UCET WrapUp Decompression Never test new equipment on site or Kelly Sucks Time spent with David Warlick It was so great spending time with David. I even got to teach him something.
The same week, I get to hear Ian Jukes live for the first time. I cut a Take Five from one of his sessions.
My new best friend who doesn't even know who I am–Podcast Review of the month Dan Schmit Kidcast Podcast–iTunes Link Dan's Books Kidcast GarageBand Mechanics
App of the Cast Google SketchUp–Full day of training. The training was amazing. It is so nice to know what all of the controls can do. At least now I can create a house that actually looks like a house. Instructor Alex Oliver http://www.go-2-school.com SketchUp training is what they do. They have 2 training DVDs, but they also have a video podcast called The Sketchup Show. It is available directly at the site or via iTunes.
$60 million in new tech funding statewide in Utah, whatever will we do with it? Will we do the right things? What are the right things?
Why is life always so crazy?(or why can't Kelly get a podcast out on time.)
See You in a Few!

Seeing is Believing

Over the past couple of years I have probably read over 100 blog entries stating in one form or another that learning is conversation. This concept has never hit me as hard as it did today as I did some observation in a kindergarten classroom. I watched a teacher do a marvelous job of explaining to the cute little ones what there task was to be. The kids went back to their desks and started working on their task. However, they didn't seem into it.

Then the interesting stuff happened. The volume in the room began to grow, but it wasn't idle conversation. The kids were talking about what they were doing and as they talked they got more excited about the task. The volume never got overwhelming, but the energy that developed was really impressive.

UCET Conference Coming on Fast

The 2007 UCET (Utah Coalition for Educational Technology) Conference is coming up in 2 days. Even though preparations have been ongoing for months it has really snuck up on me. I will be presenting two full sessions on Friday, Podcasting in the Elementary Classroom and Blogging in the Elementary Classroom. I am planning to record them both and get them up on the feed sometime in the next week. I am also doing 3 Over the Shoulder sessions on Saturday, Google Docs/Spreadsheets,Creating a Podcast, Delicious & Furl. For anyone attending and blogging from the conference you can tag your posts with UCET07 or UCET2007.

Technorati Tags: UCET07 UCET2007

The Educational Mac Podcast #38–Feb. 20, 2007

Get Show Here
iPods in Education–Article from Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Word 2007 online conversion tool .docx is the default file format in the latest version of Microsoft Word in Office 2007. All docs in the new office family is based upon an open, standardized specification called Office Open XML. .docx-files are not backwards-compatible with previous versions of Word.This simple web-based conversion tool is the solution for you!. In a simple 1-2-3 process you can upload your document, choose target format and seconds later download the document in a readable format.
Great Technology as Tool ads from El Paso ISD Refresh page to see different ads.
Apps of the Episode
Block Posters LetterPop–Newsletter Making Take Five with Matthew Cone of Macinstruct.
Check out the Tutorama tutorial contest. Steve Jobs "attack" on Teacher Unions Houston Chronicle Report Response from the Mac Blogosphere Ars Technica MacDailyNews
Wired
From the edublogosphere there has not been much reaction. Here are the first I've seen. Assorted Stuff

See You in a Few!

One Show This Month on the 20th

Due to some work, health, and family related issues I need to skip the podcast scheduled for the 5th. I will be back on the 20th with a full show. Thanks for your indulgence.
See You in a Few!

TheEducationalMac Podcast #37

Click Here to Download

Review of Macworld, impact on education
iPhone
Apple TV
Airport Extreme
iLife and iWork (lack thereof)

Take Five with Richard Miller

Application of the Podcast - PagePacker

See You in a Few!