The Times They Are a Changin'

This photo is of my elementary school. It has since been replaced by a new South Jordan Elementary, but the building still stands for now. South Jordan Elementary is a part of the Jordan School District. This is significant to me, because of my 49 years 33 of them have been spent in Jordan School District as a student or as an employee. Beyond that someone in my family has worked for the district for nearly the past 70 years. That has made the decision that I have been struggling with for about a month all the much harder. I have decide to resign from Jordan School District and take a position with the new Canyons School District that is being created because of the split. I have talked about the split here and other places for awhile. I still struggle with the fact that the split is happening and the causes of it. However I have determined that the best place for me is in Canyons, so I have accepted a position with the new district. I look forward to new challenges and the opportunity to help build this new district. There are many who may feel and believe that I am betraying Jordan by going to the other side. School board comments indicate that is the perception from the highest levels of the district. I have struggled with that myself particularly with my history in the district and the fact that I live in Jordan. In the end, I had to choose what I felt was best for my family and my career. So it will be onward and upward. The uncertainty of the past couple of years with the prospect and now the realization of the split has in many ways kind of frozen me in place. With the decision made I feel that I can again move forward and am ready to take on the challenges that helping to build the Canyons School District will bring. I will be leaving behind many people who have had a great impact on my life; Principals, supervisors, fellow teachers and specialists. You have all given me so much more than I could hope to return and I am grateful for it and for you. So while this may seem a little melancholy, I am so excited for the upcoming challenges and am ready to face them head on. Still it is hard to believe that in little more than two weeks I will be leaving JSD. I do look forward to continued relationships with those who remain in Jordan and am grateful that I am able to make an astonishing change in my life without having to leave any of my life behind. In other change news, those who follow me on Twitter or Facebook know I have been on a rather extreme diet. The extreme portion ends on Tuesday and we start into a more moderate phase. But I have lost 35 lbs. in 30 days and it has been an amazing experience. I have learned a lot about myself. I have spent the last 15 years spiraling out of control with my eating habits and lack of exercise habits. I have used every excuse in the book to avoid losing weight. I have been on several diets, but just could not stick to one. When my wife presented me with this diet plan, my first reaction was the same as always, no way. But as I thought about it, I realized a lot of my habits were based around my own selfishness. I also realized that I am getting to the stage in my life where if I don’t make a change I am going to cause myself serious health problems. I had gotten into a habit of not really checking my weight, so when I started the diet and got on the scale I was even a little surprised. I had thought I was hovering around 280 lbs. When it read 289.5 I was a little shocked, I really knew it was time to go after this. This phase has been hard, but it hasn’t been as hard as I expected. When you weigh every day and you are seeing results it makes it a little less hard. (Note: I didn’t say easy!) The diet has made me a little tired and a little weak, but as I go into the next phase I am looking forward to getting into a regular exercise program and losing more. My goal weight right now is 200 lbs. by the end of the year. Right now, despite the diet restrictions I do feel better than I have in years and I look forward to feeling even better as I get through Spring and Summer. I know I will need to feel better to face the challenge of helping to get this new district up and running. A challenge I look forward to. Finally, some changes we created some are heaped upon us. This will be true as far as the most fun change comes about this summer. My first daughter and my daughter-in-law are both expecting. So by the end of September I will have two new grand-children. Now I love my grandsons, but I would love to have a couple more granddaughters to even up the score at 3-3. Actually it doesn’t really matter, I will be excited either way. I love my grandkids, and I love my kids. I don’t tell them often enough. That needs to change as well.

Where does the time go?

Yeah, it has been months since, well anything. I am making plans to relaunch, The Educational Mac, both the blog and the podcast. I will be anouncing those plans early in January. So the hiatus, unplanned as it was is just about over. Stay tuned!

K-5 School Launches 1 to1

Now this is a place that I could work for. It doesn't hurt that the principal is a great leader.

How's this for a network experience?

I arrived in St. George, Utah (about a 4.5 hr. drive from home) this morning. I am in St. George to do a couple of workshops for this group tomorrow. When I finally was able to get into the motel room this afternoon I checked Twitter and tweeted about where I was. About 2 hours away in Las Vegas, Cory Plough was monitoring Twitter and noticed I was in St. George and responded about being a couple hours away. I replied and told him what I was doing and told him he should drive up and present with me in the morning. Now the offer was genuine, but I wasn't holding out hope that he would be available and willing. Turns out he was both and Cory will be driving up to present with me in the morning. Want to know the power of the network, as Bill Engvall would say, "Here's Your Sign!"

A Rant of My Own

This one has been festering for a few days. It has been said to me that one of my best qualities is that I don't jump to conclusions. I listen and let things simmer before reacting. One of the problems that I find with having people tell me this is that I now do it more consciously and I think that has hurt the process for me. But the formulation of this post has been more natural as I have thought about events starting with EdubloggerCon on Satuday.

I am not going to spend time stating and restating the different points of view that arose on Saturday. Although, I will admit that initially my reactions went in different directions and were pretty extreme. I even said a few things to others that I wish I wouldn't have said. I don't like saying things on first reaction but I did. For that I am sorry.

However the feelings and conversation that arose from that and during the week got to me a bit. The indirect conversation throughout the week seemed to be all about status. The A list, B list C list, etc. as it relates to the educational blogging community. Is there really a class division going on here. Maybe, maybe not. What I do see is people being in this community for different things, different reasons. I don't care about that either. The fact is that all that choose to be in this community are here. I can choose to take from and give to the community what I want and no one in the community has ever asked about my legitimacy. So I am choosing not to see those in this community as A or Z listers.

What I am choosing to see are the people and my opinion in this regard is that they are all A listers. Everyone of us out there busting our butts to try and make things better for the kids and others we work for and with. I personally did not have an interaction with anyone this week that was not respectful and friendly. In you the community this week I saw many "Pay it forward" moments this week. On Tuesday morning I had the opportunity to help someone out. Tuesday afternoon I got the same treatment from others in my crisis situation. I was constantly greeted with a "Hi, how is the conference going for you." Even when busy in other conversations, people would stop and say hi.

This week I got to spend time with distant friends, many whom I had not met face to face before. Yet I feel like I have known them for years. that was the power of this year's conference for me. It was amazing to sit on a panel with several other people, of which last year at this time I only really knew 2 of them. Again everyone of them "A listers" as far as I am concerned not because of technorati ranking or groupies or whatever, but because that's who they are by nature. They share with me constantly in their writing and their actions.

I am grateful for the time I got to spend physically in my personal learning network this week. It will keep me going for another year. The likelihood of me going to NECC next year is probably not great. But the avenues of attending virtually have been opened and I know that I will be able to still get a lot out of the conference even if I can't attend physically. So for all of those made it happen for others this year, and that will make that happen next year and for all of you in my network I say thank you.

See You in a Few!

Apple's Big Splash at NECC

I am ready to go to the Apple reception this evening. Part of the festivities will be Apple's big splash at NECC. That splash is iTunesU-K12. iTunesU-K12 should debut within the next few hours with content from between 7 and 9 states. Utah is one of the states that will be debuting on iTunesU-K12. I have been working with the Utah group that has been putting together the states efforts on this project.
I believe this project will be somewhat of a game changer. Here K12 ed will have a central gathering place for resources, be they audio, video, text-based, etc. Now I can hear the catcalls and boos coming already. "Here's Apple trying to take control of our content!" I don't believe that this is what it is about at all. Look at what iTunesU has provided for Higher Ed. There are many prestigious universities sharing their content. It is not under Apple's control, they are merely providing the vehicle. Such is the case with iTunesU-K12 as well.
Go to the iTunes store, click on iTunes U, then look for the K12 listing in the bottom left column.
I personally can't wait to see the resources gathered there.

Social Networking in PD

Get the Audio Here!
Recording from the Social Networking in PD session at EdubloggerCon08, held on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 in San Antonio, TX.

Catch the Fever: Viral Professional Development–Add your voice!

Viral Professional Development is emerging in education as a viable method of increasing teacher engagement and learning. Using tools such as Twitter, rss readers, blogs, educational networks, and wikis, educators are collaborating on a grassroots level. This year at NECC, a panel discussion of educators on July 2nd at 1:30 pm CDT will be discussing and live Ustreaming a session to discuss viral professional development.

How did this panel discussion originate?

On Monday, September 17, 2007, Google launched the Google Presentation web application to their suite of services. News of this new service spread quickly through the blogosphere and Twitter and soon more than fifty different people made over 500 edits in a twenty-four hour period to one Google presentation. Since introduced, this presentation has been used by hundreds of people to begin conversations centered on free online tools used to weave a web of connections between people around the world.

As a result of this transformational experience, educators begin discussing the importance of sharing the changing nature of professional development and documentation of best practices in VIRAL professional development. The proposal was written in Google docs and since acceptance, an expanded group of educators around the world has used a wiki, elluminate, and a variety of tools to bring a collaborative, immersive viral PD experience to NECC and to people around the world.

Presenters
Vicki Davis, moderator
Darren Draper
Kelly Dumont
Kristin Hokanson
Robin Ellis
Ryan Bretag
Beth Ritter-Guth
Carolyn Foote

Backchannel Presenters/ Moderators
John Maklary
Stephanie Sandifer

How can you participate?

At 1:30pm CDT on July 2, we will be participating in a NECC panel discussion that centers on the power of the network. During our presentation we hope to demonstrate to all those attending our session in person (and virtually), just how powerful global collaboration can be. Hence, we are asking for your participation in our presentation as well.

1) Join our Ustream

We will be streaming the presentation live on the Open PD Ustream channel at 1:30 pm CDT on July 2nd. You may watch here and participate in the conversation (and even ask the panelists questions).

2) Leave a comment on our voicethread

One way that you can participate now is by adding your voice to the VoiceThread below. Please take a few minutes and add your thoughts about the different tools depicted through images in the thread. We would truly like as many voices possible, offering a wide range of thought on the usefulness of the common tools we all use in our collaborations.

How do you use these tools? How are they important to your professional development? Please add your voice.

Insert embed code for the voice thread from this page - http://thewallscamedown.wikispaces.com/Join_In

3) Join the conversation on the NECC Educational networking site

We've created a discussion thread to converse on this panel discussion at the NECC educational networking site.

Follow our most recent announcements.

All announcements and events pertaining to this session will be announced at the Walls Came Down wiki.

Macworld Presentations

Macworld/IDG has a site called Macworld Encore which has several sessions from the 2008 Macworld. I am not sure I like the format, which is, they basically recorded the audio from sessions while capturing the Keynote or PowerPoint slides. But there is some good information in some of these sessions. Give them a look. See You in a Few!

Help for the Next Show!

Take a Listen
I would like help from my network (that's anyone who reads this) for the next podcast. Rather than give yet another review of Leopard, I would like to know what your most favorite and least favorite features are in Leopard. If you would like to participate in the show I would love it if you would send me an .mp3 or other audio file with your most and lease favorites along with your name and blog, wiki, podcast or anything else you would like to plug. Send them to kdumont@mac.com. I would like to get the show out by next Wednesday so if you could have them to me by Tuesday I would appreciate it.

See You in a Few!

As if I don't have enough else to do...

I felt I wanted another forum a little different than The Educational Mac. So, I have created a new website modestly called The Tao of Kel. I will be ranting daily there this month as I try to participate in Nablopomo (National Blog Posting Month) Never will someone write so much to say so little. The feed for the blog is http://web.mac.com/kelly.dumont/Site/Blog/rss.xml

The Educational Mac Podcast #44–October 21, 2007

Click here to download the podcast!
Show Notes
Leopard Due October 26th @ 6:00 pm
Leopards 300 New Features
Leopard Guided Tour
JSD Elementary Film Festival Information
See You in a Few!

Impromptu Demo Breeds Ideas

I have seen this happen a lot through Twitter the last couple of months, but I had a first hand experience with it yesterday. I was teaching the final session of a professional development for a small group of teachers at an elementary school in our district. The class was about them learning to use the tools available on their Mac laptops. Over the course of the 5 weeks (3 hours per session) we covered the OS, File Management, iLife, iWork, Comic Life, etc.

One of the tools they gravitated to the most was iChat. While most were initially excited about the opportunity to cheaply visit with distant friends and family, they soon discovered what a great tool it was for communication within their building. I wanted to leave them with a glimpse of other things that are happening and available now. I chose to show them UStream. I was afraid this might push them over the edge, but what actually happened was quite different.

Within about 10 seconds the first idea was blurted out, then another and another. Within 2 minutes they had about 10 ideas for using UStream in their classroom. None of them are new and original, but I was impressed that they came up with them. Here is what they came up with...

1. Sharing presentations with parents who might not be able to attend in person.
2. Letting homebound students participate with class (shared Brian Crosby's work with them).
3. Showing and recording student behavior so adminstrator is aware (both positive and negative).
4. Allows parent's who can't normally come to the classroom to see what is going on in school.
5. Live science demonstrations showing or receiving from others.
6. Recording of teaching so students can review it later.
7. Recording student presentations so parents, grandparent's, etc. can view it later. (Password features helps)
8. Allowing guests, experts, etc. to come into the classroom from far away. (Platform neutrality the key for them here.)
9. Weekly newsletter (broadcast) for parents.
10. Nightly broadcast review of the day for students.
This list for me is not spectacular for the ideas themselves, but for who came up with them. This was a group of teachers who 6 weeks ago were afraid to do much more than write an email or browse a web page. I am going back out next month to help a few of them set up their own shows. It was pretty exciting.

The other exciting thing that came out of this class, was that by last night, I didn't have to show anyone anything. By that I mean if someone had a question about an issue with a program, or how to do this or that, I couldn't even answer. Others in the class took over and taught them how to do it. One of them even turned to me and said, "what do we need you for?" I felt proud and rejected all at the same time.

Podcast coming in a day or two.

See You in a Few!

The Power of Support

I sat at an event honoring young women from our congregation this evening. One young woman who has had some personal struggles of late got up to sing. The piano began, she began, but a couple of lines had to stop being overcome with emotion. She asked the pianist to start again and she tried to start again with the same results. At this point, two other young ladies got up and stood by their friend, lending their support. She tried to start again and still could not finish the song. The pianist just played the entire song. Throughout those few minutes the young ladies stood with their friend offering their continued support. It was a moving and powerful moment.

It made me think of some of my own struggles the past few weeks. Speaking professionally, at times I have felt like I couldn't continue with things I was doing. Yet everytime I got to a low point some kind of support would come through the edtech community, be it an answer to a question or the posting of a link to conversation, or other type of discussion. This support has helped bouy me up.

Now we have this great K12 online conference and I would like to thank not only the Seedlings, but all of those who are presenting during the conference. A huge thanks as well to the conveners of the conference. I can feel the stress in posts and tweets from these tireless workers. I want them to know that there efforts are appreciated. k12online07

Announcing 2008 Jordan School District Elementary Film Festival

We are gearing up for our annual elementary film festival. The festival will be held on April 24, 2008. The reason I am posting this here is because we have added a new category this year, Foreign Films. By foreign we mean outside of our school district. We will accept entries from any elementary (K-6) school in Utah, the US, or Worldwide. The entries can align to any of our other categories (Animation, Documentary, Feature Film, Public Service Announcement, etc.)

Entries will need to be accompanied by entry forms which can be downloaded from the link below. Entrants also need to understand that the films will be posted online for screening. Make sure you have covered any privacy issues with your own policies and procedures.

We are so excited to try branching our film festival out slowly to other schools. If you are interested in entering films in our Foreign Film category, please contact me at kelly.dumont@jordan.k12.ut.us

The information page for the Film Festival can be found here –Jordan School District Elementary Film Festival–

Are You Ready, I Am!

As I have been involved at my dayjob lately, I have felt a real lack of forward progress. I keep trying to blame my feelings on the job itself or on coworkers lack of wanting to move forward. The more I think about it though I realize it is me, it is not the job, not anyone else but me. I feel a need for a recharge.

I have been looking forward to the K12 Online Conference, but as I woke up this morning and realized that David Warlick's opening keynote is less than 24 hours away, I got really excited. Jen Wagner tweeted yesterday that she would be up at 5:00 am tomorrow to view the keynote. I replied that I would watch it tomorrow, but not necessarily be getting up early to watch it. Thanks Jen for the challenge so to speak. As I woke up this morning I felt a lot of excitement about K12 Online. I am sure it is going to help recharge my batteries and I am really looking forward to it. Jen, I will be joining you and hopefully many others early tomorrow morning.

See You in a Few!

And now for something completely different, or not, but still cool…

Get the Audio Here I just finished participating in a Skype and Google chat with Vicki Davis, Darren Draper, Karen Janowski, Kristin Hokanson, Robin Ellis, Jo McLeay, Sharon Peters, Ryan Bretag, and John Maklary. We are collaborating on an NECC proposal. Using Google Docs, Google Chat, and Skype we worked on refining the proposal. This is the audio recorded from that discussion. This is such an interesting way to collaborate and plan.

The Educational Mac Podcast #43 A Vidcast September 5, 2007

Click Here for Vidcast Click Here for Audio Only

A rather long winded vidcast. My experiences at the Apple Distinguished Educator's Institute this summer. My roommate was Tom Woodward of Bionic Teaching and the fabled Tech Ninja fame.

An introduction to Twitter.

Apple introduces new iMacs, iLife '08, and iWork '08. They also offer up new site licenses for iLife and iWork.

Guest Cast/Chat with Dan Schmit of Kidcast.

See You in a Few!

Why is it so hard...?

Why is it so hard for me to get a podcast out? I have had the outline/script written for 2 weeks. I want to do it. Am I really that busy? I can't be that busy. Do I need more peace and quiet to do it? Yeah, good luck with that one. Well I will get one out by Tuesday morning. No more excuses...but what about that BBQ on Monday...?
See You in a Few!
No this time I really mean it!

8 Things

This has been around awhile, and I was actually tagged a couple of weeks ago, but am just getting to it. This is another meme experiment: 1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts. 2. Players start with eight random facts / habits about themselves. 3. People who are tagged need to write in their own blog about their eight things and include these rules in the post. 4. At the end of your post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
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eight facts / habits about me: 1. My favourite food is lobster, but I don't have it very often. 2. My Great-Grandfather loaned J.C. Penney money to help start his first store. Instead of taking an interest in the venture he opted for his money back with a little interest. 3. My first computer was an Atari 800 XL. 4. The town where my parents lived when I was born no longer exists. 5. My first Mac was an emulator for the Atari ST. 6. I drive a car that looks like someone took a can opener to on the right side. 7. I am a comic book fan. 8. I worked at Computer City/CompUSA for 6 months while working on my Master's. Thought it would be a good way to earn tuition. Ha, Ha, Ha.
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Most everyone I read has already participated, but if you want go ahead and consider yourself tagged.