Monday, August 18, 2008

You can tell a lot about a person...

...by what's on his / her ipod. 

This morning I was trudging along at the gym...dead ipod....when my gym buddy took off, she offered me hers.  Now, she is a powerhouse...always pushing herself, and when I got a chance to listen to her tunes, I can see why.  There is tremendous power in music.   As a matter of fact, you may have seen this story on Good Morning America about how the Olympic athletes use music as a way to push themselves through a workout, or prepare themselves mentally for an event.  Several times during the Olympic I saw reference to the Olympic athletes and their dependence on the music that they can easily carry with them for motivation and inspiration.





Jeff Leow, a medical student from Australia, has an interesting post that features some medical studies that looked into the link between music and motivation to exercise. It includes a short description & diagram of the brain, but it got me thinking about the connection that physical exercise and music has on student motivation as well...There has been research conducted and many  books &  articles  written about the role of music and music education in brain development and motivation
...did you know that there are over 100 uses for ipods, yet portable music players are often considered to be "disruptive technology" and not permitted for use in many schools.  You have to wonder whether the recent publicity surrounding the Olympics is going to have any affect on school policy for portable music players...or if it should :)


Sunday, August 10, 2008

Favorite site I bookmarked this week...

Why continue to exchange emails when event scheduling can be THIS easy?I have been a big fan of scheduling tools such as http://doodle.ch and http://www.timebridge.com/ here is yet another one to add to your collection.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

I am not the only gardener

I have been humbled for the past several summers to have been selected to work with some of the top teachers in the the state of Pennsylvania as a staff member at the Keystone Summit. These teachers come with a lot of knowledge about using technology in the classroom...but they leave with a tool box full of new ideas and some amazing connections...

I keep in touch with many of the attendees throughout the year...following their projects, offering ideas via twitter and skype and when they have success locally and globally, they turn to me with thanks and gratitude....but I am not the ONLY gardener....

One of the pieces of advice I give to folks when they are entering a coaching roll is that they have to choose where they put their efforts - what, when, how much, with whom. Find the rich soil, folks who are willing to be open to try new things. THAT is why I love the Summit so much.

I am not the only gardener... True, I am planting seeds in very rich soil...but it is the teachers going back to their districts who choose what they want to grow and what needs to be let go. We have to know how best to nourish what's important. They are the ones who decide what they need to prune and what needs to be given a chance to flourish and it is the impact of what they are doing in THEIR districts that will impact what we want to have happen in the future.

We need to remember to always pay it forward... to find the rich soil back at your schools...continue planting, watch the seedlings, anticipate potential draught, stay away from the weeds that can overcome they garden they are creating. Think about what tools you have when the garden begins to wilt.

And my stake in this garden...the reason continue to work so hard, planting seeds....
kidsNme
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

I am a mom first...and what YOU all do for children on a daily basis deserves to be recognized!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Bookmarks from Diigo Inquiry Based Science

  • Goal #1: Our most important initiative is to shift instructional practices in our school to become constructivist in nature using inquiry-based methods. Both problem and project-based experiences will be the foundation for long-term student-driven investigations centered on living environment concepts. All teachers and students should be involved in real issues that require creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving to generate possible solutions and share findings and learning experiences with stakeholders.

  • #2: Our second initiative is to increase the use of technology to facilitate learning for both teachers and students. We believe that technology (goal #2) must serve pedagogy (goal #1). We believe the infusion of technology must enable teachers and students to research, create, communicate, and collaborate. This initiative will create the transformative process we are seeking in technology infusion for our teachers and students.

    GREAT DEMO OF EXAMPLE OF 21stC SKILLS

    Technorati Tags:

Friday, July 18, 2008

Let the Streaming Begin

It's no secret, I am a HUGE fan of coveritlive. I have used to archive conferences and lead really powerful discussions with students. It also seemed to be a big hit at NECC this year.

Well this just in...

Coveritlive users can now integrate LIVE video from Qik, Mogulus and uStream directly into their CoveritLive live blogs. Just like the existing YouTube integration where a video feed can be sent out to the readers to view during a session without the need to send readers to another site or blog, when you integrate this service, the live video appears in the top corner of your CovertiLive Viewer Window. If readers want a larger view, they simply click the video and a larger sized window appears that can then be moved out of the way so they can continue to enjoy both the live blog AND the live video without ever leaving the site where the live blog is embedded. The Support Center in their advanced features area has a short flash movie to demonstrate how to use it...but think about the implications.

What about in a classroom...could you use camtwist or manycam to cast a lesson out to a student who is home ill, and allow them to join in the collaborative notetaking process simply by going to a teacher's wikispace? Couldn't the teacher then archive those ustream recordings and embed with the coveritlive notes

What about at a conference. I often wish when I was at a conference that I could "pipe out" the audio so the virtual participant knows what they are participating in...not necessarily the presenter, but allow someone to be a "fly on the wall". This way they are not only looking at what notes are being taken at the conference, but actually enables them to participate virutally. David Jakes asked a lot of questions about this in his post Chatcasting: A Summary, This whole idea does raise some interesting questions...or ideas.

What do you think about this...is it ok to "broadcast" a conference session, audio..with a slide perhaps to engage the folks who are not there? Where do issues of privacy come into play? In 3 years, 5 years, 10 years....is any of this going to matter?


Tuesday, July 08, 2008

NECC 2008: From My Perspective

I have been reading a lot of the summaries of NECC 2008 and because I went immediately unplugged for 5 days after the conference, I haven't had a chance to put in my 2 cents yet....I am still thinking about a lot of things. This was only my second NECC. In Atlanta, I missed the whole "making connections"...I missed the "Blogger's Cafe" and attended a lot of really great sessions that I found out afterwards were "live blogged", recorded in a sense so it was possible to revisit from different points of view. This year, when planning what sessions I wanted to see, I made a conscious effort to avoid things that I knew were being podcast, or ustreamed or that I could go back and revisit at another time....I feel like once again I was missing something. In The Strength of Weak Ties: ChatCasting: A Summary, David Jakes does an amazing job of summarizing the chatcasting process and asking some of the tough questions about its role in future conferences. He especially hit the nail on the head when he asked about the presenter Is having 10 people typing distracting? I had to get over several people blogging my sessions live, I can only imagine ten typing furiously. Wouldn't you want to see what they were saying? I struggle with this even when I am notetaking on the web....doesn't the presenter have the right to see what I am posting (positive or negative) and defend their presentation

I think that because there was no organized process for distributing the "any time / anywhere" content, it was difficult to find after the fact...I am working on a post for myself that contains links to all of the events I want to revisit. I often use microblogging to find out about events when I am offsite, but when right there...it became overwhelming to me. I think a moderator is important and I think all parties need to be "on the same page"

I have seen this be a POWERFUL force in the classroom. I have learned a TON from following "offsite". I will be posting later today my plan for "decompressing NECC", but thanks David for your post and questions. It will be interesting to see how this evolves over time...I feel like my pendulum has swung too far to one side....time for me, personally to find out where my balance lies.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

And the Walls Came Down

Once again the wireless network was less than cooperative here at NECC. I apologize to any of you who came to participate and couldn't find our session. It was SO fun to meet face to face with folks that I have been planning with since September. There were probably about 40 folks in the room and 37 at last count in the ustream.


This is a link to our session notes about how tools go viral

as well as the recording



Technorati Tags:


Thanks for taking the time to go viral with us! Please feel free to share your thoughts about the tools we shared and what going "viral" means to you...

Monday, June 30, 2008

Live Blogging Jakes & Shareski The Power of Powerpoint

It was great to finally get to see David Jakes and Dean Shareski present live. I have had the opportunity to network with them but their message in how to tell a story is great.

They gave 10 tips of what to teach kids.

1- Teach them biology
2- Teach them to make it visual
3- Teach kids how to search for images
4- teach kids about creative commons

5- Teach them design
6- Teach them to sell
7- Color and font choice matters
8- Teach them to incorporate multimedia
9 - Teach students some PowerPoint secrets
10 -teach them to share

***one of my top NECC takeaways I learned about in this session Flickr storm...I am sure this is going to be something that I spend some time reflecting on

Wes Fryer and Ewan McIntosh both have better notes that I do...I especially like Ewan's title...why would you use words when they do just fine in your mouth? but here is my "live blog" in coveritlive from the session.







NECC Unplugged session on Copyright

This morning I led a session on Copyright and Fair Use at NECC Unplugged. There were about 40 people in the room, and 11 folks watching on ustream. Unfortunately the conditions were not so great, but the conversation was amazing and I think folks left thinking
Here is the ustream recording...
Free .TV show from Ustream
and the information that I posted for the session can be found here
http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/necc_copyrightconfusion

Thanks to all my "twitter pals" who helped set up and made for great conversation and all the new folks I met.

Technorati Tags:

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Edublogger Con Closing Notes



Technorati Tags:

Convene, Connect, Transform...

So this post started this morning and I never got a chance to finish, and it started out titled...the calm before the storm, but the day began and the storm blew through...which you may have noticed in my posts :) but I wanted to post some reflections about NECC so far...
Last year was my first NECC...it was the place where I made many connections that have helped me to build an amazing personal learning network. At the end of the conference Steve Dembo posted a twitter wondering if these types of large conferences were really necessary...with the ability to stream, twitter, and liveblog do you REALLY need to attend? I thought about that as I was running along the riverwalk. It was really quiet, the calm before the storm. Very few folks were out...very unlike the night before. As I was running along the river, I was thinking about the evening before seeing all the folks that I "work with" all year long, but only get to see and connect with face to face but 1-2 times a year. I was preparing for the week ahead when across the river I saw Pat Sine....a "colleague" that I met only recently but have connected with a number of times. We called out to one another like old friends and it struck me, THIS is what it means to attend a conference face to face. Is NECC needed, YES... it really is and at breakfast this morning Michael Baker summed it up perfectly...
When it [the conference] is streamed to you, you get the information yes, but today information is EXPECTED to be free…When you attend the conference…you get the connections…and you can’t put a price on that


I hope to connect with many of you as we convene here for together we can transform what is happening in today's classrooms


Technorati Tags:

Edublogger Con Session 4 Web2.0 Smackdown

Unfortunately I had TERRIBLE internet connectivity issues during this session
All tools shared are listed
HERE
Technorati Tags:

EdubloggerCon Session 3-Strategic Tools to Save teacher time



Technorati Tags:

Edublogger Con Session 2 Social Networking for Schools

Am sitting in session on Social Networking in schools. Will have to go back later for the recording
.TV online : provided by Ustream



Technorati Tags:

Edublogger Con: Session 1-Creating Reasonable Filtering Policies



Technorati Tags:

Friday, June 27, 2008

One Word...

It has been a long time since I posted...owe cliff mims a PD meme (it's coming cliff) but as I was going through my Diigo drafts I came across this goody...thought it about summed it up
  • FROM THE ABOUT PAGE...
    the real purpose of this exercise is to alleviate
    our natural tendency to edit everything—and learn
    to flow.

    an analogy would be a film camera:
    when a film is shot, the camera just rolls and captures
    everything—good and bad. when all the shooting is
    complete, the raw film is edited into a cohesive piece.

    the camera operator doesn't keep stopping the camera and
    rewinding and editing on-the-fly—the camera just rolls.
    if it were to stop, some of the best performances
    and spontaneous moments might be missed.

    so:
    be the camera. well, that's a stupid saying, but
    you get the idea. in writing—just flow. go back later
    and edit.

    Go write.

Leaving for NECC in a few hours....Guess it is time for me to get back at it!

Monday, June 02, 2008

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.



Technorati Tags:

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Everything you need to know about NECC

Carol Teitleman presented a webinar to the PA Educators about how to make the most of the NECC experience. Kurt Paccio and I were asked to discuss the back channel. As a model of best practice we used Cover It Live for Notes