Organic Learning

This is a post that has been sitting in my drafts folder for a few months. I decided to post it even though it’s older, because it documents my thinking and reflection on sharing the learning about Web 2.0 tools. The online Read/Write Web course I mentioned has already finished, and I am hoping that the teachers that took that class are beginning to enjoy the amazing opportunities for learning afforded them by the Web 2.0 tools they are using.

Here’s my post from several months ago…

I’ve been thinking about the online Read/Write Web course I’m about to teach on Blackboard. It’s a beginning course to allow educators to explore the new possibilities of Web 2.0. In reality, in this course, we just brush the surface of what is possible. I know from the previous time I taught this class (my first experience with being an online facilitator for my district), that the teachers came away overwhelmed and in awe of all they could do.

However, as I’m going to tell my new group of participants tomorrow in our initial face to face meeting, this course is like a key to a door that you will open. You can peek in, but to really go through the door, you need to do some learning on your own. I started thinking more about this after reading Will Richardson’s blog post, Diving in Part 2. Will talks about encouraging teachers to use the new Web 2.0 tools to fuel the fire for their own personal learning, whether that be about mountain hiking or education and pedagogy. Teachers often need to see the connection that connected learning has for their own personal life so that they can see how these tools can be useful for their students.

I’m eager to begin the journey through the door with the participants in my class.

Photo credit: Unlock by CoolFreaK on Flickr Creative Commons Search

Read Full Post »

I am co-facilitating a salary point class on the K-12 Online Conference. (The other facilitator is Jose Rodriguez, in District 5. I really am enjoying working together with him on this as we expand the boundaries of professional development for our teachers.) This week, our focus was the Classroom 2.0 strand. Participants were to view one of the Classroom 2.0 sessions, then reflect on their learning. I wanted to model using some of the new collaborative tools that are being used in the K-12 Online Conference. I made a Voice Thread for reflecting on the presentations. However, only two people showed up for this week’s face to face session. The others missed the meeting. (Next week, I’m sending out reminders!)

We watched Jeff Utecht’s Sustained Blogging in the Classroom. There was good content there for keeping blogs going in the classroom. Often, we start blogs, but then drop them after a short time because the pedagogy in our classrooms doesn’t support using them. Jeff offers some tips for keeping them going.

I’ll add my reflections to the voice thread, and all are invited to also add their reflections. If you already have a VoiceThread account, just add your comments below. If not, the presentation below will ask you to register for a voice thread account. After registering, you can add your reflections to the voice thread. It’s a fun way to learn!

Technorati Tags: k12online07cl08 k12online07

Read Full Post »

Today, the Instructional Technology Facilitators will be meeting formally with the Library Media Teachers from our district. I’m so pleased that this long overdue connection is finally being made. I think we need to work closely together to provide authentic learning opportunities for our students. We will be breaking out to meet with the LMT’s from our local district. I’ve found out that there are about 15 Library Media Teachers in our local district. Our charge is to begin the conversation about emerging tools in the world of digital literacy. They WANT to learn about web 2.0 tools. I brainstormed a very large list of items that might be important starting points to talk about. A few others contributed some ideas as well. It was too much information, and overwhelming for some of those who weren’t familiar with these concepts. Still, it was a great way to bring my thoughts together.

Since we only have 30 minutes and no internet connection, it’s better to keep it at the conversation level. It will be a good time to introduce ourselves, and just talk. However, I was thinking of showing one video as a point for conversation. Which one? Do I show Karl Fisch’s Did You Know? or Darren Draper’s Pay Attention. How about Cisco’s Human Network or Wesch’s The Machine is US. I was even thinking about showing the Encyclopedia of Life video. I might even show a portion of the recent K12 Online PreConference Presentation by David Warlick.

Sigh. So many choices and so little time to decide. What will guide the conversation in the right way? I guess I’ll decide on the drive there.

Read Full Post »

A few weeks ago, someone mentioned that Animoto was used to make a preview of the teasers for the upcoming K-12 Online Conference. Since then, many edubloggers have been playing with it. I like the one David Warlick made for the Edubloggercon at NECC in Atlanta last summer.

Therefore, after my recent field trip with 4th grade students to Wired’s NextFest a few weeks ago, I decided to take the pictures that me and my group of students took of the event and mix them up into a little Animoto movie. It was so easy!

First, I uploaded our pictures to a set on my Flickr account, then created an simple account on Animoto. Then, I used the very easy directions on Animoto for adding those pictures, selecting music from their collection, and creating my short, free video from the pictures. I could even select what images I wanted to have as featured images. Finally, I hit the create movie button, waited for about 15 minutes, and my movie was created. Voila!

(I tried to embed it, but my wordpress theme didn’t play nice with the embed code.)

I think Animoto has great potential for classroom use as a simple way to introduce concepts or to tack on to the beginning of a digital story or multimedia presentation. I saw that David Warlick did this with his recent video tutorial of Del.icio.us. He used the movie he made of Edubloggercon to introduce his video. Very cool. The Del.icio.us workshop was excellent too!

Read Full Post »

I’ve published the latest edition to my newsletter blog at http://ld6.blogspot.com It contains news, events, professional development opportunities, grant resources, and some recommended tools for educators. It’s most useful for teachers in LAUSD.

At the bottom of the post, I added some pictures and a short reflection from my summer experiences at NECC and at the Teach the Teachers Collaborative. I used FlickrSlider to embed the photo slideshow. This tool allows you to embed slideshows from your tagged photos in Flickr. It’s very easy to use, and could be a great tool for classroom teachers.

Read Full Post »

A few weeks ago, at Week 3 of LAUSD’s participation in the Teach the Teachers Collaborative, science teachers in Grades 4-8 reunited for a third year of collaborative learning on science, using technology as a tool. Their final product was a podcast episode to define their learning and/or provide a model for student learning. Our keynote speaker for the event was Dan Schmidt, author of the very popular and excellent KidCast podcast. He was a perfect choice for a keynote. His message was focused on student learning, mixed with just the right amount of Web 2.0 explanation, so that the audience understood how learning and sharing of knowledge is becoming easier and essential.
With the recent use of Chatcasting at NECC and at BLC to deepen understanding and facilitate learning, we decided to set up our own chatcast using Skype as our chat client.. (Thanks to David Jakes, Jeff Utecht and all the edubloggers who have been pushing my thinking recently.) Chatcasting refers to setting up a backchannel chat during a presentation, so participants can more actively engage in the conversation. I twittered it, and Jose Rodriguez, an LAUSD teacher not in attendance, joined us for the conversation. It was a good experience, despite the technical difficulties. (Don’t close the chat in Skype before copying and pasting it somewhere else. Skype only saves the last few posts of the conversation. Fortunately, my friend and colleague, Edie, had not yet closed her chat window later that night when I had wanted to post it, and I was able to copy and paste the chat from her session.)
Dan Scmidt has shared a similar keynote presentation in video through his podcast: Episode 33 and 34 in his podcast. Download and view this presentation as you read through our chatcast. At least for me, and probably for those in attendance, it might add a little something to the experience.

Here’s the chatcast:

J Stearns added chrystal_m, Jose Rodriguez, Dan Madsen, Petrain Marie King, dinghygirl, eric mention, John Z. Rivera, Richard Feay, Usefelias to this chat
5:32 PM

Jose Rodriguez
7:10 PM
hi all

Usefelias
7:12 PM
hello Jose, welcome

Jose Rodriguez
7:12 PM
Have you started yet

Usefelias
7:13 PM
not yet, intros

Jose Rodriguez
7:13 PM
cool just in time
7:13 PM
I show y’all are offline in skype.

Chrystal
7:13 PM
hi all!

Jose Rodriguez
7:13 PM
hi chrystal
7:14 PM
Are you starting a week at TTTC?
7:14 PM
I was scheduled to go last week for science training but couldn’t make it.

J Stearns
7:16 PM
Hi all

Jose Rodriguez
7:17 PM
Hi Janice

John Z. Rivera
7:17 PM
where’s the yoga?

Usefelias
7:18 PM
Yoga, I can barely walk, much less put my right ankle behind my left ear

Jose Rodriguez
7:18 PM
UMMMMMMMMM

John Z. Rivera
7:18 PM
TOADS are great!

Jose Rodriguez
7:18 PM

yep
Petrain Marie King
7:19 PM

Hi everyone. I’m in!
J Stearns
7:19 PM

Hi Petra
Jose Rodriguez
7:19 PM

cool
J Stearns
7:19 PM
Kurt is a math teacher. Interested in podcasting

Petrain Marie King
7:19 PM
Can anyone else see me besides janice? who’s coordinatortwo

John Z. Rivera
7:19 PM
Great! Kurt Meyer wrote the first TTTC grant thathad Vons pay for everything!

J Stearns
7:20 PM
Coordinator two is Jose Rodriguez, a teacher not here, who would like to participate

eric mention
7:20 PM
I can read your reply

J Stearns
7:20 PM
I didn’t know that, John

Jose Rodriguez
7:20 PM
Coordinatortwo Jose Rodriguez attending virtually from home. I teach 3rd grade at Humphreys Avenue school in East LA

John Z. Rivera
7:20 PM
KJ’s turn at the mic

J Stearns
7:20 PM
Eric, down below the words is an area to click and type

eric mention
7:21 PM
Thanks

J Stearns
7:22 PM
They are introducing Don Kwano, (I’m not sure how is name is spelled)

John Z. Rivera
7:22 PM
Don K us Director of Middle School Science

Petrain Marie King
7:22 PM
Dr William Gee okay, got it.

Usefelias
7:22 PM
KAWANO

Petrain Marie King
7:23 PM
Chrystal - are you on?

Jose Rodriguez
7:23 PM
thanks for the audio

Chrystal
7:23 PM
yes, I’m here

John Z. Rivera
7:23 PM
Don K says “kids learn differently…”

Jose Rodriguez
7:23 PM
sorry it was from website

John Z. Rivera
7:25 PM
Don K: How to learn to play video games… Kids call each other, collaborating to find out the short cuts at tricks. (from Dr. William G)

Usefelias
7:26 PM
Warlick blogged about this type of gaming collab at a recent Gaming conference

J Stearns
7:26 PM
He’s talking about how one Superintendent who stopped all other PD except science, and had high scores despite a 92% free lunch program

Jose Rodriguez
7:26 PM
Is this mainly a secondary crowd today?

John Z. Rivera
7:27 PM
Who is verifying that this stuff is true?

J Stearns
7:27 PM
Both

Petrain Marie King
7:27 PM
it is 5-8

J Stearns
7:27 PM
I didn’t look it up

Chrystal
7:27 PM
it is 4th -8th grade I think

Petrain Marie King
7:27 PM
yea, 4-8

Jose Rodriguez
7:27 PM
I see upper grade and MS

7:28 PM
Dan has Kidcast site?

eric mention
7:28 PM
I can attest to the idea that science instruction if implemented properly can increase literacy skills.

John Z. Rivera
7:28 PM
Good idea. Make a banana split sometime this week.

J Stearns
7:28 PM
Don K. just threatened to ruin the HP plot. He’s already read it.

Jose Rodriguez
7:29 PM
HP plot?

John Z. Rivera
7:29 PM
Comparing Deathly Hollows to Old Yeller

Petrain Marie King
7:29 PM
John- what does the Z stand for?

Usefelias
7:29 PM
Z MAN

John Z. Rivera
7:29 PM
Zarate
7:29 PM
ZZZZZ

Petrain Marie King
7:30 PM
I’m just guesing but Usefelias is Youssef

Usefelias
7:30 PM
the one and only

J Stearns
7:30 PM
KJ is talking about how the grant has been expanded for three years.

John Z. Rivera
7:30 PM
3 Years of CaMSP Summer Science Institute! Hooray!

J Stearns
7:30 PM
This is the last year of the grant. This is a wonderful program.
7:31 PM
He calls this a leadership institute
7:31 PM
KJ is going to show some digital stories from last week

John Z. Rivera
7:31 PM
Time to see a sample digital story from last week!

Petrain Marie King
7:31 PM
hasn’t it been 4 years

J Stearns
7:32 PM
not for the CAmSP grant. It was different funding 4 years ago

John Z. Rivera
7:32 PM
4 years ago was sponsored by AB 1339

Petrain Marie King
7:32 PM
OH

J Stearns
7:32 PM
Thanks, John. That’s right. I couldn’t think of the name of the funding.

Usefelias
7:33 PM
Digial drories are powerful in an amptheatre with the lights down
7:33 PM
can’t See the keys!!!!!!!
7:33 PM

J Stearns
7:33 PM
I agree. What a great story. I’m sure it will inspire our partiicipants to tell their story this week.

John Z. Rivera
7:34 PM
in podcast form!

Usefelias
7:34 PM
what a great preview for 1st time attendees

Dan Madsen
7:34 PM
Tilt the screen to 90 degrees and look down on thr keyboard.

Jose Rodriguez
7:34 PM
What’s the reccomendation for recording podcasts
7:35 PM
Also hosting of files.

J Stearns
7:35 PM
We’re going to use GarageBand this week, making enhanced podcasts.

Jose Rodriguez
7:35 PM
Got it.
7:36 PM
Any windows people out there

Dan Madsen
7:36 PM
The narrator’s voice quality is a major reason this is good.

J Stearns
7:36 PM
Probably. But we’re only using the mac platform this week for podcasting. Makes it easier.

Jose Rodriguez
7:36 PM
cool

Usefelias
7:37 PM
SHARE A MESSGAE!!!!

J Stearns
7:38 PM
KJ is setting the stage about how to share a message with a larger audience using podcasting.

John Z. Rivera
7:38 PM
Jean Sais speaks

Dan Madsen
7:38 PM
The use of zooming in was overdone, no pans.

Usefelias
7:38 PM
I never thoguht about a podcast as “sharing a mesage”, that’s powerful

Jose Rodriguez
7:39 PM
It’s all about the conversation

J Stearns
7:39 PM
She’s introducing Dan

John Z. Rivera
7:39 PM
University of Nebraska’s Dan Schmidt publishes GarageBand Mechanics and KidCasts

Usefelias
7:39 PM
WE all need to look at Kidcast

J Stearns
7:40 PM
Kidcast is one of my favorite podcasts

John Z. Rivera
7:40 PM
He’s using a black MacBook

J Stearns
7:40 PM
He also has tips for podcasters and he share creative commons music on each episode
7:41 PM
He says podcasting has changed his life and what his students produce
7:42 PM
He really knows how to engage the audience

Jose Rodriguez
7:42 PM
What does Dan teach

J Stearns
7:42 PM
He has a buzz word bingo chart with all kinds of web 2.0 appls

Petrain Marie King
7:42 PM
I like the bingo chart

John Z. Rivera
7:42 PM
BINGO!
7:43 PM
Take the bottle
7:43 PM
And put a message in it and throw it in the ocean

J Stearns
7:44 PM
What we pick up in our classroom say something about where we are headed

Usefelias
7:44 PM
“he’s gonna run for congress” classic

J Stearns
7:44 PM
We look at technology differently than our students

Petrain Marie King
7:44 PM
yea we do

Chrystal
7:44 PM
we are digital immigrants

John Z. Rivera
7:44 PM
I am not sure how many in the audience really understands the blog

Edie Walker
7:44 PM
Some of us are true immigrants

Jose Rodriguez
7:45 PM
Have you seen the Web 2.0 periodic table?
7:46 PM
http://www .shambles. net/web2/w eb2_period ic_table/w eb2_period ictable.jp g

Edie Walker
7:46 PM
no

J Stearns
7:46 PM
He’s going to do a drama podcast. I know it

John Z. Rivera
7:46 PM
Go janice

J Stearns
7:47 PM
Its the star wars one. I’ll get the url. It’s what I used in PD’s.

Edie Walker
7:47 PM
I’ve never seen one

J Stearns
7:47 PM
remember that one?

John Z. Rivera
7:47 PM
star trek?

Chrystal
7:48 PM
Thanks Jose Nice Table

J Stearns
7:48 PM
Dan’s website is http://www .intellige nic.com/blog/

John Z. Rivera
7:48 PM
titled PodShip Eduprise

J Stearns
7:48 PM
Yes, Star trek

Jose Rodriguez
7:48 PM
I am listening to Bernie Dodge interview right now.

Chrystal
7:49 PM
Thanks Janice

J Stearns
7:49 PM
It looks like the link to download the script is not working: http://www .intellige nic.com/bl og/?p=16

Jose Rodriguez
7:50 PM
Thanks for the invite Janice, I have to run.

J Stearns
7:50 PM
Thanks for joining us, Jose. Talk to you later

Jose Rodriguez
7:50 PM
If anyone is available. I am hosting a webcast on the use of webquests tommorrow at 4:00 at edtechtalk.com check out http://its elementary .edublogs. org for more info

Petrain Marie King
7:51 PM
I remember janice doing this.

John Z. Rivera
7:51 PM
Janice is the best!

J Stearns
7:52 PM
I just like to borrow from the best. He said we could use it, but I need to find the post that said that.
7:52 PM
and that has the script

Chrystal
7:54 PM
80% on content, 20% on production

Petrain Marie King
7:54 PM
Love g-band

John Z. Rivera
7:55 PM
But Janice is visionary! She knew this was coming 2 years ago.

J Stearns
7:55 PM
It’s a nice introduction to Garageband
7:57 PM
Give the concept to the students and let them develop the script for the play

Dan Madsen
7:57 PM
The part of production outside of class hours does not count toward the 20%.

J Stearns
7:57 PM
Good point, Dan

Usefelias
7:58 PM
mass production=sharing

Edie Walker
7:58 PM
With the older kids, they can do most of it themselves

Petrain Marie King
7:59 PM
The monarchy did not read either

J Stearns
7:59 PM
I agree. It’s a great way for them to be in charge of their learning

Petrain Marie King
7:59 PM
they had others do that for them

J Stearns
7:59 PM
He’s talking about the fact that we have masses of producers now.

Chrystal
7:59 PM
Gutenberg created the need for a literate public

Usefelias
8:00 PM
is there a need for a web literate public?

Petrain Marie King
8:00 PM
Gut created the posibilty for democracy

Chrystal
8:00 PM
First we harvested the internet, not we are planting stuff

J Stearns
8:00 PM
Anyone read the Cult of the Amateur, by Andrew Keen. He thinks this web 2.0 is going to be our downfall. Interesting to listen to
8:01 PM
Digital Media Revolution is part of the mainstream now. How many of us buy music online now?
8:01 PM
I know I do.

John Z. Rivera
8:02 PM
I buy video online, too

Edie Walker
8:02 PM
I download all my books

J Stearns
8:02 PM
Good point. I would rather buy everything online, if I could.

Petrain Marie King
8:03 PM
I buy almost everything online… I’m keeping the post office in business

J Stearns
8:03 PM
Yeah, blogging is an important trend, according to Dan.
8:04 PM
It’s easy to publish now, just about anything.

John Z. Rivera
8:04 PM
I just ordered thermal underwear from socks.com (for my trip). Does that count?

J Stearns
8:04 PM
Yep. I’m tempted to buy groceries, but haven’t

Edie Walker
8:04 PM
of course it counts

J Stearns
8:05 PM
I like his image of the rss aggregator

Edie Walker
8:05 PM
When you put all of this together it is very powerful

J Stearns
8:06 PM
Cool. RSS rules!

John Z. Rivera
8:07 PM
We just have to reveiw this in Podcasting !a

J Stearns
8:07 PM
I never heard of Johnny Fever

Usefelias
8:07 PM
v what a great Keynote for what we’re trying this week with these teachers

John Z. Rivera
8:07 PM
WKRP in Cincinatti

J Stearns
8:07 PM
I agree, Youssef.

Usefelias
8:07 PM
PERFECY

J Stearns
8:07 PM
Right on target

Chrystal
8:07 PM
Definitely

J Stearns
8:08 PM
Oh, is that where he’s from. I remember now.

Usefelias
8:08 PM
I’m beggining to fell the excitement in the room

Edie Walker
8:08 PM
I’m getting excited, and so are my neighbors
8:09 PM
your podcast Janice

J Stearns
8:09 PM
Probably heard it from him.

Edie Walker
8:10 PM
I like knitting

Petrain Marie King
8:10 PM
Yes, he was a great choice!

John Z. Rivera
8:10 PM
We must thank Jean for getting him

J Stearns
8:10 PM
Hs way of breaking down comcepts and making them easy to understand is great.
8:10 PM
I like the illustrations.

Usefelias
8:11 PM
@janice I agree

Edie Walker
8:11 PM
He is very in line with what we are doing this week

J Stearns
8:12 PM
Wow, there are 100,000 different podcasts. I wonder how many of those are active.

Edie Walker
8:13 PM
I wonder how many are worth listening to
8:13 PM
So many podcasts, so little time

J Stearns
8:14 PM
The learning process involves INputs, transformations, and outputs, The same is true for creating a podcast. Great connections.
Usefelias
8:15 PM
@walker begin by asking people who ou trust what they’re listening to . . . and you’re off
8:15 PM
Podcastin delas with Transformatins and outputs? one or other or both?

Edie Walker
8:16 PM
Janice has a great list to start with

Petrain Marie King
8:16 PM
it is true that when I first started I was teaching more technology than anything else.

J Stearns
8:16 PM
I think the 80/20 formula is a good goal.
8:17 PM
I like the quality of the iPod recroder

John Z. Rivera
8:18 PM
we can compare this skype chat to the interactivity of a podcast because of the ability for us to participate

Usefelias
8:18 PM
tool factory podcast for the PC

J Stearns
8:19 PM
I wonder if there’s any pc tool for making enhanced podcasts. Why isn’t there some?

Usefelias
8:20 PM
Gcast.com- for phone cating, way cool

Petrain Marie King
8:20 PM
interesting the cell phone thing
Edie Walker
8:20 PM
The cell phone thing sounds like it would be convient

Petrain Marie King
8:21 PM
those recoding things don’t work too well
8:21 PM
just for a word or two
8:21 PM
interactive boards I mean

Edie Walker
8:22 PM
Smart board too?

J Stearns
8:22 PM
I like Podcast People. It works well and is easy

Usefelias
8:22 PM
SMART creates HUGE files, too big for our purposes

Petrain Marie King
8:22 PM
yea podcasts are cool

John Z. Rivera
8:22 PM
So we are going to show how to subscriibe to curricular supplements tomorrow

J Stearns
8:23 PM
Can’t reduce them easily? Maybe someone should tell Smart about that. I’ll bet they would listen

Petrain Marie King
8:23 PM
What curricular supplements?

John Z. Rivera
8:23 PM
“curricular supplements” = “educational podcasts”

Usefelias
8:23 PM
DAN IS GREAT!!!! WOW
8:24 PM
thnk of yourself as a media channel

Edie Walker
8:24 PM
and he said he has been doing it only for two years

John Z. Rivera
8:24 PM
I am a media channel. You are a media channel

Petrain Marie King
8:24 PM
I am a media channel

J Stearns
8:24 PM
Hven’t heard of the two minute soap box.
8:25 PM
http://www .intelligenic.com/soapbox/

Usefelias
8:26 PM
Battery dead
8:26 PM
bye all

J Stearns
8:26 PM
the Blooms Taxonomy http://pro jects.coe. uga.edu/ep ltt/index. php?title= Bloom%27s_ Taxonomy

John Z. Rivera
8:26 PM
Come up here and plug in

J Stearns
8:26 PM
Bye Youssef

Usefelias
8:26 PM
BRB

Petrain Marie King
8:26 PM
BRB?

John Z. Rivera
8:26 PM
Be right Back

J Stearns
8:26 PM
Be right back

Petrain Marie King
8:27 PM
oh

John Z. Rivera
8:27 PM
I win

John Z. Rivera
8:28 PM
Open House every week!

J Stearns
8:28 PM
Thinking of podcasting as an opne house. Good point

Dan Madsen
8:28 PM
This laptop is burning my legs.

J Stearns
8:28 PM
mine too

Petrain Marie King
8:28 PM
yea, but I like it

Edie Walker
8:28 PM
he has made me want to start right away and keep it going all year

John Z. Rivera
8:28 PM
Cool… examples
J Stearns added dinghygirl to this chat
8:30 PM
Petrain Marie King
8:30 PM
Is he talking English????
8:30 PM

Edie Walker
8:31 PM
Aussie

J Stearns
8:31 PM
Interviewing is great for podcasts

John Z. Rivera
8:32 PM
I am taking additional notes on this in Google Docs

J Stearns
8:32 PM
Ted Lai’s daughter’s podcast

Petrain Marie King
8:33 PM
Love it
8:33 PM
This tech savvy girlz
8:33 PM
Love it

J Stearns
8:33 PM
I saw a presentation at NECC from an Apple Distinguished Ed. They used this podcast. It must be wonderful for the students.
8:34 PM
I wonder how they are taking their fame.

Petrain Marie King
8:34 PM
Did he say they were in 1st grade?

John Z. Rivera
8:35 PM
I have gone to Disneyland with Ted Lai’s family. His wife is presenting at CUELA on Nov 3. His daughters also ice skate.

J Stearns
8:35 PM
What a great family.

Petrain Marie King
8:36 PM
Intersting the angle and ratio thing

J Stearns
8:36 PM
Great demo of using podcasing in all types of ways

Petrain Marie King
8:37 PM
I agree Janice

Edie Walker
8:37 PM
right up my alley

Petrain Marie King
8:39 PM
I tunes U… university
8:39 PM
Itunes U

J Stearns
8:41 PM
Ask a Biologist podcast http://ask abiologist .asu.edu/

Petrain Marie King
8:41 PM
I know I can get in trouble for this, but we can make our own Futures Channel stuff
8:41 PM
By we I mean the students and teacher

J Stearns
8:41 PM
60 Second Science http://www .sciam.com /podcast/s ciam_podca st_r_d.xml

Edie Walker
8:42 PM
I like the idea of a daily report of what is going on in the classroom

J Stearns
8:42 PM
Do you mean for them to create their own content similar to the futures channel?

Petrain Marie King
8:42 PM
yea, why not?

J Stearns
8:42 PM
Sounds wonderful!

Petrain Marie King
8:43 PM
I like the daily reports too
8:45 PM
John-still there?

J Stearns
8:45 PM

Dan shares his keynote with all these ideas on a podcast, Podcast 33 http://pho bos.apple. com/WebObj ects/MZSto re.woa/wa/ viewPodcas t?id=81662 781&s= 143441 &i=121 81249 and 34 http://pho bos.apple. com/WebObj ects/MZSto re.woa/wa/ viewPodcas t?id=81662 781&s= 143441 &i=121 81248

Edie Walker
8:46 PM
I want to do pod pals

Dan Madsen
8:46 PM
The daily reporter is great way to distribute access to all students over time.

Edie Walker
8:47 PM
Every one will get their turn

Petrain Marie King
8:47 PM
see, see…. future’s channel

Edie Walker
8:47 PM
and they will want to do more so their turn comes around quicker
8:49 PM
Janice, are you familar with VideoCue Pro?

J Stearns
8:50 PM
Yes, I bought this program. I havne’t had time to play with it yet
8:53 PM
Okay, now I’m going to have to spend some time and look at VideoCue Pro

Edie Walker
8:54 PM
was it expensive

J Stearns
8:54 PM
Students become the experts of the content they are sharing
8:55 PM
I can’t remember. I’ll check on the price

Edie Walker
8:56 PM
i’ll try and get Aracely to buy it
8:56 PM
or i’ll write it for donor’s choose

J Stearns
8:56 PM
I like the heads tails game.

Edie Walker
8:57 PM
me too
8:58 PM
when we are done, will we be able to access our talk
J Stearns
8:58 PM

okay. I’ll post this on my blog at http://jst earns.org/ wp
8:58 PM

bye all

Read Full Post »

For the past week, I’ve been at the Teach the Teachers Collaborative in Ojai, CA working from very early in the morning to very late at night for the entire week in a beautiful setting. It was amazing! Science teachers in Grades 4-8 reunited for a third year to develop content in science, thinking about ways to engage students using technology. The final product was a podcast episode for their unit of study. You can subscribe to the podcast at http://science-lausd.net/podcast/feed.xml . The podcasts are enhanced, so best viewed in iTunes, so the pictures can be viewed as slideshows through the artwork. The one thing I regret is that the Creative Commons, copyright, citations part of our workshop didn’t seem to get through to all of the participants. Something to work on next year. Still, the creativity in the content is wonderful. What a great start to the year. I can’t wait to see what these teachers will be doing with their students. If they allow their students to create this kind of content, WOW.

Our instructional team of ed tech coaches and facilitators worked together to show these teachers how to collaborate using Google Docs and Spreadsheets, social bookmarking through Del.icio.us, wikis, Google Earth, blogs, Flickr, how to use an RSS aggregator, and of course, how to create and publish a podcast. These teachers had an entire week to work with the tools that bring us all together. They were amazed and excited about the possibilities. Each edtech lead educator worked with a science lead educator to facilitate the learning in each classroom of 10 -15 teachers. What an amazing week!

Read Full Post »

At our Teach the Teachers Collaborative in Ojai, CA, I found out that Ian Jukes won’t be coming live tonight for our keynote address. He was delayed somewhere, so he will be coming to us virtually through Eluminate. I wanted to do a chat cast, but was asked not to because they want to make sure they had enough bandwidth for the Eluminate connection. Best laid plans sometimes need to wait. Someday, I will do the back channel chat. I think that is a good way to process information.

The title of Ian Juke’s conversation is called: Windows on the Future - Living on the Future Edge: Live a Twitch Speed

He is talking about how we aren’t changing fast enough.

He says there are 3 Exponential Trends - That no one can choose to ignore - He mentions the first, but I don’t think he ever got to mention all three trends.

1. Photonics -The 10 mbps that you can get late at night on cable is equivalent to filling a cd rom for 60 seconds. Photonics is laser light that downloads to 10 trilliom mbps. In the book, Telecosm, futurist George Gilder states that since 1977, since the first fiber was installed, bandwidth has tripled every year. This will continue for another 20 years. Bandwidth will be a trillion times faster in years to come. We can’t get comfortable with the status quo. Even wireless is getting better.

Of course he mentions the World is Flat. He says students need to compete on a global level instead of across town like 50 years ago, with not only people but machines as well. He has had to revise his book twice since the first publication. He also entions A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, explaining that left brain thinking is being outsourced and automated. I now think that every speaker needs to mention The World is Flat and a Whole New Mind to make what they are talking about relevant. What is amazing that there were many people in the audience that hadn’t heard of the books.

Ian then asked several questions: What do we teach kids, and what will they be able to do with what they know for the future? What are we doing to prepare our students?

He then opened this question up to the audience: What steps can you take to ensure that all of your students develop the essential skills including creativity training to succeed in this radically emerging exponential environment.
The answers from the audience:

• Global communication, opportunity to make a positive contribution to the society.
• We need to engage students in authentic learning where learning has purpose and meaning.
• We need to teach them how to learn.

Ian says there is a lack of value in education. People want to criticize kids for using technology and that they lack communication skills. but rather - the social skills that students have are different and are transparent for students. These tools complement the communication tools. Talks about the neurological differences between digital natives and digital immigrants. Trying to teach all of the standards is impossible. Students need to have a fundamentally different set of skills. Students need access to communications skills. Give them the habits of mind to learn for themselves. What gets measured gets done. What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done. We have a culture of dependency that gets reinforced with NCLB.

It seems that Ian only talked for a short 3o minutes with lots of comments from the audience. I always enjoy his talk. It seemed so short tonight.
Technorati Tags: lausd ianjukes tttc07

Read Full Post »

I arrived without a hitch in the airport at Atlanta yesterday. From reading the posts in Hitchhikr, it seems many from around the country are beginning to arrive also. Mark Wagner wasn’t as lucky as me. His plane, coming from the John Wayne airport, had to be redirected to Los Angeles. At last post, he had a two hour delay. I hope he makes it in okay, ready for the edublogger conference today.

As I was sitting yesterday outside, trying to figure out what I wanted to do, David Warlick drove up to register. I waved, but of course, he has no idea who I am. The funny thing is that at last year’s NECC, we stayed in the same hotel also. I really know how to pick them. Last year’s hotel pick really wasn’t the best, but being able to walk home from the Edublogger meet up with him was something I won’t forget. It’s wonderful to meet someone you admire so much, and to find that he is just as friendly and personable as he seems to be from reading his blogs and listening to his podcasts.

I look forward to a week filled with meeting educators from around the world. On the shuttle ride from the airport yesterday, I met an educator from Missouri and one from Florida. We made connections about open source software and video conferencing. It’s so fun to talk with others about their experiences with using technology to engage students. The edublogoshere is wonderful, but meeting people face to face is truly an experience.

Today’s Edublogger Conference will be filled with those kinds of experiences. I will be able to meet and connect with people whom I highly respect, from around the world. I only know them by the ideas they share on their blogs, podcasts, or webcasts. But today, I’ll get to meet them. How exciting!

Technorati Tags: necc2007 neccprep necc07

Read Full Post »

I’ve published the first in a two part series of a conversation I had with Mr. Howard Johnston, a literacy coach at Corona Ave. Elementary. He talks about how he uses technology in his job as a literacy coach and also how he used technology when he was a classroom teacher. Howard is an outstanding educator. He was wonderful to interview. I really enjoy talking with him always. He has so many great ideas on how to use technology not only for learning, but for working smarter. You can find the podcast here:

District 6 EdTech Podcast 

Read Full Post »