Monthly Archives: February 2009

Feb 19 2009

What I Learned Yesterday

To put a cap on the end of the day yesterday, I threw out a Tweet indicating that it was a great day of learning and I was headed home.  It was a long day.  I was in place before 6:00am and didn’t leave for home until after 6:30pm.  Throw in travel time to get to and from and it does add up.

Anyway, to my surprise, I had a number of people twitter back asking what I had learned.  What a nice surprise so I figure … hey, why not use that as a basis for a post this morning.

It’s kind of difficult to know where to start and since I was facilitating and not notetaking, this is probably all out of order but, hey, here goes.  As it normally does, a discussion of standardized testing sneaked its way into things and I visualized how it might work.  After all, that’s the top down model.  Wish I had my hands on a computer at the time as I could have created this Crappy Graph.

So, I guess I was the person with the edict for today because I drew up the agenda.  Now, I know all of the folks that were there and some were part of this group for a few years so the reality was that it looked more like

which suited me fine because I was there for the learning too.
So, here’s what I learned…
  • agendas are nice and give you a sense that you have a plan when you think like the first image but get quickly ignored when your reality is the second image.  But, hey, we were accountable – we had an agenda.
  • I wasn’t the only person who worked my way through high school as a lifeguard, instructor and examiner for the Royal Life Saving Society;
  • when people with laptops need power, they pull out anything that’s currently plugged in to save their bacon.  Mental note – pack power bars in the future;
  • we’re doing all right.  One of our members signed up to take a course online and felt that it was pretty low level compared to his abilities;
  • we’re doing better than all right.  I sat next to a member who had directories and directories of personally crafted notebooks.  When you’re this good, nothing but your own personally crafted resources will do;
  • this group was on the same page as me.  We want to use video but we want it embedded in a lesson so that it is truly seamless;
  • kindergarten teachers continually amaze me; we embeded video and then extracted scenes to teach sequencing and retelling;
  • I’m starting to use the phrase “SMART Boards are not today’s version of a drive-in theatre” too much (actually, let me amend that.  It’s a message that needs to be repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated);
  • the quiet one (at least when I’m around) creates some amazing things;
  • data projectors don’t run forever;
  • we’re going to do a read-a-thon event between two classrooms using Adobe Connect;
  • the “new guy” didn’t follow my advice and is now paying the price;
  • there are far more wikis running around this board than I ever dreamed possible.  And, they’re being used for collaboration although we don’t use that word;
  • I’m not a real blogger because Will Richardson says … wait until I talk to that guy next week;
  • I need to check my calendar more often so I don’t drive from Windsor to Essex for my 4 o’clock workshop only to find out that the workshop is indeed in Windsor;
  • there are 14 minutes of idling time on Huron Church according to my GPS if you hit all the red lights rushing back to Windsor;
  • I now know that there are some people with amazingly high end cameras;
  • not everyone knows the difference between Cottam and Comber;
  • we’ve got some more movies ready to roll with the RCA Small Wonders;
  • the appropriate codecs aren’t installed on all computers;
  • there are incredible teacher professionals that will turn out from 4-6 after a long day of work for a PD session;
  • our original team is very cohesive – the quiet one couldn’t join us but checked in last night to find out what she missed;
  • we had some shared learning by exploring a 3D environment by folks sight unseen and they did a great job;
  • the group is increasing their role of evangelists for the cause – people are now flying in for sessions;
  • it’s great to work together and walk away with product and inspiration.

That’s a quick summary of what comes to mind at present.  If I recall other things, I’ll add them.  It was an awesome day of learning for me and I hope for the others in the group.

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Feb 19 2009

links for 2009-02-18

Feb 18 2009

Rethinking

After a weekend of getting beat up, Facebook has decided to step back from its change in the Terms of Service.

Well, at least for the moment.

The story broke with this entry.  All kinds of comments and outrage ensued and the concern was that by using the service without having to acknowledge the new terms was agreement in itself of the new terms.

The action even spawned a new group on Facebook itself called “People Against the new Terms of Service (TOS)“.

Logging in to the Facebook service this morning, users are presented with the message from the Facebook management indicating that have reverted to the previous terms of service.  There is an indication though that the policy may come back upon review.

In the meantime, this whole situation should serve as a wake up call for those who use online services.  See a previous post.

For all, it should serve notice that it’s time to check out your online digital identity to ensure that you still agree with the terms that you’ve agreed to.

You read them when you signed up, right?

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Feb 18 2009

links for 2009-02-17

Feb 17 2009

Wisdom Needed

As I prepare for a computer planning meeting this morning, my mind starts to wander as it often does.

I keep thinking about how the use of a computer is essential to most things that I do.  While the computer is an integral part, the connection to the Internet is just as crucial.

I’m also thinking of the students that we deal with, and in fact we’re planning for, in the upcoming meeting.  They are in the same boat and will become increasingly reliant on computers, technology, connectiveness, networking, … as they go through life.

It’s not just a whim.  It’s a part of life.  Effective, and not just a passing, use and knowlege is so important.

We try to illustrate the connections to computers and technology where possible.  At secondary school, there are entire courses devoted to the use of computers.  There’s a new Computer Studies stream of courses to be released in September.  We also offer online courses to students for a variety of reasons.

And yet, it is possible, with careful student planning to graduate without significant instruction or acquisition of skills and ethics.  We say that we want students to be motivated, life long learners.  We want the best in literacy and numeracy and so much more.

But, it’s got to be more than just being able to fill in a template for a “powerpoint”. 

I sure would like a crystal ball, magic wand, or just plain old inspiration to solve this.

Oh, and money.  Money would really help.

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Feb 17 2009

links for 2009-02-16

Feb 16 2009

Digitally Global

A couple of news stories that should help put things in perspective for people.  Facebook’s new Terms of Service were put under scrutiny for you to read here.  The bottom line indicates that, in its application, you give your content to Facebook forever regardless of whether you terminate your account there or not.

So, protect your digital identity and just don’t post things that you don’t want appearing later on in your life in the most embarrassing or worse situations.  It’s good advice and something that should go through your mind every time you post something.  What would my family think of this?  What would my employer think?  What would my bank think?

In a digital world, things are prudently archived so that services can be restored in the event of a hard drive or other computer failure happen.  Is it even realistic to think that a service with millions of users is going to remove your content, not only of the live visible, but of all of its backups and archival content?

So, a couple of other major digital stories are in the news.  First Pirate Bay goes on trial for charges of file sharing.  The coverage will be broadcast live in Swedish but folks have been asked to


Image via Wikipedia

translate and post it to Twitter for the world to follow.  The owners have already noted that, even if they lose, the system will remain live because their service isn’t hosted in just one country.

Yesterday, Alec Courosa asked of Twitter followers how to report an act of animal cruelty.  That seemed like a bizarre post, at the time, and Alec had posted a link to a YouTube video that h

ad spiked his concern.  By the time I had read it, the link was dead with a message from YouTube that the content had been removed.  Problem solved?  Of course not.  It’s digital.  This morning, Alec blogged about his experience, how he found out about the video in the first place, and a link to a news report from KWSO television where it was featured as the lead story on the site this Monday morning.  The news report also goes into how the identify of the people involved was determined and it involved other online services.

So, did a simple removal of the link from YouTube solve the problem?  Of course, not.  It’s digital and it survived the removal.  You’ve just got to know that the original exists on archive at YouTube and will be subject to subpoena should the District Attorney decide to press charges.

These stories would not have so much visibility had it not been for the sensational nature of their content.  A video of animal cruelty draws more attention than a story about some youths helping out at the local animal shelter.  Creators seem to really push for the sensational to garner as much attention as possible.  There may be a price though.  How will this play for family and potential employers?

The nature of such digital content is that it may long survive the single incident.  All of this is new territory for education and is something that needs to be part of every child’s education.  We need to develop and continue to stress the impact of the choices that are made when delving into the digital domain.  It’s not all bad – there are great things that you can do to develop an impactful digital identity.  But, if a digitally global environment, you need to understand the potential reach and implications of anything posted.

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Feb 16 2009

links for 2009-02-15

Feb 15 2009

A Lead from Texas

I haven’t been this excited or motivated to learn something – well, since Friday – because I’m always learning and messing around with things.  But, this cost me money so I figured the least I could do is blog about it…

Saturday, I was sitting in rec room watching my Twitter stream going by and was just amazed that there were so many people doing so many things at such a fast rate.  It’s just humbling to see so much going on and I just wish that I could stay on top of it.  I learned a long time ago that it’s fruitless to even try so I just hop in and learn when I can and just let the other stuff fly by.

There was a post from Paul R Wood that caught my eye.  I’ve never met Paul although I would like to.  His bio indicates that he’s a Directory of Technology at a High School in Texas.  He’s got a great blog called “What is your IT vision?” and an interesting blogroll with the usual suspects listed.  I haven’t made his list but that’s OK.  In a world where people’s avatars depict themselves with some sort of artistic slant, he’s got a head and shoulder shot wearing a shirt, tie, and jacket.  Having enjoyed the heat of San Antonio at last year’s NECC, that’s certainly impressive.  The intriguing thing though, is that when he posts, it’s generally noteworthy and something that I know will interest me.

So, I’m sitting here with my laptop open creating a blog post and watching television.  Every time Twhirl signals incoming content from Twitter, I take a peek.  Then, from Paul I read this.

I’m a sucker for the obscure and my blog post couldn’t become more disjointed so I windows-tab over to Firefox and do a search for Airmouse iphone.  After all, I’ve seen and used “airmice” before but it was the iPhone reference that interested me.  Not that I have an iPhone or anything, but I do have an iPod Touch.  The first result looks promising so I congratulate myself for my Level 4 Google searching skills and check it out.  This looks interesting.  It’s a well crafted website and I’m also a sucker for the texturized black look.  I read the list of features and am immediately more than casually interested.  There are three download links so I grab the Windows file as the whole package appears to require a server on the host computer.  Download; virus check; install.  Life is good.  Now to get the download for the iPod.  It’s hosted on iTunes which isn’t bad.  After all, Apple has great connectivity and throughput.

Whoa!

And prices.  Holy sticker shock.  Now, I am a real fan of the free applications.  There are so many of them that I’ve never had to delve much into the commercial side.  The one thing that’s so difficult with the commercial iPhone applications is that you can’t really try them before you buy them.  You have to rely on the goodness of developers to provide you with a “Lite” version so that you get a sense before clicking on the buy button.  No option for that here.  And, it’s going to be $5.99 plus Canadian taxes.  However, I did buy Twitterific and it was a good choice.  Yet, this product is even more expensive.

But, you know what?  If Paul says it’s sweet, it’s probably worth the over six bucks that it’s going to cost me.  It’ll be my Valentine Day gift to myself.  It’s not that I’m overly cheap, I think, but if I bought everything that I saw on a whim, the dog would have to take Milkbones out of his regular diet.  Fortunately, I even have a balance on iTunes thanks to a gift card for a presentation I did, so the whole process becomes that much easier.

A click through and a short download later and I’m now the proud owner of the new package.  Now, I decide to read the Troubleshooting link on the website.  This doesn’t look good.  I just paid good money and all of this might happen?  After all, I have a very strong firewall application installed on this machine.  Sure enough, when I go to connect, Comodo recognizes that some external force is attempting to talk to my computer.  Please, please let it through…and it does.

What happens next is just as sweet as Paul’s original post.  Not only does this application allow me to control things on my computer ala a regular mouse, but I’ve got a panel for browsing, a panel for controlling media, a keyboard, and function keys.

The possibilities for the use of this in my regular computer routine start to fill my mind.  This is definitely a keeper and worth the price.

A great deal went into making this happen.  I just happened to be online when Paul’s post went buy.  The developers had a web presence that was reliable and responsive.  The iTunes store worked as it should — receipt was emailed to me later on yesterday afternoon – that part always works!

But most importantly, having the right connections made the whole process possible.  If Mr. Wood knocked on my front door, I wouldn’t recognize him and I might open the door a crack and ask “whaddya want?”.  However, in the right circles and with the appropriate level of trust and credibility, I got an awesome suggestion for success.

I twittered back and forth with Paul after the install, most assuredly thanking him for the lead.  I’m sure that, wherever he was in Texas, he had no idea that his words would serve as inspiration for some schmuck with a laptop in Ontario.  But it did, and I’m so glad that it did.  If our paths do cross some day, I owe him a lemonade and a handshake in appreciation.

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Feb 15 2009

links for 2009-02-14