Monthly Archives: August 2009

Aug 31 2009

We’ve Got Work to Do

In the past week, I’ve had a couple of Twitter conversations with some very intelligent people.

In one conversation, it went something like this “Isn’t Twitter that place where people tell other people where they are using Google Maps?”  In the other case, I asked one of my best friends why he wasn’t using Twitter or Facebook.  His response was “Who cares what I had for breakfast?” and “Who cares if I just had a bowel movement?”

I was taken aback by the comments in both cases.  These are people that I respect and admire for their accomplishments and for the things that they do on a regular basis.  How could they get it so wrong?  For the most part, I think it’s the effect of the traditional media.

As I type this, there’s a story on the news about banning Twittering during the US Tennis Open.  Huh?  Apparently, they’re concerned about exposing details?  This is the same media that gives us radar guns for serve speeds in tennis, helmet cams in auto racing to see how to change a tire, a microphone on a coach in the Little League World Series, or a floating camera over a football field to give us a look into the backfield.  What are they worried about?  Could it be that Twitter provides deeper insight to the game that they’re not able to broadcast using their traditional media?

So, what about the breakfast thing?  (or other things)  I set up a search in Seesmic Desktop and yes, someone is having “donuts for breakfast”, or “Breakfast with Rod”, or someone is eating at a “bed and breakfast”.  Over the weekend, Gary Stager directed people to the Ustream of Senator Kennedy’s funeral and some of the inane comments made by the community that were injected into the middle of solemn recognition of a life of politics.

Unfortunately, these are the things that make the news, not the stories that show the successful use of technologies.  I recall a couple of weeks ago when I presented at the ACSE Computer Science Conference.  Interest picked up when I showed how I was using Seesmic Desktop to follow the conversation about the Google Chrome Browser and the Google Chrome OS.  I gave a list of some of the Computer Science educators that I follow on Twitter and there were a number of new Twitter accounts created immediately.  I know because a bunch of them decided to follow me.


Image by luc legay via Flickr

I value the folks that I interact with on a daily basis.  I try to give a shout out on #FollowFriday because I enjoy their contributions and I do my best to throw it back to them.  Over the couple of years that I have been using Twitter, I have learned so much because of the efforts of these progressive educators.  I appreciate the feedback of people who have found terrific resources or share their successes with new software.

At the recently completed NECC Conference, I sat in on a couple of Web 2.0 presentations and inevitably there was a quick Twitter demo.  The demonstration gave what as an example?  “Here’s what I had for lunch…” types of comments.

It’s no wonder why people don’t take this technology seriously.  For every advocate in a school district or within a school itself, how many other colleagues are onside with them?  It’s a sad few.  Yet, we have a whack of computers and better internet access than ever in these locations.

It seems to me that we need to have better public relations screaming the successes, the opportunities, and the real value of getting involved and cultivating a network that makes you better at whatever you do.  If we’re going to make this work, we’ve got lots of work ahead of us.

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Aug 31 2009

links for 2009-08-30

Aug 30 2009

Inspiration by Quotation

I’m feeling a little experimental this morning and so decided to pull together a bunch of web resources to see what I could do.

First, I was looking for content so I went to my favourite web resource for quotations (http://quotationspage.com) and did a search for education.  There were 15 pages of quotes and I immediately got side tracked as I read them and then remembered that I was on a mission here.  Back to the project.

I then went to Prezi to access an online presentation package.  Prezi is an online presentation program that allows for zooming in and out and gives a really nice break from YAPP.  (Yet Another Powerpoint Presentation).  I created a presentation at the Prezi website and you can see it here.  The content was simply a copy and paste job from the Quotations Page.

http://prezi.com/gh5mjlzexngb/

This approach forces the end user to actually leave this blog entry to take a look at the presentation.  The best option would be to embed the presentation right into the page.  Unfortunately, Prezi does allow for sharing of a link but it’s limited to sending the link to recipients like I’ve done above.

How to embed?

I’ll just do a little iframe magic to do the embed and rats … WordPress filters it out.  Hmmm.

It embeds nicely into PBWorks as shown here.

Looks like I’ve got a little work before this experiment is complete.

View Presentation

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Aug 30 2009

links for 2009-08-29

Aug 29 2009

The Little Bitty Bandwagon

I really like it when I run into someone who disagrees with me.  It’s an opportunity to see how the other side thinks.  They’re usually wrong, but hey! Thanks, GreyArea

It’s equally as nice to run into someone who agrees with you as it goes to affirm your thoughts and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll notice that there was no entry yesterday – I was without a traditional internet connection for a day and so had the ability to post whatever I might have, thwarted.

Now, I could have posted something with my Blackberry and actually got started but just got so frustrated.

At our Vision to Practice Conference, I did get a chance to have dinner with David Warlick and we got a chance to talk about portable computing devices.  David is really direct with his questions and so asked me if the Blackberry or the iPhone qualifies as a legitimate replacement for a desktop or laptop computer.  I didn’t have to give it a thought at all – for me the answer is no.


Image by Getty Images via Daylife

My work provides me with a Blackberry and I’ve purchased an iPod personally and I really like both of them.  But, they’ll never replace a laptop or desktop as my primary device any time soon.  I do enjoy blogging and have downloaded the WordPress application for both devices.  In theory, I could do everything from one or the other or both, but I don’t and won’t.

For a week, a while back, I experimented with a week’s worth of blogging on the smaller unit and it worked but it just didn’t cut it for me.  Once posted, I found mistakes with the auto-suggestion feature, I found that my writing was shorter and didn’t really fully develop the topic I was trying to address, and I was just plain tired from all the tapping that it took to put something together.  Forget proofreading, there just wasn’t enough screen to fully view the post.  Thanks to my high school English teachers, I know that writing is a great deal more than just getting the spelling correct.

It was comforting to discover that David felt the same way.

What we did agree on though was that the portable devices are fantastic for doing what they do best.  For short, sequential reading, or internet access or a single focus application, they really are convenient.  I can sit on the patio and still do a little browsing without lugging a laptop out and that’s very convenient.  But, I don’t have the functionality that I’ve come to expect with my regular routines.  I miss Firefox and my add-on customizations.  I miss my ability to have multiple applications open at the same time.  I miss access to Diigo should I find something that’s worthy of bookmarking.

Two applications help me bridge the gap – Evernote and Instapaper are terrific for remembering resources of note for later reference when I get to a regular sized and powered machine.

Don’t look for my iPod to be on sale on Kijiji any time soon.  It’s got its place but for my regular routine, I won’t be making a total switch any time soon.  I don’t mind dissenting opinions – feel free to tell me where I’m wrong.  I just don’t see me jumping on this bandwagon at the expense of everything that I do.

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Aug 29 2009

links for 2009-08-28

Aug 28 2009

links for 2009-08-27

Aug 27 2009

Poise

I put my Blackberry on a counter yesterday and consequently missed the opportunity to take a picture and I really had intended to do so.  I could kick myself.

It was Day 3 at the Vision to Practice Conference and time for our full-day session dealing with SMART Boards.  The morning is an introduction to possibility and the afternoon was an opportunity to learn how to create their own personally crafted notebooks.  It’s also an opportunity to share some implementation strategies – this is not a drive in theatre, this is not an excuse for full-class instruction, this is not just a big monitor for your computer.  This is part of a suite of tools that you have to reach out and immerse students in whatever the topic de jour is.

Engagement and immersion in the subject matter is the goal.  So, into the conference meeting room we had set up 5 of our stations which include a mobile stand for the SMART Board, the media cart containing the computer, data projector, speakers, and LCD monitor.

The point of this post is not the content of the workshop.

Before we went down this road as a district, we field tested our setup with five teachers.  The group, known as ELTIP (Early Literacy Technology Integration Project) were given a setup for their exclusive use and learned together the possibilities and ways that this admittedly intrusive setup could be used in their classroom.  Obviously, they were successful, but the aspect of the project that has always impressed me was the fact that they were not able to find perfect resources and so created their own.  Even more importantly, the students collaborated and helped shape the resources as they were developed.  I’ve been in their classes and I know that all of them are totally alive with authentic activity.

It was a big step but eventually this group felt that their resources were “done enough” to share with other teachers in the system through our internet conferencing system.  The next commitment was to ask them to lead a session at a Vision to Practice Conference three years ago.  I remember so clearly our summer meetings with the angst of the presentation and the emails flowing non-stop about how nervous they were to share their expertise with others.  They persisted and pulled off a couple of sessions and served as motivation and inspiration for their colleagues.

That unleashed monsters.  Since that initial presentation, along with me, they have become standing presenters at following Vision conferences, at the RCAC Symposium, and are constantly asked to come and present at other schools during PD Days or at after-school sessions.  The original nervousness has been replaced by confidence and competence.

So, yesterday, I do the opening hour and then step aside as the hall breaks down into smaller work groups.  I went to the back of the hall and watched and then moved in to each of the groups to observe what was happening.  What I saw was a high level of professionalism and incredible poise in the delivery of their content.  In preparation years ago, I explained how I never use speaker notes and read to the audience and we had agreed at the time that this approach, which requires more work, is preferable.  There was nary a note in sight.

Instead, it was professional educators shooting from the hip showing what they know about the technology and how to use it.  You could envision this used in a centre to complement the other activities that happen in the classroom.  You could see the students digging deeper into the subject matter.

I was so proud of this group and am happy that I’m part of it.  The poise and confidence that was exhibited yesterday should serve as motivation for those in attendance.

And yes, I missed the photo opportunity.  I would have had to interrupt some of this learning to grab my Blackberry with the camera.

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Aug 27 2009

links for 2009-08-26

Aug 26 2009

A Blogging Routine

I received another comment yesterday “When do you find the time to blog?”

I started to think about it and realized that blogging is something that I’ve made into my regular daily routine.  When I was a child, my parents had a regular daily routine for my brother and me.  As a parent, it was important to have my kids have routines.

As an educator, I developed a routine devoted to the profession.  As a Computer Science teacher, I solved all of the problems that we did in class and that I would give students for homework and tests.  First of all, it was to make sure that it could be done with the current skills that the students had, was challenging enough to immerse the most motivated of students, and to determine how long it would take.  I figure that the keeners would take half the time that I did.

So, when I turned to blogging as a release, I decided to turn it into part of my computer routine.  Like most folks, I’m on online in the evening doing this and that.  In a consulting position, there is a never ending flow of email so staying on top of it all is important.  To that routine, I added blogging. 

After all, how long could it take?

Well, in the beginning, it took forever.  In the beginning, I probably used the wrong tools and was forever searching for something to say.  Many times, I almost decided to pack it in.  However, looking critically at time, I found that it became easier and was less of an forced task.  Then, it became fun.  Then, I realized that by forcing myself to write about something, I was becoming more aware of things.  By doing the research or reading for inspiration, I was actually creating a journal or book of my thinking and writing.  Now, I’m hooked.  I’ve got the right tools with either Scribefire or the Flock editor depending upon what computer I’m using at the time.

I typically have a bunch of half-brainstormed ideas stored on a computer for polishing and will work on something in the evenings mentally or on the computer and then finish it off and publish in the morning.  It’s a routine that’s worked very well for me.  By giving myself license to write about anything that comes to mind, I can have an opinion and write about just about anything.

The kind comments by folks on the blog, through Twitter, or to my Facebook account make it all worthwhile.  The biggest inspiration is to realize that someone actually reads what I’ve got to write.

The best advice that I could give a potential blogger is to consider where you could put a few minutes into your regular routine and then just do it.  Over time, you’ll really appreciate your efforts.

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