Monthly Archives: April 2010

Apr 10 2010

links for 2010-04-09

Apr 9 2010

A List to Be On

As I sat in on Wendy Drexler’s presentation to the Powerful Learning Practice group last night, there was one point that was of immediate interest to me.  She was explaining how her students researched during the project but posed the question “Are they accessing all the nodes that they could” during their research.  You’ve got to believe that the answer to that for them, and probably for all people, is no.  We all have our favourite habits and resources and we turn to them first and typically find either what we’re looking for or enough to get the job done.

But, it’s understandable.  How do you know all the nodes and resources that you should be using?  If there ever was a case for qualified and eager teacher librarians in schools that’s got to be one of the things on the list.  No question.

I then received a message from a friend of the “Top 10 Educational Blogs”.  I think that most educators who pay attention to the web either receive this message or note it when it gets reference by a Twitter user.  I’m sure that it started out as a really good idea but when you take a look, it was a list created by someone and there are references there to blogs that haven’t been updated for quite some time.  So, if that node doesn’t provide what you want, what can?

You can always turn to your favourite search engine.  Chances are, if it’s out there, it will be indexed and you might just hit gold.

But, there’s another alternative.

The International Edubloggers Directory is something worth investigating.  It’s unique in that members of this directory are self-identified.  You need to apply to get into the directory.  At present, there are over 1000 educational blogs that are there.

You may have seen this logo in your tour of the internet.  When you apply, you get your own unique numbered badge or graph suitable for inclusion on your blog.  The members of this directory come from all over the globe and there are general and specialized blogs of all sorts.  While many will probably never make a “top 10 list”, there is so much good reading there.

So, if you’re an educational blogger, I would encourage you to register with this directory, get your badge and display it on your blog.  Let the world know that you’ve got an active resource and to come on over.  For me, I’m sure that I’m on a lot of lists <grin>, but this is one that I’m proud to be on.

Apr 9 2010

links for 2010-04-08

Apr 8 2010

Divergent Thinking

@pmcash is a very bright man.  I had the pleasure of taking additional qualification courses with him a couple of years ago.  Well, more than a couple but who’s counting?  Peter, John, and I kind of got away with murder at the course.  Since our initial degrees were in Computer Science, the assignments that were given to the class were child’s play.  So, we had the old teacher trick thrown on us.  ”Why don’t you guys create your own advanced project?”

We did and had a great time with it.  It was also a foreshadowing of life as a Computer Science teachers – there really isn’t the perfect textbook.  As a Computer Science teacher, you gather ideas and projects from all over the place to interest, motivate and inspire your students.  If you’ve ever taught Computer Science, you know what I mean.  If you’re not a Computer Science teacher, you really need to drop in to a Computer Science classroom to see some of the brightest students in action.  It’s the one subject area where you can see collaboration taken to the extreme and you can literally see students think.  If you want to see a “thinkaloud” in action for real purposes, watch a Computer Science student work on and try to solve a problem with their group.

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about getting text from your computer into an eBook format and then ultimately onto your iPod.  I can’t test it myself but I’m sure that the same technique would work with an iPad.  Peter was the sole respondent and his words “I think us “old guys” (that includes you) are good at this sort of divergent thinking related to computers because we’ve been at it for so long!” really hit a chord.  As Peter notes, we cut our teeth on computers where there wasn’t always an “app for that”.  If there wasn’t, we just wrote one.  It’s something that lingers to this date.  Every computer I own has a programming language on it just in case I need to do something.  As I proofread yesterday’s post, I noted that it was a little more technical than I usually write.  I’m still trying to shake this nerdy personna I got from hanging around with Peter!  As an aside, Peter showed up in my session at last summer’s CEMC Summer Institute for Computer Studies Teachers and it was like we had been teaching together all along.  After all this time, we still had the passion for the subject and its discipline.

Within the past week, I’ve had to help out a couple of good friends who had the unfortunate situation of a virus landing on their computer.  In one case, it was a quite nasty one and took a while to clean it up.  I just hope that I got it all.  It reinforced in my mind some of the computing habits that are so prevalent these days.  Click on something and get instant gratification and you really don’t need to know how it all works, do you?  After all, I can drive a car  but I don’t need to know how to change the engine.

I’ve always found that statement interesting.   When things do go wrong with computers and they have to take it in for repair, patience is not a real virtue.  ”I don’t have all day; can’t you just do something and make it all better?”  It reminds me of this clip.

For a long time now, we’ve hung onto the notion that the kids know it all and so there’s no role for the teacher.  Just let a kid do it.

But, where do they get their skills?  Where do they get the problems to solve?  Where can they think outside the curriculum for unique and new solutions?

I was so hopeful that, with the release of the new Computer Studies Curriculum in Ontario, that there would be a compulsory course in Computer Studies.  Sure, there are computer skills that are taught in some classes, but there’s more to computer use than “doing a Powerpoint”.  The whole idea of divergent thinking and problem solving are so crucial.  Where else but in a computer studies class can we provide all of the good things that we want in education, use in many subject areas, but can place them consistently in a computer context?

Word is that there is planning at the Ministry about understanding how ICT fits into an already full curriculum.  We have leaders like Dr. Spence from TDSB onside as reported in the current issue of the MindShareLearning Report out front leading a system.

And we have cutting edge thinkers like Peter.  Let’s hold him to his promise.  “I’ll give the student publishing concept a try in my IDC3O class next year.”

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Apr 8 2010

links for 2010-04-07

Apr 7 2010

Portable Publishing

This will be a shaggy dog post but I hope that you hang in there because I do believe that I have a point.

Here goes.

I’m a Charlie Chan fan.  I think that the character developed by Earl Derr Biggers was genius.  In the movies, there were three actors who played Chan and every fan has their favourite.  Mine was Sidney Toler.  He delivered some of the most classic of lines from the series including one that still cracks me up, in reference to Jimmy Chan passing himself off as “Mr. Chan”.  The line is priceless.   “Young squirt merely chip masquerading as block.”

Anyway, over the years, I would watch for Chan re-runs – they used to be on Detroit television on Saturday mornings.  Then, I received some DVDs for a Christmas present and I also purchased some books which have been well read.  Given the dates on the works, I thought that the Chan stories would be past copyright dates and would be a great idea for Project Gutenburg.  I was so sorry to note that none of the Chan series was stored there.  There was one by Biggers called The Agony Column but it wasn’t what I wanted.

So, I looked south and sure enough, found stories at the Gutenburg Australian project.  There is a nice collection available for download.  So, I grabbed the classic “The House Without a Key” and dug in.

There was a problem though.  The book is there in all its fidelity but it’s a very long text file.  How do I bookmark it since it will take multiple days to read the book.  What to do, what to do.  Then, it hit me.  Why not put it on my iPod?  After all, I have a number of eBooks there and read them using the excellent Stanza application.  Now for some problem solving.  I have a text file on my computer; I could have the text file on my computer; but I want more than that.  I want it to be an eBook.  A little digging around and I realize I need to get the file into ePub format.  Back to the Lexcycle website where there’s a version of Stanza for Windows.  It opens my Chan novel perfectly.  Even better, there’s an option to export the story to ePub format.  I’m getting so close that I can taste it!

So, here’s the file on my computer on my right hand and my iPod on the left.  How do I get it from here to there?  There are probably a million ways but it seems to me that this was a perfect opportunity to use Dropbox.  I upload my ePub document there.

Now, my attention turns to the iPod.

I turn it on and select the “Get Books” option from within the Stanza application.  Next, from the “Shared” tab, I set up a new source for my book – my Dropbox.  A login and password and I’m there and so is my eBook.  I just select it, a quick download later, and my book is on my iPod.  Open it up and I’m reading!

iPhone Image E14DB8

This has opened a number of doors for me.  I’ve put some of the books on my iPhone and a couple on my iPod as shown above.

Now, other than my tangent for reading Charlie Chan novels on my portable device, there must surely be an educational application.  And, I’m thinking this is a big one and a win for literacy.  There are iPod projects all over the place and some interesting uses.  Unfortunately, much of what I see uses the device as a “consumer” of information.  Go to Google, do some research.  Go to a map, map some distances.  Wouldn’t it be grand if students could become “producers” of information?

Let’s head over to the writing process and look at the publishing component.  In some cases, it’s handwriting.  In some cases, it’s over to a word processor.  In some cases, it’s to a desktop publishing program or a web page or a wiki or a blog…

How about turning original writing into ePub works of publishing?  How about turning class writing projects to eBooks?  How about posting those eBooks on line at school web pages?  How about downloading and reading the efforts of a class?  How about a portable outline for a speech?  It’s not a new concept, Robert Sawyer used it a few years ago when he delivered his keynote address at Symposium with notes recorded on his portable device so that he wasn’t forced to stay in one spot.  The Stanza application is the perfect tool for this.

And, the results are very professional.  Just like a professional product, any writing can be published in this format, you turn the pages to manipulate the book but, most importantly, readers dig into the stories which are now highly published and refined for an audience.

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Apr 7 2010

links for 2010-04-06

Apr 6 2010

Paperless

As I click around the board’s website, it’s interesting to zip in on classes and teacher links from individual school websites.  There was a time when it was in vogue for everyone to have a website.  It showed that you were on top of technology and were really ready to embrace the internet.  But, class and teacher websites are more than just static webpages.  After all, that is so 1990s!

Now, you’ll see more interactive and engaging presences.  More than just a single page with some text on it, you’ll see a more contemporary and interesting use of web-based technologies.

You’ll see wikis; you’ll see weeblys, you’ll see blogs.  All of these are efforts to reach out and draw the internet visitor whether it be student, parent, colleague, or principals into the process.  Instead of just reading, you’re invited to explore, comment, and provide feedback.

You’ll also see entire courses delivered online through eLearning Ontario. 

There are many reasons to do all this.

  • for some, it’s a recognition that the internet today isn’t the libraries of days gone by;
  • for some, it’s an opportunity to avoid the lineups at the photocopier;
  • for some, it’s a way to post testing activities online with immediate feedback to the student;
  • for some, it’s a logical way to connect the dots from traditional teaching to interactive web-based activities;
  • for some, it’s a modern way to support the home/school connection;
  • for some, it’s a way to support the creativity and originality of students;
  • for some, it’s used to exploit the fact that students have great technology and connections at home;
  • for some, it’s a recognition that great things don’t happen alone;
  • for some, it’s just the right thing to do.

I recall the good old days when my monthly newsletter was delivered to the system on paper.  It was a real labour of love.  I used a font that had to be installed on every computer that I used.  Then, it was into Microsoft Publisher to make it look attractive.  There were real challenges in editing.  The worst part was making the newsletter “fit”.  I grew real respect for newspaper and magazine editors.  Filling blank space with clipart was just part of the deal.  Editing out long text so that you don’t run over to the next page was a very tedious task.  Then, when I finally had it copy ready, it was off to my secretary to make many, many copies.  Not only did we use all that paper, but we used the really good coloured paper and made sure that we changed the colour every month to make the newsletter stand out.

Linking took on new meaning.  First, to make reference to internet website, there were lots of testing of URLs to make sure that they worked.  No clicking through at that time.  One little character out of place was the difference between success and a phone call to get the real URL.  The only physical sign of linking was the staple in the corner where two pages were linked.

Thank goodness that we’ve got the technology pushing us on.  Today, like our schools, my electronic newsletter is supported online by social bookmarking,  a blog and a wiki.  There are so many ways to get engaged and we’re all reaching out to our readers with it.  Periodically, we feel a little creative and there are also movies and flash animations to support whatever message that we’re delivering.

So, the continuum goes.  Paper – Static Web – Dynamic Web – Blogs – Wikis – what’s next?

You can read the rest of the April 2010 edition of GEC Computers in the Classroom here.

Apr 6 2010

links for 2010-04-05

Apr 5 2010

What Turns Your Crank- Enhancing Educator Twitter engagement

I was reading some stories yesterday about how there are so many Twitter accounts that have been created and then abandoned.  You’ve just got to know that it’s because they “don’t get it”.  I was flipping about on my iPod and noticed the feature from Twitterific entitled Services and noted that I joined Twitter on August 23, 2007.  I can’t help but think that I didn’t get it at the time either.  Being a teacher and on holidays at that time probably gave me more time to poke around and find some value to the service.

But, at the time, I’m guessing that it was minimal and that I had no inkling of the value, the people, the connections, and the ideas that using this service has brought to me.  For some reason, I did stick with it and the value of my account continues to grow daily.

For many people, I’m thinking that it may be the introductory session that doesn’t overly inspire folks to get connected and make it work.  Typically, people are first exposed to Twitter by someone showing them or perhaps during a presentation.  We’ve probably all seen the typical approach.

  1. Here’s my Twitter account
  2. Here are the people that I follow
  3. See them type
  4. Here are the people that follow me
  5. Put it together and I have a PLN
  6. I tweeted out an invite and look at the people that responded
  7. You should use Twitter too

I can’t help but wonder that, unless you’re inclined to have an account anyway, you might create an account because of peer pressure and then join the legions of people who have abandoned their accounts.

So, is there a better way?  Yesterday, I was watching movies on the weekend with my netbook by my side when I noticed a message go flying by about the earthquake in Mexico and California.  That interested me and I dug in deeper as there were lots of links to details and first hand reports.  Happily, there were few reports of any serious problems and I continued to watch my movie but started thinking.  It wasn’t the people that I follow that hooked me.  It wasn’t my “PLN”.  It was a topic that I was following that did it.  Since the events in Haiti, I have a standing search for the term “Earthquake”.  Whenever anyone, anywhere makes reference to that term, I have a chance to catch it.

I wonder if that might be a better approach to proving the value of Twitter to the new user.  I’m toying with this approach.

  1. Let’s create a Twitter account
  2. Let’s log into Seesmic web with your Twitter account
  3. Let’s create three or four searches and watch what happens.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’ve really bought into Jeff Pulver’s concept of “State of Now”.  What better way to talk about “Now” than to witness it as it happens, on your terms.

seesmic

So, decide what turns your crank.  “Earthquake”? “Teach”? “Learn”? “iPad”? Check the content as it comes in from who knows where.  It’s just one big unmoderated forum with opinions, thoughts, resources, links, and so much more delivered to you personally.

In itself, that may be the value that many folks are looking for.

I’ve got to believe that it will be the genesis of something really good.  You can’t help but read the comments and wish to chime in.  At that point, it’s a simple step to learning how to reply to a message and follow someone if they’re talking about intelligently about your topic and you want more.

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