Monthly Archives: July 2010

Jul 5 2010

An Idea for ISTE

I’m still reeling from the Denver experience.  It truly was a great conference with lots to see and do.  Even more powerful were the connections with others to be made.  Meeting up with fellow educators and software developers at the Canadian Consulate and then at the Discovery Canada events really affirmed that many have got past the hardware and are making the best of networking.

Combining both ensures an opportunity for success for all.

The connections that are made at events like this can be worth the price of admission alone.  Of that, there is no doubt in my mind.  But, there was one frustrating element.  Where is everyone?  You really do have to go to the event to realize that you can be in a group of 15 000 people and still alone and lost!

Most people at the conference were connected in a manner unlike no other.  I saw Netbooks, Notebooks, portable devices of every type at every turn.  What a terrific opportunity for networking and connecting them all.  ISTE took a huge step forward this year with the development of their own application to allow i* access to many of the resources that ISTE makes available.  And yet, most sessions started with the presenter announcing the hashtag for their session.  Even before the event, there was debate and discussion about what hashtag should be used throughout the four days.  I know that, in my world, I just set up another search in my Seesmic Desktop looking for the term ISTE.  It gave me what I needed.  I tried to let folks that were trying to find me where I was by using the FourSquare application.  I was really impressed that others, including myself, were not only indicating that we were at the Convention Centre but also what room we were in.

I kept thinking – wouldn’t it be nice if there was a confluence of all of these ideas at least for the conference to make it easier for all?  I’m envisioning an enhancement to the already created  application that would have Twitter and FourSquare or Gowalla access built right into it.  Use the geolocating abilities to automatically tag locations and times cross referenced to the final program.  Sure, there’s an element of privacy to be considered but you’d only use the application during the event for the purpose of letting friends know where you are, what you’re doing, and what’s currently inspiring you. There are OpenSource applications that could be melded into a product of this source or it might be an opportunity for a developer to step forward with a modified version of their product that you could purchase for a couple of bucks or support through advertising.  Heck, you could even make it a tick box when you’re registering online.  In advance of the event, have all of the conference locations already defined; build in whatever hashtagging schema that is desired and then turn it loose.  You could even build in a session and conference evaluation component.

The result could be a more connected and networked entity.  Imagine a consistent format for messages and locations throughout the event.  You might still be lost in the middle of a crowd but you’d have an idea of where everyone else is!

Jul 5 2010

links for 2010-07-04

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
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Jul 4 2010

ISTE Disappointments

That’s really an odd title to type in following the other glowing posts that I’ve written recently.  However, there were a couple of things that didn’t quite go over the top for me.

I enjoyed Mario Armstrong’s initial session.  It was entertaining and high energy.  The concept of fighting the monsters and advice from all quarters was ingenious.  There was a great deal of support when he took on the “Locked Net Monster”.  Those of us in the audience applauded the stand against censorship and the rules that cell phones and portable devices are not available in a number of schools.  Yet, despite this, wireless network access was not available in the vendor area.  I found that a real disappointment.  Where better to have access to the facts and websites and downloads of demo software or to see products in action than online?  You’ve got to believe that the majority of people had iPads or iPods or laptops and could have taken advantage of connectivity.  I think I would have spent even more time at the exhibits had I been connected.

Backchannelling is becoming a way of life and we’ve seen and heard speakers who encourage it in their presentations.  It’s an opportunity for the audience to provide some interactivity in the way things are going during a presentation.  It’s powerful when used properly.  Its use and the use of laptops in the classroom/lecture hall has been hugely contested and debated in educational circles.  Those of us in support of the concept talk about the benefit which can be derived from taking a presenter’s thoughts and scaffolding into better things.  Thing went downhill starting with the backchannel during the opening keynote.  A message that should have been a call to action to the 15-20k attendees instead became a mud throwing contest by those who came expecting a stand up comic.  How many times do we hear the comments “It’s not about the tools; it’s about the message”?  The backchannel, from some camps, was about the style and tools and ignored one of the most important contemporary messages that all educators should be dealing with in classrooms.  Unfortunately, it spilled over to other presenters.  In a couple of chats before presentations, I know that some folks were nervous about what would happen in their backchannel.  If there ever was an opportunity to talk about banning the concept, I saw it there.

The third disappointment for me was some of the messages from the vendor hall.  The message, in many stations, was that “if you buy my technology, it’s so easy to engage and increase student achievement”.  Could a message be so incorrect in this day and age?  Teaching is one of the most difficult jobs that you’ll ever have.  I checked in at the PLP Network booth and shared my thoughts with Sheryl.  Instead of the message that others were deliverying, hers could well be “join us for a year and work your butt off and become a better teacher”.  I guess that it just hurt to see “good teaching” downgraded to a 5 minute sound bite and a T-Shirt if you stuck it out.

Despite the above, most everything else was superlative and I walked away so much the richer for it.  As I finish off this entry, I realize that I’ve learned even from these three areas of disappointment.  They will help focus on my attendance at events in the future.  Content rich settings like this offer so many other alternatives.

Jul 4 2010

links for 2010-07-03

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
0
Jul 3 2010

The Maple Leaf Forever

I was reading Paul Cornie’s Quoteflections blog this morning and his post was particularly patriotic for this time of year.  It also brought back memories of this anthem that I hadn’t heard for years.

Thanks, Paul.

You can read the lyrics on Paul’s blog here.

Jul 3 2010

Two Reasons to Converse

It’s great to have friends, virtual or otherwise, these days.  They help you out in ways just to be able to do it.  I had a couple of experiences lately that prove this theory.

First, if you’re a reader of this blog, you’ll know that I dropped my iPod at the ISTE Conference and cracked the screen.

121405973[1] Heart broken, I did what any abnormal person would do these days — I blogged about it.  At dinner, I was the butt of jokes and lots of my friends took pictures so that I could document this sad event!

What was neat though was the supportive comments that I received from friends on this blog, Twitter and Facebook where the information is scraped to.

What was even neater was the response of family and friends.  The Boy responded that he was in Toronto and found a place that replaced it while he waited.  @WindsorDi, probably from her seat on Via1,  responded with the same business.  I was prepared to get home and ship it via courier to get it replaced.  Then, a second message from @WindsorDi indicated that there was a store in Windsor that would do the deed for me.  Consequently, a drive into the city yesterday dropped it off and I am hoping for a quick turnaround on the repair.

Secondly, I had run into an issue with Diigo.  I use both Diigo and Delicious to keep track of my bookmarks.  I have a nice gathering of people who look up what I’m bookmarking on both sites so I have an all-in-one solution.  I post to Diigo which runs a task immediately to duplicate the information to Delicious.  I then have a similar task copy the information from Delicious to this blog sometime after midnight while I sleep.  That’s a few dominoes that have to be lined up properly in order to work.  If one doesn’t do its job, then the rest are at risk.

Well, I ended up with this being posted to my blog.

image

If you’ve been around the block a couple of times in the computer world, you know what’s happened.  %20 is ASCII for a space and somewhere along the line, a computer conversation is needed for mortal eyes.  So, I backtracked.  It was bad on my blog; it was bad on Delicious; it was perfect on Diigo.  Somehow, the Diigo to Delicious conversion was the culprit.

Meanwhile, blog readers were noticing and I was getting notified that something was wrong.  In response, I sent out this tweet.

image

By the way, the reference to “dog’s breakfast”, I must attribute to my elementary school principal Mr. Gray who used it all the time.  It never made sense when he said it because our dog ate the same thing for breakfast that he did for supper.  Oh well.

Later yesterday, I received this message from the good folks at Diigo.

image

So, I did a quick check and the issue that they fixed had appeared to resolved the issue.  I waited until this morning and the overnight run did indeed scrape everything through to this blog and all is good in my digital world again.  I did need to acknowledge the support and so I think that it’s only fair that I recognize it publically just like I did in identifying the problem in the first place.

image

It’s only right to do so.  The nice side effect of this was that I got to investigate the Version 5 upgrade to Diigo that had just gone into place.  This good service has got even better.

I think that the message here is that there are lots of people paying attention to what you’re saying and the best of the best of these folks are ready to help out.

Now, both of these situations were annoying, to say the least.  But, it’s a credit that good people are reading and at the ready to be helpful and supporting.

Just a couple of great reasons why the conversation is so powerful.

Jul 3 2010

links for 2010-07-02

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
0
Jul 2 2010

A Gardener’s Approach to Learning

At the ISTE Conference in Denver, I had a nice chat with David Warlick and he presented me with a signed copy of his new book “A Gardener’s Approach to Learning” – Cultivating Your Personal Learning Network.  It’s now a proud possession and was read cover to cover on the fight back to Detroit yesterday.

My thoughts…

gardenerThe book is self-published through Lulu although according to David, it isn’t currently available for retail.  It is listed on the Lulu website so it won’t be long now before it’s available for all.

Great, I thought.  Another book about Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools.  But, I was pleasantly surprised as I dug into the book.  Yes, David covers the tools and will take the reader down a number of different paths.  But, so many books do this.

What makes this book unique is embedded in the advice that you need to, not only use the tools, but use them wisely, carefully, and cultivate the resources to maximize the benefit.  In that respect, there is great advice and good resources for all in the book.

I thought that I had a good handle on things but as I read the book I found additional ideas and thoughts that I know will engage me now that I’m out of the air and connected again.

In depth analysis of the utilities appear in the chapter entitled “Mining the Conversation”.  Here, the discussion goes well beyond the “click here and stuff happens” instructions.  To add an additional level of authenticity, David sprinkles the entire book with references to many of the people that you may have met online.  In this manner, the book really personalizes the learning and the use of these tools.

The book is also designed to be interactive and truly uses the modern tools.  Throughout, qr there are many references to internet web resources.  Rather than provide the actual URL, David has shortened them all using the bit.ly web shorteners.  This approach should encourage readers to actually follow through and easily check them out.  I think we’ve all seen attempts to introduce multimedia companions to books by the inclusion of a CD-ROM taped to the inside cover.  In a truly  innovative way, readers can just point a camera or cell phone at a page and be transported to any of the many tutorials.  A pmwiki site has been created to hold tutorials and QR codes are used throughout the book as the launch pad to the tutorials.

Even if you are a daily user of these tools, this book is a good read.  You can’t possibly know about all of the tools referenced but the message delivered should give you pause to think about how you use them.  The analogy of freshly cultivated food from the family garden versus what you get when you speed through a drive thru window made me ponder the depth to which I use many of the tools.  The terms “mining” and “cultivating” inspire to take a deeper and more meaningful use of the tools.

So, who should read this book?  I suspect that there will be folks who “know it all” and will take a pass.  That would be a shame.  There’s a wealth of information for Web 2.0 users of all levels of sophistication.

I do think that it would be an excellent resource for your principal or your school’s professional library.  In one read, you can quickly bring people up to speed with many of the tools that so many of us use on a daily basis.  If your school is using book study as a learning technique, this would be an excellent way to introduce or enhance any attempts to understand the impact of Web 2.0 tools in education.  David even includes guiding questions and big ideas at the end of each chapter for discussion.  If you’re a technology coordinator, this would be a great purchase for all of your schools to support the cause.

Jul 2 2010

My Apologies

Recently, Diigo upgraded itself to Version 5.  One of the fallouts is that the functionality that I use to post to Diigo and have it appear on Delicious and consequently on this blog is resulting in some interesting garbage.  If you look closely, there are a great deal of %20s in the midst.  %20 is the code for a space and so anywhere that there was a space in the original link, I’m getting that to appear.

I have disabled the Diigo to Delicious feature to stop this and will continue to monitor.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Jul 2 2010

links for 2010-07-01

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
0