Monthly Archives: September 2010

Sep 12 2010

OTF / CUE PD Offering

This is a re-post of an entry that went out earlier this week for those who may have missed it.

The Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) is delighted to provide a unique professional development activity to OTF members.

OTF has contracted with Computer-Using Educators, Inc., an official Google certified Professional Development partner, to provide “The Google Learning Institute”, an intense one day of learning focused on Google applications.

Search, learn, share! Brought to you by Computer Using Educators (CUE), the producers of the Google Teacher Academy, the Google Workshop for Educators (GWE) introduces participants to innovative ways Google tools can be used in education. A full day of fast-paced presentations and hands-on activities includes experience with advanced search techniques, collaborative web-based applications, and inspirational instructional strategies. Google Certified Teachers share ways they’ve implemented tools such as Google Search, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Sites, and… even more. Participants who complete the event are given access to the Google Workshop for Educators Network, an online community focused on supporting educators as they learn more about the power of Google to drive student learning.  This workshop is designed for educators with intermediate or better computer skills.

Successful workshop participants are given access to the Google Learning Network for continuing support after the institute and an OTF/Google certificate of completion.

Join fellow members of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation for a full day exploring Google Search, Sites, Documents, Earth, and more.  This institute will be of particular interest to those educators who have been involved with OTF’s continuing series of computer based professional development activities.  This event will be capped at 75 OTF members, so please make your plans and register early to avoid disappointment.

Location: Humber College – North campus – Rooms J130, J132 and J140.

Date: Saturday, October 23 – 9:00-4:00

Accommodations: OTF will pay for hotel accommodation based upon double occupancy at:

Comfort Inn Airport North,
445 Rexdale Boulevard,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M9W 6K5

Participants will make their own reservations.  If you would like to stay at the Comfort Hotel Airport North and do NOT have a roommate, please contact Michelle Rouleau (michelle.rouleau@otffeo.on.ca) and she will facilitate this.

Registration Fee: $250 via Credit Card when you self-register at:  http://bit.ly/cRC422
(Note that you may be able to use Board or local Federation PD funds)

Once you have registered online for the CUE Workshop, and received a confirmation email, please contact Michelle Rouleau at OTF by email to indicate that you are attending the event. OTF will need to know your Affiliate and the name of your Board. OTF will send out information regarding hotel accommodations, find you a roommate if you need one, parking at Humber, etc. This event is facilitated by Cyndie Jacobs: Director, Curriculum and Assessment. The email address of Cyndie Jacobs’ assistant is: michelle.rouleau@otffeo.on.ca.

Meals: OTF will provide a continental breakfast starting at 8:15am and a light lunch

Note: You must be a member of OSSTF, ETFO, OECTA, or AEFO to register.

Pre workshop discussion plus details about a Tweetup on Friday night can be found by following @msjweir and the hashtag #OTFFEOCUE on Twitter.

Sep 12 2010

links for 2010-09-11

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
0
Sep 11 2010

A Rush to be Proactive

I had a great lunch meeting with @sadone yesterday where we covered the state of everything in the short time that we had together. One of the topics that we touched on was Acceptable Use Policies.

It’s particularly timely for me as my Computer Science teachable class starts next week and one of our first activities is to analyze Acceptable Use Policies from the university and the surrounding school boards where the majority of the practice teaching takes place.

In our discussions, I noted that there are a great deal of messages lately from others looking for updated Acceptable Use Policies that would cover the use of Web2.0 activities in the classroom. A typical plan has the big list of “you shall not”s to help guide users to stay on the straight and narrow. The plan that I helped craft years ago had taken a slightly different tack as the superintendent that I reported to at the time “didn’t want to change it every time some enhancement in technology” comes along. Our philosophy was always that unacceptable internet use was just another form of unacceptable computer use, just like reaching over and typing on someone else’s keyboard when they weren’t looking. It was just wrong and there should be consequences that are proportionate to the action.

As higher speed internet access became available and networking a reality, everyone was on this fast ship to have documents in place to explain the policy. I’m sure that we all thought that we were doing the right thing – covering all the possibilities so that everyone was enjoying safe access. We even did professional learning events to help with the implementation of the plan and what to do when you accidentally stumble upon text or an image that was inappropriate. I’m sure that everyone who was involved in that process was glad when it was done, published, approved, and implemented. After all, we covered all the possibilities and anticipated everything that could go wrong, right? You get one chance to make this right before you move along to the next big thing.  Maybe, if you’re lucky, it will be reviewed on a regular basis.

At the time, who would ever have thought of the  that would so capture the imagination of the student or teacher? Now, what do you do? When you do look at what policies are in place, it’s no wonder that there are numerous pleas from teachers on Twitter or mailing lists looking for wording to cover Web2.0 activities when the exiting policy covers Web1.0 so well. With all the power and the openness and the intrigue, there’s this systemic need to have something to legislate its use. Will this lead to another cycle of “there – we have that covered”?

Maybe, it’s time to step back and look at the situation from another angle. If we consider these tools as useful as the other common tools – pencils – televisions – basketballs – floor mats – which don’t have Acceptable Use Policies for their use in the classroom, is it fruitless to try to write the rules of governance for this one other tool? There are always new and creative things that students do with pencils and we don’t rush out to try to anticipate all the things that could go wrong. Is it time that we give up on a legislative approach to internet use? If activities are constructive, meaningful, and supervised, can we not teach a culture of appropriateness instead of writing about it?

How about a one sentence policy that covers it all?

“Don’t do anything stupid or there will be consequences”.

Sep 11 2010

links for 2010-09-10

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
0
Sep 10 2010

A Desktop Worth Checking Out

As I was sadly watching the Minnesota Vikings last night, I decided to check out Twitter and see what the rest of the Vikings nation was thinking about the game.  As I loaded my Seesmic Desktop, I received a notice that the Beta version that I had been using had gone gold.

It’s no secret that I’m a real fan of Seesmic with its Twitter browser on my computers, ipod, and Android.  What’s so impressive about it is that it does all of the Twitter things that you would expect – read, reply, view lists, search, channels, etc. but it does it all in one clean spot.  In recent times, Facebook integration has been part of the package and with the new release comes FourSquare, Buzz, Linked In, and Ping.fm.  It has a powerful interface and the new release does not require Adobe Air.

image

So, I did the download and started enjoying the new version.  There were two things that really struck me as very useful.  First of all, you know those pictures that often get tweeted using Twitpic or some other service?  They appear inline as you browse.  Even more helpful, at the bottom of each Twitter message, you’ll find statistics about the person that sent the message.  So, you know right away if this person is a veteran worth getting involved in a conversation with.

Behind the scenes, you notice some intriguing architecture.  Like contemporary web browsers, this new release allows for plug-ins to add additional functionality to your online experience.  Right out of the box, you’ll find plug-ins for Bing, Bit.ly, and a bunch more.  Seesmic offers a “store” where any service provider can hook itself into the Desktop.

In addition to the release of the software, Seesmic was live streaming a release party last night.  So, I watched that in between moments of the football game to see the experts work with the product.

I started using this product line with Twhirl and have been a real supporter as the product evolves.  If you’re looking for a client that does it all and has the potential to grow with future trends, then this is definitely worth a download and a serious look.  http://www.seesmic.com

Sep 10 2010

links for 2010-09-09

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
0
Sep 9 2010

Instant Letters

After I blogged this morning about yesterday’s experience with Google Instant, I read this articleon the Huffington Post.  The author used Google Instant to go through the alphabet and see what the top results were.  It was all based on the question “Why does W get the weather?”  At the end of the article, Craig Kanalley asked “Are your results the same?”

It’s an interesting question and if they are the same everywhere, it lends some credibility perhaps that you can buy your way to the top of results.  But, I can easily think of reasons why they would differ.

  • geography of your IP address;
  • your login – Instant is only available if you’re looked in with your Google account;
  • your browsing / search history.

So, I did try a couple and some were the same but yet, some were different.  Here are the results from my certainly non-scientific time wasting exercise and a bonus at the bottom

The letters are courtesy of Spell with Flickr.

A

HP – AOL
Me – Amazon – AOL was second

DSC_0212_2

HP – Bank of America
Me – Best Buy – Bank of America was second

IMG_5704_3

HP – Craigslist
Me – Craigslist

letter D

HP – Dictionary
Me – Dictionary

letter e

HP – eBay
Me – eBay

letter F

HP – Facebook
Me – Facebook

G

HP – Gmail
Me – Gmail

letter H

HP – Hotmail
Me – Hotmail

KMcElman_100416_0104

HP – Ikea
Me – Ikea

IMG_5654

HP – Jet Blue
Me – Jet Blue

Candy K

HP – Kmart
Me – Kohl’s

letter L

HP – Lowes
Me – Kohl’s

The alphabet - the letter M

HP – Mapquest
Me – Mapquest

N

HP – Netflix
Me – Netflix

O

HP – Orbitz
Me – Orbitz

letter P

HP – Pandora
Me – Pandora

Hydro Quebec

HP – BrainyQuotes
Me – BrainyQuotes

Letterform

HP – Realtor.com
Me – Rei – Realtor.com was second

letter S

HP – Staples
Me – Sears – Staples was fourth

IMG_5653_2

HP – Target
Me – Target

u

HP – UPS
Me – USPS – UPS was second

letter V

HP – Verison
Me – Verison

letter w

HP – Weather
Me – Weather

X.

HP – Xbox
Me – Xbox

letter Y

HP – Yahoo!
Me – Yahoo!

letter Z

HP – Zappos
Me – Zillow – Zappos was second

And, as a bonus, here are my results for the digits from 0-9.

number 0

007

number 1

14th Amendment

2

24

3

3ds

Cabin 4

4chan

5

50 cent

number 6

60 minutes

seVen

7zip

number 8

84 lumber

number 9

90210

Sep 9 2010

Google Instant

There was a great deal of speculation about what the latest innovation from Google.  When it was revealed, it turned out to be a feature called Google Instant.  It seems to be the next logical step in the evolution of search from the basic search.

After all, we’ve had the “auto complete” feature available for a while.  As you type text into the search box, Google attempts to give you suggestions about what it might be that you’re searching for.  If you see it (or something better), you can quickly select it and complete your search.

Google Instant takes it the next step and shows you the actual content of what it’s suggesting.

While it’s not available to every user yet, it has real potential.  According to the Official Google Blog, here are what they’re calling its “core features”.

  • Dynamic Results – Google dynamically displays relevant search results as you type so you can quickly interact and click through to the web content you need.
  • Predictions – One of the key technologies in Google Instant is that we predict the rest of your query (in light gray text) before you finish typing. See what you need? Stop typing, look down and find what you’re looking for.
  • Scroll to search – Scroll through predictions and see results instantly for each as you arrow down.

I think it’s just downright cool.  While it hasn’t officially rolled out everywhere, you could get a preview yesterday so I took the opportunity to search for “Amherstburg”.

image

I must admit that I was a little distracted watching the results come in as I typed.  But, I had the same feeling when the auto complete function was activated as well.  Now, it’s just the way that I do business!  I’m sure that, with time, it will become natural.  It’s all in the name of good searching and getting good results.  Power users are going to continue to use the Advanced Search layout anyway.

This searching algorithm seems to be the same.  I did the same search without using Google Instant and typed the same letters and got the same results.  Interesting.  How about in low bandwidth situations?  According to what I read, Google will recognize this and turn the feature off.  Not everything will be correct as you can read in these 25 Google Search Suggestions.

Yet, despite this, the “experts” are out with their negative comments already.  There are polls available to let you vote it down.  Geesh.  If you just don’t get it or like it, there will be a feature in your profile to turn it off.  You’ve got the best of both worlds.  It’s like the outrage when Google turned on their background picture feature.  Don’t like it?  Don’t use it.

I think that it will eventually be accepted and probably emulated by the other search engines.  In the meantime, it’s really interesting to experiment.

Sep 9 2010

links for 2010-09-08

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
0