Monthly Archives: December 2011

Dec 12 2011

Think B4 U Post

I ran across this image on Flickr.  I’m posting it here on my blog for sharing and also so that I don’t lose it.  I think it would be perfect for printing and posting on a classroom wall for anyone using social media in the classroom.  The image is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution license by Garry Baker, Hiromi Hosoi, Joy Seed & Mitch Norris.  The product is very well done.  Kudos to the group for the content and Mitch Norris for the simple, yet effective, design.

Dec 12 2011

Making Snowflakes

I’m a fan of the work that Jeff Clark does.  His website at http://www.neoformix.com is a place where he shows off this work.  He’s got a wealth of really cool things there to mess around with.

Just in time for the season, you may wish to take a look at his snowflake generator.  He’ll accept as input, up to three words or sentences and generates a snowflake for you as repeating patterns of the text entered.

If I provide the words “Snow”, “Shovel”, and “Wind”, his program generates this graphic.

Jeff gives you control over the colour, font, rotation, etc.  The results are generated for you on the fly and you can use the slider controls to create exactly the effect that you want.

It’s a cute little program and I’m thinking that the younger student might like to be able to incorporate their own custom snowflakes into their projects this time of year.  Perhaps their own name?  Perhaps a snowflake for everyone in the family?

For the computer programmer, it’s a great example of how you can take a relatively simple concept and make it flexible enough for the end user to enjoy and also to generate a million different snowflakes with no two the same!

You and your students can make your own snowflakes at:  http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/TextFlake/index.html

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Dec 12 2011

OTR Links 12/12/2011

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

By dougpete • Posted in Links
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Dec 11 2011

Response to Spammers

It’s probably the result of the Vikings / Lions game but I feel like kicking somebody.  Fortunately, there are spammers.

 

To Spammer #1

Nah, I’m good.  Leave me alone.  Wait a minute.  I can make money on this?  Wow, whee!   Give me references and we’ll move forward.

To Spammer #2

I didn’t make it to the short list of the Edublog Awards.  How about that?  Forget Google; get me listed somewhere important.

To Spammer #3

I know that I’m incredible.  You, on the other hand, seem barely literate.  I doubt that he’ll be writing for this blog any time soon.  Literacy doesn’t fall far from the tree.

To Spammer #4

Does Netflix know that you’re doing this?

To Spammer #5

kjadfjiuwer kljklajeureo kjaklfjaldf  kjsdfkbiteljaslfd klfdkmelkjdlfk

Sorry to waste your time but I feel a little better.  Serious blog post should arrive tomorrow morning at 5am.

Dec 11 2011

Things to do with electronics at a conference (and the challenges it creates…)

One of the things that you do, as a conference organizer, is have a debrief after the event.  It’s easy to talk about what went right because so much does, when you have great people.  Nothing is perfect, though, and it leads to a good discussion and planning for what you might do the next time around to avoid any of the gotchas that gotcha.

As you can imagine, a technology conference has many possible points of failure and just when you think you’ve seen them all or that you’ve patched what went wrong last time, something new comes along!  With the proliferation of personal wireless devices, you’ve just got to know that connectivity is a big concern.

On the heels of this year’s Symposium conference, it’s time to think about these things.  Certainly, we had a good discussion immediately after the event and it will continue as plans get underway to do it all again a year from now.  The venue is a conference centre but that’s also attached to a hotel.  So, any connections that the conference might use is also shared with everyone else staying there.  Last year, bandwidth was determined to be an issue and so we actually paid extra to bump up the bandwidth for the day this year. 

But, it’s a technology conference.  Virtually everyone has some sort of technology with them.  As you walk around, you do notice the things that people are doing.

  • Tweeting using the hashtag #rcac11 – actually encouraged that because not everyone could join us that day.  The badge of honour when you’re tweeting is to be "trending".  It was momentous when we found out that we were trending in Canada.  It was cool to be trending with #pujols;

  • Posting updates to Facebook – I had a friend "check me in" to the Lamplighter Inn;
  • Check into Fourquare;
  • Download the presenter’s slidedeck to follow along and see what’s coming next;
  • Access videos for your presentation;
  • Ask everyone in your session to create a Twitter account if they haven’t done so already;
  • Demonstrate live streaming;
  • Conduct a presentation using Skype and Adobe Connect to bring the outside in to your session;
  • Live blog the event using Evernote;
  • Check your email;
  • Do an internet search for a term that you don’t understand;
  • Show your web page to your elbow partner;
  • Use a voting website to get preferences from the audience;
  • Send a big file to Dropbox to share it with some of your friends;
  • Send text messages to other folks in the rooms and back home;
  • Follow the presenters on Facebook and Twitter while you’re thinking about it – after all they give you their credentials.  Oh, and while you’re at it, check out their website;
  • Check out your new followers right away;
  • Practice your own presentation because you’re up next;
  • Send a big movie file to a friend using AirDrop;
  • and goodness knows what else!

Now, with a few hundred people in the audience for an event like that, it wouldn’t be a surprise to have a few hundred devices all connected at the same time.  (thankfully, not everyone using the conference wireless)  To compound the problem, nobody goes to these things with just one device anymore.  It’s not uncommon to see a cell phone sitting on the table right next to a tablet that you’re using to take notes. 

It makes you wonder just how many IP addresses are available to share and what the lease life is!  It’s amazing and yet impressive at the same time that this would all work.

You do have to make sure that the presenters will be connected and successful.  To that end, you make sure that they’re using a wired connection and not fighting for contention with everyone else!  Even that’s not good enough for all and some presenters come prepared to tether their laptops to their computers to use their own bandwidth.

Such is the electronic life at a conference.  Just another day in the life.

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Dec 11 2011

OTR Links 12/11/2011

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

By dougpete • Posted in Links
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Dec 10 2011

Keynotes from Symposium 2011

Here are the notes I took during Lee LeFever and Helen Barrett’s keynote addresses at Symposium 2011.  I took the notes using Evernote on the iPad.  They are my observations during their presentations.

Lee LeFever

I had the opportunity to introduce Lee.  One of the things that I tried to do was explain the importance of Entrepreneurship.  It’s the old Business teacher in me but it seems to me to be very important that he created his job by doing something new that was never done before – seize the moment, if you will.  We had a nice Commoncraft-like video that we used to introduce Lee.  That, and more, are on the RCAC Website at http://www.westernrcac.org.

* started in college in a business class – received a bad explanation of debits and credits by prof
* Commoncraft was originally a consultant for online social media
* Interested in RSS,blogs etc. but clients didn’t understand
* Forest and trees – if you look past the trees, you see the forest and the trees make more sense
* RSS tosubscribe to a website – easy to explain in technical terms
* Explanation problems – the geeks were explaining the technology
* When YouTube took off,they decided to use the short movie format
* First videos lit by bedroom lamps
* First video went viral after telling a few friends it was on YouTube
* Videos created on a monthly basis since 2007
* First video was Wikis in Plain English
* Second video was Google Docs in Plain English
* Custom videosfor companies who pay for the service
* Licensing of all of the videos as a business plan
* Commoncraft has a subscription service
* Commoncraft-style videos on YouTube
* Top suggestions – Copyright, Creative Commons, Web Browsers
* First steps – Research and stick to the big ideas
* Write a script -they use Google Docs
* Create Thumbnails of the videos and what they would look like
* Visuals – Into PowerPoint – Wacom tablet to draw the images
* Printthe 6 slide format in Powerpoint
* Visuals are printed from Powerpoint
* Cameras are attached to the wall so that bumping the table doesn’t misalign things
* Twitter Search in Plain English on YouTube
* Takes two days to shoot a video
* New Social Networking Video – includes Facebook
* What is Explanation – video is just a medium
* Explanation is a skill that can be honed and made better – you can be a better explainer
* Good explanations can change behaviour
* If you care about something, you’ll be motivated to do more
* “Made to Stick” – Chip Heath and Dan Heath
* Connect with a story of overcoming a problem and then celebrate success when they solve the problem
* Zoe Branigan-Pipe recorded a Pencast of Lee’s presentation and shares it here.

Sachi and Lee LeFever field questions from the audience during their breakout session.  At my request, they even opened a Google Document to show how they collaborate and edit to produce their scripts.

Helen Barrett

* slideshare.net/eportfolios
* eportfolio@gmail.com
* Support of metacognition and deep learning
* “The Power of Portfolios” – Dr. Elizabeth Hebert
* Discussion around the table aout what we save for our children – so many results in common – pictures, report card, audio recording
* Your collection says a lot about what you value
* ePortfolio system – multiple portfolios for multiple purposes
* Reflection is the “heart and soul” of a portfolio
* Dewey “We do not learn by experience but by reflecting on experience.”
* “The Art of Changing the Brain” – James Zull
* metacognition lies at the root of all learning
* The Manaiakalani Project Research – What is the impact of the project on literacy teaching and learning
* Many students start their digital portfolio before they’re born – on Facebook
* Facebook is becoming an online portfolio – image posting
* Forbes Online – 5 Reasons why your online presence will replace your resume in 10 years
* ePortfolio is both process and product
* Digital Tools for ePortfolios – Docs, Sites, Blog, Workspace
* Innovations in Education – British Columbia Ministry of Education
* Timeline for rolling out ePortfolios
* Is the Future of ePortfolio Development in your Pocket?
* ePortfolios should be more conversation than presentation
* Do your ePortfolios have choice and voice?

Dr. Barrett shows the importance of reflection in the creation of electronic portfolios.

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Dec 10 2011

OTR Links 12/10/2011

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

By dougpete • Posted in Links
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Dec 9 2011

Awesome Collection of Ontario Educators are Official Smarty Pants

The Western Regional Computer Advisory Committee’s Symposium 2011 is now over.  What a day!  It’s tough to believe that I can be so exhausted and yet so motivated at the same time.  It was so great to see familiar faces today; draw friends’ names for door prizes; and to enjoy some bread pudding with good friends.

The Smarty Pants tags were attached to the nametags of the wonderful presenters for the day.  What’s unique about these presenters is that they don’t ask to share their expertise; they are specifically chosen by the committee.  The ultimate goal is to have people walk away from the day bemoaning the fact that they could only attend two breakout sessions instead of them all.  I did have some requests to get the presentations put up on the Western RCAC website and hopefully that will happen soon.

What is so unique about the day’s format is that the presenters are all from the western Ontario region.  So, the initiatives that are being shared aren’t just pipe dreams; they are things that are happening in classrooms with real teachers, real students in the region.  Unlike other conferences where the grass may be greener over there; the grass shown here is in actual practice within driving distance!

  • Peter McAsh explains how he uses Edmodo with Students, Teachers, and Parents;
  • Danika Barker shows how she has created her own professional learning network and encourage others to follow;
  • Heather Durnin demonstrates how "The Idea Hive" enriches paired classroom experiences between Wingham and Snow Lake, MN;
  • Kenji Takahashi demonstrates the potential of video streaming;
  • Mark Carbone once again talks about the challenges and successes Waterloo is enjoying by embracing Facebook as a work and collaboration space;
  • Elaine Ernewein loves Pixie 3 and thinks it’s one of the best primary titles that are OSAPAC licensed;
  • Trevor Hammer engages students in the process of independent writing using the Livescribe Echo Pen;
  • Gidget Davidson brings her audience up to date on an iPod Touch Literacy project;
  • Kim Gill just doesn’t want some success – she wants it all and explains why technology is so important in her Special Education classroom;
  • Harry Niezen shares the learning (positive and challenges) from the Future Forums Project as they lead the way developing a culture for 21st century learning;
  • Brenda Sherry and Peter Skillen take their group beyond the three words Project – Based – Learning to deconstruct learning activities to understand exactly what PBL is and why it’s so important;
  • Janet Ewaskiw provided the answer to the best way to tell stories using the Ministry of Education licensed Frames 4 software package;
  • and, Zoe Branigan-Pipe and Rodd Lucier tell their story about relationships in professional learning. 

Whew!  Throw in lunch, a couple of keynote addresses, and door prizes and it was a completely packed day.  I am so in awe of the Smart Pants listed above – there was certainly buzz about the learning activities they helped facilitate. 

Yes, they were smart and hopefully everyone in the audience leaves just a little more inspired and smarter on their own as a result of the experience.

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Dec 9 2011

OTR Links 12/09/2011

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

By dougpete • Posted in Links
0