Seth Denney

iBooks Author and Google SketchUp

2012-01-25T10:58:00.000-06:00

Steps to amaze yourself:

1. Upgrade your Mac to Lion. Then get the free iBooks Author software from the App Store.
2. Get the iBooks 2 update on your iPad.
3. Get Google SketchUp.

You can now make the coolest textbooks ever. You can easily (and I mean EASILY!) embed 3-D objects into a book, look at them on your iPad, and make the objects flip and spin.

Wow.

This is fine for teachers, but imagine having your students make their own 3-D models, and writing about what they are learning! Real, authentic stuff!

This is huge. More to come...

As seen in an elementary media center near you

2011-11-03T10:34:00.002-05:00

I wandered into a Media Center in an elementary school in our region last month. Actually, I shouldn't call it a Media Center--it was a traditional library. I saw these encyclopedias on the shelf--I was so shocked that I had to take a picture.

If you can't read the spines, they are the 1972 (!) World Book Encyclopedia, the 1987 "New" Book of Knowledge, and another set of World Books that I can't read the year of--but I know I used that set when I was in elementary school... in the 1980s!

Looks like this elementary school is preparing its students for the 21st century.

Also in that library, there was a TV cart:

The cart was loaded with VHS tapes. And there was an area of the library that had a large collection of VHS tapes.

This library is setting education back 30 years.

Electronic Portfolios using only the Google Docs List

2011-03-31T09:59:00.002-05:00

The first year at this job means I'm up for a formal evaluation, including creating a portfolio. Ugh. I actually created one using Google Sites, with links to artifacts that I created or uploaded in Google Docs. It was a decent portfolio, but it was a lot of work. My supervisor, Sally Lindgren, also has to do her portfolio. We discussed different ways to do a an electronic portfolio, and Sally asked if she could use collections in Google Docs for her portfolio.

Then the light bulb came on. You can make your entire portfolio, with descriptions of and reflections on each artifact, using only the Google Docs list. You don't need a separate Google Site, or anything like that.

Here's how:

Create a collection for your entire portfolio. Then create collections for each standard inside the portfolio collection. Then create collections for each criteria inside each standard collection. (For example, I'm using the Iowa Teaching Standards with AEA Criteria).

Then, whenever you are working on a file that could be a portfolio artifact, simply drag it into the proper collection, or collections. Or, if it's another kind of document (a picture, a movie, a Word document, etc.), simply upload it into Google Docs, then drag it into the proper collection(s).

But where do you describe what the artifact is, or add a reflection to it? Use the "Description" box on the right of the Docs List.

Presto! Your portfolio is done.

Huh? Really? No wiki, no Word document with a bunch of broken links, no need to learn how to create a Google Site from a template?

That's right. Work on your normal things in Google Docs, then drag it into its criteria collection(s). Add a simple description and reflection to it, as part of your normal work. Then at evaluation time, simply share the portfolio collection with your supervisor. Your supervisor can add comments, summative evaluation documents, etc., to your portfolio.

Granted, this lacks the polish and pizazz of a fancy Google Site created from a template, like you can create using Leigh Zeitz's Digital Portfolios Made Easy. But, this would be a great way to create a portfolio for people who use Google Docs as part of their work, and who don't want to spend half of their life working on a separate site (or collection of Word documents and folders).

Google Certified Trainer Summit 2010

2010-08-12T00:27:00.000-05:00

That's me in the shades and grey wig. Having a great time at Google! So far I have eaten more tofu and lemongrass than I have in my entire life.

I promise I will write a great blog post after I have time to reflect on everything...

Taliesen and American Players Theater

2010-07-21T13:03:00.000-05:00

My wife and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary by driving to Spring Green, Wisconsin, specifically to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin. On the way, we stopped in McGregor, Iowa, and enjoyed shopping on Main Street. The best store was the Paper Moon Bookstore. It's a quirky, whimsical, and entertaining book store and gift shop, and well worth the stop.

We arrived in Spring Green, found our hotel, and then noticed something called the American Players Theatre. We had never heard of it, but it was the favorite part of our trip. The APT has an "Up The Hill" outdoor theatre at the top of a wooded hill. The walk up the hill is interesting enough, but the professional quality of the performance was truly stunning.

We bought Row H ticketsfor Shakespeare's As You Like It. The play (actually it should be called a musical comedy, or WWE event because of the musical numbers, dancing routines, and wrestling!) was incredible. The director set it in 1930s America, with gangsters, transients, farmers, etc. I can't wait to make the pilgrimage back to APT.

At the gift shop I bought a mug covered with Shakespearean insults. Awesome.

The following morning we took the four-hour estate tour of Taliesin. Frank Lloyd Wright was my height, so I could appreciate the low ceilings and low furniture in his home. But I still felt claustrophobic in some of his rooms. He was an innovative architect, but some of his ideas were really odd. Just sayin'.

At the gift shop we bought a Christmas ornament that is more sculpture than decoration.

It was a great little trip.

Changing Jobs

2010-06-14T08:38:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm changing jobs. I will be a Technology Integration Specialist for the Great Prairie Area Education Agency starting this fall. I have been the Technology Coordinator at New London Community Schools since the fall of 2002 (as best as I can remember).

Right now I am wrapping up things here at New London, including getting Project EASIER and E-rate done, ordering things for next year, and cleaning out my office/pigsty.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at New London. I have loved working with the staff here--New London teachers are some of the best anywhere. They sincerely care for the students, and they continue to improve their teaching as they learn. My children are open-enrolled to New London, and they will stay there. It's a great district.

I have also loved being around the students at New London. I have gotten to know many of them very well, and I really like them as people. Well, most of them :).

Sigourney Social Studies Presentation

2010-04-08T08:17:00.002-05:00

Wow. If I was a student again and could choose any social studies teachers, I would want to be in Lee Crawford's and Andy Harter's classes.

Forgive the list--I just wanted to make sure I get these ideas down...

Ideas:

Instead of writing a bell ringer question on the board, email it to your students before class. Let them use the Internet to find the answer.
When you lecture, don't put words on the PowerPoint slides--just pictures. But make the pictures interesting.
Have a "Song of the Day" at the end of class. Students have to relate the song to the day's topic.
All tests are essays.

Projects and tools:

iPhoto slideshows
Garage Band radio broadcasts
iMovie documentaries and informercials
iMovie musicals (Andy used Ancient Greece --> the musical Grease)
Use Facebook to communicate with students in other schools
iTunes U has The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and The Art of War
Have students create the soundtrack of their life (songs that explain their life)
Stop motion animation
Make comic books about historical events using Comic Life from http://plasq.com/
Have a Renaissance Fair in world history (wow, why haven't I thought of that?)
Skype schools in the south about the Civil War
Students create video tours on Google Earth of sites in cities around the world
Get population overlays for Google Earth

Wiimote Whiteboard Demo at Iowa 1:1 Institute

2010-04-08T07:53:00.001-05:00

I've watched Johnny Lee's Wii Remote Hacks TED Talk Video several times, and always thought, "I need to try this out." Yesterday at the Iowa 1:1 Institute, Matt Schmitz (Tech Director at AHST CSD) demoed it. Wow. I need to do this!

Matt's Wiimote Whiteboard presentation
www.WiimoteProject.com
Wiimote Whiteboard from uweschmidt.org

Bouncing ideas off of Stacy Schroeder

2010-01-04T16:08:00.000-06:00

Our social studies chair (Stacy Schroeder) is always great for a new take on things. I talked to her about reviewing for semester tests, etc., and she said that she asked her students the following question:

"Was Geoffrey Chaucer a Progressive?"

Her class discussed who Chaucer was and what he thought about things, and then talked about the Progressives, and discussed if Chaucer would fit well into the Progressive Era.

Wow, that's some higher-order thinking!

We then talked about how that kind of question could be turned into a game:

Take any historical figure (like Napoleon, Shakespeare, Al Gore, or Bill Gates)
Put them in an interesting situation (like the Battle of Gettysburg, the slave trade, the death of Julius Caesar, or 9/11)
Throw in an ideology/religion/etc. (like Communism, Mercantilism, Zen Buddhism, )
See what you come up with!

Thanks, Schroed! You gave me something to think about.

Reflecting on SketchUp

2009-11-05T17:39:00.005-06:00

I agreed to Skype into four (!) classes taught by Rob Galloway (@rgalloway) at UNI on November 16, and discuss how I am using SketchUp with my 6th graders. Rob's course is called "Educational Technology & Design," and is the preservice teacher technology course required of most education majors. There are elementary, middle level and secondary majors in each group. The students have been developing a thematic unit of instruction and technology projects (learning tools & activities) to support that planned instruction.

Rob asked me to talk about how and why I am using Google SketchUp in my 6th grade COLA class, and gave me some questions to answer. I thought they would make a good reflective blog posting. Here goes...

What are students learning relevant to their curriculum and how does SketchUp support that learning?

Students in our COLA Lab (Career Opportunities, Learning Adventures) explore six career pathways and learn some skills and content in each of those pathways. One of the pathways is Engineering and Industrial Tech, and Google SketchUp fits into the computer-aided design portion of that pathway.

Why did you select SketchUp?

I chose SketchUp because it is easy to use (especially for middle school students). I have 300 licenses of Pro/E (which I got for attending a training for educators), and I could use that. (Pro/E is the equivalent of AutoCAD--I know that the engineers at Case in Burlington, Iowa, use Pro/E for their CAD program.) But Pro/E is not easy to use. If I was teaching an entire semester of CAD to high school school students, we would probably use Pro/E, but I have 6th graders.

By the way, I need to mention that I was trained to be a social studies teacher, not a tech coordinator, nor an industrial arts teacher. :) Oh, the places you'll go...

I also chose SketchUp because the state of Iowa has FREE licenses to SketchUp Pro for a couple of years. Free is always a good thing!

How did you hear about it, what led you to develop the activity?

I heard about Google SketchUp through my PLN a couple of years ago, and I played around with it for awhile. But I never really saw its value and usefulness until I took a training from real Google trainers at the Heartland AEA office in October. The trainers really showed us how to use SketchUp.

(Interestingly, I feel like I need to keep using it, because I am the trainer to the other tech coordinators in my AEA at next Tuesday's meeting (it was a train-the-trainer thing). Ugh. So I've been using SketchUp so that I know what I need to teach my colleagues.)

How have students learned to use SketchUp? How much have you had to teach them?

I introduced it yesterday (Wednesday, November 4), and we built a simple house with a pitched roof, a door, and windows. Today (Thursday, November 5), we built another house, this time with measured heights of walls, lines constrained to the axes, etc., and imported furniture (and many other things...) from the Google 3D Warehouse. (Check out this example.) So in two class periods, they have learned a lot of things!

Most of the instruction involved me showing them how to use it on my computer, with a multimedia projector showing my work on a classroom wall. Then the students worked on what I just showed them. The students have had a few minutes to discover things on their own, especially in the 3D Warehouse. Next week I'm planning on letting them have more work/discovery time as they build their dream homes.

Has anything surprised you?

I was impressed by how quickly most of the students learned the tools in SketchUp. I wasn't expecting to get as far as we did in two days. This activity also showed me which students were creative and had good spatial skills, and which students didn't.

What challenges have you or your students faced?

Some students can't seem to master zooming with the scroll wheel on the mouse. They usually scroll so far away from things that they can't find what they're working on. Some students with learning difficulties have to be reminded how to do things a few times--but that's my job. :)

Have their been any unanticipated benefits emerge from the project?

Students don't want to leave my classroom when the bell rings. They discuss what they are doing as they leave the room. They are excited about what we're doing. That's a great benefit to me!

Overall I think SketchUp is a really neat tool that can be used in lots of ways across the curriculum. Check out these free lesson plans for design, math, science, geography, art, and history!

Fun with SketchUp and 3-D Warehouse

2009-11-05T16:27:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I gave the 6th grade COLA Lab class a quick introduction to Google SketchUp. We did the usual introductory activity: build a simple house with a roof, put a door in it, etc.

Today we reviewed that, then discussed how to make exact measurements when creating boxes and lines, and how to constrain things to the different axes. Finally, I showed them how to insert things from the Google 3-D Warehouse. Oh, what fun! Lots of excitement in the room!

The above screenshot is what two 6th graders worked on. Notice the giraffe in the basement, the giant roll of toilet paper, and the baby that is floating in space. They also put a can of Sprite on the left-rear wheel of the tractor. Nice touch!

Next week we'll be building dream houses. Mine will have Darth Vader in the entryway...

Putting the school in Google Earth

2009-10-06T10:09:00.005-05:00

Just for fun, and just to make sure everything in our model was aligning with reality, I put the model in Google Earth.

It was surprisingly easy to put the model in the right spot. First, you go to Google Earth and find the location. Then you go to Google SketchUp, click a button to pull that location into SketchUp, then rotate and move your model to the correct spot.

Check it out! Click here to download the KMZ file.

Just looking at it again, it looks like I need to move the model a little northwest...

Next task: making the model photo-realistic...

Sketching Up the High School, Day 2

2009-10-05T15:33:00.004-05:00

Today we took a protractor and the measuring wheel-thingy, and used a little trigonometry to figure out the height of the school building. We figured the ground to roof height of the main part of the high school was just about 30 feet.

Then we put the heights into our SketchUp model.

Sketching Up the High School

2009-10-02T15:34:00.002-05:00

I went to a Google SketchUp training yesterday, and now I'm all excited about using it to add a 3-D New London High School building to Google Earth!

A student and I went around the school with a rolling measuring wheel-thingy and got the dimensions of the outside of the school.

Then I went into Google SketchUp and created rectangles with the correct distances.

Here's what I have so far...

My Commencement Address

2009-05-26T13:50:00.003-05:00

If I ever give a commencement address, here is what I'll say...

Growing Up

Today is your commencement ceremony. Commencement means that you commence with, or begin or start, something. Today, you are commencing with the rest of your life.

I love 80’s music. In 1984, Twisted Sister came out with a classic music video, where a guy screamed, “What are you gonna do with your life?” So on this day of commencing, I’m asking you—what are you gonna do with your life?

Actually, I’ve got more than just that one question. In journalism and in police investigations after an event has occurred, there are the five W’s: who, what, where, when, why, and how? I want you to consider each of these questions before you commence with the rest of your life. I want you to think about how somebody would answer these questions about your life: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

But I want to take these questions in a different order, and I want to suggest some possible answers. We’ll start with “Where.”

Where: Where are you gonna live your life?

Some of you will move out of here and never come back. And that is fine. The world is huge, and you need to explore it.

Some of you will never move out of New London. And that is fine. New London is a great community, and a great place to raise a family.

But whatever you do, do not live your life in high school. Move on.

High school is a great place to learn things, make friends, and to participate in activities. But move on. There is a lot more to life than high school.

At the end of your life, if you look back and say that your high school years are the best years of your life, you will not have grown up. And that would be really sad.

Some people live the rest of their life in high school. And I’m not talking about your teachers. You know who I’m talking about: people who spend the rest of their life in high school have their little cliques, they spend their life trying to be popular, or they try to be good at something just to get a trophy, a certificate, or a ribbon. These are miserable people, and life is more than that.
Where are you gonna live the rest of your life? Don’t live it here, in high school. Move on. Get out of the nest.

Please, whatever you do, do not come back to school next week. Or next year. Take it from me: none of your teachers want to see you again until you have grown up. Please, be successful at something. Change and improve your life. Better yet, improve the lives of others. And then come back and tell us about your successes. The best thing you can do for a teacher is to say, “Thank you. Because of you, I am successful.” When you do that, when you have improved yourself and others, and then thank those who helped you, you will have grown up.

After answering the “where,” question, the next question is…

What: What are you gonna do with your life?

That’s the big question for you right now, and the second question on the list. “What are you gonna do with your life?” Are you going to go to college or the military, or straight into the workforce? Each of those is a good choice.

Instead of the question, “What are you gonna do with your life,” a better question is, “What are you gonna live your life for?”

Are you gonna live your life for your career? Know this—your job is not you. Just because you have a high-paying job doesn’t mean that you have grown up. Lots of people have wrecked their families, their marriages, their health, and others because they thought their work was more important than the people around them.

Are you gonna live your life for money, or for things? You know people that do this: they are miserable people. The more stuff they have, the more stuff they want. You will find this out: the more stuff you have, the more stuff breaks, and the more insurance you have to have. Possessions are fine, but they won’t make you happy. If you live your life just to get rich or to have a lot of toys, you will never grow up.

Are you gonna live your life for the moment? That’s great, but moments are fleeting. And spur of the moment decisions based on emotions, adrenaline, or hormones often end up as bad decisions that hurt you and the people around you. People who live this way all the time have not grown up.

Are you gonna live for yourself? Again, you know people that do this: they are miserable people. It’s all about “me, me, me,” and “what can you do for me?” Nobody likes to be around self-absorbed people. Selfish people are hated people. Don’t live for yourself.

So the next question is…

Who: Who are you going to live for?

That’s question number three. “Who are you going to live for?” The answer is obvious: live for other people. Invest in the lives of other people. Love others, and you will be loved.

Just look around this school. You are in the Charles Lorber Gymnasium. We have the Ron D. Coberley Auditorium. The street outside is Jack Wilson Drive. Why did these things end up with these names? Because these people invested in the lives of others, and others loved them so much that they named things after them.

So the question is: Will you have things named for you?

Do you want to be loved? Then love others first. Do you want friends? Then be a friend first. Then you will have a life worth remembering, and you will have grown up.

If you want a great life, you need to give your life away.

By the way, friendship and companionship is one of the most important things in your life. You need to work at your relationships—it is worth it. If you want a good marriage, you’ll need to work at it. If you want good friends, you need to work at it. If you want to keep the friends that you have today, you need to work at it. You are probably sitting next to some of your classmates for the last time, and that’s okay. Some of you will remain friends for the rest of your life. Some of you will never physically see each other again, and that’s okay. It’s okay to move on. But technology today makes it so easy to keep in touch with each other. Please, use Facebook and MySpace and the other social networks that we block here at school, and don’t lose track of each other.

One of the ways that you can live for others is by loving your family. I didn’t really grow up until I got married and had kids. Seriously, get married, stay married, and be a great parent to your kids. Really loving your children means that you give all of yourself to help them be great. Great parents are selfless parents. Today, you need to thank your parents for everything that they have done for you. Seriously. Today should be a day for you to thank people who have invested in you.

Growing up means that you don’t live just for yourself, but that you give your life for others. But now,…

When: When are you going to grow up?

That’s our fourth question. “When are you going to grow up?” Growing up does not mean getting older. Sure, you’re 18, and you can make some adult decisions, but that doesn’t mean you have grown up or will grow up. Having a high school diploma doesn’t mean you have grown up.

Some people never grow up. I see them all the time, especially at high school sports events. They are the people who complain about every call a referee makes in a game. They are the people who complain at their children’s teachers because their kid won’t do the homework. They are the people who constantly complain about their job, their spouse, their neighbors, the government…you name it. These people have not grown up. They think that they are victims, and in their selfishness they would rather blame others instead of choosing to make their lives better.

Growing up means taking responsibility for your life. My wife has a sign in her classroom that says, “Don’t Be Bitter, Be Better.” It means taking what God gives you, and making a difference with it.

I suggest that you start growing up now. Grow up before life passes you by. Grow up so that you can truly experience life to the fullest.

Why: Why are you going to live the way you will live?

This is the fifth question on the list. “Why are you going to live the way you will live?” What is going to be the purpose of your life? Have you found what the purpose of life is? I have, and I encourage you to find it, too. Billions of people around the world have found the purpose of life by understanding stuff from a book that was written a long time ago. The book is has been the bestselling book since people have started to print books. Have you read it? It will change your life. And if you don’t like to read, there are audiobooks available.

This book tells you that you can know the purpose of your life by understanding the purpose of the life of a guy that lived about 2000 years ago. His name was Jesus, and the book is the Bible. Give it a shot. It has worked for me.

Finally, How: How will you grow up?

This is the bonus question. It doesn’t start with a “W,” but getting the answer to this question is vital. How will you grow up? I’ll answer it by summarizing my answers to the 5 W’s:

1. Whatever you do, do not live the rest of your life in high school. Move on.

2. Don’t spend your life trying to get more money or more stuff. Those things won’t make you happy.

3. True happiness comes from investing in the lives of others. You’ll have a great life if you give your life away.

4. Start today. Make a decision to put away childish things. Take responsibility for your life.

5. Find the purpose of life. A great way to find the purpose of life is by knowing Jesus.

The Power of a Good PLN

2009-04-23T08:30:00.003-05:00

I love my PLN (Personal Learning Network)!

Here is just one example of how Twitter can be used as a personal education tool:

I was putting together a syllabus for a class I would like to teach this summer (hopefully in the AEA course catalog soon?). It will be about Web 2.0 tools (wikis, blogs, Twitter, Google Docs, etc.).

Anyway, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing any important Web 2.0 tools, so I got on my TweetDeck and shot off a tweet: "Hi! Where can I find a list of indispensable Web 2.0 resources for K-12 education?"

Within 15 minutes I had these responses:

From K3teachers: "@sethdenney RT @kathymaske @bethstill: An amazing list of Web 2.0 tools. http://tinyurl.com/d37udy ... This is awesome!"
From jbennett: "@sethdenney http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listweb20s.html"
From michelledodd: "@sethdenney some here http://tinyurl.com/6ywqcr"

Wow. These are real people with real recommendations. How much better this is than just an old Google search!

Twitter is a great tool for teachers. And not just people with a teaching license, but people who have information and are happy to share it with others.

Thank you, my PLN!

My Twitter Mosaic

2009-03-19T13:27:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I know, I'm copying Dr. Z.

Guilty.

But he finds the cooliest things...

Get your twitter mosaic here.

10 Reasons Why I Love Twitter

2009-03-12T13:13:00.005-05:00

Dr. Z has been asking for responses about why people use Twitter. Honestly, I have grown tired of retyping my reasons, so from now on I'm just going to reply with a link to this post. :)

I get some GREAT links to new Web 2.0 sites that I can use and/or share with other educators. Angela Maiers shares at least three useful links each day.
I can easily share links to great sites with fellow educators, and the world at large.
I get to see what's going on in the minds of interesting people around the world.
I get to meet Klingons from Kentucky.
I get instant news updates.
I can send updates to my 251 followers (as of March 12, 2009) using one text message from my cell phone.
I can use my Twitter microblog to take notes during meetings and conference sessions, and refer back to them.
I get to share my thoughts with Karl Rove, Arnold Schwarzennegger and Paula Poundstone.
I can answer trivia questions and win a free burrito.
I can update my Facebook page without having to go to my Facebook page.

I'll keep adding to this list...

Separated at birth

2009-02-04T10:22:00.006-06:00

Rod Blagojevich
http://www.ontheissues.org/Governor/Rod_Blagojevich.jpg

Gary Dolphin, Iowa Hawkeye Sports Broadcaster
http://www.uifoundation.org/athletics/events/photos/ksd/2005/ksd006.jpg

Authentic Intellectual Work

2008-12-09T10:08:00.002-06:00

Dana Carmichael, Ph.D.
Dynamic Learner Consulting
http://www.thedlcteam.com/DLC/Welcome.html

Nine pilot schools in Iowa are in the pilot phase of the Authentic Intellectual Work Initiative.

Dr. Carmichael presented a session on AIW at the Iowa High School Summit in Des Moines on December 8-9, 2008.

The first activity was "A Gameboard of Change." On the right, we listed our vision for how we wished learning would happen at our school. A good vision needs to be compelling to get people to go there. The "vision" is different from our "now." On the left side, we listed the challenges of the "now" that have prevented us from achieving that vision.

AIW is helpful in bridging the gap between your "now" and your vision. It provides a framework through four components:
1. Standards (national content standards, local district standards, Iowa CORE curriculum)
2. Resources (time, pilot teachers, administrative support, professional development $$)
3. Fortitude (endurance, resilience, teamwork)
4. Knowing Authentic Intellectual Work well (construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, value beyond the classroom)

That was session 1. Stay tuned for session 2...

New Wiki for ITEC things

2008-10-22T11:18:00.001-05:00

I put all of the best things I learned at ITEC into a wiki at http://nlit.wetpaint.com/

It is very disorganized...

Open Source Software

2008-10-20T16:01:00.003-05:00

Open Office

Lotus Symphony
Word processing, spreadsheet, presentations

PDF Creator

AVG

Picaboo

Microsoft Photo Story

Picasa
Can download it to edit things

GIMP

Trellian

Kompozer (new version of nVue)

Jing

CamStudio

Wink

ScreenHunter 5 Free

Cropper

Google things

Google school

Zoho

Free Mind: free mapping software

cmap.ihmc.us

easypodcast

natural reader

awesome talking library

Alice
from Carnegie Mellon
Storytelling Alice

Scratch

Concrete5

moodle

portableapps.com

makeuseof.com

pendriveapps.com

Dr. Z's Son of Web 2.0

2008-10-20T15:00:00.002-05:00

Dr. Z's session. He has a wiki at tinyurl.com/zgcookbook

Wow, a Web 2.0 presentation really needs a lot of bandwidth!

Scratch

2008-10-20T13:35:00.004-05:00

Download scratch at http://scratch.mit.edu/

Students learn what they teach

Scratch has a low floor and a high ceiling = easy to start, and lots of room to grow

Cross-platform, free, open source

Sprites = like the old Logo turtle
Uses x,y coordinate system
can contain scripts
can contain costumes
can contain sounds

Amazingly easy to manipulate sprites

Controls do for/next, if/then, etc.

Scratch board about $30

Jeroo

2008-10-20T12:30:00.003-05:00

Bruce Bennett

Jeroo is a free thing that teaches programming. I can use this with my senior guys that want to learn programming.

Jeroo's look like kangaroos. They live on an island, and can at most 4 jeroos on an island. You can move them around, and they love flowers.

If the jeroo gets wet, the program ends

There are also nets and traps

method main()
{

Jeroo bobby = new Jeroo();
Jeroo sue = new Jeroo(0,23);
bobby.hop();
bobby.hop(2);
bobby.turn(RIGHT);
bobby.hop(2);
bobby.pick();
bobby.turn(LEFT);
bobby.hop(3);
bobby.plant();
bobby.hop();
bobby.turnaround();
}

If more than one Jeroo, you can set up Jeroo methods

method turnaround();
{
turn(RIGHT);
turn(RIGHT);
}

Google Earth with Hal Davidson

2008-10-20T10:53:00.005-05:00

Hal Davidson showed navigation tools on Google Earth

Trying playing with elevation exaggeration to make hills and mountains bigger.

When you're doing a tour, the speed to control the touring is under Options > Touring.

To make a tour:
Go to Places pane
Create a folder
Keep all your placemarks in the folder
Can save the whole folder. Save whole folder as a kmz file (a little tiny file)

To do the tour, hit the play button in the Places pane. It will fly to all the places that are checked in the pane.

Add Content box. This is where other people have added content. Lots of cool stuff. Anything you load goes into Temporary Places. If you want to keep it, move it up to your Places.

Layers:
Gallery is where the cool stuff is
Discovery Networks has videos
Gigapxl photos has high res photos that you can zoom in
Google Book Search has where a place was mentioned in a book
Rumsey Historical Maps !!! wow that's cool

Image overlay lets you put a picture on top of the world

Ruler measures distance, path measures distance of a path
Smoot = Randy Smoot, bridge between Harvard and MIT, flipped him to see how many Smoots long the bridge was

Idea: put image overlays of pictures in places on Google Earth--pictures of kids in countries of origin

GEEC@google.com

Control + Alt + A
Will open the flight simulator in Google Earth

ITEC Keynote: Hal Davidson

2008-10-20T09:43:00.004-05:00

Hal Davidson talked about differences between digital natives and digital immigrants. He said that digital natives' brains can learn thing faster.

Maximizing retention time: television commercials used to last 60 seconds, now they are 15 seconds. Radio commercials are 5 seconds, 1-2 second "blinks." To learn something, hear it 17 times.

Students will surf, spend 2 seconds on a site, but will stop when it is relevant. The brain does stop at the right spot.

Discovery Streaming does little clips, which is more effective than watching whole videos.

Hal Davidson talked about changes in students. First physical changes (increase in childhood obesity), then changes in IQ. Kids are getting smarter, and if we teach the same things the same way, we aren't moving students up.

Kids are moving away from toys years earlier than in the past. They're moving to technology.

The making of videos by students is a learning tool, where students have to learn the material to produce the video. Wow--constructivism!

Test scores stay the same or went up if students did project-based learning.

http://www.googlelittrips.org is a collection of trips that follow events in literature, like the Joad's trip in The Grapes of Wrath.

Discovery Streaming lets you build quizzes, and give them the quiz on their cellphones. Huh?

Post your sub plans using your cell phone and youtube. Wow, funny video.

Jott is a service that will take your voice and change it into text.

Gcast will give you a free 800 number, and their work is immediately posted on the web. Makes an audio podcast! Awesome. Kids can call in their music lessons.

polleverywhere.com Check this out later

Next year, ITEC in Coralville!

2008-10-20T09:35:00.002-05:00

Hurray! Next year, the ITEC conference will be held in Coralville! That means I don't have to stay in a hotel! My wife will be very happy!

Next year, Jonathan Coulton will be at ITEC.

Free Lesson Plans

2008-10-20T09:22:00.002-05:00

Heard about http://www.thinkfinity.org/ free lesson plans.

Digital Storytelling

2008-10-20T09:18:00.002-05:00

At the ITEC Conference in Des Moines.

Just finished a session on digital storytelling. The presenter showed Microsoft Photo Story 3, an easy-to-use program that takes photos, adds effects, music, and narration, and creates movies.

Wow, I could use that for video podcasting of things for next week's COLA Lab classes...

She also showed how PowerPoint can be used to make photo album pages easily. That wasn't too great, but it was an easy way to put together photos for a PowerPoint presentation.

Seth Denney for President

2008-09-30T15:46:00.001-05:00

First Day of School

2008-08-20T16:24:00.002-05:00

Wow
Where did the summer go?
Great first day
Great kids
Wonderful staff
I love my job

Friends in WORLD Magazine Articles

2008-07-24T07:49:00.004-05:00

We have a lot of friends from Oakville, Iowa (one of the little towns that was devastated by the recent flooding). I opened my copy of WORLD Magazine yesterday, and saw an article about Chad and Natalie Kuntz, a wonderful couple from our church.

Below is an excerpt. Click the article title to read the full article:

Trusting God as the floodwaters rise

Web Extra: Displaced Iowans find hope through their faith, family, and friends | Lynn Vincent

Three houses in two weeks: That’s how many places the Kuntz family has lived since 16 feet of raging floodwater deluged their heirloom farmhouse in Oakville, Iowa.

Chad Kuntz, a farmer, and his wife, Natalie, a homeschooling mom, had more notice than most residents that the Iowa River was about to blow through the levee near their home. So on June 10, they started packing. . . .

More Web 2.0 tools

2008-07-07T08:58:00.004-05:00

Thanks, AngelaMaiers, for tweeting about these great tools!

Text 2 Mind Map - create a mind mind easily

Searchme Visual Search - for visual people (like me)

Control the lights in your house with Twitter

Model Schools Conference: The School of the Future

2008-06-24T14:56:00.004-05:00

These thoughts and phrases are stolen from the School of the Future presentation by Microsoft at the Model Schools Conference in Orlando, Florida (June 24, 2008). These are good enough to think about that I am posting them raw:

Reforming Schools

Learning first, technology later
High tech stuff is too often old wine in new wineskins
You're not done if you have a Smart Board and a 1-to-1 laptop initiative

Language is paramount
Not students, but learners
Not teachers, but instructors and fellow learners

Lack of process impedes success

Be comfortable not knowing
It's okay to say, "I don't know"

Identify the questions and the answers will come

What is right for west Philadelphia is right for west Philadelphia, and that's it. There is no magic formula for every situation.

The Six I Process: Before you spend a bunch of money on fancy technology, you need:
Introspection - establish pedagogy, methodology, success metrics
Investigation - identify best practice, research
Inclusion - engage the community, key leaders, government
Innovation - personnel, building, IT architecture
Implementation - training, readiness, launch
Introspection - reflect to reinvent

Learning is...
Continuous - not dependent on time and place
Relevant - where content, curriculum and tools are current and relevant
Adaptive - to meet the needs of the individual

This generation has a vertical adoption curve. You hand them technology, and they will use it instantly.

Everything cannot be critical to success. You can't say something is critical to our success without putting time and money behind it.

Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats
Build things that build on your strengths and opportunities, and that minimize your weaknesses and threats.
Don't build things that don't help you.
Don't accept things that aren't critical to your success.

If you give a presentation, and the audience doesn't know the one thing they have to differently, you've failed.

MOTIVE
M otivations
O bstacles
T rends
I nterests
V alues
E nvironment

You need to have a MOTIVE conversation every three to four months.

The School of the Future

See Microsoft's website on the School of the Future.

Classes run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Laptops go home with the students (learning is continuous).

The Education Competencies Wheel
Wow, this looks like an interesting tool to look at. This tool hopes to assist the hiring of staff members. There are 37 competencies on the wheel. Certain subsets of competencies are helpful for hiring school principals, etc. There are interview questions for each competency! I need to share this with my superintendent and principals.

We make it too hard. Incorporating technology in education shouldn't be stressful. Technology should be as easy as flipping a switch.

Demand more of ourselves first, then others.

- - -

Sorry about the randomness of this post. There were a lot of good ideas that I need to reflect on later...

Reflection on Emerging Instructional Technologies

2008-06-23T20:53:00.004-05:00

This is my final reflection on the Emerging Instructional Technology class. This was one of the best classes that I have ever taken. I learned a lot of new things, and I learned how to use technologies that I had only played with before.

Dr. Zeitz's syllabus listed the following major course objectives (aligned with the ECIT Standards). Beneath each objective I have listed what I learned from this course.

Design
1.1.a Apply a variety of instructional systems design models.
I am sure that we this, but I am not sure at this time about the exact terminology for the various design models that we used. Hopefully, I will learn these in future coursework.

1.1.c Identify learning theories from which each model is derived and the consequent implications.
Again, I am not sure that I could identify specific learning theories at this point.

1.1.2.a Create a plan for a topic of a content area (e.g., a thematic unit, a text chapter, an interdisciplinary unit) to demonstrate application of the principles of macro-level design.
Our group completed a plan for a topic of content area. Specifically, we developed a multi-session professional development inservice for K-12 teachers to learn about authentic writing and to improve their writing instruction by assigning authentic writing activities using digital tools. The content can be found at authenticwriting.wetpaint.com.

1.1.3.a Produce instructional materials which require the use of multiple media (e.g., computers, video, projection).
In our group's final project, we produced several instructional materials including a wiki, podcasts, videos, Jing instructional videos, etc.

1.2.b Apply principles of educational psychology, communications theory, and visual literacy to the development of instructional messages specific to the learning task.
Our group developed our final project activities for the specific abilities and needs of a specific audience (K-12 teachers).

1.3.a Select instructional strategies appropriate for a variety of learner characteristics and learning situations.
In producing several instructional materials of various media, we were able to accomodate various learning styles in our instruction.

Development
2.0.1 Select appropriate media to produce effective learning environments using technology resources.
In our group's final project, we produced several instructional materials including a wiki, podcasts, videos, Jing instructional videos, etc. We chose each material and media based on what was deemed the most appropriate form of instruction for a K-12 teacher inservice. We used varied learning environments for the teachers, including collaborative writing and reflective writing using technology resources (Google Docs, blogs, Voice Thread).

2.0.2 Use appropriate analog and digital productivity tools to develop instructional and professional products.
See the previous standard.

2.0.3 Apply instructional design principles to select appropriate technological tools for the development of instructional and professional products.
We developed our final project unit of instruction using instructional design principles to introduce, reinforce, and assess the student work. Our group used collaborative technology tools in the development of our product, including a wiki and Google Docs.

2.0.4 Apply appropriate learning and psychological theories to the selection of appropriate technological tools and to the development of instructional and professional products.
I am uncertain as to whether I could identify the learning and psychological theories that we used, but I am certain that we used some great ones.

2.3.1 Design and produce audio/video instructional materials which use computer-based technologies.
Our group produced podcasts and videos for our final project.

2.3.2 Design, produce, and use digital information with computer based technologies.
We used Google Docs and a wiki to design, produce, and use digital information.

2.3.3 Use imaging devices (e.g., digital cameras, video cameras, scanners) to produce
computer-based instructional materials.
Theressa and I used a video camera to produce our instructional video.

2.4.2 Develop and prepare instructional materials and products for various distance education delivery technologies..
We placed our final project on the web at authenticwriting.wetpaint.com.

2.4.4 Use telecommunications tools such as electronic mail and browsing tools for the
World Wide Web to develop instructional and professional products.
Our group used Gmail, Google Docs, and a wiki to develop our project.

2.4.5 Develop effective Web pages with appropriate links using various technological tools (e.g., print technologies, imaging technologies, and video).
See our wiki at authenticwriting.wetpaint.com.

Utilization
3.1.1 Identify key factors in selecting and using technologies appropriate for learning situations specified in the instructional design process.
The key factors in selecting and using appropriate technologies for our final project were the nature of the learners (K-12 teachers) and the goals and objectives that we established for them. Our goal was to improve writing instruction using digital tools, and to transform writing from inauthentic to authentic.

3.1.2 Use educational communications and instructional technology (ECIT) resources in a variety of learning contexts.
We used many communications and resources in a variety of contexts in this class, including Skype, Second Life, Nings, Jings, blogs, wikis, Google Pages, Google Docs, and Twitter.

3.3.1 Use appropriate instructional materials and strategies in various learning contexts.
Our materials, media, and strategies were appropriate for various learning contexts, from staff inservices to classroom instruction.

3.4.2 Identify and apply policies which incorporate professional ethics within practice.
We discussed and applied professional ethics within our project and our class.

3.4.3 Identify and apply copyright and fair use guidelines within practice.
We discussed and applied copyright and fair use guidelines in our class, and discussed Creative Commons at length.

3.4.4 Identify and implement effective policies related to the utilization, application, and integration of instructional technologies.
We identified and implemented these policies in our final project. We used, applied, and integrated technology into a curricular area.

3.4.5 Identify policies and regulations which apply to the utilization, application, and integration of distance delivery technologies.
We discussed and applied copyright laws and child-protection laws in our class and our final project.

Management
4.0.1 Demonstrate leadership attributes with individuals and groups (e.g., interpersonal skills, group dynamics, team building).
We all took different leadership roles in our final group project. Each person demonstrated excellent interpersonal skills, which led to effective group dynamics and team building.

4.1.1 Apply project management techniques in various learning and training contexts.
We assigned different roles to our team members for our final project, and worked together effectively to complete the project in a timely manner.

Evaluation
5.1.1 Identify and apply problem analysis skills in appropriate educational communications and instructional technology (ECIT) contexts.
Our group identified and applied problem-solving skills to produce our final project.

5.2.1 Develop and apply criterion-referenced measures in a variety of ECIT contexts.
Our group developed a rubric for the assessment of the final project unit.

5.3.1 Develop and apply formative and summative evaluation strategies in a variety of ECIT contexts.
We developed formative and summative evaluations of knowledge about digital tools and authentic writing in our final project.

Emerging IT: Final Project: Our Group -- Authentic Writing

2008-06-23T15:28:00.004-05:00

Our group's final project was about improving writing instruction using digital tools. The focus was on authentic writing, which was a topic that I had never given much thought to before we started the project.

We aimed our project at K-12 teachers, as if we were presenting a multi-day inservice about authentic writing and digital tools to improve it. In our inservice, we would discuss authentic writing, have teachers reflect on their current writing instruction, and use a variety of tools to reflect on ways they could improve their instruction. We hoped to have teachers use digital tools to create authentic writings themselves, so that they could take their experiences and apply them to their classrooms.

Our project is located at authenticwriting.wetpaint.com. We have all of our podcasts, videos, readings, Jings, etc. there. Please feel free to look around, and let me know what you think.

Our group worked very well together, as I have mentioned in previous posts. We divided the work into 5 sections:

an introduction to the topic (led by myself and Theressa);
an initial activity where teachers reflected on their current writing instruction using Google Docs and Blogger (led by myself and Theressa);
an activity using VoiceThread for authentic writing, and Blogger to reflect on that activity (led by Jenny and Becky);
an activity using 21classes.com to set up and use a classroom blog, and Blogger to reflect on that activity (led by Karen and Jim);
and a wrap up video and activity for students to use Google Docs to create an action plan to implement one of the digital tools into their current writing curriculum (led by myself and Theressa).

The goal was to expose teachers to various tools and for them to choose one or more tools that they could use in their classroom. We did not want teachers to feel like we were adding to their workload--teachers have enough on their plate. Rather, we wanted to have teachers use a tool to make their current writing instruction more authentic.

Our group put together a very "professional" plan, according to Dr. Z. I am worried that it is a little too professional (that is, a little too dry and dull). We should have livened-up the presentation. I personally like sock puppets for staff development. :) With a little polish and fun, it could be a really great inservice. As it is, it's a good professional inservice.

I want to thank everyone in my group for taking charge of their topic and running with it. We all put in a lot of work in our project, and I am proud of it and of my group.

Emerging IT: Final Project - Piracy Group

2008-06-21T13:30:00.002-05:00

This group did a great job with their presentation. It was creative, informative, and enjoyable.
They started with a skit where a pirate came into the classroom and offered illegal copies of software to classmates, along with bandanas. When people accepted the CDs, the pirate exclaimed, "Arr, yer a pirate now, matey!" What fun! And then a hero character came in and said that they shouldn't be pirates. It was great.

The group then showed us their wiki page at digitalcitizenship.wetpaint.com. What a great looking page! It's all very clear and easy to find things. And a teacher resource page is located at http://bluegroupproject.googlepages.com/home.

This project is aimed at middle school students, which is a great target audience for digital citizenship discussions. Students would be asked about Creative Commons and copyright, and would post their answers on a wiki. Then the students would discuss the postings.

We listened to a very well-done podcast and a very good video (found on the their wiki). Wow, these guys were good. I think middle school students would really like to see and hear these (or, at least I don't think they'd complain too much).

I can use these activities with my students. Great job!

Emerging IT: Final Project - Social Networking Group

2008-06-20T15:13:00.004-05:00

This group did a great job, too. Their focus was on the use of social networks in a school setting.

The group allowed us into a Ning that they created. Nings are ad hoc social networks that anyone can create about any subject. And, they let you control who is allowed to see and enter the Ning. The security features are essential for K-12 students because of federal laws.

The group started with a really well-produced video that highlighted the way people used to participate in social networks, and how they do it now using Web 2.0 tools.

The group discussed what social networking is, and how to use it in a classroom. We completed a survey on the Ning to post ideas about how we might use social networks in our own schools. We then discussed the responses.

I am seriously thinking about using a Ning for my classes this next school year. I could use it to hold asynchronous discussions, and let students post their work for others to see and comment on. It would also be a place to post upcoming activities, assignments, and reminders to do the assignments. Nice job, guys!

New London grad to wrestle at Iowa

2008-06-20T10:57:00.003-05:00

My Google Alerts just let me know about a Daily Iowan article. New London's very own Jeret Chiri is going to wrestle for the University of Iowa. Wow!

Picture from http://assets.mediaspanonline.com/prod/521404/view_2220835.jpg

Lots O' Links

2008-06-20T09:19:00.006-05:00

Some of the tools we discussed on the last day of class:

Digital Portfolios Made Easy: http://dpme.org/

Micropublishing: http://www.lulu.com/

Some books that were passed around:

ISBN 1-4129-2767-6
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms
by Will Richardson

ISBN 978-0-979878-1-8
An Educator's Guide to: Google Apps for Education
by Chris Carey, John Lien, Maruice Draggon, Sheila Ryan

Podcasting using your cell phone: http://www.gcast.com/

A huge bunch of widgets for web pages: http://www.widgetbox.com/

Dr. Z's articles about XO laptops

Live with Courage
Teach with Vision

Emerging IT: iMovie, Podcast, Field Trip

2008-06-20T07:04:00.007-05:00

The whirlwind continues. Time to say goodbye to Shull Hall today and pack up.

iMovie

Yesterday, after some group work time, Dr. Z showed us how to use iMovie HD to make videos. Part of our final project was to create a video, and we thought we had that done with Theressa's Jings. We found out that we had to create a real video and use iMovie.

No problem--we put our backs into it. We each thought of ideas over lunch and combined them into a script outline. We grabbed a video camera, headed up to the ERTS/NERTS/Certs (?) Lab, took over a corner of the room, and recorded it. We put the video into iMovie, edited it, added sound effects and music, converted it into a .mov file, and ... tada! Our movie is done. Wow. I've never made anything like that so quickly. Theressa is great to work with.

Watch our video if you'd like. I think it's pretty good, considering we really didn't have a lot of time to put it together. I put the video on our podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast with iTunes or other podcatchers.

Field Trip!

During all of that, we took a lunch break and then a field trip! Our field trip was to a data center on the south side of Cedar Falls. The security to get into the place reminded me of those Mission Impossible movies. There were proximity card thingies, bone-density scanners, "man traps," and a gas that would "suck the oxygen out of the air." Wow!

The walls were designed to withstand an F4 tornado (we don't have any of those, do we?), and I heard something about them being able to house warheads or something?

The place blew my mind. The cooling system was incredible. I'm trying to get my maintenance guy to improve the airflow in my server room--this place was a dream. The company sold rack space to companies. It was very secure and looked really cool. But, I bet MacGiver, the A Team, and/or Maxwell Smart could probably get in there if they really tried. :)

You can take a virtual tour of the facility yourself. By the way, whoever did their website did a great job. Very cool!

Random thought: Google Analytics, Reading Comprehension, Standardized Testing

2008-06-19T06:56:00.005-05:00

Just for fun, I added a Google Ads widget and Google Analytics to this blog. I really don't expect any money from this, but I was curious about how it would look and what it would do.

Just look at the adds that appeared on my blog this morning:

K12 Learning Online
Effective Classroom Tips
Keep Students Interested
eLearning Management
Moodle Support and Services
Get Better Group Learning
Learning At Home
Blended Learning Platform

Not bad, Google. You've figured out what this blog is about.

Hmm. Google has pretty good reading comprehension. I wonder how it would do on an ITBS/ITED test? Now wouldn't THAT be interesting research! Hmm...

Flood of 2008: AP article about small towns

2008-06-19T06:25:00.003-05:00

Photo by EPA/Steve Pope

This is worth a read: AP has an article called "Small towns suffer big losses as rivers rise." The author focuses on Oakville, Iowa, a very small town that is inundated. It will be interesting to see what Oakville's new "normal" will be.

Emerging IT: VoiceThread and Podcasting

2008-06-18T20:35:00.011-05:00

Whew! What a day! I think I have learned more in this class this week than I have for a LONG time.

The handiness of Google Docs

We started the day by working in our groups, which was a very good thing for us (despite the circumstances). Our group really used the time effectively. Three of us worked on a rubric in Google Docs at the same time. I had been skeptical of Google Docs' usefulness, but it was incredibly easy to get that rubric done with three of us working on it at the same time.

We also worked off of a Google Doc that contained an outline of our project and a listing of the people responsible for its many parts. It was unbelievably handy to move to a different computer in a different room, and still have access to that document (without the use of flash drives). I am going to do an inservice on Google Docs next year for my teachers.

VoiceThread

According to Dr. Z, Theressa and I were "experts" on VoiceThread, since she had used it a little bit, and I had played with it after seeing Dr. Z twitter about it. So, we gave a brief demonstration of the site to the rest of the class. We briefly discussed its ease of use, both in uploading pictures/documents, and in adding comments to the pictures/documents.

I asked everyone if they could see ways to use VoiceThread in their instruction, and I was pleased that several people gave shared some very good ideas. At lunch, Jesse said they he could use it in his classes as a replacement for storyboarding. Students could post their work, explain their ideas, and get feedback from peers. Wow! I'm glad that we are learning things that can have a real impact on teaching and learning.

After our brief presentation, we had a discussion (via Skype) with a major user of VoiceThread, Vinnie Vrotny. Vinnie created the concise and understandable demo discussions in VoiceThread. He shared what his faculty were doing with the tool, including a really intriguing history activity called 13 Days That Changed America. You can see the final project embedded on that wiki.

Look carefully at the nose--looks like the Panther could use a tissue...

Podcasting

All of that happened before lunch! After lunch, Dr. Z gave a brief lecture about podcasting. He was right about one thing: it isn't worth the trouble to learn how RSS feeds or XML things really work. Just call it magic, and move on. A few years ago I created a podcast where I had to manually change the RSS feed each time I added an episode. Needless to say, I gave up podcasting after a few episodes...

Apple has really made podcasting a breeze. The new GarageBand '08 is so stinking easy to use, that I think I need to buy a Mac for my own personal use. Seriously, the value of Garage Band is worth the price of the whole computer.

Theressa and I experienced our share of technology hurdles, though. Our lab was pretty noisy, so we recorded our podcast in the curriculum lab/library in Schindler Education Center. We were pretty brave, because the room was as quiet as a morgue, and we plopped ourselves down and starting recording our conversation in our cheerful and loud podcasting voices. Luckily the library wasn't too busy.

We save the voice tracks to my flash drive, and returned to our regular classroom. Another hurdle popped up when we received multiple errors when we tried to add jingle music to our podcast. We moved to Theressa's computer and finished the file, only to realize that we couldn't create an mp3 mixdown file! It looked like it saved, but the infernal file was no where to be seen.

We were pretty frustrated at the idea that our work might not get saved!

I was able to save it as an AAC file, and I assured Theressa that we could convert the file to an mp3. We used Podbean.com to create our podcast. It's based on WordPress, so it is very easy to use. And, it handles all of the RSS magic behind the podcast. Very nice. I use Blogger and Feedburner to do my church's sermon podcast, but I would do it with Podbean if I had to do it over again.

Check out our podcast:

Subscribe to our podcast! You can take all of our groups wonderful podcasts with you!

Read/Listen /View/Do

2008-06-17T21:40:00.003-05:00

Here are some good links that I found that we may use for our project that is due on Friday. I'm posting them here just in case something happens on our wiki and things get deleted...

Read: What is an authentic writing task?

Read: Authentic Writing Assessment: ERIC Digest
This digest discusses some of the ways authentic writing assessment can be used in education.

Listen: Ben Wilkoff's podcast on blogging in the classroom

View: Ben Wilkoff's presentation on blogging in the classroom

Listen: Podcasting With Purpose by Bob Sprankle (Bit by Bit Podcast: 17)

Emerging IT: Skype and Second Life

2008-06-17T19:52:00.007-05:00

Today in my Emerging Instructional Technology we had two guest speakers: one from a hotel room in Texas, and one from an island in Second Life!

The first speaker was the creator of the Classroom 2.0 ning, and he talked about the use of Nings in classroom settings via Skype. It was a very good discussion, and very informative. I need to use Skype next year--if not for my classes, then for my job as tech coordinator. It's easy to use and free! I would love to talk to people from the eastern hemisphere when we learn about the Middle East, India, China, and Japan.

I am seriously going to look at using a Ning for my high school classes next year. It would be a great tool to contain information about assignments, group discussions, etc. The key to getting the idea past my administrators is to say that I will set up a website for my classes. "Social networking" is a dirty word with administrators...

Perhaps even more impressive was when Chris E. showed Dr. Z his awesome pen that recorded the entire conversation and Chris' notes! It's a Livescribe Pulse. I need one of those! Actually, all of our special education students need those!

The second speaker talked to us from ISTE Island in Second Life. The quality of the audio was surprisingly good, and we could chat with him. He showed us a couple of slides from a presentation that he gave later in the day (we sort of listened to his presentation while eating brats and burgers at Dr. Z's house--thanks, Dr. Z!).

We also learned all about the Iowa island, and how to create objects in second life. I think Second Life is great for higher education and professionals, but I'm not totally sold on its use for high school classes, let alone K-6.

I like Ning because I can create one just for my classes. If there was a virtual world that I could create and control just for my students, and if it was free, I would love it. Surely someone is developing such a virtual world?

Here's an example of a VoiceThread

2008-06-17T19:12:00.009-05:00

Who da' thunk this kind of thing would be so easy? Go to VoiceThread to make your own! This one took me about 5 minutes (including time to register).

Please feel free to leave your own comment to my VoiceThread!

The above thing is embedded code. Here is the original VoiceThread page.

Why would educators want to use this? This would be a great tool for peer reviews of student work. It would also be great for students to make meaning from primary source documents (a must for Advanced Placement history students).

Emerging IT: Google Page Creator

2008-06-16T21:26:00.006-05:00

I have used Google Pages before in my History of WWII class, and I helped a local daycare center build a website with it. It is very easy to use, and creates nice-looking pages.

Check out the page I created today.

I created it as a real home page--a place that connects all of my web stuff into one jumping-off point.

It is interesting to look at the links on that page. You can figure out a lot about me by looking at those links. I was listening to a podcast today about how digital natives have a vastly different idea of privacy than digital immigrants. Natives share, immigrants are afraid to share. It looks like I'm sharing a lot.

Emerging IT: Google Docs

2008-06-16T21:06:00.005-05:00

The second thing we did today was to play around with Google Docs. I had played around with these before, but never used it for collaboration. I was impressed by how quickly the changes made by others appeared on the documents, and how easy it was to work on them.

We discussed the differences between wikis and Google Docs. Wikis are really web pages that are usually visible to everybody. Google Docs are documents that are usually shared by only the people that need to work on them.

The best part today was learning how to make a Google Docs Spreadsheet into a web form. Here's a description from Google.

Wow!!

I have tried to get our district's web server to run CGI scripts, PHP stuff, etc., to handle web forms. NEVER AGAIN! I have seen the light! It is so easy to create a nice-looking web form, embed it on a web page, and get to the data that is submitted using Google's Spreadsheet Forms.

I told another student in the class that if this is the only thing I get out of this class, that's enough.

How would I use this in education?

It would be incredibly great for my students to save their Word files into Google Docs. We have a problem with students working on a file at school and trying to work on it at home, and vice versa. It would solve a lot of headaches if students were able to keep their files online.

Also, how great would it be to have students create web forms for web pages they create on Google Pages, for instance, to conduct research, or just to keep track of data! Oh, I wish Google was doing all of these cool and easy things when I was in high school or college.

Wait... I wish Google was in existence when I was in high school and college. I think we can divide time into B.G. and A.G. (before and after Google). Did I mention that Google is the new tower of Babel/the Beast/etc.?

Emerging IT: Cell Phones & Mobile Tools

2008-06-16T20:40:00.004-05:00

Today was the first on-campus class for our Emerging Instructional Technology course. First thing: GOOG411 & Google SMS.

I have used GOOG411 before. It's easy to use, free, and extremely handy when you want to find businesses. It only lists businesses, though.

More handy for other searches is Google SMS. It's Google searching via text messages.

We also all signed up for Twitter, and discussed ways to create blog posts via email and SMS. Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/sethdenney.

How to use these in education?

Every student (well, almost every student) carries a cell phone. GOOG411 and Google SMS gives them the power of Google searches in their pockets. And almost every high school student has an amazing texting plan, or at least they seem like they do.

Teachers could easily use Twitter to remind students (and parents) about upcoming assignments, tests, and school events. You could even set up a Twitter account for school announcements, then put a RSS feed reader on the school website linked to that Twitter account... Hmm... ideas, ideas...

What do YOU think this blog is worth?

2008-06-16T18:54:00.004-05:00

Well, apparently this blog is worth enough money to buy the Enron Crooked 'E' sign...

44,420
How much money is your blog worth?

Anybody want to buy it? I'll take no less than $35,000. :)

I'm sending this post from gmail

2008-06-16T09:43:00.001-05:00

Hey, this is cool. I'm posting this from gmail.

Tip of the day--Google's define:

2008-06-16T06:58:00.003-05:00

I was reading tweets from various people, and saw the word "B-roll" in one.

B-roll? What's that?

Here's a great way to find quick definitions of terms. Go to Google and type define:whatever.

Here's a the first four definitions I got when I typed in define:b-roll

Definitions of b-roll on the Web:

This is video that enhances or tells the story. It was originally used to cover a jump cut in editing. ...
www.state.gov/r/pa/obs/12471.htm

Stock footage acquired for miscellaneous needs.
www.ic.sunysb.edu/clubs/sbutv/glossary.htm

The video that is captured and shown as visual only (no audio) during "A-roll," the interview/talking head portion of a production. B-roll often tells the story through action while it's being explained or narrated by A-roll. See "a-roll."
www.newmediabrew.com/terminology.htm

Action video used to illustrate what’s being said in the audio track of a video story. B-roll may be used with the reporter track, or bite as the person talks. (See also cover video, talking head, and snchronous sound.)
ehub.journalism.ku.edu/input/glossary/

Thanks, Google. By the way, Google is the new tower of Babel.

Oakville update

2008-06-16T06:35:00.003-05:00

The levee broke. All of Oakville and the surrounding farmland is under water.

Article from The Hawkeye (Burlington newspaper):
Iowa River tops Oakville levee

The town is a complete loss.

People from our church helped move belongings from 43 homes. I helped move three.

Flooding update

2008-06-12T08:02:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, our high school principal, art teacher, and I went to help people in Oakville, Iowa. The town sits on the Iowa+Cedar Rivers, just before they run into the Mississippi.

View Larger Map

Notice how flat the land is in the above map to the east and south of Oakville? That entire area could be under water. The land is as flat as Nebraska. There are levees around the town and surrounding farmland, but if the levees break, there won't be much left of the town.

We helped a family move some of their belongings into a semi trailer. They live across the road from the levy. If it breaks, the water will probably be over the first story of their house, and over their garage. Wow.

Meanwhile, it looked like hundreds of people were sandbagging to the northwest of the town. Apparently the road north of town to Toolesboro normally goes through the levy. They closed and filled in that road, and were sandbagging it. Wow.

I'm heading up there this morning to help sandbag. I'll try to get some pictures.

Just created a ning

2008-06-11T14:06:00.003-05:00

I just created a ning for the technology coordinators in my AEA. It's at http://gptechcoords.ning.com/

After I set a couple of things up, I sent out an invitation email, and within seconds someone from Ottumwa joined! Wow, social networking is easy and quick!

Google Earth and NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service

2008-06-11T10:37:00.004-05:00

Check out the flood map from the National Weather Service (6/11/08, 10:50 am):

The purple is "Major Flooding." The red is "Moderate Flooding."

If you would like info from the Quad Cities that you can see in Google Earth, this is pretty slick: Go to NOAA's National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, and download the KMZ (Observed) or KMZ (Forecast) files. They open in Google Earth, and you can keep track of flooding rivers. Pretty cool.

Other locations in Iowa:
Downloads for Des Moines (and Waterloo, Estherville, Atlantic)
Downloads for La Crosse, WI (and Decorah, Elkader, IA)

By the way, the new version of Google Earth has much improved terrain features, and it has overlays for radar, clouds, and current conditions. Very nice. If you "stand" on a spot on the earth, you can look above you to see if it's raining or if rain is coming. Hey, it's better than sticking your head out the window! :)

CR Gazette > Google Maps > FMAtlas > my classes!

2008-06-11T07:05:00.008-05:00

I was looking at flood news today, and saw that the Cedar Rapids Gazette has a really nice bunch of Google Maps on its homepage, with flags that contain information about sandbagging in different towns, etc.

I wondered how they did that, and saw a little link under one of the maps to Faneuil Media's Atlas page. It's pretty easy. You enter in your places, and then you can export your landmarks as a URL, or as a KML file that you can open in Google Earth.

Hmmm... Google Earth... Cogs are turning...

I could use that for my World Cultures or History of WWII classes! I could put in important historical or cultural things, and share it with my classes on Google Earth or Google Maps! Or have students make their own maps, instead of coloring-in photocopied outline maps with colored pencils. Hmmmmm...

Just playing around a little with it. You can easily embed your map in a web page, like this...

I'm going to share this with my other Social Studies teachers...

Tornado hits house

2008-06-10T16:56:00.002-05:00

Check out this video from KWWL. I don't know if this is from Parkersburg, but this is an amazing video of what tornadoes can do. It was captured by a security camera from across the street, apparently.

Water, Water, Everywhere...

2008-06-10T16:38:00.004-05:00

Wow. Lots of crazy flooding happening in NE Iowa. Down here in SE Iowa, things are relatively dry and calm. We were planning to see my parents at the end of this week, but we may have to cancel our plans...

Check out this Iowa Department of Transportation map to see where roads are closed because of flooding.

KWWL is doing a very good job of reporting on the flooding.

The railroad bridge in Waterloo broke in two, apparently.

Source: http://www.kwwl.com/global/story.asp?s=8459082

Downtown Waterloo is closed and has been evacuated.

Parts of Cedar Falls are being evacuated.

The Iowa River will go over the emergency spillway at the Coralville Reservoir on Wednesday. I was in Iowa City during the Flood of '93.

The last time the Iowa River went over the spillway, it washed away a campground and exposed a huge swath of limestone rock, and a ton of fossils! Hopefully, the fossils won't all get washed away this time, or more may be exposed? Here's an interesting article about the fossils from the Iowa DNR.

The Army Corps of Engineers has a neat "hydrograph" that shows projections of the flooding in Iowa City.

FRONTLINE: Growing Up Online

2008-06-10T09:22:00.002-05:00

Mark Culver pointed our Emerging IT class to a FRONTLINE video about how students are using technology, and how schools are changing to accommodate them. PBS has the full video online, or you can watch a really great chapter that focuses on students and teachers. Thanks, Mark! I shared it with my staff.

ZAC Browser for autistic children

2008-06-09T15:06:00.004-05:00

I StumbledUpon an article about the ZAC Browser, a free web browser for students with autism.

Interesting stuff. It "presents a hand-picked slate of choices from free, public Web sites, with an emphasis on educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images, like a virtual aquarium."

I'm going to share this with our special education teachers...

Duke's CIT Blog

2008-06-09T14:47:00.005-05:00

Duke University's Center for Instructional Technology has a good blog. It's at http://cit.duke.edu/blog/

The blog entries are concise and interesting. The blog is broader than it is deep (sort of like my blog). Each brief article is a highlight of other blog entries about Instructional Technology. It looks like the blog is updated about once a week.

One that I especially like is a review of another blog entry entitled "50 Tips and Tricks to Create a Learning Space in Second Life." And that blog has a link to another blog entitled "Suffern Middle School in Second Life." Wow! Actual examples of people using SL for education! And, it had a link to a wikispace called Second Life in Education. Hurray!

So, I'm glad I found Duke's blog--I found some interesting and helpful material quickly. I eagerly expect more...

Multitasking/communicating on 6/5/08

2008-06-09T13:05:00.008-05:00

Wow. Last Thursday night my Emerging Instructional Technology class had a discussion simultaneously in three venues: the class's WebCT chatroom, MeBeam video chat, and Second Life.

I'm on the edge of the digital native/digital immigrant divide: my native side loved it, but my immigrant side was stretched.

The MeBeam part was very cool. It was nice to see Dr. Z and others, but I actually didn't talk too much on it. There was enough action in the two other chats that I spent my time reading and typing. I also noticed that the video from my cheap web cam looks really crappy. Oh well, it was cheap.

And Second Life was bizarre. We met in Dr. Z's house and chatted. But the physical/visual part of Second Life was cumbersome. It was a little difficult to move around, and to figure out what to do. I got in the hot tub and had some popcorn, but I made the mistake of flying out of the tub. Suddenly, I was on the roof, and couldn't get back in the house. I need to spend more time there to really learn my way around.

I can really see the advantages of chatting and MeBeaming, but I'm not totally convinced about Second Life. It's fun and interesting, and it's a new way to meet people. But I really felt like an immigrant there. I think my students would have a great time in Second Life, but I'm not sure what we would do there? I need to see some good educational implementations of Second Life in high school or middle school courses.

Chris Eller has a good posting about his experience. And he included some nice resources about digital immigrants and natives.

Also, check out Jenny Nitchal's posting. I think we share some of the same conclusions.

Karen Colvin posted that she will have to find a teenager to show her the ins and outs of such worlds--so true!

The Daedalus Project

2008-06-03T14:21:00.004-05:00

One of the "Technologies to Watch" in The Horizon Report - 2007 is Massively Multiplayer Educational Gaming.

I just found "The Daedalus Project" by Nick Yee. It's his collection of research about the people who play MMORPGs. He has an index of peer-reviewed articles, which look fascinating. This would be a very interesting topic for more research...

Granted, these are talking about MMORPGs in general, and not necessarily educational gaming.

Nice article about StumbleUpon

2008-06-03T14:07:00.004-05:00

I StumbledUpon a good article that explains what StumbleUpon is and does:

Digital Journal Mavericks: Stumbling Through the Web With Garrett Camp

If you haven't tried StumbleUpon, you are missing a lot of great sites on the Internet.

2008-06-03T12:18:00.004-05:00

Just saw Tom Vilsack's campaign poster on the web...

http://logoblink.com/2008/03/23/usa-polit-logos-2008-1960/

and it reminded me of...

http://www.ukquad.com/1984.jpg

Hmmm...

2008-06-03T11:44:00.006-05:00

ThinkGeek.com DotCom buttons

I, Cringely Podcasts on Instructional Technology

2008-06-03T08:18:00.005-05:00

Robert X. Cringely has a good podcast, usually about information technology, computer hardware, what Steve Jobs is thinking, etc. He reads the articles he writes, which sounds boring--but the articles are usually very interesting.

And, he did a very nice podcast mini-series this past spring on technology in education. These are worth listening to. You can subscribe to his podcast on iTunes.

War of the Worlds: The Human Side of Moore's Law (March 21, 2008)

A quote: "We've reached the point in our (disparate) cultural adaptation to computing and communication technology that the younger technical generations are so empowered they are impatient and ready to jettison institutions most of the rest of us tend to think of as essential, central, even immortal. They are ready to dump our schools."

Amish Paradise: There is no one correct response to the generational change that's coming thanks to Moore's Law. (March 28, 2008)

Ozzy Knows Best: Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne are the unwitting inventors of a prototype for digital education. (April 4, 2008)

A quote: "Imagine a 24/7 mobile Google with a conscience. 'Do you really think this is such a good idea, Bob?' It's your favorite teacher with you all the time but with an ON-OFF switch. 'Well if you really insist on trying to fly this Huey helicopter -- AND I CERTAINLY RECOMMEND AGAINST IT -- start by putting your right hand on that lever attached to the floor, which is called a cyclic.'"

Alan Watts Podcast

2008-06-03T08:00:00.003-05:00

If you're into eastern religion or philosophy, or if you're not (like me) but you teach World Geography, World History, World Cultures, comparative religions, etc. (like me), there's a really good podcast on iTunes where you can brush up on Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Yoga, etc.

Alan Watts (January 6, 1915 – November 16, 1973) was a philosopher, writer, speaker, and student of comparative religion. He was best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Asian philosophies for a Western audience. (Wikipedia article)

There is an Alan Watts website, but it isn't very helpful. And, they only put one podcast episode on at a time on iTunes, so you have to subscribe for a long time and keep old episodes, if you want to learn anything.

The podcasts are probably too boring for middle or high school students--it's just Alan Watts lecturing for about 15 or 20 minutes, followed by some catchy music. But it's very good preparation material if you have to teach about one of these religions.

Nine Types of Adaptations

2008-06-02T16:16:00.002-05:00

http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/strategies/types_adaptation.html

Hey, StumbledUpon this, from UNI! Nine types of adaptations for inclusion.

PICNIC Error

2008-06-02T15:00:00.002-05:00

Found this while Stumbling...

Semi-humorous ways to describe user errors (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEBKAC)

PICNIC - Problem In Chair Not In Computer

"'Engage Me or Enrage Me': What Today's Learners Demand' by Marc Prensky

2008-06-02T14:03:00.004-05:00

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

This is a good read for those who think that "kids are kids," and that today's students are like yesterday's students.

Prensky says, "The big difference from today is this: the kids back then didn't expect to be engaged by everything they did," and that "All the students we teach have something in their lives that's really engaging..."

Wow, that is true. An example: this year I had a 7th grader in my class who has ADHD. He fails almost every class he takes, and he can't sit still for anything... except Runescape, an MMORPG. Get him on Runescape, and he can perform complex math, problem-solving, geography, economics, communication, etc.

He is really engaged by this MMORPG. If we could put his core classes in the city of Lumbridge, with a Math Tutor as his teacher, and give him some complex algebra problems to solve before he can get some valuable piece of armor, he would do it.

Hmmm... I used to block Runescape through our web filter, but it's actually a really good problem-solving game.

Fun with Google Calculator

2008-06-02T13:20:00.004-05:00

Did you know that...

once in a blue moon times the answer to life, the universe, and everything furlongs = 9.85996521 × 10^-5 m / s

Wow...

Frappr! Visitor Map

2008-05-29T16:17:00.006-05:00

Hi! Please click the Join button, move your pin and let me know where you are!

This is a nice take on hit counters and guestbooks.

Sleuth: Shades of Mystery

2008-05-28T14:25:00.004-05:00

Here's an interesting online role-playing game: Sleuth: Shades of Mystery.

I've just started it, but it looks pretty good. I'm guessing it could be used with middle and high school students. You create your detective (with a checkered past, of course), and begin solving a murder.

Educational value? Don't know, but it looks kinda fun.

VoiceThread and AP US History

2008-05-28T13:41:00.005-05:00

Wow! VoiceThread is the perfect combination of technology and historical primary-source analysis! A.P. U.S. History teachers--this is for you!

An explanation: one of the big higher-order thinking skills for history students is the ability to take primary sources (like photographs), analyze them, put them together to make historical meaning (synthesis), and then make judgments about what they have put together (evaluation).

In the past, teachers have done this by displaying pictures, newspaper articles, etc., to a class, and having the class make inferences and meaning from documents. The problem is that the discussions have location- and time-specific--you had to be there to have the discussion.

With VoiceThread, you can have this type of discussion asynchronously.

And holy cannoli! Students can use their mobile phones to comment!! So they don't even need a microphone hooked up to their computer.

I can imagine teachers putting a bunch of photographs and other source material on VoiceThread, and using VoiceThread as a discussion group. Great for visual learners and auditory learners.

Thanks, Dr. Z, for Twittering about this!

Daniel Chesterfield

2008-05-28T11:55:00.001-05:00

Love it!

Weather Bonk

2008-05-28T11:11:00.003-05:00

Weather Bonk is the best weather site I've found. It has nice radar and cloud overlays for Google Maps, and it shows a lot of web cams around the area.

SplashUp

2008-05-28T10:58:00.003-05:00

Have you seen SplashUp? It's like a basic version of PhotoShop, but it's all on the web. And it's free! What a handy way to work on graphics, no matter where you are.

Here's a screen shot

Prensky: How to teach with technology: Keeping both teachers and student comfortable in an era of exponential change

2008-05-27T15:42:00.001-05:00

The Article:
http://eit159.googlepages.com/emerging_technologies_prensky.pdf

The Question: Marc Prensky says that “Teachers don’t need to be trained how to teach the latest technology. They need help from students.” What does this mean? Is it practical? Describe your vision of how this philosophy would change the teacher’s job when integrating emerging technologies (i.e., wikipedia, podcasting, instant messaging, mobile phone cameras, etc.) into the learning environment.

"Teachers don't need to be trained how to teach the latest technology. They need help from students."

This is so true. And not only is it practical, it is the only way for teachers to even pretend to keep up with technology.

I was at an AEA tech coordinator meeting, and one guy actually said that he would rather teach his teachers the new technology so that they would be experts in the classroom. That's a great idea, except that by the time the professional development would occur for the teachers, they will be further behind their students.

I liked Prensky's discussion of the use of PowerPoint in the classroom. We have several veteran teachers who are still trying to become experts at PowerPoint. And they think a good activity is for students to create PowerPoints. Ugh. By the time I have freshmen students, they are bored with creating PowerPoints, let alone watching them. Having students create podcasts, blogs, and web pages is at least a different outlet for students. And the content is more easily shared with others. By the way, I hate watching students present PowerPoints.

Students love to be experts. One of our veteran teachers dislikes learning new technologies, but she is great at letting her students be the tech experts in her class. She is the social studies expert, but her students get to do all of the tech things. And the students think she is great and that she does a great job. She allows them to have ownership in what the class does, and it works.

The best thing about letting students be the expert is that it makes them become an expert if they aren't already. I made my History of WWII class create a blog or web page(s) about their choice of WWII topics. I pointed them to easy tools, like Blogger, WordPress, and Google Pages, and let them go. Really, I only had to guide them a little--almost none of them had any problem in creating or posting to their blog of page(s). Those that didn't know how to do it got help from their classmates, too.

Resources are available to our students, even during tests: texting, the web, etc. Students can text each other from inside their jeans pockets. I think the idea of "open phone" tests is awesome--they won't have "closed phone" tests in the workplace 15 years from now. If teachers focus on big ideas (evaluation, synthesis) instead of the recall of facts, that will mean that our students will actually have to think critically. Hurray! The only problem is that it is very easy to create and grade multiple-choice tests, where lower-order thinking dominates--I have found that essays and projects are easy to create, but time-consuming to assess.

Dede: Distributed Learning Community

2008-05-27T15:40:00.000-05:00

The Article:
http://eit159.googlepages.com/EmergingTechDede1.pdf

The Question: Dede defines a Distributed Learning Community as having 1) diversity of expertise among its members who are valued for their contributions; 2) a shared objective of continually advancing the collective knowledge and skills; 3) an emphasis on learning how to learn; 4) mechanisms for sharing what is learned. (You might notice that this is now posted that top of our Course Content WebCT page. It is the environment we hope to foster in this course.)

What does this mean to you? Describe the learning environment where this community would flourish. Identify the specific conditions in your vision of a learning situation that would foster (or could foster) this sort of distributed learning community.

1) Diversity of expertise among its members who are valued for their contributions

Diversity of expertise has been a part of cooperative learning groups for a long time. There are many forms of cooperative learning, but usually each student is assigned a task (either by the instructor or by the group), and the group's success depends on everyone doing their part. A very easy cooperative learning activity is the jigsaw format, where each person becomes an expert on one topic, then shares what they learned with the rest of their group. These activities usually work very well, if the topic is interesting enough, and with appropriate guidance, when needed, from the instructor.

2) A shared objective of continually advancing the collective knowledge and skills

I teach a History of World War II class, and we have a lot of fun learning strange and fascinating new things. Students will ask me really great questions in class. I tell my students that I know some things about World War II, but there is no way that I can know everything. I have my students using WordPress, Blogger, and Google Pages as a place to publish what they are learning, and when students ask really great questions, I tell them to research it and post it on their blog or pages. And the best part is that students can see what their classmates are learning. It is the best thing I have done. This is the first year that I have done this, and I haven't implemented it too well this year--but next year is going to be awesome. Next year, wikis... and a Ning...

3) An emphasis on learning how to learn

Using my History of WWII class as an example again, I have really changed my emphasis in the class from learning trivial facts (dates of particular battles, minutiae of specific treaties, etc.), to knowing big ideas. And then, students take those big ideas and find the trivia that interests them. A lot of times I'll ask myself, "Will these kids need to know this in 10 years, or can they Google it?" If they can Google it, they probably don't need to memorize it. Students need to be able to think about things, not just spout off trivia. And students need to know where and how to look for things.

The problem is really "search vs. research" (Prensky, 43). Getting students to use more than one source is tricky. I've found that if I make students cite everything they use, and require them to use X amount of sources, they at least seem like they actually research.

4) Mechanisms for sharing what is learned

A really low-tech thing we do is that we create a classroom timeline that takes up three walls of the classroom. That's a great way for students to share what we learn, and we can discuss how the cause and effects of events. As I stated previously, students do web pages and blogs as a project (the nice is, I really don't have to teach them how to create those!).

I love Prensky's idea of "open phone" tests. I may even do that for my finals this year. (Of course, we have a no-cell-phone policy at our school... but I suppose I can get around that by calling the devices our class' one-to-one initiative...)

In summary, the learning environment where this distributed learning community would flourish is a democratic classroom, with cooperative group projects, where students are encouraged to share their learning by using the tools that students are already using.

Hello, world!

2008-05-27T14:43:00.000-05:00

Congratulations! You've found Seth's blog, a repository for all his wonderfully insightful, poignant, and thought-provoking ramblings for his Masters in Instructional Technology from the University of Northern Iowa.