Cloudy Tag Thoughts

Where am I going with this?

I'm back after a fun road trip to Texas and then southern California, and of course like so many other people I'm trying to read the new Harry Potter. Unfortunately I was right in the middle of trying to finish in a more determined fashion Guns, Germs, and Steel (now that a TV version is out), and GTD (Getting Things Done). I can't say I missed not using my computer or blogging for several days, but now I only have a week before school starts and my list of what I hoped to accomplish doesn't seem any smaller. I've really been trying to reflect on why I should sustain this weblog other than as a learning tool for the process. I think I understand the basics of how to do it but now the content is my current concern. Stephen Downes has posted a good overview on the process I've been going through as I learned how much I didn't consider and all the mistakes I've made which he warns the reader about. I don't want to just parrot other writer's ideas but there are so many good weblogs that I wonder were is my niche? I know that being an elementary school teacher places me in a minority relative to the weblogs that focus on using these tools for middle school and above. I did find a model for how I would like to use both weblogs and podcasts in Bob Sprankle's classroom and for teachers weblogs (Thanks to David Warlick's postings as usual). I wish I could get some feed back on a weblog that would be useful and fun!

Technorati Tags: blogs, education

What I expect. . .

Now that the summer doldrums are upon, us several of my favorite bloggers/educators are reflecting on their processing of the superabundance of information and also the importance and use of conference presentations. I think the first post I noticed which started this was Dave Weinberger and his admitance of not following everyone's weblogs, and later Will Richardson also said that the post "rings true for me," followed by Ken Smith, etc. etc. Their ideas are so important for me that responding to posts is less important to me than processing ideas. Later I was reading what Richard MacManus posted about the bot/automator services that glean information mechanically and post the aggregated feeds.  I was reminded of my studies of information/interface design and reading of books by Brenda Laurel, and how she was always putting the needs of a human user first and the importance of the humanistic (value driven) approach to computer software. Is there a need for a human behind the interface and information? What do I expect for the time I put in to reading or (now with podcasts) listening to the posts? I want more than a mechanical reposting of information. I want opinions and honest reflection. To me these posters are like my avatars of the virtual world. I have no contact with them, I know nothing about them as people except for the slow process of gaining a simple understanding what they are like through their words. I don't expect them to keep track of every scrap of information tagged with "education" and "technology." I do expect them to respond, critique, and evaluate what they are exposed to because as a teacher I won't be going to all the conferences they attend and be involved in conversation with all the people they meet face to face. I don't have the time to attend very many conferences during the school year, and I didn't go to the NECC conference because I couldn't afford to. But come next year, I look forward to seeing them present in San Diego which is only a 6 or 7 hour drive from Cupertino. And this brings up my last point. When I go to see David Warlick, I think his use of the wiki to present the information/handouts and allow the audience to contribute is an excellent compromise and use of the limited time he has (this reinforces the necessity of wifi, which I'd read was unreliable at NECC). I can also see the benefit as Steve Dembo talked about of having a video/quicktime movie of what will be presented ahead of time. My initial response is that teaching/presenting is a performance and even when I move to the facilitator side of the spectrum in terms of my presence in the classroom I still must hold the attention of the students/audience, and having never been a presenter I wonder whether I could repeat a lesson and make it as interesting the second time around.

So here's to the humans overwhelmed with information, shining lights, who accept the responsibility and gravity of what they do. The technology I have implamented in my classroom, I have done on my own with the virtual, indirect influence, and enthusiam of those I have mentioned as well as others I need to list on the side of my blog. At my school I couldn't get anyone else interested in blogging and had no peers or colleagues to bounce ideas off of. So for those educators/bloggers, you don't have to follow the trail of my thinking nor respond to my ideas, but follow your heart in what is best for teaching children because for that I expect nothing less than the best.

Technorati Tags: blogs, education

Early Reflections on Using Weblogs Next Year

As I only started blogging with my students in the spring of this last year, I've begun the process of evaluating and reflecting on what I'll need to change for next year. I definitely intend on using blogmeister again because for elementary students it has all the features I need and ease of use. Our school is very careful about protecting our students and not allowing pictures or personal information, and with this tool I can maintain these requirements. This last year I just let the kids blog and did a brain storming session to begin with and whole class reflections every few days on what we were doing. My connections between blogging and the language arts standards were tenous since I didn't really know what to expect and didn't have clearly defined goals. I was just happy to have the kids posting and commenting on each other's ideas with out my intervention. Now I really need to think of the standards/goals of what I'm trying to do, and whether I'm going to expand blogging out of the writer's workshop model into other curriculum areas. Anne Davis has some very useful points to bring up based on her lessons learned and extensive experience with blogging. Will Richardson summarizes a panel discussion at the NECC also on the topic of lessons learned. Within his article he mentions Tim Lauer who brought up a wiki that is very easy to set up called instiki Lauer mentions that a teacher gave each student their own page which would function similar to how a weblog would work, where as I used it more as a bulletin board for an endangered animal project my students were working on and they used the wiki to post questions and assist each other in finding sources and pictures for their reports. I know I'll be doing literarture circles this year and Anne Davis also has a good starting page to explore ideas on using a weblog to do so.

Technorati Tags: blogs, education, wiki

iTunes 4.9 and Chapters

I've been reading a few blogs with people either frustrated or disparaging over the idea of Apple being in control of the podcast content. Several podcasters/bloggers I enjoy following like Bud Hunt are concerned about content being taken out of the hands of "the people." He along with several others have been unable to get their content listed. I suppose it begs the question as to whether this is a further instance of the gate keepers taking back control of another new content medium. Growing up in the 70's and feeling a keen affinity for punk rock as a bored teenager in the suburbs, I remember when the record companies mediated the intensity of the music and it became new wave, and then stores such as Macy's started selling gaudily painted ripped t-shirts and jeans held together with safety pins and I felt like the battle had been lost, another radical avant-guard set of ideas made digestible for the larger society. Granted I'm a teacher so I'm supposed to be one of the models for a set of values which is in line with the greater part of our culture, but I've never limited my breadth and scope when it comes to learning and ideas, and in this instance or any time in the future the conversation has begin and will be sustained. With RSS 2.0 with enclosures I know how to find the content I'm interested in and I'm not concerned. As long as I can subscribe to whatever content I want without using the Apple podcast directory I'll be happy.  So maybe Darcy Norman and web sites such as David Warlick's Educational Podcast Network and people like them still need to oversee how educators get our content (after David Weinberg's keynote address at the NECC can we depend on the major media/corporate entities out there). I don't know if I'm being overly simple in describing about how to subscribe in iTunes but teaching a room full of ELD kids has made me always assume that they aren't following my words but just the visuals I write on the white board, so anyway, here goes.

My working methodology to subscribe to podcasts in iTunes 4.9 is to:

First, open the advanced menu and choose "Subscribe to Podcast...

Second I paste the copied feed into the window

The feed will show up under podcasts and clicking on the arrow will show the most recent podcast, but allows the user to download previous ones.

What I think is the coolest feature is the ability to add chapters which display graphics and links. I haven't even finished my first podcast so I'm still working on the basics, but for many of you who have the knowledge and are up for the challenge (I still don't do much in the Terminal window) here are two links I followed one's a how to wiki and the other one is more background information and both have a link to download the actual Apple tool if your interested.

What are the implications for education in all this? To me always looking forwards and back drawing analogies between the tools I'm familiar with to understand the new, thinking along the lines of the Art Guy's (sorry I couldn't find his name)1.5 solution  would have me start at a filmstrip with sound. Continuing forward I can see where someone could take their powerpoint slides and add commentary similar to what the NECC webcasts looked like when the camera stayed on the projected image rather than look at the presenter. Perhaps with a real time feed a presenter could with wifi in the room stream the images and links directly through to the audience, but for student learning I wonder how a webquest would look like if done in this manner. The student could pause at key points, and follow the links at their own pace. Oh the possibilities!

Technorati Tags: education, podcast, technology

I love David Warlick!

Having finally posted something and started a blog I was reflecting and back tracking to how I got to this point. You see even though I work in the Cupertino school district and had (we moved) the Apple corporate headquarter's parking lot adjacent to my school we are so underfunded that at least at the elementary school level we currently have no one (the last person just resigned) at the D.O. for technology in instruction. I'll leave it at that to get back to my story. I've been on Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - S.O.S.- Sites of the School Days list for some time and found many of her links useful and good starting points for further exploration. In March she started talking about Bloglines and stepped the user through the process to sign up and then the following week the information was about Blog Meister. Besides the innumerable reasons for why technology has been hard for me to use (ELD 4th and 5th grade) and teach content with, our district is very strict about posting student pictures or other personal information. It was the perfect tool for what I needed. And now I've grown accustomed to his lilting southern voice for podcasts, and his Buckminster Fuller like enthusiasm and vision to what education and technology can become (does he ever run out of ideas). P.S. I love you Kathy Schrock too!

Technorati Tags: education, podcast, blogs, technology

Inspiration from so many Sources

Due to a concurrence of many experiences happening together I've started this blog. First I was reading about Eudora Welty and the garden that she used for so much of her inspiration and I finally had a concrete metaphor that I could hang my hat on to begin this education focussed blog. My thinking has been quite shifted since I have started my class blogging and begun using Bloglines and del.icio.us to interact with others finding information. I really thought that the problem with the internet was the lack of some grand structure as envisioned in say the Xanadu project.  But with the change to more of a social conversation such as what David Weinberger is talking about and combined with the inspirational happenings at the NECC conference which I experienced virtually through the webcasts here I am posting something at last myself.

Technorati Tags: education, NECC