Technology Directors/Administrators…What?

Once again, I found a wonderful blog post on Scott McLeod’s blog Dangerously Irrelevant.

It was titled Education needs geeks, but we need a special kind of geek who is one of us.

I cheer on this guest blogger, previously a classroom teacher, Don Watkins, who is now turned into a self-taught (mostly)Technology Guru.

“I read a web posting about replacing your technology coordinator/director with a building administrator.”

Don Watkins does not agree with this idea.

I loved his statement…

“My efforts have always been to knock down walls and to build bridges to places of opportunity for our students, our faculty, our administration and our community. I see my role and those of my fellow technology directors and now technology integrators, curriculum directors, curriculum specialists as people who can and do encourage innovation. We owe this to our various constituencies. We do not serve them well when we accept the status quo. When someone tells me that this or that can't be done I make it my business to prove them wrong.

Yes…that is my philosophy too ... When someone tells me that this or that can't be done I make it my business to prove them wrong.

My corollary is that I will not allow the computer to win.

My students and fellow teachers know this about me.  I may not end up finding the most direct or the “right” way to get it done, but I WILL get it done. The computer is NOT smarter than a human brain with creativity!

We need more people with this CAN DO attitude. We need to teach our students this CAN DO attitude. Imagine where the world would be if everyone had a CAN DO attitude!

[As always, in my author quotes, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s.  I do this so often, I should probably put a disclaimer to this effect at the bottom of every blog!]

Technorati Tags: education,technology tools,CAN DO

The Power of UTube

Wesley Fryer is one of my favorite bloggers to read.

I remember when his daughter posted a video on UTube about her comments on the inaugural speech made by President Obama.  Wesley mentioned the reaction and the “fame” created by that posting.

His blog post is quite a good piece of writing and shows his concern for young Greyson. He gives a “lesson” to Greyson and his family about the internet and the pros and cons of notoriety. All students should learn this.

This is an excellent opportunity for those in education, and especially those in technology and education, to step up to the plate and teach the students we have influence over about these situations.

Learning at this moment when the “fame” is there is VERY IMPORTANT!

From a church talent show to the Ellen DeGeneres Show: YouTube fame for an Edmond 6th grader: Watch it and enjoy.

Here is his interview and performance on the Ellen DeGeneres show:

This is the world our students live in on a daily basis.  Technology is out there everywhere.

I noticed that in the interview Greyson said he got a text from his mom that said to call her.  He was able to accept that text and then excuse himself from the classroom, as he says, and call his mom from school, in the hallway outside his classroom. Obviously his school does not have a problem with cell phones and their use during the school day.

I would like to learn more about what school he attends and what their technology experiences are for all the students in the school.

Then, add to the technological experience that Gaga is on the phone  talking with Ellen and Greyson on live TV. The only thing that could have been better is that there would have been video of her side of the conversation.   Doesn’t she have Skype?

Teachers, technology experts, and interested learners, what lessons can you make from this opportune moment?

Leave a comment… What will you do or how will you use this as a learning experience for your students?

Technorati Tags: Lady Gaga,Greyson Chance,Ellen DeGeneres,"Paparazzi",technology tools,internet safety,lessons,education,technology,singing,Wesley Fryer,Utube

Technology advances – In time for Christmas?

Reading one of my favorite educational blogs Top 20 Hot Christmas Toys and what you can learn at T+L  I found this video which shows the beginning use of brain waves and physical responses like blinking an eye techniques which will soon be incorporated into many devices.

I can easily see how this will help the handicapped and elderly, but I am thinking what impact will this have on education and learning?
What do you think?

Technorati Tags: technology tools,robots,Christmas,toys,brain waves,handicapped,elderly,education,technology

PPT2YOUTUBE.. making a flash movie

If you read yesterday’s post, PowerPoint into AuthorSTREAM, you will know what I am doing here… trying the competition’s way to insert a video into your blog. 

I think that this video might be too big for a blog.  The file is certainly much larger than the AuthorSTREAM file was and certainly bigger than the original PowerPoint File was. This file is 6 min 41 seconds long.

It is the same file that I used yesterday, but I made it into a MP4 file at 640 x 480 with 30 frames per second.  Those are the recommended statistics or parameters to make the best video.

When I inserted it into Windows Live Writer, where I have been composing my blog posts lately, it seemed to take a VERY long time, but perhaps it was being converted into UTube video style.  We will see how long it takes and if it is able to be posted to my blog, or if it will be too large. I think it took about 10 minutes or so to get it formatted into the Live Writer blog composer.

So, if you see a video, it is OK. If you do not see a video, go through to my actual blog if you are in a reader. Sometimes videos, etc. don’t show up in the reader.

I think it is working right, but I wonder when you look at my blog how long it will take to start.

This is so much fun!  You’d think I was a kid in a toy store!  I AM!

Lifelong Learner! – that’s me!

Technorati Tags: lifelong learners,Power Point,AuthorSTREAM,videos,PPT2YOUTUBE,education,technology tools

The Flow of our lives…

The Flow from Journeys by Diane - a retired (just this year!) librarian makes each one of us think about what we are doing, how we are living, and how our teaching is changing.

Photo from Marie Coleman, whose photograph and comments suggested the topic of the Journeys posting.
Diane from Journeys says

To "go with the flow" is generally understood to mean moving in concert with prevailing trends.

How many of us as teachers or education professionals are “going with the flow,” especially in regards to technology and digital pedagogy?
Are we really in favor of technology and digital pedagogy or just following the crowd?
Do we truly believe these tools will increase students’ understanding and abilities?
Or are some of us ignoring these newer strategies and just going with the Old Flow of our teaching profession.  Some of us will soon be retiring; so why bother with changing the flow and learning new techniques and strategies?
We need to take time out of our busy lives to think a little about this.
Are we just going with the flow?
Should we stand up and make a ripple?
Diane remembers how

Senator Robert F. Kennedy described a powerful yet positive current in a speech at the Day of Affirmation, University of Capetown, South Africa:
"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation...
It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Diane says..

The flow can be a positive or a negative. How we deal with life's currents is, fundamentally, a very personal decision.

Diane ends her blog post with this quote that reminds us all

“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

Are you “just going with the flow” or “making ripples?”
Tell me what you are doing?
[As always, in my author quotes, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s!]

Technorati Tags: flow,education,technology tools,Robert F. Kennedy,Eleanor Roosevelt,ripples,Journeys

Why Integrate Technology?

Reading along over the summer from Taste of Tech by John Schinker about their Teachers Without Borders - Canada team's visit to Africa, I found a wonderful video talk given to the teachers in Kenya about Integrating Technology made by Zac Chase. In his talk, Zac emphasized

“If I share with you my idea, you cannot own it until you add to it.”

He also states

Learning must be…

1) Active

2) Collaborative

3) Integrated into your students’ lives

4) Evaluative

and 5) Inspirational

Although the video was taken on a handheld Flip video camera and is not going to win awards at the Film Festival in Cannes, the message is the most important part… and that should win awards!

Please have a listen here.

Is learning in your classroom ---Active, Collaborative, Integrated into your students’ lives, Evaluative, and Inspirational?

Technorati Tags: integrate,active,collaborative,evaluative,inspirational,Zac Chase,Taste of Tech,John Schinker,Teachers without Borders,technology tools,education

The Amish & Technology… & Education?

I have got to stop reading Kevin Kelly. I can NOT believe how he writes so much (in length and depth, but also so often.)

I was completely shocked when I saw his post regarding Why Technology Cannot Fulfill …about the Amish community.  I immediately said – the Amish and technology?  How do they connect?

Kevin Kelly can do it, and he did it again.

He writes a long and wonderful piece immediately wrapping you into the story telling about an Amish visitor he met online… yes, you read that right. Maybe you’d better go right now to the source and read it from Kevin Kelly! (It’s a long read, though!)

After a wonderful, yet rambling story about his Amish friends and life as a hippie in the 70s, Kelly talks about how the Amish are somewhat “selfish.”

“The "good" they wish their minimal technology to achieve is primarily the fulfillment of a fixed nature,” 

unlike the “rest of the world.”

We, in the technological world of today,

“Those million urban migrants per day have enrolled into the technium for the same reason you have (and you have if you are reading this): to increase your choices. To increase your chances of unleashing your full potential. Perhaps someday someone will invent a tool that is made just for your special combination of hidden talents. Or perhaps you will make your own tool. Most importantly, and unlike the Amish and minimites, you may invent a tool which will help unleash the fullest of someone else. Our call is not only to discover our fullest selves in the technium, but to expand the possibilities for others. We have a moral obligation to increase the amount of technology in the world in order to increase the number of possibilities for the most people. Greater technology will selfishly unleash us, but it will also unselfishly unleash others, our children and all to come.”

The Amish are dependent upon our technology…

“The Amish are a little sensitive about this, but their self reliant lifestyle as it is currently practiced is heavily dependent on the greater technium that surrounds their enclaves. They do not mine the metal they build their mowers from. They do not drill or process the kerosene they use. They don't manufacture the solar panels on their roofs. They don't grow or weave the cotton in their clothes. They don't educate or train their own doctors. They also famously do not enroll in armed forces of any kind (but in compensation of that, they are world-class volunteers in the outside world. Few people volunteer more often, or with more expertise and passion than the Amish/Mennonites.) In short they depend up the outside world for they way they currently live. The increasing numbers of minimite urban homesteads are likewise indebted to the ongoing technium. If the Amish had to generate their all their own energy, grow all their clothing fibers, mine all metal, harvest and mill all lumber, it would not be Amish at all. Their communities would hardly be civilized.”

Kelly says,

“As I encourage new technologies I am working for the Amish, and Leon, and the minimite homesteaders. So is anyone who is inventing, discovering, and expanding possibilities. In our ceaseless collective generation of new technologies, we technology boosters can invent more appropriate tools for minimalism, even though they are not doing that for us. Nonetheless, the Amish and minimites have something important to teach us about selecting what we embrace. I don't want a lot of devices that add maintenance chores to my life without adding real benefits. I do want to be slow to embrace technology that I can back out of. I don't want stuff that closes off options to others (like weapons). And I do want the minimum because I've learned that I have limited time or attention.” 

“I think I can put it this way: What we are seeking is the minimum amount of technology that will generate the maximum number of options for all.”

Kelly also has a point about education. He asked Leon, his online friend who was visiting, if he thought that there could be the same goodness of the Amish life if kids went to school until the 10th grade instead of the 8th grade like they do. Leon said,

“Well, you know, he said, "hormones kick in around the 9th grade and boys, and even some girls, just don't want to sit at desks and do paperwork. They need to use their hands as well as their heads and they ache to be useful. Kids learn more doing real things at that age."

That is true, kids don’t want to sit at a desk and do paperwork.  They want to do more real things.” 

AUTHENTIC LEARNING…

We are investing in the possibilities of our students, as well.

After you read the whole article (I know it seems that I quoted it all here in this post, but truly I didn’t; he is a prolific writer), tell me what I missed, what you thought, and how we can use this information in education.

[As always, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s.  I do this so often, I should probably put a disclaimer to this effect at the bottom of every blog!]

Technorati Tags: Amish,technology tools,education,Kevin Kelly,authentic learning experiences,minimites,selfish

Technology is free

My little brain is somewhat fried right now. 

I bend to the genius of Kevin Kelly, writing about FREE, especially in reference to technology. 

I do not think I am smart enough to understand it all. 

Kelly says in his post here,

Technology wants to be free, as in free beer, because as it become free it also increases freedom. The inherent talents, capabilities and benefits of a technology cannot be released until it is almost free. The drive toward the free unleashes the constraints on each species in the technium, allowing it to interact with as many other species of technology as is possible, engendering new hybrids and deeper ecologies of tools, and permitting human users more choices and freedoms of use. As a technology grows in abundance and cheapness, it is more likely to find its appropriate niche which it can sustain itself and support other technologies in commodity mode. As technology heads toward the free it unleashes the only lasting thing it can: options and possibilities.

[As always, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s.  I do this so often, I should probably put a disclaimer to this effect at the bottom of every blog!]

Please read the post and report back to me what you gleaned from it. 

What does this mean for education and the students of today?

Either it is too late at night for me to understand it, or I am not capable of understanding it!!

Technorati Tags: free,technology tools,Kevin Kelly,options,possibilities,freedom

Teachers embrace the tools that their students are already using!

Just read a blog by ashleytan over at Another Dot in the Blogosphere relating that

“teachers should learn to embrace the tools that their students are already using.”

“teachers should model and teach students digital literacy skills like how to evaluate what they find online.”

“the type of thinking and learning that results from using real-time information vs. textbook information is often more meaningful because the real-time information is authentic.”

Read the full post and think about what you do in your classroom.

Does your school district have technology set up so you can do this?

Are you techno-savvy to teach this to your students?

Who do you know who is?

How can you become techno-savvy?

Or do YOU need to become techno-savvy or can you find another way to teach it and perhaps, learn along with your students?

Can you embrace the technology tools that your students are already embracing, even sometimes in elementary classes?

Technorati Tags: Another Dot in the Blogosphere,ashleytan,technology tools,techno-savy,embracing technology,modeling technology,real-time incormation,textbook information,authentic learning experiences