Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

iPods become music to teachers’ ears
“At Jamestown Elementary School in Arlington,
Camilla Gagliolo took another approach. Rather than fighting the fad, she’s capitalizing on it by giving students iPods and re-imagining them
as a learning tool.”

Podcasting reintroduces not only an old technology but I think an area of our curriculum that has been overshadowed by our emphasis on writing. My experience is that speech writing and making have taken a back seat in the classroom. Even as it relates to technology, students use of IM has become a major form of communication. We all knew that as technology evolved it would include increase use of audio and video. With podcasting and portable audio devices, this is now reality. The ease at which we can not only record and edit audio but more importantly subscribe to audio makes this form of communication one that teachers need to embrace.

This article should get us all excited to begin to get our kids to talk and listen.

I’m doing a session this afternoon on Weblogs and just want to highlight a few edubloggers that everyone should read. I’ve got over 200 feeds so I certainly can’t include everyone. This list represents bloggers that new blogging teachers can best get a sense of the potential of weblogs.

• Remote Access….Clarence Fisher, grade 7/8 teacher in Manitoba.
• Clarence’s classroom blog

• Bob Sprankle…Bob is a grade 4 teacher from Maine. He also does a weekly podcast with his class.

• Bud the Teacher….Bud Hunt is a high school English/Journalism teacher who does some great reflective work.

• A Difference…Darren Kuropatwa is a High School Math teacher from Manitoba. Many don’t think Math is a very good subject for a blog. Darren proves otherwise.
• Darren’s AP Calculus Class

• Kathy Cassidy… Kathy is a grade 1 teacher here in Moose Jaw. She uses it as a daily update for her class.

• Weblogged….Will Richardson might be the most well known educator who has been blogging for a number of years and does a great job emphasizing the importance of quality blogging.

While I’m sure I’ve left out some great ones, these will give people a sense of how they might want to format their blog.

If you’re interested in developing a family blog. Check out:

Eamon’s Family Blog
My Family Blog

David Warlick points out some critical ideas here including the value of play and imagination.

My theory is that we were creative because we were one of the only societies that gave their children a childhood. We played. I couldn’t wait for school to end, so that I could go out and play and playing mostly meant pretending.

While I know David is advocating children’s need to play and explore outside of school, I think we need to provide this opportunity inside school as well. Even though we in Canada and specifically Saskatchewan have resisted the standardized testing craze and measurablele outcomes as the focal point of teaching and learning, we’re moving that way in some respects and that worries me. Play and exploration sometimes seem to contradict targets and SMART goals. I don’t have anything against setting targets but we can’t align everything to targets.

A couple of weeks ago, the edtech posse, got together to chat. No agenda, no topics, just talking about stuff we were thinking about. Rick has done this and will be doing this later as part of his IBM fellowship award. He made the comment that he wished all his students would “do this.” Just get together and talk and explore. No lesson plan, just hashing through ideas. Playing. We/I really need to get a handle on this. We need a balance of structured learning with free play both inside and outside of school. My sense is that that scale is still tipped to far away from play.

We people ask me about my job I usually tell them I have the most fun of anyone I work with. Part of my fun comes from the opportunity I have to play and explore and then try out stuff with teachers and kids. Since I’m not in the classroom everyday, I have to be respectful to teachers’ daily grind. But there are many good ones who allow their students to play. They are probably our best teachers.

I hope this doesn’t offend anyone but this one reminds me of the stuff submitted to Leno or Letterman. This photo is in a local golf clubhouse to demonstrate their eco-friendly plumbing system.

As the flickr note ponders….”is this all from him?” Maybe I should go back to being explicit?

Need to get a couple of frustrations off my chest. These aren’t new ones, just my recent take on them.

The slow rate of change:
Will Richardson
Darren Kuropatwa

Too many choices:
Writely
Writeboard
Elgg
Moodle
WordPress

I’ve agreed to teach a basic computer introduction class to largely seniors at one of our schools. I’ve taught technology to six year olds with a fair bit of ease. Sure, they’ll run around a bit, maybe push something the shouldn’t but for the most part learn pretty quickly and easily.

I’ve never taught seniors. I have shown my dad a few things but that’s it. I have taught many reluctant adults but usually with a very specific purpose. Now I have carte blanche and want to give them the best bang for their six hour investment (3 nights/2 hours each).

So I’m asking for your help. I’m sure I’ll cover file management, email, internet and searches but I’m not sure of the depth or focus of these topics.

If you had this time to teach seniors about using computers. What do you think are the critical skills they should have?

This is our 7th podcast. Thanks again to Rob who does all the behind the scenes work. This one touches on a number of themes that I’ve been dealing with over the past couple of years. Enjoy.

I’ve discovered that those who find my podcast listing using iTunes or Yahoo, will see the little explicit warning beside my feed. Not sure how that happened but I’m wondering if upon my itunes submission I checked the “adult” box when I clearly meant adult not adult….you know what I mean.

So for those of you tuning in to hear me rant like “fitty cent”, sorry but you’ll be quite disappointed.

Now if anyone knows how I can modify my listing with itunes, I’d love to know because I tried but couldn’t figure it out.

UPDATE: I figured out how to remove it within my feedburner feed details. No I’m no longer explicit. I’m assuming my viewership will drop.
As usual, I really have no idea what the techie stuff means, I just fiddle around until it works…Hey that should be my tagline…”I just fiddle around until it works!”