Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

I’ve been trying to figure out how to create either easy enhanced podcasts on Windows or else simple v-logs. I know I haven’t discovered anything new for many but this may be helpful to others.

Thanks to Miguel’s love of open source and time spent with VLC, he showed how to rip audio from a video. I also realized from this demo you could easily transcode any video to the .mp4 format and thus make it part of your podcast subscription.

Here’s the credits clipI stick on the end of my videos as a sample.

Another one of those, “I’m not sure how this will work but it’s interesting“.

Update1:
I’m having some trouble getting the video to download as an itune subscription. First issue was my feedburner feed was invalid. Discovered that copying and pasting from Word, creates major issues. Fixed that, now it’s still not downloading the video. Posted a message to Feedburner Forum and will await their response.

Update2:
Thanks to the good folks at feedburner, they let me know the following was wrong with my video:

So, looks like your mime type is incorrect. The mime type for the video should be set as video/mpeg rather than text/plain. This is something that needs to be done from the server where the media file is hosted. You may need to contact your hosting company for help depending on how familiar you are with changing mime types. It isn’t a time consuming process though once you know where to look. It’s basically one click!

As soon as you get the mime type changed you will need to go into your FeedBurner account and head over to the troubleshootize tab. You’ll need to scroll down until you see the “resync” link. Click the resync link and you’ll be good to go.

I wouldn’t have a clue how to change the mime so I’ll upload it to archive.org. Hopefully it will work now.

Drive home reflections of my first time introducing weblogs to high school students. Lots of questions and frustrations.

4.9 MB
11:31 minutes

Show notes:
learner blogs
Student blogging policy
Secret Life of Bees
Bike lock blog
Gary Stager
Miguel Gughlin post on Flickr

I heard John Kuglin last year at FETC and although Google Earth wasn’t available then, he was demonstrating some other satellite technology and sparked my interest and love of geography. This year, John spent his session demonstrating Google Earth. While there wasn’t much there I didn’t already know, I was enjoying the “oohs and aaaws” of the several hundred attendees many of whom had never seen or heard of Google Earth.

I liked the title of his session: Smart Stories Smart Locations. The word “stories” and “conversations” may well have been the most used words at the conference which is fine by me. John not only showcased the amazing power and features of Google Earth but laid out an invitation to use it to tell stories. It might not seem like a natural fit but it really does have that potential. John continually pointed out the ability to discover tools and features not listed in any manual and that much of the potential of Google Earth is yet to be discovered but will be discovered by those willing to hack.

Today I discovered a video podcast by the School of Geography in Southampton University. They have already produced 9 episodes which are great little tutorials on using Google Earth. You can subscribe to it through itunes.

Technorati Tag: FETC2006

Kathy Cassidy is a grade one teacher in Moose Jaw. She continues to demonstrate how primary students can utilize all the tools of the Read/Write web to demonstrate their learning. Her latest venture is using the podcasting tool built into David Warlick’s classblogmeister.

I think I understand how competitive the news business is in trying to get out stories before the other guy. As far as I can tell I’m at least the 4th one to talk about this event. But I have something the others do not; Audio. Although the quality is not your Savvy Technologist standard but if you want to sit in with the likes of Wes Fryer, Will Richardson, Tim Wilson, Rob Mancabelli and others this might be for you.

23 MB 1:06

My only regret is that I didn’t have more time with Steve Dembo and have him in on this conversation. Steve was sitting down from us and was busy having his own great conversation.

Last year at FETC, I came to one session early to hear the tail end of a session by Gary Stager. I remember thinking he was quite different from the other presenters. I’m not sure what his presentation was about but he certainly had a unique delivery. Quite irreverant and refreshing. Add to that his New Jersey accent, and you’ve got someone worth listening to. I remember one line he used. Paraphrased somewhat,

“there’s always one blowhard in the crowd that says, “it’s not about the technology”, then I say why are we at at technology conference instead of a Montessori conference”.

Something like that. So this year I was happy to hear what he had to say about one to one computing. He’s been doing it for 16 years. He’s passionate about using it as an “imagination machine”. Here’s a few of my rather scraggly notes.

It’s not a project. This is not an experiment. The laptop computer is the primary learning instrument of the day. Failed ventures often focus on increased usage and continuing with the same old curriculum. Must offer emotion and excitement for buy-in.

We should be as concerned about future students as our current ones.

What’s the world like for students coming into our schools?

“Technology is anything that wasn’t there when you were born”

Most students touch a computer less than an hour each week.

Laptops matter because they are personal and portable.

3 types of Laptop Schools

• Pioneers…want to make a difference
• Marketers…want their picture in the paper
• Their neighbours

The point is that kids should take them home. Give kids laptops so that the teachers have the chance to figure it out before they bring them anyway in the next 5 years.

-if the predominant use of the internet is to “look stuff up” kids will look up inappropriate stuff

-the laptop should be about sharing stuff

The real power of the internet

Democratizing of publishing

Unprecedented opportunities of collaboration.

Technology matters. It allows you do to things that are otherwise impossible.Stager had some other great points. He showed some videos of some great collaborative, innovative projects and talked about assessment. He hates testing. Actually I think he said he despises testing. When parents see the powerful learning taking place in these classrooms, it never crosses their minds to ask about test scores. The learning is palatable. He described a failed laptop program in Georgia where one educational leader stated proudly, “that although we’ve invested in these laptops, we will not change the curriculum.” Laptops are distruptive and should change the way learning happens. One video showed a girl from Australia who had the opportunity to compose her own music and is now an award winning artist. Stager was careful to point out it’s not necessarily about acheiving this type of success but to enable students to pursue their passions in ways they otherwise could not. It’s Not a project or experiment, it’s the primary instrument of the day. On a personal note, having a laptop has been critical in my development as a learner. Not being tethered to a desk allows me to write this blog post while listening to another session, which I’ll blog about later.

I had the privilege of spending some time today with David Warlick. (We didn’t actually have coffee, we just sat on the floor and talked) David as most of you know is passionate about helping teachers understand the changing world and telling the new story of learning. As David stated to me, it’s really old stories.

We had a great conversation ranging from blogging to our kids, to our work, politics and the differences between our countries. We’ve been part of many of these conversations online, it was nice to do it face to face. We were able to discuss things like old friends. Perhaps that’s presumptuous of me but because of this thing called the blogosphere, it really did feel familiar. Later David presented to a large crowd. From there he jumped on a plane and headed back to North Carolina to finish up another conference.

Thanks again David for the talk.