Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Although I’ve committed to steering folks away from traditional website design, I still take pride in a well designed site. The focus should still be on content and the use of an aggregator keeps this in check.

But never actually visiting the site you miss out on the personal and creative sides of bloggers. Jeff Utecht’s recent redesign is worth checking out. The inclusion of his “thinking stick” theme is very nice. Darcy Norman always seems to be tweaking his design. I recently updated my rotating headers with some new photos. Like Darcy, these are photos I’ve taken of things that interest me and places I’ve visited. I hope they help the reader learn more about me.

Christian Long and Kathy Sierra get noticed in my aggregator because they won’t post without images. I appreciate that in the name of visual learning.

So let’s continue to focus on content but once in a while visit my beautiful blog in person.

Why is it every photo on myspace looks the same? Here’s what I mean:

This video also encourages this photographic methodology. In addition to helping kids understand what blogging is, let’s also help stamp out this type of photography. Yikes!

Tim Wilson discovers a wikipedia citing tool. As with http://citationmachine.net/, wikipedia offers many formats and flavours for your choosing. Here’s an example for Moose Jaw:

Bibliographic details for “Moose Jaw”

• Page name: Moose Jaw
• Author: Wikipedia contributors
• Publisher: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• Date of last revision: 10 March 2004 13:31 UTC
• Date retrieved: 28 July 2006 17:28 UTC
• Permanent link: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282
• Primary contributors: View the list
• Page Version ID: 16357282

Please remember to check your manual of style, standards guide or instructor’s guidelines for the exact syntax to suit your needs. For more detailed advice, see Citing Wikipedia.

Citation styles for “Moose Jaw”

APA style

Moose Jaw. (2004, March 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:28, July 28, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282.

MLA style

“Moose Jaw.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 Mar 2004, 13:31 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 28 Jul 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282>.

MHRA style

Wikipedia contributors, ‘Moose Jaw’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 March 2004, 13:31 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282> [accessed 28 July 2006]

Chicago style

Wikipedia contributors, “Moose Jaw,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282 (accessed July 28, 2006).

CBE/CSE style

Wikipedia contributors. Moose Jaw [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2004 Mar 10, 13:31 UTC [cited 2006 Jul 28]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282.

Bluebook style

Moose Jaw, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282 (last visited July 28, 2006).

Bluebook: Harvard JOLT style

See Wikipedia, Moose Jaw, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_Jaw (optional description here) (as of Jul. 28, 2006, 17:28 GMT).

AMA style

Wikipedia contributors. Moose Jaw. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. March 10, 2004, 13:31 UTC. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282. Accessed July 28, 2006.

BibTeX entry

@misc{ wiki:xxx,
author = "Wikipedia",
title = "Moose Jaw --- Wikipedia{,} The Free Encyclopedia",
year = "2004",
url = "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282“,
note = “[Online; accessed 28-July-2006]”
}

When using the LaTeX package url (\usepackage{url} somewhere in the preamble), which tends to give much more nicely formatted web addresses, the following may be preferred:

@misc{ wiki:xxx,
author = "Wikipedia",
title = "Moose Jaw --- Wikipedia{,} The Free Encyclopedia",
year = "2004",
url = "\url{http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moose_Jaw&oldid=16357282}“,
note = “[Online; accessed 28-July-2006]”
}

On Monday, July 24th I’ll be giving a workshop entitled, “The Joys of Social Software”. I’ll be working with a small group of teachers introducing them to many of the great tools and applications to design a Read/Write classroom.

Having done a number of these types of workshops, I realize I’m simply creating an awareness….exploration, application, immersion, and implementation is something completely different. I need to keep this in mind as I’m often overly enthusiastic about the possibilities only to realize that for many, it’s just too much to wrap their heads around and in many ways are not really ready for all the awaits them.
Given the basic advice of taking one idea and developing it, what advice would you give them about transforming their classroom? How would you encourage them to use the tools to create a new type of classroom? What should they pay attention to? What should they be weary of?
I will try and provide an opportunity to bring in those who wish to speak live via Skype. I haven’t completely set my agenda but there will only be 5 participants so we can be fairly informal.

So add your thoughts and I’ll be sure to pass them along.

Happy Canada Day!

Highlights included:

• Breakfast on the neighbours deck
• Park Art
• Walk Crescent Park
• Martha in the Water Park
• Shea and her friends at the pool
• The nap
• Icecream
• Street Art
• Martha and her scooter downtown (listening to the fake Bee Gees)
• Fireworks

I always like the little comic avatars some people use in their profiles. (see Rob) Never sure how to create one, I did a bit of searching yesterday to see if there was either some free software or some tutorials using existing software. My photo and image editor of choice has always been Fireworks. I do have Photoshop installed but quite frankly have never had a deep love affair with Adobe because I felt there was way more there than I or certainly most students needed.

Unfortunately I had no luck finding software or tutorials for fireworks. I did find a tutorial for Photoshop. So this morning I spent about 15 minutes walking through it step by step and came up with this creation.

Having walked through the tutorial, I had no real idea what I was doing and if it would turn out. This is fairly similar to many students experience with school. Just follow along and don’t ask questions. You’ll see it’s right in the end.
In this case, it was fine. The key here is I had a goal and was willing to walk through the steps blindly to reach it. Is this just in time learning? Not really. I didn’t really learn anything. I couldn’t reuse any of the tools and step in the tutorial for anything else. There is no transfer of learning. For some things, that’s okay. I’m happy with the outcome but don’t have anything reusable. Students need to experience more transferable learning and yet understand the value of this type of “throw away learning”.

technorati tags:photos, tutorials, comic

Blogged with Flock

In October of 2005, I wrote a post about buying digital cameras for less than $100. (Notice I didn’t even link to it here). A good number of my readers find my blog by doing this type of search. It’s not exactly what I’d like to be known for and I know I’ve written much more thoughtful, insightful posts than that but nevertheless, it is a popular post.

I just finished a great conversation with Darren (a podcast I’ll post shortly) and he talked about how others have found his class blogs. He talked to his students about what they were writing about and how others really want to learn from him and his students.

 

Statistics for your blog is more than an ego boost. It helps you understand what people think is important and what they want to read about. So for now I’ll think about my digital camera post in the same way that car dealerships entice you with free golf clubs or fishing equipment (I actually got one of these in the mail today). They really don’t care why you came, as long as you spend money. So come to my blog and hopefully you’ll learn I’m more than your digital camera expert…which I never was!

It’s interesting as you begin to have deeper discussions with those who understand copyright and open source distribution. At the tlt2006 conference conversations I had with Rick, Rob, Alec and even David Porter all speak to the concept of sharing ideas and products. While this is not a new discussion, it has spilled over into another aspect of my life.

My daughter is attending Humber College as a music student. She has been in the recording studio as well. She’s applying for a music grant with Factor. I’ll be helping her soon to set up a website to promote her music. A recent posting from the Freakanomics blog pointed out Jane Siberry’s distribution model. Bascially you determine how much you’re willing to pay. Here’s her statistics:

% Accepting gift from Jane: 17%
% Paid by determining price: 37%
% Paying Later:46%

Avg Price Per Track: $1.14
% Paid Below Suggested: 8%
% Paid At Suggested: 79%
% Paid Above Suggested: 14%
This type of free or user detemined payment model is certainly a new phenomenom that most of us have trouble completing understanding. It appears it may work. Basically if you have a product or other marketable skill, the long tail concept should work in your favour at some point.

I’d be interested in your thoughts on this one.

Here are Meredith’s songs in case you’re interested.

 

 Hooked on You [3:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Just Like Me [3:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download