aleccouros

All K12 Presentations should be 19:53 minutes

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Classrooms, Conferences 6 Comments

This year’s K12 Online conference asked presentations to be limited to under 20 minutes. This is really making the conference much more digestable but of course in reality, you can watch them whenever you like.

Among the oodles of ways to view the conference, I prefer subscribing via itunes. There is both a video and audio only channel. You can simply search for K12online and you’ll see both the 2007 presentations and this years.

Yesterday I watched Alec Couros‘ brilliant presentation and today I loaded my iphone with a few more. In particular Sara Kajder‘s Presentation “Promise into Practice” which coincendently was exactly the same length as Alecs’…19:53.  I haven’t even viewed the video but felt the audio itself was compelling.

Sara reviews an action research project in which they examined particular pedagogies of constructivism combined with technology.  The examination of new literacies and reluctant or under achieving students is fascinating in itself. Sara is open and honest about the research which for me always adds credibility. Not everything is a panacea but certainly as Sara outlines the main ideas of the study, offers some compelling reason to consider a new look at English Language Arts and in particular literacy.

This is the kind of piece that might really support change and help policy and decision makers struggling with the validity of new literacies to take a second look.

, , ,

19:53 minutes worth of goodness

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Conferences, design 5 Comments

Alec Couros‘ presentation Open, Social, Connected really delivers on how to present for an online conference. The challenge of creating content for an online conference is a daunting and exciting adventure. While this year’s presentations were limited to 20 minutes or less, they weren’t and aren’t restricted to any specific format. We’ve yet to develop too many standards in what makes a good online presentation. I’m not ready yet to thrown down the rubric. There’s too much to be explored.

Where Alec wins is in his wise mix of media including public domain video and audio, thoughtful graphics and animation, green screen, humor and a personal touch. I’ve always enjoyed presentations that show me context. Who are you? Where do you live? David Warlick did a great job with this in prior keynotes and Clarence Fisher focused largely on place in his keynote last year. Alec begins his presentation by providing a context and allowing us to get comfortable with his content.

Since his content is about open content, Alec uses video from public domain to create transitions to his piece. In this way, it’s easy for us to follow.

His feature on twitter might challenge Common Craft as a visual way to explain twitter. Not the same style but equally effective.

I could go on but you’d be best to watch it yourself. Again, whether you are watching because the concept is intrigues or not, watch as one way to deliver an effective online presentation.  The bad news is this kind of work takes more time than most are willing to offer. But good work requires this. Nicely done Alec.

, , , ,

A Scotsman and 5 Canadians walk into a bar…..EdTech Posse 4.5

Posted by Dean Shareski on in EdTechs, Podcasting 3 Comments

Leave it to Rob Wall to have his handy microphone ready for a podcast with Ewan Mcintosh. After 6 hours of work with teachers, we were ready for a break and what better place to spend a hot August afternoon that in a local Scottish tavern with our visitor. Rob, Alec Couros and I along with Cindy Seibel and Kyle Licthenwald picked Ewan’s giant brain for a few minutes prior to our evening event.

Have a listen: