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Interstate, Internet, Ike, and Innovation June 29, 2007

Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Conferences, Current Events, Economics, Emerging Tech, Innovation, Learning, Maps, NECC, Reform, Social Studies, Technology , comments closed

spaghettijunction.jpg

Having recently returned from the heavily attended NECC 2007 (so…many… people!) and the traffic insanity that is the Big Peach, I’ve been thinking about Atlanta’s willingness to serve its visitors a heaping, helping of summer-heated Spaghetti Junction (skillfully seasoned with annoying dollops of suburban congestion). How did all of this come to pass? Both the technology and the traffic can be traced back to a commanding fellow. Let’s go back when…on this day–June 29th–in 1956, a determined President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act into law. Eisenhower’s strong support of the act can be traced back to his experiences in 1919 when he, along with other American military servicemen, participated in the U.S. Army’s first Transcontinental Motor Convoy.

Travel across and throughout our nation would never be the same again. Ideas, innovations, and cultural shifts began to be transported all over the United States as massive highways connected centers for progress with one another. In much the same way, Eisenhower ushered in the age of the internet as well with his support of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) after the arrival of Sputnik. ARPA would eventually become the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and play a key role in the formation and refinement of the internet.

The funny thing about progress, though, is that it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. The introduction of interstate highways, though extremely liberating in terms of allowing citizens to traverse the nation, also had a few, unintended yet massively disruptive side-effects. Local businesses, attractions, and culture in many small towns that were not within close proximity to interstate highways began to evaporate. Sometimes, advertising worked for the inhabitants of roadside America. Often it didn’t. Even in major cities that felt the steady thrum of interstate commerce, regional icons of style and service wilted under their patrons’ fascination with franchised homogenization. (Check out Bill Bryson’s wonderfully engaging The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir for a fascinating and informative autobiographical read on the topic.)

Innovation is almost always disruptive. What’s true for interstates is also true for the effect of the internet in our lives. That said, we can’t run away from such change. If we don’t want to be left behind, disenfranchised, or befuddled by what’s influencing and altering our lives, we have to be part of the process that is controlling the change. We need to be part of the crew building the information highway as well as the driver who uses it. More importantly, we have to prepare our students for reshaping of the current infrastructures for daily life and information exchange. Not only will interstates be replaced, so will the internet. Are our children prepared to be the architects, builders, and travelers of a whole, new world? Are we educating young minds so that they will be creative enough to envision future innovations?

NECC 2007: All Skype and No Hype–Bridging the Distance June 26, 2007

Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Collaboration, Conferences, Current Events, NECC, Technology , comments closed

Mondo coolerfic!

I’ve just returned from participating in a NECC pilot project that promises to enrich similar, future educational conferences. It’s innovative, exciting, and makes me glad that I’ve attended this year. Last year when NECC was casting about for ideas, our Educational Technology Training Center suggested that NECC deliver live feed and staff development for an off-site group of educators. A number of ideas were offered up as to how to make the best use of the resources available. The NECC committee resolved to periodically stream live events from the conference and have a respected speaker, Howie DiBlasi, technology director for the Durango School District in Colorado, present a simulcast three hour workshop to an audience attending NECC 2007 as well as an off-site group of educators at First District ETTC in rural Brooklet, Georgia.

As the kick-off event, the teachers at at the remote site at First District ETTC in Brooklet were promised a live video feed of the conference. I was asked to be on hand to interview those attending. Thanks to the diligence of James Torres and other on-site techies, a team quickly assembled a very simple, low-cost, yet powerful means of sharing what’s happening here at NECC. Meanwhile my colleagues Lisa Burkhalter and “Digital Dave” Rutz in Brooklet facilitated interactions with teachers at their site. James and I set up a wireless laptop with my (less than $70) Logitech webcam, a USB headset and microphone and quickly used Skype to ring up Lisa and Dave. Within a few minutes, educators in a tiny, rural Georgia town were seeing the bustling activity occurring in Atlanta. What was particularly thrilling (at least, in my opinion) was that the technology-enhanced sharing that took place was neither expensive or impossible. Using simple resources, educators got to communicate and collaborate across a distance of 200 miles. There’s no reason why Skype and other, similar communication/collaboration tools shouldn’t be used within schools, districts, states, regions, and nations to extend and enrich learning.

My time at NECC 2007: Mike

Posted by Mike in : Conferences, Current Events, NECC , comments closed

Hello again! I’m in Hot Lanta, enjoying the whole NECC conference experience. I have been a Site Rep. for the conference at Carver. I met some wonderful people that treated me, the participants, and especially the instructors with high levels of care.

As with any event, there were some bumps in the road. Every event is a learning event. We resolved all the tech issues in short order till the last day when we had content filter issues. A request was made for a specific website to be opened for a particular class and it was, somewhat. We could see the home page but then quickly realized that the content filter did not allow the actual content to pass through the filter. Very frustrating! We tried to contact the party responsible for content filter management for 3 hours but were unable to get the site open. I plan to discuss these issues with the appropriate persons when I return to the office on Monday.

The cool thing is I got my NECC bowling shirt and feel like I am part of a big family. I plan on wearing it proudly to work at least twice a week.

Here it is Tuesday and I haven’t managed to attend a session yet. I’ve been too busy helping. I’m still assisting others will continue doing so. I’ll keep you updated as things develop.

Till next time ….

NECC 2007: Atlanta Update

Posted by Jeff Giddens in : Audio, Conferences, Current Events, Media, NECC, Video , comments closed

Now that I can finally catch my breath, I’d like to share what I’ve been up to here in the Big Peach. Like every other dedicated educator concerned with integrating technology in a meaningful way, I’m attending NECC 2007. Yesterday, my co-worker Daniel Rivera and that rascally Geezer from Ebenezer, our Man from Effingham, exploratory technology teacher extraordinare, “Jocular” Joseph Strickland headed over to the campus of the impressive Westminster Schools in order to conduct a three hour training workshop called License to Thrill. We were excited before we ever reached our destination, having counted down the minutes until it was time for our command performance. Prior to loading up all of our supplemental equipment and piling into our car, all of us spent the morning in the incredibly packed Georgia World Congress Center. Daniel attended the International Leadership Summit with our resident scholar and staff development go-to person Lisa Burkhalter while Joe and I alternatively worked on capturing video footage of the conference as well as adding to and refining the web-based resources for our workshop. As always, Joe offered a full measure of classroom teacher enhanced candor and constructive criticism as I furiously worded and reworded our online resources.

Around 11:30 AM, after running into a couple of friends, Daniel, Joe, and I made a beeline to the Red Deck parking garage, descended into the depths of the earth, and drove away to our hotel to retrieve a video camera. After that, we plunged into lunchtime traffic and cautiously sped to the workshop site at Westminster School. Once there, we were greeted by a very helpful NECC volunteer who ushered us to the computer lab where we’d be presenting. Thanks to the tireless work coordinated by our NECC contact, Rachel Bannister, all of the software we wanted to share had been installed and was ready for use. Almost immediately, our participants began to arrive–early! That was fine with Daniel, Joe, and me. We used the half our to encourage the attendees to register for Gmail and del.icio.us accounts, explaining to them all the while that these new acquisitions to their digital bag of tricks would be uber-useful before the end of the workshop. More than a few of our new friends were skeptical but soon warmed up to the collaborative and social networking perks they were now privy to as a result.

After everyone had arrived along with a few last-minute drop-ins (I think we had a total of twenty-eight folks there), Daniel, Joe, and I began to facilitate in earnest. We explained that, despite thoughtfully and clearly submitting a full-day agenda for the License To Thrill workshop to NECC when we submitted our idea using NECC’s less-than-Web 2.0 online application, the people in charge of planning workshops decided that 3 hours was sufficient enough for what we had to share. The three of us truthfully pointed out that 3 hours wasn’t near enough time to give proper attention to all of the rich content we had to explore but that we would do our dead level best to make sure everyone had access to and opportunities for experiencing the powerful resources we had assembled. The next thing I knew, we were off and running. We pointed out that everything to be explored was available at Georgia Public Broadcasting’s richly robust TIE Network Wiki. Galloping through social networking, the GIMP, Picasa and Google Photos, online generators (as well as Says-It and Motivator), Audacity, and Microsoft Movie Maker, Daniel, Joe, and I did all we could to help our kind participants absorb as many new skills as we could.

I wish the NECC committee that planned workshops could have been present. They would have seen that 3 hours was not sufficient enough for what we had planned. In fact, I wonder how NECC plans for and decides what sessions should be accepted as workshops. Many eager presenters already know that NECC’s online process for submitting proposals for presentations is abysmal if not broken. There’s no excuse for the level of frustration it engenders especially when other, Web 2.0-rich alternatives exist. I hope our leaders in instructional technology are using collaborative resources such as Mindomo, Mindmeister, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and other tools that allow multiple people in geographically separate locations to see an overall, “big picture” concept such as multi-level professional development worthy of educators when they are planning workshops and sessions. All that aside, NECC is still worth attending. Sure, there’s room for improvement but I’m sure NECC’s up to the task.

Daniel and I finished up the day meeting up with fellow educators who greatly appreciate Georgia Public Broadcasting’s commitment to enhancing professional development. Gathering with friends at a TIE Network Birds of a Feather session, we met new members and use the opportunity to test out a new digital audio capturing device. It was a very productive assembly. Everyone in attendance practiced using a new piece of hardware and ultimately learned a new strategy for engaging students. When the meeting ended, the remaining TIE Network members went to dinner. We discussed plans for the collaborative group and wrapped up our work around 10:30 PM.

*Yawn*

What a day!

My Monday at NECC 2007 June 25, 2007

Posted by Michael Stokes in : Conferences, Current Events, NECC , comments closed

It started early…really early. My wife, Teresa, was a volunteer for 3 hours and her shift started at 7 am. We caught the first bus at 6:30 am. I don’t leave that early for golf. Anyway, once 8:30 rolled around I was in David Thornburg’s session on Open Source. Wow, is he something else! Funny, extremely intelligent, and full of ideas and is a great proponent of Open Source. Earl and I were very impressed with one piece in particular called MathTrax. You’ve just gotta check it out. Look for it and many other recommendations at tcpdpodcast.org and find Open Source.

I spent some time in the huge exhibit area and couldn’t get in the next session because it was full. So, I went to Standards for Us presented by Jo Williamson and Traci Reddish of Kennesaw State University right here in Georgia. They are doing some deep study into the Technology Facilitator and Technology Leader standards. We shall be hearing from these two on this subject for some time and it will be thorough.

I skipped lunch to get into the session with Singapore educators who are on the cutting edge of providing technology to students at all grade levels. I know we will be hearing about their progress in the future as the Singapore Ministry of Education signed a M.O.U. with ISTE as a part of the session. I was fortunate enough to win a drawing for original artwork created by Singapore students too.

My next session was full 30 minutes before the start time. Oh well, back to the exhibit area. That is after a quick trip to my room to leave that heavy laptop and my newly acquired artwork. Teresa accompanied me back to the exhibits and then we attended the TIE Network Birds of a Feather session. Boy is TIE taking off. Georgia Public Broadcasting made a great decision having Katherine Aiken at the helm of this new “club” (as Daniel refers to it) for educators.

We ended our evening with a walk back to our hotel and a stop at Pitty Pat’s Porch for an awesome meal.

NECC 2007: International Leadership Summit

Posted by Daniel Rivera in : All Subjects, Business, Current Events, NECC, Reform, Teaching & Learning , comments closed

I’m attending a half-day session on technology and learning, with business, government, and education leaders. We are meeting together to brainstorm how we can best point educators to effective learning technologies that meet their needs.

One of our main goals today is to develop recommendations for improving dissemination to educators of effective learning technologies relevant to their most pressing concerns. That is, how do we get information on effective technology out to educators? Another goal is to foster R&D for new learning technologies tied to concerns educators have that have been unmet.

We have many key challenges:

So far, the agenda includes a good deal of round-table discussion and brainstorming. Some of the organizations represented here include: Big 21 Network, European Council of International Schools IT Committee, ISTE International Committee & numerous ISTE Special Interest Groups, National Alliance of Black School Educators, National Staff Development Council, many more…

Key thoughts that I have taken from this:

We got together for 30 minutes of discussion – trying to get some feedback on what obstacles developers, researchers, evaluators, and disseminators have to face.

NECC: Open Source July 7, 2006

Posted by Michael Stokes in : NECC, Open Source, Technology , comments closed

Moving to web based applications means it doesn’t matter what operating system you are using. So, cost becomes a big factor for the OS and the necessity for system upgrades. If you consider licensing of software there is another cost savings. Open Office word processing and spreadsheet programs are very comparable to other products. Development continues on the presentation program. Office Office also has a create pdf utility built in to it. An extension I was not aware of for Firefox was one for Internet Explorer. I have to get that one so more of my sites will open in Firefox. I also need to work with Gimp since I cannot afford the “for sale” products. I have to check out WikiNews too. Creative Commons is another content source. Find more by clicking here. Thank you Jim Hirsch, Plano Independent School District

NECC: Engineering the Classroom for Learning

Posted by Michael Stokes in : NECC, Special Needs, Technology , comments closed

This was a session presented by David Davis on assistive and instructional technology integration for academic success. He has an awesome handout. He is from the Florida Instructional Technology Training & Resource Unit. The powerpoint presentation and additional handsouts are available on the NECC web site. His handout includes a great list of terms that are sometimes confusing.

Two great quotes from the session were:

The more a student can self-customize a variety of technology tools and strategies to solve problems, the more intelligent that student will be perceived, and the more intelligent that student will be.

and

The more a teacher can self-customize a variety of technology tools and strategies to solve problems, the more professional that teacher will be perceived, and the more professional that teacher will be.

Neat!

NECC: Collaboration Convergence Realized

Posted by Michael Stokes in : NECC, Technology , comments closed

Now there is a group of words you may have never heard together before. This concurrent session is promoted as a look at emerging technologies and real-world examples for educators. The grphics on the video screen include an iPod, interactive board, banks and banks of servers, a student remote, and some other gadgets I have never seen. Karen Henke and Ivan Sindell are the scheduled presenters.

The presentation is sponsored by CoSN. This group seeks to accelerate and facilitate the use of emerging technologies in K-12 education by identifiying, educating and sharing new technologies. We heard from a panel with Karen Henke, Steve Zsiray, and Chris Brown.

The educator’s dream is authentic learning. (It takes work and collaboration.) Technology is a tool to augment the learning environment and communicate with a wider audience. The educator’s reality includes topic lessons, written reports and assessments to show students meet standards. (But are they learning?) How can you make the dream a reality? It is effortless, ubiquitous, connected, and appropriate.

Collaboration models that CoSN recommends are Instant Messenging, Blogs & Wikis, and Portals. CoSN has a recent report covering their findings and recommendations in detail.

NECC: Gettin’ Our Game On

Posted by segatech in : Conferences, Emerging Tech, Gaming, Learning, NECC, Open Source, Software, Teaching & Learning, Technology , comments closed

Yesterday, Daniel and Jeff were sequestered in a secret, offsite location…shifty.gif

texasgames.jpgSeriously, we attended a workshop entitled Using Video Game-Based Learning for Constructivist Technology Integration hosted by Amanda Heffner and her colleagues. What has immediately impressed us about this workshop was the way in which the presenters went about conducting it. They created a Moodle course at www.texasgames.net and posted a tremendous amount of resources to make the learning more effective and efficient.

Note For our readers: You can create a free account on the site, then easily access all of the resources there.

Prior to arriving, before the conference really even began, Amanda emailed us with an encouraging letter directing us to go online an explore the Moodle-based learning environment where we’d be interacting. Why haven’t other presenters been doing this? Here’s a wake-up call for you–it’s a simple but very powerful way to introduce participants to one another and gather resources in a natural manner.

ballgame.jpgFirst we started playing with a program called Game Maker. It’s a simple, free program that allows students to create games of their own. Check out the game Daniel created for an idea. You need to unzip the file then run it. By the way, the goal is to click on the purple balls while avoid ing the bad guys.

Making a game made us realize one thing: Computers are incredibly stupid – but hard working. They are almost like idiot savants. You have to program everything. Even simple things like a ball in a room needs objects, variables, and conditions defined and explicit commands for each object. The balls had to told to bounce off the walls, bumpers, and each other. The computer had to be told to score 1 point and add it every time you click a ball, etc. Another thing that we realized while making these games was just how much critical thinking went on in creating and debugging the game. If something didn’t work right, we had to try to find out where we went wrong. At the same time, all of this work as incredibly fun and hard at the same time!
Amanda and her staff gave us amazing handouts for the course, including tutorials for making 2 basic games and a full curriculum for computer game design to use with students! The Texasgames website had links to many other sample games, articles on gaming and learning, and other game producing programs like Stagecast and RPG Maker XP.

In closing, we were simply floored at the amount of fun, effort, thinking, and pride involved in making games. One thing we should note: Kids are PROUD of the work they do. Simple things like pong are amazing once they have created it. Whats even more powerful is the ability for students to go back and modify them. In fact, they will have to go back and rethink/rework their games often. In fact, they will want to work on it until it’s perfect, and it will make their brains hurt. As Philip Pulman writes:

“Make this the golden rule, the equivalent of the Hippocratic oath: Everything we ask a child to do should be worth doing.”

We found this workshop to be very rewarding.