Educational Technology Weblog

If you are looking for an EASY and very cool way to promote community amongst your interest groups, I have found TabUp to be an outstanding resource. If your school district or community group does not provide you with your own web presence FREE TO YOU, and you would like to create a private, semiprivate, or open destination for communication, TabUp can provide just what you are looking for.

With features like a shared calendar, forums for discussion, links to various web resources, and the ability to make this modrated or invite only ALL FOR FREE, I can’t think of a school group, sports team, or common interest group that would not find some use for this service. Please take a look, and add your thoughts to this page. The page is not intended to be a primary source of new information, but rather a living example of another great FREE tool available to educators and community groups.  I will be automatically notified of any changes or additions, and will be sure to act on valid suggestions.

Me neither but I felt like I was very close!

Today, I had the pleasure of video conferencing with a 5/6 grade class in Central Butte, Canada. Participating in the activity was (teacher) Barb Mcinnis (& her students), Tim Lauer (Portland, Oregon), Tom Barrett (Nottingham, England) and Dean Shareski (Moose Jaw, Canada). This is direct from Mrs. Mcinnis’ class blog

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The grade 5/6 students had the chance to meet people from different parts of the world thanks to wireless technology!  On Tuesday, November 4 we participated in a web conference.  We had the opportunity, thank you to Dean Shareski (division technology) to interview educators from Nottingham, England;Portland, OR; Florida; and Moose Jaw via a web cam.  We were able to see and talk to these individuals. We first asked them questions to try and locate them, then we talked about the wireless technology that exists in their classrooms and schools.  Wow!  there are sure some great pieces of technology being used!! This project came about from an article we had read called “Get Set For the Net”. This article helped us understand how past inventions lead us to the wireless age we live in. Most of the students take this age for granted and do not realize the negative and positive effects it can have on our lives. We watched “Smart Guy:Stranger on the Net” to help us become more “Net” smart. Then we decided to do something positive and exciting with our wireless technology.

I’d like to commend Mrs. Mcinnis for her innovative vision as she seeks out relevant technologies to make learning for her students relevant. Wouldn’t you love to be in her class? This is an easy and free activity that took less than 40 minutes and can easily be replicated in YOUR classroom. Where would you find another class to communicate with? Try ePals, for starters.

This is the edited version that Dean created (5 min):

This is the entire conversation (40min):

Thank you, Dean, for asking me to participate. It was truly a pleasure to “meet” Tim, Tom, Mrs. Mcinnis and all of her students.

P.S. I hope my clues (about where I live) still have them stumped!!

The Technical Stuff:
We used Adobe Connect to have our online conversation and I recorded the session. When we were finished, I downloaded the video in .flv format (the default for recorded Adobe Connect sessions) and then uploaded that file to our school district’s Vodcast server (Video On Demand). I was then able to copy the code (anyone know how to read code??? Certainly not me, but I know how to copy and paste!) and pasted it into this blog. Code like that can be pasted into ANY webpage, including Edline! The video is also available on MediaShare along with a description so other teachers can easily access and replicate similar activities in their classes.

As most of you are probably aware, we will host our 11th annual SDPBC Technology Conference in March 2009. We are pleased to be returning to Santaluces High School for the second consecutive year. Here an example of a free online publishing tool that you can employ to spread the word. Feel free to share this countdown with anyone you think might want to have it simply by clicking on share in the lower left corner! Or better yet… go to www.sproutbuilder.com create a free account and build your own! You can build all kinds of widgets and other neat things. If you build something you’d like to share, LET US KNOW!!

If you wold like to add a little personality to your Edline page, possibly lighten up the presentation of some of your content, or try and inject some creativity into your project based learning. I recommend checking out Go!Animate. You’ll find this web based publishing program at www.goanimate.com and it does require an email to create an account, but the service is free and FUN!! Here’s an example of something I put together in about 15 minutes, and I am still learning the interface. Your students will amaze you!!

We’re fortunate here in Palm Beach County to have some incredibly talented people working for us. One of those folks is Chad Wintzer, the programming genius who works for our Safe Schools Center. Chad has been working on an amazing video hosting service that is now available throughout the District, and we’re rolling things out at a measured pace as we all learn how to use this new service.

One of the really cool things that we’re able to do with our online video hosting service is post professional development videos that are created in the District so they can be seen online. You can see our two new stars of the PalmBreeze Cafe television show–Lee Kolbert and Jamey Akien–in the video embedded below.

But wait! There’s more! In addition to viewing these videos here (and on Channel 19 on Comcast or in your classroom) you can also download them via iTunes and put them right into your video-capable iPod or iPhone. To subscribe all you need to do is click this link to launch iTunes and begin downloading. Or, visit the PalmBreeze Cafe home page and locate the link there to do the same thing.

And what will you find? Really awesome videos like the one you see here where Jamey and Lee discuss Voice Thread, a way cool Web 2.0 application that Lee demonstrates.

bubbl.us is a free online brainstorming and mind mapping tool that lets you easily create a graphic organizer, concept map, mind map or organizational chart and then share your ideas with colleagues or classmates. The Flash & AJAX based interface make it really simple to use with only a browser - no downloads and all you need to create an account is an email address! You can save your sheets, print them as images or save them to your computer.

The Web 2.0 features provide you with either a link or the html embed code so you can post your work on a web page (Edline) or email a link. In the embedded example shown here, you can pan and zoom using the controls or the scroll wheel on your mouse.

There are many obvious uses in the classroom:

• Identify existing knowledge
• Identify relationships between concepts
• Record facts & details as a pre-writing strategy
• Brainstorming - collecting and connecting ideas
• Timelines
• Student collaboration
• Sharing ideas with communities of users

Check it out and look for me on bubbl.us

The photo is a screenshot of the Adobe Connect session we used to bring in a team member for the meeting. Steve and Ben, from VoiceThread, are the two men in the top-left corner. I don’t know why I didn’t think to take a picture with a real camera or even my cellphone, but anyway, this is the best I could do. (Sorry, Ben and Steve… you deserve a better picture for sure!)

This week our department had the pleasure of meeting with the gentlemen who developed EdVoiceThread. They are geniuses (and extremely personable - go figure) and have absolutely thought of everything when it comes to developing a product for K-12 and higher education, that is safe, secure, reasonably priced and has the potential for huge impact on learning and global collaboration. How nice it would be to bring something so powerful and easy to our school district!

If YOU haven’t heard of Ed VoiceThread, you are missing one of the most remarkable FREE 21st Century online learning applications that you can be using today! You must check out these examples !

Anyone can create a VoiceThread by adding a piece of media ( JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, PPT, PPS, PDF, DOC, XLS and a variety of video types) and then allow others to make comments in any of 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. Allowing group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world.

The beauty of VoiceThread is that it’s simple and safe! Here is one I created that I use as a demo. You’ll see a DE Streaming video segment and some video, audio and text comments. You can let it play or click on the avatars to activate the demo student comments. There are also some other comments that have been added by real teachers as I’ve used this to demonstrate this in workshops.

I’ve since learned however, that the way I’ve been recommending that teachers use it is not a best practice at all. In the recording below, you’ll hear me tell you that I set up one account and let my students create their own profiles under my account. Then they sit at a computer in my classroom and contribute to the VoiceThread. Although this would certainly work, especially in a K or 1st grade classroom with supervision, the problem would be that in an instant a student could accidentally delete the entire VoiceThread.

and……….that……….can’t………..be…………undone!

They also mentioned a feature that is coming soon is the ability to CLONE a VoiceThread. Once you’ve spent time creating a VoiceThread that might be complex, it would be pretty nice to be able to clone it to customize it for another use later on.

Please leave a comment about how you might use VoiceThread in your classroom or any barriers you foresee to a successful implementation. I hope you’ll also leave a voice comment on the VoiceThread here.

Thanks for your comments!

We’re moving right along here at our new blogging enterprise. We’ve hit a few snags along the way, but for the most part our first serious stab at implementing Web 2.0 tools in our school district has been going well. From the simple standpoint of cost–everything we’re currently experimenting with is completely F.R.E.E. –and, well, things are going very well.

In addition, we’ve had some interesting internal discussions about the role of these tools and how we might use them to impact instruction. As part of the process we’ve been mind-mapping Web 2.0 tools and services we are considering–and how they are interconnected–using the cool little free service from bubbl.us. (Create an account and make your own!)

Here’s a snapshot of our efforts so far. You can drag or re-size the image below or visit our bubbl.us account and see the full size map.

Now, what do you think? Seeing how these tools might be used how would you like to see these services provided? Are there risks involved? As always, we encourage your comments!

One of the things I found innovative at NECC2008 was the use of backchannel networking during presentations or forums. The facilitators would set up a chat channel using something like the free version of Chatzky. Participants each have access to a computer and are logged in to the chat application. A central computer displaying the scrolling ensuing chat is projected onscreen. While the presentation continues participants are encouraged to engage in “backchannel” discussions about the topic at hand. Typically, links are shared as well as additional resources adding rich collaborative learning to an otherwise linear presentation. It also serves to keep participants highly engaged. Chat transcripts can then be saved and posted for later reference.

Read David Jakes’ blog post about ChatCasting.

Backchannel chats can be initiated using free resources such as Jaiku, Twitter and SMS, Plurk,  AIM, Skype or paid services such as Adobe Connect.

What are your thoughts about incorporating something like this in your next workshop? Do you see any value to something as “edgy” as this? Are there risks?

just attended a great panel discussion on Social Networking in Education at NECC and what stuck to me was a statement made that you have to make a commitment to participating a little each day to actively engage in a network. I know this is true, how can I even see what the possibilities are if I have never even tried it? Think about the teachers or students who have been given a tool and end up creating something that you would have never envisioned! We are really just scratching the surface on using Web 2.0 in education. Myself and others still get hung on the technology and functions of the tool. Fuhget about it!! It really just is about letting it be a creative expression of your thoughts and ideas, a mirror for your mind. I guess with everything that seems to call at my attention in a given day, email, phone calls, meetings, marriage, family, working out… the thought of committing to one more thing freaks me out. But you know what, this is really exciting and it creates a state of constant growth, which feels great, so I am gonna do it. Look out man, handynerd is coming to a network near you!

M-