Educational Technology Weblog

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-

Welcome to the Educational Technology weblog!

Traditionally this entry would have the words “Hello World” somewhere inside it, so we certainly don’t want to disappoint! With that out of the way let’s talk a little about why this service has been created and what we hope to gain from it.

First, what is the purpose of this blog anyway? (Yes, it is a blog.)

Simply put, our team hopes to find a new and better way for teachers in Palm Beach County schools to have a place to discuss the latest successes and challenges in their classroom, particularly when it comes to their use of technology tools.

More than that though, this blog is intended to be a demonstration project where we have the opportunity to lead by example as we collaborate and discuss teaching practices using what has become one of the most ubiquitous tools available today–the ability to connect and share using simple publishing tools. When you hear the term Web 2.0, that is exactly what this new paradigm is all about. Connecting. So please join in the conversation by leaving a comment. It’s easy!

We’re expecting this to be a fun ride, so don’t sit back and relax, but lean forward and engage with us! We want to hear from you and hope that you’ll be as excited about this new service as we are.

Don’t forget that you’ll want to subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog in your favorite news reader. Not sure how to do that? Well, stand by. More will be coming soon!