My new iPhoneG3s

Wow! I just figured out that I could add a new post to my blog from my iPhone.
Very cool! It will be nice when I'm traveling, and I don't have Internet for my laptop, but one finger typing gets a bit tedious.

A very interesting take on new digital media by Howard Gardner

I was navigating around the Digital Generation Project on the Edutopia website, and I decided to watch this video from Howard Gardner. With all the enthusiasm about multitudinous tools available to our students to produce multimedia projects, it is important to temper that with legitimate cautions of educators. Kids certainly are adept at using these tools and at social networking, but may lack judgement in what they are producing and sharing with the world. While Mr. Gardner is certainly not opposed to this new wave in education, he makes an important points of how educators are still needed to help students navigate and make sense of this vast wealth of resources available at the click of a mouse or the touch of a finger.
Watch the video, and please comment on what you think about the topic.

Here is the link:
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-howard-gardner-video

I tried to embed the video, but the embed code they gave me was not accepted by blogger. I will have to ask someone who knows more about html than I do to help me fix it.

Thanks, Carolyn

A Nice Example of using Skype in the Classroom

ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) has been running a contest for teachers to upload videos showing innovative ways they are using technology in the classroom. In the video embedded below, you will see an example of kids connecting with an author. Sean Capelle authored this video which shows kids using Skype to ask question of Patrick Carmen, author of Skeleton Creek, a book the 5th graders had read. I caught some reference to the book having an element of technology embedded in it, as well. The video shows a realistic setting and is an inspiration for us to try something like this next year.

Annotation on Sept. 5, 2009
I just noticed that the embedded video was not in the post. I am editing the post in the .html view currently, and deleted the embedded code. I will now try to put in a direct link to the video so you can view it.
http://www.istevision.org/watch.php?vid=5616d271788a52a1dc35198186f202a986cb18fb
Let me know if you are interested in trying to set up something like this.

Fantastic 8th Grade Interteam, Interdisciplinary Project

Our eighth graders have been involved in a week long interteam, interdisciplinary experiment where they have been working in collaborative teams to produce projects with technology as an underlying tool to facilitate their learning. The students created propaganda videos about the American Revolutionary War and also did experiments on how music has an effect on mood or ability to recall information or heart rate. More on that later.

I was inspired to write this blog post when I came across this video which won an award from ISTE (International Society of Technology Education), and I thought it mirrored a lot of what went on at our school this week. Maybe we can use it as an inspiration and make a mash-up video of our own.



Here is the link to the video on the ISTE site:
http://www.istevision.org/watch.php?vid=d04f32b7af250b9a542b05b32c9b25ba4619555e
I loved the part where it questioned "Do we still get report cards?"

Options Available in Embed Code for a YouTube Video

I have one last post. When I first embedded the video in the post below, it came in with links running along the bottom to other videos. I did not want that. I went back into the video options on YouTube, and I pressed the little cog icon beside the embed code. That gave me "customize" options, and I unchecked the box that said "include related videos". That's a good feature.

Students Lead the Way

As teachers we are often reticent to post anything with recognizable student faces and names attached, but the kids feel no such reticence. While we have to be diligent in helping kids understand how important it is to be careful of what they post, posting online is here to stay. I had taped a similar video with my VadoHD camera of Sarah's rendition of "My Funny Valentine", but had no intention of posting it. However, Sarah's dad shot a video of the same performance (much better than mine, I must add), and she edited it and posted it on YouTube herself. I asked her permission to embed it on my blog, and she was happy to have me do so. Enjoy.



I am still uncomfortable with all the information made available to the public in her description, but hopefully, only good things will come of it.

Twitter

I thought Twitter was really stupid and a real time waster at first, but I am now following a select number of educators who are technology leaders such as Will Richardson, Chery Lemke, Bob Sprankle, Kathy Schrock, Clarence Fischer,Vicki Davis, and several others. I find their "tweets" to be very relevant to the job I try to do, and following their links leads me to many areas of new learning. I recently followed a link and ended up on a blog by Matt, an instructional technology coordinator in Centralia, Missouri. He recently facilitated a classroom communication with a soldier in Iraq via Skype. What a wonderful experience for the students in that classroom. Here is a link to his blog:

http://www.etsreflectingpool.blogspot.com/

He also had some interviews with teachers just starting to get comfortable with technology and how it is changing their role in the classrooms. To date, I have not been able to load a sound file on my blog. I have been able to upload a video, but I didn't see any option for a .mp3 file. I intend to get in touch with Matt and have him help me. No one person has a handle on all the wonderful tools available out there for communication, collaboration and learning. "It's all about the conversation." If you haven't been following blogs or participating in online conversations such as those at http://www.edtechtalk.com/, I encourage you to do so. It' takes a little extra time, but the benefits are worth it.

Spring Concert and Art and Tech Display

The annual Spring Concert by the chorus and band was presented to the whole student body on Thursday morning. There was an evening performance for parents and students at 7:00. The concert was absolutely amazing. We have such wonderful multi-talented students here at our middle school. Also wonderful were the displays of art projects and tech projects. Such creativity is fostered by our district, and for that we are grateful. Let's never forget how important a role the arts play in our curriculum.

Here is my pond video again.

You know, I am trying very hard to embrace new technologies and have other teachers incorporate them into their curriculums, hopefully to add to student learning and engagement. It's sad that some individuals feel it is better to destroy than to build. Who ever hacked into my blog, well, please don't do it again. You have proved your point.

Here is the pond video again. I need the relaxation.

Happy May Day

One last post on this rainy Friday afternoon. Hopefully, these left-over April showers will bring May flowers.
I have finally set up a YouTube account. I haven't uploaded many videos, but I intend to add to the knowledge base with some of the digital tutorials I have created. There is ugly stuff on YouTube, to be sure, but there are so many more great resources that it's time we use the tool to our advantage. I don't know what to do about the bad stuff except just avoid it and not watch it.
Anyway, yesterday I was talking about going home to sit by my pond and decompress, and Warren asked me to upload a video so he could see what I was talking about. I recorded this with my HD Vado from Creative using the HD+ setting as opposed to the low-quality setting I used to create the lab video experiment a few posts ago. It took quite a while to upload to YouTube, but it was easy. Here is the link. Enjoy.

I will upload Pond movie again. Some one hacked into my blog and put up a Brittney Spears video. So - nothing is safe.

There is a frog hiding in the green grass clump, but he's so well camouflaged that it is hard to spot him.