Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 06/15/2011

• K12 Online Conference 2010 | Digiteens: Digital Citizenship by Digital Teenagers

  This presentation includes a compilation of videos from my classroom where my students presented and acted on digital citizenship research in a local way. This was for the k12 online conference. This is what authentic research and creative project creation look like.

  tags: education digiteen flatclassroom

• Smartphone danger: Distracted Parenting

  We've all see the parent too busy responding to text messages instead of hearing their child ask them a question. Which is more important?
  
  The research from Stanford says that there is a danger not only to the parent: our ability to focus and accomplish tasks - but to the learning of our children and perhaps their inability to develop social skills.
  
  Who is helping who? Who is in charge - are you at the beckon of every Tweet and message or are you in control of your own life? You decide.

  tags: education twitter parenting learning cellphone

• Flat Classroom Conference: “Working Hard, Having Fun”

  David Deeds traveled from inner China with a group of incredible students to the conference in Beijing. This is a great write up and the title really says it all "Working Hard, Having Fun" - the interesting thing is that only about 10% of teachers had criticism - they wanted it to be just lecture, they said working on projects was hard. ;-) But that is ok. As people begin to understand project based pd, they will hopefully gravitate to the learning mechanism that works for their learning style, although I think everyone should have to do projects every so often to keep skills sharp!
  
  Oh, we'll be back in India in 2012 and are in the process of considering sites for our next full conference in 2013. This conference is run by our nonprofit which provides scholarships and discounts for the students attending the conference.

  tags: flatclassroomconference education conference projectbased

• ISTE SIGML 2011 Video Contest Voting Now Open! « Ubiquitous Thoughts

  Just two more days in the video contest for the best mobile learning video. This is from Mar van 't Hooft. As I looked at the ISTE schedule, one thing I noticed is that almost everything Mark has organized on the program is sold out. He is a great leader and mobilizer and understands how to network and use social networks. He networks by serving and help others (he spent hours advising us on our Flat Classroom rubrics and trust me - there's no money or acclaim in that.) Mark is what I consider a servant leader and I support what he does. If you're an ISTE member, take time to vote and head over to his blog.

  tags: education iste11 iste mobile learning

• Discussion Forum - Flat Classrooms

  The discussion forum for our Flat Classrooms ning has been reorganized to organize projects by grade level. Join in the conversation.

  tags: education global collaboration flatclassroom

• The power of an authentic, global audience « Learning Mosaic

  I love this post from Nancy vonWahlde (in the current class of Flat Classroom Certified teachers) as she discusses the learning that happens in her third grade classroom in the Czech Republic when the students link with other classrooms. Those of us collaborating globally are seeing this sort of thing happen: deep learning, thought, interest from students in ways that are very powerful and noticeable. Excellent read.

  tags: education flatclassroom

• 5 Facebook privacy settings to check now - USATODAY.com

  Places to check facebook settings. Hat tip to Kim Caise ( @kcaise )

  tags: facebook privacy education

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Librarians Teach Us to Swim; Social Media Builds Islands

Funny how fast things change. I'm finding that some incredible information and graphics are coming to me via Tumblr (see the Beginners Guide to Tumblr I produced a few weeks a go.)

I sent out this quote yesterday:

In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us to swim.

Linton Weeks, Washington Post (via mountainplainslibraryassociation)(via infoneer-pulse)

My posts from Tumblr automatically go to Twitter. So, then I got a tweet back this morning from Diane McKenzie, librarian extraordinaire in Hong Kong @dimac4:

.@coolcatteacher something I whipped up with inspiration from you http://t.co/qIoUTLC (with many other things to do as well!)

Thus was born the graphic above. Ah, how fast information moves and mashes up. I find that the graphics and videos often spread faster than plain text but perhaps that isn't the case.

There is no doubt that librarians have been taking a hit lately. I think that more librarians like Diane need to be telling their story: what are we doing? Why are we important? What are the amazing things happening through our work? Tumblr is just one way to do that. Flickr is another way. Hey, even youtube.

I believe that the people in a profession who embrace social media to speak the message of what they do should be hailed as heroes. Right now, social media mavens  ARE the media and influence public opinion much more than we'd like to think.

The very life and soul of a profession are now caught up in the social media megaphones lifted by the rank and file.  If your profession doesn't encourage the "average" person to speak out in positive ways then your profession may be headed for trouble.

If librarians provide people with floaties and teach them to swim, then social media mavens have the power to build islands in the middle of the ocean out of a Tweet. The tide of public opinion is at their fingertips and it is time to start taking notice that social media is Media.

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Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 06/14/2011

• Free Technology for Teachers: 77 Web Resources for Teachers to Try This Summer

  77 Free web resources to try out this summer. Actually, I usually just pick 2 or 3 as that is all I can handle. From Richard Byrne at Free Tech for Teachers

  tags: education tools web2.0 web2_smackdown

• Blog U.: Georgia State, Copyright and the Future of Higher Education - Law, Policy -- and IT? - Inside Higher Ed

  Some commentary of the backlash that is beginning against "greedy publishers" for the Georgia state lawsuit that threatens the current definition of fair use used by most institutes of higher education.

  tags: education fairuse copyright

• What's at Stake in the Georgia State Copyright Case - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

  This is an important read and important case for anyone in higher education to follow as it can shift the very definition of scholarly work to a system that encourages open sharing versus the use of traditional publishers. This could be a case that publishers live to regret.
  
  "A closely watched trial in federal court in Atlanta, Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al., is pitting faculty, libraries, and publishers against one another in a case that could clarify the nature of copyright and define the meaning of fair use in the digital age."

  tags: education fairuse copyright

• Family Feud…Skype Style | Techie Kids

  A "Skype Feud" where students answered questions against students in another classroom via Skype. What an exciting activity for students!

  tags: education skype flatclassroom globalcollaboration globalprojects

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 06/13/2011

• 2,000 Hours

  Chuck has a 2,000 hour project where he plans to record every hour of work he does as a teacher for the next year! Boy, that sounds challenging - let's see what he does. I wish him well.

  tags: education learning teaching

• Recycling Cups Into Paint Containers - The Crafty Crow

  Great idea to recycle used Starbucks cups into paint containers!

  tags: education teaching elementary_teacher art_teacher

• Twitter in the Classroom: Watch This Teacher Engage Shy Students in Learning History - Education - GOOD

  A CNN video about a teacher successfully using BYOT (bring your own technology) and Twitter in the classroom. This teacher has mostly Latino and low-income neighborhood students and is showing positive results from this. There are people using cell phones and handhelds and it is growing.

  tags: education twitter socialmedia

• newspaper map | 10000+ online newspapers in the world, translate with one click

  This map shows over 10,000 newspapers. You can select the newspaper and translate it into the language of your choice. This is a valuable tool.

  tags: education newspaper news

• teachwithyouripad - Blooms Taxonomy with Apps

  A nice bloom's taxonomy for apps on the teach with your ipad wiki.

  tags: education ipad blooms blooms_taxonomy

• Creative Readers, Writers and Thinkers

  Teacher, Alejandra Quaglia, from Buenos Aires, is doing some great things with her sixth graders. One of the best uses of summer vacation for the northern hemisphere is LEARNING. By following the blogs of those educators in the southern hemisphere, we can learn by watching others in practice while they are teaching (and perhaps ask questions.) Intentionally add some southern hemisphere educators to your PLN.
  
  She is a sixth grade teacher, you can see her assignments here.

  tags: education middleschool_teacher middleschool blogging

• IT tools for teachers

  This is a bilingual blog in both English and Spanish from Marta Lavista in Buenos Aires. She is doing some interesting global collaborative work as well. Although it isn't being updated a lot, I like the format. She's @mlavista on Twitter.

  tags: education language_teacher

• Reflections on a Grading Experiment & Students Respond « Haas | Learning

  Teacher Fred Haas shares his open evaluation and student results of not giving "grades" for writing in the first few weeks of the fal term. This is a very interesting and introspective read and shows how there is value in reflection. Reflection means that we can all learn from his 'experiment." For those who don't like the fact that the "experimented" at all - realize that all teachers try new things and if you don't, then you're not moving forward. We all try things that work and don't.

  tags: education assessment grading

• The Sum of the Whole is Greater Than its Parts: A Field Guide to Molching « Mrs. D's Flight Plan

  Students wrote a book together via Google Docs, uploaded it to lulu. "A Field Guide to Molching" is a very interesting and powerful way to collaborate. Take a look.

  tags: education googledocs lulu creativity writing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Making Movies on the iPad

Making movies on the iPad is pretty simple. I will share more later, but you will need iMovie. I found the app Clipish Pro to make screens with text.


For school videos, this is an easy alternative. Another essential for me is dropbox which let's me quickly move video from my iPod touch to iPad. (I know icloud will do this eventually, but for now, this is what I use.)

Question: If you are editing film on the iPad or other mobile device, what are some tips and tricks to help us who are beginners? (Please share.)

- Posted using BlogPress from Vicki's iPad

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Learning About Life on the Athletic Field

For those of you who are administrators, headmasters or coaches and even teachers, you will love this conversation we recorded at our school for the 40 year anniversary of the school. We've been going back and recording for posterity things that will help students understand what our school means and who we are.

These three men have led our football team to 7 different state championships. They talk about their wins, their losses, their pains, their struggles both as teachers, headmasters, and coaches.

Ross Worsham, the man on the left is my current headmaster. Coach Graham Lowe is "my" headmaster. He was at Westwood for many of my years. I sat in his office the ONE time I skipped class (to read the book Sounder which I had forgotten to read the night before - I skipped PE and hid under the bus - thank goodness we got caught . He is also the principal I wrote about in my post about standing up to the class bully Be Hope-Full and Power-Full. I don't think Coach Lowe will ever understand what he means to me as a person and a teacher.) Coach Greene was there when my youngest sister was in school and my first or two at Westwood. He made a big difference for the boys.

I know sometimes teachers throw stones at coaches and vice versa but we are on the same team. I love when Coach Lowe talks about what he told his son to do when his son wanted to coach. He said something like "Son, be a teacher who coaches not a coach who tries to teach."

Coach Lowe teaches French at Deerfield Windsor High School today and coaches middle school boys. (His son is the head coach for the varsity team.)

Anyway, after this trip down memory lane, I just think it is great to hear and remember your heritage.

Have you thought about a history project like this for your school?

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New Book: What School Leaders Need to Know about Digital Technologies and Social Media

Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann's new book What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media is available for preorder on amazon Stephanie Sandifer and I co-wrote a chapter on wikis in this book.



Just wanted you to know - looks like it will be a great book and a marvelous summer read.

Hat tip to two excellent leaders in the educational space.

Full Disclosure: I co-authored a piece in this book but not compensated for it. If you want to support this blog and pre-order through the links above, I am compensated by amazon as an part of their affiliate program. It is the only affiliate program I participate in at this time.

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