Tech Talk for Educators Presentation-- "I Hate Copyright"

A morguefile.com photo

Here you will find the resources for my February 28 presentation at Tech Talk.

The presentation is called I Hate Copyright or How to Find Public Domain or Creative Commons Photo.

Below you will find the links that we will be using at the conference.  I have also included the slide presentation at the end of this post. (Pardon a couple of bugs in the uploaded slides). 

You are welcome to use the slides for non-commercial purposes with attribution.

Links for Workshop

morgueFile

http://www.morguefile.com/

Wikimedia Commons

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Compfight

http://compfight.com/

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

Flickr: The Commons

http://www.flickr.com/commons

U.S. Government: Photos & Images

http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml

Slides

Reflecting on Three Thousand Tweets

I was quite flattered when two cast members of Mame, Mercy's upcoming school musical, told me that they had created a Twiiter account to promote their show. They hope that I would tweet about it.  They said that their music teacher, Mrs. Ferguson had identified me as an avid tweeter.  She was right -- Last week I published my 3,000th tweet! 

I regularly encounter colleagues who do not "get" Twitter at all.  They  are very surprised to find that I claim it to be my best source of professional development.  I have cultivated a wonderful network of tweeters interested in educational technology. In 140 characters or less they point me to an incredibly rich variety of resources and opinions. I take some of the most interesting links and put them in my blog.

I regularly have over a hundred visits to these posts.  Most of these page views come from Twitter as I now have 868 followers.  You can see from the example to the right that sometimes other tweeters will tout by blog or my iTunes U courses. I reviewed Eric Sheninger's book in my blog. He referenced Becoming a Digital School Administrator in his book and has tweeted about it numerous times

One of the best features of Twitter is the hashtag.  By creating a code following a pound sign (#), tweeters can track a topic or conversation.  I have done this for our upcoming Tech Talk conference (#mhtalk). I am hoping that attendees like Karen Bosch (below) will discuss the conference on Twitter using the hashtag.

As an avid sports fan, I also enjoy Twitter.  Again, by following a selected group of sports tweeters, I can enjoy a high level of chat during a televised game. Or I can actually interact with reporters and bloggers who are at a live event.  For example I have tweeted back and forth with beat reporters who are in Lakeland, Florida covering the Tigers' spring training.

In sum, I have found Twitter to be interesting and helpful.  I use it daily to promote my school and my public activities. It is the most important source of my professional enrichment.  But is also pretty much insures that I never have to watch a game alone.  I'm looking forward to the next three thousand tweets.

iBooks, iPads, and Assorted Links at the Drive-thru

Thoughts on Instructional Design for iBooks Author

These may be simple and obvious ideas for many educators and curriculum directors. However, for me, these are a few of the things I’m beginning to understand better when it comes to designing e-learning experiences and in particular iBooks Author content.

http://tinyurl.com/qfnh7l7

20 Options for Real-Time Collaboration Tools

There are many times, when collaborating online in real-time becomes a necessity to keep people involved, make them work together and to keep teams focused to accomplish business goals. With real-time collaboration you get the opportunity to work with people located in different parts of the world at the same time on the same document and see the changes in an instant. There are numerous tools available for the purpose.

http://tinyurl.com/pn8zb4r

Why educating the educators is complex

Smack in the middle of the fiery debates about teacher education is the troublesome fact that we lack a fitting and consensual definition of teaching itself. In his blistering 2005 report on teacher education programs, former president of Teachers College, Arthur Levine, noted the “schism [in] teacher education between those who believe teaching is a profession like law or medicine, requiring a substantial amount of education before an individual can become a practitioner, and those who think teaching is a craft like journalism, which is learned principally on the job.”

http://tinyurl.com/of8kpvp

Redefining the Writing Process with iPads

In the progression from Writing 1.0 to 2.0, we digitally enhanced an existing process. If we examined it through the lens of Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model, we might have stepped from "substitution" to "augmentation," allowing the technology to provide "functional improvement." With iPads, the goal should not be to apply the paper or digital processes in the same way, but to consider how we can leverage the capabilities of the device in order to "modify" and "redefine" what's possible.

http://tinyurl.com/prryzsm

Five Tips for Incorporating New Technology in the Classroom

When it comes to implementing new technology into the classroom, teachers often have one of two responses: Their initial reaction is either “Oh no!” or “Oh wow!” The “Oh no!”, or reluctant, teachers are quick to admit that their students know more about technology than they do. They readily admit they are not interested in using new technology if it requires them to spend time figuring out how to use it and how to incorporate

it into their instruction. In contrast, the “Oh wow!”, or enthusiastic, teachers are excited, motivated, and eager to use technology to enhance student learning. After considering these opposing views, educators must determine how to get

the reluctant teachers to join their enthusiastic colleagues.

http://tinyurl.com/ocs9f4o

Neatly Wrap ipod headphones without ties chain

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"Chain" stringberd via Compfight cc

Technology Leadership -- ISTE Virtual Conference February 13, 2014

Today I have the honor in participating in the first ISTE Virtual Conference. This three hour experience will be focusing on some of the "greatest hits" from the 2013 conference in San Antonio and previewing hot topics and presentations for the June. 2014 conference in Atlanta.  I will be participating in a segment called Modeling Digital Leadership with Kris O'Neal, Kara Gann, and Rod Smith. During that time I will have fifteen minutes to preview by upcoming Becoming a Digital School Administrator presentation based on my iTunes U course.  Below are some of the materials I will be sharing, including videos by principals Curt Rees and Melinda Miller.

All about Content Curation

Creation still rules the internet, but I have found knowledge and fulfillment through curation.  Digital curators contribute to the world by sorting through all of the information on the internet.  We only collect those resources which fit a particular interest or niche.  The best curators add value to their collections by commenting on or evaluating the resources.

My two iTunes U “courses” are such collections.  I have taken the best practices of others and shaped them into a course.  By placing them with my commentary into a "course" I have imposed a logic and structure on the collection. If the enrollee experiences the course on an iPad he/she can find carefully selected resources in an organized way.

Several hundred visitors have enrolled in my Becoming a Digital School Administrator course.  This Thursday in during ISTE’s first virtual conference I will take fifteen minutes to display some of my best artifacts and explain why I value them so highly.

Below, I have curated some excellent information on curating.  Like my iTunes U courses, I have provided a variety of media.

This movie provides a short and sweet introduction to curation:

Here are some great curation tools, including my wife’s favorite-- Pinterest.

ITeach U  Content Curation Tools

http://tinyurl.com/oy44fxs

This is a very cool graphic introduction to curation.

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This is introduction to curation outlines a process of “Seek, Sense, and Share”

Content Curation Primer

http://tinyurl.com/3jcnyja

This article focuses on Search Engine Optimization, providing lots of tips and tools about curation

Your In-Depth Guide to Content Curation

http://tinyurl.com/nomxzg5

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Thomas Forsyth via Compfight cc

Why I Present at Ed Tech Conferences

Two weeks I drove 150 miles to Grand Rapids in order to make a presentation at an education conference.  Next month I'll visit the same venue to make a different presentation at a different conference.  I have three others scheduled between now and June.  I will get anxious about each one as the time approaches. Preparing will be a lot of work, and it will be expensive to go to a couple of them.  Also, I will be quite relieved when each one is over.

So why do it?

Photo by Joanna Montgomery, 1/22/14

Actually, the reasons have more to do with pushing myself than vanity. Unless specifically asked to do so, I generally do not repeat presentation topics.  Instead I select projects I have begun and form a presentation proposal around them.  This is true for my upcoming MACUL and ISTE conference presentations.  Both presentation proposals were inspired by iTunes U courses that I was developing at the time.  "Empowering Your iWizards" (MACUL) was inspired by Create a Student Tech Team at Your School. "Becoming A Digital School Administrator" was derived directly from the course with the same name.

I played a little trick on myself in both instances:  The proposal acceptances motivated me to bring both up to date with fresh materials. 

Yes, vanity has something to do with this, but networking is part of the equation as well.  Once one of my proposals is accepted, I am more certain to attend the conference.  And then the conferences often inspire the next set of projects. My ideas for both iTunes U courses were hatched at last year's ISTE conference.  The digital administrator course was inspired by a throw-away line at a presentation I attended.  The idea for the tech team course originated from a conversation I had with attendees following my presentation.

I guess the bottom line is that presenting keeps me plugged in to the greater ed tech community and helps me stay relevant to the greater conversation.