Then and Now as an ADE

Flickr CC photo by John Biehler

I'm headed to Arizona to participate in the 2011 Apple Distinguished Educator Institute, hosted at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.  I'm excited, but the experience is completely different from merely two years ago.  Then, I was really nervous about how I would "stack up".  I was so self-conscious at first that I'm not sure I took full advantage of the program.

Now,  I realize this is more about relationships and community.  Regardless of how wonderful the workshops and presentations may be, the collaborations and sharing are likely to be more sustaining.  Being an ADE allows me to stay close to creativity and innovation.

This year's focus appears to on producing educational resources for iTunesU.  I'm choosing a direction where I probably have more to take than to give-- school administration.  In terms of production values, some of us fall a little short of what our Apple mentors may be seeking.  This time, I'm not too concerned.  I'll learn more about education, professional development, and leadership regardless of what we whip up.

So I think I am prepared to get more out of the experience this time.  Nevertheless, it will be impossible to recapture the excitement of a first time.  I also became fascinated by CBL in 2009.  This led to an extraordinary two-year journey.  I doubt I'll catch that kind of lightning in the bottle, again.  But who knows.  One thing I'm sure of-- a blog post or two will be inspired by my week with Apple!

Resources for Online Portfolios

This week, I am re-posting my 2010 Drive-thru favorites. I selected this one from June, because it shows the power of networking.  The experience led to the first college recommendation  I have ever written for a student that did not focus on academic work done in my class.

 I was approached for help recently by an art student who wished to publish an online gallery of her senior portfolio. She wondered what sites might best display her work. I really enjoy researching little projects like this and decided to post my recommendations to her and her fine art teacher, @idrawandpaint

One of my top recommendations, wix.com, came by way of my one of my AP American Government students. Her cbl project group produced an online voting demo called Operation iVote which had a stunning look. When I asked the web designer of iVote, about her experience, she said that wix.com is "the easiest thing ever to use and would be perfect for something artsy like a portfolio." wix.com is a flash based web design creation site. I inspected some of the free templates and samples at the site and they were very impressive. (I did not explore the pay options or features).

I also asked for input from ADE listserv and received a number of suggestions. Matt Cauthron of the Digital Arts Academy invited me to visit a treasure trove of galleries. His students use http://flavors.me/. Take a look at his students' portfolios in progress! An online stroll through these galleries and a peek at the flavors.me directory assured me at once that flavors.me offers the tools for creating an avant-garde portfolio.

Incidentally, the young art student who intends to build this online site also wishes to include electronica music. She is hoping to secure permissions for this and wondered if I had any suggestions. My attempt to help her led to a solution that has since become available to our entire student body.

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Screenshot of Michael V. Manalo's curriculum vitae created with wix.com

Student Take-away from Challenge Based Learning

This is one of the videos that has been posted at iTunes U on the Nebraska State Board of Education channel. It was posted in order to be made available to educators attending the K-12 Summit in Dallas. This puts me to mind of three things:

* The students were genuinely impacted by the power of the project. They are describing "authentic" experiences where they learned a great deal about democracy, networking, and the power of technology.

*Speaking of networking, how about the fact that videos made by a high school class in Farmington Hills, Michigan, end up on Nebraska content site? I tweeted a blog about the project and an ADE read it, and followed up on it for the summit.

*My experience with Apple has been truly transformational. Apple introduced me to the pedagogy of CBL and also help connect me to some very bright educational innovators.

Resources for Online Art Portfolios

I was approached recently by an art student about publishing an online gallery of her portfolio. She wondered what sites might best display her work. I really enjoy researching little projects like this and thought that I would share my recommendations to her and her fine art teacher, @idrawandpaint

One of my top recommendations, wix.com, came by way of my one of my AP American Government students. Her cbl project group produced an online voting demo called Operation iVote which had a stunning look. When I asked the web designer of iVote, about her experience, she said that wix.com is "the easiest thing ever to use and would be perfect for something artsy like a portfolio." wix.com is a flash based web design creation site. I inspected some of the free templates and samples at the site and they were very impressive. (I did not explore the pay options or features).

I also asked for input from ADE listserv and received a number of suggestions. Matt Cauthron of the Digital Arts Academy invited me to visit a treasure trove of galleries. His students use http://flavors.me/. Take a look at his students' portfolios in progress! An online stroll through these galleries and a peek at the flavors.me directory assured me at once that flavors.me offers the tools for creating an avant-garde portfolio.

Incidentally, the young art student who intends to build this online site also wishes to include electronica music. She is hoping to secure permissions for this and wondered if I had any suggestions. My attempt to help her led to a solution that has since become available to our entire student body (a sample may be playing for your now). I'll discuss Magnatune in my next post.

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Screenshot of Michael V. Manalo's curriculum vitae created with wix.com

Enriched by Networks

I'd be a different and poorer person without my PLN . In the last couple of weeks, I've

*Collaborated on Challenge Based Learning with an amazing educator in Nebraska.

*Shared secret techie anxieties and laughs with a middle school teacher in Colorado.

*Chatted about M-Hub with a doctor in Africa.

* Joked about the Tigers with a beat reporter as he covered the game.

* Joined a wonderful new and improved ADE community site. Apple challenges us, but makes us feel good about ourselves.

*Swapped music and blogging tips with a University student.

*Learned about cloud databases from a generous mind in Great Britain.

*Suggested a question to a beat reporter for an NBA press conference. He says he will ask it.

*Asked for advice about web sites from a journalist in China.

*Read interesting blogs, commented on interesting blogs, and written ... blogs

P.S. I've been collaborating with a peer on researching copyright-free music for student projects. Decided to add some Magnatune music to the site. Please indicate in poll whether to keep or ditch.

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"Yellow Flower" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by introspectivo - Muito ocupado / Very busy's photostream

Trajectory

Pardon me, but I'm going to be even more self-indulgent than usual.

Last summer when I came back from the '09 ADE Summer Institute, I was exhilarated, but also awed. I simply felt as though I was not in the same league as the other Apple Educators.

Nevertheless, when I learned that Apple would host an ADE "special event" in Florida this summer, I decided to overcome my apprehensions and apply.

Well, lo and behold, I received my acceptance on Friday. When I expressed astonishment to my wife, Barb, she replied that she expected this, considering my "trajectory since last summer."

Cool word, trajectory. It's been stuck in my head since she said it. Last year's Institute gave me the impetus to try out Challenge Based Learning and the confidence to make presentations. I even put myself forward to conduct the staff in-service on Personal Learning Networks. So I guess I have upped my game over the last year.

By the way, the themes for July's "special event" will be

*24/7 Access to relevant digital repositories through mobile devices.

*New pedagogies for learning, including Challenge Based Learning.

Should be a terrific opportunity to give another boost to my trajectory!

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"Estela de vapor" Flickr Creative Commons photo by pablodf