Twitter, Google Cal, STEM, Kahoot, and Much More

Twitter for Teachers, a Resource

To couple my continued passion for learning and sharing using Twitter as an education professional and this new rather lovely App by Adobe, I thought I’d create a new resource to support teachers looking to learn more about joining Twitter.

https://slate.adobe.com/a/2zln4

5 Tips to Help School Administrators Make the Most of Google Calendar

If your school has enrolled in Google Apps for Education, it is part of your GAFE suite of tools. With a Google Calendar, you can more effectively organize and plan your administrative tasks. Here are some quick tips to help you to effectively wield your Google Calendar tools.

http://tinyurl.com/ozcg8r5

Take Aim at innovation, with Students in the Center

But here is a cautionary note of reality from the road: After a morning debrief with the principals, heads of school or senior team, I frequently asked, "If I walked up and down your halls and asked all your teachers what the school is doing that is innovative, how many would talk about new technology initiatives?" Frequently the leaders would grimace and admit that it would be a common response. As a group, schools are still mired in the mindset that technology is the innovation, not that it is a tool embedded in innovation.

Photo by VirgoSixtyone

http://tinyurl.com/qdd5lqe

To Inspire Learning, Architects Reimagine Learning Spaces

When Gensler first looked at the Dwight-Englewood School in New Jersey, an independent prep school, its campus planners realized that the STEM program had separate buildings for math and science. “It wasn’t really STEM,” Thaler says. “The new campus plan called for a building that would support a truly interdisciplinary curriculum.”

http://tinyurl.com/mrypzmr

Polling Software Just Got Better

After learning about Kahoot last month at the Oregon Educational Technology Consortium conference, I had no hesitation about sharing this tool with colleagues at Edgewood Community Elementary School in Eugene, Oregon, where I teach fifth grade. Kahoot is a game-based classroom response system that is easy for both teachers and students to use. Think of it as an interactive, engaging way to quiz or survey your students.

http://tinyurl.com/oq387hp

K Goes Test Optional

After the current 2014-15 admission cycle, Kalamazoo College will no longer require ACT or SAT standardized test scores to be part of a prospective student’s application. The change will affect students applying for enrollment in fall 2016.

http://tinyurl.com/mv25nmd

Educational Uses for Facebook, Twitter, iPad Features and Much More

Is Facebook the New School Web Page?

Colleen Dickmann, superintendent for Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools, sees clear advantages to using Facebook for school-to-home communication. “Using social media allows us, as a school district, to tell our story in the manner we want it told. We can publish stories that otherwise might not make it into the local media’s hands.”

http://tinyurl.com/lj3p927

Ten Ways Teachers Can Make the Best of Twitter

For us in education, the potential of Twitter exceeds all expectations. In a relatively short span of time, Twitter evolved into one of the best educational social networking platform of choice for educators and teachers. It has also become an essential element in teachers life-long learning and a key driver of professional development. As such, I deemed it necessary that I create this short introductory guide to help those of you who are new to Twitter make the best of this tool. There are also tips and resources for advanced users as well. Enjoy

http://tinyurl.com/mx6nkzt

http://i0.wp.com/www.justonesandzeros.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/educational-hashtags.jpg?resize=660%2C264

The Top 10 iPad Features That Schools Forget

9. AirDrop – . . .if you have a newer iPad you can take advantage of a great feature called AirDrop. With AirDrop enabled, you can send photos, videos and other files to another iPad or Mac wirelessly and without email. Students could use this to share photos or video clips with each other while working on a group iMovie project, or to turn in assignments to a teacher’s Macbook.

http://tinyurl.com/o6kwhul

A Comprehensive Guide to The Use of Edmodo with Students

Edmodo is a powerful web-based platform that has a huge potential for us in education.  The features and functionalities  provided by Edmodo for teachers and students are invaluable and hence the importance of having access to a handy guide.

http://tinyurl.com/mu3byul

New [University of Michigan] program seeks to promote use of technology in classroom

“The purpose of the Digital Innovation Greenhouse is to take things from innovators and grow them up to maturity, to provide the support that’s needed to do that, to have the right kind of interaction between developers and users to make sure that as they develop it, it gets better,” he said. . . . “Will students be involved?” he said. “Yes, as developers, as interns, as personalization fellows to support the kinds of projects the greenhouse is focusing on initially.”

http://tinyurl.com/m952hh6

28 Apps for Challenge Based Learning Projects

From Challenge to Solution

Research: InstaPaper ($3.99) saves webpages for offline viewing; Wikipedia Mobile can be invaluable on-the-go.

Polling/Surveying: Polls Online, PollDaddy, and Socrative might help gather responses.

http://tinyurl.com/n5zprqq

Becoming a Digital School Administrator with the Help of Tweeters!

Becoming a Digital School Administrator is a collection of resources that I have collected in an iTunes U course.  This course targets prospective and current school building administrators, but I hope it has useful resources for all educational leaders.  Technology leadership through modeling is a dominant theme of this course. A unique feature is that the primary course materials originate from veteran building administrators who "walk the walk". 

A section of my iTunes U course from the "We Have Cameras, Let's Use Them" section.

The main premise of the course is that modeling is a vital component of technology leadership.  Consequently sharing best practices of how we building administrators authentically use technology in our own jobs will help to promote technology integration at our schools.

Since launching the course in September, I have developed a presentation which I will present at ISTE in June.  I previewed the presentation at ISTE's first virtual conference, using (with permission of course!) resources by elementary principals Curt Rees and Melinda Miller.

Several other wonderful contributions have been made by the likes of  Bret Coley, Eric Scheninger, and Trang Lai.  In January I updated the course material and I am currently doing another refresh.

This time, I have dug into Twitter and have invited some fellow followers to contribute.  I hope that they or any school building administrator will to contribute their best digital practices to course, which is organized around the following six topics:

I highly recommend that you check out Brent's blog!

I hope to keep my own game sharp by learning about what others are doing. Please contact me at lrbaker@mhsmi.org if you have something to share.

Plagiarism, Twitter, the NBA, and Happy Birthday to the Mac!

Is It Plagiarism or Collaboration?

Should we ever stymie collaboration among our students? We live in a collaborative world. It is rare in a job, let alone life, that individuals work in complete isolation – with lack of assistance or contributions from anyone else. Perhaps as educators, it’s time to reassess how we want students to work.

http://tinyurl.com/lx7v4b2

10 Ways to Promote Student Engagement

Easy learning activities and assignments are not as effective at engaging students as activities and assignments that challenge them. When students are reflecting, questioning, conjecturing, evaluating, and making connections between ideas, they are engaged.

http://tinyurl.com/pohyxkl

courosa via Compfight cc 

Thank you Twitter!

I made an effort to include these teachers in Twitter discussions.  I invited them into chats and asked for their opinion on topics.  Slowly, we transformed professional development with small groups on our campus.  After contract hours, we had collaboration and discussions amongst colleagues that were only made possible through Twitter.  The learning did not stop when teachers left for the day.

http://tinyurl.com/po9o9sl

Don’t Let Educational Technology become the NBA

My fear in education is that if we are not careful, our use of technology has the potential to be just like the NBA. Augmented reality (AR) is amazing. Spreadsheets? Hmm…not so much. Let’s not ignore what tech is really for, to enhance great teaching and learning. If AR helps kids understand and explore deeper like the setting in a novel, then use. Just don’t use it just to use it. Make it impactful.

http://tinyurl.com/qgno2kt

The Next Revolution In School Tech: Bring Your Own Device

“As more and more kids have phones connected to the internet, it is not helpful to have a lock-down approach, . . . [Roger Broadie] says. “We should be developing a culture where they’re self-policing” . . . . He believes concerns over e-safety are something of a red herring. The real stumbling block is the challenge it presents for teaching methods. “As soon as you expect the use of pupil devices, it means teachers are going to have to think about what they’re doing in the classroom.

http://tinyurl.com/obnozpf

Movies to Develop Leadership in Educational Technology

As the year ends, I am republishing the Opinion Drive-thru's seven most viewed posts of 2013.  This is #1

During the first meetings of my Leadership in Technology College of Education course (ED 6270) at Madonna University I have used some short YouTube movies for both the face-to-face and online versions of the course.

Developing Professional Learning Networks

This is a one minute movie about an Australian teacher training program that shows teachers the benefits in using Twitter. After watching it, my students-- all full time teachers-- wanted me to prepare a lesson on it as well.

An Illustration of Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture

During our first class we looked at Reuben Puentedura’s SAMR Model, agreeing that at its very basic

level, the “flipped classroom” is more of a case of technology allowing for substitution of lecture supplied by technology for a live lecture.  In other words, it is not a “game changer” so much as a new strategy for using conventional methods. instruction rather than redefinition.  Jackie Gerstein’s video suggests ways to attain redefinition of instruction through flipping.

Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture

This is a fascinating video with all kinds of implications.  I am asking my students to reflect on the educational ramifications in our online discussion forum.

Ken Robinson: How to Escape Education's Death Valley

Ken Robinson is a titan of the TEd Talks series.  We are going to use his latest video as a way to break ground on pour big professional development project.

Apps, Twitter, Google Earth and More

Redefining Medicine With Apps and iPads

The history of medicine is defined by advances born of bioscience. But never before has it been driven to this degree by digital technology.  The proliferation of gadgets, apps and Web-based information has given clinicians . . . a black bag of new tools: new ways to diagnose symptoms and treat patients, to obtain and share information, to think about what it means to be both a doctor and a patient.  http://tinyurl.com/8cofy7z

10 Amazing Google Earth and Maps Discoveries

Today, it’s easy to be an explorer — all you need is a computer, access to satellite technology and a sense of adventure . . . . Even though the average person can use these services to explore the planet, researchers and other scientific professionals use Google Earth and Google Maps as preliminary tools to analyze areas around the globe, uncovering some pretty amazing things we’ve never seen before.  http://tinyurl.com/8d2uo7h

The Best Apps, Communities, and Tools for Writers and Journalists

Richard Bach once said, “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”. . . .Those bound by the written word can always benefit from a leg up in the digital age. Here, we give you some of the best apps, tools, and communities for writers and journalists  http://tinyurl.com/8zkfar3

How Twitter is Reinventing Collaboration Among Educators

Before the advent of Twitter, most educators I know had limited opportunities to collaborate with colleagues outside their building. Some subscribed to listservs or participated in online forums, but these outlets lacked critical mass . . . . Enter Twitter. I've heard many educators say that Twitter is the most effective way to collaborate and that they've learned more with Twitter than they have from years of formal professional development. http://tinyurl.com/9xbuyqo

10 Great Websites for Creating Free Online Exams and Quizzes

By creating tests for students online, you as a teacher are not only saving time and resources, but you are also making the creation, distribution and grading of the tests much more convenient and fluid as a process. Here is a list of ten fantastic sites that allow teachers to make professional looking and easy-to-follow tests and quizzes for their students, completely free of charge.  http://tinyurl.com/8hqn5mw

On the Occasion of My 2000th Tweet

As it turns out, I tweeted for the 2000th time, a couple of weeks ago.  Actually it was a retweet, unsurprisingly about baseball from a Tiger fan who calls himself Phil Coke's Brain.  

Here it is:

My unremarkable 200th tweet.

The avatar is quite humorous, because Phil Coke is a normally mediocre player with entertaining eccentricities and odd quips.  Ironically he has performed as a hero in the recent baseball playoffs that have produced a trip to the World Series by our beloved Tigers.  It is not surprising that I would have been on Twitter during a baseball game.  I have a special column of "all star" tweeters on my Tweetdeck which I usually follow on my iPad as I watch the game on tv.  It is quite entertaining to watch the game with these fellow sports nuts during a contest.

It's much more difficult to do this at a Tiger game because getting a cellular signal is so difficult.  I was in bliss when I visited  Target Field in Minnesota. The Minnesota Twins actually provide Wi-fi for the fans, assuming that they wish to enrich the experience with their mobile devices.  In fact, the Twins had their own in-house app for mobiles.

This probably strikes some old-time fans as disrespect for the game itself.  But I would point out a couple of things.  First, I am a serious sports fan.  Aso, I love it that I do not have to wait until the next day for a newspaper to get someone's informed reaction to the game.  And, if you think about it there is a lot of dead time during a baseball (or football) game.  Plenty of time for both watching and tweeting.

This year, M-Hub is going to initiate an enrichment activity at Mercy High School using Twitter.  As far as I know it will be the first attempt to carry on a conversation through mobile devices during a school activity.  We are working with the dedicated planners of the  Women Mean Business Symposium to arrange for a Twitter hashtag during their panel presentations.  Tweeters can then have their comments projected onto a screen and perhaps some of the chirps can play into the program itself.  Hopefully this can model a best practice using social media for our students and draw them more personally into the program.

Creative Commons photo by ~Ilse

Take Out from the Opinion Drive-thru

Stanford Launches iPhone/iPad Course on iTunes

Stanford has teamed up with the social learning platform Piazza to enable students to pose questions to course instructors, other students and app developers around the world 24 hours a day. It’s a feature that on-campus Stanford students already have access to, but it’s a first for iTunesU. And it adds a whole new degree of interactivity to the iTunesU course experience.

http://bit.ly/Pxz8VI

Twitter Homework

I am wondering how many teachers around the world are preparing to write a post on the value of Twitter in the classroom. No doubt, the debate rages on, and will for years to come. For me and a small percentage of my students, it is no longer an issue. We have answered that question for ourselves and have embarked on journey together to integrate Twitter with our curriculum while trying to embrace a more “out of the classroom/school day” learning mindset.

http://bit.ly/LVO9NG

GPS Endangers Paper Maps

Transportation departments around the country are in the middle of reprioritizing their spending amid times of falling revenue, and paper maps could be on the chopping block.

http://bit.ly/Nxx6iV

Are Open Educational Resources the Key to Global Economic Growth?

OERs are learning materials that can be accessed, used, and transformed by anyone, anywhere. Though the concept is simple, the economic potential is tremendous.

http://bit.ly/MLuzoW

The 25 Best School Websites

Here are the criteria we kept in mind for these sites:

Design

Ease of use

Copywriting

Interactivity

Use of technology

Innovation

Content

http://bit.ly/LxZsxx

Google’s Spring Cleaning

Technology creates tremendous opportunities to improve people’s lives. But to make the most of them, we need to focus—or we end up doing too much and not having the impact we strive for. So last fall we started a spring clean and since then we’ve closed or combined more than 30 products.

http://bit.ly/NxyEtk

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Creative Commons Photo courtesy of mag3737

New Apps and Methods

CloudOn Brings Microsoft Office Apps To iPads

If you’re a frequent Microsoft Office user, then this is a must-have iPad app. Until Microsoft releases an official iOS version of its Office suite, this is the best alternative on an iOS device.

http://bit.ly/zzlBu7

QR Coded Student Videos: Classifying Activity

Have them generate QR Codes for each video they created using a service such http://goqr.me/ or  YouTube Video QR Code Generator.  These are generated by inserting the YouTube video URL to general the QR code.

http://bit.ly/AsirrY

Professor’s Classroom iPad App Debuts

A professor from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is trying to turn the iPad into a new kind of classroom tool that lets students draw on a shared canvas.

http://bit.ly/vZj3B1 

Inkling Creates First Industrial-Grade Publishing Platform For Interactive eBooks

The team set out to build a publishing platform that would redefine digital media, starting with reinventing the textbook. But in doing so, they’ve discovered that to reinvent books, they’ve had to go back to ground zero and re-imagine the entire printing process itself.

http://tcrn.ch/wDaEyk

Twitter Helps Journalists Break News

Researchers at Rutgers University and Microsoft developed Seriously Rapid Source Review to give journalists access to breaking news like never before. Reporters won’t have to comb the web — or Twitter’s 200 million tweets a day — for sources.

http://on.mash.to/xzcICe

Scanner Apps Turn the Phone Into a Fax Machine

The scanning process is fairly consistent, regardless of the app. You take a photo of a page, preferably in good light. The software scans the image and lets you crop it before a version is created for sharing. 

http://nyti.ms/zG0AeA 

Retro Conference

Flickr CC photo by ville-arles

I attended a very good conference last week, and I do not want the following remarks to suggest otherwise.  It's just that this one was missing a major element that I've become used to by only attending ed tech conferences.  The missing element was any interaction.  Other than an open mic standing in the middle of some 200+ of us, the conversation was one-way.

The speaker was very interesting as a lecturer and he invited questions throughout his four two-hourish sessions.  There was also a short period of time for table discussions.  He had a power point with text of his main points.  There were also paper hand outs each day.  I'm guessing that he has been a successful presenter using this format for a few years now.  So I don't blame him for feeling that my role was to listen and learn from him (as well I did).  But I still really missed reacting with others to his points (and the questions raised at the mic).  What I really missed was a Twitter hash tag for discussing the many points that were made through his program.  If not Twitter, then we would have benefited from some kind of of online forum (not to mention electronic documents rather than the paper ones).

In retrospect, I thought it was interesting that nothing like this had been planned for.  Manybe it was because the conference planners were not into this stuff.  Maybe they supposed the audience wouldn't be into this stuff.  More likely, those who haven't broadened the conversation simply don't know the benefits and might even presume that it would be distracting.

I was surrounded by intelligent educators.  Many were using iPads, laptops, and (peeking) at their smart phones.  I'll make no apology for having my all my gear out.  And no one needs to apologize for not meeting my social media needs-- especially since the program was solid.

But it did make me a little sorry that the interactive features that can add so much to an experience -- before, during, and after -- were not part of an educational conference because it implies that this kind of collaboration is a long way from being a staple in our schools.  Connecting learners with other learners is   a great way to embed knowledge, and these days we have the capacity to do it just about anytime and anywhere.

Interesting LINKS for Going back to School

All A-Twitter about Education

"Back to School" by Timothy Valentine

Some of the top tweeters in education.
http://bit.ly/os5ElN

14 Free and Simple Digital Media Tools

With so many free (or inexpensive) useful tech tools out there, editing video, audio, or photos doesn’t have to cost a fortune – or leave you with a headache. If your digital media needs are simple, your tools can be simple, too.

http://bit.ly/nNwvBX

Apps for Poets

Poets may quickly fall in love with their iPhones and iPads through a number of fantastic apps. What kind of apps are there? Well, there are apps for reading poetry, writing poetry, jotting down snippets and ideas, recording poetry, and everything in between. The iPhone and iPad have become the solution for the modern day poet. These apps are for those that love the artistry of words.

http://bit.ly/q0Pf5h

The Visible College  (via will Richardson)

Class begins when the classroom door closes.” This image is enshrined in many practices, much popular memory, and even campus policies. But the concept may well be turned inside out in the near future as several trends coincide, altering the ways we teach and learn. That shut door is about to be wrenched open and our closed classes drawn into a global, visible college

http://bit.ly/lSewBq

The Case for Graphic Novels in Education

Graphic novels encompass such a wide range of themes and create such layered experiences through word and art that they actually belong in classrooms . . . . Because contemporary students have a much wider visual vocabulary than we did growing up, I contend that the format offers great opportunities to teach as well as to entertain.

http://bit.ly/q6OuFg

10 Major Mobile Learning Trends to Watch For

While the applications of mobile learning are growing all the time, Online College has highlighted some of the major trends here, showing tge changes in how we teach, learn and interact in educational environments.

http://bit.ly/nrXDQq

Timely Links on Anger at Netflix and other Techie Matters

"Link" Flickr CC Photo by bulliver

Netflix Subscribers Threaten to Quit, but Will They Really?

Even if a bunch of DVD-by-mail subscribers do leave, Netflix will be happy to replace them with the more profitable streaming subscribers.

http://bit.ly/pK2fwH


Google Apps v. Office 365 Feature Showdown
Microsoft took the beta label off of Office 365 last [month], and many consider the cloud-based productivity suite a potshot at Google and Google Apps. Office 365 may offer cloud-based document, storage, and collaboration services that look like Google Apps, but the user experience and price tag are very different. Here's a look at the major differences between them.
http://lifehac.kr/rt0oOt

Twenty-Eight Creative Ideas for Teaching with Twitter
Beyond facilitating communication within the course itself, teachers may like the idea of connecting with similar ones in other cities, states or even countries. Set up a communal hastag for students and professionals alike to use and exchange their views and lessons.
http://bit.ly/qD6CHU

Why an Amazon tablet can rival the iPad
Without so much as a whisper from the retailer itself, Amazon’s Android tablet is heading our way. Rumoured to launch at the end of the third quarter in time for the holiday season, Amazon is hoping it can steal a little of Apple’s thunder and steal a little of its market share.
http://tnw.co/nOmltr

Four Ways Schools Can Increase Their Social Media Presence
We’re now at a point where almost all schools have a social presence, but many have yet to fully embrace the spirit of social media and tap into its potential. Social media presents a wealth of possibilities for engaging prospective students, current students, alumni, and other community members.
http://on.mash.to/qPBl7b

Interesting Ways to (Possibly) Use Google+ to Support Learning
A collaborative Google Doc which is collecting classroom possibilities for Google Plus like "Organizing a Class with Circles" and "Curriculum Topic Sparks"
http://bit.ly/oYohcn

1500 Tweets Later

1451 and counting!

I wish I had something profound to say about Twitter, having passed the 1500 Tweet milestone.  My feelings have only warmed to it since I started, but it is not exactly a central part of my life.

Nowadays, I particularly enjoy tweeting with journalists and fans during sports events.  It is also a steady source of material for this blog because it takes me out of my usual reading habits.

I've never felt addicted to Twitter, nor considered it a chore in any way.  It continues to be the most severely misunderstood social medium by those who stand outside of it complaining that 140 characters is just too limiting.  Well, that sort of overlooks the way so many links to other sources are passed among followers.  I am certainly thankful I can direct some of them to this blog whenever I post, and I certainly have never limited myself to 140 characters here!

One last comment: My wife tipped me off to Flipboard for Pad, a marvelous tool for turning that stream of links in your Twitter into a magazine style collection of serendipitous articles.  Good stuff!

Twitter Intercepts

Some quotes from my Tweetdeck:

Gallup Student Poll

Based on a Gallup Student Poll, half of students are engaged; they are highly involved with and enthusiastic about school. The other half of students are either going through the motions at school (30%) or actively undermining the teaching and learning process (20%). Student engagement peaks during elementary school, decreases through middle school and 10th grade, and plateaus through the rest of high school -- seemingly after some of the most actively disengaged students drop out of school.


Via Rob Wall from ISTE10

It's not our resources/technology that engage (or not) but the questions we ask students to solve with it.

Pew Research Center: Teens, Cell Phones and Texting

• Girls typically send and receive 80 texts a day; boys send and receive 30.
• 86% of girls text message friends several times a day; 64% of boys do the same.
• 59% of girls call friends on their cell phone every day; 42% of boys call friends daily on their cell phone daily.

Terry Moe and John Chubb via Dangerously Irrelevant

Precisely because technology promises to transform the core components of schooling, it is inevitably disruptive to the jobs, routines, and resources of the people whose livelihoods derive from the existing system

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"Tweeties" Creative Commons creation by Chris

So Now, Who Is the Expert?

The Big Sports Story

I have a voracious appetite of for online sports commentary, analysis, and rumors. Recently, whether Michigan State's basketball coach, Tom Izzo, would bolt to coach in the pros was the big story around her. At the news conference where he announced his decision to stay in East Lansing, the university president, A.D. and Coach Izzo all criticized "the media" for its role in hyping the story and running off half-cocked with unfounded rumors during the nine day "Will he or won't he?" drama.

The Old Guard

In response to these cliched jabs at the media, our resident dean of sports writing, Mitch Albom, metaphorically cleared his throat with a large harumph! and took the university to task for its criticism of those in his trade:

Look. An institute of higher learning already should know there is no such thing as a single "media" anymore. You cannot put credible newspapers or television stations in the same sentence as tweeters. You cannot lump legit Internet posts with a blog that begins in some guy's basement.

How ironic. If Albom was not so busy with his "entertainment plus news, traffic, sports and weather" radio show , book signings, etc. he might have noticed that his former sports writing buddies (as well as sportscasters) are hustling to become that blogging and tweeting guy in the basement.

What makes Albom an "expert" whose opinion on the Izzo decision has more value than others? He's a talented writer to be sure, but there is little evidence that he follows sports very closely with all his other lucrative distractions. While others lack the same talent for turning a phrase they have not lost their passion for sports. I'm more interested n their opinions. In this 24/7 news age, no voice should get preference simply because of an appointed position based on past journalistic accomplishments.

A Strained Analogy

What makes for expertise these days? I think about this question a good deal. I encourage my students to venture outside the box for their research, seeking untraditional sources of "expertise" for their CBL projects. My whole concept of M-Hub is premised about the importance of learning how to do this for future careers. Through my own initiative and my personal learning network, I have developed areas of "expertise" in educational technology. I actually have thirty hours of post-masters university work in a degree program in this domain. But the university credits toward a degree-- certainly the traditional way of measuring expertise -- are absolutely worthless compared to what I have learned independently.

So, yes Mitch, you write your column from a traditional perch under the Free Press banner (For all I know, you pounded out the words in your basement). But I no longer recognize your expertise on the day-to-day of sports. And since you don't deign to blog or tweet, I don't really follow you very closely. Perhaps your reputation is secure with all those folks who read ink on paper and see you photo above the fold. Good luck with all that.

---------------------------------

Mitch developing his sports expertise at a Seven People You Meet in Heaven book signing. Flickr CC photo by [James]

Ten Thoughts for May 10

Erica Werner

A high school English teacher from Iowa who incorporates everything from singing to Facebook in her lessons has been recognized by President Barack Obama as the nation's top teacher. . . ."Her students don't just write five-paragraph essays, but they write songs, public service announcements, film story boards, even grant proposals for their own not-for-profit organizations . . . ."

Brad Overnell-Carter:

The iPad is a social tool, whereas smart phones and laptops are personal tools.

Horace Mann:

A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on a cold iron.

LawyersUSA

During oral arguments today in the case City of Ontario v. Quon . . . .Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. - who is known to write out his opinions in long hand with pen and paper instead of a computer - asked what the difference was “between email and a pager?”

Dave Snowden

People should be able to choose their own technology and tools - IT needs to learn this lesson fast.

Tom Witby
Technology in our society should be more than a topic for superintendents and principals to use in speeches in order to make them sound as if they are cutting-edge educators . . . . They sell the sizzle, but nobody will ever get to see the steak.

ORVSD
Oregon is the first state in the nation to sign up for Google Apps for Education in K-12 classrooms.

Marco Antonio Torres:
Being global is no longer sexy... it is mandatory.

Edison Research
Awareness of Twitter has exploded from 5% of Americans 12+ in 2008 to 87% in 2010 (by comparison, Facebook's awareness is 88%). Despite equal awareness, Twitter trails Facebook significantly in usage: 7% of Americans (17 million persons) actively use Twitter, while 41% maintain a profile page on Facebook.

George Siemens:

When we make our learning transparent, we become teachers.

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"Strike a Pose" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by melodramabab

MHS Board of Trustees Presentation

Tonight I will shift into hyper-drive and give the MHS Board of Trustees a fast motion look as how I have blasted off into Web 2.0 education. It should be fun. I've probably put too much multi-media into my slides.

Here are some of the resources that I have created or have tapped.

Board Slide Presentation: One Teacher's Tech Explosion

Student Interviews: Challenge Based Learning

Baker Animation: The Digital Anthology

Virtual Conferences: Thursday's P.T. Conferences:

Apple Computer: Challenge Based Learning

Next stop, Grand Rapids, for the 2010 MACUL Conference. Come back on Friday for those goodies.

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Screen shot from "One Teacher's Tech Explosion" Keynote Presentation

Monday Musings at the Drive-thru

Monday Musings at the Drive-thru....

People still say things to me like, "This will make you happy - I'm not using paper for [such and such]." This is odd, since to my recollection I have never scolded other teachers not to use paper.

I subscribe to a weekend newspaper and a magazine simply so I can have full access to their online services. When the dead-trees arrive at my house they usually go straight to the recycling bin. This is a horrible business model, no?

Over the last year and a half, I have had more questions from other teachers about Google Docs than any other tech subject. Rather than highlighting how tricky Docs are, this testifies to their ease of use and classroom functionality-- folks are eager to adopt them.

Recently, I sent my Consumer Technology Revisits my Film Class to Netflix and the MHS English Department for comment. The comments? The deafening sounds of silence from both parties .

I have totally succumbed to one social media addiction-- tracking #mlb trade rumors on Twitter.

After maintaining this blog for almost a year and a half, have really come to appreciate the ability of bloggers like Tom Schusterbauer and Patrick Hayes to spark a discussion.

We had a staff appreciation dinner, last week, where I was honored for thirty-five years of service. I came away not only feeling appreciated for things that I have done in the past, but also how genuinely my school supports me as I try our this new tool and that new method. Despite complaints to the contrary MHS is still a place where teachers have considerable autonomy.

I've reached an age where now and then folks ask me about my "retirement plans." I have none. But, the other day I was thinking that if I did retire from teaching, I would enjoy creating a daily sports blog-- basketball or baseball. Lots of tweeting too!

It's become fairly common for peers to request tech consultation with me-- usually involving new projects. I really enjoy these collaboratio, but almost always have to schedule them before or after school. It's also tough to follow-up on the projects. I wish I had some release time to do more. That's my pre-retirement dream.

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"Ceiling Detail" Flickr Creative Commons photo courtesy of Onion.