Resources for Budding Filmmakers and other Good Stuff

Flickr CC photo byErica Hargrave

5 Online Resources for Budding Filmmakers

Although nothing can help you develop that intuitive knowing like hands-on experience can, here are 5 great resources for learning filmmaking skills.

http://www.pauldevoto.com/blog/

TimesCast/2011: The Year in Media

A look back at the growing intersection between social and mainstream media.

http://nyti.ms/uSBKOt

10 Apps for Working Really Easily with Apps on the iPad

I got sent a form the other day that the sender needed filled out and sent back immediately. Fortunately for them they were using an app that allowed me to tap on the form, type in the required information and send it back. Many apps give you the ability to write anywhere on the PDF. I thought this was great and so sourced a number of cheaper apps so I could do this on the iPad.

http://bit.ly/twV6Cy

New Etiquette for Using Tech, In and Out of Class

Technology, especially social media and text messaging, competes for students’ attention as never before. When half of social media users say they check messages from bed, and 11 percent of those 25 or younger are willing to interrupt sex for a Twitter or Facebook message, what chance do teachers have of keeping students’ attention in class?

http://bit.ly/vglurc 

In the Flop of H.P TouchPad, and Object Lesson for Tech Sector

The TouchPad tablet from Hewlett-Packard was one of the most closely watched new gadgets of 2011 — and quickly turned out to be the year’s biggest flop. The TouchPad, which was supposed to be a rival to Apple’s iPad, lasted just seven weeks on the market before H.P. killed it, citing weak sales. Analysts point to a long list of factors behind the tablet’s quick demise. But some of the people involved in creating the tablet’s core software now say the product barely had a fighting chance. . . . . 

http://nyti.ms/zRYEw6 

Flipped Classroom Full Picture
The following lesson describes a type of flipped classroom.  This lesson did not center around the content media, in this case the Slideshare, but on the students’ personal experiences, interactions with other students, and acquisition of tangible life skills. 
http://bit.ly/sfUUbP

Hail to the Chief!

Since Howard Dean's campaign for president in 2004, I have been fascinated with netroots politics. After dazzling onlookers with his ability to raise funds and organize volunteers online, Dean wiped out. But Barack Obama’s took online campaigning to a new level, and his election has installed the first new media administration the Executive Branch. Consequently, the White House web site has now become a valuable resource to me.


My American Government Students learn that the presidency is several different authorities, responsibilities and symbolic functions wrapped into one. I am using the online resources of the Obama administration to illustrate these roles. First, I downloaded pdfs, podcasts, and videos for this purpose. I have used Apple tools (Preview, GarageBand, iMovie) to create screen captures and clips and then placed them into a multimedia slide presentation. The slide show vividly portrays the president playing out his various functions.

I think the White House site also serves as a perfect example of how social media has become a conduit for vital information. It is clear that organizations large and small are assuming that global consumers/citizens will want to be informed and updated through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and iTunes. Showing this as a key priority of the 21st Century presidency helps to make my case to educators that they are obligated to help students access and evaluate new media.

I’ve created a short QuickTime movie to demonstrate how I will be using the digital presidency as a classroom resource and to enhance my professional development presentations. Please check it out!

"Hail to the Chief" Multimedia Demo

------------------------------------
Demo created with Apple Keynote

Google Wave + Agents of Change + Visionaries?

Three recommended posts:

I'm still trying to get my head around Google Wave, but the Chicago Tribune and the Austin American-Statesman are using it to engage their readers in participatory journalism. Leah Betancourt writes at Mashable on How Google Wave is Changing the News.

Scott McLeod at Dangerously Irrelevant, asks, "Are most of our school administrators just ‘steady-as-she-goes functionaries?'", suggesting that not enough school administrators are visionaries.

Melissa Corey, a Missouri librarian, ponders the challenge of "making the unseen seen" as she battles cultural inertia to move her media center into the 21st Century. From The New School Library she posts, Agents of Change-- Paradigm Shift in Progress

--------------------------------
"Crashing Waves" Frickr Creative Commons Photo by Gurumustuk Singh

Drive-thru Take Out Special-- Hot Links

This weekend's Drive-thru special is a serving of "hot links". Spicy, hot, tasty.

Diigo Education
Faithful readers of this blog know that I am a Diigo enthusiast. With its highlighting and sticky notes it is a fabulous personal research tool, and it offers revolutionary possibilities for collaborative research. Diigo also offers a special account for teachers. which allows you to ...

• create student accounts for an entire class with just a few clicks (and student email addresses are optional for account creation)
• set up Students of the same class automatically as a Diigo group.
• provide students with pre-set privacy settings so that only teachers and classmates can communicate with them

Dangerously Irrelevant

Scott McLeod's at Iowa State collects some great stuff at his Dangerously Irrelevant site. He consistently dishes up good stuff. Click the above link and you will be directed to an interesting set of quote, like this one: "Information and knowledge are absolutely fundamental to what education is all about . . . and it would be impossible for the information revolution to unfold and not have transformative implications for how children can be educated and how schools and teachers can more productively do their jobs."

A Virtual Revolution is Occurring at College

The Washington Post recently published an article predicting that "this year may be part of the last generation for which 'going to college' means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors. . . . Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet." Can secondary education be far behind?

-------------------------------------------
"Take Out" with generous permission of americanvirus

12 Things Teachers Should Do to Future-Proof Their Careers

I came across Chris Lake's 25 Things Journalists Can Do to Future-Proof Their Careers and was struck by how many applied to educators. Now granted, powerful social and institutional forces insure that schools as we know them won't disappear as quickly as the printed newspaper has. This is why I changed Lake's title to "should do" as applied to teachers. For a private 1:1 school such as mine, I would prefer the title "must do," as I believe our future may depend upon it.

Here are twelve steps that today's journalists and educators can and should take to stay in step with the times:

*Start a blog - "This will be very empowering...."

*Collaborate - "People can achieve so much more when they work together."

*Feeds - "Learn how to monitor your subjects,. . .Do this easily by setting up RSS feeds for search terms on sites like Google News, Twitter and Digg."

*Embrace Twitter - "Follow influencers and use Twitter as a filter."

*Produce Video - "It is easier than ever to shoot and distribute video... you have the option of telling stories in richer ways."

*Mobile is Truly a Wonderful Tool - "It has never been easier to capture ideas, build out stories, and publish content."

*Learn to Love Links - "Links are what make the online world spin."

*Ignore the Hype - "Some buzzwords are more meaningless than others . . . occasionally something that sounds terrible is actually full of substance and worth investigating."

*Participate - "Be seen, be heard. Leave comments"

*Network - "Make connections on and offline."

*Be Platform Agnostic - "The best [educators] will be able to transfer their skills across platforms.

*Do It Now - "Don’t delay. Don’t fear the web. Don’t wait for your boss to tell you to learn some new skills. If you have a mental barrier and have filed yourself under ‘offline’ then slap yourself about the face, have a stiff drink, and then reset your watch. Forget about yesterday. There’s no time like the present. Embrace all that's available to you. . . ."

----------------------
"Street Art - No Future on the Streets of Dublin" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by infomatique

Personal Learning Networks (ADE Institute Reflection)

The Apple Distinguished Educator Summer Institute was a profound professional development experience for me. Over the next few weeks I will share reflections on the experience.

Probably the most valuable take-away is how being an ADE impacts my own "Personal Learning Network." I am now connected to the fabulous resources of Apple Computer. and hard wired into a community of passionate and innovative digital educators.

As Karl Fisch points out, you are already in a PLN:

A PLN isn’t a particularly new idea; learning networks have existed for a long time. What’s new is the reach and extent that’s now possible for a PLN, with technology and global interconnectedness providing the opportunity for a much wider, richer and more diverse PLN than ever before.

I 've been drawing my professional strength from a more global PLN for a year or so. One of my first blog posts marveled at the way Web 2.0 was drawing information from outside my school. It is now much more clear to me that we must help our students use their social media skills to construct their own learning networks. This will help us break down the rigid restraints of desks, schedules, bricks, and teacher-at-student design.

One cannot help to guide students in this enterprise unless he or she has experienced the benefits of a broad and vibrant PLN. If this is new to you, here are basic suggestions for extending yours:

* Join professional social networks like Nings ( "free" online platforms for creating social networks). Start with large ones like Classroom 2.0 and EduBlogger World. Then be on the lookout for more specialized groups. I joined three Nings while at the Summer Institute. Similarly, wikis and listservs provide similar advantages.

* Set up an RSS feed of your favorite blogs. Ever since Will Richardson recommended Google Reader to our staff, I've used it. I try to keep a cap of ten ed tech blogs so that I don't become overwhelmed. Liz Davis provides a simple two minute YouTube tutorial on setting up the Google Reader. After this has become a comfortable part of your life, then begin to engage in the conversations on the blogs.

* Start blogging yourself, or set up a Ning around your own special interests and invite others to join!

* David Warlick suggests virtual worlds: Sometimes called MUVEs, [they] are places on the Internet where people can meet and work together, regardless of geography. Many educators consider their Second Life avatar as their primary node point for their PLN.

* Social Bookmarking offers fabulous opportunities for collaboration. I've enthused about the highlighting, note sharing possibilites of Diigo in earlier blog posts.

* None of my faithful readers will be surprised that I've saved the best for last. As I wrote in Why Twitter? , once you learn to filter who you "follow", Twitter can be a rich source of links, blogs, and easily digestible nuggets of professional reflection. It is extremely low maintenance, requiring less personal investment than Facebook. Twitter has been a key to my own professional growth by leaps and bounds.

Please suggest other ways for educators to build their PLNs!

----------------------------------------
Screen Capture of ADE PLN Ning