Things from my mind...

Time Well Missed

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 07:14:59 -0600

I didn’t attend NECC this year.
It isn’t that I didn’t want to attend. It was more of a budget cut/no time/lots to do at work perfect storm that kept me away.

But I guess I can still reflect from afar on a missed conference.

So here is what happened at NECC for everyone that did not attend. Written by someone that did not attend.

You missed the keynote address, where some guy, probably a business guy of some kind, that wrote that famous book talked about his famous book, and then shoehorned his topic into an education framework. He probably spent the first 10 minutes of his talk making funny jokes. He probably was self-deprecating, was glad he was speaking to educators, and told us that we had the hardest job in the world. Save for the funny jokes, most of the 5000 or so that watched him probably forgot his name by the end of the next day, and forgot his entire speech by the end of the conference unless you bought his book after the speech, in which he would sign it: “To Jerry, Thanks.”

You missed blogger cafe again, where lots of people get together and learn to do things that they already have been doing for the past five or six years. They probably had some famous bloggers there talking about being famous bloggers, and there probably were lots of blog entries about writing blogs and things. Metacognition goes nuts at these conventions.

You missed the exhibit hall, where 400 or so corporations, some very well-off because education is for the most part, recession proof, try to make big deals with unsuspecting school districts. However, because most of the attendees are people with no power to make deals, the vendors zero-in on people with name-tags that have the word “Director,” “Superintendent,” or anything that has the phrase “Assistant” “Associate” or “Executive.” Many of them had absolutely nothing new to show me, except the “Updated Version” that was last years version with colored plastic. The booth doing the most business was either the one selling t-shirts to teachers, the one that sells the very low tech embossing machines, or the cheap-o jewelry. Neither one has anything to do with technology, but they make the most sales. You also missed the $10 bag of potato chips and Coke that is a staple of any exhibit hall food court.

You missed the release of several self-serving reports by organizations that use the big convention to show the world that the giant government grant that they got is at least good for a few papers. Each one of the reports that was released verifies what we already knew, and was published by the Department of “Duh.” Papers with such titles as “Student like Technology Despite Teachers” and “Teachers Still Resist Technology Despite Training” and the obligatory “Games make Good Learning PLatforms Despite the Fact there are not any Decent Education Games .” There also was a plea from the report writers that they still need more time and grant funding to continue this important work. Also, if you paid very close attention, you probably had read the results of the reports on the internet several weeks before the report was released.

You missed many workshops that were overcrowded and had no handouts. You were promised that all of the information would be online, but you knew that the speaker would probably hope that you forgot their presentation, and they they would forget to put their presentation materials online.

You missed the workshop that looked like it was put together the night before, by a presenter that stayed up too late at an overpriced restaurant. “Ze -amburgurh iz $25 American dollahs sir. Do you wish to have ze fries with dat?” She also forgot to make handouts, but promised everything would be online, which it will not be. Ever.

You missed the important round table discussions where people with important titles are way up on a stage sitting above the little people in the crowd and they are having important discussions about the state of education technology. “Jerry makes a very good point that I think we all need to consider” and “You know, I am going to say a sentence with several buzz words and I will sound important: 21st Century Learning, affects how we navigate on the flat earth as we try to reach new paradigms on teaching without a NETS. Thank you.” There was probably applause. A day later, no one had any idea what was said, who said it, or why it was important.

You missed people passed out in the hallway from fatigue, because the convention center is so big it actually could have held the entire population of North America in the late 18th century. “I am looking for room “C45-B.” “Sorry, that is in the hotel across the street Honey.”

You missed every single session that was a lecture style where the person said that lecture-style was the worst way to present materials. They then promised to put everything online so you wouldn’t have to take notes. But you had to take a note of the URL where everything was going to be online.

You missed semi-important people having the same discussions that they have been having for years about the same issues and never realizing that, really, the way to get things done is by doing something, not talking about it until

You missed narrowly running into people who were busy on their smartphones Twittering about what they were doing. “almost ran into a fat nearly bald guy while headed 2 important 0-table discussion” and “just spent $12 on double latte! Can U believe that?”

You missed the release of some new standards for either kids, or teachers, or administrators. There never seems to be standards released for the people that release the standards. The release was accompanied by a round-table discussion about how hard everyone worked, how important these are, and how they are now starting again on the next set of standards, because we all know this is a never-ending job.

You missed the breakfast/lunch/dinner you were invited to by the big company that your district does business with. You and 500-1000 of their closest friends, all being told that they really wished they could give us something more than just a breakfast/lunch/dinner. (Hey, I got an idea, next year, give us your product free for a year to show us how much you like us!)

You missed some really big evening social event where you would stick with the same people you came to the convention with, and the whole idea of networking gets drowned out by the band that has set the volume set to “Ear Bleed.”

You missed 12000 hot sweaty people all having a collective nerd-a-holic attack when the internet went out at sometime during the course of the convention. You missed every single electrical plug being used by people with laptops, because the idea of “Portable” to them really means “Carry to the next electrical outlet.”

You missed the orgy of giving away materials by the vendors that didn’t want to pack up all the crap they brought with them. Stress balls, rulers, key chains, and metal things that will get you stopped at the airport.

You missed the end keynote address where some famous person of note, probably an actor or famous scientist of some kind, that had a TV series 15 years ago, “The Nerd Whisperer,” and also was there to talk about his/her famous book, and then shoehorned his/her topic into an education framework. He/she probably spent the first 10 minutes of his talk making funny jokes. He probably was self-deprecating, was glad he was speaking to educators, and told us that we had the hardest job in the world. Save for the funny jokes, most of the 5000 or so that watched him probably forgot his/her name by the time they got on their flight home, and forgot his entire speech by the plane landed.

So...

This is not a sour grapes entry, but rather , hopefully, one where we can start a dialog about what these things really mean.

Do we really need these conventions?
Are they too big to be effective learning tools?
Do we really get good/new/useful information?
Do we actually take what we learned and put it into practice?
How can we tell? How can we measure?
How can we tell if the things said at NECC 06/07/08 actually got put into place because of the convention, or because of momentum that would have happened anyway?
Are these conventions a dinosaur of a way of learning that has now passed?
Do these conventions practice what they preach?

Tax Free Weekend Misses Something

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:38:42 -0600

Dear Texas Legislatures,
Every year, Texas consumers are given one weekend to get stuff for their kids for back to school. This year, the weekend is August 21-23. That means I can go out and buy the following items for my children and not pay any taxes:
Binders, Blackboard chalk, Book bags, Calculators, Cellophane tape, Compasses, Composition books, Crayons, Erasers, Glue, Highlighters, Index cards, Index card boxes, Legal pads, Lunch boxes, Markers, Notebooks, Paper, Pencils, Pencil boxes, Pencil sharpeners, Pens, Protractors, Rulers, Scissors, Writing tablets, Clothes and Shoes.
These items will be exempt from local and state taxes for the day. Thank you for this.
I was looking over this list, and save for one item, calculators, there are no items that might be considered, er, let’s say, cutting edge.
(As a matter of fact, this list contains many items that a lot of companies give away as promotional material: rulers, markers, pens, etc. I bet I could walk through the isles of any major convention and pick up most of the above items for free. But I digress.)
I wonder why technology is lacking from your list? Surely you must know by now that parents are buying technology for their children.
I think the following items should also be included in the tax-free weekend:
Desktop computers, laptop computers, netbook computers, digital cameras, camcorders, voice recorders, and student productivity software.
Which brings up the entire reason for the tax free weekend (TFW). House Bill 1801 identifies school supplies priced less than $100 that will be exempt from state and local sales tax for the tax-free weekend. This is an improvement over the previous years where only clothes were exempt, but still…c’mon guys and gals!
Texas of course, is not the only state to offer tax-free weekends. These states also will have tax-free weekends this year:
• Alabama
• Connecticut
• Georgia
• Iowa
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington D.C.
• West Virginia
Alabama allows computers under $750, Georgia allows computers to $1500, Missouri allows computers and software up to $3500, New Mexico allows computers under $1000 and computer equipment under $500, North Carolina allows computers under $3500 and equipment up to $250, South Carolina allows computers and equipment, Tennessee allows computers under $1500, Vermont allows any item costing less than $2000, and West Virginia allows any item costing under $5000. Source: About.com.
So if 9 of the 18 states can allow computer purchases for their tax free weekend, why can’t Texas?
The purpose of the TFW, at least to my understanding, is to help parents prepare kids for the upcoming school year. So if that is the case, and we want Texas kids to be part of the 21st century, why don’t we send a big signal by allowing parents to get a break on purchases of computers and computer-related items for their kids? As it it written now, it looks like the Office Depot lobby got to you guys this session.
Here is how it would work, so as to cut down on abuse:
In order to purchase a computer, parents would have to show a student’s valid school ID. Only one computer per child allowed at a time to prevent businesses and mass purchasing for purposes outside of school. One computer per family per store. That would spread the purchasing across businesses. Limit it to computers that students would actually use: no giant graphics workstations.
Seems simple enough. I know, you might lose a few bucks in tax revenue, but hey, what is the purpose of the TFW? It is to help stimulate business and give parents a break on school-related purchases. But if you allowed TFW to encompass electronics for school, then you would also send a powerful signal to the other states that Texas means business when it comes to 21st century learning, connecting our kids, and bringing our schools up to par with other states. C’mon...New Mexico
So, I guess I will drive over to New Mexico and pick up my stepdaughter’s Macbook instead of getting it at the local Best Buy.
New Mexico’s gain, Texas’ loss.
Maybe in two years.

Captivate Comes to the Mac

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:01:43 -0600

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I got an email from a contact I have at Adobe telling me that they are now testing the beta of Captivate for Macintosh.

For those that don;t know what Captivate is, it is essentially a screen capture program that allows you to pretty easily

From the Adobe Captivate blog:

The beta for Captivate on Mac!

Captivate,Mac,Beta

Yes, that's right, the early builds of Captivate on Mac are ready and we would like some volunteers to test this out. We need testers with many different backgrounds and system configurations for trying the new features and providing feedback (you don't have to be an existing user to participate).

If you are interested in helping us finding any bugs and providing feedback, please complete the:
Prerelease Interest Form

In the question 'why do you want to participate in the pre-release program?'- please do mention your interest in the Mac version among other things.

FYI: If you are selected as a participant, you will be contacted when we start the prerelease program.

This is great new for me, especially since one of the great arguments we have in my office is that the main reason to keep PC’s around is that there is no Mac version of Captivate.

Well now there is!

Champagne anyone?

The Cost of Learning: Sponsor me Please!

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:43:09 -0600

So what does it cost to go to NECC this year?

Let’s add up a typical trip to NECC in Washington DC this year:

Airfare: Let’s pick some place in the center of the country, say Dallas Texas. Inexpensive airline: Southwest. Roundtrip. $368 x 2 Total cost: $736

Lodging: Typical Hotel; The typical cost of a hotel in Washington DC for ISTE looks to be about $225 a night. Staying for 4 nights? $225x4 = $900

Registration: Earlybird: $226 and one workshop: $199 Total: $425

Food: Let’s pretend you can do this: $50 a day, 4 days $200

Misc. Expenses, including parking, Rail, snacks, etc. $300

So, I think these are pretty conservative prices. The total cost of 4 days at NECC for a single person is: $2561.

That is $2561 per person. Some will be more, some less, but that is a pretty good estimate of the cost of NECC.

So essentially, we are spending about $650 per day on training for a teacher to attend the conference.

I am not saying this is good or bad. I am just throwing out some numbers here.

There are typically 12,000 attendees to NECC.

So, that is $30,732,000 spent on attendees to attend the conference.

Wouldn’t it be cool if all of those companies in the exhibit hall started sponsoring teachers to attend? Let’s just say registration only:

All of the exhibitors chip in and give $226 x 12,000. Total cost: $2,712,000 Chump change. Divide that by the 400 or so exhibitors (I know that there are non-profits and small companies there) Each company would have to pitch in $6780 to pay for the registrations of all 12,000 attendees.

That would be a pretty nice gesture wouldn’t it?

Of course, for paying for my registration, I would give something in return: wear a t-shirt, pin, hat, hell.
I would be willing to wear an Edutopia hat for 4 days if they paid for my registration.

So, I propose that for the next big conference, some big company can sponsor me and 10 of my teachers to attend.

Sponsor just the registration: We wear your hats for 4 days.

Pay for the entire trip:

We will wear your t-shirts.

We will wear your hats.

We blog about how wonderful you are.

Promise.

6/28/09 PS:
After I wrote this, I started thinking about how this could actually be done. Here are some basic thoughts:

How would it be done?
Here is how I see it:

The exhibitors put the $$ into a large "pot." Every exhibitor that puts money into the sponsor pot becomes a "special: sponsor..and it would be advertised that they are sponsoring teachers to attend.

Then you have a lottery. Attendees are randomly picked by computer to be sponsored by exhibitors. That way, all companies are equal.

Companies are informed, and given the names of sponsored teachers so they can advertise that they are sponsoring the teachers.

Teachers are informed and given what the companies ask them to do: Wear t-shirts, make a little video "Hi I am Mrs. Smith from Jackson Ohio and Pearson/Eduphoria/whatever is sending me to NECC 2010!"

Everyone wins. Can you imagine a school district learning that 10 of their teachers were sponsored by a company to attend a conference? What great PR! In smaller school districts, that kind of news makes the local papers! (Ten Local Teachers Sponsored to Attend Big Conference by Adobe/Eduphoria/Whatever.)

If the teachers are picked randomly by computer, then companies cannot “accidently” sponsor teachers from districts that they have pending big business with.

Why does this make sense? Think about this:
Adobe for instance (but certainly not the only company) has an enormous breakfast every year at NECC for cutomers. The last one I attended, there were literally 400 people in attendance. At hotel prices, 400 people x about $25 for breakfast ($10,000) plus room rental (about $1000 more) total $11000.

So going back to the number of teachers that could sponsor instead of sponsoring a breakfast, they could pay the registration for about 50 teachers. 50 teachers that become walking advertisements for Adobe/Eduphoria/Whatever.

At first glance, one would say 400 people is far more effective than the 50. But at the Adobe breakfasts, most of the people are already Adobe customers. (Same for the Nettrekker/Atomic Learning extravaganzas and all the other sponsored dinners, lunches and breakfasts). The 50 sponsored teachers probably would not already be customers. I tell you that word-of-mouth among teachers is far more powerful that scrambled eggs and bacon. The breakfast is soon forgotten, I would say by almost everyone that attends. But the sponsored teachers would remember who sent them, the administrators that saved some money would remember, and the word of mouth would spread far more effectively than “I had some great eggs in DC.”

Final note:
I once attended a dinner at TCEA sponsored by one of the big named companies. There were about 10 people at the dinner, not including the sales people. It was a very nice dinner and a very nice restaurant. I remember the dinner, I remember the place we ate, I even remember that the bill for about 10 people was about $1500. The only thing about that night I don’t remember was..who the sponsor was. Go figure.

Being Almost Informed

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:54:31 -0600

Note: There is a columnist in El Paso who is a teacher of science that writes a weekly education column for the El Paso Times.
He usually just writes about how stupid the rest of the education system is, he rants about standardized tests, and he drones on about how the education system in India usually is better than the US.
Recently however, he seems to have set his sights on educational technology. He obviously is against it. He obviously does not see a need for technology in the classroom. And forget about 21st century skills. He is one of those guys that knows just enough about a topic to make himself sound informed, but really he has no depth or complexity to his arguments. “He knows enough to be dangerous” is the axiom I think of when reading his work.
It bothers me because he has the bully pulpit of the local newspaper to spout his misinformation and there usually is no rebuttal. So I either write a rebuttal in my blog or on the local online newspaper www.newspapertree.com.
I have responded in the past to his essays, both here and on the Newspapertree.com. I think it is important to rebut misinformation.

Here is an example
Here is another
You get the idea. I also post these on the online newspaper because I think that someone needs to refute what he says.
I live in a city where the vast majority of people live below the poverty level, and do not understand how technology can help their children achieve. His anti-technology rants in a socio-economically poor area make trying to convert people to use technology even more difficult.

So, here is my latest response to his latest anti-technology article.
I will continue to rebut. I hope you will join me.
TBH

Being Almost Informed
Tim Holt
It is always fun to read the almost informed educational technology ramblings of Ramnath Subramanian as he tries to explain why technology should be avoided at all costs in education. His now-weekly anti-technology screeds in the El Paso Times do wonders for helping the population understand educational technology. When I say wonders, I mean they actually help perpetuate myths, reinforce stereotypes, and give the populace more reasons to try keep El Paso students stuck in the 19th century learning modalities that he seems to prefer. Praise the paper and pass the inkwell. Thank you Mister Horse and Buggy!
This week, he set his crossbow-like sights on cell phones usage in schools.
(Did you miss it? Lucky you. But if you want to read it, just use some technology and surf over to http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_12681680. )
Before I begin my “here is why this guy is living in the 19th century” rebuttal, let me say this about cell phones: Yes. I agree that cell phones can be used improperly. Yes, kids and adults can send and receive inappropriate material on a cell phone. There is no argument there. In March, A St. Petersburg Florida teacher was arrested for sending nude pictures of herself to a 14 year old student. In February, a teacher in Chicopee MA was arrested for showing pornography on his cell phone to students. IN 2008, a 29 year old British Community College professor sent nude pictures of herself to a 16 year old student. Subramanian cites only vague student abuses of cell phones. It is interesting that he avoids mentioning teacher abuse as if only student are capable of such vile acts.
What is responsible for these types of acts? Subramanian states quite clearly what his belief is: The cell phone. Indeed, in his screed, he plainly states, “the culprit is the cell phone.” Not the people USING the cell phone, not the teachers who should be watching students, not the parents that should be instilling proper values in their children. Nope. The culprit is the phone! Those teachers that sent pictures to the students would never have misbehaved if they didn’t possess cell phones. Perhaps we need to start by banning the use of cell phones by teachers. (I wonder if Ramnath brings a cell phone to school everyday?)
But let me also offer this idea again: Cell phones, nay I say any technology, is neither good nor bad. It is what is done with the technology that makes it good or bad. This applies to many things in life as well: A car can be used to drive the family to Disneyland, or it can be used to run over an unfaithful spouse, as Clara Davis did to her philandering dentist-husband in Houston back in the late 1990’s. A knife can cut vegetables to make dinner, or it in the hands of someone like Jack the Ripper, be used to disembowel unsuspecting victims. A TV can be tuned to a National Geographic Special or to the latest episode of the Jerry Springer.
Technology is neutral. What is done with technology is what makes the device good or bad.
Subramanian , in his essay, says that cell phones should be banned from students in schools: “I call upon lawmakers to institute a new policy that prohibits children from carrying cell phones while they are at school.” I am sure that El Paso’s legislative delegation in Austin will get to work on that right away. In the meantime however, let me tell you a little about something called “Disruptive Technologies.”
Disruptive Technologies are technologies that come along once in a while that completely upset the apple cart. A disruptive technology, usually, is not a great advance technology-wise, rather it is a technology that is used differently than the the old school way of thinking. For instance, in the automobile industry, the big three automakers were quite content to make big cars with big engines, and big prices for years because there was no reason not to. Then the Japanese automakers, Toyota, Nissan (Datsun at the time) and Honda, started to export small sized, energy efficient cars that were manufactured using new materials and highly efficient robotic techniques. The technology of the small soon replaced the technology of big because the older manufacturers could not compete with the nimble Japanese automakers. Now we see that the Korean car companies are beginning to do the same thing to the Japanese that the Japanese did to the US automakers. The Koreans are disrupting the Japanese, and soon, we will see the Indian car company TATA disrupt the Koreans with the $2500 TATA Nano 2-passenger car made for the masses.
There are many examples of disruptive technologies in business. Apple Inc. is quite good at making disruptive products: The Macintosh Computer, the iPod and now the iPhone. All disrupted the business model at the time. Why does your Blackberry and Palm Pre all-of-a-sudden have a touchscreen on it? Thank Apple’s disruptive iPhone. Why did Microsoft create a Windows environment when it was quite content to sell command-line driven DOS operating systems? Thank Apple’s Macintosh graphic interface operating system. Why can you buy digital songs at Amazon, Yahoo and hundreds of other sites around the Internet? Thank Apple’s iTunes and iPod.
Clayton Christensen in his now seminal ed-tech work “Disrupting Class: How Innovation will Change the Way we Learn” (McGraw-Hill 2008) talks about how certain technologies will change the way students learn and teachers teach. Among those he cites are cell phones and distance learning. Students are connected to the world because of technology. In fact, our kids have to “power down” when they come to school simply because we ask them to turn off every electronic device they know how to use to communicate with each other. One commentator once said “Every turned off device is a potentially turned off student.” Sumbramanian simply refuses to understand that technology, in all it’s various forms, is a tool that can enhance his student’s learning. Instead of learning how to use the devices as learning tools, we take the cowards approach and just ban the devices form classroom use.
Wes Fryer, well-known education technologies advocate and trainer has gathered a list of education tools that work with cell phones. Wes actually trains schools and teachers not to ban but to embrace these disruptive devices. For instance, cell phones can be used as class responders. Using the websites www.mobiode.com or www.polleverywhere.com, a teacher can ask a question to the students, and the students can text back the answer. The results can be displayed in real-time so the teacher can get immediate feedback on the understanding level in the classroom. (School districts around the country spend millions of dollars a year on student responders, when in fact, the students already possess the devices in their pockets.) And student responders are just one example. Wes Fryer has many examples on his website: http://handouts.wesfryer.com/cellphones. Imagine a teacher being able to send out a text message to students at 8:00 PM at night reminding them to complete their homework assignment. How about being able to create a photo book using the camera that most cell phones come with? If Mr. Subramanian had just spent a few minutes using a technology called “Google” he may have been able to find ways to use for good, a device he sees as evil.
Because of disruptive innovation, students will no longer be simply passive consumers of information (as Subramanian wants to perpetuate for his students), but rather creators as well. Indeed, at the 2008 NACOL conference on Distance Learning, one keynote speaker Fabrizio Cardinali spoke about how cell phones in remote African villages were being used to teach students using micro-lessons, small enough to be entered on a cell phone screen. A micro-lesson on language can be delivered just as easily as a lesson on how to dig a well. Often, cell phones are the only computers that many children have access to. Even the most basic cell phone today has more computing power than the Apple IIs that populated school classrooms in the 1980’s. They have more power, more memory, more graphic capabilities, and more importantly, they can communicate with the world.
Roosevelt said “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Sadly, many adults cower at the site of innovative things. It is sad because as educators, we are supposed to be preparing our students for the future, not wishing that they lived in the past, when things were simpler. Subramanian lives a past that appears to only exist in his mind. I feel for his students and for any student who has a teacher that lives in the 19th century. We live and teach and learn in the here and now. He should do so as well.
David Hanssen a computer programmer may have said it best: “The best way to prepare for the future is to implement it.” We can choose to implement it, or to watch the parade of innovation pass us by.
It is up to us. I choose innovation and disruption. Where are your children’s teachers?

Silver Linings

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:15:46 -0600

Recently there have been a series of bad news events coming into education. Of course, the foremost has been the economy and it’s affect on education. But there have been others as well: the Swine Flu H1N1 virus for instance.

So I am a guy that is looks for the glass to be half full, not half empty. I have also noticed that there have been some very innovative answers to problems that have arisen.

Have you been watching California? In the course of a week, the state embraced the elimination of textbooks to move towards open sourced learning, and some have and has declared that the budget crisis that they are experiencing could lead to the destruction of the school system.

Sounds a lot like opportunity knocking.

Faced with a $24 Billion dollar shortfall, the state and the California school systems are facing epic nightmares. Teacher cutbacks, elimination of programs, layoffs, strikes. It sounds like public school Armageddon.

But consider the following: Remember that old saying that drastic times call for drastic measures? One of the major initiatives that California will be using to help stem the tide of funding shortage is to start using digital textbooks.

From Gov. Schwartzenegger’s website:

Proposal To Save Money And Stretch Resources During These Difficult Times

"This first-in-the-nation initiative will reduce education costs ... and help ensure every California student has access to a world-class education." (Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 5/6/09)

Governor Schwarzenegger's first-in-the-nation digital textbook initiative puts California on the road to a technologically advanced, higher quality and lower cost education system.

* High School Students will have access to science and math digital textbooks by the beginning of the school year. A list of standards-aligned digital textbooks for subjects such as geometry, algebra II, trigonometry, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology/life science and earth science courses will be released this August.
*
* Digital books and content has already been submitted and will soon be reviewed. All content developers can submit materials to the California Learning Resources Network by June 15 in order to be reviewed in time for this upcoming school year

* Phase two of the initiative is currently being developed. This includes making digital textbooks available for all grades, incorporating interactive content and eventually creating a statewide web site highlighting available books.

This initiative has the potential to save California's schools millions of dollars. The average textbook costs about $75 to $100 per student. For a school district with about 10,000 high school students, the use of free digital textbooks in just science and math classes could save up to $2 million dollars.

* Switching to digital textbooks will free up funds for other spending priorities. Last year, the state's share alone for school books and other instructional materials was $350 million, this is funding that can be used elsewhere after free, digital textbooks are made available.
* Schools can take advantage of this program and save money even without computers or laptops. Teachers can print out material and it would still cost a fraction of the price of a traditional textbook. Digital textbooks will allow students to learn on new and multiple levels. Traditional hardbound textbooks are adopted in six-year cycles, meaning six years of missing information. Digital textbooks can be updated much more easily, allowing students to learn about current discoveries and technological advances as they happen.

* Frequently updated digital textbooks will better prepare California's students to compete in the global economy. Knowledge is power - the more students have, the greater opportunity they have to succeed.
* Digital textbooks open the door to more interactive learning. Students will be able read about a science experiment then watch a video demonstration - giving them more than one way to digest the information.

And although this is no surprise, as Texas has made a similar effort with the oft-mentioned here HB 4294, it is an example of a crisis causing a monumental shift in how we do things in education, AND how educational technology can take the lead when all else fails.

So, one cloud, recession, causes a silver lining: Digital Textbooks. Because you know that as Texas and California go, so go everyone else. Expect digital texts in your classroom soon.

Another recent crisis was the Swine Flu scare. Remember how we all were going to shut down the schools if it came to a terrible outbreak? Seems as if the crisis was averted for the time being, however, it did give quite a few districts pause, with the question: How could school continue if we closed the physical schools?

Online learnign suddenly was not such a crazy idea, as district around the country woere looking at eluminate, Adobe Connect and other online resources as perhaps a way to keep classes going in the event of an outbreak.

Another cloud, Swine Flu H1N1 caused another silver lining: Districts began looking at online learning in a completely different way.

Doing the Right Thing

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:16:44 -0600

Ahh, to be a fly on the wall in every textbook publisher boardroom across the nation this morning..

June 19, 2009
I am signing House Bill No. 4294 into law because it will further propel Texas schools into the 21st century and ensure that our students have access to the most up-to-date information available in each subject.

This bill allows the commissioner of education to adopt electronic textbooks and instructional materials, giving districts that are ready to transition to technology the flexibility to choose an alternative to traditional textbooks to effectively educate students.

This bill also allows a district to use state funds to purchase the
technological equipment – such as laptops, wireless reading devices or interactive whiteboards – necessary to support electronic textbooks or instructional materials. This will further allow districts the opportunity to bring technological advances to the classroom and enhance the learning environment.

I am signing this bill in support of the advancement of technology in the classroom. The elected State Board of Education (SBOE) has statutory authority to adopt textbooks for each subject and grade level after ensuring that the textbooks cover the essential knowledge and skills required for student success. Because I have concerns that this bill could be used to bypass the important role the SBOE plays in ensuring that the content of textbooks and instructional materials meets the academic standards and values set by the SBOE, I am issuing an Executive Order to clarify the role the SBOE must have in approving electronic textbooks and other instructional materials.

RICK PERRY
Governor of Texas

Playing For Change

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:02:14 -0600

I was teaching an Master Technology Teacher certification class the other day, and we were discussing why the 21st century skills will be important to our kids. We discussed how there were very few things that happen in real life that do not require the “C”s of 21st century learning: Collaboration, Communication, Cooperation. Just watching the credits at the end of a movie show the cooperative collaborative nature of film making. Surgery, playing in a band, flying a plane...they all require 21st century skills.

But there are not a lot of really solid examples to actually show people. That is why I was glad that towards the end of the session, I remembered “Playing for Change” and the incredible video they created called “Stand by Me.”

In this video, street musicians from all over the world are recorded singing the same song: Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.”
The really cool thing about this video, if you pay close attention, is that the musicians are not playing as solo performers, as you would think they would be, since they are solo street musicians. Instead, the songs form each become part of the whole, not unlike a worldwide orchestra.

Collaboration.
Cooperation.
Communication.

Very 21st century learning, even though, I suspect, not a single one of them had ever heard of it. The message is sent through the music.

So do you have to be a student of 21st century learning skills to display 21st century learning? No. However, the people in the Playing for Change organization (which was started by Norman Lear of “All in the Family” fame) understand the power of technology to bring about change in the world.

And that is VERY 21st century.

Here is the video for “Stand by Me.” Be prepared to be amazed.

Response #4 to Subramnian

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:32:41 -0600

Like clockwork, I can count on Ramnath Subramnian to write an either thinly veiled or outright critical article in the local fish wrap about educational technology. Usually, these screeds are half-assed attempts to either a) promote how good a teacher he is b) show how smart he is by using vocabulary that no normal human uses c) show that education in his native India far exceeds anything that happens in the US or d) reminisce about the old days, and how much better life was when June and Ward waited the Beav to come home from school each day.

Wednesday was no exception to that rule. “Subby” was at it again, this time railing against technology as a teaching tool.

So today, I thought instead of just writing back, I would take apart his argument one line at a time.

So, the Italic is his original statement, the bold is my response.

Enjoy.

Technological advances can't replace capable teacher
Ramnath Subramanian / Special to the Times
Posted: 06/18/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

According to a recent story in the Dallas Morning News, "Thousands of textbooks and other materials worth an estimated $4.6 million sit unused in an Irving school district warehouse ... Irving ISD officials say the problem stems from two major factors: the increased use of computer-based instructional materials and the reluctance to issue textbooks to students for fear they might lose or damage them."

Subby who is citing a 3 month old article, does not give you the whole story of that article. The gist of the piece was more about HB 4294, sponsored by Rep. Dan Branch which would allow school districts to take allocated money from the textbook fund and use it to purchase online materials, and the technology to access it.

Let me cast aside the proclivity of the school district toward profligacy -- after all, millions of taxpayer dollars are routinely mismanaged or wasted by school-district officials.

What will become apparent here is that HB 4294 is an effort to make schools spend more efficiently something that Subby should celebrate. Instead of having to spend money on textbooks, as the law forces schools and districts to do, they would be able to take the money and spend it on texts if they wish, or on other learning items, such as online learning. He makes it sound as if district “officials” routinely misspend money on textbooks. However, districts are bound by Texas law, which requires districts to spend textbook funds ONLY on textbooks. Districts have even begun to cut back on that spending years ago by only buying class sets of texts.

Who do you think were the people that created the LAW that made all districts purchase textbooks, even if they did not need them? Was it the “profligating school officials” or was it the powerful textbook lobby and then the politicians? Sometimes, that wasteful spending as Subby calls it, is required by law. Don’t like the law, then work to change it, as Branch is doing with HB 4294.

Let me discount the fear factor as well -- teaching students to take care of textbooks may be useful in building character, but there is no reason why any school district should care about such matters when the climate of concern looks to test scores for salubrious weather. Instead, let me focus on the technology front.

Teaching students to take care of things that do not belong to them is an admirable pursuit, but one does not have to limit it to textbooks. Imagine teaching students to take care of their school laptop? Same concept, maybe even more so with an expensive piece of equipment. But we really have been doing this for years. Band and orchestra students have to take care of their instruments, Journalism students have to take care of cameras, athletes their uniforms..it goes on and on. Just because texts are no longer issued, it does not mean that students will no longer learn responsibility.

As we consider the future of American schools, two things stand out with certitude: Quantum leaps in technology will redefine the way we look at classrooms, instruction and curricula; and the Internet, gathering people and organizations into its folds, will allow more things to be accomplished without the need for "face-to-face" human interactions.

That is correct. Technology changes everything. Just as the car changed the way we travel and the printing press changed how books were made and allowed the masses to access information they never had access to, so too technology allows students to access information as well as interact with persons that they never had a chance to interact with. Change is not bad. Subby would surely not say that we should go back to “illuminated pages” or horses instead of cars. Same with technology. Information, and the way it is delivered, changes the way we teach.

Whether such changes, with their promise of speed and efficacy, are good remains to be seen, for even as technology bridges geographical gaps and distances, it widens the divide between human souls.

The “divide between human souls” is a meaningless statement. Human interaction is a complicated and multifaceted topic. There are many many ways to interact. Face to face, across the internet, using the phone, mail...there are as many ways to interact as there are humans. Just because I am geographically distant from you does not mean I cannot have meaningful conversation with you. A telephone connects people. Does that mean just because I am not physically in a room with someone that I cannot effectively communicate? Hardly. Recent studies have actually shown that not only the number of students in the US learning online has increased, but their achievement has as well. In fact, there is data that shows that there is really no difference in student achievement between the traditional classroom and the online learning environment: “The results of this study indicated that students in the online learning group and the combined learning group had statistically significant higher levels of achievement than students in the traditional learning group (p less than 0.01).”

There is a belief, albeit a specious one, that the very embrace of technology will dispel all the troubles faced by our educational institutions. The cry for more computers and increased connectivity at schools issues from this illusory position.

Research proves this statement incorrect. There is a growing body of research that shows that students in the 21st century, the children of video games and My Space, actually flourish in a technology-rich environment. The purpose of schools is to prepare students for the future, not the past.

What is often overlooked is the fact that any child who knows how to read and has reasonable use of motor skills can be taught how to use a word processing or spreadsheet program in just a matter of days. Learning to surf the Net is even easier.

This shows the Subramnian’s ignorance of what educational technology is used for. Teaching students how to use Office-like programs is only a small part of the ed tech big picture. (It is as if Subby is only watching one of the 200 channels on Direct TV.) Being able to create new content, being able to put down a pencil and pick up a digital or video camera to create new and exciting stories or reports is another. Being able to interact with other people is still another. Technology is a giant buffet. Subramnian is eating napkins.

On the other hand, getting a child to grasp concepts in mathematics, to seek the reasons and rationales behind historical events, and to think and act in critical and creative ways, takes a lot more time and focused energy. Technology cannot work any miracles here; but teachers can.

Technology cannot work miracles? Does this man live on the same planet that I live on? Tell Stephen Hawking, who can communicate his brilliant thoughts with the world because of technology, that technology cannot work miracles. Tell that to anyone with a pacemaker, a hearing aid, the parents of students that use assistive technology that in past years were relegated to live their lives in a home for unwanted children and now can interact with their peers and teachers because of technology. Teachers indeed work miracles on a daily basis. But really good teachers have a wide variety of tools to use to work those miracles, and some of those tools include the use of technology.

Marco Torres, the only person to be named the California Teacher of the Year TWICE, could not have done what he does without the use of technology. (Go ahead a Google him.) Indeed, I doubt if Subby himself could not have written his latest article without a computer, email and a web browser. Miracles indeed.

No matter whether schools exist in the physical world or in cyberspace, no matter whether we have books or e-books, and no matter whether homework is done on paper or on a computer screen, the question remains the same: Why are American schools failing our children?

There are MANY answers to that question (if you believe first off that Americas schools are indeed failing out children) but one that I know from personal experience is one that Mr. Subby will no doubt disagree with: One reason that our school may be failing students is the reluctance of teachers and administrators to embrace new teaching techniques, which include technology integration. We have millions of teachers that teach like they were taught. We have millions of teachers that receive technology equipment and training, and then immediately put it aside and return to the old way of teaching.

We are teaching 21st century students with 19th century teaching techniques, which may work well in third world countries like India where any teaching is more than what most of the population are used to, but in the United States we have technologically sophisticated students learning from technologically unsophisticated teachers, that are evaluated by technologically unsophisticated administrators. We have not adapted to needs of our customers. Instead, we insist that our customers adapt to the needs of the teacher. If this were a business model we would have gone bankrupt long ago.

The question itself can be a dishonest one, for often the people asking the question have much to gain from the continued educational misfortunes of our children. If we could imagine, even for an instant, that a sound majority of schools were doing an A-plus job, would there be a pressing need for new technology, new textbooks, new programs and all the panacea-promising workshops and seminars that teachers routinely attend? A healthy educational establishment would put a lot of businesses in jeopardy, and so it is fair to assume that the system will reinvent itself and its many guideposts to guarantee that success is always a program or two away from fruition.

I can only think of one thing. Here is what I imagine speaking to Ramnath would be like:

For American schools to become academically ascendant, we must change the mantra of "more money for technology and new programs" to "more money for better teachers."

Almost. We need to change the mantra to “More money for better learning, no matter what form it takes.” Better teaching includes the use of technology.

We live in the now, and we teach for the future. Sadly, millions of teachers like Ramnath Subramnian live in the past and teach for that same time.

Ramnath Subramanian, a sixth-grade science teacher at Eastwood Knolls School in El Paso, writes for the El Paso Times on educational topics. E-mail address: ramnath10@aol.com

Isn’t it funny that the guy with the anti-technology attitude has an email account? Go ahead and email him.

Freedom From Choice

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:33:23 -0600

I was watching Barry Schwartz, the author of “The Paradox of Choices” on Ted Talks today after glancing through his book at Barnes and Noble last night..It is an interesting talk, and his book and speech offer the hypothesis that this culture that we have created for ourselves of excessive choices has actually created more problems than solutions. I won’t go into the gory details here, but essentially, Schwartz says that, despite what we may think intuitively, the greater the variety of choices in ones life, the greater the disharmony. We arent doing ourselves any favors.

In fact, because of the large number of choices, the consumer is faced with a paralysis of choices: Too much to choose from leads to nothing being chosen.

Theses have been written on the topic.

The consumer also lends up being less satisfied because no matter what is chosen, they always will have the idea in the back of their minds that they could have chosen something else. Buyers remorse is the common term for it. It is easy to imagine the other choice when the one you did choose turns out to be no good.

I have already written about this idea on terms of technology tools and education.

Recently, I wrote about a training where I threw everything I had at the group and they seemed to eat it up. But I admitted my own defeat when I was unable to keep up with the list of sites I was collecting from PLURK here. In that entry, I simply had to list the 123 sites that I have been unable to find time to review.

So let’s look at how one example can lead to a paralysis of choices:

Consider sites that allow you to create live online broadcasts.

There is:
www.ustream.tv
www.mogulus.com
www.justin.tv
www.ubroadcast.com/broadcast.php
www.freedocast.com
www.veodia.com
http://www.blogstar.com/
http://m.kyte.tv/

Hard to choose eh? You would have to test each one, find what works, what doesn’t and then learn how the site works, because they all are different.

And that is just a 5 minute search online. You get the idea.
Now, consider a teacher with that is strapped for time trying to figure out which email , which blog site, which wiki site, which live streaming site, which document sharing site, which podcasting site, which...well, you get the idea.

A paralysis of choices.

Until some method of deciding what services will be used, I can see how teachers would be reluctant to use any, especially if Schwartz’ argument is correct.

Some have said that he sounds like the grumpy old man on SNL that Dana Carvey used to play, that simply cannot adapt to modern times, but I feel the arguments are legitimate.

Complicated choices make us worse off..not better according to Schwartz. Maybe we need better ed tech leadership to show us what we need to use, not just telling us to use it.

I challenge the large ed tech groups, the big-time ed-tech speakers and visionaries to stop just telling us to use the stuff. It is time to start telling us exactly what to use.

Time to give us freedom from choice.

Love and Peace and Cacti and Adobe Connect

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:23:02 -0600

Sometimes, you get in a rut. I have been putting on teacher workshops and conferences for a good 15-20 years now, and I just kinda make some assumptions:

The presenters are going to be there.
The presentations are at least going to be ok.
The teachers are going to be there too.

Be there as in PHYSICALLY be there. In the same space. At the same time.

Then Dean Mantz left me a message yesterday about PODSTOCK SW about possibly presenting, and it triggered something in me that should have hit me before I even started thinking about this: Why do the presenters have to be in El Paso?

Actually, they don’t! We have seen this many times in the K12 Online conference. And my district does have Adobe Connect, which is a heck of a product, and a presenter can set up, and present anywhere and anytime...Why limit myself and my presenters?

So, I am thinking that if you want to present at Podstock SW, but you can’t make it to PODSTOCK SW, we can still do something for you...

Get the Call for Proposals here:

Let’s talk. Perhaps we can set you up to present live at the conference without you having to get to El Paso...

Peace, Love, Cactus and Podcasts

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 21:02:56 -0600

Podstock Southwest, PSW is on! Mark your calendars and pack your bags for El Paso Texas! August 6 and 7, 2009.
Based on the highly successful Podstock held in Kansas and created by Kevin Honeycutt, during April, 2009, the focus of Podstock SW will be WEB 2.0 tools and podcasting.

In the next few days, we will be releasing a call for proposals which will be posted on this site, as well as on our NING site.

the Ning site is : www.podstocksw.ning.com

We will also be looking for vendors as well. So if you are wishing to exhibit or present at PODSTOCK SW go to the ning to get all the information.

Podstock SW is for everyone! Be a part of Southwest history!

As we get them, I will add the links:

Registration

Call for Proposals

Exhibitors

Professional Development Meme 2009 : (What'cha doing this Summer?)

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 15:14:41 -0600

I think this started at Clif Mims’ site over here. If not, well, I got it from him. So, I give him credit.

What are your goals for this summer as far as professional development is concerned?

Join in on the meme and help visualize your goals.

So, from his site:
Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2009 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

NOTE: You do NOT have to wait to be tagged to participate in this meme.

1. Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/07/09).
3. Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
4. Title your post Professional Development Meme 2009 and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2447.
5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme09.
6. Tag 5-8 others to participate in the meme.
7. Achieve your goals and "develop professionally."
1. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

My Goals:
1. Read three books related to ed tech, education, or problem based learning
2. Design a PBL unit that works for adults, not kids, in tech planning
3. Work on PBL professional development in technology
4. Look at more ways of integrating video into class projects

Who I tag with this meme:
1. Kevin Honeycutt
2. John Rice
3. Scott Floyd
4. Laurie Fowler
5. Kim Mulford
6. Miguel Guhlin
7. Paul Wood
8. Jamey Osborne
9. Michele Honeycutt
10. Ginger Lewman

Of course, don’t wait to be tagged to get started! Summer vacation is now starting all over the place..so..get going.

And if you live in the Southern hemisphere, or if you are on year round schooling schedules, take part anyway!

Let’s get this going all over the place!

Something Fishy...

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 14:30:08 -0600

Maybe I am paranoid..maybe I am overly sensitive. But I was looking at the list of “Luminary Leaders” being trotted out at the P21 Cyber Summit.
All of these guys and gals are touting the benefits of 21st century learning. Why we need it, why it is good for everyone and everything.
And I concur for the most part. The skills are good to have, we need to stay competitive, we need to stay up with the Chinese,blah blah blah

But I am wondering more and more about whether or not the whole idea of 21st Century Learning is as benign as it seems.

Take a look at this screen shot of the “Luminary Leaders” of the 21st Century movement:

Here is the list:
1. Gary Nell , Sesame Workshop
2. James Billington, Library of Congress
3. Randy Wilhelm, netTrekker
4. Patrick Sommers, Gale
5. Sean Rush, Junior Achievement, Worldwide
6. Valerie Levy, McGraw Hill
7. Dennis Van Roekel, NEA
8. Tom Looney, Lenovo
9. June Atkinson, Superintendent of Schools NC
10. Bill Kelly, Learning.com
11. Kurt Landgraf, ETS
12. Craig Barret, Paul Otellini, Intel
13. Michael Dell, Dell Computers
14. Randi Brill, Quarasan Group
15. Dick Robinson, Scholastic
16. Will Ethridge, Pearson
17. Michael Chasen, Blackboard Inc.

First of all, I will not even get into the ethnic makeup of this group, but it sure looks pretty homogenized to me. I am sure every person on that list is a fine person.

But...

See something else in that list? With the exception of Atkinson, there are no practicing educator in the group. 14 or the 17 are making money off the teat of education. (Sesame Workshop and LOC do not..but certainly have a vested interest.)
As a matter of fact, companies like Dell, Blackboard and Scholastic make millions if not billions of dollars each year off of education each year.

Not one teacher. FORMER teachers maybe...but not one that is actually sitting in a classroom right this minute.

What does that all mean? Before I put my tinfoil hat on and retreat to my man-cave, I think it is important for all of us to realize that not all causes are led by people doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Clearly, most of the above folks have a financial stake in whether the 21st Century Learning Movement succeeds.

And that makes me suspicious right away.

Smells funny.

A Whole Bunch of Sites

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 22:16:42 -0600

About a year ago, I started to informally collect the educational sites that people had suggested in my favorite social media site PLURK.

You know, Bob1996 would Plurk something like “Great site:www.animoto.com” and I would add it to the collection.

So, over the year or so, the list has become pretty long. And frankly, I have no idea what to do with it. So, I thought, what the heck, I will share the list with you.

Some of these sites you know, some are new to you.

So, here is the list of suggested PLURK sites from the fellow Plurkers from around the world:

1. www.mathway.com
2. http://75.101.140.69
3. www.speedrocket.com
4. www.voicethread.com
5. http://www.spellingcity.com/
6. http://www.pixelpipe.com/tools
7. http://www.animasher.com/create
8. http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html
9. http://www.flexipoll.com/
10. http://alltop.com/
11. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2008/11/the_education_departments_edte.html
12. http://education.animoto.com/
13. http://bubbl.us/
14. www.starfall.com
15. http://www.gliffy.com/
16. http://etc.usf.edu/plans/default.htm
17. http://www.readthewords.com/
18. http://timetoast.com
19. http://www.cueprompter.com
20. http://www.soup.io/
21. http://www.animasher.com/create
22. http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html.webloc
23. http://www.flexipoll.com/
24. http://www.pixelpipe.com/tools
25. www.livemocha.com
26. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7oFzmr9_M4
27. http://universe-review.ca/R13-01-periodictable2.htm
28. http://www.scribd.com/doc/8000050/Blooms-Digital-Taxonomy-v212
29. http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/
30. http://wikispaces.com (student spaces)
31. http://www.compfight.com
32. http://www.weebly.com/
33. http://www.oneword.com
34. http://plpnetwork.com/
35. http://thisisindexed.com/
36. http://www.kwout.com
37. http://photofunia.com/
38. http://www.tizmos.com/
39. http://mind42.com/
40. http://www.stormpulse.com/
41. http://www.adobe.com/acom/buzzword/
42. http://www.pdf-search-engine.com/a-whole-new-mind-pdf.html
43. http://www.doodlebuzz.com/
44. http://www.kontain.com
45. http://simplybox.com/
46. http://www.speakaboos.com/
47. http://www.wpclipart.com/
48. http://edcommunity.apple.com/acot2/
49. http://www.microsoft.com/education/schooloffuture.mspx
50. http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/
51. http://www.periodicvideos.com/#
52. http://www.lessonplanet.com
53. http://yobling.com/
54. http://www.dipity.com/
55. http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/
56. http://www.synthasite.com/
57. http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/lab/index_virtual.htm
58. https://www.qipit.com/web/main
59. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-12-19/the-internet-is-bad-for-you/2/
60. http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=2317
61. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/improve-your-photo-booth-with-90-free-effects-mac-only/
62. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-web-tools-to-save-your-butt-in-school/
63. http://www.go2web20.net/
64. http://www.glubble.com/learn_more
65. http://www.glubble.com/learn_more
66. http://www.192021.org/
67. http://www.50millionpounds.com/
68. http://tatango.com/login
69. http://ies.ed.gov/sites.asp
70. http://edtechvalley.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-50-skills-tech-savvy-educator-needs.html
71. http://crazeegeekchick.com/blog/27-free-must-have-online-collaboration-tools/
72. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR2009010301556.html
73. http://edtechvalley.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-50-skills-tech-savvy-educator-needs.html
74. http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-life/mp3-players/articles/homework-is-fun-on-an-ipod-touch/2009/01/02/1230681758552.html
75. http://280slides.com/
76. http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#
77. http://ies.ed.gov/sites.asp
78. http://jokaydia.com/jokaydia-projects/virtual-classroom-project/
79. http://www.polleverywhere.com/
80. http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/
81. http://www.screentoaster.com/
82. http://tiltshiftmaker.com/
83. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/handy-tools-for-students/
84. http://maggie-jackson.com/
85. http://www.lovelycharts.com/
86. http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video
87. http://www.glogster.com/edu/
88. http://www.mixbook.com/edu
89. http://mashable.com/2009/02/18/how-to-guide/
90. http://pixton.com/
91. http://academicearth.org/
92. http://www.theeasyessay.com/
93. http://pixton.com/
94. http://www.ck12.org/index.html
95. http://www.photovisi.com/
96. http://www.picnik.com/
97. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/beam-your-screen-with-others-using-mikogo-windows-mac/
98. http://www.pencil-animation.org/index.php?id=Home
99. http://evernote.com/
100. http://www.shapecollage.com/
101. http://www.vuvox.com/
102. http://mogulus.com
103. http://iglue.com/beta/
104. http://prezi.com/
105. http://www.adobe.com/acom/buzzword/
106. http://www.helpkidzlearn.com/index.html
107. http://www.weboword.com/
108. http://www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm
109. http://www.storytop.com/
110. http://www.xtranormal.com/
111. http://goanimate.com/
112. http://www.schoohoo.com/index.php
113. http://fliggo.com
114. http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html
115. http://www.stateoftomorrow.com/
116. http://kickyoutube.com/
117. http://www.scribblemaps.com/#id=axWDNqkk8_
118. http://sclipo.com/frontpage
119. http://www.wiziq.com/Virtual_Classroom.aspx
120. http://www.debategraph.org
121. http://www.visuwords.com/
122. http://www.readthewords.com/

Death Right Here in River City

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 12:23:55 -0600

River City is an online game that teaches epidemiology, the scienctific method, experimentation, data gathering and more. It is a joint grant-driven venture of National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian, Ariz State University, Harvard, and a host of others.

Essentially, this is what River City was about: River City was a town at the Western edge of the US back in the 1800’s. Something is causing the citizens to drop over like flies at a picnic, and it is up to the players to determine what or who is responsible.

Students were put into the roles of citizens of River City and they had to invesitigate what was causing the problems, formulate a hypothesis, and solve the problem, all in the context of a multiplayer online game.

From the RC Website:
As visitors to River City, students travel back in time, bringing their 21st century skills and technology to address 19th century problems. Based on authentic historical, sociological, and geographical conditions, River City is a town besieged with health problems. Students work together in small research teams to help the town understand why residents are becoming ill. Students use technology to keep track of clues that hint at causes of illnesses, form and test hypotheses, develop controlled experiments to test their hypotheses, and make recommendations based on the data they collect, all in an online environment.

Since the River City Project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, access to the simulation, curricular materials, professional development, and just-in-time assistance are provided free of charge to schools. Our current grant is exploring issues of scale –– bringing River City to diverse schools across the United States, Canada and Mexico –– and we are always looking to collaborate with like-minded educators.

Here is an introductory movie:

Game as learning device. We heard it before, and lots of people are looking into it. But River City seemed to actually get most of the components correct.

I once did an interview with one of the team members of the River City group. Here it is.

I was saddened to read on the RC website that since the grant was over, the program was pretty much going to end:

Support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the River City Research Project will end this summer (2009). It seems unlikely that River City will be available in the next school year, but we will post any news about the future of River City on this Web site.

We have asked for additional funding from the NSF to rebuild River City in a modern authoring system, make it cross-platform, and make it available under a free license. If that happens, some group (not Harvard) will also need to install the new version of River City on a server and provide technical support for teachers. If we do get additional NSF funding soon, we hope to have a new version of River City available sometime during the next school year (2009-2010). If we do not get additional funding, the River City project will end this summer.

Note: We have completed all the River City training sessions scheduled for the 2008-2009 school year and will not be sending out any more River City CDs. Thank you for your interest in the River City Research Project.

So, the money runs out, and so does the program.

Which, in my mind, brings up a larger problem when relying on off-site technology, especially free technology, when the program/website/service dies: What do you do?

Suppose, if I get my teachers all excited about a particular website, say, Hippocampus, which no doubt is grant driven. If I train on Hippocampus, if Hippocampus is part of the curriculum, if Hippocampus becomes a tool for learning, what would happen if Hippocampus died?
 It isn’t a theoretical question. Project Marco Polo (Which is now Thinkfinity) died. River City Died. Remember the rumors of Picasa’s death a few years ago? It is not unheard of or uncommon.

I don’t know of an answer. We have lots of talk of getting learning into Second Life...okay..what if Second Life gets bought by Microsoft and they start charging a ton of money to play? Does all of the content that you have in there get lost?

I don’t know the answers to this. But I do know that it is something to think about.

And while your thinking, say a little prayer for all the folks in River City.

RIP.

Write your Senator. I did.

Thu, 28 May 2009 21:25:08 -0600

Using the ETAN Template, you should write too. Make the letter your own by adding something that is not part of the template.

Click here.

May 28, 2009

The Honorable John Cornyn
United States Senate
517 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4302

Dear Senator Cornyn:

I am writing in opposition to the proposed 63 percent cut to the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program in the President's FY10 Budget.

I have blogged about this topic here: http://snipurl.com/iz2dg

I encourage you to support funding of EETT at a minimum, its FY09 funding level ($269.9 million) for FY2010. I hope that I can count on your support.

As an educator, I was thrilled that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) wisely invested in classroom technology. To me, the $650 million provided under ARRA represented an excellent start towards reaching the goal that all of our nation's schools, particularly those serving low-income students, create 21st century learning environments.

However, the ARRA investment only gets our schools partially there, and cutting funding for education technology now will not allow us to realize the goal of high tech classrooms for all.

Ample FY10 funding will leverage the ARRA investment by allowing our nation's schools to continue their efforts to ensure: 1) that all K-12 classrooms are appropriately equipped with technology and Internet access,

2) that all educators receive high quality and sustained professional development on the use and integration of technology in their curricula, and

3) that all school districts receive adequate IT support.

Most importantly, continued federal investment in EETT ensures our students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in today's global economy and will help our nation recover from the recent economic downturn.

I am asking you to please oppose the proposed cuts to the Enhancing Education Through Technology program. I appreciate your continued support or or nations schools and students.

Sincerely,

Tim Holt

Some of the people none of the time

Wed, 27 May 2009 22:29:08 -0600

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about the idea of having Multiple Intelligences in Technology applications, just like we do for other learning experiences. It was brilliant, Here it is.

If you didn’t read it, you really need to. It was really brilliant.

Really. Go read it now. I will wait.

So, in the article. I made a few snide remarks about Howard Gardner, such as intimating the number of Multiple Intelligences he comes up with is inversely proportional to his bank account. Need more money? Add an Intelligence.
Of course, anyone who knows anything about Gardner knows that that is wrong, and I was just trying to lay the foundation for the article.

No offense intended.

So of course, someone was offended and got mad at my irreverent Howard Gardner references and let me know privately that it was rude and inappropriate. Nothing about the meat of the article, which was about a new way to look at the whole idea of multiple intelligences.

(It was brilliant. Read it here)

Just don’t be dissin’ Howard!

At first, I was upset that this reader was upset. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that the whole purpose of a blog is to get all the ideas out there. If someone doesn’t like the article, leave a comment. I have never deleted a comment about my articles, especially the dissenters. You think my stuff is full of it, then let me hear your opinion! I promise, I don’t censor. (In the three years of doing this, I have only deleted three comments, and they were just profanity tirades that I think were left by kids.)

But, I think that if no one gets upset at least once in a while with my blogs, then I am doing it wrong.

So I am glad I upset someone. It reminds me that I am making people think. I am doing it right.

But I also learned not to insult Howard Gardner.

So, I promise, faithful readers, no more Howard “I-Did-not-mean-that-Multiple-Intelligences-should-be-adopted-by-the-education-community-but-I-will-gladly-accept-all-the-money-you-can-throw-at-me” Gardner.

No more jokes. I promise.

I don’t care if he adds ESP or “Taste” as one of the multiple intelligences.

No more jokes.

At least in this blog post.

And the Kitchen Sink

Wed, 27 May 2009 21:35:38 -0600

Tradition and experience dictates that professional development sessions pretty much be focused on a single topic. This especially applies to technology staff development, where heaven forbid, someone might get confused.

I have long thought that that was the case, until today.
A little background:

I was scheduled to work today with a team of teachers that are writing a science curriculum for my district’s gifted and talented program. I was supposed to help them work on writing technology into the classes. Specifically, I was supposed to help “push the envelop” with this class, because this particular course used to be cutting edge technology-wise, and has sort of lost it’s bearing, technology-wise.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the morning session, so I had asked one of my trainers,Brian Grenier, to cover for me. (You may be familiar with Brian, he writes Bump on the Blog)

“What should I cover?” he asked me yesterday

“Web 2.0 tools that students can use in the classroom.” I replied.

So this morning, he came to the meeting, and in the process of about 2 and a half hours, covered, from my count of their notes, about 20 web 2.0 tools, from USTREAM, to Twitter, to well, you get the idea.

After the lunch break, it was my turn. I asked them what had been covered in the morning, and they dutifully listed what they had covered. After writing down the 20 or so sites and tools, I was waiting for the next line...

“It is all too much.” That is a line I hear a lot. Even if we are doing a single topic.

But something happened that I totally did not expect:
The teachers loved being slammed with information. They said that it was a lot, but it was a great learning experience. It was like a Web 2.0 tornado hit them in the head, and they liked it.

More! Give us more!

I was blown away, and it really energized me. I had fully expected to spend the afternoon sort of reviewing what happened in the morning, but that was not the case. We went over social networking, 21st century learning, saw a few cool videos, talked about ways students could use web 2.0 in the class and then went into the curriculum and started dissecting areas where Web 2.0 tools would work. By the end of the day, they were literally wanting more. I really felt like this session was one where the teachers had learned a lot more than they had expected.

So that got me thinking about professional development. This session certainly went against everything I had ever thought about PD. What if the entire model of PD about small bits of info given in discrete chunks is wrong? What if the best way to give PD is to throw the kitchen sink and see what sticks?

Maybe today was an anomaly, maybe the GT teachers were just being GT...

But ya gotta wonder, what happens if your PD model is to throw everything at once at them?

Multiple Technology Intelligences

Mon, 25 May 2009 11:18:46 -0600

The 1980’s and part of the 1990’s belonged to Howard Gardner, especially if you taught Gifted and Talented students. He still pops up once in a while in journals and magazines, but the MI deal was his crowning achievement.

Remember the big thing about multiple intelligences there were the seven multiple intelligences? And kids learned things better one way than another. We all tried to peg our students to see if they learned from music, reading, math, intepretive dance...it got silly after a while, But we did it. I even remember one principal that made her faculty write lesson plans that had at least three of the MIs for each lesson. Here Jimmy, I will now teach the times tables to you through breakdancing.

• Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")
• Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
• Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
• Musical intelligence ("music smart")
• Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
• Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
• Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

Howard Gardner was the king of multiple intelligences. When I first heard about him there were five. There are 8 now. (I always thought that when Gardner was low on cash, he would add an intelligence. I can’t prove it.).

So he makes this big book called “Frames of Mind” and becomes a superstar in the gifted and talented world. Then the rest of the ed world buys in because they don;’t have any other explanation at the time why Johnny couldn’t read.

Suffice it to say, the whole MI thing has been pretty much adopted around the country, if not the world.

And the idea makes sense at it’s basic level: Different kids learn differently.

Makes a whole lot of sense.

But I wonder of the entire idea of multiple intelligences (MI) can be translated into technology?

I propose that there is a multiple intelligence for students that related directly to technology. I call it Multiple Technology Intelligences (MTI).

It makes just as much sense to me that students will gravitate to specific types of technology based on their learning styles, just like they gravitate towards specific types of lessons that fit the style that they learn in.

So what are the types of Multiple Technology Intelligences?

Let me start the list. I suppose that there are others, but let the discussion begin with this list:

Animation Intelligence: Student learn by creating drawings and animations.

Gaming Intelligence: Students learn through simulation, whether creating or playing.

Video Intelligence: Students learn through the creation of multimedia video content such as digital storytelling.

Music Intelligence: Student learn through the creation of music, ringtones, jungles, etc.

Podcasting Intelligence: Student learn through the creation of audio narratives.

Office Intelligence: Students learn best through the use of traditional office-style programs.

Connecting Intelligence: Students learn best through the use of social networking. This also includes video conferencing.

So that is a start. Unlike Gardner, I consider my ideas a collaborative effort that anyone can participate in.

So, what are your Multiple Technology Intelligences?