A fantastic "day in the life" (hypothetically? does it matter?) of a Social Web-centered teacher. A must read, especially for those of us bravely going "back to the trenches" this week!Workflow- Social Media School Teacher
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By the way, if you care at all about the power of social media, in education or elsewhere, you need to subscribe to Chris Brogan's blog (RSS or email options available on his blog page). It's at the top of my daily feed reading list. Subscribe to his newsletter (it's a bit different) too.
For those of you going back to work this week in our public and private schools, I wish you a positive and fulfilling year.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
From the New York Times: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?
In this New York Times article by Motoko Rich, the author raises the question--and explores the answers via interviews with readers "old" and "young"--that asks, if your read it on your computer screen, are you a reader?
Now that we're half-way through the summer (at least I am; I can expect to return for my first day of meetings one month from today), perhaps you, like me, are already thinking about what our students will bring to us in terms of their willingness to agree on what we consider learning when they arrive in our classrooms in September.
Now that we're half-way through the summer (at least I am; I can expect to return for my first day of meetings one month from today), perhaps you, like me, are already thinking about what our students will bring to us in terms of their willingness to agree on what we consider learning when they arrive in our classrooms in September.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Sunday, June 29, 2008
The Zen Master of Blog hosts
I hope that, by now, you are all beginning to enjoy the first blush of summer vacation. I, for one, will have to wait until Wednesday (as I am teaching a 2-day inservice on "Web 2.0 and Education" for my district...but I'm not complaining). So while you're doing some reflection on the year that's just past, why not check out something new and different in the way of blogging simplicity: Posterous, a new blog host that's even simpler than...dare I even say it here?...Blogger! It's certainly less onerous than the tyrannically embed-code-phobic Wordpress.com or Edublogs (come on, guys). With posterous, you just send an email to post@posterous.com and et voila', your post appears on a new blog just for you! You don't have to take my word for it, read the Techcrunch take:Posterous beats Tumblr in simplicity
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Technology and the reprogramming of our brains
Here's something to distract you during finals and state exams: an article by Nicholas Carr from The Atlantic that maybe you've already read (apparently it's made the rounds of the edublogosphere, but I'm only just now getting a hold of it) about how using technology may indeed affect the way even we (adults, not just our students) think...hopefully you have enough attention span to get through it!
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Animoto in Education
I've recently fallen in love with a new way to make animated slideshow videos out of still images: Animoto.com. Standard users can make unlimited 30-second videos, and for a small fee you can upgrade to an "All-Access" pass, allowing you to make 60-second videos. What I just recently learned, however, is that they are offering classroom teachers a "Classroom Code" that'll give each of your students a free All-Access pass (unlimited full-length videos for a whole year) so they can make Animotos videos for classroom projects. A full description of the education offer(as well as links to some samples) can be found here.
Here's a sample video I made of some photos I took on my recent trip to the Cannes Film Festival:
Here's a sample video I made of some photos I took on my recent trip to the Cannes Film Festival:
Monday, May 26, 2008
live streaming
so sorry for the lapse in posting here. It's been a busy few weeks, trying to open 2 separate play productions for my Theater classes, and then flying to Cannes for two days to view my short film, which made it into the Cannes Short Film Corner!
Anyway, this blog is about education, not my filmmaking alter-ego :-), but now you may understand why media and video are such a large part of my teaching practice (well, and also the fact that I teach Film).
I have two sections of theater classes, both with a wide range of students and experience levels. One class had nine students, the other had 25 (no comment on the planning that went into that arrangement). Therefore, it would have been impossible for the two classes to produce the same play, so we went ahead to mount two completely separate productions that would serve as their final class project and would be performed in the small theater that doubles as my classroom. Some years, when we do the shorter, low-maintenance one acts, we usually perform in one class period to an audience made up of classes that have been invited to see the show (this was a tradition that started with my predecessor, who somehow reasoned that only English classes should be invited). Last year, we did a far more ambitious production of excerpts from a full-length play, which we performed just once, after school to an audience of invited family and friends. This year, we did both: the smaller class performed a short half-hour play several times during the school day, and the second, larger class did an after-school production.
Earlier this year there were modifications made to my room (I can't go into detail here, but they were necessary) which greatly limited our seating area. Faced with this dilemma, I was struck by how our audience size would be limited. Then, the thought struck me: why not do a live webcast? This way, not only could family members (who are often at work or college, or otherwise unable to attend) view the broadcast as it happened, so could other classes who could not be accommodated due to the limited seating! (I should note here that, unlike many other high schools, we are fortunate to not only have at least one teacher computer with web access in every room, but also a Smart Board as well; thus enabling classes to view the broadcast. The network connection? well...)
When I tell this story, most people involved in Education ask: how did you pull this off? First of all, I did my research: I shopped around to several live streaming sites before I found one that: a) I just liked, in terms of interface and general content (aka not "sketchy"), and b) gave me control over who I could allow to view the stream. After trying out a few, I settled on Ustream.tv, which let me password-protect our channel, and also didn't generally have creepy looking channels featured on the homepage that may put off Suzie's grandma.
Once I figured out the technical logistics and found a host, I made sure I got permission from both the department coordinator and the district Director of Technology. I made sure I sold this as an innovative tool that will widen the possibilities of using the web for communication, and they were very excited about it. I assured them not only of the security but also emphasized that I was preparing a letter for the parents not only explaining what the webcast was, but also asking them for permission (by way of a signature) to show their child's image on the web. They recommended that I run this by the principal (I did, along with a copy of the letter) and then set about sending the letters home with the students, reminding them that if one parent doesn't sign it, we can't go ahead with it. Most parents did, and the reluctant ones only needed a personal call from me to turn them around.
As the day approached, I also had to see to it that I had a working webcam, which I luckily I was able to borrow from the IT department, and I also had to specifically request that the they open a port so that the webcast wouldn't be blocked on the school server. I also did several "test runs" during rehearsals to make sure it actually functioned. I also like how Ustream gives you the option to broadcast, record, or do both.
When the day arrived, I was not only succesful in broadcasting, I heard later from my students that family members were, in fact, watching! One dad showed the perfromance to everyone in his office, one girl's grandmother, who was physically unable to attend, called her granddaughter moments after the show to gush at how wonderful she thought it was. Even my 9th grade stage manager could share the show with her mom, who had to take a last-minute business trip to Ireland. Sure, we could have just taped it and made copies for everyone later, but there's something about the excitement and immediacy(and the live web hosts are well aware of this) of seeing something unfold as it's happening...which is why theater will always be different than film and video.
I was happy to learn that my Superintendent was also very supportive and impressed with this experiment, and I even received a surprise visit from two of our UT guys who reported that they, too were watching the live show!
They raised a few good points, which I'll add to my "feature request list". Ustream will tell you how many viewers you have, but won't tell you how much bandwith you're using (an important consideration for school districts on a network). Since I couldn't afford a fancier camera, I had to rely on my monitor-mounted webcam with no zoom function, which resulted in not the most desirable angle or sightline. If there was a way to zoom in through a user control panel, that would be great. I can probably think of a few other things, but instead I'll end this post (which I never intended to be this long) by saying I'm glad we did it, and glad everyone--kids, administrators, parents--were on board, and I think this is an example of how we have barely scratched the surface of the potential of how we can use the web to reach out beyond the classroom. So if you ever thought, "Nah, I can't pull this off," I say, YES YOU CAN!
Anyway, this blog is about education, not my filmmaking alter-ego :-), but now you may understand why media and video are such a large part of my teaching practice (well, and also the fact that I teach Film).
I have two sections of theater classes, both with a wide range of students and experience levels. One class had nine students, the other had 25 (no comment on the planning that went into that arrangement). Therefore, it would have been impossible for the two classes to produce the same play, so we went ahead to mount two completely separate productions that would serve as their final class project and would be performed in the small theater that doubles as my classroom. Some years, when we do the shorter, low-maintenance one acts, we usually perform in one class period to an audience made up of classes that have been invited to see the show (this was a tradition that started with my predecessor, who somehow reasoned that only English classes should be invited). Last year, we did a far more ambitious production of excerpts from a full-length play, which we performed just once, after school to an audience of invited family and friends. This year, we did both: the smaller class performed a short half-hour play several times during the school day, and the second, larger class did an after-school production.
Earlier this year there were modifications made to my room (I can't go into detail here, but they were necessary) which greatly limited our seating area. Faced with this dilemma, I was struck by how our audience size would be limited. Then, the thought struck me: why not do a live webcast? This way, not only could family members (who are often at work or college, or otherwise unable to attend) view the broadcast as it happened, so could other classes who could not be accommodated due to the limited seating! (I should note here that, unlike many other high schools, we are fortunate to not only have at least one teacher computer with web access in every room, but also a Smart Board as well; thus enabling classes to view the broadcast. The network connection? well...)
When I tell this story, most people involved in Education ask: how did you pull this off? First of all, I did my research: I shopped around to several live streaming sites before I found one that: a) I just liked, in terms of interface and general content (aka not "sketchy"), and b) gave me control over who I could allow to view the stream. After trying out a few, I settled on Ustream.tv, which let me password-protect our channel, and also didn't generally have creepy looking channels featured on the homepage that may put off Suzie's grandma.
Once I figured out the technical logistics and found a host, I made sure I got permission from both the department coordinator and the district Director of Technology. I made sure I sold this as an innovative tool that will widen the possibilities of using the web for communication, and they were very excited about it. I assured them not only of the security but also emphasized that I was preparing a letter for the parents not only explaining what the webcast was, but also asking them for permission (by way of a signature) to show their child's image on the web. They recommended that I run this by the principal (I did, along with a copy of the letter) and then set about sending the letters home with the students, reminding them that if one parent doesn't sign it, we can't go ahead with it. Most parents did, and the reluctant ones only needed a personal call from me to turn them around.
As the day approached, I also had to see to it that I had a working webcam, which I luckily I was able to borrow from the IT department, and I also had to specifically request that the they open a port so that the webcast wouldn't be blocked on the school server. I also did several "test runs" during rehearsals to make sure it actually functioned. I also like how Ustream gives you the option to broadcast, record, or do both.
When the day arrived, I was not only succesful in broadcasting, I heard later from my students that family members were, in fact, watching! One dad showed the perfromance to everyone in his office, one girl's grandmother, who was physically unable to attend, called her granddaughter moments after the show to gush at how wonderful she thought it was. Even my 9th grade stage manager could share the show with her mom, who had to take a last-minute business trip to Ireland. Sure, we could have just taped it and made copies for everyone later, but there's something about the excitement and immediacy(and the live web hosts are well aware of this) of seeing something unfold as it's happening...which is why theater will always be different than film and video.
I was happy to learn that my Superintendent was also very supportive and impressed with this experiment, and I even received a surprise visit from two of our UT guys who reported that they, too were watching the live show!
They raised a few good points, which I'll add to my "feature request list". Ustream will tell you how many viewers you have, but won't tell you how much bandwith you're using (an important consideration for school districts on a network). Since I couldn't afford a fancier camera, I had to rely on my monitor-mounted webcam with no zoom function, which resulted in not the most desirable angle or sightline. If there was a way to zoom in through a user control panel, that would be great. I can probably think of a few other things, but instead I'll end this post (which I never intended to be this long) by saying I'm glad we did it, and glad everyone--kids, administrators, parents--were on board, and I think this is an example of how we have barely scratched the surface of the potential of how we can use the web to reach out beyond the classroom. So if you ever thought, "Nah, I can't pull this off," I say, YES YOU CAN!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Blogging and Free Speech Rights of Public Employees « Educational Insanity
Perhaps Dr. Becker's blog post might explain why I don't blog about work more often: Blogging and Free Speech Rights of Public Employees « Educational Insanity
Dr. Becker was one of my professors in my former Ed.D. program a long time ago, and is a very progressive thinker/teacher with regard to technology and social media in Education. I miss our discussions on the subject, but thank goodness for the blogosphere, where these discussions can continue...rock on, Jon!
Dr. Becker was one of my professors in my former Ed.D. program a long time ago, and is a very progressive thinker/teacher with regard to technology and social media in Education. I miss our discussions on the subject, but thank goodness for the blogosphere, where these discussions can continue...rock on, Jon!
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