My Latest Tech. Learning Opportunities

The past four weeks have been a whirlwind of tech. learning! Late October 2011 I had the good fortune to attend a Solution Tree workshop by Bill Ferriter. Teaching the iGeneration. This two-day session reminded me to consider the essential skills of the 21st Century for example: how to manage information, how to productively contribute to collaborative dialogue, and understanding persuasion. Bill reminded me that this work isn’t about technology tools; it’s about skills and strategies. The tool is just that, a tool to create, collaborate, think critically, and communicate. This workshop followed one day of Meg Ormiston's two day Solution Tree workshop. Meg is a dynamic presenter emphasizing all the reasons why we as educators need to "get plugged in!" The learning did not stop there! The next few days were spent in Las Vegas attending the Computer Using Educators of Nevada annual two-day conference. After this, I attended an all-day, on-line virtual technology conference through FETC, Florida Education Technology Conference. Finally, attending Autorspeak by Solution Tree allowed me to visit with, and learn from technology advocates and experts such as Will Richardson, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, James Bellance, Ron Brandt, Kipp Rogers, Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, Alex Gonzalez, Thomas Guskey and Bob Marzano (ya, I know, those last two are not technology, but still!) and of course, Meg and Bill!
My mind is full of new ideas and new energy! I can't wait to share. Oh, and by the way, I have learned how to twitter! I've recognized Twitter as a useful tool as I build my Professional Learning Network! Notice my idea aggregator, the news panel to the right, paper.le! It's a wonderful way to filter the massive amounts of information twitter brings to the screen. At this juncture in my learning I think the most important thought put in my head by Bill is that my problem is not information over-load, it is filter failure! He is so right! With a clear focus on skills and strategies, I will look for and learn about web 2.0 tools in a different light. Awww, a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I no longer worry about catching up but I do want to make sure I keep up.

Classroom Technology

Trout in the Classroom

Stolen Podcast from Four Tired Teachers

podcast take one

screencast take 3

Well... we obviously messed up with our screencast. When you click on the link it takes you to the site but there is no screencast! I'm going to try again. Unfortunately, Benjamin has gone to bed...it's late and he has school in the morning! I'm going to have to make the screencast.

 Just made it... can't get it to upload.... connection keeps failing. What's up???? It's bed time! I'll try screencasting take 4 tomorrow.

screencast take 2

I'm thinking this is my only solution unless I save the screencast as a video like I did Benjamin's digital story and then past the html code here. I my choose to give this approach a try. For now I'm good with the link!   http://www.screencast.com/t/Avn5Puk6

Planning for my next technology class

Tomorrow night is my 5th session for "Technology in the Classroom" a class I've been facilitating this school year. We meet once a month for 2 1/2 hours in the David E. Norman computer lab. Tomorrow's session is about podcasting and screencasting. It is my goal to have a screencast Benjamin made for me uploaded to this blog by the end of tonight. It is amazing how time consuming the prep for each class has been. Because I am so new to all of this I have to spend hours studying, practicing, exploring, and creating before I can present it to the teachers. This experience has been both exciting and frustrating.
Tonight I have been thinking of ways to make this class better for next year. I wish I had known to plan out my process better from day one, session one, but, as I've shared, I'm learning as I go this year. Next year will be much better. I'm thinking next year I will guide the participants to have not only an end-of-session product to take back and try in their classroom, but we will have an end-of-entire-class product that will incorporate all that we have used and learned about via a class blog. Each teacher could have been creating revising and adding to their own class blog this year. Why did it take me this long to get my focus and vision? Back to figuring out how to post the screencast!

Ning Book Club

First I must address the intentions of being a consistent blogger. What does that really mean, anyway? I've decided that twice a month should be good enough, that is if I still want a life away from the Internet! I recognize that twice a month is not sufficient if I want to attract mass readers. Good thing that is not my intention. I simply want to catalogue my interactions with technology. Today I want to reflect on my activity with NWP's book club Ning. I've chosen to participate in a book club discussion that started a few days ago. Here's what I notice about myself as I use this technology.

1. I am constantly aware of my possible readers. (Not so much with this blog. Based on history of this blog, I know I do not have readers, with the Ning there is a community of educated adults participating in the conversation.)
2. Because of my reader-awareness I notice how thoughtful I am about my post. Does it make sense? Does it sound smart? Does it invite readers to respond or think? How is my spelling? My grammar, my proper use of word choice... This is all going through my mind as I write. As a teacher of writing, I vote for more opportunities like this for students of writing! The question is, does my process match what others do? Is this careful thinking typical?

Long day but still blogging

I'm tired, very tired. Regardless, this is my attempt at being consistent with my posts. There are two things on my mind. First, I checked the TIC blog and was thrilled to find two new posts today. This reminds me of how it feels to check our back-yard chicken coop for eggs! 1 egg? 4 eggs? 0 eggs...you never know what you're going to get! Today was an all around good day - 5 eggs and two blog posts! What more can one chicken-raising, TIC blogger ask for?
Second, during the long five-hour drive home I had the pleasure of getting acquainted with Teachers Teaching Teachers. A weekly webcast on the EdTechTalk channel teachersteachingteachers.org For three hours I enjoyed listening to a three part conversation about the book, The Digital Writing Workshop hosted by the author,  Troy Hicks.

I love that we have folks out there creating these podcasts. I've been reading this book and now, after listening to the podcasts, I have a new understanding and appreciation for the work and my mind is packed with ideas I'd like to explore and share.
Here's Troy's ning: http://digitalwritingworkshop.ning.com/

One site's minimun guidelines to qualify as "Techy" (a tool for personal evaluation)

According to EdTech, this is what is required to be "techy"! 
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/technology/resources/TechLiteracy.html
Technology/Media/ICT Literacy
NYS Technology Literacy is defined as:

• The understanding of the concepts behind computing equipment, network connectivity, and application software;
• The skills to responsibly use appropriate technology to access, synthesize, evaluate, communicate, and create information to solve problems and improve learning in all subject areas; and
• The ability to acquire new knowledge for on-going and lifelong learning in the 21st century global workplace.

Technology literate students should be able to:

1. demonstrate understanding of concepts underlying hardware, software, networking connectivity and in use of computers and applications,
2. demonstrate understanding of ethics and safety issues in using electronic media and responsible use of technology, and,
3. use technology for communication, research and collaboration and problem-solving. With proficient technology skills, students should be able to locate, collect, synthesize, and evaluate information from a variety of digital sources, and to use telecommunications and other media to interact or collaborate with peers, experts, and other audiences.

itunes disaster, not really

While shacked up alone in yet another motel room, for yet another work trip, I spent about an hour taking advantage of the high-speed Internet to download itunes podcasts for my travel listening pleasure. After more than 20 podcasts found worthy of my i-pod finickiness were finally downloaded to itunes I carefully selected all, (ctrl A) and drug them to my i-pod within enough time it took for 4 of the over 20 podcasts were loaded onto my i-pod I mistakenly hit the delete button, selecting all to be deleted! It was a minor disaster! Knowing how important it is that I have my latest National Public Radio reports on all things educational, technological and political, I decided to return to the i-tunes store and once again start collecting the podcasts. Four hours later, I've realized that what I first considered a disaster has become an opportunity for learning! Not only did I chose a different selection of podcasts to download based on but I also followed a trail of searches through the i-tunes store leading me to the treasures of video-casts from both the 2008 and 2009 k12online conference!  http://k12onlineconference.org/. After watching a handful of different presentations, I downloaded, I searched for presenters' web sites, I followed links, I ended up on You Tube, and using my newest favorite app, Zilla Tube www.zillatube.com to convert and download some of the videos to my hard drive, anticipating how I can work them into my next tech class.
It is now pushing midnight and I have to get up in 5 hours to hit the road but for some reason, I was compelled to post on my blog. I realize my posts are few and far-between. They are wordy, and  lack consistency and, frankly, they lack a story that anyone may care to read. Maybe this awareness will drive my next techy goal choices. Maybe not.
The feelings of being overwhelmed are easier to swallow as I confront new applications and understandings of  personal technology use and how that applies to the needs of today's classroom. I wonder why that is? Is it that I'm okay with not knowing?  Have I come to terms with the fact that I will never "catch up" because catching up is relative to each individual and each circumstance?   I wonder what the qualifications are to be considered "techy". Maybe I'll Google it!