THERE IS NOTHING WRONG HERE

I happen to download a podcast from Alan November’s Building Learning Communities 2007 conference. It was the keynote given by Dr. Yong Zhao, of the Univ. of Michigan. I had never heard of Dr. Zhao (in China is their sir name the first listed?) but I have listened to his podcast three times now and I have been taking notes so that I can blog more about what he has to say. Because he does have a Chinese accent the more you listen the more you understand.

When Alan intorduces Dr. Zhao he warns the audiance that their mind will be broken, and Dr, Zhao does have some mind bending ideas about technology, society and education.

I have been trying to transcribe the podcast, even if I only take down the key point it is tedious. So, trying to find a more techie way to do this I discover that Dragon Naturally Speaking, which I have installed, will transcribe an audio file. All I have to do is convert the iTunes file to an mp3 file. To do this I purchase on line a program that will do the trick.

I convert the iTunes podcast to an mp3 and have Dragon transcribe. It is an hour long podcast so this takes awhile. I come back to the computer after dinner and it is transcribing away, except that none of the text makes any sense. It is not even close to the podcast. So I guess I will have to go back to the manual transcription process, because I do want to get down in written form many of Dr. Zaho’s ideas.

So that I can say I am blogging every week I am posting. The end of the quarter always brings more work to do then time to do it. We have extra work to do this time and April, our boss, has given us an extra week. But, we still want to get the report card and quarterlies out as soon as possible. Melinda, Alison and I are still trying to figure out the best way to do this, maybe by the end of the school year we will have a better handle on it. I feel lucky to be working with two great teachers, and three great para-professionals.

The sign-up for the Web 2.0 online workshop is going great. There are 15 signed up in 4 days. If more than 20 sign-up may there is a way to run another session latter in the school year.

I have several blog posts in mind and hope to get to them this weekend. I have been re-reading The World is Flat, 3rd edition, and thinking a lot about where I was 3 years ago when I read the first version and where I am now.

I have been working this weekend to get ready for my turn to do the Web 2.0 online training. I am worried that the 7 session format will not be enough to get teachers started with some Web 2.0 applications. I have sent emails to EDC and DOE about following up with more support and more direct workshop on blogging, wikis, podcasting, etc.

Maybe just getting some teachers to read and write personal blogs will be a start. After a year of my own edtech journey I have come to think that reading and blogging for a couple of months would be a good idea. Edtech has been picking up steam over the last year and newbies would benefit from joining a Virtual Learning Network.

I think I will start by having “students” get a del.icio.us account and joining each others network. Then just read three bloggers and set up Bloglines or Google reader. They need two weeks to complete each assignment, one week is not enough to reflect and absorb all the new information being thrown at them.

I signed up for a class blog at 21classes.com and at classesblogmiester.com. I need to get the PREP program blogging and to have some familiarity with at least 2 blogging platforms before I try to teach.

My wiki is also being updated so that I can use it as a teaching tool with the ETLO class. I need to transfer the wiki class I made for the LPVEC wiki to my wiki so I can share it.