THERE IS NOTHING WRONG HERE

I have been working on the edtechleaders.ning.com social network the last couple of days. It has been fun customizing it. I would like it to be a place the educators from the Web 2.0 workshop can continue the conversation during and after the workshop is finished. When the Web 2.0 group begins the podcasting session I wanted to have some examples of successful edtech podcasts. The Moodle does not really have a good way to do that, so I created a new tabbed page for Podcasts and then found a podcatcher to embed into the new page. I am very proud of myself for solving the problem.

Just in case you did not know. Edublogs has made it much easier for teachers to create student accounts and/or blogs. I wish they had installed this feature before I spent a day creating 45 student accounts, anyway it looks very easy.

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.

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.

While reading several edtech journals I was struck by the images of students setting in rows behind computer monitors, while at the same time reading articles about how technology is changing education. When a school has desktop boxes and CRT’s there may not be a better choice when you are teaching computer applications. In my classroom there are 6 desktop with CRT’s, and my aid and I each have a computer. They are set against the wall and all networked. I struggle weekly to use the computers as just another tool, like a calculator or pencil, in delivery of the curriculum. There are not enough computers for every student so I have them work in teams.

The last project was using the scientific method, they had to determine which of three paper towels was the most absorbent. I created a classroom wiki with the directions, an outline, and a rubric. Each student had an account to access the wiki and they worked in teams of 3 or 4. These are special ed high school students in a vocational school and they had developed sense of learned helplessness over their years in the  special ed classrooms. I wanted them to begin to take charge of their own learning so other than the directions on the wiki I gave them very little direction. They had to email me or contact me though the discussion function of the wiki. During this time I was in New Mexico for a week and kept in touch through the wiki discussion.

For the first 2 days they just sat at the computers and waited for myself or the aid to help, we just went about our business. When the students would ask specific questions I would answer. They finally finished the project, I had to give them an extra week, and now I want to use some photos I took when they were doing the experiment to make a PowerPoint.

The school does have a computer lab, but I don’t believe the students could have had the same experience their. For one thing just scheduling time in the lab is always a problem. In the classroom I just make the time.  If students had laptops they would always have access to the curriculum, each other, and the world. A few students actually did work on the wiki at home, which is what I encouraged them all to do.

So I guess the computer lab is a first step to integrate technology into the curriculum and I hope it is not the last.

I went to the Christa McAuliffe Tech Conference yesterday for the first time. I usually go to the MassCUE tech conference, but I was in NM at the time. Will Richardson was the keynote and I have to admit I am a bit of a groupie. I don’t know where he gets the energy, traveling from workshop to conference must be tiring. With each workshop I have with Will I come away with a deeper connection with technology and education.

The ETLO workshops will be over soon and the real work of signing up and training other teachers will start. As I was communicating through the wiki with other members of the MA team I felt I was working on an island and wanted more personal connection with other edtech teachers. maybe we can get together this summer for a technology “camp” and emerse ourselves in tool and content. I feel like I am always wanting more time to sit and really work through ideas/connections/tools/curriculum so that it becomes second nature. That is the problem with the Edtech conferences, I get an hour with Will, he touches on a few basic concepts and I have a few notes with ideas, the next time I get real time to set with the ideas and tools may be a month later.

At least it is grist for the blog.

may all being find peace

I successfully completed a Skype video connection with my classroom in MA from NM. The ease of setting up Skype and the webcam is scary. Now the hard part, how to use this technology in the curriculum. A place to start would be to connect classroom within the Collab.

As we work on curriculum development we can identify teachers who have a “best practice” lesson already developed. As we all know , especially in SPED, trying to be an expert in all the curriculum areas is impossible. With Web 2.0 tools we can teach to our strengths and share them with students not in our classroom.

I want you to meet the new me Jaime Theas, my avatar in Second Life . I can be found at Eduisland II looking at all the new resources being built there. I am still a new citizen learning how to live in SL. I have had a passing interest in SL, but when I started reading Kevin Jarrett’s blog The Story of My “Second Life” I knew I had to become part of this community of educators. Kevin has been working with the teachers and students at Suffern Middle School as they explore the integration of SL and education.

Then there is Sloodle, a mashup between Second Life and Moodle.

Sloodle is a project to integrate the VLE platform Moodle with 3D immersive settings such as Second Life. Imagine a Moodle course that, if you wanted, could turn into a proper 3D interactive classroom with all your Moodle resources available to your students in the virtual world.

Many of you may have seen Karl Fisch’s Did You Know video, but did you know that he has created a trio of video about the past-present-and future of educational technology.

The first video is called What if and is about the historical resistance to using new technology in education.

The Did You Know? video is here as a streaming Flash video and here on YouTube.

The third video is called 2020 Vision. In this video Fisch is giving the keynote at the high school graduation in 2020. He looks back over how much the world has changed over the last 13 years.

When I received the flier about this symposium I was not sure I could go, but I am glad I did. I have been looking forward to this for 2 weeks. I have learned so much since the MassCUE Conference in November I wanted to touch base again with some of the same presenters from November. I have been reading Will Richardson’s book from cover to cover and was able to get get him to sign it. He has so much energy and want to spread the edtech message to everyone. I was able to reinforce many of the concepts Will introduced in November.
I was also able to get more out of Paul Colombo’s podcasting workshop, now that I know more about what he is doing and I am doing. The Digital Kids workshop was very informative also. Producing and publishing instructional digital videos is not diffcult and many students could do it.

The conversations around the table at lunch are always interesting. Comments about the lack of technology integration teacher training at the college level is an issue that not many people are addressing. It is assumed that a 21 year old new teacher will be tech savy, but that is not true. They may have a blog and a MySpace, but that does not mean they can use tech tools effectively in the classroom. More work to be done.

I have been thinking about how to integrate some of the ideas I have from the Symposium into the curriculum at Career Tech. I guess I need to find out what they do now. My feeling is not much other than use computers for word processing and graphics.