Archive for January, 2006
A very NICE mini-conference
I know, I know, the title of the post is corny, but how can you avoid it when the group hosting the mini-conference is named "NICE", Northern Illinois Computing Educators? The conference itself was a resounding success. There were only three time slots, perfect for a half day mini-conference. I did a quick 45 minute overview of Educational podcasting. You can read Dick’s write up of it here and check out the resource page here. I really should post the entire presentation there. I wish I had recorded it. I was planning to record it on my camera, but seems as though I forgot to charge it up the night before and the battery was dead. Anyway, it went smooth, and based on the comments people shared with me afterwards, quite a few people left the session thinking to themselves, "You know, I really think I could do that." I’m pretty satsified with that. I also attended a session about using Moodle for virtual staff development, hosted by Charlene Chausis. Charlene is the staff development trainer at Stevenson High School and showed off a Moodle course that she created discussing teaching technology to Digital Natives. To be honest, I want to attend that course! I must admit that I was surprised to see that John Blake and Wesley Fryer were already attending and participating in the course! I wonder if Charlene’s teachers know that she’s really got some heavy hitters playing in the sandbox with them? Anyway, the class itself was very informational to me. It had been a long time since I played around with Moodle, and I definitely learned about some features that I either forgotten or never knew about to begin with. It looks perfect for this project I’m going to be getting started on soon (very hush hush, but I’ll share when I can). Charlene also did a great job of sharing projects that other schools have been working on. Great stuff and well worth the time. The quality of Open Source products never cease to amaze me.
Under construction
Just to warn ya’all, I’m in the midst of upgrading to WordPress 2.0 and getting a new theme set up (one that actually works in all browsers correctly). So the site will probably be up and down over the next few days.
Today’s news, from SMS Live
Know what one of the great things about DEN having regional managers in every area of the country? You find out about some amazing things that teachers and students are doing that somehow manage to slip under the radar.
Via the Pennsylvania DEN blog:
The kids at Salisbury Middle School are on the air. They aren’t podcasting, they aren’t videocasting, they’re broadcasting. Every day, they create an SMS Live newscast, a daily closed circuit show produced by the students and faculty there.
There are four on-air anchors, a computer operator, a video mixer operator, two camera operators, a sound operator, a teleprompter operator, a producer that runs the whole show, and a studio manager. On any given day, there are close to 15 students that are needed to bring SMS LIVE to each homeroom, offices and hallway monitors … The show includes announcements, school news, sports and weather, and a highlight of student activities outside the school, such as the recent Interact Club’s Dream Come True fund-raiser. Sports highlights of basketball games are also in the offing.
I watched a couple of them and they really are quite professionally done. Most impressive. I’d be really curious to see a write up of how the entire thing came about, what equipment they’re using and how other schools could follow in suit. Looks like these students are getting some amazing broadcast experience in a very authentic way.
DEN vs. Teach42
I got an email the other day asking me how I’m deciding what should go up on the national Discovery Educator Network blog and what goes on Teach42.com. Umm… I’m not really sure just yet. I’m still trying to figure out just where that line is going to be drawn, and at least for the short term I’m straddling it quite nicely. I don’t really want to get into the habit of cross posting, because I find that sort of irritates me (not to mention it creates instances where there are multiple comment threads about the same post that should really be one conversation).
The reason I bring it up right now is that I just posted this massive article (well, massive for me) about the potential for students to use Wikipedia to cheat and was debating with myself whether to post it here as well. Obviously I’ve decided not to.
Anyway, the point is, if you enjoy the stuff I write you should keep an eye on that blog as well. Scott Kinney, Hall Davidson and Betsy Whalen are also exercising their blogging skills over there, so it’s pretty active. Once I figure out exactly where that line between the DEN blog and here is drawn, I’ll be sure to let you know. And if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
A NICE way to spend a Saturday if you’re in Illinois
Somehow, I always forget to actually post conferences that I’m going to be attending or presenting at before they actually occur. Dick Marchessault has a good write up of the NICE Mini-Conference that I’ll be doing a Podcasting session at on Saturday. If you’re in the area, stop on by!
Podcasting vs. Lecture: Followup
Seems as though this post got struck a chord with a few people. Will chimed in, John tossed his two cents in the bucket, but Barbara’s response really tries to answer the questions that everyone is asking.
“When the lecture, presentation slides and notes can all be shared online, what SHOULD a higher education class look like?”
Engage students in collaborative, subject-centered learning through authentic projects, activities and simulations. Not all of these need to take place in class of course. The time together can function much like the circle around the fire–sharing, discussing, probing the issues [....
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Bring experts into the classroom (and onto the blog) to contextualize the subject within the real world. Have them talk with (not at) the students…Throw the classroom doors open to service learning. Have the students apply the learning from the lectures, books and online discussions in efficiacious, meaningful work for the larger community in which they live.
Have the students present their takes on pieces of the lectures–analyzing, extending, applying the learning for their peers. They can do mini-lectures and presentations in front of the group to gain experience in formal and informal presentation situations. They can create podcasts and vodcasts as well, comparing the three kinds of presentations within the field.
See? There are other things you can do with the time instead of filling them with pop quizes!
Maybe we should organize a round table discussion around this topic during Shifted Learning. If you didn’t have to waste your time lecturing at your students, what could you do with your class time?
Chalkdust Torture
Not sure if anyone else is a fan of the band Phish, but reading Casey’s comment about college reminding me of a verse from Chalkdust Torture:
But who can unlearn all the facts that I’ve learned
As I sat in their chairs and my synapses burned
And the torture of chalk dust collects on my tongue
Thoughts follow my vision and dance in the sun
All my vasoconstrictors they come slowly undone
Can’t this wait till I’m old? Can’t I live while I’m young?
No, this really doesn’t have much of anything to do with education reform, technology, or testing, but doesn’t it sum up how every kid feels as they sit in the chair being lectured at as they stare out the window at a beautiful day slipping away?
Podcast versus lecture shootout
Some professors posting their lectures online as podcasts claim they are seeing a rise in absenteeism. Professors are responding by having more pop quizzes or giving extra credit for attending class.
Am I missing something? What’s the problem here? If students can get all of the necessary information and pass the final exam just by listening to the podcasts, then A ) the student should get a cookie and B ) the professor do some serious thinking about how much value there is of hearing the information firsthand.
If the student could just as easily get all the information from a podcast, then isn’t the lecture period being completely wasted? Perhaps the time could be used better by providing the lecture in advance and then using the class period for discussion. Or perhaps the class period should focus on exploring the information and finding practical uses for it in small groups with guidance from the professor.
This may sound like a radical idea, but maybe having three hundred students listening passively to a single person lecturing isn’t the most efficient use of the time. In the past, it might have been tremendously efficient. Before the internet, portable media devices and electronic recording, gathering everybody into one room so the professor only needs to say things once might have been the most efficient way to share information. Times have changed though. Perhaps the process needs to be re-evaluated. If students can get their information via podcast, maybe there are more effective ways to use the class period.
When the lecture, presentation slides and notes can all be shared online, what SHOULD a higher education class look like?
Spammer with a sense of humor
Spam Karma for WordPress does a pretty darn decent job of filtering everything. In fact, it’s caught about 700 spam comments in the last two weeks, without even bringing it to my attention. Occasionally, a comment is held in a queue because it isn’t sure if it’s spam or not. I got one such comment today and actually got a chuckle from it.
Nice. Very nice.
But I like your guestbook the most.
Unfortunately there’s too much spam in it.
I may not have the guestbook, but I like the idea of a spammer complaining about there being too much spam.
Hey, it made me smile as I deleted it. If you’re going to be a splogger, at least have some fun with it I guess. Or don’t do it at all. That’d be even better.
Principal possibly fired due to his personal blog
From EdBlogger Praxis: A principal of a French school is in big trouble because his blog
Oy vey. A principal in France was fired after school officials discovered his anonymous personal blog which was determined to be pornographic and obscene. According to some, it wasn’t either of those, but regardless it caused a major scandal. The latest news is that the Minister of Education is reviewing it and is expected to reverse the decision. You can read an English summary of the events that occurred here.
I don’t care how anonymously you post, people can still figure out your identity. Keep that in mind my semi-anonymous friends. Blog as if the entire world knows who you are. It’s safer that way.