Archive for December, 2008
Life on the cutting edge.
Image via WikipediaIt’s not unusual when somebody shares a tip with me and then appends it by saying, “But I’m sure you already knew about that already.” I always find that funny because the only reason that I am familiar with so many sites and applications, is because people have learned about them and taken the time to share them! Rarely would I ever be so bold as to say that I was the ‘first’ person to discover something. It’s like we’re playing a giant game telephone, but in a multi-linear fashion. If I have any secret, it’s that I do my best to stay connected with a rather large group of people that are much more cutting edge than many of them believe themselves to be.
And that’s the other piece that I find absolutely fascinating. It often seems that most people that come up to me and chat after a presentation start up the conversation by saying, “I’m so far behind everyone, but I’m trying to catch up.” I couldn’t disagree more. In my experience, most educators are still FAR ahead of the curve.
Here’s what I mean. Jump onto a public bus or train. How many people on there do you think have ever created a blog? Listening to a podcast? Have created a network on Twitter? Know how to use Google Docs? Have collaborated on a wiki? And so on… What percentage of teachers do you think are adept in all those things? I dare say the overall percentage would be fairly low.
That’s why I truly do believe that the people who are sharing ideas with me on Twitter or staying behind to chat after presentations are more than likely WAY ahead of the majority of educators. They just don’t seem to believe it themselves. Why is it so hard to believe?
So out of curiosity, I’d love to hear where you think you fall on the bell curve. Ahead, behind, right on the top of the wave? And why?
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The Networked Student… in plain English
This CommonCraft inspired video does an excellent job of explaining what a truly networked student looks like. And more importantly, what the teachers role is for them.
Consider it your weekend video break.
Celebrate the Day of the Ninja!
I always look forward to December 5th for two reasons. It happens to be my birthday, but more importantly, it’s also the Day of the Ninja! It’s the day when everybody, everywhere gets to… well… act like a ninja I guess! I’ve always been a big fan of ninjas. I watched a ton of ninja movies, including the Chris Farley classic Beverly Hills Ninja, and have read quite a few books featuring ninjas.
I began to wonder, what sits at the corner of EdTech Boulevard and Ninja Street? And with that, let’s take a look at some of the best Ninja resources for educators!
If we’re talking about Ninja education, I think we need to start with the Dean. Dean Dad is the Dean of a community college and came up with a list of what the Pre-Ninja program would look like at his school. He also expanded that to what the pre-reqs were, graduation requirements and that’s just the beginning. A fine place to start for any budding Technology Ninja.
Image via WikipediaSpeaking of Technology Ninjas, I’d be remiss if I didn’t pay homage to the original Technology Ninja, Tom Woodward. You may know him form his layman’s blog, Bionic Teaching, which just happens to be nominated at the EduBlog Awards. But once he dons his handy Ninja mask, he becomes the Technology Ninjawho is there to silently assassinate your technology problems! Unfortunately he hasn’t posted for quite a while there, but there’s still quite a lot to learn from.
I say that he’s the original, because he seems to have been supplanted by the EdTech Ninja. Who IS the EdTech Ninja? Nobody knows! Could it be Tom under a new guise? Or perhaps he’s a colleague of yours! He could be anybody because Ninjas are so stealthy and sneaky. What I do know is that there’s an incredible amount of information there for any educator, but especially those looking for Smartboard tips and tricks.
Finally, I wanted to share a video that I found. Student Ninjas at Metz Middle School won an honorable mention at the Shortie awards for this video. In it, “Ninjas must use their knowledge of inequalities to know what to do when hit by a negative!” Enjoy!
Hope your Day of the Ninja is full of sneaky fun!
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Nominated
I was debating whether to share that I’ve been nominated for a couple of EduBlog Awards or not. I hate bragging and I certainly don’t want it to look like I’m begging for votes. But I finally decided to mention it because ya know what? I’m pretty darn proud of those nominations. I’ve spent a lot of time lately trying to convince teachers that don’t believe they have much of a reason to jump in and contribute to the conversation that they’re actually Rock Stars. I’ve preached that they need to take pride in their accomplishments major or minor and share their experiences with other people. So with that in mind, to heck with being modest!
This year I’ve been nominated for two EduBlog Awards. I’ve never been nominated for an ‘Eddie’ before, and To be completely honest, I’m pretty stoked. Win or lose, I consider it an honor and privileged to be listed with so many people that I consider to be some of the best EduBloggers out there. I’m proud to be able to call many of those people friends and colleagues, and would be absolutely thrilled for them if they won. Of course, I’d prefer to win myself, but that’s the competitive streak I have in me doesn’t even get turned off when I’m playing Candyland with kids!
Regardless, I greatly appreciate everybody that nominated me for the awards. I’ll be proud to add the badges into my sidebar regardless of what happens. If you’ve enjoyed learning with me here at Teach42, then swing by the EduBlog Awards and toss a vote my way in the two categories I’m nominated for: Best Individual Blog and Best EdTech Support Blog. If you look at those lists and find someone more deserving, then vote for them in good conscience. There are no unworthy nominees on that list. And then spend some time on the site exploring the various nominees in the different categories. I’ve often found it to be one of the best ways to discover new blogs for the ol’ aggregator!
ShoutEm is to Twitter as Ning is to Facebook
We’ve all known it was coming, it was just a matter of time. Well, it has finally arrived and I’m thrilled to say that it was worth the wait. ShoutEm is a create-your-own-Twitter platform that works just as easily as Ning does. All you need to do is sign up with the current invite code of “doneright“, and within minutes you’ll be creating your own version of Twitter, as customized as you want it to be. It took me about 10 minutes to create Tweach42, the microblogging community for Teach42 readers!
They have several basic skins to choose from, but if they don’t quite suit you, you can upload images and tweak the settings through their UI. Or if you want more advanced features, just create your own darn CSS, they fully support it. I can only imagine what people are going to come up with down the road. Features include the ability to allow or disable public profiles, anonymous shouts (tweets), control replies, pownce like file sharing features, and even the ability to keep your network private or approve registrations on an individual basis.
What does this mean? It means that we finally have the ability to create our own Twitters for niche purposes. Youth Voices doesn’t need to hack WordPress anymore to simulate Twitter. Teachers can use it for any classroom project, with full privacy or publicity as needed. I plan to use it for backchannels and as an example for how microblogs work in a less crazy setting than Twitter itself. The possibilities are pretty endless.
Mind you, this isn’t a replacement for Edmodo, a site I’m still a fan of. Edmodo is what Twitter would have looked like if it had been designed by educators for classroom purposes. This is for people who like the Twitter format already and just want their own custom version of it.
If you want to play around with it, visit Tweach42 and send off a few shouts. And when you want to create your own, visit ShoutEm and use the invitation code “doneright“.
What kind of uses do you see Shoutem being used for??
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Real world art
Image by hoyasmeg via FlickrOver coffee today, somebody shared with me a website where peopled posted a creative brief for a logo or design they were looking for and how much they were willing to pay. Then people competed to win the ‘prize’. The site is called CrowdSPRING and what’s amazing about it is that people aren’t competing to win a contract to create the logo/design, they’re actually going ahead and doing the work and hoping to be the one selected as the winner. For example, Scholarship Connect is going to be a search engine for college bound students and they need a logo. They’re offering up $250 to the best design submitted to them by December 4th. So far, they have 37 entries to choose from.
At first I was just way impressed at the idea of the site, and that so many professional and amateur graphic designers were participating. Then i started wondering whether any student graphic designers were jumping into the game. After all, why not? If they enjoyed doing design work and wanted to practice in some real world situations, why not try their hand at some logos for real potential clients? Their creations would be competing directly with people who do it for a living (or on the side) and it’s always possible that they could win one and make a little money to put towards college!
Seriously though, it really does make you think about creating authentic experiences for students. So many people are fond of blogging because students are publishing for a real world audience, not just the teacher. But what about taking it a step further? Back to the art example.
Image by oddharmonic via FlickrAs I mentioned, on CrowdSpring.com, students could create logos that might wind up being used in actual websites and promotional materials. If they aren’t of the digital persuasion, they could submit their art to IVoteForArt.com, a site where people can vote on the art they like and even buy it if the mood strikes. Not every artist’s work gets accepted, but a student could certainly try. Or by registering at ArtFlock, they can create their own gallery, show off their best work and set prices if they are so motivated. If they have an idea that might fall a little closer into the pop culture world, they could submit it to Threadless. If enough people dig the idea, they’d get to see their design made into a T-Shirt and receive a tidy sum.
Outside of the world of capitalism, there are plenty of opportunities too. One of my favorite sites is TakingItGlobal.org, and they regularly have art challenges for people to participate in. This month the challenge is, “Submit a postcard design that illustrates what actions your government should take in hopes of building a sustainable future for us all.”
With all that mind mind, it really does make me wonder just how many projects we have students working on everyday that could be modified slightly to become authentic experiences that have real world implications.
UPDATE: After posting this, I returned to the CrowdSpring site and clicked through to their blog. Low and behold, the first post there was about a 16 year old student who was applying to become their community manager. Instead of submitting a traditional resume, he sent this in instead:
Stop-Motion App-uh-lu-cat-ion from Judson on Vimeo
Think he’ll have trouble finding a job he’s passionate about? I think it’ll be harder keeping him passionate about his school work until he moves into the real world. Pretty incredible.
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Too much blogging?
Image by mamassage via FlickrIt’s been a long time since I blogged daily for a week, much less a full month. I gotta admit, it has been exhausting to do so. Researching, sketching out and then writing each of those challenges every day was much more work than I’d originally thought it would be. However, as I look back on it, I can’t help but think to myself… was I doing any more work than the average middle school student probably does for homework on a daily basis? And the answer is no.
Has ‘normal’ work and family life spoiled me? I don’t think so. I do think I have a pretty healthy balance in my life right now, but adding that extra hour or two that it took to hammer out those challenges definitely put a strain on things. I can’t help but think that this must be how many students are feeling every night.
The big difference is, I chose to do that challenge. And now I can choose to take a break from blogging if I want to. So my question to you is:
If a student came up to you and told you that s/he was getting burnt out and needed a night off, would you let them take a ‘balance night’ and skip that night’s assignment?
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