Ed Tech: The Blog

GaETC Conference

As usual, organizers did a great job!

My only complaint is that there were no sessions that were Mac specific! Perhaps the selection committee felt there was no demand, but from the number of Macs I saw, I think they missed an opportunity.

Presentation

Here's a link to the slides from my presentation at GaETC via TeacherTube: http://tiscobb.typepad.com/herman_wood/2007/11/presentation-sl.html

Consider the Source: Wikipedia and Other Online Encyclopedias

This was to be a debate, but one of the presenters fell ill and was unable to be here. The discussion includes using more than one source, that no one source is the absolute truth. Let's start with a basic encyclopedia- Britannica. It's written by an editorial board. Wikipedia is written by everyone. 75000 active contributors, nearly 2.1 million entries in English.

The presenter seems to be focusing on issues with wikipedia.

Let me digress and share a personal opinion. I think this comes down to the question of are some of us smarter than all of us. In this case, the some is an editorial board and the all being the contributors to Wikipedia. It also comes down to what you need. There's certainly a place for both!

Century Toolkit: Free Web 2.0 Tools for Your Class

Yes, I finally went to a session today that's not about Google Earth! This session tried to cover the spectrum of Web 2.0. Daunting!

Here's the links:
http://toolkit.edublogs.org/
http://toolkit.edublogs.org/web-20-links/

In her mention of podcasts, Audacity and Odeo were mentioned and discussed, but not GarageBand for the Mac. I find it much easier than either of the above if you have a Mac.

Great job explaining wiki's and the difference between public and private. Public wikis can be seen by everyone, though edited can be controllled by login. Private wikis require a login to even be viewed.

The best part of the presentation were the links to the service parts of Web 2.0! Newletters, scrapbook, picture editing, posters, books, and sounds! Very cool!

Interesting note- Google docs limits number of invitees to a doc, with a limit of 10 able to edit at one time.

Google Lit Trips

http://www.googlelittrips.org/
Let's start with the file type that Google Earth saves into. It's called a KMZ file and it's cross platform. If you can run Google Earth, you can use a KMZ file.

Revelation: Build a Google Lit Trip, build a fictional blog for the character, and link them together from Google Earth!

One of the biggest things I've learned with all this Google Earth stuff is that I need to spend lots of time playing with Google Earth!

The presenters feel strongly that even 2nd graders can create Google Lit Trips! That rocks!

The website cited above has examples, as well as resources to help you with Google Earth, including tips. One resource that looks especially rich is: http://earth.google.com/thanks-newsletter.html

Here's the best tip of all: http://web.mac.com/jburg/GoogleLit/Lit_Trip_Tips.html

It's Google Day!

I'm Googling with Hall Davidson this morning; Staggeringly Good Things Mixing Google Earth and Media. It's a double session! He's showed basic navigation and folders. Great way to organize for class! Here's something cool to try- turn on the 3-D building layers. It shows buildings people have modeled in SketchUp. He's also clicked history in city of London. It shows the development of London over it's history. Of course you don't see the actual buildings over time, but icons for them. The only actual buildings are the most current Google satellite photo.

The Add Content button takes you to your browser and shows you content already out that you can add to your view.

Layers are amazing! Geo tags on all kinds of cool things. One thing he noted was Discovery videos. You turn on that layer, click on the icon, then you're browser will open with a video about that place. National Geographic has all kinds of cool things for your classroom. Anopther one- Rumsey historical maps! Great use for social studies!

I believe his stuff is at this link: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/media_matters/2007/10/24/google-earth-streamathon-mega-post/

Here's links to the Google Earth Community:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0
http://bbs.keyhole.com/entrance.php?Cat=0

Here's another great one for Earth Science- National Weather Service Doppler Radar layer in image layers! Layers are a great place to explore.

Now for Part II (It's a double session.) Fair warning- from here he is going to talk a little code- limited to cutting and pasting. We're going to start with a chat with Jerome Burg- he is the creator of Google Lit Trips. Here's his site: http://web.mac.com/jburg/GoogleLit/Home.html
http://www.googlelittrips.com/

Looks like the spot to paste code is the description box, Get Info. Ok, here's a code example, but I have be careful since I'm posting in the blog so the code doesn't goof up the post: Of course, you have to open with < and then close with /> You need the url of the image or movie, the use img src= with the url pasted in after the =.

If you have used Google calendars, or PICASA with your blog, this is no harder in terms of pasting code.

Here's more resources: http://gelessons.com/
http://www.assortedstuff.com/stuff/?p=65

iPod: The MegaVCR from Hall Davidson

Presentation from iPod! That's one use!
Media from United Streaming on the iPod- that'll work!
Videos as a way to grab student attention.

Here's some links:
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/media_matters/
http://discoveryeducation.typepad.com/media_matters/

Great example- medical students were losing their stethoscope skills. Prof got the idea of recording problematic heart sounds onto an iPod. Students skills improved dramatically!!

A scary thought- the new video iPod will hold the whole GPB Discovery Education Streaming library! Cost effectively, as well!

Only cost for Mac is QuickTime Pro & iSquint. iTunes is the key!

Archive.org is a great source for video.

LibriVox audio of books from the public domain.

Great stuff! Explore his links above!

Curtis Bonk: Podcasts and Wikis and Blogs, Oh My! Online Learning Is Not in Kansas Anymore

A start with some background and definitions. Previously visited, and Dr. Bonk did a great, though noisy ; ) review!

Who is Dr. Bonk?
http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/
http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/
http://www.gaetc.org/speakers07/bonk07.htm
http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/

Some great reviews of bloggers, vloggers, and the like.

Whoa- a quote- "All sites you visit at school should be pre-screened." No elaboration. If that's Kansas, I don't want to be there. I cannot agree. I'll move on.

Wikipedia- he seems to feel it's more reliable. Quite possibly.
Wiktionary- some controversy, promising, however.

Using a wiki in teaching:
A space for free writing, debating, sharing, group journal, group or class essay, revise wikipedia pages, write a wikibook.

OK, shameless self promotion warning- come see us Friday @ 11 in Australian 1-2. Support blog at:
http://blogsandwikisohmy.wordpress.com/
and the support wiki:
http://techbytes.wetpaint.com

We have a very different presentation from what you saw in this session. Much more on where the rubber meets the road, showing K-12 students created blogs. We have some examples of wikis, but will point you in the right direction to build your own.

& one last time- Pogue!

What is the future of technology in 5 years? As he reminded us, anyone who tries to predict the future of technology is an idiot anyway!

Let's start with the iPhone- ok, drool on the keyboard alert- Until Apple, you were held hostage by the cell phone makers as to what your phone looks like, works like, or does. You're stuck with what the brilliant cell phone people give you! IMHO, it took Apple to make a phone that works like it should. The change to watch? Phones that are not designed by cell carriers.

Next, RFID. ID tags by radio frequency. Libraries, prescriptions that talk, stray cats, shipping tags, clothing stores to track, prisoner tracking, and more. Controversial? Sure, they can be used for good & bad, just like anything else.

A la carte TV? Not just tv when you want it, but where you want it. See Sling.

Audience created tv- Revver.

Portable tv- the video iPod.

All analog tv will be turned off in 2006, ooppps, 2007, ooops, we mean 2009. It'll be widescreen, not square. That means changes for players, cameras, etc..

The DVD format wars- HD v. Blu Ray. What will happen? I hope we'll get our movies off the web and the heck with the stupid piece of plastic.

& finally Web 2.0- well, I was watching that already ; ) Great explanation of DIGG. A collection of the knowledge of the masses.

I enjoyed my day David. Have a great flight home. On to Podcasts & Wikis & Blogs, Oh My, if I can find an electrical socket....

Pogue,....

David Pogue's take on Web 2.0- Social Media- a blog is textual, a podcast aural, a vlog (vidcast, vodcast, video podcast) visual, forms of social expression.

He believes there are 2 different things- the personal blog, and commercial blogs. The personal is your own thing. Commercial is a way to make money. The commercial blog is interesting in that it's an inside look at a company, but of course filtered by the company.

Dude- ok, there's nothing like getting called out by a speaker at a conference by the guy you're blogging about. To make a point, David pointed out my post on his session this morning. Thanks, David, for actually reading something I wrote. You returned the favor of my reading your books and your blog. Difference is, you might be the first to read mine ; )

Some great examples of people blogging causing pain to other individuals and companies. An argument for responsible blogging? Certainly! By then there's the flip... what about Dan Rather getting called out? about holding the MEDIA responsible? I could start on the local paper, but that wouldn't make for a productive entry.

On to copyright. I think what's wrong is copyright. Great examples, but every example is very likely an example of copyright violation. None of his examples financially harmed creators, but look to be violations. One example- You've got an LP, but not the digital version. You make a digital copy. Copyright or copywrong?

A service called Google Alerts to email you when you are blogged about. Guess that made it easy for David to find my post?

Tim O'Reilly has suggested a code of conduct, to be badged, either with a civility enforced, or anything goes. Hmmmm..... what do you think!

& finally, nothing's really changed- good stuff will rule the day. Agreed. What is different is that we all can have a voice. I'll take that over the way things were.