I spent the first half of this school year taking a graduate class that was required for me to renew my certification. It was a good class, and I learned a lot, but it did take a decent amount of time each week for me to complete the assignments. (Had it not done so it possibly wouldn’t have been a good class, but that’s an assertion for another day.) The class ended in December, and I began looking forward to all the “free time” I…Continue Reading “I know too much.”
Every now and then a program comes along that is so fantastic, so perfect for what I do in the classroom, that I can’t help but use it. Skitch is one of those programs. I first found out about it when Bre Pettis started posting drawings he’d made using the program. Intrigued, I downloaded it, played with it, fell in love, and used it in one of my classes the same day. Not only was it that easy to use, it was appropriate, too. Skitch…Continue Reading “I <3 Skitch"
Welcome to 2009, a brand new year with new possibilities, new opportunities, new experiences, and the same old mistakes. And more often than not, all of those things happen at the same time. I have a habit of mine. A bad habit, if you will. A deep, dark secret that will no doubt haunt me as I’m now casting it out amongst the sea of the interwebs. Sometimes I expect too much from my students. I’ll take a moment for all of you to let…Continue Reading “Mistakes were made.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is doing a fundraiser, and to kick it off they’ve released a short animated song to show just what they do. If you’re a long term follower of this blog then I don’t need to tell you the EFF is awesome. While as an artist I feel I should have the final say with what’s done with my media, I think current practices go too far towards enforcing outdated business models. Image uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!
Presented by Cindy Savio. Education.smarttech.com – a way to share interactive activities for the SMART board. Showing a bunch of cool activities, some from the above site, others integrate media from Discovery Education Streaming. Cover a whole picture in a solid color, then “erase” the picture to reveal it gradually. Since the pens write in a layer on top of the screen, the images are preserved. Drag-and-drop exercises, where students organize things (words, shapes, coins, etc.) by dragging them with their fingers. Telling time with…Continue Reading “PUWT 2008 – Session 4: Using the SMART Board – It’s Elementary!”
Presented by Allison Archer Started out with a Bob Dylan song about times and how they’re a-changin’. Rolled right into dialogue on MySpace. (Boo! Hiss!) Social Networking is cool and helpful, but MySpace gives it all a bad name. Enter: Ning – a site that allows us to build our own social networks. Plenty of collaboration, but also plenty of control. The presenter created a Ning for her students to share with students in Thailand. Quick mention about wikis – another way to collaborate. Now…Continue Reading “PUWT 2008 – Session 3: What’s In A Ning? Online Social Netwoks in K-12 Education”
Presented by Evylyn Quinones 1st choice was on 21st century collaboration, but presenter was a no-show. Walked in on 2nd choice as she was showing off her Flip camera. Never got to see the built in software before – it allows for basic editing, but also allows you to upload the video to the internet. Even better, you can change your preferences to save the video in different formats. Moving on to her voice recorder. Olympus WS300 – looks like David Warlick’s but I can’t…Continue Reading “PUWT 2008 – Session 2: Pocket Size Multimedia Studio”
Sitting in the front again, or at least the 3rd row. She has a website, of course. :) Today: Copy/Paste from web. Our day: Copy from encyclopedia. Not much different, really, but how can we change assignments so students can learn from them? Mentioning David Warlick & using a “Building Block” model. Making glyphs – using data to create personalized graphics – with younger kids. Now she’s talking about using PowerPoint in unorthodox ways. Not so keen on PowerPoint myself, but it’s on most computers…Continue Reading “PUWT 2008 – Keynote: Tammy Worcester”
OK, I admit it, my first impression of the session was based entirely on the room. How’s this? They face forward to take notes, and turn around to use the computers. The teacher can see every screen from the front of the room. Sweet. Presenter is Danna Bell-Russel, from the Library of Congress. “Not about the site, but how to find things on the site.” Presenting with Microsoft Word – Simple, unorthodox, but effective. LOC isn’t in the business of censorship, but it does have…Continue Reading “PUWT2008 – Session 1: Treasure Hunting at the Library of Congress Online”
The following are excerpts from lab notes taken by psychologist Dr. I. M. Nuts and sociologist Dr. R. U. There. Their study was on the effect of microblogs on human personalities. It should be noted that while Twitter was used for this experiment, Plurk is better. Pre-Study Interview: Subject looked confused. “Micro what? Is that like MySpace?” Interview 1: Subject was made aware of the microblogging format. Created an account and posted “Trying out Twitter. Is this any good?” Added everyone in the computer lab…Continue Reading “Microblogging Addiction Study”