*In this case, these “rules” are not unlike the “Pirate Code” from a popular movie series. They’re guidelines, meant to be followed when it’s convenient for you. For the most part, they’ve been convenient for me. With the advent of Google+ there are a lot of people thinking (and not thinking) about how to properly use a social network. The typical behavior when a new network is discovered is to dive in headfirst and find every person you’ve ever known that’s currently using the service….Continue Reading “5 Rules* For Working the Social Net”
This episode of Academic Aesthetic is brought to you by antibiotics and cough drops. You see, early last week a combination of lots of talking (occupational hazard of teaching), and post nasal drip caused by a sinus infection made me lose my voice. It’s better now, but can only talk so long before my agonized squeaks become a source of amusement for all around me. So submitted for your approval is an interview of me done by Dr. Kavita Mittapalli, someone whose name I most…Continue Reading “Academic Aesthetic 177: 404 VOICE NOT FOUND”
It’s that time of the year again, when I devote two days to education and technology … er, more so than usual, at least. As usual, my conference was full of fun, excitement, and learning – so much so that I forgot to take proper notes! I did not, however, forget to post on Twitter up through the end of Tuesday’s keynote, so rather than reinvent the wheel I thought I’d copy/paste the highlights here. The keynote itself was presented by Chris Lehmann (Website) (Twitter),…Continue Reading “#MSET 2011 Tuesday Keynote Notes”
Academic Aesthetic 175: Games in Education Part 3 [ 10:23 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1165)So where was I? Oh yeah, games in education. I started in Episode 174 by giving a background of what I’d done up to that point, which I suppose means that’s not when I started at all, but that’s the post I named “Part 1” so I’m just going to leave it at that. In Episode 175 I discussed my current thoughts about turning my own Middle School curriculum into a game, including several problems and solutions I’d encountered. Some problems had multiple possible solutions,…Continue Reading “Academic Aesthetic 176: Games in Education Part 3”
(Music for today’s show provided by Bre Pettis.) Yesterday’s post was not meant to be as long as it was. My initial goal was the content of today’s post, but as I sat down to write it I thought I’d start with an overview of where I was coming from. Apparently a 2 paragraph introduction can be stretched into a 7 minute podcast. In any case, as I wrapped up my “story so far” it was painfully obvious that I’d crossed the fine line between…Continue Reading “Academic Aesthetic 175: Games in Education Part 2”
Academic Aesthetic 174: Games in Educaton Part 1 [ 7:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1218)Introduction and Reasoning Those who have read my blog or listened to my podcast for any length of time are no doubt aware that I’m a fan of using games as a conduit for learning. I’m not talking about the “Educational Games” market, that will certainly dominate a large part of the Vendor area at this year’s MSET (I’m presenting again, yay!), though some of those are good too. No, I’m talking about the games that kids (and adults) choose to play because of compelling…Continue Reading “Academic Aesthetic 174: Games in Educaton Part 1”
In this ‘cast I discuss my reaction to our midyear evaluations (I lost sight of what I was trying to do – it happens).
This is a brief overview of Minecraft Classic (minecraft.net), how I related it to my curriculum, and some student examples. Apologies for the size of the download (Nearly 50 MB, ouch!), but I unfortunately couldn’t make it smaller without losing a lot of the quality. Video is like that.
Episode this time is 8.5 MB. I had to use an FTP client to upload the thing. That’s how much I care. Powering Up With Technology conference was awesome. Minecraft shows potential as a tool for student learning in the classroom. We’ll see.
Moving right along. In today’s ‘cast, I ramble on about: My county’s Sharing Technology with Educators Program, or S.T.E.P. My new favorite Android App (still), AndRecorder, which I keep calling “AndRecord” because long names are abbreviated below my little phone icons. Gimp.org, because it’s free and awesome. SumoPaint.com, because it as well is free and awesome. Frames, because while it is not free, it is still awesome. A rant against looking for things because they “work in the classroom.” That’s great if we’re preparing our…Continue Reading “Academic Aesthetic 169”