Midlink

I have been involved with Midlink through my job at NC State, and they have been doing some impressive things in the classroom for over 10 years. The new issue just came out in August, and is just full of possibilities!

Joselyn Todd, one of the midlink editors, has an excellent blog up and is a great example of Web 2.0 in the classroom. She uses wikis in such an inspiring way at her school.

Check her out as well as all the other editors!

NCETC 2007

I'm submitting my workshop proposal to NCETC 2007 in Greensboro, NC today. I hope to teach on Podcasting, which I did last year, but I'm changing it up a bit. I will not only be mupdating it with more current projects, but also want to focus on some of the components that PC users can use as well - since I create my podcast in GarageBand on a Mac.

I'm also trying to decide what to speak on this year. The list is so far:
Podcasting
Digital Citizenship
Wiki - using PB Wiki
Video
Moodle
Preparing a class for LMS (Learning Mangement Systems - like BlackBoard)

We'll see what I can pair it down to....

How do we define learning in the 21st Century

This question was posed in my grad class this week. My answer was:

I believe your question on "How do we define learning?" in 21st Century Skills is a huge issue. We are surrounded by such an evaluation (and blame) based society. Last year I worked on a project that was very standards based and trying to find evidence to back those standards. It was one of the most difficult projects I've ever dealt with, because defining learning can no longer be a letter grade. Yet, we are so stuck in one grade or one score telling everything we know about a topic. I have just seen the new Professional Teaching Standards for North Carolina, and it should be interesting to see how they get evaluated now.

Internet Safety Paradigm Shift

via Educational Technology & Life

Multi-faceted Refractions
" If people were to Google you, what conclusions would they make?

From observing your on-line communication, what kind of person would they believe you are? What type of thinker are you? What skills do they think that you have?

From looking at your digital self, would people think that you are full of creativity or are you a copy-cat, mimicking the works of others without any new original thought?

What do you do if your work is being misappropriated? What if you discover that there are images of you on other’s sites which are unflattering or potentially damaging?"

This reminds me of being in a workshop with David Warlick about copyright and the Internet. We discussed the concept of ownership and how if students felt they owned their work, they would not want someone to take ownership from them. How sometimes it is perspective changing that makes all the difference.

This gives me a great idea for a new way to discuss Internet Safety. Now how safe will it be to demo this and google myself in front of everyone :)

Workshops vs. Consulting

I am constantly being asked to help people with their websites, or show them some new software, etc. It the main aspect of my job, and I love helping people. The idea is that if enough people ask you about something you should have a workshop. However, workshops have not been that popular lately and attendance has been low. I enjoy the personal touch of consulting, but I wonder if I'm wasting my time by showing the same thing over and over. Or does educational technology truly need to be customized in order for it to be effective?

My current compromise is to send my faculty to generic workshops that provide basic information on a topic, and then do consulting with them to get it in their classroom. We will see how that works

Social Networking

Wesley Fryer has an interesting post about Myspace and virtually meeting your college room mate. It amazes me how much personal information people are willing to post about themselves on the web. As Fryer writes,

"EVERYONE needs to be monitoring the pulse of their web-based personna.

What do websites “out there” on the Internet say about you, your children, your students, and people you/they know? Sometimes surprises can be good, but in many cases, if we can avoid a surprise through some proactive conversations and explorations, that can be a good thing!"

I can still remember being afraid to drink and be seen by student's parents in town at a restaurant. I can't imagine posting that image of me on a website!

NetNews Wire

So I am completely addicted to my RSS feed reader. I've been really happy with NetNews Wire. Their free version has all that I really need in a feed reader. I have my subscriptions organized by category and it allows me to catch-up on or offline when I can. I am considering using some online tools, especially when I demonstrate the power of RSS to teachers. I'll have to see what I find.