Judging a book by its podcast: Have you done this?

Troy S and I have been working on a lit trip for his Huck Finn Unit.
Visit our Wiki to see our collaboration on the unit. It is a work in progress at this point but a great illustration of how teachers can collaborate on a unit using technology tools. The benefits are obvious.

Also, Harold S and I have been establishing units. Click the link and see. Good stuff here.

Music soothes the savage beast!

Have you ever done this?

I never judge a book by its cover but I judge one from the author's podcast. I believe a book finds you - which might explain why I read many genres. Since many of the books I read come from articles and peer reviews -reviews from people sharing their thoughts on message boards or blogs -and not on Amazon and not from an excerpt - I usually 'find' what might quench my interest. Today, I listen to author podcasts - usually an interview from accredited sources like NPR - and decide if I 'like' the author. I know its as weak as looking at a cover and refusing to read it - but its a glorified way of doing it. The latest book that found me 'Musicophilia' lead me straight to NPR's podcast. Sometimes I look for an authors website and make a comment on their message board hoping they will comment on my post. This is cool. And if they don't respond, then I will not read their book- kidding! Imagine doing this with your students, especially if they develop an online relationship with a famous author. Talk about engaging the reader.

Listen to George Lucas . I think he knows what he is talking about.

Read this statement Warlick found: (click link for enitre article)

If your second grade teacher teaches a fantastic unit on dinosaurs, but dinosaurs are not on the test, then that teacher is doing harm to your children. Anything that’s taught that’s not on the test, is doing harm to your children.

Standardized testing gone amok!

Future Trends .... and a Butterfly

Mark this date: On December 10, 2007,Seth Blodget from the Maine Attorney Generals Office will kick off our Internet Safety Training Program dubbed "R U I.S.?"

Mark this date: On November 13, GWH will host an Internet Chat Night.


Future Trends: Teachers Tread Cautiously
Education does not keep pace with emerging technology trends; therefore, rethinking curricula and pedagogies in an instant (relatively speaking) would be foolhardy: Not all of the latest and greatest means it will work for education. Moreover, trends in emerging technology –bandwidth speed, chip technology, internet growth- are not created for education, rather, they are adopted –or not – by it; therefore, use is determined by effectiveness, and if educators and researchers are uncertain and unconvinced of emerging technology’s influence on learning, then those trends will not influence education. In sum, technology trends, no matter what their promise, demand curriculum and pedagogical overhauls.

Searching for an LMS:

It's arguable but technology makes a classroom interactive all the while personalizing learning. Harold and I have been searching and researching a suitable learning management system (LMS) and since Moodle is free and the state of Maine offers a free training on December 7 we are leaning towards adopting Moodle. I tinkered with Moodle at the ACTEM conference and it is user-friendly. Asking the Lawrence High School Assistant Technology Director why they chose Moodle he advised having all staff using one system is easier to monitor and manage.


At the ACTEM Conference, a session I visited revealed information from the Horizon study who examine emerging trends in technology:

People like immersive experiences - virtual worlds

People like to create and communicate via online networks

Technology will become more ubiquitous - you will not log on you will be on constantly -all the time.

Game-based learning and training: Gaming will influence teaching



How will education adjust to this?

To stay ahead we would be wise to use the online community. Learn to use Twitter, Slashdot, Digg, and Techmeme

Use specialized websites: ELI, Sloan-C, NMC

Use corporate sites: IBM, Alphaworks, O'Reilly Network

Massively Multiplayer Educational Gaming (MME): learn it


Try this with your students: Go to magnetic poetry

Check these games out from Nobel prize

Prepare a mummy for burial at Mummy Maker from the BBC

Inspiration Imagination

Imagine Keister and Harold in a History class using Inspiration. Harold takes notes while Keister lectures. Harold makes mind maps that could make any mind crack - er... explode. He even snaps photos of kids working on computers. But I digress. The notes that Harold takes are put into a network folder that can be accessed by students. The next day Keister brings his class to the Laptop Lab and has the History students review and add to Harold's Inspiration notes; thus, students are contributing to the knowledge-base. Next, Keister views the new stuff added by the students, aggregates the information, and using the LCD projector presents the new student-generated knowledge to his History class for discussion. How dynamic! Imagine the discussions that can take palce. Imagine how the students will feel knowing that they contributed to the lecture. Imagine that one of their insights becomes an exam question. How might this Inspiration imagination evolve from here?

Also, if you could submit completed Inspiration projects to an accessible folder for all to peruse - including students - that would be cool.

Presidential Debates will be different this year!

Ten Questions for Presidential Candidates, Including One of Yours?
by Andy Carvin, 10:00AM
Move over YouTube debates, now for something meatier! A coalition of blogs and news organizations is using Web 2.0 tools to create another exciting experiment in interactive presidential debates. It might even be a chance for your students to pose the perfect question to them.

Mr. G approached me about making his student PLP's more dynamic. Ideas included having students create audio reflections; perhaps creating concept maps conveying student learning; scanning completed worksheets to put in electronic folders; putting music to presentations; etc... Cool stuff especially the idea of making the PLP dynamic.

Teachers - Would you be interested in a Student Help Desk? Students submit work to a network folder and volunteer teachers edit it and repost to the folder. Obviously this would not undermine the requirements of the assigning teacher. I will bring this up at staff meeting.

Some Internet sources:

Literacy Through Technology: http://www.umaine.edu/edhd/mwp/classrooms.htm and go to http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html and click on "Watch Stories".

Like a good debate visit:http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2007/10/education_technology_a_matter_1.html
Alan Kay said, “Technology is anything that wasn’t there when you were born.”

From Warlick at my favorite blog http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/10/16/another-random-blog-article-that-will-likely-be-misunderstood/ :“What does the school and classroom look like where learning is what you see happening, not teaching — where learning stops being a job, and, instead, becomes a lifestyle.”

Actem Conference Notes

Hello - This past Friday I attended the ACTEM Conference at the Augusta Civic Center and shared some of my findings at Tuesday's Technology meeting. More from ACTEM Conference will be posted here. What follows are thoughts, summaries, ideas, links to resources, etc...

Essential Question of the Week will be a weekly question for teachers at AHS to make comments and suggestions: I have seen an increased use in Inspiration software this week. WoW! Awesome! Could teachers who are using this software answer/comment why and how we are using it and share it with the community?

See Will Richarson ACTEM Conference 2007 keynote speaker notes at the following link - http://willrichardson.wikispaces.com/

A personal pondering generated during the ACTEM Conference: We need to meet the students in their world not in ours. And why would we neglect doing this? What is their world? It is a socially interactive and connected one.

Teach: Wikipedia, MySpace, Gmail, YouTube, Gaming?

Why wikipedia: It teaches students to contribute a growing, changing, adapting learning project; they become editors, they become publishers; and most importantly they become evaluator and authenticators of online information - thus they become information literate.

Why Myspace? It offers more than smut. Let's teach students how tap invaluable resources and how to keep safe.

See Jim Moulton's BEST OF THE WEB here http://jimmoulton.org/pdfsites20.pdf. Brenda P. loves this site.
Also as a guide to technology integration I will use this site
Perhaps Jim could consult us on improving our technology use?

Another pondering: Should pedagogy influence technology - or vice versa?

At school: This week Harold I made great progress toward Text to Speech and Speech to Text use. View his Inspiration brainstorming mind map. It is not a final copy so anyone is welcomed to get it from the Netrwork folders and add to it.

TheStudent Led Conference committee is looking at the potential of Google Docs for electronic Portfolios. Visit Google Docs and come to the next PLP meeting and chime in with ideas.

This week it was brought to my attention that students could change teacher worksheets in the computer directory Network Folders. Luke and Tanner fixed this problem. If however you want students to manipulate work in your folders you can permit them. They can put thier work in their as well.

Lauri and Bill received the motherload of Science Curriculums this week. We viewed some of it - interactive dvd's with labs is just one piece of it. Go to Bill's classroom andcheck it out because it reveals great ways to integrate technology.


Will all high school teachers get laptops. Visit http://www.mainelearns.org/story_detail?story_id=738

Websites that help students:
Readplease.com: http://www.readplease.com/ Reads any text you see on your screen - all purpose text-to-speech software
Merriam-webster dictionary http://m-w.com/. How might this assist your classes?