A Teachable Moment - Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen's article in Newsweek April 27, 2009

"... there are markedly lower rates of aggression among kindergartners whose parents have been in ParentCorps than among a control group of students at similar schools. The kids also score higher on standardized achievement tests. It's not even necessary to enumerate the ways in which these results could change the future. "

http://www.newsweek.com/id/194576

Buzz Words

Buzzword as of April 2009

Myspace/Facebook/LinkedIn
Twitter
Blogger (or wordpress or other blogging tool)
Wikipedia (and/or other wiki tool)
Google Docs
Yahoo/gmail/hotmail (i.e. not just an ISP account like roadrunner or windstream)
Groups (Yahoo, Google, etc…)
Second Life
Digg/Stumble Upon
Youtube/Google Video
Flickr/Picasa
Content Management System (CMS)
Learning Management System (LMS)
IT proficiency in terms of system management, file management, etc… and all the usual tools, like mics, speakers, scanners, digital cameras and web cameras
A domain of their own (or more) and a site on that domain- familiarity with upload tools (FTP and such)
Smartphone/PDA
Conferencing tools (Elluminate, DimDim, Connect Pro
Some business acumen (Issues like ROI, TCO, rapid prototyping, etc…)
- PLE- OER- SNS- ePortfolio- eCompetences- Connectivism- Edupunk- Edublog- Digital Native

People to follow, as of April 2009

A compilation of people who are leading edge or leading discussions on social technologies and learning, and what educational technology is, does, and perhaps most importantly, what it can’t or shouldn’t replace or enhance. (Credit to Leslie Madsen-Brooks from UCDavis.)

Laura Blankenship (formerly of Bryn Mawr)
Barbara Sawhill (Oberlin)
Barbara Ganley (formerly of Middlebury)
Nancy White (of Full Circle Associates)
Jennifer Jones (at Injenuity.com)
Nina Simon of Museum 2.0
Martha Burtis at U. Mary Washington
Sarah Robbins (Intellagirl), Beth Kanter
Cindy Lee Underhill (U. British Columbia)
Glenda Sims (e-accessibillity)
Vidya Ramanathan (@mapetite on Twitter)
Allison Rossett (San Diego State U.)

Jim Groom (of UMW and edupunk fame),
Scott Leslie (of BC and EdTechPost),
Alan Levine (of NMC),
D’Arcy Norman (U. Calgary),
Dan Cohen (George Mason University),
William Turkel (U. Western Ontario),
Bryan Alexander (NITLE), and
Gardner Campbell (of Baylor)
Stephen Downes-
Brian Lamb-
George Siemens-
Mark Warschauer-
Michael Wesh-
David Wiley-
Scott Wilson

Citations . . .

Per Louis E. King
University of Michigan

Now a citation would be a different thing. In that case I would treat it like a web page.

King, L. E. (2009). Title Of Image Retrieved 2008, from http://www.umich.edu

Well, that's my two cents.

Just don't ask me what to do if you do a composite video using 1-3 seconds from 100 cc attribution licensed clips. Then you really have a problem.

This is why Larry Lessig claims that copyright, as it stands, is not viable for democratic discourse. He really puts the argument together in this clip.

Lessig, L. (2008). Keynote: Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. Retrieved from http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/content/lawrence-lessigs-keynote-presentation-version-1

Technology Portfolio 2009 for 552

1. Blogs -

I use Blogger to house reference materials I might need such as meeting notes, ePortfolio information, and for reflection. I like to put articles or website urls up there so I can find them quickly and from any computer I'm on.

I have eportfolio information on http://kweportfolios.blogspot.com/ and try to write up a page or so when I attend a meeting or go to a conference I use http://kwmeetingnotes.blogspot.com/. In my Imminent Transformations blog I write about what's new and will change education http://imminenttransformations.blogspot.com/. I started a recipe blog especially for my kids who are at college - they'd call at inconvenient times and ask how to make something. I tried e-mailing the recipes, but they can't find the email. Now I just post them on Blogger. http://kwrecipes.blogspot.com/

I often find resources I might use as a reference and Blogger keeps my comments and allows me to put in links. If I don't publish the post, I can still get to it but it's not open for others to see.I don't really use these for social networking, but more for "anywhere, anytime" access. I think it's very easy to use and is a quick way to get information up on the internet for easy access. GoogleDocs is easy and could provide the same "anywhere, anytime" access, but it's not as pretty!

2. Pachyderm -
I've used Pachyderm for a few years. I was on the CSU Pachyderm team and attended the first few project planning meetings. The goal was to rewrite the program (originally developed at SFMOMA) and make it an open source project for use in other libraries and higher education institutions. bringing Pachyderm from SFMOMA to . The entire process was interesting; it was one of the first projects I was involved with that had contributers working at a distance. Programmers were from California, Arizona, Case Western, etc. Many conference calls, emails, instant-messaging, online chats, supported by quarterly face to face meetings, helped with communications.

Pachyderm is pretty easy to use, and the general formatting provides consistent opportunity for pedagogically sound design, but there are things I don't like about it. I don't like the color scheme. I don't like the way pictures have to be loaded up one at a time. I think the formats requred for pictures and movies are a little prohibitive.

3. Newsletter - accessible word document and accessible pdf. http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/documents/April2009v4.pdf
California has taken a strong stance in promoting accessibility, and the CSU is at the forefront. We have had to take a lead with accessibility - even ahead of the UCs and Community Colleges. I originally made this newsletter with Microsoft Word. I was careful putting in the links, and used the headers formating option within Word. This automatically gets read by screen readers. The text is readable and all the images are labeled. When I converted the 'word' document into PDF format, all of these precautions paid off. I recently installed Acrobat 9, and they have built in accessibility checks, both a 'Quick Check' and a 'Full Check'. The newletter passed both, with only the horizontal lines dividing sections showing up as potential problems as there wasn't alt text attached to them.

4. Social Networking - NING, Facebook, LinkedIn
I use NING for a group within MERLOT, but it doesn't get used very often. I think this kind of technology is useful but users need to have a reason for the site - either a big upcoming project/meeting, or a high concern. I don't think this passive site works well or allows for much interaction in our busy busy world. I use Facebook only to contact my kids. People invite me to join their groups on Facebook, but I really consider it out of the realm of my professional face. I keep a divide between professional and personal. I use LinkedIn to support friends. Again, I'm picky about who I link-into. For any of these I don't use many peripherals because I just want to get in and get my business done.

5. My biggest project is my website at http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/index.html. The CSU ePortfolio project exemplifies the The Carnegie Foundation's idea of a "teaching commons" in which a community of faculty that are committed to enhancing the scholarship of teaching and learning can exchange ideas, best practices, discuss policy changes, and promote pedagogical innovations for their students. For more information about Teaching Commons see http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/eportfolio/aboutus/index.html at the bottom of the page. The website is rich and complex, and supports a variety of resources for those interested in ePortfolios. This was built with DreamWeaver and is supported mainly through Contribute. I wish it was on the WebGUI CMS which would allow for more interaction including discussion boards and RSS feeds.

youtwittermyface

On a local radio station yesterday morning the traffic guy discussed merging social networks such as FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and My Space. He mused the name www.YouTwitterMyFace. Today they reported that someone registered the domain name on 4/22/09.

Acrobat 9

Earlier today I watched the electronic portfolio presentation by Adobe’s Steve Adler and Mark Caruso. (ppt attached) Very interesting evolution of Acrobat 9 . . . it’s come a long way.

One comment they stated many times: purchasing Acrobat 9 is supported by Obama’s stimulus plan, and it meets the criteria on many levels.

If Acrobat 9 meets the criteria it seems ePortfolios should as well. Something to think about …

Mike Wesch

NMC hosted Mike Wesch today. Spent lunch watching/listening. Go to his http://www.youtube.com/user/mwesch to see a full collection. He presented An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube at the Library of Congress June 23, 2008.

Good stuff.

Brain Gain -- The underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs.

by Margaret Talbot - She was interviewed on NPR on Monday, 4/20/09.

ADD medicines to up brain function? Have you guys heard of people doing this? Facinating.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/04/27/090427fa_fact_talbot

Challenge-Based Learning (NMC k12)

In the largest study to date of the practice anywhere, new findings from the New Media Consortium's K12 think tank confirm that challenge-based learning is extremely effective with 9th grade students, including those most at risk of dropping out. The report, entitled Challenge-Based Learning: An Approach for Our Time, followed six schools across the US as they implemented the practice in high school classes. (44 pages pdf)

Google's Imagelabeler

http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/ pairs you with a stranger and has you play a game:

View the same set of images.
Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see.
Receive points when your label matches your partner's label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is.
See more images until time runs out.

3D is here now!

And the code is available so you too can . . .

First, see the video at

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/03/this-is-web-40.html

Then, try it yourself at

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality