This date is significant due to the following tweet:
Yes… Oprah is on Twitter and if you are not…. in the tech world, you are considered LAME or just late in the game, son. In the education world, many teachers still have issues in embracing Web2.0 technologies due to the pressures of self-conduct. If we cannot behave online with a unknown audience of hundrends or even thousands, how is it that we are expected to act behind closed doors with 70+ minds to mold on a daily basis? So get on board, act like you have some couth and build your personal learning network.
I was very fortunate to be in the attendance of BarcampCLT2 at Area 15. It was great being around people that are so much more geeky than me. And to think that I was once on the path of coding righteousness. I don’t regret being an educator but I do miss the joy of debugging code and troubleshooting network/server issues.
I learned few off the wall things, such as Blackberry users felt the shameful of their devices. Also, Oprah seems to be the benchmark of your Twitter Coolness. (Anyone joined after her is to be considered unoffically lame.) Oh, almost forgot to mention that men that knit are way cool.
I will share a few takeaways from the sessions that I attended.
1. iPhone App Dev Roundtable
I received some inspiriation to get on board in creating iPhone
apps for education, however an Apple laptizzle is required. It was mentioned the iPhone for Dummies book was a good read. The process of getting an app approved for the App Store was communicated as being very difficult. Pushing apps via ad hoc for clients was mentioned as a work around.
This session was a little similar to last year. Here’s a sample from YouTube…
3. 45 Questions in 45 Minutes
Some good info popped up here. Some discussions on Google Wave, FireFox, and Android took the show.
4. Managing Your Social Networks
Long story short, use an RSS new reader aggregator to gather all your Web2.0 sites. Outlook was mention as a good RSS reader becuase it allow you assess RSS feeds behind secure logins. Also it was discussed the importance of adding value to tweets by linking your social networks.
The presenter actually went through the stage of registering a site domain, hosting, and dumping CMsimple in a directory to making it live. Very nice… especially since CMsimple does not require having to deal with databases where CM packages such as WordPress and Drupal require.
Back in 1994 when I began my journey as a classroom teacher, there was once a time where there was a place called the teachers’ lounge. This was where slightly seasoned and ripened ol’ educators would congregate. In my new teacher training classes long ago, I was warned to stay outta these parts. However when I did pass through, I would always hear statements that started as “these kids…” or “you would not believe what <insert challenging student> did today…”
With the lack of such places in schools and due to the nature and convenience of technology we now have these places once again virtually on social networks; but with a massive audience vesus or two to three collegues.
Things that you could say to your close professional peers behind closed doors should not be said to 200+ followers or friends. So a note caution goes out to my fellow edtech posse that embrace web2.0 technologies. The teachers’ lounge is necessary for camaraderie, collaboration and stress decompression but it has no place in an online environment without reprocussions designated by your local school district. Need any examplars?
Yes… I actually discovered this feature today. Very convenience especially when troubleshooting computer issues remotely. Not sure how latency affects mouse movement on the screen between machines.
I tested the waters last summer with hybrid classes. My students and I enjoyed it so much that I will offer the resources of Moodle again this year.
I could post a quick quiz for student to access and they would immediately see their results after its administration. Students learned (as I constantly reminded them) that they needed more practice in posting quality dialog in the forum.
Last year, I ran Moodle from a Window box which was sporatic and hiccuped due to the load. However, now I have it installed on a more reliable & stable Ubuntu box. I really do not expect any technical difficulties this year.
I am in the process of creating two online courses from scratch which I will integrate into a face to face (f2f) course again this upcoming summer. Details will be forthcoming!
In this day of the Information age, is it acceptable for students to use this or any text-speak language?
In Math… I have noticed the growing usage of IDK on student work. Sorry if I assumed that you know what IDK meant, but it stands for “I Don’t Know.” As teachers always reply, what is it that you do not understand?
Maybe when we think that we are getting ahead by being brief in communicating, we are really getting behind in how we clearly communicate. I am not bashing the Web 2.0 generation, but there is a proper time and place to keep it short. When it really matters, you need to be specific and to the point. I guess that’s the battle that English teachers deal with constantly – the students’ on-going text-speak usage when it is & not appropriate.
However, mathematicians or people that think logically may embrace the brevity of text-speak. SO LT ME END BY SYNG CHOOS YR WEAPN WSLY FR YR BTTL MY DPND ON HW CLEARLY U CMMNCT YR PLN OF ATTCK! THS WS TRNSLTD BY TH FLLWNG TXT-SPEEK TRNSLTR.
As we continue in the millenium, I am not surprised in the latest technology and what will be coming to us soon. Holograms has already reared its beautiful head through the media via CNN and the Iron Man movie. The difference between holograms and augmented reality (AR), would be that AR operates real-time which both previously mention examplars would qualify under this classification.
I ran into augmented reality on, yes… Facebook, where GE was advertising this new technology for advertising its SmartGrid technology. GE has a demo for you to actually experience augmented reality. You need a webcam, microphone and a printer to print the marker for the magic to happen. The below demo is more realistic then the one from GE…
The above youtube flick demonstrates the real-time combination of real world and virtual reality! Think of all the real-world math problems one would dream with this technology!
Please share your ideas how you desire to see this technology to be used.
I ran into a twitter post by Wayne Sutton about this new site called tweetasy. The goal of tweetasy is write a whole story using only 140 characters including the #asy tag. I posted a few very short stories. On the website, you can also vote on the stories that you like, kinda like or don’t like. Check it out and give me some feedback on what you think!
40404 is the magic number now…. I just had to verify my number with Twitter under DEVICE UPDATES. I just want to tweet. Not necessarily receive tweets on cell because it can be costly if you are not on an unlimited SMS plan. There is a way tho to restrict tweets and Amy has blogged a way to do that via RSS to text message service sites.
Since we are on the topic of Twitter…
My daughter shared this youtube clip with me that explains Twitter in an interesting way…
40404 is the magic number now…. I just had to verify my number with Twitter under DEVICE UPDATES. I just want to tweet. Not necessarily receive tweets on cell because it can be costly if you are not on an unlimited SMS plan. There is a way tho to restrict tweets and