Apr 17th 2009

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.

barcampCLT 2

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.

• Web Resources referenced:
  http://appceletator.com
  http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/index.php
  http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/

2. Making $$$ Online

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.

• Web resources mentioned:
  http://ping.fm
  http://igoogle.com
  http://netvibes.com
  http://pipes.yahoo.com
  http://dizzysoft.com/rss/manage-your-social-networks
  http://feedtwit.com
  http://websitebiz.com

5. Simple Content Management

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.

• Web resources mentioned:
  http://dreamhost.com
  http://www.aweber.com/
  http://www.e-junkie.com/
  http://www.myemma.com/
  http://www.mailchimp.com/
  http://dotcomwebdesign.com/

Sessions that I wish I could have attended:

How to create webcasts that don’t suck
The Rabbit Hole
Google Page Ranking

Overall, this was another successful unconference. I highly recommend you to check one out that’s near you.

Web 2.0: The New Int’l Teachers’ Lounge

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?

Please choose how you use your personal learning network (PLN) wisely…

Screen sharing via Skype

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.

IDK

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(y) I was minding my own business on Twitter…

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!

Tweetin’ via SMS

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…

The Educator & Facebook

Among comments made to The Charlotte Observer article, several posters suggested that firing was too harsh a punishment for the Thomasboro teacher.

“The teacher probably didn’t understand the privacy settings on her Facebook account. Information you post can be either publicly viewable or something that is just seen by your friends. She probably thought what she was posting was private, but left the default settings on to let everyone see your profile,” commented BluNews.

Quoted from THE Journal article

I may have briefly discussed in a previous post in how educators need to be responsible when embracing web 2.0 resources. One of these resources called Facebook (FB) have created personal havoc for not only teachers, but people in general not aware of the many privacy setting to protect yourself from outside scrutiny;  even when being careful of one’s own actions.

There are many examples as quoted above to represent the lack of what Nick O’Neill from the AllFacebook.com blog  has taken the time to share. Nick demonstrates how to get a firm control on FB’s privacy settings here.

Please take heed to these precautions and enjoy what the web has to offer in healthy collaboration!