Monday, May 31, 2010

Houston we have a problem - Help crowd source our Professional Development

I'm preparing to help facilitate a Summer professional development institute focussed on helping high school teachers integrate technology to foster 21st century learning.  And I think we have a problem.  The problem isn't the brand new laptop, iPod touch, flip cam, microphone headsets and software we are giving teachers who participate.  The problem I think is reflected this anecdote from Will Richardson's blog:

At a collection of school leaders and IT people, one of the participants told the group that his school had bought a number of iPads for teachers and that they had scheduled a chunk of training on how to use them. Unfortunately for him, I had just read an exchange on Twitter where Gary Stager had made the point that I quickly made to the group: “You know, something like 1.3 million people have bought an iPad and I doubt any of them have gotten any “training” on how to use it.” The people in the room half chuckled, but one woman said “Our teachers won’t do anything with technology unless we give them training.”

After reading this my first thought was, hey, we're giving out the same consumer level devices which are sold without training by such high minded institutions as Walmart, yet we've slotted significant chunks of our training time to how you connect the device to the computer and how to download an app.  Are they really that hard to use? 

It does get a little more complicated when we look at the applications and software.  Our plans call for training on Moodle, Google Apps, social media, and screen casting (multi day trainings in and of themselves in a traditional model).  But aren't we really just saying make your teaching and learning environment accessible, authentic, interconnected, and multi-sensory.  

So I'm throwing out a few smaller brainstrorms in the hopes of pulling in some big guns from the interwebs. *yes, that  means you all,  in the hope that our little problem will demonstrate a bigger picture solution.  Or just tell me that I'm wrong.  It's how I learn.  

I call this Challenges not Training:

1.  "Use your iPod touch to share with a friend the fact that you just got an iPod touch"  Skills needed - Turn it on, connect to internet, set up e-mail or go to web based e-mail, compose a message, send. Variations: Set up facebook app, set up twitter app, record a voice memo and e-mail it, etc.

2.  "Use your flip camera to share a video or a picture with a friend the fact that you just got a flip cam"  Skills needed- Turn it on, record video or take still shot, export to computer, share via e-mail, facebook, twitter, upload to youtube, etc.

Make it a race, make it a cooperative activity (first group to get all to accomplish task), give prizes.

3. As for the applications:  "You have several students who are failing your course. They are disengaged during lectures, they consistently misplace their work, they seem more interested in texting notes to their friends than taking notes, and your worst fear is that they are recording your classroom using the camera on their cell phone.  What strategies and resources could you integrate into your lessons to engage your learners, make the material multi sensory, personally accessible, authentic and interconnected?"

I hope that at least few folks will take a moment to reply.  I and my group thank you in advance.  

Friday, May 28, 2010

Tweeks! for the week of May 22-28 #ff

All is quiet on the Twitter front it seems.  Nevertheless, I did favorite a few tweets that are worth mentioning.


Google gravity isn't exactly what you would call "useful", but I could imagine using this to wake up an audience in the middle of a presentation.  A nice conversation starter perhaps.

I've also been researching alternative and progressive assessment methods and enjoyed the Edutopia article shared by @valerieturpin.

I'm super excited to be heading to ISTE2010 at the end of June.  If you are going, check out the tweet-up link below.

Finally, I'm always interested in the abundance of free learning resources offered by University's and individuals.  Check out the open courseware links for Yale and UC Berkeley.  


  1.  Alec Couroscourosa 
    Google Gravity http://bit.ly/MKxTa
  2. Kit Hardkithard 
    RT @valerieturpin: Guest Blog: Reinventing Assessment for the 21st-Century | Edutopia: http://bit.ly/ciKzF2 Good Stuff!
  3. sean lancasterseanjcl 
    just found better (well, more aesthetically pleasing form) tweetup for #iste10 i'll attend instead: http://tinyurl.com/29t7rjb
  4. Will Richardsonwillrich45 
    Watching: "Sal Khan at Gel 2010 on Vimeo"http://j.mp/a9WfLP All about Khan Academy. Good stuff.
  5. Eric SheningerNMHS_Principal 
    UC Berkeley open courseware http://bit.ly/NemB
  6. Eric SheningerNMHS_Principal 
    Open Yale Courses http://bit.ly/6EN2S

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Google Chrome Extensions - A few of my favorites

This is a follow up post to my Google Chrome 30 day challenge.

One of the features I loved about the Firefox  web browser (before I switched to Chrome) was the ability to personalize the browser with useful add-ons called extensions.  Extensions can do a range of tasks which simplify everything from subscribing to RSS feeds and following your Twitter or Facebook accounts to listening to music or defining a word.

The problem with extensions in Firefox and Internet Explorer is that they are not very easy to install or uninstall (restart and restart again), every update also requires restarting your browser, and they tend to slow your system down if you use more than a few.

Google Chrome's extension gallery is quite easy to navigate.  The install process does not require you to restart your browser and updates are handled with out restarts as well.  Not all extensions are perfect, but I've developed a list of my favorites which I think are worth a look.

The full link to this list is available here. (Using Google Bookmarks Pubic Lists)



PingThis! - Google Chrome extension gallery - chrome.google.com - edit  17 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
ExtensionFM - Google Chrome extension gallery - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: AdThwart - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: AniWeather - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: Aviary Screen Capture - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: Blog This! (by Google) - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: Chromed Bird - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: Diigo Bookmarks - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: Google Dictionary Lookup - chrome.google.com -edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: Google Tasks - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
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Google Chrome Extensions: One Number - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Chrome Extensions: RSS Subscription Extension (by Google) -chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Dictionary (by Google) - Google Chrome extension gallery -chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
Google Docs - Google Chrome extension gallery - chrome.google.com - edit  19 minutes ago
 - Last edited by Kit Hard
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