edublogs

Glow and connecting: my perspective

I had an interview over Skype this morning with Mark Berthelemy of Capita's R&D in education type department thingy. Basically, he's good a cool job trying to show Government bodies how to use new technologies for their work. I've got a copy of the conversation here which has kindly allowed me to republish. It outlines some of the work I am doing in East Lothian to create communities, based around last year's work on the MFLE, and also gives an idea of what Glow might allow teachers to do.

Download ewan_mcintosh_interview_04_10_06.mp3

K-12 Online 2006

I'm joining Anne Davis and Bud Hunt by kicking off one of the three areas of the first K-12 Online 2006 conference. It has the feel of HigherEdBlogCon but with the content much more aligned to what schools teachers want to discuss. I'll be keynoting the Personal Professional Development strand, and the organisers, Will, Darren and Sheryl, are looking for contributions.

Scottish teachers have been grabbing blogs to keep track of their growing knowledge of technology, teaching or learning, far more in the past four months than ever before. I hope that there will be plenty of contributions to the Professional Development strand to show how it's done ;-)

The email links to send your proposal (not the finished product) by the end of September are over on Darren's blog.

10 Ways To Stay Connected Without Losing Your Mind, And Why Blogging Isn't One Of Them (Part 2)

Download mflePodcast21 - 10 Ways To Stay Connected...Part 2.m4a

Quicktime or iTunes required to listen/view the podcast.

This is the second and final part of my keynote speech at Telford and Wrekin's ICT Conference on June 16, 2006. In this first part of the keynote I introduced my digital native past before undertaking to show the first four of ten factors of change in 21st century education.

Part 2 of the podcast reveals factors 5-10 and reveals what I get up to on an average day to stay connected with without losing my mind.

The podcast comes enhanced with slide images and links. Supplementary links and information are available on a previous post I have written on the subjects in hand.

10 Ways To Stay Connected Without Losing Your Mind, And Why Blogging Isn't One Of Them (Part 1)

Download mflePodcast20 - 10Ways...Part1.m4a (25.9mb, 35 mins)

Quicktime or iTunes required to listen/view the podcast.

This is the first part of two, covering my keynote speech at Telford and Wrekin's ICT Conference on June 16, 2006. In this part of a podcast soon to be released on the MFLE, I introduce my digital native past before undertaking to show the first four of ten factors of change in 21st century education.

Part 2 of the podcast reveals factors 5-10 and reveals what I get up to on an average day to stay connected with losing my mind.

The podcast comes enhanced with slide images and links. Supplementary links and information are available on a previous post I have written on the subjects in hand. Enjoy!

eLiveCast!

Here is our wonderful attempt at podcasting with Primary 4 and 5 students from Edinburgh:

Download eLiveCast.m4a

Marc Prensky keynote - now in full

Having published what I thought was the full podcast of Marc Prensky taken last month, I found out from Will that it was cut off halfway through. So get your Quicktime or video iPod ready: here is the full version of his motivating presentation with visuals. You might also be interested in Will's thoughts on the first 28 minutes 12 seconds. Hopefully, he'll listen to the rest and continue his commentary ;-)

I also wonder now how many teachers really are making an effort to know their students and create engagement. These are the two main points of Marc's keynote, but even yesterday some colleagues were scepetical about using the Da Vinci code to learn. Is trying to find a way to use this and all the other things that our teens are keen about uneducational and invalid or are some of us just someone trying to understand what makes the kids tick?

Edinburgh Schools Podcasting: sttamCast 1: Edinburgh

I've included the MP3 file here for the edublogs podcast iTunes feed, but you can go over to the new St Tam's Cast weblog and leave your comments there for the St Thomas of Aquin's students I've been working with for two hours this past two weeks. They have produced a superb podcast about their city, Edinburgh, as a guide for Hispanic tourists. I'm sure they would appreciate a comment or two in Spanish, too ;-)

Download sttamcast.m4a

You need Quicktime (free download) or iTunes (free download) to view this podcast

As always, here are their quotes for the day. It rammed home a few points:

1. Kids like editing. We need more computers to allow them to work collaboratively at this stage of the podcasting process.
2. Kids love having an audience. It doesn't take much to give them that. We need to give them a worldwide audience more often.

Anyway, here are their comments (all students 13 or 14 years old):

Emilie
The most enjoyable part of the process was knowing that other people will hear what we’ve done. One thing I disliked was hearing my own voice, but when I heard everyone else it was OK.

Laura
Translating our English conclusion into Spanish was the hardest bit. I am looking forward to reading the comments on our podcast.

Nuala
I thought that podcasting in Spanish was good fun and more children should get the chance to do it. I thought that maybe everyone should have got to edit and do what they wanted with their own part.

Emma
I enjoyed finding out new meanings to words and learning different things. It would be good to do it again.

Lewis
The best part will be finally being able to listen to it all together. I also really enjoyed the recording process. The hardest part was recording the sound clearly and well.

Adriana
Recording was fun. Knowing that the podcast is going to help people is satisfying!

Grace
I enjoyed writing a dialogue on my city and recording the content. The most difficult part was recording as I had not done it before.

Niamh
I really enjoyed writing the information for the podcast. I would have liked to have the opportunity to edit the podcast. However, it was really fun recording it. I would like to make another podcast sometime!

Jamie
I really enjoyed learning all the technology of podcasting. The trickiest part was recording. It was a nice change from Spanish.

Vittoria
I really enjoyed recording our parts. I thought it was a bit hard getting our words right and being clear and  loud.

Richard
I loved recording it but it was tricky working in a group. Podcasting should be used at all schools.

Jack
I found the best, but the most difficult part of the process was recording. It would have been better if we had all got a chance to edit but it was still fun.

Robbie
The recording of the podcasts was the funnest part of the podcast. The hardest part was writing the podcasts. I really enjoyed it and can recommend it!

Sean
The best part was getting to record on the final production. The hardest part was making sure there was not background noise and that the pronunciation was correct. It’s helped me learn.

Ross
I liked podcasting because it was easy to use the kit and the guy was really friendly. There was one thing I disliked about it: it was easy to mess up as the microphone picks up everything. It was good because it’s a wee break from doing written work.

Carlo
I liked learning how to do new things on the computers. The hardest part was recording as you have to trust other people. This was difficult and fun. I think we harder knowing many people would listen to it.

Joanne
Recording it was the best part but getting it together was the worst. It would be better if we edited ourselves and put our own music in.

Kirsten
It was good fun learning to do the editing on Garageband but quite hard to learn ☺

Imogen
It was difficult learning how to do the editing but after it was fun putting the tracks in, recording and adding music. Overall it was really good and it made learning Spanish more enjoyable.

John-Paul
I think the most enjoyable part was recording – it was really fun. The hardest part was recording also because we always messed up. I liked just making the podcast because it taught me a lot.

Holly
The most enjoyable part was recording. The most difficult part was recording.

Over The Pond And Through The Fiber

I'm the last one of the boys to put up a link to the international skypecast that Wes, Darren, Miguel and I held last week, along with Mark and Jeff from the Washington area of the US. Truly 'Over the pond and through the fiber" (although I think my Skype must go through a satellite at one point).

David Warlick, whose 'new story' on transformative technologies we were trying to understand, has already posted his own response and podcast reflection on our own discussions. I'll get round to reading, listening and responding later this morning.

What we've all established is that, amongst all these tools, it's really the teacher that makes the difference. This was also the central point appreciated by everyone at the Communicate.06 conference this weekend in Stirling, also the reason I've not been blogging as much this past wee while. Most teachers could get what we're talking about. I think I'll be looking at what we can now do action-wise to get more teachers actually doing it for themselves (there's a song in there, no?).

More later.

Making presentations for the web - Web 2.0 in Education

I wish the recording from Jordanhill had actually come out OK - in the end something must have happened to the recorder. However, now sitting in the office trying to respeak the presentation I gave I am struck with a horrible conundrum: I don't like the presentation I gave and want to produce a cleaner, better version that is clearer for everyone. The problem? It takes SO much time. This is why I like to write blogs more than produce podcasts - the production values are far lower. Anyway, I'm going to have a late lunch and that will hopefully give me the force to try again and see what comes out. It might end up being a series of mini-lecture movies, though.

Update: Managed to get it done, all 28MB of it. It can almost certainly do with many changes but it will give an impression for those who were there that day and want to remember the key points. Oh, and does this make my first vodcast?

Download Web2.0inEducationIntroJordanhill.mp4

UPDATE: Watch the video of the actual talk that was given at Jordnanhill College (© University of Strathclyde).

 

Show Notes:

1. How to make a blog - tools that take you through the simple process

Blogger (free)

Edublogs.org (free)

Typepad (One month free, paying thereafter)

2. Modern Foreign Languages Environment - uses for blogging in the languages classroom

3. Skype - for internet telephony and recording conference calls

4. ...

Web 2.0 - Overblown and over here? Skypecast

Our cool skypecast about whether Web 2.0 is overblown, whether jargon should be tempered and what these tools hold for us in the near future is now available on our host Wesley's blog or listen direct here. Today's Jordanhill lecture, which follows up on some of the themes will be remixed tomorrow morning and posted later in the weekend. Enjoy!

Update: Read Miguel's synopsis over here.

Update: View the screencast of my following lecture at Jordanhill here.

Update: Show notes from Darren (who is a saint for doing it, if you didn't know... ;-))

Show Notes
The Other Side of Outsourcing (Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat" - Video)

John Pederson

Bud Hunt

Excellence and Imagination (Clarence Fisher's class)

Darren's classes: Pre-Cal 20S, Pre-Cal 30S, AP Calculus AB

What If Your Blog Was Gone?

OLÉ (Darren's workshop)

Ellie's Math Blog (Darren's Niece)

Remote Access (Clarence Fisher's blog)

Luddite Literacy (Wes' podcast)

The Impact of the Gutenberg Printing Press

Korean blog list

Levels of Technology Implementation (LOTI)

Dr. Chris Moresch Ed. D.

Assessment For Learning site

Assessment is For Learning (Scotland)

Scottish Schools Digital Network

Guidelines for ethical behaviour online (from Darren's classes)

John Pederson's blog post - 2006 Online Edublogger Conference

Ewan's students podcasting

Bob Sprankle - Room 208 (Grade 4, USA)

Ewan's Jordanhill U. presentation

David Muir

Pong

Time For Knowledge and Wisdom

Oversold and Underused by Larry Cuban

Writely

Open Source Applications (Free): Open Office, Think Office

TECSIG (Technology Special Interest Group - Texas)

NCLB, Title II Part D

My Access

Integrated Learning Systems

SuccessMaker

PLATO Learning

Compass Learning

Read/Write Web Reading List by Will Richardson

Alan Levine’s blog: CogDogBlog, a recent workshop

Brian Lamb’s blog: Abject Learning, some wiki based workshops

Modern Foreign Languages Environment (MFLE) (Scotland)

Redefining Literacy by David Warlick

Darren Kuropatwa’s blog: A Difference
Ewan McIntosh’s blog: edublog
Miguel Guhlin’s blog: Mousing Around
Wesley Fryer’s blog: Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Our skypecast planning and idea wiki