This guy looks cool.

OK, so I'm floating around in the Twitterverse .... (is that me writing like that?) and I get a tweet about this dude:

The Radical Tactical Shift.

Seems he's ... well, a lot like what I am looking at as "good" in teaching.

Check it out. And go for it.

and this looks like good advice, too.

Have an iPhone ... try these apps

I've got an iPhone ... an iPhone 3G ... so it can't do some of the cool stuff:



but I can do a lot of stuff with it. I like Comic Life for doing this stuff:

In any case, there are a lot more things you can do with an iPhone and an iPad than I can really put here. I know that there are people out there putting blog posts together for us to read. Here's one more.

I already know you know

I already know you know that left unsupervised, the average high school student will goof off and do nothing for you in a classroom.

Want "proof"? Here ya go.

That being said, I try really hard not to let my students loose on a computer lab without any guidance. I'm not an optimist at heart when it comes to letting people "just work on stuff on their own" ... I know better. Direct supervision is so necessary it's almost scary. Some call me Big Brother when I get into the Computer Lab ... but it's either that or I have to listen to that Arnold sound board ... again.

Direction with a requirement to have something produced in a set period of time is what needs be done. Vague and overly happy sounding instructions are not what I see working in my classroom. Heck, there are days when I have to get my "Kindergarden teacher" voice going just to get them off of Facebook.

Finally, I'm trying to think of something positive to end with here. I think that there is something positive we have to do ... like hook up with this guy...

Finally here is another link about iTunes.

Are you Pre-Digital?

I read this blog post this morning after coffee and a run. I do wonder sometimes if I am merely replacing one older technology with another, or am I doing something truly different in my teaching.

Makes one wonder, makes one wonder...

Of course, you can always ask ... can Twitter be used to in a classroom?

And you could read what the Ontario College of Teachers has to think about the matter, too... and also here...

and then there is this link all about helping schools understand social media better.

Some really good apps

I did not get a chance to look at these apps yet, but perhaps I thought we could discuss them later:

here is the link.

here is a funny picture:

Consider the following

Like Bill Nye, I want you to consider the following ....

Right, keep on keeping on

So, I was thinking about some of the difficulties I'm having with my classes at the moment. Why are they ... oh, this is probably not the place for that. But I did think about solutions ... and one which I keep coming back to is to keep in touch with those that have gone before me in the online teaching / blended teaching idea.

And so, I sought out courses taught by traditional Universities and found Queen's University's Con Ed AQ link is here.

Cost is always a factor for me. Which is nice, because at least Queens puts the cost on their page. Lesley University, however, more or less made it impossible for me to find anything out about cost. Poking around that website was frustrating... How frustrating? I'm not even going to link it here, that's how frustrating it was.

and then, later still, I saw this app for making your own books .... which can then be read and sent around using iBooks...

Book Creator for the iPad from Red Jumper Studio on Vimeo.

Oh, now that opens up a can of worms for me - the guy who used to be called "Mr Photocopier"... I wonder if there are Creative Commons / copyright free stories that are any good for use in a regular high school ... hmmmm

Something for Textbooks

So, I'm wondering around LinkedIn early on Sunday morning - and I find a webinar on textbooks

Kinda cool, and I gotta think the idea of a "Two way pull" is the way of the future - heck, from what I saw in my class on Friday, it's already here.

Whyville is also mentioned


and while floating around on Twitter, I saw this article mentioned. Makes you wonder about what is stopping you from becoming Google Certified...

Hey

Do the google form on this link

and then check out the Ocarina app.

This evening

Ya know, I'm really getting disappointed with ... something.

In getting ready for tomorrow, I've been creeping around on the internet, seeing what is out there for me to see in terms of teaching online. I know I try to stay abreast of developments... but it's nice when someone throws you a bone every once in a while.

In the time it's taken me to have this evening to myself, I've made more than a few discoveries on my own. Not the least of which is that the ECOO conference was within a half hour drive of my house ... a few weeks ago. Why am I learning about this NOW?

Further on to that, I've made like four or five blog and link additions to this research blog, and found that there are online courses I can take to make me more fully aware of online teaching

And Google Certified, too

And Google keeps on

and ... people use Google for teaching and learning ... and still more people use online material to teach

and reflect on teaching

and that my students can use Digital Portfolios for learning

and it just keeps on coming at me.

and then I find out I can't be Anonymous.

I hate it when...

I hate it when I try and put together a plan in my head ... and the someone else has already thought of it, put it through years of testing and then did a TED talk about it....:


humph.

OK ... you're right

This ISN'T exactly the BEST place for this blog post, but I gotta put it somewhere. It's forming part of a report I volunteered to do for the Literacy Committee at my school.

Ya see, for those of you who don't know, my regular school, isn't. We teach a lot of different populations, a lot of transient students. And so ... I was tasked with looking at Virtual Book Clubs.

In any case, I went to the Burlington Public Library website and found that they already run VBCs. Innt that awesome?

I wondered about the limitation of getting books from the BPL onto my iPad or iPhone. It used to be a real drag. So, as a part of my search, I found the Oakville PL had explained how to solve that issue with Overdrive. There's an Overdrive App for it, too.

I heard about this from a link that was emailed to me, as a direct result of taking the Spec Ed II course last year.

(Yes, I know that the article talks about the Kindle, but there's an App for that, too.)

Finally, I did what any red blooded Canadian young person should do ... I looked for a Virtual Book Club on Facebook and got like ten results. That'll do for today...

Looking forward

..and I mean that in more ways than one. Seems Nov 18th we're off to The Meeting house in Mississauga to meet Dr Alec Couros.

What do I do when I get a name ... well, I googled it, of course. Seems the Doc teaches at the University of Regina. One of his Graduate level courses he's teaching right now is all about using Web 2.0 to engage students. The course is called Social Media and Open Education.

Sounds familiar, to be honest.

So, after that, I look into his course, seems it can be taken by people just interested in learning about it... hmmm ... makes one think. And...he's on Twitter, too.

As I poke around, I find something I've been meaning to find ... namely a "something" that would allow me to send a text message to my class without giving them my cell number. Or making them give me theirs.

Imagine the possibilities...

Wednesday's words of wisdom

So ... I get that Powerpoint is something that I should use in my classroom. Well, Keynote, anyways...

Me, I try really really hard not to use powerpoint to kill a class. But sometimes I have to sit through some .ppt's that are just painful. Here's a link to an article that explains how to use Powerpoint...

So, um ... yeah.

It's been a while since I was on this page, as you can see.

How ever, I read this "Top Ten reasons students should blog

" article, and I got to say, it's pretty much what I have to think about the matter.

Of course, I'm running into difficulty convincing people to read anything, let alone a blog, even if it offers specific help for something they are trying to complete...

ah well, youth .....

August work

Ya know ... here it is, finally August. Summer school is over, and I keep getting really cool articles emailed to me from... well, all over the interwebs.

This one is about how awesome the iPad is for "stuff".

Back to my morning coffee...

"Theres an #eduapp for that"

Ok, I really didn't want to end the year with an iPad app review. So ... this is how I get out of it:

Link is here to a "SNapp" page (That would be the Special Needs APPlications) .... it reviews and lets you in on all kinds of apps that should help you learn about your iPad, and how to get more into your class.


I'm thinking this post will be the last for a while ... unless something really really good comes along .... Peace out!

...and now for something completely different ...

...I know I have changed topics of that which I am "researching" on this blog a few times, but every once in a while, you kind of have to look around and see what else is out there.

Especially when ideas are emailed to you that support that which you do in a classroom every day. Like blogging.

Just in case you missed it...

So, yeah ... you can do anything with an iPad. Yes you can ... including attending a wedding, which was on the cover of the Toronto Star today.

"There's an app for that!"

So ... what did we do today?

I had a guest speaker today come in and show Raz-kids.com, a website that helps with literacy. I hooked up my laptop to the smartboard and then demonstrated how to hook up my iPhone as a remote for the laptop. We heard the story, could read the story and had a short content quiz at the end. The guest speaker was a little shy, so didn't want to use the remote or the smartboard, but it was all good int he end....

I used Rowmote, which has to be downloaded onto the laptop, as well as an app for the iPod touch/iPhone/iPad for everything to work. As long as they are on the same wireless network, all should be good.

Just as an add on, as I was getting this post ready, I noticed that the app Splashtop Remote is free today.... it does the same thing, and is free...

...and just after I finished this post, I got this link in my head... using Pages (a piece of software for the Mac to ePublish my own book to iBook; something to save trees and further blur the line for cell phone use in the class)

Celli

Now, this is interesting - texting all of your students to remind them of work is hard - except now it isn't. Interesting that people don't want cell phones in schools and yet, they are already there.

Interesting, interesting.

Presentation today

this is a picture of me, using my iPad as a remote/wireless keyboard for my laptop


It didn't happen. I did walk into the lunch room and people were eating. I did ask if this was the right time of day to present and people did express their thoughts that it was.

All I was going to do today was point out this blog to my workmates. If you look on the right hand side are all kinds of materials that have been sent to me over the past few months that I have been looking at iPad uses in the classroom.

I was going to make sure that people knew about the Learning in Hand website, too. That Tony Vincent, nice shirts, good ideas, too.

Finally, I was going to point out some of the more interesting applications that Tony (and others) have pointed me towards. Certainly Comic Touch is one of the cool ones. Check out these from my Phys Ed class:



and also this one:



Someone also asked me to help with syncing problems. I did what I could.

s'all good. Drop a comment in the space below if there is something I should do next Thursday, May 26th.

Today's posting

ya know ... it's like time never moves. I'm still stressed, and I'm still parking articles for me to read later here.

Like this article about creative ways to use an ipad in the classroom.

Kewl.

iPad apps

As you may know, my stressful time of the year is coming -S L O W L Y - to an end. Sort of. Like crawling the last fifty meters of an ultramarathon or something.

I did get this article's link emailed to me today, about the 10 best music apps for the iPad. SOmething to explore while I recover from this negative stress.

A thought experiment

Results only work environment(ROWE) .... in a classroom.

Here is the assignment; here are unfettered computers to get the work done. Here is the deadline, say about a week for three or four projects per unit, five units per course. Tests given on the day that the assignments demonstrating your learned skills are due. I will test you on what skills you have learned for yourself.

So far, this appears to be going well. Similar set ups to online course I have taken in the past - towards a better carrot; or to not get stuck by a sharper stick.

I should think that some students would use me as an internet service provider and chat on facebook, and play online poker, if they showed up at all. As long as they hand in their work on time, I'm not concerned with how or where they get their work done, right? I think some students would fritter their time away, thinking I was an idiot until the timing caught up with them; then they'd be removed. If any piece of work is late, it is not accepted and they would have to withdraw from the course. I've had to withdraw from a course as I was too stupid to realize that I would have no time to get work done. Basically, I ran out of time every day until it was too late.

Some students would take advantage of the system, using their time semi-wisely. Looking at things they like, all the time getting a little of the work done each day. Small incremental steps towards getting the work in on time. They'd be the ones showing up "late" and leaving "early" in order to get some work done on days that it suits them. I've been successful at doing this several times in online courses, and at other times in my life.

Some students would get the work done quickly, having the work done way ahead of time and then sitting on it until it was due, or try to hand the work in early. I think I've done this once or twice in online courses, for a few assignments. I don't think most people work this way.

How might a system like this be used in a traditional classroom? I think teachers, by reason of the collective agreement, would show up to work the same ways, be in the classrooms/learning environments already established and students would appear during general business hours and at certain times. Accountability, right?

I think this is the method that the Gary Allen centre uses... however, a lot of personal anecdotal evidence does not help me think that students switch over to a new way of thinking, being stuck in that first group, listed above.

I think that Daniel Pink might say they have not yet been engaged; that they see autonomy as being something along the lines of freedom to do nothing. Which, I'm sorry to say, gets one nowhere except removed from a ROWE classroom and back into a carrot and stick one.

So .. how does one teach that ROWE can work in a classroom ... I mean I think that should be the first lesson; "I don't care what you do, as long as the assignments are complete and done to the best of your ability - anything less will not be rewarded with autonomy." As Pink says ... "extrinsic motivators vs intrinsic motivators ..."

Whoa. Game changer

This one caught me unexpectedly.

No more actual dead trees in my classroom.

Whoa.

A few ideas to think about

Well, this is an easy post to write, regardless of the fact that I am R&Ding it. (Thats a term for another post, gotten from a wonderful presenter we've had at the site, Danna Messer .. she's on Facebook, go find her. She's simply awesome.)

The first idea that I wanted to share was Fifty Ways to use Graphic Novels in a classroom. Simple, yes. Also all in one place? Yes. Maybe something to be covered in another environment.

The second and third and next set after that ideas are from this book:


This is a text from an online course I looked at taking a few months ago. The course was upwards of 1200 bucks USD, and didn't do anything for my bottom line, so I didn't take it. I did, however, take down the title of the textbook .... and am now reading it chapter by chapter. It's very good at what it proposes to do, at least so far.

I'm in to page 87, and it's telling me I need to find an RSS feed to my iProducts in order to keep learning, keep developing as a person and as an employee.

the book also outlined a simple lesson plan for mobile learning. First it was to be short about ten minutes in length. Which is about what people can handle, in my opinion. After that it gets messy with attention span and other distractions ... like driving. As a general rule, this is just good lesson planning: Introduction, give a situation, discussion of the situation. At this time, that is where my efforts stop in the online community. What happens in this model is a short test with some feedback. And then a summary of what has been done. This last step I do a lot of already when I am in front of people. It is that second to last step which sometimes gets overlooked.

How ofter do people in a regular classroom get a chance to interact with the instructor? In an online learning situation, it is going to be a lot higher number of interactions. That is where learning takes place.

I need to find something out about Donald Kirkpatrick's learning evaluation model. It's on the interwebs somewhere.... and is mentioned in this book, too.

Lastly in the same chapter, there were mentions made of a number of webpages which educators can use to their advantage:

Blip.tv

Mobile learning

and for me a more relevant topic to think about is wowio.com

Free stuff for teachers, too.

Whoa, that looks like a pretty incredible post ... but it was all from an email I get posted to me daily... and a book I'm reading, too. I heart reading.

Finally, something that got emailed to me that is giving me a chuckle.

Another working Break day

Well, I'm on Break and yet, I'm still trying to get some reading done for work.

I guess I'm just like that. I read the first blog post about teaching online in the States. Seems that's the way that it's going there.

Speaking of teaching stuff online, here is an article about using Google Docs, something that was covered in the "E-Ducation" course last year, but not really understood by yours truly. S'all good.

Whoa, early start

Yeah, it's the first day of Break, and I'm up early reading articles for work on my Macbook.

Here's one from Hawaii, a school that uses iPads in their teaching practice.

Here's one about kids using iPad apps to learn about nutrition. I'll have to see what it is all about this week. I'll get back to you on this one.

Here's something you can put in the "I just learned something today" file, too. Seems the US has National Teacher Awards, and this young lady won an award for being an online teacher. Interesting read.

Lastly, I am going ot remind my faithful readers to back their laptops up this week. Take the time to do it properly, too.

Friday March 11

Yes, this is the last day before March Break. I feel grateful that I have a job, and even more grateful for a paid vacation from that job. Rarely, if ever, do people get a job such as mine on this planet. It affords me time to experience the joy of being a father, a husband and all that I am.

I was working with a book I purchased a while ago, Mobile Learning Edge. I got a few ideas that I will put together in a presentable manner later. Seems a blog IS a right thing for me, as I get some support for it at work. Besides, I find that keeping a blog is jsut right for me; most especially, thanks to rich people like Gary Vaynerchuk, I know that blogs and other social media are the may to millions.

I love reading. It SOOOO helps my brain become smart.

What does a connected classroom look like

Here is the thing that I learned about today.

I saw a blog post on what a connected classroom looks like.

And I learned that Dropbox is really, really good.

Whoa... two posts today

I was on my twitter account, and this popped up:







I thought it was so insightful, I'd blog about it.

Another Thursday post

I'm looking around the interwebs again today - found this blog from a university in the States about learning how to teach online courses. Seems there's a certificate in that these days.

Hmmm ... makes one thing about expanding one's teaching credentials into the online sphere. Only makes sense, right?

Thursdays stuff

You know, I'm trying to get my iPad to work ... that is, I'm trying ot get the iPad to work at work with me.

I saw this today:



I'm gunna try this over the next few weeks, I have to get some of this working now, as I have the time and tide to make it work.

I'mma thinking using the smartboard with my laptop in order to take apart the headlines of the Toronto Star sometime next week.

Should be interesting.

Today's musings

I was floating around on the interwebs, looking into leading some Prject Based Learning ... it was what I did with Travels in Ed-ucation last year. It was something that has findiamentally changed the way I learn.

I'm basically trying to change the way I teach, man.

In any case, I found a few blogs, a few links that should help me in this endeavour.

Things is looking up, as always at this time of year.

remote sign in

I, as most people do, have a mother.

My mother is special, she has a Macbook. Since I, and my nieces, convinced her to buy it to get online and participate in modern day society, we are now her technical support.

I think the Oatmeal has it right, man.

In any case, I found out a little about Remote sign ins for my mother's laptop. This is an Apple seminar, and free. Awesome.

iPad reigns

I'm finding that when I get home, the laptop stays in my bag , unless there is a specific thing I need to use it for - ripping a CD/DVD or putting marks together with MarkBook... otherwise I'm using the iPad for email and other things.

Heck, I'm using it to control my Apple TV, which is awesome.

In any case, I'm looking at Apps for both my home life, which always needs some help, and my work life, which also needs some help, too. Link is here.

the iPad cometh

I got the iPad I ordered online on Friday. Since then I've been playing with it to discover how to use it in class.

It is like forced PD, except it's fun and self directed.

Here is a blog someone is keeping to help me along, too.

And some help from Apple. Should be good.

White listed

I learned a term today: "White listed" Interesting.

Here's an article about websites that should be white listed.

Project based learning

OK, so that didn't work out so well... but...

I'm teaching the OSSLC next module, and so, rather than do the usual, I'm thinking I try something new.

I have a series of links I have been leaving open and I want to post them here... so I am:




Here is the page I got the video from: PBL explained


Project based learning


Six steps for planning a successful project


Project learning for your classroom

What if kids designed their own learning


Glogster in Education

Books on my cell phone


Texting teens into novelists

Media Literacy is not just for kids


and finally, the why I am doing this: