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...