Technology – Page 11

Newsletter on Educational Technology

Throughout the years many of the preservice and in-service teachers in my classes, workshops, and presentations have requested that I start an email newsletter. They indicate that in addition to this blog they would like to receive occasional emails sharing rich resources related to technology integration. I’m excited to announce that I have answered these requests.

Clif’s Newsletter on Educational Technology focuses on the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning. Subscribers of this free service will receive occasional emails providing valuable resources and information about lesson plans, activities, technologies, research, etc., related to educational technology.

OPEN TO PUBLIC
Subscription to this newsletter is open to everyone. You are encouraged to share this with everyone with an interest in education (teachers, administrators, homeschooling families, friends, classmates, co-workers, etc.). Everyone is invited to receive this free newsletter.

MANAGING SUBSCRIPTIONS
You may subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter as you wish.

If You Give a Teacher a Mouse

This is a clever idea and highlights many of the current key points and issues related to technology integration. Kudos to Amy and the others hat worked on this project.

[flashvideo width=”425″ height=”350″ filename=”http://www.teachertube.com/flvideo/32454.flv” /]

I think this could be developed into a piece that would be widely viewed and discussed in education circles. It’s quite good as is, but I believe it could become even better. In true Web 2.0 collaborative form, let’s consider ideas for building on the existing video. So, here’s the question…

What suggestions would you make for improving this?

Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0

I’m teaching a special topics seminar this summer for graduate students. The topic will be Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies. I began preparing for this course in June 2007 and I’m very excited about it. While we’ll consider common trends and issues and survey many of the popular tools and services related to Web 2.0, the heart of the course will be learning to effectively integrate Web 2.0 technologies and principles with teaching and learning. The focus will be on K-12 education but accommodations can be made for individuals from other fields (health, corporate, military, higher education, etc.). This draft version of the Course Topics provides an overview of the likely curriculum.

While the dominate driving force in the development of the curriculum and resources has been the upcoming class, I always planned for this to be a relatively open learning community. In keeping with the principles of Web 2.0 I encourage the participation of everyone with an interest or expertise in this topic. You may contribute to the discussion and fun by using the following tag/keyword: idt7078

Related Resources

Jott.com ROCKS!!!

I’ve been using this amazing technology for just about a week and I’ve already discovered dozens of reasons (or excuses) for using it. I think it is useful for people that commute back and forth to work like I do. It integrates well with the way I use my driving time (reflecting on the day, dreaming up new plans and ideas, thinking of quick notes that I’d like to send to others, recalling things that I need to “remember,”) and I feel like my time on the road is being better spent. Previously, I’d make all these mental notes while driving home and I’d get a bit stressed trying to remember them all later. Using Jott helps me actually get things noted relieving the stress and cognitive load of keeping it all stored in my puny human memory. I encourage you to take a look at this technology. listen

Here are some possible uses of Jott.com.

Send messages to most social media with a phone call (Twitter, Blogs, Yahoo! Groups, and much more).
Set reminders for yourself and others (Through Jott.com, Remember the Milk, and more).
Leave notes for yourself.
Compose letters, emails, blog posts, announcements, and other documents hands-free through Jott’s voice transcription.

Related Resources

Jott in Education – by Clif (Coming Soon)

Jott: A Powerful New Tool for Learning

Diigo Notes for 05/03/2008

How Paperless Are You?

Jott Videos

Jott Bloggers

Jogg’s Blog

The Future of Educational Technology

Future03-Large

Here at the end of the semester we’ve been reading about and discussing the future of the field in our introductory course. We’ve considered the works of David Merrill, Brent Wilson, Karl Fisch, and current media (journals, news, blogs, etc.). During our past class meeting I even tweeted the topic and we received great feedback from the Twitterverse. The students are enjoying the topic and appreciate considering a variety of perspectives. So, I ask you – my online friends, colleagues, students, blog readers, parents, and visitors – what do you think is the future of educational technology?

1 Thing Teachers Should Know about Teaching with Technology

GUEST BLOGGER
Jethro Jones

Part of the ongoing 1 Thing series.

Being a humble teacher, I often have car troubles because I don’t drive a very nice car. In fact, I am pretty lucky that the car still runs. I needed to put in a new battery a couple weeks ago, and instead of grabbing a hammer and pounding on it until the cables came off, I dug around the toolbox until I found a socket wrench.

For educators, technology is a big toolbox with tools that range from a pencil and paper to a wiki to a Skype video call. Tools are still tools. If a tool doesn’t work for the job, you can’t force it. As teachers, we must use the tools that work for our situation. Don’t try to force technology on the students if it is not improving their learning! They need to learn. Our tools should help them learn.

Jethro’s Hammer

Photo Credit: PPDIGITAL Creative Commons License

Bill Nye at MSU

Trevor’s Theory

GUEST BLOGGER
Trevor Acy

As a long time Bill Nye the Science Guy fan, you can not begin to comprehend my excitement when I saw that the man himself was giving an environmental lecture on campus. In 2006, our then President Charles Lee, started the Global Lecture Series here at Mississippi State which aims at bringing in speakers on all sorts of different topics. This semester we had the honor of having Bill Nye come and give a lecture (more of a performance) on environmental changes.

If you ever get the chance to go hear Bill Nye speak, take it. Not only are you surely going to learn something, but you will genuinely have fun. His antics from television are only enhanced in person. His presentation was not scripted, he didn’t read from his slides (the biggest bore to an audience, so I beg you educators out there; don’t do it), kept the technical jargon down, and put a very informal spin on the whole presentation.

While his lecture was on environmental issues, it never felt like we were being preached to, like I said he kept it very informal. Unlike many people on the subject who concentrate only on what problems the current situation is inflicting upon the Earth, Bill mainly just detailed simple ways to help correct the issues. For one, and though he didn’t say it quite as directly as this, NASCAR should either be completely overhauled or put to a stop. Those cars, whose only job is to race around a track for HUNDREDS of miles get 5 miles to the gallon. That’s less than a Chevy Suburban! Bill Nye has a very “green” house, with solar heating and natural lighting for the common areas of his home. He generates more electricity than he uses (he showed us a video of his meter actually running backwards). If your first thought upon reading about his house was, “but how much did it cost?” He claims that it costs less than the average swimming pool and can easily be added on to your mortgage for as little as $20-$30 bucks a month.

I’m a relatively conscientious consumer, but so far have only invested in the little things like washing my clothes with cold water detergent and buying the environmentally friendly, longer lasting, light bulbs. Listening to Bill Nye tonight though, I think has turned me into a eco-nut. I am definitely going to buy a eco-friendly car and will not settle for anything less than 30 miles to the gallon. As soon as I own my own place, which granted will be a couple of years, I’m going to make considerable strives to do more with less.

To finish up, I strongly suggest you educate yourself on ways to ease the burden of this fantastic planet (and save yourself some money). Even if you don’t believe in all the global warming hype, what harm is there in saving everyone, including yourself, from the negative externalities of the items we use and abuse today.

1 Thing

I’ve added a new feature to Clif’s Notes called 1 Thing. This special section is an area where guest bloggers can communicate “1 thing” they would like to share, suggest, say, demonstrate, etc. about a particular topic. This section will forever be a work in progress, so feel free to suggest guest bloggers and topics anytime. You can easily access this section by clicking on the 1 Thing link in the main menu.

Diigo 101 Podcast

Maggie Tsai, Diigo’s chief ambassador, will be a guest on EdTechTalk this evening and will be taking questions about the latest version of their product. Maggie shared the following information about the event via email.

I’ve been invited to a podcast with a group of educators – since most people there are new to Diigo, I’d like to focus this session on Diigo 101 – the very basics of Diigo ~ how to set up / use diigolet, bookmarking, highlights and explore my “Bookmarks” section. If time permits, we will also touch upon the Groups. We will make it short and sweet.

Ideally, there will be more future sessions that go into intermediate, advanced and special topics of Diigo…

Diigo is a getting a lot of buzz right now and I strongly encourage all (present and future) educators and graduate students to consider participating in this event.

EdTechTalk’s Making Connections
Tue April 8, 2008
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM CST
http://www.edtechtalk.com

NECC Buzz Has Begun

It is still more than two months away, but I am already excited about this year’s National Educational Computing Conference. Although I will be co-presenting a BYOL (bring your own laptop) session about integrating technology in elementary mathematics, I am much more excited about meeting and visiting with members of my online social network in real life. I virtually attended last year’s conference via the RSS river that flowed out of Atlanta and promised myself I would not miss all the fun and opportunities in 2008. So, San Antonio, here I come!!!

Here are some of the events for which I am especially looking forward.

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EduBloggerCon/Classroom 2.0 “LIVE in San Antonio” 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center

Pre-NECC Event following an unconference format. It is free and open to all.

See site for full details.

Tags: edubloggercon, ebc08, necc2008, necc08

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NECC 2.0
The Conference within a Conference. A Fringe Festival for NECC. Three days collaboratively created and scheduled by the participants, held in the open “lounge” areas during NECC.

See NECC 2.0 for full details.

Tags: necc2008, necc08