Bill Cosby Addresses Graduates

Educator and comedian Bill Cosby spoke to the class of 2012 at Temple University’s 125th commencement. Dr. Cosby spoke about the troubles facing young people entering today’s work force and challenges the graduates to “wake up and not dream through” the next stage of life.

Hats off to this year’s graduates!

Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media (TAISTI)

I’m back in Nashville today for the TAIS Technology Institute. I’m excited about having opportunities to work with and learn from classroom teachers, media specialists, administrators, and more. I’ll be sharing a workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. The PowerPoint presentation is below and the full workshop notes are available on my wiki. Note that the links and logos in the PowerPoint presentation are clickable.

Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media (NCTIES)

I’m enjoying the North Carolina Technology in Education Society’s 2010 Conference in Raleigh, NC. I’m excited about being one of the featured speakers and having opportunities to work with and learn from classroom teachers, media specialists, administrators, and more.

Today I’ll be sharing a pre-conference workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. This energetic session will demonstrate that with freely available digital technologies students can demonstrate their understanding of course content in multiple ways (images, audio, video, presentations, artwork, and more). Each student’s end product (learning artifact) allows them to personally self-express their understanding/mastery of the content/skills. Although teachers may not be comfortable using all of today’s technology it is important to consider allowing students to use it to communicate their understanding as they are often more naturally able to more fully express themselves with digital media. The PowerPoint presentation is below and the full workshop notes are available on my wiki. Note that the links and logos in the PowerPoint presentation are clickable.

Connecting the Classroom and Outside World (Feedback Requested)

Educators, what are some strategies for connecting the classroom with the outside world?

NOTE: I’d like to share responses in an upcoming workshop/presentation and on my blog and wiki. You can submit your ideas using the form below, share your text/audio/video reply in the Comments section of this post or respond via Twitter, Plurk or on your blog using the tag #thruwalls. You can also view the compiled database of suggested strategies on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.

Share this post using http://tr.im/104.

Conversation tag: #thruwalls

Wordles of Every Inaugaration Speech [Video and Gallery]

Governing Dynamo has developed a gallery of all 56 American presidential inaugural addresses that includes full transcripts, Wordles (word cloud visualizations) and video footage. The video below can be a useful way to navigate through the gallery. Click on the glowing green dots in the video to learn more about an inaugural address.

Educational Reform – Bill Gates Addresses Legislators

The following is the text of Bill Gates’ remarks at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Microsoft co-founder shares his ideas about “how federal stimulus money should be used to spark educational innovation, spread best practices and improve accountability” along with his belief that the “U.S. must improve its educational standing in the world by rewarding effective teaching and by developing better, universal measures of performance for students and teachers” (Source).

Thanks to iCiL Too

I received a nice package from the fine folks from the iConnect iLearn Too Conference. I enjoyed keynoting for them and then interacting with everyone throughout the event (and beyond…right Plurk buddies?!). They sent me a thank you note, conference t-shirt, the much sought after Web 2.0 keyring and other conference goodies. It was a well-timed surprise considering how tired I am after returning to the office today after our family vacation.

iConnect iLearn Too Conference

Connecting the Classroom and Outside World

Educators, what are some strategies for connecting the classroom with the outside world?

NOTE: I’d like to share responses in my keynote at the iConnect iLearn Conference and on my blog and wiki. You can submit your ideas using the form below, share your text/audio/video reply in the Comments section of this post or respond to the corresponding Twitter and Plurk discussions. You can also view the compiled database of suggested strategies on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.

Using Digital Technologies and PLNs to Enhance Learning

These are the slides for my Podstock 2009 keynote. Unfortunately the animations and effects were lost when uploaded to SlideBoom. I’ve shared my notes, resources and video of this presentation over on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively. I hope to create a Vidcast or SlideCast of this presentation once I return home and things settle down.

Resources from Podstock, Day 1

MORE COMING THROUGHOUT THE DAY…

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Getting a Global Perspective: The Power of Collaborative Projects
– Dyane Smokorowski’s presentation resources

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Math Snacks: A Nibble of Conceptual Math – Michelle Flaming and Renee Smith’s podcast and resources

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Publish Audio at Will and Geo-Story Chasing – Wesley Fryer

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Curricularizing to the Podcast World – Diana Wieland

  • Sound-seeing tours
  • Broadcast student audio plays
  • Interviews with content experts
  • Student produced “radio” talk shows about content
  • Also see these podcasts: KidCast, Coulee Kids, and Our City

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The Cosmosphere in the Palm of Your Hand- How we fumbled our way to fame(?) – Howie G (a.k.a. Harold George and Joel Walker)

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Get Out of Your FUNK, Cut the JIVE! Make Your Classroom Come Alive!!! – Kim Herron, Tamara Padfield, Linley Voboril

Dean Mantz’s is hosting live blogging throughout the day. Please join the live discussion or visit the archive afterwards.