Tag: Twitter

Make Your Preparations to be at Podstock 2010

Having been part of Podstock 2009 I can confidently say that Podstock 2010 is going to be an excellent weekend of professional development and fun.

The Podstock conference held July 16 & 17 in downtown Wichita, Kansas is for educators…who want to share technology integration strategies, acquire new instructional techniques and strengthen established learning networks. (Source)

The following video was recorded by Wesley Fryer and provides a preview of some of the things you can expect at Podstock 2010.

Suggested Reading for 07/28/2009

Animoto: Quick and Slick – Tom Barrett

How to Become a Twitter Teacher – Kapil Bhatia

Why Spend So Much Time on This Stuff? – Liz B. Davis

Powerful Images to Give Lessons Punch – Danny Nicholson

Twitter in the Classroom

Tom Barrett, developed the below presentation. It is full of strategies and tips for effectively integrating Twitter with teaching and learning.

Educational Plurk-ers You Should Follow

PlurkKevin Honeycutt has created and is sharing a new Google Doc called Who New Plurkers Should Follow and Why. It is a great resource and would be helpful to anyone wishing to network with top notch people interested in education and technology.

Haven’t tried Plurk? Take a look now. It’s a microblogging platform similar to Twitter, but it has threaded discussion.

Teachers’ Online Identities

Miguel Guhlin has once again pushed my thinking. This time its about the issue of personal content that K-12 teachers post online. I’ve spent a lot of time researching, thinking about and discussing this topic, but it struck me that this issue is actually a lot hairier than I’ve previously realized. There are a lot of different aspects that need to be considered.

Here are a few points from Miguel’s post. I encourage you to consider each question twice asking yourself Do.. the first time and Should… the second time.

  • Do/Should school districts have any say about what a teacher does after hours?
  • Do/Should school districts have any say about what a teacher posts online?
  • Do/Should teachers represent the district after hours?

Rather than commenting on the discussion at this point, I hope to further it by asking a few more questions.

  • Do/Should schools districts have any say about what staff members (Secretary, custodian, cafeteria staff, bus driver, mechanic, maintenance, etc.) do after hours? Post online?
  • Do/Should parents and the community have any say in these matters?
  • How does this translate to higher education?
  • If the answers to these questions are “yes” then is the same true for individuals in other professions (Nurse, news reporter, radio DJ, police officer, elected official, unelected government employee, or store clerk)?

Learn with Us (IDT7078)

As I mentioned in a recent blog post I’m teaching a seminar this summer focusing on Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies. I concluded the earlier post by sharing the following:

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. Be on the lookout for ways (Ustream, Skype, Twitter, Plurk, etc.) to informally participate with us. I would certainly consider making it possible for those wishing to enroll in the course and participate from a distance, too.

Greg R. Fishbone replied to my earlier post and asked the following question regarding my concluding statements.

I’d love to participate informally, but how does one follow a keyword?

I think this is a GREAT a question and I suspect Greg is not the only one wondering about this. I’m sharing this information here in hopes of helping Greg and anyone else that may be interested in being part of our learning community this summer.

Google Keyword Search
You can add the following RSS feed to your aggregator (such as Google Reader or Bloglines). New blog posts, wiki entries, bookmarks, videos, podcasts, etc. tagged with idt7078 will then be “delivered” to you as they show up in Google.

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch_feeds?hl=en&q=idt7078&ie=utf-8&num=10&output=rss

An alternative to this strategy would be to setup a Google Alert for idt7078.

Twitter Search
You can also add a keyword search for idt7078 to TweetDeck or similar Twitter platform if you are using one. If not, then you can add the following RSS feed for the Twitter Search of the course tag to your aggregator.

http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=idt7078

Plurk Search
Add idt7078 to your list of Saved Searches in your profile’s dashboard.

Your Class Can Interact with Astronauts

NASA astronaut Mark Polansky, who will be commanding the next mission to the International Space Station, has just posted a video to NASA’s official YouTube channel inviting YouTubers and Twitter fans to take part in his next mission, submitting video questions via YouTube and following mission updates over Twitter.

To ask a question, Polansky says to create a video of around thirty seconds and post it to YouTube, then send it to his Twitter account using an @reply. He’ll respond to the questions on NASA TV, which is broadcast nation-wide. (Source)

I encourage you and your students to participate in this activity. It’s a rare opportunity. Who knows? You may have a future NASA astronaut, controller or engineer sitting in your class!

“The Man Himself” – Trevor’s About Me

It was about time I made a page giving everyone a little more information on who I am and what I’m doing writing for Clif. On my first ever post to the site, this is what Clif had to say about me:

About the Author
Trevor Acy is another of Clif’s former middle school students. Trevor is now double majoring in business and Japanese and spent last summer studying in Tokyo. He plans to intern for a Design-Build firm this summer and intends to make his way back to Japan professionally after graduating suma cume laude this spring. Mr. Acy enjoys basketball, Unbeatable Banzuke, ballet and politics. Expect more posts from TA as he shares his perspective throughout March Madness and beyond.

Well, not all that holds up now and I don’t just mean the parts I hope you can discern as his humor. My plans for the summer have changed. I will be in Greenville, SC working for a Site Selection Consulting firm McCallum Sweeney Consulting (of which I am keeping a daily blog). Also, I would hardly say basketball is my favorite sport, more likely I’d make a case for soccer, tennis, and baseball.

Although I got my start on this site as a sports correspondent, I have since made my case (apparently) as coherent enough to become a full time “Contributor.” I don’t know what process Clif went through to deem me worthy of that, but he must not have a very high set of standards.

I am not nearly as integrated as I should be, but you can feel free to follow me on Twitter, check me out on Diigo, or take a look at my posts here on Clif’s Notes.