Educational Technology and Life

I also shared this opportunity with colleagues elsewhere and thought it would be good to share it with you here as well:

Hello again, colleagues. I’m once again pinging you on behalf of the California League of Schools, which is moving to pull together promotional material for the California League of High Schools (CLHS) annual conference January 15 – 17 (in Monterey) and the California League of High Schools (CLHS) annual conference February 25 – 28 (in Sacramento). They generally like to include some “typical sessions” in the registration brochure and it would be fantastic to highlight any of you who might be interested in presenting in the “tech strand” at each event. We will have a hands-on lab (or two) available at each event, but there is also an opportunity to do a more traditional presentation if you like. There is no compensation for this other than recognition in the program, but I hope that many of you in the area will submit a session. :)

If you’d be interested, please reply and fill out one or both of the forms below.

CLHS: http://tinyurl.com/mftrag

CLMS: http://tinyurl.com/lsqxqz

Incidentally, the CLHS conference will focus on Marzano’s instructional strategies that work – and on response to intervention (RtI), so if there’s anyway to incorporate either of those into your session descriptions, that’d be great (but not necessary). I don’t know of any such theme for CLMS yet.

Let me know if you have any questions – and thank you in advance for considering this.

I hope that some of you might take me up on this. :)

This morning I was interviewed by a magazine editor writing about the iPhone in Education. I found myself wishing I had previously taken the time to aggregate iPhone in Education resources and lists of applications good for students and educators. Just prior to the call I finally had the good sense to ping my colleagues on Twitter, and sure enough several came through with great links during the interview! Afterwards, I was finally motivated to pull together resources from other recent CUE speakers who had led sessions on the topic. Once I had an email together to the editor, I realized it might just make a good blog post. So, with no further editing, here’s the message I sent…

Here’s a few of the initial responses to my call-out on Twitter for “iPhone in Education” resources:

# soffenhauser use it for classroom walkthru observations – created a google form and have a link on my iphone to the form. Love google forms!18 minutes ago
# Craig Nansencnansen @markwagner Control a preso forward/back & screen was a touch pad 2 control the mouse & the keyboard 4 data entry. http://twurl.nl/pv17m24 minutes ago from TweetDeck
# Jonathan Beckerjonbecker @markwagner not specifically iPhone, but it is Apple…have you seen what’s happening here in VA?: http://twurl.nl/xvkty64 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to markwagner
# Craig Nansencnansen @markwagner http://tinyurl.com/3zydnb11 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to markwagner
# Craig Nansencnansen @markwagner http://twurl.nl/6xzrye13 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to markwagner

And here’s a post from Ken Shelton, who lead the iPhone Supper Session at the CUE conference this year – his slides are included:
http://techedanddev.blogspot.com/2009/04/cue-sessionsreflections.html

And here’s a podcast interview with Kathy Shirley and Joe Morlock, who led the iPod Touch session for us at Macworld this year – plus Kathy’s iPod in education resource site, which links to a list on Kathy Shrock’s site (both below):
http://www.truveo.com/CUE-Live-from-Macworld-2009-Joe-Morelock-and-Kathy/id/482216704
http://www.ipoddess.com/iPoddess/Resources/Entries/2008/10/23_The_Very_Best_of_iPod_and_Podcasting.html
http://kathyschrock.net/blog/2007/10/ipod-touch-online-applications-for.html

Also, Leslie Fisher has lead iPhone sessions at CUE events (and elsewhere all over the world). Here’s a link to one of her PDF handouts… and to the iPhone Applications category on her blog:
http://www.lesliefisher.com/handouts/handouts/iphone_ed.pdf
http://lesliegolf.blogspot.com/search/label/iPhone%20Applications

There… at least now I took some time to pull together a list of other people’s lists. :)

I still have to write the next “Jailbreak your iPhone For Educators” post I’ve been promising people… meanwhile, here’s a link to everything iPhone from my blog (mostly mentions in my link posts):
http://edtechlife.com/?s=iphone

And in case you weren’t looking at these two posts before, here’s my two specifically iPhone related posts:
http://edtechlife.com/?cat=83

Anyway, enjoy. I hope this helps. :)

-Mark

Some of these links include fantastic lists (and lists of lists), so there is a lot of material and potential resources here. And please feel free to add more in the comments below. :)

I’ve created a new page to support the sessions I’m leading at the 2009 CUE conference. I’ve been giving the URL to participants here so they can get back to the resources anytime, but I’m also sharing the same information in this post for readers of this blog who are not at the conference:

• http://edtechlife.com/cue2009

Each session links to a wiki with a description, agenda, and links to every resource or example that I mentioned (and many I didn’t get to). In some cases there may even be a ustreamed archive of the session. At this point only the Thursday sessions are entirely updated, but the others will be updated over the next two days. Reply in the comments below if you have any questions or thoughts about the sessions – and feel free to contribute to the wikis as well. :)

I just wrote this up in an email to colleagues, so I thought I might as well share it here. This is my presentation schedule for the CUE conference later this week – I hope some of you might be able to pop in and say hi:

Wednesday

• I’ll be at the edubloggercon from noon to 9 PM.

Thursday

• We All Scream For Ustream: An Introduction to Video Streaming in Education, 9:30-10:30 AM, Andreas
• Build a Better Browser: An Overview of Firefox Add-Ons for Educators, 2:00-2:20 PM, Oasis 1
• I Want To Believe: What’s the Research Value of Wikipedia and Knol? 3:30-3:50 PM, Oasis 1

Friday

• Blogs, Wikis, and Google Docs: Which One Is Right For Your Lesson? 12:00-12:20 PM, Oasis 1
• Twitter Me This: Join a Global Learning Community & Feel Good About It, 2:00-2:20 PM, Oasis 1

Saturday

• Search, Learn, Share: An Introduction to Google Tools in Education (An Update), 8:00-9:00 AM, Primrose A
• Maybe You Should Drive: Taking Control of Your Own Professional Development, 1:30-2:30 PM, Mesquite A

For brief descriptions and full abstracts of these sessions (and others that didn’t make the cut), see my earlier post on the topic: CUE 2009 Submissions: Maybe You Should Drive

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or thoughts (or resources to share) related to these sessions. I’d love to give you credit during the session for anything you share or any thinking you spark. ;)

I was thrilled to be asked by Peggy Ericson, Director of CTAP Region 1, to provide this introductory video for the Classroom Learning 2.0 project.

Classroom Learning 2.0 is an online tutorial brought to you by CTAP Region 1 and the California School Library Association (CSLA) 2.0 Team. It is designed for you to do on your own or as a part of a group. This is a self-discovery program which encourages participants to take control of their own learning and to utilize their lifelong learning skills through exploration and play. Participants are encouraged to work together and share with each other their discoveries, techniques, and “how to’s” both in person and through their blogs. Participation is free and open to anyone. If you join the fun, please revisit this blog and leave a comment about what you’re learning.

This was written for a recent train-the-trainers workshop I lead for educational technology professional developers. I thought it might be worth sharing here as well. I hope some of you find this helpful – and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic in the comments.

Participants’ evaluations of a professional development session are an
important way to collect feedback regarding what went well (that you
can build on for the future) and what went poorly (that you can do
differently in the future). It is also an opportunity for participants
to request additional follow up. Be sure to include an evaluation after
each professional development session you lead.

If participants will be sitting in front of a computer, you can offer the evaluation online using a service such as surveymonkey.com. (Effective surveys can also be created using forms on Google Docs,
but dedicated services like Survey Moneky still provide more survey
specific features and analysis.) Even if participants are not in front
of a computer, the value of having evaluation data in an easy to use
electronic format might make it worth while to email participants a
link to the survey to complete at their convenience – rather than
handing out paper forms at the end of an event.

Evaluations might be best if kept to a few very specific and very short
questions using a Likert-type scale. Ten might be the maximum number of
questions you should expect participants to answer. Be sure that each
question is asking only one thing (so that participant responses are
not ambiguous) and be sure  that each question will provide data you
will actually use. Otherwise, don’t waste the participant’s time with
the question. Ideally, of course, you should ask questions that focus
on the things that are important for you to get right – or that you are
working on. A glance at the questions in the sample evaluation below
will reveal something about what I value and what I think makes good
professional development.

Also, always be sure to leave an opportunity for open-ended feedback at
the end of the evaluation. The opportunity to express themselves
through natural language is the best opportunity for participants to
share suggestions for improvements – or to share praise for what you
did well. I always find the open ended responses the most valuable at
the end of the day… both for making changes in the future and for
feeling good about a job well done. Also, these responses will often
shed light on otherwise confusing responses to the closed (multiple
choice) questions.

Finally, give participants the opportunity to leave you their contact
information (particularly their email). This can be invaluable for
contacting them regarding follow up – and make it possible for you to
contact them regarding future professional development opportunities.
It is best, however, if leaving contact information is optional for
participants. This way, it is still possible for them to complete the
survey anonymously, which will make it more likely you will receive
honest (and helpful) feedback.

The sample evaluation (and results) below are representative of the
online evaluations I use for all workshops that I lead or arrange.

Sample Evaluation

Sample Results (based on what is entered into the sample evaluation above)

I’d love to hear your comments or feedback on this sample evaluation (or on this post in general). How do you handle evaluations for workshops you’ve lead? What have been some of your challenges and how did you overcome them (if you did)? Or… what have you seen as a participant that you’ve appreciated or disliked? In other words, what makes a good professional development evaluation? I look forward to learning from what you might share.

I recently read (or skimmed) my way through Google Apps Hacks by Phillip Lenssen. I got a lot of great tricks out of it and recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about ways you can use or customize Google Tools. Sometime later I’ll have to put together a post about the implications of some of the hacks for teachers and students, but while I was reading I was inspired to use my Google Notebook more. Then I was inspired to create this post using a pretty cool series of “hacks”:

1. As I went to web sites that described some of the hacks in the book in greater detail (or provided a necessary tool) I sometimes saved and annotated them in my new Google Hacks notebook.
2. Then, I used the Tool menu in Notebook to export my Google Hacks bookmarks and annotations to a Google Doc… this gets even better.
3. Next I used the Share menu in Google Docs to select “Publish as web page…” which gave the opportunity for me to “Publish to Blog.” (I also selected the “Automatically republish when changes are made” option, which is a great trick for live blogging.)
4. Finally, I edited the document to add this introduction with these instructions, which you are now reading on my blog. Cool, eh?

In any case, the following list is not at all exhaustive, but you might find a few gems in here. Some of these didn’t work well for me, so please share if you know of better options, especially for the signature problem I have. ;)

I literally wished I could do this just earlier today! Sweet.

I so wanted this to work! No luck. It would only remember the most recent signature I added. So I tried the new Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures Firefox Add-On, which is newer, but it was a complete no-go. Guess I’ll still be cut and pasting my signatures. :(

I plan to try a lot of these!

This was fun to try, but the stable version doesn’t yet support presentations. Using Greasemonkey, DownThemAll, and GoogleDocsDownload in Firefox worked better – in fact, it’s a great solution. I do it weekly now. Give it a try.

I just used this to publish to edtechlife – and might use it from time to time for rich posts in the future.

You enter values and labels directly into the url and Google Chart creates the visual. Very cool and easily embedable in blog posts.

I’m here in Indian Wells with secondary educators learning about literacy. I’m asking three new questions (participants’ responses are in italics):

1. What is literacy?

Reading, Writing, Thinking, Listening. Making connections. Speaking. Using symbols to communicate.

2. How is literacy changing?

Moving from hardcopy to eletronic media. Texting and other non-traditional spelling. More of a focus on retrieving information than memorizing it. There’s new ways to access information.

3. What does this change mean for you and your students?

We need to incorporate these changes into our teaching – to relate to kids – so they can related. We have to educate ourselves as teachers in order to help our students become functioning members of society. We need to empower veteran teachers. There’s a greater disconnect with our prior knowledge of literacy. We’re learning the new symbols from our students. It’s increasingly difficult to address the access issue. We have to adjust.

UPDATE: This post was a live demo at my opening session at the CLMS/CLHS Summer Literacy and Learning Institute in Indian Wells. Visit edtechlife.com/indianwells/ for descriptions of my daily sessions and links to each workshop wiki.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions or feedback regarding these session.

I’m in Maui with California middle school and high school teachers, including many teachers of the year. I’m asking these three familiar questions (their answers are in italics):

1. What is a blog?

Q & A.
Two-way communication
Electronic show and tell

2. What is the two-way web?

Interactive
It’s communication
It doesn’t require being in the same space or time. It’s asynchronous. It’s 24/7.

3. What do these technologies mean for you and your students?

It’s goes beyond the four walls of you classroom.
More peer involvement.
It’s fun – it’s the techie generation’s way to communicate.
Learning is hands-on and interactive!

So we’re on the same page and off to a good start…

As Robert Craven let me know, “your entire job as a father hinges on if you did a good job getting pictures and video up, that’s it.” Finally, I’ve got a “best of Clark Kelley” photo gallery together. I chose 24 photos from the 2 gigs I took during Clark’s first days. I came across the limits of my free Flickr account for the first time, but I posted 17 of the photos there with titles and descriptions:

Clark Kelley Wagner is Born (Flickr)

And though it took much longer to upload them, I also got all the pictures posted on Picasa Web with no space limits:

Clark’s First Days (Picasa Web)

No, there’s no good reason the photo sets have different titles; I worked on it bit by bit all afternoon. In any case, I’m always happy to read comments about the boy if you care to leave any. Now to send these links off to friends and family who won’t read this blog… via old fashioned email. ;)