If you are anything like me you started your tech trek several years ago. Maybe even used a TRS 80 or even a VIC 20/C64.
Back then the major source of computer information was a magazine. There were several to choose from. Believe it or not, I still subscribe to one magazine and it is a computer magazine.
Truthfully, I have been thinking I should not renew it next time. Until today. The most recent issue did a piece on free and open source software. Most of the list I recognized but there were enough nuggets to keep me subscribed for another year.
Besides it is still more comfortable curling up with a magazine than with my laptop. Here's what I found:
Nanoscan
Comodo
Adobebuzzword
YouConvertit
ooVoo
Windows Live Photo Gallery
IE7pro
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Our Schools!
I just read Wesley Fryer's blog entitled A contrary view of education and NCLB and have to agree with him. Here's my take on things.
I've read some where, sorry can't find the article that most communities are very happy with their schools, but when you ask the same people about our educational system as a whole they will tell you that it is failing. How can this be?
I have been in education for 27 years and have seen its ups and downs. I have watched our kids go to prestigious colleges, the military, and into the local job market. There have been some definite trends that are consistent. We have slowly walked away from occupational education. We have been selling the notion that everyone must attend college. We treat "tracking" as a dirty word. In doing so we have created the biggest track of them all, college bound.
Another trend has been even more disturbing. This is the trend of testing. The results are scary.
Students have no time to be kids. Schedules in schools have become tighter to make up for the time taken away for the actual testing and preparations. Participation in the arts has dwindled because we need more teachers to prepare students for the tests. Teachers have become paranoid because they know that they are being judged on results of testing when by they do not control all of the factors that go into the preparation.
Evidence of these factors above is pretty apparent in my district and I would bet that if you poll the parents they would say our school does a great job, overall. So, what are the results of all of this testing?
I think we are starting to see the results. I see middle and high school students who are experts at the mechanics of taking a standardized test. I see students who are fearful of failure and rely on directions from others too often. I see students who are not very creative and act like lemmings. I see more and more students who haven't a clue about their future aspirations. I also see a local business struggling to hiring skilled machinists. It just happens that our district used to offer courses in machining until 15 years ago. At that time we did away with the classes.
The biggest fear I have is that we are losing the ability to create and innovate. That clearly has been our nation’s biggest asset. Why are we focusing so much on testing? I believe it's because it's the east way out. In this age of sound bites how else can you point a finger?
Here's my solution. If politicians want us to become more like business then give us all of the control businesses have. For instance, in business they choose the raw material that they work with. I say, let me choose the students I work with. In business they have quality controls throughout the manufacturing process. I say, let me have quality controls and the ability to eject inferior materials along the way. In business they receive bonuses for raising the company’s bottom line. I say cheers. I believe if we had the same controls we would not need tenure because our success rates would be through the roof. Give me a year under these conditions and I'll compete on any test with any school or nation.
Of course I am not suggesting that we do this. Our kids are not widgets and we as a nation have decided we must educate everyone. Rightly so. Yet we constantly compare ourselves to other nations who do not.
I came into education at a time when the Nation at Risk report came out. Talk about having your enthusiasm put to a test! I am still here and as optimistic as ever. I just do not understand why we continue to beat ourselves up as an institution.
I believe we have the best economic engine in the world. I know it's tough to remain number one. But, I ask you one question. If our educational system is so bad how has our economy remained at the top and become the envy of most? We must be doing something right!
I have been in education for 27 years and have seen its ups and downs. I have watched our kids go to prestigious colleges, the military, and into the local job market. There have been some definite trends that are consistent. We have slowly walked away from occupational education. We have been selling the notion that everyone must attend college. We treat "tracking" as a dirty word. In doing so we have created the biggest track of them all, college bound.
Another trend has been even more disturbing. This is the trend of testing. The results are scary.
Students have no time to be kids. Schedules in schools have become tighter to make up for the time taken away for the actual testing and preparations. Participation in the arts has dwindled because we need more teachers to prepare students for the tests. Teachers have become paranoid because they know that they are being judged on results of testing when by they do not control all of the factors that go into the preparation.
Evidence of these factors above is pretty apparent in my district and I would bet that if you poll the parents they would say our school does a great job, overall. So, what are the results of all of this testing?
I think we are starting to see the results. I see middle and high school students who are experts at the mechanics of taking a standardized test. I see students who are fearful of failure and rely on directions from others too often. I see students who are not very creative and act like lemmings. I see more and more students who haven't a clue about their future aspirations. I also see a local business struggling to hiring skilled machinists. It just happens that our district used to offer courses in machining until 15 years ago. At that time we did away with the classes.
The biggest fear I have is that we are losing the ability to create and innovate. That clearly has been our nation’s biggest asset. Why are we focusing so much on testing? I believe it's because it's the east way out. In this age of sound bites how else can you point a finger?
Here's my solution. If politicians want us to become more like business then give us all of the control businesses have. For instance, in business they choose the raw material that they work with. I say, let me choose the students I work with. In business they have quality controls throughout the manufacturing process. I say, let me have quality controls and the ability to eject inferior materials along the way. In business they receive bonuses for raising the company’s bottom line. I say cheers. I believe if we had the same controls we would not need tenure because our success rates would be through the roof. Give me a year under these conditions and I'll compete on any test with any school or nation.
Of course I am not suggesting that we do this. Our kids are not widgets and we as a nation have decided we must educate everyone. Rightly so. Yet we constantly compare ourselves to other nations who do not.
I came into education at a time when the Nation at Risk report came out. Talk about having your enthusiasm put to a test! I am still here and as optimistic as ever. I just do not understand why we continue to beat ourselves up as an institution.
I believe we have the best economic engine in the world. I know it's tough to remain number one. But, I ask you one question. If our educational system is so bad how has our economy remained at the top and become the envy of most? We must be doing something right!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Students reaction to the Students2oh.org
I've been using Classblogmeister as a final exam for my media class for high school seniors. Directions for the final exam were to post there opinions/reactions to my posts. Topics related to the media, it's role in society, and media events. Each student had to post every time I posted and comment on at least 6 of their classmates posts for each question.
I was very pleased with the results. First of all I had 100 percent participation. They all seemed to enjoy writing. This was their first time blogging and it was the first time they were able to read what each other wrote.
The last post I made asked students to visit students2oh.org and react to what they saw. I also asked them to comment on the web 2.0 activities they participated in in class. I think you might enjoy their reactions.
Please feel free to leave comments on their posts if you visit.
I was very pleased with the results. First of all I had 100 percent participation. They all seemed to enjoy writing. This was their first time blogging and it was the first time they were able to read what each other wrote.
The last post I made asked students to visit students2oh.org and react to what they saw. I also asked them to comment on the web 2.0 activities they participated in in class. I think you might enjoy their reactions.
Please feel free to leave comments on their posts if you visit.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Another class is over and I just hope my students are better prepared for their future. This semester was filled with web 2.0 activities. I think I have podcasting figured out as a classroom activity. My students produced some pretty good podcasts. They will be posted to the web soon.
I used the classroom wiki as the center of my class. Each student was given space and they posted projects and used the wiki for communications. I hope to improve the use of this space by encouraging the use of the forum and more classroom interaction. Comments from the outside world would be a big boost.
We have a new district website content management system. Each teacher is mandated to maintain a web page. We use a product called SchoolFusion. The classroom web pages have several of the web 2.0 tools built in. I am hopeful to take full advantage of these tools. It has a section for the teacher to make available files for students, (my class is paperless), a place for announcements, a calendar, a forum, and even a chat section. You can incorporate pictures and video. The best part about it is it's ease of use. I may even switch from my media wiki to the classroom web page.
I'm still not sure about our classroom blog and how to incorporate it yet. So far I have used it twice for a final exam. That seems to work very well. I am getting much more thought and writing out of my students. I am definitely getting more interaction between them. Now for some outside participation. Check it out. I think I'll try to assign a topic for each student to blog about and have them include multiple media types throughout the course. Any suggestions?
We have used some other tools along the way such as blabberize, youtube, flickr, bubbleshare, and several other video services. They seem to keep the students attention. As always, technical glitches abound. I think the best thing to realize is that it will happen and be prepared for a backup plan. Be flexible and understanding. I have found that my students appreciate it when I can be flexible when technical difficulties pop up. One of my goals is to teach them to trouble shoot and problem solve as we go.
So one journey ends and another begins soon. Hope to see you somewhere on the road to becoming Teacher 2.0 and beyond.
I used the classroom wiki as the center of my class. Each student was given space and they posted projects and used the wiki for communications. I hope to improve the use of this space by encouraging the use of the forum and more classroom interaction. Comments from the outside world would be a big boost.
We have a new district website content management system. Each teacher is mandated to maintain a web page. We use a product called SchoolFusion. The classroom web pages have several of the web 2.0 tools built in. I am hopeful to take full advantage of these tools. It has a section for the teacher to make available files for students, (my class is paperless), a place for announcements, a calendar, a forum, and even a chat section. You can incorporate pictures and video. The best part about it is it's ease of use. I may even switch from my media wiki to the classroom web page.
I'm still not sure about our classroom blog and how to incorporate it yet. So far I have used it twice for a final exam. That seems to work very well. I am getting much more thought and writing out of my students. I am definitely getting more interaction between them. Now for some outside participation. Check it out. I think I'll try to assign a topic for each student to blog about and have them include multiple media types throughout the course. Any suggestions?
We have used some other tools along the way such as blabberize, youtube, flickr, bubbleshare, and several other video services. They seem to keep the students attention. As always, technical glitches abound. I think the best thing to realize is that it will happen and be prepared for a backup plan. Be flexible and understanding. I have found that my students appreciate it when I can be flexible when technical difficulties pop up. One of my goals is to teach them to trouble shoot and problem solve as we go.
So one journey ends and another begins soon. Hope to see you somewhere on the road to becoming Teacher 2.0 and beyond.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Our Own Youtube Channel
It seems online video is all the rage now. SidneyCSD at You Tube is where we will post our schools video projects. There are many services to choose from such as Kyte TV, Google Video, and BlipTV. They all offer similar services, but You Tube is the most well known and seems to be the standard service.
We will be uploading class and group video projects. Once uploaded to our You Tube channel, viewers will be able to visit SidneyCSD at You Tube and see all of our videos, make comments, and subscribe.
One of the most exciting things about video online and You Tube is that you can easily embed your uploaded video on other sites. Each teacher in our district is required to maintain a web page. We use a web content management system called SchoolFusion. SchoolFusion classroom web pages and You Tube make it very easy for every teacher to embed video on their pages.
My media class videos are posted at our You Tube channel http://www.youtube.com/sidneycsd. You can also visit our school website to see our videos. My students will also be embedding their video on our wiki at http://sidneymedia.wikispaces.com .
The assignment for my students was to create a 60 second video of an inanimate object found around school. The video must not reveal what the object is. A sequence of shots must be edited in such a way as to fool the viewer or not allow them to guess what the object is. Objects chosen must be typical school objects that can be found in any school. This is a great exercise that focuses the students on composition, types of camera shots, angles, and editing. The students love the idea that it is supposed to be a mystery as well.
Help us by making your comments on our videos.
We will be uploading class and group video projects. Once uploaded to our You Tube channel, viewers will be able to visit SidneyCSD at You Tube and see all of our videos, make comments, and subscribe.
One of the most exciting things about video online and You Tube is that you can easily embed your uploaded video on other sites. Each teacher in our district is required to maintain a web page. We use a web content management system called SchoolFusion. SchoolFusion classroom web pages and You Tube make it very easy for every teacher to embed video on their pages.
My media class videos are posted at our You Tube channel http://www.youtube.com/sidneycsd. You can also visit our school website to see our videos. My students will also be embedding their video on our wiki at http://sidneymedia.wikispaces.com .
The assignment for my students was to create a 60 second video of an inanimate object found around school. The video must not reveal what the object is. A sequence of shots must be edited in such a way as to fool the viewer or not allow them to guess what the object is. Objects chosen must be typical school objects that can be found in any school. This is a great exercise that focuses the students on composition, types of camera shots, angles, and editing. The students love the idea that it is supposed to be a mystery as well.
Help us by making your comments on our videos.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Webcams and the Internet
I left the classroom 10 years ago to become the district technology director. I left behind several activities that have not been resumed until now. We have recently discovered that we can use the latest webcam software and Internet services to broadcast video to the community. We can basically do this with equipment we already have.
We will be using WebCamMax to create a news style show, complete with picture in picture. You can switch between several cameras, computer video, still pictures, and effects. This software is simply amazing for what it costs.
We can then broadcast live on ustream.tv and embed it in our school website. We also have the local public access TV station and can set our computer to the ustream channel and broadcast out over our local public TV channel, STV.
This is exciting and our students are very excited to be creating news and broadcasting events. We will be sharing the url once we get going. So stay tuned to STV on the net.
Another discovery for me recently was Wirecast. Wirecast creates a streaming media server out of your computer. This allows up to 50 connections to your computer on your network using Windows Media Player or Quick Time. We are going to use this for school announcements. We have tested it and it works great.
Video is back on the move in our district and who knows what future TV personalities we'll pump out.
Great time at NYCATE!
We presented at the NYSCATE Conference this past week. As usual the conference was great. I saw a lot of web 2.0 tools being used. It was kind of validating to see. Sometimes I am very impatient. It just seems like everyone should be using web 2.0 tools in all classes.
Despite all of our efforts in my home school district there are not many people embracing the new ideas. Recently I presented to several of our staff and only 2 people have asked for further help. I guess I should be happy with this. One teacher has signed up for a blogmeister account and will be using it in her 8th grade social studies class. I'll keep you posted with her success.
It seems that the revolution is making gains ever so slowly. Check out www.nyscate.org and look for our video podcast presentation called "Podcasting, Wikis, and Blogs! Oh My!"
Despite all of our efforts in my home school district there are not many people embracing the new ideas. Recently I presented to several of our staff and only 2 people have asked for further help. I guess I should be happy with this. One teacher has signed up for a blogmeister account and will be using it in her 8th grade social studies class. I'll keep you posted with her success.
It seems that the revolution is making gains ever so slowly. Check out www.nyscate.org and look for our video podcast presentation called "Podcasting, Wikis, and Blogs! Oh My!"
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