Oh the sounds of summer…The crack of the bat (or ping if you’re talking about Little League). The pop of a ball being caught in the pocket of a leathery glove. The swishing sound of feet gliding across orange clay. These are sounds I grew up with for 15 years. My true formative years. Memories that to this day I can remember very vividly.

How many of you remember going out and “playing catch” with your dad? Or kicking around that soccer ball with your brother or sister in the backyard? Better yet, how many of you played whiffle ball or cup ball with your friends at a park, on the street or even in your swimming pool?

I for one can say yes to all of the above. I so cherished the time I was able to spend time with dad to play catch in the side yard. He would get all gussied up in the catchers gear that we had as part of my Little League team. As I got older, the more equipment he seemed to put on. By the time I was in the Senior Division (14-15 year old) in Little League he was in full catching equipment and double batting gloves under the catcher’s mitt. I’ve even had the true cool experience to play softball as a 19 year old with my dad and grandfather on the same team for two seasons. Nothing cooler than having 3 generations of Turners on the same field at the same time. We get to do that occasionally for golf, but the frequency is alot less now that my Grandfather’s Parkinson’s is really prohibitive these days.

The point is, I’ve been blessed with the fortunes of living a very active youth (we won’t mention how its gone downhill from graduation now will we?) The question is, where did this love of playing come from? Where was the spark? Sure, my parents encouraged me to play Little League. Heck, my dad was my coach from my 6 y/o Tee Ball first team, all the way to my 15 y/o Senior Division Team.

No matter what activity it is, the ability to succeed at these activities requires 2 things. Repetition and Practice. The two go together. How often do you see a big league ball player hitting in the batting cages? Pretty often I’m sure. I know when I was playing ball, I practice everyday. The routine is still etched in my head. We did infield/outfield fungo drills, followed by baserunning drills, then hitting practice (cage or game type situations or live bp) finished up with cardio/strength training exercises.

Again, I had the luxury of being able to practice extra to hone my skills. But where were the primary skills taught? Where are these primary skills taught today? What individuals are in charge of teaching our young children these life skills of being active and learning through sport and play? Those physical educators that you see coming and going with the nice sun tan, floppy hat and the sun glasses hanging either from their neck or sitting on their cap. I have a very soft spot in my heart for PE teachers. Little known secret, my initial teaching certificate is in physical education from the University of Central Florida. I’ve had to deal with for years being told that I took the ‘easy’ route to becoming an educator. “PFFFT”, I tell them. I won’t get into the ins and outs of what a physical education major program looks like at the college level. You can do your own research on that.

Back to the kids though and their PE curriculum…

I’ve shared at length my desire to see more gaming in the educational setting. The same can be said for the physical education curriculum for an elementary age child. We lived by a motto/creed at UCF. “Monkey See Monkey Do, Children Learn the Best as they are Doing.” The goal of any PE curriculum is to have the children actively engaged at ALL times. Movement, movement, movement. Active, active, active. Two things occur when this sort of engagement is not occurring: there is no retention of the activity that is being learned and there is a HIGH probability that the children will begin to misbehave.

Does this result sound vaguely familiar? All to often I’ve walked into classrooms where students are proverbially ‘bouncing off the wall’. It is not in my place to tell these teachers how to do their job. However, it is well within my role as a technology integration specialist to offer suggestions for engaging students. Why then do we not see as many brick and mortar classrooms being run similarly to those out on the PE fields?

My mind is swirling now that it is 2 am in the morning. I’ve been churning this topic in my head since I returned back from New York last week. I think it’s high time for me to hit the sack and return to this on Saturday when I return home.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

photo courtesy of: jimmywayne22, “Howard J. Lamade Stadium.” Flickr. 27 July 2008. 1 Aug 2008 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/61278305@N00/2706681401/>.

Ok….so it’s only a few weeks late. But I was able to truly let what I gained from my NECC 2008 experience sink in while sitting on a boat in the 1000 islands and enjoying family time while in Niagara Falls. It is a shame that vacation will come to an end for me tomorrow, as I fly back to Orlando tomorrow at noon. (ok, so I started this on Monday and finished it tonight)

As with last year, I spent most of my time in the Blogger’s Cafe’. It’s always nice to see many of the people that I feel are like-minded in our zest for improved student learning. I did have HIGH expectations/hopes leading into NECC with regards to sessions and the learning that I was about to embark upon. Being the procrastinator at heart that I am, I did not do any pre-reading of the conference schedule. That would have made too much sense, i.e. that’s not me. I started reading the conference schedule book received with the registration packet and was quickly dismayed. Like my FETC (Florida Educational Technology Conference) experience in January, I found that many of the sessions in my opinion were geared for the mid-ranged adapter to newer adapter. Please don’t misunderstand, there is a need for these types of sessions, however, they are not for me. I saw myself quickly going back to presenters that I’ve seen in the past, and enjoy learning from (i.e. David Jakes/Dean Shareski, David Warlick, Hall Davidson, Chris Lehmann). Not sure if this makes me a gomer or a homer or guilty of living inside a professional development bubble. I just know that many a session I snuck in on was not compelling.

My large goal for NECC this year was two-fold: How can I create better professional development opportunities for my teachers and how can I become a better TV Production Coordinator. I think I was successful on both ends. Having been told pretty much that PD for my teachers will be at a premium (read: non-existant), so I will need to be creative in my approaches. I will definitely be keeping to my working with specific teachers that express willingness to take the step towards tech integration. Through the DEN pre-conference event at the Enchanted Springs Ranch, I learned for the first time about Mogulus. Seeing it for the first time BLEW my mind away. What a way to have PDOD (professional development on demand). I’d been toying with a way to create an anthology of PD webcasts/screencasts of myself in front of my laptop and using screen capturing software to demonstrate concepts. This website takes it to the next level. Actual demonstration, rather than screen captures. And it can run continuously if I so choose.

The second great PD idea I’m going to borrow is Kevin Honeycutt’s Web 2.0 Keychain he gives out to his teachers. What a novel idea and a way to have not only web 2.0 tools, but traditional websites at the fingertips. I’ve started to create my own and will definitely share when I’m finished.

I was able to attend a session on building a better School TV production show on Monday morning. Still trying to get my hands on a copy of their resource cd, but did use google docs to type up some GREAT ideas that I can take back for the start of the school year. This will be my first foray into tv production of this sort, so it should be a VERY nice challenge for me. Heck, it’s already paying dividends, I was able to get out of my morning duty to work with the students during this time. YAY!

I am already looking forward to next year’s experience in Washington DC. Looks like the wife might be coming too. That should be a fun time definitely.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

When  looking at our goal in education, what is it that we are there to do? Let’s take a look at my school district’s mission statement: “To ensure rigorous, relevant learning experiences that result in high achievement for our students.” To what point is learning rigorous and relevant? By whose standards? The  FDOE, State DOE or local school boards? Relevant to what? Standards that are in place  to allow success on benchmark testing?

I hear all the time when walking into classrooms and breakrooms on campus that there is not time for the ‘fluffy’ stuff that I’m there to help teachers with. The stuff that the students need are all in the text books anyways. Who has time to create a wiki or blog? Where would I fit into my day the time to tape my students creating video books to share with other classes and grade levels? Heaven help us all if learning turned out to be fun in any way, shape or form!

What type of games are out there that would allow students to learn and *gulp* and have some fun? I’ve compiled a list of a few that might work.

1. Webkinz – I’m not going to rehash this as I wrote about this earlier this week. Still find that it would be an invaluable tool in the classroom.
2. Roller Coaster Tycoon (or any other Tycoon based game) – I love this series of games. I remember playing one of the first versions of RCT that came out years ago, and how addicting it was to try and get more and more people to show up to my theme park. Creating a roller coaster of your own can be interesting. Can’t get the cars to go back up the rise of tracks? Hrm….sounds like a physics issue there. Better get Newton’s Laws of Physics out for a lesson.
3. Sim Tower Sim City or Sim Theme Park – Old school versions of RCT and that genre. I’ve found Sim Tower online through ebay and have contemplated buying it again. Between these 2 games and RCT, what better life and math lesson is there than to have to create your own parks/cities. I remember in Sim Tower creating shopping malls on the top floor of the tower (about floor 100 I think) and it not doing well. Then tasked my daughter with creating a tower similar but choosing to put the shopping area in the basement and she was quickly making money to create more types of shops and condo units.
4. Sid Meier’s Gettysburg, Civilizations Series, etc – What a greatly cool thing to do to learn about historical events, then to recreate them via software. Don’t like the way General Robert E. Lee performed at Gettysburg? Just think of the possibilities that can be explored by allowing General John Bell Hood to perform a flanking maneuver on day 2 instead of the assaults on Little Round Top. Might have a different  result possibly.
5. World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs – I know what might be going through your heads. Tom, you are a WoW-head of course you are going to espouse using such a thing. One thing that I’ve noticed in my lifetime of gaming (going back to Advanced Dungeon and Dragons days using pen/paper) that there is a THRIVING economy in these games. Since leaving San Antonio I’ve been enjoying the family vacation up here in Niagara Falls, NY, yet I’m still able to log into World of Warcraft and complete some minor tasks that does NOT involve any killing. Yet, I’ve still been able to make about 300 in gold by performing these tasks (usually creating food that other players consume and selling off items that other people can use to cook) Sounds like a math lesson in there somewhere to me.
6. Fantasy Sports – I LOVE my fantasy football and baseball. Can’t go a football season without having at least 2 football leagues that I’m a part of. Dan Flockhart created a math curriculum to go with fantasy sports and mathematics. I saw this about a year and a half ago on ESPN and is definitely worth taking a look at if you are a math teacher.

Notice a trend there? Alot of math. In my most humble of opinions, alot of emphasis is placed on reading (rightly so) but sometimes I feel it’s to the detriment of mathematics. Right now the GLS conference going on in Madison, WI. (Gaming + Learning + Society) I’m hoping some literature or webcasts come from this conference to sink my teeth into. I know Kevin Jarrett and David Jakes are there. Here’s hoping they have something they can share with everyone.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Yesterday I looked at the first part of play, that being structured. Today I will tackle the second form of play, unstructured. There are several avenues that children can partake in unstructured play. The conventional method is through recess. That time where teachers usually take their children outside and allow their students to ‘have at it’ so to speak. I’ve heard from administrators that this is a liability nightmare. Typical though, shying away from a productive part of the day for fear of litigation.

So where is the outlet that our children need from the daily grind of learning?  Our students are bombarded by  a HUGE mountain of required learning for standardized testing, one fatal mistake is being made on a daily basis. Our students are not being allowed to be children. They are not being given a chance to learn to ‘play’ together on the playgrounds and playfields. Broken down, this means that students are not being given a chance to learn collaboration on their own. I remember growing up playing ‘war’ in my neighborhood with at least 2 dozen other boys and girls. We gave ourselves objectives for opposing teams to complete to be able to win (usually a capture the flag type deal). This would NEVER happen in today’s society because of the whole guns today looking alot like plastic/toy guns. But it was play like this that taught the power of leadership and working together as a team to accomplish a common goal. I will ask the same question that I asked in my previous post, does this have anything to do with learning what a noun is or how to divide by double digits from double digits? Probably not, but as most of us already know, there is more to education than the proverbial “X’s and O’s”.

What does this all have to do with Technology? Tons. I remember a few months back my daughter came home and said she was able to log onto her Webkinz account from school when she was finished with all her work. My wife was AGHAST. I was pretty ok with it actually. For those that don’t know, Webkinz is a virtual world. The only way to get in there is to buy a Webkinz pet of some sort. You get a code to create an account. You are responsible for feeding the pet, taking care of it, putting it to sleep and bathing/hygiene type things, or the pet will get sick. Haven’t asked my daughter to go so far as to allow that to happen yet, just to see what happens. As it stands now, I’m pretty positive I have well over 30 Webkinz pets strolling around my house (bleh! is all I can say about that!). Not only does my 3rd grade daughter have many pets that she tends to in this virtual world, so does my 6 year old son (just turned 6 less than a month ago, which is important to remember).

As with the real world, money in the Webkinz world is key. The economy is driven by “kinzcash”. You get so much for creating a new pet in the world. You can get kinzcash for selling off gems that you can search for in a cave. You can also earn kinzcash by playing different type of games, or doing jobs. The moral of this is, it is NOT very hard to earn money in this virtual world. It is important though to be able to purchase items for your rooms for your pets, as well as food and other luxury items that you may desire. Back to my son though. Being 6 now, but 5 for the time that this example is taking place, he really has zero formal education in economic issues and concerns. Being 6, his mother and father take care of all of his wants and needs. One thing is for certain though, my son is VERY understanding that when his kinzcash amount reaches 0, he needs to sell off some stuff that he knows he doesn’t need or use, or he simply plays a trivia game to earn money. The humor in that lies in the fact that he knows not a single answer to the trivia questions….he perfectly knows this and has said as much. He merely clicks on an answer and he still is able to earn money, whether the answer is right or wrong. Somewhere in there, there is an argument for getting something for nothing. Now’s not the time or place for that discussion. What I take the MOST out of that example is this: my five year old son was able to ‘learn’ on his own, a way/plan to get money in a virtual world to fulfill his wants/needs. Better yet. By looking at the curio shop (virtual store’s name), he knows how much the item(s) he wants costs. And he plays these games, sells off other items, to allow him to save enough money to get what he wants/needs (***Cough***Math Skills****Cough****)

By explaining this all to my wife, I brought her back to my daughter and her playing this Virtual Game at school. With the in game environment as safe as it is going to get (no chat allowed as of yet, only friends on her list are allowed to gain access to her house map, but unable to move anything) the academic pros well outweigh any cons that might be there. The fact of the matter is this, the face of unstructured play at school has changed, this is what that face looks like. I applaud my daughter for the hard work she does in this virtual world. She works very diligently at making sure all her pets are tended to and that her garden is weeded everyday, lest the weeds get out of control. I would show screen shots of the map of her ‘house’ but I’ve been unable to do so. I keep trying to get her to log onto her account on my macbook or to give me her account user info to which she won’t. I really cannot complain about her not giving me her account info (I know mom has it, but I’m not going to push that), it goes to show that she is listening to the ground rules that I’ve laid out for her to continue using it.

I will finish tonight with this one final thought:

I don’t know about you, but Mr. Fred Rogers is someone I trust and someone whom I feel can’t be stated unequivocally as an expert in this field.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

I’m still reeling over my NECC experience. Not because of the sessions that were offered, not because of the enormous amount of people that converged upon San Antonio, but because of the many people, most of them like-minded about the edtech community, that I was able to converse with. But this is not a NECC reflection post. That will come later (I think/hope).

Since the ‘new’ thing to do is to have every unit have a unit essential question (admins and curriculum specialists are ALMOST there, now they just have to get on board with Project Based Learning), I will ask one: What affect does play have on learning?

I’ve spoken in the past about my gaming experiences. I’m sure many can say that my present run in gaming has led to my recent hiatus in blogging. Can’t deny that fact is partially true. I see in my gaming experiences many opportunities to learn, cooperate and collaborate with other individuals (adults and teens alike, as I have both in my online gaming guild).

So where has play gone in the school day? I know at my school, recess is a forbidden part of the day. Taboo to even think of asking for permission to go out for? It seems that the only play many of our students are getting these days is through the physical education programs. And even that is pretty non-existent. Let’s step back a step or two first.

As some of you may or may not know, my educational background is in physical education. Playing at it’s finest. Playing within a set of boundaries, rules or guidelines. I’ve never regretted taking what many people call as an ‘easy’ route to getting an education degree. Hogwash I say. Try supervising almost 60 to 70 students at a time, outside with no walls to contain them, all the while making sure they are kept active and engaged. Anyone that can do that can handle a classroom job with NO problems. These experiences have taught me that there are two types of playing. Simply put: structured and unstructured.

Structured play is what you see out on the fields and in the gymnasiums of schools. Being taught by physical educators with sound pedagogical knowledge. Learning DOES take place. It might not have anything to to with A,B,C’s or what a noun is, even though many PE teachers are now expected to incorporate concepts dealing with standardized testing into their curriculums, our students must work within those sets of boundaries given to them, work collaboratively with fellow classmates for a common goal: To Win. Yes, I said it…that DREADED “C” word. competition.

I’ve contemplated making this one SUPER long entry, i don’t think I can express myself that much in one sitting and give it justice. My time at the Strong Museum of Play today in Rochester left me reeling and with many thoughts. Food for thought though:

Don’t know about all of you…but I think Dr. Brown got it right on. Don’t believe me? Video tape any class out at recess, if they are allowed to go out for it still.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

My negative NECC karma continues. Was a year ago now in Atlanta that I was unable to blog during my first NECC experience due to edublogs going through some growing pains. That negative karma continues this year with the airport card in my macbook going kapoot on me. Thanks to Teryl Magee for letting me use hers to at least get some thoughts typed up.

1. I’m still missing my friend Jen Wagner. Thankfully I was able to talk to her for a bit yesterday before David Jakes and Dean Shareski’s session yesterday morning. You too Diana, but you are off hammocking in the jungle somewhere.
2. ISTE’s done a better job  this year I think of keeping rooms from overflowing into the hallways. It has reminded me of going to Disney World and using the FAST Pass system for the rides. In the sessions I went to last night I averaged getting there almost 45 minutes early just to make sure I had a seat.
3. I made it through yesterday having successfully accomplished my daily goal of learning ‘one thing’. Thanks to David Jakes for making sure that happened. He showed Flickrstorm to help in finding Creative Commons images. 
4. Blogger’s Cafe. Wow….just like last year. Conversations, un-conference type learning and connecting with other like minded individuals. Finally getting to meet f2f many of the people that I follow in blogs and twitter is amazing. 

First thoughts of NECC so far. And being my second NECC, the experience is just as great as it was last year in HotLanta. I will keep this brief as to work my way back into the regular blogging experience. (Wow, 4 months since my last blog post!!! Sorry guys)

1. I miss Jenn Wagner. Yea I know we spoke last night on skype, but I still wish you were here!
2. I am not as young as I used to be, it’s getting harder and harder to wake up in the morning after staying out to wee hours of the morning with my DEN friends.
3. The DEN continues to amaze me with the experiences and opportunities they give to their DEN educators to network with each other. They are adept at putting us in the position to come away with great ideas, not from them, but from other educators from around the country.
4. Mogulus: wow…..I’m not happy I’ve been disconnected for four months. Wonderful idea for my ever dwindling ability to have PD for my teachers.
5. Did I mention I’m getting older and tougher to wake up in the AM?

Time for the REAL day to start. Going to break open my 2nd NECC with a session with Vicki Davis on wikis. Looking forward to it.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

This post will jump away from what I normally talk about, education. I normally never touch topics about my family, but this one is definitely worth sharing. As some of you who follow me in Twitter know, my mother in law was diagnosed with breast cancer this past December. She’s made it through surgery in January with flying colors. She’s now trudging along the chemo end of her treatment. She’s winning both the battle and the war, with the chemo and radiation to follow up just precautionary measures. As with any chemotherapy, the side-effects are slowly starting to show.

Then along comes my daughter. Yesterday she says to my wife and I that she is ready to get her hair cut, but instead of just throwing the hair away, she wanted to donate it. We had talked about it a few years ago, donating her hair, but she was still a little bit young, and I wanted the final decision to be hers, when she was ready. It seemed yesterday was the day that she wanted to do this.

  We didn’t think of taking a before shot, so we had to recreate it as best as well could. Here’s an after shot as well. It’s times like these as a parent that makes it so easy to say that having a child  was the right thing to do. And for all the naysayers, like my parents, I know she will be a teenager soon, so I will just have to cherish these moments for as long as I can .

For those of you that have the ability donate, Locks of Love is the name of the organization that we are donating to. Thanks for letting me dote a little. Sometimes it’s just that necessary!

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

I guess it took a very innocuous conversation with fellow STAR Discovery Educator Rachel Yurk to snap me out of a fun I’ve been in. It’s been about a good month since I’ve posted. Heck, I didn’t even post my final comments about FETC. I’ve put myself on a self imposed hiatus. I’ve been negative. About a lot of stuff. I’m sure if I go back and read some of my posts each of them would have a negative undertone to it. But alas, I think I’m slowly coming out of my fog. Baby steps though.

Part of me is excited about getting a new teacher on campus who’s sought me out and asking if we had this and had that on our campus. I have made a concerted effort to make sure that she has everything that she needs to help make her students succeed in her class. I’ve already set her up with our last SMART board that wasn’t being utilized, a document camera and am in the process of setting up 3 more laptops for her to create some learning/literacy centers. It’s been a ray of sunshine to help me get out of my doldrums.

The other thing that came just at the right time is a blog post from Kim Cofino titled “Making the Shift Happen.” Alot of what she blogs about in this article I’ve been saying for the last few months. One of the phrases I used in my interview with the Women of Web 2.0 back in January was “Paradigm Shift”. I saw a question yesterday on Twitter to describe what 21st Century Skills were being developed in our schools. In theory, the paradigm should have shifted almost a decade ago, leading into the new century. Unfortunately, and sadly, many schools are still ‘trying’ to make the shift. As I described it in a followup tweet, “My school is in a quagmire of 19th Century learning practices.” I don’t really want to rehash everything that Kim writes about, I do urge you to go out and read it. It’s definitely an article that most schools/districts could sink their teeth into and utilize.

On a lighter note. I do want to finish with a SHOCKING development in the life of Tom Turner. I sent out the tweet for those that follow me on twitter this is old news. But I Tom Turner am now the proud owner of a MacBook laptop computer. I Tom Turner who swore up and down as early as 2 years ago that I would NEVER own a Mac now owns one. With the probability of owning another 2 within the next year and a half. Here’s some images of my new beauty next to a dinosaur in one of the pics. I’m ever so pleased about my purchase! Until later!

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: mac edtech education technology

Dean Shareski posed a very valid question yesterday at his Ideas and Thoughts Blog regarding the use of the XO laptop and other emerging technologies in the classroom setting. Purely from a personal standpoint for my family, I don’t see myself purchasing one for my children. With computers/laptops to spare, one more tech item and I think my wife would just cringe. This being said without looking or interacting with one. But the question remains, as Dean has pointed out, where does this low-cost laptop fit in within a school’s usage?

Having just opened a brand new school, with well over $500,000 worth of technology throughout the campus, with all honesty, my students and teachers are not wanting for much. The one thing they are complaining about NOT having is an overhead projector (***CRINGE***). I took the liberty of talking the principal into order Avermedia’s Document Cameras for the classrooms. Not ideal, but remember my good friend Jen Wagner’s mantra, “Baby Steps”.

The underlying issue that remains, as Dean also points out, is “Lack of training, challenges around support.” Is this not the same argument against 1:1 computing initiatives? Teachers consistently point out that they have no guidance as to how to utilize a classroom full of computers for an entire period. As these machines age, what type of replacement plan is in place? What type of warranty is set up for when machines break down during the life of the computer? All valid questions. One term that I hear alot from people within the ed tech community is that we are in our own little ‘echo chamber’. I sometimes forget that I work with very much NEVER or newer adapters. Some do it willingly, some get it, some don’t.

So what’s the solution? Not withstanding teacher buy-in of integration concepts, but a total overhaul of what administration thinks education is all about. I’ve spoken ad nauseum of this, as I’m sure many others have. I think a focus needs to shift from not only concentrating on the teachers, but delving deeper into administration understanding what tools are out there, and their educational values. I’d like to see the days of hearing “there’s no time for that type of stuff in our classrooms” and “you should be concentrating on real reading and writing concepts and principles” behind us. Until this happens, we’re destined to be trudging through the mud that is 20th Century Education that we’re still mired in.

And by the way Dean…Love the animoto! The few students that I’ve used it with so far have been very excited about it’s ease of use. A very nice way to introduce storytelling.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: shareski XO education edtech

This past week Florida teachers, and for the first time that I’ve really noticed, teachers from around the world, converged on Orlando for the annual FETC Conference. I’m pleasantly pleased about the experience this year, as always. I had the GREAT honor of meeting Jeff Corwin in person. He was the keynote speaker for this year’s conference, and Discovery brought him in early to have lunch and speak with a few of us in their corporate room at the Convention Center. As soon as I can get the images up on Flickr I will add the link here.

Thursday was spent in panel discussions with one of the vendors off of the exhibit hall floor. It was a new experience for me, I’d never participated in a forum like that before. I felt no remorse about being away from the convention center area for 3 total hours. As I was looking through the conference schedule, the one thing that I noticed the most was the amount of sessions that were a rehash of older ideas, or basic how’to sessions that I really don’t need to go to. So for me, it was a win-win situation.

Friday was a different story. I attended several sessions that I was very pleased about . Digital Booktalks described a different way of doing digital storytelling to get students interested in reading. It involved making book trailers about the books that have been read in class. It forces students to read the book to be able to make the movie. The thing that really didn’t surprise me was when Dr. Perry shared that he saw students who ‘ratted’ out to other students about not really reading the book after watching their trailer. That became the impetus for a conversation to support their argument as to why they thought the other students did not read their book. Students driving their own discussions and education. Is that not what we are here to do.

The other ‘new’ thing to me that I tried on Friday was using/utilizing ustream.tv. As with everything, I’m late getting on the bus with great tools out there to help me learn and to share with my teachers. Steve Dembo and Hall Davidson were gracious enough to let me ustream their presentations. As I’m sitting there streaming out Steve’s, Marie Coleman is streaming Hall’s presentation at the same time from the other end of the convention center. The number of looks I got while sitting there with earbuds in my ear and listening to Steve’s presentation and Hall’s presentation at the same time was priceless. As with all of Steve’s presentations, I usually find one thing that I never knew, or one tool that I can use. This time it’s Jumpcut. I’m going to mess around with it some more before commenting. But first look, it’s pretty nice.

As I close down, I’m sitting here listening to the live panel discussion for Sunday morning at Educon2.0 in Philadelphia. I wonder if there is a place for Huge conferences in a box like FETC and the other state conferences for me? I’m sitting in my garage for the second day in a row running a garage sale and listening and learning and conversing. But more on that later too. I encourage all that have not watched and listened to some of these presentations to check the archive of the presentations on ustream.tv. Well worth it. One of the best quotes I’ve seen so far is from @ijesspederson during one of the sessions. We were talking about Twitter in the channel. Her quote sums it best: “ijesspederson : you are in charge of your own quality control on twitter”. Just food for thought.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: FETC edtech education technology Educon ustream jumpcut

So I’m about a week behind in writing this recap up, but I did do it for the DEN blog so I cannot be totally chastised about it. It was about this time last week that I was sitting here in my office with sweat beads coming down my head and back doing the WOW 2.0 show. Cheryl Oakes kept insisting I go and turn my fan on, I just didn’t want to add to any background noise. I survived, I made it through somewhat unscathed, and was honored to get some great direct messages from colleagues on Twitter that I look up to and admire professionally.

I was in the chat room. I had intended to ‘try’ and keep up with it. When I saw how FAST it actually went, that thought went away pretty quickly. So first things first, I’m going to try and answer some of the questions posed in the chat that I don’t think were covered in the show, so here goes:

• 21:01:52 sendkathy Anyone here going to FECT next month? Kathy…I will be at FETC all three days. I will probably be wearing my Discovery Educator Network shirts (yellow and light blue)
• 21:18:58 SSedro in Singapore Oh Tom, all four tech coordinators in my district feel exactly the same way. We all want to be working with kids and teachers, not fixing things and pushing paper. Ok, though not really a question, a comment worth copy/pasting here. The more and more that I try to get in the classrooms with teachers, the more and more I get sucked into tech. support and what I like to call ‘hand holding’. Frustration at this point happens when I try to empower my teachers to solve issues on their own, yet I find myself failing at this task. I think of it this way, how can we expect our students to seek and discover solutions to problems on their own, if we are unwilling to do so on our own. It’s a double edged sword.
• 21:20:44 WOScholar We went wifi campus wide for PK - 5. Expect to have 6-8 done within the next month. THen we will have a cloud over our district campuses. I was paid a visit by a colleague from another school. They are having a new campus built, as theirs dates back to the 1920’s. The design will be exactly similar to my building. I advised him about activating all the ports available in the classrooms as the wireless is very flaky at times, and not to be trusted. It seems that the district has seen the error in their ways and are not even installing but a few wireless access points in the new buildings. It is IDEAL to have the wireless available, but not to run the entire network over it. Reliability and efficiency IMO goes way down.
• 21:22:36 CathyN @tom do the kids have email accts? Not at this time they do not. Our district is rolling out to the schools slowly use of gaggle.net email for our students. At this time High School accounts have been created. We’ve been told that at the elementary level, they did not purchase all the bells and whistles that gaggle.net has. I will be slowly adding this in, as I said in the show, I’m working one at a time with teachers rather than as a whole getting everyone on board.
  
• 21:24:10 sendkathy I like Tom’s approach, core people Again, I try to appeal to the basic nature of meeting people’s intrinsic needs. To newer adapters, what we might call a tool, to them it is still a toy. It’s like walking into a TV production studio for the first time and just hooting and hollering and having a good time. It’s the same concept. Once they get over the ‘newness’ of it, the true test begins of molding the use of technology into their everyday lessons. My district uses a similar approach to completing levels of technology proficiency. For each of the 3 levels completed, there is an incentive attached to it (1 gb flash drive, scanner, laptop or LCD projector). Again, intrinsic needs are being met, and new technology is being exposed.
• 21:26:01 jepcke Wikis are my ‘easy’ website builder of choice I have to say that I agree. With regards to working with the younger children than I’ve been used to, the wiki has been a blessing in disguise. They’ve picked it up quick, and without many errors. (http://mrflynn.pbwiki.com is what we’re doing in 4th Grade class at the moment).
• 21:28:46 WOScholar What does Tom find the easiest thing to integrate with primary teachers? A variety of things have been quite simple at integrating with primary teachers. My school right now is HEAVY into using ‘Thinking Maps’ within the daily context of learning. Inspiration has been great at utilizing the thinking map concepts along with images and audio files. I will be holding a short 30 minute session this Friday for my teachers on integrating Inspiration with Discovery streaming. So should be a greater use of both tools come next week, or at least I hope so.
• 21:30:44 megormi Tom in a perfect world, what tech support do you feel every building should have? I’m not really sure I answered this question the way you were asking it Meg. I’ve heard of some districts that share one tech person between several campuses. When I took my position about this time last year, the previous tech guy was just a ‘tech guy’ with no educational experience. As I said during the show, I try to resolve almost all calls within 2 hours. Some days that does not happen, then I have to prioritize which ticket comes first. The other thing that I think is a MUST, is that schools need to hire people in my position with some sort of educational background that will TRULY understand the needs of the teachers, rather than just ‘talk down on them’ like so many horror stories that are out there.
• 21:35:45 Art Gelwicks OR…tech administration who will listen to the needs of the teaching staff and find ways to help rather than just fix the tech. Art, I would go a step further and say just Administration in general. Administration in my estimation is stuck in the dark ages, and not willing to invest the time and energy. So I have to tend to agree with your assessment.
• 21:36:21 Durff can we exchange this guy for our IT person like yesterday? That’s not the first time I’ve heard this statement. Not really a question, but had to post this comment from the chatlog.
• 21:36:33 lizbdavis Has Tom been reading my blog - I’ve been thinking the same things about teaching teachers to fish. Finding constructivist ways to do PD. Unfortunately I’ve not been reading very many blogs at all. I will have to remember to click the link in Twitter to get your blog added to my RSS. Also, skype me (tom.turner19) would LOVE to chat with you regarding some other ideas.
• 21:36:49 jeffmason @Tom one person for tech support, one person for educational support Jeff, in the ideal world for me this would be the case. The district in which my wife works (one county over) they have their technology integration specialists and Tech Support personnel blocked off into 2 different positions. Really what it amounts to is funding. I’m caught between a rock and a hardplace in my district, where I’m classified as a teacher, so I have to do ‘duties’ that take me away from what my job description is supposed to cover.
• 21:37:43 Art Gelwicks I’ve worked with some educators with good intentions but not a clue about technology. “Teach ‘em to Fish”…the only way their good intentions will turn into positive results.
• 21:40:51 CathyN @tom why do u love edublogs–ive had beefs How much do I love thee edublogs, let me count thy ways??? Actually a great question Cathy. First, edublogs is not blocked by my district, so if I’m in need of checking something, or beginning a post while at school I have that ability. I’ve been pleased with the level of support that I’ve received from James when I’ve had issues. To the point where he’s emailed me directly to help solve the issues. I’m a loyalist at heart, and until I no longer receive a level of service that I cannot be happy with, I stick with it. I don’t change the theme of my blog that often, so the # of themes available is not that big of an issue to me. Also, the plugins that are available all work wonderful for me. However, I cannot argue against when someone has had problems in the past. With anything tech, each person will have a differing opinion, and they will find what works for them and stick with it.
• 21:40:48 Sue Waters (Australia) Agreed blackboard is not bloging I know that, you know that, but my district doesn’t. However, with anything, I have to abide by the rules laid out in front of me. Change will come, albeit too slow for me.
• 21:43:57 jeffmason @Tom I’m from Pensacola FL. Look into the Florida Master Digital Educator program http://etc.usf.edu/mde/ I’ve applied. I’ve sent my application in for the third year in a row now. Here’s hoping the third time is the charm.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and wonder HOW in the world you guys listen and keep up with the chat at the same time. Amazing !! Please feel free to post any questions that didn’t get asked during the show here and I will create a new post answering your questions. Again, I have to send out a HUGE thanks to the 4 Women of Web 2.0 (Cheryl, Vicki, Sharon and Jen: in no particular order of course) I’ve truly enjoyed the experience and hope to do it again sometime.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: WOW2.0 edtech technology education techsupport IT TomTurner

Cross posted on the Florida DEN Blog, as well as Danielle Abernethy’s tie4teachers blog.

Received word from Darlene Wolfe here in the Orange County, FL area of an event that might be beneficial to some of you. If you are interested please read further on below the images.

Educators, guidance counselors and administrators may register on line at http://www.fdmec.org/registration/event_012208.htm . More information for this free program is at the registration site ( http://www.fdmec.org and select register for January 22nd event). Since we do have a cut off point due to the size of the meeting area, participants will receive an email confirmation for them to print and show as both parking pass and free entrance to the Science Center.

The program begins with optional tours of Otronicon and the Orlando Science Center . Otronicon explores gaming, simulation and digital media in education and entertainment. A networking hour with snacks follows. Then, we have presentations from educators involved in the changes, industry professionals who will share what they look for in employees, and an update on the Digital Media Banner Center to be housed at Seminole Community College and on the coming programs, and changes in secondary and PSAV digital media curriculum.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: FETC edtech gaming education technology

This is it, my first post of the New Year, 2008. Looking back at the past year, I can say it’s been a WHIRLWIND of a year. I started 2007 as a classroom teacher. It was about this time last year that I interviewed for the Technology Specialist position that I’m currently holding down. It was also about this time that the Florida DEN Leadership Council was taking off, which brought responsibilities as a blogger for the DEN network of teachers for Florida.

I also saw myself going to FETC, NECC, Discovery’s Summer Leadership Seminar (on a cruise ship no less) and TechLearning Orlando (where I got to finally see David Jakes and David Warlick speak in person, and to see my good friend and colleague Kay Teehan present on digital storytelling, again!) Along the way I’ve made MANY new friends and contacts within the realm of educational technology. I can’t say one has been most helpful, or intriguing, or dynamic or special, because everyone I’ve come in contact with has been great.

Just before the new year rang on, I also saw myself begin to play World of Warcraft again. For all you WoW’ers out there, I’m Mithryss (Mithrass was already taken darnit!), a Blood Elf Priest, on the Zul’jinn Server. If you have never played WoW then you are probably not understanding any of the stuff I just mentioned, that’s okay! If you are a player, do let me know. I know that Evan Scherr is playing, as well as John Pederson.

The other big WOW is pretty humbling really. I don’t often get to listen to the show live, but it IS on my podcast feed and listen to it whilest I’m out walking, and I am speaking of the Women of Web 2.0 show. Back in late June, I ventured as I said to NECC 2007 in Atlanta, GA. I arrived a day early hoping to be able to go to edubloggercon, but that didn’t work out. Travel plans made that not happen. But ISTE decided to put up a little ole place called ‘The Blogger’s Cafe’. I figured, I’m a blogger, I can sit in there too. I can type up my session reflections for my blog, maybe talk to a person or two. I’d met Jen Wagner earlier that day at the DEN precon event held over at Stone Mountain. It was a case of mutual, “I’ve been wanting to meet up with yous” so that there was not a clear cut winner. Out of our conversations that day, and in the Blogger’s Cafe, she asks if I would be interested in coming onto the WOW 2.0 show. I said sure, not knowing what I’d be getting myself in for. Well, the date we talked about is closing in on us FAST. I will be their guest speaker this Tuesday. I’m very much looking forward to it.

And I’m going to close with this. I can finally say that my gaming life has met up with my professional life.Since 1999 when I joined “The Syndicate” (online gamings PREMIER GUILD), we’ve use IRC as our main communication tool. Tonight, the edublogosphere has finally hit the old school and continued some great conversations from Twitter, rolling right into IRC. Please email me @ thomas.turner@polk-fl.net if you wish a copy of it.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: WorldofWarcraft WOW2.0 WomenofWeb2.0 Twitter edublogosphere IRC

Last week I shared a Neverending Tale wiki project I’m working on with a fourth grade class (http://mrflynn.pbwiki.com). Tuesday when I introduced the wiki to the students, we advised the students that everything wouldn’t be ready for them to begin until they returned back from winter holidays.

So what do I find when I go to the wiki to start editing some new writing prompts for the students? Half of the class adding their portions to the story. These are students who every Thursday are being told they NEED to write a 5 paragraph essay as an FCAT practice. They do it begrudgingly, with from what I’m told, a heck of a lot of bellyaching. This resistance on their part justifies the premise that students who are given the task to ‘write for an audience’ will write, and write more often.

This being our first foray into this type of project the writing is raw. Heck, we’ve not even started the pre-writing learning centers and blogging. Time will tell how this turns out. Both the classroom teacher and myself have high hopes.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

A couple years ago, my media specialist shared with me a link to “The Neverending Tale“. At the time it was up and running, I’d have to say it was late 2004. At the time, I wasn’t ready to embrace its use. Having really just made the jump into educational technology.

Earlier this week I came across this article on TechCrunch. It really did pique my interest to the point of, how can I get something like this to be done on my campus. Here’s the basic concept. “Twittories” uses the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter to create a work of fiction. Much like “The Neverending Tale” from the late 90s - early 2000s did.

Here’s my problem: Twitter is blocked by my district. So that’s out. This is a shout out to all in my network of friends and colleagues. I’d like to start something like this, small of course, working with one of my 4th grade classrooms, as 4th Grade is the year that their writing is assessed by the state. At this time I do not have access to anything like Blackboard, nor know enough about Moodle to begin to fathom trying to create something. I’ve looked at the Moodle site, to me, very confusing. I am sure I can ask a friend of mine to host web space for me, is that what I’d need to use something like Moodle? (Here’s hoping there’s a session on Moodle @ FETC that I can sit in on) .

What are some other alternatives that I could use here. Again, this is a call for advice. Any and all would be greatly appreciated.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages.

Tom.

Technorati Tags: education technology edtech twitter twittories

First things first. A game. Who sings the song that I’ve entitled my blog post after today. Winner with the first reply gets a….my undying devotion?

My head’s been all over the place over the last week. I’ll honestly say that I refrained from even opening up my dashboard page for fear that I would type more negative material. Yes, my last post was negative. I’m trying, I really am. I’ve had some great conversations with great friends to help me keep my focus on the true prize.

We had a great photostory 3 workshop on my campus Monday evening. Many thanks to Karen Seddon who is coming out every month. (Last month was Audacity, this month was Photostory 3). The good news is that 5 of my teachers showed up. The bad news was the amount of complaining from teachers that the workshop was so late in the day. Yes, it was after school. All five of the attendees were newer adapters, even going so far as saying they are true, green newbies. That’s okay. Baby Steps. I’d forgotten the importance of that little mantra.

We have a 5th Grade teacher on campus that has been doing research projects, the old fashioned way. Let’s research, and oh yea, let’s write about 4 pages about what you’ve researched. Notice, not what they’ve learned. I tasked her with finding a way to spice up her project outcome. For the most part, she obliged. Instead of a paper, she offered her students a choice of a powerpoint or a display board. Progress. YES! That’s not the end. Begging would be an appropriate way to say what I did. I begged her to come to the PD on Monday night. Happy to report that her project outcome has changed again, with a due date pushed back to the end of January. We’ve discussed dates/times to come in and teach the students how to use Photostory 3 to create their own stories.

As described by me in previous postings, her reply to the school based mantra of “there’s no time for such projects like this” was this: “I don’t care, these students NEED to learn how to research and create something.” I should also note that this is an educator that has been teaching for almost 15 years. Baby Steps!

I have another post brewing in my head. More on that later, don’t want to get them confused.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages.

Tom.

Technorati Tags: PD education technology edtech photostory3

For those of you that follow my Twitter feed (Tom_Turner) you will have noticed some very disheartening comments being passed along. I understand that my current position is a combination technology integration specialist and network/hardware administrator. Unfortunately for me, more time is spent working on the hardware/network infrastructure of my job description. Is it a complaint? Not really in my estimation. Just trying to keep being a realist about things.

I wanted to share this last little bit of wisdom that was shared with me this week. I recently opened up a 3rd computer lab on my campus. Again, I’m very, I MEAN VERY, blessed to have a School Technology head who purchased 40 extra workstations to use on campus. This alone allowed me to open a second and a third computer lab on campus, which I think makes all the difference. The first 2 labs are being used as a skill n’ drill type lab, so my goal was to open this one up as a research and projects lab. Now for the nugget, “There is no time to use the computer lab for such trivial things as  research and to type projects.” So what is this teacher’s response to this? “Mr. T, go ahead and take me off of the lab time schedule, I’m just not going to go.”

This was just the latest one, there were more over the last few weeks. I won’t go into great detail into them, as I don’t want to harp on them. Frustrated? Yes, why yes I am. I’m sure it will pass. As with every time that I sense becoming highly frustrated, I tend to stay away from my office and work around the school. The last two days I’ve spent in the Media Center setting up (I will say FINALLY) the workstations for up there. It only took 5 months, but they are definitely done. In the end he has a pretty nice set up: 6 desktops and a movable 10 wireless laptop lab. Not even 10 minutes, while I was packing up my stuff to go down to my office, a class working on a project (this is where the hope comes in) on Lewis and Clark were having HUGE issues in finding books. Between the 2 of us, we worked with the class in using our online card catalog system to find the books they would need.  To put the icing on this story this particular teacher’s response to the decree on computer use/projects was a basic “I don’t care, they need to learn how to do it anyways, so why not now!” made me feel much better.

Sorry for the rant, so </rant>

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

One of the many feeds that I read is “The Pulse - District Administration”. The great thing about it is that it is an online journal of articles intended for district administrators.

I spent most of yesterday reading (when not working in the yard and watching football of course!) I came across this article on Technology in Teacher Education Training dated November 1 by Ron Canuel. I must admit that the article hit home with me. I’m VERY blessed to work in a district where it is ‘trying’ to change what Ron is talking about in this article. Let me quote the portion of his article that I find the most hard hitting:

“New teachers, in the absence of effective teacher training programs, will replicate and model the approach and methodology that their past favorite teacher, elementary or high school, had on them. Much of this impact is based on two fundamental elements: positive relationships between the student-teacher and deep knowledge of the subject taught by that teacher. This also means that technology may not be an element that is considered as important. The end result could be that we would have new generation teachers not using approaches that could be further enhanced by technology.”

I took the liberty to underline the portion that I thought was most important. Ron’s conclusions are very much right on the mark here. What I would add to his conclusion is that the new teachers coming into the profession will also take on the methodology and practices that are set in place at the school level. I can safely comment on this from personal experiences.

Like I said before, I’m very blessed to work in a district that values the use and true integration of technology into the curriculum and teaching practices. They work very hard on winning grants and awards that they use to reward teachers for their hard work and efforts. It however is not mandatory to take part in these professional development/growth opportunities.

Herein lies the conundrum. If the new teachers coming in, are not willing/wanting to take the time out of their already hectic first year schedules to work technology in (this is assuming they were not exposed to true integration theories in pre-service experiences), who is left to share these educational philosophies? Not the district level administrators. It’s left to the school level administrators to take on this role.

To further muddy the waters here. One of the conversations held around the edublogosphere is the need to change the teaching practices in the 21st Century classrooms today out of the 20th Century methods being employed. I have to ask the obvious question here though. Are not the majority of our school level administrators evolving from these 20th Century classrooms where the “TRIED AND TRUE” best teaching practices have been indelibly ingrained into their mindsets?

So what is the solution to this ever growing trend? Seems pretty obvious to me. The solution is 2 fold. And the great thing about it is that it can be attained at the very same time. I’ve spoken before of technology peer mentoring programs (see here and here) Having been a member of a peer coaching team I can say from firsthand knowledge that it WORKS. It works WELL! For the program to work it needs administration buy in. But the real solution is not buy in, but total participation from administration. They must be full participants to truly understand the influence integration can have on student performance. Unfortunately, the only acceptance I’ve encountered is that of signing off on subs needed to cover and the funds to buy the hardware/software needed. And I find that sorely lacking.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Article Citation: Canuel, Ron (2007, November 1). Technology in Education Teacher Training: Oh, Oh. The Pulse District Administration, Retrieved November 26, 2007, from http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=48634

Technorati Tags: education technology peercoaching PD

Shared with Flock - The Social Web Browser
http://flock.com

Not a normal title for a post that I would write now is it. It’s Black Friday, and a Happy Belated Thanksgiving to each and every one of you. I’ve alot to be thankful for this year, one of them being the fact that I’m sitting here in the confines of my living room and not out there with the rest of the CRAZEES trying to get the best deal that they possibly can. This also includes my wife unfortunately. But hey, she married me, so she has to be in that category right?

So here I was the other day reading TechCrunch. I would have to say it was Tuesday while I was sitting at my desk. I started reading a review about Firefox 3 Beta. As many of my friends already know, I’m a HUGE fan of firefox. The ANTI-internet explorer. I think it was the tabbed browsing that first got me hooked on it. I remember when Netscape6.0 or 7.0 released years ago. It was the first browser that I’d seen with tabbed browsing. I was hooked from then on. I’m the ultimate multi-tasker. I guess this is how I relate so well to the students we have in our schools today. If my browser has less than 5 tabs open at once, it’s a slow day. I came to this line and it all made sense to me the problems I was having: “which in laymen’s terms meant that it tripped out your memory on a PC, froze up and crashed…and far too regularly.” Even on my desktop I’d been having these issues over the last few months. Same with this brand new Gateway m465e laptop I issued myself from school. 1gb of RAM should not present these problems.

Honestly this is the first I’ve heard of this issue. So I continued reading. I took Duncan’s advise and downloaded Flock. I took ALL of about 5 minutes to become a huge fan. Again, I know that it’s been out for a while. I remember hearing from Anne T. I think it was. Might have been another DEN member, but I do swear it was her. Just in the few days that I’ve been using it, I’ve noticed the meshing with Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. I will wait patiently for themes to come out to customize the look and feel of the browser. It is definitely worth the wait though. I’ve also started looking through the extensions that are available. Now if only they can add a diigo extension it would make it complete in my eyes.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: Flock TechCrunch Firefox webbrowsers