Technology in Education

I just discovered Fora.tv.  Wow, what a resource.  Combine that with TED and I could be set up for a long time.  What a wealth of knowledge.  I like that really smart people can act as my filter on these sites.

My Big Moment

I’m in this. Forgot all about it. They called the union asking for “musicians”. They sent over 12 trombone players. Fooled them! Notice the eyes of everyone watching the one violin player in the first row so we get the bowings right. I wasnt “Latin” enough so I got the back row.

Cool resource of links.  I like the Chemistry through cooking from MIT.

I have been completing my technology portfolio for my Educational Leadership degree.  This has been a taxing process.  I disagree with the symbolism of printing out a technology portfolio.  I made the effort and spoke up that I thought this portfolio was a bit of a time capsule.  Now I have been asked to make a proposal for changes.

The technology standards for administrators are fairly clear, but how should they be measured in a prep program?  Should they be embedded in coursework?  I am grappling with how to design a program that can change with the times.  Deciding whether video, mobile technology, wikis, blogs, and social networks should be included is a challenge. 

cross posted on shsweb

I have been working on my family history. I have a relatively small family. Both of my sets of grandparents had two children. My sister and I are their only grandchildren. I had a fair amount of history on my father’s side, but only back to around 1880 or so when that part of the family arrived from Germany and Ireland.

By using familysearch I was able to go back an additional generation, which was kind of exciting. But last night I started to work on my maternal grandmother’s side. I had a name Thaddeus Stocker and that he lived during the Revolutionary War. From that name I was able to use the site to travel back an additional ten generations!! I got all the way back to 1470 in England (John Wyllie). Needless to say this was pretty amazing to me.

I found out that our family lived in Fairfield, CT (Henry Jackson, Mary Morehouse, etc..) for over 150 years and were among the first European settlers. I found that parts of the family were Tories and parts were fighting in the Continental Army. And this was only in about an hours worth of work. I am probably related to half of Connecticut.

Much of this was inspired by the amazing PBS series by Henry Louis Gates which traced the history of several African-Americans. Now history can be enlightening, powerful, and painful. But the internet is a VERY powerful tool in this regard. I urge you to try to connect with your past.

Update: I think I got back to the year 1256!! Alexander de Forbes in Scotland.

Update#2: I think I can back to the year 50! Godwulf.

Just bumping this page.  I have been doing most of my work on the class blog.

Just got word that I will be presenting at the 2007 CECA (CT-Computer Assoc.) conference on October 23.  This is my third time presenting there.  I will present about making writing a social event through blogging.

Check out our class blogmeister.  My work with the blogs has not been perfect.  I am learning more each day.  I have found that the students are reading each others work and they are reading the “experts” much more (Richardson, Warlick, etc…).  I have not gotten them to increase the amount of comments and thus value the “conversation”.

Does your school have a shared vision?  Do students, community, teachers, staff all agree on where they should be headed?  We read a lot about educating students for jobs that don’t even exist yet, or about schools that are still teaching as if it was 1930.  But how does a “vision” school actually operate?

I wonder if elementary schools have stronger vision than high schools.  Perhaps because of more parental involvement there is often a stronger consensus on goals and standards.  What we find so often at the high school is everyone doing their own thing, without a central core.

 Does your school have a shared vision?  I don’t see how we can switch to Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 without a shared vision on creating a new type of student.  One who is a problem solver and innovator.

Happy Holidays everyone.  I am waiting for Claudia and Kasey to get up.  I find I can’t really sleep past 6:30am since I get up at 5:15am for school.  I can take a nap pretty soon, but I have to eat first and do some stuff.

This is Claudia’s first Christmas and it has been fun so far.  Uh oh, I hear movement!!!  Have fun today.