Colette Cassinelli’s edtech VISION

NECC Hands-On Workshop
Using VoiceThread for Interactive Projects – [Formal Session: BYOL]
Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 3:30pm–4:30pm

Prepare for our session by collecting images for practice project. I selected some images from FlickrStorm (Creative Commons licensing) that you can download for our workshop or bring your own.

PC or Mac users should download Audacityfor audio recording and editing. Consider bringing a headset with microphone for recording audio comments.

Handouts:  http://edtechvision.wikispaces.com/VoiceThread

From David Truss

For the month of March,

a group of educators and lifelong learners will be picking a

“Tweet of the day”

and Re-Tweeting it with the tag: #gr8t

There are a number of reasons why you might want to participate:

• To share what you value about twitter.
• To see what others value about twitter.
• To celebrate the power and wisdom of your Personal Learning Network.
• To find interesting people to follow on Twitter.
• To commit to trying out twitter for a month.

Your new tweet shows up on the Gr8Tweets wiki and on twitter searches for others to see and share.

Feel free to follow Gr8tweets on Twitter and Gr8tweets will follow you back, (this part is totally optional).
Even if you aren’t on twitter or you don’t want to participate, be sure to check out the Gr8Tweets wiki and see some of the reasons why so many educators are finding Twitter a valuable tool!

(Here is the story behind this all)

For an upcoming workshop I am collecting real examples from teachers to help compare the difference between an assignment that is “a technology ACTIVITY” vs. one where “technology SUPPORTS STUDENT LEARNING”.  Could you please help me out and fill out this short form:

Custom Google Maps are a fun and interesting way to get students involved in map reading, measuring distances, learning about historic places or connecting places and literature.  There are so many ways you could incorporate Google Maps into your subject area – either by using existing maps made by users or creating original ones.  Consider using the Distance Measurement Tool to calculate the distance from one location to another in a custom map or check out some of these Google maps (need a Google account to view custom maps):

1. Earthquakes in the Last week -http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/
2. Famous places in USA – made by VCS 8th Graders http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=116913314984386073493.000462cf23f60eab59474&z=3
3. California Missions – (This is actually a Google Earth file but can be opened in Google Maps too) http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?q=http:%2F%2Fbbs.keyhole.com%2Fubb%2Fdownload.php%3FNumber%3D558454&t=k&om=1&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=35.539141,-119.817402&spn=8.488761,11.733398&z=6
4. Horatio Alger’s New York – These are the places referenced in Ragged Dick, or Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks – 11th graders  http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=110969292957721029398.00045feb2928c290c0549&ll=40.739308,-73.988854&spn=0.123562,0.183334&z=12
   
5. Presidential Historic Sites – http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?t=k&om=1&ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=114324176081653840016.000456b393b9408843d40&z=3
6. Map your Clean Up the World Activity- A cool Google Map project http://maps.google.com/help/maps/cleanup/
7. Google Lit Trips – http://www.googlelittrips.org/
8. GMdir:  an unofficial Google Maps Directory – http://www.gmdir.com/
9. 100 Things to do with Google Maps Mashups – http://gmapsmania.googlepages.com/100thingstodowithgooglemapsmashups Thanks to Angela Maiers for sharing this one!
   

There are also some cool gadgets you can add to your Google Maps to view clouds, contours, virtual tourism videos, crop circles, Wonders of the World and more at http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=mpl&pid=mpl

Creating a map is easy. Here are the basic steps:

1. Go to Google Maps.
2. Click My Maps > Create new map.
3. Add a title and description for your map. You can make your map public or unlisted. Learn more.
4. Use the icons in the the top right corner of the map. These include:
5. Selection tool. Use this to drag the map and select placemarks, lines, and shapes.
   Placemark tool. Use this to add placemarks. Learn more.
   Line tool. Use this to draw lines. Learn more.
   Shape tool. Use this to draw shapes. Learn more.

You can return to your map at any time. Just go to Google Maps and click My Maps. Sign into your Google Account and select the map from your list of maps.

Adding and Editing Placemarks

To add a placemark to your map:

1. Create or open a map.
2. Click . Your cursor changes into a placemark icon with an “X” crosshairs. The crosshairs indicate where the placemark will fall.
3. Move the cursor to the appropriate location. If you want to dismiss this placemark, press the Escape key.
4. Click your mouse button to place your placemark. It should bounce into place.
5. Add a title and description.
6. You can also change the icon for your placemark by clicking the icon in the top right corner of the info window.
7. Click OK to save your placemark.

To move or edit a placemark:

1. To move any placemark on your map, drag and drop it to the new location. Note that you can only edit or move placemarks on your maps, not others.
2. To edit a placemark’s title or description, click on it to open the info window. Edit the title and description and click OK.

Adding Rich Text or HTML Descriptions

By default the descriptions of your map items are in plain text. However, you can use rich text or HTML. To do this:

1. Create or open a map.
2. Click the appropriate placemark, line, shape. The info window appears.
3. Click Edit.
4. Choose Plain Text, Rich Text or Edit HTML.
5. To edit rich text descriptions, select the text and use the icons above the description field:
6. To use HTML descriptions, add HTML in the description field. Some HTML may be stripped from the description if it is considered unsafe or malicious.
7. Click OK to save your changes.

Adding Photos

You can add photos to your map, as long as they are hosted online. Please use a service such as Google PicasaWeb or Flickr to put your photos online.

To add photos:

1. Create or open a map.
2. Click the appropriate placemark, line, shape. The info window appears.
3. Click Edit.
4. Choose Edit HTML.
5. In Edit HTML mode, use the <img> tag to add photos. For example, <img src="http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/images/maps_results_logo.gif" width=150 height=55> adds the Google Maps logo to your map with a width of 150 pixels and a height of 55 pixels.
6. Click OK to save your changes.

Sharing Maps

Once you have created a map, you can share it with others. To do this:

1. Open the map you want to share.
2. Click Link to this page in the top right corner of the orange title bar. This will put the map’s URL in your browser navigation bar.
3. You can share this URL with your friends by sending it in an email or posting it on your blog or website.
4. You can also click the Email link in the top right corner of the orange title bar to open your default email client with the map URL in the email body.

Public and Unlisted Maps

• You can choose to make your maps public or unlisted.
• Public maps are maps that you want to publish and share with everyone. Public maps will be included in the search results on Google Maps and Earth.
• Unlisted maps are maps that you only want to share with a few select people. Unlisted maps will not be included in the search results, so they are accessible much like an unlisted phone number — anyone who knows the specific URL of the map can view it, but there’s no directory or search for finding unlisted maps.

Viewing Your Maps in Google Earth

If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can view your maps in Google Earth. To do this:

1. Create or open a custom map.
2. Click the KML link or icon in the orange title bar. Google Maps uploads a KML file to your computer that you can open in Google Earth. How cool is that???

More information at My Maps User Guide.

An archive of all tips from Tech Tip Tuesday is located at http://sites.google.com/site/techtipstuesday/

Last Saturday during a two hour drive,  my husband and I had a great discussion about learning, failure and success.  We were discussing people’s attitude towards problems in your work environment and failure in general.  Some folks are crushed by failure, beat themselves up, or try to do everything to avoid acknowledging that things didn’t quite go as planned.  Other folks have an easier time brushing themselves off, looking for lessons learned and bouncing back.

We each identified our own attitudes and behaviors.  It was an interesting discussion about fear of failure, what motivates us to finally act after procrastination and our willingness to be transparent with our shortcomings.

During the drive home later that evening, I finally had a chance to reflect about my experience presenting at NCCE.  My mind wandered through the events of the conference in the quiet of the night.  While I absolutely loved meeting and connecting with the educators in my Personal Learning Network, my mind drifted to my own presentations and I found myself evaluating my “performance” -  what I wished I had said or not said and what I covered.

It’s easy at this point to beat yourself up.  It’s nerve-wracking standing up front of 60+ educators and put yourself out there.  Two of the three presentations were new for me this year and I wanted them to go well.   Questions like, “Did I explain myself clearly” and “Did attendees learn anything new” or “Did I cover the material well” swam through my head.

For the most part I do not beat myself up if everything doesn’t go perfectly.  I tell myself that if I had at least taught some folks to do something new or try a new way of looking at technology tools, or inspired them to learn more — then I did what I set out to accomplish.

Both Jeff Utecht and Richard Kassissieh blogged about the lack of conference sessions that focused on teaching and learning and too much focus on tools.  Richard wrote:

Excessive focus on the technology itself in the absence of an intentional learning environment reinforces unhelpful stereotypes about technologists and technology. 1) You can improve education just by adding technology; 2) Technologists aren’t interested in teaching and learning. Most of the conference attendees are teachers. Let’s upset the usual stereotypes and return to what matters.

Other discussions I had with members of my PLN also centered around how we could make this conference better and help technology-loving educators connect with one another.  I reflected on my experience of teaching the tools vs. focusing on the pedagogy.  How did I do?

I want to see “problems” as learning opportunities — not failure.  I want to be able to review my experiences and be proud of what I accomplished but at the same time be willing to correct mistakes next time — not see them as failures — but just as opportunities to try something else.  It’s called learning.  Realizing it’s not the outcome you wanted and try again.

Jeff ustreamed my Google Apps for Education presentation and I watched the archived video – and I did cringe a few time when reviewing, but for the most part was happy with the presentation.  Watching yourself is great for learning – as long as you can keep the focus positive.

So after a few days to think about my experience and what I “learned” , I noted a few things down.

• Focus on student learning first and then how the technology tool can improve, help, or encourage learning.
• Encourage discussion and conversation among the educators in smaller groups, backchannel or discussion board/questions.  Each person needs a chance to reflect, ask questions, and discuss for the idea to be “sticky”.
• Be clear about your objective at the beginning of the presentation and the skill level  you are covering and stick to it.
• For hands on workshops, have the participants create authentic material and not just “practice” the skill.
• Have resource material available but don’t feel like you have to cover everything (especially 1 hr concurrent sessions).
• Skip the “how I got here” intro and jump right into the presentation.
• Constantly tweak your Powerpoint presentations (note:  I’m ready to start over on this one!)
• It’s OK to be nervous – just breath deep — get in touch with  your passion inside – it will help you relax.

What have you learned about yourself lately?

Thanks to Jeff Utecht who Ustreamed my Google Apps vs. Google Tools presentation at NCCE.  I’m kicking myself for not saving the chat but appreciate all who attended and participated online.

NCCE twitter group http://twittgroups.com/group/ncce

Webcam chat at Ustream

Most folks today rely on Google Maps to look up locations and print out directions to where they are going but there is so much more to Google Maps and new features are constantly being added.  You don’t need to have a Google account to use Maps unless you are going to create your own custom maps (more about that next week).

The Google Maps HELP page has a great diagram that describes some of the features available in Google Maps and you can even  watch easy-to-follow video tutorials.   Some features include:

• Search, get directions, add destinations, save, share & print maps
• Various views:  street, traffic, satellite, terrain
• Layers:  photos, videos, Wikipedia
• Left panel, Info window, navigational controls, my profile

A few of the features of Google Maps that I use often are the user reviews, more info and search nearby.

The “More info” link can contain great information such as photos of businesses, descriptions, restaurant reviews, links to driving directions and much more. Need to access the map again?  Save it to My Maps (need a Google account).

Let’s say you are thinking of checking out a new restaurant.  Search for the name of the restaurant on Google Maps.  Once you have located the placemarker on the map, open up the Info window.  Look for a link for “user reviews”.  Most of these reviews are from websites like Tripadvisor.com, Priceline.com, HotelGuide.com and more (source).  Of course the reviews on the maps are not as detailed as the ones on the websites, but it can probably give you the information you need.

You can search maps in a variety of ways if you do NOT know the name of a particular business:

• Businesses (example: Pizza in Sydney)
• Addresses (example: 1 Market Street, San Francisco, CA)
• Roads and intersections (example: 10th Avenue and W 22nd Street, New York, NY)
• Places – Cities, towns, states, provinces, states and continents (example: Paris, France)
• Coordinates (example: +38° 34′ 24.00″, -109° 32′ 57.00″)
• Geographic features (example: Half Dome)
• Real estate listings (example) New!
• User created content (example: Tahoe Rim Trail KML)
• Driving directions

Just last term I wanted to order pizza for the Computer club but since I do not live close to school I did not know what businesses were nearby.  So, I first search for the name of our school and clicked on the placemarker to open the “More Info” window.  Then I selected “search nearby” and searched for pizza.  The next map that appeared show the location of our school and all of the pizza locations nearby.  How easy it that??

Of course, my students love to play around with Street view, turn on the photos, or zoom in on specific locations.  Next week I will give you ideas on how to use custom maps in your classroom and how you can open them in Google Earth.

Tech Tip Tuesday is archived at http://sites.google.com/site/techtipstuesday/

Voicethread Project: Reflections on educational technology.

Directions: Take a moment to browse through the quotes on the following VoiceThread slides. Choose one that speaks to you and reflect upon its meaning. Add your reflection to the slide by recording a comment with the phone feature, voice recording, webcam recording or by typing . Feel free to comment on more than one slide if you’d like. Thank you for participating.

Stop spending hours looking for information online – have the information come to you. How can make this happen?   By using Google Reader and RSS

What is RSS?  RSS (real simple syndication) is the ability to “subscribe” to changes made on a website or blog. (Click here to view a video: RSS in Plain English)

First, you need to access your Google Reader.  Go to http://www.google.com/reader and sign in with your Google Account. This is where all of your subscriptions will be stored.

If you are not aware of which websites have RSS feeds, you can search for them by clicking on Add Subscriptions” button and search for feeds.  The search results will list websites that have RSS feeds for your topic.  Choose the one that interests you by clicking on the “Subscribe” button to add this information to your reader.  Now whenever that website has an update, you will be notified in your reader.  Unread messages are saved in “bold” until you read them.

If the RSS feed in incorrect or no longer useful, you can unsubscribe and you will no longer receive updates in your Google Reader.

There is another way to add feeds to your Google Reader. When browsing on a website, look for the standard RSS icon for subscription options. Click on the standard RSS icon. Most blogs have feed autodiscovery enabled, meaning the site will automatically tell Reader where to find a blog’s feed. If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to add the URL of a site’s feed directly. Find the RSS logo on the site in question, click it, and copy and paste the link into the ‘add subscription’ box.

If you can’t find an RSS logo on the site, the site may not offer RSS feeds.

Once you get into the habit of subscribing for news or information, you will find that you search less.  Stay up to date with breaking news, School updates, latest blog posts or news from your favorite website with RSS and Google Reader.

Once you become familiar with Google Reader, make sure you check out these cool features:

• Organizing your RSS feeds with folders and tabs
• Sharing interesting items with Friends or by email
• Adding Notesto your articles
• Accessing your RSS feeds on your mobile phone

An archive of Tech Tip Tuesday is located at http://sites.google.com/site/techtipstuesday/

By MaryFran Lynch

Do you have a special interest that you would like to follow but just can’t always find the time to search for the latest information? Google Alerts can help. Google Alerts are e-mails that are automatically sent to your inbox whenever new information becomes available on your search terms. Depending on your search preferences, Google will monitor News, Web, Blogs, Video and Groups (or all of them) for new information, and send it to you on the schedule you’ve set up.

For example, suppose you are interested in following a news story, advances for a specific medical condition, or have a particular professional interest, set up a Google Alert. When new information is available, an e-mail and snippet will be sent to your inbox.

Or, if you prefer, you can arrange to have your Alerts send to Google Reader. This alert was delivered to my Google Reader only 9 minutes ago, keeping me on top of breaking news.