Category Archives: Media

Moment of Geek

journalism, Media, technology, , , ,

In an effort to take Tim’s advice…here’s my odd, out of left field post.  It will come as no surprise to readers of this blog and people who know me that I’m pretty liberal.  It’s a label I proudly wear.  So, it probably also comes as know surprise that I’m a huge fan of Rachel Maddow.  I tune in almost every night to her show.  If you haven’t, give it a try.  She’s smart, funny, and sarcastic, and an antidote to the often harsh rhetoric we hear from both sides.  (As an aside, I’m not a fan of Keith Olberman…he’s a little too mean for me.)

One of my favorite features is Rachel’s Moment of Geek when she highlights interesting events in science and technology.  Even if you can’t stomach Rachel, these features are fun with no seeming political bias.  You can view them at her web site or if you prefer not to have that in your computer memory, check out YouTube.  One of my favorite was about the Google camera car that takes pictures for street view:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Cross Post: Check Out Our Voice Threads

Education, Media, online learning, teaching, technology, ,

I posted this in the VSTE Ning site where my undegraduates are sharing their learning this semester.  But, I thought it might be of interest to a wider audience.

This semester, I added Voice Thread to my course and I’m glad I did. They are all tied to the Standards of Learning, Virginia’s standards. Most of my students are planning to use them as part of their student teaching experience.

Here’s the list with the links:

Simple and Compound Machines: http://voicethread.com/share/207443/

Weather Instruments: http://voicethread.com/share/207433/

Who Eats What: http://voicethread.com/#q.b207433.i1089152<

Magnets: http://voicethread.com/share/213467/

By the way, here’s the one I created for them. It reviews the different tools we have studied and asks them to think about how they can be integrated into the classroom. Please feel free to add your comments:

I’ll end with a thank you to my Twitter buddies who had excellent ideas for how the students can easily allow their students to comment on their threads. I am reminded of the power of my professional learning network and I hope my students are coming to see its power as well.

The Power of Creativity

21st Century Skills, creativity, Media, Media Literacy, Video

Most of us have probably heard Ken Robinson talking about creativity.  Yesterday, a story on National Public Radio underscored its importance in the lives of young people.  The subject of the story was the creation of “scraper bikes” in Oakland, California.  The reporter described how the fad spread because of a YouTube video: “The video spawned what is becoming a worldwide movement, even as it changed the lives of the young men who customized the bikes and made the video.” In fact, Tyrone Stephenson, Jr., who calls himself the Scraper Bike King, credits the creation of the bikes with saving his life: “Because I was at a young age, getting into a lot of serious trouble, selling drugs and on the verge of going to jail. So my mom told me this is a way to channel anger and frustration, just focusing on something that’s creative, something that’s me, and the bikes is me.”

These are young men growing up in a tough place who have found something that makes them happy and, as Stephenson suggests, allows them to have a positive influence on their community. As an English teacher at heart, I will admit to cringing a bit at the grammar.  But as someone interested in grassroots media, I am reminded of the power of YouTube to tell the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. These young men understand that power and have taken advantage of the media to tell their own stories.

Here’s the video:

It Would Be Funny If It Wasn’t So Serious

21st Century Skills, advocacy, Media, politics, , , ,

I had already heard about John McCain’s inability to use a computer even before I read Tim’s post at Assorted Stuff yesterday.  I certainly agree with Tim that if this man is going to be our visionary, it seems essential that he at least have a passing knowledge of the potential of these tools.  As Sarah Lai Stirland points out in her post, these tools are the way to reach out to Millenials:

Even if he doesn’t feel the need to e-mail, perhaps he should check out tools such as Twitter to reach the Millennials. It’s not just about the coolness of such tools; it’s about getting a candidate’s unique persona and voice through a medium to connect to a new generation.

It occurred to me that John McCain may not be concerned about reaching the Millenials.  Maybe he figures he’s already lost them to his rock star opponent so why bother  to reach out to them.  But, there is something much more serious at stake here.

I believe one of the primary reasons teachers don’t use technology as much as they might to support teaching and learning is because they simply don’t have access to technology on a regular basis.  Access comes through funding, mostly federal funding.  How many other senators don’t use computers to support their own learning, thus making it difficult for them to understand why a teacher might want to?  Throughout the year, we in the ed tech community have been fighting to retain the EETT funding for K-12 and just yesterday I got an email from ISTE asking me to contact my senator about the “Preparing Teachers for Digital Age Learners” program that should be part of the Higher Education Reauthorization Bill.  The purpose of this legislation is to extend the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) program that provided funding for projects related to preparing new teachers to make effective use of technology.  But the funding is not included in the Senate version of the bill.  I wonder if John McCain had anything to do with that?  You still have time to contact him as well as your own representatives to make it clear that this funding must be included if we are going to be able to educate the next generation on how to use computers effectively in the classroom.  For more information about the Preparing Teachers for Digital Age Learners program and a copy of the legislation please go to: http://www.iste.org/Advocacy/Feb08-support

One more comment from this teacher educator about the importance of this funding.  I’ve been reading a lot lately that the use of technology in schools will change once the current generation of teachers retires and the digital natives move into the classroom.  I don’t think that’s an accurate prediction.  I think the next generation is comfortable using technology but being able to text message and post pictures in Facebook is a far cry from using technology with students in the classroom in effective ways to support learning.  Please take the time today to contact your legislator (and Senator McCain, too) to let them know that this is important to you and to our students.

Dropping Acid and Rolling in the Mud

21st Century Skills, Media, music

So, I can’t get that image from my mind.  I listened to most of Tom Brokaw’s book about the sixties and he conveyed the sense of the world changing, of new freedom and power for people who hadn’t had them before.  Is that what the snow day video is all about: young people asserting new freedom and power, this time through a technology that allows them to bypass the “usual channels.”  I would argue this might be a healthier version of dropping acid and rolling in the mud.

Saturday is get organized and clean something day at my house so I’m going to make this short.  I finished the outline for my 21st Century Assessment presentation.   I’m going to start with the whole snow day thing.  Maybe I’m making too big a deal out of it, but it just seems to hint at what we really mean when we talk about 21st century skills.  This is more than manipulating the technology: there’s a creativity there, enhanced by access to the tech.  In the outline, I embedded one of the video responses that is a suggested reading list for the woman.  It’s very funny: again, it’s about the creativity rather than the technology.

As we worked in the office this morning, we listened to Alan Parsons Project.  Started with Eye in the Sky and then moved to Tales of Mystery and Imagination, which is based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.  One of my favorites.  And it occurred to me that Parsons’ take on Poe represents a great example of what I would think of as a 21st century assessment.  He interpreted the stories both lyrically and musically, demonstrating his understanding of the stories but also using them to build his own knowledge.