Thinking out loud... or not

Although the name of this blog is "Musings of a Tech Teacher" and I specifically started it as "A place where I can think out loud" one thing strikes me as I look over the few posts I have here and on my other blog in Hebrew, iteachr, I'm not very active as far as thinking out loud, blog style, goes.

On the other hand, I am a world class procrastinator, and so instead of sitting down to the nitty gritty of planning my curriculum for next year, I find I am spending hours, even days, consuming gallons of coffee, packets of cigarettes, and surfing the internet in search of new tools and applications that may somehow be of aid. The truth is that the list of links I have collected is already too long and I know I will find it hard to to focus when I do finally have to make a choice.

I guess the first step for me is to stop my incessant web quest and to start putting some order into things. First things first pick a subject area, topic or whatever you like to call it, then review the standards set out by the curriculum, decide what the focus is, map out aims and objectives, outcomes etc. See how the learning experience can be enriched, enhanced, taken at least one step further by the implementation of technology.

I've got my work cut out for me.... better have another cup of coffee :-)

My New Profile Pic, courtesy of ToonDoo

Many thanks to Rajendran at ToonDoo for my new avatar, explanation below...

For those of you who haven't yet discovered it, ToonDoo is an excellent site for creating cartoons. Features include:

member profile page, cartoon generator with a large and growing library of
backgrounds, characters and props, user comments and embedding code to allow you to post your creations in your blog or website. Cartoons can be made public,
private or shared with a chosen few. The toon creator works with unicode meaning
cartoons can be created in every language!

As the site itself is written in English I created some simple demos in Hebrew for my students, and informed Rajendran at toondoo so that other Hebrew speakers would also have access to them.

Rajendran wrote back asking for a photo to add to his blogpost about the demos. Being one of those people who has difficulty making decision for even the simplest things, I sent my photo and my avatar and asked him to choose. Two minutes later I received Rajendran's creative suggestion, my head superimposed on the body of my avatar. Excellent idea! I've been using the two seperately for ages, why didn't I ever think of this?

A Fair(Y) Use Tale - Copright Explained

Disney characters explain Copyright Law - in a humorous video by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University -



The video is also posted on http://dotsub.com and so is available for translation to other languages. (Definitely worth waiting for the 10 minute video to download)

Internationalization - Web2.0

In a short blog post about one of Steve Hargadon's sessions at NECC Dana Huff asks

"What do you think would make it easier for teachers to find ways to
use Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom?"

As an elementary school teacher in Israel, I don't have to think twice: Internationalization!

Before I can even consider introducing teachers to web20 technologies I need to know:

• that they (and their students) will be able to understand the UI
• that the application will be able to function in, and represent Hebrew input correctly

Yes my biggest obstacle is language. Many applications simply aren't set up for languages with special character sets, the few that are don't deal with the RTL configuration needed for Hebrew and Arabic. Then there is also the wealth of content out there which is inaccessible to students simply because they don't understand the language either of the content or of the UI.

There are a couple of sites which are moving in a positive direction:

The big player in the field is of course Google. Here are a few more...

http://www.dotsub.com/ a video upload site, provides user friendly tools for members to transcribe and translate videos - and automatically adds the translations as subtitles. These versions are available for viewing on the site and can also be embedded in other webpages.

If you create videos, or you post student created videos online, why not consider uploading to dotSUB.

http://www.toondoo.com/ a site for creating cartoons has added Unicode support to the cartoon generator. Cartoons created on toondoo can be embedded in blogs and other webpages.

http://www.mojiti.com/ (a site which enables visitors to overlay videos with content 'spots' of their own), has set up a system for members to translate the UI. Again the translation interface is very easy to work with, and you can translate as much or as little as you like.

http://spresent.com/ a site for creating online flash presentations - supports Unicode, although for now RTL is still not an option. Anyone interested in translating the UI should write to the developers . At present the UI is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Vietnamese and Hebrew

If you know of other web2.0 sites which are addressing the issue of Internationalization please let me know.

k12 Online Conference - Call for Proposals

Excellent opportunity for educators. Whether you're interested in learning, presenting or both this looks like the place to be online in October.

More information: http://www.k12onlineconference.org/

Call for ProposalsMay 21st, 2007
Announcing the second annual “K12 Online” conference for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. This year’s conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.” A call for proposals is below.

OVERVIEW:There will be four “conference strands”– two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday - Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in any of a variety of downloadable, web based formats and released via the conference blog (http://www.k12onlineconference.org/) and archived for posterity.

FOUR STRANDS:
Week 1Strand A: Classroom 2.0
Leveraging the power of free online tools in an open, collaborative and transparent atmosphere characterises teaching and learning in the 21st century. Teachers and students are contributing to the growing global knowledge commons by publishing their work online. By sharing all stages of their learning students are beginning to appreciate the value of life long learning that inheres in work that is in “perpetual beta.” This strand will explore how teachers and students are playing with the boundaries between instructors, learners and classrooms. Presentations will also explore the practical pedagogical uses of online social tools (Web 2.0) giving concrete examples of how teachers are using the tools in their classes.

Strand B: New Tools
Focusing on free tools, what are the “nuts and bolts” of using specific new social media and collaborative tools for learning? This strand includes two parts. Basic training is “how to” information on tool use in an educational setting, especially for newcomers. Advanced training is for teachers interested in new tools for learning, looking for advanced technology training, seeking ideas for mashing tools together, and interested in web 2.0 assessment tools. As educators and students of all ages push the boundaries of learning, what are the specific steps for using new tools most effectively? Where “Classroom 2.0″ presentations will focus on instructional uses and examples of web 2.0 tool use, “New Tools” presentations should focus on “nuts and bolts” instructions for using tools. Five “basic” and five “advanced” presentations will be included in this strand

Week 2
Strand A: Professional Learning
NetworksResearch says that professional development is most effective when it aims to create professional learning communities — places where teachers learn and work together. Using Web 2.0 tools educators can network with others around the globe extending traditional boundaries of ongoing, learner centered professional development and support. Presentations in this strand will include tips, ideas and resources on how to orchestrate your own professional development online; concrete examples of how the tools that support Professional Learning Environments (PLEs) are being used; how to create a supportive, reflective virtual learning community around school-based goals, and trends toward teacher directed personal learning environments.

Strand B: Obstacles to Opportunities
Boundaries formalized by education in the “industrial age” shouldn’t hinder educators as they seek to reform and transform their classroom practice. Playing with boundaries in the areas of copyright, digital discipline and ethics (e.g. cyberbullying), collaborating globally (e.g. cultural differences, synchronous communication), resistance to change (e.g. administration, teachers, students), school culture (e.g. high stakes testing), time (e.g. in curriculum, teacher day), lack of access to tools/computers, filtering, parental/district concerns for online safety, control (e.g. teacher control of student behavior/learning), solutions for IT collaboration and more — unearthing opportunities from the obstacles rooted in those boundaries — is the focus of presentations in this strand.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:
This call encourages all, experienced and novice, to submit proposals to present at this conference via this link. Take this opportunity to share your successes, strategies, and tips in “playing with boundaries” in one of the four strands as described above.

Deadline for proposal submissions is June 18, 2007. You will be contacted no later than June 30, 2007 regarding your status.

Presentations may be delivered in any web-based medium that is downloadable (including but not limited to podcasts, screencasts, slide shows) and is due one week prior to the date it is published.

Please note that all presentations will be licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

As you draft your proposal, you may wish to consider the presentation topics listed below which were suggested in the comments on the K-12 Online Conference Blog:

special needs education

Creative Commons

Second Life

podcasting

iPods

video games in education

specific ideas, tips, mini lessons centered on pedagogical use of web 2.0 tools

overcoming institutional inertia and resistance

aligning Web 2.0 and other projects to national standards

getting your message across

how web 2.0 can assist those with disabilities

ePortfolios

classroom 2.0 activities at the elementary level

creating video for TeacherTube and YouTube

google docs

teacher/peer collaboration

KEYNOTES:The first presentation in each strand will kick off with a keynote by a well known educator who is distinguished and knowledgeable in the context of their strand. Keynoters will be announced shortly.

CONVENERS:
This year’s conveners are:

Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of Mathematics at Daniel Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his pedagogical practice and for “child safe” blogging practices. He has more than 20 years experience in both formal and informal education and 13 years experience in team building and leadership training. Darren has been facilitating workshops for educators in groups of 4 to 300 for the last 10 years. Darren’s professional blog is called A Difference (http://adifference.blogspot.com/). He will convene Classroom 2.0.

Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach, a 20-year educator, has been a classroom teacher, charter school principal, district administrator, and digital learning consultant. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member teaching graduate and undergraduate preservice teachers at The College of William and Mary (Virginia, USA), where she is also completing her doctorate in educational planning, policy and leadership. In addition, Sheryl is co-leading a statewide 21st Century Skills initiative in the state of Alabama, funded by a major grant from the Microsoft Partners in Learning program. Sheryl blogs at (http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog). She will convene Preconference Discussions and Personal Learning Networks.

Wesley Fryer is an educator, author, digital storyteller and change agent. With respect to school change, he describes himself as a “catalyst for creative educational engagement.” His blog, “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” was selected as the 2006 “Best Learning Theory Blog” by eSchoolnews and Discovery Education. He is the Director of Education Advocacy (PK-20) for AT&T in the state of Oklahoma. Wes blogs at (http://www.speedofcreativity.org/). Wes will convene New Tools.

Lani Ritter Hall currently contracts as an instructional designer for online professional development for Ohio teachers and online student courses with eTech Ohio. She is a National Board Certified Teacher who served in many capacities during her 35 years as a classroom and resource teacher in Ohio and Canada. Lani blogs at (http://possibilitiesabound.blogspot.com/). She will convene Obstacles to Opportunities.

QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about any part of this, email one of us:

Darren Kuropatwa: dkuropatwa {at} gmail {dot} com
Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach:
snbeach {at} cox {dot} net
Lani Ritter Hall: lanihall {at} alltel {dot} net
Wesley Fryer: wesfryer {at} pobox {dot} com

Please duplicate this post and distribute it far and wide across the blogosphere. Feel free to republish it on your own blog (actually, we’d really like people to do that ) or link back to this post (published simultaneously on all our blogs).