People Don't Read Anymore?

In a recent interview in the New York Times, Steve Jobs, said in reference to the Kindel, the electronic book put out by Amazon, that it will fail because "people don't read anymore." Specifically he said:

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

I was a little shocked by this. I read 2-3 books a month. My wife reads 1-2 books a week. I go to the library once a month. I have a Barnes & Nobel discount card. I shop online at Amazon regularly.

I did a quick look-see on the internet and unhappily found similar statistics. The Guardian pretty much supported Steve. A quarter of US adults have not read a book over the past year. Older folks read more than younger folks. (I'm an older folk.) Women read more than men. (My wife is a woman.) The higher your educational degree the more you read. (My wife and I both have some of them there degrees!) It seems that I am in a growing minority of readers.

I love movies. I love video. I love books. But, to me, they are different experiences. Is the constant exposure to television and movies causing a shift in how young people absorb and learn information? How they tell and experience stories? As a teacher, I've changed my style and presentation over the years since I started in the early eighties. More hands-on. More variety. Less lecture. I've had many colleagues say that they have to teach differently because the kids are different. That may be, but couldn't some of the changes be from our becoming better at our craft? Maybe its a little of both?

I hope Steve Jobs is wrong. I hope that reading will increase over time as our kids become more savvy consumers of information. I hate to think that in 50 years the number of people who get to enjoy the deep, mind altering experience of a good book will be limited to a few academics and the occasional librarian. I hope we won't become a nation of folks who say,

"I'll just wait to see the movie!"

"One in four Americans read no books last year." Guardian Unlimited 22 aug 2007 16 Jan 2008 .
[Image: Wayne THIBAUD (b. 1920) | Betty Jean Thiebaud and Book. | 1965-1969 | American | Superrealist | Oil on canvas | Sacramento. Northern California. United States | | ©Wayne Thiebaud; Kathleen Cohen]

Funny: Engines Can Burn Vegetable Oil

xkcd: A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language

If you outlaw cameras only outlaws will have cameras.

Right after writing about cameras being everywhere and the difficulty in stopping people from taking photographs in a concert venue, I read this article on BoingBoing; UK mall bans grandparents for trying to photo their grandkids. The article describes a couples experience in a shopping mall in the UK. They were stopped using their camera because taking photos was banned due to a "security risk."

"Oh but that could only happen in the UK. It wouldn't ever happen in the US," you say. How about Silver Springs, MD where a photographer was recently stopped from taking pictures.

Lots of bandwidth on this issue and it is only going to get more intense as cameras get smaller and more pervasive. This might be a good classroom discussion starter. I know it has me thinking.

[Image Source: Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/ Sony-DSCU10-1-3MP-Digital-Camera/dp/B00006JHTQ/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1199397124&sr=8-3 : Found this on Amazon after doing a search for "tiny camera".]

Cameras Everywhere

I didn't ever think that I would ever have a post about Paris Hilton on my blog.

Never say never.

This isn't going to be any deep think piece on her, her contribution to society, the role of the celebrity in today's world or even a fashion critique. I ran across a photo of her at a party and it wasn't Paris that caught my eye, it was all the cameras in the audience. (OK...so maybe I am getting old....but really, it was the cameras that caught my eye!) They weren't the usual big paparazzi style cameras. These were all small hand helds similar to the one I carry with me most of the time.




I grabbed the picture and messed around with it in Photoshop and was able to find 19 cameras being held up. The four in the back I guessed on. There were a few more that were just too blurry to call. But, in this snapshot of Ms. Hilton, there were at least 19 people in the crowd taking pictures. Probably a few professionals, but my assumption is that most of them are just regular folks who had their camera's with them.


I am also guessing that at an event like this, people come partly to see Paris Hilton. The management probably doesn't discourage their taking pictures. I posted earlier this month about an experience at a concert watching folks take pictures during the event with their cameras. I didn't mention that there was an announcement first thing asking patrons not to take pictures or record the performance. That didn't stop a large number of people from still doing it. I remember a time in my younger years when a camera or recording equipment would be confiscated if observed by any of the concert staff. What's a concert venue to do when pretty much every one coming into the theater now has the ability to record sound and pictures?

How do we define fair use and copyright in a world where what I see and what I hear can be saved so easily on my electronic devices?

[Image Source: FoxNews: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319810,00.html]

Organizing Lego

A continuing dilemma I had as a technology teacher using Lego was how to organize my kits. I tried throwing everything into one big bin, organizing them in tackle boxes, using plastic boxes designed for hardware and stacking bricks as suggested in today's link. How to organize your lego for efficient building on the Evil Mad Scientist Blog.

The factors I had to take into account when organizing my Lego was:

• Inventory. Two parts to this, one, making sure pieces that students needed were available and, two, knowing what parts I needed to order.
• Ease of use. It's no fun if the majority of your time is spent looking for parts.
• Storage. How do I store, stack, put away all these kits?
  
• Theft. Sometimes it's necessary to track what parts go out and if they come back again. I am thankful to say that theft in my lab was not ever a big issue but another lab in my district had problems with items disappearing.

I never did figure out the perfect solution. I ended up using a basic kit in a multi-chambered hardware box that had the minimum number of pieces needed. It had a visual picture and inventory list that went out with the students and they had to organize the kit before turning it back in again. Then I had other parts and bins of parts that students could check out as they needed.

I always hoped that someone would come up with the perfect bin or storage container. Maybe when I retire?


[Image Source: How to Organize your lego for efficient building: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/efficientlego]

Amory Lovins: Winning the Oil Endgame

I saw Amory Lovins give a lecture to a small group of teachers and interested community members in the late nineties. He spent a lot of time talking mostly about light bulbs and how much energy we could save by switching to the new low energy bulbs that were becoming more widely available. Everything he said made sense. He backed up all his points with research. He was advocating action and proposing behavioral changes that any of us could implement.

I just finished watching his new video on TED called Winning the Oil Endgame, and I am having a similar reaction. He is talking solutions. He backs up what he says with research. While his talk is aimed more at the governmental and industrial level, I still found it interesting. He has a book with the same title that is also available for free as a downloadable PDF. I'm downloading it as I write this.



[Image: Captured from TED Video; Winning the Oil Endgame;http://blog.ted.com/2007/12/amory_lovins.php]

Funny: Domino PCs

There have been more than a few times in my life when I would have enjoyed taking all the cpu's out of my lab and using them this way!

Kinematic Models

Many was the time a gaggle of sixth grade engineers and I would stand by the white board sketching out a gear assembly in an effort to design a structure that would duplicate the movement needed for a project. This is one area where I always wished I had deeper training so I could have more ably guided my students. I did the best I could by having samples of mechanisms and photos of what other students had done. (And the trusty whiteboard.)

I saw an article about a site called Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (KMODDL) at Cornell University. What a great resource! They have photos and movies of a variety of mechanical models. Are you trying to describe a universal joint to a group of seventh graders? Navigate to this site and you can show them a model of a universal joint. You can also show them a video of the machine in action.

If I still ran a tech lab, I'd build a challenge or two around a few of these descriptions. Possibly have students reproduce some of the them using their Lego kits. If you like this kind of stuff, this site will become a favorite.

[Story source frome Makezine:KMODDL - Kinematic models for design digital library: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/12/kmoddl_kinematic_models_f.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890]
[Image: Grabbed from KMODDL/Universal Joint; http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/model.php?m=240]

5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do

Shop classes are slowly disappearing. The last middle level shop class went away from our district a couple of years ago. High school shop type classes only happen at our vocational school. When I was hired to teach a middle level technology class in 1998 it was because they canceled the plans for a wood shop as no one applied for the open position. After deciding not to re-post the position, my principal changed the wood shop into a technology lab.

Even though I got a great job because of this, I think overall this is a bad trend. Kids need a place where they can build things. A place where they can cut and drill and hammer. It's part of how we learn to interact with the world. My teaching partner and I noticed that over the 7 years we taught the technology class, each year, the kids ability to manipulate tools and materials seemed to decrease.

With that said, it should come as no surprise that I enjoyed the following TED Talk, 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do by Gever Tully.





[Image: Grabbed from an article about the Tinkering School on Makezine: http://www.makezine.com/pub/ev/347]

Visual Dictionary Online

My students and I often run down to the library to use the Visual Dictionary. It is a great little reference tool when you are trying to find the correct name for something. Now there is a similar reference online called, what else, the Visual Dictionary Online.

It's great for those times when a child asks you, "What's a boom on a ship?" and you've lived in a landlocked state your entire life. Or you want to sound a little more sophsticated when describing a part on a front loader by saying:

The bucket cylinder that runs the length of the arm which is connected to the boom with a hinge pin.

Instead of how I normally might describe that part:

The sliding doohicky that runs the length of long thing-a-bobber which is connected to the that big doober with a hooker thing.

The online version doesn't seem quite as user friendly as the printed version. For example, I had to dig a little to find a picture of a "boom" on a sailboat. It was there but didn't come up when I searched for "boom." Still, I think it could prove a valuable resource. I've used it from home several times since discovering the site.

[Image: Screenshot from Visual Dictionary Online: http://visual.merriam-webster.com/]

...and Let's Get Rid of the Web, Too!

Just as I finished reading about Wikipedia in the book Everything is Miscellaneous, I heard about a librarian in New Jersey who is urging students to not use this online reference. She is posting signs that state, "Just say No to Wikipedia" on her computers. I recommend reading Scott Mcleod's response to this issue in his blog dangerously irrelevant.

I don't think we are going to stop the growth and use of Wikipedia anymore than the music industry could control the spread of MP3's. Wikipedia isn't perfect but then neither are the other sources we've used in the past.

So, rather than "How do we stop it", perhaps the question should be "How can a student validate an article on Wikipedia?"

I did a little searching on the web and found this short article called "How to Evaluate a Wikipedia Article." out of UC-Davis. In a nutshell the author gives the following guidelines.

• Look at the article quality
• Look at the page edit history
• Check the article's discussion page
• Check the templates at the top the article

She goes into more detail on each of these four points and the entire piece is only a couple of pages long. Wouldn't it be a better learning experience to post this article above each computer instead of a sign stating, "Just say NO to Wikipedia" ?


[Initial source: author/Scott mcleod: blog/dangerously irrelevant: post/"Just say no to Wikipedia": Nov 29, 2007]

Funny: More flies with vinegar...

xkcd: A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language

Banjo Lessons, Learning and the Web

I'm a banjo player. Not a great banjo player. A fair to middlin' kind of picker. Many years ago after seeing a performance by Ken Perlman in a little town in Maryland, I wanted to learn his clawhammer style of picking and I bought a few instructional books. I studied the diagrams and photographs. I practiced what I thought was the correct style. I never really developed a sound I liked and eventually gave up.

A few weeks ago, one of the guys I jam with regularly, asked me if I knew anything about old style banjo. I shared what little I knew. I left his house that day thinking about maybe trying to figure it all out again. I came home and did a search on the web. I quickly came up with a down loadable book on old style banjo called The Tao of the Banjo written by Patrick Costello a guy who lives about 20 miles from where I lived in Maryland at the time when I first got interested in old style banjo. He also had some video files available through his site and through the National Archives. I watched a couple the lessons and saw immediately what I was doing wrong. Hearing and seeing him explain it at the same time made it all click. I've also picked up helpful information that I've able to apply to other areas of my playing.

In the past year I have sought out and found instructional information on soldering a copper pipe, troubleshooting a wireless connection, numerous recipes for dishes I wanted to cook, how to do circular breathing (when playing the digeridoo), and a primer on f-stops once when I was trying to help a friend with his new camera.

A student, of any age, with an internet connection, can find instruction on a huge number of topics. As an educator, I've always been a gatekeeper in regards to instruction. I fed it out to my students at the pace and in the sequence I (and the state) thought most appropriate. Sure, kids could always go to the library and get ahead of me, and a few have done just that. But, what are the implications of any student quickly being able to move beyond his or her teacher? Why listen to me lecture about the Bill of Rights when a student can find a smarter guy giving a lecture on the same subject or maybe a more clever person giving the shortened "Cliff Note" version?

No answers. Just some thoughts I'm having about education and my teaching while I practice my banjo. If you are curious about frailing the banjo, I highly recommend Patrick's site, Tangier Sound.

[Image: Original captured from http://www.archive.org/details/frailing.banjo; Final image created in Photoshop by Al Gunn]

Royalty Free Photos

Discovered this source royalty free stock photos, Public Domain Pictures. After a quick look, I found several photos I thought I could use in presentations or for the blog. The authors only ask that you credit them.

Month or so ago I was searching for a free picture of a gravestone. This image from their collection would have met my needs perfectly. There is a wide variety of pictures. Weakest selection seems to be of people but still worth keeping the link. They have a nice selection of shots with a white background. Perfect for those Photoshop composites.



[Image: Petr Kratochvil; "Painting with light on cemetery"; Public Domain Pictures.net; http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=122]

Compact Printed Calendar

I used a Palm Pilot for several years and finally gave up on it for several reasons. One of my major complaints was I couldn't get a multi-month calender view. I went back to a small notebook with a small nine month calender pasted in the front. Call me old fashioned, but as a teacher, I needed to see that nine month view.

My original printed multi-month calendar was something I found in a book and then reduced using a copy machine. At some point I found and downloaded an Excel template for a 12 month one page gem. Since it was a template, I could modify it anyway I saw fit. I blocked out our school holidays. I bolded the beginning and ending dates of terms. That calendar was open whenever I sat down to plan lessons. I scribbled notes in it's margins and erased them. I circled dates and weeks. I could draw a block around multiple weeks. I've yet to find the electronic calendar that lets me fiddle with in this fashion. Until then I will be using both a printed version and an electronic one.

I was pleased to see a template for a Compact calendar reviewed at LifeHacker. I downloaded my 2008 version and have it ready to go. If you're like me and need to see multiple months at a time, give this a try.

[Original Link Lifehacker /gina Trapani/The 2008 Compact Calendar Now Available/Dec 3, 2007]
[Image: Grabbed from DavidSeah.Com: http://davidseah.com/blog/compact-calendar/]

Human Memory Expansion Card: Google

I was at a concert over the weekend and there was a small group of friends there for a big night on the town. They had two iPhones between them and spent much of the pre-concert wait talking about their phone's capabilities. The opening act came on and the artist did covers of some old blues songs. At the break, I couldn't help but hear the friends discussing the performance. They had been googling information about the singer, the songs and the concert hall during her act. She had mumbled her way through a few verses of one of the songs and they were able to clarify that a line that sounded like "goon town" was really "going down", although I think a song about goon town was more interesting and edgy. They knew what CDs she had released and which had the songs they liked. They also checked to see if they were available on iTunes. The interesting piece to me was that everyone in this group was at least 50 years of age or older. I am used to seeing students and twenty-somethings interacting with technology this way, but not my generation.

Society is changing. The way we interact with the world is changing. Sometimes I feel I am too much of a futurist, too pushy about what I think our schools should be doing to better adapt to this new connected, flattened world. Then I make an observation like the one at the concert and I think I am not speaking out enough. There is real change happening and our educational institutions aren't keeping up. Here is a list of examples I have seen recently of adults using new technologies not including the folks at the concert or any of the many laptop users.

• Man at store shopping and discussing what he needed to buy with his wife over a cell phone
• Two men at a bar googling sports scores on an iPhone to settle an argument
• Setting my phone up to call Google-411 on my old clunky cell phone to find numbers quickly while I am driving.
• Woman texting while she was walking the dog (I see this pretty much every time I walk around our local lake)
• A couple at a restaurant holding hands while they both talk on their cells.
• Watched a woman tape several video segments of a concert with her cell phone. (As I looked around the hall I saw at least five other people doing the same thing.)
  
• Friend of mine gets updates on her young niece's daily antics with short videos sent via her cell phone. She shares baby's first steps with me.
  
• I carry a small, compact digital camera with me most of the time to take snapshots whenever I want. Most of my friends use their cell phones for this but I like the extra clarity I get with my camera. On my walk this morning I took pictures of various street signs for a project I have in mind.
  

Forget the science fiction movie where humans of the future will have mutated into big-brained, smarty-smart people wearing shiny metallic clothing. We will all just get a memory expansion card at Best Buy, hook into Google and presto, it's a smarty-smart world. Oh, and that is pretty much happening today not a 1000 years from today. Minus the shiny metallic jump suit of course.

[Image: Mutant self portrait by Al Gunn]

Happy Holidays

I'm taking a short trip away from my computer until after Christmas. No technology for a few days. Just a bit of quiet time with the family.

Here's a nice shot I took at the Denver Botanic Gardens yesterday. Every season has it's own beauty and I plan on finding a few examples while walking and holding my wife's hand.

Happy Holidays!

Way Cool Photoshoot

Saw this photo posted on Strobist the other day along with a video detailing the steps in creating the image. It was made by Brandon Voges at Brouton Stroube Studios (fun site to browse) and involves multiple photos and a lot of Photoshopping. Each person in the shot was photographed separately and then it all was pieced together.

I once had a group of students trying to stage an action shot. There was a lots of different things happening at the same time. They spent hours trying to coordinate all the actors to move simultaneously hoping the camera guy would hit the shutter correctly. One person always messed up their cue and so they kept doing it over and over again. The part I remember clearly was one young man whose job was to jump in the air. The next day he was so sore he couldn't do it anymore. They changed their plan at that point.



After watching the video, I thought what a great project idea for a tech lab or a photography class. Of course you'd have to keep your photo "school safe." No paint guns. No jumping up from a trampoline and landing on mattresses. No milk thrown around... at least not in my lab. But if you have access to a digital camera and Photoshop, your students could use the same techniques that would have their friends scratching their heads and asking, "How'd you do that?"

[Initial Source: Strobist: "A Little Light Painting": Nov 27, 2007]
[Image: Brandon Boges; Bruton|Stroube; http://www.brutonstroube.com/]

That will be .03 Cents Please!

Kevin Kelly did a nifty little bit of math and figured out the cost of a single Google search as approximately .03 cents. This means if I had to pay for my searches it would put me out almost 17 cents a month. That's figuring about 20 searches a day. Some day's I do more. Some days less. But, I don't think I ever sit down at the computer without using Google at least once.

Instant access to information has become so integrated into my life, I don't really think about it much anymore. After we set our house up for wireless, the answer to any question is only as far away as the laptop. How many of you now watch TV with the remote and Google. My household can't get through an evening of television with out pausing a show, with Tivo, and my wife or I asking:

"Where have we seen that actor before?"

"That statistic can't be right...let me check that out!"

"I loved that movie. What else has that (director/actor/writer) done?"

"Oooh that (toy/car/gadget/pizza) looks cool. Wonder if it's available near by?"

Did we ask fewer questions before search engines? Are we more curious now that this resource is available to us. Kevin Kelly says in his post:

"But what is most interesting to me, is that this huge "industry," this huge appetite, has materialized out of nowhere. If we ask 800 billion questions today and expect to get instant answers, where were those 800 billion questions 20 years ago?"

Good question. Good article at The Technium.

[Image: screenshot from www.google.com]

Quote: David Weinberger

"In the Britannica, length is a symbol of importance. In Wikipedia, length is a manifestation of interest and passion, even if the interest and passion of only a single person. And while the length of any single topic at Wikipedia may not tell us much, Wikipedia overall does tell us that the world is more interesting than the Britannica lets on."

• David Weinberger; Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder; 2007; p208

[Image: Captured from http://www.everythingismiscellaneous.com/]

Bill vs Steve: Presentation Styles

After watching Dean Shareski's video last week on improving PowerPoint presentations, I followed one of his links to the website, Presentation Zen. Read a good post comparing the presentation styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. About halfway down the article there is a snapshot of the slides from each of their presentations. Gate's slides are cluttered and information dense. Jobs' are sparse yet much more appealing. Gar Reynolds, the author of the article made an interesting comment:

"Bill's slides aren't really necessary; they are more of an ornament or a decoration off to the side. Bill would have been better off just pulling up a stool and sharing his ideas and then answering questions that audience members could have submitted before the talk so that Bill could select which ones he'd answer."

This got me to thinking about presentation styles. Both these men are leaders in their industry. Yet, in their presentations, I think Jobs plays to his strengths and Gates doesn't. There is a lesson in there for educators. We need to use what works for us. The job demands that we use a variety techniques. The art of the job is playing to our strong points as often as possible.

[Image: From post 'Learning from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs"; http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/09/steve-bill-redu.html]

I Think It's Funny: How Not to Use Powerpoint

School Blogs You Could Start Tomorrow

A colleague recently told me they weren't sure what they could do with a blog in their classroom. I was frustrated at first by this comment as I've talked blogs up so much in the past. Thinking about it later, I figured I am just not presenting this option in a user friendly matter. I challenged myself to come up with a list of ten school related blogging ideas off the top of my head I could hand to the next person who needs a little guidance. I came up with thirteen before I figured the list was getting too long. Sometimes I am an over achiever!

A teacher can modify these based on the age of the target group, student access to a computer and the amount of time they (the teacher) wants to spend monitoring comments. If you have very wordy students you might even add some guidelines regarding length of comment. Remember, you need to sleep once in a while.

Also give a little thought to your purpose. Is the blog informational? Instructional? Skill practice? Set your beginning parameters with these end goals in mind.

1. Daily Notes (student generated)

• I like the idea of selecting a daily scribe from the classroom. It is this student's responsibility to write down the class notes for the day that will be posted on the blog. Any additions or corrections could be done by the instructor and/or other students through comments.

2. Daily Notes (instructor generated)

• You may need to be a little more formal than the first idea. You can post your daily notes online and then your students could ask questions, elaborate or wax poetic about your oratory skill in the comment section.

3. Homework Log

• Any homework assignment is given here with materials needed and due dates. Questions for clarification on the homework can be asked in the comment section.

4. Supplemental Reading

• Books, articles, and web sites can all be recommended her as a supplement above and beyond what was covered in class. Students can comment on your choices or make recommendations of their own.

5. Favorite Book

• Everyone in the class recommends a favorite book with a brief description. If others know the book or read it, they can give their opinion. There has to be a reason given for liking or disliking the book.

6. Reviews

• These can be reviews of music or movies or television shows. I see the purpose of this one as getting kids to write, so the content isn't as important as promoting everyone's involvement. Your purpose may be different and you can adjust the focus. After all, you are the teacher.

7. Daily Quote

• Student or teacher generated quote. This can be wide open or narrowed down to the topic being covered in class. Everyone is expected to comment on the quotes. With the national elections coming up, how about a daily quote from one of the candidates?

8. Current Events

• An old favorite from my social studies classes with a modern twist. Student posts a summary of a news event from the previous day that they feel is important. They explain why it's important. They create a link to at least one online source of the story (two would be better). Everyone else gets to state an opinion on how important the story is and the credibility of the source.

9. Meeting notes

• This one has a staff focus. A scribe summarizes the notes down to easy bullet points for a staff, department, core or district meeting. Be sure to include deadlines and upcoming tasks. Links to online documents that were handed out in the meeting. Clarifications and corrections can be added in the comment section.

10. Book Discussion

• I've done this with a group of teachers but it could easily be done in a classroom. Each person is assigned a chapter or section to facilitate. When their turn comes up they write a short summary and then ask one or two open ended questions. Everyone then comments on the questions or the chapter or both.

11. Daily Picture

• Document the year with daily classroom pictures. These could be shots of activities, experiments, assignments, presentations or pretty much anything that happens. Let the students help you determine what should be posted. Maybe assign a daily photographer.

12. Picture Analysis

• I often used photos as a primary source in my history classes. See how much your kids can pick up by studying a photograph. You could make it less formal and post a picture of the author or explorer or dead guy you talked about in class that day. Help the kids to put a face or an image to an event.

13. Student Work

• An English teacher I work with has her students critique each other's work. She spends a lot of time working with them on how to do this constructively. I think this could be adopted for a blog. Have a student pick a short piece and post it. They ask the class for the kind of feedback desired. Grammar? Voice? Logic?

OK folks. Your turn. Give me a brief description of something you use or have seen. I am going to start keeping a list of ideas as I come across them on the web. If I get enough, maybe I will redo this into a bigger list.

[Update: Just before posting this I ran across a similar list at edublog called "10 ways to use your edublog to teach". Some over lap but still worth reading or pointing out to a colleague.

Also saw this post on "Some Sample Blog Assignments Aligned to the New ISTE NET-S" on David Warlick's blog. Some very specific ideas. David also has a book available on educational blogging called Classroom Blogging. Warlick is an excellent source for information on blogging.

Even a simple search will bring up a plethora of ideas! I keep finding these references and I'm not looking.]

[Image: rusr8307.jpg | DEYNEKA Aleksandr | A Race. | c. 1932-1933 | Russian | Socialist Realist | | Russia. | | ©Kathleen Cohen http://worldart.sjsu.edu/VieO56858$2820*383573]

CommonCraft Video: Blogs

CommonCraft has created another great informational video. This one is about blogging.

Most of my students know what I mean when I refer to a blog. But, next time I have a teacher or a parent who says,

"What is that exactly?"

First, I'll show them this video. Second, I'll give them the link to my own blog. Third? Well, by that time, they'll be begging me to teach them how to make their own.





[image: "blogging_sign", al gunn, Creative Commons:(Attribution. You may copy, distribute, display, and perform my copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if you give credit.]

Edublog Awards 2007

The votes have been counted and the winners are listed here. Take a couple of hours and browse all the winning sites. Take a full day or more and wander around all the nominations.

Lots of great stuff here. Congratulations to all the winners.

[Image: "edublog banner" captured from http://edublogs.org/]

PowerPoint is a Multi-Purpose Tool

I wanted to comment on yesterday's post. I didn't mean to imply that PowerPoint can be used in only one way. I think it's most common use is to add some visuals to our verbosity. But, once in a while we want a presentation that can be looked at without our input. We sit down and drink a cup of coffee while the slides are set on automatic. It can have a recorded narration. It can have music. It's designed to stand alone.

I remember a PowerPoint I saw like this a few years back. It had no text, no narration and no music. It was about three minutes of photos of the Holocaust. When the last photo faded to black the speaker got up and gave his talk. It was a powerful start.

In my last school, I taught with a wonderful English teacher who has her kids create stand alone presentations built around a poem. They find images that help convey the mood of their chosen piece. Once they're done, they hit play and stand back. The words and images are the presentation.

Visit Slideshare to see a variety of presentations that are meant to stand on their own. Many of them would be too wordy or cluttered to use with a talk. That's the nature of these presentations. With no speaker to elaborate they have to stand alone.

Determine the purpose of your PowerPoint. Design with that purpose in mind. You'll end up with a better product.

A PowerPoint Isn't a Book

I was watching Powerpoint Extreme Makeover, a video by Dean Shareski and I had an "Ah-Ha" moment. He was talking about how many teachers put too much information on slides because they want to pass the presentation on to someone else. They build the presentation to stand on it's own so that anyone could take it and use it. In my mind I thought, "They want to create a reference book not a presentation." Book may not be the right word but it helped me process the concept in my own little pointy teacher head.

My worst presentations have been crowded with too much stuff. I put everything I've got in one place so I can easily find it when I need it again. I'd had more success if I made a folder for all that stuff and trimmed down my Powerpoint.

My best presentations have slides that support me. The pictures and text helped move my story along. The best piece of advice Shareski gave in the video was to start with a script. If you know what you are going to say, then you can craft your presentation around your words. Your script is the starting point and and everything refers back to that blueprint.

Keep your end purpose in mind. If you want to build a reference tool. A book. Then your product is going to look different than if you are going to be giving a presentation. If not, then maybe it should?







[Image: Book a photo at Morgue.com: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=165771&; Modified in Photoshop.]

I Think It's Funny: Modern Love

Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers

Ran across this copyright chart while exploring the film fest site I wrote about yesterday. This may be familiar to many of you as something similar has hung on the wall near the copy machine in every school building I've ever worked.

When I have a question and want to check legalities, I am usually nowhere near the copy room. So, I downloaded the chart and it now has a place in my hard drive.

You can also point your students to this site and the downloadable PDF. Nice quick reference.

Student Film Festival

I always wanted to be organized enough to run a film festival for my school. It would be an opportunity to share with teachers and parents some of the wonderful student work I get to see in my tech classes. I thought it would be an extra bit of motivation for students to put forth their best effort. I thought it would be fun.

I never got this done but a school district not too many miles from my own in the Denver Metropolitan area did. They run something called the Adams 14 Film Fest. The web site has examples from past festivals and a bunch of linked resources that would be valuable to anyone teaching video to kids.

I plan on attending this year. Maybe it will motivate me to try and get something going in my own district.

[Image: Screenshot from Adams 14 Film Fest Website, http://schoolweb.acsd14.k12.co.us/filmfest/index.htm]

Evaluating Sources on the Web

Today I offer this short article on Lifehacker about evaluating the accuracy of web sites. When I taught Social Studies many years ago we discussed primary and secondary sources. Inevitably a student would bring in one of those supermarket rags with the stories about UFO abductions and mutant bat babies.

"It's in this magazine Mr. G, so it has to be true!"

Eventually, I started bringing one in as an example for my lesson. Then we spent some time classifying the newspaper as a good or bad source. Several of my teaching points are covered in this article.

I used to tell my students, "A dead rat dressed up in a pretty party dress is still a dead rat." I don't know if it was relevant saying or even if I am the original author. But it was (and still is) fun to say!

[Image: "Weekly World News." Wikipedia. 2007. Wikipedia. 19 Nov 2007 .]

Free Speech on the Web

Google recently posted an interesting piece called, Free expression and controversial content on the web. This could be a fun discussion starter for any tech class, social studies class or the the teacher's lounge. Here is a brief quote:

"We also know that letting people express their views freely has real practical benefits. Allowing individuals to voice unpopular, inconvenient or controversial opinions is important. Not only might they be right (think Galileo) but debating difficult issues in the open often helps people come to better decisions.

While most people agree in principle with the right to free expression, the challenge comes in putting theory into practice. And that's certainly the case on the web, where blogs, social networks and video sharing sites allow people to express themselves - to speak and be heard - as never before."

Google goes on to describe it's position on censoring content.

[Image: "Free Speech", Dixon, Maynard, 1934. http://worldart.sjsu.edu/VieO67147$569*33201]

I Think It's Funny: Gettysburg Powerpoint

What if Lincoln had a PowerPoint to go along with his speech at Gettysburg?

Death by Powerpoint

How many times have you been in an audience and the speaker puts up their PowerPoint and then says one of the following?

"I know that this is hard to read but..."

"You don't need to read this one. It's in the handouts."

"Let me read this slide to you."

After one or two of these comments, I pretty much start planning my lessons for next week, thinking about the mountains or writing spectacular poetry in the margins of my notes.

I'd like to say that I always create decent presentations, but I often fall into the trap of too little time and too much information. Improving my skill in this area is a personal goals. I guess as teachers we are constantly trying to improve our presentation skills. At least I hope that's true.

This presentation, Death By PowerPoint, has some great information.

| View | Upload your own

If you want some examples of good slide presentations watch a Steve Jobs keynote or pretty much 90% of the presentations on TED.

[Image: Derived from: Creative Commons Jan 23, 2007: Photo-Mojo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mojodenbowsphotostudio/369182865/]

Edublog Nomination: Dangerously Irrelevant

I didn't realize that this video had been made by a teacher in Colorado until today when I was reading the Edublog nominations for most influential blog post of 2007. I watched it several months ago after reading about it on a blog. Several friends have referred to the presentation or recommended it to me since then. The most recent recommendation came from my brother-in-law in Minnesota, last week. It has been watched by over 10 million people.

Here is the most recent version of this video and a link to a wiki page with more information.

One Laptop Per Child Making the World a Little Flatter

In a recent post on The Fischbowl, Karl Fisch discussed an experience with the governor of New Mexico. He and other educators were invited to a participate in a conference call on educational issues. Another member, Chris Lehmann, never got to ask the question he prepared. I would like to hear an answer to his question:

"With the One Laptop Per Child mission, we are soon to see millions of students in the developing world use laptops in their learning every day. You want to see American education move into the 21st Century, what would you do to provide American students with the same opportunities for connectedness and collaboration?"

Any of you presidential hopefuls want to offer an idea or two?

[Image: http://laptop.org/OLPC_files/nigeria.jpg]

Edublog Nomination: How to Grow a Blog

I am working my way through the Edublog nominations for most influential blog post of 2007. This one, How to Grow a Blog from the blog of proximal development is my favorite so far.

I recently had a conversation with a teaching friend about using blogs in the classroom.We were throwing around ideas about how to present it to the children. Then, today, I see this post with it's simple, clear visual and the reasoning behind using a blog.

"In short, the goal of using this handout is twofold: to help students plan and begin their journey, and to think about the habits they will need for that journey. I want them to understand that the most valuable part of blogging is the process of interacting with ideas and people, not producing finished assignments on assigned topics."

Great article.

[Image: Screenshot from Blog of Proximal Development; http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/2007/10/27/how-to-grow-a-blog/]

Great Missoula Chicken Debate

One of the current controversies in Missoula, MO is the raising of chickens within the city limits. I was going to put this piece in my weekly funny post because the topic is comic. But there is more to this little film. It's a documentary film . Both sides get a chance to say their piece. The producers get a chance to be creative and clever with some of their technique.

Show it to any students trying to think up a topic for a video project. Not every story has to be life-or-death. A simple tale about chickens can also entertain us. Maybe even inspire us.

My favorite quote from the video is made by Missoula resident, Bill DeCou. His take on this whole chicken debate:

"In my opinion I wish the city would spend a little more time dealing with these long range comprehensive issues and if they got time for chickens. Fine."

Great advice for everyone. Now if we could only agree on which issues are chickens and which are not?



[Image: Screenshot from the video: Missoula squabbles over urban chickens, http://www.newwest.net/city/article/missoulas_urban_chicken_squabble/C8/L8/]

Self Tuning Robot Guitar

Cool video of a self tuning guitar.

I don't know how professional musicians might feel about this technology but I once observed a beginning 6th grade guitar class and it felt like a third of the instructor's time was spent keeping the kids in tune. I think she would appreciate every student holding a guitar that tuned itself. More time on task. Fewer asprins at the end of the day.

On a personal note, I know that my playing improved once electronic tuners became affordable. I was lousy at tuning by ear. The battery in my tuner went out a few months ago and I was forced to tune by ear one evening. Much to my surprise I was able to accomplish it with a minimum of effort. Did the tuner take the place of an experienced teacher who could help develop a student's ear?



When I was a boy hanging around the hot rodders and wrench jockeys (you youngsters might call them gear heads in today's lingo) the discussion often came up about manual versus automatic transmission. A hot car can't be hot with an automatic. A good driver wouldn't be caught dead in one of those "sissy cars!"

Wonder if these kind of conversations will start popping up on musician blogs anytime soon?

I Think It's Funny: Homework

xkcd: A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language

How creativity is being strangled by the law

Interesting talk by Larry Lessig about copyright. He is involved with the Creative Commons and has some interesting things to say about the extremists on both sides of the issue and what it's doing to our country and our culture.

Here is a rough quote from the video:

We live in this weird time. An age of prohibitions where in many areas of our life we live constantly against the law. Ordinary people live life against the law. And that is what we are doing to our kids. They live life knowing they live it against the law. That realisation is extraordinarily corrosive.

[Image: Original image taken from the TED web page on Larry Lessig: http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/167]

Lego, Tire Circumference and Math

Read this interesting post on The NXT Step-Lego Mindstorms NXT Blog about how a change in the circumference of a Lego tire will change the distance it will travel. Asking students to build a vehicle that will move a specific distance is a common challenge in many of the tech labs that I've visited.

You can go about this two ways. One, trial and error. Or two, figure out the circumference of your tire and set your program to to rotate the wheels the needed number of times to cover the distance. Second method gives students an opportunity to apply a little math.

The article discusses varying results kids get because of small changes in the tires due to heat and weight. Be sure to check out the comments where a good discussion went on for several days.

Stick Figure Animation

Here is a clever little animation called How We Met. It was built with simple stick figures. The creator used over 1600 still shots for 100 seconds of film. The hook on this particular project is the use of a human body as the canvas. When I first saw this I thought maybe he had overlayed the drawings somehow over the body, but if you go to his site it shows that he drew and erased each of the drawings on his own skin.

Clever example of how you don't need lots of expensive equipment to create an entertaining animation. A pen, a canvas, a camera, and a program to stitch it all together. When you watch the video notice the use of light in several places for effect. The disco scene is a great.

I have discovered that most kids are excited to animate until they find out the number of still shots it takes to create movement. They can quickly lose their enthusiasm after setting up the 50th shot and only have a few seconds worth of footage. My advice. Start them off with small projects first. Some students end up loving it and go on to create longer pieces.



[Image: Still taken from How We Met, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvDm_JLEcI&eurl=http://www.google.com/reader/view/]

RSS Reader Can Save You Time

I was late coming into the whole RSS feed thing. My replies to it's proponents were:

"Why do I need to gather all entries from the blogs into one place. "

"I don't have that many sites I follow and, anyway, I already have them bookmarked. "

"It's just one more techno-geeky thing for me to take on. "

That last item was my downfall. I am a techno-geeky kind of guy! After reading yet another blog entry talking about how easy Google Reader was to use and set-up, I gave in and gave it a try.

I love my feeder.

An RSS feeder gathers together the information you request in one easy accessible location. It is the ideal newspaper that contains only the stories you want. A newspaper that allows you to tag and manipulate the articles for future reference. A newspaper that you can continually adapt to meet your changing needs.

I used to follow about 15 websites/blogs daily. I had a job that was eating into my read time (work can be such a bother). That's when I set up Google Reader. It allowed me to get my daily news fix in a fraction of the time and have extra minutes for other activities like talking to my wife.

One note of caution. Adding feeds to your reader can be addicting. I now follow about a hundred sites. I've been subscribed to several hundred. I was suddenly spending way too much time catching up on the latest information. So, I evaluated the feeds I had and trimmed out half. Now I make it a monthly practice to get rid of feeds that no longer interest me, are repetitive of other sites or in some cases give me too much information to fast and too often.

[Image: Screenshot from my Google Reader setup]