My cage has been rattled... again

Photo courtesy of SXSW

Bruce Springsteen - SXSW Keynote Address

For me, the sign of a great keynote or lecture is if I'm still thinking about it later. If I'm making connections, thinking deeply, and wanting to watch it again, then I usually enjoyed it. I'm not a musician, I can't play the guitar, (I desperately want to learn) but I can relate to holding parallel and polarizing ideas about something and I find deliberate and explicit connections to my work in education. I've been trying to do a lot more self-reflection and improvement the past six months or so, and when he says,

"The purity of human expression and experience is not confined to guitars, to tubes, to turntables, to microchips," said Springsteen. "There is no right way, no pure way, of doing. There is just doing." 

I stopped and reflected on my impact in my small world of education.  I need to reconnect my passion of education with my passion for people, community, and humanity. I think I have been somewhat disconnected from the humanness of my passion for kids, learning, and educators the last twelve months or so and that has to change. I may need a change, a shift if you will, and exploring these options may take me down a new path. I'm cool with change.

We only have one life, one chance to make an impact. Being asleep at the wheel or content just doesn't jive with me. I need and want more. I'm going to bring the noise. I love what Bruce closed with in his keynote.

"Rumble young musicians (educators) rumble.
Open your ears and open your hearts,
Dont take yourself too seriously, and take yourself as seriously as death itself.
Don't worry, worry your ass off
Have iron-clad confidence, but doubt; it keeps you awake, and alert.
Believe you are the baddest ass in town and, you suck.
It keeps you honest, it keeps you honest to be able to keep two completely contradictory ideas alive and well inside of your heart and head at all times.
If it doesn't drive you crazy, it will make you stronger.
Stay Hard stay Hungry, and stay Alive.
When you walk on stage tonight to bring the noise, treat it like it's all we have and remember it's only rock n' roll."  

Two completely contradictory ideas alive and well brought me back to something Chris Lehman has said many times, Dealing With The Worst Consequences of Your Best Ideas

"There is no panacea in education and every great idea has a dark side, so what are the worst consequences of your best ideas?"  

This is so simple yet, so difficult. But, I think it reconnects us to the human element in a way that is is transparent, reflective, and vulnerable. The key for me is to not be paralyzed with the weight of these polarized concepts and visions.

Learn, teach
Create, co-create
Build own ideas, stand on shoulders of giants
Respond and Share, spend time in thought
Never settle for status quo, celebrate small victories
Move slowly, but move deliberately
Own it, share your vision

Bruce Springsteen - SXSW - Keynote Address - HD - YouTube (link directly to previous quote)

Ruminating Out Loud 03/17/2012 Edmodo - Google Docs | API open and BAM!

Image via CrunchBase

Edmodo - Google Docs | API open and BAM!

Came across this nugget of awesome today:
"To link your Google Docs to your Edmodo Library :
1. Log in to your Edmodo account.
2. Select the Library option from the top navigation panel.
3. Select the Google Docs link on the left panel.
4. Select the “Connect with Google Docs” button and you will be prompted to sign in to your Google Docs account.
5. Select the “allow access” button when prompted about Edmodo permission to access your Google Docs.
All your Google Docs will then sync with your Edmodo Library. This will allow you to share documents with your Edmodo groups and students can easily turn-in assignments completed via Google Docs."

tags: edmodo google docs

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Something pretty awesome is happening in education right now...

BOS_005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Photo credit: thoth188)

Something pretty awesome is happening in education right now...

Does it seem like you have heard the term open thrown around more? It's because you probably have.

• This week Stanford announced they are releasing another handful of courses to be open and public. (main library)
• Last week Seth Godin published his manifesto to the web asking people to take it, read it, share it, post it, but don't edit or charge for it.
• In January Open Culture updated this: 425 Free Online Courses from Top Universities Free online courses from the world's leading universities. Download 425 free courses from Stanford, Yale, MIT, Harvard & Berkeley to your computer or mp3
• MIT is now offering certificates and just launched MITx

• “The technologies available are much more advanced than when we started OpenCourseWare,” Mr. Agarwal said. “We can provide pedagogical tools to self-assess, self-pace or create an online learning community.” 

• MOOCs are in the news: 
• Udacity is gaining momentum as well..

All of this, in my opinion, is a very good thing.

When Seth Godin says things like authors have no right to make money off their work, I believe that he's talking about open and sharing.

I have a lot to unpack as I dig deeper, but one thing I know for sure is that open is on fire and I am excited and ready for it.

Related articles

• M.I.T. Expands Free Online Courses, Offering Certificates (nytimes.com)
• Free Education Online (q-ontech.blogspot.com)
• First MITx Course Attracts 90,000 Students, Proving the Popularity of Online Education (bostinno.com)

Ruminating Out Loud 03/06/2012 Smore (Online Flyer Design)

Smore - Design beautiful online flyers and publish instantly 

Nice. These would be great for PD communications in the district. 

tags: flyers posters web2.0

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Investing in Teachers as Learners (A response and push for Open)

Image via Wikipedia

Education Week: Investing in Teachers as Learners

Here's my two cents
First, let me say that I agree with a lot of what Will says in this (article) space and others around connecting teachers, re-"booting" curriculum and traditional methodologies, and allowing inquiry and discourse to "guide" the students and adults we work with.

I wonder though if we are asking the right questions?
Is it about delivery and discourse, or should we look to our higher education institutions and push the conversations to be more about social connectivism, institutional power, policy driven decision making, open source publications and open research libraries. If there are still artificial blocks in place keeping information in the hands of the privileged or "subscribed" are we really giving our students an "open" web of learning opportunities or are we building a small pipeline where their exploration can take place?
If I am the "chief inquirer" a concept I love as a facilitator, I'm handicapped by professional research organizations and libraries that block me from accessing the best and brightest.
I like what +Karl Fisch pointed out so well from this piece below in regards to rigor, but I think it touches on and describes an environment where inquiry, collaboration, and connected learning would thrive.http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/

13:25 - I would argue that rigor is being in the company of a passionate adult who is rigorously pursuing inquiry in the area of their subject matter and is inviting students along as peers in that adult discourse. That's rigor.

Linked at five seconds before this piece, but you should watch it all if you have some time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xfP53Alnbhk#t=800s

Related articles

• Working ourselves out of a job (ideasandthoughts.org)
• Seven Misconceptions about How Students Learn: Game-Changers for Authentic Learning (kidsconsortium.org)
• "Committing To Quality" May Help Higher Ed Determine If Students Are Learning (keptup.typepad.com)

Ruminating Out Loud 02/03/2012

• 
  http://www.downes.ca/files/books/FreeLearning.pdf# 
  Sometimes when you read something it just makes sense. This is one of those times. I'm thirty pages in and seeing some things I think I've read before, but really loving this ride.
  
  "But even where the concepts are not explicitly attributed to me (and very frequently, they are not), I do
  not consider this to be theft. For what I have done is to throw an idea or a concept out into the public
  commons, using a medium explicitly designed for that purpose. I expect it to be shared, and if it is a
  good idea, replicated throughout the online world. I have no problem with that."
  tags: downes free Open openlearn

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Ruminating Out Loud 02/01/2012

• Initial iPad Setup

  Nice collection of resources for a school or district looking at using iPad Apps with kids. There are  a lot of resources out there, but this one has a nice tips page, that I will definitely be sharing.

  tags: iPads

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Ruminating Out Loud 01/27/2012

Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Tools for Creating Data Visualizations

Definitely something to come back to. We have been crunching a lot of numbers and data lately around the office. This will give us some options for how to display them

tags: tools data visualization datavisualization technology

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles

• Seven Tools for Creating Data Visualizations (freetech4teachers.com)
• How to Use Gapminder Desktop (freetech4teachers.com)

Ruminating Out Loud 01/25/2012

Image via Wikipedia

• iPod Physics
  What a tremendous compilation of nearly 700 videos and lectures from a Denver public Schools physics teacher!
  Great stuff Derrick!
  
  

  tags: physics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Ruminating Out Loud 01/22/2012

Online Diagram & Flowchart Software | LucidChart 

I am going to be trying this tool out soon. I know some of my colleagues will be excited about this. I especially like that the designers built it on top of HTML5 which in the long(er) run it will make it a viable tool to train folks on how to use because it will be relevant. It also plays nicely with vis.io which is a plus, too.

tags: flowchart diagram mindmapping collaboration mindmap tool software web2.0

KnowU: Where Social Meets Learning - YouTube

At first glance, I like this a lot. It combines existing social spaces and incorporates or provides the opportunity to fracture them into learning spaces as well. I've heard folks ask before if this is even where our students want us to be. good question. I think the tool, whatever it is, will need to allow for layers or (ahem) circles so that we can organize the input and output cleanly and easily.
I still lik edmodo in this type of space as THE go-to tool because of the ability to work with kids and teachers P-12.

tags: edmodo sociallearning

WatchKnowLearn - Free Educational Videos for K-12 Students

SO MANY great videos to save and revisit.
My only wish would be for them to be more easily intertwined into Google plus so that students could hop into a hangout and take notes or ask questions interactively.

tags: videos students

Write an ebook! - Learning Continuity

Not a fan of the iBooks Lock Down on format and output/ reader? There's still easy-ish ways to write an e-book.

tags: ebook ipad publishing googledocs epub publish

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Playing with Summly

The article I found was called, "Where's the Debate?"
It was a nice article that I would recommend anyone involved in "Ed Reform" conversations.
The following was pulled from a "summly summary" I wanted to play around a little but with the app today and my first search was on Ed reform. This was the third link provided. Not bad. It was enough to make me want to read the entire article. It did not satisfy as a substitute to reading it though.
"- Students in well-funded American schools from high-income families outscore nearly all other countries on standardized tests, yet our aggregate scores are low."
"- Schools need to hire more social workers, psychologists, and nurses to make sure students are healthy enough to take their learning to the next level."
"- These small class sizes showed to be especially beneficial to students attending schools in poor districts."
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenzo-shibata/education-reform-wheres-t_b_11850...
Visit www.summly.com for more information on Summly and its technology.

3 Social Learning Trends to Watch in 2012

Stumbled across this article this morning. I can't help but think that 2012 is the new 2009. 

SO MANY of these conversations were occurring on the twitter three even four years ago. 

Saying that, I still think it is a really good thing to have these conversations and ideas taken to the next level.

It seems businesses have always tried to find ways to leverage employees personal knowledge and strengths in their organization. What we have now is access to "read, reflect, and share" quickly, and across multiple platforms with folks both inside and outside of our organization. This allows us to push back and glean ideas from and with one another in an unthreatening and productive way. 

It's going to be important for us to find the tools and spaces that are the most easy to use and pliable with what we want to share. I'm thinking that we need the ability to layer permissions when sharing and collaborate for these spaces to be useful.

"Here are three of the developing topics that combine social with learning — and should be worth integrating in your business during this year."
3 Social Learning Trends to Watch in 2012
MASHABLE! | JANUARY 21, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/5d3ql

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about ... Read more

1. Social Learning

---

Tony Bingham , president and CEO of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), is leading the discussion about defining social learning. “Social learning is learning with and from others, often — but not always — with social media tools,” Bingham explains. “Social learning is a powerful approach to sharing and discovering a whole array of options, leading to more informed decision-making and a more intimate, expansive and dynamic understanding of the culture and context in which we work.”

There are many benefits to incorporating social learning into an organization: “Incorporating social learning creates networks of knowledgeable people to work across time and space to make informed decisions and solve complex problems,” Bingham says. “Learning happens more quickly and broadly. Innovation happens faster. And tacit knowledge can be retained and reused.”

Companies are paying attention to the benefits. In ASTD’s research report ,Transforming Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies, findings indicate that 87% of respondents predict that in the next three years, their companies are more likely to use Web 2.0 technologies than they currently do. Bingham offers several examples of how companies are applying social learning in his book, The New Social Learning .

---

2. Social Networking Techniques

---

While defining social learning is still a work in progress, many trainers are using social networking platforms to create activities and exercises for their programs.Jane Bozarth , eLearning Coordinator for the State of North Carolina and author of Social Media for Trainers explains how using social networks can enhance training: “Social media tools help to amplify the social and informal learning already going on in organizations all the time, every day, and make the learning available on a much larger scale. They provide ways to connect talent pools and expertise in an organization or within a practice area, and can offer just-in-time solutions to problems and performance issues.”

The reaction from participants is very positive. Bozarth explains, “Participants are happy to engage with one another using social media tools for training purposes. They find it convenient, useful for learning at the moment of need, and [that it helps them] develop a greater sense of control over their learning.”

Trainers shouldn’t fear adding a social component to their programs. According to Bozarth, it’s pretty easy to do. “Social media tools are just tools and can be effectively employed to support the gamut of training activities, from introductions to role plays to discussions of video clips, and anything in between.” But she does offer one recommendation: “I hope we see learning and development practitioners moving toward partnering with learners and away from feeling their role is to direct them.”

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3. Gamification

---

A frequent training request is make subjects fun — and what better way to learn a new topic than by playing a game? Karl M. Kapp , professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University and author of The Gamification of Training: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Learning and Instruction , shares the concept of using games for learning. “Studies indicate that games, when designed properly, motivate learners, improve learner retention and encourage students who aren’t typically ‘academic’ to partake in the learning process,” he says. “There is no reason learning has to always be hard or difficult.”

It’s important to note that not all games are created equal when it comes to learning. Kapp discusses two reasons why gamification is becoming popular, and the first one isn’t necessarily relevant for learning. “Some people see gamification simply as the process of adding points, badges or rewards to the learning process and instantly creating engagement, interactivity and motivation for learning. This view is wrong.”

Kapp suggests looking at the real reasons why games are popular and then apply those elements to the process. “When done correctly, gamification provides an experience that is inherently engaging and, most importantly, promotes learning. The elements of games that make for effective gamification are those of storytelling, which provides a context, challenge, immediate feedback, sense of curiosity, problem-solving, a sense of accomplishment, autonomy and mastery.”

Adding social networks and games to training programs has the potential to shake up the learning experience. It can create constant learning opportunities, real-time knowledge sharing and improved participant engagement.

Ruminating Out Loud 01/18/2012

The Rise of the New Groupthink - NYTimes.com

I read this and initially took a similar, "Oops, what are we doing," mentality. When I started thinking more about it, I came to the conclusion that "group think" (which is similar to an echo chamber I think) is not what collaboration and "team learning" is designed to be.
Like most educational strategies, if we misuse or rely too heavily on them, our learning environment becomes stale, static, or worse yet, dysfunctional.
What is not mentioned in this article, is the power of push back; folks culling ideas from their own creative processes and building something amazing. Apple, came up with the original iphone thirty years ago, but it wasn't until teams of folks chewed on, reflected, pushed back, and collaborated did we get anything near what we have today. http://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/1983-apple-prototype-pictures-show-iphone-ancestor/
What this means for me is that as we continue to move and shift traditional teaching models into blended learning environments, it is important that we use the power of collaboration for what it truly can be. An environment where learners digest, reflect, share, and repeat the cycle. If we aren't given opportunities to challenge, adapt, and modify our existing paradigms the teaching profession will look drastically different.
Let's own the shift.

"Sharing lesson plans or classroom management strategies—“what works and what doesn’t”—transforms teaching from an art into factory work. It presumes that the unique relationship between the teacher and his/her students is transferrable to other teachers and students. I just don’t think it is, unless that relationship is merely superficial to begin with."

http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/teacher-collaboration-is-important-but-not-for-the-reasons-we-might-think/

What do you all think?

tags: collaboration groupthink

Technology Integration Matrix

Just "found" this site again. I remember the original and at the time I thought it was amazing. This matrix and website is a nice addition to a PD library as it incorporates some examples and videos for folks looking to try to integrate technology into their classroom. I was messing around and went to transformational collaboration in Language Arts. The Matrix took me to a page with some examples and a video of a teacher using technology and collaboration with older students to create videos and exemplars for students studying phonics.

"The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells..."

tags: technology matrix integration edtech techintegration technology_integration education resources

Centre for Learning and Teaching Resources

There are SO many resource sites like this out on the web. truthfully, it is almost overload. This one seems to have been built and then abandoned as there has been little acton on it for awhile. All the same, I like the resources and its worth peeling back some of its layers.

tags: teaching resources

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles

• The Technology Integration Answer (Well Almost...) (web20classroom.org)
• Blended Learning's Impact on Teacher Development | via the Innosight Institute (mwacker.blogspot.com)
• Technology Integration Matrix (learningwithtechs.wordpress.com)
• Stalled on Launch - An Unbalanced Force (mguhlin.org)

Blended Learning’s Impact on Teacher Development | via the Innosight Institute

Blended Learning’s Impact on Teacher Development | Innosight Institute

A couple of quick takeaways for me are that it's nice to see professional development called out as something we need, but we really have to get away from the paradigm of thinking it's something we do "to" teachers or is done "to" us.  The other takeaway I have after reading this is around a question I've asked before. If we're truly "blending" our teaching and environment, what does the space look like? How can we professionally develop as teachers to be better prepared to adapt and modify our existing learning spaces to better meet the needs of a flexible, student centric, tech infused learning environment? If shifting the ENTIRE teaching model paradigm upside down is NOT an option, what is?

Is this something that needs to be built, modeled, and then iterated?

tags: blended learnin

I culled some nuggets from the reading.

Responding to student data in real-time is a paradigm shift for today’s teachers and a rich area of exploration for training and development.

this is a necessary and meaningful PD opportunity.

Relationships will evolve as students spend less time in large impersonal classes and more time in small, personalized groups where they can have higher-quality interactions with adults.

This is a student centric model I could really get excited about

They will help create learning playlists and/or learning paths

Blended learning operators will disaggregate the teacher role in new and interesting ways that support novice teachers, make the profession more sustainable and increase the impact of expert teachers. 

First, technology is not a panacea, it enables schools to provide greater individualization which is the focus of much of the above.  Learning how colleagues effectively individualize through technology will just be part of “the work,” not a stand-alone discipline.  Second, social networking is creating communities of “early adopter” teachers beyond the walls of your organization.  Teacher preparation programs can help connect their educators to the best “influencers” of education technology in the field via Twitter and other communities.  EdModo, for example, has done a good job getting teachers to blog about their experiences with emerging tools.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles

• Should teachers own their learning? (ideasandthoughts.org)
• Five minute primer: Flipped classes (schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com)
• Joys of Teaching (watchingauras.wordpress.com)

Stop SOPA/PIPA Plugins for Blogger and Wordpress

• 

  Image via Wikipedia

  Stop SOPA/PIPA Plugins for Blogger and Wordpress
  If you want to add a ribbon to your blog or website here at the bottom of this post a snippet of html code you can add to do it.  I'm doing my part. All 5 daily viewers will see this meesage today :) Seriously though, I was listening to Democracy Now yesterday and it sounds like SOPA is stalled, but that Senator Reid is ramming PIPA through. Take some time to look closer at the PIPA bill, it is also censorship and crippling for the open web. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57360665-503544/sopa-pipa-what-you-need-to-know/
  

  

  Image via Wikipedia

  
  

  tags: plugins blogger wordpress

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

<a href="http://americancensorship.org/" target="_blank"><img style="position: fixed; top: 0px; left: 0px; border: none;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yi5uS_ylq4Q/TxVR0csJE6I/AAAAAAAACKs/xp6zdQEjed0/s1600/stop+sopa.png" alt="" /></a>

Related articles

• Why SOPA/PIPA protests should matter to people outside the USA (boingboing.net)
• Protest Against SOPA/PIPA (waldina.com)
• Heads Up and Protesting SOPA/PIPA (lifeofcarbon.wordpress.com)
• 4 Decent Anti SOPA Plugins for WordPress (wpjedi.com)
• RE: SOPA/PIPA - Please Join The Censorship Protest (acyydreign.wordpress.com)

Ruminating Out Loud 01/16/2012

SciGirls | Home

This is an interactive multimedia site designed to get Tween girls excited about Science and reaffirm that it's cool if you already do. I spent a little time poking around the videos and games, and they wer nice, gave an overview, seemed engaging.  What I especially liked though was the Projects page, where you're given a ton of options, including submitting your own projects. Another gem on the site is the "For Teachers and "For Parents" pages. This quote especially caught my eye. "Every girl can be a SciGirl with a groundbreaking new TV show and interactive website that will transform the way tween girls look at science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). "  Here is an additional link that takes you to the site's Educational Philosophy. http://www.pbs.org/teachers/scigirls/philosophy/

tags: science pbs scigirls elementary education STEM math resources

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles

• Can Girls Win in Math and Science? (thedailybeast.com)
• Badge: STEM via PBS (revised) (larajla.com)
• Women, Girls and STEM Education (debaird.net)

Ruminating Out Loud 01/14/2012

CK12.ORG - FlexBooks

Why pay for one-size-fits all textbooks when you can get customizable standards-aligned FlexBooks for FREE!
http://t.co/Li2VbShV

Math, Science, and now they've expanded to other subjects as well. There is some real potential in this model for textbooks. I'm in favor of looking at all of our options and changing the current delivery and consumption methods.

Social Networked Learning

Great stuff coming from +George Siemens in this slide deck. Paid particular attention to slide 40 "Reed's Law." I personally  and us as a team have been looking at different change models. I had not thought about the tipping point in relation to what we're doing with edmodo and getting enough users to hit that point where the sub groups have teeth and the hill from which I've been dancing alone becomes filled with other crazy hill dancer people. :) h/t +Derek Sivers 

tags: social networked learning

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Favorited tweets from Yesterday 

• Idioms: Slides, Tools, & Resources
  Idioms: Slides, Tools, & Resources http://t.co/OhfEyLK8 #eltchat #ellchat #engchat #esl #twinglish #langchat
  tags: eltchat ellchat engchat esl twinglish langchat
• EdTechTrek | A quest for learning, unlearning and relearning…
  @jerridkruse How funny... just posted a a new blog post this morning on this very thing http://t.co/DFSKbMzW
• Welcome to FluencyFast!
  @mrmosesdotorg Welcome to FluencyFast! http://t.co/QzG5MAwv

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles

• Engagement and Motivation in MOOCs (downes.ca)

• The Learning Network Blog: Teachers Teaching Teachers, on Twitter: Q. and A. on 'Edchats' (learning.blogs.nytimes.com)
• It's All About The Hashtag (web20classroom.org)
• Why Teachers Should Join Twitter...What I have Learned as a Twitter Newbie (adaptivelearnin.wordpress.com)
• Edu-Twitter Superstars Q & A in the NY Times (19pencils.com)
• Building a Personal Learning Network (PLN) Using Social Media (edtechsandyk.blogspot.com)

Loving the "Search Plus Your World"

I'm seriously in love with the new search. I anticipate it getting smarter and smarter with me. I just searched for analytics (thought I typed in the address for Google Analytics, but no) and it brought up this image that not only connected me to add the developers, certified trainers, and other analytics folks to my circles, but coupled with my evernote and diigo, it pulled all the stuff I already had bookmarked, saved, or taken note about. Very, Very Cool IMO

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/search-plus-your-world.html

Ruminating Out Loud 01/12/2012

• 

  Image via Wikipedia

  How Colorado compares to other states | EdNewsColorado
  Sad state of Affairs when our state receives a B- in standards, assessment, and accountability, but doesn't fund induction, mentoring, and it is found that their pay for teachers is "lacking."
  Not surprised though, we love mandates and accountability, but according to the report we fail to fund it or reward our teachers for their work, expertise, or professional earning and transfer to the classroom.
  tags: colorado states

  • The only other better-than-average grade, a B-, came in the area of standards, assessment and accountability, where Colorado’s system of school accountability achieved a perfect 100. But it flunked the standards portion of the category, because the state’s standards are not course or grade-specific.

    In particular, the state was dinged because it doesn’t fund induction, mentoring or reduced workloads for new teachers and it doesn’t allow pension portability across state lines.
    Colorado’s teacher pay was found lacking and not at least equal to comparable professions.

• Christopher Johnson - Google+ - A visual refresh for Google+ Hangouts When we launched…
  Google Hangouts keeps getting better and better. I've been really impressed thus far with its consistency, ease of use, and functionality. Screensharing is a must, Bigger video, less so for me, but the ability to draft, ,collaborate, and draw out ideas in this setting seemingly super easy is great.
  As an aside, I'm wondering how much I'll be using gmail, since Google plus, pretty much does everything I would need from an email already and then some.
  tags: G+ hangouts
  
  

  - Screensharing: share what’s on your computer screen with everyone in the hangout. This is the first of many extras we’re graduating to Hangouts proper. - Bigger video: we’ve put more emphasis on the live video itself by optimizing white space and other screen elements.

• 

  Image via CrunchBase

  Photo Pin : Free Photos for Your Blog or Website via Creative Commons
  I'm always looking for creative comons photos and images to use and share with colleagues. This seems to do a decent job of aggregating those from the sources that many of us check already, like creativecommons.org, flickr, etc. I like the layout and the options to purchase images as well. 
  tags: photos creativecommons search creative_commons

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Related articles

• Google+ Hangouts Add Screen Sharing to List of Collaboration Tools (readwriteweb.com)
• Google+ Hangouts with Screensharing (learningwithtechs.wordpress.com)
• Video Chats: Skype vs. Google+ Hangouts (lehsys.com)
• Google+ for Everyone (mt-soft.com.ar)

Ruminating Out Loud 01/11/2012

• 

  Image via CrunchBase

  SpedApps2 - HOME 
  I've been looking for something as robust as this and to be honest haven't found anything quite this good. I really like how it has been culled by real professionals that are familiar with and comfortable with technology.
  Currently there aren't ANY "game" apps, and I'm cool with that actually.
  tags: ipad Apps sped education special wiki
  
  
  
  
  
  
• no homework at our school. They practice AT school

  

  Image via Wikipedia

  Great nugget from @michellek107 tonight, referencing homework and what they do at Anastasis Academy. Good practice is more important than just "practice"
  @mramidon @mwacker @apstechgoddess no homework at our school. They practice AT school, where I can help ensure practice is GOOD practice.
  

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

How to Set Up Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts (Properly) on iOS

via lifehacker.com

This is very cool. We were having this conversation the other day and sure enough, @ginatrapani shared this three month old post on twitter today and it was PERFECT timing! I love it when it works like that. This is super easy to set up.
note: One thing you wanna be careful about though is the duplication or deleting of contacts and calendars.

Steps from the post itself:
Open up the Settings app on your iOS device and go to the "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" section. Hit "Add Account".

From there, choose Microsoft Exchange as the type of account (again, don't choose Gmail).

Type in your Gmail address under Email. Leave the Domain field blank and enter your full Gmail address under Username (including the @gmail.com, @googlemail.com, or other suffix). Type in your password and give it any description you like. Mine's just called "Gmail".

Press the Next button at the top of the screen. It should pop up a message saying Unable to Verify Certificate—if it does, just hit cancel. Then, type m.google.com in the new "Server" box that shows up at the top of the screen. Then tap Next.