Mguhlin Videos
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ZaidLearn has a fascinating presentation on critical thinking...love the visuals! I wish I knew how he does them. Infusing 21st Century Thinking Skills Into the T&L Environment View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: oer ocw)

Listen in on my conversation with Laura Alfaro, SAISD Library Media Services facilitator, about Web 2.0 tools that are available! She shares about her desire to create 30-second commercials using Animoto to promote what they are doing in their library. Getting people to use the library, the electronic resources we have is what Laura is looking for librarians and teachers to do! We had a far-ranging conversation at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year about Web 2.0 and Libraries, and Laura had a LOT to share. You can hear her enthusiasm in the podcast, and I hope you'll take a moment to explore some of what we discussed. Listen to Podcast Relevant Links: Animoto.com VoiceThread.com 23LibraryThings Another 23 Library Things Texas Bluebonnet Books VoiceThread by Tracy Mapus (to access this link, you'll need to login with your email account name and password or just login as guest). Check out this VoiceThread Tutorial! How to Check if you machine has Flash/Shockwave Stephen's Lighthouse Thinkfinity.org Thinkfinitytexas.edublogs.org

Using VLC Media Player and Moviemaker--both free--and my tutorial, you can convert a proprietary Photostory WMV file to MP4. However, the process is a bit painstaking, involves jumping into several programs (PhotoStory, MovieMaker, VLC Media Player) and there's a lot of room for error. It would be great if there were a free program that would do it in one step. Now, it appears that there may be--Format Factory. For fun, I started with a MovieMaker WMV created by storyteller, Dr. JoAnne Ollerenshaw. It's the story of Tall Man and Mountain Lion (WMV). I dropped it into FormatFactory and asked it to convert from WMV to MP4. It worked. This could easily make preparing PhotoStory WMVs--one of the great tools for Digital Storytelling--an easy process for newbies...once converted, you can upload it to Edublogs.tv for easy sharing! Now, the real test is whether this will work with an 18 meg PhotoStory generated WMV created by students...it worked! This is now a must have tool for digital storytelling workshops that involve PhotoStory! FormatFactory also has a host of other neat features, such as converting media to 3gp (what works great in mobile phones), and tons of other conversion formats for video/audio, and changing the quality of the video/audio while being converted. You might read this MakeUseOf.com article that discusses its applications in details (such as ripping DVDs/CDs). This is a feature-rich, no-cost tool that every educator should know how to use, especially when involved in dealing with multimedia available on the Web! Share!

Pretty exciting to witness the launch of the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN). I shared my notes from this event earlier and have decided to consolidate them all in my wiki (have to one way or another smile ). Tim Holt (Intended Consequences) recorded the 57 minute TETN video conference and shared the link! Awesome! I've taken notes on the information shared in the presentation and share them as link #1 so you don't have to sit through the video, as well as taken the liberty of uploading Tim's video to Edublogs.tv (search on txvsn) and embedding it on the appropriate wiki page (link #1 below). Relevant Links Miguel's Notes on the 09/05/2008 TxVSN Video-Conference session Miguel's Notes on the 05/2008 conversation with Linda Gillis (ESC-4) TEC-SIG 05/2008 Meeting Notes with Podcast of Presentation My main TxVSN wiki page where I'll be sharing any future notes on this subject Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN) Web Site - tons of new stuff here Texas VSN Site Coordinator Tutorial Video (WMV format) On a completely unrelated note, it appears that the TxVSN is using free, open source software to manage its new web site! View the source code for the front page and you see references to DotNetNuke...great to see such a beautiful web site (have to give credit where credit is due) running open source backend! More background on it... Versatile – DotNetNuke is an open source web application framework ideal for creating, deploying and managing interactive web, intranet and extranet sites. User-Friendly – DotNetNuke is designed to make it easy for administrators, content editors, developers, and designers to manage all aspects of their web assets. Wizards, content-sensitive help, and a well-researched user interface provide a superior user experience. Powerful – DotNetNuke can support multiple websites from a single application installation. In dividing administrative options between host level and individual site level, DotNetNuke allows administrators to manage an unlimited number of websites – each with its own unique appearance and content. Have you tried DotNetNuke lately? ;-

Some time ago, I interviewed Sandra Hines about her upcoming article in TechEdge regarding Jott. The article is finally out and you can find a nice summary by CC Long here. Listen to Sandra Hines

Cleaning out my digital devices, I ran across this impromptu chat with Malinda McCormick (KLRN DIrector, San Antonio, Tx) and Dr. Phil Youngblood (Incarnate Word University, San Antonio, Tx). This took place after my presentation in Second Life about the TILT 2008 presentation which took place last week. More info here. Thanks to Malinda McCormick and Kevin Jarrett, as well as Dr. Phil Youngblood, for their support in helping me be successful. I apologize for taking so long to post this podcast that features Dr. Youngblood's expertise in Second Life. Note that the END of the podcast really isn't. It's hard to stop a conversation that's going full steam ahead, and Dr. Phil Youngblood started sharing some of the things he was doing for his class in Second Life. Of course, I still had the recorder, so I recorded that as well. I'm going to have to follow up for a longer chat! What questions do you have for him that you'd like me to ask regarding teaching a college level class in Second Life? Listen to Conversation

Inspired by Wes Fryer's experiment with Jumpcut, I took the time to export my Changing Standards presentation that I shared last week with staff (newbies to Read/Write Web tools) to images uploaded to Flickr (using Flickr Uploadr), then import them into JumpCut. You never saw so much frantic writing...all of the ideas and content were brand new to them. After that, as my son played his game in the background--sound muted--I quickly recorded audio to go with the presentation. Now, this is late at night after a long day's work, after a wonderful dinner, and before going out to the library. Ok, enough disclaimers (well, except for my apologies for picking on Doug Blue Skunk Johnson in the middle of the audio evil smile ). The audio is what it is grin and my apologies if I didn't get it just right. Aside: As I listen (38 minutes!) to this presentation during synching, I realize this presentation is flawed. That's probably because i did throw it together, adapting it from a previous presentation on TEA's Technology Immersion grant project. It's not really about changing standards but the six components of Tech Immersion. Nevertheless, it was worth the time to play and experiment. I offer it here as a flawed work (of course, aren't they all?). My goal was to record audio and match that to the slides. I was destined to be disappointed since that level of fine-grained control isn't evident in Jumpcut. However, it was fun to experiment with a new technology. It was at that point I remembered a comment Steve Dembo (Teach42.com) had left, referring me to MyPlick.com. I went over, and uploaded my presentation (PPT or PDF) and my audio (MP3), created my free account, and started syncing it all. Here's what that looks like: Image Caption: Picture at the beginning of the audio syncing process Image Caption: Syncing audio and slides, 3 slides in. Listen to your audio as you click the UP arrow button to move slides up. Wow, what an easy tool. I may abandon slideshare.net for posting if it's this easy to add the audio. The only issue is sitting through the painful audio recording (unedited, BTW) after recording it. Wait, one more problem. While working in MyPlick.com at the end, the buttons started to stick or not click when I clicked on them. not sure what caused that. I finally had to close the window once I managed to SAVE and PUBLISH. Here's what it looks and sounds like...be gentle in the comments smile : Changing National Standards Tags: mguhlin

Check out the work of a librarian--Tracy Mapus in San Antonio, Tx--who developed a Texas BlueBonnet Book overview in Voicethread.com. Drop by and share your comments! Direct link to this blog entry

One way of rebuilding trust is to use blogs to reopen, reconnect and be transparent again. Community building is built through commenting feature. Parents can start dialoguing with you. They don't have to leave their job to come to the school building, they can come and communicate meaningfully without leaving their house. Source: Dr. Scott McLeod on Blogging for Administrators workshop in 2007 So shares Dr. Scott McLeod (Dangerously Irrelevant) in a presentation on blogging for administrators he gave in San Antonio, Tx at a large urban school district last year...digging through my catch-all folder, I stumbled across this gem of a recording and had to share it! Although we're off to a slow start due to some technical obstacles, Scott takes off once those are overcome and shares some great info and advice for administrators. School web sites are pathetic, he shares. I couldn't agree more. This is why content management systems are so critical, and blogs are a part of that. Listen to Dr. Scott McLeod (about 34 mins) Audio Hosted by

Move over, TeacherTube and YouTube! Now, Edublogs.TV is here! It's brand new, boasting a whopping 27 members as of 11:38 PM on Wednesday night... You can... Unfortunately, there's a limit of 20 megs for a video sigh . However, all of my videos--that I use for keynotes--are less than 20 megs. I decided to upload my TILT 2008 animoto video... You can see it here. For fun, I also uploaded audio of the proceedings for TILT Reception without problem! Great! I guess what I couldn't find were the answers to a few questions: How many video/audio files can be stored in an account? How much space? I'm looking for a replacement for Podomatic.com, on which I'm about to reach the 500 meg limit for my podcasts. Does James Farmer really want to share about how drunk he is online? smile Of course, he goes on to explain it away as being drunk on knowledge, and it's worth listening to. Pretty awesome to be able to post audio, too! I remember the TeacherTube folks talked about it but...I haven't been back much. When will Creative Commons integration--great question Derekeb tweeted--be added to this? Can we change My Music to My Podcasts? Could you make the description box a bit bigger? It would be nice to paste in URLs to the text that goes with it. Is it possible to embed images in the podcast description? How about adding recently uploaded audio/podcasts to the front page, in addition to the list of videos there? Well, what are you waiting for? Go get an account! This is awesome! Great Job, James Farmer and crew!

Hi! I need your help. Would you be willing to take a moment and show this teacher in my District the power of YOU, no matter where you are in the world? She attended NECC and sent this delightful email (quoted below). I've decided to take each of her 7 points and put into VoiceThread.com and then invite you to drop by and leave an audio/video/text comment. There are some letters you love to receive from staff, and here's one of them from one of our TILT participants (she granted permission for me to share her email here)...how would you respond to items #1-2, 5 and 7? I was deeply moved by my experience at NECC. I am forever changed. I have been dreaming of how to implement the ideas that have taken root from the sessions and people I have met. I want to paint you a picture of how my classroom, school, and district will look like this coming year. I would appreciate if you could give me some advice to lead me in the right direction of how to accomplish a 21st century world. 1. I see my Kinder students collaborating with students from another country via podcasting and blogging. 2. I see my Kinder students collaborating with the fifth graders to create a partnership in their learning endeavors this school year. We have done reading buddies with the fifth grade students for years, but many of them do not take it seriously and therefore, my students do not gain the complete benefit from it. I was thinking if my students could share the poems that we write and perform via video to internet, sharing our learning experiences via blogging, etc... would provide for meaningful writing experiences on both sides. 3. I see my Kindergarten grade level team have weekly grade level meetings via discussion board, I would like to see our committee meetings move from a meeting every other week that takes up an hour of our afterschool time to creating a discussion board for us to meet on and have a window of a week for everyone to share their ideas and the committee chair report the results from discussion board to the CLT. 4. I also plan on contacting a teacher or teachers from an exemplary school district, that we can collaborate with to see how we can replicate or provide the same opportunities for our low income students as the wealthier districts. I want to share what my class is doing, send pictures, and video and vice versa. 5. I see our Kinder teachers collaborating with other teachers in our Area 2 via discussion board about how to implement the new Curriculum Guides, the new Math Curriculum, and sharing ideas and materials that we create for our thematic units which are new to us this year. 6. I teach an evening class at [a local] College for Alternative Certified Teachers, the content areas. Last semester I felt my students lacked the practical application of the how it looks like in a classroom. The students all have full time jobs in other fields and do not have the ability to take time off to student teach.7. My vision is to have teachers from my campus or if you know of any teacher PK-4 who is willing to try this: each student in my class would adopt a classroom from our district. They would be responsible for creating a video/powerpoint to introduce themselves to the teacher and the students. They would collaborate with the teacher by blogging/emailing/podcasting, the teacher would take pictures and/or video to share with their adopted student. And the student would develop lessons and create materials based on the unit of learning for the teacher and/or any other way they can collaborate to make this a meaningful learning experience for both parties. This would also allow my students to learn how to implement technology from the start. I've decided to save my response as a Voicethread and would love for you to share your ideas online via the VoiceThread. Up to it?

Successful Bond Campaigns- Making the Case for Technology was the title of a Texas CTO Clinic presentation facilitated by Vicki Smith Bigham (Email: bighamv@aol.com). You can read my notes for this presentation here, but you'll want to listen to the podcast to catch some of the points that were made too quickly for me to catch! Also, my apologies to Vicki, but I cut her introduction out due to the poor quality of the audio and started with Gray Salada's introduction. Panel members included the following: Gray Salada (Austin ISD) Karen Fuller (Klein ISD) Lenny Schad (Katy ISD) Listen to Podcast Some of the important take-aways: What is the baseline for technology that needs to be a component of the bond issue? That needs to be our replacements cycle. PC, laptop, server replacements and network retrofits. These are standard brick-n-mortar and our community expects it. Public understands the retrofit, but we have to put C&I in front of that. It gets the public to see this as a C&I requirement/initiative rather than technology focused. The most unique part about the bond that passed is a 1to1 initiative with bond funds. Engage key members of the community, the commerce group, form a citizens’ bond committee, get campus people who are very involved. They work with the school board and superintendent and get that committee to address this. With this guidance—including facilities folks and do that then have them recommend what the bond should be about. The School Board will hold hearings and then this goes back to Committee, gets adjusted, then discussed again. Additionally, it doesn’t hurt if there is some specific special interest that is a big community item. Put a committee together, different depts presented their needs, did assessments of existing facilities, evaluating the buildings, formed a committee of community members, students, every aspect of community we could involve in various meetings. We presented where we needed the money. Our superintendent did not have a free day during the whole bond campaign, including attending bunko games, etc. He was so instrumental in getting the word out, the right type of information, addressing the misnomers…he wanted to get the right, correct information. One of the things we’re doing is keeping the info flowing…communication and community involvement are the key factors to help people answer the questions. If you can just get your own staff member to vote—campuses and teachers—then your bond election would pass. Once the bond election passes…here’s what we were going to spend money on, the timeline, and evaluation of how money was spent. People need to see how bond dollars have been spent. By 2011, we’re doing online testing. If you’re going to test online, then you better be teaching online. This is why we’re going this route in our schools. Make videos of technology integration (1to1) with teachers, parents, students talking, and technology baseline standards (document camera, whiteboard, etc). We did the best we could to get the information out to our parents. We were able to show what students need and how it’s impacting what students are doing. We have a fundamental blueprint for what the classroom configuration will be. They talk about technology in bond elections. We have an educational specification…this is how many drops we have in each classroom, how many computers/printers in each classroom. We have this specification for each grade level and size of school. You can build in time to implement. It’s all centered around implementation. Once you go live, then you can’t use bond funding. As an implementation cost, and for a doc mgmt system, I’d do all this work to get it ready for production. You run into a grey area with training. They don’t like to use bond funds for training. You have to have an awareness in your community in what they value in the education of their kids. When they don’t understand beyond new construction, technology becomes one of those sacrificial lambs. Anything beyond construction then doesn’t get paid for. Need to educate folks on what they can and can’t say. During school hours, you can say fact/fiction. When you’re on your own time, you can say whatever you want. Relevant Links: Miguel's Notes on the presentation

Joyce Valenza (Web Site | Blog) is wonderfully articulate, especially on a spur of the moment, poorly edited (that's my fault), podcast. I LOVE what she has to say initially about transparency and how her words will reflect who she is. She also touches on important topics like branding teacher-librarians (or something like that). Be sure to listen to Joyce, a professional who can have fun smile and isn't a party-pooper. You can catch how she recorded my fun (I hope) talk on her Cowboy Boot Documentary. She used her new FLIP Mino to record the documentary and then did LOTS of editing smile . Listen to this quick chat with Joyce Relevant Links: Dr. Joyce Valenza's web site and School Library Journal NeverEndingSearch blog Steve Dembo (Teach42.com) FLIP Mino Camera Find out more about Charles Goodnight

In my quest to learn more about PR 2.0, instead of ignoring these presos available via Slideshare.net, I clicked on them... #1 - Public Relations 2.0 | View | Upload your own #2 - PR 2.0 Mixing Business with Social Media | View | Upload your own Some notes on this presentation...I always like maps or step-by-step stuff. On slide 27, you see the steps which outline what you're supposed to do. It's a shame there's no audio with this, but you can still get an idea of what the steps are... 1) Listen2) Define - map out the niches relevant to your audience.3) Participate. Generate content, comment, and communicate.4) Conversation...the end result of your efforts. While these steps seem obvious, I had found some more enlightenment in regards to the Listen step in another presentation. The question is, How do you find the people and topics that matter? This next slide show suggests doing the following: a) Stakeholder Influence Analysis - Who are the people with influence or that shape the opinions of others?b) Net Promoters Index - Take a particular topic and extract the positive comments from the negative onesc) Buzz Monitoring and Reporting - What is the sentiment of conversations? How is it changing? | View | Upload your own | View | Upload your own But, my favorite slide show presentation was this one...sure, it was cartoons but the messages were powerful. | View | Upload your own

Dr. Maria Kaylor (University of Texas at San Antonio), Dr. Cheri Toledo (Illinois State University), Nicolas Toledo and I had a chance to discuss blogging in higher education at NECC 2008. It was very much an impromptu conversation as Dr. Kaylor and I ran into each other cruising the poster sessions, and she shared her first venture into blogging with students in a course scheduled for Fall, 2008. I am particularly proud of Dr. Kaylor since I'd like to think that I introduced her to blogging! I thought Dr. Kaylor's comments provided insights into how higher education professionals who haven't used blogs are conceptualizing their use in their work. What was really neat was having Dr. Cheri Toledo just walk up and say hello, creating the opportunity for a conversation among higher ed professionals about blogging. This conversation was fascinating, so I encourage you to listen to these three wonderful folks share their perspectives on blogging in higher ed! Listen to Podcast Dr. Cheri and Nicolas Toledo Relevant Links: Dr. Cheri Toledo's blog Dr. Toledo on EdTechTalk EdTech Immersion Plus (ETIP) ETIP Blog Email: drctedd@gmail.com Email: ntoledo55@yahoo.com Dr. Maria Kaylor Relevant Links: Dr. Kaylor's Digital Storytelling wiki Email: maria.kaylor@utsa.edu Other Pictures (hosted via Flickr):

Last week, I had the chance to attend the Texas CTO Clinic 2008 meeting taking place in Katy, Tx. I shared my notes about this before, as well as major take-aways previously. This blog entry basically announces that I finally managed to get the audio processed for the podcast and provides the link. My apologies to Julie Wallace (Birdville ISD)...I accidentally called her Julie Lindsay (argh!). Didn't catch it until right now. That's what I get for recording a podcast late on a Sunday night after two days of PD. ANYWAYS.... Listen to Podcast Podcast Notes: Miguel's Notes on the Texas CTO Clinic Blog entry on the Texas CTO Legislative Landscape

This Sunday afternoon, collaborating with two district instructional technologists--one from Austin ISD, Diane Sidoroff and the other from Richardson ISD, Daniel Baham--I worked to design a professional development session for introducing teachers to Thinkfinity. Admittedly, the PD planning was half-baked (may my partners forgive me) and hastily constructed, for all the attention we lavished upon it in a short hour of planning. However, it was good enough for a 10-15 minute presentation that Daniel and Diane did a wonderful job on (I stayed quiet...the group had been so gracious to me on sharing Diigo earlier, I was embarrassed to the point of shyness). The Thinkfinity trainer, Karen Horn, introduced us to various scenarios, assigning one to each group. The scenario that we ended up with included this one, labelled Scenario 8: Audience: You will be presenting to a group of high school teachers from Jefferson High, a back-to-basics charter school located in your district. On this staff development day, all 40 teachers had a choice either to go to Every Teacher is a Reading Teacher training or your Thinkfinity training. You are assured there will be no more than 20 teachers in your session. The school is very traditional and you are somewhat surprised that they have invited you to present. The school doesn't even have a computer lab.Time Scheduled for Workshop: 2 hoursTechnology Available for Workshop: You will be presenting in one teacher's classroom, which is equipped with 5 student computers, plus an additional computer hooked up to the classroom TV. Most of the classrooms on campus are only equipped with a teacher computer and 1 student computer. Diane and I spent some time arguing about whether the teachers we served would benefit from a Level of Technology Implementation (LOTI) higher than 2. Here's a Bubbl.us that maps out the conversation (note that you can click on it and move it around to see different parts in the window available): In case you're not familiar with LOTI 2, technology is used as a teacher productivity tool. With limited access, a LOTI 2 intro workshop was sufficient. I argued that we needed to provide suggestions on how to move the lesson to a level 3 (making inferences, analysis, students creating web pages) or 4 (using technology as a tool to identify and solve real life problems) or 5 (using technology to extend learning beyond the classroom). I suspect our planning and development was solidly in LOTI 2, but we could have easily moved the PD lesson to level 5 by encouraging groups of teachers to collaborate on gathering data, analyzing it, and sharing their work with others via a wiki or blog. I see real possibilities with combining these tools with Read/Write Web tools, such as blogs and wikis. I wonder who is already using Thinkfinity.org resources in this manner...more looking ahead. There are tons of great resources...unlike other services that cost $10 per child, these resources available through Thinkfinity include specific lesson plans, interactive resources, media, and much more. Here's a snapshot of the different resource types: As the three of us played around with the ideas, we decided that we didn't want to create an MS Word document. Since Diane was familiar with PBWiki--and a very enthusiastic supporter!--we were swayed to create a wiki to house the content. You can find it online at http://thinkfinitytexas.pbwiki.com/ We also picked out some neat resources that are available through Thinkfinity partner sites. Wow. That's one of the words that describes the resources available. Some that jumped out at me include these, which I've linked through Diigo as a slideshow. I had no idea these tools existed...sigh. Diane found some to be pretty exciting, including the Image Detective: Be sure to check out Thinkfinity.org!

While blogging is so much about reflection, it is rare that I do take the opportunity to reflect on what I've written in the past...not the recent past, but long past. However, I took a moment to do so because a conversation about writing for social justice and working with children made me remember a quote I heard from the founder of AVID. I had the opportunity to hear Mary Catherine Swanson speak at an AVID Conference in Austin a few years ago...here's an excerpt of what she said, and I think it has applications to conversations we have every day: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” –Frederick Douglass Power concedes nothing without demand–never has, never will. As we seek the courage to overcome, we must remember our students. We now face a critical juncture. We can change the course of history. Those who define the issues also determine the outcome. Challenging age-old beliefs with rigor and support, we can change…that will rattle ingrained systems…a “quiet revolution.” Each of you, small and large has the power to change course of education. Four factors influence student success–income level, family life, education, and the community they grow up in… we have proved that students don’t have to be determined by these factors. What powerful words these are, not just for students who participate in the AVID Program, but for adults in schools today. Powerful quotes remind us of who we want to be, of striving to be the change we want to be in the world. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it–at no matter what risk. –James Baldwin, “A Talk to Teachers” and Patrick J. Finn's work: First, there is empowering education, which leads to powerful literacy, the kind of literacy that leads to positions of power and authority. Second, there is domesticating education, which leads to functional literacy, literacy that makes a person productive and dependable, not troublesome. Power concedes nothing without demand...are you part of the struggle for progress?

Source: Edie Tunstall, Whitney ISD Elementary School Music Teacher The real benefit of travelling to Whitney, Texas was the chance to share a little Read/Write Web mythology with the teachers of Whitney ISD. I started off with Digital Storytelling, Blog Your World! on day 1, then Podcast Panopoly and Diigo the Web for Education. The folks were a delight to have in class and eager to learn something new. How can you top that attitude? Though each 3 hour session had its advantages--which resulted in record class attendance in the last session as word of mouth spread through the teachers (no, they were unpaid!)--the two that had the most impact were Digital Storytelling and Podcast Panopoly. The Diigo class was tough since the air conditioning wasn't cooling much in the Texas heat, and trying to herd teachers new to social bookmarking was tough. In fact, this trial by fire (as fun as it was) convinced me that the Essential Diigo should include: Easy account setup A Del.icio.us-like ability to type for:username to share information Highlighting and annotating (post its/commenting) Easy group subscription (you can't select Diigo users when creating a group, but instead have to invite them via email, which is HORRIBLE when you want to connect folks quickly in a workshop). Save and send bookmarks/annotations via email or to Diigo users by username. Built-in Twittering of links with simultaneous sending to groups. That's it! Give me these first 5 features in a social bookmarking tool and I may be completely happy. That aside, while the storytelling class was fun, the podcast panopoly is the one that touched a nerve, bringing a tear to my eye. Edie Tunstall, a brand new teacher--spending her first day of work in my workshops that day--to the District, shared 3 lessons she's learned about saying goodbye to her college age daughter.... Listen to Edie's Freshman Goodbye

Source: http://www.harpersmithteam.com/Images/texas-logo.jpg Update 05/30/2008;7:37PM: TEA letter is out as of 5:05 PM. The question is, will school districts have to report 2007-2008 8th grade technology literacy assessment data? What happens to school districts who have not collected assessment data by today, 05/30/2008? What a shame the letter didn't come out earlier in May. Texas technology coordinators/directors have been eagerly awaiting the promised letter. . .1 week, 2 weeks, no official, in writing word yet as to what the Texas Education Agency (TEA) will expect from Texas school districts. However, this piece of information came to us from a Region 10 Technology Coordinators Roundup: “In our ESC/TEA Technology collaboration video conference on Tuesday, May 27, the TEA reported that they expect the Administrator Addressed memo concerning new technology reporting requirements to come out Friday, May 30.”Source: Barbara Smith, Region 10 was quoted as writing in a letter that went out to Tech Coordinators. If my inbox is any indication, the TEA letter To the Administrator Addressed hasn't arrived yet and it is late afternoon. Listen to audio of the presentation at Region 10 regarding this topic. This and more information appears in my 8th Grade Technology Literacy Assessment notes, along with sample Moodle packages from White Oak ISD and San Antonio ISD that adapt Deer Park ISD's paper/pencil assessment. Remember, our goal is to share information with as wide a Texas audience as possible...what do you know about this?

Please find an excerpt from the KLRN Conversations that goes into more detail about the Technology Integration Lead Teacher (TILT) Program in my school district. Conversation between Dr. Duron and Dr. Don Knezek regarding the TILT Program BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND LINKS: More information on TILT Online here. SAISD'S GOAL:Achieve Level 5 Technology Integration - Using technology to extend learning beyond the classroom walls in ways that encourage creativity and collaboration at a distance. This is supported by ISTE National Education Technology Standards for Students, Levels of Technology Implementation (LOTI), and State Board for Educator Certification Technology Standards for Teachers, and Target Tech of the Texas STaR Chart. TILT PurposeDevelop capacity in the District to implement National Education Technology Standards for Students and Teachers as articulated in the Texas School Technology and Readiness (STaR) Chart and achieve Level 5 Technology Use. WHAT IS THE TILT INITIATIVE?Teachers from across the district are participating in the Technology Lead Teacher (TILT) Program. A major part of the TILT Program--to help teachers meet State Board of Educator Certification Technology Applications Standards for All Teachers--is the PBS TeacherLine/ISTE Capstone Certificate Program. This year-long professional development program is designed for teachers who have experience integrating computer-based technologies into their classroom practice and want to earn certification in the International Society for Technology in Education National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers while further developing their knowledge and skills. By participating in the Online Capstone Program, teachers will take part in an in-depth study of how technology can improve teaching and learning while developing a professional digital portfolio. The PBS TeacherLine/ISTE Certificate Program consists of a Capstone Introduction which SAISD TILT teachers have just completed and two 15-week Capstone Courses. The courses are organized around the learner's creation of portfolio exhibits. A capstone represents a culminating achievement, and as such, the Capstone courses are intended to develop and demonstrate proficiency in the ISTE NETS•T, culminating in two multimedia online portfolio exhibits. Capstone I: Teaching with Technology focuses on teacher use of technology; Capstone II: Empowering Students with Technology concentrates on students as the primary users of technology. Each Capstone exhibit contains digital artifacts of the learner's classroom practice and reflections on how classroom projects demonstrate particular standards in action.

On Monday, April 28, 2008, Dr. Don Knezek (ISTE CEO) and Dr. Robert Duron (Superintendent of a large urban district in San Antonio, Texas) had a conversation hosted by KLRN in San Antonio. Sitting in the studio with KLRN (Charles Vaughn, Malinda McCormick who imagined this particular conversation) and PBS TeacherLine of Texas (Holly Custard), I had a bird's eye view into the whole production of a new revised show at KLRN. KLRN Conversations is... We all know that the art of conversation is a great way to communicate information, and we know that television can be a important source of information and insight into the community. Those are the premises behind KLRN new series CONVERSATIONS. The series strives to bring the people who make a difference in San Antonio together for conversations that will provide a look at these creative leaders of the city and highlight their accomplishments. The actual video of the show will be broadcast on television via KLRN on May 29, 2008. In spite of the hard work going on in the back, I was fascinated by the conversation about the importance of leadership in achieving change and the concept of teachers as co-learners with their students. Creativity was also a focus of the conversation, and it reminded me a presentation by Richard Florida I saw on C-SPAN the other night where he talks about how diversity and innovation are linked. The more diverse groups you have access to when you're creating, the more innovative you can be. Conversation between Dr. Don Knezek and Dr. Robert Duron Show Links: NECC 2008 web site ISTE National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) San Antonio ISD's Technology Integration Lead Teacher (TILT) Program Video of TILT Cohort 1 participant Video of TILT Cohort 2 Participants PBS TeacherLine Capstone Partnership video featuring Miguel Guhlin (San Antonio ISD) and Bruce Ellis (Dallas ISD) They covered a few topics, and their discussion touched on a variety of items, of which the following are only those I was able to quickly type: Urban school districts face particular challenges. Don speaks to the importance of using technology well across a large school district, how students use tech and who interacts using technology. One of the big challenges for a large urban school district is drawing a shared vision from the community regarding first, education and second, technology, and ensuring alignment of the vision. We see pockets of innovation, but if they aren't aligned to the purpose of the school district, then those don't move forward. Frustration results from that lack of alignment. Where we see success is where the superintendent who expresses that vision and alignment often. If you verbalize that vision at the beginning of the year but don't revisit it again time and again, then you get a herding cats effect. Vision and leadership is absolutely key to success. ISTE's efforts are about building a solid leadership base for district leaders including curriculum leaders and building principals. Leadership development is important to start with. Essential conditions: 1) Skilled personnel; 2) Technical assistance; 3) SOlid infrastructure; 4) Teachers willingness to be somewhat at risk; 5) Importance of assessment to measure where you've been. Our purpose is to improving quality lives...the core competency of that is teaching and learning. How do you see tech improving teaching and learning? Technology clearly has a role to play in engaging our students. 2002-2003, students were on the web more than they were watching television. Look at the cell phone penetration and MP3 players...students have technology outside the classroom. Students tell us that they are powering down when they come to schools. The level of tech they are accustomed to in other places is higher than school. Students are learning outside the classroom and accustomed to doing so with technology. We have to figure out what engages students and then find out how to apply it to the learning we're intentional about. That's one piece of it. The opportunities to learn were limited before, but the experiences now available are more. Options for learning are much broader. Authentic projects, access to experts, work in interntional learning groups...tech enables a number of strategies that engages students who weren't successful with liner...with bland texts. Where kids have self-direction, authentic problem, they are able to transfer more to the work environment than teacher-driven activities. Relevance is enhanced, as are the resources. One of the challenges superintendents are aware of...technology-driven changes, we pretty much learned the way the previous generation learned. Teaching has been an isolated endeavour...they did student prep alone or seldom worked with others. Now, we have the ability to help teachers engage, tap into a worldwide network that they couldn't tap before and learn what other teachers are doing, air their problems and get responses back, find out what is engaging students worldwide, and ....teacher has to shift from sage on the stage to guide on the side. One more step is envisioned...teachers are becoming co-learners with their students. Empower kids to be creative using technology...many of the routine jobs are being out-sourced. What do you do as a principal when teachers are feeling constrained? Encourage teachers to find new and inventive ways to achieve and help kids perform on standardized learning. Almost to a principal, they said we have to accept and value that creativity. Encouraging risk-taking, look at what engages students, and make judgements about how to do that.

Anyone have suggestions on how to respond to this question? It comes from one of my colleagues in Texas. I welcome all brainstorming ideas... We are ready to implement a student portal (with teacher and parent portals to follow) for our 1:1 campuses. We would like for this portal to be a web-based, searchable, pretty container for all of the learning materials that we've purchased and/or created for students, including audio books, legal MP3 music files, clip art, videos and animations, documents, presentations, and such. We have all of these now on a shared server on our Windows network and the students can access them fine. However, it is not easily searchable and does not provide a way to include a description of each resource, along with other pertinent information (thumbnail sketch, Lexile reading level, etc.). We have looked at several document management solutions, but I don't really feel like they are as broad as what we would like to use. We've also looked at Microsoft SharePoint, but are frightened by how expensive it is on both a one-time and a recurring basis. We have a Moodle server already, but this doesn't seem to really fit well there as we are not interested in running classes right now. Since some of these materials are purchased and so have user limits, we would also need for this system to use Active Directory to authenticate our users. What are you using to run your student learning portals? How is it working? How much did you have to spend up front? How much maintenance is required? What advice can you give me as I start down this road? Some thoughts come to mind... 1) Listen to Chris K's podcast. Chris is in Dearborn Schools in Michigan. He combines a series of tools--such as Joomla, Moodle, Mahara, and others--to build a portal for students, parents, and staff. Find links to all the tools here in the podcast show notes. 2) Ok, that's all. What are your ideas?