June 22, 2009 I know what many of you out there are thinking - What?! YouTube, there’s no way to even access YouTube in my classroom. My district blocks YouTube. While that may be the case, here’s an interesting take on how and why to look at YouTube as a teaching tool. Take a look.
Posted in Jared, Web 
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June 1, 2009 
Digital images are great teaching tools. Many of our students are visual learners and we can demonstrate complex concepts using one or two images, rather than paragraphs of text.
Take the issue of climate change. Rather than go through tons of textual information, look at the images from Teachers’ Domain : Documenting climate change. In this lesson photos are used to compare 6 pairs of photos from different Alaskan glaciers. One photo was taken in 1908 and the other was taken in 2008. Look at the difference a century makes to these glaciers. What a great way to illustrate a concept!
Posted in Digital Photos, Jared No Comments »
May 29, 2009 
Many of you are asking why we should think about Twitter when it comes to education. In a recent issue of Tech & Leaning came a possible response.
Nine Reasons to Twitter in Schools
By Laura Walker
Why should educators get involved with Twitter? Here are nine reasons.
1. Together we’re better
Twitter can be like a virtual staffroom where teachers can access in seconds a stream of links, ideas, opinions, and resources from a hand-picked selection of global professionals.
2. Global or local: you choose
With Twitter, educators can actively compare what’s happening in their with others on different continents. GPS-enabled devices and advanced web search facility allow searches that tell you what people are tweeting within a certain distance of a location, so if the other side of the world isn’t your bag, you can stick with your own patch.
3. Self-awareness and reflective practice
Excellent teachers reflect on what they are doing in their schools and look at what is going well in order to maintain and develop it, and what needs improvement in order to make it better. Teachers on Twitter share these reflections and both support and challenge each other.
4. Ideas workshop and sounding board
Twitter is a great medium for sharing ideas and getting instant feedback. You can gather a range of opinions and constructive criticism within minutes, which can help enormously, whether you are planning a learning experience, writing a policy, or putting a job application together.
5. Newsroom and innovation showcase
Twitter helps you stay up-to-date on news and current affairs, as well as on the latest developments in areas of interest like school leadership and technology.
6. Professional development and critical friends
One of the best things about training days is the break-out time between sessions, when teachers can get together to talk about what they are working on or struggling with. Twitter enables users to have that kind of powerful networking capacity with them all the time. It’s just a matter of finding the right people to follow.
7. Quality-assured searching
Trust the people you follow. Hone and develop the list of people whose insights you value. Once your Twitter network grows past a critical mass, you can ask them detailed questions and get higher-quality information back than a Google search would generally provide.
8. Communicate, communicate, communicate
Expressing yourself in 140 characters is a great discipline. You can become better at saying what needs to be said in my professional communications with less waffle and padding (even without txtspk).
9. Getting with the times has never been so easy!
Twitter is anything but complicated! You simply visit Twitter.com and create your account. A little light searching using key words for your areas of interest will soon yield a list of interesting people to follow. There are plenty of Web sites offering advice on getting started and how to avoid a few common beginners’ faux-pas. Your biggest challenge is likely to be getting the twitter.com unblocked on your school network if your main usage will be at school.
Update on 6/5 - 25 Ways to Teach with Twitter
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May 13, 2009 
Do you ever feel like you’ve missed the best cultural content on the web. Often you’ll hear colleagues talking about a video or a website and you may have no idea what they’re referring to. Last week David Pogue of the NY Times discussed this topic in his weekly article, Circuits.
Over the past 15 years many people or events have become cultural icons due to the web. Locating all of these websites can be challenging at times, but there are several sites that have already done the work for you. One of our favorites is Greg Rutter’s Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You’re a Loser or Old or Something at www.youshouldhaveseenthis.com. Greg has compiled a comprehensive list of the cultural events you should have seen. Enjoy!
Posted in Jared, Video, Web No Comments »
May 11, 2009 
Mr. Jorgensen, do you have a calculator? Nope, do you have your cell phone? Mr. Jorgensen there aren’t enough stopwatches do you have anymore? Nope, do you have your cell phone? Well, add one more to that list. Mr. Jorgensen, do you have a dictionary? Nope, do you have your web enabled cell phone?
When students would ask about a dictionary in my computer lab, I typically directed them to www.m-w.com or www.dictionary.com both great sites to look up words, word origin, and other forms. Before web enabled phones, I downloaded a Microsoft Encarta Dictionary into Microsoft’s Reader a good resource on my mobile device but with fairly limited definitions. With web enabled phones you can now visit http://m.reference.com to look up terms, thesaurus entries and other information on the fly. Dictionary.com also provides an Application for the iPhone/iPod touch.
Not to be outdone www.m-w.com has a mobile interface at http://i.word.com When you check the site it states that the site is optimized for the iPhone, but it works well on Windows Mobile phones and other web enabled phones and the iPod Touch.
Another great feature that doesn’t require a web enabled phone is Google’s SMS tools. You can see a list of these tools at www.google.com/sms Most of the advanced search techniques work for example text: “define:learning” to 466453 (Google) to get the definition of learning.
Learn where you are!
image citation: flickr user: midnightglory
Posted in Mitchell, cell phones No Comments »
May 4, 2009 I have been very reluctant to take a $359.00 chunk out of my pocket to get a Kindle. despite the fact that I absolutely love the idea of having a whole library in my hands. I have used multiple other eBook formats on both a computer and handheld devices. My first PalmPilot had decent resources for eBooks. My first Windows Mobile with Microsoft’s Reader was my favorite for years. Mainly because I was able to have the same books on my mobile device and on my desktop/laptop.
The Kindle was touted as the iPod for readers, and it is undeniably doing well. I simply haven’t been able to justify buying another dedicated device. So I was pleasantly surprised a few weeks back when the Kindle App for the iPod Touch and iPhone was launched. I downloaded it immediately but waited until I had finished a couple of paper and ink books before downloading my first book. I am a bit behind the times, but I bought Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.
The app worked very well. As soon as I had purchased it and opened the App on my iPod it downloaded in seconds. I was able to send the book to another device too with no trouble at all. Activating and Deactivating devices is all done on Amazon.com. Books must be purchased there too. That is one place the Kindle Hardware beats out the iPod app. My two biggest challenges with it were:
Considering the two faults I had with the App, I realize they are both user issues that just require me to relearn a little. I would definitely give this app two thumbs up.
Posted in Digital Literacy, Mitchell No Comments »
April 29, 2009 Here’s an interesting take on the song “Stand By Me”. Rather than being recorded by one artist, this song uses the skills of musicians from around the world. It creates a unique mix of sounds and voices to bring a new feel to this classic song. Found this one on Vimeo.com (an alternative to YouTube).
Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.
Posted in Jared, Music, Video No Comments »
April 29, 2009 And I believe the least important. Now, that is not to say unimportant. We need to cite sources to obey copyright law. Most trouble with copyright can be avoided by appropriately citing sources. Teachers often point to Fair Use Copyright doctrine or the Teach Act 2002 as valid reasons for using information, but this does not excuse proper citing of sources.
I think the second most important reason for citing sources is: Modeling good behavior for students. In our modern day with plagiarism and copyright violation so easy, it is easy to take the approach as a teacher of just using what is necessary to get the job done. After all, it’s all out and available for the public anyway right? Well…sort of? Information that is found in 3 independent sources can be considered general knowledge and is exempt from the necessity of citation. The challenge with this is that items of a multimedia nature are not always public domain, even on government or other websites since the work may have been commissioned and the images or video may be copyrighted materials, subject to licensing and royalty agreements. We should cite sources to provide a good example for students of giving proper credit and not presenting others work as our own.
And I really think this is the most important reason! We should cite sources properly so we can find the source again should we need to. Ever accidentally deleted a photo out of PowerPoint? Have trouble finding it online again? If we cite our sources well we can find these resources again. Some may not be essential, if all you need is any picture of a giraffe it is fine, but if what you need is a picture of a giraffe and you lose it, having citations can save the day.
A couple of suggestions
Understand the difference between formal and informal citations. Formal are the tried and true citation formats for MLA, APA or other defined styles. Informal are just that, informal methods that accurately reflect where information was found but don’t follow a formal style sheet. A tendency on the web for citing sources such as flickr, youtube and picasa is to cite the user: i.e. photos from flickr user: covili
For more formal citation help try: Citation Machine
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April 10, 2009 Have you ever looked for a horse of a different color? Now with GoogleImages color filtering you can.
When you got to the GoogleImages page to search for images, you can now choose to filter for some basic colors which allows you to find search results with specific color scheme.
This is similar to a couple of tools available for flickr
Google’s new Tool does make me want to ask the question? When will it be on www.picasaweb.com or in picasa?
But either way you can now find a horse of a different color
click here for full size image
Posted in Digital Photos, Mitchell No Comments »
April 9, 2009 What first up for creating multimedia? I am not entirely sure, but I found a new entry for Top 5 Cool multimedia tools on the web. The website xtranormal.com allows you to generate your own 3D movies with custom dialog and set pieces of animation.
This could be a phenomenal tool allowing students to storyboard and develop ideas for creating their own filmed movies. A teacher could also heighten media literacy by allowing students a chance to direct their own sequence which would heighten awareness of the tricks and techniques filmmakers use to create drama or move a story along.
Additionally foreign language could write dialog in the language their are learning. English teachers could use this to help teach dialog as well. A final interesting feature is that you are allowed to remix other videos which enables you to put your own twist on an idea without starting from scratch
Happy movie making!
Posted in Animation, Mitchell, Video 1 Comment »