AnswerGarden 2

Thanks to all those who have responded to the AnswerGarden question I planted a few days ago. Here is what I have learned about AnswerGarden since.

As people come to your question and add new answers they appear in the display box. It is also possible for visitors to vote or agree with answers that are already there by clicking on them. When you click on an existing answer it appears in a text box and then you click "submit" to register your vote.

At anytime you can use your original link to go back to your question and see how many people have answered.

I'd also like to a couple of things you can do with the answers after you've collected them. The first thing you may notice is that some answers are bigger and bolder than the others. These are the ones with more than one vote. You can find out how many votes each has by hovering over text with your cursor.

The number of votes will appear.

Clicking the options button below the display box will expand your view and you'll be able see how many total answers you've received. Finally, you have the option of exporting your answers directly to Wordle or Tagxedo as I did to generate the image at the beginning of this post.

If you have an interactive whiteboard, your students could enter their answers right on the board while the whole group watches the work progress. Don't you think this would be an engaging way for young students to learn to gather and analyse data?

AnswerGarden

Please bear with me while I try out a newly discovered tool. Answer Garden looks like a quick and easy way to gather short comments from a group. After a couple of minutes of checking the particulars on the website, I created this AnswerGarden poll.

This time of year in northern North America most of us are desparately looking forward to spring. Today we in Minnesota are getting yet another round of snow and from here that snow is headed to Chicago and then off to the East where I can't imagine they have anymore room to put it than we do at this point. Therefore, as a coping mechanism, in my poll I am offering winter-stressed folks an opportunity be hopeful about spring, but even if you're in an area that is not buried under an icy blanket of white stuff right now, please help me out by submitting your words of encouragement.

I can see AnswerGarden being simple to use even with young students. There are no accounts. You get a link that you can hand out to your group and it goes right to your poll. No sign in or further navigation is required. Check it out. What do you think?

Active Listening?

Listening centers have been around for a long time, probably as long as we have been able to record sound. I remember sitting on the floor in my kindergarten class listening to music from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" while watching the phonograph needle dance lightly over the top of the spinning record. That was nearly fifty years ago. We have many more options now, yes?

This morning I had a dream. It may have been spurred by a conversation I had this week with a teacher who is converting his classroom books on CD's to mp3's. In the dream I was a student in a class where the instructor asked us to share a wish we had for our school. In my dream I thought about it a bit and then told of a new feature I would like to add to our library. It would be a listening center where kids could come in and “check out” audio resources (stories, songs, podcasts, the possibilities here seem endless) and instead of sitting of the floor or at tables in chairs, they would have a variety of exercise equipment choices. These could include exercise balls, yoga mats, stationary bicycles or even treadmills. I am not so sure about the bikes and treadmills. Can we have kids use them? Is there an age requirement? But you get the idea; kids need to wiggle and stretch even if it’s just a little bit, so why can’t we combine activity and listening in a way that will make both more fun and productive?



 Gregory Rec/Maine Sunday Telegram Staff Photographer: Third graders sit on fitness balls at their desks at Peaks Island Elementary School on Wednesday, January 27, 2010.



Right now in our school a couple classes are using exercise balls, although not to the extent that this classroom is. Our students and teachers using them and those interviewed for this article published February 26, 2010, in the Maine Sunday Telegram seem to like them and feel they are beneficial. Is anyone using them in libraries or listening centers? What do you think? Is it doable?

Learning Movie Maker

Today I set out to teach myself Windows Movie Maker. Eight years with a pc and until now I haven't had a need to use it. Well, I have been given a video assignment, so now is the time and here is my first stab at it. Most I did by figuring out the features myself, but when I got stuck I went to these resources: Windows Movie Makers and Editing Video with Windows Movie Maker 2.0. For music I went to Freeplay Music.

Oh, and this is also the first time I have every posted anything to YouTube. Welcome your constructive comments. Thanks!

Spelling Mania

Many of you are Spelling City fans, as well you should be if you're an elementary school teacher teaching spelling. This site is the best I have seen for offering many different teaching and reinforcement activities using words from your own lists and curriculum. So if you haven't seen it yet, do check out Spelling City.


After that, I encourage you to try these other spelling sites. No accounts are needed to use them.

Literacy Zone's English Spelling Games: This one has interactive stories and 14 spelling games addressing such spelling skills as plurals, clusters and blends, synonyms, prefixes and suffixes and homophones.

Mr. Nussbaum's Everglades Spelling: I liked this one because I could pick the animal I wanted to be and race against the others to fill in the missing letters in words as they appear.

Gumleaf Games Word Safari: This one has different challenge levels and I can see kids really liking it. Once I figured out I had to use the arrow keys to guide my little guy through the air (think "Up") to the correct letters while dodging the incorrect ones, I had a great time.

Candlelight Stories Stellar Speller: This one has kids spell the words for pictures they see. I think it might be good for partner work because some kids might not have the prior knowledge to know the exact word for the picture. It is like hangman in that it gives the number of letters for each word.

Zaner-Bloser's Spelling Connections: Beside complete the sentence and word sorting activities, this site has a proof-reading game where students find errors in prepared text and correct them using proofing marks and proper spelling.

Language Arts Spell It: This one is a collection offering about 40 spelling games including a number of quizzes and bees.

Photo credit to Mr Gustafson on WikiMedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chelsea,_England,_Spelling_Lesson,_1912.JPG

Lesson learned: Get up off my backside

Twice this week I have been reminded of something I know and I know I know, but it still surprises me when I see it. There is no one way to communicate, or teach, or learn. These endeavors happen through all of our senses, so why would I think that merely putting things in electronic print, or showing them in a staff training session would meet the needs of all my collegaues? In these two instances specifically I stumbled into conversations with indviduals who told me they had to find some way to organize their web favorites. In the most recent, I was flattered to find two teachers were spending the afternoon going through a long list of links they had saved one by one as I had sent them out throughout this year. They were pleased, as was I, to find a number of good sites and ideas to incorporate into their lessons, and they told me to keep the links coming even though they lamented not having a better way to save them. To these teachers and one yesterday, I mentioned I'd be happy to help them set up a Delicious account so they could organize all their favorites by topic and access them from any Internet capable device.

Now keep in mind, our librarian and I have been singing the praises of Delicious, Diigo and Sqworl for more than a year, I have created a page with instructions and videos on social bookmarking on our tech tips wiki, and I have made several references to it in email messages. However, for these teachers what we were offering wasn't connecting with them until they found themselves in need of the solution. Because I happened to be there in their time of need with just the information they needed and was able to present it in a personally tailored message, they can now see how social bookmarking could become a useful tool for them.

So what are the lessons learned? First of all, I have learned (again) that sending out emails and posting information on a blog or wiki is not enough. I must get up out of my chair and go to where I can interact face to face with people. Only this way will I truly be able to ascertain what they need. Second, I have learned (again) that teaching only works if the learner has a need to fill and is receptive, which goes back to lesson one, correctly identifying individual needs. And finally, I have learned (again) that when I am the learner I need to let my would be teachers know what I need to know and how they can best help me.

Our Amazing PLC Team Challenge

Maybe you have heard of or seen The Amazing Race, a CBS television show. I haven't watched the program but from promos I have seen I get the sense that teams have to travel from place to place and complete some tasks along the way rather like the scavenger hunts we used to do for entertainment as kids. It is with this idea in mind that my colleague and I designed this morning's hour long technology staff development activity.

Our goal was to expose our teachers to a number of available technologies in a way that encouraged them to learn from each other in a non-threatening way. We came up with the idea of assigning a different series of tasks to each of four teams. We hoped that accomplishing the tasks together would give them experience with procuring and using the various equipment we have and teach them some skills they could use in their classrooms with their students. And so that all the participants could benefit from what each of teams learned, we challenged them to come back and use the technologies to present what they had discovered to their peers.

As it is in every school our staff has a wide range of comfort levels and experience using computers and digital technology. We decided to group the teachers for this challenge in their newly formed Professional Learning Committees. Looking at these groups we could see that each group had some early adopters, some willing followers, and at least one novice or technophobe. It seemed like the best way to go. With any luck the teams would work together, learn some new things and have a positive technology experience that would bolster their confidence, increasing the likelihood they be able to see way to use it in their lessons.


Here are the challenges we devised:

Team 1: Checked out a document camera and an LCD projector. They were to take these to a classroom and come up with ways to use the camera to teach a lesson with pattern blocks and read aloud a picture book.

Team 2: Also checked out a document camera and an LCD projector. This team was directed to use these tools to demonstrate an activity and to show student work.

Team 3: Found a YouTube video related to a unit they were currently teaching and went to our tech support wiki to find ways to show that video to a class on an interactive white board without actually showing it in YouTube.

Team 4: Checked out a laptop cart, logged into the laptops, took a screenshot depicting the drive where they would save if they were students, pasted it into a Word document and printed it to the media center printer, which they had to find and add.

It's likely you're thinking these are pretty elementary tasks, but for most of our teachers these were fairly new experiences and they only had a half an hour to complete them before returning to the media center where they shared their stuff using the IWB, document camera, and LCD projector. I am quite pleased to report they all did an amazing job completing their tasks and most followed the given directions. Team 1 showed us their pattern lesson, but then they went on to tell us how they would be able to take the camera around to project what individual students would do on the floor as that's where they usually work with manipulatives. Team 2 decided expand on their assigned to use a digital camera to take photos of each other using the demonstrating how students would use the document camera. Team 3 demonstrated how to paste a YouTube link into SafeShareTV to show the video without all the YouTube distractions, and Team 4 proudly displayed their printed screenshots. They also relayed what they had learned about how students might feel when logging into the laptops...some get in quickly while others aren't able to and may fall behind if the teacher goes ahead with directions.


When asked if they had learned something they hadn't known before, all the teachers raised their hands. When asked if they had learned something they could use with students right away, most raised their hands. When asked if they had fun, almost all raised their hands. The best question I heard at the end was, "When can we have another one of these?" Yes! I hope the answer is, "Soon."

Reflect and resolve -- Twitter's impact

Created by Oatmeal

This morning I sent out a Happy New Year message to my teachers with a link to How to Survive 2010-Digitally explaining how I had learned more and been able to support them better in the last year than ever before because of my new found connections via Twitter, RSS feeds and blogs. I encouraged them to explore Ozge Karaoglu's suggestions for new year's resolutions. Ozge's resolutions are approachable, not only because they are few in number and reasonably achievable, but also because she has shared several links to helpful, user-friendly resources.

How did I come across Ozge's wonderful post? Through Twitter (via @AuntyTech,) of course! As you can see by my "Twitter addiction score" I am not yet entirely consumed. I use Twitter primarily for professional connections, though I am beginning to find it useful for some personal and civic interests as well. But I must agree with Ozge's assertion that "Twitter has been undoubtedly the best tool I started using in 2009..." My 280+ Twitter connections to delightful, smart, engaging and generous individuals and groups have become invaluable to my professional and personal growth. Without them I would have had a hard time finding the all wonderful blogs that feed my Google reader and I certainly would not have had access to as many resources to share with my staff.

My goals for 2010 are:

• to improve and strengthen my PLN connections
• to look for new ways to support my teachers at their individual comfort levels using technology in their classrooms
• to nudge each of my teachers to a higher level of engagement with the content they're teaching using technology

so that teachers and their students will benefit from more opportunities for collaboration with each other and engagement with the world.

Learning to use Picasa

Got a little spare time and some photos to organize or share?

Here again are direct links to Atomic Learning video tutorials. These lessons demonstrate how to begin to use the free online photo editing and sharing tool Picasa 3.5. In addition to these tutorials, the Atomic Learning Picasa series has many more showing how to add labels, edit and share photos. While the first couple of links in this list may be freely viewed, you must be signed into Atomic Learning to view the others.

• Picasa 3.5
  
  
  
  • A. Get Started
    
    
    
    • Downloading Picasa 3.5
    
    
    • Exploring the Picasa interface
    
    
    • Importing photos from a digital camera
    
    
    • Importing photos from a removable drive
    
    
    • Importing screen captures
    
    
    • Adding photos from a folder on your hard drive
    
    
    • Controlling how folders are monitored
    
    
    • Selecting which file types are displayed
  
  
  
  
  • B. Organize
    
    
    
    • Organizing photos in folders
    
    
    • Editing Folder properties
    
    
    • Creating a new album
    
    
    • Adding photos to an album
    
    
    • Deleting photos from an album
    
    
    • Editing Album properties
    
    
    • Sorting photos
    
    
    • Sorting albums and folders
    
    
    • Hiding and unhiding folders
    
    
    • Hiding and unhiding pictures
    
    
    • Password-protecting a collection
    
    
    • Deleting photos
    
    
    • Recovering deleted photos
    
    
    • Renaming photos
    
    
    • Searching for photos
    
    
    • Viewing Photo properties
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Managing the Digital Classroom

I LOVE this Voicethread conversation posted by Jeff Utecht! The 33 participants are teachers at International School Bangkok completing their fourth COETAIL (Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy) course. These teachers are doing a terrific job of exploring ways to use the technology they have available to offer life-relevant learning experiences for their students and sharing what they have found, whether successful or frustrating, using a free tool collaboration tool that just about any teacher with Internet access can use in his or her classroom.

This is a fantastic example of using a tool you're trying to master to share with others what you know. Did I say that right? What I want to convey is that we need to use the tools we have at hand for every professional development exercise. I am no expert but I believe teaching someone how to use an application or gadget just so they know how to use it will not be as effective as using an application or gadget to teach a life or professional skill.

Anyway, watch, read, listen to this conversation* about how to manage technology gadgets in your classroom. I can assure you. You will come away with more information and understanding than you have now. Thank you, Jeff for sharing!


*If you are using a Windows PC and wish to make the screen bigger, type Ctrl/Shift/+ until the screen is large enough. If you have an Apple computer substitute the Apple Command key for Ctrl.

ActivInspire tutorial videos from Atomic Learning

I am trying something new. Atomic Learning now features direct link sharing to subscribers, so because we have installed 10 new Promethean ActivBoards this year I am embedding links to their ActivInspire videos. (Note: the first three links are active without an Atomic Learning account. You must be logged into AL for the rest of the links to work.) My plan is to direct our teachers to this site as kind of a one stop AL ActivInspire shop. My hope is that readers will find the videos helpful as well as see yet another way blogs can be useful. My fear is that the formatting AL provides in its code make the list look long and intimidating. What do you think?

• ActivInspire Studio - Professional
  
• A. ActivInspire Intro
  
• Introducing ActivInspire and the Dashboard


• Using the ActivInspire Studio window


• B. ActivInspire Studio Basics
  
• Creating a flipchart


• Using the Main Toolbox


• Opening and viewing a flipchart


• Importing a flipchart from PowerPoint^®


• Importing a flipchart from other types of files


• Changing the page view & using page zoom


• C. ActivInspire Studio Browsers
  
• Introducing browsers


• Using the Page Browser


• Using the Resource Browser


• Using the Object Browser


• Using the Notes Browser


• Using the Property Browser


• Using the Action Browser


• Using the Voting Browser


• D. Flipcharts
  
• Writing on a flipchart


• Adding and formatting text


• Inserting and deleting pages


• Inserting a snapshot of your desktop


• Inserting resources


• Adding a resource to the Resource Library


• Using grids


• Showing and hiding grids


• Using the Grid Designer


• Creating page notes


• Saving and printing a flipchart


• Publishing flipcharts


• Adding an image to a flipchart


• Adding a link to a file or Web site


• Editing and removing links


• Adding sound to your flipchart


• Inserting a movie


• E. Objects
  
• Adding shapes


• Changing the size of a shape


• Changing an object's shape


• Grouping and ungrouping objects


• Copying, pasting and duplicating objects


• Cutting and pasting


• Deleting text and objects


• Introducing layers


• Stacking objects


• Adding labels


• F. Action & Interaction
  
• Creating Containers


• Creating Restrictors


• Adding a Command action


• Adding a Page action


• Adding an Object action


• Adding a Voting Action


• Applying an action using drag & drop


• Using Express Poll


• Using the Insert Question Wizard for prepared questions


• G. Resources
  
• Inserting templates


• Inserting a resource into the Resource Library


• Importing Resource packs


• Exporting Resource packs


• H. Tools
  
• Annotating over the desktop


• Using Desktop tools


• Using the Camera


• Using the Clock


• Using Handwriting Recognition


• Using Shape Recognition


• Using Magic Ink


• Using Tickertape


• Using the Revealer


• Using the On-screen Keyboard


• Using the Spotlight


• Using Teacher Lock


• Using the Dice Roller


• Using the Calculator


• Using the Ruler


• Using the Protractor


• Using the Compass


• Setting the XY Origin


• Using the Connector tool


• Using the Screen Recorder


• Using the Sound Recorder


• Accessing the Web browser


• Spell-checking your flipchart


• I. Profiles
  
• Changing your profile


• Customizing the layout


• Customizing the Main Toolbox


• Defining your own buttons

A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School

I know...I have been away for a LONG time. While I know I need not offer excuses I do want to explain that the month before school begins again is a crazy time for techs, so when I haven't been working I have been attending to the rest of my life (including that entertainment piece of it referenced in my last post.) But now that it is the first day of school, I am easing my way back into my professional connections and thinking about how to move myself and my collegues to our next steps. Check out this SlideShare Presentation from Sacha Chua:

A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School

View more documents from Sacha Chua.

I'm an Ambivalent Networker

This is what the Pew Internet & American Life Project has determined about me:

"If you are an Ambivalent Networker, you have folded mobile devices into how you run your social life, whether through texting or online social networking tools. You also rely on ICTs for entertainment. At the same time – perhaps because of the volume of digital pings from others – you may sometimes find all your connectivity to be intrusive. You are confident in your ability to troubleshoot your various information devices and services."

Not sure what I think about that...I don't think I RELY on ICTs for entertainment, but maybe I do. It depends on how entertainment is defined. I love to garden, walk and play with my dog, spend time with friends, knit, curl up with a good book. None of that is reflected in the above analysis. When I am not doing any of those things, then yes, I would say I enjoy sitting in front of a ballgame on TV, dog snugged up against my hip, computer on my lap with Twitter, Facebook, Tetris all going at once. Could I do without most technologies in my personal life? Probably, but I have to say have them makes it easier to connect with my far away family and colleagues and I would miss these connections if they were no longer available.

What Kind of Tech User Are You?


Posted using ShareThis

25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals 2009

Check out this SlideShare Presentation from Jane Hart. I am affirmed when I see I already use a number of these tools and challenged to try a few more.

25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals 2009

View more OpenOffice presentations from Jane Hart.

The right tool for the job at hand

While I have been away from blogging for awhile, I have not been idle by any means. I have been out exploring other social web environments. I now have a Facebook account, an ooVoo account and even a Zootoo account and it's been fun! Why shouldn't it be? Just as children learn by exploring unknown places, trying new things and playing with friends then adults can learn that way, too.

The one serious tool I have been checking out is Diigo. Diigo has a huge following among educators and I can see why. Teachers by nature love to share not just what they read, but also their insights on the piece or topic. Diigo allows you to highlight sections of text and make your own comments on "sticky notes" before bookmarking a site. Also, when saving, Diigo offers a variety of sharing options. You can save it to a list you've made, either public or private; you can share it to a group; you can "Twitter" it; and/or you can send it out via email.

In Diigo you can have and meet friends, form and join groups, and browse communities of people who have annotated the same articles you have or use the same tags you do. And as in other social networks, you can upload a photo, build a profile and choose how much or little to disclose about yourself. I can see where with Diigo along with Twitter and blogging, one could certainly construct a solid network for professional development and support, but that's not quite what I need from a bookmarking site. That's why I think I will be going back to using Delicious as my primary bookmarking tool.

Delicious is better at meeting my needs because I am not a teacher and I don't spend a lot of time and energy analysing and extrapolating material. I do support teachers and want to provide them with as many useful resources as I can and I want to collect bookmarks in an orderly, easily accessible place. Delicious works for this purpose. I keep my tags simple and purposeful. This teachers can look at my bookmark collection and know exactly what they'll find. Using the tags we can search broad topics or drill down to specifics. When asked I can send out my list of links for math games for primary students or online science museums for field trips. I group and regroup sites by any number of related tags and post the links to these collections on my technology support wiki. Then as I add sites to those tags in Delicious I know the wiki links will show the newly added sites. All these features may be possible in Diigo, but from my perspective Delicous is more straight forward about them. Diigo will be a great tool for people who want to utilize the community benefits of learning together with bookmarking, but Delicious is a better resource for me to serve my staff at this point.

Now...having said all of that...My Diigo bookmarks are set up to save to my Delicious, so I could keep using Diigo and the staff could keep finding my bookmarks in Delicious. The trouble I have found with this plan is Diigo hasn't been able to "learn" my tags. Delicious is wonderful at suggesting the tags I already use when I am ready to save. Diigo, on the other hand, rarely suggests my existing tags and I end up trying to remember, opening up Delicious anyway to look, and many times just missing tags I would normally when I save there.

Additionally, Delicious allows me to sort my tags alphabetically. Diigo is missing that feature. As someone who alphabetizes the spices in her cupboard and I can't imagine a database that can't be alphabetized. Conclusion: Diigo is tasty, but my primary social-booking tool will remain Delicious.

21st Century Educator

This SlideShare Presentation by Kim Cofino is a powerful depiction of my professional growth the last three months. I find it uncanny the path I thought I was exploring nearly alone since I began to use just a few social learning tools at the beginning of the year is mirrored over and over again in the stories of others. Turns out, of course, that my journey isn't original or self-generated at all. It's exciting and exhilarating to know so many people in education are discovering the benefit of learning with each other for the benefit of the our students.

21st Century Educator

View more presentations from Kim Cofino.

How has this happened? What is the driving force? Four months ago I was where most of my fellow staff members are, not seeing any need nor having any want to step out into the unknown world of social networking and web 2.0 applications. Each person must find that spark that's going to offer just enough light to see the possibilities, just enough heat to ignite a flame of desire to explore and expand this new horizon. It's likely not going to be the same for everyone, but I will make it my job to nudge and encourage wherever and whomever I can. Our kids deserve it.

TTS, Text to Speech: ImTranslator

Playing with this widget...I'd like it to fit better in the right side bar. The voice is good. Would love to know if anyone else uses it.

Constructivism and Technology: Creative Web Tools

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Creative Web Tools For and By Kids is a slideshow presentation given at the CUE (Computer Using Education) 2009 conference.

Constructivism and Technology: Creative Web Tools

View more presentations from jgerst1111. (tags: participatory education)

One of the things I like about this presentation is the representation of teachers as co-learners. With the exponential rate at which technology is advancing and the amount of information is increasing, there is no way any one person can know everything needed to know to be an expert for more than a moment. We will do our students the greatest service if we allow them to see us explore and learn right along with them. And what is the best way to learn something? Why to teach it, of course. So there you have it...teachers who are learners are teachers and learners who are teachers are learners.

A vendor who "gets it"

My favorite blogger this week in Michael Summers. His blog SMaRT Education Initiative-1 to1 shows amazing insight into the challenges teachers and school face when attempting to teach with technology. Not a teacher but certainly a educator, Michael understands that teachers who don't use tecnology in their classrooms aren't backward or lazy. They just don't see how the technology available fits into the learning processes happening in their classrooms. He believes "it doesn't matter what we put into our classrooms, meaningful technology integration cannot work and will not work unless and until teachers are a part of the design process at the outset because teachers, not technology, will dictate the success of our efforts." And in order for teachers to want to be involved in the design process they must know "why technology is important; why technology is meaningful, why technology engages our students and why technology improves student outcomes. Because if [they] don't get beyond why, [they]'ll never get to how."

Standing up and telling or even showing teachers why and how isn't going to move them to adoption. No, teachers learn by doing and teaching. We must give them models to follow, opportunities to explore and practice, success and failures to share. New and improved equipment would certainly be a plus, but with limited resources it is not always an option.

Michael is a vendor whose job it is to sell technology to schools, but he argues, "Sometimes scarcity and lack are a good thing. It forces you to make better decisions, to focus on what's really important and to make better use of what you have. In the case of technology, some schools and school districts are woefully underfunded and the technology just isn't there or the technology that is there is out of date and hopelessly obsolete. But in many schools and school districts, the threshold issue isn't really the absence of technology, or the amount of technology, but how the technology that is already there is being used. Is this technology being used as a 21st century learning tool to promote deeper, more meaningful interaction with the subject mater, increased classroom collaboration and communication, more student-driven, project-based learning, innovative instructional practices and more differentiated instruction?"

Sometimes, I know I have been caught in this, we confuse of 21st century learning with 21st century tools. Here we have someone whose job it is to sell us the tools reminding us that whatever tools we have or use, our primary task is to teach 21st century skills.

"Using technology in the classroom is a mindset, not a skill-set."
Kim Cofino is my new favorite blogger. This 21st Century Literacy Teacher writes prolifically, proficiently and enthusiastically. What makes me so excited about her is that she describes everything she is doing with students and teachers in such understandable detail, it's impossible not to want to jump in and try everything she's doing at her school.

My own blogging efforts are at the other end of the comparative spectrum currently. I have spent so much time at work over the last couple of weeks installing testing software, running updates and performing maintenance tasks on the school computers and most of my non work time on projects around my house that I have been able to form complete thoughts about where to start or with direction to pursue when the teachers and students come back from their break this week. All I have are snippets of ideas picked up here and there and dropped into Evernote and they're just too jumbled up to sort at the moment.

It has been cathartic getting my personal stuff done; all the recipe clippings, articles and papers in little piles have been duly filed or tossed. The spring cleaning is pretty much complete, so as soon as the snow melts I'll be able to dig into the garden without guilt. But the mundane tasks at work have been mind numbing. I could easily conclude that a chimp could do it, but since I won't give out the administrative passwords to anyone, even chimps, I guess I am consigned to do it myself until they hire someone else in the tech department. Huh!

There has been a bright spot on the technology discovery scene. I am still considering what a classroom application might be, but for fun, blip.fm has been a treat. Ever listening to the radio, watching TV or reading an article and come across a song or artist you'd like to hear again or know more about? This site is a social music site. No music is downloaded to you computer, instead the site plays the songs you select from their servers. The social part of it is that you can access other members' play lists and it's like twitter. When you "blip" a song the word goes out to others and you and they can listen and/or add it to play lists. This is really crude explanation, best to go there and explore.