tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125280972024-03-07T14:31:40.049-05:00From an Instructional Technology SpecialistThis blog is focused on the use of technology and education. The thoughts here may sometimes be <i>Pie In The Sky</i>, but I hope they are helpful.Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1154044872698611212006-07-27T20:00:00.000-04:002006-07-27T20:01:38.876-04:00Posting in another placeI have started simply using our <a href="http://itscommunity.blogspot.com/">ITS community blog</a>. One blog to rule them all :)Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1144611558956850532006-04-09T15:37:00.001-04:002006-07-03T21:46:36.706-04:00Moving onFor work we have decided to move our Blog to the following <a href="http://itscommunity.blogspot.com/">Blog</a>. I am going to try to become a bit more focused in the up coming months to make an effort to post at least monthly. So change your RSS Feeds.<span class="down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span>Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1138923602303046002006-02-02T18:07:00.000-05:002006-09-07T20:57:23.660-04:00Lessig to Speak at RITIf anyone is interested in the concepts of <a href="http://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons</a> and Free Culture and lives near <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=rochester+new+york">Rochester, New York</a> you should mark your date book for March 24, 2006, from 9AM-11AM since <a href="http://www.lessig.org/blog/">Lawrence Lessig</a> will be speaking at the <a href="http://www.rit.edu/">Rochester Institute of Technology</a>! I happened to run across this in <a href="http://honors.rit.edu/%7Ewiki/index.php/Main_Page">RIT's wiki</a>.<br /><br />This leads me to another interesting story about how funny life can be. I was on my way to buy an <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipod">iPod</a>, which I have debated on for over a year, and overheard an Apple store employee talking about a class at RIT. They were talking about a class called <a href="http://honors.rit.edu/%7Ewiki/index.php/Film_as_Literature%2C_Literature_as_Film"><span style="font-style: italic;">"Film as Literature, Literature as Film"</span></a>. This sparked my interest due to the<a href="http://boces.streaming.monroe.edu"> BOCES Streaming project</a>. I thought what a great connection to help us in our use of streaming media in the classroom. The fact that film can be a form of literature is not only interesting to me, but is something that I believe.<br /><br />So needless to say I jumped at the chance to talk to this person. After a little bit of conversation I managed to get an email to try to connect with the RIT Professor. After writing the RIT student and receiving a reply with an email for the Professor and a link to the RIT wiki, I began to check out who the professor was. Needless to say I found that he had similar interest and now I am waiting for an email reply. Anyways enough of that rambling I want to share one last thing.<br /><br />Reading out here on the web for me is nothing new, but RSS has put a great spin on it for me. Instead of reading some great article in a magazine or hearing about something on the news I am finding that I can stay on top of things much easier with blogs that are interesting to me. Point in case while reading blogs last night I found that there was a <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beta_version">beta </a>release of Internet <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/default.mspx">Explore 7</a>! As with anything in beta you wonder a little and then download it hoping you don't make your computer explode! So far I think it is pretty nice, I don't think I will be moving away from <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/">Firefox </a>anytime soon. It is nice to see what is coming from <a href="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft </a>as they are always very creative with their software. Any way check out the <a href="http://static.flickr.com/31/94697794_9ee49b0490.jpg?v=0">screen </a><a href="http://static.flickr.com/21/94354532_ecae8f58f5.jpg?v=0">shots</a>!<br /><br /><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Lessig+RIT" rel="tag">Lessig RIT</a>Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1137030790424017832006-01-11T20:31:00.000-05:002006-01-11T20:53:10.463-05:00Wicked WikipediaSome of you may have seen the recent <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm"> Siegenthaler</a> issue on the news as it relates to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">Wikipedia</a>. I have to say that it disappoints me that people abuse those things that are out there trying to increase the collective knowledge of mankind. After a few different people questioning me on this I thought that there had to be something out there that showed Wikipedia wasn't the only source that is open to this. To my surprise I did find an interesting incident out there that happened to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_hoax">scholarly journal</a>. (I am liking to the Wikipedia article please cross reference other sources.) This was followed by an interesting Podcast found by Brian from a group of 3rd and 4th graders in their <a href="http://bobsprankle.com/blog/">Room 208 Podcast</a>. The students made some great points on how information should be cross referenced and that sources have different levels of validity. This is a huge lesson for students. I know that there are college students that don't understand this. If this lesson sticks with half of the students in Room 208 then it is a worth while lesson. I am see Wikipedia as a great resource as are many websites. However the scholar in me knows that I have to check other sources whether they support or undermine my hypothesis or ideas. This is something that we need to teach our students in all of the things they read whether they are those great library databases or Wikipedia.Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1132361327956000632005-11-18T19:32:00.000-05:002005-11-29T14:24:29.893-05:00Links of InterestI haven't been reading my list of blogs a lot lately, but today I sat down to read the news. I subscribe to the BBC and found some interesting articles. They really relate to what we are constantly asking and looking at.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4403574.stm">US youths use internet to create</a><br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4400148.stm">Sony slated over anti-piracy CD</a><br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4402442.stm">Microsoft scans British Library</a><br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4403388.stm">Google posts first books online</a><br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4401136.stm">Internet phone calls on the rise</a><br /><br />So what are these things and why do they have an impact on us as educators? Each article has its own implications. Talking about students as creators seems the most significant to me. Fostering these types of activities and allowing them to be done in the educational context seems to be the place we should hope that education goes. This article also relates to the article about Sony. Will our students allow this type of restrictions on the media that they purchase legitimately? It seems to me that this type of thing shouldn't be needed. If we as educators obey copyright laws and teach our students about these things we can make a difference. By speaking up to Microsoft, MGM, Sony, and other companies who use Digital Rights Management (DRM) that is prohibitive to our rights as consumers, maybe we can change their practices. These companies are being reactive in and not proactive when it comes to these problems. Maybe if they helped consumers understand the laws that they want us to support then perhaps they would have more compliance, or perhaps the laws could change.<br /><br />The two articles about digitizing libraries are simply interesting and something to keep an eye on. Especially if you are a member of <a href="http://www.live.com/">Microsoft's Live Network</a> or <a href="http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en">Google's Personalized homepage</a>. Since I am betting that both of the libraries will require some type of login.<br /><br />The last link is interesting since it seems that maybe someday we won't have to buy separate services for things such as our cell phones, home phones, web, and TV service. Also the simply fact that the globe is shrinking due to these things makes for an interesting future! Oh and one last link to another VOIP client that is similar to Skype, but different it is called <a href="http://www.gizmoproject.com/">Gizmo</a>!Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1130971540325966892005-11-02T17:45:00.000-05:002005-11-18T20:07:47.680-05:00Local News Team BlogSo now here in little old Rochester, New York there are actual news teams working on <a href="http://www.13wham.com/news/blogs/">blogs</a>. So the blog world is now seeing small news venues enter the fold of the "blogosphere"!Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1130702692196045182005-10-30T15:04:00.000-05:002005-10-30T15:04:52.203-05:00Testing Out a WidgetI have to say that the more I use different features of different computers the more I wish that certain things were consistent across platforms. Take the <a href="http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/">Widgets</a> on OS X from Apple. They really can save you time from doing certain tasks that you would be doing from somewhere else on your machine. For example right now I am posting this from my Dashboard. This is similar to the different applets in <a href="http://www.redhat.com/en_us/USA/fedora/">Linux</a> that allow you to do certain tasks quickly. It is always amazing to me the new things that you can find while your are roaming the web. I know that the Dashboard feature has been out for a while, but until recently I couldn't place my finger on how I might use it. Now with it being something that has matured a little I am going to reinvestigate this. I am really going to be curious what <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx">Vista</a> is going to look like and how the new 64 bit chips are going to change things. Well have to wait and see. That's enought for a Sunday post. I have a feeling that I am going to start using this more often.Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1130173935153534862005-10-24T12:42:00.000-04:002005-10-24T14:00:27.720-04:00Links of InterestWell I have been working on some different things and I have run across a lot of interesting things. One of the things that I am really interested in is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gis">GIS</a> (Geographical Information Systems). It is amazing the amount of different tools that allow you do look at the world from different angles and with different data. The main reason that I am interested in this is because I think that it can be very powerful to be able to manipulate information and make correlations between different pieces of information especially when it comes to looking at the world. For example I was in a session on using <a href="http://www.marcopolo-education.org/home.aspx">MarcoPolo</a> and the teacher showed us a lesson plan called the <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/03/g35/pizza.html">Geography of Pizza</a>. Now within about the first three minutes of looking over the lesson I had an idea of how to use something people are still learning about, that is <a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a>. Being able to access simple information such as where pizza shops are located seems to many to be insignificant, but you also need to be able to look at these types of information in a different way. For one you can ask the whys of where pizza shops are located as well as looking at the density of some in certain areas. Then you can also have students work with real maps to further explore different things that they might not see with the web page. Perhaps ideas of distance and the different ways of going somewhere depending on modes of transportation, for example why one route might be more accessible if I was riding a bike as opposed to driving a car. The simple use of Google maps is a great starting place for students to look at the world differently.<br /><br />There are also quite a few other possibilities when looking at GIS. Depending on the types of activities that you want to do determines what you might want to use. Another option out there that allows students to interact with data is a software program called <a href="http://www.esri.com/industries/k-12/docs/voyager.html#special">ArcVoyager Special Edition</a> from ERSI. This is an edition of ESRI's full GIS software which is ARC GIS. ArcVoyager Special Edition is a nice way to start with GIS. It allows you to take information from data sources, such as the <a href="http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/index.html">US Census Department</a>, and manipulate the different data sets. So what could students find out about their community and the surrounding areas? Economic trends can be looked at, location of specific types of landmarks could be looked at. The list of different ideas is only as limited as the data sets that are available, which shouldn't be a problem since most counties in the US have a <a href="http://www.monroecounty.gov/org420.asp?orgID=420&storytypeid=&storyID=&">GIS Service division</a>.<br /><br />Both of these services are easy to access and free. Not to mention the others that are out there. Here are two more that I haven't fully explored, but hope to soon one is the Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (<a href="http://grass.itc.it/">GRASS</a>), which is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source">Open Source</a> program, it doesn't run natively on Windows so this is a bit tougher to try. The other Open Source project is <a href="http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/">NASA's World Wind</a>, which I am excited to try. Anyways there are a few things that I have found and will be looking at in the near future.Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1116655494709047262005-05-21T01:58:00.000-04:002005-07-19T16:31:33.110-04:00Powerful TechnologyI have been checking out <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/">blogs </a>quite a bit lately. Since I don't get the paper here at home, and knowing the press here in the United States tends to be only one source of news I have made it a point to get my <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/">news </a>via blogs. I think it is interesting that I can do this, and the fact that I can do it <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/">anywhere </a>is nice too. I also frequently check a blog from a gentleman that has some of the same interests as I do about <a href="http://onebighead.blogspot.com/">technology and education</a>. He maintains blog with <a href="http://www.ipodder.org/">podcasts</a>, which he creates on his drive home. Today while waiting for a class to start I quickly checked out his most recent post. He mentioned in the post<a href="http://www.unitedstreaming.com/"> digital streaming</a>, Instantly I became intrigued. At work we have been working on creating our own streaming project and I had to pass along some general knowledge that I found while doing a little research on my own.<br /><br />I am personally a huge proponent of using streaming in the classroom. It offers so many different options to students and teachers. One thing that I do feel strongly about is that companies are taking advantage of schools by selling them streaming. Schools whether they realize it or not already have all the basic infrastructures to create their own library of digital media. They have the <a href="http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/streaming/">technology available</a>, the librarians who are experts in cataloging, curriculum experts, and usually the technology staff that can put the wheels in motion. The one thing they lack at this point is the ability to purchase media. How powerful could it be if schools worked together to achieve this. They can eliminate the middle man completely.<br /><br />Streaming in the context of education can lead to a lot of positive outcomes. To often when a video is put into the VCR some students have probably already seen the movie, even if they haven't seen it in the context that the teacher hopes to create. These students may simply tune out since he has already seen this movie. Other students while watching the movie may not be able to hear what is being said. These students instead of moving to where they can hear the movie, or ask to have the volume turned up, simply doodle on their notebook. Then there is the possibility that you have a student who is engaged until they miss something and if they were watching it alone they would rewind the movie. Would the teacher be able to do this? Most of us probably wouldn't since that means that 20 or so other students would be interrupted. Streaming allows for a paradigm shift in the way that movies are viewed. Instead of simply using streaming to show the movie to the whole class now teachers could create individualized media experiences. They could either have students choose from a preselected list of movies or they could allow the students to search the catalog themselves, after some guidance on how to do this of course.<br /><br />Technologies such as streaming media and other media delivered using Internet can be a powerful tool. Also within the context of the Internet students can become creators of media. More on that in the next post!<br /><br />Please feel free to comment on these posts. I know that I don't post a lot, but one goal I have for this coming school year is to make at least one post a month.Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1115607852669505522005-05-08T22:30:00.000-04:002005-05-26T08:37:21.496-04:00ITS MeetingWe had our last Instructional Technology Specialist meeting of the year. It always amazes me how much is out there on the Internet, as well as all of the tools that are available. We shared a few different concepts and ideas at the meeting that my co-worker and I thought would be of interest. We started out by showing the group the concept of <a href="http://www.ipodder.org/">Podcasts </a>and one <a href="http://onebighead.blogspot.com/">example </a>that related to our audience. I think that it is kind of funny that something that is promoted by a <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/curry.html">VJ from MTV</a> could be used by teachers in the classroom. We also shared the governments <a href="http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html">FREE </a>resource for educators. This site has a ton of information from over 30 different government organizations. This is a great site for finding resources for <a href="http://webquest.sdsu.edu/">WebQuests, </a>web based activities, or learning extensions for students. There were also a lot of different activities that were interactive explorations or simulations of concepts. The best part of course is that is free and available on the web. We also showed a web site that has teacher created lessons available from the <a href="http://www.title3.org/index.cfm">Madison Oneida BOCES</a> here in New York. The site is similar to the area that we are creating that would allow teachers to see what is being done in our local 10 component districts in relation to the use of technology.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wunderground.com/">Weather Underground</a> was also something that was shown. This site allows students to explore different weather concepts and see real live data. Of course there are the mandatory pop ups and adds on the site, but there is also a lot of interesting information on the site that a Earth science teacher might be able to use in their classroom. The entire site is devoted to the weather. It is really neat, even to a social studies guy like me!<br /><br />The last two things that were of some interest were <a href="http://www.adobe.com/education/curriculum/classroominabook.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Adobe's Classroom in a Book</span></a> publications. Adobe actually allows educators to download free copies of these materials for use in the class. Of course you have to agree to an end users agreement so that you aren't making millions of these copies. Someone from the group also shared the Voice Over IP program called <a href="http://www.skype.com/">Skype</a> which is a free. This is also of interest to me since the company that has created this is the same people that created Kazzaa, the Peer to Peer file sharing application. Now with a lot of phone companies and ISPs opening up to this technology it will be interesting to see where it goes, especially as cell phones with this capability start to emerge.<br /><br />This was a great meeting in my book we really had a nice time sharing information like this with the rest of our group, and hopefully we can make this a staple of these meetings.Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1115236812836547662005-05-04T15:49:00.000-04:002005-05-04T16:02:37.070-04:00Another DayI have to say that I was pretty surprised yesterday while I was looking around for information on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting">Podcasting </a>that there was as much on this within education as there was with a lot of other uses. I always wonder where and why technology is integrated in the classroom?<br /><br />Sometimes it seems that though the technology is out there and is being used the difficulty with using and implementing it into the classroom is really two-fold, where does it fit? As well as is are educators willing to try it? I don't think educators are really afraid of using technology, but rather all of the mandates that are out there for what needs to be done in the classroom makes one more thing the straw that slows down the camel.<br /><br />There are so many free and well design applications that have been released under <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html">GPL</a>, as well as the major software companies that I wonder if there is anyone out there really looking at how they are used and if that is even possible? Anyways just a few more thoughts, not much else for right now. Perhaps latter on I will share some of the stuff that I think should and can be done to create relevant learning opportunities for teachers to use technology. (Yeah I think that should be the focus of this blog:)Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1114783826366281392005-04-29T09:49:00.000-04:002005-05-03T12:13:34.606-04:00Interesting Thoughts and StoriesI am a big fan of <a href="http://www.wired.com/">WIRED </a>Magazine, which is a pop culture technology magazine. Two articles in the April 2005 issue that I found were interesting focused on education and technology. One article talked of MIT, AMD, Google, and News Corp. working together to create a <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/view.html?pg=2">$100 Laptop </a>that could be sold to schools. The thought of every student in every school in the United States having their own computer isn't as far off as we think.<br /><br />Another inspiring <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/robot.html?pg=1&topic=robot&topic_set=">article </a>was about a group of students from Arizona who competed in a <a href="http://www.marinetech.org/rov_competition/index.php">competition </a>to build an underwater robot. Here is a group of <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/falconroboticsrov/">High School students </a>who competed in the highest level of the competition with an $800 budget, and beat MIT with their $11,000 budget! Not only was money limited, but reading about the creativity that students used as they ran into problems was very exciting. This is one great example of how students can engage in the higher level thinking skills. In this instance technology may have been central to their learning, but there are other ways of making technology simply the means.Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12528097.post-1114781713532259052005-04-29T09:21:00.000-04:002005-04-29T09:35:13.533-04:00First PostThis is the first post in this blog. I thought that it would be a good time to tell you a little about the goal of this. I really want to be able to use this blog as a place for learning for me and other people that I teach. The idea of opening Blogging to students and classrooms is something that is integrating to me. The ability to have students think about their learning using something like this opens up a world of possibilities. Technology and the ways that it can be used are vast and forever changing. The use of technology in the classroom is something that must evolve as technology evolves. However we can't loose the focus of what it is we are teaching or why it is we are teaching. Educating students to be life long learners in what it is they are interested in should always stay the focus, technology is just another tool to help students learn.Tadgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13797874602542171391noreply@blogger.com0