Thankfully this doesn’t happen too often, but this afternoon I found myself frustrated by a series of problems relating to scanning a document. Our family owns a HP PSC 1350 “All in One” printer / copier / scanner, and we’ve been generally pleased with its performance over the years. For some reason, however, HP has NOT updated the scanning software available for the PSC 1350 since Apple released OS 10.6 (”Snow Leopard”) in August this year. Since the default Apple “Image Capture” application will not work for some reason with this HP scanner, I’m still unable to use the scanning functionality of the device with any of the updated Mac computers in our home.

That fact alone is pretty frustrating, but today the situation was made worse by the fact I couldn’t get my virtualized versions of Windows XP to install and run the HP scanning software. I have an older version of Parallels for Mac, and the last time I had to scan a document (several weeks ago) I downloaded and used a trial version of the newer version of Parallels (required for use with Mac OS 10.6) to use HP scanning software. I have a still-functioning version of VMware Fusion as well, however, so today (because I didn’t want to pay $ to upgrade Parallels just to scan a single document) I tried to use my copy of VMWare. I hadn’t used it in awhile, so Windows wanted to install 61 new updates.

I skipped these updates for the time being, and just tried to download and install the HP drivers for my PSC 1350. The full software and driver installation package is over 300 MB, and sadly my small (10 GB) partition for my virtualized version of WinXP is running out of disk space. You’d think it would be a simple process to shut down the virtualized WinXP installation and simply increase the size of the virtual disk– but it’s not that simple with XP. VMWare lets users increase the size of a virtual drive, but it’s a pretty complex process to run a separate Windows program to resize the partition. I did not want to mess with such ridiculousness, so when I was on the edge of giving up on this simple task… just scanning a document… I remembered my Netbook running the Windows 7 release client.

According to HP’s instructions, the core faxing functionality of Windows 7 supports the PSC 1350 once a driver has been recognized, downloaded and installed. I plugged my HP PSC 1350 into my netbook running Win7, and eventually (it took a few minutes for some reason) it recognized that it needed to download a HP series 1300 driver. After that driver installed, I selected the included “Windows Fax and Scan” program from the START menu, under ALL PROGRAMS.

I next clicked NEW SCAN, and TIFF as my output format. The program did the rest.

I saved to the desktop, emailed it to myself, and was finished with my scan job. Back on my Mac, I used the built-in “Preview” application to convert the scanned TIFF to a PDF, and then saved that PDF to a folder along with 3 other PDFs I’d created on Friday. I then used Combine PDFs (freeware) to merge all four PDFs into a single document I could email. Mission accomplished.

I regret I had to resort to using a Windows operating system to scan my document today, but I really didn’t know where else to turn. Until HP chooses to update the scanning software they provide for the PSC 1350, it’s useless to me as a Mac-compatible scanning device. It prints fine from our Macs, but it won’t scan.

Thankfully, Windows 7 proved to be very friendly and easy to use today, when it “scanned to the rescue.” Glad I have a netbook!

I created the above Windows7 screenshots using the free and open-source program, Zscreen, which does support direct uploads to Flickr like Skitch does. It doesn’t support screensnap annotations the way Skitch does, but it worked reasonably well and fast.

Technorati Tags:
apple, hp, netbook, software, update, printer, driver, psc, 1350, psc1350, scan, scanning

This week Oklahoma educators participated in our 29th “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” workshop since 2008, and created some fantastic digital stories about the history, geography, and people of our great state.

Did you know Oklahoma is home to a growing black bear population and just had its first open hunting season for bears this year? Brad Hill used photos from his own game camera to create the 1 min, 17 second video, “Bears of Leflore County.”

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

When you think of tar pits, you might think of southern California and La Brea. You also should think of Lawton, Oklahoma! Alba Dissinger used her own photos to create and share the video “Fort Sill Tar Pit” to tell about this unique archeological site in Oklahoma.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Do you know the bison herd in Western Oklahoma in the Wichita Mountains was repopulated thanks to several bison sent from New York and the Bronx Zoo? These facts and many more are shared by Sydney Perry in her video, “Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.” Sidney used the free website drop.io to have friend and refuge docent Katherine Hunt narrate this six minute video using her cell phone!

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Kacey Kinsey leads a Girls’ Circle each week in the after-school program at her school, and it continues to make a HUGE difference in the lives of students who participate. Her video “Girls Circle” tells this story, including the voices of her students.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

What’s the longest marriage you’ve heard of? Michelle LeAnn Slay’s grandparents have been married for 70 years! Michelle used iMovie along with Audacity to create the touching video, “70 Years of Love and Marriage” during our COV workshop this week.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Isn’t it amazing to see the creative and powerful media messages Oklahoma educators can craft in an intensive, 2.5 day workshop on digital storytelling?! All these videos and more (494 in all, as of this writing) are available for FREE and OPEN access in our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices online learning community. Our collaborative storytelling efforts continue! Great work, Oklahoma educators!

Technorati Tags:
celebrate, digital, digitalstorytelling, history, marriage, oklahoma, story, storytelling, travel, voice, voices, geography, bear, bears, leflore, howe, wildlife, bison, mountains, celebration

Find more videos like this on NL Connect

Among many things, Alan says:

We need to redefine learners as contributors. This requires a fundamental shift in our thinking about schools. The toughest part is not teaching teachers to use technology… What I can’t do in an afternoon is help people become comfortable with shifting control… Global communicator, global researcher, tool builder, and internal collaborator (with Google Docs)… are the types of skills… essential in the workplace. We move from “teacher as boss”… to a model as “worker as collaborator… self-directed… knows how to do research… empowered…”

Alan cites Bob Sprankle and The Room 208 podcast in this video. He also cites Darren Kuropatwa and the model of scribe posts.

H/T to Brenda Dyck and Maryann Richardson for pointing me to the post, “Essential Education: “Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom” by Alan November,” where I found this video.

Technorati Tags:
change, education, reform, school, transform, transformation, alan, november

On November 18, the K12Online Conference is hosting a LAN party from 6:30PM to 8:30PM EST. We invite everyone to gather at the LAN party site with colleagues in order to view two past conference presentations and then engage in lively discussions in the EdTechTalk chatroom. The following presenters will be in attendance.

6:30 – 7:15pm Second Life: K-20 Educators Exploring Virtual Worlds – Panel

Kevin Jarrett and Sylvia Martinez

Kevin has been a K-4 Technology Facilitator at Northfield Community School in Northfield, NJ USA since 2003. In this role he is responsible for technology instruction in a lab setting for the entire elementary student body (540+ students). Rather than just “teaching computer class,” Kevin delivers engaging, informative, challenging and enjoyable lessons that integrate with content being taught by his classroom-teacher peers while leveraging state-of-the-art Web 2.0 and social media technologies. Kevin began exploring Second Life in early 2007 thanks to a $10,000 Faculty Excellence grant from Walden University where he teaches online, part-time. He works closely with ISTE via their presence in Second Life and helps to manage the very popular Tuesday night “Speaker Series”.…………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Sylvia Martinez is president of Generation YES, working to empower students in K-12 schools through digital technology. Sylvia has designed educational games, curriculum, and online experiences for teachers and students. Sylvia speaks and writes on subjects such as the use of technology, simulations and games to enhance educational opportunities and enable youth voice.

6:45 – 7:30pm Release the Hounds - Chris Harbeck

Chris Harbeck teaches grade 8 math to approximately 140 students each year. He has been teaching middle school students for over a decade and is in his fifth year of using 2.0 applications and “21st Century Learning” in his classroom. Despite the fact (or more realistically because of the fact) that math is one of those subjects students often reflect back on with distaste, fear or indifference, Chris has moved from teaching both social studies and math to the one subject. He has been involved in development of the middle years math curriculum at the divisional and provincial level. With his strong focus on conceptual understanding, Chris has discovered that using 2.0 tools and applications make math fun and interesting. An encouraging trend has emerged: students do not run away and saying “I hate math”; they love to do assignments and have started to see the beauty in math.

The EdTechTalk community will host this event at http://www.edtechtalk.com/live.
For questions or more information, contact Susan Van Gelder, Live Events Committee, at susanvg@mac.com or on Twitter at @k12online.

Cross-posted on the K-12 Online Conference blog.

Technorati Tags:
k12online, k12online09, pd, webcast, edtechtalk

We can’t have both. We can’t create a thriving, innovative, creative, vibrant learning environment and pair it with common standards supported by textbooks and assessed by standardized tests. The two ideas are diametrically opposed. To waste time and money attempting to force these two into a relationship would be as futile as Romeo and Juliet’s parents trying to keep them apart. And remember, in the end their kids died.

It is inevitable that students will learn . . . what is not so certain, is that they will do it within what we currently call “school.” They will find a way to generate environments much like the Meebo description – a place where they can thrive and think and explore and truly learn by doing.

Current educational “reform” is a smoke and mirrors distraction. For decades reform has been a series of piecemeal attempts to do the same thing we have always done, just differently. The real question, “Should we even be doing what we have always done?” is not being asked. What we need, is to reimagine school from the ground up, drawing on the truths we have learned about how humans learn. We need to take what we know about the power of environments that encourage and nurture creativity and innovation and not “reform” school, but finally begin to create what can honestly be called “school.”

I’m on that train with Greg. Better clear the track. We’re coming through.

Technorati Tags:
change, leadership, politics, school, standards, transform, transformation, test, naep, testing

Gizmo5 is a Web-based VoIP client that lets you make phone calls over the Internet, similar to programs like Skype. It’s based, however, on an open standard called SIP that fits a little better into Google’s worldview, rather than Skype’s internally-developed system.

Gizmo5 works on both PCs and mobile phones, and the technology will likely be used in some way to enhance Google Voice. Google Voice isn’t a VoIP client; it lets you use a single number to ring multiple phones and get voice mails transcribed into e-mail, but it does that over existing phone networks.

While detailed implications of this purchase are not available, it seems reasonable to speculate (especially given the fact that this announcement was shared on the “Google Voice” blog) that we’ll see some VoIP (Skype-like) calling features as well as videoconferencing capabilities added to the menu of communication options available for Google Voice users in the not-too-distant future.

AT&T wasn’t ready for or initially supportive of VoIP calls with the iPhone, and Apple has yet to approve the Google Voice iPhone application. According to the August 21st Reuters article, “Google Voice App Rejection: AT&T Blames, Apple Denies, Google Hides:”

AT&T and Apple told the FCC that they did have an agreement that Apple would not help iPhone owners use VOIP calling services like Skype on the iPhone. VOIP calls use the data, rather than the voice plan, and would cut into the companies’ profits. Thus, Apple and AT&T agreed to cripple the Skype iPhone app so it would only work when the iPhone used a Wi-Fi connection. The companies say they also agree not to let in apps that stream live television, which AT&T says would strain its network.

Given these historic reactions by AT&T as well as Apple, it seems reasonable to expect neither company will like the new developments which follow the Google acquisition of Gizmo5 either. Consumer responses, however, may differ markedly from these corporate reactions.

John C. Dvorak, writing for PC Magazine today, is all smiles for the moves we see Google making in the telecommunications world:

The notion of the IP routed free phone call has been openly discussed for a decade or more. You have to wonder if Google is the only company out there that is actually on the ball. It’s as if they have zero competition in the ideas department. Apple has a lock on handsome designs and the cool factor, and Microsoft has a lock on the mainstream OS, because it understands the concept of legacy computing. But who is as aggressive as Google?

Yahoo might have been able to create such a service, but the company lost its way when it went Hollywood under Terry Semel, and it has failed to reset itself. Yahoo could have done Google Voice.

Once it dawns on everyone what Google has really done here, you can be sure mediocre clones from companies like Microsoft will suddenly appear. But those products will almost certainly be polluted with notions like “free phone calls for $10 a month!” and other idiocies.

Once again Google has managed to make other tech companies look foolish. It’s a recurring theme.

“Kirk to Enterprise. One to beam up!”

Hat tip to my Mom for letting me know about the Gizmo5 acquisition by Google.

Technorati Tags:
google, purchase, skype, video, videoconference, videoconferencing, gizmo, sip, acquisition

According to the letter from Oklahoma State Superintendent Sandy Garrett:

Title II, Part D, Enhancing Education Through Technology, has received funds as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). These funds will be allocated through a competitive grant process. It is my hope this process will result in the transformation of classrooms around the state, with a focus on 1:1 learning environments in our middle and junior high schools.

To support the application process, the Oklahoma State Department of Education (SDE), in partnership with Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, will host the 1:1 Digital Classroom Project Applicant’s Leadership Conference, Monday, November 30, 2009, at Metro Technology Center, 1900 Springlake Drive, Oklahoma City. This conference will provide an in-person opportunity to ask questions of SDE education technology staff to assist potential applicants in clarifying their understanding of the scope and nature of the work required in this application. The conference is open to eligible applicants defined as a local educational agency (LEA) that serves eighth-grade students at a school site with at least 50 percent of children that qualify for Free or Reduced School Lunch Programs as identified by the October 1, 2008, child count.

This grant initiative promises to provide much needed funding and incentives to help Oklahoma school leaders equip educators as well as students with the skills and tools needed for success in the 21st century learning environment. Kudos to our state educational leaders for launching this initiative. We need 1:1 learning environments in all our schools, so it will be exciting to see which school district and campus leaders in our state step forward to embrace the opportunities offered by this grant initiative.

Technorati Tags:
1:1, 1to1, aalf, conference, laptop, learning, oklahoma, students, sde

I’m downloading the “Student Presentations” video, which is 203.7 MB on the site. Note the links also available on the site to Howe Public Schools, student Jackson Fall’s personal vodcast website and channel, the KC3 contest, the Storychasing Creativity project, Storychasers, and more. Also note the deadline for submissions for the OKC3 Project (Oklahoma Kids Create, Communicate, Collaborate) has been extended!

Kudos to Apple, UCO, Creative Oklahoma, and other organizers for providing this learning opportunity and the chance to download event video via iTunesU.

Technorati Tags:
apple, change, conference, content, creative, creativity, education, itunes, leadership, oklahoma, video, creativeok

“we need to make sure that networks work FOR THE USERS, not the IT department.”
99% of end-users have no concept of how IT/Networking works. It is the job of the IT department to ensure that the network continues to function first and foremost for legitimate educational purposes. While being a potentially great technology tool, it should not put other online educational applications at risk for failure simply because it’s the new “super cool” technology kid on the block. I’m also certain that taxpayers would be thrilled to know that they pay the salaries for educators to use skype/youtube/facebook/etc. for things that aren’t instruction related throughout the workday!
Enabling access to Skype for all users with clients operating in “SuperNode” mode is network suicide.

Here is my response, which I also left on that original post in the discussion thread.

Ricky:

Interesting I’m able to use Skype on numerous commercial and residential networks and those networks do not seem to have committed “network suicide.”

Skype has numerous “legitimate educational purposes.” I use it all the time for professional work as well as providing professional development. Many in IT are unaware of the educational benefits of Skype and similar desktop videoconferencing programs. One of the largest public school districts in our state decided in the last year not to order any webcams for any laptops that were going to be used by students, because they did not consider webcams to have any valid educational use. This perception is both false and unfortunate. Like any tool, a webcam can be abused. The inappropriate uses of a tool by a small minority of users should not result it the banning of the tool for use by all users. Sadly this is what we see time and time again in educational IT circles.

Of course you are correct that “online educational applications” should not be put “at risk” by other technology tools being used on networks with limited bandwidth. That is why our school / educational networks at the K-12 level need to look more like networks at our colleges and universities: Separate VLANs for public wifi, allocated bandwidth for institutional IT purposes, student/public use, etc.

I have never advocated the use of educational networks to distractedly watch YouTube videos all day long and social network using sites like Facebook. Users should be permitted to make these choices, however, and network use should be monitored and discussed with users. If a teacher is watching YouTube all day long instead of teaching his/her class at school, that’s certainly a problem and would be an ADMINISTRATIVE problem for the principal to address, not the IT department by banning all staff and students from using the website YouTube.

The decision to prohibit these destinations by the IT department is inappropriate censorship which can be more readily understood in a closed society like China, but not in an ostensibly free society like ours in the United States which values both free expression and open access to ideas.

Most of our school districts need far more bandwidth today than they have currently. We need greater involvement by state and federal government to make high speed Internet access more accessible and affordable in many areas, especially our rural communities. The differences in access and pricing for broadband in countries like Korea and Japan is stark when compared to the United States. We didn’t wait for corporations with ROI calculations to provide electrification for our rural communities in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. We formed co-ops which had governmental support to insure these needed services were supplied to all areas. We need to do the same thing with broadband.

Larry Lessig discusses the phenomenon we’re seeing here with IT administrators in his book, “The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World.” Technological tools provide great latitude for censorship in our organizational networks today. The availability and possibility of such censorship does not coincide with its propriety in a free and open society. Certainly we have limits and constraints on openness in our country, I am far from an anarchist and am not saying the IT department doesn’t have an important role to play in monitoring and at times regulating bandwidth utilization on the network. I am saying that blanket prohibition of sites like YouTube, Skype, Facebook, etc, is wrong and inappropriate in our educational institutions because it amounts to censorship above the paygrade of the IT department to mandate.

A few quotations to consider, thanks to the publisher of the Flickr photo above.

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.” — Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

Technorati Tags:
bandwidth, censor, censorship, danger, facebook, government, it, regulation, skype, youtube, department, supernode

This 2 minute and 6 second video has had over 71 million views to date. If your students have access at home to YouTube, chances are good many of them have seen this. My 11 year old now has part of this tune as a ringtone on his cell phone.

Isn’t it amazing we live in a day when someone can ask us, “Have you seen the Harry Potter puppet video?” and after a quick Google search we’re watching that video?

I explained to my six year old tonight at dinner that when I was growing up, we didn’t have access to YouTube or to the Internet. Her response was telling about her perceptions of media. She asked:

You mean you didn’t have any TV?

It’s a digital generation. Check out the Harry Potter Puppet Show on YouTube if you have not already. I wonder how many t-shirts the creators have sold as a result of this viral video, and how many advertisting dollars they’ve made? I bet it’s quite a few.

Neil Cicierega is the creator of “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” video, which (according to the English WikiPedia) is the 21st most viewed video on YouTube, ever. Way to go, Neil. Neil is also the inventor of “Animutation:”

Animutation features arbitrary, nonsensical scenes and pop culture imagery, are typically set to novelty or foreign music, often Japanese. Most of his [Neil's] early Animutations used music from the original Japanese version of Pokémon.

Hat Tip to our 15 year old babysitter, for the heads up on this viral video.

Check out more of Neil Cicierega’s digital creativity by subscribing to one or more of his five YouTube channels.

Technorati Tags:
video, viral, youtube, harry, potter, puppet, show, popular

Of course, if the original website is blocked (or if Untiny is blocked) you can always resort to using a proxy to bypass a content filter. Folks may think of proxy sites as just something students use at school to get to blocked websites, but that is not true: It’s also something that must be done in China by people of all ages (including yours truly) to access websites like my handouts site (on pbworks.com), Twitter, Bit.ly, my personal wiki (created with Google Sites), the K-12 Online Conference Ning, Our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices learning community (created with Ning), YouTube, and Diigo.

We need more than a campaign to simply “unmask the digital truth.” At some point in the not too distant future, I think we need to coordinate a collective action campaign to change school Internet filtering policies around the United States – and potentially in other countries where overly strict filtering policies are enforced. I’ve been thinking about this more since last week’s presentation for librarians in Norman, Oklahoma, who are easing restrictions in the Pioneer Library System for social networking sites, as well as my recent trip to China and wrangling with the “Great Firewall of China.”

H/T to A. Kiptka for the link to Untiny.

Technorati Tags:
block, blocking, censor, censorship, education, filter, filtering, school, schools, url, shortener, proxy

This means you can ask a question, and route survey participants to different survey pages and questions based on their answers. This is VERY powerful and useful for many purposes. I remember around 2002 helping a doctoral student in our college setup a survey for her dissertation using Dragon Web Surveys and Filemaker Pro. Commercial survey options have been available now for a few years, but those all cost money. A single user license for Dragon Web Surveys with Filemaker lists for $1899 US, and a copy of Filemaker Pro 9 is also required. Web-based survey companies charge far less, usually for a monthly subscription, but the dollars can still add up for these costs.

The price of branching surveys in Google Forms / Google Docs? FREE.

Among many other things tomorrow at the Google Workshop for Teachers in Austin, I’ll be helping participants learn how to create a self-grading quiz using Google Forms. Lisa Thumann is the lead leader for this workshop, and I’m thrilled to be assisting. This 5 minute YouTube video provides a tutorial on how to create a quiz as a Google Form.

This screencast, which is just under 10 minutes long, not only explains how to create a quiz but also how to make it SELF GRADING. This may sound a little misleading: With this method, students will NOT immediately be able to view the specific questions they got right and wrong. YOU, as the teacher, will be able to make the spreadsheet “grade” (evaluate) all the multiple choice questions in the quiz with this method. To do this, you will be able to copy / fill down simple formulas you create with the IF and AVG functions (just as you would in Excel or another spreadsheet application) once students have submitted their answers so the spreadsheet can grade responses for you. These steps are explained in the screencast!

Hat tip to Sarah Sutter, Alice Barr, Cheryl Oakes and Kern Kelly for including these resource links in their GWE online curriculum on Google Docs for ACTEM09.

Technorati Tags:
free, google, poll, survey, surveymonkey, branching, conditional, quiz

Cross-posted to the K-12 Online Conference Blog.

Technorati Tags:
k12online, k12online09, webcast

My 9 year old, Sarah, led this session several weeks ago in Maine at the ACTEM09 Conference. Thanks to TWiT Podcast 218, I learned this week (in advance of the session in Tonganoxie) that Google Profiles now officially permit users to assertively take some control over the results displayed when others search for names on Google. This is how my Google profile is shown at the bottom of search results for my name:

I showed and demonstrated this in today’s presentation. According to the Google Profiles website:

What do people see when they find you online? You can control how you appear in Google by creating a personal profile…

Help people find the right information when they search for you on Google.

Create a personal page that links to your blog and other profiles.

Keep family and friends up to date with your contact info and photos.

Google Profiles joins claimid.com and friendfeed.com as free sites which can be used to “stake your virtual claim” in cyberspace for your own digital footprint, similar metaphorically to the ways 3rd graders in many Oklahoma schools “stake claims” as they re-enact the land runs of the late 1800s in the United States.

Both Google Profiles (of course) and Friendfeed are owned and operated by Google. ClaimID is a service catering to online reputation management, defined on WikiPedia as:

…the practice of consistent research and analysis of one’s personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online media. It is also sometimes referred to as online reputation monitoring, maintaining the same acronym.

This is similar to but different from online identity management, defined as:

… online image management or online personal branding or personal reputation management (PRM) is a set of methods for generating a distinguished Web presence of a person on the Internet. That presence could be reflected in any kind of content that refers to the person, including news, participation in blogs and forums, personal web sites, social media presence, pictures, video, etc.

My Google Profile, Friendfeed page, and ClaimID website all contain similar links to sites to which I contribute periodically. Of these, my ClaimID page is the most comprehensive.

Another change from my presentation at ACTEM about “digital footprints” was the use of a video from EduTopia’s Digital Generation Project today. This fantastic video series includes ten videos about diverse youth around the United States who are using digital technologies for fun and learning. I heard Milton Chen talk about and share the Digital Generation Project last week in Hangzhou, China. Today I shared Virginia’s Story with our session participants. These videos are superb to use in sessions like this discussing Internet safety and digital citizenship. Virginia is a student of Vicki Davis in Camilla, Georgia.

I also drew a bit on some slides I’d prepared for librarians in Norman, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, in a session titled, “Digital Citizenship in Libraries: Constructively Leveraging the Power of the Social Web.” The complete Ustream video archive of that 2 hour session is available. During both Wednesday’s presentation for librarians and today’s digital footprint session for Kansas educators, I shared results from the 2008 study “Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies” by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States. This study, among other things, dispelled several “myths” about social networking and dangers youth face online.

We discussed but did not adequately answer the question, “At what age should students start publishing under their own, full name? We discussed the value of students posting under an “alias” before they are ready to post under their real name online, and then when they reach that stage of readiness “claiming” their aliased online identity to include past digital artifacts in their online, digital portfolio. This was a suggestion made by Ginger Lumen in her May 2009 presentation at PodStock, “Students as Self-Advocates: Why/How Learners Should Craft Their Own Digital Footprints.” In addition to Ginger’s provided wiki resources, a complete audio podcast of that session is also available. On the subject of digital citizenship, I also recommend Robyn Treyvaud’s presentation, “The Natives are Getting Restless: Growing Up and Learning in a Web 2.0 World.” I wish I’d remembered to share the YouTube video, “Digital Dossier” during our session today, as Robyn did in Hong Kong in September. This video speaks very well to our need to proactively monitor and craft our digital footprints.

The August 31, 2009, post “The Social Media Mullet” on Blogging 4 Jobs includes some interesting advice for the percentage of an adult’s digital footprint which should be allocated to professional posts and content relative to personal ones. H/T to MetroTech (OKC) for this link.

Resources from my keynote and both breakout sessions at TIC TAC are available from this link, which I shared via a free SMS business card using Contxts during our opening session in the morning. H/T to Karen Montgomery for sharing Contxts with me months ago. It’s a great way to provide others with a link to your presentation resources and handouts!

Technorati Tags:
google, management, profile, claimid, identity, reputation, sms, contxts

A link shared by one of our panelists today – COHE: Committee for Oral History Education

Comments from Larry O’Dell, Director of Collections, Oklahoma History Center Research Department

Every year we have a year-long exhibit, and we spend 2 years getting ready for that
- for any exhibit, we want to include an oral history element
- last year or exhibit was on Rock and Roll
- we use a crew and professional equipment to conduct interviews

I want to know as much about the subject as I can
- prior to interview: I have key points we want people to address and cover
- sometimes I ask one question and the person just “goes”

Most important thing: listening and letting people taking the time they need to say what they need to say
- trying not to interrupt

I am not there to show them what I know, I’m there to listen to them
- it’s not the interviewer, it’s about the interviewee

Comments from Mary Larson, Oklahoma Oral History Research Program, Oklahoma State University

You want to listen to what people are telling you
- even if you have a question list or outline
- listen to what people are telling you and respond to their answers to your questions

always write down questions with paper and pencil
- at a pause, ask your question
- don’t interrupt to get a point of detail, that will cause people to lose their focus 60-70% of the time

give people room to navigate
I worked at the Univ of Alaska Fairbanks
- worked a lot with native people and native organizational leaders, including elders
- sometimes when I asked a question an elder would start to answer and I’d think they were saying unrelated things, but they were not: They were giving me background to what they wanted to say and the point they wanted to make

Sometimes it does happen that an interview goes off the rails
- complete loss of control for the interview process
- if this happens, you can reel in the interviewee with a statement. Repeat a fact that they’ve addressed, and ask them for more detail or elaboration about that event/episode.

Journalists in general tend to be more aggressive and up front
- generally we are not trying to be that controversial
- because you’re looking for a particular person’s perspetive, you don’t want to argue with them or contradict them
- don’t mention the other people’s names if you bring up a contrary perspective
- say something like: “Well, someone else told me that Rocky the squirrel was responsible for bombing the popcorn plant.”
- bring it up in a non-controversial way: don’t argue, just ask for why they think something is different

If you are doing family histories, working in a small community, try to keep people from speaking in shorthand
- people have nicknames, people may not know who your “Uncle Stinky” was
- have people give you real names
- lots of acronyms in the federal government
- be sure if someone uses an acronym and you don’t know what it stands for, ask them
- there is no shame in action
- you can always say, “For the people who may be listening to this later, can you give some more background on….”

Always be respectful of the people you are working with, they are giving you a great gift by spending time talking with you
- do your background research, that is a sign of respect
- always be prepared

Comments from

It all boils down to repoire
- basic human skills of sitting down with another human being and drawing them out
- actual sitting down and doing the interview hasn’t changed since the first interviews were done
- bells and whistles / technology hasn’t changed this
- listening well, eye contact, nodding, smiling, pays off

I’ve done interviews with people across the spectrum
- no one has ever asked me where I am coming from on an issue
- you are spending time with them, getting to know them
- for elderly people, remembering names they know and events they lived in creates a bond, sometimes it creates a friendship
- the more comfortable the interviewee is with me, the more candid they are
- example of someone on the 3rd interview saying: “I’ve been giving it to you sugar coated, now I’m going to tell it to you how it was.”

Value of reflection and time, multiple interviews
- 2nd and 3rd interview, often draws out richer veins of information from individuals
- different ways to do this
- some people open up immediately
- others are shy, may feel they are betraying something by talking to you
- let them know they can impose legal restrictions on the interview and how it’s shared, can review the transcript

Question for the panel: What if the interviewee forgets something and gets stuck

- Photographs can be helpful
– think of peoples memories as a treasure chest, there are different ways to pick the lock
– different things can jog their memories
– I like interviewing people in their homes because often they have mnemonic devices all around them: memory cues on walls and tables

older people think of oral history interviews with names and dates, and thinks if they don’t remember those they will flunk
- if you prep those dates and talk about them first, that can help get those out of the way

Question: Better to interview at someone’s house or a neutral location
- be sure to control the sound environment as best you can
- ask people to turn OFF cell phones, not just silence them: with digital recorders now we have these interference issues that we never had with analog recorders

Equipment recommendations:
- built in recorder in Marantz recorder really works great (with analog recorders, built-in mics often picked up machine noise, that is not true now
- change batteries in recorders often to make sure nothing is lost
- Larry’s audio crew uses two mics: both a lavalier and a boom mic

Legal release forms generally give you rights to reuses your interviews in public presentations
- follow the golden rule
- many people love the public attention
- many in the Senate have wanted things to go up immediately, we don’t put things in our historical archive online that focus on people who are alive

cover your ethical and legal bases
- generally give people a chance to review and be involved in the possible uses for their oral histories
- have a very honest conversation with people about this

Technorati Tags:
audio, history, interview, oral, oralhistory, record, recording, interviewing

Donald A. Ritchie is the Historian of the United States Senate. See the WikiPedia entry for him for more background.

Oral history is as old Thucydides, as new as the latest digital recorder
- oral history is all about interviewing people who tell us what they saw
- oral histories pre-date the tape recorder
- interrogators during the Spanish Inquisition
- records of US revolutionary war soldiers recorded with notaries following the war
- interviews with former slaves, conducted by WPA workers during the Great Depression

Oral History become a term in the 1940s, article about Joseph Gould in the New Yorker, “going to interview the short sleeved multitude”
- turns out he never interviewed anyone
- lable “oral history” stuck

Oral History Research Office established by Professor of History Alan Nevins at Columbia University

Going to talk about background of oral history, technological roots, current impetuses for oral history

Alan Nevins
- started as a journalist
- also someone who never missed an archives or library
- loved documents
- often looked for recent Master’s theses at libraries
- realized in the 1940s because people could pick up the phone and fly across the country, people would not keep the kind of detailed diaries people had made

Colleagues at Columbia Univ looked down on this
book “The Modern Researcher” by Barzoon and Graff
- transcription / written word seen as supreme
- oral history seen as biased, unreliable, more sociology
- sociologists had been using oral interviews for sociological research

Profession influenced by Leopold Von Rocka (sp?)
- said eyewitness accounts were best
- he was a medieval historian

1950s: Univ of CA at Los Angeles and Berkeley opened oral history departments
- first US projects were top down interviews
- Nevins: interviewed lots of politicians and business leaders, focused on politics and economics
- European historians were aligned more with the left, focused on including those who had been traditionally excluded (bottom up approach)

1970s in the US this “bottom up” approach in the US
- Studs Turkels books were big influence: Hard Times, Working, others
- made the method much more publicly recognizable
- he started as WPA writer and radio personality
- in 1950s he was about to become a Chicago TV personality, but he was blacklisted from TV because of his political views
- since he did not go into TV, he was able to do more long, in-depth radio interviews that wouldn’t have worked on TV
- his work filtered into academic circles

1970s saw lots of heated debate on oral history
- discussion was “elite versus non-elite” interviews
- most people have come to understand that oral history as a methodology applies to whoever you are interviewing
- looking at as many people who were involved, from as many perspectives, is beneficial
- interview the general and the private
- the manager and the worker
- oral history as a methodology applies equally to all

Movement has spread worldwide beyond US and Western Europe
- anywhere there has been social upheaval, there is demand for oral history work
- existing archives are often the record of “the old regime” which has been overthrown
- in South Africa they say their “George Washington” and “Thomas Jefferson” are still alive
- British Library was recently given original 1964 dictaphone recording of Nelson Mandela’s trial which sent him to prison
– it was made of thin rubber, they melted it when they played it, and knew it would only play once
– they were able to capture it, take it back and share it with Nelson Mandela
– turns out much of what was reported from his words by stenographer was NOT accurate, he said different things

Technology impacts
- has been beneficial and challenging
- everyone has to adjust to whatever sound recordings are available at the time
- we are such a small percentage of the users of technology, we have no way to shape what the major producers are doing

simple equation: follow the music
- whatever recording devices are most popular for music, is most likely what we’ll have to use and live with

We are in a situation where we don’t know what current materials will last, how long will
- Betamax and VHS
- we have to make sure when we adopt new technologies they actually fit and can work for long-term, archival presentation

Where did it begin?
- 19th century recordings on wax cylinders
- LOC has: “Cross of Gold” speech by William Jennings Bryan (recorded 20 years after the original)
- many were recorded by Native American Tribes, chants, some interviews, going back to the 1890s
- much has been converted to more modern forms

WPA during 1930s
- was not an easy way of sound recordings
- most used a notebook
- many of these people went on to become novelists
- is suspicion that some may have embellished written interviews

Portable wire recorders became available in 1940s
- big, heavy and cumbersome
- there were some at Normandy Beach off the coast on a hospial beach
- the army wanted live history but also live historians
- they were some of the first to interview injured soldiers coming back from the beach

After the war, wire recorders become obsolete
- in Germany, 1st Americans discovered the Germans had invented magnetic tape recorders
- discovered in 1944 / 1945, commercially available in 1948

1948 reel to reel magnetic tape recorders on the market corresponded to establishment of 1st archive at Columbia Univ
- could accommodate stereo recordings of music
- music become very popular

At Columbia they allowed interviews corrected their interviews
- Columbia re-used their tapes, thought they were protecting people by destroying original recordings
- actually advocated this process, discouraged this
- fortunately they have changed that policy over time

Next milestone: 1963 Royals Phillips Electronics introduced the compact cassette recorder
- smaller, less expensive, easier to carry
- just at the time oral history begins to expand enormously
- sound archivists started doing recordings on cassettes and copying to reel to reel
- some archives would just pereserve reel to reel recordings, didn’t respect cassettes
- cassettes made it accessible for so many more

People are now collecting cassette recordings that soldiers created in the 1960s and 1970s
- those sound recordings have preserved over 40 years

finally music cassettes surpassed LP record sales in music

1966: first national colloquium by oral historians: Created national oral history association
- history professors, also people in economics, journalists, librarians, state and local history historians, many others– very ecclectic group
1971 1st British organizational meeting

conferences held around the world every 2 years now by oral history association: in Prague in 2 years
- oral history organizations being founded in other locations
- many local and national organizations now to further oral history
- many doing very different work, but using very different methodology

1996: year int’l organization was founded was also year of explosion of the Internet
- if the board had not had email, they would not have been able to function
- all these organizations have websites
- remarkable amount of this is in English
- lots going on in Latin America in Spanish
- English has been the primary language on the Internet

1980s: analog world broke, recordings on CDS
- 1982 first CD recordings
DAT recordings

1988: CD sales topped cassettes
- books on tape were keeping cassettes on top for years

Are still lots of oral historians that use their cassette recorders
- first time I did a digital recording I used BOTH my cassette and digital recorders

2001 iPod introduced by Apple
- students started doing interview audio immediately with microphones

People ask how to make the transfer to digital?
- I recommend you hire a 14 year old!

This opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities
- right now in Afghanistan and Iraq are doing interviews on compact flash cards and emailing back interviews for transcription

I went to work for US Senate in 1976
- selectric typewriters were in use and state-of-the art
- then a telegrapher would send those to the newspapers
- 1990 finally telegraphers were taken out
- now reporters do writing on laptops and send back reports electronically before hearings are over
- this has had a big impact on oral history collections, and way oral historians share information

Useful devices: the H Oral History List
- allows oral historians to post questions and answers
- Mary who is here from OSU
- subscribe to this list

You have a copy of my book in your packet, “Doing Oral History”

I am beginning to think it’s time for a 3rd edition
- I am keeping track of new problems, issues, sources that are raised on H-List
- great resource sharing taking place

oral historians now have a chance to reach an audience beyond their wildest imagination, and it really scares them
- for years at oral history conferences, people
- 1998 was first meeting where I heard: “too many people are looking at our interviews”
- serious ethical questions: release of information
- in our office, we now put full transcript online with a digital audio clip
- started this in the 1990s
- called original interviewees and asked for permission to publish on the Internet even though we had a release
- often at that time they would say, “What is the Internet?”
- often I would hear about grandparents whose

Astonished: one of my interviews got 5000 hits in a single month

We know lots of our users are K12 students doing projects
- when they ask for
Geneologists also using our materials, thanks to Google indexing they can find us and we can put them in touch with interviewee
- lots of users we hadn’t expected, certainly a much larger audience

Some oral history projects just put up audio
- there are new indexing tools that allow for audio

I know there is no such thing as a science of transcription, it is an art
- many transcribers will hear different things
- it’s fair to ask interviewees to edit

I edited 160 closed hearings of Joseph McArthey
- done by professional court stenographers in 1950s
- lots of mistakes, example of “Beth Page” mistake, thinking it was a person rather than a place

Marriage of oral history and digital technology
- are now walking tours with people associated with a place
- can use iPod or cell phone to hear people discuss what you are seeing
- some universities offering oral history courses through distance learning
- students publishing oral histories and materials both on CD and online

Digital interviewing has facilitated video
- it is coming fast in oral history
- Paul calls this “the listening eye”
- there is a video component that is very useful
- also if you think about what you are going to use the oral history interview for: a museum display, a website: video can add

All videographers told me for my book you have to have a crew, lights, etc, you can’t just have 1 person do this all by themselves
- then I ran into someone doing video interviews by himself with new technology
- today when news reporters come to my office, they often take traditional notes and take a video interview
- newspapers now want video too
- newspapers want journalists to report every hour, leads to CONSTANT work for journalists
- shows how much things have changed

DVD cameras around since 1996
- video is becoming much more common

Project “Women in Journalism” Project
- about 60 interviews
- did 4 or 5 interviews on tape, then 1 on video
- found that interviewee responses were very different for a video, much more conscious of performing for the camera, etc

I wrote a book “Reporting from Washington” and included info from that project about female journalists
- found that I cited video interviews much more than audio interviews
- video interviews are often more practiced and concise

People need to think about their past
- in re-interviewing people, they may be able to present a more coherent version of what they did and experienced
- shows how we need to be continually learning

That was the digital transformation, now let’s address the intellectual transformation (past and present)
- oral history as a methodology has attracted a remarkably diverse constituency
- fascinating to talk with all the different people interested and involved in oral history: huge range of people applying oral history to their disciplines

At a conference in Sweden, linguist was showing a quotation about the issue of silence in oral history
- when people don’t finish their stories, historians need to go back and learn why

oral history is a big tent: we don’t all do it the same
- there is a long history of participation
- some use anonymity, others (like historians) don’t want that
- we grapple with this in our ethical statements

Alan Nevins and other historians: generally have sought to acquire information to compensate for lack of diaries and letters
- interested in small details
- filling in gaps in documentary evidence

new school: interested in discrepancies in the documentation
- looking for perceptions, biases, more subjective
- issue of memory: what do people remember, why do they remember?
- good literature coming out now deal with memory studies
- what happens when oral source and written sources contradict?
– often the written record is wrong: In government, many memos are written to shape/change perceptions of people

sometimes the oral record is wrong

Now movement to look at “collective memory”
- some communities will move an event to a different year
- sometimes to black something out
- sometimes to make it more understandable
- all sorts of factors go into this
- scholar: Alesandro Portelli from Italy, “They Say in Harlan County” is forthcoming book mixing memory and oral history studies
- makes us sensitive to memory issues

Truths of oral history: we tend to interview older people more than young
- Gerontologists know: the older you get, you get into a period/season of “life review”
- this accounts for many people’s attitudes when they are older: senses of disappointment or happiness
- sometimes people were unable to talk about their experiences: WWII veterans, Holocaust survivors were

Is now “reminiscence therapy” being used in nursing homes in the US and UK

Are different oral history imperatives in different countries
- we have turmoil in many areas
- 20 year anniversary of Berlin Wall coming down
- end of Apartheid in South Africa
- people now seeking to find closure to issues and eras
- some countries have created “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions,” people have to testify about what they did and put it on the record
– Argentina and South Africa are examples, not exactly Oral History but very close to them

Intersection of grief and history
- when something very traumatic happens
- move to get people’s perceptions as soon as possible after an event happens
- while rescue missions are still underway
- Hurricane Katrina, August of 2005, oral historians started their work
- projects in MS, LA, TN, TX, looking at different aspects of the event and responses
- is a Katrina Jewish Voices project

Terrorist attacks in 2001
- interviews told so many different stories about what was going on
- are a series of interviews with tugboat captains who rushed to NY to rescue people
- kind of like Dunkirk
- my favorite interview: one captained by a women, someone asked her if you have trouble getting the men on your boat to take orders, and she responded that most are married and used to taking orders from women

Columbia Univ have NSF founded interview project, testing the durability of memories
- after 5 and 10 years, people will have more hindsight
- people do need to have some time to reflect
- interviews right after an event tend to be more people venting steam

I just reviewed the book “The Clinton Tapes” by Taylor Branch
- in these, Clinton is venting steam about Starr, Gore, others
- my personal view, like the movie “The President’s Analyst” therepeutic
- Clinton has setup oral history centers in Arkansas and another place
- very interesting to compare those

Today oral history is a mainstay of many: many people who do not cons
60,000 interviews of veteran oral history project
Now Storycorps interviews: These are snapshots / oral vignettes
- I hope Storycorps invite people to participate

USNWR: oral history has never had more currency”
- tools for sharing and distribution open up so many possiblities
- some interviews turning into stage productions
- even a movement to turn oral histories into dance, prof at Rutgers

Latest popular museum in Washington: the Newsem
- who is sitting in front of the screens: everyone under 20
- clear there is a new generation that is digitally focused

Oral history still big part of publishing
Big part of films
- in “Grinch Stole Christmas” they are doing an interviw

Berenstein Bears, “The Giddy Grandma” is about an oral history
- turns out grandma bear was in the circus in her youth
- “she did the best oral history in the history of oral histoy”

Being used in nursing homes, young lawyers doing interviews of older judges creating mentoring relationships

Same method of oral histories being applied to indigenous groups, native groups whose views, perspectives and voices have traditionally been left out of the historical record

Even after writing history from the bottom up, we are discovering there are needed was

The future is here: it’s up to us

Center for Military History by Army has those interviews from Normandy

General SLA Marshall had been a journalists, was looking for propaganda books to boost troop morale
- led to oral histories

book “The Revolution Remembered” by John Dam
- it was the footsoldiers view of the world which was reflected in these interviews of revolutionary war soldiers
- the women, the butchers who accompanied the troops
- there are thousands of these in the Library of Congress
- great story of George Washington, who was 6′ 4″ tall, went into a camp and asked who was the tallest person in the camp
- there was a lot of pressure on people for accuracy, because mistakes meant no pension for the requester

Paul Revere was interviewed by a pastor because Whigs suppressed his view
- he talked about how they planned this
- book about this

Now an “Oral History with Abraham Lincoln”
- Lincoln’s secretaries started interviewing people
- so many people talked about Lincolns fits of depression and his shaky marriage, and his secretaries didn’t want to amplify those aspects of his life

In an earlier period these were called “depositions” and not “oral history”

Different oral history initiatives have to be approached differently depending on the community context, different sensitivities

Journalism and oral history really are not that different: but TIME is a big difference. Oral history is not adversarial, it is designed to draw people out and get history from their perspectives, and oral historians take more time to tell the story. Oral historians are focused on cooperation.

Our standards are in flex, we have to be sensitive at all times, treat people with respect, make sure the record people leave is the record they want to leave.
- often I have to bite my tongue and not share what I know, the interview is about THEM and not me

“The Rhinestone Cowboy” could be the theme song for oral history:
- quote: “there’s a load of compromisin’ on the road to my horizon’” is so true in oral history

We are constantly encountering new situations and adjusting

Technorati Tags:
history, interview, oral, senate

“In Honor of My Grandfather” was created by Laney Miller, as a tribute to her great-grandfather who was born in 1929 in Shamrock, Oklahoma. He served in the Korean War, and wrote letters to his wife and family during his overseas military service to keep them updated about his life. Laney did a fantastic job writing and reading her script based on those letters, and synchronizing personal photos from her grandfather into her digital story.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Emily and Rheanna, 8th graders at Tenkiller Elementary School in Cheroke County, Oklahoma, created the video “Veterans Day 2009” to provide historical background about the celebration of Veteran’s Day in the United States, as well as a tribute to many the veterans who are family members of students in their school. This video was used as part of the school’s commemorative events to celebrate Veteran’s Day yesterday.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Haley Jones, a 7th grader at Tenkiller Elementary School in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, created the video “My Heroes” to pay tribute to both her grandfathers who served in the U.S. Armed Forces. She included interview audio for part of her video, which is 2 minutes long.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Kudos to Pam Henley and these students for FANTASTIC work helping recognize and thank some of our Oklahoma veterans, and contributing these videos to our growing video archive (now including over 470 videos) on our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices learning community.

Technorati Tags:
cov, history, interview, oklahoma, tribute, veteran, video

The highlight of the presentation, IMHO, was Rachel teaching the librarians about the commercial social networking website Club Penguin. Her segment begins in the second video clip below, at minute mark 18:20.

I was able to successfully Ustream the session live and archive the video, but for some reason Ustream split it into two parts. The audio quality was pretty good, since I used my Nady Wireless Mic setup, but I had the Ustream video quality ratcheted down because of a prior test in a location with poorer bandwidth. I wish I’d increased it for today’s Ustream, but at least the entire session did record fine with good audio. I apologize for the graininess of the video, and the fact that the projector’s screen is not readable in the video.

It was a delight to share this presentation and these ideas with Oklahoma public librarians, and again present with one of my children as I’ve been able to do several times this fall. Kids really can be effective communicators about technology topics with adults, and it’s a delight to see my own children developing their confidence and poise speaking in public.

I’m an outspoken advocate for balanced approaches to Internet filtering in our schools, and it’s wonderful to see our Oklahoma librarians recognizing the constructive potential of social and digital media as well as the safety concerns they present. Hopefully more of our K-12 school administrators will get on this bandwagon as well in the months ahead. Many thanks to Robyn Treyvaud, whose presentation “Our 21st Century Challenge: Developing Responsible, Ethical and Resilient Digital Citizens” at the 21st Century Learning @ Hong Kong Conference inspired and informed me this past September.

The first Ustream video segment from today is 31 minutes long.

The second Ustream video segment from today is 1 hour, 28 minutes long.

Last night, thanks to Kevin Jarrett, I learned about an upcoming free webinar on Nov 18, 2009, titled, “The Power of Youth Voice: What Kids Learn When They Create With Digital Media.” Attend it if you can, or our third K-12 Online 2009 LAN Party for the free K-12 Online Conference.

Technorati Tags:
facebook, filter, filtering, library, myspace, myth, networking, oklahoma, research, social, norman, pioneer, facts, myths

Our students deserve to be and should be recognized individually for their ideas, their contributions, their expertise and their work inside and outside the classroom. Social media technologies which permit students to share their voices, to be empowered with agency to express ideas and share opinions, to publish their work for a broader audience outside the boundaries of the traditional classroom are vital. Check out the list of classroom blogs from around the world on the “Support Blogging” wiki, and add your classroom’s blog if it’s not already listed.

Technorati Tags:
blog, blogging, classroom, education, recognition, school, teacher, teaching, peanuts, linus, lucy, charilebrown, charlie, brown

Just using laptops at school, not letting kids take them home
Laptop carts are located in homeroom classes
have networked printers on carts
wireless access throughout the building
Now (as of a year ago) we have a managed network
- can take control over student browsing
- students can login anywhere to access their files

Now hearing from Kelly Goldberg:

Bonnockburn Faculty: Kelly Goldberg
- students are able to work independently or on team projects
- integration of online content
- guided instruction by teachers
- student centered learning process
- not bound by traditional organization of work spaces: learning space is flexible

Bonnockburn Transforming Classroom Practices
- simplifies computer use pragmatics
- promotes student responsibility
- familiarizes students with laptop skills
- offers immediate / spontaneous research opportunities
- enhances in-depth online research skills
- develops internet savvy

When I asked my computers why they like using their own computer, there were 6-8 reasons that overlapped

It is hard for me to remember when my students didn’t all have their own laptops

pragmatics of computer use are simplified
- you don’t have to plan way in advance to reserve the computers
- spontaneity, opportunity to learn NOW
- is really a big deal to not have to coordinate early

Many students said they feel very responsible with their laptop
- they know it is a big deal
- they sign a serious technology agreement / commitment letter
- esp lower end kids who struggle with organization in middle school years feel really proud of how they have their own laptop and take good care of it

So kids house their laptop in a cart, but they have their own laptop

SO THIS IS A REALLY BIG DEAL IN TERMS OF OWNERSHIP AND THIS PERCEPTION OF RESPONSIBILITY ON THE PART OF STUDENTS

When we are studying a topic in language arts, and I’m reading a story to my students
- example: Whales, 3 days ago
- a student who has ADHD asks if I know how many cool sounds whales make, and if he can research that
- so he does that research during the lesson, and shares those cool whale sounds during class

Another example: question about George Washington’s wooden teeth
- is it a myth?
- another kid who wants to do something different, s/he does that research and shares it with us
- immediate research is a fun and pertinent part of what we can do now as we are learning

1:1 laptop makes it possible for in-depth research skills to marketly improve
- using websites we recommend for students, and for websites they find

Epsco database is a great place to do research

My kids use websites like Spelling City, Sandra Day O’Connor’s website “Our Courts”
- kids can individually explore and play games on sites like this
- Reading “The Giver” kids are exploring different utopias on 12 different websites

I want to emphasize how much WRITING skills are improved with our laptops
- I have students also handwrite their assignments, not just type them
- students often feel with a typed report they are created a cleaner, more professional product

Laptops really encourage creativity
- the fun the can have with multiple programs, integrating their photographs, creating multimedia products: really good for creativity

Student quotations:
- “Allows me to be responsible.
- “I am really good with my laptop.”
- “I am confident as an editor of photos…”
- …more…

Now from Dr Jenny Wojcik: superintendent

We are a small, 1 school building district north of the city (CHICAGO)
- have been doing 1:1 for 4 years
- we have moved to 1:1 with our 6th graders
- we have instructional clusters
- 6-8 are 1:1, with laptops assigned and students can take them home
- this year we’ve instituted a “digital driver’s license” (after 4 years, we’ve learned a few things)
- we see this as an opportunity to revise and transform the curriculum

We went to a AALF conference years ago
- most of what they are doing now is online rather than F2F
- Cincinnati Day School, Texas Schools, Maine Schools: shared their lessons learned
- all our teachers have a laptop, they can take it home
- we are wireless, that has been essential to make this work
- our K-2 and 3-5 are close to 2:1 with computers, have banks of computers near their classrooms as needed to integrate computers
- we got rid of computer labs several years ago, this 1:1 initiative creates the opportunity to learn at any time, any place
- we are moving away from technology as a separate subject

Atomic Learning has a new evaluation tool online that students can use to measure the skills they’ve developed

We don’t have a tool to assess where staff are with their skills, but this is a sensitive subject
- we don’t want this to be a threatening topic
- we have all teachers using technology
- using the Danielson model for redesigning our teacher administrative tool

Kelly:
The culture at our school HAS changed so we rely on each other for help and technical assistance

From Janet:
Cluster design: I used to be the reading teacher, I have been there 20 years, now we really are a team and rely on each other

Jenny:
I wouldn’t recommend starting there with tech assessments for teachers

Now Andy Marks:
- laptops kept by grade levels
- executive functioning with technology
– times to charge
– being responsible for your computers
– accessing saved documents
– saving in multiple places
– learning to navigate a network

From a participant:
Based on Stillwell Minnesota model: we are going to let students trade in their battery after each semester

Andy:
- make sure the laptop is fully plugged in, break down the steps and go through each one
- we’ve learned over the year how important

You will find there are LOTS of user errors with laptops!
- learning to troubleshoot those errors, eventually independently, is a big deal

at first we didn’t label different pieces
- that is really important
- like socks in the washing machine: so remember to label!

We can’t filter and block everything
- preparing for those situation is important

What do I do when my computer breaks?

Addressing printing issues: When, where, how, why, waiting “in line”
- have specific times established for printing homework
- computers that go home can’t go online, so kids can’t print at home
- we’ve learned to make everyone put headings on their papers, with page numbers
- addressing problem of multiple print jobs sent

This year: Driver’s license

integrated examples of embedding the laptop into daily practice
- language arts interviewing / taking notes / making presentations
- bringing in cross-generational links with people

With our STEM project we are woking with the Thornburg Center for Space Exploration
- teachers are becoming more comfortable with technology by recognizing that we don’t know it all

Kids are programming with Scratch, based on Lifelong Kindergarden project and Dr. Mitch Resnek
- very creative stuff
- none of the teachers really know how to do the stuff that our kids are doing and programming

We have used the PicoCrickets and the kids LOVE them

Did a “Barbie Bungee Jump” activity
- collecting data using barbies, scatterplots, then brought in the computer and graphing calculators

We now have a lego robotics club activity

As teachers we find that the computer now is our paper, we don’t think about it and plan for it
- it is most disruptive when it [the computer] is NOT available

Top ten uses of the computer users by students in one of the presenter’s classes:
1- internet access
2- MS word/word processing
3- unlimited source of info
4- email access
5- research
6- iTunes
7- social networking sites
8- Online books
9- Google Images
10- Google

MY COMMENT: I THINK IT’S INSTRUCTIVE TO LOOK AT THESE WAYS KIDS REPORT THEY ENJOY USING THE COMPUTERS, AND CONSIDER THE IMPLICATIONS OF THINKING ABOUT LAPTOP COMPUTERS AS “IMAGINATION MACHINES,” AS GARY STAGER ENCOURAGES. I REFERENCED THESE IDEAS IN MY CLOSING KEYNOTE TODAY AT THE ONE TO ONE INSTITUTE’S CONFERENCE. IT IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC THESE TEACHERS ARE PROVIDING STUDENTS WITH OPPORTUNITIES TO USE SCRATCH, CREATE WITH LEGO ROBOTICS, AND WORK WITH PICOCRICKETS AT SCHOOL. I WISH OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WAS DOING THESE THINGS WITH AND FOR CHILDREN. I’M INSPIRED TO CONTINUE THINKING ABOUT HELPING START AN AFTER SCHOOL SCRATCH PROGRAMMING CLUB AT OUR SCHOOL.

Technorati Tags:
1to1, creativity, education, educational, laptop, learning, lego, onetoone, robotics, school, technology, gl1to109, great, lakes, institute, scratch

We have been implementing 1:1 for almost eight years now

Wynn has been teaching for 36 years

Shawn was project director for the Flint Community Schools “Freedom to Learn Project”
- certified 1:1 digital coach
- instructional tech coordinator
- MACUL board of directors
- classroom teacher

What is 1:1 Computing (according to the 1:1 Institute website)
- 1:1 learning provides every student and teacher accessed to his…

What does the research show? (Deborah Lowther and others at the Univ of Memphis)
- increase of teacher as facilitator
- increase of student use of laptops as a learning tool
- increase in high academically focused class time
- increase in student independent inquiry and research

S. Lowthian: “Curriculum is driving the 1:1 initiative. It’s not about the computers. It’s about what, how, and how well the students are learning.”

Plan with the “big picture” in mind
- curriculum
- district policies and rules (Internet access, take home policy)
- parent permission
- student acceptance of responsibility
- classroom configurations
- rules for operation and reasonable consequences

Curriculum first and foremost
- teachers must know the curriculum
- lesson planning changes over time
– paper assignments done on computers
– collaborative, creative deep knowledge

Computers are learning tools
- games must be educational and associated with curriculum
- networking needs to be curriculum centered

Story of a student who was asked to find a picture of a “marsh” to go along with the definition and asked, “Is this really what a marsh looks like?”
- students were definitely making connections and learning things they would have been able to lear

Get laptops out, get the students using them
If you keep moving forward, you will get to the place you want to be with the students collaborating and seeking creative, deep knowledge

At the start, many teachers were fearful saying “the kids know so much about these computers, more than I do”
- they do know a lot, but it is not necessarily natural for students to think of the computer as a learning tool

If my kids do have free time, I make sure the games they play are curriculum focused, the networking they do relates to classroom tasks

quotation from student, Precious: “Using laptops helps me pay more attention.”

Classroom culture certainly changed
- rules need to be specific to laptops
- getting
- using
- storing
- battery changes
- classwork: where to save, how to turn in, how to get feedback, what software to use, etc.

I have found I need to start out with these rules, if I am picky with these we can go further and students can get more creative with their assignments

Our buildings are REALLY old, very limited electricity outlets, etc
- you really need to think about your culture, your community, what norms you need to set

battery changes: had to come up with an on the fly solution for students to go over to a battery cart, get a new one, swap out their battery without disrupting the rest of the class, etc.

These foundations and norms are essential to help your students learn to function independently and functionally in the classroom
- without these norms the classroom doesn’t just LOOK chaotic, it IS chaotic

Teaching students WHERE to save their work WHERE they want it to be is really key
- issues with students accidentally moving folders into other folders is a real problem

THAT PARTICULAR ISSUE IS A PROBLEM ON WINDOWS-BASED SYSTEMS, INTERESTINGLY, NOT MACS. THAT WAS ALWAYS A PROBLEM WHEN I WAS AN ELEMENTARY COMPUTER LAB TEACHER IN THE LATE 1990s.

I don’t teach the kids ALL the skills they need and use
- I may do a demonstration as we do the activity together
- then students are on their own, but they know they can get help from each other or from me once the lesson begins

It really depends on your classroom and your school
- we’ve had a lot of schools close in our district
- many of our students haven’t quite “felt at home” in school
- so for us, structuring the learning environment has been very important

classroom configurations
beginning
- teacher centered
- see all screens
- teach computer skills and programs as needed
evolving
- more student centered
- students working in groups, collaborating

There is no set time when this happens as a shift to more student-centered work
- depends on the group of kids in the room as well

Student quotation from Jonathan: “My laptop helps me work faster and store my work. I’m more organized.”

Policies are dynamic and change as needed
- allow everyone to be successful
- celebrate creative problem solving
- ISD controls our internet access
- how to get access
- just in case: hardware accidents, accidental inappropriate Internet sites

Think of these policies actually more as practices (policies are adapted by the board – the fewer policies that come from the board, the better we can implement our project flexibility as we need)

You don’t necessarily have to tell everyone far and wide when a problem is encountered and solved, but celebrate together when problems are overcome

When you get to a website where you shouldn’t be, put your screen down partway so others cannot see where you’ve gone, and ask for teacher assistance
- that way the teacher can let our tech people know about the site (to block it)

think about how you want information to flow
- how you want to address the issues which will come up
- the more you can plan before you start the better, but realize no matter how well you plan you’ll need to make changes and be flexible as you progress

Student quotation from Bonnie: “You can find more information, so you can learn much better”

At the time this photo was taken we had textbooks that were over 10 years old
- I didn’t have resources for the students for a lot of what I was expected to teach
- with the laptops the students had much greater access to the information they needed, students could choose access means

What can you expect?
- ignite interest: authentic assignments, providing choices
- collaboration: no boundaries
- cooperative learning: important jobs

technology allows expertise in so many ways for those cooperative learning assignments (no more: “I’m the pencil collector” jobs)

kids love the opportunity to have choices about how they demonstrate their knowledge and learning

Student quotation from Thomas: “Using the laptops helps me because it’s fun and I don’t like to write a lot. It doesn’t seem like writing.”
- that student hated to write in the traditional language arts classroom, but become prolific in the laptop classroom

Sharing
- Resources: for assignments, for educational fun
- Ideas
- new found knowledge: off topic questions
- teaching: other students and the teacher

With laptops we make a list of off topic questions as we go along with our work, and when students get done with a particular assignment they can go tackle one of those questions
- then they go and find the answer to that question, come back and share that with the class later

truth be told: the students REALLY like it when I don’t know something and they can

Another student quotation: “My laptop helps me concentrate more on work and makes learning fun.”

What’s next
- allow yourself to succeed
- support problem solving
- keep policies simple and flexible
- keep moving forward and evolving from traditional teacher-centered learning to dynamic student-centered learning

Take home issues and procedures crafted with parents
- we came up with orientation sessions with parents and flexible times, day and night, so all parents were aware (3.5 hour training)
- we had another 3.5 hour training that parents had to attend to bring the laptop home for their children
- lots of care and feeding” help with laptops
- lots of our students are being raised by single parents, guardians, others
- we had to let parents identify an authorized person who was authorized to take a laptop home
- right now we do NOT have a lot of parents taking laptops home
- that has to do with many things: more computers and access at home, lots of school closings
- we initially had lots of parents come to these meetings, come take these laptops home

7.5 years ago we didn’t have content filtering on the laptops, but parents DID have to sign a waiver because they had to be the filter at home, an active participant in their child’s learning

the power of learning with parents and kids
- not a lot of damage on laptops in the initial years
- had celebrations with students, ribbon cutting, community involved: children and parents knew
- once we had 1 laptop stolen, it was as if the world crashed on us
- one of our para-professionals was so committed, she canvassed the community, talked about “how dare someone” take this from our children
- that person found the laptop and brought it back to the school
- the community “owned” these laptops and were stakeholders
- we are now making this work on 6-7 year old devices/laptops
- very old building infrastructure
- our lead teachers have become troubleshooters and technicians in many respects

We did “dine and dialog” meetings with our partner universities and our art institutes
- at the heart of this was networking, table-toppers and parents could discuss issues

always we celebrate: I start with a party and I end with a party
- we had a dialog, and we showcased student and teacher work

For a lot of teachers, if there is some incentive to taking the time to pull a showcase together, all the better
- it involves extra time
- there was always some fun incentive to it
- I received my presentation mouse several years ago when I was willing to go the extra mile to share ideas
- it was even exciting to have my name drawn for a big prizes: we had drawings for data projectors, electronic white boards, and also small nuggets: flash drives, tshirts, and more
- people
- we all know that food motivates teachers: “dine and dialog” was a good incentive

Our program started with grades 4-6, then 7-8, now we also have 9-12 program
- this is in 13 buildings, not across the entire district
- we have a couple middle schools that have specific teams, and one 9-12 academy
- since we’ve had to close buildings, move teachers and students, we’ve been flexible

We are looking for every grant we can get
- thus far we have been financed from outside grants, not significant funding from TitleIID (TitileIID has paid for things like batteries, smaller expense needs)

Once we get through our financial difficulties, I expect the district to find ways to help us continue to grow this program

We certainly don’t have all of the answers but are willing to share!

be willing to put yourself out as a demonstration site or a model

Mrs. D.B. – “If you take away my laptops, I’ll have to retire. I can’t imagine going back to the ‘old way’ of teaching and learning.”

Technorati Tags:
1to1, classroom, laptop, learning, onetoone, flint, michigan, basic, basics

Gary shared this presentation in 2007 at the Learning 2.0 Conference in Shanghai, and that is available as an audio podcast as well.

All of Gary’s uLearn 2009 presentation resources are available on his site. Of particular interest to educational leaders implementing or considering the implementation of 1:1 learning initiatives are his papers/presentations, “Optimistic outcomes for teachers and students resulting from 1:1 computing” (PDF), “1:1 school technology self-diagnostic instrument” (PDF) and “How to Sell the 1:1 Computing Dream in Your Community.”

I find Gary’s references to W. Daniel Hillis’ 1998 book, “The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas that Make Computers Work” particularly thought provoking. If we each consider the computer, and laptop computers in the hands of our students specifically, not as information access devices but rather as “IMAGINATION MACHINES,” wouldn’t our efforts and focus in 1:1 learning projects take on a very different flavor? We should, and our perspectives should.

Gary exhorts the audience that 1:1 computing is NOT about hardware, it is about SOFTWARE. Software determines what you DO. What you learn depends on WHAT YOU DO. Very important thought leadership from Gary on 1:1 computing here.

Another of my favorite quotations from this presentation by Gary:

The best way to keep kids from being destructive is to engage them in things that are constructive.

I totally agree with Gary’s contention that we should focus on empowering students with agency, and find ways to help students authentically become intellectually powerful. His citation of Papert’s quotation, “Does the computer program the child or does the child program the computer?” is needed today in our conversations about 1:1 computing more than ever.

Kudos and many thanks to CORE Education (New Zealand) for making this presentation (and many others) available on EDTalks.

Technorati Tags:
gary, laptop, learning, stager, elearn09, elearn2009

“Around the World with Skype – Alrededor del Mundo con Skype” by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (presented in both an English and a Spanish version)

“You Might Be a 21st Century Leader if…” by David Wells

“Ways of Working” by Chris Betcher

“The Virtual Heroic Journey” by Kevin Hodgson

“If You Host It, They Will Come” by Jen Wagner

More teasers are coming! These are also available on our K-12 Online Conference Ning, both in the videos section and in the group 2009 Teasers.

NASA eClips is NASA’s newest program, one we’ll discuss today but we’ll address others too

Mark is with the National Institute of Aerospace
- innovative real world learning for the 21st century
- we are a research institute for NASA
- our mission: develop aerospace engineers
- consortium of 7 universities

www.youtube.com/nasaeclips

Mark is going to publish is presentation to Slideshare

We have K-12 outreach
- developing resources for STEM specifically
- one of NASA’s missions by law is education

I am personally on loan from the Virginia Beach public schools to NASA

All of these links are available via my Filamentality hotlist:
tinyurl.com/yz24fmq

Traditional NASA education products
- have 30-60 minute video clips
- philosophy was: teachers should be able to make sense of these resources

eClips are short: 5-7 minutes (7 minutes is max time)
- these are content focused, and NASA focused
- we have taken NASA missions and technology, and found the things that really tie in well to a math/science classroom
- idea is you can use these videos to engage students, answer the question: “Why do I need to know this?”

There are three people on our NASA eClips team, I am the high school person (also have an elementary and middle school educators)

4 programs under NASA eClips:

1. NASA’s Our World (K-5: compare the natural world with the designed world, illustrating the unique contributions of scientists and engineers)
2. NASA’s REAL World Mathematics
3. NASA Launchpad
4. NASA 360 degrees

big push in STEM for engineering

MARK’S DELL WINDOWS XP LAPTOP LOCKED UP WHEN HE TRIED TO PLAY THE FIRST VIDEO CLIP, SO HE IS RESTARTING. TIME TO GET A MAC, MARK!

In Middle school, we often start to lose students in math
- so we have a real push to engage students there

launchpad is a focus on technology

we are trying to model how we can effectively use video clips in the classroom
- it is more than just

Example: Real World: Farewell to the Mars Phoenix Lander

K-5 example: Our World: The Sun, A Real Star

Learn about the important relationship between Earth and the sun. Find out about the layers of the sun and how Earth’s magnetosphere acts like a giant handkerchief to protect us from all kinds of space weather.

Middle school example: Real World: Monitoring Earth’s Energy Budget with CERES

In this NASA eClips video segment learn how NASA uses CERES, a satellite in our Earth observing system, to make accurate measurements of energy leaving the Earth. Discover how NASA studies the interactions of clouds with sunlight and heat to determine how much heat is emitted back into space. Demonstrations are used to help support the segment.

High school example: Launchpad: Transits

Discover how scientists used the last Venus transit and a geometric technique called parallax to verify the distance between sun and Earth. Find out what scientists hope to learn the next time Venus makes a shadow on the face of the sun.

2 ways to access these videos:
1 – go to NASA.gov website, click for educators and on sidebar click NASA eClips
- direct link: www.nasa.gov/education/nasaeclips
2- can also access via YouTube: www.youtube.com/nasaeclips

Icons are available for topics, these are changing from “aeronautics” and “earth” to things like “algebra” and “chemistry”
- videos can be downloaded and played from the NASA website, are player independent, are all closed captioned!

YouTube channel videos have higher quality than NASA website versions, they can also be embedded (AS I HAVE ABOVE)

MY COMMENT: KUDOS TO NASA FOR MODELING THE CONSTRUCTIVE USE OF YOUTUBE IN THE CLASSROOM!

Have also started building support for these videos: The Teacher Toolbox

NASA.gov has an internal bookmarking system called “MyNASA”
- good way to deal with the dynamic nature of the NASA website, where things are changing frequently
- NASA is very conscious about having the most current information available online
- lots of the older resources that referred to Pluto as “a planet” are not available now, because those resources have been taken down until they are updated

Also: Engineering Design Guides are available for K-5 and 6-12 to help teachers introduce students to the engineering design process

Keeping a logbook to document your process is a key element for scientists

also has a rubric to help you assess what students can build

Use Google for an advanced search to find relevant NASA resources: example search syntax: “NASA” and “social studies”

There are TONS of NASA missions in addition to space shuttle and Apollo program!

NASA eClips™ Educator Guides: We are in the process of getting 24 lesson plans approved for using videos effectively in a lesson plan, how to tie content directly to the video
- 8 per grade level (8 for elementary, 8 for middle school, 8 for high school)
- right now there are just 3 eClips Educator Guides available now, more are being drafted now

Last thing we are doing: the Teacher to Teacher Blog
- just got approval for this last month
- is highly moderated
- trying to get teachers in the classroom to share their experiences, ideas, etc.
- not a lot of activity there yet, we are trying to get people to go there and share their thoughts

MY QUESTION: HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS

Answer: lots of web statistics gathered on hits
- is getting more attention/hits than

MY QUESTION: ARE YOU PROVIDING WORKSHOPS FOR SCHOOLS
- answer: they can, and they do when those are requested

Nortel Learn It, now “Teach It Learn It” is a program for using digital images and video in the classroom
- sample rubrics are available for assessing student projects

Other NASA resources
- click on FOR EDUCATORS in top bar
- you can click FIND TEACHING MATERIALS and choose from a variety of checkboxes now

content on nasa.gov is not embeddable currently

March 2008 contract was issued for eClips, so NASA’s use of YouTube in this project preceeded the Obama Administration’s use of YouTube and other social media websites

Most content now seems to be geared toward elementary and middle school students

The NASA “Ask an Astrophysicist” program is the only interactive part of the NASA website currently
- he does SpaceMap at NASA (worksheet activities, warmups for teachers)

Projects to get kids involved
- Star Count: you as a citizen get information about how to collect data, and you report your data in
- satellite information is validated using that information

-S’COOL: ground truth verification
- you are told when a satellite is going to be overhead, and you are asked to take land-based photographs showing what the clouds look like from the ground
http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/SCOOL
- Dr Lynn Chambers runs this project and actually uses that data

NASA World Wind
- NASA’s answer to Google Earth
- get world maps, and can overlay NASA data
- if NASA collects the data, you can overlay it onto the earth
http://worldwide.arc.nasa.gov/java
- you can download the software development kit (SDK) and develop your own
- someone just told me about this a month ago, it’s been available a LONG time though!

DiscoveryNOW is a 90 second video blurb podcast on NPR telling about something going on at NASA now
- can use this along with “Do It Yourself Podcasting” which NASA offers
- NASA Podcasts
- NASA Podcasting Help page

Sun-Earth Viewer shows different live images of the sun with different filters
- visualizations of the data
- realtime data

Landsat is part of NASA’s mission
- can do overlays, lots of imagery
- you own all of this stuff, because NASA is public

Internet Archive
- www.nasaimages.org setup by the Internet Archive
- thousands of available images

NASA Goddard Space Center has the largest collection of earth scientists in the world!
- lots of earth science done by NASA

Global Climate Change is out of NASA Langley

NASA centers are setup autonomously, so coordination between different websites is challenging

Because of STEM, our program is a great example of how NASA is now really paying attention to teacher voices and ideas
- it is a HUGE step forward

Career Bytes is a “Teach It Learn It” resource focused on careers and helping students connect with others for job/career learning

Do you have an idea of a career path you would like to follow or would like to learn about? The Career Bytes online interviews are short (~5 minute) videos exploring technology or technology-related career paths. Find (below) interviews that showcase diverse backgrounds, talents, and interest areas — from game creators to test pilots to rock stars! Career Bytes profile professionals discussing how they became successful, their challenges and interests, and how technology impacts their daily work.

Technorati Tags:
classroom, images, resources, science, technology, web, web2, nasa, stem

Leslie Wilson was Director of Michigan’s Freedom to Learn program and is the current director of the One-to-One Institute

Without leadership that causes this shift in teaching and learning, initiatives will not succeed

Remember the NYT article about Liverpool disbanding their program?
- that leader came out in education week 2 months ago and said, that was all about a change in leadership
- not everyone was on board when that program was implemented
- when the leadership changed, the program was disbanded

It all boils down to leadership

It isn’t about putting the hardware and software in schools
- it IS about teaching, learning, context and content in a technology enhanced environment

Fundamentally different shifts

Concept, vision and action
- purpose from research
- communication and collaboration with all constituents
- managing expectations: We’ve worked on helping our governor understand that simply having devices in their hands is NOT going to increase student achievement
- there are a host of factors

HYT, 6 Sep 2009, Alan R Mulally, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company
“The more that everybody comes together on what their real purpose is, the higher order of that, the better… and so the higher the calling, the higher the compelling vision you can articulate, the more it pulls everyone in.”

Without that vision,
- criticism of Wisconsin 1:1 project that has lacked vision
- it was corporate funded

back “the why” with research

the compelling vision
- the more we feel we are a part of something significant, and we understand our part in it, the more we can take a team approach to higher levels of performance
- this is about leaders’ ability to articulate a vision so others can become believers, even if it takes them awhile to do it

In Michigan so many of our superintendents balked at $38 million for 1:1

The compelling vision
- connecting the vision and strategies to the outside world
- knowing technology trends
- knowing expectations for students entering the workforce
- understanding the balance of cooperation and competition in the global market

I AGREE THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE: BALANCING COOPERATION AND COMPETITION

When we collaborate and cooperate both with people here in the United States and people outside the US

The research
- 4000 pages of research around 1:1 and technology rich schools, and what they achieved
- we found very few patterns to hang our hats on
- go to www.projectred.org
- ISTE< Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology, Rockman et Al, National Research on AAL; Univ of Memphis, CREP; Texas TIP; North Carolina; Maine

All of us have points about less discipline referrals, increased student attendance, etc.

Did you know there is increased teacher attendance in these environments?

Leadership basics: ideals and beliefs
- vision: what do we know about the future that affects planning?
-- trends, research, blending vendors and educators and university work

we can't hang our hats on grants and soft money

technology will be used by all students and teachers to increase the efficiency and quality of work
- planning for using budgets and resources for short and long term planning

Where there is the leadership will and the compelling vision, you will define your action steps to implement 1:1 successfully

Must have objective, third party evaluator look at your goals and how you are going to achieve those

We fired our in-state university as an evaluator because they were not giving us student level, classroom level data comparing that with traditional classrooms
- so we went out with an RFP and found a university that would give us this data (Univ of Memphis)

How are the behaviors of students and teachers changing in this new environment
- those are the specifics you want to focus on in your study

All stakeholders
- don't wait till you have 85% of support
- you want all stakeholders to be part of the dialog, the process, the Q&A
- there need to be stakeholders involved in the process across
- budget must come through general operating expenses
- solid infrastructure with tech support
- process for computer upgrades, replacements
- consider leasing

Imperative Steps

ongoing professional development
- internal capacity: train the trainer
- tech integration coordinator
- cadre of teacher leaders
- cadre of principal leaders

school board
- board members are going to be the ones who get the phone calls
- share and seek support for technology vision
- supports investment in technology
- many school board members DO "get" the fact that we're overdue to have tech-rich teaching and learning environments in our schools

ensuring a shared vision
- it makes sense to go with low hanging fruit, right?
- principals and teachers
-- begin with those who believe
-- examine research and agreed upon expectations

- Partnerships
-- frequent interactions and communications
-- be an ever present resource

We are not going to turn the desert into an ocean: so let's start where there is at least a trickle of hope

Teacher's Association support is key
- share the vision
- share the research and expectations
begin with volunteers

Instructional tech dept
- share the vision
- ensure a spirit of service: won't work without them
- change roles from repair to networking

community
- presentations at proof of concept schools
- majority support for technology
- school and district communications
- FAQs
- availability and accessibility
- town halls, coffee klatches, church meetings

Leading change in the 1:1 environment
- first order versus second order change (switching grocery stores is an example of first order)
- second order change: has to do with how you define yourself, your identity: that means for many people we work with, moving to this collaborative, networked environment IS a second order change proposition

challenge prevailing norms and require teachers to learn new knowledge and skills
- REsearch from MCRELl: 21 leadership responsibilities
- 11 leadership responsibilities are associated with second order change

second order change leader "musts"
- ideals and beliefs
- change agent (challenge status quo)
- flexibility: define the negotiable and the non-negotiables
- monitor and evaluate: how do you know it's working
- intellectual stimulation: professional learning, presentations
- knowledge of curriculum, instruction, assessment (research)
- optimizer: cheerleader

as a leader, I need to be sharing ideas and learning opportunities with you all the time
- encouraging everyone you work with to be continually sharing

I will celebrate every step you take along this path

culture: cohesion, shared vision, purpose
technology
- share research and developed common understanding of the expectations
- develop system for sharing successful lessons
- share successful lessons and projects at:
-- faculty meetings
-- administrative council meetings
-- board meetings
-- rotated teachers and buildings

Communication: easily accessible, open lines
- technology examples: show them!!!
-- monthly meetings, email, website, frequent classroom visits

Can't rely on just 3 or 4 people do do all that work for support
- develop team-based approaches

order: routines, structures, rules
- technology
- establish rules and procedures together
- communicate through website
- lesson explanation for parents / caregivers
- more...

ongoing input by teams involved in decisions is key
- administrative decisions made in concert with 1:1 principals
- we don't take textbooks away from kids when they mark on the textbooks, should we do this with laptops?
- some schools in Michigan felt strongly that they should: ultimately the campus needs to make that decision

shared leadership: building capacity
- lead principals
- lead teachers
- lead technology support
- more...

sustainability
- vision into action plans
- revisit annually, at a minimum
- troubleshooting game plan
- budget alignment
- reiterating the compelling imperative
- walk the talk

Having a plan for troubleshooting is critical: where do people go with their tech problems?

lesliew [at] 1two1.org

Michigan's 1:1 program happened when the Republican speaker of the house visited a rural school selling Christmas trees, and saw things on that trip that convinced him that schools in the state needed 1:1

In Wisconsin: they were given $14 million to go 1:1 in a district, and it was NOT anyone's idea inside the district

So we are not seeing

America's Digital Schools: about 4% of our schools per year are implementing

Technorati Tags:
edtech, laptop, leadership, learning, politics, school, technology

History of the Illinois technology immersion bill
- was to allow 7 school districts in the state of Illinois to put laptops into their classrooms
- my late husband had been a champion of this bill
- that started my journey with 1:1 learning and advocacy
- you had to be technology/IT ready
- many of the schools were not ready

Calhoun County Elementary is one of the schools I’ll talk about today
- Calhoun County on the Illinois/Missouri and Mississippi River boundary, about 5000 people in the country
- you have to take a ferry to get there, there is 1 bridge
- they were IT ready
- when computers arrived, it took 8-9 months to go through RFP process

Also in the room, Donna who works on strategic initiatives with Apple computer and worked with
- Springfield went with Apple
- our school in Calhoun County went with Gateway
- we had 140 students getting laptops in this program, the vast majority of families did not have computers in the home with high speed access
- they have had a difficult time with what has happened with Gateway computer
- during this time, their scores, ACT, state scores, have increased and blossomed
- kids took the computers home, shared this with their parents
- over last 3-4 years, we have had significant results in terms of parent involvement
- combination of sharing everything you have with the community

In Springfield they have about 1400 computers, scores have gone up
- State Board for Illinois really touts Springfield schools, what they are doing and have succeeded in doing
- World War II exhibit

As legislators in the general assembly, we are going to have to take stock as we look at our schools, looking at controversy in student books
- is a task force out there led by Senator Garrett
- looking at textbooks generally
- digital connectivity and content is now available

Comment from Donna: Senator Demuzio has a perspective on what digital content can mean for kids

Calhoun County schools are struggling now, not because of content– but because of hardware / software issues they have
- when you walk into the classroom and kids are so excited to show you what they can produce on their machines

Illinois legislature reforms
- we all have laptops on our desks, following our bills on the Senate floor and elsewhere
- we know as adults how important access to digital content is

Now discussing financial / fiscal challenges for schools, especially in small, rural schools with limited IT resources
- dollars are not there for Calhoun County schools to maintain their 1:1 program
- we are looking at “Race to the Top” dollars to fund these initiatives

Now comment from Kathy Barnhart, who is with Illinois State Board of Education
- talking about mobile devices like iPhone / Blackberry being the next generation 1:1
- mobile devices are the future

Now comments again from Senator Deanna Demuzio
- in the legislature, we are going to have to educated about these devices and tools

I was told I am one of the few Senators who is texting
- many of our legislators are probably not as up to speed as we should be with technologies (and often with other things!)
- we need to be educated into what the schools are asking for, our students, our parents

Now Donna talking about iTouch applications accessible for visually impaired students

From Senator Deanna Demuzio:
- as we look at a global world and get our students ready for a global market, the computer is a big part of that answer

Question:
- first thing they are going to tell you is, “We don’t have any money”
- we are behind the 8 ball on this, we should have done this a long time ago
- when you look at the dollars we spend on education and we’ve spent on other things, if we don’t spend the money on education

In Ohio, student fees range at some schools fro $30 at elementary to a couple hundred dollars for high schools (those are student fees)

Now discussing textbook costs, and how to use those funds for digital content

another participant: going with open content sources, and coordinating that at the state level

IT WOULD BE GREAT TO SEE STATES ENABLING STUDENTS AND TEACHERS TO PUBLISH AND SHARE CURRICULUM MATERIALS WITH OPEN LICENSING

TWO KEY QUESTIONS:
1- ARE YOU CHANGING THE BELL SCHEDULE AT YOUR HIGH SCHOOLS?
2- ARE YOU CHANGING THE FOUNDATIONAL MEASURE OF HIGH SCHOOL COMPETENCY FROM THE CARNEGIE UNIT

Race to the Top is just 10 of 50 states

From Senator Demuzio:
Next year ARRA is gone, we will go back to regular funding schedules for schools

many of our rural schools have out of date textbooks, schools can’t afford to replace them

Schools need to invite legislators to come into the classroom
- we have a “Principal for a Day” program with the Illinois administrator program
- I do that in elementary schools, doing the announcements, cafeteria duty, putting kids on the bus at the end of the day
- at the end of the day when doing this, you really have an idea if that school is clicking, things are working
- make sure legislators see what your computers look like, show them your library

Have students send notes to their legislators
- asking them to keep computers up to date
- asking them to come visit them at school

THIS IS ALL ABOUT MAKING A CASE FOR MORE DOLLARS FOR EDUCATIONAL SPENDING. I’M INTERESTED IN WHAT CAN HELP EDUCATE AND OPEN LEGISLATOR’S IDEAS

Senator Demuzio has asked different groups of kids to present in front of the state board

Kathy Barnhart’s comment:
If you can get with a Senator to Skype to a school, you will open a new communication channel

Senator Demuzio: Students in a classroom used computers to create a photo book for her about a visit she made to their school, they signed the book and wrote personal notes

I JUST ASKED ABOUT RURAL BROADBAND INITIATIVES IN ILLINOIS

Technorati Tags:
1:1, 1to1, conference, illinois, laptop, learning, politics

Alex in 6th year of 1:1 at Whitfield School in St Louis
- ran a 1:1 project before that in Milwaukee at University Lake School
- also works with Educational Collaborators

to date now, I have helped over 100 schools with their 1:1 projects

First experience: Alex was asked to put together a 1:1 plan and “do it right”
- his proposal was turned down as WAY to expensive
- no money was provided in the end for servers, training, infrastructure, etc.

New school: business manager said we had a 10 year business plan in place that didn’t include 1:1 learning
- so for various reasons, I have learned to be creative in seeking funding and functionality

Understanding 1:1 Costs
- acquisition cost
- operating costs
- opportunity loss costs
- total cost of ownership
- value of investment

Gartner says acquisition cost is just about 25% of your total 1:1 costs, so if you just focus on that (how much is that laptop) you are missing 75% of your cost

BYOL can make your operating costs VERY expensive (students bring their laptops)

opportunity loss costs: if you buy a technology but no one knows how to use it, there is an opportunity loss cost (you can’t actualize the value / potential of that technology
- any new technology has opportunity loss costs
- the space between when you put the technology in place and it is used well

Get familiar with the COSN site: they have a TCO calculator for total cost of ownership calculations
- developed with Gartner

ROI = return on investment (that is what businesses do that are selling something)
- profit is ROI

We don’t do this, we make kids who are contributors to their families, communities, and our democracy
- a VOI (value on investment) is an analysis that helps you analyze and quantify the reasons why you are doing a 1:1
- this answers the value and return questions about your 1:1 project

It’s more than just acquisition cost!!!

There are COSN white papers on how these things have worked in schools: Those white papers are NOT very good
- you have to know what to plug into the formulas for these to work
- some of these examples don’t have annual MS licensing costs included, some don’t include ongoing expenses like this
- be careful with some of those examples, and when you put your own numbers in

Comprehensive One-to-One Planning and Implementation Engagement
- this is the approach we take with schools

Your one to one goals and objectives must align with WHO YOU ARE as a school / district
- if you have a teacher who acts directly against your school mission statement, are they going to stay with you?

Other elements:
- financial planning
- device procurement and deployment
- end user support
- curriculum integration
- marketing communication
- faculty development
- infrastructure development

Planning is a first way to save some dollars
- one of the most expensive ways to do 1:1 is when a single individual decides to go 1:1, and that effort is not supported well by the organization
- mission and focus are key
- professional development
– admin
– faculty
– IT staff
- infrastructure

20 – 25% of TCO is hardware
- if you are

Leadership is one of the BIGGEST keys for success
- so many admins then refuse / don’t go to continuing PD
- focus on assessment of teachers is vital
- communication and marketing is key, how does 1:1 fit into those conversations?
- community buy in is so important, esp in communicates where there is lots of unemployment

The reason we are doing this is the same reason why moms and dads in our community does not have a job today: we need to provide those skills so our students

There are very few colleges who are teaching teachers today how to teach in a 1:1 environment
- classroom management is DIFFERENT in a 1:1 environment
- teachers are typically trained to be the content organizers, but now every child has access via their device to more knowledge and information than the entire faculty does all together
- this has to fundamentally change the role of the teacher!!!!
- secondary and higher education teachers should take their lead from the elementary / primary age teachers who are already facilitators for learning

IT Staff has enormous changes with 1:1
- stock for your IT staff goes up BIG TIME
- in the past, expectations were very low
- now: if you expect every day each student needs to have a functioning device to use is a HUGE difference
- turning around laptops in 15 minutes is critical now, so swappable laptops are key

Infrastructure: save money by fundamentally focusing them on your MISSION AND VISION
- the mission and vision will tell you what software to buy and more importantly, what NOT To buy
- same for hardware, storage infrastructure, etc.

Without the focus on mission and focus, you’ll be scared, looking for a technological solution, and it will meet some problem but not necessarily YOUR mission goals and focus

focus on your mission and vision!!!!!!

“The Cloud”
- web 2.0
- Google Apps (we just switched over in May to Google Apps for Education)
- Web Based SIS, etc
- Cluster Servers

Story of 2 hour downtime with Google Apps last year
- downtime with Google Apps for Education is MUCH less than it was with our MS Exchange server, which we were

Change management
- I try to be careful about how much change I introduce / implement at the same time
- when we went to Google Apps, I just focused on mail

web 2.0 applications don’t require you to install software, and are very light on support costs
- you can buy these as a service

We host our own Moodle server, but this year we are moving it out to a hosted solution
- this year I’ve calculated the opportunity loss cost for supporting my own Moodle server, and those costs for being down when I couldn’t fix it, as well as new Moodle

Some districts and states are locked into a particular Student Information Systems
- we moved to a Web Based SIS, now it is WONDERFUL!!!!!
- are a host of different options

Cluster Servers used to be really expensive and complicated, it is neither now
- different servers back each other up
- much more attainable
- we use VMware’s clustering

Virtualization
- Server virtualization by VMware
- Xen (open source virtualization option)
- if you are not doing this now, you definitely should be looking at this
- software provides redundancy across server
- example: at morning login time, your domain controllers get more “juice” to handle those server loads as they are needed, power gets redistributed
- these functions can ROI in a heartbeat, if you have more than 5 servers in your environment, you should be doing server virtualization

Application virtualization
- Citrix: now deliver applications via Zen
- like an application server: instead of installing an application on every machine, you install on a server and make it available to all your machines
- can generally save money on installations and use of licenses
- Kidspiration and Inspiration is a perfect example of this
- if you start pricing these out in a 1:1 environment, it is heinously expensive to do on a client basis
- then you can license for something like 100 concurrent licenses, and make those available to 1000 machines (or however many you have)

Desktop virtualization

Microsoft changes their opinion fairly often about virtualization and concurrent licenses
- costs for MS licenses can vary
- for non-MS software, your cost savings is HUGE

I am now presenting with my $325 Netbook that we roll out to 25% of our students
- runs Ubuntu, no operating system costs

Open Source programs / applications we use:
- Moodle
- Linux
- Open Office
- GIMP
- Audacity
- Kompozer
- iTalc
- Geogebra
- Scribus
- KdenLive (like our iMovie)

On the acquisition cost there are costs savings, and we work closely with users to manage opportunity use costs

The stability of Linux is staggering
- I have 2.5 times FEWER help desk requests than my colleagues at other area schools doing laptop initiatives on other platforms (Windows or Mac)

Schools to look at
- San Diego Unified: told vendors in 3 years we are running Linux on everything, so if your applications don’t run on Linux or or on the web, you will be removed from our vendor list
- Accelerated Reader is now web-based, you can thank San Diego Unified for that

The web is THERE, vendors CAN create/port their applications to run on the web

put your money into buying a bigger Internet pipe, find ways to get open source solutions in there

MY QUESTION TO ALEX WAS ABOUT PEARSON’S WINDOWS-ONLY CLIENT FOR OKLAHOMA ONLINE TESTING, AND WHAT OPTIONS WE’D HAVE FOR A UNIX ENVIORMENT

Linux can run a good number of Windows programs through WINE, as an emulation environment (Windows licenses not required for WINE)
- could also use Terminal Services to do this
- not sure if Windows can run from a USB key

For a statewide project, you could go to WINE developers and ask for support / pay for support to develop needed client support

To make large scale changes like this, you really need to know your culture
- example might be photoshop and GIMP, importance of involving your visual arts folks in this conversation / discussion

I used run a company on Blackboard
- Blackboard is an information delivery tool
- Moodle is a learning management system
- just because it is free (Moodle) does not mean it is cheap
- Moodle is SO MUCH better compared to Blackboard, the differences are HUGE

If you can start saving money BEFORE you have to save money, go get ahead of the game, you take a piece of those savings and put them into change management processes: PD, FAQs, etc.

It’s tough to change when you don’t have to

Evolution is an open-source client like MS Exchange that works with Exchange Server

Technorati Tags:
edtech, education, linux, opensource, technology, open, source

1. We have a 1:1 project in at least 1 grade, students take home laptops
2. We have a 1:1 project in at least 1 grade, students do NOT take home laptops
3. Our teachers have laptops, students do not
4. We are considering 1:1
5. None of the above

60% of our 67 poll respondents today are in 1:1 environments. Of those, 42% let students take laptops home, 18% do not. 15% of respondents are 1:1 for teachers only, and 24% of respondents are considering a 1:1 project.

Technorati Tags:
1to1, laptop, learning, #gl1to1

If you have not already, please join the K-12 Online Conference Ning, subscribe to the conference blog, follow k12online on Twitter, and become a fan of k12online on Facebook! As teasers are created by our 2009 presenters, they will be cross-posted to both our conference blog and the 2009 Teasers group in our conference Ning.

Technorati Tags:
conference, education, k12online, k12online09, learning, technology

Podstock is organized by the amazing folks at ESSDACK in Hutchinson, and is the brainchild of the creative Kevin Honeycutt, among many others.

Technorati Tags:
conference, creativity, education, kansas, learning, podstock, school, technology, podstock10, podstock2010, wichita