Moving at the Speed of Creativity Podcasts

Podcast286: Learning about Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Powered Vehicles from Dr. Peter Sherwood of Oklahoma State University

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:12:56 -0500

This podcast features an impromptu interview with Dr. Peter Sherwood of Oklahoma State University, who is the proud owner of a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier automobile which is powered by both CNG (Compressed Natual Gas) as well as regular gasoline. Dr. Sherwood explained how he came to purchase this amazing car and the benefits of it (CNG is currently $1.19 per gallon in Oklahoma and yields about 30 miles to the gallon in his car.) I never knew cars like this existed until today. I had hard of CNG-powered cars, but assumed they were not "dual fuel." Now I want to find a company which can relatively inexpensively install a dual-fuel setup for me in my old 1993 Toyota Camry!

Podcast285: TechShoppingCart Episode 10 - Challenges with Integrating Web 2.0 in Schools

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:20:47 -0500

Welcome to episode 10 of the Technology Shopping Cart Podcast, recorded as a live webcast on September 26, 2008. This episode features a conversation with Bob Martin and Brad Meyerhoff, educational technology trainers for MOREnet in Missouri. Karen Montgomery and Wesley Fryer visited with Bob and Brad about the challenges which sometimes arise when teachers begin using read/write web tools to facilitate collaboration, communication, and content creation in classrooms. Bob and Brad work with a wide variety of teachers in diverse Missouri school districts, and have facilitated a number of conversations at educational conferences in the past year which focus on overcoming the obstacles to effective web 2.0 integration in schools. In addition to discussing strategies which are working to open the door to web 2.0 tool use, webcast participants also discussed a few educational technology news items and shared several new "geek of the week" websites. This was our first live webcast in which we used free CamTwist software, which permits (among other things) a slideshow of static images to be shared in the Ustream video window instead of just a live video feed. This audio podcast version is longer than the Ustream archive for this episode because it includes the first fourteen minutes in which we had some audio technical problems with Ustream. Those problems were entirely user-generated! We are continuing to learn more each week about podcasting as well as webcasting. As always we welcome your feedback and comments.

Podcast284: Media Literacy as Literacy for the Information Age by Dr. Rene Hobbs

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:02:14 -0500

This podcast is a recording of Dr. Renee Hobbs’ keynote at the 2008 OTEP Reading Conference on September 19, 2008 at Rose State College in Midwest City, Oklahoma. The title of her keynote was “Media Literacy as Literacy for the Information Age.” The conference theme was “Critical Literacy for Adolescents.” The Oklahoma Teacher Enhancement Program (OTEP) is a Title II Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant awarded to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education by the U. S. Department of Education. Renee Hobbs is one of the nation’s leading authorities on media education. She is the director of the Media Education Lab at Temple University, and over the past 20 years, she has helped bring media literacy to the forefront, educating thousands of students across the United States through her collaborative work with state education agencies and media companies. Hobbs is also the co-founder of the Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA), the national membership organization of the National Media Education Conference; the co-principal investigator at the Pennsylvania Department of Public Health; and the co-director the Ph.D. Mass Media program at Temple.

Podcast283: Dr. Cathy M. Roller’s keynote at the 2008 OTEP Reading Conference

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:43:51 -0500

This podcast is a recording of Dr. Cathy M. Roller’s keynote at the 2008 OTEP Reading Conference on September 19, 2008 at Rose State College in Midwest City, Oklahoma. The conference theme was “Critical Literacy for Adolescents.” The Oklahoma Teacher Enhancement Program (OTEP) is a Title II Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant awarded to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education by the U. S. Department of Education. Dr Roller is director of research and policy at the International Reading Association, develops policy statements with the board of directors, generates professional partnerships and oversees the traditional role of the research division. She is the author and co-author of four books published by the International Reading Association, including her books So…What’s a Tutor to Do? and Variability Not Disability: Struggling Readers in a Workshop Classroom. She is the editor of Learning to Teach Reading: Setting the Research Agenda, and she has published and regularly edits a number of journal articles. She has also received research grants and has presented at and attended a multitude of regional, national and international presentations and professional meetings

Podcast282: A Conversation with Superintendent Doug Taylor about Student Engagement, Digital Storytelling, and Collaborative Digital Technologies

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:40:35 -0500

This podcast is a recorded conversation with Doug Taylor, superintendent of Gage Public Schools in Oklahoma, at the EncycloMedia conference on Thursday, September 18, 2008. Doug discusses how students and teachers in Gage schools are utilizing netbooks like the Asus eeePC, open source software programs, Linux, and Google Documents. Gage educators are realizing the benefits of spending money which would otherwise go towards software and operating system licensing fees toward curriculum resources and other educational needs supporting literacy. Doug participated in our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project in February 2008, and is supporting hands-on, relevant and personal curriculum projects including oral history projects in Ellis County. Doug had a bit of a "conversion experience" when it comes to the power and leveling potential of digital technologies when he investigated all the things a 21st century librarian and media specialist needs to know and help students be able to do. As the leader of a small, rural school district in Oklahoma, Doug's enthusiasum for engaged, relevant learning is contagious and gives me great hope for the cause of school reform in our state. We need more school leaders with the vision, passion for student learning and leadership characteristics of Doug Taylor in our public schools.

Podcast281: Brisinger Book Release, Home Run Books, Flow, and Reading Advice from 10 Year Old Alexander

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:34:30 -0500

This podcast is a recorded interview in the car with 10 year old Alexander. Two years ago, as a third grader, Alexander read the book Eragon after he saw the movie and it become his "home run book." Literacy scholar Jim Trelease coined the phrase "home run book" to describe a book which someone reads that hooks them on reading and propels them to thereafter be a member of the literacy club. Since Eragon and Eldest (Christopher Paolini's sequel to Eragon) are two of his favorite books of all time, today's book release of Bristinger, the third book in the series, was understandably a day of great excitement for Alex. In the car to and from the Hastings bookstore the first time we tried to purchase the book this morning (before the store actually opened in Brownwood, Texas) I interviewed Alexander about his home run book experience, why reading for him is now a "flow" experience. (In his words, "like a movie playing in my head.") He discusses his favorite book series titles to date: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, and the Eragon series. Alexander also discusses the differences between listening to someone else reading him a book, and now being able to directly read and experience a book by reading it.

Podcast280: Get Wiki With It!

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:10:18 -0500

This podcast is a recording of my presentation at the EncycloMedia 2008 conference in Oklahoma City on September 18, 2008. The session description was: This presentation focuses on helping teachers and students utilize WIKIS to effectively collaborate and learn. A wiki is a website that permits designated individuals to jointly author and edit documents. The wiki software TRACKS each person's contributions, and facilitates easy comparisons between different document versions. Wikis can be used in safe, powerful ways to not only help learners work together but also showcase their work for a global audience. [END] This was the first time I've preseneted this particular session and it was a lot of fun. Reference podcaast shownotes for links to my presentation slides as well as referenced resources.

Podcast279V: Setting up a SubDomain with cPanel

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:36:17 -0500

This video podcast is a short screencast describing how you can use the free website management tool CPanel (provided by my own webhost, Siteground, as well as many others) to set up a subdomain on your website. The main reason to set up a subdomain is so you can use a subdomain web address to tell other people how to find your website. As an example, my main website is speedofcreativity.org. I have Wordpress installed at the root level of my domain. I have other instances of Wordpress installed into subdomains of my website, however, which gives these sites their own unique addresses. Of course I could have simply installed these programs in subdirectories of my site, but I think it looks more professional and its handier to use subdomains. Examples of subdomains on my main website are our family learning blog: learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org, my personal Moodle site: moodle.speedofcreativity.org, a Christian team-blog to which I contribute: eyesright.speedofcreativity.org, and my personal wiki: wiki.speedofcreativity.org. I have installed (but not used lately) the free wiki engine TikiWiki on my personal wiki site. More recently I installed and have worked with MediaWiki on the StoryChaser’s project wiki: wiki.storychasers.org. If the ideas and information included in this podcast are helpful and of interest to you, please leave a comment on this blog post. Good luck!

Podcast278: TechShoppingCart Podcast09: Digital Wishes, Flip Video Labs, and Manifest Destiny for EdTech

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:08:42 -0500

Welcome to episode 9 of the Technology Shopping Cart Podcast, a podcast (and now live webcast) where educational innovation thrives on the food of creative ideas. This episode features a conversation with Heather Chirtea of ToolFactory, Vicki Allen, Karen Montgomery, and Wesley Fryer about podcasting, digital storytelling, mobile podcasting labs, mobile flip video labs, "ushering" technologies which encourage teachers to extend their journeys of learning with educational technologies further, and "manifest destiny" for educational technology use in our 21st century classrooms. Of course we also include a variety of "geek of the week" websites, resources and tips, which includes a discussion of the superb "Global Nomads" videoconferencing content providers and facilitators. Check out the podcast shownotes for links. We are tentatively scheduling our next live webcast for Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 10 am US central time to discuss challenges and pitfalls of integrating web 2.0 technologies in school districts. We're asking some special guests from Missouri to join us who are in the trenches of IT and have some interesting perspectives to share.

Podcast277: A Conversation with Carol Anne McGuire - Imagineering the Ideal K-6 Classroom Learning Environment (Part 2)

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:17:44 -0500

This podcast is a recording of a conversation I had this evening over iChat with Carol Anne McGuire, discussing her experiences helping kids soar with their learning using a variety of project-based learning, collaboration and technologically-infused teaching methods. Carol Anne is the architect of the successful "Rock Our World" project, and has helped students create some of the most compelling podcasts I've heard to date. (Her students' "Mother's Day Podcasts" are some of my favorites.) In our conversation Carol Anne discusses the importance of community building between students in collaborative projects, the importance of high expectations for student learning, and the prospects she now faces at a new school where she has been challenged in imagineer the ideal classroom learning environment for both students and teachers. We hope to follow-up this conversation with part 3 in this series, which will be a live webcast discussing these ideas and inviting others to share their perspectives about what the ideal classroom learning environment might look like in the 21st century. We also might put together a presentation on this topic for the "NotK12OnlineConference" event later this year. :-)

Podcast276: Imagineering the Ideal K-6 Classroom Learning Environment (Part 1)

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:23:23 -0500

In this podcast I share 45 minutes worth of brainstorming on the subject, "Given all the resources, administrative and parental support needed, how would you imagineer the ideal K-6 classroom learning environment?" Imagineering is a term I associate with Walt Disney and Disneyland, where creative and capable individuals come together to both imagine and engineer new worlds together. Carol Anne McGuire asked me last week to share some ideas with her along these lines, and prior to our conversation later this week I did some brainstorming and created this podcast tonight to clarify some of my thoughts. In the podcast shownotes you'll find a link to the eighteen different ideas or suggestions I offer in this recording, as well as Stephanie Sandifer's excellent wiki for "Designing the 21st Century Global Learning Environment." As always I welcome your comments and feedback on the ideas of this podcast.

Podcast275: Installing Moodle via Fantastico from CPanel on a Custom Sub-Domain

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:45:11 -0500

This video podcast features a tutorial screencast explaining how to use the free web-based software installation tool Fantastico to install the open source learning management system Moodle onto a custom sub-domain of a website you pay a web host to use. I use the web host Siteground, which permits me to create an unlimited number of MySql databases to use with different web applications. These can include Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, TikiWiki, and Moodle to name a few. These choices are amazing, particularly considering the fact that a robust account with a commercial host like Siteground costs less than $100 US per year. Moodle is a robust, flexible, and powerful learning management system which is entirely free to use as an open source project. Fantastico and CPanel make it very straightforward (I hesitate to say “easy” but that word almost fits here) to install and keep these programs updated on your website. Check the podcast shownotes for links to referenced programs.

Podcast274: StoryChasers Brainstorm #3 from 21 August 2008

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:42:10 -0500

This podcast is a recording from our third online brainstorming session for the StoryChasers project on August 21, 2008. I was joined by Cheryl Lykowski, a 5th grade teacher from Michigan as well as James Sigler, a 3rd grade teacher from Missouri. We will convene a fourth brainstorming session (and hopefully our last one before formally announcing the project and sending our invitations to others to participate via the CILC and ePals) next week on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 9 pm Eastern / 8 pm Central time. Please join us if you can! Also please contribute to our project wiki, and join our learning community on our main website if you have not already. Refer to our podcast shownotes for these links as well as a link to the text chat transcript. The website description of StoryChasers currently reads: Storychasers is a multi-state (and potentially multi-national) educational collaborative empowering students and teachers to responsibly record and share stories of local, regional and global interest as citizen journalists. Where STN (Student Television Network) participants may focus more narrowly on student broadcast news productions, Storychasers has a broader focus on not only student-created news broadcasts, but also student-created documentary films and live event coverage (webcasting). Storychaser media productions can be shared as live broadcast events or recorded, asynchronously shared audio and video files.

Podcast273: Technology Shopping Cart Podcast08 - Screencasting for Learning

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:11:11 -0500

Welcome to episode eight of the Technology Shopping Cart podcast where educational innovation thrives on the food of creative ideas! This episode was recorded on August 8, 2008, and shared live over the web using Ustream.tv and Skype. Karen Montgomery and Wesley Fryer discuss reasons to use as well as create screencasts, places to find educationally related screencasts, and tools to use on both Windows and Macintosh platforms for screencapture and screen recording. Near the end of the webcast we were joined by Tony Vincent, an amazing educator from Omaha, Nebraska, and author of learninginhand.com. Tony shared some of his favorite screencast tools and also joined us for our closing "geek of the week" exchange. Refer to our podcast shownotes for links to the resources and websites we discuss in this show, including the Ustream chat transcript of our live webshow and Ustream archive.

Podcast272: A Conversation about the Cell Phone Audio Tour at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:31:07 -0500

This podcast is a recorded interview with Nancy Coggins, Marketing and Communications Director for the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, discussing the new cell phone audio tour which museum staff have made available for the past two months. The Memorial and Museum's video podcast virtual tour has won national recognition in the past and remains available on the official website. As Nancy relates, however, many visitors to the memorial come sponataneously and may not have had a prior opportunity to download a video podcast and sync it to their iPod or iPhone. By providing a cell phone walking tour, memorial and museum staff are facilitating greater access to a richer, guided experience as visitors come to Oklahoma City. This cell phone audio tour was made possible thanks to a generous grant from the AT&T Foundation. I am enthused about the possiblities which new media initiatives like this one present not only for people who come to the memorial and museum face-to-face, but also for students and teachers in other locations who can potentially be empowered to create virtual field trips and cell phone tours about areas of local interest in their community. Many thanks to Nancy for sharing these thoughts and reflections. Links to educational curriculum and resources related to terrorism, violence prevention, and the educational outreach activities of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum are available in the podcast shownotes.

Podcast271: Podcatching Tips for Mac Users - Using PodNova with iTunes and an External HD for an iTunes Library

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:03:01 -0500

This podcast is a screencast featuring an explanation of how Macintosh users can keep their iTunes folder on an external hard drive, and periodically update iTunes podcasts. This technique can be helpful if you are using a laptop and do not have enough free hard drive space for all the files in your iTunes library. Be careful, however! Make sure to have iTunes CLOSED when you are renaming the iTunes library folder / directory as explained in this screencast. The use of PodNova to maintain a OPML list of podcasts is also described along with a site for accessing podcasts “live” online with an iPhone or iPod Touch without syncing iTunes.

Podcast270: A Conversation with Benjamin Franklin- Inventor, Statesman, Author and Civic Activist

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:52:19 -0500

This podcast features a recording with Steven Smith, a wonderful re-enactor of Benjamin Franklin, at the 2008 Oklahoma A+ Schools Conference on August 1st. In the character of Benjamin Franklin, Steven recounts historial events of his life as an inventor, statesman, author and civic activist. If there is a more memorable and impactful way to learn about historical characters than having an animated conversation like this one with Benjamin Franklin, I’m not sure what they are! This was a lot of fun! Thanks to Steven for granting this interview and permission to share it online. Steven role plays several characters in addition to Ben Franklin including Peter Cartwright, Professor B Looney and Tupper the Clown. Visit the podcast shownotes for links to his websites. He is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but shares his wit, wisdom and life lessons with audiences young and old around the United States

Podcast269: Background and Formative Ideas for the Storychasers Project

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:06:20 -0500

This podcast is a recorded skype conversation between Cheryl Lykowski and Wesley Fryer, discussing a new idea for a collaborative project titled "StoryChasers." The current (but evolving) "about" page for the StoryChasers website states: Storychasers is a multi-state (and potentially multi-national) educational collaborative empowering students and teachers to responsibly record and share stories of local, regional and global interest as citizen journalists. Where the STN (Student Television Network) focuses on student broadcast news productions, Storychasers has a specific focus on student-created documentary films as well as live event coverage (webcasting). If you are interested in these ideas, please join our open Skypecast on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 for a skypecast discussion about this proposed initiative. We will start at 8 pm Eastern / 7 pm Central / 6 pm Mountain / 5 pm Pacific.

Podcast268: Conversations with Scott Swanson and April Hope about the first OLPC High School Student Chapter, 1 to 1 Laptop Immersion with Tablet PCs, and EduBloggerCon 2008 Student Reflections

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:53:50 -0500

This podcast includes interviews with Scott Swanson, the Strategic Technology Coordinator at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois, recorded in March and July of 2008, as well as April Hope, a 2008 graduate of IMSA and Scott’s current intern. They discuss the activities of IMSA students in forming the first OLPC (XO Laptop) High School Student Chapter, their experiences working in and supporting a one to one laptop learning initiative with tablet PCs, and their responses to conversations at EduBloggerCon 2008 prior to the NECC conference in San Antonio in July. The first conversation with Scott in this podcast was recorded at the COSN conference in Washington D.C. in March 2008. Many thanks to both Scott and April for sharing their thoughts, experiences, and perspectives!

Podcast267: A Discussion about Lego WeDo Robotics at NECC 2008 (Coming in January 2009 to North America)

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:45:42 -0500

This podcast is an interview with Lars of Lego Education on the vendor floor at NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, discussing the recently announced “WeDo Robotics” product designed for elementary students ages 7-11. According to the official Lego Education press release, WeDo Robotics “redefines classroom robotics, making it possible for primary school students 7-11 years of age to build and program their own solutions. Bridging the physical world, represented by LEGO models, and the virtual world, represented by computers and programming software, LEGO Education WeDo Robotics provides a hands-on, minds-on learning experience that actively involves young students in their own learning process and promotes children’s creative thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills – skills that are essential in the workplace of the 21st century.” Unlike the Lego NXT robotics kits, WeDo robot models remain tethered to the laptop computer running the iconic software program which controls the robot. WeDo is being released in North America in January 2009, and its software program runs on Macintosh OS X, Windows, and the XO Laptop’s “skinny Linux” operating system.

Podcast266: Open Minds, Open Education, and a View of Open Culture by David Thornburg (NECC 2008)

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:17:05 -0500

This podcast features a recording of David Thornburg's NECC 2008 presentation "Open Minds, Open Education, and a View of Open Culture." The official conference program description and purpose / objectives for this session were: This talk explores how open education and culture are supported by 1:1 computing facilitated with open source tools, worldwide. True universal access, worldwide, requires innovation in hardware and software. Linux and open source software play a critical role here. In addition, a shift toward a more education-friendly copyright scheme (such as creative commons) is essential in opening up the educational process for all. As liberty, equality, fraternity becomes rip. mix and burn, the remixing of educational content by teachers and students alike is quite powerful. Most importantly, the cultural elements of education around the world can finally be addressed in ways that build true understanding and appreciation for the disparate peoples of the world.

Podcast265: Digital Learning Objects on the Open Web

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:31:58 -0500

This podcast is a recording of a session I shared on July 9, 2008, at the Missouri Distance Learning Association's Annual Conference in Osage Beach, Missouri, titled "Digital Learning Objects on the Open Web." The ideas shared in this session were strongly influenced by Karen Fasimpaur's February 2008 presentation at NCCE titled "Free Content + Open Tools + Massive Collaboration = Learning for All." The official conference program description for this session was: The Internet's world-wide web offers unprecedented access, publication, and collaboration opportunities for connected digital learners. In this session we will explore the dynamic world of digital learning objects, paying particular attention to the ways learning objects can be effectively integrated into existing course curriculum and student assignments for both K-12 and higher education learners. We will also explore the educational ethic of publishing content on the open web, which contrasts sharply with traditional notions of limiting access to content and ideas by sharing on a closed web via login-restricted learning management systems like BlackBoard, WebCT, or Moodle. Creative Commons licensing is playing an important role in the continued evolution of the digital learning object landscape, and a case will be presented for encouraging learners at all levels to both utilize as well as contribute to learning object collections shared under permissive Creative Commons licenses.

Podcast264: Grassroots Creativity: Helping Everyone Become a Creative Thinker by Dr. Mitchel Resnick

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:51:46 -0500

This podcast features a recording of Dr. Mitchel Resnick's NECC 2008 presentation "Grassroots Creativity: Helping Everyone Become a Creative Thinker." This session was shared on July 2, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Resnick is a professor at MIT and works at the MIT Media Lab with some of the most innovative and creative thinkers in the world focused on learning and education. The official conference description of this session was: In today’s fast-changing society, everyone needs to think creatively. I will discuss new technologies from MIT Media Lab that help students develop as creative thinkers. When people think about creativity, they often think about people like Mozart, Picasso, Curie, and Einstein, people who transformed their fields with radically new ideas and creations. But creativity is not only for the select few. In today’s fast-changing society, everyone needs the ability to come up with creative solutions to unexpected everyday problems. Our research group at the MIT Media Lab has been developing a family of educational technologies, including Scratch (scratch.mit.edu) and Crickets (www.picocricket.com), with the explicit goal of helping students develop as creative thinkers. In this presentation, I will discuss the ideas and strategies underlying these new technologies, and I will present case studies of how students are using these technologies to create, invent, experiment, explore – and become more creative thinkers.

Podcast263: Technology Shopping Cart Podcast07 - iPhone Web Apps and Poll Everywhere in Education (Part 2 of 3 in our Cell Phones and Mobile Devices for Learning series)

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:34:20 -0500

Welcome to episode seven of the Technology Shopping Cart podcast where educational innovation thrives on the food of creative ideas! This episode was recorded on July 1, 2008, in San Antonio, Texas, at the National Educational Computing Conference. Karen Montgomery and Wesley Fryer were joined by Brad Gessler of Poll Everywhere to discuss mobile applications for learning: Specifically Poll Everywhere and iPhone Web Apps. This is part two in our Cell Phones and Mobile Devices for Learning podcast series. (We apologize it has taken so long to get this second part recorded and posted!) Refer to our podcast shownotes for links to the resources and websites we discuss in this show.

Podcast262: Powerful Ingredients for Digitally Interactive Learning (MODLA 2008 Keynote)

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:57:15 -0500

This podcast is a recording of the keynote address I shared on July 9, 2008, in Osage Beach, Missouri at the Missouri Distance Learning Association (MODLA) annual conference. Approximately 90% of those in attendance for this keynote were higher education faculty, instructors, and support staff members. The official conference program description for this session was: Good teaching is similar in many ways to good cooking. Recipies are helpful, but master cooks often modify those to meet different needs and situations. The same is true for teachers. If we extend this analogy of cooking to teaching and learning in a web 2.0 world, what are the best "ingredients" to use as we help both teachers and students learn to be more effective, safe, and powerful communicators in our flat world? In this working session we will focus on six key ingredients: del.icio.us social bookmarks, Flickr photo sharing, VoiceThread digital storytelling, collaborative writing tools, websites for phone recording as well as SMS polling, and videoconferencing.

Podcast261: Student Perspectives on Reading, Writing, Literacy, Technology Use, Gaming and Publishing on the Global Stage of the Internet

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:25:25 -0500

This podcast features interviews with 14 year old Solana and 8 year old Jack who share their perceptions and ideas relating to reading, writing, literacy, technology use, gaming and publishing on the global stage of the Internet. Solana has had her own computer since she was eight, and with the help of her father found the website KidPub to publish and share her own stories, poems, and other creative writing projects. KidPub requires that parents pay a small fee (about $12) per year for kids to participate and have an account. This prevents people from creating free accounts and commenting on others’ work without accountability and attribution. Solana discusses how motivational she has found KidPub and the opportunity to share her voice with others on the Internet, problems encountered with plagiarism and the ways the KidPub community self-polices itself, and the exciting connection she had made with other students who have taken one of her published novels (with permission) and started to create a movie based on the story on YouTube. Solana also discusses what she has learned about computers and technology at school compared to what she has learned at home, including her experiences using Diigo and trying to collaborate with other kids. She discusses things she would change (if she could) about technology use and Internet access at school so she could extend and further develop her technology skills there. She also discusses her experiences with online safety, accessing websites like YouTube and extending her searches beyond engines like AskJeeves to Google, and her experiences with inappropriate content which she has accidentally stumbled upon when doing Internet searches. She also discusses issues related to social networking and directly contacting other kids online. In addition to Solana’s comments, 8 year old Jack discusses the ways he uses computers at home primarily to play strategic games. (Note: The names Solana and Jack are aliases used at the request of the parents.)

Podcast260: EduBloggerCon 2008, Intellectual Property and Recording: A Conversation with Elaine Roberts of Pearson

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:09:55 -0500

At EduBloggerCon 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, on June 28th, some controversy arose regarding the presence of videographers hired by Pearson Education. Steve Hargadon, who was the primary organizer of EduBloggerCon, gave permission to Pearson to attend and videotape many of the sessions pending permission from the presenters and speakers themselves. Today I had an opportunity to interview Dr. Elaine Roberts, the Director of Product Development and Professional Growth for Pearson, about the video recording which took place at EduBloggerCon this year and Pearson's plan for utilizing this video content. In my view, it is a real compliment that a respected and large educational publishing company like Pearson views the conversations and ideas discussed by educators at EduBloggerCon to be important enough to document and share. If we, as change agents in our schools and communities, want our voices and ideas to gain a broader and more mainstream audience, I think we should embrace opportunities like this to both share our perspectives as well as further educate educational publishing companies themselves. Respecting intellectual property rights is VERY important, and the conversations which took place before, during, and after EduBloggerCon regarding the recording and sharing of ideas are needed. How do we change? Through conversations. Hopefully the opportunity to have Pearson record and share participant perspectives at EduBloggerCon on Friday will lead to more constructive conversations about learning and educational change in the 21st century in the classrooms and educational board rooms around our nation and world. We've still had LOTS of great opportunities for "unconference" conversations at NECC 2008, and things are just getting underway here in San Antonio!

Podcast259: Drupal for Education by John Jones

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:03:39 -0500

This podcast is a recording of a presentation by John Jones on June 12, 2008, titled Drupal for Education. John presented this session at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas, hosted by the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK). The conference program description of this session was: Drupal is an open source web community engine that has the power and flexibility to provide highly customized user experiences for schools and districts. This presentation will review the software, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of open source solutions like Drupal, and showcase what these sites can do. A link to John's PowerPoint presentation is available in the podcast shownotes.

Podcast258: Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning by Kevin Honeycutt

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:08:11 -0500

This podcast is a recording of the keynote address shared by Kevin Honeycutt at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas, on 12-13 June 2008. The TT conference is hosted by ESSDACK, the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas located in Hutchinson. Kevin is one of the most innovative and passionate educators I know, and is a compelling storyteller. He is able to masterfully focus educators not only on issues related to learning and educational technology integration, but even more importantly on the vital role teachers play each day forming and strengthening relationships with students. Kevin reminds me about what matters most in the classroom and in education, and that is students. Many thanks to Kevin for sharing permissiosn to podcast this session, as well as the entire ESSDACK staff for hosting a fantastic conference last week in Wichita. Be sure to also check out the Ning social network which Kevin facilitates, titled Art Snacks. (Links are available in the podcast shownotes.)

Podcast257: Natural Learning - What Schools Don’t Do by Steve Wycoff

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:25:59 -0500

This podcast is a recording of a presentation by Steve Wycoff on June 12, 2008, titled “Natural Learning - What Schools Don’t Do” at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas. TTT is sponsored by ESSDACK, the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas in Hutchinson. The official program description for this session was: How we learn naturally is far different than how we are taught in schools. If we are going to succeed in actually leaving no child behind, we’ll need to understand better how individuals learn and more importantly how schools will need to look to accommodate the learning needs we all have. We’ll also demonstrate what curriculum might look like in a learning environment designed for the way we learn naturally. We’ll also connect this new learning environment to the needs we are experiencing in society related to workforce readiness. Be prepared to have your thinking stretched.

Podcast256: Internet Safety and Safe Social Networking Presentation for Kingfisher 8th Graders

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:38:43 -0500

This podcast is a recording of a presentation shared with approximately 300 eighth grade students in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, on March 26, 2008. Our topics were Internet safety and safe online social networking. I was the final speaker in Kingfisher for a day of presentations focusing on health and safety issues organized by the school counselors in Kingfisher and nearby school districts. It is quite challenging to address 300 eighth graders for almost an hour right after lunch, at the end of their learning day! (Note that in the introduction, the speaker erroneously stated I taught courses at Texas Tech University. That was incorrect. My only higher education teaching experience (to date) was for Wayland Baptist University in Lubbock, Texas.)

Podcast255: Implications of Transfer of Wealth for Schools and Communities

www.wesfryer.com/contact (Wesley A. Fryer) — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:12:14 -0500

This podcast is a recorded interview with Tom Fryer discussing the transfer of wealth opportunities which exist for schools and other nonprofit organizations in our communities. Tom is one of the 2008-2009 trustees of the Manhattan Community Foundation (in Manhattan, Kansas) and an advocate for educational efforts focused on estate planning which include giving to community foundations as well as nonprofit organizations via endowments. According to the Kansas Association of Community Foundations, $66 billion will be transferred from one generation to the next in the state of Kansas by 2020. If only five percent of those dollars could be preserved in community foundation endowments, that would equate to $3.3 billion in funds being available for Kansas schools and other nonprofit organizations in Kansas communities in the next 12 years. The transfer of wealth (TOW) opportunity is not limited to Kansas, this is a nationwide phenomenon and opportunity. Educational leaders and other community advocates need to be both aware of and proactive about their local TOW opportunities, and partner together to allow local citizens to give back to their communities via local endowments. In contrast to one-time gifts which have a limited impact, endowments supported by community and school foundations can create and leave a positive legacy which can benefit a community in innumerable ways for years to come. Virtually everyone involved in U.S. public education today faces funding shortfalls for worthwhile programs. Community / school foundation advocacy and partnerships can help address these funding shortfalls and open up superb opportunities for learning which otherwise may be impossible for students and teachers in our schools.