learning all i can

For my entrée into the 21^st century conference, I chose to “attend” The Electric Slide! – Twenty First Century Style

It was hosted by Kurt Paccio, a Technology Director and educator with over 14 years of experience, and Jim Gates, a public school teacher for over 32 years. I thought the title was interesting and wanted to see what it was all about. It was broken into 2 parts.

Part 1 was hosted by Kurt, and he introduced us to and instructed us in the application of sPresent.com. sPresent.com is a free web-based alternative to Power Point. I liked it a lot. It is very user-friendly. There are many benefits to sPresent.com which Kurt very wonderfully pointed out – 1. There are no compatibility issues. All students and educators alike should be able to access it no matter what system they are using. 2. It is great for sharing and collaboration. It can easily be embedded into all wikis and blogs. He did point out a few limitations: 1. It does require broadband as dial-up would just be too slow (however I believe most students here at WA would have high-speed internet access.) 2. It accepts jpeg photos only, and Kurt says TeacherTube and SchoolTube videos can’t be embedded yet – although YouTube is no problem at all. I believe the benefits outweigh the limitations and I look forward to using sPresent.com in the near future. It will allow me to move a level beyond powerpoint slide shows with video that can be embedded EASILY into the presentations. (I’ve had difficulty doing that with powerpoint in the past.) So I’m very excited about this new tool!

Part 2 was hosted by Jim, and introduced us to SplashCast.net. Unfortunately, Part 2 had a few problems. The link for ipod use did not work – kept saying URL not found. So I went to the audio only version but that proved very frustrating after awhile as he kept saying, “Watch as I …” or “Look at this!” Eventually I just went directly to the site and it does look promising. The link wasn’t really strong so it was sort of jumpy, but maybe it was just the connection at the time of day or maybe my computer at home wasn’t as strong as it is at school. What I saw I liked though. I think it is more like Animoto or maybe even BubbleShare. I will definitely consider it for future use in the classroom.

THING 12 - STRETCH TASK:

I’ve just finished reading “Why Wiki?” by Mark Wagner.   I agreed with so much of it!  First, he quotes Will Richardson and I have actually heard Will Richardson in person (thanks Shelley for the awesome opportunity to hear the Rock Star of the IT world!)  They both applaud and encourage the use of Wikipedia which I have had an aversion to for a while now.  Both Wagner and Richardson are bringing me around to see its good uses.  For example I liked in Richardson’s presentation that he showed the errors in the Physics textbook and then pointed out that yes wikipedia has errrors but they can be fixed very quickly unlike the printed physics textbook.   And I love Wagner’s concept of “white hats” versus “black hats” and his optimism that there are way more white hats out there than black.  I agree!  So perhaps I will start to allow my students to use it as a source.  (It would help if the Upper School history department would allow it.)

Secondly, I agree with Computer-Using Educator and bloggerDavid Warlick whom Wagner quotes, who says,  “Avoid training teachers to use  sophisticated web editing software.  Teachers are not web masters…they are communicators.  Help them to communicate.”  Amen brother!!  I could not agree more.  So if wikis are one of the easier tools to use for communication, then that is another reason to love them.  Because when I am doing a project with my students, I always have the practical constraint of teaching and processing content.  I cannot spend excessive hours teaching technology - but wikis seem to be relatively easy to facilitate.   After all, even I figured out how to do so for this course, so believe me they can’t be that hard!