Get Out of the Classroom with Virtual Field Trips

When I think of field trips I think of yellow buses, permission slips, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a hot can of pop. Yep, I'm kind of old. But I was just thumbing through the August edition of the eSchool News -- I KNOW! I WAS ACTUALLY READING SOMETHING I COULD TOUCH -- and I had to share this great list of virtual field trips. I gathered them all in my Delicious account under the tag "FieldTrip".

Here's the link: http://delicious.com/lamorris/FieldTrip

If you have a favorite or a link to one not on this list, please leave a comment.

Just sharin'.
Lee Anne

Michael Wesch’s Presentation to Library of Congress

I have to share this discussion from Will Richardson's blog about Michael Wesch's recent presentation to the Library of Congress. Fantastic. He is so wonderful at making (letting) you think. (Remember, he's the guy who did The Machine is Us/ing Us )

The video is about 55 mins. Yes, that is quite a time investment. I promise you. It is worth it.



Just Sharin'
Lee Anne

I Love the Human Brain!

For many in the area, classes are starting. My first TCC credit class was last night. As usual, our first meeting consisted of reviewing the syllabus, the course content and expectations, and getting to know each other. Reviewing the syllabus is never exciting, but important. Without really meaning to, I did something kind of odd. (Is that how oddness happens?) Before class started I checked weather.com to see what was up. When I began speaking, I left it on the projected screen, and every few minutes I refreshed the view.

So, yeeeeah, why am I telling you this? After I drag the (at this point) willing students laboriously through the schedule, I ask for questions or concerns, etc. I always get a few. Generally, the questions are about details I have just shared with them - as in . . . didn't I just say that? After I answer their questions, I ask them questions about what is in the syllabus. Some can answer many of the questions, but these aren't really the results I hope for. This class was different. The only question asked was if they were allowed to bring beverages in the classroom. Great question - I had not said anything about that. When I quizzed them about the syllabus after, they hit about 99.99999999% accuracy.

I really, really don't think I became a better "explainer" all of the sudden, just this week.

Would anyone like to comment on the connection between weather.com on the overhead and their ability to focus on the discussion?

I love the human brain. I think how we are using it is changing.

Just Sayin'!
Lee Anne

Good Question! Are we getting stupider?

Media have been changing the way we “behave” for a long time now – from the first traveling storyteller to the new iPhone. I usually share with participants in our Web 2.0 classes that the way I learn, share, read, and not surprisingly, think has changed over the last few years. It’s the internet, without doubt, that has propagated my new behavior. I feel like I think more shallowly (it’s a word now!), but I see more and make more connections. The question is . . . am I a casualty or am I the fruit of the internet as a medium? I’m sure most of you are thinking fruit. She is defiantly a fruit. Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . .

In the Atlantic Monthly.com article, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr explores the notion that our brains are changing and our new media are responsible.

"As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski."

Here’s my question, is it a good trade to forfeit deeper insight for a broader perspective? Okay, I guess I have way more than ONE question. What does this mean in terms of how students learn, how we teach, what we teach, where they learn? How should educators react? Should we cultivate this new way of reading? Will you even be able to finish reading this blog post?

I am constantly fascinated by how the simplest inventions or “happenings” can so monumentally change what is us or what is our world. For example, I’m reading a book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger in which he discusses how the alphabet was originally a miscellaneous grouping of letters in no rational order. Essentially, it was just a bunch of letters floating in your soup, and even how those letters eventually became letters was pretty much unscripted. Someone along the way put them in a random order and said, here, we’re going to do it this way. Thus was born the alphabet upon which the preponderance of our world is ordered. Blows my mind – you’ll be hearing more about this book when I finish it.

So, let’s move from one unconsidered mind blower to another – the clock. Carr shows us that the clock changed everything about how we thought, behaved, interacted, etc.

"In deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise, we stopped listening to our senses and started obeying the clock."

Go ahead. Imagine your life without a clock of any sort. Can you trust your senses? How might our world look now if we had never had clocks? Do you think it might be better or worse? What about no alphabet – better or worse? Surely arguments can be made on either side.

I use to be a fairly focused thinker, but even as much as I wanted to read this entire article in one fell swoop, I couldn’t. I followed links in the article, I wrote this blog post, I instant messaged with people, and many other tasks I didn’t know I was doing all at the same time. I had to remind myself to go back to the article. Can you do it? Can you read the entire article? I finally did. It was worth it. Still, in the frenetic process of reading this article and writing about it, I made several discoveries and thought some worthwhile thoughts. I learned, but did I learn better or worse? Am I getting stupider? (no comments on my stupidness, please!)

As a writing instructor turned technology integration instructor, I have to end with a provocative quote from the article, at least provocative to me:

In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.” And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.”

I’m just sayin’!
Lee Anne

You - the Voki Avatar

Okay, it's almost the end of the week and almost the end of the summer semester. I think we need to make time for a little play 'n learn.


Get a Voki now!
(click on the play button in the bottom left)

At this point I honestly don't remember where I learned about this site, but it has been fun. Voki.com is a cool (free) little site where you can create your own speaking avatar. It is fairly intuitive and fast.

I sent the link to several coworkers and the Online Learning Series participants the other day. I didn't have time to play with it just then, but I had to share it! WELL . . . I have been getting some hilarious messages from people. Although I should probably be doing something a bit higher on the "productive" scale this afternoon, I am making time for a little play 'n learn.

Actually, I can see many uses for this - not just play. How cool would this be for an introduction to students taking your online class or going to your blog or wiki?

Take a play 'n learn break. You deserve it.

Just sharin'
Lee Anne

George Mason launches online clearinghouse for teachers of American history

I am inclined to believe that when a "clearinghouse" comes aknocking on your door, you are indeed already a winner!

I am reading ClassroomNews - an online eNewsletter by eSchool News. There are several interesting articles, but one certainly caught my eye. Are you a history teacher (or do you know one) looking for useful online content? Here you go . . . I hope! Below is ClassroomNews' link and discussion.

George Mason launches online clearinghouse for teachers of American history
http://teachinghistory.org/
"George Mason University has received a five-year, $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to build and run an interactive web site that trains the nation’s elementary and high school history teachers in their craft. The new National History Education Clearinghouse is funded by ED’s Teaching American History program, which supports professional development opportunities for teachers in that field. The site will include features such as a searchable database of state history standards, customizable lesson plans, and online discussion forums with education experts on current trends in teaching American history. Kelly Schrum, director of educational projects at George Mason’s Center for History and New Media, said the site is designed to be the most comprehensive resource available for instructors specializing in American history. “There are a lot of clearinghouses and professional training in science and math, but not in history,” Schrum told The Examiner of Washington, D.C. “This is really an outgrowth of our overall mission.”

Check it out and let me know what you think?

Just Sharin'
Lee Anne

Podcasting Advice You Can Use

I have had the boundless pleasure of teaching a couple of podcasting classes this summer. The more I work with podcasting, the more I am convinced that this a fantastic activity and opportunity for student learning and creative expression. The technical aspects of this activity may seem a bit overwhelming at first unless you are a geek. I am NOT a geek (though I want to be!), so I am always grateful when I find tools that relieve me of the need to be geeky.

Through Eduhound's eNewsletter, I found a link to some cool podcasting resources. The creators of Radio Willow Web share their tools and techniques at Learninginhand.com. It is certainly worth a glance.

What I'm most excited about here, is the free music and sound effects links they share. I have not had a chance to roll around in all of them yet. If you find one to be particularly appropriate and easy, please share with everyone.

You may be interested in subscribing to EduHound's eNewsletter, Classroom Tools & Tips.

Just sharin'!

Lee Anne

What About Blogs - July 15th Class

What About Blogs?
Welcome to the Eighth Floor class about blogging in education. As a collaborative and constructive tool, blogs have found their place in education. As educators, we are using them as learning tools not only for our students, but also for ourselves.

Blogs in Plain English


Lee LeFever of the Common Craft Show

So What’s a Blog?
Let the 6 & 7 year olds from Room 9 at Nelson Central School educate you about what they think a blog is and why they love using them!



Let’s Talk About Blogs
How is a blog different from a website?
What does it mean to blog, be a blogger?
Why do you think you or your students might be attracted to this as a form of expression?
The first step to being a good blogger is to be a good blog ____________?

Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog in the Classroom

Education Professional Development Blogs
Weblogg-ed - A blog by Will Richardson
Moving at the Speed of Creativity - A blog by Wesley Fryer
Blog of Proximal Development - a blog by Konrad Glogowski
Blogs about Educational Blogging - a wiki by Support Blogging.com

Classroom/Student Blogs
Arthus - NewlyAncient (high school student blog)
AP Calculus AB (An interactive log for students and parents in my AP Calculus class. This ongoing dialogue is as rich as YOU make it. Visit often and post your comments freely.)
The Good Habits Blog (blog for students)
Mrs Cassidy's Classroom Blog (elementary)
Blogical Minds (This is a blog created to explore what happens when 5th graders blog and converse about literacies in class and beyond)

Google Search for Blogs
http://blogsearch.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wb

Check out the following education/safety focused postings and articles:
MySpace Education
Change Agency
BlogSafety.com
Blogs, Fair Use, and Paying to Play

Blogging Tips and Tricks:
Web Blog Basics
Blogs - Anatomy
Blogs for Learning
Evaluating Blogging
Blogging Best Practices
Top 10 Blog Writing Tips
___________________________________________________________________

QUESTION!
Since this is a class about blogging, we thought you might want to do a little, well, blogging. So, what are some advantages to using blogs? What are some disadvantages? What can you do to minimize the disadvantages?
____________________________________________________________________

Add your comment to this post. Take a minute to think about the above questions. (Or share something else, if you choose, like an idea your already have for using blogs) Click on the "comments" link below and then type your answer. You can comment as "anonymous or other." Be sure to include your name somewhere so we know who you are. Read others’ comments and feel free to comment on their comments!

Thanks!
Lee Anne

When is an apple more than just an apple?

I ran across a quote this morning that got me thinking about apples. Seriously, apples are an amazingly popular and versatile fruit. Aside from eating them (they are "delicious"), think about all the places apples pop up in our day to day lives:

• An apple a day keeps the doctor away


• Teachers and apples will forever be linked


• The apple of your eye


• Comparing apples and oranges (I actually wrote a paper on this in college!)


• As American as apple pie


• One bad apple . . . isn't there one in every group?


• How do you like them apples?


• And maybe the most famous apple of all . . . . Apple Computers.
  

With all the ways apples figure into our lives, is it weird that my mind went directly to Apple Computers when I read the following quote in the Sloan-C View eNewsletter today?

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
George Bernard Shaw."

I envisioned people literally exchanging computers and realizing that they didn't have any greater insight or technical literacy than they had before. BUT, if they share what they learn while they use their computers – WOW! Imagine the possibilities. As I was reading the quote I thought, what a great example of how technology integration and innovation have nothing to do with 'point and click' skills and everything to do with learning. And then I saw who the author is and realized I need to get out a little more.

But I think I know why my mind did immediately go there. We have been having a great summer on the Eighth Floor. I have been lucky enough to work with so many apple deserving educators – you know, the kind that never stop thinking and sharing – they are constantly popping. I love seeing people make the connections, both with other people and with the potential of technology. There's been a lot of energy to soak up around here this summer! And, I like them apples.

Just Thinkin'
Lee Anne

Are Conversational Skills (in writing) Important?

I ran across an article last week in Campus Technology's Web 2.0
eNewsletter, Learning in the Webiverse: How Do you Grade a Conversation. I couldn't click on it fast enough! Why wouldn't you want to know this? I can't tell you the number of educators that struggle with the discussion boards and web tools, etc.

Right off the bat the author, Dr. Trent Batson, asks two pretty big questions:

1. Are conversational skills (in writing) important and, if so, how do we teach them?
   
2. How do you evaluate written turns in an ongoing conversation?
   

Here are several topic headings to pique your interest.

• An Academic Online Conversation
  
• Principles for Evaluating Online Conversations
  
• Web 2.0 Just Does Conversation
  
• That Old Tipping Point
  

Any thoughts . . .

Just Sharin'
Lee Anne