I am so excited about the upcoming collaborative project that our class is taking part in.  Becky Anderson and I will be working with Allanah King’s class from New Zealand on a project called “Connections.” Our first part of the project is to explain and make a video for the class about the physical steps it would take for someone from Regina to go and visit New Zealand. After this we will be skyping in the with the class. I really love this theme because I know that it will open up other connections from around the world.  I definitely want to take this idea into my classroom someday.

I was also looking at Allanah King’s class blog and they have been doing some really cool things such as podcasts, videos and class newsletters. The kids and Allanah seem awesome and I can’t wait to get to know them. I was also checking out Allanah’s education blog and she has some really cool tools posted on there.  One of the tools she used was for making your class newsletter look like a book embedded right into the blog. I know that this is something that I will also use.  I am becoming so much more motivated about the technology ideas and tools that can be used in classrooms as I discover what other people from around the world are doing. The opportunities are endless!

As I listened to the presentation by Karl Fisch I started to worry about whether or not I would be an effective teacher. He was speaking about technology being the new literacy and about how important it is that our students are literate for the 21st century.  I don’t want my students to be “left behind” in anyway due to a lack of knowledge that I may have, and this is where the fear sets in.  I am writing this blog at 1:00am not being able to sleep because of these thoughts running through my head.

I have learned about a lot of great tools on the web and have seen a lot of innovative ideas that I would like to use as well, such as the 50 ways to tell a story with Cog Dog Roo, but I do know there is so much more that I need to know to make sure my students are literate for the 21st century.

In my experience thus far as a student in University I find that there is not a lot I am being taught as far as integrating technology into a classroom except for in my ECMP classes.  I am so thankful for my ECMP classes, but I wish that there was more than just one set of classes to help me in this area. Therefore I am so thankful that there are other educators  on the web that are sharing their ideas and helping me in my learning, as sometimes I feel that I am at a loss and feel very inadaquete.  I don’t want to be a teacher that just settles for the way I grew up learning. I know the way I was taught as a child will not be an effective way of teaching the next generations.

When I was in school the teacher knew more than me about a given topic and could teach me. Now, the students know more about technology and the new literacy than I do and I find I’m learning from them. Hmmm learning with students and from students… this is definitely something new.  It goes against the old way of learning in school where the student strictly learns from the teacher.  I know for many teachers this may be a scary thought, but this is the direction our society is going.  We need to jump on board or get left behind.

My very first semester of University in English 100, I was asked to write an essay on whether or not I thought it was important to have computers in classrooms.  I re-read that essay and saw that I said that computers would be a distraction to the students and should not be allowed.  I have since then changed my mind and I know that computers are now essential for a classroom.  I wonder how many teachers  take on my old attitude and are not giving their students equal opportunity. How many students are leaving classrooms technologically illiterate.  Interestingly enough, students will find a way to learn these things on their own and it is actually the teachers that are getting left behind. I don’t want to be one of those teachers.  I can use all the help I can get and I am open to this new way of learning.  I know that it will take work and patience, but I know I need to try my best to learn more and not be afraid to lead my students on this journey. I am excited about the tools I am learning, and as I find my way through this new world I hope that my fears will be replaced with confidence in this area.

I know that I have been really slack with blogging lately, but I am hoping that I will be able to pick it up again and continue blogging in the future. After listening to Sue Waters presentation I became more motivated to continue with blogging. I would like to look at her blog more in depth and learn more about what she has to say about it. She said that blogging is an important avenue for people to share what they have learned and to help others learn as well. I am not sure if there are many who will actually read my blog, but I guess if it helps even one person it is worth the effort.

I didn’t know what I would share and I was experiencing a major writers block, but then without even really thinking about it, I realized that I learned something very important this past weekend. I am a mother of four and I know that I have learned so much from my own children, possibly even more than they have learned from me. Here is my most recent lesson.

I am at this moment stranded in a hotel room, awaiting the passing of a blizzard. I was feeling quite grumpy and distraught and maybe a little bit worried about all that I have to get done and not having a means to get it all done. I look out my window every few minutes only to see another person trying to dig their way out of the mountains of snow building up around us. I had a bit of a helpless feeling. After I sat sulking for a moment one of my kids said to me, “it could be worse, we could be in Haiti.” Immediately I felt very ashamed of the way I had been acting and asked them to forgive me. Yes we are digging out of a lot of snow, but snow is much lighter than concrete. It is hardly comprehensible to imagine what the people in Haiti are going through and the sense of loss and hopelessness they must be facing.

I went to the pool area to watch my children swim and an overwhelming sense of thankfulness came over me as I watched them play and have fun. There are storms happening all around us, yet the storms will pass and life will go on. Today my children taught me to be thankful and to focus on what I do have and not on what I don’t have.

We can learn a lot from children around us, if we are willing to listen.

My K12 Online Conference presentation went live this morning, and this is the blog post to go with the video and materials on the K12 Online Conference presentation page, the K12 Online Ning, and my wiki of additional resources.  It is a wonderful opportunity to participate in this conference, and with such incredibly brilliant and dedicated teachers and administrators. I hope you will participate in the conversation around this and the other presentations either here, or on the presentation page for the K12 Online Conference blog, or in the ning. I look forward to feedback and hearing from others who are exhibiting their student artwork online in various ways.

I am learning to understand how my brain influences the way I learn

I lucked into the Mac Heist deal last year and I’ve used about half the apps on a regular basis.  What a deal! This year a student sent me the current link, which is great – geeks unite!  Anyway, here’s the link for those of you who are interested : http://www.macheist.com/bundle/u/309801/      **caveat, yes, it’s a unique link and if a couple of you happen to get the bundle I get a couple more apps.  However, if you would rather just go on your own: http://www.macheist.com/

The goal of my blog will ultimately be to focus on life outside my work. As a self employed graphics art trainer, I spend most of my time working and learning new software. It leaves little time outside of that for much else. Although, I have many other interest, I am hoping this blog will force me somehow to occasionally venture back into those arenas. But, for the time being, I am sitting here on one computer with my demo blog here, as I listen on another computer how to use this wordpress.

In other words..it will be awhile before I can use this new tool and not rely on falling back into geekville for instructions on how to use it. (this by the way is a blockquote)

So, i am using this time to practice how to use the blogging features. Starting with formatting my blog. The toolbar above has so many options for dealing with my text, and the kitchen sink, last icon from the right, will open up even more features. cool. That was using the bold feature.

Let’s try a headline-this is a heading 2 size.

How about a link to my future website (total future geekville). www.ibabstraining.com

OK…it worked. I am getting there
I had to do that last line twice because I forgot to “Save Draft” before I hit the preview button.

Okay, I am up to categories and tags-when I apply a category to my blog, it will get filed under that category and it will be easier to organize content by topic.

Tags are another way to assign topic information to a post. If you use tags, although not required, wordpress can display graphically display how popular specific tags are through something called a tag cloud.

I am going to now add some tags to my post over on the right hand side. I added, wordpress, how to create a post and geekville. Each separated by a comma to produce their own tag. If I don’t want one of my tags, clicking the x to the right of the tag will get rid of it.

As far as categories go, you must have at least one category assigned, even if it is the uncategorized one. I am going to add the category learning to my post. These tags and categories make it easier for people to find your post in a search.

I have been very good about saving my drafts (see how I snuck in a new color) as I work, and previewing them to see how they will look in my page. At this point I can get ready to publish it. There are couple things to consider before I do this. I can decide who sees my post. I could allow everyone to see it, or password protect it, giving the password to a select few,  or just have it be for my eyes only…. I think a cool setting in the publish area is the Publish now or later feature. Good it you are launching a specific topic to coincide with a particular date and time.

More on passwords, excepts (AKA read more…)  later……

times for babs to sign off … till next time

I am now going to practice the MORE TAG by breakingthis post in the middle.

OK….that worked…now, here are the settings I chose for images. I am inserting a screen shot to show it. All of this can be done in Settings area-media.

This is what my images settings are.

Ben Wilkoff

I really enjoyed this session. Ben was fun, focused, shared ideas and tools, showed some how to but kept it on target with why you would want to use these things, how to make it fit even for those who are less tech-savvy than others. Here is the link to Ben’s notes and links for the session. Check out my notes from Cover It Live (picture is link) :

Liz Davis presenting at ACTEM MaineEd08

Here’s the link to the live blog for Liz B. Davis’s session at ACTEM.

Click Here

First Session: Tech Integrator Roundtable    Where tech integrators and tech teachers from around the state got together to discuss the challenges and possible solutions we face daily.

Second Session: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach    Following up on her keynote, Sheryl explored the changes in education we face and some of the choices we can make based on that in light of new technologies.

Seedlings Geek of the Week session

Lunch Session : Geek of the Week with Cheryl Oakes, Alice Barr and Bob Sprankle – and many assorted guests! – sharing lots of tools,sites, and neat tech stuff. Link here for the podcast of the session.

CLICK BELOW to go to the CoverItLive live blog for THREE sessions from ACTEM’s MaineEd08 conference. I was unwilling to make multiple liveblogs for fear of not getting back online if I shut down! Sorry to make you scroll through three sessions to find what you are interested in reading.

Click Here