Learning Side by Side

So here I am working with colleagues to set up a Cover It Live session linked to a Ustream.TV feed. We will be covering Dan Schmit at Teach the Teachers Collaborative tonight, who will be speaking on podcasting in education. Let’s see if it works. {I guess it does!!!}

Added on July 22, 2008: So here is the catch. We thought we recorded the Ustream.TV feed, but it is not showing up. And it was such a great presentation. This shall be tried again.

Today was the start of several weeks at Thacher School in Ojai, California for a residential professional development program for teachers called Teach the Teachers Collaborative. As an instructor for many iterations of this program since before 2000, I have seen my share of compilation montages of each week, and have been the sole editor of a few myself. If you have been tasked with creating such a end-of-the-program presentation, then you know how much time and effort goes into developing a quality product that provides great impact and leaves participants feeling nostalgic about their learning journey.

With great relief that I wouldn’t have to create another of these presentations, I find comfort knowing that a colleague (John Lenhardt) this week introduced everyone, including the participants, toward being contributors to an alternative media capture of the week. We are all using Cellblock to contribute collaboratively to the media collection

Cellblock: LAUSD/TTTC Thacher 2008

This particular set of images is a continual process, allowing everyone to take control of the content to be included. Yes, there are other photosharing sites, including social networks such as CUE Community where every person can upload photos for all to look at.

Ning Photoshare: CUE Community

Find more photos like this on The CUE Community

But what makes Cellblock different is that participants can contribute images and video by cell phone Of course, this can also be done by e-mail via a computer. With a 20MB limit per e-mail submission, the program won’t take in GB-sized videos, but videos from a digital still camera are pefect to e-mail.

Check back here again to see what shows up throughout the week. I myself cannot wait for the final product to materialize.

Teacher librarians in my school district will be looking at ways they can communicate school library use via web-based calendars.  Sitting with one of the coordinating field librarians to plan this professional development scheduled for May 1, 2008, I learned more about how one teacher librarian, Marc McPhee of Northridge Academy High School, uses Google Calendar to inform the public of what is happening in the library (click here to see the calendar embedded in the school website).

So I am charged with showing other teacher librarians like Marc how to create a web-based calendar.  Yes, there are various options such as Calendars Net (http://www.calendars.net) and LoCalendar (http://www.localendar.com) as well as calendars built into management systems such as Blackboard or Moodle, but it seems that many in my district are gravitating toward Google Calendar because of its ability to have groups of people collaborate on the entering of events.  I am pretty sure the fact that my district uses Google Apps for Education for students also influences this calendar solution.

Unfortunately, my district uses Microsoft Exchange for employee e-mail, which is inherently proprietary.  So how could an employee effectively use Outlook as well as understand Google Calendar for student use?  Well, now Google has added Google Calendar Sync, which is an application that can be installed to sync up an Outlook calendar to a Google Calendar.  I’ve known about it for a couple of weeks already, but did not try it until now.  All 384 events uploaded!

 Here’s what is inconvenient for any or my colleagues in my district.  First, it only works with a Windows computer because Outlook is currently a Windows-only product.  Secondly, it can’t be done with an Outlook on the Web account or Outlook Express client (only a full version of Outlook).  And therefore, the only option for Apple iCal, Yahoo! Calendar, and Entourage users is to use the export/import features of each client.  But I am sure that someone at Google may be working on other sync programs as they are always in Beta.

 My next step is to figure out how to make private entries stay private during sync.  Currently, I have had to go back and make entries private.  I’ll continue to learn as I prepare to see how well Google Calendar Sync works in my district.

I have been faced with this dilemma before: What can I use to share video without worrying that it cannot be accessed in my school district? Here is the setting of my quest.  I had dabbled in
Download…

Download Video: Posted by mcleod at TeacherTube.com.

and SchoolTube… [well, apparently embeds of this site are blocked as well] but have found that I need one place for personal use as well.  And so now I have been introduced to Videojug (via fellow CUELA member, Youssef Elias).

VideoJug: What are the most common issues amateur photographers have?

This post is serving as my test to see how well it embeds into this blog.  This may be the start of a new tool for me to utilize even more.

I have a new goal. I want to earn a badge from the National Park Service.

I was at a pop-up session on March 6, 2008 at the 2008 Computer-Using Educators Conference to see what the National Park Service was doing that merited them presenting at this learning event. Lo and behold, they have a wealth of resources at their WebRangers web site.

Let’s recap what I have done so far. First of all, I had to register (just as students would). The next thing I know, I have to pick out my own park ranger station and print out my own official National Park Service Ranger ID Card.

Now I was given access to lots of activities to help me become a better park ranger.  For example, I could go through an interactive tutorial on how to tell time with tree rings (dendrochronology).  Or I could choose to go through an activity to help me read maps.  After completing a number of activities, I can then request a badge be sent to me by NPS. I will be bringing this back to some teachers to look at.  Tell me what you think about the activities.

A few days ago, I delved into Comeeko to create a comic-like image, which was preceded by my exploits into Toonlet. So why not try this other comic strip creator called Toondoo. It was @joycevalenza on Twitter that mentioned this as she was taking in a presentation from @teach42. What I like about Toondoo is that you can create your own characters, import images from your computer or another web site, and share it freely or keep it private as you see fit.

http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=159444

Okay, I keep creating my own cartoon strips in various tools. But I still haven’t had anybody share their experience creating with any of these resources. If you have tried one of the tools I’ve mentioned (or have others you want me to look at), let me know.

My wife was taking a class called Click! Using Digital Photography to Enhance Instruction that ends tomorrow.  Her task was to create a project using digital photography in her kindergarten classroom, and so I helped her brainstorm some ideas.  She ended up deciding to create a project involving different jobs in the community.  But while immersing myself in the various ways to accomplish development of a project, I remembered a tool I read about (and referenced in an earlier post) called Comeeko, an online cartooning tool that functions similar to Comic Life software.  So I tried it out this evening and found it to be quite a wonderful tool.  It allows you to choose how many window panes you would like, provides images you can drag onto the project, and allows you to embed the end-product wherever you can.  Here are my results.

http://www.comeeko.com/ps/gallery/view_image/18436032 

I will probably introduce this tool to others in my district in the next couple of weeks.  You should try it, too.  Just go to http://www.comeeko.com and try it.  And don’t forget to share with me what you’ve created.

While tweeting (of course) on January 14, 2008, I ran across a tweet from @tammyworcester about this neat little image “generator”. I decided to go back and try this del.icio.us‘ed resource called the Newspaper Clipping Generator by fodey.com.  Take a look at what I created in a matter of minutes (with most of my time spent writing the text displayed in the image).

Much of what I wrote above was true other than me giving a lecture.  C’mon! Who would really clamor to come see me speak about myself.  I’d much rather share out some great resources on the web.

Fodey.com also provides other “generators” as well.  Here is an animated “talking owl” gif generator I created much more quickly than the clipping above.

Here are the links to both generators, and please do let me know how much time I distracted you from doing other things you should have been doing. 

The Newspaper Clipping Generator:
http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper

The Talking Owl Animation Generator:
http://www.fodey.com/generators/animated/talking_owl.asp

Do you have some nice tools on the web you think I should learn about?  Please share your learning with me.

Image credits: fodey.com

It is starting to become a habit. I look at all the cool new tools that I hear about through my personal learning networks (Classroom 2.0, Twitter, Google Groups, etc.) and wonder which one I’m going to try Saturday morning. Well, thanks to Webware’s post titled “…Yet Another (Good) Comic Strip Builder”, I now created my own comic strip. The online comic strip builder I used today is called Toonlet.

It was easy enough to build my own characters. I created one that looks like me and a couple of others that resemble technology I run into everyday. The Flash-based tool allows resizing, rotating, and of course dragging. You are limited to the different objects provided by the program, but I found there to be plenty to use creatively.

Once I built my characters, I was easily able to insert them into a comic strip that can be shared. More importantly, anyone could comment on my strip through the normal text method or by creating their own comic strip.  You can view my own creation titled “What Were You Thinking?  I only provided half of the strip below.

Let me know if you decide to create your own comic strip online.  It doesn’t have to be Toonlet.  There are other builders out there.  But I truly wanted to let you know what I learned today.

Image credits: CNET Networks, Toonlet