I was concerned that I may need to unfriend my Facebook and Twitter friends with profile pictures that don’t smile, but apparently I just have to make sure I have an exponentionally higher number of happy people to bring my own joy meter up.  Anyways, it’s time to spread some cheer.  So, are you smiling in your profile picture?

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.

This is just a pre-recorded clip of the live stream. To see the actual stream, go to my live Ustream channel: Learning Side by Side. In her class, they have been making comparisons of the life cycle of a silkworm moth to the life cycle of a butterfly. Third grade students have come in to help with the learning. More of the kindergarten students’ learning is documented in my wife’s classroom blog: What’s Happening in Mrs. Rivera’s Classroom? But such learning is not unique as other teachers are sharing their classroom investigations about the life cycle.

The second grade students in this class have documented the growth of their live specimens so far, and I’m sure they will documenting the transformation of the chrysalis into adult butterfly in the near future.

Yes, I only get to experience snapshots of the experience students have with such activities. Even in the summer when I work with 4th grade teachers on podcast projects to document their life science investigations, I only get to experience changes within the week I have with them at Teach the Teachers Collaborative as we look at plant and animal environments. It is in reflection of my dilemma that I understand the need to experience the whole process of learning. As i think about my work for the next school year, I charge myself with making sure I learn with the students in the various schools I support rather than to drop in for a moment in time with the hope that I understand the “life cycle” of learning.

Image Credit: Photograph by Sylvia Martinez, http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylviamartinez/2312165071/

Here are links to some of the resources mentioned at some of the presentations, discussions, and lightning rounds:

• CAST – Teaching Every Student: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent
• Diigo – Social Annotation: http://www.diigo.com
• FREEPATH – Show Your Stuff: http://www.freepath.com
• Gabcast – Record by Phone: http://www.gabcast.com
• Glogster – Poster Yourself – http://www.glogster.com
• Google’s Tools (iGoogle, Google Docs Forms, Google Docs LookUp): http://www.google.com/ig
• Jott: http://jott.com
• MeBeam Video Chat Rooms: http://www.mebeam.com
• My Tweet Map: http://www.mytweetmap.com
• Ning – Create Your Own Social Networks!: http://www.ning.com
• Pageflakes – Get It Together: http://www.pageflakes.com
• PicLens – Immersive Slide Shows Across the Web: http://www.piclens.com
• PNN – The Personal News Network: http://pnn.com
• Portrait Illustration Maker: http://illustmaker.abi-station.com/index_en.shtml
• Tweet Scan: http://tweetscan.com
• Twitter: http://twitter.com
• Ustream: http://ustream.tv
• VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com
• Web 2.0 Animation for Social Skills: http://www.edubloggercon.com/Bruce%27s+Interests

It was wonderful to also have others not at Palm Springs, California join through the live video stream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/edtechlive.  I find it wonderful that I can now access archived clips from one of the session rooms in EdubloggerCon “West” 08 by visiting the Edtechlive Ustream channel.

We ended the day with a discussion about the viability of holding events such as this in the future.  One of the issues brought up included how it has transformed from a gathering of edubloggers (writers and readers) into more of a gathering of educators advocating for change in how we should facilitate learning.  Is the EduBloggerCon name misleading?  I found it interesting that one fellow colleague at this event mentioned his apprehensions of attending because he thought that much of this would be focused primarily on blogging.  Others may argue that the name is already becoming familiar to those that have participated in the initial iteration of EduBloggerCon.  Nevertheless, the consensus was that this was a valuable day and should be held again in the future.  Of course, those going to NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas will have that opportunity.  If anyone is heading to San Antonio, Texas early enough on Saturday, June 28, 2008 and is interested in attending EduBloggercon 2008, go to the wiki at http://www.edubloggercon.com/NECC+2008.

First, one of my colleagues told me about his struggles with implementing the use of a collaborative tool in schools (I’ll be writing this in general term so I don’t out any of the people involved in this discussion). The issue involved this person’s experience with having the accounts to access this tool made available for teachers but finding it not being used once the resource was made available. So when he was given a request by the school to provide access to more accounts, he suggested that they first learn how the tool could be applied to classroom instruction with the help of his facilitation. Unfortunately, his immediate supervisor showed dismay in denying the request for more accounts. The dilemma for my colleague was that he believed they should learn how to use the tool with what they already have to encourage the rest of the faculty to see the value in its use. My own opinion regarding this would be that implementation of the tool would not succeed at the school unless it was rolled out with professional development that shows the potential value of the resource and increase the chance for the faculty to have buy-in.

Photograph of T.C. Williams High School, Source: http://www.acps.k12.va.us

At the same time, I read an editorial titled A School That’s Too High on Gizmos that was published recently in the Washington Post and written by English teacher Patrick Welsh at T.C. Williams High School, expressing his feelings toward the implementation of technology tools in his school. He blamed the wasted class time and low staff morale on the different tools that the teachers were expected to use. This has certainly caused many to criticize his writing, but it also served as an illustration of how technology tools introduced without buy-in from the faculty will certainly doom projects that were meant to help students in their learning. How timely it was that I could depend on my personal learning network on Twitter to guide me to two posts responding to the Welsh editorial that helped ease the tension regarding this issue. I first read Sylvia Martinez’s take in the Generation YES Blog post titled Oh there’s so much wrong with this story. Her examination of the editorial included pointing out that Mr. Welsh created a sense of false choices when he quoted a principal at another high school saying, “[Technology] will never replace good teaching.” Like Sylvia Martinez, I do not think anyone is claiming that technology is supposed to do that. But the use of technology in the classroom provides more ways to engage the learner, provides a venue for a variety of expression, and brings so much more to the teacher if implemented with guidance.

Late last night, I also read Diane Cordells’ post in Journeys titled The Extension of a Man’s Hand. She looked at the Mr. Welsh piece and posted several questions to try and further understand the situation. For example, she asked, “What professional development was provided for staff members in preparation for moving into such a high-tech facility?” Her thought-provoking probe into T.C. Williams High School provided me with personal support in my beliefs that you cannot just offer up a tool and expect others to use it or want to use it. I like what Diane Cordell wrote in her post and provide it here:

“Tools change but the need to facilitate learning remains constant. It is possible to educate students without high-tech “gizmos” but when they are available, it is foolish and irresponsible not to utilize them.”

And so I find my task to help facilitate the learning necessary for teachers to use technology in ways that are valuable to student achievement. When I lose my heart to continue on with this personal goal, I find others who help me down the “yellow brick road” to find it. This form of collaborative learning continues to benefit me.

I finished off last night with inspiration from Sharon Peters in a presentation she did for Alec Couros’ students. See it yourself on a pre-recorded Ustream video at http://eci831.wikispaces.com/CollaborativeLearning.

I hope you get as much out of it, as I was moved by her words to examine my spheres of influence.

Classic Gilbert Lindsay

Rick Orlov’s Tipoff column in today’s Daily News quotes the best line that the late city councilman from “the great Ninth District” (as Lindsay used to say) ever mangled. During a lingering debate in the council chambers, Lindsay moaned, “The problem with City Hall is that it takes too long to get nothing done.”

Here is what I had to do with the Word document in order to find the readability level (using Word 2003). First, I selected Spelling and Grammar under the Tools menu and then clicked on Options in the window that opened up. A new window with various items to check was revealed, and I chose to check “Show Readability Statistics” (different versions may use different wording for this option). After a quick check on the spelling and grammar, I was presented this window, which included information that the writing was at an 11.5 grade level of reading:

It was a very nice feature to activate if you are working on a Word document. But this can be done also with websites and blogs using online tools. For example, Juicy Studio allows you to evaluate a website for its readability using the Gunning-Fox Index and showing how to determine the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. And you can also use the Blog Readability Test on the Critics Rant website. Here are links to each resources:

Juicy Studio Readability Test:
http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php

The Blog Readability Test on Critics Rant:
http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx

I was trying to figure out where I originally copied the text found in this extraneous Word file that lead me to checking on readability levels. Sadly, I used poor citing judgment at the time. Therefore, I snooped around the Internet, and I feel that the original source could be Quentin D’Souza who may have mentioned this on Twitter when I was still learning how to use it in my learning. He mentions information on readability tests in the Teaching Hacks wiki page titled Differentiating Using Technology.

Whether it was him or another person that helped me uncover readability levels in Microsoft Word, I can at least say it was nice to once again discover that information. It felt like the many times I have found post-it notes deep in my laptop bag or stuck in books or binders I have collected. If I wrote it down (or copied-and-pasted), then it must have been something important or enlightening. I know there are others out there that rediscover lost learning in the form of post-its, bookmarks, files, etc. I finish this post with a plea to go back into your old files and learn again.

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

 One participant wrote this excerpt in a discussion forum yesterday.

Here’s one example of how UDL is being integrated: try comparing these two sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whales
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whales

Whatever criticism there may be about wikipedia, I appreciate that there are people out there who are addressing the needs of a diverse world.

From this participant in my class, I learned about Simple Wikipedia and why we should consider our readers.

Just felt like sharing this learning moment.   Stay tuned as this is only from Week 1 of the class.

My first task was to see if YouTube worked, and it worked so well, that I wanted to wake my wife up to show her (of course, I know better).  I was also able to access my district e-mail on Microsoft Outlookweb as well as read through several blogs.  Only issues I had were with trying to access programs needing Flash Player 8 or above (Wii’s Opera Browser is currently pre-installed with Flash Player 7 with no way to upgrade as of yet).  Pretty much all of the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network games are inaccessible. And occassionally I ran out of memory when uploading media-overloaded pages.  Here is a video from GameTrailers.com showing their experience surfing the Internet on the Wii.

And then my son woke up and watched me surfing the Wii Internet for a few minutes before eventually taking control of the Wiimote.  So I went back to my trusty laptop to write this post.  Of course, I spent a couple of hours also looking at the possibilities of seeing the educational worth of the Wii Internet Channel and have uncovered a great deal more to explore once I get my turn at the game console.  So here is what I have found.

The customized Opera browser provides a window into content on the Internet specifically designed to operate on the Wii.  For example, G4tv provides a special web page with content optimized for those browsing with the Wii at http://www.g4tv.com/wii/index.html.  That means larger text is displayed and videos on the site look good on my television.  And there are many sites highlighting online games, puzzles, and other activities designed specifically with the Wii in mind.  Here is a list of them:

• Albino Blacksheep Wii Games: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/wii
  (a collection of more than 30 Wii-compatible Flash games)
• Arcademic Skill Builders: http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/wiilist.htm
  (educational games optimized for use with the Nintendo Wii browser and Wii remote)
• Braingle: http://www.braingle.com/wii
  (brain teasers, puzzles, and other mental exercises that are easy to access in the Wii browser)
• Knibble Wii: http://www.wii.knibble.com
  (20+ games and puzzles that “Wiill” work on the Wii)
• Wiidoku: http://www.wiidoku.com
  (daily sudoku puzzle enlarged for Wii viewing)
• Wii Playable: http://www.wiiplayable.com
  (growing collection of Wii-playable games)

There are also ways to download games and software to operate from SD memory cards, but I worry about such downloads.  While doing my search, I was victimized by a virus.  Luckily, my anti-virus software quarantined it before any harm could be done (as you can see in the screenshot below).

I am sure I will post again about what else I have learned about the Nintendo Wii game system.  There are already many others that have covered hacking into the technology of the Wii (e.g. Johnny Chung Lee and his Wiimote Project).  But I kept my focus here on just the Wii Internet Channel.

I am sure there are other experiences with browsing the Internet using the Wii Internet Channel that need to be told.  If you have one of those, please share by leaving a comment or posting your experience with a track-back to this post.  I can’t wait to learn from you.

But, as an EdTech Leaders Online instructor, I am currently facilitating an online course titled Special Students in Regular Classrooms: Technology, Teaching and Universal Design, and the participants have already helped me focus my thoughts and join in on designing learning without barriers. And so I share some of the CAST Teaching Every Student tools with anyone out there willing to struggle through identifying curriculum barriers before they begin instruction.

Click here or the above image to go the Curriculum Barriers tutorial. Let me know what you think as it relates to how we integrate technology into our curriculum. The question I now ask myself is: Does integration of a particular technology tool add options to the learning or create even more barriers?