It’s 6:45 a.m. and for the next 15 minutes I have the house to myself. I found out in late May that if I am up early enough, the house is completely quiet. I have a few minutes for coffee and maybe even a little read through my very neglected group of RSS feeds. I’m also trying to put together a quick blog post. I’ve greatly reduced my twitter intake over the summer so maybe I can rechannel some of the half formed thoughts I’d usually put there into a blog post, even if it is a lame “blogging about why I haven’t been blogging” sort of post. Sorry this seems to be heading that way but maybe it’s necessary to break open the creative logjam that I’ve been feeling has kept me from writing. Uh-oh – only 2 minutes … Continue reading »

One of my professional goals this year is keeping some anecdotal records of what my students are doing in class so I have a better record of what they do during class in addition to having some artifacts of their work, such as exams, audio or video projects. My tool tool of choice is my iPad, not (just) because it’s so darn cool, but because it’s something I have with me all the time. I was also inspired by Chris Lehmann’s plan to use his iPad as a tool for facilitating his walk-throughs (and I’m hoping that Chris will share his experience with the world). After a few days of research and pondering I’ve put together a set of tools and a workflow that I think will work. The two primary criteria I’m looking for are portability and simplicity. I … Continue reading »

cc licensed flickr photo shared by motionblur I’ve been thinking/pondering about how much new tools/technology really change learning since Edubloggercon at ISTE earlier this year in Denver. There were a lot of smart people with interesting ideas there, but the one that created the strongest impression was during a breakout discussion on the use of iPads in schools. There were a lot of iPads at ISTE and they were in especially high concentration at Edubloggercon so this was a discussion that was of interest to many of the folks there. Most of the iPad nation (I was amongst them) were abuzz about how the iPad was going to be a transformative tool that would really change teaching and learning. But Scott McLeod (or David Jakes – they were both pursuing the same line of thought in the ensuing discussion) asked … Continue reading »

I love teaching biology but there are some parts of it that weigh heavily on my soul. I usually explain to my students at the start of each semester that bio has a lot of things that need to be remembered (at least in the curriculum I am working from), unlike physics and chem which have fewer main ideas but a lot of time is spent examining applications of the basic principles. There are, however, some key theories in biology that help to tie all the facts together. Two that I always focus on early in the year are cell theory and natural selection. And in order to understand cells, it is necessary to understand basic cell anatomy (in my opinion – the comments are open so that you can try to enlighten me to the contrary). I am embarrassed … Continue reading »

I’ve had the iPad for a couple of months but haven’t really been able to use it as a blogging tool. The wordpress app was one of the first that I downloaded but I hadn’t used it much (at all, really) because I couldn’t find a way to make links. But – tada – I have just figured it out. Just in case I’m not the last person to figure it out, I’ll share my findings with you as well as a general review of the ease of blogging with it. I hadn’t realized that the wordpress app accepts HTML input. Once I did, I thought i could create a link by typing in the good old HREF code. I’ve done a fair bit of coding in raw HTML, but really hoped there was a better solution. There is, but … Continue reading »

I’ve had many good conversations with brilliant people during the past two pre-ISTE conference days and any one of them would be worth writing about. The one that keeps whirling around my head tonight is a serendipitous conversation with Don (last name unknown). It started as I was getting ready to say good night to The Kids™ via Google Talk using the iPad. On a side note, I’ve made an interesting iPad observation. I’ve seen more people using iPads than laptops over the past two days. I would agree wholeheartedly with anyone who says that it is not a laptop replacement, but on the other hand a laptop is not an iPad replacement. There are affordances using the iPad – the weight and size, the simplicity of the interface, the unitasking (which can sometimes be a feature instead of a … Continue reading »

A netbook program was discussed at today’s staff meeting. Year 1 of the program would involve providing each teacher in the school (grades 9 – 12) with a netbook so they could have a year to experiment. It was emphasized that a netbook doesn’t have the same capabilities as a full laptop, so teachers should get familiar with the limitations and possibilities afforded by the netbooks. Several colleagues raised an excellent question – what would I or my students use it for? I try not to be too much of a fan of implementing technology just because it’s new and shiny and cool, although I have on occasion fallen victim to BSOS. I know of some of the uses for my classes, but when teachers in other subject areas are asking this I don’t have any answers to give them. … Continue reading »

I’ll explain the title for this post in a moment. First, I want to point out that if anyone would contend (as I sometimes do) that twitter and microblogging have wiped out the engaged discourse that was once the hallmark of good blogging, I direct you to read through Jim Groom’s writing, and the ensuing comments, on Networked Study. If you follow that link and get so engaged in the conversation that you don’t come back here, I won’t be offended. Now back to the explanation of the title. About 18 years ago, I was finishing up my first teaching contract. The principal made sure he had some time to sit down with me at the end of the year to see how my first year had gone. Something he said stuck with me all this time. “Rob, teaching is … Continue reading »

I’m early into my Easter Break from school right now so I’ve been getting back in touch with some of my online world – a bit of twitter and taking time to read some of the info in my Google Reader account. The last month has been crazy busy with family stuff so between that and work I’ve had almost no time to have some virtual me time. I think the time away has been good for letting me think about some things from a different perspective. Whenever I head back to the twitter-stream, I am amazed and overwhelmed by the number of amazing tools there are for teachers to use. More than I can possibly keep track of, partially because of the rapid pace of development and widespread familiarity with them and partially because my attention span is becoming … Continue reading »

(cross posted at the EdTech Posse blog) EdTech Posse 6.2 – The tiny stateroom The show felt a little like the crowded cabin sketch from A Night at the Opera. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZvugebaT6Q] The conversation started small with just Heather Ross and I talking mostly about the glorious gold medal victory of the Canadian women’s hockey team at the 2010 Olympics. Dean Shareski came onboard and described the Powerful Learning Practice professional development opportunity. Rick Schwier joined us as we were winding up that topic and starting to promote the TLt and IT Summit educational technology conferences that will be happening in Saskatoon in May. Alec Couros joined us and we wrapped up our conversation by talking about implementing a one to one laptop program (as is currently being considered by the Living Sky School Division). Some other links: Isabel Allende’s TED talk Powerful Learning Practice IT summit … Continue reading »