Thanks to the dynamic Donna DesRoches, digital resource consultant for Living Sky School Division, I had the good fortune last night to have dinner with David Warlick along with other members of the division instructional technology in-school teacher support (or something like that – we just call it the iSiTS group for short), a couple of our superintendents and some school based administrators. I was impressed not only with David’s grasp of many of the opportunities for improving student learning using some new digital tools (I’m trying to avoid the “21st century” prefix or “2.0″ suffix wherever possible because I still don’t know what those *really* mean) but also with his ability to find the right questions to provoke a really good conversation. My short-term memory being somewhat diminished as I grow older, I wrote down a few well-stated ideas … Continue reading »

It’s been over two week since the grand unveiling, although it won’t be released and available for sale until late March. Since that announcement, I have been reading the many critiques and accolades of the device. And yes, just like Stephen, I want one. I am an unrepentant gadget lover and the iPad is the ultimate electronic gadget. I’ve been trying to justify why I would need an iPad and thinking about that has led me to some insight about what the iPad is. I already my usage of the iPod touch as a portable browser/communication device/game machine. For creative projects, I have my MacBook (although the reworked iWork apps make a good case that the iPad is also a good productivity device). Steve Jobs positioned the iPad as being a category in between the iPhone/iPod touch and the full … Continue reading »

One of my former students is now blogging as part of Alec Couros’ ECMP 355 class at the University of Regina. Earlier today she wrote a post about the importance of doing something – donating, spreading the word, whatever – to help out the people in Haiti. More than just writing, she included a powerful video to point out the level of devastation there. (I won’t include the video here but I’ll encourage you to visit her blog). I shared some information in the comments there that I’d like to repeat here in case anyone reading this (all 5 of you) have been wanting to do something. Wondering how to donate? The CBC has compiled a list of registered aid organizations at http://www.cbc.ca/haitirelief/. If you are Canadian, our federal government has pledged to match donations made by Canadians through registered … Continue reading »

(cross posted with EdTech Posse site) We’re back with our first podcast of 2010 - EdTech Posse Podcast 6.1 – No tech after 5 p.m. Mike Wesch presented at the University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina earlier this week. We discussed his presentations and reflected on some of the changes that might result from educators becoming aware of his work/message. Some notes: Rick’s conversation/video podcast with Mike Wesch Mike Wesch’s presentation at the University of Regina: The (Digital) Writing on the Walls (and why the walls don’t matter anymore (Ustream recording) Digital Ethnography research group site Mike Wesch on twitter 2010 Haiti Earthquake (If you are in Canada and interested in donating, the CBC has compiled a list of organizations that are providing relief. The federal government will match donations made by individuals between now and Feb. 12, 2010) The Sleep Cycle … Continue reading »

I’ve been ruminating on the ideas of privacy and anonymity a little bit over the past couple of days, especially privacy of student information in schools. For some people, guarding students privacy is considered to be best achieved by keeping all information about students, or as much as possible, completely away from the web. I think this is possibly out of a sense of wanting to protect students from being identified online by a possible real life abuser. This might be a concern for some students who, for instance, are being kept away from an abusive parent or family member. For most students, however, this is not an issue – the ninja-pedophiles-dropping-out-of-the-sky myth has largely been discredited, I think. Nonetheless, some educators would see total anonymity as the best strategy for protecting students. I’ve been thinking that the issue in … Continue reading »

I’m lucky to have been provided significant funding by my school division to attend an educational technology conference sometime between now and the end of August. This is provided as an opportunity to have teachers from the school division to attend conferences that are farther away than we would normally be able to go to, giving us a chance to be exposed to new ideas and connect with educators we might not otherwise be able to meet. I’m not familiar with a lot of the conferences that are available, so I’d like your input. Here are some of the topics I’m interested in: pedagogical changes resulting from ubiquitous computer access by students (like 1:1 laptop programs or similar initiatives) supporting teachers as they change teaching methods to meet increased access to technology (especially high school teachers) some hands-on “you can … Continue reading »

I’ve been reading Tony Bates’ blog post 5 higher ed trends not to watch in 2010, his reaction to 5 higher ed tech trends to watch in 2010 at Campus Technology.  A couple of his observations has provoked a good amount of reflection on my part. A lot of my ideas are still bouncing around and recombining but here are some thoughts so far. Regarding interactive classrooms, Bates says: What next? Lecturers dressed as clowns, doing juggling? Come on, guys, the space-based lecture classroom is DEAD (actually, a zombie, as it’s really still the living dead) Here are his thoughts on technology integration in the classroom: Why? If they have this stuff, why bring it to class? YOU HAVE TO RE-DESIGN YOUR TEACHING – OR RATHER THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT – TO BENEFIT FROM THIS, NOT CHAIN IT TO THE CLASSROOM! So … Continue reading »

My last post described some of my reasons for ungeeking. The more I reflected on it, the more reasons I could come up with. Rationalizing? Perhaps, but the ungeeking proceeds nonetheless. One more reason that I did want to add is that when I am asked (or explain without provocation – that happens a lot) how a teacher can get involved in this bloggy-wiki-ey-twittery melange that is the habitat of the networked teacher (see picture below), I describe how blogs and wikis and twitter accounts can be set up for free. This elicits gasps of jubilation tinged with disbelief. Any teacher can stake their claim on a few megabytes of the intarweb-tubes for absolutely no cost, with the added bonus of someone else doing all the hosting and maintaining. And for a very minor cost, they can have it all … Continue reading »

I’ve been hosting this and many other sites from a reseller web hosting account I have with Varial Technologies, which is (unpaid endorsement) a great web hosting company based in Saskatoon. At some point I think I had a grandiose vision of running a web hosting service to bring in at least enough money to at least cover the cost of my own hosting. I never really followed through on that very much, offering hosting for a few friends and quite often I would barter free hosting for the year for something they had or could do for me. Consequently, the dreamed of  financial offsetting of my web sites never really worked. Another reason for downsizing my hosting duties is time. There was a time in my life during which I loved the chance to geek out for several hours … Continue reading »

On Remembrance Day, I think of my grandfather who, having only been 16 at the time, lied about his age in order to get into the Great War (the first one). It seems like a strange thing to do that but after a trip to England in 1990, I think I might have a better understanding why. One of my destinations during my 4 month ramble around the UK was Mathon, England where Grandpa came from. [googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mathon,+england&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Malvern,+21+Church+St,+Great+Malvern,+Worcestershire+WR14+3,+United+Kingdom&t=h&ll=52.109879,-2.390471&spn=0.018449,0.036478&z=14&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=425&h=350] I looked at the gravestones just outside the church and found it a little bit strange to see a few stones that shared my surname. (Interesting tangent – I found out a while ago that the surname Wall from that area is actually from a group of members of the Scottish Wallace clan who ended up down there when the Scots/Picts invaded … Continue reading »