Shawn Wheeler's Thoughts on Education & Technology

A new home for my website and blog

2007-12-29T13:10:00.001-07:00

I did it. I bought myself a domain name and I have moved my professional website to a new location. I would like to welcome you to Shawn Wheeler’s Digital Portfolio located at www.shawnwheeler.name. This site will serve as a home base to the many projects I find myself involved as well as hosting my blog Shawn Wheeler’s Thoughts on Education & Technology which is now located at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/.

Thanks for reading and have a Happy New Year.

Shawn

End of an era

2007-12-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

I have been in the technology side of education my entire career. First in the classroom with 7th and 8th grade students and now I work with adults. During the past ten years, I have seen a number of changes, including and probably the most significant, the explosion of the internet. When I first started, fewer people had access to the internet and there were even fewer web pages. We created pages in raw code using simple text or note pad. Finding a location to host a site was even more of a mystery and finding people who knew how to run a web server was nothing short of finding a needle in a haystack. These skills soon became a job necessity.

Like most educators, I found resources (people and books) to help my educational process. When high-speed internet service came to my neighborhood, I signed up. I built a server (from parts) and began running a web server. Over time, I learned more and more about web servers, building web sites and how to bring web pages to the classroom where teachers could rule their own web site. In fact, I went so far as to document the process for others to learn from (See The World Wide Web and Your School District). I soon found myself as a network administrator in my own home.

For eight years, I have operated a web, email and DNS servers from my home. Why… Because I could and it was fun. Overtime, these little humming machines transformed from learning tools to maintenance projects. Time for a change.

-DISCLAMER- This is not a paid advertisement and I am receiving no compensation for this post.

I began looking for new location for my web sites to live. I hit the jackpot with this little local company named GoDaddy. Through this company, I was able to move my domain registration which included DNS management for less money than I was paying to Network Solutions. (Check one, service I don’t need to run in my home.) I also discovered they would host my email service for $19.00 a year. (Check two, services I don’t need to run in my home.) Finally, I was able to move all of my family and new professional web and blog sites to Godaddy for $7.00 a month. (Check three, services I don’t need to run in my home.)

With all of this content running on someone elses equipment, I no longer need a business class DSL service in my home. A phone call to Qwest netted me a six times faster connection to the web for a savings of $40.00 a month.

I have no regrets for running all these machines in my home for so many years. They were great teachers and I have taken a wealth of knowledge from them. Don’t be afraid to try something just for the sake of learning and don’t be afraid to say thank you to one teacher and move to the next subject.

Notice: Shawn Wheeler’s Thoughts on Education & Technology has a new home. Visit the new blog site at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/ or subscribe to the RSS feed at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/?feed=rss2

Shawn also has a new home for his digital portfolio. Visit his new site at http://www.shawnwheeler.name/.

Reading and Learning on the GO

2007-12-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

On occasion, I sit down and read a real book. You know the type with pages that you can turn, hold, smell and sometimes even injure yourself. However, most of my reading comes in the form of web sites, blogs, PDF files, email etc… A few years ago I bought an iPod so I could become a podcaster. (Shhh don’t tell anyone but you don’t need the ipod. Click here to see what you really need.) Not long after that, I discovered Audible.com. Having been a longtime fan of books on tape this was a perfect fit for my new tool.

Last month I went to the doctor for my annual physical. The doctor walked in, chatted with me for a few minutes then told me what I knew. Shawn, your blood pressure is up, your weight is up and I am betting so is your cholesterol. I can give you meds for you blood pressure but I think you can fix it if you would do something about it! In not so many words, my doctor told me to get off my fat (insert word here) and exercise. He also told me to push away from the table a little sooner. To think I paid for this abuse.

I live a little over a mile away from one of the Phoenix Mountain Preserves where my daughter and I occasionally ride our bicycles. This past week, I tried something new. I went for a hike in the preserve and it is beautiful. However, my mind often runs 100 miles an hour and exercise doesn’t help slow it down, that is until fatigue kicks in. Then I start thinking about how tired I am as well as the pain in my legs, back and chest as I try to suck in more oxygen. Then my thoughts turn to stopping, heading back to the car. I know, I will walk to that next cactus. Did I mention I live in the desert!

To combat that little voice telling me to stop, I put on my iPod. As I trek through the pristine urban desert, I occupy my mind with audio books and podcasts. Remarkably, I have found myself walking even further and further. Could it be I am getting in better shape or is my mind better occupied?

If you are wondering, my iPod does have music on it but what would be the fun in that.

Notice: Shawn Wheeler’s Thoughts on Education & Technology has a new home. Visit the new blog site at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/ or subscribe to the RSS feed at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/?feed=rss2

Shawn also has a new home for his digital portfolio. Visit his new site at http://www.shawnwheeler.name/.

Web Filters getting you down?

2007-11-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

Web Filters getting in the way of YouTube and Google Video content.

Now, I would NEVER tell you to circumvent your schools web filter or violate copyright. However, there really is some good content out there that has not been added to TeacherTube YET.

The other day I stumbled onto a Windows application that will download YouTube or Google Video content and allow you to convert it into different formats. From there, you use the video in an educational setting. Cool don’t you think!

Check out http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/ to download this application. There at no directions, that I have found and I have not created any. With that said, it will take you about 3 minutes to figure it out. It is cool.

What is Personal Computing?

2007-10-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

I just got back from T+L 2007 and it is time to recall and document everything I saw worth remembering. This year, I lucked out because every presentation I attended was great. The one I am going to write about now was called “Personal Computing: New Solutions for the Classroom @ Web 2.0” and it was facilitated by Jim Hirsch of Plano Independent School District.

Just a couple items before we start, I am going to hit the points that caught my attention. However, I highly recommend you review his slide deck and the resources he has listed on the two web sites below. The slide deck Jim used during his presentation is linked here and to the title of the presentation above.
http://k-12.pisd.edu/c@es/ http://k-12.pisd.edu/open/

As Jim rolled through his slide deck, he pointed out the many differences between who we were as students and the students who attend our schools. In addition, he pointed out something I had never thought about. Back in the day, our TV heroes were individuals and now, our TV heroes are teams of people who have to work together and collaborate. Jim completed the point with a slide that read:

The Lesson from Version 2.0 heroes in TV and teaching?Collaboration – not just sharing – is the way in which our students expect to find in information, solve problems and create new understandings

Sitting in that room, I wrote the following on my note pad. “Individual learning is transforming (or should be) to team learning”. I thought to myself, we have been talking about this for several years but we still have yet to make any major jump

Continuing through his slide deck, Jim started into Web 2.0 and he began with the video “The machine is us/ing us” by Mike Wesch and it is available on both YouTube and TeacherTube. As you watch this video for the first or fiftieth time, think about how long we have had access to this technology and how it has changed our day-to-day lives as well as what impact it has had on our classrooms.

While you debate in your mind how our classrooms have changed for the positive or negative with all this digital and hyper data, consider these items Jim placed on the screen which connect our students.

Social networking
Googlization of Everything
“Fingertip Knowledge”

Probably the most prevalent and contentious Social Networks we as teachers are aware of is Facebook and My Space. Are these sites contentious because they are evil or is it we just don’t understand them? Should we as educators learn about them or ignore them and hope they go away? What should be we be teaching out students about these social networks? While you debate that concept in your mind, click these four links to the Peoria Unified School District web site. November 1996 – November 1998 – November 2002 – Today. Did you know the Way Back Machine has 589 versions of the Peoria web site? Do you think our students would be as apt to place “VERY” personal content on the web if they knew it may never go away?

Googlization? Is that even a word? Hardly a day goes by that I don’t “Google” something or someone and you may be the same way. My library had a card catalog now the world has Google!

Fingertip Knowledge? I looked at my fingertips just now and asked them what they knew! While they didn’t speak to me, if they could they would have told me to Google it! We tend to remember less today because we know more. Yes, it sounds like an oxymoron but think about this point Jim made. We used to remember phone numbers. Lots of phone numbers, yet today if I want to know the number of my cell phone, I have to flip it over as the number is taped on the back. Is this really a new concept or just a new name? Thirty years ago I stood looking at a library of law books in my mother’s office. I asked her boss if he knew all the information in those books. He patted my head and said “No Shawn, I just know where to look.” The modern attorney does too, but now he/she looks them up online. Hmm Fingertip Knowledge!

Continuing on with Web 2.0, Jim showed his Web 2.0 applications slide. While I don’t necessarily agree with running from our mainstream software applications, (A topic for a different blog post), we should be aware of these applications and realize more are being added to the world daily. Note: As I am looking up these sites I am using another Web 2.0 tool called Del.icio.us which is a social bookmarking site. This is my Del.icio.us page and these links are tagged with Web 2.0.

Next slide Web 2.0 content

Wikimedia Foundation (Jim made a very good point where he stated we should pay attention to Wikipedia and what is being said about our school districts. Yesterday I looked up Peoria Unified School District. Sure enough, we had an entry so I took that opportunity to update a couple of items.)
Curriki
MIT Open Courseware Project
Creative Commons
New York Public Library Digital Gallery

If you have been clicking on these links you should be getting pretty overwhelmed. But wait, this is where is starts to get wild and/or frightening depending on your point of view. How do we connect all this to our kids and what does it have to do with personal computing? To move on, you might need to change what you consider computing. I am typing on a Sony Vaio desktop computer. Why, because I am comfortable with it. Could I have created this post on my HP IPaq? Maybe, but it would have taken me the rest of the year to get the text on the screen. What about that cell phone our students have glued to their hand? Our kids, SMS text message each other, listen to music, take and send pictures to each other and believe it or not, they sometimes even talk on them,(probably to their parents who still can’t text.), LOL.

The bottom line is personal computing is just that, it is personal and as long as designers and engineers are thinking outside the box, we will continue to see new personal computing tools. Even today, my daughter’s, Sony PSP has built in WIFI and a web browser. I have not looked for a while but I would bet there could be some applications that run on it now, too. How about all the smart phones that double as PDA’s and cameras and unless you just crawled out from under a rock, you have to know about the Apple IPhone which can now use Google Docs!

Oh, and if you are one of those who want to be on the cutting edge by using a mobile device in education, take a look at RT Messaging 4 Education. They are working on applications which will interface with our phones.

What do we do as educators? Do we outlaw these possibly deviant devices or do we embrace what they can do as a communication and education tool? The future battles over this concept are sure to be exciting and VOCAL. However, I will go on record saying the day will come when students will create content on these types of devices and we will consider that normal. For those who don’t believe me, that is okay, there were people who didn’t think paper would catch on either.

In the future, if you ever get a chance to see Jim Hirsch speak live, do it.

Shawn Wheeler Web2.0 T+L2007 Jim Hirsch

KISS the Topic

2007-10-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard the term KISS? Keep it simple stupid? Sure you have and that is exactly what I thought the first time I ever saw a CommonCraft video on You Tube. Tonight I watch the newest (new to me that is) video on Social Bookmarking and specifically del.icio.us. Once again, Lee did a great job explaining a concept. More importantly to me, he did it low tech. Too many time I have seen others (okay you can include me here too) get so caught up in the glitter and wow factor, they lose site of the big picture.

If you have not seen a CommonCraft video yet. Click the link. The next time you need to explain something, remember to KISS the topic.

Shawn Wheeler CommonCraft Del.icio.us

Dave’s Top Ten!

2007-10-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

This top ten list came from Dave Mirra’s of Stafford County Public Schools round table discussion (with 60 people in attendance) at the 2007 T + L conference in Nashville Tennessee.

I would have loved to have captured the audio as the discussion was great. In the end, most of this seems like common sense. Even if common sense isn’t that common. Whatever you call it, the list is worth reading and incorporating into your environment.

Top Ten List Legend
Bold Italic = Dave’s list.
Standard text = my commentary from notes and memory of the discussion.

Why
- Is it part of an overall plan or strategy? Don’t buy it just because it is cool or new!

How MUCH?
- What is the total cost of ownership? Hardware and software is just the tip of the cost. Consider professional development and ongoing support!

Who are the cheerleaders?
- Who is the primary advocate?

Who is the owner?
- Who will provide support? Example: Who owns the Human Resources Systems? The tongue in cheek answer is… If it is working, HR. If it is broke, IT. Just because it runs on the network doesn’t mean IT is the owner but this needs to be worked out before hand.

Who is the teacher?
- What is the training plan? Often professional development is the first thing to be removed from the budget. This is a mistake. More money should be spent on training than equipment and software.

Plastic my boy plastics
- Public Relations for the schools and community. Put on a Technology Expo for your community. Do it on a Saturday and demonstrate what technology is available and how it is being used and have students demonstrating whenever possible.

Traffic light management
- Simple data management for school leaders. Technology equipment needs to be refreshed (replaced based on a recycle or replacement plan). Having an easy to read database, or list will help school leaders, Governing Boards and the community understand what equipment is available, the age and when it should be replaced. Red, Green and Yellow was recommend to help make the process more visual.

Field of dreams
- Infrastructure considerations are vital! Before you buy and implement the technology, consider the network requirements and its ramifications on the network.

Give assigned seats
- Organizational structure must support the operations

I’m Sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
- Infrastructure limitation (Human and Technical) IT shops don’t like to say no but they have to be careful of overloading their resources. Can it be done with what is available or can staff in the schools be trained to help support themselves?

The best statement was from a school board member sitting in the room who said we all needed to pay attention to what Dave was saying and make sure this information is made available to our communities because we can’t do it without funding and we can’t get funding without their support. I believe she hit the nail on the head!

Shawn Wheeler T+L2007 Dave Mirra T + L 2007

I Woke Up an Old Dog (part 1)

2007-09-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

I really didn’t wake a dog nor am I an old dog. However, I woke up and realized I am now pushing the big 40 (I really have 13 months BUT STILL…) and a number of the people I see walking into my lab for New Employee Technology Orientation are younger than the truck I drive.

Recently, I attended a committee meeting where I learned that ½ of our teaching staff had less than 5 years experience in my school district and many of these folks have less than 5 years experience period. That new knowledge caused my forehead to wrinkle while at the same time explained quite a bit.

Let me give you a bit of background on the scene. Ten years ago, I sat in huge hall listening to the Superintendent tell all the staff that we were going to put a computer on EVERY TEACHERS desk in the next three years. My palms began to sweat and I thought “OH MY! How will we ever teach all these people how to use the computer?” Fortunately, I had a boss at the time whose problem it really was and I could do what I was told. Today, those types of statements are my problem to deal with and really don’t scare me. In fact, they are the types of challenges I thrive on.

Over the past three years, I have seen a number of questions come to me in the form of phone calls or email and a few face-to-face asking, demanding and sometime begging for access to various web sites, software and equipment. I keep thinking to myself, don’t these people realize how good they have it and don’t they remember when we didn’t have any of this “Stuff”? Well, they don’t, because they were not here in the beginning.

Back to today. While sitting in that committee meeting scribbling out the words 50% less than 5 years experience, I thought to myself, “Shawn, you became an old dog and you better learn a new trick!”

What has to change?

When I started teaching technology to adults I would literally hold up a mouse and explain what it was, left vs. right click and which finger to use when right clicking. I would also explain to them the CD Rom drive was not a cup holder and the proper way to insert a floppy disk. Most of my students were happy to be there and learn how to use this new tool.

Today, I have students, (adults students), with multiple as well as wide spread technology skills. Many suffer from a phenomenon Linda Stone is calling “Continuous Partial Attention”. This phenomenon is common in the average classroom; it is somewhat new to those of us on the Professional Development side of the house. The question of the day or challenge is what to do? What to change and how to do this successfully? Like many questions, I don’t have an answer which is the reason for this post and the posts to come. My intention is to blog about this challenge, how my team and I work through these challenges and document what to and what not to do the next time.

Who are my students?
Certified Teachers and Administrators
Classified Staff (All areas)
Age group 19 to 65
Extremely varied computer skills which cross all job classifications, age groups and genders.

Hello Houston, can you say challenge? Can you say, “Been there done that”? Looking at the above text, I can too. So what is so different this time? More on that in Part 2.

Technorati

Education K-12 Shawn Wheeler Linda Stone K-12 Continuous Partial Attention CAP

StarOffice 8 & Sun Weblog Publisher

2007-08-11T15:30:00.001-07:00

StarOffice 8 & Sun Weblog Publisher

Way back in January, the 20 ^th of 2007 to be exact, I published “ The Biggest Kid in School aka Big Companies on my blog. http://shawnwheeler.blogspot.com This past May, I received an email from Danny Begonia from LPP.com asking if I would be interested in trying StarOffice 8.0 and the new Sun Weblog Publisher. After I recovered from the initial shock of learning someone actually reads my blog, I said sure.

Today is Saturday, August 11, 2007. School starts Monday and I am hiding out in my air conditioned home office. A must have (air conditioning that is) when you live in Phoenix. Today is the day I test StarOffice 8.0 with the Weblog Publisher add on.

Conditions: I am working on a Virtual PC running Windows XP with 350 megabytes of RAM allocated to the virtual machine.

Software: Windows XP, Sun StarOffice 8.0 with the Weblog Publisher Plugin.

As much as I would love to give you a full evaluation of StarOffice 8.0 today, time just doesn't permit that. Therefore, I am going to concentrate on what I was asked, evaluate blog Publishing with Sun Weblog Publisher.

Starting at the beginning I installed StarOffice 8.0 from the CD supplied by Danny. Next I downloaded the Sun Weblog Publisher from my e-mail. (This too was supplied by Danny.) This is where I hit my first challenge as there was a slight difference between the supplied installation instructions and how it really works. Have no fear, I will share with you what I have learned.

To install Sun Weblog Publisher for StarOffice 8.0 follow these steps:

Install StarOffice
Launch StarOffice Writer
Click the Tools Menu
"mainSrc": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LtdCiGp_Rl0/Rr44kGAuPkI/AAAAAAAAACU/da-FJrzwuCo/s1600-h/htmlexport_htm_mdadf11c.jpg"

, "photoId": '5097574020970069570'

}

setHiddenImageIDField('5097574020970069570');

i++;

//--> </script> </head> <body class="ftpStatus-success"> <div id="body"> <div id="main"><div id="m2"><div id="m3"> <div id="progress"> <div id="loading-message"> <h1>Loading</h1> <h2>Your images are being published to your FTP server.</h2> </div> <img src="img/icon_inprogress.gif' name='graphics1' height='175' border='0'/>
Select Package Manager (Note: This deviates from the instructions.)
Click the Add button.
Locate and select Sun Weblog Publisher package file.
Click the Open button.
The package will install.
Close the package manager window.
Close StarOffice 8.0.
Re-launch StarOffice 8.0, notice the Weblog tool bar on the screen and in the menu bar.
Your are done. Almost.

Before you can publish your blog post, you must setup StarOffice 8.0 with your Blog software. To do this...

Click the Weblog menu and select Settings.
"mainSrc": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LtdCiGp_Rl0/Rr44kmAuPlI/AAAAAAAAACc/E_9ytsURgts/s1600-h/htmlexport_htm_6eab562f.jpg"

, "photoId": '5097574029560004178'

}

setHiddenImageIDField('5097574029560004178');

i++;

//--> </script> </head> <body class="ftpStatus-success"> <div id="body"> <div id="main"><div id="m2"><div id="m3"> <div id="progress"> <div id="loading-message"> <h1>Loading</h1> <h2>Your images are being published to your FTP server.</h2> </div> <img src="img/icon_inprogress.gif' name='graphics2' height='182' border='0'/>
In the Weblog Setting dialog box, click the Add... button.
Choose the type of blogging software you use in the Type drop box
"mainSrc": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LtdCiGp_Rl0/Rr44l2AuPmI/AAAAAAAAACk/xUCIx64hwDc/s1600-h/htmlexport_htm_m46b70b9c.jpg"

, "photoId": '5097574051034840674'

}

setHiddenImageIDField('5097574051034840674');

i++;

//--> </script> </head> <body class="ftpStatus-success"> <div id="body"> <div id="main"><div id="m2"><div id="m3"> <div id="progress"> <div id="loading-message"> <h1>Loading</h1> <h2>Your images are being published to your FTP server.</h2> </div> <img src="img/icon_inprogress.gif' name='graphics3' height='238' border='0'/>
Type your user name and password in the appropriate fields and click Ok.
You will soon see your weblog(s) available to you.
"mainSrc": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LtdCiGp_Rl0/Rr44mWAuPnI/AAAAAAAAACs/WmBbWpLsFVk/s1600-h/htmlexport_htm_5ed0ab0b.jpg"

, "photoId": '5097574059624775282'

}

setHiddenImageIDField('5097574059624775282');

i++;

//--> </script> </head> <body class="ftpStatus-success"> <div id="body"> <div id="main"><div id="m2"><div id="m3"> <div id="progress"> <div id="loading-message"> <h1>Loading</h1> <h2>Your images are being published to your FTP server.</h2> </div> <img src="img/icon_inprogress.gif' name='graphics4' ismap='ismap' height='173' border='0'/>
Click the Ok button.
You are set.

At this point, you are ready to create your blog post and publish. In a nutshell, all you need to do is click Send to Weblog under the Weblog menu and wait.

What did I like about the Sun Weblog Publisher?

It is just easy to use. I set my formatting the way I wanted in StarOffice Writer 8.0 and published. The formatting came across in the blog along with my hyperlinks. That doesn't always happen when I paste my entries in using the blogger.com interface.

What didn't I like about the Sun Weblog Publisher?

Really I have only two complaints about this product and the first is so minor it is not hardly worth mentioning. However, I did say I would evaluate this product.

The directions for installation were not clear. They were close enough that I was successful with a bit of hunting but that could be a frustration for some. The second thing that bothered me is the fact my images didn't publish. In reality, I published this post twice. The first time to see the process so I could write about it. The second time was the finished product. What I discovered is my images, which were screen captures, didn't upload. That is some what frustrating considering the image on the Sun Web site shows a person publishing a picture to their blog. (See image below. :) )

If my opinion mattered... I would like to see this product give the option of adding Technorati tags to the post as part of the publishing process.

Overall rating, you can spend $10.00 in far worse ways. If you are a blogger and you are using Staroffice 8.0 you will find Sun Weblog Publisher worth the investment.

Say it Again… Improving Student Learning through Podcasting

2007-07-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

For almost two years now, I have been running a Podcast titled Adventures in Podcasting, which is about Podcasting and RSS in the Peoria School District. Like many things I become excited about, I share what I have learned with anyone who will listen. Some of those people come willingly, while others I hold by their own belt. (Just kidding, I use duct tape to hold them.)

Knowing that many people do not remember everything they hear during a workshop, I have been recording my presentations and making the audio of the presentation along with the Power Point file available for the audience to download and listen to again. Hence, Say it Again… Improving Student Learning through Podcasting. After several presentations, I realized I was posting the same PPT file with different audio files and really the only thing different in each audio file was the crowd’s reaction to my jokes. Why not just make one presentation for the web? That is exactly what I have done.

I would like to share with you Say it Again… Improving Student Learning through Podcasting The Web-based Presentation. This site contains the same presentation I give to a live audience including the audio. One you click the arrow to get started, just sit back, watch the screen, listen and hopefully enjoy.

Technorati

Education, K-12, Shawn Wheeler, Podcast, Podcasting, PUSD, RSS, Web 2.0, Web 2

Blogging in Paradise

2007-07-04T20:55:00.001-07:00

It is 104 degrees, the wind is blowing at a soft 5 miles an hour from the northeast and I am sitting in the shade atop a 65 foot house boat along with the favorite beverage of Jimmy Buffet. A 12-year old young man just walked by with a digital camera in hand saying, “This should be good, my mom is going to ride the 550 Jet Ski.” The kids with us do not realize we adults were once young too. 300 yards out, “Mom” stood up and rode across the lake. Much to his surprise, he said, “She did better than I did.”

You may ask yourself, why is a person sitting at Lake Powell writing a blog? Easy, I have time and I have discovered I enjoy writing. Over the next several days, I will hide out atop this boat and blog or write articles to post on my blog when I return home.

As you know, I try to keep my blog focused to Education Technology and I will try to stay true to form over the next few days. However, I am reserving the right to stray a bit right now.

One of the first things that struck me before we even left town was the amount of technology we needed just to take this trip and it made me wonder how we did it in the past. This post will focus on technology used on this trip and maybe at some point I will be able to pull all of this together and again focus on Education Technology.

As we left town the first tool we needed to communicate was a cell phone or should I say phones. A common tool to most people today, we actually used this device to communicate the location of the five families. In years past, the only way to communicate was the use of the “wired” telephone and this only worked while you were at home. Once on the road, it was the Citizen Band (CB) radio that allowed us to communicate and those were only good for 5 miles or so. While none of these tools turned out to be perfect, it sure beat sending up smoke signals.

Once on the road, I found myself making the statement I have heard from my father so many times in the past. “Don’t give me a reason to pull this car over” Ironically, each child had their own portable DVD player sitting in their lap while mom and dad drove shuffling songs on the video IPod.

In years past, we would have never left home without a suitcase full of cassette tapes and recent years a notebook full of CD’s. Shh, do not tell anyone but we still have a notebook of CD’s on the boat. Some people are just not early adopters.

Then there is the case of the portable DVD players. What parent in their right mind would buy DVD players for each kid. Ones who take long car rides is who!

Six hours later, 15 phone calls, three movies a the trip to the infamous Mc Donald’s in Flagstaff and KFC in Page, we were just waiting for the sun to come up before we set out on our waterbound adventure.

The houseboat, while 15-years old has all the modern convenience one would expect. It has a ship to shore radio, two refrigerators, a deep freeze, AM FM radio, CD player, TV with VCR and DVD player, generator, hot water, gas pump, shower, two sea going toilets and Air Conditioning. Where we are currently anchored, we even have cell service. Rugged, we are not!

Even with all the comforts of home, we still found something to complain about. As we compared house boating with motor homing, we noticed that the black water holding tank didn’t have a level meter. (For those of you who do not know what “Black Water” is, I will try to describe it as gently as possible. When you wash your hands or take a shower, you produce gray water. When you do that other thing people do in a bathroom, you create black water.) Because of this inconvenience, you have a choice, use the bathroom until it is full and you find out the hard way or take it to the pump station. We chose not to wait.

Now most people do not associate technology with anything other than computers or electronics. However, if you look around a bit, you will find technology everywhere. Even at a black water pumping station 34 miles up the lake. On this lonely floating sewer, you will find two impressive technologies. The first of course is the pump itself. I will not go into details, just understand it removes black water from the houseboat. Are pumps new technology? Not at all, they have been around for years. Never the less, old technology or new technology, it was still an advancement for its day. However, in 2007 we complained that we had to pump the lever manually. The other technology on this floating island was the fact it had lights. Mounted on the roof you will find several solar panels, that charge the batteries to power the lights, which allow you to find this island in the dark. With all of this technology, why then am I hand pumping sewage? Okay, I will stop complaining, I am at the lake.

24 hours later; I am again atop this houseboat and I am watching another old school piece of technology jet across the water operated by a child who is younger than the ski she is riding. For those not familiar with personal watercraft they have changed quite a bit the past 30 years. The old school stand up ski this young woman is riding is of 1985 vintage, the fact that it is running is a testament to its quality. Sitting on shore at the moment are three new school sit down skis which are less than two years old. What is technical about either of these types of machines? Don’t ask that question to a mechanical engineer!

While it is true, these two machines run on a water-jet technology and they have similar running characteristics, they also differ quite a bit. The old ski, has a throttle, choke and a start and stop button. If you want to see how much fuel you have left, you have to remove the hood and look at it visually. The new school skies have tachometers, fuel gauge, miles per hour and a heat sensor. I found that out the hard way. The new skis also run over 50 miles per hour. A speed we only dreamt about back in 85. By the way, 50 miles per hour on water is similar to 100 on a motorcycle. I will not go into that story, after all, this post is about the lake.

It is now two days from the last time I typed words on this keyboard. It is also the last day of the trip, the sun is setting and I am trying hard to get words down before the sun sets. Not that I don’t have lights on this boat, I just want to go fish.

In the past two days I have been most thankful for yet another piece of old school technology and new school as well. First off, I am most thankful for the generator aboard this boat. It is old and tired but it does run and it kept the deep freeze cold along with several of our meals. It also ran the blender for which I will not go into the reason I am happy. The other piece of technology I am grateful for was the portable DVD players. (Note that was plural.) These little machines sent down from heaven kept our little ones (seven of them under 8) busy for a few hours each day. Okay, truth be told it was 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there.

The final item of technology I am grateful to have with us was the marine two way radios which allowed us to tell the marina we had a motor which no longer ran. It also allowed us to communicate between two of the boats as we looked for a place to camp on our last night here.

The sun has now fallen on our last day of vacation and I hope I have given you a chance to see just how much technology is used in our daily lives and what we often take for granted.

As I make an attempt to tie this back to Education Technology, I think the best message for anyone to read here is this.

Technology is all around us and it has been around in many forms for many years. We as educators need to look beyond the computer, Smartboard, digital cameras or the latest flavor of “Cool” software on the market. We also need to take the time to point out tools that were once cutting edge and are now common. By looking at our past, we have a better understanding of our future and certainly a better appreciation for the present.

Thank you, and good night.

How I blogged at Lake Powell

2007-07-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

I didn’t want bring a laptop computer to the lake and I really didn’t want to try and write by hand then transcribe the chicken scratch I call writing. So how did I manage? I used the NEO by Alphasmart and I have to tell you it is one impressive little machine. This particular machine I have had for a few years but have never used it much. Mostly because I have access to power for my laptop, where ever I am. However, at Lake Powell, power was an issue but not for this little machine.

I will not go into all the technical details but I will provide a link to the Alphasmart web site. With that said, the machine sports a full “normal” keyboard as well as 40 characters by 4-row LED display. The only thing it does not have is a backlight, which is okay; I shouldn’t be blogging in the dark anyway.

In a day or two I will plug this machine into my computer at home, pull off this article along with the other I wrote and post them on my blog. I may even add another paragraph or two, to give you the full picture of how this machine can be used. However, at this point, I would say to anyone reading, if you think you or a student cannot write on an Alphasmart, you have not tried.

At this point, I am even considering keeping it with me so I can capture thoughts in my head as they happen. With a 15-second boot time, I think it might just work.

Now that I am home, I pulled the Alphasmart out of my backpack to download or transfer the two articles to my desktop computer. I turned on the Alphasmart, opened the file I wanted to transfer, plugged in the USB cable to my computer then to the Alphasmart. Next, I launched Word 2007, then pressed the Send button on the Alphasmart. As I sat back, I watched my words appear on my screen. Talk about cool!

Once Word had my writing captured, it was re-read, edit and publish.

As a parting comment, I have to give this little machine kudos for cool and convenient. Powered by 3 AA batteries and its quick boot time, this will become a very convenient tool for me to put my thoughts about Education Technology down on cyber paper. Now if I could come up with some thoughts.

Education Technology K-12 K12 Shawn Wheeler AlphaSmart

Good Idea, Bad Implementation

2007-05-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I have what I think is a great idea that doesn’t turn out to be so great. A few weeks ago, I setup a Wikispace for a professional organization to which I am a member. My thought was to create a place where members could share information concerning Education Technology as well as what they have learned at our regional conferences. Sounds like a good idea right? Right!

The problem was not with the idea but with the implementation of the Wiki. You also have to realize that I am very uptight about file management. I like to have files organized by categories and/or types. Perhaps this is from too many years of building and maintaining web sites.

To help set the stage, I created a Wikispace. (http://aztea.wikispaces.com) Next, I created a new page for each of the four chapters in the organization. Each chapter host a conference throughout the year so I thought a page for each conference would be a good idea. Next, I created a page for the Way Out West Conference for 2007 this included future links to pages for each conference session. (See the diagram below for the page link structure.)

Click the Image to see full size.

Once the basic Wikispace was created, I recruited Peggy George to help me create and link the conference session pages. As we chattered away over SKYPE, we create the 40 conference session pages. With each new page, I noticed the list of available pages to link to was growing.

While these new pages are not a major issue at this time, I could see this continual growing list become a huge problem for future AzTEA conferences. Consider this, the Way Out West conference add 40 pages Wikispace and to the list. If each of the other chapters added 40 pages to the Wikispace, the list would grow to 160 items, thus making it a challenge to find the correct page to link. Adding to that challenge was the realization that 160 links would only take care of this particular year. Each year AzTEA could add an additional 160 pages to the Wikispace along with the 160 links in the list.

Is there a solution? Absolutely!

A better way to handle this challenge is to analyze the problem. As stated above, I have too many pages creating an issue when linking pages in the Wikispace and this problem will be exacerbated each year. However, if I were to create a new Wikispace for each years conference, the list of links would not grow out of control.

Click the Image to see full size.

Does this solution have a few design flaws too? YES it does. In our current AzTEA Wikispace environment, we are able to invite members to the main AzTEA Wikispace. This will allow members to participate in any page within the Wikispace. Creating a new Wikispace for each conference will require participants to be members of each Wikispace to add content. We could also not require membership to participate in the Wikispace. Some may find that to be a not to be an option. However, I am willing to give it a try.

It’s Not What You Say but HOW YOU SAY IT

2007-04-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, I watched my father trim the hedges outside our home. Being too little to run the electric hedge trimmers, I was told to stand back out of the way until it was time to rake up the clippings. Feeling left out (I wanted to trim something too), I grabbed the hand clippers and went to work on the rose bushes. I might add they were in bloom. Within minutes, I had managed to trim the bushes into beautiful thorny stalks. As I, stood back to admire my work, I was so proud to view the symmetry and alignment these bushes now had. That is, I was proud until my father walked around the corner of the house. I quickly learned that I was not correct. He told me that rose bushes do need to be trimmed but I had done it wrong. I felt horrible and more so when my mom came out to view my handy work. To this day, I do not like to trim rose bushes.

So, what does this have to do with Education Technology? I recently had a chance to listen to a speaker discuss the uses of technology in education (I am being polite with the word discuss.) Over the course of 90 minutes I began to get that same sick feeling, I had with the rose bushes so many years before. The longer the speaker talked, the more the use of technology was criticized. To be clear, the person was not criticizing the technology per say but more the methodology of how we were using it in our classrooms.

Any good educator will reflect (self-criticize) on their classroom noting what worked well and what requires improvement. Any good educator will also seek council from colleagues, books, seminars, conferences, classes etc… with the end goal being to improve student learning.

Criticism when used in a constructive manner can be quite valuable and the constructive part of the criticism is most important. Just telling a person they are not doing something correctly doesn’t help them. Helping a person see there is a more effective way does. It takes a skilled person to tell a person they are wrong, help them improve and make them feel good about themselves while they are improving. Done incorrectly, a person will shut down, become withdrawn and refuse to try anything in the future.

While I am on this soapbox of criticism, I had better practice what I am preaching. So, here are the things I would recommend to anyone presenting information on education technology or anything else for that matter:

State the topic or the message the audience will be learning about today.
How the topic or technology was utilized in my (the speakers) environment.
State what mistakes (the speakers) were made along the way.
State what would be done differently next time?
Provide some guiding questions to help the planning process for others.
Provide some guiding questions to help others reflect and evaluate projects or processes currently in place.

Information conveyed in this manner will help people understand they may need to improve (change) things they have done without making them feel like failures. In the end, it is not what you say but how you say IT.

Don’t you just love satire?

2007-04-04T00:19:00.000-07:00

I love satire and this video is pure satire. I have spent my career helping people lose their anxiety when it comes to working with a computer or computer related technology. Last week a friend of mine showed this YouTube video to me and I had to laugh as I have had this person in class. In fact, I have had this person in class today. Enjoy.

BubbleShare? Why Not?

2007-03-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

I started out building web pages using simple text and notepad back in the days we dreamt of doing cool things on a web page. For several years, I chased the “cool factor” looking to one up the next page with some effect that WOW my audience. (Gee, as I write this, I sound like a kid learning to use the effects and transitions in PowerPoint. <Smile>) Like many people it dawned on me that content is king and I went back to basics. Text on the page that said something and I was happy. I also have be fair and point out the fact I have no artistic talent, which meant I was quickly outclassed when some of the new tools starting hitting the market.

The last few years, we have seen a plethora of new social tools hit the market, (Blogs, Social bookmarks, image libraries etc…) during this time, some of us have sat on the side line watching these develop while other have jumped in and started playing. Where are you?	This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog
I am one of those folks that look at some of this stuff and have to ask WHY? I can see it is cool, easy to use and even fun, but still ask why and how long will this remain free? (Side note - I lived through the first .com bust <sad face> and it was not fun.)

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

Recently on a Skype call with friend Peggy George, I learned about Bubbleshare.com. As she told me about it, I said it sounds much like Flickr and I was wrong to a point. I do like my Flickr account and the fact I can post images online and easily share them with the world, Bubble share does allow me do this too, plus a few other things like place a hat on my daughters head or put up a silly comment in a comic book style thought bubble. If that was not enough,BubbleShare gives me four different ways to share my album on my Blog or any other web site, and do this easily.

Would this be possible to do without BubbleShare? Sure, I could take the image into Photoshop or some other image editing software and make my edits. I could find some script on the web that would allow me to create some of the affects that BubbleShare allows. Then I could post these on my ISP’s server and update my web page to display these cool new items. But… I wouldn’t do it because it is just too much work.

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

If you just read that paragraph and are wondering what I just said, you are not alone and that is the reason some of these tools exist and why they are so popular.

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog	So why did I write this today? I sat down and started playing with BubbleShare this morning and thought it was cool. Once I had my album created, I wanted to share it with the world.
My blog seems like a good place to do this. Why the text? Well,it would just be strange to post only images on a blog entry. Or would it? If you have not explored BubbleShare or Flickr, give them a look. I know I have left out a few other tools in this post, if you know of any, please comment and share the your knowledge.

Go Ahead… Make My Day!

2007-03-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

And that is just what Chris Smith of Shambles fame did today.

We all know a friendly or memorable URL can make or break a web site and let’s face it, there was nothing friendly about goodbaduglyoftheinternet.wikispaces.com. In fact, after I set up the site, I started looking at the URL and even called myself a few choice names thinking I should have come up with a name that would roll of your tongue. Thanks to Chris Smith, we can now do just that. Can you remember www.thegoodbaduglyinternet.info? (The Good Bad Ugly Internet .Info) You sure can and guess where that address will land. That is right. Smack dab on “The Good the Bad and the Ugly of the Internet” Wiki site.

So… What should you do now?

Click the link www.thegoodbaduglyinternet.info and of course book mark it.
Those with a del.icio.us account please book mark it there as well.
If you are apt to blog about it, I am asking Bloggers to use GBUI as the tag for the site.
Join the www.thegoodbaduglyinternet.info Wiki and help build a resource we can all benefit from.
Last but not least… Tell your friends about www.thegoodbaduglyinternet.info.

Education, K-12, Shawn Wheeler, Chris Smith, Shambles, GBUI, Web 2.0, Web 2

Welcome to the Good the Bad and the Ugly of the Internet

2007-03-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

Recently I was reading a few of my favorite blogs when I came across a post on the blog site John Evans (http://nlcommunities.com/communities/joevans) titled RSS Information where John spoke about the newly create Image Wall on Bloglines.com and his concern over some of the content on this site. Fortunately Bloglines.com listened to the many concerned people who use this site and created a new domain name for the image wall (http://www.bloglinesimagewall.com/). John published another post titled A Bloglines Update which got the two of use talking. Our comment went something like this:

John said:
Thanks Shawn for the heads up on this. I hope this
implementation by Bloglines does what they claim it will do. I have yet to test
it on our school filters. What still concerns me is the fact that while it may
be blocked by school filters, the Image Wall is still accessible from
non-filtered computers such as their home computers. It brings to the forefront
our need to educate our students and their parents on the safe use of technology
in their daily lives.

Shawn said:
John, I think you hit on the most important part.
Filters serve a purpose but the most important thing we can and need to do
it educate our children and I am beginning to think their parents about the
internet. Sure, they know about the web but can they (students and
parents) discern factual information from exercises in creative writing?

I know most of us have enough items of our plates, but
what would a community service class for parents and students on internet tools
look like. Call it “The Good the Bad and the Ugly of the internet.
How to find the roses among the manure” content could include searching
strategies and techniques, Web 2.0 tool, Social Network site etc…

Random thoughts before I head off for work.

Shawn

John said:
Shawn, You have the beginnings of a great idea. Wonder
how we and others could collaborate on a session such as that? Perhaps put it on
a wiki or find something that someone has already done. I know Wes Fryer has
done many workshops with this theme included in them.

John

Later that day, a new Wiki was born. I would like to invite you to view and participate in “The Good the Bad and the Ugly of the Internet” Wiki.

This site is JUST coming out of the ground so we are looking for people to contribute to the space.

K-12,Shawn Wheeler, John Evans, Bloglines, Students, Web 2.0, Web 2, Filtering, On-line Safety

The Thin Client Diet

2007-02-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

One of the cool things about my job beyond the teaching aspect is problem solving. Now, I am not an engineer or a mathematician. No, I started out to be a shop teacher, woods to be exact. But the times changed and I found myself teaching computers. Back to my point; I often have opportunity to look at new or in this case updated technologies to evaluate their relevance in education.

This past October, I was fortunate enough to speak at the T + L show in Dallas. Once my speaking duties were complete, (See "Say it again… Improving Student Learning through Podcasting"), I was able to enjoy the show and see what I could see. As my boss Larry and I perused the floor we came across a tiny booth with 4 monitors, keyboard, mice and one PC. Each of the three monitors, keyboards and mince were attached to a small black box roughly the size of my wallet. We began reading the single page brochure sitting on the table as the one and only representative walked up to the booth to tell us about his product.

Introducing (On this blog anyway.) the X300 PCI XTenda multibox. This slick little device basically turns a single PC into four workstations through the use of the software and a PCI card. (Click this link to see the topology) To be honest, I thought this device was cool and had potential at home, but I was skeptical about it at a school. That is until I had a chance to see it in action.

When I returned home, I began the process of getting a demo unit. nComputing was good enough to provide me with the X300. I installed the X300 card in a Dell Optiplex GX240 with 1 gig of RAM then connected three keyboards, monitors and mice to XTenda multibox. Next my staff and I began to test this device. (Remember there are now 4 people working from one PC.) We opened MS Word, Outlook, etc… After about 15 minutes of various activities and applications, we decided to really abuse this device. The four of us opened MS PhotoStory, created and rendered 4 videos. As expected this test put the Optiplex on its proverbial knees. However, we did have four videos rendered in less than ten minutes. This little box has potential.

Test with students… Next I took the Optiplex with X300 over to one of our schools (Temporality replacing four 6-year old Dell GX110’s.) to test with 7th and 8th grade students. By the end of the next day, the teacher sent an email stating the students request that I leave the X300 with the XTenda boxes and replace the rest of the lab with the same setup. The students did experience one problem with our Punch Pro software as it requires access to the CD Rom. The CD Rom does work on any station trying to access it. However, only one person can access the drive at a time. Basically, the first person to click on the CD wins.

My opinion… Do I think this device is the Holy Grail for Educational computing? No, it does have a few limitations so we will still have a need to purchase full systems in some situations. Nevertheless, at $200.00 the X300 and the XTenda multibox can make one PC do the work of four. In situations where the computer will be performing basic tasks, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, email and searching the web, this device deserves consideration.

Links to look at…
nComputing
The Next Cheap Thing
nComputing Demo Video

Technorati
Education, K-12, Shawn Wheeler, nComputing, Thin Client

What is RSS ?

2007-02-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

One hot August afternoon last year I was catching up on some of my blog reading when I came across a post from David Warlick “What is RSS?” where he gave his 2-Cents on explaining RSS to people who are still trying to understand it. Of course I chimed in with my comments as did several others. In fact, I chimed in with a post of my own on this blog, [see In response to David Warlick’s post (What is RSS cont.) ]

Prior to posting that entry, I like many others knew we needed a better way to introduce the topic of RSS. Being an educator, there is nothing I enjoy more than a live audience. Give me a room full of students and computers, we would live RSS. Remove the computers, okay, I can demonstrate. This works as long as I have time, location and an audience… Now you see the problem. Those three components don’t often line up.What I needed was a video. Well, it only took a year but it is done. Below you will see the video created to help PUSD community members learn about RSS and how the Peoria Unified School District is using RSS in our schools.

If you would like to download a copy this video is available in both:

I want to publicly thank Dave Collie, for his time and creativity. I had an idea what I wanted this video to look like. Dave delivered a video that is beyond my wildest dreams. Thank you Dave!

Technorati
Education, K-12, Shawn Wheeler, David Warlick, PUSD, RSS, Web 2.0, Web 2

The Biggest Kid in the School aka Big Companies

2007-01-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

I stand 6 foot 1 inch weighing in at a very portly 250 lbs. While my weight has snuck up on me over the years, I have always been tall. Growing up one of the biggest kids in the grade level had a number of disadvantages. The worst of, (in my day anyway), which is every new boy that entered the school had to prove himself. What better way to prove himself by taking a shot or two at the biggest kid in the school. Sometimes these were verbal but more often than not, it was a smack across the jaw. (Ouch) This caused me to grow up with an interesting perspective on the world.

I have looked at a number of productivity software, (word processors, spreadsheet and presentation), applications over the years. With each new version, they get more powerful. In recent years, there has been an influx of open source and web based productivity applications. Star Office was one of the first I looked at and I thought Microsoft should pay attention. Last summer I looked at Writely, (Now renamed Google Docs.), and my jaw dropped onto my keyboard. This product looked and felt like MS Word and even saved as a .doc file type. As an educator, I thought this is great for all the students who do not have a copy of Word at home. Oh and it was web based. Two weeks ago, I loaded Open Office to see what it looked like. While I haven’t given this product a thorough test, it has familiar look and feel. Again, I thought Microsoft should pay attention.

This week I walked through the office and noticed one of the IT supervisors was installing Solaris on a machine. Being a Microsoft shop, I had to stop in and tease him. I said, “What is the world coming to? You are installing Solaris and I bought a Macintosh server.” We chuckled as we began talking about some of the open source tools now available. He said with all the great “Free” software out there, no one would ever need to buy Office. That statement again, made me think of being the “Big Kid” having shots taken at me.

I remember when computers were not interoperable between platforms. I remember when my word processor wouldn’t open the document you sent me because the two applications were not compatible. For the past several years, we have enjoyed interoperable computing and Microsoft has enjoyed an enormous market share. This is the time when some people start taking shots at the “Big Kid”. Words like monopolist, giant, big bad begin to appear in the same sentence with the “Big Kids” name. Is this good or bad? That is for you to decide.

This time also provides a catalyst to some very talented programmers who begin to develop their own version of software. Some of them work alone while other works together as a worldwide community. This is collaboration at its best and these individuals should be applauded for their efforts.

We also need to stay focused on the companies, large and small, that shape the world. These companies were built on the minds of brilliant individuals with the spirit and determination to make a difference. Not very different from the open source world, noting these companies intend to turn a profit.

Please don’t mistake this entry as I am against open source or business. I love the open source software I use each week. I love the computer and the software I am currently using. I love fact that my job pays my bills and affords me the opportunity to sit at McDonald's and write this article so I can freely share my opinions with you. I am merely a much older big kid with a different perspective.

Oh, on a final note, I did have a chance to spend a couple hours this week with Word 2007. Microsoft was paying attention and they again have raised the bar. While it does pose a few challenges for network people and compatibility with older files, it changed the user interface, in my opinion, for the better.

Technorati Tags
Education, K-12, Shawn Wheeler

Is professional development just smoke and mirrors?

2007-01-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended a meeting with a group of tech trainers, coordinators, IT bosses and such. The topic of staff development came up and some of the methods we were using and/or looking at in our respective districts. Most of the time these conversations are interesting and I can usually find some new ideas to improve training in my district. However, the conversation on this day was directed more toward how we are going to shift duties around so we can do more with less as budget cuts loom over all our heads.

From here there were two prevailing thoughts.

Cut spending so one person will now do the work or two or three people.
Cut programs which top level administration feels can be removed.

Neither of these two thoughts are fun to deal with, furthermore; it sends a frightening message to three groups of people.

The people doing the job tend to feel there work is not appreciated or even noticed.
The teachers in the classroom who rely on these experts to help them improve learning opportunities for their students.
The community may question why these jobs were added in the first place and certainly will question why they are being brought back when the budget crisis is over.

While administrators work through the process balancing the budgets, those who work in one of the jobs on the preverbal chopping block vie for position. Worse human nature can kick in and finger pointing of which program is more important becomes not only counter productive. It becomes a cancer on the organization driving moral down.

I will not toss stones at my colleagues in the professional development world but being a tech geek myself I of course will always state that professional development is necessary. However, let’s keep content areas out of the discussion. In fact, let’s take the conversation away from education for a moment and consider a few thoughts:

You require a medical procedure to be performed. The new procedure dramatically increases your chances of survival. Do you want your doctor to be properly trained?
Tax time is around the corner. Do you want your tax accountant to be up-to-date with the current tax codes?
Last year you paid $38,000 for a new vehicle which has a specialized transmission. Today the car is shifting funny and requires repair. Do you expect your mechanic to know how to work on your vehicle?

The answer to all of these questions is yes. We expect professionals to be knowledgeable in their field and we expect them to be current with best practices and techniques.

Shifting back to education, parents and community members have the same expectations of our teachers. What is not often realized is vast number of changes and requirements placed upon our teachers. The burden of keeping track of these changes and providing in-services to our teachers along with best practices for implementation falls to the teachers who work in these professional development assignments. Once these professional are removed from their position or find themselves doing two or three jobs, the burden will fall back to the classroom teachers. Time spent preparing engaging and rigorous lessons may fall prey to budget cuts.

While there is no simple solution to this problem, the teacher in me feels that educating our parents and community about the implications of loosing these jobs is the first step. Maybe we should call it Parent & Community Development.

Education
K-12
Professional Development
Shawn Wheeler

Podcasting in Peoria: How is podcasting being used in one school district

2007-01-13T00:09:00.000-07:00

This entry was written for the second edition of Coming of Age: An
introduction to the NEW worldwide web.
Download your copy of version one here.

Over the past ten years there have been a number of “new” technologies to hit the market that caused me to become extremely excited. I am sure it is no shock to read that one of my first passions with the computer was the ability to edit video. In fact, I was so enamored with this technology I gladly gave Apple Computers 3000 of my hard earned dollars for a Macintosh Performa 6400 with an Avid Video card. After making only a few videos, I began to lose interest.

Was the technology bad? Of course not, in fact it was outstanding. However, I discovered that it required a substantial amount of effort to produce a product and it really didn’t fit into my curriculum. Let’s face it, edited or not, Christmas morning videos are still not exciting.

Several years later, Movie Maker 2 from Microsoft emerged on the market. I was back into video editing like never before. However, I still had my same reservations with video. My colleagues in the district were clamoring for this technology and I wanted to help develop an army of Spielbergs and Coppolas. For several years, we facilitated workshops teaching teachers how to create movies using Movie Maker in their classroom. To be honest, a number of wonderful projects were created. Unfortunately, the process is time consuming and video production began to slow.

A year later, Microsoft gave us Producer which marries PowerPoint with video and/or audio. I thought we had the next killer application for educational technology. This product should have taken off. Maybe we as technology educators just failed to embrace it. However, one very interesting item came to our attention as we facilitated workshops on Producer. The participants wouldn’t get in front of the camera for their project. Oddly enough, when we told them they could instead use the microphone on the computer and record audio only, the excitement for the product grew.

With all this background it still took the creation of the RSS enclosure tag for the “light bulb” to click on. What is so special about the RSS enclosure tag? It was the birth of Podcasting.

In my mind, we have discovered the Holy Grail of Education Technology. It has taken millions of dollars in equipment, software and infrastructure for us to come full circle back to one of the first forms of mass communication… Radio! However, in our, “I want it when I want it, not when you want to allow me to have it”, world, this generation may become known as the Tivo generation, radio just doesn’t cut it. We want our content when and where we want it. The mode of radio that fits this model is Podcasting.

This publication is loaded with several great explanations of Podcasting, for this reason I will not go into the technical specifics of Podcasting. I will share some of the ways teachers in my district are using Podcasting, as well as some of the processes involved in building excitement for the concept.

How is Podcasting being used?
When I first became excited about Podcasting, (October 2005), I am ashamed to say that I had a horrible case of tunnel vision. In fact, I only saw two major uses for the technology; the first being the obvious, remediation, the second communication with the community or staff by the school administrator.

This past June, I was able to facilitate two Podcasting classes for 28 teachers in the Peoria District. (I had only intended to teach one; however, I had so much interest that I ran two separate classes.) During each of these 3-day workshops, I was very pleased to see the level of excitement pouring from these educators. Equally impressive was the dialog that took place in the classes. One person would state how they intended to use Podcasting in their environment; another teacher in the room would say “Oh wow and then you could do…” Toward the end of the class I asked them to post on the class discussion board how they intended to use Podcasting in their environment. The following are some of their comments.

I will definitely use it to record major lectures for English 1 students. That way, those who are absent or those who want to review the information may do so at their convenience.

I will use podcasting on my staffweb page to keep parents and students informed of what is going on in my classroom. What better way to get the word out about curriculum, assignments, and upcoming events. I also hope to add podcasting to our school website that I'm going to work on this year.

I have three immediate uses:

1) Record meetings for those who cannot attend
2) Record information on selected professional development topics
3) Personal use on an oral family history project

I would like to post class discussions of important topics so that students can listen to the discussions again or absent students can hear the discussions. I would also like to have students create "radio show" type broadcasts. I am sure many other ideas will come to me as I begin to investigate this type of media on the web.

Oh boy, where do I start? Audio clips will become a huge part of the DSS, (Decision Support System). On every page found in the DSS, there will be audio "help" instructions, (i.e. what data is found by clicking on "state tests", when new data will be posted, how to interpret the data, etc). My vision is a teacher who can examine the data while listening to the above steps. This eliminates having 5+ documents...

Career & Technical Education (CTE) will use podcasting in multiple ways:
provide directions and information to CTE teachers on special
projects and initiatives
provide information to students on the student zone
provide information to parents on the parent zone
provide information to the media about CTE in PUSD

Creating "study guides" for the students to listen to and write answers. This is great for kids who don't have anyone at home to quiz them. They can listen to the questions, and write down their answers.

I have already started a Podcast Club for students at Desert Harbor. I also have students recording our school newsletter articles. This year I am also teaching a podcast elective and anticipate learning some advanced techniques with my students. Additionally, I have also been uploading Podcasts for our administrators and hope to help them...

I think this technology will be used in many ways in my classroom and school. A few ideas worth sharing will be encouraging my principal to make a monthly podcast message to post on our website. I will be using it in my classroom to, among other things, record our weekly spelling words so the students can practice taking the spelling test just as it will be presented on testing day, homework assignments...

As you have read, these classes bled excitement which only fueled my passion for Podcasting. Quick, download Audacity, pick up your microphone and start Podcasting!

Don’t be the only Podcaster in your school.

The best way I have found to build excitement for technology is to be a practitioner and an evangelist. Of the two, I would rate practitioner the most important. Review what you do in your classroom or school. Ask yourself where your students or community would benefit from audio content. (You may come up with several areas so keep a list.) Next, pick one topic and get started. Wait until you are comfortable with the first topic then worry about moving on to the next topic on the list.

After you have posted a few shows, it is time to put on the evangelist hat. Talk to your friends, colleagues and most importantly, your students and community about your Podcasts. Ask for feedback from those who have listened to your show and don’t get discouraged if a person says something you consider “not nice”. To this day I still have people tell me I am wasting my time, or it should be called Podlame, Podboaring etc… I smile, tell them they mock what they don’t understand and show them the statistics of my Podcast site. (I must also note, these same people have never listened to my Podcast.)

The most important part of building excitement is to be excited yourself; don’t be afraid to let your passion for Podcasting spill on other people. Once they start asking questions, your Podcasting classroom is open and it is time to start teaching the value of this most powerful technology.

In closing, I would like to leave you with the following: The fact that you are reading this book tells me you’re interested in making a difference with your students and community. The topics discussed in this book make a difference in lives of our students. Podcasting may not be the best fit for you where blogging or other Web 2.0 topics are better. The important part, you are willing to learn about the new technology. Find what fits for you, embrace it, learn it and use it. The quest for knowledge is a journey which we should never allow to end.
Welcome to the New Worldwide Web.

This chapter contained several links attached to words. If you are reading the print version of this book, you may find the actual URL helpful.

Producer - http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/producer/prodinfo/default.mspx
Movie Maker 2 - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
Tivo - http://www.tivo.com
Discussion Board -
http://portal.peoriaud.k12.az.us/sites/Services_and_Training/Lists/PUSD%20Podcasters/AllItems.aspx

Web 2.0 Booklet

Cool tools for RSS & Podcasting: A round-up of some of the coolest things we've come across for RSS and Podcasting

2007-01-12T23:03:00.000-07:00

This entry was written for the second edition of Coming of Age: An introduction to the NEW worldwide web. Download your copy of version one here.

RSS and Podcast Tools
A desire to share our knowledge with others is a guiding force that draws people to education. Web 2.0 is allowing us to remove the constraints of the classroom and share our knowledge with the world. Sharing that knowledge is the essence of this chapter.

For the past nine months I have hosted a podcast which archives the events of teaching and sharing information about RSS and Podcasting within my district. Over the next few pages, I will share with your some of the “Cool” tools I have stumbled on during this adventure. Where I have personal knowledge of the tool, I will add my comments. In addition, I need to apologize to the Macintosh users as many, (not all), of the tools I share in this chapter are aimed at the PC. Finally I would like to note this is not a definitive list and I do not own stock in any of the products.

RSS Tools
Arguably one of the most important facets of Web 2.0 would be the RSS or XML feed which syndicates information throughout the world. While it is possible to create a RSS feed using a text editor, it is also time consuming, a commodity that most educators don’t have any to spare. For this reason an RSS editor is highly recommended. Let’s take a look at a few.

Feededit an RSS 2.0 Syndicated feed editor by Steve Banhan
I actually have extensive experience with this software as it is my Feed editor of choice for my podcast. (Visit Adventures in Podcasting.) Originally, I chose this software when I was learning about RSS because it was free. I continue to use it today because it is a stable piece of software and it works very well.
Web site - http://www.banham.cc/feededit/feededit.htm

FeedForAll – RSS software for the PC & Mac
FeedForAll is very nice software with a clean user interface. I did download and test the demo version of this software and if you are looking for a solid RSS editor with features beyond the basics give FeedForAll at try. At $39.95 U.S, it is worth the money.
Web site - http://www.feedforall.com

Podcast RSS Buddy – RSS software for the PC & Mac
If you are looking for a RSS editor with support for iTunes tags, make sure you look at Podcast RSS Buddy. I have also installed and tested this application. It too works very well. However, don’t take my word for it; visit the web site to view the online video tutorial. If you like what you see, download the demo version. For $19.00 U.S., this software can be yours.
Web site - http://www.christolley.com

RSS Readers
Whether you are creating your own RSS feed or just keeping up with your favorite web log, an RSS reader is a must have tool. What does an RSS reader do? Great question… In short, the reader has two main functions.

The reader will visit every RSS feed you subscribe to on a regular basis (Usually every hour). During the visit, the reader will look for any new content published on the RSS feed. If the reader finds new content, it will notify you with a sound and/or an alert window on the screen. If you miss the alert notification, the new items will be displayed in your reader with the font style set to Bold. (Similar to email.)
The reader will convert the RSS feed into a format that the average person can read. RSS feeds are a XML files with a format similar to the code behind a web page. Just as a web browser, (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox etc…), processes HTML code into a viewable format, the RSS reader also formats the RSS feed, (XML code), to a viewable format. (See the two examples below.)

RAW RSS Feed (The XML code)

RSS readers come as installable applications, web based and browser based versions. Let’s take a look at a few of available readers.

Installable RSS Readers
Over the past nine months I have installed several RSS readers; however, I have primarily used RSS Reader and Sharp Reader. The two PC based applications work quite well and I have had no trouble retrieving feeds in either product. For some in inexplicable reason, I like Sharp Reader the best. I suspect it is the color scheme of the application. However, I currently have RSS Reader running on three of my computers as my primary RSS reader. Suffice it to say, you can’t go wrong with either of these RSS Readers.
RSS Reader (http://www.rssreader.com/)
Sharp Reader (http://www.sharpreader.net/)

Online RSS Readers
If you are a road warrior, multiple computer user or just nervous about installing applications on your computer, you may want to consider an online RSS reader and there are several online tools at your disposal.

Why an online reader over an installable application? Yet another good question. While some will have a compelling argument why one is better than the other, I do not. I will however share some reasons I like the online reader over my installed application.

Web base = anywhere accessibility. Unlike my installed reader, I can access my Bloglines.com account anywhere in the world, (Provided I have an internet connection of course.)
Shared Feeds - In addition to being able to access my online reader all over the world, I can also share my feeds with others. As a teacher, I see an enormous value in this feature. For example, if I want my students to review the writings of several bloggers over a period of time I could:
· Give them a list of blog sites to visit and review each day for new content.
· Create a web page with a list of links to these blog sites.
· (My favorite) Make my online RSS subscriptions available for public viewing and give that URL to my students. Visit my public Bloglines.com page to see an example. http://www.bloglines.com/public/SWheelerBloglines
Blogrolling - According to Wikipedia, a blogroll is a collection of links to other blog sites. This is a very “slick” feature that allows you to place a list of your subscribed blogs on a web page of your choosing. This list is created based on the blogs you subscribe to in your online RSS reader. For example, above I shared a link to my public Bloglines web site. Since Bloglines.com supports blogrolling, I have placed code, (supplied by Bloglines), on my personal blog site. This code places the blogroll, (links), from by Bloglines page on my blogsite. While you are thinking “So what, anyone can place links on a page.” You have not heard the best part. Each time I subscribe to a new feed on my Bloglines page, the blogroll on my blog site is updated. Slick right? Visit Shawn Wheeler's Thoughts on Education & Technology to see an example.

If you search for an online reader you will find a number of options. Listed below are three different online readers for you to consider.

RSS Reader by Google - reader.google.com I briefly tested this reader several months back and found it to be friendly to use. However, Terry Freedman wrote a very extensive review of this product on his site in April of 2006. Visit his entry Google RSS Reader.
Netvibes - http://www.netvibes.com/ Netvibes has very distinctive newsletter format which I find appealing. Signing up for this service takes about 30 seconds, (including fixing my own typos). Once my account was created, I was able to move the modules to different locations on the page. I was even able to create multiple pages or rather tabs in the browser. Just for fun, I went to a different computer and signed on to Netvibes… Just as expected, my custom pages were displayed on the screen.
Bloglines - http://www.bloglines.com/ You may have notice based on my examples above, I like Bloglines. This too is inexplicable. However, I suspect it has to do with the fact the screen loosely resembles the RSS reader I have installed on my computers. Bloglines allows me the option of making my subscriptions available to the public as well as supporting blogrolling.

Note: The above online readers are free.

RSS via eMail
One of the biggest challenges I have faced the past nine months is explaining RSS and what it can do for you. Unfortunately, I have not been 100% successful. Oddly enough, the most prevalent problem has been understanding how the Reader software functions. (I will take the blame for the poor explanation… I have to; as I am usually the one giving the explanation. ) In a few of these cases, the person told me they like the concept, but they are just not comfortable installing a reader or using an online version. However, they would like to receive notification of the updates. Fortunately, there is an option for them. Enter RSS via eMail.

While I am certain there are a number of RSS via eMail services in cyberspace, I can share two examples to look at.

Feedblitz – www.feedblitz.com
R-Mail – http://www.r-mail.org/

Each of these tools allows a person to subscribe to a feed by entering the URL of the feed along with the persons email address. Once the person has subscribed and confirmed their subscription, (done via email), the person can relax and wait for the emails to be delivered. See the Feedblitz example below.

Example Feedblitz email

For the blogger, these tools are equally cool for the simple reason they provide the blogger with HTML code for their blog site. The code allows a visitor to subscribe to the blog via email without leaving the site. The example below is a screen shot from the Adventures in Podcasting site.

If you are a veteran of RSS or just gathering information, give one of these tools a try.

Note: FeedBlitz and R-Mail are free.

Podcasting Tools
If it is important enough to say to the class, it is important enough for the class to hear it again... Say it again with Podcasting!

The above statement has been the lighthouse that has kept me on course for the past nine months as I have promoted podcasting with the educators in my district and other educators who tuned into, (Sorry… downloaded), my show each week.
(Visit Adventures in Podcasting)

In the following pages I will share with you some tools you may use in your own podcasting adventure. The information will be grouped by:

Locating and Listening (Podcast Indexes)
Creating a Podcast (The Tools)
Microphones & Recorders
Recording Software
Podcast Hosting Services

Locating and Listening (Podcast Indexes)
If you are considering podcasting, I would recommend listening to a few podcasts first. Doing so will give you opportunities to hear how others begin their shows, format, use of music, humor, web sites, show notes and their general style.

There are also a couple items you need to realize before you listen. There are thousands of podcasts on the web with the number growing daily. These podcasts are unregulated and not all content is appropriate for all ears. (I about fell out of my chair the first time I heard a person say the “F” word on a podcast.) Other podcasts are not worth the bandwidth they consume. Having stated all of this, there are a large number of wonderful shows that are well worth your time. After a few weeks of listening to various podcasts, you will find yourself watching less television, listening to less live radio and even look for things to do just so you can listen to a podcast. (I raked the yard in 100 degree, (Fahrenheit), weather just to give me an excuse to put on my iPod and listen to a podcast.)

The best way to locate a podcast is through a podcast indexing service. My first search was through Podcast Alley where I searched several different topics as well as listened to different podcasts. Then I searched the education genre to see how teachers were using podcasting. (I was hooked!)

Listed below are a few podcast indexing services available on the web.
General Purpose podcast index: (These indexes include an education genre.)

Podcast Alley – www.podcastalley.com
Yahoo Podcast Search - podcasts.yahoo.com
iTunes – Requires iTunes to be installed on your computer. www.apple.com/itunes

Education focused Podcasting

The Education Podcast Network - www.epnweb.org

Pod catchers or Aggregators
Once the podcast is located, the next challenge is to get the podcast to your computer and possibly on your MP3 player. This is where iPod owners have an advantage since support of podcasting is built into iTunes. If you own a different MP3 player, don’t distres, there a few options for you as well.

iTunes – www.apple.com/itunes Being the owner of an iPod I have extensive experience with iTunes and it’s ability to search for and retrieve podcasts. I find the application to be outstanding and what I would expect to see from Apple. Note: You do not have to own an iPod to use iTunes

Juice - juicereceiver.sourceforge.net This multiplatform, (PC, MAC & Linux), open source software is a solid application and quite intuitive. I have tested this product on my PC and it works very well. If you have a MP3 player or just want to download podcasts, visit the Juice web site.

Win Podder - http://www.winpodder.com/ WinPodder has to be one of my favorites of the pod catchers I have evaluated. The application like iTunes and Juice is solid and uncomplicated. Like Sharp Reader, WinPodder has an interface that just clicked with me. Maybe it was the images displayed with the Podcast information, album art when the podcast was playing or maybe it was the fact that WinPodder supports RSS news feeds as well as podcasts in one tool. Whatever the reason, this application clicked with me, it is worth your time to click on the link above and visit the WinPodder web site.

Creating a Podcast (The Tools)
When creating a podcast, there are a few tools that you must possess. The first is an input device; this is generally a microphone which can be connected to your computer via a wire or a wireless system similar to those used with video camera recorders. The other option is to use a separate recording device. Years ago, this would have been a tape recorder. However, today the device is a digital recorder.

Once you have an input device, you need a software application to record or import the audio from the digital recording device, edit and export the final MP3 product.

Let’s take a look a few of the items I have stumbled on the past nine months.

Microphones & Recorders
Many computers come with built-in microphones and these work fine. However, there may be times when a microphone that picks up less background noise is desirable. You can pick up a good wired microphone at your local electronics store for $20.00 to $50.00 U.S. Listed below are a few microphones that I have personal experience with for podcsting.

Logitech USB headset/microphone - USB headset microphones are available through a number of vendors with similar functionalities. I chose a USB microphone for convenience as I didn’t want to crawl behind my computer every time I wanted to use my headphones. It also doubles nicely for SKYPE use.

Audio-Technica Pro 88W VHF Wireless Microphone System – I purchased this device so I could record content presented in my classroom. This device works very well as does the Sony WCS-999 wireless microphone which I have tested with equally successful results.

Olympus VN-960-PC Digital Voice Recorder – This is actually my favorite device for classroom recording. It is portable, easy to use and very small. With it’s built in condenser microphone and leveler input, this device is a must have for podcasting. When connected to the computer, it can even be used as a microphone.

Recording Software
Recording software is the second must have tool to be a podcaster. Speaking into a microphone will do no good if you can’t capture your voice and create an MP3 file for your listeners to download. Listed below are some of the tools I have found. Some are free while others will have a small cost.

Audacity – audacity.sourceforge.net Audacity is one of the most popular recording applications for podcasters. One major reason for this is the fact the software is open source and runs on Mac, PC and Linux. It allows for multi-track recording, editing and is easy to use. Personally, I have tested the demo version of several other podcast recorders but always return to Audacity.

Garage Band 3 - www.apple.com/ilife/garageband Recently, I had an opportunity to evaluate a MacBook Pro which included iLife with Garage Band 3. Like any software application it takes a little time to get used to using. Sitting down behind a Mac after an eight year absence, took me a bit longer. In the end, Garage Band 3 is an impressive tool. Garage Band 3 also comes with a number of pre-built loops that allows you to create your own intro and exit music. With Garage Band 3 you can create enhanced podcasts which include chapters with their own artwork, embed hyperlinks into the podcast, (Viewable in iTunes or QuickTime), and you can even set your ID3 tags inside the software. If you own a Mac, this is a must have. If you own a PC… Sorry, this is a Mac only product. To view an example enhanced podcast, visit Adventures in Podcasting – Podcast 35 Enhanced.

The remainder of this list contains links to other recorders I have found but have not personally evaluated.

Castblaster - www.castblaster.com
MixCraft - www.acoustica.com/mixcraft
PodProducer www.podproducer.net
Propaganda - www.makepropaganda.com
Sound Studio (Mac Only) www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/soundstudio.html

Hosting and Podcast Services
After you have your podcast recorded, it is time to publish. What are some options? My first thought is to look at the school or district in which you work. Is there a web server where you can upload your podcast and does it have sufficient storage capacity? Your best bet is to contact the IT, (Information Technology), Director for this information.

If your district doesn’t work out, the next best option is a free service. There are several choices in this area, however, a couple of them really stand out.

Yahoo – podcasts.yahoo.com Yahoo’s Geo Cities provides 15 megabytes of storage with 5 megabytes of transfer per hour. You may upgrade to a faster service for a fee.

Gabcast - http://www.gabcast.com/ Gabcast, (free service), allows you to create and distribute audio content via a telephone or VOIP session. Gabcast also provides a Pro and Premium service for a monthly fee.

Podomatic - http://www.podomatic.com/ Podomatic, a wonderful free service that looks and feels like a blog with a twist; Podomatic allows you to upload your podcast to their server and post an entry related to the podcast. The best part, Podomatic creates your RSS entry for you. It really doesn’t get any easier. Podomatic also allows you to create your podcast using their software which is embedded in their web site. Did I mention this is free? This site was used with version one of this book when we made it available as a podcast. Visit http://comingofage.podomatic.com/.

Gcast - http://www.gcast.com/ Another nice tool from the makers of Garage Band. Gcast can host podcasts you upload to their server. However, that is not the most amazing feature. Gcast also allows you to call, (yes by telephone), into their server. Once connected, their server will record your message and post it as a podcast. It also automatically creates and updates your RSS file. Additionally, Gcast allows for subscribers to be informed of new podcasts via the built in email notification service.

Gcast not only makes a great podcast tool, it is also a great method for teachers to inform parents what is going on in their class each week. One phone call… Many parents.

If you would like to see and listen to an example, visit this web site. www.gcast.com/u/swheelerpusd/main

If your needs require more than these free services can provide, the following two links are fee based services I have found. See the corresponding web sites for details.

Solidspace.com – http://www.solidspace.com/ A fee based hosting for around $13.00 U.S. per month.
Blogmatrix - http://www.blogmatrix.com/ Blogmatrix offers several different hosting plans.

Royalty Free Music
A jazzy introduction and exit will really dress up your podcast. Garage Band makes this task rather easy. However, there are web sites that contain music that you may use on your podcast. The term for this music is Podsafe.

Podsafe Audio - http://www.podsafeaudio.com/ Artists who post music on this site have released their music under the Creative Commons license and agreed to allow their music to be used by you in any way and form for webcasting, as long as you don't take credit for the original work.

Magnatunes - http://www.magnatune.com/
Magnatunes allows podcasters to use music published on their site in your podcast legally without paying any fees. Magnatunes does require you to register your podcast.

Other Cool Tools
This final list contains miscellaneous tools which can be used in podcasting.

Text to Speech

TextAloud www.nextup.com/TextAloud
Instant podcasts with text to speech software. Simply type or paste in text, and save as an MP3 for instant podcasting.
TextAloud Text-to-Speech Conversion - www.topdrawerdownloads.com/archives/000013.html
Autocast - http://www.autocastsoftware.com/ Autocast creates MP3 audio files from RSS feeds.

Skype Recording

Skylook - http://www.skylook.biz/ Skylook is a recording application which integrates into Outlook and can record Skype VoIP calls to MP3 format (both inbound and outbound.)
Audio Hijack Pro – (Macintosh) www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro
Power Gramo - www.powergramo.com Free and Fee versions available.
FreeCorder - www.applian.com/freecorder

Music Loop Software

Sony Jam Trax - www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/showproduct.asp?pid=985
Super Duper Music Looper - www.sonymediasoftware.com/products/showproduct.asp?pid=535

Embedded Media Software

CoffeeCup Web JukeBox - www.coffeecup.com/web-jukebox Web JukeBox is a music player for your Website. It comes with over 20 cool players that will match any websites design. With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can add your MP3 files. See an example at the Adventures in Podcasting site. Look for the iPod on the right hand side of the screen. http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/shawn_wheeler/podcast

Now that you have finished this chapter, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed, take a deep breath and relax. My first podcast was a success with three tools.

Microphone
Auadacity (Recording Software)
Feededit (RSS Editing Software)

The toughest part of choosing an RSS reader is finding one that appeals to your personal taste.

Good, now that you caught your breath. Find a friend to discuss what, you just learned and how it could make a difference for you and your students learning process. Then get started using some of these tools.

I will leave you with an African Proverb….
"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or be killed. Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. So whether you're the lion or gazelle, when the sun comes up, start running."

In relation to technology literacy… Are you a lion or a Gazelle?

This chapter contained several links attached to words. If you are reading the print version of this book, you may find the actual URL helpful.

Adventures in Podcasting - http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/shawn_wheeler/podcast
Blogrolling - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogroll
Shawn Wheeler's Thoughts on Education & Technology - http://shawnwheeler.blogspot.com
Google RSS Reader - http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_644.php
Adventures in Podcasting – Podcast 35 Enhanced - http://portal.peoriaud.k12.az.us/personal/swheeler/Lists/Adventures%20in%20Pod%20Casting%20Journal/DispForm.aspx?ID=53&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fportal%2Epeoriaud%2Ek12%2Eaz%2Eus%2Fpersonal%2Fswheeler%2FMy%2520Pages%2FAdventures%2520In%2520PodCasting%2Easpx

Web 2.0 Booklet

I have been tagged!

2007-01-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

My friend Terry Freedman from across the pond recently tagged my blog. Thank you Terry and I loved reading about you. I would have never guessed your hair was that long.

Just so you know, here are the rules for being blog-tagged:
1. You have to say 5 things about yourself that may not be apparent from your blog.
2. You have to tag 5 other people.

Now for five things you don’t know about me and wouldn’t know from reading my blog.

I am married and have two daughters. To keep peace in the house, I will only show a picture of the girls.
Meet Victoria and Fredreka.

When I began college I wanted to teach woodshop. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I started too late. Due to the timing I transfered into Technology Education which in those days looked much different. I still like to build things and every once in a while I have the time and the money to do so. My last project was a playhouse for the girls.
You can see all the images here.

In my younger and much skinnier days I was a technical rock climber. If you are not familiar with technical climbing it is the type that requires rope, protection and a desire to have fun. I still have the desire to climb, just not the desire to loose all the weight I have gained the past 15 years.

When time permits I like to hunt and fish. If you are not pro hunting, have no fear.
First off I am very bad at finding animals and when I do find them, I am such a terrible shot they have nothing to fear. However, I am a very talented (Sarcasm) fisherman. Just look at the lunker I pulled in on my last trip to the lake (Yes that fish hit my lure).

I do enjoy being out in the sticks away from the “Wired” world. However, I do get the shakes if I don’t touch a keyboard after a few days.

For my 21st birthday I bought this truck. Seventeen years later, it is still running and I am still driving it. Victoria (pictured here) told me she wanted it once. Who knows, maybe I will buy a new one by the time she is old enough to drive.

Last but not least… John Evans, Mechelle De Craene, Julie Lindsay, Ewan McIntosh and Amy Chayefsky you have been Blog-tagged!

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blog-tagged

Strange Metaphors

2006-12-04T00:12:00.000-07:00

After my last post, I began to think about being and early adopter and the insecurity it can create. After some time, I came up with this twisted metaphor.

Have you ever been first to a party? You pull up to the home and see there are no other cars? So you drive around the block a few times, you don’t want to be the first one to arrive. Triple checking the invitation, you find that you are at the right home on the correct night. Taking a deep breath, you park your car and make the slow walk up the driveway hoping someone else will pull up so you are not the only one there.

Finally the knock, (it sounds so hollow) the hosts opens the door. Greetings are exchanged followed by period of feeling very uncomfortable. You think to yourself, if no one shows up in 30 minutes, can I use the “I left the iron on” excuse to get out of here. Finally, a few more people arrive and soon the party is happening.

A few hours later, there is a high-spirited crowd and that “Been There Done That” feeling is beginning to stir. Time to move on.

What this metaphor lacks is the value of the friendship with those who show up just as early as you do. Who said it is cool to be fashionable late!

Web 2.0 Web 20 Podcasting Early Adopter

In response to Julie Lindsay’s comment –

2006-12-03T02:28:00.000-07:00

Julie posted an interesting comment to my last post. I sat down to compose a response and thought I may as well share it with the world. After all, the comment is about Web 2.0.

Julie, I think you have hit on a key point. Early adopters will always feel technology or uses become outdated before they truly take off. Maybe this is due to the fact that we (I am considering you and I early adopters) like to be on the cutting edge of technology and how it can make a difference in education.

Case in point - Several years ago, I learned about Movie Maker II and quickly immersed myself in the product; I then wrote a class on how to use the product and taught this class to teachers and students throughout my district. My former boss and I even made the rounds to all the Education Technology shows in the state or Arizona demonstrating to other educators the value and ease of this tool. I was shocked to see Movie Maker and iMovie still on the list of topics at the last Ed. Tech. show I attended. Is the technology bad? Is the technology dead? No, of course, not, it is just not new to me anymore and I assumed that everyone knew about it by now.

The toughest part of being an early adopter is waiting for the rest of the world to understand the value and jump on board. Okay that require some patience, staying positive while we wait is the tough part.

Ironically, I was late in entering the Blogosphere and the first time I saw a Wiki, I focused on how people would miss use the technology. Today I see the value and have had several conversations in the past month trying to explain to people I work with the value of Blogging, Wiki’s, RSS and of course Podcasting. On more than one occasion I have sent them the link to "Coming of Age: An introduction to the NEW worldwide web" and asked them to read page “X” to better understand the concept. Version 2 of this book will only help explain the value of Web 2.0. As for the early adopters who know what lays on our horizon.

Coming of Age COA Julie Lindsay Web 2.0 Web 20

Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web V2

2006-11-27T22:59:00.000-07:00

Recently, tonight in fact I had an opportunity to review two articles Julie Lindsay has written for the next release of Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web. The topic… one of my favorites was Podcasting.

While I would love to give a fond review of her work, it just wouldn’t be fair to review them without you having a chance to read them yourself. I will however say this… You will not be disappointed when you read her articles.

Two things came to mind while I read. First off, from a technical standpoint I thought it was interesting how she approached Podcasting. While some may consider the word interesting a pseudonym for I disagree with her methodology, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Julie utilizes several tools I was not aware of in her approach. In other cases, I was aware of the tool but never thought to use it. The end result, a PODCAST is born. Best of all I learned a thing or two tonight. - Thanks Julie!

The next item came to mind as I read her second article, was a feeling of hang in there. She discusses some of the great things she has accomplished with Podcasting in her school system yet points out the fact she is not where she wants to be in the process. I do appreciate her candidness but feel the need to commend her for a job well done.

As a practitioner of Podcasting myself, (http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Shawn_Wheeler/podcast) I can relate to the challenge of helping people understand the process and realize the value recorded audio will bring to our schools. Change in education is often slow but staying the course and being true to your cause (Podcasting, Blogging, etc…) is imperative.

If you have not read Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web you can download your FREE copy at. http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/db/web2/

You may also listen to the recorded version of this publication at http://comingofage.podomatic.com/

To keep up-to-date on version 2 of this wonderful publication, check out http://web2booklet.blogspot.com/2006/09/coming-of-age-introduction-to-new.html

Terry Freedman Julie Lindsay Coming of Age Web 2.0 COA

The MacBook Pro Round Two

2006-09-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

I had an opportunity to sit down with the MacBook Pro again this past Sunday, (well three Sunday’s ago at the time of this writing), as I recorded Podcast 36 for Adventures in Podcasting. However, this time I once again crossed the line into the world of vodcasting. Now if you are a fan of the show you also know the show was published in three formats, (Vodcast, Enhanced Podcast and MP3). In this post I will share my experience in Vodcasting with the MacBook Pro.

As I tell my tale, I will explain the process I went through as I created not one, but all three formats. Then I will explain what I learned from the process and what I would change if I were to do another or make a habit of vodcasting with the MacBook Pro.

What I did….

Step 1 – iMOvie

I have never been enamored with built in microphones on any computer and considering the level of ambient noise in my home office, (air conditioner, fan and of course children), I chose to use my Audio Technica wireless microphone with the MacBook Pro. I believe it worked quite well. Once I had tested the microphone, I fired up iMovie switched the input to the iSight camera and began recording. In my normal fashion, I droned on for about 30 minutes or so. However, I did notice I was talking a bit faster than normal. Perhaps the camera made me nervous!

After the podcast video was complete, I began the learning process of creating the podcast in not one, but three formats. Wanting to have a snappy introduction, I shared the video file to Garage Band 3 where I quickly noticed my first mistake. I had no room for the introduction track and I wanted a still image displayed as my introduction track played. So… Back to iMove I went thus abandoning the initial import into Garage Band.

Back in iMovie, I moved the video forward 54 seconds. This happens to be the length of my introduction music. Next, I imported an image and placed this on the video track. I couldn’t have a dead screen while I talked could I? Just for good measure, (and I didn’t want to make this mistake twice), I placed an image on the end of the video track and extended the time this image would be displayed to match the exit tune I had previously created in Garage Band. Again, I shared the video file with Garage Band 3.

Step 2 – Garage Band

Once the video file was imported into Garage Band, I imported my introduction and exit audio placing these tracks in the appropriate locations on the timeline. Next I recorded the voice track for both the intro and exit tracks. Of course, I had to tinker with the volume level of the music audio so it wouldn’t drown out my own voice. From there, I shared the file with iTunes. (Yeah…) The vodcast file of Adventures in Podcasting, podcast 36 was complete.

Step 3 – Creating the Enhanced Podcast

Now that the video was complete, I still wanted to be able to post an audio version of my podcast. Earlier, I had noticed that iMovie would allow me to separate the audio from the video. With that in mind, I returned to iMovie.

In iMovie, I imported the completed video file. (If you recall, I had added the intro and exit music to the podcast in Garage Band therefore I could not use the original video recording.) Now that the completed video was imported, I separated audio from the video and shared the video with Garage Band. (Note: Even though the audio was split from the video, both tracks are still shared with Garage Band.)

Back in Garage Band, I deleted the video track leaving only the audio. Next, I added the chapters to the audio file and placed images on the chapter marks. (Sorry, I was lazy, I used the same image for each chapter.) Once the chapters were complete it was time to share the files with iTunes. A few minutes later, the Enhanced Podcast version of Adventures in Podcasting, podcast 36 was complete.

Step 4 – Creating the MP3 file

Creating and MP3 from a M4A file in iTunes had to be the easiest process of the project. All you have to do is Right Click and choose “Convert File to MP3” OOPS… Sorry, I had a mouse connected to the MacBook Pro. I could have also pressed Command, (open Apple for us old timers), and clicked on the file with the mouse. Viola, the MP3 version of Adventures in Podcasting, podcast 36 was also complete.

The last phase of this project was to post the files to the internet and publish the RSS feed. Unfortunately, it was quite late at this time so I chose to bun the three files to a data DVD and complete the process the following day.

I did, however, have an overwhelming urge to try out iDVD. So… In addition to Podcast 36 being available in vodcast and two audio formats, I have a DVD of the show as well.

In hind site…

The project with the MacBook Pro was really no different than my first several podcasts. I learned something with each step and if I were to do another vodcast using a MacBook Pro, I would do several things differently. In fact, the process would parallel the same steps I use to create Adventures in Podcasting.

The process I would use:

Prerecord the introduction and exit tracks. This could be done with video or audio only.
Import the introduction track into iMovie.
Record the vodcast.
Edit as needed.
Import the exit track.
Render the video.
Upload file, update and upload the RSS file.

Considering I still prefer audio to video in my Podcast, I would also split the audio and complete the process of creating the MP3 file. That process, to my knowledge, would be the same as I noted above.

In the end, Adventures in Podcasting, podcast 36 took 7 hours to create in the three formats and it would be safe to say that 5 hours of that time was be learning how to do what I wanted to do. Following steps 1 through 7 listed above, a vodcast on a MacBook Pro wouldn’t take anymore time to create than a standard audio podcast. Noting one important fact… Podcast 36 was a talking head video which didn’t require much, if any, editing. If you plan to create a vodcast that is worth watching, (Sorry, my talking head is NOT interesting) you will need to plan for editing. Of course that is normal with any video project.

iLife and My Thoughts

iLive has to be flat out one of the slickest pieces of software I have ever used. Even after being away from a Mac for 8 years, I found this software intuitive. The integration between iMovie, Garage Band, iTunes, iPhoto and iDVD was absolutely seamless.

I said it before, and I will say it again, the MacBook Pro is an impressive machine. I still wish it had a right mouse button and came preloaded with both operating systems. Who knows, maybe by the time my Sony Vaio is due to be replaced I might get my wish.

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MacBook Pro Macintosh MacBook Podcasting Podcast Vodcast video cast K-12 Shawn Wheeler

The Macintosh after an 8-year absence...

2006-09-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

August 28, 2006 I had an opportunity to test-drive a MacBook Pro with an Intel processor running OS 10.4 Tiger. While this may not seem special to some, it was the first time in some eight years I had sat behind a Macintosh. (Okay, it was really the first time I sat behind a Macintosh with the intention of spending some time learning about the new tools the Mac has to offer.) However, before I get started I want to point out I am not anti Apple/Macintosh computers and this is not a Mac vs. PC article. The intent of this writing is to give a Windows users perspective of the MacBook Pro. Additionally, I did something bizarre as I explored this machine for the first few hours; I recorded the audio of my experience. When I finish writing this review, I will create a Podcast using the recorded audio of my experience. Of course, I will be using the Mac to create this Podcast.

How did the Mac make it to my desk?
I am an avid Podcaster and host of Adventures in Podcasting a weekly archive of my adventures in teaching people in the Peoria Unified School District about the value of Podcasting and RSS. One of the folks who listens to the show is Steve Nelson, a Systems Engineer for Apple Computers.

Following a Podcast this summer, Steve sent me an email asking if I had experienced Garage Band or any of the other iLife tools. I explained to Steve the two Macintosh computers I own are a bit old to run the new software. (The two Mac’s I own are a vintage LC II and Performa 6400 with the Avid Cinema card.) Several email exchanges later; I am sitting at MacBook Pro typing this article.

My first thoughts…
I had not seen one of these computers up close and personal until I pulled it from the rugged case in which it was shipped to me. Opening the case the first time revealed a shiny silver machine. While the top of any machine is not that impressive, this little Mac captured my attention as I lifted it from the case. The sleek, sexy little machine bleeds Macintosh; at one-inch think weighing a bit over five pounds it is absolutely striking.

During a visual inspection of the case, I discovered two USB 2 ports, a six-pin fire wire connection, Ethernet port, external monitor port and, of course, analog connectors for headphones and a microphone. The front of this machine sports a thin door which is home to the DVD burner. As I connected the power cord to the MacBook Pro, I had to say “Wow!” as this was the most impressive power connector I had seen. Many laptop owners consider the power adaptor and connector the Achilles heal of the computer world. Considering the number of machines that have fallen to their premature death by to a person tripping over the cord, this connector is shear brilliance. The connector is a magnet and even has a cool LED so you know it is connected correctly.

As I fired this machine up for the first time, I have to say I was a bit shocked when I looked at the screen and I saw my face looking back at me. It was at that time I noticed the very tiny camera mounted in the lid just above the screen. Wow, if this machine came with an assistant to actually do the work, it would have everything!

Working with a few of the applications…
Once I was over the shock of seeing my ugly mug on the screen, I began to explore some of the applications.

I was very curious how RSS, more specifically, Safari worked with RSS feeds. Needless to say, that is where I began. In truth, I had seen this feature several months back but never had an opportunity to play with it. What I did like was the fact the Safari browser automatically displays the RSS feed in a readable format. You also have the ability to subscribe to the feed thus removing the need for a separate RSS reader application. In the end, I still like RSS reader applications better. However, this is a matter of personal choice, not the Safari browser.

Photo Booth
Following Safari, I dove into Photo Booth, which of course takes advantage of the slick little camera mounted in the lid. I had a ball with this software; in fact I think I took about twenty-five very silly images. Having stated that, a picture is worth a thousand words… So here are a couple examples.

The rest are available on my Flickr page. Take a look.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnwheeler/sets/72157594259162297/

Garage Band 3
One of the major reasons for testing this machine was the chance to work with Garage Band. In fact, I told Steve I would even do a Podcast with this machine. Being true to my word, Adventures in Podcasting, Podcast 35 was published in both M4A Enhanced and MP3 versions.

Garage Band is a nice piece of software and easy to use. It did take me a little longer to create the show in Garage Band than it does in Audacity. However, considering it was the first Podcast I had done in Garage Band, additional time is reasonable. The other reason for the extended time was the fact I created an enhanced Podcast.

An enhanced Podcast allows the podcaster, (me), to break the show into chapters. In addition, links can be placed in the chapters that allows the listener, (or in this case, the viewer), to open a web page while the Podcast is being played. I really like the chapter feature as it allows you to jump around in the audio file. However, this does have a downside. The listener must listen to the show using QuickTime, iTunes or an iPod. If the listener wishes to visit a web site linked in the chapter, they must be at a computer running one of the two versions of software noted above.

iTunes does allow the M4A files to be converted to MP3 format thus making the file available for MP3 players. During this conversion, the enhancements are lost. For this reason, I posted the show in both MP3 and M4A formats.

I am ashamed to say I did a very poor job in my exploration of Garage Band because it was not until I sat down with Steve and Joan that I learned how to make any custom music using the built-in loops for which Garage Band is famous. After a two hour meeting with Steve, I was dangerous and back home I went to play.

The one thing Garage Band can’t do is give a person with NO talent, talent. Then again, listening is believing and you can listen to this process in the chapter “What I learned from Steve & Joan” which is on part two of the Podcast, The Macintosh after an 8-year absence... If you are going to listen to the MP3 version, it is about 30 minutes into the show.

I did struggle with two items while using Garage Band:

Garage Band would not import the 8 bit wav file format my digital recorder created. Not a major issue, a quick run through Audacity put the files in a format that could be read.
Garage Band has a maximum time limit. While I am not clear on the exact limit, I did have a difficult time creating a Podcast over 65 minutes. (I know some people are really praising Garage Band for that. ) This is the reason I had to break the evaluation into two separate Podcasts.

Overall Garage Band 3 is impressive and deserves all the praise it receives.

iPhoto
IPhoto is another nice application that comes loaded on the MacBook Pro and reminded me of Picasa by Google. This application allows you to view and make minor editing changes to your images. In addition, this software allows you to create cards and calendars from the digital images saved on the machine. I also noticed buttons to order prints on-line and iWeb, the Apple web page tool.

Comic Life
Comic Life looks like pure fun for a person with time and a desire to create. The product comes with an number of page templates which will allow you to create a… Comic book. While I enjoyed making a quick collage using the images I snapped off while testing Photo Booth, (see the image shown above), I know other people would marvel at the chance to make custom posters or even their own comic book.

Office 2004 for Mac
I can’t say much about Office for the Mac because the only application I opened was Word, (I am typing in it now.) I can say it does take some getting used to as the menus are somewhat different from the PC version. However, if a person keeps an open mind and is willing to look a bit, the tools most people require are available.

Other Items
At the time of this writing, I have not had a chance to play with iDVD or iSight. While I don’t believe I will have an opportunity to create a DVD, I am planning to create another Podcast on this machine. However, this time I will also try to create a Vodcast using iSight. Visit Adventures in Podcasting, Podcast 36 or more appropriately, Vodcast 36 to see if I was successful.

Parallels
Being a PC user and this being an Intel based computer, I just had to try out Parallels. Yes, I have read about this and know it worked but I just couldn’t get past the feeling of, “I have to see it to believe it.” With that said, I downloaded the 30-day demo of Parallels and loaded Windows XP on this machine. It booted, I pulled up the Peoria web site, looked at the statistics on the Adventures in Podcasting page and shut it down. What can I say… it worked.

And finally

To be completely honest, there were a couple items on this machine I didn’t care for and please note two are a matter of personal opinion.

I love the look of the DVD door on the front of this machine. However, I couldn’t help remembering the days of the Mac Classic II when my favorite tool was a paper clip that would allow me to eject a stuck floppy disk. How in the world do you get a disk out of this machine if it doesn’t want to give it back to you?
As a general rule, I don’t like track pads. I know they are on almost every laptop built and I do use them, I just don’t like them. For that reason, I plugged my USB mouse into this machine. Out of habit, I clicked the right mouse button and was shocked to see a window of options appear before my eyes. After two days of pressing the ctrl key down to see these options, I have to seriously ask, why isn’t there a right button on the track pad?
Heat… If you have read anything about this machine, you have read about the heat it puts out. While it is not unbearable, it is warm on the left side. On several occasions, I had to stop typing this article to let my left hand cool. Of course, I should also point out if I was using proper typing form; my hand wouldn’t be on the machine. (Shame on me, I used to teach typing.)

I like the fact this machine will run Windows as well as the Mac OS and for most people who need to live in both the Windows and Mac world, this machine with Parallels loaded is a nice alternative to owning two machines. However, in my case, I might lean more towards boot camp. I would like to see Apple sell this machine preloaded with both Tiger and Windows. Wow, if that happened, Mac and Windows people would have no one to argue with!

To close this out, I will say I am very impressed with this machine, the next time you are in the market for a laptop, give the MacBook Pro a serious look. I know I will.

If you would like to listen to the Podcast of my adventure with the MacBook Pro, visit the “The Macintosh after an 8-year absence… The Podcast” site. You may also subscribe to shows by pasting this URL in your favorite Podcast catcher. (http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Shawn_Wheeler/Macintoshafter8years/MacBookPro.xml)

Note: The feed contains four total files, two MP3 files and two M4A Enhanced Podcast files.

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Technorati, MacBook Pro, Macintosh, Mac Book, Podcast, Podcasting, K-12, Shawn Wheeler

School – 8:00 to 3:00 Monday – Friday and 3 Months Off?

2006-08-26T16:29:00.000-07:00

There are still a few folks out there who think schools only function Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM for 9 months a year. Not unlike a holiday dinner, there are hours of preparation by many people before the main event.

This Saturday I found myself at work trying to repair one of the computer systems that I maintain. While it is not uncommon to work on a computer system over the weekend or late hours the real reason for this post is different. This post is about the prep work required for a school to function.

As I worked today, one of the ladies who works in the transportation office stopped by my desk and asked me how long I would be in the building. She needed to be at work on Saturday to ensure the prep work was done so our students could be transported to their school or field trip the following week.

As I left the building heading for home to enjoy the remainder of my Saturday, I looked across the parking lot and the play ground of the school next door. There, parked next to a couple classrooms were the cars of two teachers. They too were working on their day off to ensure the prep work was completed for the children who will be there ready to learn Monday morning.

If you are an educator reading this post, I am preaching to the choir here. If you are not and educator, think back to all the papers that were graded each morning following the day the paper was turned in, consider the school bus that was fueled and waiting for you are the bus stop, think about the trash can that was full the day before yet magically empty the next morning. That is all prep work for the main event!

It is often said, it take a village to raise a child. I would add to that the following:
It takes a number of villagers to maintain the school system where that child is raised.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Education, K-12, Shawn Wheeler

Tagging with Technorati - My test anyway

2006-08-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

This post is really only a test. As I continue to learn about Blogging, one of course has to learn about Tags. Recently I subscribed to Technorati.com but had not figured out how to put tags in my Blog ( I have heard about a few blogs that have this feature built in but Blogger does not. )

Recently my friend Terry Freedman create a new blog on Blogger which included Technorati tags. So… I just had to figure this out too.

No shocker… I Google search took me to a 2005 entry on entering Technorati tags. Now I could of course type out the process… But that would be silly. If you are interested in tagging your Blogger.com with Technorati tags, check out this web site.

Now, let’s see if it works!
Tags -
Technorati
Terry Freedman
Shawn Wheeler
Blogger.com

In response to David Warlick’s post (What is RSS cont.)

2006-08-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday David Warlick posted an entry on his blog under the topic of RSS (Thanks for starting the dialog David!) and asked for some feedback. (See What is RSS) No shock to anyone reading this, we are all suffering the same problem. We have an infectious desire to teach our fellow educators the power of RSS. (This is a good thing!)

Today, (Saturday August 12th) after reading his follow on post (See What is RSS cont. ) I thought I would share the process I used the last time I attempted to explain RSS to a group of educators. Please keep in mind; I don’t feel this is the best way to accomplish the task. I am still searching for a better method.

The Setting…
A leadership workshop sponsored by Arizona Department of Education. Topics in my workshop included RSS, Podcasting, Blogging and Social Bookmarks. (Too much for 90 minutes by the way.

How RSS was explained….

In my slide deck, I showed the audience a slide asking the question. Where do you get your information? This question was followed by five bullet points:

Web Sites

On-line News Sites

On-line Magazines & Journals

eMail (Listserv’s)

Web Logs (Blogs)

Of course some dialog accompanied this slide.

Slide 2

The next side contained a screen capture video as I sent to three different web sites looking for new information. The video had been edited down to 18 second and I noted to the audience that I had removed all the wait time as the pages loaded. The purpose of this slide was to remind them how much time they spend hunting for new information rather and reading it.

Slide 3

This slide pointed asked the question to the audience… How much time do you spend looking for information? I also asked a few people to share how much time they spent looking.

Slide 4

This slide moved into some of the issue with receiving information through email. Embedded in the slide is a screen capture of my personal inbox. On this day 131 messages came to my inbox. Only three were messages that I had wanted to receive. One from a friend and the other two were for list I belong to.

Slide 5

Strictly Comic Relief… And my transition to the actual concept of RSS

Slide 6

In this slide I explained that using a piece of software, a person could
subscribe to a web site. That software would track the web site for any new
information. When the web site was updated, the software would let the person know about the update. All of this was possible thanks to a concept called a RSS feed.

Once the person knew about the update, he/she could read the headline and the description and choose to read more or go to the next item.

I also point out there is no spam, phishing or blushing content that many of use receive in our email.

Slide 7

In this slide, I explained how RSS could be used in education. I complied some of the following information from a blog ran by
Amy Gahran Check out What Are Webfeeds (RSS), and Why Should You Care?

Faster communication with community
RSS is text only there for it give the reader a quick overview to choose if they want to wait for the page to load.
No SPAM
Opt in listservs and email alert are nice but they are not SPAM proof. eMail address changes It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep email list up to date due to user continually changing their email to avoid spam.
Professional Development
By subscribing to various news sources, web sites and blogs, you are able to stay abreast of current information you want to know about.

Time Saving
We have touched on this once before, however, it does top the charts in why RSS
will make a difference bringing information to you.

Contrasting Sources
Consider subscribing to two different sources for content to compare and contrast. Example: Guardian Unlimited and AzCentral.com.

VERY – Current events
Aggregators may be set to check for updates at regular intervals. The means
information is made available even when you are not looking for it.

Slide 8 & 9

Time for “THE WORD” to emerge. The introduction of the Aggregator. In these slides I explained three type of aggregators:

Software

Browser based

Online

Slide 10

We took a tour of
my example Bloglines online aggregator. Fortunately we were in a computer lab so I had each participant register for their own Bloglines account and they subscribed to a few example educational RSS feeds I had supplied to them.

As I stated earlier. I not sold this is the best way to explain RSS. If you have a spin or an improvement to what I did here, I would love the feedback.

Is it time for the master to become the student?

2006-07-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

I recently come across a posting in a Yahoo Group I belong to titled Ban iPods in school, says teaching union By Andrew Denholm (http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/62298.html) and I have to say I was some what taken back by the article.

I find it fascinating that we can spend billions of dollars world wide to teach students to use technology in meaningful ways. Then when there is any type of technology that may disrupt our educational process, BAN it.

I am giving away my age here but the Sony Walkman was the hot technology when I was in school. Rather than ban the device we were simply told to put them away. And believe it or not, we did. Sure there were a few of my classmates who tried to sneak their Walkman into the classroom, but their singing usually gave them away.

Given the ease and growing popularity of digital audio and podcasting, this teachers union is in need of a wake up call. Perhaps it may be time for the teachers to become the students and pay attention to what the kids are doing with the technology. Sure, they may be exercising some behavior that we feel is not appropriate. However, that is an issue of behavior not technology.

Thinking back to my days in school… If I were bouncing the basketball down the hallway, I was told me to stop. If I did not, the teacher took the ball way. Given the line of thinking of this particular teachers union, I wonder if they would have the basketball courts removed. (Sorry for the sarcasm but…) Having said this… refocusing the behavior while using the technology may prove to be quite powerful.

Personally, I think they need to embrace the technology and consider how it could affect student learning.

I have attempted to make this point about the iPod in a less sarcastic voice last May. See blog posting Dad I need an iPod for School (http://shawnwheeler.blogspot.com/2006/05/dad-i-need-ipod-for-school.html)

PS… Stop by Yahoo and sign up for the k12dvr · Digital Voice Recording in the Classroom group. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/k12dvr) You will need to register with the group.

Have we become soft and dependent?

2006-07-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Recently I took my annual trek to Lake Powell with a few of my buddies from high school. Like most men on the back side of 30 (a few of them are closer to 40 than me); we talk about what we have done over the years since graduation, make fun of our ever expanding waist lines and this year gray hair entered the conversation. Beyond the typical male bonding, we also make a trip up Hole in the Rock where Mormon settlers once traversed in the late 1800's. As we huff and puff (okay I was huffing and puffing) our way to the top of this trail, I couldn’t help but feel admiration for the hearty people who first made their way down this narrow canyon. Reaching the top of the trail, I looked around at the vast and rugged terrain and felt fortunate that I didn’t live in the 1800’s. After a walk out to the edge of the main canyon, I returned to Hole in the Rock to hike back down this trail looking forward to the refreshing lake below, with each step downward, I tried to imagine the tenacity of these individuals and felt a level of guilt that I have become so soft.

With all that said, the purpose of this entry is not to discuss my trip and certainly not my ever expanding waist line. I do however want to point out some of the technology that accompanied us on our trip and the reason I wonder if we have become “Soft” and dependent on technology.

Twenty years ago we put the boat in the water and gleefully motored away from civilization. Outside of the internal combustion motor, the only technology we depended on was the audio cassette player.

Today we can hardly function without all the modern technical comforts. For starter each person had a cellular phone. In this day and age, that is really not a shock to anyone. What was a shock is the expectation the phone would actually work 40 miles up the lake and in a few places it did. Move the boat twenty yards… we were searching for a signal. Oh how that annoyed us.

For a moment I was excited when I learned that one cell phone could actually connect to the internet. Fortunately I quickly came to my senses and asked that Dave never speak of his phones internet capabilities again. Whew… that was a closed one!

Another technical addition to the trip this year was a GPS. Considering we have been running this lake for over twenty years, I thought a GPS was a bit odd. However, when you consider how much the appearance of the lake can change with a change in the water level, finding the same beach from one trip to the next can be a challenge. However, with the GPS we floated up to one of the three beaches marked on the GPS from previous trips. The best part… Next year we can check the altitude of the lake level. If we are within ten feet, we know where there is a
great beach to pitch horse shoes. Sounds like a ringer to me.

If you have read my blog or listened to any of my podcast, you know that I love my iPod but normally use it to listen to the podcast of others or audio books. However, my iPod is loaded with music. Prior to the trip I spoke with Rick to find out if the stereo in his boat had inputs for my iPod. I was so excited to learn that his stereo not only had inputs, but he had an FM modulator that fit my iPod too. Once we were on the lake, the technology became more impressive. By tuning the stereos in each boat to the station set on the FM modulator, we could
all enjoy the music of our iPods. Such a deal…

As you can well imagine music on the lake is important. On this trip I experienced satellite radio for the first time. As if 17 gigs of music in the iPod’s were not enough, we were all thrilled to relive the music of “Big Hair” bands when we were young and skinny.

So, sitting here in my recliner typing on my keyboard thinking about all the technology we had at the lake, are we softer and dependent? I guess in many ways yes. Sure, we could leave the phones in the truck, drive around the lake looking for a place to camp and pitch horse shoes and I recon we could even dig out our “Big Hair” band cassettes. But should we?

The Bleeding Edge... Then and Now

2006-06-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

I have had the good fortune of working for a school district that has been forward thinking and in many cases on the bleeding edge. In fact, there have been a few times when I felt the need to turn around and see if anyone was following. (Ever had that feeling that you made a wrong turn? ) The good news is we always made the right choices.

One of our bleeding edge projects was the implantation of our Wireless laptop program. In this program, we deployed eight station laptop carts with a wireless access point, printer, projector, document camera and Smartboard to classrooms throughout the district. Today I look at a project like this and think it is a walk in the park. However, do not mistake that statement. The process for implementing such a project is important and the planning of that process is imperative.

After our second deployment throughout the district, my now retired boss Ladd Bausch and I felt the need to share our experience with other educators. With any project of this magnitude, we had a few challenges and we did not want to see others have to learn the hard way. It was at that point we decided to create a document, a planning guide if you will for deploying and implementing a wireless laptop projects. A few months later The Wireless Classroom & Deployment Planning Process was ready to publish and we offered the document to Dell. What do you know… They gladly accepted the document, posted it on the Dell web site. Over the next 18-months, Ladd and I did a series of presentations at local and national conferences presenting our document and our experiences with deployment of wireless laptops.

What got me started writing about this today? From time-to-time, one of us will search the web for the document to see if anyone is still using the document. Today Ladd sent me a note telling me the document was still on the web and sent me the links listed below. I have to say I was please to see our hard works referred to as a resource for others to use.

The other reason I am writing about this today is a desire to share this information again. While the technical information is a bit dated, the process is still tried and tested. If you are interested, this is a link to the PDF file on the Dell site.
http://www.dell4k12.com/offers/article_290.pdf?DGVCode=EM

Referenced on these sites:
http://etc.usf.edu/L4L/J-References.html
http://www.cde.state.co.us/edtech/wireless-laptops.asp
http://www.lindsayonline.net/links/handheld_resource.htm

GCast.com

2006-06-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is just cool! After I posted the last entry (and finished watching the movie I was watching ). I signed up for a GCast.com account. Why, I had to give this a try.

I guess I should take a moment to tell you about how easy this was to do!

The process began by going to the web site. (http://www.gcast.com/) Next, I clicked through and yes, I even read the tutorial. Now most people would sign up for an account at this point but I was so excited, I thought I would Blog about. After posting an entry on both my Blog (http://shawnwheeler.blogspot.com/) and the Adventures in Podcasting site – Entry 42 (http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/shawn_wheeler/podcast) I signed up for an account. This took all of 3 minutes and I was ready to go. Off to find the phone. After tracking down the phone, I dialed the toll free number, input my secret code and followed the audio prompts. After speaking into the phone, I was given the chance to listen to what I said or publish. I wanted the eTicket ride so I listened to my recording. Score, it sounded silly enough for me so I published the recording. Now I opened my web browser, navigated to my GCast site to listen to my podcast. (http://www.gcast.com/u/ShawnWheeler/main)

They even give you the source code to add the GCast podcast to several blogs.

I have to say this is pretty slick. Again, don’t take my word for it. Give it a try.

Oh, and if you want to listen to this podcast, here is the link to the MP3. (http://www.garageband.com/mp3/.C5SObSqE/01_Jun_1__2006_Phone_call.mp3)

Now this is just slick!

2006-06-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

I am really starting to enjoy RSS feeds and thanks to a listing on the Teach42 blog (http://www.gcast.com) I have learned about another podcasting tool!

I would like to pass along the site GCast.com (http://www.gcast.com). GCast is run by the same folks that run Garageband.com and they are offering free podcast hosting!

But don’t buy it yet!!!! Its free!

They will even create your Podcast Channel (the RSS feed). But wait… It gets better! You can create you podcast through your phone (using a toll free number) OR upload your MP3 files from your computer.

But hey, don’t take my word for it… Go try it out.

After ten years… It still might work!

2006-05-30T00:49:00.000-07:00

I should be doing other work. However, I have an overwhelming urge to tell this story. I have been doing quite a bit of reading on Web 2.0 the past several months and the stories I read are fascinating. They also remind me of a project a former colleague and I once pulled off some ten years ago.

Allow me to set the stage for you. The year was 1995 and I was teaching Technology Life Careers (TLC) at Peoria Elementary. My student population was the entire 7th and 8th grade and I saw all the students 4 days of a six-day rotation. (Please don’t ask me to explain how that works.) My lab consisted of 33 Macintosh computers. Most of these machines were the little Classic II (Still one of my all time favorite computers) I had two LC 580’s and one LC 575. The lab was networked with phone net connectors to a Digicard network.

During a Professional Development day, all the TLC teachers were required to attend a workshop at the Cholla Training Center. (This also happens to be where I work today.) Ladd Bausch introduced all of us to a Bulletin Board application called First Class. (http://www.firstclass.com/) This system allowed eight (yes 8) people to connect to the Bulletin Board system using a dial-up phone modem. Once connected users could participate in various dissuasion boards, collaborate on projects, transfer files and even email each other. Talk about cool!

During this workshop, I became very excited about the ability to communicate with people on another campus using a computer. (Now, stop laughing, this was really cool in 1995.) A few days later, another TLC teacher and I were having a phone conversation about the workshop we had attended. Mary was just as excited about this new technology as I was so we agreed to take a day off from our classrooms and write a new project; a project that would require our students to work together to solve a problem.

You will need to forgive my memory, as I don’t recall the details of each scenario. I will however explain our process.

We began by creating four specific scenarios to be solved in a team approach. Each team consisted of eight students, four at my campus and four at Mary’s. We also created an artificial communication problem. For example, one team worked in the United States and the other worked in New Zealand. Because of the time shift, they would not be able to communicate via the phone. We did allow them to use the mail, however the scenarios did have a deadline to meet and international mail packages took 5 days to deliver. (In district mail was over night, but we would hold the package ourselves to make the project more realistic.) As you can see, we had created a communication nightmare for the students to navigate. Enter First Class.

Using the email feature of the First Class Bulletin Board System, the students were able to send Microsoft Works 3.0 documents to each other. (Technical Issue – we only had one computer with a modem and at that time and the students didn’t have personal accounts.) At the beginning of each class, one of the students would log onto the system, (using a classroom account) download and print each teams email. The teams would then work on the project during the class. Towards the end of the hour, one student from each team would quickly type up a status report to send back to the other team again using First Class. The entire project took 3 weeks to complete and I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable units I ever taught. Our students not only worked together to solve a problem, they worked with students they did not know and in most cases, these students never met in high school. In many ways that project in 1995 resembled Terry Freedman’s recent project “Coming of Age: An introduction to the new worldwide web” (See my blog entry http://shawnwheeler.blogspot.com/2006/05/coming-of-age-introduction-to-new.html)

Consider for a moment the communication tools we have at our disposal today. Our students have access to web pages, blogs, text messaging, video conferencing, VOIP, SKYPE, email etc… With these tools, there is no reason we cannot have our students participating in similar assignments. Only this time…. Let’s have them work with students who really live in a different part of the world.

Dad I need an iPod for school

2006-05-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Seven months ago, I would have thought the statement “Dad, I need an iPod for school would have been absurd. Today I would say it is almost believable. Another few years, an iPod may be as standard as pencil and paper. I know… you are thinking to yourself how in the world could a device that plays music be used in my child’s education. Stick with me.

Late October of 2005, I purchased my first iPod. I wanted to learn about podcasting and thought to understand the concept fully; I needed to have an iPod. I further justified the expense of the iPod by not having to purchase a new stereo for my truck. When my iPod arrived, I quickly downloaded all my music to my shiny new video iPod. Next, I subscribed to several podcast. Over the next several weeks, I discovered I was listening to more podcast than music. What a strange phenomenon. During one of the podcast I learned about Audible.com, (http://www.audible.com) I thought to myself I would love to read The World is Flat again but don’t have the time to read it, I did however, have several hours each week driving in my truck so listening to the book made perfect sense.

Yesterday, I had several errands to run and several podcast to listen too. In fact on was a four part series by David Warlick. As the final podcast concluded, I was pulling into my driveway. I thought to myself that I had just turned an hour of what could have been non-productive time into an opportunity to learn.

Given the exploding popularity of podcasting in general and the fact that many early adopting educators are using podcasting in there classrooms, your student may never load music on their iPod. Okay, that is a little far fetched, but using an iPod to listen to a class assignment is on its way to being the norm. Hey, don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself. Jump on iTunes and look at the Education genre or the Education Podcast Network. (http://www.epnweb.org)

Wicked Cool Podcast Display

2006-05-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, you stumble across a software application that is just SLICK. Yesterday I came across another one by way of an email sent to me. My friend Ladd sent a link to Web Jukebox 4.1 by CoffeeCup software. While CoffeeCup software is not new to me it has been a number of years since I last visited their site. When the page loaded, I learn their developers have been busy designing a plethora of interesting applications. Check it out. (http://www.coffeecup.com)

Jukebox is a music player for your web site. However, it does something Windows Media Player only dreams to do. Jukebox allows you to setup a play list within the player. In addition, Jukebox contains over 20 skins for your web site. I happen to choose the white iPod for the Adventures in Podcasting site. (http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Shawn_Wheeler/podcast)

While this program is not free, it is certainly worth the $34.00 investment. If you are more interested in try before you buy, you may download a 21-day trial version.

My experience with the softare…
After downloading the trial version, I spent about twenty minutes creating the code to put on my site. (I had viewed the on-line tutorial before downloading.) This process actually involves selecting the MP3 files you wish to play on your site. Once the files are loaded into your play list, you have the option to change the order, add additional files or delete a file inadvertently loaded. (I made this mistake. ) Once I was happy with the order of the files, it is time to choose the skin. Jukebox offers 20 but I quickly grabbed the iPod skin. Clicking the preview button allowed me to view my creation. Cool, it looked cool so I returned to the software and clicked the save icon. At this point I could have simply uploaded files to my server using the built in up loader. Then paste in the player code into my web page. However… In my case, the MP3 files I wanted to play in this tool had previously been published to the web and uploading another set of Adventures in Podcasting episodes seemed silly.

Jukebox creates three files and folder when it saves the project. The folder contains images and the MP3 files. The other three files are an SWF file, an HTML file and an XML file. Remembering what Ladd taught me about building web pages from code years before, I opened XML file and changed the path to the MP3 files. Next, I made a few changes to the HTML file to include the text now on the page and the “NEW” image. With all the changes made, I uploaded the files minus the MP3 files to my website then placed the HTML code on the Adventures in Podcasting page. Wahoo, it looked cool and my links worked.

In the end, I found this software to be very slick. While I did tinker with the XML and HTML code, that was for my personal needs. Out of the box, this software works quite well and it is very easy to use. Don’t take my word for it, give it a try.

Maintaining your perspective through the perspective of the other person…

2006-05-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

The other day I was trading emails with two friends Peggy George and Terry Freedman. (http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/index.php) Shockingly (heavy sarcasm) we were writing about technology and education. This particular day we were focused on encouraging others to embrace change and look at the value in new technologies. During the course of our email, I vented a current frustration I was feeling in my organization. Terry kindly pointed out a simple but genius point. When you desire to persuade a person to see value in what you are doing, you must look at the world from their perspective and show them how your idea, product etc will help them solve a problem they are experiencing.

One person at a time…

2006-05-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

I have often said in my podcast, Adventures in Podcasting (http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/shawn_wheeler/podcast) that we make change happen one person at a time. Tonight, while trying to catch up on my email, I came across from Amy Chayefsky (http://www.musd20.org/Amy/1_Digital_Divide.htm). Amy’s email stated she went to Radio Shack on the way home form the conference and purchased an Olympus Digital Recorder. A few hours later, her first podcast was online.

I love this quote. “You were soooo right, the technology is rather low and intuitive. It’s where we can take it that makes it an awesome tool.”

Way to go Amy!

Coming of Age: An introduction to the new worldwide web

2006-05-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

Coming of Age: An introduction to the new worldwide web

A collaborative venture between 14 people from the USA, Canada and the UK and
Thailand.

Recently I have been involved in an amazing and wonderful experience. Fourteen
people from various corners of the globe have come together to create a Web 2.0
book for educators. The process of how this book was created was one of the most
fascinating events I have been involved in. However, that is the topic for
another entry. Today... let's stay focused. <Smile>

Thanks to Terry Freedman and the merry band of contributors, this 92 page PDF
file is available for you to read, enjoy and share with your friends an
colleges. Take a look at the heading in this book below.

These are the main headings in the book (which is over 90
pages long):

Preliminary Information

The Contributors: Quick Reference Guide

Introduction

Glossary Of Terms Used

Book Review: Redefining Literacy For The 2St Century

Effective E-Learning Through Collaboration

What Are Rss Feeds And Why Haven’T I Heard About
It?(Rss Feeds From An Educator’S Perspective)

Blogging: Shift Of Control

Photo-Sharing And Clip-Art

Factoring Web Logs To Their Fundamentals

Virtual Support Via The Blogosphere

The International Edublog Awards

Blogs You Must Read!

Elgg And Blogging In Primary Education

Using Blogs In School

Thinking About Creativity, Thinking About Blogs!

Book Review: Classroom Blogging: A Teacher’S Guide To
The Blogosphere

Book Review: New Tools For Learning

Diary Of A Potential Podcasting Junkie

Finding Good Podcasts

Podcasting Resources

Podcasting

Finding And Subscribing To A Podcast Via Itunes

Obtaining Information About A Podcast In Itunes

Giving Students A Second Listen

Podcasting: A Review Of Recording Devices

Other Useful Websites

Create An Rss Feed For Your Podcast

List Your Podcast And Find Others’

Podcasting And Wikis

Recording A Podcast On A Computer

Uses Of Podcasting In Schools

Video Blogging: Terry Freedman Interviews Paul Knight

Video Blogging In Schools

Wikis: An Introduction

Wikipedia Vs Britannica

Setting Up A Wiki

Wikiville: An Interview With John Bidder

Social Bookmarking

Forums, Instant Messaging And Other Ways To
Participate

Guide to the contributors.

There is a fuller biography of the contributors at the
beginning of their articles.

Miles Berry

Miles is a deputy headteacher in an English primary school, a Moodle and
Elgg enthusiast and the winner of a best practice award. He also gives keynote
presentations to conferences. See

http://elgg.net/mberry/weblog.

John Bidder

John is the Head of Curriculum ICT strategy in Bolton, England, and gives
keynote presentations about best practice. See

http://www.BoltonTLC.org.uk.

Mechelle De Craene

Mechelle is a special education teacher in Florida and undertakes research
in the development of educational technology skills in children, and gives
presentations on her findings at internatoinal conferences. See

http://elgg.net/mechelledc/weblog/.

John Evans

John Evans is principal of St. François Xavier Community School in St. François
Xavier, Manitoba, Canada, and gives conference presentations on the subject of
teacher wellness. See

http://nlcommunities.com/communities/joevans.

Peter Ford

Peter Ford is a teacher and educational consultant based in Nottingham in the
UK, spcialising in the use of internet technologies to enhance teaching and
learning. See

http://www.fordlog.com.

Terry Freedman (Ed)

Terry is an educationalist who provides practical and strategic consultancy
services to educational institutions, and provides a range of subscription-based
services. See

http://www.ictineducation.org.

Josie Fraser

Based in England, Josie is an educational technologist and works as a freelance
consultant and speaker, mainly around emerging technologies and staff
development. See

http://fraser.typepad.com/about.html.

Steve Lee

Steve Lee is a Senior Software Developer, who is uses various techniques for
customising ‘off-the-shelf’ software to meet individual accessibility needs. He
is also interested in how Open Collaborative Communities can help and involve
disabled people. See

http://fullmeasure.co.uk/.

Ewan McIntosh

Ewan is the Development Officer for the Modern Languages Virtual Environment, a
pilot programme for the Scottish Schools Digital Network. He also speaks
internationally about using Web 2.0 tools in education and educational
management. See

http://edu.blogs.com.

Alan November

Alan November is an international leader in education technology, and runs the
annual Building Learning Communities Summer Conference in Boston, USA. See

www.novemberlearning.com/blc.

Chris Smith

Based in Thailand, Chris runs a consultancy designed to offer support to
International Schools across S.E. Asia, especially in the area of “ICT Across
the Curriculum, and maintains an internationally-acclaimed website. See

http://www.shambles.net/.

Dai Thomas

Dai is Director of ICT at Warden Park Specialist School in West Sussex and a
research Fellow of Mirandanet. See

http://www.daithomas.org.uk.

David Warlick

David is an internationnaly-renowned writer, blogger and Podcaster who provides
consulting and public speaking services to education associations and agencies
around the world. See

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/.

Shawn Wheeler

Shawn is the Director of IMT – Services & Training for the Peoria Unified School
District in Glendale, Arizona, and the founder of Adventures in Podcasting. See

http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Shawn_Wheeler/podcast.

Ready to download Coming of Age: An introduction to the new
worldwide web? Click this image.

My Web log is not fancy…

2006-04-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

It has been fun to watch the web grow up over the past ten years. In the early days, (My early day’s anyway.) I would sit down at my computer and painstakingly type crazy things like:

<html>

<head>

</head>

<body>

“Hello World”

</body>

</html>

Imagine all that just to have the screen read “Hello World” and to create a table, well start with three aspirin and begin to type.

To be honest those days were fun, creating a page or site took time and if you knew how to manipulate the html code, you had a skill set that other people wanted. Soon the WYSIWYG editors began to appear. Pagemill was my early favorite until I discovered FrontPage. A few others have been on my machines over the years but I always manage to come home to FrontPage. I guess old habits die-hard.

Is there a point in all of this? You bet, stick with me. <Smile>

When we started making web pages, we were just excited to be able to publish something that could be seen around the world. (Even today, that concept still blows my mind.) Soon, we became board with the text-based sites and programs like Shockwave and Flash began to emerge as well as web sites that were able to churn out database content in a format we could read. Many of us rushed to learn these new fancy tools.

It did not take long for fancy new splash screens to become annoying and a waist of time. I often found myself book marking the real page and bypassing that silly Flash intro all together. For the same reason, my own web sites quickly went back to basics. Black text, white background, an image here and there makes an easy to read, easy to navigate site. (By the way, I am red / green colorblind so some of those cute sites are tough to read!)

On to the crux of this post. I recently began to web log (Blog) and I wanted to use the tools we have available in my district. (Peoria Unified Schools District #11 www.peoriaud.k12.az.us) We use SharePoint Portal Server from Microsoft. Utilizing the built in discussion board tool, I was able to create my web log (http://portal.peoriaud.k12.az.us/personal/swheeler/My%20Pages/Shawn%20Wheeler) which even includes an RSS feed. Life was good. I then started looking at other web logs. (Can you see my sad face?) I caught a bad case of cool looking
web log envy.

To cure this terrible disease, I went to Blogger.com and created http://ShawnWheeler.blogspot.com. This site contains the same information as the other site. Only this one looks cool. Life was good.

Enter the RSS reader. Now that I had a web log on my districts system and a mirror that looked cool, I subscribed to each web log with my favorite RSS readers. As the two web logs updated, I realized that I had just wasted a substantial amount of time. Each web log containing the same content looked the same in my RSS reader. In addition, they looked the same in Yahoo’s reader and Google’s. Is a cool looking web log really that important?

Let me summarize this entire post this way. Years ago, I had this old boat. It was not pretty it was not fast, but, it did float, run and pull skiers. I would put it in the water next to these new shiny fast boats and I would watch those boats leave us in their wakes. Later we would pull up next to these new, fast, shiny boats at Sandy Beach. My old boat was not as fancy, but it did what it needed to do.

The moral of the story here is simple. Spend time on content, not flash. Remember content is king!

Comments are always welcome. swheeler@peoriaud.k12.az.us

Incidentally, due to the fact, I have advertised http://ShawnWheeler.blogspot.com to a number of people; I will continue to maintain the two sites. However, content may differ from time-to-time.

Why Web log (Blog)

2006-04-07T23:04:00.000-07:00

This question is one that has been asked of me often in the past several weeks. Why? In the past few weeks, we have demonstrated how our Portal can be used as a web log. (Link to my web log on the PUSD system - http://portal.peoriaud.k12.az.us/personal/swheeler/My%20Pages/Shawn%20Wheeler%27s%20Web%20Log.aspx) While it is not as fancy as the commercial web logging tools, it is still effective. This explains why I have been asked the question. The question itself is not as simple, and one I will try to answer as I see it. Note: This certainly will not agree with conventional wisdom.

A few years back, my former boss Ladd discovered Blogging, he became very excited about the process, (Ladd was also and English teacher), and he would talk about what an effective collaboration tool it could/would be. In fact, he even installed Blogging software on his home computer and enlisted several teachers to use the software in a book study. They discovered Blogging to be a most effective tool. No shock to most people who have been Blogging for a while.
So why would I jump off the dock and a try web logging now? Growing up there was one class I dreaded more than any other, (If you are thinking English class… You are correct). The rationale of why I dreaded this class so much will be saved for another entry, suffice it to say writing makes the list.

While I realize this next statement is not true, it seemed like every time I walked into my English classes, my teachers assigned a writing assignment. I would sit down with pen and paper and slowly, painfully try to put words down. While topics based on facts were difficult, creative writing was excruciating. When the process was finally complete, I would turn the paper in and wait for “her” comments and the impending failing grade. For years, I thought my teachers required a new RED pen when they completed grading my works. Most of my work then and even today contains mechanical mistakes, those issues seemed to over shadow the content. At least they did in my mind.

For the past nine years I have worked in a job that requires me to write. I live in Outlook and Word. Outlook obviously is required to communicate with other teachers, administers etc… During this time, I have discovered the ability to be clear and concise is paramount. Word is utilized to create technical documents explaining how to complete specific tasks using various pieces of software. This type of writing I actually enjoy and I consider myself to be a competent technical writer. (Considering some of the assembly manuals, I have read over the years, (Yes I am a man and I do read directions.), this is not a skill all people possess.) Seven of those years, I worked for Ladd. As I said, he taught English for a number of years and working for him, I quickly discovered why he was a successful teacher. Ladd wore out several red pens on my works as well. However, he was great at pointing out the value of the content. While he would not discount the mechanical issues, he would always say, “Oh, those are minor”. Over the next several years, the red marks became fewer and fewer. Then the day came when he handed me back a letter with no marks. He told me it was good, send it. This was not uncommon at this point. I would often get a document back with a couple punctuation errors to fix before emailing or publishing to the web. This particular day, there were no marks. I accusingly told him he had not read the document. Ladd looked up from his computer and said, “I read it, now send it.” Maybe I was looking for that “A” on the paper. Nevertheless, the absence of red marks to me was the same as an “A”.

As stated above, I enjoy technical writing. However, I find creative writing extremely difficult. Over the past couple years I have begun writing short stories as part of the e-newsletter I send out to the district staff. (Visit the Tips & Tricks web page. - http://portal.peoriaud.k12.az.us/personal/swheeler/My%20Pages/Shawn%20Wheeler%27s%20Web%20Log.aspx) Sometimes the stories were written to inspire and others were written to invoke thought. They were always written to force me to do something that terrified me. (I wrote these stories for the same reason basketball great Larry Bird would shoot over 1000 shots a day… PRACTICE!) With each issue, something amazing began to happen. Readers of the newsletter began commenting on my stories. In fact, several people have written back stating they look forward to my stories and didn’t read the software tips contained in the newsletter. WOW… for the first time I felt as if my content mattered and was appreciated. Additionally, more than one person was reading my work, something that never happened when I attended school.

Today, I don’t always have time to write an inspirational or thought provoking story. Fortunately, a number of readers have shared stories of their own or stories that have been passed along to them via email. However, I have come to realize the tremendous value of having others read my work.

Why would I start keeping a web log now? It is a great way to keep a written journal of my thoughts. (Obviously, the ones I feel compelled to share.) It is a great way to allow others to read my thoughts and make comments. Finally, it is an alternative method to do something I feel I need to improve. Conventional wisdoms call this Blogging or Web logging. I call it PRACTICE!

Thank you for your time. Comments are always welcome. swheeler@peoriaud.k12.az.us

Recording our history

2006-04-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

Earlier tonight, I was listening to the Moving at the Speed of Creativity a podcast run by Wesley Fryer. (http://www.wesfryer.com). This particular podcast was an interview with a Library of Congress employee at FETC. The interview was great and it gives me a desire to look at the web site more closely. Having said all that, I don’t want to write about LOC. Not yet anyway.

One of the items spoke of was American Memories. From what I understand, this is audio recording of Americans in history or discussing a historical event. Again, I need to review the web site. This reminded me of a story on NPR where children were recording interviews with their Grandparents about their lives. This is where I want to start…

I had an opportunity to interview my Grandfather when I was an eighth grade student. At the time, my class was engaged in decade reports. My group had the 40’s. My Grandpa had served in the Marine Corps during WWII. More specifically the invasion of Iwo Jima. The discussion was fascinating and quite freighting to listen to. I am however, grateful I had that opportunity to talk with him. (He lived in Illinois, I lived in Arizona, and opportunities to talk didn’t happen often.)

Today I look at my aging parents and recall the stories of their childhoods (Even the stories were my father walked to school in the snow uphill. Both Ways ) and I would like my children to have those memories if their Grandparents. Given the current technology, it would be terrible not to record a conversation between my daughters and their Grandparents. What a great way to capture living history. (I see a recording session in the Wheeler family future.)

Being an educator, I have to imagine what a library of community history would sound like. Consider all the children that attend our schools. All the history their parents and grandparents possess. What a great way to teach our children that history is a part of us and it is all around us.

My world went flat!

2006-04-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

Last summer I read a wonderful book titled The World is Flat authored by Thomas Friedman (See http://www.amazon.com/ for an abstract) and most recently I purchased the audio version from http://www.audible.com/ so I may listen to the content while I drive to and from work.

One question Friedman asks those he interviewed for this book was “Where were you when you realized the world was flat?”

Now I have worked in the technology field as an educator for the past 14 years. During this time, I witnessed the rise and fall of the Dot com era. (What a ride we had…) As Friedman’s book clearly points out, the rest of the world became benefactors of the Dot Com bust. As I read and listened to the book, I still felt I had not personally experienced the “Flat World”. Sure, I own products created outside of the United States and I traded email with family and friends while visiting Paris in 2002. In my mind, this was nothing more than a letter that got there quickly. (Okay, so I am a bit jaded toward “Been there, done that!” technology.)

Recently my world when FLAT. Oddly enough, it went flat using that same “Been there, done that technology.

The story… A month or so ago, Peggy George of Arizona State University shared my personal podcasting web site (http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Shawn_Wheeler/podcast) with Terry Freedman of Information & Communication Technology in Education in the UK. Terry was kind enough to mention my site on his Blog. Needless to say… I was excited and of course sent Terry and email thanking him. Over the course of several weeks, Terry, Peggy and I communicated (Often in real time. (Peggy and I apparently are night Owls.)) about various topics concerning education and technology. Terry even asked me to contribute an article to a booklet he is planning to publish.

As clock continued turn, I learned of http://www.statcounter.com/ though Terry’s Blog and placed the stat counter on my podcasting page. I was fascinated to learn that people from around the world were now visiting my podcasting page. (Hmmm… Maybe the world is getting flat…)

Last week, I received a draft copy of Terry’s booklet. Reading the document, I began to realize I was keeping “virtual” company with some impressive people from around the world. (If memory serves me, five counties are represented in this document.) The first part of this week, this group of authors traded several email messages (Again, spanning the globe.). Wow, I thought to myself, THIS IS SO COOL!

Side bar… I have not mentioned it yet but one of my latest passions is podcasting and I have been working on this topic for the past 5 months. Why does this matter you ask? I just wanted to get that on the table and I think it will help pull this story together.

Back to the Story… Today I completed uploading a new podcasting site (http://portal.peoriaud.k12.az.us/sites/Services_and_Training/SharePoint%20Portal%20Services/Home%20Pages/Podcasting.aspx) on the district Technology Training web site. Being pleased with my effort, I sent the URL to Peggy and Terry for comment. Three hours later, I saw a reply form Terry. His short reply was heard around the globe. His reply included the authors who contributed to his booklet. By 11:30 PM, I had responses from two of the recipients who had been copied on the email. Once again, I thought… Wow, THIS IS SO COOL! I also thought I was a bonehead and forgot to put a stat counter on the web page.

At midnight, I began the process of placing the stat counter code on the web page. As I reloaded the page to verify the counter was properly functioning, I notice an extra hit. (Odd… Who else could have just hit the page?) Clicking the link to view the statistics on the page, I learned I had a visitor from the Philippines. My world just went flat!

It is time to tell my story. It is now 1:20 AM, and I am about ready to close this story. Just for giggles, I will check the site stats once again. WOW!!! As of March 30, 2006 at 1:20 AM, the site has had visitors from the:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Netherlands
• Philippines

So… To answer Thomas Friedman’s question. Where was I when I realized the world was flat? I was sitting at my desk in Phoenix, Arizona reading email and learning of visitors to my newly posted web page from around the world.
Technology is a wonderful tool. However, it is only a tool. The communication and collaboration with people in different, time zones, countries and continents makes the difference in our “Flat World”.

Comments welcome. Shawn Wheeler (swheeler@peoriaud.k12.az.us)