Welcome to NCS-Tech!

About this time tomorrow, I’ll be flying up the Garden State Parkway on my way to TEDxNYED, an “all-day conference examining the role of new media and technology in shaping the future of education.” Organized by a group of passionate educational visionaries in New York City, this event is part of the international TEDx series, an offshoot of the inimitable TED conference (see also: TED’s wikipedia entry). The video below, from the TEDx Youtube channel, does a good job of capturing the vibe and essence of what we will experience on Saturday.

… or does it? While the event promises to be a celebration, these are not halcyon days for education in our country (anyone know a good antonym for “halcyon”?) Our educational system is “failing” (insert your favorite dismal statistic here), the collapse of the American family unit has been well documented, half of new teachers leave the profession after 5 years, and retiring baby boomers are expected to create a major teacher shortage by 2015. Oh, and the US economy is in the worst shape since the Great Depression, and a double-dip recession is now likely.

photo credit: lepiaf.geo

And yet, something drives us, those that have dedicated our daily lives to this profession, those committed to this conversation, those seeking social networks of like-minded learners to engage with, enriching, expanding and energizing our minds so we can continue to fight the good fight. For me, it’s the essence of the picture above. Speaks for itself. I’m just happy to be here in public education, able to make a contribution, to my school, my community, and hopefully, in some small way, to this conference.

David Logan, in the TED talk above, says:

The question on the table is this: what kind of an impact are the tribes that you are in making? Will your tribes change the world?

Heady stuff.

Fortunately, the heavy lifting is being done by a slate of educators and those passionate about education who will have 18 minutes each to share their visions and inspire us. The schedule says it all. Andy Carvin leads off. Our very own Chris Lehmann is batting cleanup. Between them, the likes of Michael Wesch, Henry Jenkins, Lawrence Lessig, Jay Rosen, George Siemens, Dan Meyer – those are just the people already on my intellectual radar screen. The others are completely new to me.

I wonder what it’s going to be like to listen to, converse with and walk among these folks? (Just had an amusing mental image of literally interpreting “standing on the shoulders of giants“. If we were meeting in Second Life, it would actually be possible!) But it’s not just about them. It’s about everyone in the room, including so many of my friends & colleagues who were lucky enough to also receive an invitation. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Marianne Malmstrom, Dan Callahan, Kristen Swanson, Scott McLeod, Vinnie Vrotny, Jeff O’Hara, Alex Ragone, Sylvia Martinez, Alice Barr, AJ Kelton, Larry Dugan, Caren Levine, Diana Laufenberg … they’ll be there too.

And I know this much – those folks are already changing the world.

We’ve got more work to do. Let’s get busy!

-kj-

Technorati Tags: TEDx, TEDxNYED

photo credit: yngrich

Good morning all,

I don’t know about you, but, one of the things that really inspires me about teaching is the potential to impact a student’s career choice, perhaps even altering their life trajectory in the process. Talk about a huge responsibility! Games are such a big part of kids’ lives today, and though I’d love to be able to work them directly into my curriculum, it’s not that easy. Fortunately, we have an after-school club, sponsored by our local education foundation, that gives me an opportunity to do just that.

What started out as a middle school newspaper club has morphed into a Grade 4-8 media club (for more about us, click here). After seeing these kids absolutely devour sites like http://sploder.com/, I decided to look for a more powerful development environment. A Google search led me to the free and fabulous Platform Studio:

… and the rest, as they say, is history! At least a third of my kids are now actively exploring this tool, learning how to create levels, link them, taking apart the sample levels provided, incorporating design elements from those into their own creations. It’s incredibly cool to watch, and, thanks to this great, free tool, the kids are having a blast!

To get an idea of Platform Studio’s capabilities, check out this YouTube video, which is all the kids needed to get started:

Interacting with these kids, listening to their thought processes, seeing them engaged and passionate about learning – hard fun, as it’s been called – is enormously gratifying. The only thing better will be hearing someday from a former student who went on to a career in the business thanks to the things we did in Media Club. I can dream, can’t I?

Hope this helps!

-kj-

Good morning all,

Keyboarding is such drudgery, but keyboard skills are so important … honestly, I struggle with incorporating it into my curriculum … there’s only so much you can cram into a 42 minute, once-a-week lesson … but at the same time, we need to make sure kids skills are progressing with regard to keyboarding ability as they go through school. I was browsing teacher/author Jacqui Murray’s blog (terrific BTW if you teach in a computer lab or love technology) and came across this great resource, Alphabetic Rain:

This little beauty is about as simple as it gets … press the letters before they reach the bottom of the screen. Easy-peasy!  The selectable levels seem just about right for my elementary kids, and they LOVE this site so far. The fact that the “rounds” are short – one minute each – a score is shown at the bottom at the end – makes it ideal for a warmup as they come into my classroom.

There are no ads, it’s completely intuitive, and I’m finding that it brings out the competitive nature in my students – in a good way. Kids can set it to a level that’s comfortable to start with, so they are motivated to get a better score, not discouraged when they don’t do well. Love it!

If you want to help your kids improve their typing speed, you should: a) give them decent keyboarding instruction with a method of your choice so they can learn proper technique, b) make sure they have lots of authentic class projects, and c) use a tool like Alphabetic Rain to keep tabs on their progress. It’s not perfect, but it’s free, fun and gets the job done, if you ask me!

Hope this helps!

-kj-

Good morning all!

It was only a matter of time … while Animoto practically invented the upload-your-pics-and-make-an-amazing-video genre it has DOMINATED for good reason, alternatives are popping up everywhere. I wrote the other day about Stupeflix, and today, I’m here to tell you about Flixtime, a site I heard about on Twitter from Ozge Karaoglu, a teacher/trainer in Istanbul, Turkey.

Flixtime has everything today’s discriminating web 2.0 aficionado demands: crazy simple UI (user interface), great special effects, terrific soundtrack selection, ability to upload your own music, add text & titles, mix pictures and video … the usual. It does all these things with style and grace, and, of course, it does them all for free (for now, I’ll bet.)

Here’s the editing window with some uploads in progress:

And this is what it looks like when you add music – their collection is MASSIVE and EXTREMELY high quality!

Once you’ve added your content, press “render video” and grab a cup of your favorite beverage. The rest happens automagically:

Videos are currently limited to ONE MINUTE and there is no “premium” or “pro” option (though that most likely is in the works.) Further sign of a just-launched venture, the EMBED capability is currently grayed out (or is it ‘greyed’ out?”) but videos can of course be played on the web. You can download, ‘em too, of course.

I like Flixtime a lot. The UI is sweet and intuitive and the one-minute limit handily beats Animoto’s 30-second freebie. I love Animoto’s support for us teachers but delays in processing the educator accounts have caused me (and others) quite a bit of inconvenience of late. (Remember, folks, it’s FREE so let’s be thankful we can get it at all!)

If you’re into making movies from your pics and video clips, Flixtime is worth checking out and keeping an eye on, especially if the service ends up having the staying power of Animoto – clearly an established (soon to be acquired?) Web 2.0 player.

Hope this helps,

-kj-

Good morning all!

The relentless proliferation of personal digital technology is evident these days by the nearly constant presence of cameras of some sort. Personal video and digital still cameras are in our pockets, part of our phones, or even in the bags those of us once used to tote around 35mm film cameras (does anyone still use film?) It seems that everything from a child’s birthday party to dinner with friends is an opportunity to capture digital memories. The question is … what to DO with those memories, especially when they are scattered among so many different devices, owned by so many different people?

Shwup (http://www.shwup.com/) tries to answer that question.  It’s a free service that makes it easy for you to easily and securely gather media from anyone with an email address (no signup required!) and then assemble that content into crazy mad awesome multimedia extravaganzas. Here’s a short YouTube video that is a lot better at explaining the concept than I am!

Once everyone has uploaded content privately into an album you invite them to (again, no signup required), you can begin creating. The interface is elegant and simple. I pulled in some pics from my Flickr account and in a few minutes had this to show for my work:

The music doesn’t really provide the right vibe for a collection of Kindergarten artwork, but, you get the idea. :) http://www.shwup.com/ is free but far too cool to remain that way forever, they’ll soon either find a way to monetize the site (charge for it) or they’ll be acquired. So, sign up today and start playing while it’s still free! I love the concept, the execution, the ease of use, everything. Check it out today and see if you agree!

Hope this helps!

-kj-