DRA 2 - Online for you!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

It's been several months since I read Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds, but I think I needed that time to reflect, process and enact change before sharing my thoughts.

I've never been a big fan of powerpoint. It always seemed more like a prop for the speaker than something that added to the speech. In Presentation Zen, Garr uses Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind as a framework for explaining how presentations should target the left brain and right brain. A presentation is really storytelling and storytelling is made more powerful with the images. I learned so much from this book about images. How negative space in an image conveys part of the message...how choosing the right image can change the point of the message. A book well worth reading, and one I will return to for reference.

With Presentation Zen in mind, I built my first Keynote presentation. Searching for the right image to convey a message became my mission when I began working on the presentation for my principal's opening day message. I really enjoyed perusing through stock photos and thinking about how particular images changed the message. Here's how it ended up:

Opening Day 8 11 08

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web2.0 teachers)

What I didn't expect was for my personal lens to change as I chose photo shots of family, school life and nature. I'm as amateur as you get when it comes to photography, but now I think about composition before I shoot and I find myself searching for the camera when I normally wouldn't have taken a photo. Today was the perfect example, I took my kids shopping at the party shop and they hopped up on these fun little stools. Normally I would have smiled and said "let's go", but today I saw the image in head and began reaching for the camera from my purse.

I've joined a group on the photo sharing website, flickr, called 366photos. They take a photo a day from their life, a snapshot in time each day over the year. I can't wait to see how I grow as a photographer and a storyteller. I hope you'll follow along...

Back to School - Blogs are Born!

#1 What do you want you want to name your blog?
I tell teachers that they can name their blogs whatever they want, but to be smart about the blog description listed under the title. Blog readers that are surfing to find new blogs to subscribe to might not go past the description, so tell them what or who will be doing this blog (your students, you, a group of teachers, etc. ).

#2 Consider something easy for your blog address.
When I created my blog I didn't know any better. I thought it had to be the title. Now I know if your blog is titled, "Mrs. Moore's Third Grade Mathematicians" it would be much better to have an address like math3.blogspot.com rather than mrsmooresthirdgrademathematicians.blogspot.com. Make it easy for your readers to remember where to come if they don't have a blog reader service.

#3 Follow the steps on Blogger to create your blog.
(There are many other platforms, but when training a group it is easier to stick with one and we know it is unblocked where we teach.) It literally only takes a few minutes.
#4 Make a post before you leave!
I like teachers to make a post telling something interesting about themselves or telling about their summer adventures. This gives us the opportunity to learn about hyperlinking and looking for images for the post. Also, it gives the reader something to read when they go there, because they will give out the address right away!

#1 Ways to build your readership.
Read other blogs and comment so they will track back to you and read yours. Blogs are for two way communication, leave thought provoking posts with open ended questions at the end of the post soliciting responses. Make sticker labels to put in students' daily planners to remind parents to read the blog ad comment.

#2 Tagging
If you tag your posts they will be easier for people to find and link to you. You will also be able to sort through your old posts easier.

#3 Images
One of the first things I noticed as I continued to read blogs was the images that other bloggers were using in their posts. It always seemed like everyone found better images than I did. Most teachers know how to use Google images to find a particular image, but most don't know about stock photos. Here are my favorite free sites:
Stock.xchng
Stock Vault
Public Domain Photos
Every Stock Photo

#4 HTML Code
Now, I don't know much about html code, but I handle it like I do everything else...I fiddle until I figure it out. I've had many people ask me why a widget or video posted on their blog was too wide. Sometimes I can't fix it. But...many times if you look through the code and find something that says: width 350 x 550 or something like that, you can tweak the numbers until it fits. The key here is writing down the original numbers in case you need to go back to the beginning.

Second Life with Daniel Pink

Back to School - Jeff Utecht Style

As I sit hear tonight and think about all the possibilities that Jeff opened up to us today, I am still simply amazed that we were able to hear and interact with someone in Manila! As commonplace as that must be for so many people around the world, it still blows me away. I think Jeff made me believe that there is nothing that we can't do if we can imagine it. I'm already thinking about an Australian wiki for first grade teachers as they study about the country during their Author Study of Mem Fox and skyping in a friend that is playing baseball for the Canadian team at the Olympics so he can have a conversation with 5th grade students learning about China and... the list goes on and on. I just can't thank Jeff enough for taking his time to help me believe in what I once would have thought was impossible!
dayle timmons, Exceptional Education Teacher

Jeff, I was completely enthralled with your presentation this morning as we viewed you from the Schultz Center. What a great way to start the new school year by hearing from someone so knowledgeable and real as you! I had heard of you from Melanie, as she just thinks that you walk on water. Now, I can see why. You are a very cool guy who is not only on the cutting edge with technology, but you are a very real and normal guy, with a terrific sense of humor. You explained things to our faculty, in a way that is easy to understand without making anyone feel ignorant or incompetent.You made us feel like any of us could do what you were explaining. Thank you for being so motivating, inspiring, and for believing in us and making us feel that one day we might know what you know in technology. One of the many quotes from your presentation that I wrote down was, "Create content through a medium they love to use." This statement really hit the bull's eye with me. As teachers, we are always trying to find ways to connect to our students and motivate them. Technology is meeting them where they are and taking them further. I got so much out of your presentation. Thank you for taking your time to share your knowledge. It will reach more people than you could ever imagine as we use it to accelerate our students' learning.
Dorry Lopez, 4th Grade Teacher

Jeff, I loved listening to you this morning. You are such a great motivator and I really enjoyed getting my brain started to think about how I can push myself to new limits along with my students. Thank you for sharing your passion with us.
Debbie Harbour, 1st Grade Teacher

What fun to speak with Jeff this morning. He was such a nice "everyday" teacher, it made the whole concept of web 2.0 seem more attainable to many of us, I think. I loved some of his simple ideas that he relayed with us for elementary level applications (i.e. publishing via personal page of class blog). Like Jeff, I, too, loved the comment from the child's father. How powerful is that? What a special treat for a child to receive such public praise and current connection from their loved ones!
I'm looking forward to making connections with other students, teachers, and other interesting people around the globe this year. I have recently felt the power of how the internet can bring people together (via Facebook). I've been fortunate to reestablish connections with old friends and family who, now, have scattered themselves around the world. I am excited and inspired to draw them into my classroom and share their global knowledge and experiences with my students.
Thanks, Jeff, for your time today! I've added your blog to my reader and look forward to tagging along on your journeys!
Jenny E. Nash , 3rd Grade Teacher

Dear Jeff, I want to thank you for your time and insight into the world of technology and its impact on education today. You had a wonderful impromptu presentation - it was interesting and insightful.
Thanks again, Maria Mallon, 1st Grade Teacher
P.S. I skipped the Mohito and had a Margarita instead :)

Master Jeff in a sort-of Jedi way,
Your message really made me feel like I am going in the right direction with my teaching (blogging, web page building , emailing (ruarkt@duvalschools.org )...). I do agree that the powers that be need to worry less about the flow of inappropriate information at the expense of the flow of meaningful info. We must model and then trust kids to do the right things. I would love for my kids to have an open and genuine wiki for homework help, but I fear that if I over-manage the endeavor, the kids will not engage, and without engagement you have nada. I am all ears, if you or others have suggestions.
Thanks for your time and your insights. I love to listen to people that simply have the will to make things work out, gives me hope!
Peace to all,
Tom Ruark, 5th Grade Teacher

Jeff, Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us. We're so excited about expanding our classroom to, virtually, the world! I especially enjoyed the Google Earth tour. My father-in-law is a huge fan of GE and shows us all kinds of places when he comes for a visit. (For example, the house he grew up in back in Ill.). Now I have something to share with him - the compound in Saudi Arabia was my favorite. I hope you have a wonderful school year and I look forward to reading your blog.
Sincerely, Lori Metzger, 3rd Grade Teacher

I absolutely love watching technology in action in the teaching world. It is amazing to me to see how easy collaboration becomes through Skype, Wikis, etc. What a great way to bring the world and so many different cultures into our classroom at the click of a mouse. Thank you Jeff for taking the time to share your world with us.
Melissa Ross, 2nd Grade Teacher

A mentor once taught me that nothing will ever change until there is a sense of urgency established. Too often, it is my fear that teachers don’t feel that sense of urgency the way say business executives trying to drive up profits would. However, I feel that the tide is changing. Technology and Web 2.0 have made the world so much smaller, so much more connected. That is why I was so excited when Melanie said that Jeff had graciously agreed to Skype with our faculty on opening day. Teachers not only got to hear about how connected the world truly is, but got to experience it first hand. I hope Jeff realizes the aftermath that his conversation is having. Teachers, today, when they could be doing any number of other things, are setting up wikis, creating blogs, and sharing ideas about infusing technology to promote student engagement. They will most definitely have students writing to a world wide audience this year. They will know their voice is heard. Thank you Jeff for planting the seed of urgency and possibilities! I know this year will most certainly be a Virtual Learning Adventure!
Suzanne Shall, Standards Coach

Thank you again, Jeff, for your time and inspiration - as you can see, talking to you was just the ticket to get our year started!

Latest Videogame: Your Classroom!

David Warlick, in Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools, says we need to study the experience of video gaming for a child. Here are the elements that keep the kids returning with gusto for more:
1. Responsiveness
2. Convert-able and convers-able rewards - Kids work to increase their own level. This is desirable for bragging rights and also to share strategies/short-cuts used to achieve their level. Also, when moving up levels the game environment changes.
3. Personal investment - Video game developers learned that kids return to games they have invested in. This can be done by generating currency in the game, health points, extra powers or an inventory. Kids have to invest time, skill and learning into the game to increase their level.
4. Identity building - Customizing your video-game presence. Personalizing the player's experience.
5. Dependability - Most video games give a sense of the solution to the problem being attainable in some way.