This is a photo that I took of Clarence at the Learning 2.0 conference in Shanghai
It was a cold wintry evening in Saskatoon, Saskatewan, walking to a nice Italian place with Clarence Fisher. I frankly can’t remember a more comfortable meal with conversation — and I think it had to do with the fact that Clarence and I both came from very small towns.
At any rate, after we finished our meals and listened to the expert recitation of the restaurant’s desert menu — focusing on the chocolate dishes (and resisting the temptation), I asked Clarence about the presentation that he and Dean Sharesky, Kathy Cassidy, and Darren Kuripatua had done at the iTSummit — Telling the New Story.
One of the ideas that Clarence shared that resonated with me was about how he has his own students do their quarterly reading evaluations. This is important, because to switches the responsibility to the student. Their learning contract becomes an arrangement with themselves, rather than a responsibility to the teacher. They are owning their learning, when they work on their own terms.
This was one of the best episode’s I’ve done and I certainly which there hadn’t been the ambient noise that you’ll have to listen through. I usually do not worry about the back grounds, because I think that it adds to the sense of place. But a restaurant is not the place to do a podcast recording.
I get them where I can thought, and I certainly didn’t want to miss an opportunity with Steve Dembo.
I read about it and even blogged about it, Smart Technology’s Smart Table, utilizing multitouch technology, first brought to our attention by Microsoft and its Surface Computer product. Then, around the corner I turn, in the exhibits hall at T+L in Seattle, and there it is. I knew it wouldn’t be out for some time yet, so wasn’t expecting to see one but there it was. It’s pretty exciting and pretty impressive, though we still seeing a technology in its infancy, both in terms of technical accomplishment and application. Smart already has some games for students to play, but I suspect that the true potential of the tool will come from collaborative knowledge/product bu activities.
Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at the National School Boards Association Conference T+L conference, and then the double pleasure of running into Missouri Teacher of the Year, Eric Langhorst. Eric is an 8th grade U.S. History teacher who has made amazingly creative use of the Web, especially blogs and podcasts. In this interview, he talks about a project where his students read a book about the Civil War in Missouri, and invited members of the community to read and discuss the book with his students through a blog. He also arranged for the author of the book to participate as well.
Also joining us was Andrew Zucker, of the Concord Consortium and a woman, whose name escapes me, who is a director of technology, accompanying her school board members.
I only just realized that this is episode 100 of Connect Learning, and I guess that it is fitting, that it should be an interview with someone I’ve known for many years, through the ethers of the Internet. Craig and I first met, virtual, through Andy Carvin’s WWWEDU mailing list, and then over the years at NECC.
Earlier this week, I delivered a workshop for North Dakota educators in Minot, and during lunch, I sat with Craig and some of his staff of the Minot School District. We talked about some of the technologies that they have implimented that have been especially successful in helping teachers retool their classrooms.
Unfortunately, the first part of the conferences did not get recorded, because I pushed the wrong button on my recorder. I really need to be doing this more.
This podcast is an interview with American School of Bombay librarian, Ann Krembs. I me Ann at the EduBloggerCon in Shanghai, part of the Learning 2.0 conference last month. The blogger gattering took place at a restaurant called Element Fresh in KWah Centre. We all ordered breakfest, and Ann sat across from me, talking about her virtual library project.
As we talked, I avoided asking her to describe the project until I could finish my meal and pull out my digital audio recorder.
This is sort of a rush job, I’d not planned to be working on a podcast today. I’d planned to be preparing for my work in Colorado Springs on Monday and then the rest of the week at a Distance Learning conference in Vancouver. But I learned, just now, that there was some porn spam linked in with my podcast in iTunes. After digging I found the source, which was some invisible spam that had been slinked in to the Connect Learning blog. I’ve deleted all of that out, from the 84 blog entries that had be inflected, but I suspect that iTunes won’t refresh its info, until I give it a new RSS feed to grab, like a new podcast — i.e. a new podcast.
I figure that this is part and parcel to doing this, and it isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with spam in my blog or even in my online handouts. You catch it and you fix it.
What was unusual about this one was how I found out. It seems that a blogger and Twitter user in North Illinois, Greg Noack, happened be sifting through my podcast in iTunes, clicking up the info on individual podcast programs, when he found it. Now Greg doesn’t know me, and although I’ve seen his name, I do not know him. So he sends out a twitter message,
“can someone tell @dwarlick that his latest podcast on itunes has a list if porn vocabulary for tags in the info box.”
Well my friend, Joe Brennan, from suburban Chicago, is following Greg on Twitter, and since I’ve worked with Joe, he has my phone number, and he calls. We dig around together, and with his help, I find the source.
It’s simply another example of the bigger mind that I find myself with, where my work is build and support not just by me, sitting here in my tiny office, or on the road, or where ever, but a community of people I’m in conversation with, and whom they’re in conversation with.
I think it’s pretty cool.
And talking about bigger minds, and pretty cool, I’m adding in some more of my interview back in January with Chris Lehmann, the principal of Science Leadership Academy. My last posting from this interview was about EduCon the conference that Chris’ school organized the first of the year. Here is some conversation about his school and their evolution.
This was a bit of a trip back in time for me, as ThinkQuest was one of my first clients, after leaving the NC State Department of Public Instruction. As I say in the podcast, there is so much about my philosophies of teaching and learning that came from my experience with this phenomenal project.
Bill McGrath, the subject of this podcast, has been a ThinkQuest judge and, it sounds to me, like something that you would want to do as well.
I have been a podcaster since January, 2005, but an educator since deep into the last century. Welcome to my microphone, and some outside the box ideas about classrooms, teaching, and learning in the 21st century.
I have been a podcaster since January, 2005, but an educator since deep into the last century. Welcome to my microphone, and some outside the box ideas about classrooms, teaching, and learning in the 21st century.
