Weekly Tech Tip - iTeach Mobile & Cellphones in the Classroom

For the majority of this week I have been in Denver at the ISTE Conference, therefore my normal routine of crawling the web for resources has been slightly modified as is evident in the apparent imbalance in this week's "link stew" section of my weekly tech tip post. Next week I am off but will still probably manage to eek out a few reflective posts, but no tech tip. I went to ISTE to both network with other educators and to present at four sessions. I feel like the sessions I was part of and the other educators I presented with hit a grand slam with the work we did. I couldn't be more pleased with how our sessions went and how we were received. Thank you to all who attended both in person and online.

One of the sessions I presented at the conference, both as a poster session and as part of a panel discussion, was on a project I was involved with this year at Goodhue Public Schools called iTeach Mobile. Regular readers of my blog should already be familiar with this project and the social networking site we created for it but it occurred to me while I was driving home that I had not yet shared our work with cellphones, iPods, and other mobile devices with the teachers I currently am working with at EMID 6067. I decided that for this week's tech tip I would run through my #ISTE10 poster session both for EMID teachers and for those who missed it at the conference.

Weekly Tech Tip:

Related Links:

• iTeach Mobile - Social Educational Networking Site
• iTeach Mobile Web Jog
  

Link Stew:

• Shareaholoic - Firefox addon that allows you to share articles and websites on over 100 different social sites with just 1 click
  

Retweetable Tweets:

• Free Microsoft software for schools, from the Fun & Free Friday event - Teaching Ideas and Resources - http://bit.ly/ahZ85rless than a minute ago via diigoTami Brass
  brasst

• @garystager's handouts for creativity 2.0 session are at http://bit.ly/aqtC5m #iste10less than a minute ago via TweetDecksschwister
  sschwister

• Steve Dembo- by forbidding Social Networking, you just might be violating CIPA #iste10less than a minute ago via TweetDeckKristina Shields
  kshields18

• "Engagement is being confused with compliance." -@garystager #ISTE10less than a minute ago via NambuTim Gwynn
  tgwynn

• Stop motion projects are cool... you should check out and consider participating in the Longfellow10 http://bit.ly/Fn7ik #iste10less than a minute ago via TweetDecksmbeaverson
  smbeaverson

Blog Carnival:

• How to Use Flickr in Your Classroom by Elizabeth on I[Heart]EdTEch
• hacking iste by Scott Schwister on Higher Edison
• ISTE 2010: Session: #Tweet, #Learn, #Lead by Mike Walker on Edina Technology Integration
• The Language of School Design: A Review by Steve Taffee on Blogg-Ed Indetermination
• ISTE 10 Videos by Kelly Tenkely on iLearn Technology
• MCA-II Results are Out By John Fitzgerald on Minnesota 2020
• My ISTE by Dean Shareski on Ideas and Thoughts of an Edtech
• #ISTE Session on Classrom Creativity by Nick Provenzano on The Nerdy Teacher
• Growing the Movement by Chris Lehman on Practical Theory
• Policies, Safety, and Social Networking ~ Steve Dembo ISTE10 By Jeff Utecht on The Thinking Stick

Weekly Tech Tips - Live Streaming

On Friday last week, the day I intended on making my weekly tech tip, the internet was down at school. Therefore, this week I intend on doing two tech tips, one today and one Friday. I took advantage of the unfortunate situation to work on getting more acquainted with the capabilities of my Nokia Nuron and exploring what applications and implications mobile technologies have for education. This week's tech tip largely explores one such application.

Weekly Tech Tip:


Tools shown in this video:

• LiveStream
• Ustream.TV
• Bambuser
• Qik

Related Links:

• anderscj's Qik Channel - Right now I am only experimenting with Qik but I intend from time to time to use this tool for making on-the-fly videos. I also intend on using this tool at ISTE next week .
• Definition of Citizen Journalism
  
• Secrets To Starting A Citizen Journalism Organization
• Katie Couric's Top Citizen Journalism Moments on YouTube
• 
  
• Flixwagon
• Live Streaming an Out of Classroom Learning Experience
• Cell phone cameras in the K-12 classroom: Punishable offenses or student-citizen journalism?
  
  

Link Stew:

• Seymour Papert - Closing Session 1994 NSBA T+L Conference

• Seymour Papert - Closing Session 1994 NSBA T+L Conference from Gary Stager on Vimeo.

  
  
• Jaron Lanier - You Are Not A Gadget
• B.F. Skinner's Shaping Experiment ("Skinner's Box")
• Most Disturbing Presentation Ever: Our Tech Nightmare ("Skinner Box") DICE 2010
• Howard Rheingold Live Chat: Critical Thinking

• Howard Rheingold Live Chat: Critical Thinking from Shelly Terrell on Vimeo.

• RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time
• A Political Online Push
• YouTube Video Editor
• Blackbird Pie – Twitter Media
• Wells, H.G. 1898. The Time Machine
• THE MACHINE STOPS ... E.M. Forster
• Project Tomorrow: 2009 findings r.e. Student, Teacher, Principal, & Administrator feelings about emerging technologies
• onlinedegrees.com, has put together a list of the top 100 technology blogs for teachers
• ScanLife - The Place to Create & Manage 2D Barcodes
• 
  

• WOW! RT: @butwait: Y'all have seen Clayton Wright's MONSTER list of #edtech #profdev opportunities, right? http://bit.ly/edtechconf2010less than a minute ago via EchofonAdrienne Michetti
  amichetti

• 45 Twitter Tools the Gurus use: http://j.mp/9weSkX /via @Chirrpsless than a minute ago via HootSuiteTips, Tools, Status
  Twitter_Tips

• world map of social networks: http://bit.ly/15xHQi (scroll down, compare Facebook today with 2009 )less than a minute ago via TweetDeckGeorge Siemens
  gsiemens

• If Luke gets me that Tatooinian "sand art" crap again for Father's Day, his hand won't be the only thing I cut off.less than a minute ago via TwitterrificDarth Vader
  darthvader

• YouTube Play: YouTube + the Guggenheim want to showcase the best online videos from around the world. http://www.youtube.com/playless than a minute ago via webCraig Roland
  craigr

• "100 Incredibly Useful & Free iPad Apps" http://is.gd/cTL2Jless than a minute ago via TweetDeck Alec Couros
  courosa

• Education Week's Digital Directions: Social Networking Goes to School http://ow.ly/1ZAW3 Great article! :) #vanmeterless than a minute ago via HootSuiteshannonmmiller
  shannonmmiller

• .@alfiekohn "In education, bad ideas are timeless. It's the good ideas that are incredibly fragile."less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhoneGary Stager, Ph.D.
  garystager

• RT @jsmummert: If U're in2 mobile technology, augmented reality, & the Civil War, check out my proposal- http://bit.ly/afsN53 Awesome for SSless than a minute ago via TweetDeckMichael Walker
  micwalker

• WEBTOOLS applied to teaching http://bit.ly/aSdb2Z via www.diigo.com/~vittalearningless than a minute ago via diigoJo McLeay
  jomcleay

• Papert - No such thing as "Grade 3 Math" http://tinyurl.com/2ag5t6x <-maybe by 2030?less than a minute ago via TweetDeckTom Fullerton
  tomfullerton

• @jonbecker @jerridkruse and, found this http://www.edutopia.org/inquiry-project-learning-researchless than a minute ago via EchofonAdrienne Michetti
  amichetti

• Education Gap infographic http://bit.ly/drfpngless than a minute ago via SeesmicLarry Ferlazzo
  Larryferlazzo

• 22 Educational Social Media Diagrams http://bit.ly/byyxwU #hubspot really cool posters...less than a minute ago via webLisa Monthie
  lisamonthie

  
  

Blog Carnival:

• Returning School to Humanity by Ira Socol on SpeEdChange
• Cognitive Surplus: The Great Spare-Time Revolution by Bill Ferriter on the Tempered Radical
• Grades: Education's Snake-Oil Currency by Joe Bower on for the love of learning
• Teaching Students “How” To Think: The Tip of the Iceberg by Aaron Eyle on Synthesizing Education
• Feeling Infowhelmed? – Informational Education Video by Lauren Grossberg on Learning Today
• Recognizing the Valedictorian in All by Principal Eric Sheninger on A Principal's Reflections
• QR Codes in Libraries by Miguel Guhlin on Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org
• Imagining new interfaces: the value of necessity by Ira Socol on SpeEdChange

NEA Foundation Learning & Leadership Grant Final Report

#iteach

In lieu of a Weekly Tech Tip this week I am publishing the final report for an NEA Foundation Grant I received last year. I received this grant to fund a year-long exploration of mobile devices in education with 22 teachers from Goodhue Public Schools. The grant money provided each teacher with an iPod Touch. In exchange they agreed to participate in monthly PLC meetings and asynchronous involvement in our iTeach Mobile social network (recently moved to http://grou.ps/iteachmobile). I highly encourage you, if you are a teacher, to apply for an NEA Foundation Learning & Leadership Grant. The experience has definitely been rewarding. And, if you are interested in exploring the potential mobile devices have in the classroom I invite you to join our social network.

click here to view this document in a new window

Will you be my digital identity's valentine? #iteach

According to someecards.com, this ecard was the most shared card on Valentines day from their site:



This is indicative of a social phenomenon created by the proliferation of mobile devices such as cell phones and iPods in our modern society. What this hints at is actually a problem more sinister and troubling than simply an adoration for our mobile devices. Has our engagement with the virtual spaces made possible by these devices hurting our real-life relationships?

Nokia promised in this add that the mobile devices (the 4th screen) would bring us all closer by getting us out in public again and share real experiences with each other.



While it has gotten many of us out more physically I am not sure we are all "there" when we go. What these devices do for us is open our daily life, wherever we go, to virtual or artificial worlds. Twitter, SMS, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. all are virtual worlds upon themselves. Sure, these virtual worlds are not the 3D immersive kind such as Second Life, Active Worlds, or World of Warcraft, but they are virtual worlds in the sense that we meet other people and interact with them there.



We have moved a large portion of our lives to these spaces and have carved out an identity there that resembles that of ourselves. In many ways this new digital identity is more pure and it is hard to tell which is the real self, the digital one or the one made of flesh. Online networked spaces allow for a kind of mediated psudo-telepathy where we can connect through our thoughts without all the physical baggage that weigh us down in our face-to-face relationships. Online, if I choose, no one has to know what I look like, what race I am, what my age is, etc. All that matters is the quality and tone of our thoughts put to words. This is not to say that all digital identities are genuine, it is just as easy to falsify one's digital self. But then, it could be argued that even the falsified self is as real online. Does it even matter to those who only know your digital identity if it isn't true to your physical one?

This weekend three things I saw brought this issue home to me. First, there was this tweet by @budtheteacher:Then, later that night I watched Disney's Enchanted with my family.



It struck me that the novel act of these characters moving back and forth between two worlds (the artificial, animated one and the real life one) was not so novel anymore. Only three years since its release and this kind of thing is happening everyday everywhere you look. Sure, we are not moving back and forth between visually immersive worlds (unless we are playing MMORPGs or using Virtual Worlds) but our online spaces are artificial and they are places where our digital identities live.

Finally, the next day (Valentines Day) my wife and I took our kids to an indoor play center in Edina, MN called Edinborough Park.

The park was packed, full of young children and their parents. It was probably close to capacity. Then my wife noticed that nearly half of the parents were not playing with their kids or even watching them. Instead, they were fully engaged with their smartphones. Now, I know I have been guilty of this at home at times (my wife consistently reminds me of it) but for parents to do this in public? This is an epidemic. When you step into your digital identity, can you simultaneously devote sufficient attention to your children? Are these parents who arguably, for the time they are using their smartphones, are teleported to a different world absent?

This brings up more questions than answers. If you don't know someone's digital identity, can you really know them? Can young children even know their parents if they are too young to know their digital identities? Can a parent really know their child if they are not friends on Facebook? If you marry someone based on a face-to-face relationship you have with them and do not know their digital self, how well can you know your spouse? Now I am starting to understand why a couple in 2008 filed for divorce because the husband's Second Life avatar virtually married another woman's avatar.

Don't get me wrong, I love my online social spaces and am not advocating anyone give them up. They are powerful and important. But, I think we need to consider when it is appropriate to move between worlds and we need to take more seriously who we are online. As for me, I think I am going to devote at least one full day each week to living off line with my family. I am going to encourage my wife to get to know my online identity better. And, when my children are old enough I will friend them on Facebook (or whatever platform everyone is using in 10-15 years).

Geo Game & Text Messaging Idea #iteach

OK, it is 3:00 on December 23rd, with 20 minutes before Christmas break. Why do all my most creative ideas happen when I know I won't be able devote energy to them for at least 2-5 days? Grrr!

So, here is my big Eureka!:

Two tools I have know about for a while now but have not given too much thought to are uMapper and JotYou. uMapper allows you to create your own Google Map-like embeddable maps with pushpin markers and other information. JotYou is a free text messaging service that allows you to send text messages that are location based. Basically, JotYou lets you send messages to anyone on your contact list who is within so many feet/meters/yards of a specific GPS coordinate. It also lets you set times on those messages so they are delayed or persistent. These two tools used in conjunction could be used to create highly engaging geo games.




Here are just a few, off the top of my head, applications:

1. Create an adventure based on a piece of literature (ex. Turn your school grounds into Mordor).
2. Historical tour.
3. Scavenger hunts.

It is now 3:15 and I need to go. If you can think of any other creative uses of these two tools please leave a comment.

JotYou™ - Location Based Mobile Messaging via kwout