tt4t_065 Stupid parlor tricks and looking forward to next year

It’s Saturday, November 29th, 2008 and welcome to episode 65 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. I had the chance to take the week off this week for Thanksgiving break and the time sure has flown by. I had to catch-up on several household chores including getting the home place ready for winter. As the years go by there is a routine that we establish with the coming and going of the seasons. Now that the fields are harvested and the trees have lost their leaves, we are settling in for the long winter ahead here in Illinois.

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Technology also ebbs and flows with a similar technological development cycle that we become accustomed to over the years. Soon it will be January and we will be looking forward to the Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld where vendors unveil their latest wares for the coming year. There is always something new on the horizon and this can be frustrating for users who want to buy the latest technologies now but know full well that in six months to a year there will be new and improved models with more features and often costing less money. Such is the price of progress.

Over Thanksgiving break I have had the opportunity to do more research on up-and-coming technologies and find myself in a similarly frustrating position, the next improved model is just out of my reach. I know it is coming but it is not yet here and budget cycles now require purchases.

The past year has witnessed the netbook craze and there seems no slacking off in the coming year. New touch-screen models are rumored on the near horizon and new features in Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system are teasing users with increased reliability, functionality, and speed including multi-touch capability that I believe will have great uses in education. All of this innovation with PC prices continuing to drop.

HP came out with the tx2 notebook this month and it is advertised as the first consumer notebook with multi-touch capability. While technically not a netbook the tx2 has a swivel mount that is similar to other HP Tablet PC models but now you can use your fingers instead of a stylus to control applications on the tx2 screen using the multi-touch capability.

HP has also had the Touch Smart, an all-in-one touch-screen model, out for some time now and ASUS, the makers of the popular eee PC netbooks, have recently announced a new line of all-in-one low-cost computers that they are calling the eee top. The exciting thing for educators is that the new netbook and eee top models are approximately half the costs of the more traditional notebooks and all-in-one computer offerings from other manufacturers. There is a huge battle going on between these low-cost devices and the more traditional and more powerful laptop categories. The jury is still out as to if the netbooks will continue to be the hot sellers that they currently are next year.

I have provided links to the HP Touch Smart, the HP tx2 notebook, and the new eee top models in the show notes if you are interested in learning more about these particular models.

HP Touch Smart all-in-one Computer
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/touchsmart/#/Main/

HP tx2 Notebook Computer with Multi-touch
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/touchsmart/notebook/buy.html

ASUS eee top all-in-one multi-touch computer
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/02/asus-finally-details-et1602-et1603-eee-top-all-in-one-pcs/

In these tight economic times schools need to consider their purchases carefully and give consideration to lower cost alternatives that may not have the horsepower of the traditional full-fledged computers but that can still fulfill educational requirements and do so more economically. When you can buy two to three netbooks for the price of a single traditional laptop, then the bean counters start paying attention.

Of course it depends upon the ultimate purpose you are wanting to use the laptop for but for the majority of classroom activities the netbooks are more than adequate for routine classroom tasks. The biggest complaint is the small size keyboard of netbooks but for children this may actually be an advantage. For adults that need to use a larger keyboard you can simply plug-in a full-sized USB keyboard when you need to type for extended periods of time. Because many netbooks use the energy saving Intel Atom series of processors heavy users of video and photo editing applications will be disappointed in performance of current netbooks but for those that need a general purpose computer the low-cost netbook category may continue to be a big hit with educators.


Technology Pick of the Week

Since this was holiday break here in the States my Technology Pick of the Week this week is on the fun-side of things. I will classify this pick as in the category of “Stupid Parlor Tricks” At the IETC conference last week Hall Davidson gave a demo of Photo Booth and used a green card to create a chroma key image and then used a green card to “peer inside the human brain” using a webcam when he held the green card up to his head. Of course all that was needed was a background image of the human brain that could be keyed upon using the green card to create the see inside the head effect.

Many Cam - Webcam Special Effects Program
http://www.manycam.com/

Chroma keying has been around for years and it can create some interesting effects if you use your imagination and creativity. I downloaded and installed a free application called Many Cam on an eee PC netbook running Windows XP this week while I was off from work. Many Cam is one of those fun little applications that is good for a lot of novelty effects and can leave many wondering, “How did he do that?” It can be used with chroma keying to place yourself on screen in whatever setting you select as your background image. So if you are longing for the Florida beaches no problem, just find the appropriate themed background image and you can place yourself on a sunny beach.

The advantage of Many Cam is that you can also use it with other webcam programs like Skype and some instant messaging applications that support video. Did I mention it is free! Of course the challenge becomes to use this novel webcam application for an educational purpose beyond amusement. Educators need to get beyond the toy mentality approach and focus on using the technological tools with a clear purpose and intent to improve learning.

A couple of years ago or so Logitech came out with similar software that supported avatars that you could use with their webcams. Logitech had a shark, an alien, and a princess among other avatars. When I first saw the Logitech software I thought it would be a great application to do some remote video conferencing with schools. Schools can have guest readers that can use an avatar to disguise their real identity and select an avatar to represent a character in a story that is read to the class from the characters perspective virtually. For example the Princess avatar could read Snow White with the Princess avatars image projected on a large screen in the front of the room.

Logitech Video Effects and Avatars
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/webcam_communications/video_software_services/video_effects/&cl=us,en?WT.ac=ps3294

This activity would have to be planned with the teacher but I do believe that the technology is now affordable enough and sophisticated enough that some schools could start hosting period and character authentic avatars that students could interact with and ask questions of as if they were time traveling back or forward in time to the location of the story or event.

Of course you need to pick age appropriate avatars and use educationally sound practices when creating such lessons. Using a Shark avatar with little children could be a bit frightening for the children and an inappropriate use of this technology. The beauty of using an avatar in this manner is that there is a real person on the other side of the camera that can take and answer questions from the perspective of that character.

There still remain some technical hurdles to overcome. I still run into firewall issues and bandwidth problems with schools that are using video streaming technologies but it is getting better and there are fewer barriers than there were just a few years ago. How about you? If you are using webcams in the classroom for educational purpose I would love to hear from you and have you share your experiences with the TechTalk4Teachers audience.

That wraps it up for episode 65 of TechTalk4Teachers. Show notes for this episode and archived episodes are available on the web at the EIU Instructional Technology website at www.eiu.edu/itc just click on the TechTalk4Teachers podcast link. If you have a comment or suggestion please send an email to techtalk@eiu.edu of leave a comment on the TechTalk4Teachers blog. Until next time, this is Tom Grissom, keep on Learning.

tt4t_064 IETC Conference, we have been here before

It’s Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 and welcome to episode 64 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This past Thursday and Friday I had the opportunity to attend the Illinois Educational Technology Conference in Springfield, Illinois. While attending I met to a lot of old friends and also made some new friends at this years event. Some of my older friendships go back more than twenty years and it was good to see many of my colleagues from those early days of my career.

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Vicki Davis, also known as the CoolCatTeacher, gave the Keynote address Thursday afternoon and talked about some of the Web 2.0 tools available and how some pioneers are now using these technologies to establish relationships with classrooms all over the world. As she was giving her keynote I couldn’t help but to reflect back on many of the technologies that I had witnessed over the years. I had the strange sense of deja vu all over again. Vicki uses blogs in her classroom whereas teachers not so long ago teachers relied upon email and BBS’s to do similar things. I remembered back in the early to mid 1980’s that many of the teachers of that time also established connections worldwide that were made possible by the technologies of the day just as teachers are doing today. Granted we did not have high-speed Internet connections and free video conferencing tools like Skype, ooVoo, Qik, uStream, and other streaming video services back then, but it did happen, just in different ways. Teachers always find a way to take advantage of new technologies to benefit learning.

Back then people developed their own modem driven BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) around areas of interests using a regular dial-up phone line. This was more on the hobbyist level but when the Internet became mainstream in the mid 1990’s and the technologies evolved further we thought we were in heaven when some of the first webcam software like CU-SeeMe came along. Usenet groups and other fledgling Internet technologies were used by many teachers back then, before Google there was Gopher. This was back in the days of 33Kbps modems and it sort of kind of worked if you crossed your fingers in just the right way. 33 Kbps modems seemed scorchingly fast for those that had previously used 300 to 1200 baud modems a few years earlier. By no means were the 33 Kbps connections reliable enough or fast enough for mission critical educational applications that a teacher could count on everyday but it was possible to have two-way low-cost communication between schools and many teachers did use these technologies despite their limitations.

Today there are only a few technical challenges remaining. If the average teacher wants to establish a connection between schools they have many choices. The good news is that today the tools are easier than ever to use and often free for teachers use. Setting up a blog or wiki can be done in under five minutes by the average teacher.

The technologies have matured and most of the problems are not about the technology itself but rather stem from firewall issues that schools and businesses use to protect their networks. Webcams and video conferencing are opening up new possibilities for use in the classroom. Add to this the portability of cell phone cameras and sites like Qik streaming services and it is now possible to stream live video to an Internet server and broadcast the feed live to the world in real time. We have come a long way in a short period of time. Now we must ask ourselves what is the best way to harness this new found power?

Unfortunately bandwidth issues may still limit the possible uses that many teachers would like to implement, especially on a larger scale that will truly make a difference. Bandwidth is becoming the life blood of cloud computing and those that do not invest in the bandwidth necessary to take advantage of cloud computing services will be left behind and this will create a new digital divide. Schools must invest in high-speed connections to the Internet or run the risk of falling behind and isolating their schools.

I am not worried as much about the bandwidth issues as I am with the policy side of the equation. Bandwidth issues are known and can be addressed and solved with appropriating funding in the right areas. The more challenging aspects of using cloud computing services in most schools more likely have to do with policy issues of allowing teachers and students to utilize this technology. We need guidelines and best practices to help teachers comfortably use these technologies in the classroom and reduce the barriers for teachers that want to take advantage of the technological benefits. These technologies can make for wonderful possibilities for educators but they also unfortunately can be misused. This misuse often overshadows the benefits and sometimes keeps promising practices from occurring in schools.

Safety is always in the front of the line for teachers and administrators and concerns over the safety and privacy of students need to be addressed, especially for the new technologies like webcams and cell phone cameras as they are increasingly finding their way into schools. If these new tools are to be used in the classroom their use requires careful and purposeful use by teachers for the benefit of learning.

As with any technology webcams and cell phones can be abused and unfortunately some organizations do not allow their use because of this potential abuse. Teachers, administrators, parents, and students need to work together to create policies that support the appropriate use of technologies so that these tools can be safely used in the classroom.

If these new tools are not supported at the administrative level then these technologies are unlikely to be used by those teachers that see the potential they hold for learning. We have hundreds of pages of standards for teachers, students, and administrators and now it is time that we have a conversation at the State and national level about effective policies, guidelines, and best practices to address the possibilities that Web 2.0 and cloud computing services offer educators.

Technology Pick of the Week

My Technology Pick of the Week this week is Google Earth. If you have not checked out Google Earth for a while I suggest you download the latest beta version and give it a try. Currently Google Earth is at the Beta Version 4.3 level. On Friday at the IETC conference Hall Davidson from the Discovery Network gave the keynote conference address at lunch. Hall talked a lot about using technologies to engage students in technology-driven project based learning, something many educators have been doing for many years. Hall Davidson also presented a couple of sessions on Google Earth and highlighted some of the new features.

Google Earth does require a download of the Google Earth client and does require an Internet connection to utilize this software. If you do not have an Internet connection you can use Google Earth but it only uses the data that has been cached into your computers memory. In my experience the pop-up messages that occur when not connected to the Internet almost render this application useless so take my advice and only use Google Earth when you are connected to the Internet.

When you use Google Earth you will see three main categories on the left-side of the screen labeled Search, Places, and Layers. For a quick-start sample to see what Google Earth can do select the Search category and then select the Directions Tab. Enter a From location and a To location. When you click on the Play Tour button (it looks like a triangle) on the player and Google Earth will do a fly-over movie of the route you entered in the From and To fields, pretty cool! A link is provided in the show notes to a short movie about Google Earth and other resources for you to learn more about this application.

Google Earth Resources
http://earth.google.com/tour.html

To me the power of Google Earth for teachers and students is in the ability to go to the Places category and insert your own Placemark pins in Google Earth. Placemarks can be connected to text information providing a detailed description about the pinned location, pictures about the location, movies about the location, or a referenced website about the location pinned on the Google Earth map. These Placemarks can be saved in KML and KMZ files that can be shared with other users of Google Earth. KML and KMZ files are simply the file format that Google Earth uses, just like a .doc file is used by Microsoft Word.

An excellent example of using Placemarks for a lesson can be found at the Google LitTrips website, a link is provided in the show notes.

Google LitTrips
http://www.googlelittrips.org/

Please note that you do have to install Google Earth first before you can use the files at Google LitTrips. When you visit the Google LitTrips site and you will see at the top of the webpage an index that you can choose by the grade level of content you are searching for. For example, I clicked on the high school 9-12 level link and selected the Grapes of Wrath LitTrip and saved the file to my computer. Once the file was downloaded I unzipped the downloaded file by double-clicking on it and then clicked on the KML file that was extracted. When I double-clicked on this KML file it opened in Google Earth. I was able to see all of the Placemarks that the author of the KML file created from within Google Earth, in this case the route of the story from Grapes of Wrath with Placemarks along the way explaining what happened in the book at each marked Placemark.

Creating KML and KMZ files is really not that difficult and if you know the basics of creating a webpage and how to copy and paste code then you can easily create Google Earth trips, better yet show your students how to create these Placemarks and let them create their own Google Earth trips! If you have not tried out Google Earth please give it a try and let me know what you think.

I am incorporating Google Earth into some of the Smart Board training that I am doing as I believe that the combination of the two are a great way to showcase these two technologies together. There is also something visceral about manipulating map objects with your hands at the Smart Board that makes the learning experience more interactive and effective. Controlling the Google Earth controls with the Smart Board is easy and intuitive. If you are interested in learning more about Google Earth please let me know and I will discuss this technology in more detail in the future if there is an interest. Google Earth has a lot of educational potential in this free application for teachers.

That wraps it up for episode 64 of TechTalk4Teachers. Show notes for this episode and archived episodes are available on the web at the EIU Instructional Technology Center website at www.eiu.edu/itc just click on the Techtalk4Teachers Podcast link. If you have a comment of suggestion please send an email to techtalk@eiu.edu or leave a comment on the TechTalk4Teachers blog. Until next time, this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.

tt4t_063 Flipping out over the Flip camera and a new choice

It’s Saturday, November 15th, 2008 and welcome to episode 63 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Well it has been another busy week around here and we have accomplished much. Yesterday morning the ITC was buzzing with activity. We were blessed with the presence of 50 third graders and their teachers from Project WOW. Each semester Project WOW teams up with two local third grade classrooms and a group of EIU preservice teachers that work together on a thematic unit as part of course requirements for one of our teacher education classes.

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Project WOW is a great partnership and everyone that participates benefits from this collaboration. Yesterday we recorded the basic segments for an audio podcast that each of the 12 teams is responsible for producing. This year the topic is 19th Century Heros and I will probably have a future TechTalk4Teachers episode about this project as it gets further along so stay tuned as we continue to work on this collaborative effort. Being a teacher I was searching for period appropriate copyright free music for the students to use in their podcasts and had to chuckle when the 3rd graders went straight for the hip hop genre for their intro and outro music, sounds like we will be having some interesting podcasts to listen to in the near future.

My main topic today is about the amazing Flip video cameras that have become a very popular checkout item at the ITC. Some time ago the ITC ordered 16 of the Flip cameras to use for class projects and for general faculty use. Recently I have been promoting their use more and more, so much so that we are now having trouble keeping enough of them in stock at the ITC for checkout use. The popularity of technology equipment checkouts is always a good sign that you are on the right track and one of those “good” problems to have. Of course we need to address this “good” problem so the purchase of more Flip video cameras may be in future ITC equipment purchases.

If we do purchase additional Flip cameras we have a new choice. There is a new model of Flip camera recently available called the minoHD or minoHD, I have heard it pronounced both ways. I prefer to call it the mino because it reminds me of a minnow, a minnow is a little fish and this camera is a little smaller than the current Flip Ultra model. Regardless of the pronunciation this camera offers some impressive features and is on my wish list as I look to purchase more Flip cameras to meet the checkout demand at the ITC. I have provided a link in the show notes to the Flip website with specifications of each camera model. It can get a little confusing as there are two models of the mino so read the specifications carefully for each model.

http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_ultra_specs.II.shtml

The biggest upgrade for the minoHD is that it is capable of shooting video in 720p HD quality video. It also has a built-in battery instead of the replaceable AA batteries that the Flip Ultra model has. The 720p video quality is tempting from the MinoHD as the quality will be a big improvement over the current 640x480 resolution of the other Flip models. The minoHD can shoot in 1280x720 wide-screen format. This improvement however is not without the cost of increased files sizes of the raw video footage so there is a trade-off. If there is a weakness to the Flip cameras it has to be the quality of the sound that is recorded. I hope the new minoHD camera has improved sound capability, a jack to plug-in an external microphone would be a great addition in future models.

I am not sure about the practicality of the built-in battery either. The Flip website states that the mino models get about two to four hours of use per charge. Let me explain why a built-in battery may not be an advantage. Both the Ultra and Mino models advertise about one hour of video storage on the devices before having to save the video to a computer and delete the video files off the camera so you can continue shooting. If you are in the field and the battery runs out all you have to do is replace the AA batteries in the Flip Ultra models but you would have to find an electrical outlet to recharge the built-in battery of the mino models. The Flip website also states that it takes between two to three hours to recharge the minoHD. If the built-in battery is replaceable and you can buy extras to swap out that would solve this issue. I need to get a review model in to test out and answer these questions for myself.

If the built-in battery is not replaceable then at some point after many charges the batteries will eventually die rendering the camera useless. The built-in battery will also require a cable to plug-in for charging so imagine having 20 flip video cameras plugged into surge protectors charging, tangled cords everywhere! At least with the AA battery models you can buy rechargeable charging stations that are compact in size and easy to use. These are the types of details that I worry about when considering supporting technologies on a larger scale for classroom use.

In the ITC we are in the trenches of providing front-line technology support to faculty, staff, and students. We need bullet-proof technologies and practicality often trumps some of the latest innovations. Anybody can buy one unit and it is easy to manage just one but when you increase that by a factor of 20 or 100 then you need a plan for supporting this volume of equipment. Teachers know this and unless you are a teacher you probably do not understand the problems that scaling up can have upon the practicality of any project.

For teachers these details and issues are important considerations. If we use technologies in the classroom we need for them to be reliable and easy-to-use. Paying attention to the mundane details like battery life and the size of files produced has a direct impact upon the practicality of the camera for classroom use. The important point is that we want a no hassle factor for faculty and students that want to use classroom technologies so these details are important. Standardization is also part of this consideration because if a faculty member wants to checkout a camera from the ITC it is very frustrating to them if they get a different model for every checkout. Standardizing on the Flips has helped by having a consistent choice for checkouts. When you standardize the price point is also an important consideration as per unit costs can really impact the budget. Savings of just a few dollars quickly add up when you need to buy in volume to stretch your budget dollars during these tight financial times.

The Flip Ultra camera model can now be found with educational pricing of under $150 and the MinoHD model for under $200 so both of these cameras are affordable for classroom use. Not so long ago we were using $500-$1000 video cameras with mini-DV tapes for video taping classroom projects. The Flip cameras are not as high-quality as traditional mini-DV cameras but their lower price has finally made them affordable enough for the average classroom. Not having to digitize mini-DV tapes is also another huge plus.

The other advantage to lower costs is that you may not be as worried about handing a Flip camera to a 3rd grader to use as you might be with more expensive cameras. In the end keeping it simple and practical is important and the Flip video cameras have met this challenge at the ITC to date.

If you are considering video projects with your students be sure to follow your organizations policies and procedures including obtaining any necessary permission forms and follow your organization’s guidelines about the use of video for classroom projects.

Technology Pick of the Week

My Technology Pick of the Week this week is a website I ran across a couple of weeks ago that was interesting to look at on November 5th, 2008 the day after elections in the United States. The name of this website is the Today’s Front Pages and this website as of Saturday, November 15, 2008 has 613 front pages from 60 countries around the world. A link is provided in the show notes.

Today’s Front Pages
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

The nice thing about this site is that you can see thumbnail images for all the front pages of newspapers for a particular day as well as have access to archives from previous days. The front pages can be sorted alphabetically by state or by region. Since I was a former science teacher I would like to point out a page that caught my eye as I visited this site today. I clicked on a link from front page of the Stuart News from Stuart, Florida about the Space Shuttle launch last night. Night-time launches are spectacular and if you click on the link in the show notes you can see a beautiful picture from last night’s Shuttle Launch, absolutely spectacular.

Night-Time Space Shuttle Launch from The Stuart News: Stuart, Florida
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=FL_SN&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=3

Using newspapers in the classroom periodically can help keep variety in the learning experience as well as offer a teachable moment for discussions about the way the news is reported in different parts of the world. Please checkout Today’s Front Pages and I am sure you will find valuable learning resources and ideas to use in future lessons.

That wraps it up for episode 63 of TechTalk4Teachers. Show notes for this episode and archived episodes are available on the web at the EIU Instructional Technology Center website at www.eiu.edu/itc just click on the Techtalk4Teachers Podcast link. If you have a comment of suggestion please send an email to techtalk@eiu.edu or leave a comment on the TechTalk4Teachers blog. Until next time, this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.

tt4t_062 Time to cleanup some delicious bookmarks

It's Saturday, November 8th, 2008 and welcome to episode 62 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. If you are like me you probably have a lot of extra resources lying around and in a state of disrepair and begging to be organized in some form or fashion. If only there were enough time I would love to get some of these resources better organized. Way back on episode 12 of TechTalk4Teachers I talked about the social bookmarking site called delicious. At that time and until recently we had to use the rather clumsy website address of del.icio.us to access delicious bookmarks but as reported in episode 50 the delicious website has finally changed its web address to the more user friendly delicious.com and added some new features along the way.

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Before delicious came around I actually wrote a php script I called share-a –link that allowed me and other students to fill out a form and access an online database for links that could be shared with others. So when I found out about delicious a few years ago I jumped at the opportunity to use this free service from Yahoo. It was like my share-a-link script but so much more.

I love the delicious social bookmarking service for several reasons, first of course, is that it is free! Free is one of those keywords that we teachers appreciate. Secondly the delicious service allows for anyone with a delicious account to add bookmarks that are stored and accessed online for future reference. Third is that delicious bookmarks can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. Fourth is that you can see what other delicious users have bookmarked and therefore learn a lot from the work of others. Finally one of the best features of delicious is the ability to “tag” websites with keywords that allows you to easily sort related bookmarks by a tagged keyword.

Teachers can benefit by using the delicious service to bookmark sites by keyword for a particular course or unit of study. You can use more than one tag per entry if a website might have several uses for you. The important thing is that your tags should be short and descriptive and you must be consistent with whatever tag naming convention you develop. For example when I find a website that is a good candidate for use with a smart board I will tag it with the keyword smartboard and iwb. I use the smartboard keyword because that is the descriptive name that most teachers are familiar with but I also use the tag iwb, that stands for interactive white board, because this tag reminds me that the particular site I am bookmarking is interactive and could also be used with other brands of interactive white boards besides Smart. I might also add additional tags like third grade or science to further define what the smartboard website is about.

With the recent revamping of the delicious website delicious users have some new features including better sorting options and sharing options including the ability to embed delicious bookmarks into other websites and blogs in the form of a tag cloud.

Now I have had my old delicious account called gtgrissom for some time now it has become a bit of a mess. Learning is messy and I am not the best organizer in the world so my delicious list has grown a little out of control for this account. I try to model best practices to the best of my ability so I recently created another delicious account to be used in conjuction with the Instructional Technology Center website. I will glean many of my bookmarks from the older gtgrissom account but I am going to be much more selective with what I tag and try to have a more minimalist approach to the eiuitc delicious account.

Displaying your bookmarks in the form of tag clouds is an easy way for others to quickly find tag related information. Tags are weighted and therefore as the number of entries a particular keyword tag has there will be a corresponding increase in the size of the font to display the tag. In other words the larger the size font of the tag the more entries that particular tag has. You have undoubtedly seen tag clouds on websites as they are becoming more and more common. I have embedded my eiuitc delicous tag cloud into the TechTalk4Teachers website if you would like to see an example. Please remember this is a work in progress and the nice thing about using the embed code is that this blog website will automatically be updated as I add new links to the eiuitc delicious account.

eiuitc delicious tag cloud example:




What about you? Do you have any tips and tricks about using social bookmarking in the classroom? If you do please leave a comment in the TechTalk4Teachers blog so we can share with others.

Technology Pick of the Week

My Technology Pick of the Week this week is a Web 2.0 service that may be of help to you when you want to print out just a selective piece of a website. The name of this service is called Print What You Like and a link is provided in the show notes.

http://printwhatyoulike.com/

To use this service copy the web address of the website you want to selectively print and then go to the printwhatyoulike website. Paste the web address into the box that says Enter a URL to Start and then press the Start button.

You can then move the mouse around to different sections of the webpage and click on the sections you want to printout. Use the control panel on the left-hand side to control the area you want to print. This could save a few trees so give it a try and let me know what you think.

That wraps it up for episode 62 of TechTalk4Teachers. Show notes
for this episode and archived episodes are available on the web at the EIU Instructional Technology Center website at www.eiu.edu/itc just click on the Techtalk4Teachers Podcast link. If you have a comment of suggestion please send and email to techtalk@eiu.edu or leave a comment on the TechTalk4Teachers blog. Until next time, this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.

tt4t_061 Its Halloween do you know where your backup is?

It’s Friday, October 31st, 2008 and welcome to episode 61 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Happy Halloween everyone! This week a couple of experiences have reminded me of the importance of backing up your computer files. I received a call earlier this week from a staff member that accidentally deleted a folder on their computer and all the files in the folder. Of course I asked if they had a backup and you can guess what the answer was.

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Once you delete a file and empty the recycle bin then it is extremely difficult to undelete the files. It may be impossible without the help of a FBI computer forensic team or dedicated expensive program that may be able to undelete something that is if another file has not already been saved over the files you are trying to recover. If the data has been overwritten there may be no hope of recovering the files.

There is always a chance that deleted files may be recovered because when you delete a file the computer basically deletes the indexing information that is used to point to the location of the file storage area on the hard disk, if an undelete program can recover this indexing information then there is a chance (although remote) that the file may be recovered. Why take a chance of worrying about recovering from an accidental file deletion or a computer crash? Take a lesson form the Boy Scouts and “Be Prepared”.

It literally only takes seconds to make a backup copy of your important data files and I hope that making backups is already a part of your routine computing practice, if it is not let me recommend that you turn off this podcast and go make a backup copy of your files right now. Go ahead, pause this podcast and I will wait.

OK, that wasn’t so bad was it? Now you can sleep better knowing you have made a recent backup of your important files especially since we are three-quarters of the way into the semester. Be sure to backup your gradebook files, email archives, and all other essential data regularly. If you have an online system and networked drives your IT department may already be doing this but you are responsible for locally stored files in most schools. If you do not know how to make a backup copy then find someone that can teach you. It really is easy once you know how and there are no excuses for not making regular backups. Consult with your IT staff regarding policies and procedures for protecting and securing school data.

Another reason that the backup topic is on my agenda this week is to protect yourself from the threat of disasters. I have had a couple of friends experience household fires that lost nearly all household possessions including their computers.

A true backup system consists of five parts, first is the backup copy of your files. Second is that the backup is stored in a different location other than the location of the computer in your home/office. Third is the need for a routine for your backups on a regular basis. You are only as good as your last backup in the event of a disaster. Fourth, is the ability to have access to a copy of the programs used to create your data. For example if you use Microsoft Word as your default word processor then you will need to have access to Microsoft Word once your files have been restored on a different computer. Finally you need to periodically test your backup plan to see if it would really work in the case of a disaster. If there is a flaw in the plan you do not want to wait until a disaster occurs to discover that you cannot recover and access your files.

Most information technology departments have disaster recovery plans that include off-site storage and most schools also have disaster recovery plans including an action plan for recovering from a disaster. You should also have a personal plan for your home including off-site storage of important files, especially digital pictures of your family that are irreplaceable. I personally have burned CD and DVD copies of pictures and placed them in my safety deposit box.

One problem with my plan is that over time there is often the need to move the data to more current technologies. I often joke that there is a conspiracy out there by corporations for what I call planned obsolescence. If you are as old as I am you have undoubtedly experienced this phenomena. For example it is getting harder and harder to find a VCR to play back old VHS tapes I have so I need to transfer the VHS content to a DVD to be assured that I can always access the content. Or you may have purchased your favorite music album several times in the form of 8-track tapes (yes I am that old), cassette tapes, CD’s, and now digital MP3 files.

Another option for storing photographs is to use online photo services like Flickr or Windows Live Gallery. Online photo sharing sites can give you peace of mind if you do not mind having your photos online that others may see. Another option would be to use an online storage solution like Microsoft SkyDrive or other online storage provider.

Our university is in the process of implementing a business class solution for online storage called Xythos that I am currently using in a pilot test and looking forward to using it in full production mode to address the needs our college has for online storage and backups. This solution will be backed up by the ITS department so it also serves the need for having the files stored in two different locations to protect against disasters.

Schools just like businesses need disaster recovery plans and policies protect information, much of which is confidential. With Internet technologies the capability of sharing information is very easy so there should also be policies and procedures in place to protect this information including backup and recovery plans.

The final reason for selecting the backup topic this week is that I migrated my data to a different computer this week and this gave me the opportunity to see if my practices really worked and I am happy to report that they did. I have a very structured folder system for storing files locally on my computer that makes it very easy for me to make backups and also allows for me to easily restore data if needed.

Let me tell you what has worked for me over the years and then you can adapt my system for your own use or develop one that will work for you. This system works for me and keeps my data files separate from the applications used to create the data. Every school year I create a new folder called AY0809 that stands for Academic Year 2008-2009. Everything that I do for the particular academic year goes into this folder. You will find that whether you work in a business or a school that there are many things that you repeat from year to year. For example, I am on several committees and I make a subfolder under the AY0809 folder for each committee that I serve on. I also have a subfolder for each section of each course that I teach for each academic year. This serves two purposes for me. First, it makes it extremely easy for me to make backup copies because all I have to do is copy the AY0809 folder and all subfolders to another storage device (whether it be a CD, DVD, Flash Drive, network drive, or external drive). Secondly, it allows for me to easily archive information from past years. If I need to go retrieve a report to see an example from a previous year all I have to do is go to the appropriate academic year and subfolder to retrieve the file that I need. Being organized in this way has been extremely helpful to me over the years and I encourage you to develop your own system of managing and backing up your data that works for you.

So when I got the new Vista PC installed this week all I had to do was install the computer applications I use like Microsoft Office 2007 and copy the files from my backup copy to the new computers hard drive and I was back in business!

Your recovery plan is only as good as your most recent backup so be sure to make backups regularly. The hardest part of moving to the new PC was setting up the email client but even this was straight forward. I use Outlook Exchange so all I needed to copy my archived email from my old machine to the new machine and then walk through a wizard to setup my email account info on the new computer. I moved from Office 2003 to Office 2007 but the migration was painless because all I needed to do was copy my archive.pst file to the new computer and point my email account to it as my new archive file. That was it, the only difficulty will be to customize my browser settings and other program settings the way I like them but most importantly I am back to work without skipping a beat!

Technology Pick of the Week

I have two Technology Picks of the Week this week. The first a hardware pick related to the backup topic just discussed. I recently purchased a Western Digital Passport 250GB external USB hard drive for a backup storage solution. This drive is well under $100 if you shop around and is compact in size and perfect for storing backup files. It also serves very well as a storage device for large multimedia audio and video files that can consume large amounts of space on your local computer. A link is provided in the show notes to the WD Passport external drive.

USB 2.0 Western Digital Passport External Drive
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=392

One caution with compact storage devices like the Passport drive and other even smaller USB flash drives is that you need to protect your data from theft of these devices by keeping them in a secure locked location. They are very small and easily stolen. Some businesses and schools may require a password and/or encryption on these devices to protect the data. Because they are small and portable they do pose a security risk so be sure you take proper precautions in protecting any data that may be stored on such devices.

My second Technology Pick of the Week is a Web 2.0 service that I have used for a few years now and was one of the first applications that I missed and installed when I switched computers earlier this week. Skype is a free audio and video conferencing solution that allows you to make free voice and video calls to other Skype users. I downloaded the Skype client to the new Vista machine and plugged in my Logitech Video Webcam to the USB port and I was back in business with using Skype. A link is provided in the show notes to the Skype service.

Skype
http://skype.com/

Skype allows for you to easily communicate with other Skype users from all around the world and all you need is a computer with a webcam, Internet access, and a free Skype account. You do not even need a webcam if you only want to communicate with other users via voice. Many of our international students use this service to communicate with their family back home and it complete avoids long distance charges. Skype also offers additional for fee services including the ability to dial regular phone lines but there are fees for these services.

That wraps it up for episode 61 of TechTalk4Teachers. Show notes for this episode and archived episodes are available on the web at the EIU Instructional Technology Center website at www.eiu.edu/itc just click on the Techtalk4Teachers Podcast link. If you have a comment of suggestion please send and email to techtalk@eiu.edu or leave a comment on the TechTalk4Teachers blog. Until next time, this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.

tt4t_060 Nine Events of Instruction, Gagne

It’s Friday, October 24th, 2008 and welcome to Episode 60 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. I would like to begin todays episode by asking the question of why some learners seem more motivated to learn than others? Along with that question I would like to follow-up with why some learners are more motivated than others to always do their best. I deal with high-tech solutions for teaching and learning on a daily basis and I often find myself returning to these two questions related to motivation when designing learning experiences. I often find that technology does offer an additional motivational factor for many students.

To listen click on the Play button >

Download MP3

Robert Gagne wrote the book Conditions of Learning over 40 years ago and proposed nine events necessary for instruction to occur in an era where behavioral learning and programmed instruction dominated educational thought. After all of these years I am still fascinated by the incredibly diverse ways that humans learn. Gagne attempted to distill this diversity into basic components that still stand today as the foundation for the discipline of Instructional Design.

Here are the nine events of instruction in abbreviated form proposed by Gagne in 1965:
1) gaining attention (reception)
2) informing learners of the objective (expectancy)
3) stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)
4) presenting the stimulus (selective perception)
5) providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)
6) eliciting performance (responding)
7) providing feedback (reinforcement)
8) assessing performance (retrieval)
9) enhancing retention and transfer (generalization)

I have provided some additional links to online resources related to the nine events of instruction and other information regarding Gagne’s work in the show notes for this episode if you are interested in learning more about his work.

http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/gagnesevents/index.htm

http://tip.psychology.org/gagne.html

http://my-ecoach.com/idtimeline/theory/gagne.html

http://www.slideshare.net/armovil/gagne-nine-events-of-instruction


Taken at face value these events seem very programmatic yet as any instructional designer will tell you there is tremendous flexibility and numerous ways to prepare any given lesson for a desired outcome. Teachers are always looking for a way to gain the attention of the learner and find a motivational hook to keep the learner interested in the lesson. If we do not have the attention of the learner then we have lost the battle before it even begins. In teaching we move from the simple to the more complex.

Take something as simple as teaching someone to hit a baseball, the point to this lesson is to hit the ball with a bat which requires a performance goal. How one goes about preparing a lesson are as varied as the teachers that will teach the lesson. In the end however the assessment should involve the performance of the student swinging a bat and hitting the ball. The complexity of this simple goal is amazing when you actually have to break down every step in order to reach a successful conclusion. The assessment should also match the goal. In this case giving a written test on the history of baseball would not match the goal of the lesson.

Now, consider a lesson that I recently taught regarding students creating their own podcast. I have students listen to several examples in order to understand the genre of podcasting. I give them the flexibility to choose a podcast of interest to them. I then give a rather structured example of recording a podcast using the audacity program by only introducing the tools needed to do basic audio editing including importing music at the beginning and end of the podcast. This is in the form of a demonstration and then I have students duplicate the basic demo using guided practice. Students are then responsible for picking an educationally appropriate topic and writing a script for recording. I also provide links to resources including video screencasts about using the audacity program.

Some students seem to go through the motions and want very scripted step by step directions for creating their podcast. Others are internally motivated and really get into this assignment. I wish I knew how to bottle this motivation and spread it around. I give the students a lot of leeway in hopes that they will pick something of interests to them and thus be motivated to do their best work. In the end the students are to produce two educational podcasts to demonstrate their proficiency for the learning objective.

Many students are not used to having such leeway and want more structure. Teachers are told that 21st Century skills demand a workforce that can adapt and innovate therefore I believe that we must provide opportunities for students to go beyond prescriptive lessons. I try to instill a sense of pride and want all students to do their best work yet there are often a few that just want to do just enough to get by and I often get asked is this “good enough?” I respectfully ask them “is this your best work?”

As teachers we always need to strive for excellence and expect the same from our students. This is sometimes difficult to achieve as many students are used to doing one lesson and then moving on to the next with the expectation that they will never see the previous lesson again. It takes practice and multi-pass learning opportunities to get better at anything whether it be swinging a baseball bat or creating a podcast. Teachers assign homework for this very reason so that students have opportunities to practice whatever is being taught.

Yet teachers are also always pressed by the curriculum to move forward to the next topic for the allotted time that we have. Teachers need to be creative in creating multi-pass learning opportunities and avoid the temptation of simply moving on to the next lesson if students need more practice. It does no good if only surface learning occurs as there needs to be a firm foundation before generalization and transference can occur. Transference is that magical elusive goal of taking what one has learned and adapting it to a new situation to solve a different problem. In order to transfer the learning experience the learner must first retain the information to recall for later use. In short transference is an extremely valued 21st Century skill and one that teachers should always strive for no matter the lesson.

Technology Pick of the Week

My Technology Pick of the Week this week is a wireless microphone from Revo Labs called the xTag that can be handy for teachers wanting to record their voices and classroom lectures and still have the freedom of moving around the room. A link is provided in the show notes to the Revo Labs xTag mic. This microphone comes in several models and is a bit on the expensive side but does offer a good solution for a teacher that wants to be mobile while recording their voice. Because of the expense I would recommend that a unit be purchased by your library or technology department and then checked out on an as needed basis.

http://www.revolabs.com/products_wm/xtag.htm

The base model can be found for an educational discount price of under $250. The recording quality is very good and you can either clip this wireless mic on your lapel or use the provided lanyard that you can use to hang around your neck. The really nice thing is that you do not have to worry about a cable connected back to the computer. Since the mic is clipped on your lapel your voice will not fade in and out as you move about the room as is typical of a stationary mic positioned in the center of the classroom. The standard USB connected base station for the xTag also serves as a charging station so it will always be charged when you are ready to record. If you are looking for a wireless mic solution for your recording needs be sure to checkout the xTag to see if it might meet your needs. If you have experience with other wireless microphones that would be helpful for teachers to know about I would like to hear your recommendations so please send an email or leave a comment on the TechTalk4Teachers blog so we can share with others.

I would like to again remind everyone that the K12Online Conference 2008 is still ongoing so I encourage you to visit this free professional development conference if you have not already done so. Please visit the site k12onlineconference.org website to see the schedule and learn more.

K12 Online Conference 2008
http://k12onlineconference.org/

K12 Online Conference Schedule:
http://k12onlineconference.org/docs/k12online2008schedule.html

That wraps it up for episode 60 of TechTalk4Teachers. Show notes for this episode and archived episodes are available on the web at the EIU Instructional Technology Center website at www.eiu.edu/itc just click on the Techtalk4Teachers Podcast link. If you have a comment of suggestion please send and email to techtalk@eiu.edu or leave a comment on the TechTalk4Teachers blog. Until next time, this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.

tt4t_059 The Next Big Thing: Persistent Network Computing – Always Connected

It’s Friday, October 17th, 2008 and welcome to episode 59 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. I have been predicting for some time now that we are about to see a game changer in the way we and our students are using technology. Having been around through the evolution of the personal computer we are finally beginning to see some of the long awaited promises that I imagined when I first began my professional career many years ago.

To listen click on the Play button >

Download MP3

The computing devices of today have evolved from solitary units built for dedicated tasks like playing “pong” back in the day to a multipurpose machine now capable of easily connecting to a network of networks known as the Internet. What is most promising is the recent availability of always connected computing. I have waited and waited for an affordable wireless connection to the Internet and over the past couple of years we are finally seeing the fruits of telecommunication companies efforts in building out 3G wireless networks through companies like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Moble, and many others.

Now for around $60 per month I can purchase a subscription to a wireless Internet carrier that will provide me with a USB wireless modem capable of connecting any laptop or desktop computer to the Internet. The only catch is that many plans require a one or two year contract and many are limited to a predetermined bandwidth cap. In the case of Verizon this cap is at 5GB of usage per month for one of the plans before charging additional usage fees. There is also a 50MB plan but this limit would quickly be reached by anyone using the Internet for anything other than just casual use. You always want to be aware of various data plans restrictions and make sure not to go over your usage limits otherwise additional charges will apply that can be quite costly.

Now for me $60 per month is still a little bit high for basic Internet access but that is about as cheap as I can find for this part of rural Illinois. For those in larger cities I would be interested in hearing what rates you are able to get for Internet access either wired or wireless. I recently saw a television ad for high-speed Internet wireless access in a larger city for $14.95 a month and wish that were available where I live but alas it is not. High rates are still a problem for many rural families in this part of the State of Illinois. We still face digital divide issues because this price is unaffordable for many families that do not have the disposable income to purchase such a data plan. Signing a one or two year agreement is still a large commitment for many and the 5GB usage cap may not be enough capacity for a family so you need to be careful not to exceed monthly limits for fear of additional charges.

Yes a $60 per month subscription for a broadband data plan is expensive but I am hopeful that this cost will come down given time and enough competition. Looking at the bright side of things it really is amazing that an average consumer can have the option of using this broadband service and having Internet access on their laptop regardless of location (that is within the broadband coverage area). For the Verizon network this covers much of the United States.

In my opinion, if the telcos are smart they will reduce this price point so that those with a family may have the option to purchase additional data subscriptions for other family members at a reduced rate similar to how they currently tier cell phone pricing where each additional unit has a substantially reduced price. Having multiple family members using the same data plan as structured will quickly reach the 5GB bandwidth limit of many current plans.

I have posted before my thoughts about my disapproval of data carriers capping bandwidth usage and I still think this is a dangerous trend that will stifle innovation and provide for a more costly model to consumers. I understand from the data carrier perspective that they are selling a service and they want to protect themselves from users who may abuse the system. This capped model is also in direct conflict with content providers that want consumers to download purchased content in the form of audio and video that can consume massive amounts of bandwidth. It will be interesting to see the compromises reached in the coming years between these two competing philosophies. Many have not thought about the consequences of downloading a TV show from the Internet that may only cost $1.99 to purchase but forget that they will also be charged bit by bit for the download on top of the original purchase price, so be careful if you are on a capped plan with limits.

OK, so how does this tie in with education? Well get ready for a tidal wave of devices entering schools that will completely bypass the schools network and any filtering that currently exists on the schools network. Some of the newer cell phone devices have already started to sneak into schools and many already have web browsing capability. Many cell phones are not really that functional for web browsing because of the small form factor but new form factors are entering the market and small laptops are now becoming readily available and affordable. Some schools have admirably worked on Acceptable Use Policies to update their AUP to the cell phone era in what I call AUP 2.0 but not many have thought about the new need for an AUP 3.0 revision where students bring their own personal computing devices complete with their own personal always on connection to the Internet.

Don’t believe me? Yesterday was the First Birthday of the eee PC netbook that started a new revolution in low-cost laptop devices. The amount of innovation that has occurred in over the past year has been breathtaking. To be fair I do give credit to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative and the Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) movement that have also heavily influenced this new form factor but the big news is new low-cost devices.

Happy Birthday eee PC
http://blog.laptopmag.com/happy-birthday-eee-pc

This month many of the next generation eee PC models and other netbook models from other manufacturers will be sold that have a built-in wireless modem capable of broadband Internet access. In Europe some cell phone companies have already started subsidizing the cost of broadband capable laptops when a consumer purchases a data plan. I have not seen this subsidy in the United States yet but I believe it is coming soon if it is not already being offered in some parts of the U.S. Cell phone manufacturers have had cell phones subsidized for years and now low-cost netbooks are within the price range for subsidies. I have even heard of rumors where a data carrier might even be considering giving away a netbook free of charge in exchange for a 2 year data plan subscription. To that end ASUS has just announced a new sub $300 netbook that has built-in 3G wireless. If you would like to learn more about this new low-cost netbook a link is provided in the show notes to the new 901A model. Things are changing.

Sub $300 eee PC 901A Model
http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/10/asus-breaks-sub.html


With all of these changes how are educators going to react to this new reality? Will we have students check their laptops at the classroom door like some currently do with cell phones? How can we develop Acceptable Use Policies and at the same time take advantage of some of the incredible benefits a low-cost always connected to the Internet laptop may have for education? How can teachers giving lessons possibly compete for the attention of students if the students have Internet access on their own laptops in school? Just a few questions to ponder because as usual the technology is not standing still and new innovations will require new solutions for education in the 21st Century.

Today many college professors face this question regularly when students bring laptops to lectures where free wireless is readily available. This does change the atmosphere in the classroom. There are times when the phrase “screens down” is needed to gain attention of the students so that a focused lesson can occur, and you thought students texting in class was distracting, ah those were the good old days. This new invasion of technologies has been happening over time particularly on college campuses and will increasingly occur at the K-12 level with the increasing affordability of netbooks and wireless data plans.

So in the coming years many teachers will face the choice of integrating the new affordable technologies or banning them. I hope the choice is toward integration and that the technologies are used where appropriate and used with new pedagogies that structure lessons to benefit from the power that technologically-assisted learning can offer. Students are regularly using these technologies outside the classroom and they can have a role in the classroom as well. Welcome to the 21st Century!

Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week

For my Technology Pick of the Week this week I would like to select a new Web 2.0 service that was highlighted on the FreeTech4Teachers blog earlier this month and is currently a free service that is similar to slide share. The name of this service is Slide Six.

Slide Six reminds me a lot of Power Point Producer and has the capability of providing an online PowerPoint-like presentation with voice-overs and/or a video all available from the web.

Slide Six
http://slidesix.com/

About Slide Six
http://slidesix.com/about

Best of all the Slide Six site provides you with an embed code if you would like to add your slide six presentation to your website or blog. To see an example of an embedded Slide Six presentation visit the FreeTech4Teachers blog entry for October 14th. A link is provided in the show notes to the FreeTech4Teachers blog entry about the Slide Six service.

http://freetech4teachers.blogspot.com/2008/10/add-voice-narration-to-slide-shows.html

As a reminder the K12Online Conference 2008 is still ongoing so I highly recommend and encourage you to visit this free professional development conference if you have not already done so. Please visit the site k12onlineconference.org to learn more.

K12 Online Confernce 2008
http://k12onlineconference.org/

K12 Online Conference Schedule:
http://k12onlineconference.org/docs/k12online2008schedule.html

That wraps it up for episode 59 of TechTalk4Teachers. Show notes for this episode and archived episodes are available on the web at the EIU Instructional Technology Center website at www.eiu.edu/itc just click on the Techtalk4Teachers Podcast link. If you have a comment of suggestion please send and email to techtalk@eiu.edu or leave a comment on the TechTalk4Teachers blog. Until next time, this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.