Despite setting up a Facebook-like presence, I still feel somewhat like a poser. I’m wondering if the students think I’m just like the Diet Pepsi ads…trying to relive my youth.

Of course I’m preaching to the choir, if you’re reading this blog.

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Last year, we discovered how valuable these courses are to our practice. With students’ interests and ways of thinking ever changing, the participants in these workshops have one more way to network and to collaboratively use technology as a tool to better address pedagogical needs. With our division’s progressive initiative of putting laptops into every teacher’s hand and developing wireless laptop carts for every school, there will an increased urgency for teachers to step up and to learn how to use them. Too often we blame a lack of training on the Division; we as teachers have a responsibility to collectively invest in our personal teaching practice. Our students deserve it.

The last few posts are examples of podcasting using Garageband and of digital storytelling using PowerPoint and MovieMaker. This video takes advantage of the online service VoiceThread. Using digital still images in a slideshow is pretty old hat for many of us. What’s great about VoiceThread is its ability to easily record a personal vocal narration to accompany the stills and for others to add their voices by way of comments. My wife and daughter would have also chimed into the production, but were too shy to add their voices at this time.

Here’s my VoiceThread project on our Geocaching excursion to Rouleau, SK (a.k.a. Dog River):

To simply the conversion of online video, Zamzar has created a very convenient button that automates this process. Check it out at http://www.zamzar.com/tools.

Here’s one of the first screencasts I’ve made:

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To view video found on YouTube I had to follow this process:

1) Video on YouTube can be downloaded using the UnPlug application;

2) The .flv content was then converted to QuickTime (.mov) using Zamzar;

3) After downloading the converted material from Zamzar, I uploaded the QuickTime movies to Webfiles (access available only to Regina Public teachers)

4) Finally, I copied the newly created hyperlinks into my blog, which Edublogs interprets into a video player.

The Common Craft movies are nicely created to explain wikis and RSS:

Wikis:

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RSS:

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I’m going to use it with my Lunching with Laptops group.

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This model is described in Blowers’ podcast. In learning through this open and collaborative model, Blowers gives her students 3 pieces of advice:
 1) Give yourself permission to play
2) Make time for discovery.
3) Have fun.

These guidelines echo what we are trying to accomplish through our regular lunch-hour get togethers entitled Lunching with Laptops. Our last meeting demonstrated the need to spend time to discover, to play, and to have fun. One other crucial element is that of dialogue. The forty-five minute period had no set agenda; rather, it was led by the group discussion. It was valuable to have time to voice and to collaboratively address questions.

As social beings, we need to set aside time in our day to chat and to enlighten, to laugh and to commiserate. We need affirmation and guidance. When we design workshops, we need to provide those ”side effects”.