Stephen's Untold Stories

No, I’m not on the list.

• http://bestcollegerankings.org/2009/top-50-online-education-blogs/

One of the best blog posts I’ve read in quite some time.

The internet is a series of connected tools. It’s time to start treating it like that.

No more talking about Facebook. No more explaining Twitter. No more asking about connecting on LinkedIn.

Just talk. Collaborate. Learn. Listen.

We have daily, nearly real time access to the greatest trove of information ever known, yet all we seem to do is talk about who’s using which network, and how to do so.

Link to complete post.

Thanks to Hoke for pointing this one out. I’ve already added his RSS feed.

Awesome blog post from The Blue Skunk Blog.

At a conference last week, Mark Weston from Dell computing stated that asking the question, “Does technology improve student learning?” is the wrong question.

The question should be, “Does technology support the practices that improve student learning?”

Read the rest here!

There are those who wish to rename the No Child Left Behind act because of the negativity surrounding it. Over at the Eduwonk blog, they are having a contest where you can submit your suggestions. Some are pretty funny.

Some examples:

• The All American Children Are Above Average Act
• Double Back Around To Pick Up The Children We Left Behind Act
• No Child Left Untested
• The Hail Mary With Two Seconds Left on the Clock Act.

Check it out here.

Very funny!

Thanks, Heather!

After much deliberation, I have decided to change the blog design. I chose the Atahualpa theme, and I hope you like it.

You’ll notice some extra subscriber buttons on the right, which will make it easy for people to add my feed to their favorite reader. Let me know if there are any others you think I should add.

Also, my “Loyal Readers” number is now zero, but only because I switched the feed to the bew version of Feedburner. It will start showing real stats in a couple of days. I had around 100 subscribers who use that feed, so the numbers will hopefully be back soon.

I also created several banners which will rotate in the header area. These are all from pictures I’ve taken myself.

I hope you enjoy the changes!

Stephen

This is one of my new favorite photo blogs. Click the image for a larger version.

Check out the Big Storm Picture Blog here.

I am quite glad to see more research being done in this area.

Many students learn best working together on structured, self-directed projects. European researchers have created software that links student blogs and other social software tools into a virtual collaborative learning environment.

The researchers of iCAMP (Intercultural learning campus), a three-year project funded by the European Union, wanted to create software tools that would let university students and teachers work together on structured, self-directed learning projects no matter where they were or what kind of social networking systems they were using.

They believe that the tools and learning approaches iCAMP has pioneered have the potential to transform how institutions of higher education work.

“It could change higher education completely,” says Barbara Kieslinger of the Centre for Social Innovation, Vienna, Austria, and iCAMP project coordinator. “If it would really take off, it would lead to a democratisation of these institutions.”

The iCAMP researchers were guided by an educational theory called constructivism. They believe that students gain new knowledge and skills most readily by working together with others on projects that they themselves define and manage, facilitated rather than controlled by teachers.

In addition to the specifics of what students learn, Kieslinger points out that iCAMP’s approach prepares them to be more self directed, teamwork oriented, and technologically adept later in life.

“It’s part of our responsibility to invite students to take control,” says Kieslinger. “In the workplace, people need to be competent in self direction, social networking and collaboration in technologically mediated environments.”

From early on, the researchers knew that weblogs would be one of their basic building blocks.

“Blogs are the most important single tool,” says Kieslinger. “They are really easy to use, people like them, and they can be used in lots of different activities and learning environments.”

The problem blogs presented was interoperability. Blogs generated on different systems were often not compatible, so students could not conveniently manage joint blogs or track and contribute to each other’s blogs.

Link to article

You’ll notice that the previous post is a group of four links. I am now having the blog updated automatically once per day with my new saved links from my Delicious account.

You can see all of my public Delicious links here.

Just testing for now. This could be dangerous.

Google has just launched a new blog for students. There isn’t much there yet, but I will be adding this to my feed list.

According to Google lore, our company founders didn’t really get along when they first met as Stanford graduate students in 1995. Larry was a 24-year-old University of Michigan alumnus on a weekend visit; Sergey, 23, was assigned to show him around campus. Legend has it that they argued about every topic they discussed. Despite their bickering, they eventually realized that they shared a common goal of solving one of computing’s biggest challenges: organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.

Larry and Sergey then developed an approach to fulfilling this mission that started in a dorm room, expanded to a Menlo Park garage, and eventually became the global campus it is today.

Staying true to our roots, we have always focused heavily on academia. The next way we’re attempting to do this is by launching this blog, especially geared towards students like you. Here we will provide you with useful information like product tips and tricks, and give you an inside look into the people and culture behind Google technology. This will also be the best spot to find out about student programs like Code Jam, the Google Online Marketing Challenge, Google Summer of Code™, and our Scholarship Programs and career opportunities.

http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com

Mark Wagner has an amazing post for those teachers out there who are interested in creating or becoming part of an online learning network. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I have grown as an educational technology professional since I did this.

Many educators are now exploring revolutionary new online tools with their students: blogs, wikis, podcasts, and more – including new social tools like Ning and Twitter. Some or all of these may be unfamiliar to you, and the unending cycle of new tools can be daunting to many teachers. Fortunately, it’s not necessary to master every specific tool. Instead, it is more important for educators to know how to build an online personal learning network, regardless of the tool. Whatever the medium, participation in a personal learning network requires four critical behaviors.

Chief among these is the need to make connections. This isn’t accomplished by asking others to read, listen to, or view the things you post. This is accomplished by reading, listening to, and viewing what others post. If you read an interesting blog post or listen to an enlightening podcast, leave a comment. If someone else makes a keen observation or asks an important question, respond. Others then have an opportunity to discover you as a like-minded person, whose own work might be interesting to them.

Your responses to others can also help you meet the need to make contributions. Any community is only as strong as the contributions made by its members. Just as you might benefit from posts made by others who teach the same subject or grade that you do, they might also benefit from your experience. If you’ve come across a challenge in your classroom or at your school, chances are many others are dealing with the same issue; if you have a solution, share it. If you have a great lesson, a great project, or a great rubric, post it for others. Your unique experience in the specific context in which you work is valuable – and on a global scale it’s potential valuable to a great many others.

Over time, these interactions will help you build relationships with fellow educators around the world, enabling you to make conversations. I’ve been lucky enough to discover like-minded educators in Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Shanghai, Qatar, and elsewhere around the world. I now consider many of these people colleagues and friends. Some of our connections are no longer work related, as we share things about our lives, our families, and our hobbies. Just as you can build friendships through conversations with those who happen to work on your campus, so you can build relationships with others (who may have much more in common with you) around the world.

Read the entire post here.

Well, maybe not. But you can read his diary entries 70 years to the day that he wrote them.

• The Orwell Diaries

A great list you should bookmark or, even better, put in your Del.icio.us account!

• 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers

Great story that got started because of a blog.

A collection of school supplies for students in Afghanistan all started with Riley Beler’s dad.

Paul Park, a teacher with the Prairie South School Division and Canadian Forces soldier with Task Force 1-08, has been serving overseas since February.

To keep friends and family up-to-date on how he’s doing, Park began a blog called “The Sandbox: Dispatches from a high school English teacher in Khandahar, Afghanistan.”

“People started asking him how they could help the people of Afghanistan,” said Sandi Kerney, a Grade 6-7 teacher at Sunningdale School, where Beler is a student.

“One day, he wrote a post about a school that had burned down. He said they could use supplies and it all kind of just went from there.”

A request for pencils, books and other items was included in Sunningdale’s monthly newsletter and the donations started rolling in.

A total of 14 large boxes have been packed up and are ready to be shipped through 15 Wing Moose Jaw’s free overseas shipping to soldiers program.

Link to article

Let these six and seven-year-olds from New Zealand explain it to you!

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Here is their blog.

Fellow northwest Georgia blogger Professor Marvel also had some suggestions.

1. A story behind some of your favorite pictures
2. Tips on taking good photos
3. Using photos in the classroom – Going beyond VoiceThread use.

I’ll tackle the 2nd question here and try get to the others in future posts.

I’ve never had any formal training in photography. I do spend a good bit of time looking at other people’s stuff for ideas. I’ve mentioned Thomas Hawk in a couple of previous posts, and he’s probably my favorite.

I do try to look at things from different angles. For example, look down a one-way street in the opposite direction from oncoming traffic. That’s a view most people never notice. You can see buildings and other landmarks from a different perspective.

This photo is taken from a corner where few people ever stand.

This is the view that most people shoot from.

Since storage cards are so inexpensive now, I take lot of shots without much concern of running out of space. I’ll sometimes take multiple shots of the exact same thing in the same spot just in case I get lucky on the lighting.

I’m not afraid to kneel down, climb up on something, or stand at an awkward angle for a shot. I was practically hanging over the water when I took this snake photo.

When possible, I try to frame an object against a great background. I saw this boat, but I waited until it had the right background for both shots.

Okay…that’s all I can come up with for now. Feel free to share any tips you have!

I can always count on my blogging buddy Rick for some good ideas. He suggested:

1. It’s baseball season. You could discuss the chances of Oregon State once again beating North Carolina in the CWS in a couple of months.
2. Go through your archives and re-publish some of the ones that stick out to you for one reason or another.

Okay, I realize it’s baseball season but I don’t watch a lot of college baseball. I could tell you about the problems that the Braves and A’s are having right now, but nothing about Oregon State and/or North Carolina.

But not knowing anything has never stopped me in the past, so I will unequivocally say that OSU will earn a three-peat by whipping the Tar Heels at Rosenblatt Stadium in June. Go Beavers!

I’ll start looking through the archives and see if I can find anything worty of a repost.

Thanks, Rick!

I have no idea what to blog about. I’m open to suggestions.

Fire away.

Very well done!

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