Story Time

Here is a rough draft of my Digital Story for my Integrating Technology class. I ended up using iMovie on an iPad to to make it. I found the program to be pretty straightforward to use but a little limited in iOS. I based it on an introduction that I normally just tell to the students about a 3D modeling program we use. I am curious what difference, if any, that a multimedia delivery will have.

For educational purposes..

So I finally took the plunge and created a Twitter account for school. I  would like to use it to keep parents/students informed about what's going on in class, when grades are posted and for sharing things of note related to education or technology. Not sure I'll be able to effectively do all those things from the same account (I'm pretty sure the typical 6th grader isn't particularly interested in the latest educational initiative). And of course I have to get the blessings of all interested parties first.

I have been thinking and talking about this for a while now and after being encouraged from Prof Arzt  as well as being reminded of a fellow West Hartford teacher who happened to be featured in yesterday's Hartford Courant I went for it. One of the hardest parts was coming up with a name, or at least one that wasn't taken. I still need to add some details but I hope this will positively impact my teaching and student learning!

Needles and Hay and all that

I do not need more information. I need an efficient way to find the tools that will do, or help do, what I need done. I think (theoretically) it’s great that a significant portion of all recorded human knowledge has by now been cataloged somewhere on the internet. As someone that has resisted the social piece of the web I am starting to realize the power of a like minded community, particularly one you have grown to trust and know, in helping you find that digital needle. 

Thanks to this post by my indomitable cohort-mate Mari Beth I was able to quickly make a decision about whether to go with Instagram or Flicker as my go to mobile (mostly) photo app. I know Mari Beth. I trust her judgment...well, before that third glass of wine. And because we are both laboring towards a common goal - leveraging tech in our classrooms, I know she is trying answer the same questions that I am. Not only that she has taken the time to do some research and has found a source she finds valuable. All that is more than enough to tip the scales in my mind even if it doesn't guarantee that Flickr is the right solution for me. Now if I could just easily set up my account the way I want to without using another email address/password/login/account name/etc. haha oh well. 

Plugged/Unplugged

Disclaimer – The title of this post does not refer to making a decision about what to do, or not to do, about my hairline.

My attempts to plug into the web this past weekend were thwarted in two ways:

                1. 18,000,000,000 inches of snow (sorry if I rounded down too much)

                2. Internet/Cell service that was so slow and intermittent it made dial up look like Usain Bolt at the Summer Olympics

After sweating throught the initial DT’s due to not being able to listen to any podcasts while shoveling, I started to really enjoy being unplugged. I pretty much soak in some form of media for the better part of every day of my life. Music, podcasts, web, print, smart phone and so on. As much as i like it I wonder if it's really a good thing. Forget sunscreen, someone needs to invent MediaScreen. I would pick up some SPF 120 minutes and that way I could browse the web for a couple of hours and afterwards just go to sleep instead of having my brain race around jumping from thought to thought.

I find myself craving media. Looking forward to that semi-zoned out state of mind where time tends to slide away. Music and the web tend to be a particularly potent cocktail. These days after the kids are asleep I head downstairs with my laptop (craptop as I not so affectionately call it), sign into Chrome, open Gmail, open my Google Drive, sign into Diigo, open the class syllabus, go to the Integrating Technology blog, open my blog, open Google Reader, open a word doc where I can pre-type and fall into the interweb. An idea pops in my mind? I open a new tab and down the rabbit hole I go. A question comes up? Goodbye 20 minutes!

This is one of those times where I don’t need to go to the web (there I go again) and see if there is a study where researchers have found that the human body releases a chemical, or that the brain behaves in a way, that mimics some kind of drug when someone is surfing the web.

And it’s not just the internet, it’s the devices themselves. I see it when my wife an I have our faces buried in our phone while we are sitting on the same couch. I see it in my kids when they’re playing with the iPad with that deer in the headlights look, not responding as I yell their name through a bullhorn. I guess it’s great that they‘ll know their numbers and letters before preschool but I’m not so sure when they are miserable for an hour after it's been taken it away. What's next? Are they going to start taking old stereo’s and TV’s to the local Pawn Shop to scrape together enough dough to buy a used iPad and get their fix? And hey, I didn't have an iPad and I learned my letters and number easily by the fourth grade. 

I remember when social networking really started to take off and there was this debate about the value and authenticity of digital relationships and connections. One side proclaimed it as the future and superior to anything we had previously known while the detractors lamented the end of true human interaction. As usual it seems like the extreme arguments were just that – extreme arguments dressed up in slippery slope logic adorned with “protecting the children” or “don’t be a luddite” language, neither of which unsurprisingly ended up not reflecting reality to a great degree. I go back and forth as to which side I lean a little more towards and I think that like anything in life there has to be some balance with a dollop of moderation mixed in.

On the one hand as a result of the storm I had actual human interactions and conversations (live! real time!) with people that I would not have had otherwise. Whatever it is about adversity or tragedy that brings people together had me helping neighbors and being helped by them. Starting conversations with strangers I would have not otherwise started.

On the other hand social media positively impacted people’s recovery efforts. One site, SeeClickFix, allows users to report things that need to be fixed facilitating volunteers and local governments to pitch in and help. After Winter Storm Nemo the local New Haven community pitched in to help each other out in an effective and targeted way. Sounds like there's room at the table for both. 

Happy early Valentine's Day:

Wandering Heart

The other day my wife confronted me –

            “Who is it?”

            “What are you talking about? Who’s who?”

            “I've seen the texts and the conversations on the computer. What’s her name?”

“Her name's Diigo…”

Yeah, I’m digging Diigo. It’s not only helping me organize my Master’s and School worlds but also the rest of my life. My wife and I finally bought a house (we had been living with her parents since we sold our condo last July) and you can see that reflected in my Diigo library. You can also get a glimpse into my semi-neurotic obsession with trying to reduce the environmental toxins in our lives and especially things that off-gas (other than myself).

One thing that I finally figured out that was making me crazy was how to get the little blue "d" button to appear in the upper right hand corner of the browser:

I must have done it accidentally the first time, and it looks like it may only be available for Chrome but it turns out that it's called the Web Highlighter on Chrome and I like it much better than the Diigolet. For one thing I can close the browser bar and free up some additional space on the screen. It’s also more compact and once selected gives me access to all the Diigo functionality I need. But my favorite thing is that it tells me if I have already bookmarked something by adding a small red bookmark at the top of the button. The Diigolet gives you no indication that you have saved the page so I end up wasting a lot of time re-saving or going back and forth to see if I have saved an item.

In the shameless self promotion department – Before I had kids I used to be the kind of person that groaned internally, and sometimes externally, when people would start talking about their kids or take pictures out. Now if they wanted to talk pets count me in. Vets, wet vs. dry food, idiosyncrasies, poo poo, funny stories, you name it I was game. Of course that all changed when I had kids. Like a reformed smoker speaking out against smoking, I have become the most annoying person in the room.

I've shared a little bit with my cohort-mates throughout the program that when my oldest was born he had some very serious medical issues to deal with. At first we didn't know if he was going to make it as he had a very hard time breathing due to a congenital airway obstruction. He ended up needing a tracheostomy and the doctors weren't sure if he would someday have a diminished voice or even be able to talk at all. Long story short, we were exceedingly fortunate and he had reconstructive surgery a couple of summers ago and is doing great (and very loud!). Today was a big day for him and an exciting yet bittersweet one for us.

Annoyingly Yours...

Sometimes I get a creative idea and I refuse to let it go for better or worse. A little back story: My current afternoon classes are currently working on a project where they are required to design, build and test a scale-model vehicle powered by a Co2 cartridge. The idea is to apply what we have learning about aerodynamics, the forces of motion and and Newton's 3 laws to make the fastest car possible. For my Animoto I decided to show my students examples of past projects as they get ready to start the design process to reinforce concepts and give them some ideas to jump start the creative process:



 
I picked the accompanying song for obvious reasons but I also liked how it's annoyingly catchy. Like a "song of the summer" that burns into your brain until you can't get the melody out of your head. On one hand you don't particularly like it but on the other it parasitically sticks to you like a remora. I observed this same phenomena with the jingle from the Japanese Rube Goldberg clips as seen in my last post. The tune drive the students crazy but they can't forget it, even years later. 

The other song I was considering was the opening track from Pixar's Cars but I wasn't sure if the students would make the connection or if it really even mattered. I feel like "Real Gone" is overall the better song and has a natural propulsive energy to that nicely reflects the project but I am kind of stuck on the idea of the Gary Numan song. I'd be curious to find out which one you like better. Let me know what you think and I'll go with whichever gets more nods!