January 8, 2010

I have been looking at RCampus for a possible collaboration site, and from my preliminary experience with them, it does offer an easy way to collaborate and offers some unique features. I have noticed a lot of these sites being offered to educators, and I feel that the net is meeting the needs of 21st century teachers and learners. I feel the abundance is a boon to us. With that boon also comes problems in that it is so difficult to choose, and my advice is to choose one that meets your needs; those needs will vary with the teacher. Some love the variety and are comfortable with that while others fear that variety and would rather deal with something more staid. I am finding that most of these sites offer both. Well, it is off to the weekend.............flick

November 3, 2009

I took a good look at my color scheme for the blog, and I said to myself, "Self, it is still appropriate for the upcoming month; therefore, I will not change a thang." I know I have great conversations with myself. Speaking of conversations, I had a great one with a Social Studies teacher yesterday who came to me wondering what innovative and 21st Centuryesque could be done with a new class. We brainstormed the topic and came up with several. I loved it. Oh, the the teaching went great yesterday, and I must admit that I missed being there. I love the collaborative aspect of education at this point, and even though it is not new to me, I think it is great to watch this aspect unfold. Technology is helping to spearhead the collaborative concept, and I take some satisfaction in knowing I was correct in my approach years ago, even though I took some heat for it. I do not like the regimen that is driving it all here, but I know one can adapt. I also told all of my loyal reader(s?) that I would keep up the blog, and I am adhering to that promise. So, for all of you out there in blogdom.....pppppppppttttttttttttttttttt...flick

October 16-31

Yes, I know that I have been remiss in updating the blog, and I have heard from the bevy of my loyal readers so i have decided to get it updated. This will be a long entry so I will also try not to bore you with all of the minute details. First of all I will update you on the wiki project. The project did go well with the classes, and they presented this week. I was impressed with how easy wikispaces has made the entire process....Kudos. I even made an interactive rubrik for the scoring of them. I was not impressed with the effort exerted by most of the groups; I am glad that some did put effort into it. It was a good and quick project. With the same teacher I assisted in the Voice of Democracy contest in that I supplied the technical and the lit coach did the teaching. I am assisting the lit coach next week when she is out of town. I am back in my original genre, English. Henrik Ibsen will not be the same.

The rest of the time dealt with meetings with teachers, examining web sites, research, and the endless drone of "This does not work." I would like report on a collaboration site called Wiggio. I have looked at this, and I do see practical application for its use. If a teacher wants to use it with a class, then he/she must be careful of the email application embedded within the program. It is touted as an extension of the social networking package big on the internet today. I like the collaborative aspect.

On the hardware front, a lot of problems have been eliminated. Oh, do not tar and feather me for not knocking on the proverbial hard drive, but I have less and less to contend with. School districts, if they want to continue to use technology, need to have good people and enough people in place to make it all work. I am also perturbed by those who feel that they can cheapen the system because they end up paying more later. Okay, I am done with the b%$#%%. Well, that is my update. I will do my best to become more diligent in the future with my blog so my readers do not migrate to someone else. Have a great Halloween...............flick

May 12, 2009

I had an interesting meeting with a coach, and I had to admit that I was amazed at some of the information she told me about a student who questioned the practice of collaboration among the various disciplines. I have thought about this one, and I do see the student's point. I have been worried about the teachers, and I also feel that we need to address the why to the students. It does follow the learning focused model that we are touting, and whenever I go into a classroom to teach or team teach, I will explain the collaboration to them. What an eye opening experience! I also have been trying to get the solar car competitors together. It is so neat to see what they have created. I hope that they have the foresight to test their vehicles and solve problems. I also have to prepare a kit for them to do repairs. Could be an interesting day Friday! Holy smokes, two exclamation marks in the same blog entry. With all of this, I still met with five teachers today and attended the district track and field meet in Altoona. So, I will be back tomorrow....flick

May 5, 2009

As the Canadians would say, "oot and aboot" (I mean no disrespect--love Canada). Little time to sit today because the conference last week and its subsequent collaboration has generated a plethora of requests about various subjects. I can not even describe how many times I was stopped and asked various questions about everything from Web 2.0 items to just software questions. Yep, you got it; I like it. It does get a little disconcerting with the firing of questions from all over the dartboard, but I did have most of the answers. Those I do not know; I will find them and get back. I have begun preparation for the TIMS for tomorrow and worked on other projects for the rest of the week. I will let you know how it all goes........austinlavista--I can fracture any language.......LOL...........flick

December 15, 2008

I do apologize for not posting until now, but it has been really busy. Monday was great in that it is always a learning experience to collaborate with fellow coaches, and the representative is doing a great job to get us to do that with various tools and meetings. We went over Thinkfinity, but most importantly, we had to opportunity to look at other projects and listen to each other. I feel this networking concept is fantastic, and I came back with good ideas. Tomorrow looks like a bear, but I will get there and win....flick