Months ago I saw the ad on YouTube for the Sony Rocket Project and got really excited at the possibility of high school students launching an actual rocket into space. Sure, I could see through the PR campaign by Sony and Intel to prove that their new laptop had the computing power necessary to build and launch a rocket, but high school students putting rockets into space, what’s not to like?
So my students and I followed all the blogs and videos anxiously awaiting the day of the launch.
5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
Nothing!
There was a delay due to weather, but I could be patient. But then days turned into weeks and still nothing.
There were weeks without any news, just the post that said that the delay was due to weather. I followed the so-called jet stream trouble and I knew the day that it was no longer over their launch site and still nothing. From what I can understand from the few cryptic posts on the website — the team has lost the window of opportunity for launch.
Now what?
Well Sony and Intel, good luck digging your way out of this one. It was to be their big launch of the super computer built especially for students and schools. However, they have just learned the biggest lesson when it comes to using school technology — nothing goes like you plan. So my heart goes out to you. I, like many of you, have been there. So buck up and get that rocket into space.
I still have my fingers crossed for the students, and it you are taking votes…
LIGHT THAT FUSE AND LAUNCH THAT BABY!
Like many teachers I look forward to my summers off.
Not that I get to go fishing or things like that. Instead, this is when I get to go around the country and talk about school technology. I usually give about four or five different presentations over and over again as I go from district meeting to convention. And although I love to give presentations, there is something more…
What I like most about my summers are the ideas I get.
For example, last summer when I was speaking about student filmmaking, a had a group of tech and media teachers come up to me after the presentation and we started sharing ideas. Things that I had never considered before. We exchanged contact information and to this day we still follow each other’s work. In fact, just this week when I posted the 5th grade movie, I got an email from this new friend of mine telling me about how he showed the video to his middle school students and challenged them: “This is being done by elementary students — you guys can do better!” Which is almost exactly what I told my students a few months ago. “Come on kids, we can beat these middle schoolers.”
I am a big believer in the sharing of information, ideas, lesson plans, etc. Which is why I started this blog, I wanted a place for tech and media teachers to get together and find the best practices and ideas for what we do.
I am planning on blogging all summer, but the format will change slightly — I am mostly going to be focused on workshops. Everything from claymation to macro digital photography.
And one more thing… if I am in your neck of the woods this summer, make sure to stop by and say hello.
Well my first experience using free Ustream.tv to broadcast my live iPad demonstration was a little hit and miss.
Hit: It was really easy to use. I just logged in and clicked “Start Broadcast” the website found my webcam and microphone and started to broadcast.
Miss: The video quality was really bad, mostly my fault I suspect. I was trying to video a projection screen and my cheap little webcam couldn’t make it look good.
Using school technology like live Internet broadcasting is sometimes like this. You try it a little — learn, and then try it again and try to make it better. I am going to order a better camera and come up with a better system so expect to see better quality in the future.
Thanks for your support.
If you want to watch the recording click on the link below:
Last week we finally wrapped up shooting of our annual 5th grade movie project. The movie project begins with the students having a story writing competition, I they select the best story and the students make a movie based on the story. This year’s movie is based on Bobby E.’s story that involves cookies, zombies, and action. Stats: 3 weeks of shooting makes 2 hours of footage which equals a nine minute movie. Check out the bloopers, they are really funny. Just so we are clear about this — this movie 100% student produced. The only thing done by an adult is the editing.
Movie
Bloopers
I will be demonstrating the things that I have learned about using the iPad in schools this Wednesday, May 19th at 4 PM (US Mountain Time). I will use Ustream to broadcast my demonstration so everyone is welcome to check it out. Please email me any questions that you might have before hand.
I will post the exact information that you’ll need to watch the Ustream on Wednesday morning.
See you then.
I know that you were all looking forward to episode number 1 of The School Technology Podcast, but it just didn’t work out.
I had Darren Atwood, a high school art and technology teacher, from Alberta, Canada and Kristin Tarnas, a fifth grade teacher from Hawaii all connected and being recorded but I was just not happy with the sound quality. I don’t know if it was just the distance between us, or the WiFi, or what.
I am going to make a few phone calls this week to see what I can do to improve things and we’ll try again next week.
If any of you out there might be able to help, here are our specs: We were all using MacBooks and iChat. I think we were all on WiFi (which might be the culprit) and I used GarageBand to record it all. The problem was that the audio kept dropping, so part of sentences would be missed.
Thank you for your patience and hopefully you’ll be able to hear us next week.
Here are the videos of the presentation that I gave at the Poudre School District Foundation’s annual fundraising breakfast. I wanted to showcase the Digital Educator Program (DEP) that the foundation supports so I got fourth grade students from three different schools in my district to show off their school technology skills. Watch the videos and see if you are more techie than my fourth grade students.
Part 1
Part 2
While up in Canada this past weekend I met up with an old friend (a fellow edtech geek) and we started talking about school technology, of course. After spending hours talking about everything from iPads to student music videos we decided that what we needed was a podcast about all these cool things we were talking about.
So I put the word out on a couple of Nings that I am a member of, asking for people who wanted to be panelists and discuss the world of educational technology. I got back a great response and I have put together some great shows ideas that we will record each Sunday night for the next couple of months.
My goal is to produce a podcast that is about 20 minutes long and has people from all over talking about fresh ideas and news regarding the different technology that we use in our schools — success stories mostly, but we will talk about some things that haven’t works as well.
If you have any ideas for subjects that we could talk about or if you would like to be a panelist, just email me.
Please come back Monday and listen to our first school technology podcast.
Last November my wife took a group of middle school students to Nicaragua to do some service work, she also took my 13-year-old son. During the weeks that they were gone I would check the school’s website for any update as to what they were doing. I must of checked in on them at least 5 times a day. It was great to see photos and read the blog about their adventures.
This week it was my turn to return the favor…
This week I went along with the annual field trip into the mountains of Colorado to teach our 5th grade students about ecology and outdoor living. Every day I would blog about what we were doing and I would upload some photos. I thought a few parents would find this fun to follow along. Little did I know how they would respond.
Here is the math: we took 46 students, which means 46 families could possibly read the blog, if they each checked in 5 times a day that would be 230 “hits” to my blog per day. When I got home and checked my blog’s stats I had over 900 hits a day!
What does this mean? Parents want to be connected to their kids — they loved being able to check in and see that they were up to. I think the fact that we got over a foot of snow dumped on us (in May) helped because they just wanted to know that we were okay. Using a school technology like a blog allows us to be connected in a valuable and important way to the families of our students.
Check out my Classroom Blog to see for yourself.
