The K12 Geek

So while catching up on my blog reading a few days ago I saw that Vicki Davis (Coolcat Teacher Blog) had a request for ‘outsourced video clips’  for the Horizon Project 2008.  Well, that’s right up my alley being a budding videographer! (Well, ok – I fool around a bit with digital video.) So I perused the listings of wanted videos and lo and behold one student wanted a video of “Someone playing RockBand or Guitar Hero.”

Ahh, video games — that’s something I enjoy as well (when I can find the time.) Soooo, here’s my contribution to the global education community.  I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed creating it. (I only wish that my PA TIMs buddies could have contributed with a RockBand video instead of my solo effort.)

And hey, take a look at the list and help these students out - it’s your duty as a global educator to do so!

And they call this work?!

Thanks to Leo for this one…

Adobe is working on Buzzword - an online word processor. “Nonsense!” you say. “Google Docs does it all for me.” And you may be right - Google Docs might be all you need.

However, take a look at Buzzword. You can do most things like Google Docs, but you can also have students comment on a document - and have the comments show up along side in colored ’sticky-note’ types of things.

“…many documents today are the product of several people’s contributions. You might have multiple authors, or you’ll at least send drafts around for review. Students may have a team assignment or be submitting the paper for grading and comments from the teacher.

Today, we typically do this by attaching Word documents to emails and mailing them to multiple people. The result is a proliferation of documents and comments, that often leads to confusion and version collision. But if you have only one copy of the document, collaboration becomes much simpler. The owner can share the document with whomever she wishes. Each user sees the same copy of the document and any changes and comments in real time.

You can hide and display comments from the Comment Bar. Just click on the Show comment icon.

When comments are active, you’ll see a small comment bubble in the right margin of your document. Mouse over the comment bubble - it expands and prompts you to “Click to add a new comment here.” You can add text, tables or graphics to comments, as well as drag the contents of a comment into the document.”

Pretty cool - so stop reading this and take a look. It may be worth your time.

Today I had the pleasure of sitting in on a colleague’s Instructional Technology Masters portfolio defense. It doesn’t seem so long ago that I was in that same hot seat (a little over two and a half years.) She did a great job presenting her artifacts, fielding tough questions from two of my favorite professors, and generally handling the situation with ease.

I remember that I wasn’t really that nervous when I ‘defended.’ After several years of classes, one-at-a-time, attending them at night, on a year-round basis, it was more a relief to be done than a nervous experience. I felt confident in my work and it was a relief to finally get ‘the prize’ at the end of the long trip.

Sitting in the back and watching the proceedings, I couldn’t help but think about how I thought I was ‘done’ back then. It truly was just the beginning. The beginning of a new phase of my professional career. Those credentials opened doors that otherwise would have been closed to me. They gave me choices - and I like choices.

So join me in raising a cup, a glass, your eyebrows — to Mardy. Congratulations on all the hard work. I hope the journey has been a fruitful one for you, and I wish you many more years of personal and professional satisfaction.

You done good!

Just a quickie for today:

Classic Poetry Aloud podcast:

Poetry podcasts of the great poems of the past. It’s English literature for living: a few minutes of the day for quiet and reflection. Classic Poetry Aloud - giving voice to the poetry of the past.

A great, free way to listen to classic poetry for students and teachers. Check it out if you haven’t already. If you have, leave a comment on how you use it in your classroom.

Enjoy! (Thanks to Chris S. and Lisa M. for this one.)