Creating Lifelong Learners

At the CUE Conference I presented two sessions, my favorite was “Digital CPR: Bringing Your Reading Series to Life with Digital Video Podcasting.”

I opened the session with “Camouflage Jones, Private Investigator” which is one of my more successful classroom movies in terms of balancing curricular demands and cinematic concerns. I must say it was the best audience the movie ever had as they laughed in all the right places.

I then gave nine ideas for video podcast projects which you can find on the hand out.

Rather than just giving a list, I provided examples of each kind of project and interspersed the ideas with information on how to plan projects given the restraints of a standardized curriculum, namely time management, classroom management, and effective planning. You can see a PDF version of my Keynote Presentation here though the movie examples can only be seen at http://www.videointheclassroom.com

I placed barriers to using the technology early in the presentation to address what I believed teachers concerns were before they came up. I like telling people that I’ve worked in a one computer classroom to show that technology can be still be integrated even with limited resources and equipment.

Audience response was good. I know a few participants wanted more technical information on how to create a podcast and I think I will include that next time. However, I believe that is the easy part and can be found through a simple Google search. My goal of the workshop was to show how the video production could directly be applied to the classroom instruction already going on rather than simply be another tool that we’d use if only we had time.

I’m thankful that a few people blogged about the session. (Incidentally, being blogged about is a new experience for me. As a literacy coach, you never have your session on vocabulary development written about and reflected on). I think their posts about the session are more meaningful than anything I can say about it.

Please see these posts:

• Alice Mercer (who posted about every session she visited and single handedly doubled my conference experience)
• Jose Rodriguez (who live-blogged the session, kinda cool)
  
• Gail Desler very succinctly got at the essence of the presentation as well as others she visited
• Messier (who I don’t know, but I like)

I was a guest Tuesday on the It’s Elementary show with Jose Rodriguez, Alice Mercer, and Lisa Durff to discuss using video production/podcasting in the elementary classroom. They were terrific hosts and I had fun being on the show.
I particularly enjoyed brainstorming productions gone wrong. It forced me to think more about how you start out doing video production in your classroom. Similar to other subjects, scaffolding is key but more about that later.

You can hear the audio, view the archived chatroom, and even post a new comment here.

In reflecting on my CUE experience I’m struck by how much the internet has broadened my personal learning network. More important than any of the sessions I attended were the connections made in the hallway, passing through the exhibit hall, back at the hotel. The diagram at left attempts to explain with concentric circles around me the networks I have built through internet communication over the past few years.

There were several people I knew at CUE because we’ve worked together or met through various meetings such as friends from LAUSD or LACOE. These were face to face friends. However, there were a much larger group of people who I’ve met through trainings I’ve conduced as a result of my web site, Open Court Resources.com. Then there were the Apple Distinguished Educators who were well represented at CUE and made up another large group of people who I know. Then there were another group of people who I would not ever have known were it not for Twitter, Classroom 2.0, and blog reading. These teachers come from all over California and even other states.

If you don’t read blogs, then you don’t have the opportunity to expand your own network to include people you may never have known.

FOR NEWBIES: Not all software costs money. In the early days of computers, in fact, most software was free and freely exchanged between teachers before software companies began to form and monetize the industry. Free software still exists, only you may not know about it because it’s free (they don’t advertise). This free software is called by some “Open Source Software. And now on to my story…

The surprise highlight of the conference for me came totally by accident as the result of a chance meeting between my good friend and ride to CUE, Nick Pernisco, and Steve Hargadon outside the exhibit hall floor that resulted in Nick helping Steve to set up the computers for his morning session.

I have read Steve’s blog but I admire him most for his creation of the the Classroom 2.0 site on Ning which has gone a long way in furthering my own professional development and advancing the cause of educational technology. It’s like Myspace for teachers, bringing together educators interested in similar topics of education. It’s also led the way to the creation of many other groups including the literacy coach group I started.

So I was very interested to meet Steve even though I assumed his topic, “An Introduction to Open Source Software” would be really boring. But Nick got me to go so I sat down at one of the Dell PCs and proceeded to look for internet explorer (it wasn’t there, it was the Open Source Pavillion…oops).

Steve saw me, I believe he recognized my name because we’ve corresponded before and he said hello. I was a little bit in awe as he was the most famous person I’d seen at CUE but I could tell right away by the fact that he came over to say hello that he is very down to earth and not the arrogant SOB I fear many popular ed tech personalities might be if I met them face to face.

Then came the presentation. Steve was passionate about the subject and that passion was quickly contagious. While I knew of several open source programs and linked to a few on the free software page of Mr. Needleman.com it turns out I didn’t know the first thing about Open Source Software.

What I learned…

Operating systems can be free. I really didn’t know what Linux was. I thought it was an impractical operating system for super-dorks. However, an iteration of Linux, called Ubuntu can be installed freely on computers and includes a Microsoft Office alternative called Open Office which can read and write files that can be read by the actual Microsoft Office (you don’t need to buy Microsoft Office). While the name Unbuntu may conjure up images of strange lines of code flying across the screen in African dialects (I imagined it would look like MS DOS 2.0) Ubuntu/Linux looks pretty much like Windows. Let me repeat, running Ubuntu looks almost like running Windows.

This Ubuntu can sometimes run on older machines that can no longer be updated with new operating systems. Let’s repeat that…Many schools have older computers that they are ready to throw out, but they could be given new life by installing Ubuntu and the cost of the Ubuntu operating system is free. Ubuntu has never had a virus and does not get spyware. How’s that for you? You can run PCs without spyware. Susan’s Gateway laptop which takes 30 minutes to start up might take only ten if we installed Ubuntu on it.

Interesting Points

Free does not equal no cost. There is the cost of the software (which is free) but there is a cost in man hours installing the software. However, this is really no different from installing the latest Windows or Mac operating system. Someone still has to go to each computer and install it.

Different tools for different jobs. Steve makes the point that a school with ten thousand dollars might by one Macintosh AND a whole lab of Ubuntu running machines to get the best of both worlds.

What I’m Wondering

Does Ubuntu run on old Macs? I prefer the Mac platform but on our older iMacs I wonder if Ubuntu would be a solution to bring them up to date.

Can you run commercial software on Ubuntu? If teachers install Ubuntu but still wanted to run Type to Learn on it, could they?

How do the creators of these software programs get paid? I know they’re nice guys and believe in making stuff free but I keep wondering if they’re each independently wealthy or how they are somehow able to profit from making this stuff available free. Especially, as something like Moodle gets repackaged and then sold by other vendors. Who is original Mr. Moodle and is he alright?

What I Wish

I wish that I knew of a free Open Source movie making alternative to iMovie/MovieMaker. I do know Audacity is a free alternative to Garageband.

My Two Cents

Steve didn’t mention one of my favorite Open Source software programs, NVU, a Dreamweaver web site creation alternative.

The Takeaway

This opens the doors to what is possible in schools. Teachers should be aware that there is an alternative to Macintosh/Windows operating systems that is much less expensive and could go a long way toward putting computers in every child’s hands. Steve’s made me a believer.

It’s six in the morning and I’m up and mostly alert.

My first day at CUE was mostly about networking.

This is my first time attending CUE but I’ve seen a lot of people I know here either because I’ve met them in person or online. Very cool to meet Jose Rodriguez, Alice Mercer, and Gail Desler yesterday in person after reading their blogs and corresponding for the last year. I hope to see them again later.

Alice is doing a better job than I am of visiting sessions and blogging about them. Since I’m presenting I’m a little too distracted to attend all the sessions or sit down and write about them while I’m here. So I will write about sessions I attend later today but for additional updates I refer you to Alice’s blog.

I attended a Video in the Classroom special interest group meeting. This is a new group and they’re wondering how they can sustain themselves as the group has been created and disbanded in the past. Other than supporting each other, they plan to create a wiki with comprehensive articles on video production. Everyone was very enthusiastic about video production though most were at the high school or college level.

Then I went to a couple of reunions with Apple Distinguished Educators. We met in a hotel room and then went out to the street fair which was cool and walked around. We had dinner at the Blue Cayote Grill. It was good to see everyone again and meet a few new people who weren’t at Apple Camp last summer.

We’re seeing a keynote by Vincent Cerf, inventor of the internet, this morning and I’m presenting at 11:30 on integrating video podcasting into your existing reading curriculum (called Digital CPR). So I’m going to go find breakfast and review my keynote again.

I’m leaving today to attend the CUE (Computer Using Educators) Conference in Palm Springs. I’ll be blogging from there for the next three days. You can follow along here or for more frequent updates, follow me on Twitter.

The conference started officially unofficially with an unconference yesterday where educators informally share ideas and resources. John Rivera did a great job of summing up that experience and sharing some of the best nuggets of information. See his post here.

You can see some of the actual sessions via streaming video on U-Stream, here.

I’m excited about the next three days. I hope that you can join me in person or virtually follow along by participating in the conversation on the blog.

Update:  Alice Mercer posts info on a CUE ession with Sam Adams (teacher Mr. Lebsock in costume) and the value of podcasting to bring history alive.

It’s not too late to make plans to join me at the Computer Using Educators Conference in Palm Springs, March 6th through 8th. Attend my workshops, “Digital CPR: Bringing Your Reading Series to Life With Digital Video” or “Podcasting on a Pacing Plan, How to Plan It, Produce, It and Fit it All In (Hands-On Workshop).”

Even if you don’t attend my workshops please stop by and say hello. I’ll be there and am looking forward to meeting web site visitors, fellow bloggers, and a few people I’ve only e-mailed but never met.

See you there!

(And if you can’t make it to Palm Springs, I’ll be posting from CUE. Stay tuned).

If you’re in the Southern California area in March and planning on attending the CUE Conference please make plans to join me for session 2 or 6 in Palm Springs March 6-8.

Digital CPR, Bring Your Reading Series to Life with Video Podcasting
Friday, March 7th, 11:30 am – 12:30 am
Bring your students into the 21st Century with six fun and easy standards-based video podcasts to motivate even those reluctant learners.

Podcasting on a Pacing Plan: How to Plan It, Produce It, and Fit It All In
Saturday, March 8th, 11:30 am – 12:30 am
This hands-on session in the Apple Pavillion teaches how to create video podcasts and how to manage instructional time to be able to find the time to integrate podcasting with mandated curriculum.

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