johnhendron.net: hendron’s digest - a weblog

This week at NECC, I will be presenting at a poster session from 1-3 PM on the topics covered in RSS for Educators.

John Hendron published the book RSS for Educators: Blogs, Newsfeeds, Podcasts and Wikis in the Classroom (2008, ISTE) based on his experiences working at Goochland County Public Schools as supervisor of instructional technology.

For ISTE’s NECC 2008 in San Antonio, John will be available for answering questions about the use of Read/Write Tools in K-12 education, demonstrating examples used in the book.

Relevant Links:

• Goochland Blogs (2005-2008)
• Goochland Blogs (2008+)
• Goochland Wiki
• Goochland Technology Times (over 120 episodes)
• Goochland School Websites
• John’s Professional Blog: Hendron’s Digest
• ISTE Bookstore

Our efforts in using Read/Write tools have been recognized by the Virginia Tech School of Education and the Virginia Department of Education. If you don’t have an opportunity to ask questions in person, feel free to use the comments in this post for questions.

I will be presenting this year at NECC on Wednesday afternoon! I invite attendees to NECC to attend my presentation on High Quality Technology Professional Development. You can download the session handout, below (PDF).

I’m also going to be leading a (filled) workshop on Google Sketchup and doing a poster session covering the topics I wrote about in my book. See you in San Antonio!

It’s great to be here for NECC 2008.

You know, this week I’m presenting at NECC. That’s the National conference that has international attendees. Some of the big-boys from Virginia are here, including Fairfax, Falls Church, and Henrico, just to name a few. And then there’s little old Goochland. We have a pretty good reputation in the Commonwealth, but sometimes I worry.

The presentation is on quality professional development. I think we really, honestly do provide some quality training and support. But it also requires the support of everyone, including those above you. It certainly isn’t as strong as it used to be.

Last year I could actually pay teachers to attend some classes. It made it a much stronger, better-attended experience. This year, I’m having people just not show up, or cancel the morning of the session. In one class, I had one student and 2 hired helpers. Disappointing.

One case in point that gives me cause for worry is this exchange between me and a teacher in a session:

• (John) Okay, next we’re going to find some photos from the city you selected in Flickr via their Creative Commons search area. Open up a web browser and go to flickr.com.
• (Teacher) Whoa, what? A web browser? Come on, what is a web browser??
• (Another teacher) Firefox, click on Firefox.
• (Teacher) Why didn’t you just say go to the Internet?
• (That other teacher) Well, Firefox is a Web browser.
• (Teacher) Ok, never knew that! Can’t I use Safari? But that’s not a Web browser, is it?
• (John) [Speechless gaze.]

We’ve come so far in our little school division. We really have. I have some 200 blogging teachers, with at least a quarter who are podcasting. Yet, we still have those that struggle with basic terminology. And I won’t even begin to extrapolate on how three different people, among three different courses we taught, didn’t know how or what copy and paste worked/was.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

In the book RSS for Educators, I mention using a WordPress blog plugin called PodPress. Today I created a video that covers its basic use.

Publishing a Podcast with PodPress WP Plugin from John Hendron on Vimeo.

This video was produced in a series of 5 instructional videos for introducing our new blogging installation to teachers next month and throughout August.

This is the thought in my head, a question really:

Can being too prolific diminish what you have to say?

Since actively following some folks on Twitter, I realize there are some that just seem too prolific. New links, new ideas, new blog posts, new things going on. At what point does the sheer amount of content you produce add to noise, detracting from the important things you have to say?

I decided to follow so-called Cool Cat Teacher who is constantly appearing in my Twitterific client with new blog posts, ideas, etc. I have found some good links and things she has said, so I do value her contribution to the Internet’s ever-expanding cache of content. But, I must also question how she manages to do it, does she connect a USB cable to her brain, and the other end to Twitter’s servers?

I feel at times there is too much new to read and catch up on. While I can appreciate how different sources add up to the amount of content, when new content is constantly coming from single individuals, you have to wonder if all the stuff being shared/tweeted/blogged/written/podcasted, etc. is of all the same quality.

While some folks online take their time with carefully polished, reflective ideas, others remind me of a machine that’s constantly consuming as much watermelon as you can chuck at it, with the machine constantly spewing out the seeds. I’m guilty too, of course, of taking tasty bites, then spitting it all out before it’s fully tasted/tested.

But in light of all this content I see generated, I think I want to focus my own publishing to things more carefully thought out and pondered. As long as other folks are still scouring the Web non-stop for new ideas and leads, I think we’ll be okay. I may eventually find a niche for longer, reflective, time-pondered ideas.

As I prepare for the July 25 ITRT Summer Camp sponsored by VSTE, I’ve been thinking, and I like the idea found here: quarantine your new tools.

My presentation is just about complete, but I am going to tell folks exactly what Scott says in that post: don’t just share what new tool you found; share what it is, how you use it, and your evaluation of it.

It is far more valuable for other educators who may then want to adopt it in their classroom.

I had some genuine fun working with my colleagues this week at producing some new instructional materials for use at the middle school next school year.

What I did, mainly, was to produce some instructional screen casts (example, below). But after listening to these two, outlining the interface “nonsense” of OmniFocus, I think maybe I should lighten up a bit and take on more dramatic flair.

Photo Galleries with iLife ‘08 from John Hendron on Vimeo.

Adding Image Overlays in iMovie 7 from John Hendron on Vimeo.

See here, the poor guy finally got his printer working after a lot of fuss.

This is sad.

Tonight I joined a “newcomers group” in SL. They passed out hats and a nice packet. It was fun sitting in the new meditation chairs and getting a cowboy hat.

More interesting was seeing all these folks excited about going to NECC soon.

Using the free tool Wordle, you can generate tag clouds of text, including your del.icio.us bookmarks.

Above, my tag cloud from del.icio.us; below, my colleague’s cloud.

The post I made last week on books, Google making us dumb, and the like, has been a popular meme on the Web, especially so among educators.

Among the things I read were sentiments I’d heard before about books. Somehow “Google Changing Us” meant to some books are better. Of course, it’s easy to lose that argument, because books aren’t better: they cost us trees and ink, they are not searchable (at least not by the speeds we are accustomed to), and they take up a lot of physical space. Yes, there are some advantages folks point out, but in another generation, legibility should be fixed.

So, instead having a rational explanation for people not liking the fact that Google (and computers) might be changing their minds, and all the business with books, we hear from some an outpouring of book love and favor that could only be described as the profound romanticism of books.

A lot of points are made. The smell, the feel of “good quality” paper, the typefaces (even so, by folks who can’t tell Times from Bembo), the heft of the binding and covers, and who knows what else. I was recently contacted by a reader who described the ultimate book experience like this: “the zen of books…” With such love for inked paper held together with glue and stitching, it’s hard not to notice the sense of luxury people hold to the book experience.

I recently acquired a Kindle to see what I thought. Could this be a tool of the future?

The Kindle offers a lot of technology in a little package, and I ultimately feel it’s for folks who aren’t necessarily computer people. Would I ever pay for blogs just to be able to read them on a specific device? No, that’s against the “culture” I’m used to in blogging. The Kindle newspaper subscriptions are even a little bit of a stretch for me.

But the Kindle does offer some things I think even some book romantics might like: electronic paper versus a backlit screen, book shopping built-in, bookmarks, and even the ability to “highlight.”

Whereas the iPhone significantly improved the genre (of a cell phone), I don’t think the Kindle was quite as successful. It made some significant strides, but ultimately falls short (in its current form). No doubt, like many new technologies, it will continue to evolve and improve.

But back to this romanticism. I am of course not totally immune from it, but let’s look at what I mean:

• Books are better because they feel better in my hands.
• Books are about depth, the Web is about breadth.
• Reading books, hours at a time, is a noble pastime of the literate and cultured.
• The Internet is Geocities and MySpace (read: trash), books are art (read: Sense and Sensibility, Tom Sawyer).
• A computer screen (and maybe even a Kindle) cannot replace bona fide, traditional, timeless paper books.

I just assumed these, I didn’t find anyone saying precisely these things. But I also imagine what kids might be saying:

• Books are worse because they’re heavy to carry around and then you dump them. (We live in a throw-away society.)
• The Web is about connections and constantly drawing a bigger picture of the world. (The Web is attractive for its breadth, but many times offers depth to those who have the interest.)
• Time is limited; I can read on my cell phone or new iPod when I’m waiting around (in line, in the car, the bus, etc.) to see what’s going on. (Technology offers convenience.)
• The Web is what’s happening now, not ideas that had to be written and finalized ages ago. (The Web, via Twitter, RSS, and more is what’s going on right now and being in the know on the latest stuff is, well, the best.)
• When I read, I can also listen to music, watch videos, and IM friends; reading alone is boring. (Single minded vs. multitasking preferences.)

So, yes, I’ve admitted “Google” has changed us. But my message is this: Don’t glorify books against technology just because you romanticize the book experience. Know that the students you teach don’t very likely even understand these romantic notions. They instead demonstrate interest in what’s faster, flashier, higher-resolution, and more powerful. Don’t miss the evolution of media or the revolution taking place in education.

As ever, sometimes change is taxing.

If you will remember some time ago, when candidates were first just getting started, the McCain campaign had come out with a MySpace page, but who ever made it, stole the design.

In fact, they never changed the references from the original designer’s graphics. So, as a prank, they made pro-gay statements on McCain’s page by changing their own graphics. This is called “hotlinking” sometimes, and is a discouraged practice. When you hotlink graphics, you’re stealing someone else’s bandwidth, not to mention their intellectual property.

Well, at least we know now it wasn’t McCain himself.

Say what you will about a candidate who can’t use a computer.

Wesley Fryer recently posted about a presentation he saw, by Kevin Honeycutt.

I loved reading about it because, well, it provided some ripe ideas and ways of thinking.

I especially liked the idea to run through YouTube with teachers and see what they can find. I also liked his notes on the “better” teachers (getting in trouble), and the only way to help a child like that learn is to build a relationship and create a safe space…

I hadn’t used this tool before, but thought it was kind of fun.

Some time ago, I shot a photo in Washington, VA, and now it appears in a museum.

Museum by dumpr.net

Make your own creations using Dumpr, via 2 Dolphins.

This recent comment in the Richmond Times-Dispatch reminds us that technology for teachers can be a very good “friend,” and not a “foe.”

Thanks to Carolyn Phillips for sharing this with me, and Lewis P. Lawson from Collegiate for writing it!

Looking at some of my photos this morning, this one caught my eye.

It reminds me that sometimes, getting through to people, is like getting through this cactus.

I think it would be a fun professional development session to look at a wide variety of digital photos and come up with captions that related to your area of study (let’s say, teacher retention or school improvement) but used these photos. You could even do it by various means of different technologies (wiki, chat, voting, etc.).

In a new article that appears in the Atlantic comes the following:

Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.

I just posted earlier on this topic, sort of, at David Warlick’s blog, in response to his adding of a formatting bar to his so-called Blogmeister tool. I approved of the decision, but believed that online writing and reading deserves pedagogical time that likely it does not.

To wit, the famous Friedrich Nietzsche had this to say:

“You are right,” Nietzsche replied, “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.”

A new tool deserves new thought on what it does well. How it affects our communications, for sure. How does it affect our ability to learn?

Of course this is important. To wit:

Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives—or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts—as the Internet does today. Yet, for all that’s been written about the Net, there’s been little consideration of how, exactly, it’s reprogramming us

I don’t worry so much as the author of this piece, Nicholas Carr does, about losing my humanity by treating my brain like a computer. As educators, I think we need to harness the capabilities of the Net for its benefits. And some of those benefits may be new ways in acquiring knowledge and thinking. This isn’t necessarily bad, just because it’s different.

But it does remind me of another thing I read recently, at Jason Kottke’s blog, about what would happen if we were to go back 1000 years or so in a Benelux country. Would I survive? Yes, I’m too dependent upon Google. But when Google is ubiquitous as clean water, I think we’ll be okay.

Until time travel is possible, that is.

Via Kwa, I read what Jennifer had to say about her school experience, some years ago.

The experience Jennifer shares with us takes on several qualities that today we might hold in high regard:

• Project based approaches;
• Inter-disciplinary study;
• Inter-grade level collaboration;
• Time to create, even celebrate the arts.

What was it like? Students learn and create together.

I am sure each of us could go back to our histories as learners and pull out examples that we’d like to return to. While Jennifer’s memory is great, we can’t say for sure, over those 26 years, that it happened just like that. But here’s where things go wrong, today, I feel.

Who’s getting paid to celebrate the arts? Not too many folks. What are public educators getting paid to do? Bring up test scores. What’s the most efficient way to bring up test scores?

It’s not through creating together and mixing up the generations in a comfortable, collaborative environment.

We can blame NCLB. We can blame the tests; we can also blame society and the other ways the world has changed. Yet, it is rare that I hear anyone talk about changing the way we teach if it isn’t geared towards better test scores. Well, of course, there’s those tech folks who think using technology can better instruction.

Despite the testing and the restrictions today, there are public educators who do care more about lifelong experiences than a state- or federally-mandated test. They do care about the quality of the time spent learning through creating. These are folks we almost unanimously would label “masters” in their profession.

What’s easy for us to forget is that the wonderful experience Jennifer recalls may have been insignificant or even painful to some of her classmates. The best educators are those that have so many tricks up their sleeves, figure out what works best for each individual student, and very likely, celebrates creation as a central tenant of the learning experience.

For as much as I love technology, it’s difficult for me to admit, but using a digital tool doesn’t necessarily make the best one for every student, in every lesson. Shocker, eh? What Jennifer wrote that I felt was most important was the experience through which students had choice in their learning experience. So many times, when we choose a digital tool, we limit our students in how they use that tool, negating any semblance of choice.

When I wrote RSS for Educators, I had fun coming up with some lesson ideas for the book. I thought about lessons I’d taught, some I’d heard about, and some that’d never been done. One of my favorites, in the section on wikis, is a school-based version of the “wikipedia.” I wonder if that’d fit in here?

Let’s look at that list again:

• Project based approaches; adding terms would be a continuous, big project, but I could see projects being designed and shared through a wiki, too…
• Inter-disciplinary study; wikis and Web pages are great for lots of linking and combining…
• Inter-grade level collaboration; yeah, the topic you look up may have been written by a 3rd grader…
• Time to create, even celebrate the arts. Creation is there, for sure, but the arts (dance, music, visual art, drama) weren’t specifically targeted. They can, however, be represented in various ways as part of the large collective of knowledge. Imagine a short video clip of kids learning the foxtrot in gym class, added to the Wiki on a page on dance, or specifically, that one dance. The pictures we today see in dictionaries and encyclopedias could really come “alive.”

Anyhow, it’s late, and I’m sleepy. I hope you’re inspired by your own past experiences and begin to think closely about what made them great.