CEP811 Blog Lab

Today I am working on a lab for my new class, CEP811 Adapting Innovative Technologies to Education.  I was tasked with describing the differences between traditional web pages and blogs. 

In my experience, web pages are depositories of information.  There might be facts, examples, links to other resources, and of course advertisements.   It used to be that only geeks like me who knew how to program in HTML code could actually create and maintain a web page.  Today though, anyone can put up a simple web page using tools like Google Sites, or others. 

Blogs on the other hand are much more reminiscent of the paper journals of my youth.  Now most of us rough and tumble boys would never have thought of keeping a journal, but all of our sisters and female cousins did.  It was, and blogs are today, a collection of our thoughts, feelings and even ramblings.  Sometimes they contain our hopes and dreams and even though a fact or two might creep in, they are not primarily for passing on information about things... but our feelings about people and places. 

Even I, in my efforts to chronicle my journey through the Masters of Education program, find myself keeping a Blog... There are not many deep, dark secrets being revealed, but there is some link to the victories and struggles along this new journey.

CEP810 and ePortfolio SIG

Wow.. it seems like yesterday we were starting CEP810 and now we are 7 weeks into the course.  I have been so busy that I have not had the opportunity to post any updates. During this course I have been involved with a great SIG group that has been researching ePortfolios and their use in the High School environment.  This has been an eye opening experience and we have really created a great resource for someone looking to institute ePortfolios in their classroom. I am very proud of it.  I will have a post next week with a link to the presentation, which is in the format of an ePortfolio itself.  But for now, I wanted to share a link to our Diigo group as we have consolidated about 50 great links to resources, articles and YouTube videos on the subject.  Jump over and take a look...

http://groups.diigo.com/group/810-e_portfolio

The journey begins again...

After a few months off  for the summer break, I am back on track with the program.  I am also looking forward to applying some of the great knowledge I have aquired at ISTE 2012 and the 2012 Google Summit. 

To supplement this blog and to provide a place to apply some of the great tools that I have found, I created a new website called www.EdTechQuickTips.org   Here we will provide links to great tools and resources along with a video blog of QuickTips for teachers who are trying to incorporate technology into their classrooms. 

ISTE 2012 Rocked!

I just got back from San Diego... I really wish I could have stayed all week!  I have been going to conferences and expos for more than 3 decades but I have never been to a conference that was so packed with useful information.  I was only able to go to three sessions but all three were power packed and full of great ideas and resources.  I feel so enriched from the short weekend. 

I went to seminars on Emerging Technologies in the classroom,  Starting an Online Program, and Grant Writing for your classroom and school.  All three were dynamite and kept us rivited for the 3 hours of each session. 

I can't wait for next year and I have already decided that my wife, a teacher, and I are going to spend the entire week in San Antonio!

PC Maintenance

We have an interesting module to accomplish this week and it had to do with PC Maintenance and Security.  Now I have been in the IT field for 25+ years, but I actually found some information that was interesting to me. 

I was intrigued by three workshops... The first was a module in a software program that I use all the time... Spybot Search & Destroy.  This is a great program for finding and eradicating spyware and malware.  I use the Immunization function and the scan functions.  I have see the Tea Timer function for years and never took the time to investigate what it does.  Tea Timer is a real-time memory and malware scanner.  It watches your front door and warns you if something tries to get in that could be harmful.  Very cool little add-on that I will now use.

The Second workshop that I wandered into was the great tools available on KarenWare.com.  The specific tool that caught my eye was the Replicator.  This little program is basically an automated backup system.  You can specify that a folder or file is backed up at a particular time to either a local drive, network drive or to the cloud somewhere.  You can basically copy your whole My Documents folder to a secure location and then each night the program only updates anything that changed or was added since the last update.  Great little free utility.  As someone who has lost files during a HD crash or a laptop failure, I think this is great protection.

Last utility that I learned about was called MailWasher.  This is a FREE utility that allows you to clean up some or most of the SPAM that hits your inbox every day.  I receive upwards of 200 spam messags a day and I am very glad to utilize this program to help me stop the craziness. 

Three great utilites... I guess you can still teach an old dog new tricks... lol

Are Smartboards worth the money?

I have read alot of articles this week about Smartboards.  Most touting them as the next revolution in classroom instruction.  Some though, describe them as glorifed projection screens.  So many schools throw Smartboards into the classroom as a way to 'address' their technology gap.  Sometimes it is because they have been able to secure grant funding for the technology and sometimes it is a first step into a total technology upgrade.  The problem is that the Smartboard in and of itself never taught a single lesson... and most teachers did not have any instruction on the use of a Smartboard or how to incorporate them into their curriculum.  The technology is only as good as the implementation.  If you are going to invest in this technology you need to research the software behind it and what curriculum aids are available.  Second, a teacher training program needs to be developed to instruct classroom teachers in the use of the technology and more important, how to use the software to their advantage.  Food for thought...

ISTE 2012 in San Diego, CA

I just registerd for ISTE 2012!  I am so excited to be attending this valuable conference.  The workshops and seminars available are incredible coupled with the chance to network with other educators interested in incorporating Technology into the classroom will be sensational.  If you are interested in attending, check out the link below.