Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
It’s been a rough week – and not just for me. It seems as if my entire network is in a bit of a funk.
Yesterday, when I was walking into work I saw what I thought was a new shrub planted in front of the main entrance to Erickson Hall. Since I arrived a bit late, I walked in the side door and didn’t pass by the new shrub. A faculty member stopped by my office later in the day and asked if I was up to my normal shenanigans. Confused – he asked if I was the one that planted the flowers outside. I went downstairs to take a closer look at that new shrub. Someone took the time to lovingly tie oodles of little plastic yellow flowers to the tree. Of course, due to the stress on my shoulders, tears began to trickle (and quickly freeze) down my cheek.
Even if spring isn’t here, as we are frozen in the depths of the winter and cold, (or frustration and fear,) we can create our own spring. And, if you are in a place where you can’t muster the energy to create your own spring, take a minute or two find comfort and joy in unexpected places – spring is all around us.
I would like to alert you to an excellent opportunity (below, or a pdf with more information here.) The MI Learns portal is actively seeking submissions of teacher-created materials for their portal. It is an excellent way to share the work you did (or are doing) in CEP 820 (and get a small stipend for doing so!)
If you have any questions about the project, please let me know or feel free to contact Mike Souden directly!
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Mike Souden <mksouden@gmail.com>
Leigh,
I am Mike Souden, Project Manager for the REMC Michigan Learns Online
Portal project (www.milearnsonline.org). The purpose of the portal is
to address the need to expand online instruction throughout the State
of Michigan specifically online courses and professional development
for teachers and administrators that focus on online learning. The
portal currently contains a broad set of resources except that it does
not have sufficient numbers of teacher generated and used online
learning lessons, units or courses.
Andy Mann suggested that I contact you to see if you have any teachers
in your Masters Level online learning classes that may have something
that they can contribute. There is also the possibility that they
could receive a modest stipend for their contribution. Teachers can
currently contribute to the MI Learns Online Portal by zipping the
lesson, unit or course that they are currently using and sending with
a completed form to milearnsonline@remc.org. If the teacher would
like to get reimbursed, they need be certain that the material is
aligned to the Michigan Common Core, GLCS or HSCS and follows a rubric
to assess the quality of the online learning experience.
With this note is a brochure explaining the project in more detail. I
would appreciate it if you would share the brochure with teachers in
your classes and have them contact me for more information.
It’s the perfect day to stay inside and watch football playoffs (or write your dissertation.) So to warm up my fingers, I thought I would synergize multidisciplinary dialogue and share my chili recipe for this Sunday. It’s a new one, inspired by Scott’s request for a chili with “a lot of beans.”
BBCC – Black Bean Chorizo Chili
1 lb of fresh chorizo
1 small onion chopped
2 pieces of bacon (most of the fat cut off – not that’s saving that many calories…)
1 habanero chili
4 cans of back beans (I like Eden Organic)
1 can Ro*Tel tomatoes with habanero
1 can Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes w/green chilies
handful of chocolate chips
cilantro (I like a lot)
Spice Mix
chile powder
cumin
cayenne
cinnamon (just a dash)
Render bacon in bottom of large heavy pot (I use my LeCreuset dutch oven.) Add onions and stir until they start to soften. Add chorizo and stir until almost cooked through. Add everything else to the pot and let it bubble over low heat for a few hours.
If you’re not a huge spice person, you can add a bit of sour cream to tame the heat (I’m not a big sour cream fan) or you can skip the whole habanero chili.
1 1/2 pounds of ground chicken breast (you can also use one inch cubes of whole breast pieces)
2 links of andouille sausage cut into half moons
secret mix of chili spices :) (the secret is to get the spices from http://www.worldspice.com – cumin, chili powder, habanero…I can’t give away all my secrets!)
1 large poblano chile roasted, peeled and chopped
3 jars of beans (habichuela blanca, cannellini, navy)
2 jars of chopped fire roasted tomatoes with green chili
1 jar of salsa verde (or if you have time, make your own salsa verde)
1 dash of Michigan vodka (optional)
2 tomatillos
You can scale up or down depending on crowd – it’s not an exact science.
In large dutch oven or soup pot, saute chicken w/the spices until cooked through
Add sausage, stir
add salsa verde
add beans
add tomatoes
add poblano
add jalapeno
add dash of vodka
let cook over medium heat for an hour or so. Alternatively, you can dump the contents of the pot in the crock pot and let it stew for a few hours.
right before serving, cut up tomatillos and mix into chili
Lafayette is a small and curious elephant from metro Detroit and the brain child of Amanda and Brad Davies. He travels around the world meeting famous people, trying exciting foods and learning about culture and architecture in all the cities he visits around the world. Each year Leigh writes a book and shares his adventures with nieces, nephews and friends.
I learned about Learning Without Frontiers (hashtag #LWF11) last year via Twitter. I wish there was a magic button I could press to trace back who tipped me off, but unfortunately cannot remember. Once I found out abut the conference and movement, as any good PLN gardener would do, I started following Graham Brown-Martin (@GrahamBM) I immediately wanted to be a part of what was happening and asked Graham how I could help. He hooked me up with Steve Wheeler (@timbuckteeth)Mark Van Hoof’t (@dutchboyinohio) and John Traxler (@johntraxler)
What a day. I get so worked up over experiences like this – the free, open access to ideas and the inclusion of kids and parents. The student Y factor was a highlight for me, in addition to being introduced to Jason Bradbury, what a dynamic guy. Can’t wait to read the Dot Robot books.
I was also so excited I could experience the day with one of my own students! Patricia came all the way over from Germany to attend the conference on Sunday. We had a great time geeking it up and being inspired by the presentations and scheming for the coming summer :)
Edupunk (part of Sunday Service)
I finally had the chance to meet the infamous @timbuckteeth – what a pleasure. I think we got along quite nicely and provided participants with a hint of what EDUPUNK is all about. We were such punks we planned our session over (delicious) coffee just a few hours before our session I’ll refine the quickfire if we do this again in the future, but I think it was a nice contrast to just sitting and listening and gave everyone the opportunity to leverage the gobs of technology surrounding us. Twitter feedback also suggested we move away from the audience texting responses — I think this is an excellent suggestion. Steve and I joked that we would subvert audience response tools by asking people to raise their hands – we should have done it ;)
The conference
Monday & Tuesday sessions: I think the highlight for me was the opening session on Monday. I had the opportunity to see Karen Cater speak to a smaller group back in October and was excited to see what she would say at an international forum. Her appearance at LWF even made the Huffington Post! Engaging with fellow participants gave me the opportunity to open a dialogue with many the UK teachers I met. In my 2 year absence from visiting the UK, a lot has changed. I was (wrongly) under the assumption that the UK was forward thinking in their implementation and use of ed tech in schools. I was able to briefly scratch the surface of some of the issues facing UK schools right now. (I’m very curious to see how if this will arise at the upcoming iNET conference happening at MSU in February.)
Additionally, I was “disrupted” by Evan Roth – http://evan-roth.com/ – I put disruptive in quotes because it really did challenge some social norms that I’m used to (swearing) but, at times wish I had the courage to break free from. Take time to dig deep into Evan’s work, he’s shaking things up in very meaningful ways.
Mobile Learning Strand
A big thank you to Mark Van’t Hooft for involving me in the strand. There were some very interesting research projects presented — looking forward to future LWF research strands, I think the idea of roundtables is the way to go. The traditional forums for “ivory tower” research need to shift – something more TeachMeet-like would be a way to shake things up. We had tough competition against all of the keynote speakers on Tuesday and we are thankful to those who joined us for the strand. Mark and John will be following up on venues for publication.
Being interested and involved in Ignite Lansing and TEDx events – I love anything along those lines and TeachMeet lived up to my expectations. The absolute #1 presentation for me was from XXX who is using QR codes to enhance the traditional book report. I’ve embedded the presentation by David Mitchell (@DeputyMitchell) below – genius!
In all, it was an amazing opportunity to grow my personal learning network. I added a few new geek girls to my PLN (@helenwalkertwit and @michellegallen)
My one complaint – I was a little sad that the venue for the LWF awards ceremony was not set up so everyone could see. I was thankful my friends (Jo, Dave and Rich) from TechSmith were able to join me so I wasn’t all alone in the corner! The food was great – but the ceremony was a bit of a let down. (Not because I lost, but because of the layout.)
During the Mobile Learning Strand presentations there was a twitter flare up over Katharine Bribalsingh’s presentation. I’m looking forward to the video archives so I can make sense of the situation. It was not a very productive twitter stream and was only able to gather that certain people were very opposed to her viewpoint. I’m looking forward to sorting it out for myself.
I’m nominated in the Higher Education category. You can vote for the finalist by sending a text message (you only need to vote once!): SEND WOLF TO 07950 080 667 (+44 7950 080 667 NON-UK)
If you’re close to London, there is a free family day at the conference on Sunday the 9th of January (http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/sunday-service-ldn/) I’ll be running an edupunk session with a Steve Wheeler from the University of Plymouth (details here) on that day and helping Mark van ‘t Hooft and John Traxler with the Mobile Learning research strand on Tuesday, January 11th (details here)
Stay tuned to my flickr and twitter for posts from the conference!! The hashtag for the conference is #lwf11
On a side note, I’m very excited to return to the UK…I get to meet up with a few of our illustrious alumni & current students, visit my one of my favorite places on earth (Borough market) and continue my never ending quest to meet Jamie Oliver ;)
All are welcome to come and hear Dr. Greenhow this Friday, December 17th from 11am-12:30pm in 133F Erickson. Her topic is Social Network Sites as Social Learning Resources: Designing for the Learning Ecology.
I am woefully behind on answering #maet questions! I finally had a moment to catch up and respond to @RyanMillerCISD ‘s inquiry:
I am sitting on all of these video tutorials and training resources I have created and am wondering how I can gather some useful data from those that utilize them. I sense an Action Research Project unfolding! The big question is how can I gather pertinent data from the use of my resources and what impact the resources have on:
1. New Staff Training
2. Improved proficiency
3. Preferred learning styles
I feel like there is the enormous hole in the universe when it comes to quality research on effective Professional Development… maybe that is just my perception, but this is where I thought you might be able to point me in the direction of what is happening on the PD research front.
The direction I am heading is housing all of my resources in Moodle courses where the staff members we serve can access them and participate in on-going “courses.” Moodle gives me the advantage of tying individual resources/topics with discussion forums, surveys, etc – and I feel this might be my best shot at gathering useful data while providing the best possible learning environment.
—
My response:
A good place to start is existing research and then modeling your work after that, adding your own special twist. The TPACK Reference Library is a good place to begin your explorations: http://tpck.org/tpck/index.php?title=Reference_Library
The following recent articles could be helpful to your situation:
Lee, M. H. & Tsai, C. C. (2010). Exploring teachers’ perceived self-efficacy and technological pedagogical content knowledge with respect to educational use of the World Wide Web. Instructional Science, 38(1), 1-21. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/content/d510480505435104/
Another excellent resource surrounding professional development is the POD Network – http://www.podnetwork.org – even though it is higher ed, it is focused on professional development in educational settings which you can transfer to K12.
Once you explore these resources and start to envision a project, post your thoughts and we’ll help you shape things up — there’s a whole #maet #edtech twitterverse and blogosphere here to support you!
I had a wonderful whirlwind time with the 2010-2011 Lilly Fellows this evening. Nicole and I each had an hour – and with all the stuff swirling through our heads it was hard to contain us to 60 minutes each!
Below, you can see the quickview from Slideshare. I was having problems with the keynote conversion (yep, even I have tech issues!) Fortunately, Slideshare does allow you to upload and embed pdfs, so I sacrificed a bit of quality (the full pdf version looks a lot better!) Slideshare is a great tool for sharing and embedding presentations.
Finally, we didn’t have time to show Punya‘s response to the video Nicole started with this evening. Here is his mash-up (and blog post about the commercial):
Thanks again for inviting me – and please do stay in touch!
