Visualization gurus, help me brainstorm…

Leigh Graves Wolf

…pretty please? :)

During my downtime today, I started revising the MAET program handbook.  There are so many different ways to complete the MAET degree that it can get a bit confusing.  I started by listing all the ways I could think of to complete the program – you can see them all here.

Now, here’s where I need the help – how can I visualize/present this to
a.) our student body so that the process of creating a program plan is not so stressful?
and
b.) potential students so they can understand all the options available in the program?

ECOO 2010 Power of Play presentation

Leigh Graves Wolf

A few months ago, I was accepted to present at the 2010 ECOO Conference. We attended last year and it was a fabulous conference – full of energy and amazing educators.  Unfortunately, we had to do some last minute switching on team MAET and I am on my way to Denver for the National Council for Social Studies Conference. (Literally, I’m on the plane right now!)

I was hoping I could livestream my presentation to ECOO, but, I’m on a plane and I wasn’t sure my neighbor would appreciate the chatter (though, I would be one heck of an edtech rockstar for presenting from 30,000 feet up!)

So, in place of a presentation, I offer this blog post with a recap of the session I was going to run.  Please feel free to email, tweet or comment below if you have questions!

—

This past March – Andrea Zellner and I presented at MACUL. Our presentation was called “The Power of Play: Infusing Fun into Professional Development” – Andrea’s recap of the session can be found here http://www.andrea-zellner.com/archives/213

Essentially, we surprise participants by setting up the room in a circle and having them tag each other with sticky notes.  Everyone is under the assumption that the activity is an ice breaker (we don’t tell them why they are tagging each other.) The twist comes after we debrief and the participants find out they were actually in a real life simulation of the social bookmarking site delicious.

We break down how technology PD can work and be successful when you take the tech layer out (or if you don’t have access to the tech) and participants understand the core underlying philosophies of the technology (rather than clicking through menus or tutorials.)  If you take a look at her extensive notes, you will see an outline of activities if you would like to run the activity on your own.

Last week, I was invited to speak at the ISACS Annual meeting in Chicago and I did another variation of the “Power of Play” presentation.  I ran the session twice, once on Thursday and once on Friday.  But…there seemed to be something missing on Friday – a co-facilitator!  Alison Keller joined me on Friday and the session ran so much better (just as it had when Andrea and I worked together at MACUL.) If you run this session with your staff, I highly suggest having a partner in crime – it just makes the whole thing run much more smoothly and you can play off each other to get the crowd engaged.

Several participants in the ISACS session asked “our staff all knows each other, how could we do this with them?” I suggested repurposing the activity as a launching point for curriculum committees, task forces, etc.  If you’re having problems stretching it – shoot me an email or comment – I can help come up with a way to make it work!

After the delicious simulation – we discussed the idea of Quickfire Challenges and how they also create a playful environment to facilitate technology PD (or any type of PD for that matter!) To learn more about Quickfire challenges, check out this post (and yes, it was inspired by Top Chef!)

Thanks for listening! I hope to see you twitter and next year at ECOO 11!!

ISACS 2010 Annual Conference

Leigh Graves Wolf

I was invited to present at the 2010 Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) conference. Below are the supplemental resources for the presentations.

Repurposing Technology for Your Classroom
November 4, 2010 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
November 5, 2010 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM

How can “outside” technologies like iPods, Audacity, and Excel be repurposed for the classroom? This session will explore “outside the box” examples of technology use, such as employing Audacity to measure distance to the moon. This session is for educators in all subjects at all levels. Slidedeck (pdf)

The Power of Play: Infusing Fun into Professional Development
November 4, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
November 5, 2010 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Fostering play in technology workshops is an effective way to allow people to interact with new technologies. This session will focus on the link between play and learning as well as specific strategies to foster a spirit of play in a professional development setting.

Andrea Zellner has a reflection on this presentation – we originally presented this material at the MACUL 2010 conference.

Watching the seeds grow

Leigh Graves Wolf

A few weeks back, a former student (and incredible early childhood educator) Nora sent me the following email

On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Nora wrote:

http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/about/fellows/2010-2011-early-career-fellows-program/

This is a great opportunity for early career professionals in media and technology…wish I was one!  You might share and find someone interested…

Nora

After reading the description:

The Fred Rogers Center announces an exciting fellowship opportunity for early-career producers, animators, technologists, writers, artists, musicians, educators, and others, interested in creating exciting, high-quality media inspired by the legacy of Fred Rogers.  Through the ECF program, the Fred Rogers Center acts as a catalyst for innovation in media- and technology-based work that advances early childhood development and learning.

I immediately thought of Alison Keller.  Alison is a former Technology Intern in Education (TIE) and alum of our MAET program.  While working through the MAET program, she was a student assistant and teacher in our overseas Master’s program mentoring her peers in a study abroad program for pre-service teachers. I forwarded the email from Nora on to Alison.

A few minutes ago – Alison sent the link to her submission video:

In my graduation speech this summer, I mentioned “moments” – when Alison sent me the link to her video, I had another one.  I am so fortunate that I have the opportunity to interact with extraordinary educators at all stages of their careers, in all corners of the globe.  Not only do I get to interact with them, but I can create connections between them and those connections can lead to unexpected opportunities.

I keep a copy of Fred Rogers’ The World According to Mr. Rogers: Important things to Remember on my Kindle Reader. On page 30 Mr. Rogers says:

“The thing I remember best about successful people I’ve met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they’re doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they’re doing, and they love it in front of others.”

Nora and Alison are two shining examples of success that embody Mr. Rogers’ legacy and spirit – I thank you both for inspiring me! I’ll be counting down to November 15th when the Fred Rogers Fellows are announced – Alison team MAET is behind you with fingers crossed!

Creative Careers Expo Follow-up

Leigh Graves Wolf

Children are empowered by creative leaders

A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak at the International Academy Creative Career Expo taking place this evening.  Just last week I received an invitation to the National Technology Leadership Summit which takes place Thursday and Friday (I’m actually on a plane right now!)  I pre-recorded my presentation and promised the links below.

Books mentioned in the talk:

Creating Minds by Howard Gardner

Out of our Minds: Learning to be Creative by Sir Ken Robinson

Sparks of Genius by Robert and Michelle Root-Bernstein

Videos mentioned in the talk:

Randy Nelson at Pixar University

Sir Ken Robinson:

“Webcam” music video

More examples of creative digital video – http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2690

If you have any questions please comment below!

#MAET is looking for a new team member!

Leigh Graves Wolf

I’m excited to announce that the MAET program is hiring a new team member.  The official posting is below – I’m happy to any questions you may have.  The posting closes on September 30 – email all of the application materials to edutech@msu.edu (Official posting will be up on the college website early next week!)

Michigan State University
Educational Technology Certificate Program Position

Job Title:  Educational Technology Certificate Program Coordinator

Reports to: Director of the Educational Technology Programs

Program

The MSU College of Education offers the Educational Technology Certificate, a 3-course 9-credit program, designed for educators who seek to understand the essential qualities of knowledge required for technology integration in to teaching. The emphasis is on enabling teachers to change their practice of teaching in positive ways. To do so, teachers learn new instructional and pedagogical strategies and learn ways that technology can enhance and support the learning process.

The Educational Technology Certificate program is an accelerated graduate program that focuses on teaching teachers how to use and teach with today’s technologies. To meet the needs of teachers, the program is offered in a variety of formats, online, hybrid and overseas.

Function

Coordination and instruction in Educational Technology Certificate Program and participate in outreach projects.  Approximately 50% of work time spent outside of the office.  Responsible for coordinating, community building, strategizing and advocating for the Educational Technology Certificate program.

Major responsibilities include school recruitment (meet with school administrators to host the program locally in their district); teacher recruitment; provide inservice programming to K-12 teachers; teach in Educational Technology Certificate program; create and maintain contact database; provide oversight of instruction and feedback to instructors; send out quarterly newsletter; conduct focus groups.

Qualifications

  • Masters degree in Education, Educational Technology, Digital Media, New Media, Digital Writing or related field preferred
  • Experience teaching in a K-12 environment
  • High level of interpersonal, verbal, visual and written communication skills
  • Experience with a wide range of computer software, hardware and social media tools
  • Must be familiar with the following technologies:

o   WordPress and other open source content management systems

o   ANGEL, Moodle, Blackboard and other learning management systems

o   Google Apps and other cloud based software

o   Online communication tools (Skype, Adobe Connect, etc)

o   Web 2.0 applications

o   Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, etc.)

o   Mobile Applications (iPhone, Android, iPad, etc.)

  • Willingness to travel
  • Working knowledge of a university environment, including policies and procedures

Applications are due September 30, 2010.  MSU in an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer.  MSU is committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity.  The university actively encourages applications and/or nominations of women, persons of color, veterans and persons with disabilities.  Interested candidates should send a letter of application, resume, and three letters of reference to:  edutech@msu.edu

More #maet questions answered: Weebly & Choosing a CMS

Leigh Graves Wolf

Here are two excellent questions – one from an MAET Alumna and the other from a current MAET code warrior:

Ms. C’s Question –
Quick Weebly question – I am wondering how I can create a link to a page that is currently a word document. I want to put the link to the course syllabus and other things at the bottom of my page without having to put that title in the main menu.

Answer:
Weebly has gone through some UX (user experience) changes recently and I had to look it up myself! Before googling, I checked the Weebly help. It’s really well done and love the organization! Here’s the answer to your question

2.12. How To Upload Files – http://support.weebly.com/support/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=35

Several days ago, Mr. H asked:

Right now I’m looking for a content management system (CMS) to migrate our website to so it would be easier to edit the content by more people other than the web master (me). Maybe you have a good one that you know of.

My response:
Great question – as a former web master I know what a challenge this can be! I finally had time to post this question to Twitter today and the multi-talented Ben Rimes (@techsavvyed) and I tweeted back and forth discussing the issue:

@gravesle – WordPress, Googlesites, or Wikispaces work well for multiple authors. I’ve heard Joomla is nice, but you have to be techie for it

I know that Mr. H is a code-warrior so I tweeted back:

@techsavvyed I’ll pass on the suggestions-he is techy-so joomla may work well – it’s for a school site, something “robust” is preferred thx!

Ben responded:

@gravesle Yeah, then Joomla or even Drupal might work

If it were me, I would probably go with WordPress – just because it’s in my comfort zone and the open-source community around the tool is so strong.  I did some googling and found this really nice report comparing Joomla, Drupal and WordPress:

http://www.newlocalmedia.com/downloads/file/9-cmsfeaturecomparison

Though it is (admittedly) outdated (all of the softwares have updates, check the author footnote for updates) the document gives you great ideas for what to look for in each of the content management systems and what to consider when choosing what works best for you.

When students are choosing their CMS for the MAET CEP 820 Teaching K12 Students Online course, we have them look at the following sites as they are making their decisions:
http://www.cmsmatrix.org
http://www.edutools.info/feature_list.jsp?pj=4
http://php.opensourcecms.com/

The great thing about these three tools is that they give you an idea of the infinite number of choices you have (CMS Matrix), the ability to choose features that are important to you to consider your options (edutools), then the ability to try them out from an admin and user perspective (opensourcecms) without having to install!

Hope this helps in your search – keep us updated on what you decide to use!!

Green Tomato Bread

Leigh Graves Wolf

Green Tomato Bread

This afternoon we decided to clean up and clear out the garden for the fall.  Our tomatoes did very well this year and we still had quite a few green tomatoes sitting on the vine.  I thought about making green tomato pie, but then started googling to see if I could find anything else to do with the tomatoes.  I found this recipe on the Cooking with Michele blog and made a few adaptations:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
6 ounces plain nonfat greek yogurt + 2 oz creme fresh
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 cups green tomatoes, pureed, juice drained and discarded
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream sugar and butter.  Add eggs, then yogurt and tomatoes.  Add dry ingredients and walnuts.  Mix until just combined. Pour into prepared pans – mini loaves take about 40 minutes, regular loaf takes about 50 minutes.

Makes one loaf + 8 mini loaves.

They turned out pretty well, and very moist! It tastes quite a bit like zucchini bread.
I still have a lot of green tomato puree left over, so I may be making some chili or salsa or dal with the leftovers! Paula Deen’s Green Tomato Cake looks tasty too!

More #edtech questions answered – Elementary Tech Scope and Sequence and Middle School Careers Class

Leigh Graves Wolf

In continuing my quest to blog more – here are two more questions that appeared in my twitter feed today that prompted a post!

MAET student Mr. P tweeted:
Do you have any examples of scope and sequences for elementary tech?

I did some quick searching for you. The first things that came up on google were quite old, so I restricted the search to the past year. (Search results here)

Most of the scope and sequences that popped up were aligned to the ISTE Educational Technology Standards for Students or to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.  A really nice feature in the publication section of 21c website are the skill maps for each individual curriculum area.

The National Educational Technology plan can be found by visiting:
http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010

And finally, the state of Michigan Educational Technology Standards and Expectations can be found by visiting
http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-28753_33232_37328—,00.html
Using these international, national and state standards will be very helpful as you are developing your own scope and sequence.  Take the best from the existing frameworks and be innovative and fill in gaps that exist.  As you’re in the process of building your scope and sequence, consider crowdsourcing – I see great potential here! Keep us updated on how you’re progressing.

MAET Student Ms. R Facebooked:

Shout out to all of my teacher friends: Does anyone have any good resources to help me teach a careers class? (Leigh, do you know of any good technology sites that might help?)

First off, I love that I was mentioned in the Facebook post! What an honor! When I went to the State of Michigan Department of Education website and looked up the curriculum for “Career and Employability Standards” I was quite surprised to see the standards had not been updated since 1998. Quite a bit has changed since then! Looks like the area is ripe for a committee to rewrite the standards – if you’re interested I can find out who to contact and you can be instrumental in making change happen.

For your class, I think starting with the ISTE/21c skills I suggested to Mr. P above would be a great place to start – they will assist in setting up the flexibility and innovation your students will need to prepare for jobs in fields that don’t exist yet. I think the kids would love the “Quickfire challenge” idea.  Take a look at the existing state benchmarks, keep the ISTE/21c skills in mind and let your imagination take over – I would be happy to help in the brainstorming process.

Whenever the word “career” is mentioned, I think of @MSUAAJohn (John Hill) Director of Alumni Career Services at MSU.  Additionally, we have the Career Services Network at MSU which has gathered quite a few online career resources.  I’m sure John would love to connect with a fellow Spartan (and with potential future Spartans in your classroom) to help bring an outside perspective to your students (live via Skype or even a brief recording.)

I hope this helps get the ball rolling!

Video Voicemails

Leigh Graves Wolf

Here is another inquiry I received yesterday from MSU technology rockstar Jodi Spicer (follow her on twitter! @JodiSpicer)

I am hoping you can help me – I am working with a couple faculty in our department, and trying to help them figure out ways to incorporate little videos into their online and hybrid courses. One of the things I remember you sharing at a brown-bag lunch that I went to was your “video voicemails” that you sent to your students (probably last summer?) I remember you were sitting near a fountain in Europe somewhere, and it was about 2 minutes long. Would you be willing to send me an example or two – so I can share with faculty? I would GREATLY appreciate it. As I said, I’m trying to help them see the usability, feasibility, fun and interactivity that FlipVideos can provide.

I started using video voicemails in my CEP 815 and 820 courses a few years ago.  I frequently use the FlipCam or the PhotoBooth on my Mac to record the video.  They’re a great, quick way to stay in touch with my students, even when I’m traveling so they know I’m still present in the course! The video voicemails help create the connection between student and instructor and are also a nice outlet to reinforce important concepts/theories, address confusion, and create a class culture.

Remember, keep them short!! Around the 2 minute mark – otherwise you’ll move beyond “voicemail” and it becomes a “regular” lecture.

Example from CEP 820: Teaching K12 Students Online


Example from CEP 815: Technology and Leadership

Super-user tip:

Some of my students live in countries where YouTube is blocked – so I would always upload to FlipShare and YouTube so I could send out alternate ways to access the video or post the full movie file in the CMS.