Thank you Illinois IL-TCE was GREAT!

I had such a great time in Illinois. And when I lost my cell phone, my twitter friends found it!Have talked to some people about joining some collaborations and accomplished quite a bit.Two challenges in each session for the educators to get the most out of the sessions and conference:1) Have a Big ThreeI take one page in my conference notebook (usually the last one) and write at the top "My Big Three" -- then at EACH session...

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Tell me the cell phone to buy: Stuck in Chicago-Ohare and my cell phone is MIA

Just came across happy happy apple's post on the new Google Android platform for cell phones.This new operating system for cellular telephones seems fascinating.Right now I'm pondering this for two reasons:I'm stuck in Chicago airport -- I arrived at 1:15 pm -- my plane is now delayed and not due to depart until around 4:30 pm CST (this blog...

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Google Sets Its Sites on Google Apps

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (February 28, 2008) – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today introduced Google Sites™, an application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. With Google Sites, people can quickly gather a variety of information in one place – including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text – and easily...

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Google to Present at the Bear Stearns 21st Annual Media Conference

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – February 28, 2008 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced today that Tim Armstrong, President, Advertising & Commerce, North America, and David Eun, Vice President, Content Partnerships, will participate in a question-and-answer session at the Bear Stearns 21st Annual Media Conference in Palm Beach, FL. The session is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time / 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, March 10,...

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My Ustream Schedule Today and Tomorrow-- Join us

This week I'm in Illinois at their amazing technology educators conference. I had a delightful dinner with Lucy Gray, Dean Shavit and others.If all of the technical things work out, I will be ustreaming today.Where to GoView the video and audio at my ustream channel.Join the live backchannel chat w/ the participants here in the chatzy room. The password is: coolcatThe ScheduleI am on central standard time in the USA.Thursday,...

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Backchannels and Microblogging Streams

These two things are really kissing cousins.BackchannelThe backchannel has really become my favorite tool of choice when I'm presenting. I've purchased an inexpensive ad-free chat room at Chatzy that is password protected and use it for my backchannels when I present.I like to find two people to help: one to serve as Google Jockey (a/k/a Link dropper) and another to serve as a moderator -- posing questions to me when I take...

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Global Consortium to Construct New Cable System Linking US and Japan to Meet Increasing Bandwidth Demands

Construction underway to build 10,000 km linear cable system with a capacity of up to 7.68 Tbps to enhance Trans-Pacific connectivityTOKYO, Japan (February 26, 2008) – A consortium of six international companies announced they have executed agreements to build a high-bandwidth subsea fiber optic cable linking the United States and Japan. The construction of the new Trans-Pacific infrastructure will cost an estimated US$300 million.The...

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Google Summer of Code 2008: For the Love of Code

AnnouncementFebruary 25, 2008We’re kicking off Google Summer of Code 2008, our pioneering program that funds college students to write open source software during their summer vacations.Over the coming months we’ll be working with open source and free software groups to select hundreds of student projects from thousands of applications. Then, during the summer, we’ll distribute millions of dollars in stipends to the students cranking...

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Funday Monday: A Few videos to make you smile

OK, everyone. I think I sense in twitter a little Monday dread coming on, so perhaps we need another Funday Monday.This one is from Wavelength -- a great professional development drama troupe for teachers -- I saw them in Atlanta a few years a go. They are hilarious.For the Veteran TeacherTeacher Anger JeopardyI love this one!And remember -- always greet your students and call them by name when they enter -- I believe this is...

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Move over WiFi, here comes GiFi

While playing with Newspond, I came across information on the wireless protocol that is going to turn your student's cell phone into more of a computing workhorse than ever.Here comes GiFiInterestingly, this technology named GiFi, invented by our friends down in Australia, and is supposed to replace WiFi. This technology uses a different spectrum than WiFi and is supposed to be allow a whopping 5Giga Bits per Second for up to...

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Top 10 Reasons to Blog from Frieda Foxworth

I came across this twitter from @kolson29 -- a great video from an elementary teacher.This great video from a fifth grade teacher, Frieda Foxworth (Teacher Tube profile) ffoxworth )in South Carolina is a wonderful reminder of the power of using blogs in the classroom:This is a great video! Kudos, kudos!Frieda totally rocks! Wow!tag: Frieda Foxworth, blogging, education, learning, teaching, innovat...

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Playing with PreZENt it!

I came across a cool post about 13 online alternatives to PowerPoint and decided to play with PreZENt it! I made a slideshow and then shared what I learned. I WISH I could embed the show into this blog post, but it seems that feature isn't enabled. Just remember, if you're ONLY teaching powerpoint, you're missing it. PowerPoint is great, but it is likely that students will have to change software programs as often as they change...

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My Current Book Reviews: PBL, Special Needs, Instruction Design, Photography, and a Fiction Novel

I've been reading a lot lately and have come across several books I'd like to share with you. (I'm starting to get some books from publishers, and am overjoyed to get them... I like to share the best!)Project Based Learning & TechnologyReinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age - This...

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7 Steps to a Flat Classroom: The Presentation

I've given several presentations lately and, although I'm posting these on my personal wiki, I thought some of you would like to see the slides.Flat Classroom Mashup/ 7 Steps to a Flat Classroom | View | Upload your ownThis was given last night at the Discovery Educators presentation.Julie and I talking about Flat Classroom 2007 as we mashup...

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Google to Present at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – February 21, 2008 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced today that Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President, Engineering & Research will participate in a question-and-answer session at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in Dana Point, CA. The session is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time / 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, March 3, 2008.To access the live audio webcasts of the presentations, please...

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Be a human BEING rather than a human DOING: Making choices in Overchoice

I've been on "vacation" for the last four days but with a sick daughter, messy house, and a beebee gun to the back windowshield of my vehicle -- I've been feeling more like a human "doing" than a human "being."I came across KWHobbes' great article about "Functioning in a state of overload." He's a father of 7 so I feel that he can identify...

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Soros Economic Development Fund, Omidyar Network and Google.org Launch Small to Medium Enterprise Investment Company for India

Investment to Target “Missing Middle” Between Microfinance and Commercial Capital MarketsNEW YORK, (February 19, 2008) – The Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), Omidyar Network, and Google.org announced today a new $17 million Small to Medium Enterprise Investment Company for India to create job opportunities and spur greater economic participation for a larger segment of the population. This joint Investment Company will...

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Blogging Tips: Authenticity, Transparency, and Negative Comments

Jeremiah over at Wet Strategist has a great post he's doing explaining to businesses about Social Media. Part 1 is what to do with negative comments and part 2 is about authenticity and transparency. These are two things I discuss at length with my students and I thought I'd share them with you!What do you do with negative comments?Hurricaine Maine saw this recently in her class. A student who deleted the comment of someone...

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Cool Tools I want to know better

Just taking a break from my binge cleaning spree of the whole house to share with a you a few tools I want to get to know better:VoiceThread - This is a tool that is on my hotlist to implement in our elementary school. I also want to use it more. (The one day I was testing it, they were plagued with server problems.)Google Notebook - I'm going to experiment with student notetaking and sharing in here -- we've done it in chatzy...

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Twitter Book Club of the Month: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder

I'm just now buying the Twitter Book Group's book of the month, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. I haven't read this book, although the theme resonates with me.I am a big believer in unstructured outdoor play! (But even the words "unstructured outdoor play" sound a bit limited to me.)It is so important...

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Favorite Inspirational Youtube Clips and Youtube in Education

I know this is a promotion for the new Indiana Jones Movie, but I love the quote at the end:Indiana Jones' son "You're a teacher."Indiana: "Part time."(hat tip to basler on twitter) The romanticized part of me wants to think that there are a lot of us out here who teach and then do really exciting things on the side. And I could talk about that.But really, I'm just excited about a really cool movie! Actually, the Indiana...

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