Anachronism

Just for laughs, I brought a typrewriter I found at a garage sale to our tech class. I jokingly called it "my 45 pound laptop" and "my 70 year-old word processor. I tried to take notes with it, but thing is obnoxiously loud, so I quit after a few lines of type. It's interesting to see the thing juxtaposed with a new Mac.

Final Project

A class full of netbooks!

Two colleagues of mine worked their tails off to write a grant proposal. After weeks of work, their tech dreams were granted: each student now has their own netbook. The netbooks have WiFi internet access, and built in webcams. As an added bonus, they have spill-proof keyboards, and should be drop proof with a system that detects falls and cuts power before impact. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A side note:

Just to try something new for this post, I first took pictures with my iPhone. I then uploaded them to my laptop and edited them in Picasa. After using Picasa to create a movie, I finally uploaded the movie to Blogger. Even with so many steps, this Rube Goldberg solution still only took 10 minutes.

"Ve have our vays of making you talk..."

A student of mine was balking at a writing assignment.

"Mr. Lesire, you're torturing me!"

"No," I replied.  "I'm teaching you.  The two are slightly different."

It really got me to think, though.  Does my instruction ever elicit "false confessions"?

Possibly the coolest use of a laptop and a cello

Zoe Keating uses her laptop during live performances to record samples of what she's just played, and then layers it onto something else she's playing presently. She talks about her self-collaborative process below.

In this video, she plays her song "Escape Artist".

Mayan Multiplication

This is amazing.  An aunt of mine from Belgium sent it to me.  I shared it with Chris Milliron, who has been playing with it with his high school math students, and it actually works.  More than one way to skin a cat, huh?

Was that so hard?

Thankfully, Silver Fall's techies are nothing like this.  I hope I'm not, either...

New Technology Standards and Requirements

One of the main ways I try to use tech in the classroom is to foster creativity. For instance, I've pretty much moved away from editing published papers in MS Word. I usually have my students type their handwritten papers straight into Blogger, and edit it there. We teachers can also leave suggestions for revisions in the comments section. Using this strategy, I hit both the creativity and collaboration goals.

I also like to point the students to the internet when they ask me a question. One site that is fun to use with a somewhat recalcitrant student is lmgtfy.com. It basically does Google searches for a person, and gives you a tinyurl link to send to that person. For an example, go to http://tinyurl.com/cgp5uv.

When searching, however, there is invariably a mountain of information to sift through. I try to model the critical thinking skills that enable me to separate the diamonds from the garbage.

Which, of course, leads me to the garbage. I also have frequent conversations about how to be a valuable contributor to human knowledge. I also call this, "How not to be an Internet troll." Again, by having frequent discussions and modeling appropriate Internet citizenship, I hope to (ever so slightly) improve the quality of the internet experience.

On the use of a digital camera

The consequences of swimming without a suit

Thomas Friedman has an excellent op-ed piece about the economic impact of raising education spending and increasing academic performance.  It takes money to make money, and education is an investment, a point Friedman clearly makes.  I highly recommend reading the article.

Well, it had to happen sometime

Instead of people crying into their beers, they appear to be crying into their computer keyboards. I could be wrong (a novel thought!) but this is one possible conclusion one may reach when confronted with the news that there are now more professional bloggers than bartenders.  Also, is it true that more five year olds are now saying, "I want to be a blogger when I grow up!" than those who exclaim, "I want to be a fireman!"?

I will say, though, that the temptation to start monetizing this blog has never been stronger.  Visit often, and link away, my friends!

Teh Facebook is for sucks

Oh noes!  According to new research and sited by a new article in Time, Facebook users generally earn lower gradepoint averages than their non-networking peers.

Dangit!  And I just posted this to my Facebook page...

Oh Noes!

My iPhone is broken.  It has really highlighted how much I rely on this device in my daily work schedule.  Yes, I'm bidding on a replacement as we speak.  

Even the CIA has gone Web 2.0

See?  Web 2.0's possibilties are endless.  And yes...I would like to take a peek at Intellipedia, but I'm not stupid enough to try.

The future of scientific discovery?

If this holds out, the name of our most important scientist may one day be named HAL.

Opportunity!

There is a silver lining, especially for new teachers.  It's never quite as bad as the doomsayers suggest...

Evernote

Evernote is another Web 2.0 service I've tried.  I even installed the iPhone app.  It's okay...I guess.  Perhaps I just don't know how to use the program to its full potential, or perhaps I simply don't forget enough stuff to require the use of an "external brain" (their marketing term, not mine).  For my purposes, I simply prefer DropBox.  

Want to see a quick rundown of the program?  See the link below:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dd4vs7jg_0hjftt6cd&hl=en

Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube

Most schools are blocking access to Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.  In fact, the NEA even recommends that teachers refrain from using Facebook and MySpace entirely.  While there may be some merit to such a decision, I think there are some possible educational uses for these nearly ubiquitous sites.

Here's a link to the presentation:

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=dggv4595_7dj8vg2cw&hl=en

DropBox

I've been using DropBox for a few weeks now.  It's been a great way for me to keep my data off of my computer, and make it accessible no matter what computer I'm using.  

For instance, I just had to have my computer's hard disk re-imaged because Windows was running rediculously slowly.  Despite the reassurances of my tech department that they would take a snapshot of my hard disk to "absolutely ensure nothing would be lost", I didn't want to leave anything to chance.  Anything I didn't want to lose, I simply dragged and dropped into my DropBox.  This way, the data was safe, and I could still access it while I was without my laptop for the day.

Below, you'll find a link to the presentation:

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=dhskvwvx_1g4gg7m7p&hl=en

Oh, the rewards of being a teacher...

A fourth grader just saw me walking out of the teacher's lounge while eating a donut.

"Mr Lesire!  I want a donut!  Can I have one?  CanIcanIcanIcanI?"

"Would you like to earn a donut?" I asked, in my most excited teacherly voice.

"Yes!" she replied.

"Alright, there are just a few easy steps.  Would you like to know what they are?"

"YES!"

"Okay!  Step one: finish high school!  Next, go to college for four years, and earn a teaching degree!  Then, land a teaching job, and you too can have a donut EVERY Friday!"

"Mr. Lesire, that seems like a lot of work, just for a donut."

"Hmm, you're right...  I may just have to spend some time rethinking my chosen profession."

The true reward, of course, was the chance to carry on a spirited, if somewhat sardonic, conversation with this student.  In truth, these kinds of exchanges are the ones I remember most as a student.  Quite frankly, they are a large part of why I chose to become a teacher.