EduCD

I want a free CD that has all the greatest productivity, multimedia, games, and educational apps.  The CD should contain a LiveCD (and/or installable) version of Linux.  The CD should also contain free audio, video, and screencasts.  I should be able to receive a new CD quarterly.  The CD should contain some proprietary software (flash, adobe reader, zip, etc).  The CD should contain an offline website that points to new and beneficial web 2.0 resources.  I should be able to easily (and quickly) remaster the CD for personal use to make my own Linux install or to brand the CD for my school or organization.   We could start with the OpenCD project…

CECA UnConference: Spring 2007?

I have been hearing more and more these days about groups moving to the unconference model. An unconference has no "speakers" and "attendees" only "participants." Dave Winer coined this term and this idea in 1998 (See his definition here or Doc Searls here). His fundamental principal is:

"The sum of the expertise of the people in the audience is greater than the sum of expertise of the people on stage."

By making everyone a participant, the idea is that everyone will benefit (learn more and more of what they want) more from the conference both individually and as a whole.

I think CECA should host an unconference in the Spring (just in time for budget season). The barriers to entry are almost nothing (entrance fee would cover the rental of space or find a free host south of Hartford), have everyone bring their own lunch (or host near food), use CECA to plan and advertise, run multiple tracks depending on who attends, and prepare people before hand in the rules of an unconference and what to expect (this will obviously limit the attendance because people will be nervous to be a "participant" instead of a passive listener but the first time out should be more manageable).

Discuss at the next meeting for Spring 2007.

EdTech Leaders must be split!

As the "Director of Technology" in a smaller sized public school district in Connecticut, I wear many hats. Most of these hats could be categorized under two headings, "IT" and "Educational Technology". My days are filled with purchasing hardware and software, answering user questions, trouble shooting network problems, administering student information systems, reading edtech journals, reading edtech blogs, coaching administrators through tech projects, creating and executing budgets, planning for the future, etc, etc.

Many districts are moving to a split in my current position. Instead of one person covering all of the duties mentioned previously, schools are changing to have a Direcor of IT (who may or may not know much about public education) who handles the purely technical aspect of running the IT infrastructure of a medium sized business or what ammounts to a large business with satellite offices (schools). And in addition, schools will then also have a Director of Educational Technology (who is typically an educator) who works with staff and administration to design and implement experiences with integrated information and comminication technolgoies. This person will often oversee and evaluate library/media staff.

With the events of recent days…

Blogging Beyond Technology Conference

I am going to be attending the Beyond Technology Conference next week in Springfield, MA on May 1st and 2nd.  Straight from the site:

"ALIGNING Education and Work
ADVANCING Technology Use and Skills
ACHIEVING The Competitive Edge

TRANSFORMING Not Integrating

Attend the conference that will give you a real look at learning in the future. Beyond Technology will bring international experts to New England to share their visions on technology in educational and workplace settings – and to present best practices for developing the skills needed to be successful in the global, high-tech work environment."

I am looking forward to the conference for two reasons.  One, to see some of the keynote speakers (specifically Will Daggett) and two, this conference will hopefully be a good combination of educationand business.  I think it is important for these two to meet more often.  Not so that educators can "better prepare students for work life" but so that educators and those in the private and piublic sector can work togther to create individuals who are challenged and learn thru authentic experiences and are better prepared to be active participants in a global society.

I will be blogging from the sessions I attend…stay tuned! 

Still looking….no TWIT

OK, I woke up today and realized I am totally stealing the whol TWIT identity.  The show I want to put togther is not TWIT and thus should not have TWIT in the title…any ideas???

Could include: 

Learning
Technology
Change
Leverage
Ideas
Connections
Links
Free
Culture
A Better Way 

K12 TWIT Groups

I a thinking the K12 TWIT group really needs to be a couple different groups.  They could be:

Connecticut K12 TWITs (participants and interviewees from the CT educational scene)
IT K12 TWITs (participants and interviewees from across the US and around the world discussing general IT trends, news, etc and how they relate to K12 schools)

EdTech K12 TWITs (participants and interviewees from across the US and around the world discussing general educational technology topics and themes and how we might better integrate ICT into the k12 environment)

The more I think about this possible podcast I think it will really come down to a combonation of Steve Gillmor's Gillmor Gang/Daily podcasts and of course Leo Laporte's TWIT.  I want to have a free flowing format with special guests and to discuss the news of the day, but I also want o be able to go one-on-one when needed and have a good dialogue with thought leaders in this space.  I really should drop both a line before I get started. 

“AN EDUCATION TWIT” name change

OK…my idea for an edtech TWIT (TWIeT) has affectionately been renamed by me as "AN EDUCATION TWIT". I have taken the liberty to do this for a few reasons. TWIeT sounds like nothing and doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. A blog or podcast starting with an "A" always has a better chance because it is listed higher alphabetically in many listings. It has a double meaning that is hopefully intriguing.

Of course this is all going to change once I ask for input from others but for now….this is it.

Recording a Podcast Conference Call….the options

As I have said previously, I want to start an edtech version of TWIT. One of the first decisions I/we have to make is how we will connect and record our shows. I want to keep the system as simple as possible because I want to keep post-production editing as short and simple as possible. These are the options I see:

-iChat and GarageBand3 (can AIM clients be recorded or must everyone be on iChat and thus a Mac?)

-Gizmo Project (everyone needs gizmo or I could get hit with big line charges, but it does have a built in recording feature!!!)

-Skype (universal but no recording, I would have to mess with Audio Hijack, etc.)

So what should I use??? Your comments are appreciated!

Apple Gaining and Parallels

I presented to a intermediate level technology edtech group today in Hartford. The theme of my talk was podcasting and how it can be used instrictionally in the k12 classroom. I was impressed with the overall interest. I contineu to be plagued, however, about the amount and types of resources that are needed for the integration of information and communications technologies into the curriculum. Podcasting is a great example. It has so many uses and can provide authentic connections not before possible, but, we need the staff, time, knoweldge, etc to make it happen.

On another note…I saw the new Parallels software boot windows XP in 30 seconds in a windows running in OS X on a new MacBook Pro…so cool!

TWIeT – podcast

I want to create a weekly podcast called "This Week in EdTech" modeled after the Leo Laporte podcast "This Week in Tech". I would need a standard 2 or 3 commentators to help interview a different guest each week.

If anyone is interested in helping me get this off the ground, please let me know. I am willing to manage this project but I want a core team to assist and to make it better.

Leo if you are listening help me get started!!