It’s been a heck of a week, and it’s only Wednesday morning. So here are some updates about 1) attempting to inspire a visionary foundation in my students’ approach to blogging (via the “Campsite Seminars” in the woods around our school, as posted about earlier after watching Christian Long‘s segment of Dean Shareski‘s “Design Matters” [...]

Dean Shareski and Cindy Barnsley gave me valuable (though tactfully veiled) criticism for my original “Cutting the Crap (from Student Movies)” video. To paraphrase, “That first part was really good.” I took the hint. I’ve divided the original into two shorter efforts, and added end credits attributing the Flickr photos I used to model that [...]

This post has been sitting in draft form for a couple weeks, and in that time I think I can condense my thoughts about David’s keynote into this brief list: 1. A True Southerner: I’m a USA Southerner (from Chattanooga, Tennessee), and recognized a fellow traveller in Dave. Yes, he likes to tell a story, [...]

My 20 Korean won regarding the K-12 Online Conference presentations I’ve watched or listened to so far. General Impressions: 1. The Need for Classification of Presentations into a “Beginners – Advanced” Continuum That heading pretty much says it all. K12O has a wildly diverse audience, and apparently an equally diverse group of presenters. Some of [...]

Every week is interesting when you’re launching an all-Apple Laptop high school. This week was no exception. I run a 40-minute Web 2.0 activity club every Thursday. (That experience, by the way, makes me weep for teachers who teach classes of less than an hour’s duration. I have time for almost nothing in 40 minutes [...]

Eight minutes on how to 1) find content on Creative Commons, 2) use Zamzar to download YouTube and other videos for mashups. (It’s also posted on my “Teaching Gallery” static page.) [Update: Photos credited in final titles, plus CC licensing added.] Coming in Episode 2: Still Photo Skills: Advanced use of the Ken Burns Effect.

Long presentations are great and all, but maybe quickies have their place as well. I can see the need. Here’s a 2-minute snippet from a presentation I gave to parents to launch our 1:1 Apple Laptop initiative back in August. I simply explain Clustrmaps by showing it on a blog with world-wide readers….written by a [...]

I’m still working out the ideas I got from watching Dean Shareski‘s “Design Matters” K12 Online Conference presentation. I just applied the idea of quality design principles to an evaluative rubric called, “Why Do We Subscribe to Bloggers’ Blogs? Quality, Quality, Quality – 21st Century Style: A Guide for Secondary and University Bloggers.” (Brevity was [...]

You know that cotton-headed feeling after you’ve updated your way-behind grade-book? That’s where I am right now. Luckily, it was a good experience. I love the discussion on our AP Lit Ning about Laurence Olivier in King Lear. The forum was 12 pages long since being assigned on Thursday, and I hadn’t looked at it. [...]

S’rite. I be stylin’ my thang. I’ve been adding plugins to my new self-hosted WordPress site like a drunk three-year old. Some work, some don’t, some gum up the whole works and inspire flights of colorful cursing. But it’s all fun, and very powerful, what the WordPress open development community enables with their many plugins [...]