Archive for the ‘call for help’ tag
Add Your Classes and Favorite Tools to the Wiki (update)
More from the previous posts. I’m having a lot of fun creating that staff development wiki. The “Digital Arts for Multiple Intelligences” pages are coming along nicely, but unevenly, so your input would be great 
(thanks, Patrick and Diane!).
I’ve also got a page called “Links to Real World Examples of 21st Century Educators.” I’ve added links myself, but…
…as my high-speed middle school colleague Anthony Armstrong suggests in his recent post, the best way to compile examples of 21st c. classrooms and educators is to invite you all to collaborate and share.
I updated the wiki to include the password (”welcome,” w/o quotation marks), so come on over and add your own classes (or favorite examples from others), and your favorite digital tools for the various multiple intelligences. (And while you’re there, why not take the Multiple Intelligences questionnaire and learn your alleged strengths? 40 quick questions and a cool little graphic is yours. I’d love to hear your profiles in comments 
It’s good for all - drives traffic and readership to the classrooms that want them, and gives us all food for thought on how we might approach The Next Thing.
And while you’re at it: there are so many great staff development wikis already out there. Feel free to start a page and add your own, and/or others, for a master list. Why not?
Photo credit: Flickr Tag Network by toby maloy
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How to Unfall from a Tightrope with Web 2.0: Update on Google Earth Tour / Live Skypecast Disaster
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day….
….
in his supposed advancetoward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence
–from Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Constantly Risking Absurdity”
All that work on making the Google Earth tour of my live Skype presentation guests, begging
those guests to kindly donate a bit of time to make it happen, and so forth. And then, ten minutes before the show begins, Skype Suffers a Major Outage.
It was wild, sitting onstage, laptop a-lap as the Apple speaker addressed the parents, quietly Skype-chatting the final details with everybody before we went live - and then seeing everyone’s Skype status go from green to gray. Rich, my principal, sat next to me and looked on. We opened the “Why 1:1?” presentation with Karl’s “Did You Know? 2.0” video, and Rich opened the night with a mention that, if all went well, its creator would drop in to say a few words.
So you can imagine the murmurs between Rich and me when Skype went down. (I’m far too grateful for, impressed by, devoted to, etc, Skype to say anything but “You rock anyway, and ‘Shift Happens’ in this world minus the ‘f’ sometimes too. Good luck with the global hiccup.” I’d be a rank ingrate to complain.)
So I closed the Google Earth, and went straight into the solo presentation that was supposed to follow it and the Skype. And in the midst of it - BAM - Patrick, Carolyn, and Doug return to life on Skype. So off we stagger into a conference call after all, minus the Google Earth Tour.
I’d set up the Skype as a “Let’s Pretend….” roleplay. “Let’s pretend I’m a student, and I’ve been given a research assignment on the pros and cons of 1:1 schools. In traditional schools, I’d go to the library and read three-year old books for the most current information. But in our school, now that we’re one-to-one, this is possible….” [Cue Google Earth and "21st c. education experts" on Skype. Record for podcast on GarageBand.] Since Skype was wonky, I hit “Start conference call” faster than you can say “wiki wiki,” and in a flash, Patrick and Doug spoke to our Korean parents in Seoul from Durham, UK, and Sparta, New Jersey, USA.
Then Carolyn’s turn came - and here’s my favorite moment of the night: I asked Carolyn what she would add to what Patrick and Doug had offered, and (I swear I’m laughing out loud as I type this), Carolyn said:
“Gee, I don’t know. I wasn’t supposed to be on this Skypecast. Your call woke me up. It’s six in the morning here. But I’ll try….”
And, sand in eyes and all, she gave a typically lucid answer. What a trooper. (By the way, Carolyn posted a “Back to School / Day One” post today that I hope you’ll read. You have the backstory now, and it’s somehow beautiful how Carolyn captures the euphoria of us edugeeks as we look forward to summer vacation’s end! And have I been out of the loop, or are librarian edubloggers suddenly surging into prominence in our universe?)
I’m zonked, so I’ll fit into this ramble an apology at this point for my horrible hosting of the Skype conference. I was rattled by the Skype flop. And I can’t thank all of you, present or knocked off-line, for your willingness to help.
Which leads me to the “unfalling with Web 2.0″ schtick in my title. I want to have a second go at the Google Earth Tour with Skype conference. All previous invitees are re-invited. We can schedule it at a more convenient time for all. I’ll film it onstage, and edit it into the video podcast as if it happened in real time: “unfalling from the tightrope.”
This is not about showbiz (okay, maybe a little, but only because it’s fun). It’s about evangelizing the pedagogy. I want parents to see the “Let’s Pretend” research paper idea - which I followed up with a Google Reader RSS folder labeled “del.icio.us tagged 1:1″ to show further 21st c. research muscle.
So….Karl, Patrick, Doug, Vivek, Westley, Konrad, Chris, (and Cindy, now that your flu is hopefully over) - expect an email soon. I hope you’ll play one more time.
Because with Web 2.0, sometimes life can be “a dress rehearsal.”
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Update on Live Skype Invitation: around 1930 hours GMT+9
We expect my presentation to start around 7.30 p.m. That would make it:
- Thursday 11 a.m. in London
- Thursday 12.30 a.m. (ouch) in Hawaii (sorry, Chris! I owe you! Or you can send me a YackPack voice message?)
- Thursday 4.30 a.m. (carrumba) in Denver (Karl, how about a YackPack message?)
- Thursday 5.30 p.m. in Bangkok
- Thursday 8.30 p.m. in NSW, Australia
- Thursday 6.30 a.m. in New Jersey
- Hey Vivek in India - you game?
The actual Skype talk itself would probably come about 15 minutes later, but I’ll give you a heads-up call at the times above. Please confirm I got your times right?
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"Double-Time: FLY!" Call for Live Skype / Google Earth Guests for Parent Presentation
Arapahoe HS (Denver - Karl Fisch’s Digs)
I’ve been quiet this week because life hasn’t been. We’re in our first week of school as a 1:1 Apple Laptop school; I’m in my first week as Tech Coordinator / AP Literature teacher; our IT Manager is in his first week managing the Apple Servers at school (poor guy); I’ve been wasting time doing “schooly” homework for that blasted UCLA online AP workshop; and tomorrow night (GMT +9 in Seoul, Thursday 16 AUG 07), we’re giving . . . .
A “Why 1:1?” Parent Presentation. You’re Invited (If….)
Here’s the plan: after the principal gives his speech, and Apple Asia’s representative gives his, I’ve got a half-hour or so to give a presentation.
I’m going to steal Patrick Higgins’ idea and employ that old English teacher’s advice to “show, don’t tell” our parents this new world. Patrick hosted Carolyn Foote, Konrad Glogowski, and me in a staff PD blogging workshop / podcast last month on Skype, and he deserves the flattery of my theft of his idea.
So I’ve made a Google Earth “fly around the world” tour of schools and educators in my network. Each of those educators has agreed to show the parents our Cool New World by joining me in a live Skype conference call for a quick, 5 minute “hello” and “expert voices” interview based on the simple (?!) question, “What can a 1:1 school offer your child that traditional schools can’t?”
Since the presentation will be in our beautiful school theater-auditorium, I’ve created a Google Earth tour of each Skype-guest’s school to project on our Big Screen on stage. Skype will share that screen with Google Earth, and so will GarageBand. The plan is to go round-robin to allow each guest to give his/her 60 seconds or less of “expert testimony,” and “fly” on Google Earth to his/her school as each speaker speaks.
I’ve already enlisted the following people from the following places:
- Kim Cofino from International School Bangkok
- Westley Field from Australia
- Chris Watson from Punahou High School, Honolulu
- Karl Fisch from Arapaho High School, Littleton/Denver, Colorado
- Patrick Higgins from Sparta High School, Sparta, New Jersey
I’d like to add New Zealand, Japan, Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia!
So if you read this in time (by 0800 GMT on Thursday, 16 August - just add or subtract the +/- digit of your time zone’s GMT) to leave a reply with your Skype username (or add me to your contacts: I’m cburell) and school name and address (or, better, co-ordinates), come on in. It’s easy enough for me to add your school to the Google Earth World Tour. (And yes, that’s the clumsiest sentence I’ve ever written. Okay, I’m lying: it’s typical. Sorry.)
The entire presentation will be filmed and video-podcasted. I’d love to have all interested parties - especially long-time “lurkers” on this blog (yes, Doug Belshaw, I’m talking about you 
join in. It’s “getting to know you” with a purpose. (If you prefer, you can email me at clayburell [at] gmail [dot] com.)
Video or only audio chat - no problem. Just drop in and help us have some fun.
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A Quick Youth Relevance Poll: School, Church, and "Unschooled" Youths
Following up on that last post questioning whether it’s time for the very idea (and institution) of “school” to die, a thought experiment:
Create a real-world project with all the right ingredients:
- relevance: it’s not a school exercise that ends up just another class project on the web, primarily designed to make students learn content they’ll forget within ten years (to be generous), and to give teachers something to grade
- citizenship: it’s about “enlightened community self-interest,” saving our own skins from the guaranteed miseries that will define the 21st century by helping effect some prudent changes now, while (maybe) there’s still time
- fun: it invites youths to organize a youth version of the worldwide Live Earth concerts (high school, college, and other local musicians at festivals on Earth Day ‘08 - plenty of time ’til April), and to create a website to stream those concerts, create meaningful digital content, and contribute to their communities through engaged citizenship (really, look at the Live Earth website and tell me why our students can’t create the same thing for the monthly global price of maybe 20 bucks - a dollar per country, say - and you know, really, it’s on me. I’ll spring for it.)
- empowerment: it pushes students beyond their schools, instead of sequestering them inside them, to experience the challenges of persuading their community to make practical changes, which is a pretty good definition of real “empowerment.” It liberates them from infantile school-based “projects” like “cafeteria reform,” “prom committee,” debating “school uniforms,” and writing for their “school newspaper” to broaden their sense of belonging to the world, not the school.
- learning: from the persuasive speaking skills to the scientific research skills to the managerial, organizational, and digital production skills, a campaign like this offers learning only limited by poor imaginations
You get the idea - especially if you’ve been reading this blog since mid-June (the “world citizenship” tag includes all those posts).
Now here’s the experiment:
Send invitations to participate to the three social groups most in touch with youth in industrialized nations:
1. Educators affiliated with schools
2. Youth leaders in churches
3. Parents affiliated with home-schooling / deschooling communities
In your own thought experiment, tell us what you think would be the answer to the questions in the following polls. (I’m aware that polls are unscientific and that school, church, and home-schoolers communities are diverse, so go with your gut, if you can. And add an “other” if I you think I left a potentially valuable youth group out.):
Me? I think the home-schooled / deschooled youths are better situated to contribute to this project than the other two. So I’m going to post this on a few of their websites.
Again, the poll is not the thing. It’s the question about which institutions create the most relevant and socially responsible youths that interests me here.
Thanks for playing. Comments would be interesting too
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