Cool Tools

Maybe it's been around for awhile, but I just discovered cooliris when viewing Alan Levine's Amazing Stories of Openness. CoolIris is an add-on to your browser that allows you to view a collection of pictures or videos in its entirety, on a "wall". You can scroll along the wall, select an image to view. Here's the cool part: the images can be on flickr, facebook, your computer...My grandchildren were mesmerized when we did a google images search for golden retriever puppies and we could browse through the collection. Easy... YES. Cool...YES

Cool tool 2 came to me today from Tom at the Rapid e-Learning blog. It's screenr. It's an online tool for recording videos of your desktop. The video can then be downloaded as an mp4 or sent to your youtube account. Here's my first attempt. Easy... YES. Cool...YES

Enduring Understanding for Ed Tech Class v.1

My task today is to develop the first draft of the Enduring Understandings (EU) for my Ed Tech class. EU are hard. They really do inform the design of the class, and it often takes a bit of work to coax them from the subconscious to written text. I was aided in this process by an excellent paper from Educause: Learn and Technology - "In That Order" by Malcolm Brown. In fact, my first enduring understanding comes from the title of the paper. Here are my draft EU. They seem a bit redundant to me, but they'll do for now.

1.Learning comes first, then technology.
2. The technology supports the learning and student interaction.
3. Teachers and students are partners in utilizing technology to enhance learning.

EDFN 302 Thoughts

I will be teaching EDFN 302 this fall, using the new NETS-T (National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers) as a guide. Teaching something for the first time is always an exciting and a daunting prospect for me. I've developed a brainstorm list of topics. One topic that seems like a good start is to compare the new NETS-T 2008 with the 2000 version. Another topic that intrigues me is to use the new NET-S (National Educational Technology Standards for Students) as a design guide for this course.

I am reviewing various links I have on del.ici.us for interesting online games, brainstorming a survey that I want to give the students, and perusing the Internet for sites that model/discuss the new standards. I have not ordered a textbook for the course because I want my students to use the Internet for resources. After I review the ISTE book on the new NETS-T, I may suggest that the students order the book.

I am into an inch-wide, mile-deep learning, I want all the students to learn a new tool. I am thinking that as a group we could learn Scratch or explore Google Earth.... I really want each of them to learn one tool well for instruction and for management. The exploration continues....