edgeek

Scribd

Last Friday I had a very interesting talk with a guy called Pablo Arrieta, a teacher at Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. I didn't agree with many of his views, but I pretty much just let him talk without controversy (it'll come some other time), since it wasn't a debate but a conversation with students, where he was the guest speaker and I was just part of the audience. Mostly, he showed some cool tools. Among them was Scribd, of which I'd read in Stephen Downes blog as well as Jay Cross'.

It seems interesting for online publishing, especially when you don't have time to do all the design and have a Word (or the like) document you want to show inside a browser window.

Here's as example of what it looks like displaying one of the documents Jay uploaded:

Read this doc on Scribd: Web 2 0 and the Evolution of Instructional Design

Video

in education, students, video, web2

I got to this video thanks to Vickie Davis' blog. She is putting together a list of videos that show some of the things we technology advocates-enthusiasts preach. This video seems to be inspired in the M. Wesch's "A vision of students today". Here's the video: (thanks Vickie, I'm looking forward to the full collection).

 

 

A Vision of K-12 Students Today, by bjnesbitt, on Youtube

My class

As I did last semester, I am teaching a class at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the school where I went to. I decided to call it the same as last semester, even though some things have changed thanks to the feedback I got from students last semester. I am also gonna experiment working with Knowledge Forum; Learning in Motion lent me a trial database they are hosting themselves. (Thanks Marlene!) I can only use it this semester, but it's a great oportunity. I bet I could try and convince some people at the University to help me lobby for a site license or something. Not easy in a public university bureaucracy, but I'll give it a shot by showing what my students did with it (fingers crossed). You can take a look at the syllabus by going to the Wikispace I created for it:  http://cmta.wikispaces.com.

All feedback welcome through here or there. And this time I'll try and keep my promise of updating this blog with posts from the class.

Disappointed? Might need a name-change for this blog

57% Geek

Find lpn programs near you

This might mean I need to rename this blog. I failed the geekness test.

web 2

Estamos en la conferencia sobre web 2 en Eafit.

Deje aquí sus comentarios, preguntas, dudas, quejas, reclamos, regaño.

Aquí, usando el Google Docs del que les hablé, publiqué la presentación, la que subimos a Internet durante la conferencia:

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dhdq86x2_16d2rh6x

Conferencia filosofía

Estamos en la conferencia sobre herramientas tecnológicas para la enseñanza de la filosofía.

K12 Online Conference

in conference, education, teaching, technology

A wonderful idea is back online for '07, the K12 Online Conference. It started today and the first videos are being downloaded as we speak (don't know if they were available before today, though). There will be 2 weeks worth of video conferences, discussion, blogging, and a final 24-hour Elluminate closing event. I'll keep blogging as I watch and read. It looks awesome though! Don't miss it. http://k12onlineconference.org/ . Use the tag "k12online07" if you blog about it.

Una idea genial está de vuelta en la red para la versión 2007. La conferencia en línea sobre educación básica (K-12). Comenzó hoy y los primeros videos ya están en línea. Los estoy bajando mientras escribo esto. Habrá dos semanas de videos, discusiones y blogs, y un evento final con 24 horas de salones de video conferencia, sesiones moderadas y ciber-café usando Elluminate. Seguiré escribiendo a medida que vea, lea, piense... ¡Se ve maravilloso! ¡No se lo pierdan! Usen la etiqueta (tag) "k12onlineconference" si bloguean sobre el evento (y notifiquen a Technorati).

Las últimas noticias, blogs, videos, etc. de la conferencia las encuentran en  http://k12onlineconference.org/ o simplemente suscribiéndose a este feed en su lector RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/k12onlineconference.

In need of freedom sticks... or just plain freedom

in blocking, education, funny, technology

Doug Belshaw writes a story of how network security policies (IT Policies) thwarted a lesson he had planned using Flash games and a video, and how he couldn't get an image "just in time for his students", all due to blocking and security issues. I can't stop thinking about what I just outlined in my last blog post: how many teachers attempts to use technology to help their students learning find brick walls in IT Staff or IT policies in their schools? How can we collaborate with IT staff to create sensible policies that are conducive to better learning experiences? I have no anwers, but the Dilbert strip posted by Mr Belshaw made me laugh and definitely made me think of people I know (ha). Enjoy, and thanks again to Mr Belshaw for the great blog.

 Dilbert

Ha, freedom sticks

Alec Couros writes about his efforts to help teachers in Saskatchewan use technology in the classroom. He found himself in a conundrum. The school computers (IT staff, I guess) had blocked the blogging sites he tried to use, and the browser they could use did not work well with the wysiwyg editor.

He gave them portable apps on a memory stick and set up a temporary wireless network to bypass the problem. He reminded me of my petty battles with IT in different places to get MSN to work (to get work done) and Skype to conference with team mates far away.

How many teachers efforts are still being thwarted by IT policies in their schools or offices? This whole filtering issue is bigger every day. How can we collaborate with IT staff in order to get the kinds of applications we need to teach, learn and work just in time, whenever we need them, working as they do... at home where we don't even have IT support staff?

En expociencia - expotecnología

El jueves estuve en expociencia-expotecnología en Corferias. La Asociación Colombiana para el Avance de la Ciencia nos invitó a hacer una presentación de 15 minutos y participar en un pánel de discusión con algunos otros expertos. Reciclé un poco la presentación que había hecho en Maloka hace más o menos un año, pero un poco reducida, pues tenía la mitad del tiempo. Lo importante, creo, era mostrar cosas interesantes al público que los motivara a pensar un poco sobre cómo hacer que sus estudiantes aprendan más. Decidí recortar los videos y solamente hablar y mostar algunas palabras importantes en el proyector. Hablé de las tres interfaces de Chris Dede (1) y un poco sobre qué tiene que ver esto con el aprendizaje, basándome para esto en Bransford (2), et al.

Usando por primera vez Garage Band en mi Macbook grabé el audio de la conferencia, y luego lo uní a las diapositivas para ponerlo en Google Video. Exporté el Powepoint como imágenes y las puse sobre el audio usando iMovie. Toda bastante fácil. Son 16 minutos de mí hablando sobre educación y tecnología. Aquí esta:

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1) Dede, C. (2006). Building Learning Communities Conference, Keynote Day 3. On Building Learning Communities [Video]. Boston, MA: November Learning.

2) Bransford, J., Brown, A., Coching, R., & National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning. (2000). How people learn. Washington, D. C.: National Academy Press.