Due to the absence of last week's show, this week's show will have double the content!  ... well, except for the monologue.  I don't think anyone wants two of those.

Monologue of the week

My sister and I both play World of Warcraft.  No, this isn't a story about Warcraft - at least not directly.  I don't expect everyone's hobbies and interests to be the same as mine.

Look, just bear with me here.

At our last family get-together, I showed her http://wowinschool.pbworks.com/ - a site where teachers interested in the game were creating a curriculum so that it could be used as an educational tool.

As a teacher who plays, I thought it was pretty cool.

As another person who plays, my sister was dead set against it.

This story mentions Warcraft, but it's not about it.  You could substitute that game for Second Life, YouTube, video chatting, cell phones, or any one of a variety of other topics and see the same conversation played out between two individuals.

Heck, I was on the side that said "Blogging in schools? What a horrid idea!" less than a decade ago.

And the thing is, my sister wasn't exactly wrong with her concerns.  Warcraft is a social game, just like any of the other things I mentioned is social.  The media changes but the fact remains that once you allow others to interact with your students there exists an element of the unknown.  For someone expecting the rigid structure of a textbook lesson, that can be kind of scary.

It should be.

Look at it this way: Cars are incredibly dangerous.  Every day I go to work I travel on roads where going the speed limit can get you killed.  These collections of steel and plastic fly down asphalt runways, marginally guided by commuters more intent on their breakfast sandwich, coffee, cell phone, GPS unit, and finding a good radio station than they are on the world around them - and those are the ones that are sober!

And yet every day I go to school I get on the road, and every day my students enter my classroom they did the same.  Are we all insane?

No, no we're not.  I fasten my seatbelt.  I pay attention to the road and anything that fits into that embarrassingly large category of "things that could kill me."  I obey traffic signs and signals.  School buses are painted specific colors to make them more visible in most weather conditions, the newer models complete with flashing lights on their roofs.  The seats on a school bus?  They're higher up than most vehicles on the road today, shielding students from the brunt of any collision.

The point is, we don't panic about getting on the roads because precautions have been made.  I think those against using various things in the classroom would be less disagreeable if they could see the moderation and instruction that teachers are capable of.

When you hear someone telling you that YouTube, or blogging, or wikis, or cell phones, or, yes, even Warcraft, are not acceptable for learning experiences, Ask them how they got to work that day.

Then have a meaningful discussion on what precautions could be put in place to belay their fears.  I assure you, it will be a more meaningful conversation.

Lesson idea(s) of the week

1. Have students turn their work into a story.  Don't just ask for a report on Martin Luther King Jr. - have them write a story that shows a day in his life!  Assign different years to different groups or individuals to prevent duplicate submissions.  You can have them act things out live if you want, or use any of the many digital storytelling tools that exist.

2. Give back to the community.  Those who know me know I'm a big fan of Creative Commons Licensing, in part because it allows students access to wonderful resources without fear of violating copyrights.  Work with your students to create educational audio, video, still images, or text and release it under a Creative Commons license that the students have selected.  The best part is when you find out where else the content has been used.

Website/App Review(s) of the week

1. Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)- The Teachers 2.0 show is usually recorded on a Mac, but even so, it's Audacity that does all the hard work.  This free and open source software will run on Macs, Windows, and even Linux, allowing you to use it to record and edit audio with your students no matter what OS your school uses.  Its main fault is that it does not save mp3 files "out of the box" due to licensing restrictions, but there are simple instructions on the Audacity website for how to fix that.  (Thanks to Twitter user @kchoudhary34 for suggesting this app for today's show.)

2. Delicious (http://delicious.com/)- Bookmarks, Favorites, whatever you call them, a longstanding problem shared by anyone who uses multiple computers involves syncing links between work and home, or even one side of a room and another.  Delicious solves this problem with a "Bookmarklet" that it gives you when you create an account.  With that one item saved to your Bookmarks Toolbar, any page you find and like can be saved, tagged, summarized, and even shared with others.  Have multiple students researching the same topic?  Create a Delicious account for the entire class so they can pool their resources!  (Oh, and if you tag a link with "teachers20," we'll probably see it.)    (Thanks to Twitter user @VickiWilson for suggesting this site for today's show.)

Technology tip(s) of the week

1. Play with 1-2 new tools at a time. Make sure to know the tool before using it with the students. Or use self talk to model. (via @kryptinite219)

2. Keep your computers clean!  A can of compressed air and cleaning wipes can do a world of good.  Make sure the wipes are specifically for monitors, as the generic cleaning wipes often have chemicals harsh enough to do more harm than good to your sensitive screens.

Call For Submissions

Be a part of the Teachers 2.0 show! Follow us on Twitter, mail audio or text to "podcast[at]teachers20.com," or use this Google Form

Copyright Notice

This episode is released under a "Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial" License. Use it, remix it, and share it as much as you want, just give credit where credit is due and don't try to make money off of it. Otherwise, we'll call your parents in for a conference.

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Monologue of the week

What's in a name? At the start of each show I introduce myself as "Aaron Smith, The Art Guy" because both are my names. "Aaron Smith," my given name, is fairly common. Anyone with "Smith" as their last name shares my pain, I'm sure.

"The Art Guy" is also my name. I've been using it for years. I have former students who would be hard pressed to remember that I'm Mr. Smith but would instantly know me as The Art Guy. There's even a principal, one whom I respect a great deal, though she's now retired, who always called me The Art Guy. Always.

This worked out pretty well for me, except in one school where the culture was a bit different. There, students were reprimanded for calling me by my chosen nick name. There was some grudging acceptance from the staff as they realized that I was actively encouraging the practice, but it wasn't the way they wanted things done.

Their reasoning? At first, I thought it was because they wanted a more formal environment where nick names had no place. That theory didn't last long after I learned what they wanted their students to call me.

"Mr. Aaron."

Oh well.

In any case, I use my dual identity - that of "Mr. Smith" and "The Art Guy" to introduce my students to the concept of online identities. Naturally I don't want them using their real names online for a variety of reasons. I also don't want a large percentage of my class naming themselves after their favorite singer.

I call myself "The Art Guy" because it says something about me. It's my hope that they'll be able to find user names that identify themselves without ... well ... identifying themselves.

That, and without naming themselves "Beiberfan28332." That could come back to haunt them.

Lesson idea of the week

Kindergarten PowerPoint colors & shapes book.

Website/app review of the week

Listen - Podcatcher app for Android phones.

Technology tip of the week

Sign up for EVERYTHING. Establish your online identity.

Call For Submissions

Be a part of the Teachers 2.0 show! Mail audio or text to "podcast[at]teachers20.com" or use this Google Form

Copyright Notice

This episode is released under a "Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial" License. Use it, remix it, and share it as much as you want, just give credit where credit is due and don't try to make money off of it. Otherwise, we'll make you sit in the time out chair.

Click to download this week's show.

Monologue of The Week

I haven't worn a tie to school in the past 7 years.

This does not mean I dress like a slob. I wear clean clothes, shirts with collars, never wear jeans, shorts, or sneakers with more holes in them than a sieve.

But how would that affect my classroom if I did?

A traditional classroom, like from my days as a high school student, is based on a particular kind of order. The desks are usually arranged in some form of grid, with the students facing the front of the room. The teacher will stand or sit at the front of the room, sometimes making notes on the board for students to quickly copy down.

I haven't taught a class like that in the past 7 years, either.

So what changed? Teachers started looking at how they were taught and asking themselves if that was the best way. The ones that thought inside the box continued to always arrange the desks in neat grids while the "outside the box" thinkers arranged them in a variety of ways. Sometimes the grid was best, but other times it wasn't.

There is, of course, more to teaching than desk arrangement. Lesson plans, textbooks, school equipment, scheduling, and more have all been modified to make many schools very different from how they were 50 years ago.

And mind you, this is my personal opinion here, but if your school is the same as it was 50 years ago then there are a lot of people who didn't do their jobs.

So, back to the ties. I don't wear them. I used to wear them because all the other male teachers wore them, but after a few years of teaching I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to be just like all the other male teachers. And you know what? My students don't care if I have a tie or not. They care if I'm providing them with engaging activities.

So what about you? What's YOUR tie? What's something you changed or abandoned so you could focus more on teaching and less on things that in the long run didn't mater? Leave a comment to let us know.

Lesson Idea of The Week

Check Wikipedia: Give students a Wikipedia article and have them fact check the information provided. They can start with the citations listed in the article but should also look for other sources that corroborate them.

Bonus: If they find incorrect information, have them edit Wikipedia to correct it.

Website/App Review of The Week

NoScript: Free extension for Firefox that blocks Javascript and cookies.

Technology Tip of The Week

Give time for students to play with new tools, then discuss how they found those features.

Call For Submissions

Be a part of the Teachers 2.0 show! Mail audio or text to "podcast[at]teachers20.com" or use this Google Form

Copyright Notice

This episode is released under a "Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial" License.  Use it, remix it, and share it as much as you want, just give credit where credit is due and don't try to make money off of it.  Otherwise, we'll assign extra homework.

Nine years ago today a very special person said "I do." (I've been wondering how I got so lucky ever since.)

In any case, today will be spent doing things other than preparing for the show.  I will instead record it at 8pm EST tomorrow, Thursday 7/15.

(This also means you've got one more day to submit something for the show, if the mood strikes you.  Hint, hint.)

Thank you for your understanding.

Be a part of the Teachers 2.0 show!  (So I don't have another show where I'm reading posts off of Twitter!) Mail audio or text to "podcast[at]teachers20.com" or use this Google Form

Listen live on Wednesdays @ 8pm EST at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/teachers-2-0

Monologue

Could this be our last show? The internet is over!

Review of format changes and submission guidelines.

Lesson Idea

Flickr Writing Prompts

When searching, click on "Advanced"
Scroll all the way down and click the checkboxes for "Creative Commons" and "Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon."
Press "Search" again.

*Remember to go back to the Advanced Search page any time you want to refine your search, or you will lose that preference.

(http://blog.mrmeyer.com/ is the blog of an awesome Math teacher who does great things with photos.)

Review

This week's site: http://resize.it/ for cropping/resizing images

Erica D - DPS TechTeachers
http://maculspace.ning.com/profile/msdean4dps
 
http://twitter.com/DPSTechTeachers

Tech Tip

Always have a "Plan B"

*NOT a movie to show.  Hitting play and showing the whole thing removes you from your role as a teacher.
*Save your Google Presentation (or any other online examples) as a PowerPoint file.
*Writing prompts/handouts prepared and kept for a "rainy day."
*Divide students into groups to role-play / debate a digital citizenship scenario such as trolling, cyber-bullying, friends sharing too much online, and so on.

Short intro here, on with the show!

Be a part of the Teachers 2.0 show!  (So I don't have another show where I'm reading posts off of Twitter!) Mail audio or text to "podcast [at] teachers20.com" or use this Google Form

Katie Grassel said: What I learned at ISTE10, there are lots of great resources, tools and teachers working to better the educational community. What can we do to make it better? First we need to understand what the students want/need to learn and then teach it to them in a way that they learn (not how we learned). Networking and collaborating with other teachers just makes for better learning. It is not bragging to share successes, that is how we all learn.

1. @Riptide: Kidscapism : Simulated Email System for Students
2. @mtrump: Technology doesn't improve education, it changes it......TEACHERS improve education.
3.  @robwall "Does iPAd replace laptop" is like asking "does Twitter replace blogs" - they resemble each other but they do different things"
4. @gwynethjones The Power of the PLN: Finding Kindred Tech Spirits - http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/ or what i learned from the #lbc10
5. @marynabadenhors Putting bad pedagogy into digital format does not suddenly transform it into good pedagogy, it only makes it digitised! C Lehman
6. @pollockburke Neat DST site: http://alpha.zooburst.com
7. @PeggySheehy David Warlick" It's not about the technology (games etc) it's because THIS IS WHERE MY FRIENDS ARE!"
   (World of Warcraft in Schools by Peggy Sheehy and many others)
8. @craigr Check out the Creativity Resource for Teachers on the Denver Art Museum site. http://creativity.denverartmuseum.org
9. @budtheteacher Thanks to everyone who came to the #filtercc session. Lots of resources at http://filterclimatecheck.wikispaces.com
10. @budtheteacher I don't want the unreasonable few to dictate the environments and opportunities of the many. ISTE 2010 Monday Brain Dump podcast by Bud the Teacher)

Just a short show today on how teachers are learning now that school's out.  We hope you all are enjoying your Summer vacations.  Thank you for making Teachers 2.0 a part of it.

Susan Sedro shared:

My summer pd includes Apple webinars, audiobooks, catching up on my blog reader and the book I ordered during the year. Time for reflection.

Garth shared:

Take a look at delicious account dgholma for history resources with "sound": speeches, interviews, etc...

Lindsay shared:

Today, my tech coaching group is learning about the adult learner as we prepare our "Summer Ignite" tech training. We have been discussing how to really teach an adult learner. This was a good resource for me.

Julia Hopwood shared on Twitter: 

I'm putting together a course which will help students identify their talents and then steps to steer them in that direction.

Cool conferences:

Upstate Technology Conference

Follow what people are saying by searching for the #utc10 hash tag.

ISTE 2010 in Denver!

Follow what people are saying by searching for the #ISTE and #ISTE10 hash tags.

The Journey to Greatness Through Differentiated Instruction Conference

June 29-30 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The conference is open to educators from Maryland Public Schools and the tuition has been paid for by grants. Online registration ends June 25, 2010.

I've been reading up on incorporating words and images together to increase reading. It is officially called "nonlinguistic representations." Very fancy word for using visuals to stimulate brain use. Has anyone done any hands on work with using visuals to increase reading? Julie