Taste of Tech

Finding is 10% looking and 90% knowing where to look. If you’re searching for the best Tiramisu, go to Little Italy (or just come to my house). If you want you want to see a rainbow, turn your back to the sun right after it rains and look up in the sky. If you can’t find your car keys, check the lock in the front door. That’s where you used them last.

If you are a teacher and you’re looking to connect with other teachers to exchange ideas, resources, and best practices, you have to know where to look. Sure, the blogosphere is great for that. But that’s not the only way to connect with other professionals online. If you go to an online community where teachers are active, you’re going to benefit from and contribute to a wider community.

Tapped In is a resource that helps you do that. This online community of more than 20,000 teachers has been around for a decade. These professionals teach every subject at every grade level. If you’re working in education, chances are there are people in Tapped In who are doing the same thing you’re doing.

By Web 2.0 standards, it’s a low-tech community. You don’t need a headset or a webcam to participate. Most of the interaction takes place in text chats or online forums. The site uses a campus metaphor, with different buildings for different tenants. Organizations can lease space on the Tapped In system, and each get their own buildings when they do. While the tenants help pay the bills, most of the users of the site are not associated with a tenant.

The heart of the Tapped In community lies in the groups. There are more than 860 groups of educators, covering everything from the “ABC’s of Tech Integration” to the “Wisconsin Catholic Library Association.”

One of the really neat things about the site is the chat interface. The site uses frames, with the Tapped In content loading in the top part of the screen, and the chat room below. As you navigate the site, you can interact with others in the chat room. There are always “help desk” people there to assist and to show you around. When you leave, a transcript of the chat session is automatically emailed to you.

On July 25, 2007, Tapped In is having a festival with the theme “Playing to Learn”. This would be a good time to introduce yourself to the community and see what it has to offer. Even if you don’t make the festival, Tapped in is definitely worth a look.

Assignment: Sign up for a free Tapped In account. Log in. Chat with the people working on the help desk. Find at least one group to join, and see what they’re talking about.

It’s a “long distance” call from my home to my office. When we actually had a land-line phone in our house, we had to pay extra for my wife to call me at work. Unbelievable.

A few nights ago, I participated in a 40 minute conference call with a man from New Hampshire, a woman from Korea, and a guy in British Columbia, Canada. None of us paid anything for the call.

Skype makes it possible to have voice conversations with other people on the Internet for free. You download and install the software, sign up for a free account, and connect a microphone to your computer. You can call any other Skype user — anywhere in the world — for free. Talk as long as you want. If you’re willing to pay, you can also call land-line or cell phones and receive calls from these types of phones.

This doesn’t replace your existing telephone or your cell phone. I wouldn’t want to rely on it as my only source for telephone connectivity. But it’s very convenient for quick conversations, and it’s great for conference calls.

Did I mention that it does video? It also has a built-in instant messenger application.

Of course, if you’re the only one you know using Skype, it’s going to be a lonely experience. It’s kind of like Alex Bell sitting there waiting for someone else to get a phone so he could call them. If that’s your problem, let me know and you can call me.

Assignment: Download and install Skype. Sign up for a free account. If you don’t already have one, invest $10 in a headset with a microphone. Use Skype to call someone and talk to them. For extra credit, participate in a Skypecast with a group of people.

It gets harder and harder to send teachers to professional conferences. The costs are high, scheduling is difficult, and funding sources aren’t readily available. Just as important, pulling a teacher out of the classroom, even to do worthwhile staff development, shortchanges the students.

Last fall, the K12 Online Conference changed the paradigm for professional meetings. Instead of pulling teachers out of the classroom, sending them off to a different city, and having them physically attend conference sessions, this conference took place entirely online. It lasted for three weeks in October, with strands covering a week in the classroom, personal professional development, and overcoming obstacles. The presentations were both interactive and asynchronous. The opening keynote was a video that people could watch at their own convenience. At the same time, there was a discussion board and live voice and text chats scheduled to discuss this content. Throughout the conference, there were both pre-recorded and live interactive activities. The conference drew attendees from all over the world. Some immersed themselves entirely in the event. Others just watched or listened to a single presentation during a planning period or on their way home from work.

Did you miss it? That’s okay. All of the content is still available on the web site. You can watch or listen to the conference sessions, read the discussion forums, and comment on the issues and topics raised in the sessions. There are RSS feeds for each week, so you could subscribe to them as podcasts (though there aren’t any new episodes).

Right now, they’re getting ready for the 2007 conference, which will take place in October again. Teachers from all over the world will be able to participate live. Others will watch, listen, and interact with the content later. Some will even get graduate credit for participating.

Assignment: Go to the 2006 K12 Online Conference. Watch or listen to at least one of the presentations. Mark your calendar for the 2007 Conference, which takes place October 15 - 26. Start lobbying the powers that be in your school to get some release time to participate in the 2007 conference.

There is a community of passionate educational technology people out there. The community includes experts in everything from designing and maintaining computer networks to teaching people how to send email with attachments. They’re generally well-read, insightful professionals, and they’re all working to improve the use of technology in schools.

They’re also a very kind, welcoming, and helpful collection of people. If you want to improve what you’re doing with technology in the classroom, you should be part of this community. You don’t have to be an expert in anything. You just have to have the willingness to interact, ask questions, and provide your perspective.

A great way to introduce yourself to this community is through EdTechTalk. It’s part of the Worldbridges network, a truly impressive global network of people working in a variety of areas. The EdTechTalk community centers around webcasts. Typically, two or more hosts hold a live audio conference online. This conference is streamed, so anyone on the Internet can listen to it while it’s going on. In some cases, guests are invited to participate in the shows by using Skype to call in. Think of it as an online radio talk show.

While this is all happening, there’s a text chat. People listening to the show can comment on the show while it’s taking place. The hosts are also in the text chat, so they can respond to questions and issues raised there. Depending on the show, they may also use screen-sharing software that allows them to demonstrate applications and web sites. In a few cases, they also provide video.

After the show, the audio is bundled up into an RSS feed, making it a podcast. So even if you don’t show up for the live show, you can listen to it later, just like you would with any podcast. Since the web sites for these shows all encourage comments, you can provide your perspective even if the show isn’t offered at a convenient time for you.

So what kind of shows are there? Here’s a rundown:

EdTechWeekly (webcast) is a fast-paced roundup of news and resources related to educational technology. Hosts Jennifer Maddrell, Jeff Lebow, and Dave Cormier offer rapid-fire links, resources, and news items, typically covering 20-30 different topics during the 40 minute program. It’s on Sunday nights at 7:00 Eastern.

21st Century Learning (webcast) is a weekly show hosted by Alex Ragone and Arvind Grover, two teachers in New York City. They frequently host discussions and interviews with educators discussing the impact of new media and new technologies on education. This show is the only one offered during the day in the United States, taking place at 1:30 PM Eastern each Tuesday.

Making Connections (webcast) is a good place for teachers who want to learn new tools with others. Each week, they take a new technology, and work together to learn how to use it. Host Cathy Evanoff is extraordinarily helpful and patient. No prior experience with the tools is necessary for this informal show, which takes place each Tuesday night at 7:00 Eastern.

Women of Web 2.0 (webcast) is for all who are using the tools of the Internet whether it be in a classroom setting, leading seminars, authoring books, maintaining blogs or wikis, or just enjoying the tools of the Internet in an educational and exciting way. The show is brought to you by Vicki Davis, Cheryl Oakes, Sharon Peters, & Jennifer Wagner - four women who not only love using the tools of the Internet but also love sharing the tools with others. It’s on every Tuesday night at 9:00 Eastern.

Teachers Teaching Teachers (webcast) is hosted by four teachers: Paul Allison, Lee Baber, Susan Ettenheim, and Thomas Locke. Every Wednesday evening at 9:00 EST, they get together and discuss effective practices in technology, current research, and new media. Their focus is on developing teacher knowledge and leadership in their schools and putting this knowledge and leadership to work to improve student online reading and writing through the use of blogs, wikis, podcasts and webcasts.

EdTechBrainstorm (webcast) is a show hosted by Doug Symington. These are free-form discussions where anyone can chime in about projects they’re working on and challenges they’re facing. Join Doug each Thursday night at 9:00 Eastern.

EdTechTalk K12 (webcast) is a show focused on educational technology issues in the K-12 environment. It is hosted by Anne Leftwich and Jeff Flynn.

It’s Elementary is a new show planning to begin on July 9. It will highlight best practices and help teachers overcome obstacles to using technology in an elementary school environment. It will be hosted by Lisa Durff, Jose Rodriguez, and Alice Mercer. This show will air every other Monday, at 7:00 PM Eastern.

Assignment: Listen to at least two episodes, each from a different show. Pick a show, and tune in online while it’s being broadcast live. Join the chat at EdTechTalk.com. For extra credit, use Skype to join in the conversation.

If you’ve been following along so far, you’re starting to accumulate some useful resources. You have some podcasts that you’re listening to. You’re reading some blogs. Maybe you’ve found a few other useful things along the way. At some point, you’re going to want to go back to these pages.

For the first decade of the web, we used bookmarks. When you’re on a web site, you simply add a bookmark for that site. All of your bookmarked sites show up in a list in your browser, and you can return to them any time. If you’re an Internet Explorer user, bookmarks are called “Favorites.” You can even organize your bookmarks into folders, just like you would with your files. Use different folders for different topics, and you have a nicely organized collection of web sites that you can return to with ease at the click of a mouse.

The problem is this: most teachers I know use multiple computers. At the very least, you probably have one at school and one at home. In many cases, teachers share rooms and end up using several different computers at school throughout the course of the day. But the bookmarks are stored on the computer you were using when you created them. That means you can’t get to bookmarks you created on another computer.

I know. This isn’t technically true. I guess if your school is using roaming profiles, your bookmarks go with you from computer to computer. But they don’t go home with you, and not everyone uses roaming profiles. What we really need is bookmark portability.

Delicious (http://del.icio.us) is one service that helps you manage your bookmarks. Start by signing up for a free account. Then, when you’re surfing the web and encounter a site you want to bookmark, use Delicious instead. You can add notes about the site and choose one or more “tags” for it. Tags are one-word descriptors for categorizing your sites. For example, I use the tag “profdev” for sites related to professional development. I use “2blog” for sites that I want to blog about. You can use any tags you like.

Delicious then allows you to access your links from any computer. Simply log in to your account, and you can manage your links. If you want, you can choose to share your links with others, too. Here are all of the items I’ve tagged with “profdev,” for example. And here are all the links tagged with “profdev” by anyone on Delicious.

You can also search Delicious to see which sites other people have tagged in a certain way. The National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) is this week. A lot of people have bookmarked sites in Delicious and tagged them with NECC. Unfortunately, tags can be inconsistent, because there are some tagged “necc07″ and “necc2007″ too. But by sharing your links, you contribute to the global collection of annotated resources related to whatever topics your tags cover.

Delicious is a really wonderful and useful tool. There’s just one thing that may keep teachers from being able to use it effectively. Sometimes, it’s blocked by Internet filters. In our district, this is the case. So, while you can certainly manage your links in Delicious at home, you won’t be able to access them at school if you work in my district. Since that was the problem we set out to solve, we’re back to square one.

But not really. There’s this program called Scuttle, which does most of the same things Delicious does. The primary difference is that it can be installed on your own server, and you can run your own, internal Delicious. I did that, so teachers (and students) in my district can use our local installation of Scuttle to manage their bookmarks. It’s even tied to our exisiting user accounts, so everyone’s network username and password will work. Because my web server isn’t blocked by the Internet filter, neither is my installation of Scuttle. Alvin actually likes Scuttle better than Delicious, because all of the links are from the same organization, and it’s easier to find what you’re looking for.

Assignment: Either sign up for a Delicious account, or (if you’re a BBH employee) log in to our Scuttle installation. If you’re using Firefox, install the Add-ons (Delicious or Scuttle) that let you easily tag items. If you’re using Internet Explorer, you can use these buttons for Delicious, or add these links to your Links bar for IE. Using one of these tools, tag at least two web sites, so you can retrieve them later.