The Home Stretch

CCI just came off the home stretch of completing a three week Junior Summer Camp Information and Communication Technology sSummer Camp program for the TCDSB (Grades 4-6). I ended up with a 75 page booklet and 35 mb of supplementary materials on a CD. Unfortunately, I sold the rights to the lessons and materials so I can't share them. I really enjoyed the whole creative process of planning, modeling and developing three part lessons and supplementary materials that covered Information Literacy, Numeracy and Literacy over the course of the camp program.

The creation of the program got me thinking about some of the information that I am sharing through the wiki and blog , and how much I appreciate the simplicity of the Creative Commons license . The idea that another educator can rip, mix and re-share the materials that I created, but still attribute my contribution, is appealing to me. I want to see that the materials are being used with our students, gain feedback to improve my own practice, and further develop the knowledge base in my chosen field.

The wonderful thing about Creative Commons is that it opens up the growth potential for any given work, because those who contribute to it, in the case of a wiki or blog, knows that the work will continue to be shared.

June 27, 2006 | | 3 Comments »

Moving Google Earth and Cyberbullying 101 To The Wiki

After a few months, and over 200 registrations, using Moodle as the LMS for Google Earth 101 and Cyberbullying 101, I have decided to move the content into my wiki .  The Moodle registration system was becoming very cumbersome because so many email addresses were sending back the registration message as spam.

I am hoping that a wiki environment will allow for a more connectivist approach. A little inspiration from my ECOO session with George Siemens. I would also like to expand out some of the courses over the next few months, with anyone who is willing to help.

Jump into the WIKI …

June 26, 2006 | | Comments Closed

Video Streaming: Moving Forward Event (con’t)

The last three podcasts from the Streaming Video: Moving Forward event are organized by presenter.

  1. Peter White from McIntyre Media and Tom Matusos from CBC Education Sales
  2. Patrick Hartman and David Blair from Dynamics Professional Video Systems
  3. John Taylor from Waynor Media Solutions

As a follow-up to the conference I have been accessing some streaming video resources that you might like to investigate.

http://archives.cbc.ca/ – Hours of audio and video from the CBC

http://www.nfb.ca/ – CineRoute Program from the NFB offers 600 films in their entirety online.

http://www.curriculumresourcebank.com/ – Offers very large selection of fully streamed video educational programs and resources from TVOntario (similar to PBS) for Ontario educators to access in their classrooms.

June 20, 2006 | | Comments Closed

Video Streaming: Moving Forward Event

I thought I would jump into the world of online podcasting, by recording a
few of the events that I attend. Most of my recording has been for my coworkers,
so I have just opened up the audience a bit … okay, maybe a whole lot. I built
an intro using some sounds from the FreeSound and ccMixter web sites.

This event, Video Streaming: Moving Forward on June
14, was organized by the Waterloo District School Board and was billed as a day
of presentations and discussions, "to explore the future of video streaming in
school boards, colleges, universities, and government." I only recorded the
presentations by the vendors in the morning. The real strength of the day came
from the discussions in the afternoon, where we round-tabled with board IT
staff, Education Staff (K-12, College and University), video production, and
distribution industry people.

I also learned something important about microphone placement from the second
speaker in this series. Don't place it too near the person speaking. After
starting his presentation with videos in a bag, he placed the empty bag over my
microphone and recorder. (I'm also learning more tricks in Audacity) There is a
bit of twittering in the audio, so if you know how to get rid of it please let
me know for the other parts of this day.

Part one includes the opening presentation by Mark Carbone from WRDSB, and
the next is Gary Carlson from Distribution
Access.

| | Comments Closed

New Theme For Teaching Hacks

I'm working on a new theme for this blog.  After a few months with the same theme, I think it is time to move on.  So far, I have created two new blog headers as the basis of my theme.  They are:

Number 1 – "Cool Green Hack" Cool Green

Number 2 – "Techno Hack"

Techno Hack

It was fun to take some time playing with Photoshop.  I forgot how much I enjoy using the filters and layers to experiment with new outcomes.

June 2, 2006 | | 4 Comments »

Shifted Learning 2006??

Shifted LearningI am just wondering if I should be taking down the Shifted Learning banner in my sidebar.  I thought the idea of a K-12 blogger conference seemed like it was going somewhere, but there has not been any new posting for months on Pederson's blog.  There seemed to be quite a bit of interest generated in the first little while.  I'm wondering if perhaps we need another go at it. 

Perhaps give it a try for August 2006?  A new name?  A new location?  Any thoughts?

June 1, 2006 | | 2 Comments »

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