This has been a crazy week. It all started last Thursday afternoon. Our email system went offline because of a hard drive failure. I knew then it would not be up the next day. That is when my headache started. Saturday and Sunday, our email was sporadic, but I thought the worst was over. Monday morning rolls around, and our email is still down. My head ache returns.
By Tuesday, our email system has been moved to a new server but we were still having issues with outbound mail. Most of that was solved before the end of the day. Finally on Wednesday my headache subsided and I felt that I could show my face it public again.
By now it is quite obivous I have nothing to write about. So, I am just going to share some things that have excited me.
1. The Dell Latitude 2100 Education Netbook. I am not a big fan of netbooks for me personally, I prefer my laptop and iPod Touch. I see the benefits for education. Dell has released a special netbook for education. I want a set and it has been a long time since I have said “I want” and “dell” in the same sentence.
2. The Palm Pre. Our cell phones are on the Verizon network and I am not happy with the selection. BlackBerry is not an options. Saturday, June 5th, Palm is releasing their newest phone the Pre. It is only on Sprint, but Verizon already let the cat out of the bag and said they will be carrying the Pre in 6 months.
3. Apple’s WWDC. On June 8th, Apple will most likely be talking about the new iPhone. There have been rumors of it being available on Verizon, but I am not holding my breath. I am still excited to see what the updates are and when I can get them on my iPod Touch.
5. Twitter: I am a bipolar twitterer. Sometimes I love it and think it is great, other days it is just a distraction. Today I am liking it. I especially like this video out of UT Dallas. I would have loved a classroom like this growing up. I would never raise my hand or participate in a discussion in school, but I would have participated like this.
I am really enjoying reading on my iTouch and I have to say that I was a “paperdork"(Aaron’s fabulous term) before I downloaded Stanza on my iTouch. Stanza is a free reader for your iTouch/iPhone. I’ve tried out many different free apps on my iTouch but Stanza for me is the best. The only thing I don’t love is that you can’t annotate text yet but I know many users have asked for that function.
I especially like that while in Stanza you can download ebooks right to your iTouch/iPhone with their Online Catalog. The Online Catalog links to many different online sites but by far my favorite has been Feedbooks.
Feedbooks is a universal e-reading platform compatible with all mobile devices where you can download thousands of free e-books, publish and share your own content, and create customized newspapers from RSS feeds and widgets.
One of the other great things (thanks Kim) to do with Stanza is to use ePub2Go to convert your PDFs. You simply go to the ePub2Go site and either upload or link to a PDF you want. Once you have uploaded your PDF and it has been converted you will get an option: “I'd like an e-mail sent to my iPhone so that I can download the book to Stanza.” Then you just open your email, click on the link, and the PDF is downloaded into Stanza.
Also don’t forget to check out some free manuals to add to your iTouch/iPhone using ePub2Go from http://the-manuals.com/.
Two great lists of videos were put out this past week and I just had to blog about them. Showing a variety of videos this year has been one way I’ve really gotten my teachers, administrators, and students to think and talk about new ideas in technology and education. The two lists below are great resources and I’m so thankful to Scott McLeod and Alec Couros for putting them out there!
There are some very interesting posts going on over at ISTEConnects. The first is a post by Wes Fryer Handouts at Educator PD Workshops. This post is near and dear to my heart as I’ve been trying for the last couple of years to move away from printing whenever possible!
The second post I wanted to mention was by Joe Corbett - Share your Tips on How to be a Green Educator. This post evolved from the responses to the one above and is collecting data on a Google Doc. If you have a second please go over and add your thoughts!
If you are going to NECC this year I strongly suggest going onto the NECC 2009 site and registering for any of the activities you want to go to. I went on this weekend and things are filling up fast! I really want to do the DC Capitol Hill Visits (only $25) but have a SIGILT meeting at the same time – going to see if I can do both. The DC Capitol Hill Visits sound awesome and I would encourage everyone to think strongly about doing them! Here is the blurb:
Join your NECC colleagues and Make Your Voice Heard on Capitol Hill! ISTE is taking advantage of NECC being in the nation's capital by providing you with the opportunity to go to the Hill and share your ideas and success stories with your Senators and Congressional Members.
A "Hill Visit" package includes:
Scheduled appointments to meet with congressional staff from your state. ISTE will arrange scheduled meetings for you to meet with staff for your congressional representative and senators. The number of appointments will depend on staff and space availability—a minimum of one and maximum of three appointments will be made for you.
"Boot Camp"—on-site NECC sessions that will prepare you for your congressional meetings to ensure that you are armed with talking points and are confident for your meetings.
Bus transportation to and from Capitol Hill (some walking will be required from the capitol bus stop to the congressional offices).
A ticket to the VIP Congressional Reception to be held the same evening at the Library of Congress. FUN and a T-Shirt! Hill Visits are a lot of fun and a great way to meet colleagues. Each registrant will receive a T-Shirt to wear to their meetings to show ISTE's strength on the hill.
Hill Visit coordinators will contact you just prior to NECC with specific information about the exact time and location of your meetings.
Anyone else out there considering doing this?
Image Attribution Image: 'United States Capitol' www.flickr.com/photos/69567805@N00/3018986888
If you read anything about education and technology, you will hear the term 21st century skills. 21st century schools are being built. Classrooms are being fitted with 21st century tools. But what does it really mean?
I recently found a great site by Apple called Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow-Today, or ACOT2. The site outlines what they believe to be the 6 design principals of the 21st century high schools and the answer is not just technology.
1. Understanding of 21st Century Skills and Outcomes. A survey of business leaders came up with a list of most desirable skills; including, work ethic, collaboration, social responsibility, and critical thinking. There is nothing ground breaking about this list. These traits are timeless. The survey also cited creativity and innovation as being increasingly important. Again, these are timeless and I am confused by using the word increasingly. Innovation, or yankee ingenuity, is as american as baseball and apple pie. Apple doesn't paint the picture of 21st century skills until you click the button to show more about 21st century skills. A link to The Partnership for 21st Century Skills breaks the skills down to Core Subjects; Learning and Innovation Skills; Information, Media and Technology Skills; and Life and Career Skills.
Nailing 21st century skills down is tough. Here is my best attempt at a definition that I could post on twitter.
The ability to find, evaluate, organize, and share information and apply information to collaboratively solve problems.
2. Relevant and Applied Curriculum. Curriculum is becoming less of WHAT content is taught and more of HOW the content is taught. Apple gives six key characteristics of curriculum for 21st Century Learning 1. Involves collaboration and community 2. Based on authenticity and relevance 3. Leverages real-world tools, resources, and methodologies 4. Incorporates a rich continuum of teacher and learning strategies 5. Grounded in rich content with a 21st century context 6. Creates linkages to the outside world
3. Informative Assessment. Taking a chapter test and getting a percentage grade was normal for me in school and even while I taught. It always signified the end of learning that particular topic. Informative assessment moves to make frequent assessments in order to ensure quality learning is taking place and the desired outcome is met. Similar to using a GPS in a car. Informative assessment can be made by students, teams of students, teachers, and the entire world. 4. Culture of Innovation and Creativity. You can't teach innovation and creativity. Schools must create a culture that embraces creativity for students and teachers. 5. Social and Emotion Connections with Students. Textbooks don't motivate students. Meaningful relationships with other students, teachers, and adults have a great impact on learning. Schools have to be a community and care about each student and believe every student has something to contribute.
6. Ubiquitous Access to Technology. Schools must allow students to use the tools needed to get the job done. Once a year I get annoyed at the North Carolina Writing Test. They now allow the students to use a computer, but forbids the use of spell check, a dictionary, or a thesaurus. All tools that writers, professional and amateur, use everyday.
I’ve been looking at a lot of lists out there and am working on getting my summer reading list going – the six below are the ones I want to read most! 
There are some very interesting posts going on over at 
If you are going to NECC this year I strongly suggest going onto the 
