Living on Edge of Chaos Podcast - Episode 6 - Clive Thompson

Holy Cow! Did I just type in the title that I chatted with the writer and author Clive Thompson? The writer for New York Times, my favorite article in every issue of Wired magazine, and the author of my favorite read of the year Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds For The Better (click the book icon below to buy)

Yes, I did just name drop that. Clive took time out of his busy schedule to chat with me for about 45 minutes to talk about how the new literacies and emerging technologies are shaping our world with a lens on education.

I feel quite honored to be able to present this podcast.

It was a chat that left me tweeting

Just had a great conversation with @pomeranian99 for upcoming podcast. He melted my brain and has opened my eye to new thought.
— Aaron Maurer (@coffeechugbooks) November 26, 2013

Go ahead and give it a listen, leave me some feedback on iTunes and let me know what you thought of the conversation. I did have some audio recording issues so my last question where I ask Clive to speak about predictive technologies was lost. That is a bummer as he gave such an awesome answer. I think the rest of the podcast will leave your brain full and you will finish listening excited to know more.

Show Notes

Follow and listen to this podcast on iTunes and please feedback and ratings. I would love it if you listened to it on iTunes also. Don't just follow, but listen as that is more important than anything!

iTunes link to the show

Listen to podcast on Podomatic.com below

ABOUT ME http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/p/coffee-for-brain-book-swap.html

TWITTER https://twitter.com/coffeechugbooks

GOOGLE + https://plus.google.com/u/0/113960577497815089175/posts

All Social Media for Clive Thompson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pomeranian99

Websites

http://www.collisiondetection.net/

http://clivethompson.tumblr.com/

Please let me know what you thought. Any questions, feedback, suggestions, etc.

The problem is not technology, the problem is us!

Reading one of my favorite magazines, WIRED, I read a recent article titled "The End of Unplugging" by Mat Honan. In this article he talks about a hike he took where he was without Internet. Through his journey and hike he realized that no matter how hard we try, we are always connected someway.

It is impossible to not be connected in this day and age. It is easy to point the finger and complain about all the issues that this may cause, the lack of thinking, people not being self sufficient without a phone, etc.

However, it is easy to point the finger and come up with excuses and complaints. What we need to come to terms with is that the problem is not the technology.

The problem is us!

As Mat states in his article, "Rather than focusing on taking temporary breaks from technology, we need the discipline to live with it all times."

This is a rather unique way of looking at the issue. One that I really like and forces the individual to take charge. Lately, I have been working on this discipline. Just this weekend I worked to have my phone on me at all times while working with my son on his book report, but at the same time tried to not look at my phone every 20 seconds. Rather I wanted him to know that his work was important, more important than any tweet that buzzed my phone.

Later in the article, the author states, "The phone isn't the problem. The problem is us - our inability to step away from email and games and inessential data, our inability to look up, be at an alpine lake or at family members."

This rings true. We have to learn to develop the discipline to work in both worlds - connected and real time. We have to understand that when we are out for dinner with friends and family that we respect those who we are with and not insult them by focusing more on people we are not directly with. There is this happy medium. We have to take time to be in the moment and not constantly checking in and out and losing out on key moments. There is a time and place for it all.

Instead of pointing fingers, take responsibility, hold yourself accountable, and realize that the problem may be you.

More importantly what strategies have you used to help keep a sense of balance and discipline when it comes to being constantly connected?

Living on Edge of Chaos Podcast - Episode 3 - #AugmentedReality in Education

Awesome to have you here! Here is episode three to the Coffeechug Cafe Podcast: Living on the Edge of Chaos.

This episode I will be sharing out some amazing ideas generated from Teacher Tinker Time this week where we took a look at Augmented Reality in education.

I would love to hear from you so please leave any feedback, reviews, questions, etc.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @coffeechugbooks

Please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes(I will be very happy for any help you can provide!): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/coffeechug-concepts-podcast/id438001112?mt=2
- See more at: http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/2013/11/coffeechugcafe-podcast-series-living-on_9.html#sthash.mj3sjKkq.dpuf

Listen to the episode





On Friday I set up several tables that looked like the following


I sent out the following email to all staff to come down to my room for Tinker Time

Just a reminder that Friday during periods 6,7,8 I will be hosting Teacher Tinker time. We will be looking at Augmented Reality

If you have a smartphone or tablet it would be great if you could download the following apps so you can begin to experiment and learn so we can create something very cool in the following weeks.

Aurasma
Layar
Blippar
colAR
AR Flashcards
Brain Scan
 
For Aurasma if you want to follow me (Coffeechug) and another teacher I know (pvjhscience) I can show you some classroom examples.

See you tomorrow.

Here are some past blog posts regarding Augmented Reality

Teach Like A Pirate Poster + Augment Reality = Awesome Classroom Poster FINAL VERSION - See more at: http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/2013/07/teach-like-pirate-poster-augment.html#sthash.AK6X5gzy.dpuf

Teach Like A Pirate Poster + Augment Reality = Awesome Classroom Poster FINAL VERSION

Speedgeeking Notes from #ITEC13 via Evernote (my presentation)

#ITEC13 Conference Presentations by Coffeechug  #coffeechugPLN

Theme Song: All credit goes to 

https://twitter.com/BigRonCrowley
https://twitter.com/schink10

Books I Am Reading This Week

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (finished and book review and future podcast coming)

Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day (will finish this weekend)

Lexicon (will start this week)

What is the one thing you are implementing from #ITEC13 starting today?

After a great two days of learning at #ITEC13 it is important that we don't forget all the magic and go back to the normal.

I am challenging all of you who attended to declare your goal(s) now on this document. Make it public and help us hold you accountable.

If you are like most of us we come back to school, try like crazy to get caught up after being gone for a few days and one thing leads to another and we don't touch any of the amazing ideas.

I want to help us collectively make positive change.

So...........

1. Head to the Google Document 
2. Add your name, information, and what are you are going to implement. Feel free to share who inspired you to act upon this and goals or anything else you want to learn.
3. Feel free to add resources or other pieces of information to others who have shared.
4. Please come back and let us know how things turned out.

Speedgeeking Notes from #ITEC13 via Evernote

Here is the link to all notes from my first session Speedgeeking with Coffeechug.

I went through all the information and notes from our backchannel during the session.

I tried to answer all the questions that were posed. If I did not clarify things enough please let me know. I want to make sure I am as helpful as I can be.

If there are other things you would like for me to add please let me know as well. I have no problem sharing out whatever I have.

Here is my blog post from yesterday where I shared all my slides and information. Feel free to use whatever you like. I only ask that you let me know so I see how the ideas are spreading. Fair enough?

http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/2013/10/itec13-conference-presentations.html

So let me know what you think and what else you would like added. If you want more clarification on anything seriously ask!

I am working on the notes from my afternoon session as well. I just need an extra 10 hours to my day.

#ITEC13 Conference Presentations by Coffeechug #coffeechugPLN

Here are my two slide decks for my presentations today.

Thank you to everyone who attended. If you did not attend, take a look and feel free to contact me with any questions, ideas thoughts, or concerns.

Here are my slides - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/60qet2ahrctv6zi/Kb5XCk1PW6

Here they are via Slideshare.net






Here is my contact info

-------------------------------------------------

Aaron Maurer

--------------------------------------------------

MY BLOG http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/

ABOUT ME http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/p/coffee-for-brain-book-swap.html

TWITTER https://twitter.com/coffeechugbooks

GOOGLE + https://plus.google.com/u/0/113960577497815089175/posts

See my vizify bio!

I will share all resources via Evernote soon. I will post the links when they are ready.

Teach Like A Pirate Poster + Aurasma = Awesome Classroom Poster

This morning I set out to finalize and test a dazzling idea for my classroom this fall. After reading Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess and talking with @Jepsen on Twitter about making a poster for our classrooms I decided to put my words into action.

I started off creating a poster using www.postermywall.com because it is free to use and if I want to make it a poster it is not that expensive.

This was my first creation

It is quite busy and has a lot of information. This reflects my life and actually something I am working on which is decluttering and simplifying my life.

I threw this out on Twitter and asked for feedback and luckily I connected with the amazing @swise_bc who not only took time to give feedback, but helped to simplify my poster and making it even better.

With her guidance and advice I was able to tweak this poster to this

I did add a new phrase so maybe she will tell me it is too much. I like it. Talking with her she gave me the idea of using AR which is something I have always wanted to add to my classroom.

I downloaded Aurasma which is a free app that allows for AR(augmented reality). I went ahead and created a little test. If you have Aurasma on your phone go ahead and focus on the blue oval. You will see my test image.

My plan for this poster is to have this sit outside my classroom. I will change and add different things as needed throughout the year so I can keep one poster, but constantly change the content. I will add another layer to the Lego image, but need to work on getting that to show my Bio page on my blog or perhaps I was thinking of making a short video bio of myself using Lego.

I just wanted to share how exciting my day has started. I cannot wait to get this poster ready for the upcoming school year. Here are some things that I would love to hear back from you on.

1. Do you think I should modify the poster in anyway? What would you change?

2. What would be some good ideas of adding the AR element of this poster?

3. What are other great ideas to entice students to be excited about entering the classroom?

Online Tips: Cleaning Up Email Signature and About Me Page

I have been working on tidying up a few things to my online presence. The first thing I needed to clean up was my email signature.

Here is what I had

Amanda(my wife) always makes fun of me for this signature as she cannot believe that I have all this junk stockpiled at the bottom of each email I send out. I thought that I needed to clarify my jobs and duties in the school so I never viewed it as bragging, but more of an obligation to let people know who they were talking to in the emails.

After reading Platform, I decided that it was time to clean things up. I took his advice and used what he shared in the book. Here is what I have now.

It looks much simpler, but really broadcasts everything about me. They can now find whatever they want. I really like this approach. I have made the necessary changes.

The other thing I cleaned up was my About Me page on my blog. I followed most of the advice and tried to clean it up a bit. I did not follow all advice because I just can't be 100% serious. I have to mix in my personality a bit, but I think I still made some major improvements from before. My old about me page was a joke and really wasted space. I took some of the old and mixed it in with the new and I think it turned out okay. I think it can use some work, but it is on the right track.

Coffeechug PLN - Twitter for Educators Task 10: Twitter Abbreviations and Twittonary Tool

What do all the abbreviations mean? This was one of the many great questions from our first Twitter chat on Tuesday night. I am going to do my best to address them all or at least give you the tools needed to solve the issues yourself. This post will focus on abbreviations and what they all mean.

To read past tasks 1 - 9 you can go to the wiki and check it out. 

 I covered some abbreviations in the prior tasks, but only a handful. This is going to focus strictly on abbreviations and how to make sense of it all.

Step 1: Most common abbreviations
I have created another Google Document that is open and editable for anyone to crowdsource and contribute. I have tried to gather as much as I could, but I know I am missing some key ideas and abbreviations. Check it out and please add anything. Now keep in mind not all of these use the most professional language. I have included them in here because you need to know these. Whether someone uses them in your stream, a student is using them, or possibly your own child. It is important to be aware, but not necessarily use! I would read through before sharing at a school function or with students. Not all are safe for student eyes or school areas. I have not typed in the actual words, but you will get a sense without a problem.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/104daLuUvHTsUw6xZsN_WSX3YBZ0LtBklnKvMhuJeGUQ/edit?usp=sharing

Step 2: Using symbols
 Something that I don't use very often, but sometimes is needed when tweeting and is one way to enhance tweets if used properly is the use of symbols. Twitter symbols all you have to do is copy them using Ctrl+C or a right click and copy and then paste into your tweet using Ctrl+V or right click and paste.
Check out the following website to get started: Twitter Symbols visit: Twsym.com

1. @

‘@’ or ‘at’ is used to tag other people into your comment, post, or message. When you add @, Twitter will notify the person you tagged. For example, you can type @Joshua and Joshua will be notified about the message you wrote.

2. RT (Re-tweet)

This is typed at the end of a post. RT encourages other people to re-tweet your post.

3. PRT (Please Re-Tweet or Partial Re-Tweet)

PRT sends a message to readers that the tweet has already been edited to accommodate the addition of username.

4. OH (Overheard)

OH is used during conference. OH signals readers that the source of the post is overheard from other source.

5. BTW (By The Way)

BTW is used to signal a change of topic. It has the same meaning with the word ‘segue’.

6. FTW (For The Win)

For the win is a positive remark done in Twitter.

7. FTL (For The Loss)

FTL is opposite of FTW. It signifies being frustrated, disappointed, dismay, and disapproval.

8. IRL (In Real Life)

IRL obviously tells you that not all things in Twitter or in the online world are necessarily true in the real world.

9. (FTF or F2F) Face to Face

This is a desire that a Twitter user wants to meet another user in real life (IRL).

10. IMHO (In My Honest Opinion or In My Humble Opinion)

This is to tell other twitter users that the remark made is based on personal opinion and not on facts. IMHO is also a way to assert one’s self without being too offensive.

11. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)

Simply means that your experience with regards to a product or service may differ from other people’s experiences.

12. BR (Best Regards)

This is a courteous way to ask for something. BR is also used when there is a dispute or to nicely introduce yourself.

13. B/C (Because)

B/C is used to cite a reason. This should not be confused with BCC which means blind carbon copy and is used in email.

14. JV (Joint Venture)

JV means collaboration between one or two Twitter users.

15. LMK (Let Me Know)

Simply means you like to be informed.

16. TMB (Tweet Me Back)

This is a request for another user to reply to a post.

17. DM (Direct Message)

DM means to talk to a twitter user in private.

18. LOL (Laughing Out Loud)

LOL expresses being humored.

19. IOW (In Other Words)

IOW lets you cite other words or perspective to express a thought.

20. IMX (In My Experience)

IMX expresses one’s experience.

21. # (Hashtag)

# sign is used to mark a particular trending topic. If you put a ‘#’ next to a word, you let your post to be indexed in Twitter’s search engine. For example, you typed #government. People who will search for the word ‘government’ will be able to find your post.

22. This.

It is a message that tells twitter users that the tweet is something of great interest.

23. TBH (To Be Honest)

This is a remark used to show people’s honesty and/confession.

24. MT (Modified Tweet)

It means that the tweet’s content has already been modified to about 1/3 of the original content.

25. ICYMI (In Case You Missed It)

This is commonly used by internet marketers who utilize Twitter as part of their social media advertisements. ICYMI is very useful if you want to re-post something that you want readers to be reminded of.

26. +1

It is a demarcation that a post or tweet is being endorsed by other Twitter users. +1 has almost equivalent meaning with ‘like’ on Facebook.

27. H/T (Hat Tip)

H/T is another way of liking a post.

28. TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)

This is a very convenient way to summarize a somewhat long article.

29. |

This symbol is used to separate statements. Rather than writing the statement from one line to another, | is used to make the post look cleaner and streamlined.

30. SMH (Shaking my Head)

This abbreviation has different uses. It can be used to describe a wide range of emotion such as confusion, amusement, amazement, disappointment, and others. It can also be used as a stand-alone comment to a particular link or tweet.

31. BRB (Be Right Back)

It means that the user will be out for a short period of time.

32. EM or EML (Email)

EM is used to refer to an email server or the act of sending an email itself.

33. Fab (Fabulous)

FAB is an expression of amusement or amazement.

34. FYI (For your Information)

FYI is an opening or introduction leading to the presentation of information.

35. GTG (Got to Go)

GTG signifies the person needs to go immediately.

36. IDC (I Don’t Care)

IDC signifies being indifferent.

37. ORLY (Oh Really)

- See more at: http://www.twelveskip.com/tutorials/twitter/230/twitter-dictionary-top-37-twitter-abbreviations-and-acronyms#sthash.s0Kk1ya9.dpuf

Just double click the symbol to get it highlighted, copy, and then paste into your tweet. You can use other symbols, but this is a good start.


Step 3: Tools

Here are some other tools that fit into this category of symbols and abbreviations
http://www.twittonary.com/ - is an online dictionary for Twitter. It allows you to search for what things mean on Twitter. If you don't see something on the Google Document above for abbreviations, then you might find it here. Nice to have when in need of explanation and don't want to feel stupid asking the person that used it.
 http://tweetshrink.com/ -  is a tool designed to shorten your Tweets. Sometimes you just cannot get your point across in under 140 characters. This online tool will makeshift your message to make it fit. It is not always perfect, but does come in handy at times when you just cannot figure out what to do.
http://www.andrewt.net/abbreviate/index.php - is another option if you don't like Tweet Shrink. I have not used this one except to test a few things for this post. The key here is just to play around with them and find the one you like.
Of you can be yourself and just rework your tweet to make it fit. Sometimes I use (1/2) at the beginning of tweet that I know will take two tweets to get across. I will type the first part up with this at the beginning. My second tweet will start with (2/2).

Closing Thoughts
I hope this answers this particular question. I will be addressing the other questions soon. I know we want to learn about creating and using lists and some other key features. All in good time everyone! I need more coffee to keep up! Just kidding, I love being able to help. Please let me know if this has been helpful by tweeting to #coffeechugPLN

Using Technology in Junior High Math: Learning with cell phones and iPads and computers OH MY!

My wife is a junior high algebra and pre algebra teacher for Pleasant Valley Junior High. She does not like to give herself credit for the hard work and time she devotes to teaching math. She forms great relationships with the students and with that foundation kids come to class everyday ready to learn math.....even the ones that don't like math.

One of her goals this year has been to work on shifting to Common Core and more importantly to engage students with the concepts. After a great presentation and keynote speaker yesterday during our professional development day with George Couros and doing some presenting myself I could not help but think that I was missing something. It finally hit me that my wife has been doing some great and amazing things with technology in her math class. I often think that math is such a tough content area to connect with students and to make relevant. Most junior high students don't think big picture and don't hear why this or that is important to their lives.

I asked my wife to share with me some of her recent lessons. I hope you find them useful and if you have suggestions or perhaps even other great ideas to share that would be wonderful. 

As teachers we are all "Idea Bandits" where we search, read, and research ideas and then tweak them to make them our own. These ideas originated from me throwing out some questions of help on my PLN as well as her looking online for ideas. 

Idea #1: Students create videos for to help them review

My wife used Wallwisher which is now Padlet(new and improved) with her students. For a review for a test over concepts she gave each student a question to prepare and explain how to solve. She gave each of them a hard copy of all the problems first so they could see what the problem looked like before they watched the video.

To record students they kept things simple to start. They used good old whiteboards and used the camera option to record. They spread out in hallways and classrooms to record. Anytime you try something new you always test the waters, reflect, and make changes. There are apps that can help make this even better like Screenchomp which she plans on using next. This is one app worth having if you have the opportunity for iPads in your school. If you don't have iPads there are other ways to do this very project using Flip videos for example. I will be adding how to screencast without iPads(my school does not have iPads at the middle school) over on my classroom tools wiki page as well as tutorials on how to use these apps and tools(will be posted within a week).

After they recorded their screencast and explanations the students then uploaded them to Padlet where all students could see all the problems. This way students could go and access the video they needed. There was no wasting time by having to sit through problems they already knew how to do. They could just go to where they needed help. Really, this is a whole flipped classroom and crowdsourcing project that benefits everyone.

Here is a link to the final results of her review assignment. The students really liked this project. The kids did say that sometimes the videos took a while to load. I think if using at home it would be faster as most schools internet is slow anyways

http://padlet.com/wall/Maureralgebra 

I will be posting her next cool math idea soon. It is titled Texting Olympics. Stay tuned.

What I Learned Today: Charting Google Form Data

Speed Geek: Professional Tools/Ideas for Educators

Live Wallpaper App Review

Mac iOS App

 Live Wallpaper

 Cost $.99

My Rating: 4/5

ITAG Conference: David Williamson Keynote, "Know Next Now"

This keynote was a great start to the conference. Despite being super tired from being up since 2:15 with an upset child and driving 3 hours to get here I walked away with some great ideas and food for thought.

Here are my "take-aways" from David Williamson and his presentation titled, "Know Next Now"

**This is a mix of his words, suggestions, and my thoughts and questions**

• Must read Michio Kaku - Physics of the Future(already purchased on my Kindle, cannot wait to read!)
• 
  

• Another book suggestion - Tom Peters, Re-Imagine
• Key Idea - Find people living tomorrow TODAY!
• Army
• Parviv working on internet contact lens(INSANE!)
• Arts
• Advanced Manufacturing
• View Corey Taylor(lead singer of Slipknot) talk to Oxford College last year about doing NOT what you are passionate about or what you love, BUT what you are GOOD at
• new ITBS called Smarter Balance(I need to read up on this more)
• A good idea for opening up my gifted class taken from his sun fact
• Have students point to the sun(they point at the light)
• Ask them why they are waiting or the present to be the past
• Discuss sun takes 8.3 minutes to reach Earth
• Follow up with goal setting about the future
• Polaris is over 450 years old by the time it reaches us(before Pilgrims)
• "When we hook our dreams to the stars, will it still be there when we arrive?"
• "What a product MEANS has replaced what a product DOES."
• Take his idea of merging two unlikely ideas/products as part of our gifted theme for next year
• yardstick and yo-yo = tape measure
• typewriter and TV = computer
• Know the difference between a visual answer and visual question
• representational
• non-representational
• Study up on the Lean Six Sigma
• How can I apply this to my teaching?
• Jet Blue example of slowing planes down 2mph saves 13.6 million dollars
• What 2% change can we do as teachers to create this type of positive difference?

There it is. My notes and my thoughts. Time to further crunch my ideas when I return back to Bettendorf and clear off a few monster projects currently in the works.

Hunger Games - Education Gamification Brainstorm Idea -

Hunger Games Gamification

My whole purpose with this project is to entice and promote writing, reading, and thinking. Even more important to me is to demonstrate to teachers, parents, and other students how awesome kids can be when we create the right environment to learn and challenge ourselves

Options: I will always have three options available based on themes of book. These will be based off essential questions

Essential Questions:
• When is adversity an advantage?
• When is silence the best force against adversity?
• What weapons work against ultimate control?
• What do you do when you know you cannot win?


Badges

• Training Badge - tutorial of Edmodo, Google Docs, and Wikispaces
• Group Work - not sure of tasks(struggling with this aspect)

Level Up/XP

• Survival of the Fittest - district that survives to the end
• Survival of all Spectators - high level spectator will enter Arena at a given point in time.
• Create a leaderboard
• STILL DON’T KNOW HOW TO LEVEL UP PROPERLY

Overview:

Here is what I am thinking

Week 1: Signs and countdown timer to create excitement within the school

Week 2: In school announcements explain the story and backdrop and provide link to the project website. Students will then apply to join the spectacle if they so choose.

School will be broken up into 12 districts. 9 districts for each house. We are a middle school so each grade level is divided up into 3 houses. Students will apply to be a character for their house.
Another district will be made up of teachers. This leaves me with two more districts. I have considered add my 5th grade ELP class as the 11th district. Perhaps I could have an admin district. Another idea would be a mixed district of three grade levels(6,7,8). I still need to finalize how to structure the last three districts.

I will have a lottery system to announce the people chosen. I will either broadcast this live via Ustream or create a video to allow teachers to show during our TA(homeroom). These people will then have a meeting with me one day before or after school to go over the process.

The people not selected for the Arena will then become Spectators. Spectators will have voting power via polls to eliminate teams, add items, disturbances, etc. They will still have a role. Spectators will earn XP points as well. At some point in the game the highest scoring spectator will enter the arena.

Each week or every few days a district will be eliminated. We will utilize a Survivor TV show approach where the highest level District will not be eliminated. This will give them another week to survive and hopefully entertain the other districts to work hard to earn points to take the lead.

Districts will earn points through their writing of the story. We will develop our own situation/version of Hunger Games. Each character will create their own profile via Fakebook and will be uploaded to our Hunger Game website. There will be side quests to earn additional XP points. Spectators will earn XP points through writing, the side quests, and also giving feedback to the writing. Spectators will be just as involved, but just not part of the actual storyline. They are more like news reporters.


Here is where I need help
I will create videos along the way as President. 

I still need to develop disasters, disturbances, and elements to spruce things up.

I still need to think of side quests or ways for people to earn additional XP points.

I still need to figure out which website will work best to host all this info. At this time I am thinking wix for the beginning phase and overall gameplay, but the leaderboard, character profiles, quests, videos, etc. will be done on a wiki? 

Not sure about this yet.

What do you think? I would love any suggestions, ideas, and help. When I get this up and running I will share with all to use, follow, monitor, steal, etc.

The greatest thing is that I believe I can prove how awesome kids are without the threat of grades, detentions, common core, etc. This is going to be epic!

Textbooks need to go and so does our current way of teaching

I just read this post that contained a letter from a former high school student about how textbooks are not the answer. It was weird reading this as I just had a conversation with a colleague about how we teach is the way we learn and how we were brought up. We talk about our frustrations with students acting unmotivated or not caring about what we are teaching. At what point do we as professionals look at our teaching methods and realize we are out of touch? It is time to realize that our students are wired differently than us. It is time to realize that they learn differently than us. Our fears in schools(blocking sites, cellphones, etc.) are the tools and daily life of our students(and our own). Funny how some of use are not ready to get on board with students using the cell phones, iPads, tablets, etc. to conduct their learning through their own means when during inservice and big faculty meetings you see those very some people on their phones checking Facebook, email, etc. It is time for us to catch up before we get too far behind(if we not too far behind already).

Here is a link to the letter from the former student


Weird how while composing this I came across this very video as I was sorting my emails that I send myself.

Don't Focus On Technology Because....

if you put all your marbles into the latest greatest technology tool and forget about the essential teaching one day your "latest greatest" technology will be old news like this electronic globe that speaks from 1996 where probably about 1/5 of the countries, cities, landlines don't exist anymore.

Hard to believe 1996 was 16 years ago. This was an amazing tool that kids loved at one point. When is the last time you saw a kid use a globe? It is no longer relevant to their lives when they can hit up Google Earth and see things in real time.

Strava Website and App - Coffeechug Likes Strava

The other while browswing online I came across the app Strava which is also a website. I created an account because I want to participate in the Strava GU Challenge.

Here is the info about the challenge. Basically, I want to win some free GU, plain and simple.

GU 100,000 Mile Challenge

03/09/2012—04/09/2012

• 1Day
  Until Challenge Starts

• 2389
  Participants Entered

Let's run as many miles as we can March 9 to April 9.

Put your legs to the test with GU. From March 9 to April 9, rack up as many miles as you can. The more miles you run, the more awesome your prize will be. Hit 100 miles: 8 pack of Peanut Butter GU Energy Gel
Hit 150 miles: 8 pack of Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Gel
Hit 200 Miles: Mixed box of 24 Energy Gels
Most importantly, if everybody in the challenge runs a combined 100,000 miles within the 31-day period, all participants will receive a special GU VIP card for discounts (up to 35% off) and special offers on GUENERGY.com so you can stock up for the season.
During the challenge, GU will randomly select 5 athletes who post inspiring photos and stories about their training to receive a special GU Gift Pack. All you have to do is post a photo or story about why you love running on the GU Facebook page.

So, I created an account and started loading up some of my runs and rides on the website to check out how it all works. I don't run with my phone so the app does not do much for me in terms of recording my data. However, the site works excellent with my Garmin data. I can simply export my data and Strava loads things up super fast and easy.

I don't really need another location to track my data. I already post my data on this blog, record on my Garmin Training Center and Dailymile. But, I find myself on this site more and more. I really like the layout of the data. Being a person who loves to analyze my data and also being competitive this site gives me my daily fix.

I took some screen shots of what the site offers.

Here is a layout of the run from today. I like how it automatically generates this for you. Yes, Garmin Training Center does the same thing, but Strava provides other key data in a better visual layout in my opinion.

I like how the mile splits are graphed. I enjoy looking at the elevation and all the other little details that serve as nothing more than additional data for me to explore.

This little graph shows how my speed changes as the elevation changes. This will be important later in the year when I start to tackle more hills in my training.

My favorite part of Strava is this piece of data. It constantly records your personal best of different distances. For example, today I thought we had just a typical run with nothing special. When I loaded the run into Strava I realized that the last push in the run created some new achievements in my half mile time. This was good to see that we did indeed push hard and maybe there was more to the workout than I thought. It also told me that this run was my 3rd fastest 10k time. That is what I like.

I just wanted to share my thoughts on Strava in case you are looking for something new with your data. I don't get anything for my little promotion so there is nothing behind this post other than I like to share things I like. I don't know if this site will replace anything that I currently use, but I do think it is one that I will continue to use to help look at my data in a different way.

Garmin Training Center records all my data from my watch which is the base of all data collection.

Dailymile I use to share my runs with my training friends and I really like the social aspect of that site.

My blog is the heart and soul of all I do so that is not going anywhere.

Strava satisfies the nerd in me and also keeps my personal competitive data at my fingertips.

Flat Classroom: Netvibes and my PLN and CMP Reflection

Here I am several weeks into this program and I have already revamped much of how I operate my classes. I have my students working on wiki pages and leaving to be self sufficient and to prove their own learning along with the collaboration of students.

I have created a Netvibes account. I love it. I have made some changes over the weekend. I went a little crazy on the Flat Classroom tab(always afraid I am going to type Fat Classroom which would not be good). I simplified all the updates. I realized how far behind you get when you don't check on a regular basis. In my case I did not do much with the class or anything since the chat on Tuesday. After several days of neglect I returned to a ton of updates. I loved reading them all, but the downside is that I did not take the time to respond as much as I would have liked. I need to do a better job by checking each morning or every other morning.

Additionally, my students are wiki editing machines and therefore I have hundreds to check each day. I am staying on top of this one as it is my first time taking kids through the process.

What I am learning is that they still don't understand how to use the Discussion tab. There is very little educational/feedback/collaboration talk going on. There is with some of them, but I would say 75% is just social type comments. I have talked at length about this, but it does not stop them. I plan on having them peer review the latest Flat Classroom Project and rate the videos that I am judging to help them learn how to critique and offer feedback properly. I have it designed that when they come to class they have 5-10 minutes to do this on their own. They are using the time, but not for the intended purposes. I will work to correct this. What I don't want is for them to scramble at the very end and post the comments I am looking for just to earn the grade. I think they are still a little timid about this. Either because they have been ingrained to do their own thing and not help one another. I think part of the perception is that it is almost like cheating and I keep telling them to use one another. Help each other. Offer guidance. Offer answers and help. Collaborate to take each other to a higher level. It has not sunk in quite yet nor did I expect it to after only 6 classes.

I wish there was a way for me to have a RSS feed for Google Documents. My students are collaborating on a project using this tool and it would be nice to have a feed when they jump on so I can check instead of manually checking on my own. I have not found this option yet.

My iGoogle page is rocking. I have it updated. I rearranged, added some things needed and deleted unnecessary widgets. Any good widget recommendations? Yes, I went with a Portal 2 theme as this game is slowly taking over my life(I have only played for a few minutes, but the addiction has started)

I updated my Google Calendar. Changed the image background to make it unique. Synced up with Buzz, but not sure how that helps me. It looks cool and need to check into this more.

Now my Google Reader needs some help. It needs to be organized. I need to work with tags and folders more. Time to sort through some feeds by deleting some and looking to add some that I am missing.

Things take time and that will be a project for the week.

Any other items I should consider in my PLN? Symbaloo is my next project to put together some good webmixes.

That is all for now. Thanks for reading.

Coffeechug Concepts Diigo Group, iGoogle, Symbaloo, and Bit Literacy Organization

As I have downsized my email accounts it has forced me to become even more organized in other aspects of my online life. As I quit using my email account as a storage device and began to determine whether or not something was worthy enough of  keeping I had to begin to sort and organize the material.

For example, sifting through the hundreds of emails in my gmail account I began to realize several things
1. I was keeping emails that really held no importance to me. For some reason I kept an email thinking it was way too important to delete, but not so important for me to read and do something with instantly. Over time I collected hundreds of these emails and when going through them realized they held no significance to me.

However, if they did contain something important, then it was time to read and if worth keeping filing and sharing on my Diigo group, Coffeechug Concepts Feel free to follow and join my group where I will share any articles or links I find interesting enough to keep. I have loaded up quite a bit since going through all my email so there is plenty for you to back read. Feel free to share your own and I look forward to creating a great network of people to share information with.

2. I simply forgot to email people back. I am to a point where I receive a lot of emails. With the hectic schedule of my school day I often do not get any time to check my gmail account. Over time I simply forgot to write someone back which is a pet peeve of mine. I try to respond to everyone within 24 hours. My lack of organization lead to be someone who drives me insane and not very professional.

3. I sure send a lot of emails to myself. Most of unread emails were from me either via Twitter, websites online, or just sending files back and forth to various computers. Problem is that I rarely did anything with them. Now with my Diigo toolbar and creating a Symbaloo page I should be able to better sort resources that I need.

4. I kept emails to remind me of important in which I would forget because I could not find the email. I have now restructured my iGoogle page and my Google Calendar. Things are going great. It helps to have emails and texts when meetings and things are getting ready to happen.

I feel much more at ease with things. I think I am the most organized I have been in a while. I still have a long way to go, but I am making strides. As I continue to organize myself I can see different aspects of my life finally being organized(books, music, toys) as well.

On a final note I have to share this and I don't intend to toot my own horn, but I cannot tell you how excited I was to see that my blog viewings were coming in from a new source. I checked out the source and about fell out of my chair to see that I was mentioned by Mark Hurst, the author of Bit Literacy. The man who has created a book that has literally changed my life. I have to share it here http://goodexperience.com/ because not too often does my insights are writing make it very far. It is a honor to be referenced by Mark Hurst. So cool. So very cool.

This has made my day.

Back to becoming more Bit Literate.