Bloggin', Login, & Joggin': Spring has sprung

Okay, I am back after an extended period of time. Why...Huh, well I guess I did not feel there was a value in blogging at first. Who really wants to read anything I have say. I would need to be uncanny, smart  and remarkably lingual. Still working on all three. Since my last blog, I have been through a surprise divorce, many video and media projects of all kinds and a remarkable kinship with my sister, who as it turns out, isn't as bossy as I had remembered when I was a kid.

Check me in a week. I will post again. That's a casual threat.

Folks(onomy)

I love some of the tech terms, tags and phrases. While creating a new(ish) word for practical purpose, an older, less contemporary word is brought out of mothballs just in time to be revived by original definition. For example, I recall the TV network Nickelodeon which came to being several decades ago. In general, it runs children’s programming. Being in education, children are amazed that Thomas Edison invented the nickelodeon, and that it was a device that when cranked by its user, a short short self-contained mini movies was viewed in a four foot high box. I am currently enjoying the term “Folksonomy” also known as collaborative tagging , social classification, social indexing, social tagging, and other names. It is the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to organize content.
Wikipedia as of 12/15/07 tells us: Tagging is not without its drawbacks. Typically there is no information about the meaning or semantics of a tag. For example, the tag "apple" might refer to the fruit, Apple Inc., the Beatles' music label, or Gwyneth Paltrow's baby.
So, with tagging terms having multiple meanings, evolving folksonomies are attempting to define a set of tagging conventions through eventual group consensus, rather than formalized standard. It will be better with consensus, if consensus can actually be reached, but that’s another blog.
Let’ see......You had better tag this blog “Nickelodeon”, “Edison”, “mothballs” and “shipless” -as in I missed the boat.

The World Is Watching!

Last week was a busy digital content acquisition week for for me. Eh, I shot a lot of video. I had eleven year old students in preproduction researching and writing copy for a late-November webcast while others were directing and producing the on-camera talent for the taping of the next Good Morning Eastview. In addition, 5th grade students helped shoot a school musical, but not after we produced and edited a webcast with teachers that excel at Eastview.
I am a regular education classroom teacher, and I’m trying to engage the students. By using technology and media we have the opportunity to have our produced content actually meet an interactive audience.
So off we went. This particular class has “bought into” their education more than others and I wondered why. I wondered, what makes this class more responsive learners? Even though I have integrated a lot of media and technology over the years, this is the first year I have made our productions interactive from the internet. Our projects are shown on our local school network, broadcast on cable television and the Eastview website. This school year we have heard from complete strangers about our productions. The students take the comments very seriously and actively participate to brainstorm solutions or upgrades. They are aware that the world is watching. Besides performing, students are working as a team, setting goals and using technology. As for me, I have come to the understanding that this is exactly what this class needs. We all need and thrive from personal responses to our efforts, academic and otherwise. These are opportunities that matter to the students. Digital content creation is beneficial for them, but for me, I need to find some balance and a nap.

The train has left the station

Today I found myself in a workshop aimed at bringing better communication through blogging and WIKI into the classroom. I despise workshops in general and I do not actually like to leave my classroom. But I found this experience to be different. The content, specifically blogging, has great relevance to education's future. Today's students have passed their teachers in most cases. They are communicating and multitasking in real time with cell phones, My Space, and You Tube and while many teachers and parents feel this type of new"ish" communication is somewhat underground, I don't. It appears to be an effective way to educate students, teachers and the community. Education needs to get on board, because this train full of students has already left the station...without the teachers.