Tech Ed-dy

(This will be my last blog post for the summer.  It is time to hang out with my family and attend to my non-digital network.   I’ll be back in September)

I was indirectly tagged with this meme because I read Claire Thompson’s blog post on this subject and thought that putting my summertime pro-d aspirations down in a blog post was probably a good idea considering my inclination towards taking on too much.

My normal approach to summer pro-d is to randomly plug away at anywhere from 5 to 10 projects that usually get left to the last minute as a result of summertime distractions.  My hope for this summer is to focus on a few projects and actually accomplish them (along with moving house).  So here are the projects I will prioritize:

• Help plan and organize for the ISABC summer institute with Alan November.  In particular my goals are to: 1)set up a diigo group for the institute with a tag list and then embed diigo links in the institue wiki by subject and age level; 2)use the institute wiki to collaboratively plan the events for each day of the institute; 3) populate the institute ning with relevant and provocative (?) discussion topics.
• Move all of my gr6 to 9 technology lessons to a central wiki location so that they are easier to share.  As part if this process I plan to write up each lesson properly using the Understanding By Design process.
• Submit conference proposals to CUEBC and k12online.  I have in mind a presentation that starts by looking at how the nature of information has changed and how Diigo can be used as a powerful resource for finding, annotating and sharing resources.

Other projects I would like to undertake (but won’t commit to in this blog post) include:

• Planning my math 7 lessons.  My goal for this year is to use the Mathletics learning platform and a class blog to differentiate instruction and give my students as much ownership of their own learning as possible.  On the blog I plan on supporting classroom instruction with instructional powerpoints and links to online activities and tutorials.  I’m hoping to find a lot of these over the summer.
• Reading Clay Shirky’s “Here comes everybody”
• Learn more about managing Wordpress and Wordpress MU so that I can do more with our school blogs.

OK, I know this is too much.  My next plan is to map out a possible schedule for completion and see what is really possible.  Maybe I’ll link it to this post as a way to keep myself honest.

Like Claire I can’t bring myself to point the finger at anyone else, so I will finish by borrowing her words:

If you are reading this, first off thanks!  Secondly, if you haven’t been tagged already and think you’d like to participate, then consider yourself tagged

(note: this post was written in Evernote on my iTouch while hanging out with my daughter.  I am constantly amazed at what this little computer can accomplish.)

http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2447.

I was aware that NECC was happening this week and feeling a little blue that my current circumstances prohibit me from just picking up and flying off to another cool conference.  Then I came across David Warlick’s great blog post called Gathering the Information at NECC, which explained how I could set up a search on Technoratti for the NECC09 tag and then subscribe to the search results via RSS.  It was like importing the NECC conversations into my Google Reader.  I was amazed at how many people were blogging their notes and reflections on the keynote speakers and individual sessions.  Here are some of my favourite finds from NECC 2009:

EdubloggerCon 2009 Reflections by Jeff Utecht.  I thought this post gave a very good overview of the main topics of discussion and some insight into the dynamics of EdubloggerCon.

Putting Gladwell’s Compensatory Model into Practice or NECC 09 Keynote Part 2! by Liz Davis.  This post describes the results of a brainstorming session aimed at figuring out what the Compensatory Model would actually look like.  Some interesting ideas and a nice way to move the conversation forward rather than getting stuck on whether or not he should have talked about Fleetwood Mac for most of the keynote.

Classroom 2.0: What is Web 2.0’s Role in Schools? I don’t know how Wesley Fryer managed to capture so much of the conversation in his notes (he obviously types faster than I do)?  He does a great job summarising the key points from a panel discussion that included Chris Lehmann, Julie Lindsay, Darren Draper, David Jakes, Steve Hargadon and Sylvia Martinez.  He also does a great job summarising the Tony Vincent presentation called Do So Much with an Ipod Touch.  The amount of details in his posts is amazing.  I suspect it has something to do with the meticulous way he prepared for NECC.

Thank you to all the NECC attendees who so willingly shared their sessions and reflections online.  I really enjoyed following along.