EdTech Posse

Show notes:

School reform: The “Waiting for Superman” media circus

• The Death and Life of the Great American Schools by Diane Ravitch
• A Parent 2.0′s Back to School Dilemma by Will Richardson
• Saskatchewan Reform, Superman and the Media by Dean Shareski

Technology issues for post-secondary faculty (informal research for Alec’s discussion with University of Regina faculty)

• Aboriginal children to get laptops (CBC news story)
• Cloud computing caveats – Lakehead University Faculty Association issues with Google Apps
• Michael Geist’s commentary to above: Arbitrator Rules Lakehead University Can Switch Email System to Gmail

We can haz prizes?

Thanks to edublogs (especially Sue Waters) for sponsoring the prize for the show. Listen to the show for details on how you can win.

Creative commons music

Opening theme: nervoso con las guitarras by norelpref is licensed under a Attribution Noncommercial

Closing theme: (©urve) Music LatinSaint Style by LatinSaint is licensed under a Attribution Noncommercial (3.0)

Enjoy the show: Drill down baby, drill!

Rob and Dean have an ISTE proconference chat. We also discussed Dean’s iPad, packet shaping and what makes the perfect storm for educational technology leadership.

Links/Notes/Errata

• Enterprise video hosting using OSTube Video CMS – http://www.ostube.de/en/ostube
• Recommendations:
  • Rob – Drive by Dan Pink.
  • Dean – Joe Bower’s blog for the love of learning

Ideas for upcoming shows

What do you think we should be talking about? Send us your ideas in the official EdTech Posse Podcast topic suggestion form http://bit.ly/dmaPLf (and you can see suggestions made so far at http://bit.ly/arxg1O)

Enjoy the show!

EdTech Posse 6.2 – The tiny stateroom

The show felt a little like the crowded cabin sketch from A Night at the Opera.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZvugebaT6Q]

The conversation started small with just Heather Ross and Rob Wall (who apparently enjoys writing about himself in the third person) talking mostly about the glorious gold medal victory of the Canadian women’s hockey team at the 2010 Olympics. Dean Shareski came onboard and described the Powerful Learning Practice professional development opportunity. Rick Schwier joined us as we were winding up that topic and starting to promote the TLt and IT Summit educational technology conferences that will be happening in Saskatoon in May. Alec Couros joined us and we wrapped up our conversation by talking about implementing a one to one laptop program (as is currently being considered by the Living Sky School Division).

Some other links:

• Isabel Allende’s TED talk
• Powerful Learning Practice
• IT summit
• TLt 2010
• Educon: Field Guide for Change Agents (blog post from Rodd Lucier)

Enjoy the show!

We’re back with our first podcast of 2010 – EdTech Posse Podcast 6.1 – No tech after 5 p.m.

Mike Wesch presented at the University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina earlier this week. We discussed his presentations and reflected on some of the changes that might result from educators becoming aware of his work/message.

Some notes:

• Rick’s conversation/video podcast with Mike Wesch
• Mike Wesch’s presentation at the University of Regina: The (Digital) Writing on the Walls (and why the walls don’t matter anymore (Ustream recording)
• Digital Ethnography research group site
• Mike Wesch on twitter
• 2010 Haiti Earthquake (If you are in Canada and interested in donating, the CBC has compiled a list of organizations that are providing relief. The federal government will match donations made by individuals between now and Feb. 12, 2010)
• The Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock iPhone app – as endorsed by Dean

Prognostications for 2010:

• Rick – reinvestment of classroom video capture (we’re not in favour of this due to it’s reinforcement of traditional classroom models)
• Dean – advocacy/adoption of interactive whiteboards in classrooms (we have some of the same concerns about this as above)
• Rob – mobile technology (netbooks, the mythological Apple Tablet)

Promote/plug (things we think you might be interested in):

• Coyote Chalk blog written by Cori Saas, a former student of Dean’s
• The College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan. Rick says that great things are happening there.
• “Shop Class as Soul Craft” by Matthew Crawford is next on Rob’s reading list for books to read on his iPod touch using the Kobobooks app (terrific ebook seller). Matthew was recently heard on episode 97 of the CBC Radio program Spark.

Finally, Rob wants to thank Paul Wood for saying hi to his kids via Skype, and Alan Levine for being The Boy™’s first twitter buddy.

We (except for Alec – poor Alec) gathered last week at Convocation Hall on the University of Saskatchewan campus to hear Sir Ken Robinson speak. You can check out his TED talk about creativity and schools to get an idea of what he was like. If you want to get a sense of what it’s like to spend time with us while we wait to hear Sir Ken or to go for coffee with us afterwards, this podcast is the only place where you can share in that experience.

EdTech Posse Podcast 5.7 – Waiting for Sir Ken Robinson

Dean thoughtfully put together some show notes to go along with our podcast. Thanks, Dean.

Howard Rheingold has been living in, thinking about and writing about social media and virtual communities even before the terms were coined. In fact, he was the one who coined the term virtual community. Howard joined us for a conversation about these topics and their relation to education, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy the listening to the conversation:

EdTechPosse Podcast 5.6 – In conversation with Howard Rheingold

I (Rob) had a great conversation/brainstorming session with Dean and Alec about designing a course that can transcend some limitations of time and geography as we help our students to start developing a personal learning network.

Big thanks to Dean who volunteered to take care of the post-production for this show as I head into the busiest part of a teacher’s year. I’ll owe you a beverage next time we’re in the same town.

EdTech Posse 5.5 – Teaching Beyond the Limits of Space and Time

Heather Ross is back along with Dean Shareski, Rob Wall and Kyle Lichtenwald we talk about digital safety and identity, digital residents and digital tourists. Enjoy the show.

EdTech Posse 5.4 – Grumpy old digital residents