I’ve returned from the abyss!
By tnturner on Mar 13, 2007 in Professional Development, Random Musings
As of last night I’m officially connected again to the world of web 2.0. I’m very much surprised that I didn’t break down into convulsions over the weekend by not being able to check my email, blogs, chat with my friends, etc. Just goes to show how important something as small as a little box with blinking lights is important to people.
House update for those that care. We are in, boxes are everywhere!! How can four people accumulate so much stuff??? I’ve set up my office (just need to put the fan up, darn it’s hot in here!), complete with a wireless LAN to provide access from around the house. The living room and kitchen are painted, along with necessary wallpaper accents put up. I’d say in another 6 months everything will be done! I, of course, hope it’s sooner then that!
Between all of the moving I was able to host my first training session to my school yesterday. Thanks very much to Virginia Richard for coming to my school to explain the goodness of video on demand applications to the classroom teacher. It still intrigues me that some teachers have never seen places like unitedstreaming, where at their fingertips they have the ability to take advantage of as many teachable moments as possible. I think the most telling question that I had from the entire 1 1/2 hour training session was from the entire kindergarten team (all 13 of them asked this at the same time!). As close to verbatim as I can get, it went like this, “Now Mr. Turner. Just how important is something like this unitedstreaming thing for us Kindergarten teachers? Will we actually be able to use this thing?” I just had to sit back with a smile, while during Virginia’s presentation I heard the ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ coming from the group. We didn’t want to overwhelm them in one day, so we basically just left it with the basics of logging in, searching by benchmark and subject area. At that point I knew we were starting to lose some of them (I won’t go into the lack of professionalism by some which amazed me still). But for the most part everyone left with learning something new. Next up is learning how to use these video applications in the classroom. Can we say Inspiration, Photostory, or MovieMaker? Not yet, but soon I hope!
I’m glad to be back in touch with the world.
Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…
Tom.
4 Comment(s)
You mean you didn’t show them how to insert unitedstreaming clips into Google Earth on the first day?
I can’t say enough good things about unitedstreaming. Every teacher in Arizona can access it through ASSET. I’m still surprised at the amount of teachers around here that have never heard of it. Why don’t we have a DEN Arizona chapter? haha
My students use it on their own (sometimes during free computer time, but fun brain and lemonade stand get a few more hits than u.s. during those times). Most of them have used it to download videos and put in Power Points. I haven’t yet tried editing, re-arranging, etc. the editable videos yet, but I have spring break next week so maybe I’ll try that out.
If you have SmartBoards I am putting together a Today in History slideshow for each month using unitedstreaming and YouTube videos.
Congrats on the move.
I thought just getting them signed up on day 1 was going to be too much. For some it was. What amazed me was certain teachers who are always complaining about ‘not knowing how to use some of this cool stuff out there’ were the first ones talking with the other teachers and not paying attention to what was going on. Amazing!
I do wish all states would get on the ball and purchase unitedstreaming, or some other derivative, for use by the teachers. I do know that some states already have done this. But of course, Florida is behind the curve as always.
The ones not paying attention and talking were probably the same teachers that just give their students worksheets and complain about how much their students talk and are off-task during the day.
They don’t want you to show them how to use it, because then they would have to do the work. They want you to just give them something they can put on the screen and the students will sit quietly and watch.
I have a poster in my room that says “Free Knowledge. Bring your own container.” and a picture of a head on it. There will always be people that just won’t get it
Having not been on my campus…you are PRETTY close in your assumption!