<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages Through Our Student's Eyes &#187; Professional Development</title>
	<atom:link href="http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/category/professional-development/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org</link>
	<description>Reflections on technology and its use in education</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:09:23 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
			<item>
		<title>My NECC &#8216;08 San Antonio Experience</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/217</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/217#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:46:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology Integration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NECC2008]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/?p=217</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ok&#8230;.so it&#8217;s only a few weeks late. But I was able to truly let what I gained from my NECC 2008 experience sink in while sitting on a boat in the 1000 islands and enjoying family time while in Niagara Falls. It is a shame that vacation will come to an end for me tomorrow, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ok&#8230;.so it&#8217;s only a few weeks late. But I was able to truly let what I gained from my NECC 2008 experience sink in while sitting on a boat in the 1000 islands and enjoying family time while in Niagara Falls. It is a shame that vacation will come to an end for me tomorrow, as I fly back to Orlando tomorrow at noon. (ok, so I started this on Monday and finished it tonight)</p>
<p>As with last year, I spent most of my time in the Blogger&#8217;s Cafe&#8217;. It&#8217;s always nice to see many of the people that I feel are like-minded in our zest for improved student learning. I did have HIGH expectations/hopes leading into NECC with regards to sessions and the learning that I was about to embark upon. Being the procrastinator at heart that I am, I did not do any pre-reading of the conference schedule. That would have made too much sense, i.e. that&#8217;s not me. I started reading the conference schedule book received with the registration packet and was quickly dismayed. Like my FETC (Florida Educational Technology Conference) experience in January, I found that many of the sessions in my opinion were geared for the mid-ranged adapter to newer adapter. Please don&#8217;t misunderstand, there is a need for these types of sessions, however, they are not for me. I saw myself quickly going back to presenters that I&#8217;ve seen in the past, and enjoy learning from (i.e. David Jakes/Dean Shareski, David Warlick, Hall Davidson, Chris Lehmann). Not sure if this makes me a gomer or a homer or guilty of living inside a professional development bubble. I just know that many a session I snuck in on was not compelling.</p>
<p>My large goal for NECC this year was two-fold: How can I create better professional development opportunities for my teachers and how can I become a better TV Production Coordinator. I think I was successful on both ends. Having been told pretty much that PD for my teachers will be at a premium (read: non-existant), so I will need to be creative in my approaches. I will definitely be keeping to my working with specific teachers that express willingness to take the step towards tech integration. Through the DEN pre-conference event at the Enchanted Springs Ranch, I learned for the first time about <a href="http://www.mogulus.com">Mogulus</a>. Seeing it for the first time BLEW my mind away. What a way to have PDOD (professional development on demand). I&#8217;d been toying with a way to create an anthology of PD webcasts/screencasts of myself in front of my laptop and using screen capturing software to demonstrate concepts. This website takes it to the next level. Actual demonstration, rather than screen captures. And it can run continuously if I so choose.</p>
<p>The second great PD idea I&#8217;m going to borrow is <a href="http://kevinhoneycutt.org/">Kevin Honeycutt&#8217;s Web 2.0 Keychain</a> he gives out to his teachers. What a novel idea and a way to have not only web 2.0 tools, but traditional websites at the fingertips. I&#8217;ve started to create my own and will definitely share when I&#8217;m finished.</p>
<p>I was able to attend a session on building a better School TV production show on Monday morning. Still trying to get my hands on a copy of their resource cd, but did use google docs to type up some GREAT ideas that I can take back for the start of the school year. This will be my first foray into tv production of this sort, so it should be a VERY nice challenge for me. Heck, it&#8217;s already paying dividends, I was able to get out of my morning duty to work with the students during this time. YAY!</p>
<p>I am already looking forward to next year&#8217;s experience in Washington DC. Looks like the wife might be coming too. That should be a fun time definitely.</p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages&#8230;</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F217';
  addthis_title  = 'My+NECC+%26%238216%3B08+San+Antonio+Experience';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/217/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Women of Web 2.0 &#8211; A week behind in writing this but still&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/202</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/202#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:12:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Educator Resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/202</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So I&#8217;m about a week behind in writing this recap up, but I did do it for the DEN blog so I cannot be totally chastised about it. It was about this time last week that I was sitting here in my office with sweat beads coming down my head and back doing the WOW [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So I&#8217;m about a week behind in writing this recap up, but I did do it for the DEN blog so I cannot be totally chastised about it. It was about this time last week that I was sitting here in my office with sweat beads coming down my head and back doing the WOW 2.0 show. Cheryl Oakes kept insisting I go and turn my fan on, I just didn&#8217;t want to add to any background noise. I survived, I made it through somewhat unscathed, and was honored to get some great direct messages from colleagues on Twitter that I look up to and admire professionally.</p>
<p>I was in the chat room. I had intended to &#8216;try&#8217; and keep up with it. When I saw how FAST it actually went, that thought went away pretty quickly. So first things first, I&#8217;m going to try and answer some of the questions posed in the chat that I don&#8217;t think were covered in the show, so here goes:</p>
<ul>
<li>21:01:52  sendkathy   Anyone here going to FECT next month?   <font color="#ff0000"><strong>Kathy&#8230;I will be at FETC all three days. I will probably be wearing my Discovery Educator Network shirts (yellow and light blue)</strong></font></li>
<li>21:18:58  SSedro in Singapore   Oh Tom, all four tech coordinators in my district feel exactly the same way.  We all want to be working with kids and teachers, not fixing things and pushing paper.  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>Ok, though not really a question, a comment worth copy/pasting here. The more and more that I try to get in the classrooms with teachers, the more and more I get sucked into tech. support and what I like to call &#8216;hand holding&#8217;. Frustration at this point happens when I try to empower my teachers to solve issues on their own, yet I find myself failing at this task. I think of it this way, how can we expect our students to seek and discover solutions to problems on their own, if we are unwilling to do so on our own. It&#8217;s a double edged sword.</strong></font></li>
<li>21:20:44  WOScholar   We went wifi campus wide for PK &#8211; 5. Expect to have 6-8 done within the next month. THen we will have a cloud over our district campuses.  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>I was paid a visit by a colleague from another school. They are having a new campus built, as theirs dates back to the 1920&#8217;s. The design will be exactly similar to my building. I advised him about activating all the ports available in the classrooms as the wireless is very flaky at times, and not to be trusted. It seems that the district has seen the error in their ways and are not even installing but a few wireless access points in the new buildings. It is IDEAL to have the wireless available, but not to run the entire network over it. Reliability and efficiency IMO goes way down.</strong></font></li>
<li>21:22:36  CathyN   @tom do the kids have email accts? <strong><font color="#ff0000">Not at this time they do not. Our district is rolling out to the schools slowly use of gaggle.net email for our students. At this time High School accounts have been created. We&#8217;ve been told that at the elementary level, they did not purchase all the bells and whistles that gaggle.net has. I will be slowly adding this in, as I said in the show, I&#8217;m working one at a time with teachers rather than as a whole getting everyone on board.</font><br />
</strong></li>
<li>21:24:10  sendkathy   I like Tom&#8217;s approach, core people<strong> <font color="#ff0000">Again, I try to appeal to the basic nature of meeting people&#8217;s intrinsic needs. To newer adapters, what we might call a tool, to them it is still a toy. It&#8217;s like walking into a TV production studio for the first time and just hooting and hollering and having a good time. It&#8217;s the same concept. Once they get over the &#8216;newness&#8217; of it, the true test begins of molding the use of technology into their everyday lessons. My district uses a similar approach to completing levels of technology proficiency. For each of the 3 levels completed, there is an incentive attached to it (1 gb flash drive, scanner, laptop or LCD projector). Again, intrinsic needs are being met, and new technology is being exposed.</font></strong></li>
<li>21:26:01  jepcke   Wikis are my &#8216;easy&#8217; website builder of choice  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>I have to say that I agree. With regards to working with the younger children than I&#8217;ve been used to, the wiki has been a blessing in disguise. They&#8217;ve picked it up quick, and without many errors. (<a href="http://mrflynn.pbwiki.com" target="_blank">http://mrflynn.pbwiki.com</a> is what we&#8217;re doing in 4th Grade class at the moment).</strong></font></li>
<li>21:28:46  WOScholar   What does Tom find the easiest thing to integrate with primary teachers?  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>A variety of things have been quite simple at integrating with primary teachers. My school right now is HEAVY into using &#8216;Thinking Maps&#8217; within the daily context of learning. Inspiration has been great at utilizing the thinking map concepts along with images and audio files. I will be holding a short 30 minute session this Friday for my teachers on integrating Inspiration with Discovery streaming. So should be a greater use of both tools come next week, or at least I hope so.</strong></font></li>
<li>21:30:44  megormi   Tom in a perfect world, what tech support do you feel every building should have?  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>I&#8217;m not really sure I answered this question the way you were asking it Meg. I&#8217;ve heard of some districts that share one tech person between several campuses. When I took my position about this time last year, the previous tech guy was just a &#8216;tech guy&#8217; with no educational experience. As I said during the show, I try to resolve almost all calls within 2 hours. Some days that does not happen, then I have to prioritize which ticket comes first. The other thing that I think is a MUST, is that schools need to hire people in my position with some sort of educational background that will TRULY understand the needs of the teachers, rather than just &#8216;talk down on them&#8217; like so many horror stories that are out there.</strong></font></li>
<li>21:35:45  Art Gelwicks   OR&#8230;tech administration who will listen to the needs of the teaching staff and find ways to help rather than just fix the tech.<strong>  <font color="#ff0000">Art, I would go a step further and say just Administration in general. Administration in my estimation is stuck in the dark ages, and not willing to invest the time and energy. So I have to tend to agree with your assessment.</font></strong></li>
<li>21:36:21  Durff   can we exchange this guy for our IT person like yesterday?  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>That&#8217;s not the first time I&#8217;ve heard this statement. <img src='http://tnturner.edublogs.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />   Not really a question, but had to post this comment from the chatlog.</strong></font></li>
<li> 21:36:33  lizbdavis   Has Tom been reading my blog &#8211; I&#8217;ve been thinking the same things about teaching teachers to fish. Finding constructivist ways to do PD.  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>Unfortunately I&#8217;ve not been reading very many blogs at all. I will have to remember to click the link in Twitter to get your blog added to my RSS. Also, skype me (tom.turner19) would LOVE to chat with you regarding some other ideas.</strong></font></li>
<li> 21:36:49  jeffmason   @Tom one person for tech support, one person for educational support  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>Jeff, in the ideal world for me this would be the case. The district in which my wife works (one county over) they have their technology integration specialists and Tech Support personnel blocked off into 2 different positions. Really what it amounts to is funding. I&#8217;m caught between a rock and a hardplace in my district, where I&#8217;m classified as a teacher, so I have to do &#8216;duties&#8217; that take me away from what my job description is supposed to cover.</strong></font></li>
<li>21:37:43  Art Gelwicks   I&#8217;ve worked with some educators with good intentions but not a clue about technology.  <img src='http://tnturner.edublogs.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>&#8220;Teach &#8216;em to Fish&#8221;&#8230;the only way their good intentions will turn into positive results.</strong></font></li>
<li>21:40:51  CathyN   @tom why do u love edublogs&#8211;ive had beefs  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>How much do I love thee edublogs, let me count thy ways??? Actually a great question Cathy. First, edublogs is not blocked by my district, so if I&#8217;m in need of checking something, or beginning a post while at school I have that ability. I&#8217;ve been pleased with the level of support that I&#8217;ve received from James when I&#8217;ve had issues. To the point where he&#8217;s emailed me directly to help solve the issues.  I&#8217;m a loyalist at heart, and until I no longer receive a level of service that I cannot be happy with, I stick with it. I don&#8217;t change the theme of my blog that often, so the # of themes available is not that big of an issue to me. Also, the plugins that are available all work wonderful for me. However, I cannot argue against when someone has had problems in the past. With anything tech, each person will have a differing opinion, and they will find what works for them and stick with it.</strong></font></li>
<li>21:40:48  Sue Waters (Australia)   Agreed blackboard is not bloging <img src='http://tnturner.edublogs.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />   <font color="#ff0000"><strong>I know that, you know that, but my district doesn&#8217;t. However, with anything, I have to abide by the rules laid out in front of me. Change will come, albeit too slow for me.</strong></font></li>
<li>21:43:57  jeffmason   @Tom I&#8217;m from Pensacola FL. Look into the Florida Master Digital Educator program http://etc.usf.edu/mde/  I&#8217;ve applied.  <font color="#ff0000"><strong>I&#8217;ve sent my application in for the third year in a row now. Here&#8217;s hoping the third time is the charm.</strong></font></li>
</ul>
<p>I&#8217;m going to go out on a limb here and wonder HOW in the world you guys listen and keep up with the chat at the same time. Amazing !!  Please feel free to post any questions that didn&#8217;t get asked during the show here and I will create a new post answering your questions. Again, I have to send out a HUGE thanks to the 4 Women of Web 2.0 (Cheryl, Vicki, Sharon and Jen: in no particular order of course) I&#8217;ve truly enjoyed the experience and hope to do it again sometime.</p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages&#8230;</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<p align="right">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/WOW2.0" rel="tag">WOW2.0</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/edtech" rel="tag">edtech</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/technology" rel="tag">technology</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag">education</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/techsupport" rel="tag">techsupport</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/IT" rel="tag">IT</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/TomTurner" rel="tag">TomTurner</a></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F202';
  addthis_title  = 'Women+of+Web+2.0+%26%238211%3B+A+week+behind+in+writing+this+but+still%26%238230%3B';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/202/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>FETC Event to bring to your attention</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/201</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/201#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:58:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gaming in Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/201</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Cross posted on the Florida DEN Blog, as well as Danielle Abernethy&#8217;s tie4teachers blog.
Received word from Darlene Wolfe here in the Orange County, FL area of an event that might be beneficial to some of you. If you are interested please read further on below the images.


Educators, guidance counselors and administrators may register on line [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Cross posted on the Florida DEN Blog, as well as <a href="http://it4teachers.blogspot.com/2008/01/otronicon.html" target="_blank">Danielle Abernethy&#8217;s tie4teachers blog</a>.</p>
<p>Received word from Darlene Wolfe here in the Orange County, FL area of an event that might be beneficial to some of you. If you are interested please read further on below the images.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.dmaflorida.org/newsletters/uploadimages/email_blast_hdr.gif" alt="Otron Event" height="100" width="625" /></p>
<p><img src="http://dmaflorida.org/newsletters/uploadimages/Otron_EnflyerVGL1.jpg" alt="Otron Event" height="892" width="625" /></p>
<p>Educators, guidance counselors and administrators may register on line at <a href="http://www.fdmec.org/registration/event_012208.html" target="_blank"> <font color="#800080"><font color="#0000ff">http://www.fdmec.org/registration/event_012208.htm</font> </font></a>. More information for this free program is at the registration site (<a href="http://www.fdmec.org/" target="_blank"> <font color="#0000ff">http://www.fdmec.org</font></a> and select register for January 22nd event). Since we do have a cut off point due to the size of the meeting area, participants will receive an email confirmation for them to print and show as both parking pass and free entrance to the Science Center. </p>
</p>
<p>The program begins with optional tours of Otronicon and the Orlando  Science Center .  Otronicon explores gaming, simulation and digital media in education and entertainment. A networking hour with snacks follows. Then, we have presentations from educators involved in the changes, industry professionals who will share what they look for in employees, and an update on the Digital Media  Banner Center  to be housed at Seminole Community College  and on the coming programs, and changes in secondary and PSAV digital media curriculum.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages&#8230;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<p align="right">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/FETC" rel="tag">FETC</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/edtech" rel="tag">edtech</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/gaming" rel="tag">gaming</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag">education</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/technology" rel="tag">technology</a></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F201';
  addthis_title  = 'FETC+Event+to+bring+to+your+attention';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/201/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Feelin&#8217; Stronger Every Day&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/197</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/197#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:47:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Digital Storytelling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology Integration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/197</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[First things first. A game. Who sings the song that I&#8217;ve entitled my blog post after today. Winner with the first reply gets a&#8230;.my undying devotion?
My head&#8217;s been all over the place over the last week. I&#8217;ll honestly say that I refrained from even opening up my dashboard page for fear that I would type [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>First things first. A game. Who sings the song that I&#8217;ve entitled my blog post after today. Winner with the first reply gets a&#8230;.my undying devotion?</p>
<p>My head&#8217;s been all over the place over the last week. I&#8217;ll honestly say that I refrained from even opening up my dashboard page for fear that I would type more negative material. Yes, my last post was negative. I&#8217;m trying, I really am. I&#8217;ve had some great conversations with great friends to help me keep my focus on the true prize.</p>
<p>We had a great photostory 3 workshop on my campus Monday evening. Many thanks to <a href="http://web.mac.com/seddonk/e-cubed/Welcome.html" target="_blank">Karen Seddon</a> who is coming out every month. (Last month was Audacity, this month was Photostory 3).  The good news is that 5 of my teachers showed up. The bad news was the amount of complaining from teachers that the workshop was so late in the day. Yes, it was after school. All five of the attendees were newer adapters, even going so far as saying they are true, green newbies. That&#8217;s okay. Baby Steps. I&#8217;d forgotten the importance of that little mantra.</p>
<p>We have a 5th Grade teacher on campus that has been doing research projects, the old fashioned way. Let&#8217;s research, and oh yea, let&#8217;s write about 4 pages about what you&#8217;ve researched. Notice, not what they&#8217;ve learned. I tasked her with finding a way to spice up her project outcome. For the most part, she obliged. Instead of a paper, she offered her students a choice of a powerpoint or a display board. Progress. YES! That&#8217;s not the end. Begging would be an appropriate way to say what I did. I begged her to come to the PD on Monday night. Happy to report that her project outcome has changed again, with a due date pushed back to the end of January. We&#8217;ve discussed dates/times to come in and teach the students how to use Photostory 3 to create their own stories.</p>
<p>As described by me in previous postings, her reply to the school based mantra of &#8220;there&#8217;s no time for such projects like this&#8221; was this: &#8220;I don&#8217;t care, these students NEED to learn how to research and create something.&#8221; I should also note that this is an educator that has been teaching for almost 15 years. Baby Steps!</p>
<p>I have another post brewing in my head. More on that later, don&#8217;t want to get them confused.</p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages.</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<p align="right">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/PD" rel="tag">PD</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag">education</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/technology" rel="tag">technology</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/edtech" rel="tag">edtech</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/photostory3" rel="tag">photostory3</a></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F197';
  addthis_title  = 'Feelin%26%238217%3B+Stronger+Every+Day%26%238230%3B';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/197/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Growing Professionally with Technology</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/193</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/193#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:31:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/193</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the many feeds that I read is &#8220;The Pulse &#8211; District Administration&#8221;. The great thing about it is that it is an online journal of articles intended for district administrators.
I spent most of yesterday reading (when not working in the yard and watching football of course!) I came across this article  on [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>One of the many feeds that I read is &#8220;The Pulse &#8211; District Administration&#8221;. The great thing about it is that it is an online journal of articles intended for district administrators.</p>
<p>I spent most of yesterday reading (when not working in the yard and watching football of course!) I came across <a href="http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&amp;postid=48634" target="_blank">this article</a>  on Technology in Teacher Education Training dated November 1 by <a href="http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&amp;postid=16983" target="_blank">Ron Canuel</a>. I must admit that the article hit home with me. I&#8217;m VERY blessed to work in a district where it is &#8216;trying&#8217; to change what Ron is talking about in this article. Let me quote the portion of his article that I find the most hard hitting:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;<u>New teachers, in the absence of effective teacher training programs, will replicate and model the approach and methodology that their past favorite teacher, elementary or high school, had on them.</u> Much of this impact is based on two fundamental elements: positive relationships between the student-teacher and deep knowledge of the subject taught by that teacher. This also means that technology may not be an element that is considered as important. The end result could be that we would have new generation teachers not using approaches that could be further enhanced by technology.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>I took the liberty to underline the portion that I thought was most important. Ron&#8217;s conclusions are very much right on the mark here. What I would add to his conclusion is that the new teachers coming into the profession will also take on the methodology and practices that are set in place at the school level. I can safely comment on this from personal experiences.</p>
<p>Like I said before, I&#8217;m very blessed to work in a district that values the use and true integration of technology into the curriculum and teaching practices. They work very hard on winning grants and awards that they use to reward teachers for their hard work and efforts. It however is not mandatory to take part in these professional development/growth opportunities.</p>
<p>Herein lies the conundrum. If the new teachers coming in, are not willing/wanting to take the time out of their already hectic first year schedules to work technology in (this is assuming they were not exposed to true integration theories in pre-service experiences), who is left to share these educational philosophies? Not the district level administrators. It&#8217;s left to the school level administrators to take on this role.</p>
<p>To further muddy the waters here. One of the conversations held around the edublogosphere is the need to change the teaching practices in the 21st Century classrooms today out of the 20th Century methods being employed. I have to ask the obvious question here though. Are not the majority of our school level administrators evolving from these 20th Century classrooms where the &#8220;TRIED AND TRUE&#8221; best teaching practices have been indelibly ingrained into their mindsets?</p>
<p>So what is the solution to this ever growing trend? Seems pretty obvious to me. The solution is 2 fold. And the great thing about it is that it can be attained at the very same time. I&#8217;ve spoken before of technology peer mentoring programs (see <a href="http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/27" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/23" target="_blank">here</a>) Having been a member of a peer coaching team I can say from firsthand knowledge that it WORKS. It works WELL! For the program to work it needs administration buy in.  But the real solution is not buy in, but total participation from administration. They must be full participants to truly understand the influence integration can have on student performance. Unfortunately, the only acceptance I&#8217;ve encountered is that of signing off on subs needed to cover and the funds to buy the hardware/software needed. And I find that sorely lacking.</p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages&#8230;</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<p>Article Citation: Canuel, Ron (2007, November 1). Technology in Education Teacher Training: Oh, Oh. The Pulse District Administration, Retrieved November 26, 2007, from http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&amp;postid=48634</p>
<p align="right">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag">education</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/technology" rel="tag">technology</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/peercoaching" rel="tag">peercoaching</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/PD" rel="tag">PD</a></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F193';
  addthis_title  = 'Growing+Professionally+with+Technology';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/193/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>FACCS &#8211; 2007</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/186</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/186#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:33:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tech Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology Integration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/186</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For those that have my RSS feed you saw the 1 sentence article that was posted on Friday. It was very enigmatic in and of itself. One of my fellow DEN members and good friend Diana from down in the Miami area talked me into presenting this past Thursday and Friday for the FACCS (Florida [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For those that have my RSS feed you saw the 1 sentence article that was posted on Friday. It was very enigmatic in and of itself. One of my fellow DEN members and good friend Diana from down in the Miami area talked me into presenting this past Thursday and Friday for the FACCS (Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools) Annual Conference. Make no mistake about it, this is not a technology conference. But a chance to work and talk with teachers, public or private, is always a great thing.</p>
<p>Unlike for FAME from last week, I went ahead an created a <a href="http://seekingthewisdomoftheages.wikispaces.com" target="_blank">wiki</a> on <a href="http://wikispaces.com" target="_blank">wikispaces.com </a>to be the launching pad for my presentations. I remember talking with Jennifer Wagner back at NECC prior to her presentation with the WOW 2.0 Ladies, and lamenting on the thought that we if we are expected to have the people who come and listen to us in conference sessions, or our teachers we work with on a daily basis, then we need to embrace the technologies and use them in our presentations. With that in mind, I created the &#8216;official&#8217; <a href="http://seekingthewisdomoftheages.wikispaces.com/" target="_blank">Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages wiki</a>.</p>
<p>Thursday afternoon&#8217;s session was titled Online Tools for Busy Teachers. The presentation was originally supposed to be given by my friend Diana, who then asked me to give it instead since the 15 or so that I had envisioned she&#8217;d never heard of. The funny part of the presentation came after the fact when we (myself, Diana and Debbie B.) were discussing how they thought it went. One of them mentioned it could have been better if the websites were shown during the presentation instead of just the wiki. Not even thinking about it, and I guess this was just a matter of me being in a &#8216;zone&#8217; I don&#8217;t know. But somewhere in there I forgot to mention to Diana to go ahead and click on the links to share the webpages with the attendees. Live and learn, as with everything in life.</p>
<p>Friday&#8217;s two sessions went equally as spectacular in my estimation. The first AM session was &#8220;The Basics of Audacity&#8221;. I&#8217;m not a big fan of &#8216;how to&#8217; sessions at conferences. So I went with the approach for the both of these sessions that I was going to give a hybrid &#8216;how to&#8217; session where I did a portion of how to and a portion of thoughts on integration into the classroom. The second session was of the morning was on blogging as a reflective tool for educators. I spent most of the session discussing the importance of adding blogging as a component to reflective practice. I did show how easy it was to create a blog using the edublogs.org website.</p>
<p>I do know that they recorded the sessions, so I&#8217;m hoping I can get my hands on the audio file. Would love to get the files for all three and add them up as a podcast somewhere.  More on that later though I&#8217;m sure <img src='http://tnturner.edublogs.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages&#8230;</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F186';
  addthis_title  = 'FACCS+%26%238211%3B+2007';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/186/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Liveblogging from FACCS 2007</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/185</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/185#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/185</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We are in session here at FACCS &#8220;Blogging for Educators&#8221;

  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F185';
  addthis_title  = 'Liveblogging+from+FACCS+2007';
  addthis_pub    = '';

]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>We are in session here at FACCS &#8220;Blogging for Educators&#8221;</strong></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F185';
  addthis_title  = 'Liveblogging+from+FACCS+2007';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/185/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The things that teachers walk in on&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/181</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/181#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:02:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology Integration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/181</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I spent most of my day in classrooms configuring laptops to pick up my wireless Access Points. Still questioning the thought of going totally wireless on the campus, but I&#8217;m just the guy they paid to run the sucker once they put it in. Nevertheless, I finally got out to the classrooms to set up [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I spent most of my day in classrooms configuring laptops to pick up my wireless Access Points. Still questioning the thought of going totally wireless on the campus, but I&#8217;m just the guy they paid to run the sucker once they put it in. Nevertheless, I finally got out to the classrooms to set up student computers, only a month into school, but hey, who&#8217;s really counting???</p>
<p>While in one of the empty classrooms I decided to pop on skype and see who was online. Saw that my good pal Anne was, so I called out to her. Just as we were starting the conversation the teacher walked into the room, hearing me call her a slacker for being home today. Not knowing I was in a conversation, he lets out &#8220;I&#8217;m no slacker, what did I do to deserve that?&#8221; After containing my laughter and telling Anne I would try to get back to her later on today (which I never really did, sorry Anne) I explained to him what program I was using to chat through the internet.</p>
<p>After explaining what a great idea it was, and a valuable tool to keep in contact with his daughter living up in the northeast I posed the question to him, what type of things do you see utilizing this as a classroom tool? Valid question right? I could see the wheels spinning in his brain. It truly was a MARVELOUS thing this conversation. Before I go further, the gentleman teacher I was with has been teaching for well over 20 years and is always asking such great questions in the PD&#8217;s that I&#8217;ve given since starting at my school. This was a true &#8220;AHA&#8221; moment I was having with him. He easily picked up on the use of it as a way to get an author to call in and possibly read his/her story to the class. At this point I hadn&#8217;t told him about the video capability of skype yet. That put an even larger grin on his face. He was getting it though, I have to admit it. Connecting to other classrooms around the world, guest/expert speakers brought into the classroom. From here I had the hook in him. I shared with him Mark Ahlness&#8217; take on SSR 2.0 using blogging as a tool for reading and writing. Even deeper we delved into RSS and PLC&#8217;s (more on that later though). I shared how far reaching my PLC was. I wanted to use the analogy of the Verizon Wireless commercials with the network guy and all the people following around. I thought it was a pretty good example.</p>
<p>On a similar note, I received an email from another teacher earlier this week. I asked him if I could share it on my blog, as it demonstrates a &#8216;getting there&#8217; mentality. Here it is:</p>
<blockquote><p>Today, we utilized Mathematics eTools through the computer/projector interface.  Money and Place Value review were the primary areas of engagement.  It seemed to work well in conjunction with other hands-on learning activities utilized in the recent past.</p></blockquote>
<p>Is it TRUE integration as we ed. tech people see it? Is it a start? Certainly in my eyes. 4 years ago when I started down the slippery slope of tech. integration into my classroom, I started in this same exact position. I&#8217;m going to go on record as saying I&#8217;m very proud of my teachers. I can see and hear their excitement every time I talk to them.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d like to end by giving a BIG THANK YOU to Danielle Abernethy for showing my teachers netTrekker in our staff development day. Before she posts a comment about my shoddy directions. The 45 minutes she was allotted was cut short because I told her to turn left and should have turned right. In the 7 classrooms I walked into today, 6 of them were using netTrekker or had used it during the day, and made it a point to show me where they went. Again, baby steps forward. We&#8217;re getting there.</p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages&#8230;</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<p align="right">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/PD" rel="tag">PD</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/edtech" rel="tag">edtech</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/technology" rel="tag">technology</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag">education</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/skype" rel="tag">skype</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/nettrekker" rel="tag">nettrekker</a></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F181';
  addthis_title  = 'The+things+that+teachers+walk+in+on%26%238230%3B';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/181/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>First Professional Development Hour&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/180</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/180#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:54:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/180</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ok&#8230;really it&#8217;s only 35 minutes, but it&#8217;s better than none.
I have to say that I&#8217;m VERY pleased with how yesterday went. All but 3 teachers showed up to our professional development classroom we have in the Media Center. 2 of the teachers &#8216;just forgot&#8217; and one other is forgiven as she was in a parent [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ok&#8230;really it&#8217;s only 35 minutes, but it&#8217;s better than none.</p>
<p>I have to say that I&#8217;m VERY pleased with how yesterday went. All but 3 teachers showed up to our professional development classroom we have in the Media Center. 2 of the teachers &#8216;just forgot&#8217; and one other is forgiven as she was in a parent conference. The incentive was they were able to pick up there student laptops to take back to their rooms. (I WILL NOT talk about the fact that they aren&#8217;t connecting to the wireless network in the buildings, thus causing more work for me to do!! But hey, I&#8217;m not bitter. Can you tell???)</p>
<p>My agenda was very simple and small&#8230;yes I had to use powerpoint, just not enough time to put together a wiki to share with them. Baby steps as my good pall Jen the Technospud and I are apt to saying with each other. My agenda looked something like this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Technology Expectations &#8211; usage and care</li>
<li>Discussing my role being both technical and implementing (5th grade teachers all interested in blogging with their kids now&#8230;might have to go with gaggle.net though <img src='http://tnturner.edublogs.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />   )</li>
<li>Upcoming Pro Gro topics</li>
<li>First of my TOP free online websites (<a href="http://www.flickr.com" target="_blank">Flickr</a> and <a href="http://www.bighugelabs.com" target="_blank">BigHugeLabs.com</a>)</li>
<li>FCATExplorer (just because I&#8217;m mandated to)</li>
</ul>
<p>I had many great questions asked and saw copious amounts of notes taken. I did love the &#8220;AHHH!&#8221; factor when showing Flickr being used in conjuction with BigHugeLabs. Like I said&#8230;I thought it went VERY well. The great thing about it is, I&#8217;ve been given a 35 minute chunk every other Thursday as a professional development block, during teacher&#8217;s 1 hour specials block. 2 weeks is unitedstreaming (will blog more on that name later this weekend) and the 50 ways to use it (Thanks Lance R. and Matt M. for their powerpoints on that). I&#8217;m very much so looking forward to these upcoming bi-weekly sessions. Should be alot of fun.</p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages&#8230;</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<p align="right">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/flickr" rel="tag">flickr</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/bighugelabs" rel="tag">bighugelabs</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag">education</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/edtech" rel="tag">edtech</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/technology" rel="tag">technology</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/" rel="tag"></a></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F180';
  addthis_title  = 'First+Professional+Development+Hour%26%238230%3B';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/180/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Steve Dembo&#8217;s Top 7 Free Collaborative Tools</title>
		<link>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/165</link>
		<comments>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/165#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:14:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tnturner</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[DEN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Professional Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software Review]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yes&#8230;you guessed it, more DEN Academic Excursion stuff. I found the notebook that I was taking notes in, buried in the rolling backpack that I brought along with me. 120Gb external HDD, extra headphones, 8 plug power strip, USB cables, USB speakers, and power cord for laptop. What else could a guy need to go [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Yes&#8230;you guessed it, more DEN Academic Excursion stuff. I found the notebook that I was taking notes in, buried in the rolling backpack that I brought along with me. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seekingwisdom/922279232"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1235/922279232_b664060758_s.jpg" alt="Cables2" align="right" height="75" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="75" /></a>120Gb external HDD, extra headphones, 8 plug power strip, USB cables, USB speakers, and power cord for laptop. What else could a guy need to go on a cruise?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been very lucky to see <a href="http://www.denblogs.com/digital_passports/">Steve</a> present for the first time at last year&#8217;s DEN National Institute in Silver Spring, MD. Since then, I&#8217;ve sat in on a few more and always walk away feeling like I&#8217;ve learned something. When I saw that he would be presenting on his Top 7 Free Collaborative Online Tools, I just had to ask him if it was really necessary for me to be there (Thinking: I&#8217;m on a cruise, stuff I&#8217;ve just seen him present on at NECC, have talked to him in private conversations about, sitting in the pool on the sundeck). I&#8217;m glad I stayed as I did learn something. I&#8217;ll go down his Top 7 List one by one and add my thoughts to each of them.</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.secondlife.com">Second Life</a>: I&#8217;ve blogged about my thoughts on Second Life before. I still can&#8217;t get over the smut that can be found there. I know Tom&#8230;get over yourself. I had a very good conversation with fellow DEN member and <a href="http://denblogs.com/secondlife/">DEN SL Leadership Council</a> Anne as we were going down to our cabins following a session. She convinced me in that conversation to basically give it another chance. I&#8217;m doing it, baby steps of course. I&#8217;ve seen some cool places since I&#8217;ve returned from the Bahamas. NOAA and NASA being probably the best 2. Steve used a pretty great term, I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;s been out there I&#8217;ve just not really paid that much mind to it, &#8220;Massively Multiplayer Educational Gaming&#8221;. As an online MMORPG gamer the acronym MMOEG came to mind. Why not? It sounds cool.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.bloglines.com">Bloglines</a>: RSS aggregator to pick up blogs, news and podcasts. This was the first aggregator that I used. Notice the past tense as I&#8217;ve just moved onto Netvibes based in part to Jeff Utecht&#8217;s recommendation. However, if you are teaching RSS and RSS aggregators to first time users, I would give bloglines my highest recommendation to teach them. It&#8217;s very easy to use, very no muss, no fuss to understand. The only thing that I miss the most from bloglines, that I&#8217;ve yet to find a comparable feature in netvibes, is the Save as New check box that bloglines has. I found that to be a great tool to refer back to posts that I found had great links to share, etc.</li>
<li><a href="http://Del.icio.us">Del.icio.us</a>: Social Bookmarking. Can&#8217;t really say more about it than that. I still like diigo better with the fact that you can set up groups. Yes, I know you can make private accounts, etc. But the fact that diigo has a toolbar extension for Firefox is my selling point.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.twitter.com/tom_turner">Twitter</a>: Don&#8217;t really have a great name/description for Twitter. I think that David Warlick coined it best when we were sitting in the Blogger&#8217;s Cafe at NECC by calling it &#8220;microblogging&#8221;. It&#8217;s a cross between IM and blogging, with a 140 character max that you can use. See my widget to the &gt;&gt;&gt; side here and you will see my twitterfeed. I&#8217;ve looked at some people&#8217;s twitfeeds, numbering well into the hundreds of people that they follow. Personally my goal is about 50ish that I want to top at out (at 48 now). I&#8217;ve learned quite a bit from Twitter so far, dating all the way back to NECC and following people&#8217;s thoughts about certain sessions, etc. Definitely see a role of some sort in the educational arena, even above the use by just the adults.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.skype.com">Skype</a>: Combination of text, video and voice chat all rolled up into one neat little package. Again, saw the great use of this by sitting at NECC and being a part of a conversation with someone sitting in their Lazyboy recliner at home, while I&#8217;m in Atlanta. See &#8220;<a href="http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=203">Learning is Messy</a>&#8221; blog to see how great of a tool Skype can really be to a classroom.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.gcast.com">Gcast</a>: Great way to record, upload and store podcasts. Oh yea&#8230;it&#8217;s free too. Upload your own audio file, or call in via cell phone to record your podcast. <a href="http://podcastpeople.com/">Podcast People</a> is out there as well, I&#8217;ve not used it, but I&#8217;ve read from others that have used it, and would mark it as comparable.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.meebo.com">Meebo</a> Rooms: Meebo is another cool tool I fell in love with at NECC. For the better part of the last 2 years, I&#8217;ve used Trillian as my primary IM chat tool. It was a sad day when I parted with it, even though in talking with Steve after his presentation, he still uses it, but advised to pay for the &#8216;pro&#8217; version of it.  Back to meebo though. Meebo is a web based IM chat client. You can set up for your msn, yahoo im, aim, ICQ and gchat all in one condensed place. But this is the truly cool thing that I found out in this session that you could do with it. You can create &#8216;private&#8217; channels and embed them into a blog or webpage. Imagine the great conversations students could have from home, from across the room with regards to topics they are studying in class.</li>
</ol>
<p>Just for the very last part with meebo, I&#8217;m glad I stayed to take part in <a href="http://www.teach42.com">Steve&#8217;s</a> conversation with us. The unfortunate part is, that I know for fact already that it is blocked by my school district, along with skype, twitter and bloglines. Time to start hitting the pavement with my district contacts to get some of these nice tools unblocked.</p>
<p>Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages&#8230;</p>
<p>Tom.</p>
<p align="right">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/DEN" rel="tag">DEN</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/DNI07" rel="tag">DNI07</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/web20" rel="tag">web20</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/webtools" rel="tag">webtools</a></p>
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = 'http%3A%2F%2Ftnturner.edublogs.org%2Farchives%2F165';
  addthis_title  = 'Steve+Dembo%26%238217%3Bs+Top+7+Free+Collaborative+Tools';
  addthis_pub    = '';
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/165/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
