NCETC session materials

For those who requested them, here are the presentation materials from my sessions NCETC. Just for fun, I've used a few different slide sharing programs here, so you can compare and contrast; see notes below.

Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate Instruction [Google Docs]
(See also the workshop wiki for this here.*)

Podcasting: What You Need to Get Started [Google Docs]

Using and Creating Mobile Video for the Classroom [SlideShare]

Free Content + Open Tools + Massive Collaboration = Learning for All* [in a wiki; no slide sharing needed :)]

* Licensed under Creative Commons. Feel free to use any way you like.
Other materials are under all rights reserved copyright; email me if you'd like to use them in a way other than showing them online as they are here.

NCETC Follow-up

Thanks to everyone who attended one of my many sessions at NCETC today! It was a good day. Here are a few follow-up items I said I'd post:

• Links to sources for free, open content here (I'm also presenting the Open Ed session again on Thurs. 11/29 at 10:15 in Auditorium 2.)
• The Flip digital video camera can be found here.
• Here are some of the recording options we talked about:
• Olympus WS-100 (portable recorder; cheap, pretty good quality)
• Samson Zoom H2 or H4 (portable recorder; more expensive, great quality)
• Samson USB Condenser mic (high quality mic for recording at your desktop)
• ZZounds.com is a good audio site where you can get a lot of this stuff.
  
• Slideshare.net is the program that was mentioned that lets you make a web-based movie from your PowerPoint slides auto-magically.
• Here is the download for the free version 3 of Camtasia Studio. Request a reg code here.

If there's anything else I said I'd post that I've forgotten, add a comment below to remind me. Thanks for a great day.

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Mobile tech workshop

At NCETC yesterday, I facilitated the "Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate Instruction" workshop using a wiki. (This wiki is set up to be used to facilitate a F2F workshop, such as we did at NCETC, or to be used as a self-guided learning experience. It is also Creative Commons licensed, so you can use it at your own school or district.)

My goal of the workshop was to present less and have participants do more. Using a wiki and letting participants structure their own time (within some suggested guidelines) was a way to allow everyone to differentiate their learning. This was especially important because participants had a variety of mobile devices (Palm, PPC, iPods, laptops, etc.) and because everyone had different experience levels (as learners always do).

I was interested in the participants' comments afterwards on how they felt it went. They liked it. One person said that she felt that she was able to really focus on her own learning without having to pay attention to what was being presented. :)

I too liked the format. I've played with using a wiki to guide a workshop a couple times now, and I've almost got it down. It's a little uncomfortable for me as a "teacher" to not be "teaching," but I'm seeing the benefits. It also helps to have a group that is assertive about their learning needs -- which we all should be.

While we all thought this structure worked well, we agreed that a relatively small group was needed to make it successful. I would say a max would be 15 participants. With more than that, the one-on-one support that was needed for individual questions would be too hard. (Unless of course you had 2 facilitators, but I haven't figured out how to clone myself yet.)

I look forward to providing more workshops in a wiki format and am especially excited about the opportunity for remote participants to be able to access these materials.

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Free online workshop

Well, the workshop on "Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate Instruction" that I wrote about earlier is pretty well finished. I'm really happy with the content in it and think this is a great resource for schools using mobile tech and looking for resources.

I've structured this in a wiki, and it is intended to be used for either a face-to-face workshop or as an online self-guided learning experience.

This is licensed under a CC BY SA license, so you are free to use it for your own purposes as well.

This is my first attempt at using a wiki to facilitate both a F2F workshop and a self-guided experience. If you go through it, let me know what you think.

Great inexpensive video cam for classrooms

Many of you have heard me rave about the inexpensive Flip camera. I love it because it is very easy to use, has surprisingly good quality, and has incredible battery life, in addition to costing as low as $100.

Now the new Flip Ultra is out, and it addresses one of my few dislikes about the original Flip, which was its lack of a tripod mount. Very cool (and a great idea for a holiday gift).

Differentiating Professional Development

In my on-going quest to differentiate instruction for teachers as a part of workshops I do, I've been experimenting with using blogs and wikis as PD tools.

The latest installment in this is a hands on workshop on using mobile technology to differentiate instruction (coincidentally) that I am outlining in a wiki. I'm hoping that this wiki will also be able to be used as a self-study tool for those who aren't at the workshop (or for those who attend and want a refresher or more in-depth learning later on).

Here's a preview of a section on using ebooks.

We'll be using this at my "HANDS ON: Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate Instruction" at NCETC on Mon., Nov. 26. If you'll be there, I'm really looking forward to this. (This is a bring-your-own-laptop-and-mobile-device workshop. Contact me for more info.)

If not, stay tuned for the final version of this. I'll post a note when it's done (or as near to done as wikis get :).