1. Support page: http://linkyy.com/7u
2. Books:
   • The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reily
   • Twitter for Dummies
3. What is twitter?
   • Online messaging service
   • One-to-many
   • Messages are public (option for private)
   • 140 characters
   • Follow or not follow
4. Why should I use twitter?
   • Follow famous people or just your friends
   • Find our more about companies or causes
   • Get instant feedback about anything
   • Gvie back to others
   • Spread others’ messages
5. 2010 Projected Twitter users: 26 Million
6. Howard Rheingold
   • “Successful use of twitter means knowing how to tune the network of people you follow, and how to feed the network of people who follow you.”
7. How does it work?
   • Sign up for an account @ twitter.com
   • Choose a good username (make it short)
   • See what friends use Twitter
8. Twitter vocabulary
   • Tweet: a twitter post
   • Retweet: you post someone else’s tweet
   • @mention: reply to someone else’s tweet
   • Follow: receive tweets from another user
   • Direct Message: direct one-to-one response (does not show in timeline)
   • Hashtag: allows tagged tweets to appear in a single list (uses the # sign)
   • Fail Whale: Logo page that appears when Twitter site is down
   • Tweetup: real life gathering of twittering colleagues
   • Twitterized: word turned into a new word that uses a portion of “twitter”
9. Twitter applications
   • Tweetie
   • Tweetdeck
   • Twhirl
   • Twitteriffic
   • Twitterberry
   • Twitter Mail
   • Twitter mobile website
   • Twitterbox
10. Finding others
    • Click on friend’s friends or look at their lists
    • Search Twitter by keyword
    • Button on someone’s website (caution!)
    • Directories
    • Recommendation engines
      • Wefollow.com (search by group name)
      • twitter4teachers (wiki)
      • Who Should I Follow? (analyzes who you follow)
    • twittercounter
11. Twitter and your PLN
    • Right tool for certain things
      • Keeping up with friends
      • Asking for help or advice
      • Offering your expertise
    • Leads to deeper connections
12. Twitter and your classroom
    • Tweet as a historical figure
    • Student summaries of readings
    • Students share a hyperlink (current events, topics, etc.)
    • Collaborative writing (use hashtags)
      • @manyvoices
    • Post a question at night (summary, teaser)
    • Follow a breaking news story
    • Practice foreign language
      • @rosinella
13. Tools to extend twitter
    • Tag clouds
      • tweetcloud
      • twittersheep
      • tweetvolume
    • Filtering data
    • Relationships
      • twitterdigest
    • Followers
      • twitterless
    • Searching
      • http://search.twitter.com
      • search by keyword or hashtag
      • tips and tricks for search operators
      • readtwit
        • allows you to follow links in feed via RSS reader
14. Twitter tips and tricks
    • URL shortening
      • linkyy
    • use punctuation
      • =
      • &
      • ?
      • 2 = to/too
      • etc
15. Fun with twitter
    • Share pics
      • twitpic
    • share videos
      • twitvid
    • followfamous
    • twitlogo
      • make your own twitter-looking words
16. Miscellaneous
    • Mistakes
      • tweet an entire event
      • survey request
        • ask for opinions from followers only
      • didn’t realize they were watching
        • careful how much info you post
17. Comic Relief
    • woofer.com (1400 characters)
    • the homing-twigeon

• Middle School (6-8)
  • 90% of students have cell phones
  • Of those, 90% had unlimited text
  • and, over 50% had data plans

• Today’s high end cell phones have more computing power than a desktop PC in 1995.

• Today’s simples phones have more powerful chips than the 1969 onboard computer that landed a man on the moon.

• If the kids are going to use cell phones to cheat, and you ban phones, will you ban paper when they pass notes to cheat?

• By using cell phones for educational purposes, you’re hijacking kids’ time for ed purposes without them realizing it!

• http://www.txtblaster.com
  • manage groups via text message
• http://www.wiffitit.com
  • Public messaging board
• Search Engines
  • Google SMS
  • ChaCha
  • Dotgo
• Mobile Podcasting
  • http://www.gcast.com
  • http://www.yodio.com
• Voice to Text Transcription
  • http://dial2do.com
  • Google Voice
• Geo-tagging
  • http://www.geograffiti.com
  • http://www.flagr.com
• QR Codes
  • Much like bar codes
  • Any phone with a camera can read QR codes if you have the right software
  • You can create your own QR codes to instruct phones to do certain things
    • http://zxing.appspot.com/generator

• Interactive Response
  • http://www.polleverywhere.com

More resources: http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com

http://teachers.iwcs.k12.va.us/tmevans/evans/VSTE2009.html

Isle of Wight, VA

1. Benefits of the iPod Touch
   • Just by holding it in their hands, it’s engaging without you having to do any extra work!
2. Student Engagement
   • Differentiation
     • Pacing
     • Accessibility
     • Multiple activities
   • Make up work
   • Review (podcasts)
     • Kids tell what they know
     • Teachers produce material for students
   • iTunesU
   • Webquests and Activity Sheets
   • Lesson plan
     • Closure and feeback
   • Make the most of your time

Using Technology to Create Context

http://learningdifferently.wikispaces.com

Heather Blanton
Wise County

“I am the world’s worst math student, but, therefore, I understand the struggling student…”
“I could do the procedure, but I didn’t understand it.”
“The struggle lies in the inability to see a real-world connection”

1. Math is everywhere
   • How many minutes until lunch?
   • How many books do we need for three groups of two?
   • How many slices should we slice the pizza into?
   • How much gas do we need to get to school?
   • How much water does the fishtank need?
2. Math helps “make sense” of the real world
   • NCTM
     • math evolves from problem situations that have meaning to children and are regularly related to their environment (paraphrase)
3. Building Context
   • Make an intro video and include vocabulary
   • • Let the students follow-up with their own video interpretations of the concept.
   • Shape Walks
   • Demonstration
   • Discovery Streaming
   • Math Vocabulary: http://www.brainyflix.com/videos
     • Students enter video contests to demonstrate SAT vocabulary words
     • Use as a resource to explain words
     • Make your own brainyflix
   • Competitions
     • http://www.worldmathday.com
   • Simulations/Games
     • Absurd Math (http://www.learningwave.com/abmath/)
     • Also teaches critical thinking and problem solving
   • Use literal interpretations of abstract concepts/vocabulary
     • Video your ideas
     • Take pictures
   • The Great Chocolate Caper
     • CSI math, STEM project
     • Based on a project from TI website (http://education.ti.com)
     • Could you determine a suspect based on the stride length of their walk, and can shoe size predict stride length?
   • Google Earth
     • Geometry Meets Geography
     • Measuring with Google Ruler
     • Google Earth Webquest for Math
   • http://www.realworldmath.org
     • Project Based Learning
   • Talking the Walk
     • Many students are doing the procedures without the reasons (no concept)
     • Students need opportunities to engage and express conceptual knowledge in math
     • Technology can give multimodal learners new avenues to express conceptual understanding
     • We are forming and shaping our future math teachers

http://drop.io/vsteapps

1. Pandora (free)
   • Use it to teach music theory or music appreciation
2. Leaf Trombone (free)
   • Musical Instrument
   • Dexterity
3. Ocarina ($0.99)
   • Musical instrument and recorder
   • Similar to Leaf Trombone
4. Clock App
   • Preinstalled
   • Timer, Stopwatch, Alarm, World Time
5. Calculator
   • Preinstalled
   • Normal or Scientific (rotate the iphone)
6. Camera (iphone)
   • Preinstalled
7. Autostitch ($1.99)
   • Create panoramic pictures
8. Tripod (free)
   • helps steady pictures
9. Mill Colour (free)
   • Apply color filters
10. Photoshop Mobile (free)
11. Qik
    • Pronounced “Quick”
    • Live streaming video from your phone
12. Animoto (free)
    • Video editing
    • Free account lets you create 30-second short clips
13. Google App (free)
    • Access to all google online apps
14. Dictionary.com (free)
    • Word of the day
    • Thesaurus
    • Some words have audio pronunciation
15. Wikipanion (free, $4.99 upgrade)
    • Access to wikipedia
16. Instapaper (free)
    • Free account, free website
    • Bookmark button to cite news articles
    • Read your bookmarked articles on your iphone
17. Musee de Louvre
    • View images of the museum and collections
    • Video clips
    • Default is French
    • Art Info and background
18. TED Talks (free)
    • Inspiration, personal development
19. The Constitution (free)
20. The Declaration of Independence
    • Bio of the signers
    • Images of the document
21. US Historical Documents ($0.99)
    • Magna Carta to Modern US History
22. History Maps of the World (free)
23. Google Earth
24. iPresidents ($0.99)
    • Bio Info
    • Signature
    • Pictures
25. Bobble Rep ($0.99)
    • State reps, National reps
    • Make a bobble head for your rep
26. USA State Capitals (free)
    • Flags, images
    • Flashcards
    • Quiz
27. iLingual (free)
    • Built in phrases
    • Take a pic of your lips and watch them move with the words
28. iTranslate (free)
    • Type what you want to translate
    • 52 Languages
    • Email the translated phrase or word
29. Jibbigo Speach Translator ($25)
    • Speak into the phone, translates the phrase, plays back the translated phrase
30. iSign Lite (free)
    • Sign Language
    • Small vocab on free version
    • Animated signs
31. The Chemical Touch (free)
    • Periodic Table
32. Hubble (free)
    • Press releases
    • Images
    • Video
33. Discovery Channel (free)
    • Most videos have advertisements
    • Show notes
    • Quizzes
34. Stars (free)
    • Constellations
35. Touch Physics Lite (free)
    • Game
36. Flight Control ($0.99)
    • No educational value
    • Use to work on dexterity
37. Enigmo ($0.99)
    • physics
    • guide a path of water from one bucket to anther
    • critical thinking, problem solving
38. Brain Exercise Lite (free, $2.99 upgrade)
    • Mental Math
    • Brain games
39. eClicker
    • Clicker app is free
    • Host app is $25
    • take the place of an interactive clicker set
    • Full-featured
40. Dropler ($2.99)
    • Connects to drop.io
    • Easy way to share articles, pics, etc.
41. LogMeIn ($29.99)
    • Remote desktop app
    • Valuable for IT people
42. Blackboard
    • Needs background IT work
43. Harvest Timetracker
    • Logs activities
    • Free 30 day trial
    • Website subscription
    • App is free
    • Current or past updates
44. Recall
    • To-Do’s
    • Transcription
45. WordPress (free)
    • Control your blog from your phone
46. Evernote
47. Homework
48. Mathemagics Lite
    • Mental tricks for complex math problems
49. Basic Math
50. Math Ref Free
    • Formulas for all math levels
51. Numberline
    • Decimals, percents, fractions
    • Practice ranking numbers
52. The Classics ($2.99)
    • Preloaded classic books
53. Kindle for iPhone
54. Word Magic ($0.99)
    • choose the missing letter from the word after hearing the word
    • positive reinforcement
55. Spell It Right
    • Choose the correct spelling after hearing the word
56. SAT Vocab Challenge
57. MobiCIP
    • Alternative to Safari
    • Built in filtering options based on grade level
58. Pocket CPR ($9.99)
    • FDA Approved
    • Audio instructions for administering CPR
    • Reads movements, pressure and rhythm
59. I Am TPain
    • AutoTune modulation for your voice
    • Fun way to record voices

1. Up until the 20th Century
   • We were consumers
2. In the 21st Century
   • We became creators of content
3. How much content is out there?
   • 1 Trillion unique URLs
   • 150 URLs per person on Earth
   • 20 Hours of content is being uploaded to YouTube every minute
4. If info is ubiquitous and can be accessed so easily…
   • We need to transform our classrooms into hubs of creativity
   • http://www.theblueschool.org/multimedia
   • MIT Media Lab
5. Finding, Analyzing, and synthesizing information
   • we have to teach it in a way that is meaningful to our students
   • we also need to be able to communicate in their language
6. Digital Immigrant
   • Digital Camera
   • Browsing
   • Email
   • Phone (land line)
   • CD Player
   • Internet
7. Digital Native
   • Camera
   • Google
     • youtube
     • facebook
     • myspace
   • Texting
   • Cell phone
   • IM
   • Skype
   • mp3 player
   • net
8. http://www.ted.com/talks/rives_tells_a_story_of_mixed_emoticons.html
9. Their Language (cont)
   • Write in text speak
   • research and deliver a topic in 140 characters or less (twitter)
   • Discovery Education Writing Prompt Builder
10. What if we dive deeper?
    • Creativity
    • Higher Order Thinking
    • Different Pedagogies
11. Digital Storytelling
    • Weaving multimedia into a story
    • In the classroom
      • Students demonstrate their grasp of the concept
        • Synthesized Brain
      • Creative outlet
        • Students can use a myriad of media
      • ELL Instruction
        • Associating words with images
      • It’s engaging
        • A format that the YouTube generation is used to
    • What media?
      • videos
      • images
      • sounds
      • songs
      • speechs
      • sound effects
    • Seven Elements of Storytelling (http://www.storycenter.org/programs.html)
      • Point of view
      • Dramatic Question
      • Emotional Content
      • Adding Your Voice
      • Power of a Soundtrack
      • Economy
      • Pacing
    • Students are not the only ones creating content…Educators create content too…
12. Web 2.0, Students and Content Creation
    • 64% teens engage in content creation
    • 47% posted photos
    • 89% receive comments
    • In the classroom
      • Create content to transmit info or ask questions
      • Create a podcast
        • http://podcast.phila.k12.pa.us
        • http://phone.io (alliteration example)
      • http://edu.glogster.com
      • http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article637.html
      • Create a facebook page for a character
      • http://www.wordle.net (for political speech evaluations)
13. A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink
    • The essence of persuasion is the ability to take content and create a narrative (paraphrase)

So, what is sexting?  Sexting is a term that has been coined to describe the act of using texting (using a cell phone) to transmit provocative, scantily clad, and sometimes nude photos of one’s self to others.  The biggest contingent for this right now is, of course, teens.  According to this article from CBS News, about 20 percent of teens, nationwide, admit to participating in some form of sexting.  Alarming?  Yes.  But so is the reaction from the other side.  Before we see the dangers facing teens who choose to participate in this type of activity, let me ask you…How would you react if you found suggestive pictures of your son or daughter on their cell phone, and then realized that they had broadcast these images to a boyfriend or girlfriend, or perhaps someone you’ve never even met?

The question in my mind is, “what is the most reasonable reaction to this situation?”  From a parental point of view there would be severe consequences.  But what, if any, should be the legal consequences?  According to one story, a lawyer in Pennsylvania thinks that three teenage girls involved in sexting should face felony child-pornography charges for taking and distributing pictures of themselves if they do not agree to attend an education program.  Is this over the top?  How far would you let your District’s Attorney go in order to “protect your children?”  If prosecuted, these girls could end up on a nationwide sex offender’s registry.  Some parents think this is pushing it too far.  At least one family has filed suit against this attorney for violating their freedom-of-expression rights, and the ACLU thinks that he is getting in the way ofthe parents raising their children as they see fit.  Would you want the legal system to punish your child for this type of offense?

One other story offers a slightly gentler response to the situation.  Recently, a group of parents, educators, technology professionals, and a whole host of others gathered in Washington, D.C. at the urging of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) to discuss the most proper reaction to this “epidemic.”  The effort of this conference was to change the focus of this issue from the context of “criminal behavior” to “adolescent behavior and risk taking.”  The CEO of FOSI, Stephen Balkam, says that a great deal of the solution needs to be, once again, “educating the public.”  The same rhetoric about watching what your kids are doing on the computer and being aware of where they are still holds true, but takes a whole new class of educated parents when it comes to cell phones, PDAs, and any other mobile device that can travel around.

I’ll leave the final opinion up to you, the parent.  What is the most logical, practical, and reasonable response?  As you formulate your opinion, here are some other resources that you might want to access:

Sexting: Pornography or Modern-Day Flirting? (Wall Street Journal)

Family Online Safety Institute’s YouTube Channel

Legislature considers legalizing teen ‘sexting’ (Burlington Free Press [VT])

Aside from the response, what should you and your children know about the dangers of sexting?  Simply put, it is an open invitation for harassment, taunting, embarassment, and physical danger.  Don’t believe that the image you send to one friend will remain with only that friend for very long, and even if you have a trusting relationship with that person, is it really necessary?  I would have to say that the risks far outweigh the convenience or novelty of the whole idea.

The Final Word:

One last parental response option:

(Click this image to view the original posting)

1) What must parents know about the realities of the Internet in regards to how we deal with the photos (and identities) of our children?
2) What are the benefits of an open vs. a closed reality? Are the benefits of openness (e.g., in regards to our families) worth the risks? And, what are the credible risks?
3) What precautions should we take, or perhaps, what precautions do you take in the presentation/development of your family’s digital identity?
4) What rights and responsibilities do we have as parents to protect the digital identities of our children?
5) How do we proceed from here? How do we help other parents to understand these important issues?

I don’t have all the answers to these questions, nor does anyone.  But this is a discussion that should be taking place within your family and among your friends.  Not only are your children at risk of exposing too much of themselves through their “digital identity,” but you have just as much potential to spread too much information to the world.  It pays to be aware of what’s out there and where you fit into the larger scheme.

The Final Word:

Know what your kids are sharing and showing, but don’t forget about yourselves.  Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you’re not succeptable to these risks on behalf of your children!

The sad truth is that many high school classes still operate the same way today!  And who are we teaching now?  The second (and even third) generation of “digital natives.”  Why is this a problem?  These students are just as eager, if not more so, for connection, collaboration, and communication, and they have more opportunities and resources at their disposal to feed that hunger.

The Good News

We are raising a nation full of innovators!  We live in a time of transition, from traditional media (like newspapers, magazines, and analog TV) to modern media (like Facebook, digital TV, internet TV, blogs, wikis, and Twitter).  With this new and growing list of easily delivered communication options, our students have an incredible amount of freedom to experience and create information, which drives them to develop their own ways of achieving that.  We’re pushing the boundaries, finding out what works and what doesn’t, and developing a new communication revolution that will continue to alter the world!

The Bad News

Along with great power comes great responsibility.  High schools students are bombarded with this new thrust of information.  Sometimes they know how to discern what’s valid, but too many times they do not.  This also impedes their ability to produce appropriate and valid information in a viral system, where one small comment or action spreads throughout the entire network, sometimes, in a matter of minutes!  An example of this: how much information are they posting about themselves on their MySpace page?  Are their pictures appropriate?  In how many ways do they make themselves “available” or “accessable?”  How many people that they are connected to do they actually know?

The other caveat to this is that they are unable (perhaps too immature) to handle the state of being “hyper-connected,” and their “multitasking” turns into “constant partial attention.”  I believe proper multitasking skills can be acquired.  I also believe that being too connected too often leads students away from developing their own unique ideas outside of the influence of their Twitter followers or their Facebook friends.  However, I believe that being instantly and effortlessly connected to the right people (i.e. classmates, teachers, a Nobel Laureate or two) increases a student’s chances at understanding and success.

The Argument

Should classrooms change, or should they stay the same?  Should we be a safe haven for the overly-connected, or should we leverage that connectivity to increase productivity and success?  Should the same tools of communication (cell phones, PDAs, computers) be used as tools for increased educational opportunities?  Of course, my answer is the latter on all accounts.  But we, as educators, parents, friends, guardians, and mentors, must be aware of the options for connectivity and help our children understand the responsibility for caution, discernment, and, sometimes, avoidance.

Kelly: “We’re going on a ski trip on Saturday for a whole seven days!”

Me: “Wow!  That’s a long trip!  Where are you going to ski?”

K: “We’re going to Utah.  That’s why we have to take a plane!”

Me: “That’s great!  Planes are a lot of fun to fly in!”

K: “Really?  I think I’m going to be freaked out!”

Me: “You know what’s really cool about planes?  The seats have TVs in them!”

K: “Really?  Well, my sister is bringing her laptop.  I like to play games on it.  My brother likes to watch movies.”

Me [to my daughter]: “You like to play games on the computer too, don’t you?”

Another girl pipes in: “We have a gray laptop at home!”

And so it continued for a few minutes, talking about the games we like to play, the things we use the computer for, how many computers we have, etc…and all this with a group of 5-year-olds!

As I left the school after lunch, I began to reflect on our conversation and realize two key things:

1. Technology is infused in our society.  Leave it to the youngest of us to help remind me of that!  Computers, iPods, cell phones, television, are all simply part of nature to these children.  They do not know, nor would they understand, a world without them.
2. I think that education has failed to keep up.  Even in my generation, I saw a computer in my school before I had one at home.  Schools used to be the “early adopters” of new technology (i.e. the personal desktop computer a la Apple IIe).  However, computers and technology have moved far ahead of just the desktop.  Many experts believe that we’re beginning to see the end of the desktop computing experience as we’ve known it for 20-plus years, but yet, many schools still have not made the leap from a lab full of desktops to a hand-held device or even a laptop in the hand of every student.

The final word:

If we were still living in a world of pen-to-paper communication, a school would not allow a student to show up or leave without having a pencil.  We would provide one for them, we would sharpen it for them, we would make sure they knew how to use it, we would contact the parents to find out if they have any pencils at home, and if not, we would send them a box full of pencils.  Now, I realize that this is somewhat incomparable because of the monetary difference, but the principle is the same.  The world is changing, communication is not the same, and students are experiencing an outside world that does not resemeble the things that they are taught to use within the school building.  Our schools should model a successful and appropriate interaction with that world.