Academic Aesthetic 143

No time for banter, here's the show and the show notes:

• I start out with a "phone call" from Chris Craft.  It seems he has a complaint or two.  (You can send me your own comments, too!)


• My wife bought me a soldering iron.


• It's cool, but scary. (I could get burned.)


• Bre Pettis has a cool tutorial that'll help me out. I hope to one day be good enough to make a solar powered robot.


• A lot of teachers want to start using blogs, podcasts, and/or wikis.


• They think those things are cool, but scary. (They could get burned.)


• There are a lot of people out there who are willing to help.


• NextGen Teachers, Teachers 2.0, and the DEN are 3 groups that are free to join and willing to give advice and help in a pinch.

NextGenTeachers Skypecast

I couldn't stay for the whole thing, but I thought you'd might like to hear a recent online conversation in which I was the token rude American amongst a crowd of  British educators.

OK, so I hope I wasn't that rude.  You know me and self-depreciating humor...

In any case, you can find the show notes to the skypecast here.

Academic Aesthetic 142

This should have gone up yesterday, but instead I went to see a movie with the wife.

For some reason theaters frown at customers using laptops during the movie, even though they only tell you to turn off your cell phones and pagers. They said nothing about laptops! They should be allowed, right?  Um, they didn't think so.

Ahem ... well, in any case, on with the show.

• There is always someone who will resist new technology.


• If there isn't enough buy-in, even the best technology will fail. (BETA was better than VHS...)


• By being enthusiastic users of technology, we can encourage holdout teachers to try it themselves.


• I’m still looking for audio and video comments to include in my podcasts.  If the web interface doesn’t work for you, you can always email it to me instead.  That way you can include your own background music, special effects, or whatever.


• Wondering what happened to the audio only version?  I’ve started posting them over on PodServe.

Connect Learning is Back!

Do you listen to the Connect Learning podcast?

You should.  He started long before I ever did.

Chris Craft called me a Warlick groupie.  I'm not - I'd never be able to afford the travel expenses.

Academic Aesthetic 141

This video brought to you by a tag from Durff's Blog.  Better late than never!

My 10 tips to be successful:

1. Give thanks.


2. Network.


3. Unwind.


4. Do at least ONE productive thing every day.


5. Make something.


6. Do something you haven't done before.


7. Be honest, but not THAT honest.


8. Never say no to free stuff.


9. Have a "Plan B."  Plans C and D wouldn't hurt, either.


10. "Don't TELL me what you're going to do, SHOW me!"

Other items of note:

• I've created a wiki to showcase lessons that combine art with other subjects.  If you've ever handed a student a paintbrush, marker, or crayon, then you can contribute.


• I'm still looking for audio and video comments to include in my podcasts.  If the web interface doesn't work for you, you can always email it to me instead.  That way you can include your own background music, special effects, or whatever.


• Wondering what happened to the audio only version?  I've started posting them over on PodServe.

Academic Aesthetic 140

Behold, my 140th podcast! View it! Cherish it! Pause it at random moments and laugh at the funny faces I make!

... no, wait. Scratch that last one ...

In any case, most of this video was taken during day 2 of MICCA.

Show notes:

• She didn't leave her name, but I think it's a plug from Gwyneth Jones!


• Another plug from Will Richardson! WILL RICHARDSON!!


• Getting in early. Why?


• Picking a session. Sometimes the lesser known presenters are just as good but with more seats available.


• Commentary by Mark Young!


• Wondering where we'll be in 5 years...


• Stopped by security. Oops. (No problems after I said I was a presenter.)


• Buy David Warlick's books! Put his son through college! (What, you don't know who David Warlick is? For shame!)


• National conferences are cool, but state and local conferences have art shows. Just sayin'...


• Silliness


• Now that we've learned all this new stuff, how are we going to use it in the classroom?


• Read that last one again. It's that important.


• Submit some audio or video! (Ok, you can email it to me instead if you don't like the web based format...) My 150th podcast is coming up, and I'd like to include more stuff created by other people.


• A little bit of a surprise at the end. I'm not saying what, though...

Session 8: Let's Tell a Story

This presentation by Melinda Kolk is showcasing software by Tech4Learning. This isn't the first time I've met up with someone from that company.

They have more than one product, the first they're showing is a program called Frames that can be used to make animations out of still images. iMovie has the same functionality, but its interface isn't designed specifically for that. Frames' interface is.

She's admitted that iMovie and Photostory have similar functionality. It's not about the technology, it's about how these kids are learning.

Each of these videos she's showing is helping to reinforce "core" (I still dislike that label) content areas. Some of them involve cross-grade collaboration, which is neat.