Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

The completion of the Flat Classroom project has had Julie and I meeting continually and working through things. There are some new things I've learned this week, but I don't have much time so it will be quick! Uhm, Facebook is like a monstrous rolodex. You'll find people you really might be missing and link up with others ( like edubloggers .) The Ohio Education Association who are telling teachers not to get facebook and myspace profiles need to realize that professionalism should be encouraged not abdication of society. (Teachers shouldn't have to be told not to run around naked in town, likewise, professionalism is everywhere. Don't stay away from town, just don't run around naked!) Innovation has centered around human enhanced computing. It is soon to move to computer enhanced human-ing. The robo-soldier announced this week gives people the ability to have robotic exoskeletons with super human strength. Often these innovations begin like this and al...

It was exciting to see my friend Darren's post today about the announcing of the 2007 Edublog Awards . He had the honor of telling me that Cool Cat Teacher is a finalist for best teacher blog this year and that the Horizon Project is a finalist for best wiki ! (I'm not sure why I didn't get an e-mail from Josie, but I sent a quick message thanking her and included a description of my blog.) It is also exciting that TechLearning has been nominated for best group blog . Congratulations to all of the finalists! It is great company that I'm allowed to keep! I hope you'll review the nominations and vote! You'll also find some great reading in there for your RSS reader! Why it means so much to me! This nomination means a lot because it means that there are some of you out there who like my blog! (I have a personal policy to NEVER nominate myself for an award.) Blogging in the Trenches of Life As I'm sitting here watching a JV basketball game (we're ...

I want to know how this student on Flat Classroom made this video. It has links within it and an interactive survey at the end. These students often make me say, hmmm How did they do that? I particularly like the puppetcast at the beginning, how they cite their sources of information (look for the little boxes that pop up), and the discussion between a person playing Google and Yahoo and the Google Pink video at the end. I feel that this is future of HOW we will do video. After "hacking" their code, I see this was done in Asterpix . (Kudos to Elizabeth in St. Louis for encouraging this innovation. So so cool!) Hyperlinked video citing sources. This is so far past what I've understood or even thought about but it is WHAT I'll be doing! See the video . (I had some trouble w/ Asterpix making my blog not load in Internet Explorer but you can go to the link.) We will be creating a standard for how student online video should be done, in fact it is happening now. An...

I've been shopping today and yesterday and have found some things I think would be good for teachers. I'm using the link on my amazon associate account below (so if you buy any of the linked items I get a little money to afford Christmas! Thanks! I hope this helps!. ;-) 1 - I Love You Toast Stamper $2.99 at Amazon This is great for the teacher with kids. You press this onto the toast and magically the words "I Love You" appear on the toast. 2 - All Out Of- Grocery Shopping List $ 7.74 This handy list is great for teachers on the run! I couldn't get enough of these. 3 - USB Gadgets These cool things are powered by the USB port on the teacher's computer (just make sure they know what one is.) I particularly like the USB Refrigerator ($34.99) which holds a single drink, although it is a little pricey for what most want to do. The USB Fan ($16.99) is also great for those in warmer climates, and USB Heating Gloves for colder. ($22) 4- Totes Fashion Micro ...

I came across this neat video on Viddler by Goldie . I do like the viddler format in that it allows others to comment on the video and add remarks and clarifications (you'll see them pop up as you watch the tutorial.)

I've had on my list for some to explore facebook and am spending my R&D time this vacation on Facebook. (And time is almost up.) (By the way, I think that all people committed to innovation should take some time for R&D- research and development, each week and preferably each day. My R&D time is when I get my light bulb moments. But, set the timer, it could suck you in!) I'm coolcatteacher over there. But I must say, except for adding a twitter app (to post my twitter updates), and adding a delicious app, I'm sorely deficient on how to effectively use facebook. So, facebook fans, tell me, what are the groups I should join? How should I connect on facebook? What are your tips? I'm all ears and will post more later about what "I think." I don't know anything and need to see what you think. I am spurred forward because articles like the recent 14 year old girl's suicide caused by the creation of a fictious person on myspace has me great...

The following video is from a student assigned to explain Thomas Friedman 's first trend " Connecting the World Online " using the concept of "Play" (we called it the Fun Factor ) from Dan Pink's book A Whole New Mind . (I'm going to use this video to introduce the terminology of Web 2.0 with my younger students!) It is amazing how well this video DOES teach, but the kids had so much fun (as you can tell.) This video was created in a little over a week and uses the green screen techniques taught by Dean Shareski as a by product of his amazing keynote . (Actually, we used a $25 green sheet of chromakey plastic from ebay! Not perfect, but hey, it worked!) Again, this project has accelerated my students far past what any of us seven teachers could do alone. It is not something any one of us teachers can get our arms around or really take credit for. We are facilitators, the kids grow and learn like a moving, evolving organism of thought, excitement, and...

On November 1st, I blogged about Moray in South Africa who needed to connect with some people who could help her! Well, my good friend Karyn Romeis (from the UK) had some contacts and this is the message I received today from Moray. (With names taken out.) Dear Vicki Thank you so much for helping me out. I have been put in touch with **name removed** who lives in Pietermaritzburg, about an hour’s drive from Durban, where I live. [She] was so accommodating and had material that I have been able to use and adapt to our special circumstances. We are getting along like a house on fire and should have everything completed by the end of this week. Something that initially looked like an insurmountable obstacle has suddenly become achievable. [She] also runs a marvelous phonics programme which I have discussed with our remedial teacher. We shall probably introduce something similar in the New Year. We have been given so many wonderful ideas and plenty of inspiration. Thank you once again fo...

I'm enjoying watching some of the flat classroom videos that are coming in today. We still have some students frantically working to meet the "lockdown" date of tomorrow (before judging begins). Here's a glimpse of what you'll see: For the videos that are on youtube, I've created a playlist that I'll be adding those videos to. I'll also be posting to my delicious account as well. Flat Classroom Playlist This project is challenging beyond belief for all of us. However, the payoffs are incredible as well. OK, I have students to go help! tag: flatclassroom , flatclassroomproject , flat classroom project , global collaboration , teaching , education , innovation

I play the song "I will survive" while paying bills or tackling any task that seems daunting or unpleasant to me, so this song was incredibly funny.

Brent Williams I didn't get here early to ask permission to ustream. I'm sorry b/c this is a great one, however, ethically I don't advocate ustreaming w/out permission. This is a session about the tips and tricks for getting the most out of Windows Vista. Cool Folder Options That is under Folder Options in the control Panel. Folder Options views -- tell it to show the hidden stuff. If on the same list, you can go down on the advanced settings and check "Use check boxes to select items" so you don't have to use Ctrl -- it is a cool feature. How to turn off User Account Control For those who are technical. User Account Control Panel Look at the Last prompt "turn User Account Control Off" Uncheck the box the box "use user account control (UAC) to help protect your computer. and click OK. Improve Vista Performance Add memory - 1 GB RAm to run comfortably, 2-3 GB as a power user (But you don't need a new PC -- it just needs a 1GB processor or ...

Educating for a flattening world presentation (I will embed the presentation from my ustream later,but you may go over there and view it now .) Alan Preis , Atlanta International School He showed the Did You Know 2 video. From audience response, many people have still not seen it. (Man version 2 of this video is really high quality!! Wow! I like that, we are living in exponential times. 1 out of 8 couples married in the US met online. I like BG - before Google. Such an important message -- we can't solved problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. I honestly didn't realize that the Flat Classroom was in Karl's new video update! I have to show my students this video!!! Wow! ( http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com ) Man, that Karl Fisch is brilliant.) Things have to change. Thomas Friedman says that the real story of the dot com era was the fiber that was being laid during the dot com era. That is the story that few people understand. We...

Twitter seems to be down (again.) In its absence, if you're online and would like to attend either of these sessions, join me at my ustream . (All times in EST.) 8:30 am - 9:30 am - Educating in a Flattening World - Alan Preiss Google Pres - http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddqc6jmd_61dr2p6q 9:45 am - 10:45 am - My Seatmate Lives in China (remix) Google Pres and links are at my Wiki I have the google presentation and links to the slideshare slides there. Please join in. I need some backchannel facilitators -- if you'd like to come and answer questions in the backchannel , I'd love it. tag: presentations , ustream , flatclassroom , flat classroom , GAETC

Just got drug into a skype with 50 of my "closest" friends. Twitter is literally totally down. This is what I penned (pulled a lot from my friend Shakespeare!): Twittero, Twittero, wherefore art thou twittero? Deny thy server and refuse to crash; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn to never crash again, and I'll no longer blog. Tis but thy server that is my enemy Thou art thyself, not a selfish crashing fiend. What's a Twittero? It is nor hand nor foot nor arm nor face nor any other part belonging to man. O be some other dependable service! What's in a server? That which we call our favorite service on any other server would smell just as sweet. So, twittero would, were he not Twittero called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without title, twittero, doff thy server, and for thy server, which is no part of thee, find a new stable platform so that we may flock to thy warmth. OK, I've got to work on my presentation for tomorrow. I will be ustrea...

Terry Freedman has written an important article over at Tech Learning. summarizing some extensive work he has done trying to understand teens and social networks. (Oh, and the Tech learning rSS feed is fixed, subscribe here .) Here are his conclusions that bear repeating. These conclusions line up with the anecdotal evidence I observe daily in my own classroom: "These arise from my own survey and other sources. Teens are not as savvy as they and we might think. They are not able to fully assess risk, and even when they do assess risk they don’t necessarily behave accordingly. Therefore schools should do more than scaremongering or reading the riot act. They should: Provide teenagers with practical strategies to help them avoid giving away private information. Encourage the use of social networking sites in school in order to train students in their proper use. Ensure that students fully understand that it is not easy to delete all traces of oneself from a community, because o...

Tomorrow my students will be presenting at the GAETC conference in Atlanta where they will be working on their Flat Classroom project videos LIVE. If you're there at the conference, stop by. If you're not there, you can be there anyway, I'm going to ustream so watch my twitter and I'll let you know when we go live! I'll also be teaching a class on wikis from 9am -12pm EST on Thursday, November 15 and plan to ustream and google present that. Finally, I will ustream my entire presentation on Friday from 9:30 - 10:30 EST and have a google presentation... it is a redo (I always totally redo my presos) of my presentation last year for the Connectivism Conference called My Seatmate Lives in China: The Imperative for Global Collaborative Projects . (I'm looking for a backchannel moderator or two and will take moderators who aren't "present" if you're interested.) So, stop by, let me know if you'll be around and I'll watch for you! tag: ...

I'm so excited about Beth Kanter being on Wow2 tonight! It is going to be a treat. Beth is not only an expert at Web 2.0 nonprofit fundraising on the Internet (we'll talk about that too) but recently returned from a trip to Cambodia to teach 18-24 year olds how to blog in order to give them a voice. Wow! It is almost like teaching someone how to speak. Beth is what I call "a crossroads blogger" -- she is a person that knows many people in different "sections" of the blogosphere and I'm so excited about learning from her tonight. We're on at 9 pm EST at www.edtechtalk.com . Here is information on Beth: My Blog: Beth's Blog My Wiki Portfolio: Beth Kanter My Blog Posts about the Journey Notes from the Real World - guest post from Read/Write Web My Cambodian Bloggers Summit Campaign Page Instructional Materials for the Conference (prepared by me and others) My fundraising campaign to send a young Cambodian woman to college! tag: Beth Kanter ...

One of my students shared this on our private Ning. I was grading tonight and feeling overwhelmed, but watching this gave me a mood boost and I thought you'd like it too. Let me ask you this... How often do you just laugh and be in the moment? So many times the problems we worry about never come to pass. Now, I the list-making Mama would never tell you not to plan, however, I find that I stress myself out way too much. So, here are a few more: Baby Laughing at the Wii Or a summary of three funny ones So, do you feel better? tag: motivation , inspiration , learning , humor , funny

This is a great case study to share with the students. The article at PC world says: "The widely reported problems with pop singer Alicia Keys ' MySpace profile have been cropping up on the social networking site for the past ten days and are likely to continue, a security expert said Friday... As with the Alicia Keys hack, which was discovered Thursday by Exploit Prevention Labs , these pages try to install malicious software on the victim's PC. If the victim's software is not fully patched, this can happen silently, but if that fails, the sites will tell the victim that he needs to install a video codec. That file is actually malware, researchers say. In all cases, hackers used the same background, the same Web code and the same malicious payload. "It's the exact same hijack," Boyd said via instant message. But one difference has been the amount of pain experienced by the bands after they were hacked. While the Alicia Keys site was repaired and up an...

The edublog awards are open. Nominate your favorites in the following categories. And don't "assume" that "someone" will nominate your favorite. A lot of bloggers (like me) will not nominate their own blog for an award. (There is a story behind that for me, but no time to tell it now.) Go here to nominate by November 21st! (There are a lot of educational blog awards out there that are basically ignored by edubloggers, however, this is one by edubloggers for edubloggers and for me, carries a lot of prestige. So please, participate.) Here are the categories: 2007 Nomination categories: 1. Best individual blog The best edublog maintained by an individual 2. Best group blog The best edublog maintained by more than one person 3. Best new blog The best new edublog (group or individual) of 2007 4. Best resource sharing blog The best edublog of whose primary purpose is to share information, links and resources. 5. Best designed blog The most beautifu...

a simulpost with TechLearning Bloggers, we need to work on welcoming folks to the Internet and that includes sharing our tools. I encourage you to share your most useful tools and websites with your readers. Tag it bestoftheweb Let me start by saying, I know I'll forget something, but here is my list. BLOGGING: Blogger : This is where I blog . Yes, wordpress and typepad are "prettier," but integration with searches from Google is where its at and despite what folks say, nothing is integrated more tightly with Google Blog search and Google search than blogger. Period. If you're not found, you're not heard. So, if you use another platform, you'd better make sure you submit your URL to Google so you'll be found. Sources for content: Creative Commons Search and Youtube will turn up great sources for content or to add emphasis. When I get concerned about participating in group think, I pull myself out of the rut, I often go to Stumble upon , Dig...