Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Mixed up this fun video using some things I want to demo at the Web 2 Smackdown 2009 including Pinnacle Automovie (a feature of Pinnacle Studio which automatically made this video for the most part after I added the pics and creative commons music.)  It also demos the youtube annotations feature - when the movie starts, you'll see a little square in the bottom right corner that you can click and  turn on annotations and see the notes about what is going on.  (NOte: I have a Netvibes page to help you track Necc 2009 that is being updated.) These pictures are from 2007 and 2008 edubloggercons and NECC from the blogger's lounge.  You know the thing about these is you've got a long of very opinionated, strong willed people in the room and so sometimes it has ups and sometimes it gets pretty volatile - but one thing about it - it is always real.   I love the people there - whether they are bloggers or not - and they are just some of the greatest people an...

For those who wish to attend the NECC 2009 conference June 28-July 2 in Washington, DC, the application process opens today and closes on October 8th.  I will say that the biggest drawback for me this year and last was being overscheduled.  If I go this year, I want to spend more time learning from others and being selective about where I share my things.  Yes, I want to share, but edtech is NOT about any one person.  EdTech is about learning from each other, connecting, sharing best practices, and often, having a good sense of humor.  Teachers are  a level playing field and we all have something to add. So, here are some tips after looking back on the proposals that I've been a part of that have been accepted: Collaborate Again, few people can handle being "headliners" and often "headliners" would be better and higher energy with others to present with.  This year, we had a group of us present about Collaborative PD , Classroom 2.0 panel, an...

One of my favorite educational innovators, Kevin Jarrett , shares the ustream of Peggy Sheehy and her students sharing what they are doing in Ramapo Island. Listening and learning from Peggy, Kevin, and Beth Ritter-Guth has caused a personal shift in my own mind about the efficacy of virtual worlds.  We're planning to introduce an island this fall for use in Flat Classroom and digiteen . I'm so glad for the ustream because I was in the room next door with the viral PD session and really needed to hear this. Boy, I have a lot to learn! Isn't it great to be able to collapse the float in sharing best practices like this?  This work is also backed up by the research Chris DeDe shared at NECC about Rivercity . Web 3d is just around the corner, and many of us don't quite have a handle on Web 2.  (myself included) Also, remember, that there will never be a "magic pill" that makes teaching easy and learning a piece of cake. If we ate cake all of the...

This great shirt from Al has me rolling. He's set it up so you can order one yourself.  See his blog for how he did it on Zazzle . Technorati Tags: zazzle

Find information and slides for this presentation at our wiki - http://thewallscamedown.wikispaces.com/ My biggest takeway:  the way we communicate and connect has fundamentally changed.  Those who tap into the network experience great benefits.  Thank you to my copresenters : Vicki Davis, moderator Darren Draper Kelly Dumont Kristin Hokanson Robin Ellis Beth Ritter-Guth Carolyn Foote . Ustreamer: Stephanie Sandifer

Just got this note on this NECC live wrap up on Saturday, July 5th at 11 am EDT: "A message to all members of Classroom 2.0 We'll be having an NECC wrap-up and review show Saturday morning--while memories are still fresh! EduBloggerCon, NECC Unplugged, the Bloggers' Cafe, and all the rest. The best links, leads, streams, podcasts, vlogs, and blogs. What you loved, what you didn't. We'll try and document all in a special 90-minute show. Details at http://www.classroom20wiki.com /live+conversations/ , or log in directly for the show at https://sas.elluminate.com/m .jnlp?sid=1101&password=M .8DAFD346DA4B268DC185FED846655 6 Steve Steve Hargadon www.stevehargadon.com " Join in if you're around.

I love the blog post from Laurie Fowler about the Wiki workshop last week at NECC. Laurie says: "This workshop really opened my eyes to the collaboration that the web 2.0 tools can encourage. And it reminded me, too, that it is about the content and the collaboration, NOT about the tools. The relationships we encourage students to make with one another and students around the globe are much more important than which tools they choose to communicate that message" We had fourteen in the workshop in person and about 7 participants from around the world.  Our goal was for the participants to experience a flat classroom and, it worked! Julie and I will be offering an extended version of this course this upcoming week in St. Louis and are talking about doing another extended workshop next year in Australia if we can find a venue and enough participants to make it happen. We will have a very small number of openings this upcoming Tuesday and perhaps Wednesday.  First twe...

My Leadership Day 2008 post Note:  7/ 7/2008 - This post is revised.  I was exhausted after NECC and feel that my wording should be more improved now that I've had time to reflect.  Thank you for your comments.  None of us are perfect, particularly me.  Thank you for making room in your rss reader for a flawed person like me.  ;-) Many people have reflected on "their" NECC experience.  While I was at NECC, to me the most important thing was to focus on sharing and sending out as much as I could with those not there (or with my future self.) Here are my thoughts: 1 - NECC is Overwhelming No one can be everywhere.  And with the total overwhelming fatigue that sets in after the first few hours, I doubt any of us are at our 100% best anyway. I'm going to spend practical time going back through and viewing ustreams and blog posts about the content that was shared.  There was a lot of great stuff, and I a particularly enjoyed Chris DeDe ...

Getting ready to start a classroom 2.0 panel -- going to participate and take notes in backchannel today - http://www.chatzy.com/610230759294 -- password is:  necc Hyperlink for page - http://necc2008.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1997968%3ATopic%3A11028

Ustream channel Broadcast by Ustream.TV Will be live blogging Edubloggercon here. May have some other people join me.Also, a monstrous group chat is evolving here. (Passcode: bikx9 )

I've made an event in slideshare for your presentations for NECC. Just upload your presentation as usual and then add it to the event. (I do think you have to join the event first.) Also, the presentations that are uploaded have been added to the feeds on my NECC Netvibes page . This is yet another way to bring others in. IF you wonder why I'm using #necc in the title, it is so when my blog post is tweeted that it will be pulled into the hashtags feed for twitter. I blogged about this yesterday , but hashtags lets everyone be involved in the conversation, even those not on twitter. All of the things done here, you can do for your school or group to facilitate communication. necc, necc2008, twitter, hashtags, education, learning, conference

Every time my students and I have a new topic, we create a new PLN. A personal learning network in the form of an RSS page aggregates all things of interest and gives one a starting point. If you have netvibes, here is the page I've made over there, or you may click the button below to just add it to your own netvibes - Opening Twitter to everyone It is so important to be inclusive. Not everyone is on twitter, but shouldn't they be able to be "in on" the tweets? You'll see that the netvibes page has a hashtag for twitter on it. Here is how it works: Follow @hashtags Hashtags is an "opt in" service, which means you have to tell it that you want to be indexed. If you don't follow the hashtags user, you can use #necc all day but WILL NOT be included. Don't worry, hashtags won't tweet you back, it doesn't work that way. When you tweet about something at necc put #necc in your tweet. It will then automatically go to the hashtags page fo...

Viral Professional Development is emerging in education as a viable method of increasing teacher engagement and learning. Using tools such as Twitter , rss readers , blogs , educational networks , and wikis , educators are collaborating on a grassroots level. This year at NECC , a panel discussion of educators on July 2nd at 1:30 pm CDT will be discussing and live Ustreaming a session to discuss viral professional development. How did this panel discussion originate? On Monday, September 17, 2007, Google launched the Google Presentation web application to their suite of services. News of this new service spread quickly through the blogosphere and Twitter and soon more than fifty different people made over 500 edits in a twenty-four hour period to one Google presentation . Since introduced, this presentation has been used by hundreds of people to begin conversations centered on free online tools used to weave a web of connections between people around the world. As a result of this ...