Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Image by J Patz via Flickr In my email today: "Could you imagine sending me a short quote about why you think it is important to teach using technology and/or why there should be global connections?" Here was my answer. Our students who participate in Flat Classroom and Digiteen are graduating from high school able to say that they have collaborated on a global basis. Sure, twenty first century skills are important, however, twenty first century connections are just as important. Additionally, there are now three forms of writing: traditional essay writing, first person blogging, and collaborative writing such as done on a wiki. There are also other forms of expression. We already have: written expression and verbal expression but now we also have audio expression and visual expression (through video and photography.) To be a well rounded, well educated student they should be able to express themselves well in all of these forms of expression.  There ...

Have You Recorded Your College Admissions Video yet? Thank you to my friend, Andrew Pass , for sharing this article in Newsweek about how some students are being asked to create videos for college admissions instead of essays.  In their article, Applying to College on Youtube , Newsweek says: "These aren’t your typical college applications, but the newest way admissions teams are encouraging students to showcase their talents. As a supplement to the regular forms, schools like George Mason University , outside Washington, D.C., Tufts University , outside Boston, and the College of William & Mary , in Virginia, are giving students the option to stray from the traditional essay and advertise their best qualities on YouTube . “Say something about you,” reads the Tufts application. “Anything goes,” prompts William & Mary. The bottom line? It’s a welcome break from the norm. “Kids feel so much pressure when applying to college today that a lot of them are scared to...

I'm experimenting with posting directly from diigo -- I've annotated and highlighted from the original post from my friend Shmuly Tennenhaus. My friend Smuly is a youtube expert -- he's been on many nightly news programs and in newspapers (see the New York Times article on him.) I'm still turning over the thoughts from his blog post that he shared.. he has made a few good points that I had to go back to teacherTube to see. We have to use teachertube on horizon because it is the only video sharing service that is unblocked in all of our schools. We are cross posting to youtube for those schools that allow youtube access. SchoolFinder Blog » YouTube Versus TeacherTube Annotated My notes: He has been cited multiple times for his videos and has been on more news tv shows than i can count. He does know video! - post by coolcatteacher Many schools do block it for bandwidth reasons. - post by coolcatteacher Some highlights from the article: "Video-sharing ...

I dedicate this to my mentor and the inspiration who got me started, David Warlick . He's been talking about the power of video in telling the story of technology in education! I am now preparing for my first conference, the Tech Forum in Chicago and with the help of some of my students, I have created a video that expresses how I feel about the state of technology education. I base many of my opinions upon what I read from the Computer Science Teachers of America (CSTA) so I consider it fact, not opinion. It applies to many other countries around the world. If you have a youtube account, I invite you post a video response on youtube to this question: Why do we need to use technology in schools? OH, and thanks to Danita Russell for tipping me about Teacher Tube, I've uploaded the video there as well. Perhaps it should be unblocked for many of you. tag: education , teaching , Vicki A Davis , coolcatteacher , youtube , , technology standards , wikis , learning