Friday, July 29, 2011

33 Resources for Google Apps for Education

ISTE.2011 provided a lot of great presentations and resources for using Google Apps in Education.

If you are currently using Google Apps for Education or considering the possibility of using Google, click on the following link for a list of great presentations and resources from ISTE 2011.

ISTE.2011: Google Apps for Education

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Social Media Revolution 3

Erik Qualman has updated his "Socialnomics" video for 2011. There is no doubt that social media has influenced our lives by changing the way we interact with people and the way we conduct business and Qualman's videos continue to remind us of the power of social media.

Please watch the video below and check out the Socialnomics website and a funny video created by Qualman entitled, "How Social Media Saved Valentines Day."

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Pegby: A Great Way for Students and Teachers to Get Organized

I wanted to introduce you to a cool online organizational tool called Pegby.

Pegby allows you to organize tasks and to collaborate with students, classmates, friends, co-workers, family and friends. Pegby is set up like a corkboard with three columns where you can place "3x5 index cards." There is a column for things to do, a column for things in progress, and a column for things that are done. You can also modify the number and organization of columns and then easily expand or collapse the columns as needed.

The "3x5 index cards" are tasks, ideas, etc. that can be added to each column. The index cards can include a title, content, tags, attachments, a due date and you can also add color coding. Index cards can be dragged from one column to the next, shared with others, or added to a stack of cards. Set up as many boards as you like and get your personal and professional life organized! What a great way to get organized for the new school year!

Watch the video below for a quick demo of Pegby:

Pegby in Two Minutes from Pegby on Vimeo.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Four Most Overlooked Attributes of Successful Coaches

I was reading Daniel Pink and I learned about Garret Kramer. After oberving little league sports for years, I really wish there were more coaches like Kramer. As I thought about his four attributes, I began to think that all of this applies to educators. Please take a look at these attributes and I will be purchasing Kramer's new book and hopefully have some more information to share with you.

Here are the "The Four Most Overlooked Attributes of Successful Coaches:"

1. They look to the state of mind of the athlete or individual in question, not his or her behavior.
Poor performances, or behaviors, are the result of an individual’s low mind-set, not his or her circumstances. Rather than holding players accountable to their actions (judging behavior), the best leaders hold them—and themselves—accountable to recognizing the thoughts and feelings that accompany high states of mind, and only acting from this mental state. This type of coach distrusts his own thoughts from low moods and encourages his players to do the same.

2. They understand that the spoken word is far less important than the state of mind from which the word is spoken.
Here’s a simple reminder. Words are merely an echo of a feeling. A coach might say to a player, “I was really proud of your effort tonight.” But if there is no genuine feeling behind the words, they might actually have a negative impact. Successful coaches take notice of their own level of functioning moment to moment. They know that positive words only originate from positive states of mind.

3. They keep goal setting in perspective.
Successful coaches know that the more athletes focus on the “prize,” the more they thwart their own awareness, shrink their perceptual field, and limit the imaginative possibilities. These coaches understand that achieving goals does not elevate self-worth or happiness. Instead, they relish the journey—the relationships and experiences—as the path toward creating exactly what they want becomes clear.

4. When in doubt—they turn to love.
Great coaches set guidelines and expectations based on one overriding principle: love for their players. They know, above all else, that love will always provide the answers to helping others—and to success.

Garret Kramer is the founder and managing partner of Inner Sports, LLC. He has provided consulting and/or crisis management services to hundreds of athletes and coaches; from well known professionals, Olympians, and teams, to high school and collegiate players across a multitude of sports. A former collegiate ice hockey player, Kramer is credited with bringing the principles of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought to the athletic community at large. Kramer often lectures on topics related to the states of mind that lead to success on and off the playing field. He has been featured on WFAN in New York, ESPN Radio, WOR, FOX, CTV, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, The Newark Star Ledger, The Toronto Star, The Philadelphia Daily News, and other nationally syndicated sports programs and magazines. Kramer is the author of the book Stillpower: The Inner Source of Athletic Excellence; forward written by NHL and U.S. Olympic star Zach Parise

Monday, July 18, 2011

35 Open Educational Resources

I have created a list of open and free educational resources which I will be updating from time to time:
(Check the tabs under the blog header for the location)

Here are the "35 Open Educational Resources:"

http://www.oercommons.org/

The worldwide OER movement is rooted in the idea that equitable access to high-quality education is a global imperative. Open Educational Resources, or OER, offer opportunities for systemic change in teaching and learning through accessible content, and importantly, through embedding participatory processes and effective technologies for engaging with learning.
Arts
Business
Humanities
Mathematics and Statistics
Science and Technology
Social Sciences

http://academicearth.org/
Online courses from the world’s top scholars.

http://www.khanacademy.org/
With a library of 2,400+ videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and practice exercises, Khan is on a mission to help you learn whatever you want, whenever you want, at your own pace.

http://www.wisc-online.com/Default.aspx
Wisc-Online is a digital library of objects that have been developed primarily by faculty from the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) and produced by multimedia technicians who create the learning objects. These learning objects are basically small chunks of learning that include animations, simulations, case studies, drill and practice, and templates.

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
Find peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials. Share advice and expertise about education with expert colleagues.

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
MIT OpenCourseWare is a permanent MIT activity to provide free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.

http://worldlibrary.net/Collections.htm
Founded in 1996, the World Public Library Association is a global coordinated effort to preserve and disseminate classic works of literature, serials, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works in a number of languages and countries around the world.

http://freevideolectures.com/
Making the world’s educational videos to make them universally accessible and down-loadable to change the way we learn, to revolutionize the education system and rise the quality of education.

http://videolectures.net/
VideoLectures.NET is a free and open access educational video lectures repository. The lectures are given by distinguished scholars and scientists at the most important and prominent events like conferences, summer schools, workshops and science promotional events from many fields of Science.

http://lecturefox.com/
A site for free university lectures.

http://www.ted.com/
TED started as a conference to bring about people from the areas of technology, entertainment, and design, but the scope has grown considerably. There are currently 900+ videos demonstrating "ideas worth spreading."

http://oedb.org/library/features/236-open-courseware-collections

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
Brings together cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community.

http://www.freesciencelectures.com/
A site offering free science videos and lectures.

http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
Created by the Discovery Channel, their goal is to engage students through dynamic curricular resources like Discovery Education streaming Plus and Discovery Education Science. They support teachers through customized professional development and assessment services, all leading to improved student achievement.

http://education.usgs.gov/common/video_animation.htm
U.S. Geological Survey Educational Videos and Animations provides scientific information intended to help educate the public about natural resources, natural hazards, geospatial data, and issues that affect our quality of life. Discover selected online resources, including lessons, data, maps, and more, to support teaching, learning, education (K-12), and university-level inquiry and research.

http://ocw.nd.edu/
The Notre Dame OpenCourseWare is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world.

http://ocw.tufts.edu/
Tufts University is expanding its reach, working across traditional boundaries to grasp and meet the global community's most critical needs. This begins with sharing knowledge among colleagues, between departments, among schools and finally across countries and continents.

http://itunes.stanford.edu/
You may freely preview and download all of the content from Stanford on iTunes U.

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/
UC Berkeley's central service for online video & audio for students and learners around the globe.

http://oyc.yale.edu/
Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University.

http://open.umich.edu/
Open.Michigan is a University of Michigan initiative that enables faculty, students, and others to share their educational resources and research with the global learning community.

http://www.learnerstv.com/
A site providing thousands of downloadable video lectures.

http://www.nyu.edu/academics/open-education.html
NYU already had educational videos and podcasts on YouTube and iTunes, but now they offer the entire content of some of their courses. In the current pilot phase, NYU is offering four courses; American Literature I, Introduction to Sociology, Genomes & Diversity, and New York City: A Social History.

■University Channels on http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Harvard
http://www.youtube.com/user/stanforduniversity
http://www.youtube.com/user/uctelevision
http://www.youtube.com/user/ncstate
http://www.youtube.com/user/carnegiemellonu
http://www.youtube.com/user/georgiatech
http://www.youtube.com/user/UniversityofMinn
http://www.youtube.com/user/pennstate
http://www.youtube.com/user/wesleyan
http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT
http://www.youtube.com/user/ResearchChannel

Please contact us with your ideas so we can add them to the list!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Introducing the Google+ Project: Real-Life Sharing, Rethought for the Web



Google has been venturing into the world of social networks and they are working on some new stuff to make sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Check out the first five features of Google+:
(Take a tour on the Google Blog)

+Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter most
Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss. The problem is that today’s online services turn friendship into fast food—wrapping everyone in “friend” paper—and sharing really suffers.

+Sparks: strike up a conversation, about pretty much anything
Thanks to Google’s web expertise, Sparks delivers a feed of highly contagious content from across the Internet. On any topic you want, in over 40 languages. Simply add your interests, and you’ll always have something to watch, read and share—with just the right circle of friends.

+Hangouts: stop by and say hello, face-to-face-to-face
With Google+ we wanted to make on-screen gatherings fun, fluid and serendipitous, so we created Hangouts. By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you're free, and spend time with your Circles.

+Mobile: share what’s around, right now, without any hassle
These days a phone is the perfect sharing accessory: it's always with you, it's always online, and it's how we stay close with our closest friends. We didn’t want “just” a mobile experience, however, so with Google+ we focused on things (like GPS, cameras, and messaging) to make your pocket computer even more personal. (+Location, location, location, +Instant Upload)

+Huddle: Coordinating with friends and family in real-time is really hard in real life
After all, everyone's on different schedules, in different places, and plans can change at any moment. Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they're not quite right for getting the gang together. So Google+ includes Huddle, a group messaging experience that lets everyone inside the circle know what's going on, right this second.

For further reading on Google+:
Google+ and the LMS: Ads and Education
What You Need to Know About Google's New Social Network
Google+: Huddle and Hangout Look Promising

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

In a World of Rapid Change, Learning Can Never Stop

I've often wondered about people I know that seem interested in social media (learning), but are reluctant to actually try it. I've tried to explain to them that social media is really about connecting, sharing, and learning from others, but that bewildered look I often get tells me that they just don't understand no matter how much I try. I wish they could understand the advantages of learning and sharing in new and, for them, untraditional ways.

I found the following two articles tonight and I hope this will explain my thoughts in a much more lucid manner than I have been able to and that they can begin to understand what social media is all about.

Please take a few minutes to read the two articles:
Joining is Important to Social Learning, Dennis Callahan, Learnstreaming, 17 June 2011

Ever sign up for a gym membership and not really use it that much? I know…I know this probably hasn’t happened to you. But, just pretend for a moment that you did. How did this help your physical condition?

Signing up Isn’t Joining
Having a social media account (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin) doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve joined. It means you’ve signed up. It’s like signing up for the gym. You can say that you belong to the gym but if you don’t get on the equipment and exercise, what benefit is there to your body?

Joining is Becoming More Important to Learning...(read the entire article HERE)

Learning Is the New Work, Jay Cross, Chief Learning Officer Magazine, 13 June 2011
In a world of rapid change, learning can never stop. A worker cannot tackle new challenges, take advantage of new information or make judgment calls on novel situations without learning along the way. More than merely being embedded into work, learning has become integral to work. Social learning at work does not exist outside of that context. Likewise, informal learning can’t be isolated from work itself. Learning is work.

How did we ever think otherwise?...(read the entire article HERE)

Social media is about learning and not occasional learning. Learning must take place on a daily basis...a constant basis. Afterall, isn't learning what life is about?

Please join the social media discussion and help us learn from you by following The CareerTech Testing Center's blog and/or Twitter feed (@CareerTechTest).  Begin your PLN (Personal Learning Network) today!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

ISTE 2011 - Unlocking Potential

I recently attended the 2011 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference and it was a great opportunity for learning and networking. There were may great sessions that I attended and many more that I just didn't have the opportunity to attend since many of the sessions overlapped. This kind of bummed me out at first, but what is a technology conference without technology?

Just like I have, you can review the hashtag #ISTE11 on Twitter and review some of the breakout sessions and links to the posted resources. I'm still reviewing the stream, and I recommend you do too, because the videos and presentations are a lifeline to some fantastic knowledge.

I also discovered Dr. Medina's keynote was online (on YouTube at the 29.49 mark  if you don't want to watch the entire opening session). Also, not to miss is Chris Lehmann's closing keynote (on YouTube at the 31.06 mark if you don't want to watch the entire closing session).

I hope you will take a look at the Twitter stream and the YouTube keynotes. Again, social media and PLN's are great ways to share resources!
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