I’ve been enjoying Inside the Net with Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte. Their most recent episode featured Merlin Mann from 43Folders and 5ives. Merlin is best known for his personal productivity hints, often related to the Getting Things Done methodology.
Atypically poor audio quality aside, the episode has some good tips about managing large quantities of email (something about which most of us are all too familiar).
I’ll be sitting on the panel for a seminar at the U. of Minnesota in a few weeks discussing Web 2.0. I met recently with my co-panelists and we decided to put our money where our mouths are and use a wiki to organize our presentation and invite input in advance on the topics we plan to cover. (U. of MN login required to edit the wiki.) In the course of our planning discussion I was introduced to H2O Playlist, a wonderful site at Harvard’s Berkman Center For Internet and Society.
According to the site, an H2O Playlist “is a series of links to books, articles, and other materials that collectively explore an idea or set the stage for a course, discussion, or current event.” Further, the site says that H2O Playlists allow you to:
- transform traditional syllabi into interactive, global learning tools
- share the reading lists of world-renowned scholars, organizations, and cultural leaders
- let interested people subscribe to playlist updates and stay current on their fields
- promote an exchange of ideas and expertise among professors, students, and researchers
- communicate and aggregate knowledge — online and offline.
One of the best ways to get to know H2O Playlists is to read the H2O Playlist about H2O Playlists. My co-presenters and I are looking at a Playlist entitled “UDL and Web 2.0: Confronting the Drunk Librarian” for a bevy of useful links about Web 2.0.
I started my own Playlist about ITIL, the set of IT best practices I posted about a while ago.
I’m delighted to announce that I will be producing a multi-episode podcast series on digital storytelling over the next few weeks. I’ve got some great guests lined up included Joe Lambert from the Center for Digital Storytelling, Bernajean Porter from Bernajean Porter Consulting and Digitales, and Jeanne Biddle, Technology Director from the Scott County Schools in Kentucky.
The purpose of this post is to whet your appetite and invite you to participate by submitting questions. Audio questions can be submitted by sending an audio file to savvytechnologistpodcast@gmail.com. Written questions are fine too, but not nearly as fun. If you do submit an audio question, please make sure you identify yourself by name (if you’re brave enough) and let me know where you’re “calling” from.
Download: STP-ProgramUpdate-20060223 (1.3 MB, 1:55)
We had a whole-district staff development day today and I had the chance to introduce about 35 teachers to Web 2.0 and some applications like Del.icio.us, Flickr (with an accompanying lesson on Creative Commons), Technorati, Bloglines, and Wikipedia. I was pleased with the results, and the experience reminded me of a lesson that I learned when I started working in technology. Simply put, here are the stages of tech integration for teachers:
It’s pretty easy to skip stage #1 for many teachers, but it’s a rare person indeed who can cut to the chase and go right for #3. It’s useful to remember when making professional development plans.
This has been quite a winter in the upper Midwest. Until last week we hadn’t had a single day in Minneapolis with a daytime high below 0°F, and January was the warmest since records have been kept. That probably sounds plenty cold to most of you reading this, but around here we typically have a couple different periods each winter where the temperatures stay below 0°F for days at a time. A day in the deep freeze has made global warming seem even more real.
I helped out with an Apple-sponsored podcasting presentation that we hosted at our high school today. Our local Apple system engineer showed a great application that I had never seen. According to the maker’s Web site, ProfCast:
ProfCast is the ideal tool for recording and publishing your live Keynote or PowerPoint presentation. All elements of your presentation, including slide timing and voice narration, are recorded. You can then publish your complete presentation on the Web as a Podcast, complete with RSS support.
I saw the demo, and it worked as advertised. This program could be just the ticket for a classroom teacher who wants to put some of his or her content out on the Web.
I got to record and produce a podcast interview with Ray Kurzweil this afternoon. One of his main points was that most people don’t appreciate the exponential nature of technological advancement. Most change appears linear in the near term, but the linear model breaks down once the timeframe gets out beyond a few years. This brought me back again to my recent thinking about the next 10 years. The rate of change is going to be startling. (Did you see the story about the workers who got the RFID chip implants? Wow.) Can there be any doubt that within 10 years every student will have some kind of Internet-connected computing device with them every minute at school? What are we doing now to get ready?
And yes, Ray Kurzweil wears a Mickey Mouse watch.
I just finished a bout of self-flagellation in response to my recent lack of blog production. I’m feeling much better now, thank you.
I’m out in sunny L.A. helping with a little podcasting project at the American Council on Education’s 88th Annual Meeting. I’m doing a little recording and editing, but I’m not sure when the podcasts will be available. That’s up to the ACE. It’s interesting to observe an organization trying to wrap its collective brain around something like podcasting. ACE is the premier organization for university presidents and they’re a pretty conservative group. It’s a pretty modest podcasting effort at this year’s meeting, but I think some seeds have been planted.
This event is a good reminder about how scary the whole blogging and podcasting thing can be to the establishment. The meeting schedule has a number of exclusive sessions for university presidents only and even the plenary sessions have a private feel. I wonder what would happen if several of those presidents started blogging the sessions and a whole back channel annual meeting emerged. That might stir the pot a bit.