Monthly Archives: July 2006

Wikipedia adds citations

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Seen on digg: Wikipedia has added a feature called “Cite This Article” to its site. The feature appears as a link in the Toolbox section of each page and provides key bibliographic information as well as citations pre-formatted in all of the major forms. Interestingly, they add the following note at the top of each citation page:

Most educators and professionals do not consider it appropriate to use tertiary sources such as encyclopedias as a sole source for any information — citing an encyclopedia as an important reference in footnotes or bibiliographies may result in censure or a failing grade. Wikipedia articles should be used for background information, as a reference for correct terminology and search terms, and as a starting point for further research.

Here’s an example citation page for the Wikipedia article about basenjis. (I’m a proud basenji owner.)

The Savvy Technologist Live!

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I had a great time on Thursday afternoon recording an episode of my podcast in front of a live audience.

My first guest was Sonny Portacio, geocacher and Director of Technology for the Escondido Union High School District. Sonny has been doing a ton of work with geocaching lately. He’s created a wiki site for collecting lesson ideas at edcaching.wikispaces.com and a weekly geocaching podcast at podcacher.com. We talked about geocaching and how it can be used in schools.

I also talked to Jeff Utecht of The Thinking Stick blog and Utecht Tips. Jeff has been teaching in Shanghai, China for the last year and we talked about the state of blogging in China and how he’s using blogging with his students there.

All in all I had a great time recording the podcast. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to watch and participate.

Download: The Savvy Technologist Live! (17.1 MB, 37:17)

Introducing the Read/Write Web

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I had a great time presenting at NECC on Wednesday. I captured the audio (albeit in a low-quality version) and attached my Keynote slides as an enhanced podcast. I’m also linking to a pure audio MP3 version in case your computer can’t handle AAC-encoded media.

I posted the links for my talk previously, so please have a look there for details.

Download enhanced podcast with Keynote slides: Introducing the Read/Write Web (27.7 MB, 56:32)

Download audio-only MP3: Introducing the Read/Write Web (25.8 MB)

necc, necc06, necc2006, web2.0, wikipedia

iPod ideas

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I gave a half-day workshop this morning on iPods, iTunes, and podcasting. We generated a pretty good list of ideas for uses of this technology in classrooms and schools:

  • Collect field notes during a science field trip
  • Living museum, researching characters
  • “Radio shows”
  • Creating audio guides for local museums
  • Teacher powerpoints
  • Early language learners, (rhyming, etc.)
  • Staff development
  • Screencasts
  • Language learners recording assessments
  • Discovery Education videos
  • Science reports
  • Art projects
  • Digital portfolios
  • Weekly classroom news
  • Serial storytelling
  • Reflective journals
  • Summaries of school events
  • Broadcast school sporting events
  • Roving reporters
  • Capturing oral histories (family history)
  • Podcast vocab words and spelling lists
  • Flashcard practice with iFlash
  • Musical compositions
  • Soundseeing tours

A lot of these ideas could be applied in different subject areas around the school.

necc, necc06, necc2006, podcasting, ipod, apple, itunes

Live Savvy Technologist Podcasts

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Whew! Wednesday was crazy busy at NECC. I’m exhausted. If anyone reading this will be around the convention center late on Wednesday afternoon, stop by Room 31B from 5:00–6:00 for a live Savvy Technologist Podcast. One of my guests will be Jeff Utecht of The Thinking Stick blog. Jeff is teaching in Shanghai China these days at an American school. We’ll chat a bit about the state of blogging and educational technology in China. The rest of the program is still coming together. Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood.

necc2006, necc, necc06, blogging

Links for my NECC talk

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Here are links to all of the sites I’ll be mentioning in my talk at NECC on Wednesday (and even some ones I probably won’t have time to mention). I’ll post more once I’m done.

Blogging

Google Maps mashups

Technorati searching

Wikipedia

Update: The podcast of this session is here.

necc, necc2006, necc06, web2.0

Here in San Diego

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My family and I arrived in San Diego last night, and I’m busily putting the final touches on my presentations for this year’s NECC. If you’re interested in seeing a session that I’ll be doing, check out one of the following:

  • Introducing the Read/Write Web: Challenges, Opportunities, and Implications, July 5, 2:00–3:00, Room 6D
  • Learning To Go: The iPod in Education (workshop), July 6, 8:30–11:30, Room 15B
  • Savvy Technologist Podcast, July 6, 5:00–6:00, Room 31B
  • Making Podcasts in the Classroom, every day, Apple booth

I doubt I’ll be making it to many other sessions this year. Stop by and say hello.

necc, necc2006, apple, ipod