EdTechWeekly #176

Post-Show description: 

EdTechWeekly #176

December 5, 2010  

Regular hosts: Dave, Jen, John
Guest hosts: Elizabeth Helfant

This Week's Menu: 
Wiki Agenda

Chat log below


18:56:09 JenM -> hi, all!
19:00:41 mollymcginn -> Hi Jen
19:01:11 matt montagne -> I think its a nice way to reflect on the year...nothing more, nothing less
19:02:00 matt montagne -> EduBlogs also serves as an 'incubator' of sorts...online writing, publishing, etc for schools is still very, very new...and scary. EduBlogs, in a way, helps nurture and incubate online projects
19:02:48 mollymcginn -> can hear you now
19:03:08 matt montagne -> jen, when you have a little baby, you comment when you can :)
19:03:57 dave -> http://edublogawards.com
19:07:20 matt montagne -> I'm with ya Dave
19:07:28 matt montagne -> I don't get it either...
19:07:40 PeggyG -> I agree with Matt! It isn't about being the winner, but the list of nominees are fabulous examples in all of the categories.
19:08:00 matt montagne -> The folks that have been around this for a while seem to be curmudeony about it.
19:08:47 matt montagne -> Like anything else, the luster wears off after a while...but we need to acknowledge that there are always new people to the community and they get excited about this...
19:08:48 PeggyG -> every year I discover new blogs and sites and webinars that I never knew about and it's a great way to grow professionally!
19:09:28 PeggyG -> it makes me sad that the new people can't be excited about it because the "curmudgeons" make it not ok
19:10:19 PeggyG -> anyone could have been nominated--someone great doesn't have to be excluded for the celebration 
19:10:29 matt montagne -> exactly, Peggy...
19:12:08 PeggyG -> all of the whining and griping makes the people who are being celebrated feel they can't enjoy the new connections because people think it's a "bad idea"--the whole thing disappoints me!
19:12:34 PeggyG -> and you can only vote for one in each category--one time
19:12:40 matt montagne -> I'm with you, Peggy...I'm guessing that many of the whiners, at one time, were really, really excited about it at one time...
19:12:56 Scott -> Kind of like how Bristol Palin made it from week to week on Dancing with the stars... 
19:13:10 PeggyG -> I'll bet you're right Matt
19:13:28 PeggyG -> good example Scott! and even American Idol in some ways
19:16:31 matt montagne -> no, its voting time
19:16:33 PeggyG -> why isn't it OK to say I've been nominated and I'm proud to be on the list??
19:16:34 matt montagne -> nominations are over
19:16:45 PeggyG -> voting has started--no more nominations
19:17:48 matt montagne -> that's a little low...
19:17:53 Scott -> Edublogs itself is midly annoying with their requirement to pay for 'added features' like embedded objects (XML/RPC).  I know they need to make money - but... there should be a away around that limitation.
19:18:22 JohnS -> Scott, you could just run Wordpress yourself.
19:18:27 Scott -> I do
19:18:41 PeggyG -> both of those conferences were fantastic and continue to be available as resources
19:19:41 Scott -> Had to move all my students to another platform because of the limitation. No biggy, but it's just interesting that there's no fix without paying :D 
19:19:43 busynessgirl -> Better model: Use a mindmap
19:20:10 busynessgirl -> Every participant can explore the mindmap individually, ask questions, discuss
19:20:44 matt montagne -> that is the great thing about the pecha kucha format as well
19:20:48 busynessgirl -> I think TED Talks are popular for other reasons. :)
19:20:51 PeggyG -> very true Matt
19:20:51 matt montagne -> 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide
19:21:26 matt montagne -> its nice to have parameters...TED talks could easily go for 60 minutes...but they have to work within the constraints of 18 mins. There is a certain beauty there...
19:21:43 PeggyG -> I think the K12 online model for conference and Echo shows is an excellent model
19:22:34 PeggyG -> people choose which formats, content, etc. works for them
19:22:37 matt montagne -> YouTube, in a way, with its arbitrary 10 minute max, has unintentionally influenced presentations as well.
19:22:39 busynessgirl -> Some examples of real alternatives to slide decks:  http://edgeoflearning.com/?p=2860
19:23:01 matt montagne -> definitely, Peggy.
19:23:08 PeggyG -> thanks busynessgirl--that's a great link!
19:23:41 PeggyG -> the time doesn't determine the quality of the presentation...
19:23:52 ehelfant -> @busnessgirl thrw in one of your mindmapping presentations- they're great
19:24:18 matt montagne -> definitely not, Peggy...but it does give us parameters that force us to distill the message.
19:25:01 PeggyG -> I definitely agree with that Matt!! it's much harder to prepare a 20 minute presentation because you have to be selective
19:25:05 busynessgirl -> @ehelfant Here is "Play & Learn" http://bit.ly/PlayLearn
19:26:05 matt montagne -> gotta go, folks...great 'cast
19:26:15 busynessgirl -> I think it's still important to have good presentation design, even in 20 minutes. I've been to plenty of 20 minute talks that are horrible upon horrible. (let's just say they felt like 120 minutes)
19:26:52 PeggyG -> I agree busynessgirl!
19:27:10 Scott -> Video confs over about 30 min are just painful
19:28:04 busynessgirl -> I think there's something important though.  If the speaker knows WAY more than the audience, a discussion may be somewhat meaningless.  Sometimes it IS about information dissemination when the audience is clueless about the presentation material.  Sometimes there NEEDS to be a lecture before there can be any meaningful discussion.
19:31:13 PeggyG -> and paypal too...
19:32:10 PeggyG -> PayPal has opted not to process donations for the site
19:32:37 mollymcginn -> ted.com has a presentation by Julian Assange
19:34:05 Scott -> Pretty good article on how it happened: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/wikileaks-how-our-government-it-failed-...
19:36:00 Scott -> We're glad that we don't have something like C-32 going on in the US (yet...)
19:38:07 Scott -> Before Wikileaks - there was http://cryptome.org/ - There will always be 'leaks' once data is and can be digitized.
19:39:17 walker jamison -> Is there anyway to get onto the wiki leaks site now?
19:40:06 JohnS -> http://www.wikileaks.ch/ is still up
19:40:16 mollymcginn -> go switzerland
19:40:22 Scott -> Yes - http://213.251.145.96/
19:41:42 Scott -> BTW - there's a full mirror list too: http://wikileaks.ch/mirrors.html - No stopping it now.
19:43:00 busynessgirl -> Use Jing.
19:43:22 busynessgirl -> Record a 5 min or less screencast with your evaluation.
19:44:44 PeggyG -> missed the last link-browser crashed :-( can you repost it?
19:44:56 JenM -> blogs http://allurbase.http:// ··· ess.com/ and http://exoticcarinsider. ··· pot.com/ assessment tools - http://webklipper.com/ http://sharedcopy.com 
19:45:02 busynessgirl -> Here are some other student blogs and rubric for grading http://sites.google.com/site/mathetlearningprojects/blogs
19:45:14 PeggyG -> thanks!!
19:46:02 busynessgirl -> I'm telling you. Start Jing, talk through your comments while you show them your concerns. Send them the link to the video.
19:46:45 busynessgirl -> We're not allowed to do any kind of grading in a public space (FERPA rules).
19:47:39 PeggyG -> great point about the choice of topics for blogging
19:47:45 busynessgirl -> My writing prompt is "Write about anything you're learning that's related to the topics in the class"
19:48:56 PeggyG -> I love the TPACK model!
19:49:42 PeggyG -> those descriptions are very helpful--takes it to a higher cognitive level
19:50:09 PeggyG -> excellent blog example!!
19:50:30 PeggyG -> thanks for that link John!! I really wanted to see more about that!
19:50:50 JohnS -> @PeggyG google is my friend :-)
19:51:15 PeggyG -> I wasn't sure what to google :-) you're a pro!
19:54:11 PeggyG -> thank you for a stimulating conversation :-)
19:54:29 busynessgirl -> Ed Tech that died?
19:54:31 PeggyG -> bye all