Seedlings # 82 2010-03-04 with Mike Gorman

Welcome to SEEDLINGS! It seems like we have been on hiatus, but we are back. Well, mostly. Alice Barr was unable to be with us for good reasons. She is being honored as a finalist for Maine Teacher of the Year! An update will follow! Go Alice.

Tonight we are joined by Mike Gorman, who is a veteran educator and new to the blogosphere. Listen in as we ask him how he made the leap to being a very active blogger and what it has been like. Mike is a middle school educator and a champion of Project Based Learning. He has some great ideas you will want to bring back to your building.

“Geek of the Week” Links for 2010-03-04

The Chat:
 19:19:50  bobsprankle  Hi mike!
 19:23:00  cheryloakes~seedlings  setting up
 19:23:01  mjgormans  Hi Bob and Cheryl
 19:29:44  cheryloakes~seedlings  Hello, just getting sound
 19:29:51  bobsprankle  hi jane
 19:29:54  cheryloakes~seedlings  we are good
 19:30:29  janeg  hello
 19:32:35  cheryloakes~seedlings  Hello, we are getting rolling!
 19:33:48  cheryloakes~seedlings  good evening lsmith
 19:34:17  cheryloakes~seedlings  welcome to Jane and lsmith we are with Mike Gorman tonight
 19:47:33  cheryloakes~seedlings  hello celiac, sorry I was so engrossed with the speaker, I forgot to welcome you.
 19:47:49  cheryloakes~seedlings  scratch is free from MIT great programming
 19:50:00  cheryloakes~seedlings  Hello celiac,
 19:50:14  celiac  Thanks, sorry I lost audio for a  moment . 
 19:51:55  celiac  Found you via Twitter (follower of Cheryl) just trying to soak up anything I can - primary teacher in Melbourne Australia
 19:52:09  cheryloakes~seedlings  great! hope  you enjoy
 19:53:25  cheryloakes~seedlings  we love you Aussies!
 19:53:55  cheryloakes~seedlings  John Hopkins University, has a technology program linked to ISTE !
 19:54:06  cheryloakes~seedlings  evening carol4teach!!!
 19:54:14  carolteach4  Hi, all.
 19:54:41  bobsprankle  hi carol!
 19:54:43  cheryloakes~seedlings  the John Hopkins program is for teachers!
 19:57:09  cheryloakes~seedlings  BLC is Building Learning Communities, Alan November, July 2010, Boston.
 19:57:30  carolteach4  That's why I'm hooked on these webinars. Having time to talk with fellow educators and get inspiration is so important. Often doesn't happen in schools because everyone is sooooo busy.
 19:57:32  cheryloakes~seedlings  Educon, is the unconference prior to many conferences.
 19:57:52  carolteach4  webcasts
 19:58:01  cheryloakes~seedlings  Carol, what a great point, these are so inspirational
 19:58:37  cheryloakes~seedlings  TEAC, Texas,
 19:58:59  carolteach4  My district tech coordinator is very responsive to us teachers. He just enabled a new filtering system, and it blocked voice thread right in the middle of a project. I called him and it was unblocked in a matter of minutes.
 19:59:31  cheryloakes~seedlings  carolteach4, that is great
 19:59:38  celiac  These webinars are really good for teachers in small schools who need inspiration and discussions not available from other staff
 20:00:05  cheryloakes~seedlings  absolutely! Celiac, that is what makes this sustainable
 20:00:25  carolteach4  You Tube was unblocked, but with the new filtering system, it is blocked for the kids but not for the teachers.
 20:02:09  celiac  digital citizens ?  would they have written a letter and signed it soemone elses name?
 20:02:35  cheryloakes~seedlings  No, Celiac, it is part of the citizenship talk we have with kids.
 20:02:40  carolteach4  If we start teaching ethics - and demanding ethical behavior - from kindegarden on, hopefully there would not be such a problem with unethical behavior.
 20:03:01  cheryloakes~seedlings  Right, that is what Maria Knee says, start this conversation at a really young age.
 20:03:57  carolteach4  In Digital Nation from PBS, they showed schools in China teaching digital ethics - it almost looked like indoctrination, however.
 20:04:26  cheryloakes~seedlings  Hello Maureen.
 20:05:03  Maureen  Hi Cheryl I'll be in and out, trying to get a bunch of videos edited tonight
 20:05:59  cheryloakes~seedlings  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Yg9wjctRw
 20:06:13  cheryloakes~seedlings  Brad Paisley video
 20:06:25  carolteach4  This is the hardest thing for me. I love learning, and one link leads to another, and sometimes it is really addictive. I've been trying to wrap my head around this whole issue of fair use and copyright, and one link leads to another, and there are many webcasts discussing this issue, and sometimes I just can't stop.
 20:07:07  carolteach4  I can hardly wait to watch it.
 20:07:09  cheryloakes~seedlings  http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/welcome-to-the-future-dr...
 20:07:39  bobsprankle  http://wp.me/pBrsB-7w
 20:07:44  bobsprankle  that's the worksheet
 20:07:59  carolteach4  I found another link:
 20:08:05  carolteach4  http://en.wordpress.com/tag/mjgormans/
 20:08:15  cheryloakes~seedlings  thanks carolteach4
 20:09:57  carolteach4  @mj - how did you get that presentation fit into the curriculum? Our teachers say they have no time for extras.
 20:10:42  cheryloakes~seedlings  carolteach4 do you mean how did he show the video to kids
 20:11:26  carolteach4  I can absolutely relate to that. I got so used to my iPhone that I was touching the screen on my hubby's old cell phone and was wondering why nothing was responding.
 20:12:20  carolteach4  I also went into one of my social studies teachers's classroom and was poking his screen that was projecting an image. He said, "It won't work, Carolyn. That's a dumb board."
 20:12:51  cheryloakes~seedlings  carolteach4 funny and sad
 20:12:55  carolteach4  @cheryl - I asked where he found the time to get the kids together to show it.
 20:13:28  cheryloakes~seedlings  he has a block  called integrated solutions block
 20:13:38  cheryloakes~seedlings  for 150 students at a time
 20:13:50  carolteach4  Wow! that sounds great!
 20:14:24  carolteach4  I'll have to mention that to my principal. I don't think it will fly. Our schedule in the middle school is so tight.
 20:15:19  carolteach4  I'm going to NYC tomorrow to attend Celebration of Teaching and Learning. I'll give you my take later on whether I find that as fulfilling as I do these webcasts and webinars.
 20:15:45  cheryloakes~seedlings  carolteach4 that is great. are you going to live blog it?
 20:15:55  carolteach4  I do not know how!
 20:16:08  cheryloakes~seedlings  oh, check it out, you can do it!
 20:17:18  carolteach4  I guess I can edit my blog on my iPhone. I can't edit Google docs, but I think I can edit the blog. I am not going to lug my laptop. It's too cumbersome for me.
 20:17:37  janeg  great idea Bob, as far as inservice.
 20:18:22  celiac  So true about not spending money on software - PD is so important
 20:18:42  celiac  Open source is almost all I use
 20:19:07  carolteach4  You know, ISTE sponsors webinars at a cost - usually $50.00 for members - or higher. I cannot see paying for those when you can find just as good from Ed Tech Talk, Classroom 2.0, PBS, etc.
 20:19:56  cheryloakes~seedlings  that is true, or get a group to purchase so many can view for one price
 20:20:06  carolteach4  I agree totally. I would never limit my students to just what I can do.
 20:20:55  celiac  I love that - "if I had to teach them they would never be better than me"   So tru with those open ended softwere etc and much more
 20:21:05  cheryloakes~seedlings  absolutely
 20:21:32  carolteach4  I run an open computer lab every Thursday, and the kids have a great time exploring new software and teaching others.
 20:21:50  celiac  has anyone used Alice for Storytelling - I think it is like scratch
 20:22:23  carolteach4  What is a Scratch board again?
 20:22:50  carolteach4  Oh, my gosh. This hour has flown.
 20:23:08  celiac  why would you use Alice and not Scratch
 20:23:32  carolteach4  Interesting.
 20:23:42  bobsprankle  http://www.meetmeatthecorner.org/
 20:23:56  cheryloakes~seedlings  Celiac, scratch is for younger, but not always. Alice is more middle school.
 20:24:09  cheryloakes~seedlings  But also college students play with both.
 20:24:24  celiac  Thanks
 20:24:50  cheryloakes~seedlings  it is a FREE programming software for anyone to play with programming.
 20:25:24  cheryloakes~seedlings  http://scratch.mit.edu/
 20:25:40  cheryloakes~seedlings  http://www.alice.org/
 20:26:38  cheryloakes~seedlings  http://www.edutecher.net
 20:27:39  cheryloakes~seedlings  http://www.triptico.co.uk/resources/wordMagnets/WordMagnets.html
 20:28:25  carolteach4  I'd like to recommend you watch Ditital Nation and see all the user generated videos:
 20:28:30  carolteach4  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/
 20:29:31  bobsprankle  http://www.xmleducation.co.uk/
 20:29:44  celiac  I have used Triptico Magnets - easy and fun
 20:30:18  cheryloakes~seedlings  Thanks to all of you in the chat room.
 20:31:04  lsmith  This has been very interesting, love the links being thrown up making it easy to access
 20:31:09  celiac  Thanks everyone - lunch time Friday here - lots of food for thought and I like the share time of sites at the end
 20:31:15  carolteach4  Did yo see my link, Cheryl?
 20:31:31  cheryloakes~seedlings  yes, !
 20:31:41  janeg  this has been great. Thanks!
 20:32:17  lsmith  Have to believe as budgets are cut, this is the professional devl of the future.  Teachers need to recognize how easy it is to access
 20:32:33  carolteach4  Thanks to all of you.
 20:33:19  bobsprankle  thanks all!
 20:33:30  carolteach4  Oh, maybe I can go to that. I'd love to meet some of you face-to-face. Well, at least I've met Bob.