Not exactly two things I’d put together right away.

Yet, they have the same technology need right now.  Imagine how hard it is to get 35 kids around a sewing machine, and show them how to tread a bobbin. Imagine doing biology lab demonstration with small pieces to a group of 35 students.

Enter the Flip video camera. Both teachers are using the Flip to record the demonstration they would normally give in class, submit it to our podcast server and then show it during class, on a big screen (or smartboard). They are able to stop, rewind, point out (on a large screen for all to see) discuss, answer questions without being tied to a little bobbin….that 27 kids can’t see anyways.

We take it a step further. Publish to the podcast server.

The enriched biology students watch the video at home, discuss things before the lab, and then get to work. The sewing students have a set of iTouches in class, when they get stuck with a step, grab an iTouch, watch the process – listen to the directions – correct their process and move forward. Stopping to ask the teacher questions that can’t be answered via video. Allowing the teacher to help kids who are really behind & struggling. Everyone is calmer and happier, because everyone is learning! (without having to wait)…

Try it sometime, video the demonstration, share it online if you have that ability. Or, use ours, they are out there for everyone!

I worry about todays generation, ok maybe all of us today. We don’t always have the ability to be private, and many of our successes (and failures) are going to be google-able. Seth Godin wrote a really nice post about how to handle the age of google. Creating a long tail so that even if the first 3 things that return on a search for yourself are “bad” then the next 10 are interesting or at least a little positive. I like the approach, don’t run from it, embrace it.

If you have a name like Jennifer Nelson, you can just hide in the multitude of jnelson’s out in the world. Or, you can try to become a little unique and answer to Jenn Nelson, only to find that other of us have adopted that same strategy. Maybe I’ll get pinned with someone else’s success instead of their drinking binge.

Talking to kids about what they post and what they don’t, is kind of like talking to them about driving. You don’t really know what happens when they leave your sight, until someone in the community sees them in your unique car. Maybe being Googled is something like that, having someone else see your child in your car out in the world.  I did call a friend recently when her son posted something a little too, wrong, (for age 9) on Facebook.  Yes, she’s doing all the right things with him on Facebook, she controls who his friends are, watches what he posts, manages his privacy levels etc. Exposing him at this age to the environment that he’ll grow up in, is a good idea. Having him delete a silly post is also wise.

At this age, his silly post is: I Hate School.

Much better than the binge drinking picture, hopefully he’ll learn the lesson before it can haunt him into job interviews.

There are a couple tools that every teacher / student should have access to in order to deliver / experience the 21st Century Education. I spoke about this at the TIES 2009 Conference in December and the more I think about it, the more important I think they are to education today.

Projector / Internet /Interactive Whiteboard in the Classroom

I’d add to this an interactive whiteboard, but bare minimum you need a way to project and create a visual classroom. This idea / requirement isn’t new so I’m not going to spend much time talking about it.

Moodle

If you have a way to collect and organize the electronic information for your students, everyone is better off. Moodle creates that extra layer of classroom tooling that makes it better than a web site. From a systemic perspective, you have a really great way of sharing materials between teachers. It spread like wildfire in my school, because the early adopters could give others what they’d created. Better than some of the social networking / web 2.0 tools out there as we can package and share between classrooms and schools. I like the idea of Ning, but it really isn’t the complete classroom tool that Moodle is for everyone.

Over the next couple days I’ll add to the list and probably talk more about the power of each tool (IWB, Moodle, Google Apps, itouch, Podcast Server, Screen Capture Software). Let me know what you think, and what 6 are on your list.

Marc Johnson brings up a really really good point.

School districts that are blocking You Tube are missing Obama’s information, being published ONLY on You Tube. There seems to be more and more information that is published on you tube only. Yes, I realize the crap that is shared, yet can’t we move past it and see the good instead?

Now I realize that kids are more than just hyper-connected.

Yet, sometimes it feels like we make them out to be more than they really are…kids with tools that we didn’t have growing up.  They stay / get connected to people in different ways than we did at that age, not confined by geography but by having their tools charged. ( How many times have they told you their cell phone wasn’t charged as an excuse for not being able to connect with you? )

Yes, their world at 17 is different than mine at 17. I was showing a kid the wiring /server closet this morning, and he called it the command center of the school. I guess I won’t share with the principal that he doesn’t view the principal’s office as the command center. When I was 17, the wiring / server closet would have been where we went if the Russians bombed the school. Now it is where we retreat, to review the video, when something bad happens. Worlds change.

Michael Wesch was the keynote speaker at the eLearning Summit.

It was quite a treat to listen to him talk for an hour, and then again at a break out session.

He talked about…user generated content, filtering, organization, distribution, commentary and ratings.

What a great way of breaking down web 2.0 into what it means in terms of…education, life, the future, people, and culture.

His kids commented that 1/2 don’t like school, but all like learning.  What could we do with that as we move forward?  If we had the mindset that kids LIKE to learn, how could that change the way we look at our classrooms, education system, and lives?

Changing practice, offering the option of attending a staff meeting online! I thought what a great idea!

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to be at your desk, stream in the content, respond with your comments in a forum, take a short poll to weigh in on a question, and did I mention, from your desk? Or deck depending on your level of geekness? As with kids having the opportunity to take online classes (and for the most part, they stick to coming to the buildings) , it amazes me how many people enjoy being in the room, the physical room of a meeting. Maybe it takes more than an offer to start changing practice, maybe it takes people getting online a couple of times to do something such as this, maybe it is May, and as teachers we are tired and ready to be done, just like our kids.

What is rewarding is the number of people after the fact who are coming online to add comments and reviewing the links to things we shared at the meeting!

So, I’m following http://twitter.com/timoreilly.

Think about that for a while.

If you don’t know who he is…read about him for a moment.

PBS put out a great show last night. I recommend taking the time to view it, as a parent, teacher, employer. The idea that these kids are growing up online, is just as interesting, if not more than the promise of the MTV generation.

It all becomes an on demand world.