I saw a two-year old kid (in diapers, in a stroller), using an iPod Touch today. Not just looking at it, but browsing menus and interacting. This is a revolution, guys.

Seth Godin.

It is a revolution. What itouchs are doing for education, PRE K – 12 is staggering. I’d love to have you watch my 4 1/2 year old playing (learning) on her itouch. Podcasts by Sesame Street (and 30 other great creators), Games about letters, colors, words, counting for a buck. The vocabulary is amazing when amazing is what you put in front of them.

The same extraordinary learning happens with high school kids. If you can, get your student an itouch, load it up with apps – the educational kind – along with a couple “fun apps.” If you don’t have a student in your house, buy it for the kid you mentor.

This is a game changer.

So, I am part of the MTV Generation. I was raised on Sesame Street, then watched Video killed the Radio Star launch the music revolution. My childhood started with 4 channels, had my teenage years impacted by what cable brought to our house, CNN changed the way news was experienced, and used a phone to connect to the main frame (that printed on paper, no screen) to play Oregon Trail.

My kids play Oregon Trail on their iTouch, they time shift everything, and watch Sesame Street Podcasts when ever, where ever. Where I was the Sesame Street / MTV generation, they are the iTouch generation. The learning that goes on in their hand, is what Sesame Street promised for the TV. This is personalized, individualized, mobile education, it is what Sesame Street promised for the masses drilled down for when ever, where ever learning.

The apps combined with the podcasts make for great learning. Gaming for letters, colors, sequencing, sight words etc. Everything a preK teacher would boast about in the classroom, minus the social / physical interaction. Those can’t and shouldn’t be replaced with technology. (a whole other blog post)…

Encourage learning using the iTouch, I can’t wait to see what the kids write about in 30 years.

More and more often we (the royal we) are looking for a person to do the web publishing stage of a project. If every part of an organization had a way to put information online, share content the place would be a much richer place to work.

I’m beginning to believe that if all people had some background experience with publishing to the web, maybe at a basic level using something like google sites, or publishing articles in a cms, them maybe the other part of communicating to a larger group would become easier.

So, is that the new standard instead of office??

Seriously.

I don’t write about games, I don’t even play games often enough to acknowledge that I do it.

Until now. Angry Birds is a blast. Part physics, part geometry, part geeky fun. Different birds are better at destroying different material (glass, wood, concrete) that protect the pigs who have stolen eggs from the Angry Birds’ nests. The angle of elevation determines where your bird is going to land. So really, I am earning 2 credits.

A great study in reward learning. Go play it if you know you have self restraint (*note that you have been warned and I am therefore, in no uncertain terms, responsible for any addiction formed to this game*). Otherwise, go read the discussion boards dispensing advice regarding level advancement. All this for a buck. Nice programming!

I just had a fantastic thought about how to use Delicious and my iPad.

Create a shortcut on your screen of the link to your Delicious account. How to: In Safari, click on the “+” sign, choose “Add to Home Screen” option and name the button. It looks like every other application on your screen, but it is really a link to your bookmarks.

While reading something at Mashable, I ran into an article about Internet trends that had two different links. One to the PDF, the other to a link that loaded into Good Reader – the 99 cent document storage system application that I reviewed a couple days ago. I was able to click on the second link, it loaded the file into my Good Reader application, and now I can read the PDF whenever, where ever!!

Adding a number of things to Delicious has been great, now I can easily access these resources from my mobile devices. This is probably a thought that others have had, it was just my 2 minutes of rock star action today. If you want to see what I’m reading, go for it!

Revolutions are like that. They invent and destroy and they only go one way. It’s like watching a confused person in a revolving door for the first time. They push backwards, try to slow it down, fight the rotation… and then they embrace the process and just walk and it works. ~Seth Godin

The WHAT. Teachers use an interactive whiteboard (Smart), microphone (generic) and screen capture software (JING) to record themselves teaching a concept (like, graphing a parabola, completing the square, factoring polynomials). Students can access these videos via our podcast server, or in class on an iTouch.

NOT rocket science. YET the results are out of this world.

Another teacher, another group of students. This time a little better statistical measure of the data. Students increased test scores by AT LEAST one standard deviation IF they watched instructional videos during the chapter of study.

Our biology teachers are recording labs with flip cams, sewing teacher recording steps of a project with the flip, math teachers do screen captures and flip (constructions), language teachers recording verb stuff on the screen, sign language with the flip.

It is amazing. It is simple, and I wish more students would use it. (AND more teachers would create material) The academic difference it makes is nothing short of remarkable.

The other day I spoke to a group of early childhood & parent educators about what it is like to be a 21st century parent. I think the biggest response I got was my statement about how I use the camera on my phone. Whenever I take my kids to a busy public are…the state fair, a large mall, the zoo…I take a moment at the car to snap a picture of the kids, each individually. This serves the purpose of celebrating the moment, and giving me a quick image of what they are wearing at that moment.

Comes in really handy should I lose one of them along the way. It reminds me to take a moment, talk to the kids about what to do if we get separated and have them practice their full name (and as they get older, other details that will help them in the event we get separated). They have their picture taken so often, they have no idea what I’m doing, and yet it takes me just a moment to prepare for something I hope I never have to deal with – losing my kid in a sea of people.

Lots of people have cameras on their phone, not everyone uses it to send pictures, and in this instance, I’d only be sending the picture in a moment of crisis. Doesn’t cost me anything, yet helps out tons. I was always told, prepare for crisis – then you’ll never have to be in crisis. So, here’s to preparing.

We have a great playgroup in our neighborhood. We’re even on Facebook (closed group, sorry). Setting up the permissions as friends only has helped us share planning, plan dates, include new people as they move in, keep those who are moving away connected.

The place where my kids go to preschool has a Facebook group as well. The other day it reminded me that the deadline for ordering scholastic books was coming up, so online I went to order a couple really great books for my kids. Pretty sure I wouldn’t have done that with the flyer that I’d already recycled.

What are you doing with Facebook groups? Bringing people together? Adding value to a service you provide? It isn’t just for the kids anymore.

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!