I support the technological efforts of a few hundred teachers and thousands of students within my school district. I know there are others that perform roughly the same function as I do around Michigan, and the United States. I figured there might be a few more of us out there trying to provide support for iPads and other iOS devices. I’ve been creating "how to" videos for iPads every week since the start of this school year, and I though it might be a good idea to create a how to video of how I’m actually making the iPad videos. Using both Camtasia and the Reflector App for Mac (there are free trials for both), I’ve been having a lot of fun creating screencasts that allow me to offer a greater degree of fidelity in screencasting my iPad. No rigged document camera, or an app that allows me to import screenshots of apps; actual live streaming video feed of my iPad makes it easy for those I’m helping see exactly what to do. Those last few sentences almost sound like a late-night infomercial, so I’ll just link to the "How To: Screen Record Your iPad" video, embed it below, and be done. Enjoy!

I’ve written about speeding up my work day in the past. I even took the time to turn it into a rather simplistic ds106 video assignment. For me, altering the speed of a video clip feels like a cheap emotional trick (not that I’m not above easy emotional manipulation). So I wanted to give 60 minutes of my time in front of computer a twist that would hopefully give it a more thoughtful glimpse into my work day. It also gave me an opportunity to see what I could glean from Google’s Account Activity tool. It’s a terribly useful (or frightening depending on the results) cursory look at the number of emails sliding on and out of your inbox, videos you’ve watched on YouTube, and a few other bits of analytics. In the last 30 days I’ve received more than 1200 emails. That’s an average of 40 emails a day finding their way to my inbox, and while that’s a startlingly high number, I suspect there are many people in positions like mine that would consider that just one week’s worth of email traffic. I dedicate this video to them. The stats provided by Google, and a few that I gathered myself, gave me the opportunity to reflect on how much time my job requires me to spend on clerical, bureaucratic, and otherwise administrative communication. This communication is the cornerstone of how I’m able to get anything done. While this video doesn’t reflect the much larger amount of face-to-face time that I spend working with students and teachers in my district, it’s the digital dissemination and collaboration that serves as the glue between the joints of physical meetings and one-on-one instructional time. I’m curious now to look at my data for the next 30 days, to see if there’s a drastic difference between the first month of the school year and the second; we have standardized testing happening throughout October, routines have been established and require much less monitoring to work, and I’ll be transitioning into more face-to-face time for lunch and learns and small group meetings. I’ll have to try and remember to come back and revisit this post, or at the very least, compare the stats to see if I can establish a baseline of what a "normal" workload looks like for me.  

Another week, another "how to" iPad tutorial. While I don’t expect this one to get as much attention as my video explaining how I record my iPad’s screen complete with audio, the ability for teachers (or anyone using a shared iOS device) to enable restrictions is fairly important. If you have a managed device, here’s how to enable (or disable) restrictions on your iOS device. Being able to restrict the ability for users to delete apps, or gain access to materials and content that otherwise might be inappropriate to younger eyes, comes up from time to time. Turning off Gamecenter, limiting device bandwidth by turning off changes to back-ground app refresh, and ensuring privacy by restricting location services are just a few examples that I could see school districts, parents, and corporations wanting to control. While I’m personally not a big fan of crippling what your mobile device is capable of (I’ve known some school districts in Michigan to restrict camera access on student iPads!), I’m also a realist at times. I also want to provide teachers with any tools that they have to help them manage devices and content in their classrooms, rather than shut them out of the process all together. Far too often I see school districts limit the ability of teachers and students to manage their own devices, instead leaving such management decisions up to district administrators. This encourages a false "us vs. them" mentality among users, and even encourages some users to try to circumvent security measures. By putting the decision making for limitations in the hands of the teachers using the devices, it’s easier for them to have meaningful conversations directly with their students about what’s appropriate and what’s not; this helps foster a more "we’re in this together" environment, in which students may have a better understanding of why a device may have limitations put upon them. Perhaps that’s a bit too idealistic for larger school corporations, but I’m a firm believer in a more "bottom-up" approach to managing technology in the classroom.

One little click. That’s all it takes. Alright, so two clicks, once to get to my video, and one to click the "Like" button For those that don’t know, I submitted my "How to Screen Record Your iPad" tutorial to Techsmith’s Screenchamp competition. Techsmith is one of those insanely cool companies that develops all sorts of nice screencasting and video creation applications across a range of platforms. They also happen to be based right here in Michigan (I’ve visisted their campus a few times, you should too!). I submitted among dozens of professionally created screencasts, going up against people that create video tutorials and recordings for a living as consultants or well paid social media types. Imagine my surprise when I was chosen as one of just 16 finalists! Further imagine my chagrin when I realized that I had vowed to step back from blogging in November so I could focus on a lot of happenings at school. I’ve been writing and working, just not blogging here, where I could have been promoting this achievement. I’ve also been coordinating professional development for data analysis, coordinating some video conferences for 3rd grade classrooms, working on a secret video project about our district’s philosophy of education, and dealing with 17 inches of freak snow and wind storms that tore a hole in the roof of our high school’s gymnasium and shut the district down for two days. You know, fun stuff! Why Should You Help Me Out? While I am a self-proclaimed technology-savvy individual, I’m also one that doesn’t always put himself first, which can have a detrimental effect on the work I do. Every year I help funnel thousands of dollars worth of technology grants into the hands of teachers and students in my district, and other than a flipcam and a wireless mouse, I haven’t used any of my district’s technology department budget to procure fun tools and toys for myself. It’s a flaw, one that forces me to borrow tripods for video projects, use microphones and other loaner equipment from other teachers. I don’t have a classroom of my own, so it’s more important to me that funds are spent directly on students or on teachers that are working closely with students everyday. So in a way, this is sort of a selfish request, as the prizes for People’s Choice would be pretty nice for bringing a new level of quality to the video work I do for my district. Suffice it to say, I couldn’t stay silent any longer because the votes for Screenchamp "People’s Choice" will be tallied on December 4th, and I wanted to give anyone and everyone a chance to vote and help spread word to any and all of your colleagues, friends, or family that you feel might be able to help support me. So to all 5 or 6 individuals who still read my blog on a regular basis (there are more of you, I know, but I’ve been gone for awhile), please consider going over to Youtube and giving my "How to" video a thumbs up! If you like it, or it’s useful, please share where you feel comfortable sharing! Oh, and have a great Thanksgiving!

Creating a positive message about students using technology for educational success can be difficult. Showing off students typing away at a row of computers is a nice way to say "look at all this productivity," but it doesn’t convey something as emotional as a student-led presentation or a teacher’s own voice. I tried to blend both in a recent video that I made for my district, showcasing the thoughts behind the use of technology in education. It’s not perfect, and I had all sorts of headaches with the audio (lots of noisy classrooms), but this is my first attempt to show some of the thought behind our teachers’ instructional methodology when using technology. You can view below or on Vimeo. In all fairness, this video was born out of Gary Abud’s Teacher Leadership Challenge from October 25 of this year. In the post, Gary challenged us to answer the question: How is your personal philosophy of education demonstrated in your teaching style? At the same time Gary asked this question, I also received a request from my school district’s Superintendent to craft a short video to present the use of technology in our schools. Blending the two seemed like a good idea, and while my execution is certainly still a bit off (I should have shot a lot more footage of students using mobile technology), I feel as though I at least presented these educators in a positive light. And I began to touch upon what Gary is asking of us…to re-examine those questions we most likely haven’t been asked since our pre-service days; "what is your personal philosophy of education? What impacts your instructional environment? How do you see the influence of the world around you changing the way you teach?" I’m planning two more installments to this question, with a heavy shift to student voices for the next one. In the meantime, I wanted to get this one out there for the world, solicit some advice for polishing it up, and maybe spark some more conversation and sharing about how we think about technology in the classroom, and how we share that with others.

Quick in that the resources and materials I gathered took me all of 30 minutes to assemble, and would likely take most educators about 5-10 minutes to dig through and utilize. Dirty in the sense that the most formal piece of information on the document is a link to my website and information about my school district. It’s actually a small collection of resources that I use whenever a teacher wants me to come into a classroom and do a "brief" presentation about persuasive video, resources related to PSAs (public service announcements), and provide students with a "jumping off" point. Link to Ben’s Quick Tools & Tips for Creating PSAs This is not meant to be an authoritative document; it’s just a quick "let’s get our feet wet" guide that would give anyone interested in creating a PSA just enough information to get themselves started. Yes, it links to Wikipedia (it’s a source I use often, regardless of how many media specialists feel about it). Yes, it links to Alan Levine’s amazingly robust "50 Ways to Tell a Web 2.0 Story" Wiki (it’s a great resource, right up there with Wikipedia). It gets the job done, and I can stretch it into a 50 minute class session (with a few activities), or share the resources and the videos in 15-20 minutes and be done if need be. This week I’ll be doing a longer share, and asking students to get together in small groups to talk about how persuasive media (or PSAs) influence them, what emotions seem to be best to employ based on the subject matter, and then letting them share their favorites for me to show the class (thank you, Youtube). I’ve been asked to present this to a few Literature classes at our high school this week, one of them being the AP section, so I don’t get too heavily into the content specific nature of the persuasive writing (I’m certainly not the expert on that). One thing I can safely call myself an expert on though are the old G.I. Joe "Knowing is Half the Battle" PSAs form the 1980s. Enjoy!  

Last month I was selected as a finalist for Techsmith’s Screenchamp video contest. Alright, so my video was selected, I just had to stump for it…a lot. While each category within the contest had a winner chosen by a secretive group of videophiles and Techsmith staff, all of the finalists were all in the running for a hefty "People’s Choice" award. The finalist’s video that received the most "likes" on Youtube was crowned the people’s choice winner, and given a whole bunch of awesome tech. Sadly, I didn’t receive enough likes to achieve people’s choice. The competition was fierce, and eventually a great video from Francis Joseph Seriña introducing the "5 Love Languages" won the top prize. It was well deserved, as both the production and polish were well above my efforts. The good news is, despite not winning people’s choice, I was selected as a category winner (yay!), and got a nice bunch of gear and recognition for the work that I do to support my teachers and staff. This is the first time I’ve ever put forth a sustained "vote for me, vote for me" effort in several social media realms. It gave me an opportunity to see just how amazingly supportive my collected network of friends, colleagues, and followers can be in a pinch, and helped pull me a few feet further out of the "I can do this on my own" pit of mentality that I quite often stumble into. I preach connected and collaborative work online, but I’m not always the best practitioner of it; face to face is my preferred realm. I’m sure there’s a nugget or two of something deeply important to better understanding myself in that, but I’ll save that for a conversation with my psychologist Suffice it to say, I’m amazingly thankful and grateful for all of the shares, votes, and help from others. We all have incredibly busy lives, and in addition to thanking Techsmith and their employees for giving me this opportunity to begin with, I wanted to say "Thank You" for all the time and energy that was spent on my behalf. I have a new-found love for my network, and will certainly be pursuing some more adventurous projects in the new year with the knowledge that so many are willing to help share what I love doing.

I’ve become curmudgeonly in my "older" age. To my dismay, I’ve found myself drifting away from my more idyllic attitudes of 12 years ago, and settling into deeper, more moody, thought patterns that have me thinking more like Gary Stager than I would like to admit (although I certainly wouldn’t approach his level of bombastic rhetoric). I’m being slightly alarmist here; I’m only 34, and I certainly have a long ways to go to cement myself in the straight jacket of "old man grumpiness". Perhaps it’s the role I find myself increasingly playing at school; the "anchor" attempting to slow down and "manage" some of the institutional changes in my district while simultaneously allowing the "explorers" to push ahead. The cognitive dissonance of working both angles is stressful at times. Which is why I’m tossing this challenge out here, provided anyone actually reads it. I want to believe that most technology has amazing educational applications. I want to know that some of the up and coming leaders in the educational technology world are up on stage (or their Youtube channels) singing the praises of amazing educational opportunities, not just the same old "snake oil" sales pitch that even I’ve pitched in the past. Your Challenge - Show me the promise of Augmented Reality beyond the current "fluffiness" that has captured the internet’s heart. (note: by fluffiness, I mean the unfulfilled promise of an application) Some background on my thoughts: AR, Augmented Reality, is the newest darling to hit the mobile scene for education. I’ve seen "hot new" devices and technology come and go (interactive whiteboards, webquests, PDAs, netbooks, etc.). For the most part, our tools are what we make of them, but they can only be stretched so far. Is the promise of Augmented Reality being stretched too far? When Andy Losik, king of the "let’s do awesome stuff for education" crowd here in Michigan, starts questioning the value of how a technology is applied to the learning environment, I take notice. "New hotness" is great for highlight reels, but we need a lot of depth on our educational benches, and I’m not seeing that yet from Augmented Reality. I’m always suspicious when products and/or technologies are rapidly adopted for advertising and marketing campaigns. Yes, there’s something to be said about the power of a tool that seems so magical it puts a smile on the face of all that see it (myself included). I’m just looking for applications beyond the "engaging hook" factor. I’m sure they’re out there, I just need someone to show me the deep student-led application of AR in the classroom. There’s a serious "creepy factor" to Google Glass and other augmented reality devices that seem to break certain pre-conceived notions of privacy and causes discomfort when you’re unsure of what’s being captured or not. To be clear, I’m not saying that Augmented Reality is a poor learning tool; just questioning whether it’s time in our classrooms as a powerful learning device is here, or if it’s still in incubator stage. Interactive whiteboards were promised to be "transformative" teaching and learning tools when they exploded in the early 2000s. While I still believe they can be effective and creative tools in the hands of the right individuals, the reviews on their impact appear to be mixed. As we stand at the precipice of mobile device ubiquity in our classrooms here in the United States (well, those school districts with any money left), I fear that Augmented Reality and other "apps" may prove to be just as tempting, yet underwhelming in delivery. Are my thoughts off base? Am I wrong? Does someone have some great examples of the promise of Augmented Reality fulfilled in ways that aren’t just 3D encyclopedias, or playful "auras" that are being gobbled up as the latest marketing sensation? Am I even asking the right questions? image - Augmented Reality by Tom - http://www.flickr.com/photos/turkletom/4325703868/

I’m teaching an online graduate certificate class for Michigan State University. My students are almost all educators, and I never like to ask my learners to do something that I’m unwilling to do myself. So when they started on their Networked Learning Project (NLP), I decided it would only be fair for me to jump in and learn something myself. The NLP is simple in concept; the learners have to accomplish a task they’ve never done before using only Youtube videos and help forums. The internet would serve as their teacher as a means to reflect upon just how amazingly diverse and rich a resource the web has become. Many of my students were eager to get started; learning the cello, how to yo-yo, and stained glass were just a few hobbies chosen to tackle. I choose to learn how to play the electric guitar. My father was in a pretty decent high school band, but never really went anywhere with it beyond an album or two and hitting the local night clubs. When he hit his 40s, he and his buddies decided to have a little fun. They all bought new instruments, practiced hard, and put on a big charity concert for our community. He had a blast helping organizing and playing in the concert, but sadly it wasn’t long before he passed away from cancer. His Heritage H-535 cherry red electric guitar was passed down to me, someone who had never played a guitar in his life. It’s been sitting in closets and attics for almost 20 years now, going unplayed. I figured the Networked Learning Project was a good excuse as any to learn how to play this gorgeous guitar. So I found this beginner’s video for guitar tuning from GuitarLessons365 on Youtube: Having successfully tuned my guitar to itself (I don’t have an electric guitar tuner as was recommended in the video), I was quite proud about having learned that I didn’t actually need a pitch pipe or fancy equipment. I could get a "rough" tuning job done as long as I could tune the 6th string (the "E" string). From there I could tune each string to the previous one, and get an approximate tuning good enough for the likes of someone who is lucky not to drop the pick into the open holes on the face of the guitar body. And then I followed up with a terribly short rendition of the "Louie, Louie". Or rather, a terrible AND short rendition of the Kingsmen hit. My son really stole the show, so if you want to see a precocious 4-year old ham it up with a microphone and a webcam, listen to me sing poorly, and play guitar even worse, the video I made is right up your alley! Up next is going to be basic strumming. I’ve found a few videos that look promising, but I have yet to determine which will be best for a beginner. Stay tuned for more terrible tunes

There’s been a lot of traffic on Twitter and a few blogs (some of them quite prominent in the education world) about the Video Story Problem concept that I’ve been toying with the last few years. It helps that I’ve had plenty of educators and students helping me with it, and as of today we’ve collectively produced almost 200 videos that help capture math (and a little bit of science) in the real world to be brought back into the classroom. So it’s with no small measure of humble gratitude to many educators out there sharing my ideas that I have an opportunity to present the concept in Los Angeles this weekend. I’m headed out to the Milken Community High School in Los Angeles to lead a couple of Video Story Problem workshops at the Playful Learning Summit being held there. I’m a little nervous, but hopeful for a good day of learning with teachers on the West Coast. Although it will be a quick turn around (fly in the 8th, lead the workshops on the 9th, and come home on the 10th), I’m excited to work with some educators eager to take a more playful approach to learning, and reconnecting with some old friends that I haven’t seen in several months. I promise not to show up at the doorstop of any celebrities, shamelessly asking them to give me a cameo for a math video, but I won’t deny that I may feel an urge to stop at one of L.A.’s many tourist traps. Perhaps a walk down Rodeo Drive and attempting to recreate the shopping scene from Pretty Woman with a remix of my Kohl’s Cash video problem will be enough to keep me from making too much of a fool of myself…. Nah! I can’t help but make myself look stupid in public by asking nerdy science and math questions to an imaginary classroom in my phone. I couldn’t even make it through a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago last month without creating a quick "how can you explain this" science video for Foucault’s Pendulum.