Practice the fine art of tech-fu

What a cool logo, for those of you who are not familiar with Wesley Fryer and his blog Moving at the speed of creativity you should really subscribe. His dedication is inspiring and his thoughts appreciated by this blogger. Keep it up Wes, we are listening.

As part of my Web 2.0 online course I have been viewing my classmates (teachers) blogs and they are coming along. Not much content but hopefully there will be more when people get more comfortable. I don’t know how effective the blogs will be. I don’t think a majority of the people truely understand what a blog is or the blogger culture. Some how going mainstream has made it lose its meaning. What I mean to say is if your not going to say something new, something provocative maybe you shouldn’t say it at all. I wonder how will our students respond when we tell them they can write a blog but we will control the content. No real freedom, no opportunity to challenge authority in a constructive way. We will filter what we want out of what they give us. I began to wonder why the students don’t get organized, write a petition and demand to be able to use more of the web 2.0 tools we have been talking about. But maybe they have already figured it out… we are irrelevant, all of us the teachers, the principal, the school. They will teach themselves these things if we won’t. And If we will not guide them they will go the path alone. And although I do think the dangers are sensationalized they are out there. Better to have a guide then none at all. But if we do attempt to guide them will it be the blind leading the blind? In our efforts to protect maybe we do more harm then good. “Ships are safe in harbors but that’s not what ships are for”… I don’t know who said it and I hope he’s dead otherwise I might owe him some money.

I Don’t know why, I just want one.

 Every school year should start with a review of all the things you can do with google. Google’s Search Features Just keep getting better and better.

This is a really short post to introduce TeacherTech my new google site for teachers. This is the companion site to my blog. Please check it out and give me some feedback. Its been a super school year and I can’t wait to meet with some of you at the workshops this summer. Take care till then.
M

Just a quick post on Gawker a free time-lapse program for mac users. Simple interface, does what it needs to do, type of program I love. Great for all sorts of school projects. Also great for filming yourself while surfing the net! Download and enjoy!

While I do not usually blog on my private life. I would like to share the arrival of my second child. Charles Steven Uleau. Born on May 14 and coming in at 7 pounds 12 oz Charlie has brought great joy to our family and Crystal and I could not be happier. Another future mac user is born.

Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides Then Sit the Hell Down
This technique should be universally adopted. This is absolutely awesome in the classroom. Just make a PowerPoint template for your students with the correct timing and let the kids do their stuff. I wish every administrator would learn this technique. Facilitate this exercise by loading all the presentations on one flash drive. This is also a great wrap up exercise for workshops.
M