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Dear Friend

I’m up at the hospital today sitting with a high school friend. I’m sure any form of prayer or positive vibes would help. Hoping her mom is getting some well needed rest!

When Glue Takes on a New Purpose!

Here We Go Again!

Here we go again...Hoping do post frequently to my blog. Most likely random pictures. Not quite sure!

This was my mom’s special New Years Eve table cloth. Pretty much one of the few things I wanted to have after she died. I am pretty sure it was either a wedding shower or wedding gift in the early 1950’s!

2 Years and no Posts!

The school year has begun. Everything shiny and bright. New clothes, backpacks, supplies...You get the picture. But, there is one thing that I would like to see changed. Parents, you are going to need to help out on this one.

TEACH YOUR CHILD HOW TO USE TISSUES MORE THAN ONE TIME!

Oy, it is so painful watching your sweet children using a fresh tissue for each blow, wipe, or whatever it is that they do for endless minutes at the tissue box by the trash can. Maybe that should be the topic for a doctoral dissertation:

The Impact of Single Use of Tissues on Student Learning

I wish I could video this daily dance of students. Picture this, slowly sauntering toward the supply table, also known as "The Oasis of Nasal Discharge", all the while looking around the room to see if anyone is paying attention. Looking at the wall while grabbing the tissue and then making sure to turn around to look back at the class. Next, ever so delicately, the tainted tissue is dropped into the trashcan (yes, teachers automatically have these near tissue boxes!). Before the tissue even hits the end of its journey said student grabs yet another tissue. Normally this repeats at least 3 more time. Finally, way too many pumps of hand sanitizer are made making it necessary to wait longer for hands to dry. When the student heads back to their seat they walk almost as if they are floating. Slowly swaying and dare I say wasting time to avoid returning to their assigned seat.

I beg you, if you are planning on having a child, have a child, or are basically human...Please teach children to reuse tissue! I am a fan of folding in half and then 1/4. It is mind boggling how many boxes of tissue are used in each classroom weekly. I propose a "Pay to Spray" structure. Students who use more than 3 tissues per period need to bring an extra box to the classroom. I call these kids "Heavy Hitters". Haven't quite figured out the rule if they are in 7 or more classes a day. All feedback is welcome!

Too Many Blogs

Looking through my dashboard I see I have more blogs than I can manage!

As you can see, I seem to have 9…I may even have more, but who knows anymore! OY!

I am thinking that I may need to combine at least 2. Feldman's World and You Can't Scare Me could be one in the same. When I am not sitting in bed and it is getting late, I will explore.

However, I am always thinking of new ideas and how I can share my thought.

So, hang on, it could be a bumpy ride!

New Year To-Do List!

Thanksgiving!

Oh Where Oh Where Has Time Gone?

Seriously? 1 Year since my last post? No excuses...
It is not that I have nothing to say, I guess it is that I have said much elsewhere.
Between the multiple social networks (Plurk, Twitter, Facebook, Yammer...) It appears I have neglected this blog. Time to fix this. I aim to post more often. Most likely my posts will be regarding tech finds. When I look through my Google Reader I see so many great ideas from Richard Byrne's http://www.freetech4teachers.com, Miguel Guhlin's Around The Corner http://www.mguhlin.org, and Cyndi Danner-Kuhn's http://www.technologybitsbytesnibbles.info to name a few. 
Here's to a fresh start...
Cheers!
Lori

ISTE 11 Presentation Plans

It's that time again, time for my yearly trek to the ISTE convention. For those who do not know what ISTE is...the initials stand for International Society of Technology in Education.
ISTE represents more than 100,000 education leaders and emerging leaders throughout the world and informs its members regarding educational issues of national and global scope.

This year over 18,000 will attend this conference. Quite amazing!

I am so excited to once again meet with like minded educators and technology specialists to network and socialize. This year I am honored to be leading two presentations.
Both on Monday June 27. My first will be a poster session at 8:00 a.m. to share my research project. I have been a part of the Renaissance Computing Initiative for the past two years.
During this time I have created online learning objects to use with middle school students. The overall goal was to infuse computational thinking into classroom activities.
I look forward to sharing my experiences during this time.

The second presentation is at 2:30 p.m. It is a BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) session.
I cannot tell you how very excited I am. And honored to boot! Out of 200 submissions, only 65 were accepted.

The hardest part of preparing for the BYOL session is figuring out how to share all of the material within 1 hour. Yikes. Luckily I have an amazing co-presenter, Kimberly Wright.
I know she will make everything go smoothly. We are hoping to broadcast our session on Ustream. Ustream is a video streaming website which hosts broadcasts. The web address for the session is: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/feldman-professional-development. Hopefully we will have someone to either use their iPhone or webcam to help us broadcast! Hope you can join us for the session.

Hopefully, I will be updating my activities during my week in Philly. I will be hanging out in the Blogger's Cafe often. 

Until then!

PLN Problems Part 2

 A little over a month ago, I wrote a post about PLN problems. The gist of the post was about how some on Twitter (and other social networks) may feel invisible at times. Many of us pose questions or share resources that may go unnoticed. So, I decided to create a Google Form to survey social networkers regarding their experiences online. When I published my blog post I had low expectations. Call my cynical, but I did not think I would have much of a response. At first, my suspicions were right. Not much activity. Even with retweeting. At that point I was going to write about my findings, and then other members of my PLN began to retweet my call for input. 100+ responses later, it is time to put it all together.

Question #1: Which social networks do you currently use?
73% said Twitter was their main social network. Plurk came in second with 34%.
Question #2: How often do you log on to a social network?
 88% log on multiple times per day, 6 % once per day, and 6% check a couple times per week.
Questions #3: How often do you reply to a social post? 71% said as much as possible,  22% said rarely, and 5% said they only reply to those they have met face to face.
Question #4: Have you ever felt invisible on a social network?
88% felt they had in some form been invisible or ignored, 15% said they had not felt that way.

Looking at timestamps on the Google Spreadsheet there was a difference between Plurkers and Tweeters (definitely a separate blog post). Initially when I posted on Plurk and Twitter for help with writing a blog post my impression was that I was getting feedback only from my Plurk PLN. I could tell because Plurk was mentioned exclusively or in addition to Twitter. The Twitter responses came in much more slowly, even with multiple retweets. I have to say, the action picked up once my friend, and ISTE roomate, Beth Still retweeted my post. My Twitter PLN came through!

How do you feel about such an overwhelming response of people feeling that they are not noticed when they post links or questions? I think we have all felt that way at one point or another. But I did not expect that the response would be so high. I was helped by direct blog post comments such as the sheer size of social networks making it very hard to comment on each post read. Advice was given to send direct messages (DMs) and @ messages. I see the merit, yet, I think this limits responses since they are person specific. Others felt that there are cliques reminiscent of high school. Paul Bogush commented: "Twitter is high school all over again. The popular kids stay with the popular kids, and deny they are only staying with the popular kids, and deny that they are the "cool kids". 
It is hard to dispute this when you see the frequency of interactions between certain groups. This inner circle as some have called it, may not be able to reply as much as you think. Consider that some of the most prevalent networkers may only follow 1/10 of those that follow them. Great point! Lisa Parisi said:" I think the ignoring just comes from having too many people talking at once. It is hard to hear. Be louder (tweet more) and be more secure in your voice (give opinions, retweet and share links, etc.). It's harder to ignore the squeaky wheel.". Paul Shircliff however follows and is followed by fewer than most (on Twitter) and still feels that he receives  few responses. On Plurk he has a higher level of responses. I must admit, I feel the same. Maybe it is the format, or the types of conversations that take place. But I will continue to use both. 

I have learned much from writing this post. I was reminded that just because I see certain names on my screen does not mean that they will see mine. Just because I follow someone, doesn't mean they follow me back. I learned that some will not follow those who do not follow them. I learned that there is not enough time in the day to respond to every post read. The time of day you post, may impact responses. And finally, I learned that my mission to find the answer is not complete.

I look forward to all of the potential responses on this blog and on social networks. Feel free to contact me for individual conversations.

PLN Problems Part 1

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/people/jamelah

Something that has been weighing heavy on my mind lately is how my views on my PLN has changed. I am not saying that my network of educators and technology cohorts are not trustworthy and of course invaluable. I do believe I am the professional that I am today because of my wide-ranging network.


My concern is in regard to the increasing frequency that questions and/or posted resources go without comment. There are times in which I would like to have opinions, links, support, etc. and get no response. I gather from reading posts by others, it is not an uncommon for posts to go unnoticed.

With your help, I may have some answers. Please take time to fill out my Google Form so I can gather data for a second blog post.

Cold morning drive

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.  Recently our English 7 class read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.  When Ponyboy and Johnny are hiding out at the church, and looking out over a sunset,  Ponyboy recites this poem by Robert Frost. This made me think about how life is ever changing. What is there in our lives that we can depend on to be there forever? People? Jobs? Technology? For the sake of narrowing my scope, I will focus on technology. One thing I have learned through the years is not to depend too much on any type of technology. Just ask anyone who has ever lead professional development seminars related to web resources and you will see how quickly session materials become obsolete. Websites come and go without notice. Right now there is an uproar regarding the impending doom of the web bookmarking site Delicious. Many of us have used Delicious for many years to house our bookmarks. And now Diigo has become the destination. What will come and go this year? Reading through commentary regarding the poem's connection to The Outsiders also suggested that to be gold is to stay innocent and not grow up too fast. We try to teach our students digital citizenship and safety. We want them to avoid misusing or abusing technology with a goal of using it appropriately. (http://www.digitalcitizenship.net). The vast offering of the internet may tarnish the “gold” quickly.  I am not saying that we should remain stagnant with technology. Every day there are new sites, programs, etc. that can be adopted in our lives. What we used 5 years ago is not necessarily the most efficient way to complete tasks. Keeping up to date enables many to be at the forefront of their career. I would like to hear from you. What is your gold?

QR Cards

By chance, I came across a QR image during my visit to the doctor. I was "patiently" waiting to be seen and I saw a rack with a variety of medical pamphlets. On the side was this strange bar code that asked me to take a picture of it to find out more information. I was intrigued! As usual, "I thought to myself, how can I use this?"

I have spent the last hour surfing Google for background information and how to create them. I read Cool Cat Teacher and Thumann Resources blogs as well as a plethora of how-to entries.
Now I am getting excited!

How could I use this? Would people "get it?" I know there a millions of cell phones out there, but I have a feeling it would take a bit of education for effective use.

I will be playing around with this for a while...I will keep posting my thoughts!

Podstock 2010

Tomorrow I will be heading to Wichita to attend Podstock 2010.
I'm quite excited for 2 days of networking and learning about technology integration. I would imagine that the environment will be much more casual compared to ISTE in Denver. That is one thing I look forward to...smaller size. I really don't know how many people will be attending; but, I am sure it won't be 18,000! I have looked over the schedule and am impressed with the diversity of topics. Yes, podcasting is an overall theme, but it is not the only offering.
I am excited also to have the opportunity to meet up with some of the educators which I have had online discussions. Cynthia Garrety, Dean Mantz, and Ginger Lewman to name a few.
Of course, hanging with Kevin, Michele, Kim, and Mitch will make the weekend perfect!
I will try make Podstock updates as the day permits.

ISTE 2010 Reflections - The Sequel

My last blog post was more of an over all day by day account of my ISTE 2010 experience.
That really helped me to document the non-stop action of this amazing week.
However, as I reread the post I don't think I was able to accentuate the lighter side of my days in Denver. I am sure I will come back and make revisions as the ISTE fog lifts. So, here is a collection of quotes and anecdotes from Denver:

• "Kim, Stairs!" - watching out for the safety of KimberlyW
• "I know where I'm going, the streets are just crooked" - my comment about driving on the oddly laid out streets of downtown Denver
• "I want to be a mohel (person who does circumcisions)" - said by KevinH after being given a Hebrew name (Chaim)
• "Mohel's work for tips" - bad joke told by LFeld52
• "I'm your first groupie" - said by SDSherry after carrying my poster
• "Hi Phil!" - Half of our PLN accidentally thought Shirky17's name was Phil! It's Paul...
• "I lost my..." - Unfortunately, I misplaced just about everything this week
• Kevin's computer bag...35 pounds of disorganization. SDSherry to the rescue!
  

ISTE 2010 Reflections

What an amazing week in Denver for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Since the action was non-stop, I am going to try to map it out by day.






Thursday:
No sleep...to excited! I kept waking up to add something to my suitcase, check for cords, or write down something that I might want to remember in the morning.

Friday:
Travel day. Flew from Omaha to Denver. So lucky to be picked up by Sherry. We checked into Comfort Inn Downtown Denver. Unfortunately, it was a fairly small room and there would be 3 of us by the net day. So, we made the executive decision to upgrade to a suite. Much more space, but tiny bathroom. Oh well...shower schedules made.

Saturday:
Spent the day at the Denver Zoo learning from the leaders of the Discovery Educator Network (DEN). We had a full program to keep members up to date with the latest and greatest from the Discovery Network. First I learned how to make paper slide videos with Dr. Lodge McCammon. We also attempted to make a video from one of his teaching songs
I have to say, this was not easy. We had too large of a group and we could not get ourselves in and out of the shots fast enough. I guess that is how students feel when they don't quite "get it".
Later in the day we were lucky enough to have presentations from DEN Gurus. DEN gurus are experts in specific areas of Discovery Education. Traci Blazosky demonstrated how she intertwines Discovery Education materials with Glogster. If you haven't tried Glogster, what are you waiting for? We also were told to get our goggles on by Justin Karkow. This was supposed to be a science preso by Patti Duncan, but unfortunately she became ill. I hope she feels better soon! Finally, we were set loose in the zoo to complete a scavenger hunt. Our teams set out to find animals based on clues and take their pictures. Imagine 100+ educators running through the zoo trying to be first! Unfortunately, my team did not win. We found all of the clues (almost, one of the animals dies before our adventure) but were not picked from all of the teams who successfully completed their hunt. But...I did win a life-size cut out of the Mythbusters! Luckily, it will be shipped to me!
Saturday evening Kim, needed to be picked up from the airport. Sherry could not drive to pick her up. So, it was up to me to do it. I was a nervous wreck. Luckily Karen volunteered to drive. I promised to navigate. Before Kim's arrival we ended up switching places. Soon after we saw an amazing double rainbow. I am hoping that there are no roadside police cameras...I pulled off the road next to a no stopping sign! Sorry Sherry!

Sunday:
Most of the day I spent in the Bloggers' Cafe meeting up with friends from Plurk, Facebook, and Twitter. It was so funny trying to match screen names to real people! This may sound like a waste of time to some. But to me, it was an opportunity to learn from others and possibly expand my professional career path. You never know whom you will meet!
The end of the ISTE convention day included the keynote speaker. Jean-Francois Rischard. His speech was titled: Global Problem Solving and the Critical Role of Educators and Technology for Education. The audience response to his speech was not as expected. Actually it was awful. Rischard's basically read his PowerPoint slides (which were horrible) directly from his teleprompter. Social networking sites were bombarded with negative comments. I myself reported that a man behind me literally crawled under his chair in the back row to escape! Some in the room actually took pictures of his screens to use as examples of what NOT to do in presentations. I have never seen anything like it. So many (including me) left the room. Reflecting back, I do feel badly. I could have kept my thoughts to myself and not broadcast them out to the world. Lesson learned. The evening ended with a brainstorm by Kevin Honeycutt.
The big idea was to put together a Digital Jam Session using iPods, iPads, iTouches, laptops, etc.
We Skyped late into the evening making preparations and sent out Plurks and Tweets to ISTE members to stop by.

Monday:
ISTE formally begins! Ironically my first session was with Ken Shelton. What great timing to lead a session titled Developing, Designing, and Delivering: The Case for Powerful and Productive Presentations! I do believe that Ken is the only person who uses 90% of his own photos in his presentations. Beat that! Other session that day included visiting the Promethean ActiveBus, and learning how to use Google's Sketchup program (another Ken Shelton preso). I was able to create a 3D dog house by the end of the session! My day finished with a Plurkup (meeting of friends from the social network) at Earl's Restaurant. It was so fun meeting friends from all over the world. At 8:00 pm we kicked off the First Annual Digital Jam Session. Such a wide variety of people streamed in to sing or play along with songs projected onto the wall. I cannot believe how great the Comfort Inn staff was! They had no problem letting us Jam the evening away. You would think I would have slept well after this...but, no. I started worrying about my poster session which was scheduled for 10 am. in the morning.

Tuesday:
Destination poster session! I woke up so nervous because I have never presented beyond the state level. Lucky for me, a poster session is a more casual environment compared to formal session which have larger seating capacities. What I didn't realize, is that people started coming up to my table 30 minutes before the start time. When I looked at the clock and it only said 10:20 I was so confused. I wasn't sure I would make it to noon. But, once I got on a roll, I was unstoppable. You would never have known how nervous I was. Friends who came by said I did well. Whew! By the time I was done I could barely speak. I recovered during an amazing lunch at Maggiano's Little Italy. The food and company was amazing! After lunch a headed over to a session titled Computational Learning: Create Interactive Learning Modules for Your students.
I was wowed by how hard the leaders had worked to put together an online repository for teaching students using sequential thinking skills. I am sad to say the day did not end as well. I had signed up for the Haunted Denver tour thinking I would be able to walk around in old houses and/or grave yards. I was prepared to be frightened. Needless to say, I was not. For 2 hours we drove around on a motor coach listening to a tour guide tell local ghost stories. The driver slowed down while we passed haunted spaces, but we did not tour. Occasionally the bus would pull over (illegally) so the guide could continue story telling. What a disappointment. I found myself trading between snoozing and downloading ringtones on my cellphone. The only positive outcome from the evening was meeting up with friends at the Rock Bottom Brewery. The food was so good! Not to mention the company.

Wednesday:
The day was started at the Corner Bakery. I met up with many of my Plurk friends. We talked about how it was such a great week and how hard it would be to leave. I teasingly equated it to going to summer camp and having to leave all of the new found friends. (Hmmm...sounds like a possible 2nd blog post) There were only 2 things on my ISTE schedule. The first was a session on on using MIT's Scratch program. Scratch is an animation program which enables you to create interactive stories and games. I think it will be hard to stop messing around with it once I get started! And my last ISTE event was the closing keynote. I was hesitant to go to this keynote after the debacle of the opening...But I had promised myself to be positive. So, I went. I am glad I did! Jeff Piontek's speech Today's Global Learners = Tomorrow's Global Leaders was good. He talked about how every student has potential. Including special needs students. His videos were powerful to say the least. We were amazed that his students produced his video clips. They used Blue Mars online editor to create them. He also proposed the change of STEM to STEAM: Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math. He made many valid points for all to ponder. I hope to challenge students in a way which creates the learners he highlighted.
Well, now the conference was over, and it was time to fly home. My flight was scheduled for 7:10 pm. Plenty of time to get to the airport after the keynote. NOT. We were stuck in rush hour traffic! It was gridlock. My blood pressure must have been normal (I have low blood pressure!). It made me so nervous as each minute passed. When I got in the terminal I was faced with a long line to get checked in. It took 10 minutes or so to get to the kiosk, and when I entered my confirmation number it said there was no record. Holy cow. Luckily the Frontier attendant found it but said I had to get my boarding pass at the gate. Next challenge: security. The line for security stretched beyond 2 moving sidewalks and then out around another hallway. I could not believe it. Finally, after another 20 minutes I got through security. I ran as fast as I could (carrying my computer bag and poster tube) to the gate to get my boarding pass. It was now 10 minutes before boarding. At about that time I realized I had not eaten lunch or dinner. But, the lines were so long at the fast food places I would not be able to eat. Just before giving up, I found a popcorn place with no line. I bought it and then boarded. You would think I would have just shut my eyes and gone to sleep. But instead I talked to 2 educators in front of me who had also attended ISTE. They were so much fun! Even the flight attendant joined in the conversation. It was a great end to a great week in Denver.

Thursday:
I wanted to sleep in. But I had to take my husband to the airport for a business trip. I had not planned on waking up at 6:30 am on my first day back! When I came home I went back to bed. Unfortunately, I slept through my noon dentist appointment. Oops. The rest of the day I took it easy. I admit that I have not unpacked my suitcase and carry on bag. Not quite motivated to do it. I will get to it.

So, that is it. I am sure I left out many details. If you are a part of my PLN that was with me at ISTE please feel free to add details or clear up mistakes. I can honestly say I am in a post ISTE fog! Of course, it is early morning and I need some sleep. I guess I just couldn't leave this incomplete!

ISTE is coming!

Next Friday I will be leaving for ISTE 2010. For those who do not know what this is, the acronym stands for International Society for Technology in Education. I will be joining 14,000+ technology enthusiasts in Denver for learning and networking. Looking through the thousands of options for sessions I am overwhelmed to make choices. I am planning on attending a diverse offering of sessions in the areas of math, literacy, computational thinking, etc. Tuesday, I will be presenting my research during a poster session. This is a result of a National Science Foundation grant called Research Experience for Teachers (RET). I am a bit nervous, but excited! Somewhere in the mix I am sure I will be able to feed my nerd side as well. I have also signed up for a tour of "Haunted Denver"! Yikes.
Of course, seeing friends made at other conferences is a major benefit. It is amazing how quickly you can form bonds at these meetings. I will also have a chance to meet members of my professional learning network (PLN). There are so many that I have "met" by reading their blogs and wikis or searched their links posted on Plurk or Twitter.
My plan is to try and blog at least a few times during the week. Especially after my poster session. So, check back soon!

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen

Recently I have reacquainted myself with my Livescribe Smartpen. I purchased it last year and have used it sparingly for a few meetings. Played with some of the built in applications such as the calculator and piano, and have allowed students to use it as well for basic writing activities.

For those who do not know what a Livescribe Smartpen is, I will give a short explanation. The pen is basically a combination video camera/voice recorder. The pen must be used on specialized paper which has embedded time stamp dots on it. When the pen is activated, each time the pen passes a dot it creates a timestamp for each image/sound. All recordings can then be downloaded to a computer and also uploaded as a screen cast. Just in case this makes no sense, I am including a link to a demonstration.
Livescribe Demo
What do you think?

Now that I have begun using the Smartpen again I have thought of so many uses. Aside from having student talk out loud as they are writing, I have many new ideas to consider:

-"Reading" tests to students
-Fluency sample with immediate feedback to students
-Creating "pencasts" for posting to blog or for absent students
-Alternative to flashcards
-Interactive study guide

So many ideas! I am hoping that the Livescribe Smartpen will become a part of assistive technology options for our schools. The price point is definitely reasonable compared to many other technologies. It is definitely portable and user friendly.

I look forward to finding many uses for my Smartpen.













Image Credit: http://www.squidoo.com/Livescribe-Smart-Pen-Best-Gadget-of-The-Year