Archive - June, 2008

Are Computer Labs a Crutch?

By on June 23, 2008 in Education with 4 Comments

  Computer_lab_2A lot of teachers are hungry to know more about Web 2.0 and its tools. They are hungry to know about it, use it, teach it.

Many of those who are hungry (and most are, even if they don’t admit it in a group), also lean on a crutch. They call it the computer lab.

The challenges I have with the computer lab as a crutch are plenty:

  • Unlike shop, phys-ed, music, or art – computers and connectivity are in everyday use for everyone. All the time. It’s the world we live in. Just about every cubicle, office and table at Panera has a computer of some sort – even if it’s handheld. Computer lab? Why the separation?
  • I’ll answer my own question (in part). Bandwidth. Both the network and the brain.
    • The Network: From a Web 2.0 perspective, having 20 students watching the same video or grabbing images of Flickr would suck up so much bandwidth it slows down the teaching, the task, and the talk. Time’s a-wasting.
    • The Brain: Putting 20 students in front of a glowing computer screen is going to take attention away from even the best of teachers.

I’m NOT saying the computer lab is bad. What I AM saying is the computer lab shouldn’t be the first (or only) stop in teaching computer and Internet skills.

Structure of an Internet Workshop:

Modeled (15-20 minutes): An Internet workshop or lesson plan should begin in the classroom. With a single computer, a PowerPoint presentation with screenshots, or even a flip chart — a teacher can model, think aloud and read aloud, all eyes front.
Shared (15-20 minutes): Teacher and students together navigate the web and manipulate search strings aloud.
Guided (30-40 minutes): Our first steps into the computer lab (unless you have One Laptop per Child (OLPC)). Small groups would work great here, with students learning from each other as well as the teacher.
Independent (15-20 minutes): Teachers can take this opportunity for one-on-one, while other students work independently.

This type of workshop isn’t an all-at-once, or even a cram-this-into-a-month, lesson plan. Integrating this type of workshop will keep students engaged AND prepared for what’s ahead.

Add-on: As you can see, just a bit over half of our time is actually spent in the lab. So, is the computer lab really necessary to teach this stuff?  I think so – but it’s not the end-all, be-all.

And for my colleagues in marketing agencies trying to get their clients to blog (or whatever), this is how I coach business leaders to do it too.

Photo on Flickr by Extra Ketchup

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Don’t Judge a Blog by its Genre

By on June 21, 2008 in Blog Coach with 0 Comments

Go into your local bookstore or library. Books everywhere — and I’m totally addicted, but that’s a different post — all different kinds of books.

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Coffee Table books, How-To books, Biographies, Business, Motivation, Music, Animated, Blank…and when we get to Fiction, there’s a whole mess of genres within the genre. All sorts of books by all walks of authors for all types of people. We don’t all write like Robert B. Parker (though that wouldn’t be so bad).

So, when I hear someone say they won’t blog because they can’t do it like Robert B. Scoble (guessing at the "B" here), I say that’s right.  And you shouldn’t. You should talk write like you…just be you. There’s only One Immutable Law of Blogging.

First things first, let’s determine a purpose for your site (Purpose). Keep a disciplined schedule — I often suggest less than an hour (Schedule). Always keep in mind the other 6 P’s of good blogging (Practice). But for the love of Shakespeare, just be you!

As I’ve been working with educators, many are a little intimated by the output of folks like  Vicki Davis or Wesley Fryer.  Great writers and resources, I agree. And if we’re eyeballing their work for SCAMPERing thoughts, I say ‘Atta boy.’ But, let’s keep YOUR focus on YOUR purpose, schedule, practice.

I will often point teachers to several other examples, such as The Number Warrior, Inside Pre-K, or Mrs. K’s Intermediate Composition class blog.

You can find the same in whatever discipline you’re in — and Alltop might be a great place to get ideas. Find bits and pieces that attract you, then go back to the purpose/schedule/practice thought process.

Just as there are more than one way to write a book, there’s more than way one way to write a blog. What do you want to communicate…and how?

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links for 2008-06-17

By on June 17, 2008 in Whistle Stops with 0 Comments

  • Thoughts from a blogging late-adopter | Broadcasting Brain
    I believe that blogging remains the best foundation for your online presence. When the dust settles (IF there’s an exodus), I think not only will we see more blogging, but better blogging.
    (tags: blog+strategy Social+Media lifestream)
  • Lookybook | Home
    A great tool for teachers and parents. You can view a whole picture book online — and embed it on your blog/in a wiki
    (tags: books education web2.0 literacy reading)
  • Creative Docs .NET – Get Creative!
    Creative Docs .NET is a vector-based graphic design tool with support for rich text, ideal to quickly write short documents, manuals, posters, illustrations, schemas, plans, flow charts, and much more.
    (tags: art design graphics tools)

Wordle Art – A Nifty Add-On to Your Presentations

By on June 16, 2008 in Cool Tools with 0 Comments

I’ve been noticing Wordle, a nifty graphic tool making the rounds. Might make a nice title or index page for a document or presentation.  I used the words from my delicious links, but you can use any piece(s) of text.

Wordle

Give it a shot! Don’t miss the Wordle Gallery.

More Knowledge + Less Time = Smart Infosumption

By on June 16, 2008 in Blog Coach, RSS Feeds, Social Media with 0 Comments

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Whenever we find a tool or practice that allows our folks to gain more knowledge in less time, we consider it an asset and start suggesting it to others.

In the landscape of Social Media, if both More Knowledge and Less Time aren’t going to happen, we scrap it. Both or nothing.

It’s what makes Search Once and Subscribe a must-have practice. It’s why I’ve been suggesting FriendFeed to everyone I meet. It’s why posts like Chris Brogan’s Five Tools I Use for Listening are important to share.

Even blogging (and microblogging) can be a synchronizer to your daily output.

We all have other things to do. Business people are busy (or they should be). Teachers are already strapped for time.

Related:
– The IF, THEN, and NEXT of RSS
– Fears of Blogging: Time
– Porch Your Elevator Pitch
– A Simple Business Case for RSS Feeds

Flickr photo by chinagrrrl

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links for 2008-06-16

By on June 16, 2008 in Whistle Stops with 0 Comments

links for 2008-06-13

By on June 13, 2008 in Whistle Stops with 0 Comments

Is FriendFeed for You…or Your Audience?

By on June 8, 2008 in Blog Coach, Conversations, Social Media with 0 Comments

FriendFeed has fast become the talk of the conversphere this year, much like Twitter was last year’s thing.

Friendfeed_logo
One of the beauties of FriendFeed is that it’s a lifestream of your presence on the Internet. I can follow your blog posts, your Twitter messages (Tweets), your social bookmarks, and even videos or pictures (those you publish AND those you favorite).

As a fan of your "stuff" – your readers can tap into your knowledge and resources by following your FriendFeed. Plus, FriendFeed can also be its own conversation space (and has become quite a bit just that in some areas).

Two quick cases-in-point:

  • Drew McLellan and I set up his FriendFeed in a matter of minutes. We were able to include his blog, his Twitter, and two of the blogs he guest posts on (just his posts). Maybe Drew hasn’t been back to the site. Doesn’t really matter — he’s a pretty busy guy. But, his readership can now follow all he produces in one easy place.
  • Angela Maiers has her FriendFeed stream on her blog’s sidebar. A good portion of her readership is not yet using social bookmarks, yet they can still follow her amazing resource stream via the widget.

There are more reasons than this for using FriendFeed. For now, I’d like to encourage you to open a FriendFeed account (it’s free) – not for you, but for your readers.

Once you open an account, give me a follow and I’ll be happy to follow back (isn’t that a Gwen Stefani song?)

Other FF posts to read:
– Louis Gray’s FriendFeed posts (Follow Louis Gray on FF)
– Mario Sundar’s 5 Reasons to Use FriendFeed (Follow Mario Sundar on FF)
– Beth Kanter’s NonProfits on FriendFeed posts (Follow Beth Kanter on FF)
– Vicki Davis’  Could FriendFeed be used as StudentFeed? (Follow CoolCatTeacher on FF)

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