High Techpectations

New Ning for NECC 2008

Steve Hargadon, the one man ed tech machine, has created a new ning online community for people interested in the National Educational Computing Conference. Check it out and join today! You do not need to be an ISTE member or even attending the conference to be a member, and this should be a useful tool for following the conference wherever you are.

Steve also has a new post up on his blog and cross-posted at the Infinite Thinking Machine on his Classroom 2.0 unconference series. He just hosted a second informal ed tech get together in Phoenix and reports that it went very well. One is being organized for Chicago this fall, and hopefully Steve will have more details to post about this shortly!

NECC 2008 via kwout

Official Google Blog: Your vote matters

Link: Official Google Blog: Your vote matters.

Take a minute to peek at the impressive results of the Doodle 4 Google project. Kids really turned out some creative, thoughtful and fun doodles, answering the open-ended question, "What if....?". The best submissions are posted and for the next six days, the general public can vote for their favorite doodle in each category. The final winner's doodle will be posted on Google's homepage on May 22.

Weblogg-ed » Amazing Add-on for Blogs: Apture

Link: Weblogg-ed » Amazing Add-on for Blogs: Apture.

Just added Apture, not to be confused with Apple's Aperture, to my blog after reading Will Richardson's post today. If you look at my blog directly, and not through an RSS reader, you'll see little icons next to some hyperlinked text. These icons indicated that I've linked to additional media using this cool little doodad.

Apture is a widget that allows a blogger to add assorted links and media to anything on their blog. I just added the widget with a click in Typepad, but some people may have to posted a snippet of HTML code if they use another blogging service. Once I added Apture, I visited my blog, and a couple of windows popped up. One is a control window for editing my blog pages in Apture, and the other was a quick video tutorial on Apture. Without going in and editing the body of my blog posts, I add links and additional content to my blog. All I have to do is highlight some text and a window appears allowing me to select this stuff. It's really a different interface for editing my blog.

Some people responded in Will's blog comments that this should be used judiciously as these pop up windows can be annoying when reading a blog. I don't think these windows to be as irritating as Snapshots as they are easily expanded or collapsed. Many people have also commented that this add-on would be useful with content-driven webpages used with students. It's an effective way of annotating text and providing support for students with digesting material.

Official Google Blog: Celebrating National Teacher Day

Link: Official Google Blog: Celebrating National Teacher Day.

BIG announcement from the Googleplex today! After a brief hiatus, the famed Google Teachers Academies are resuming. The next one will be at the end of June at the main corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California. ANYONE can apply; you just have to get yourself there. Apply now, as the application window is only open a short time. This is truly a special opportunity for teachers to see the famed Googleplex AND to have the opportunity to network with other professional interested in educational innovation.

Also, there's a set of pages that complement Google's exisiting set of educational materials.  This subsite is called Geo Education. Check it out!

Official Gmail Blog: 2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address

Link: Official Gmail Blog: 2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address.

I was scrambling last night during my preso to find this post, which turned out to be in the official Gmail blog, not to be confused with the official Google blog. This post explains ho to make an alias to your own Gmail account, which is one way to create accounts for your students.

Also, make shure you check out Alec Courosa's screencast of how to do this.

Google in Education Presentation: NLU Symposium Version

Here's yet another version of my Google in Education presentation, slightly customized for a National-Louis University event in Wheeling, Illinois. It's embedded from Slideshare, and you can embed this as well in your web site or download the presentation from Slideshare in PDF form. To make things a bit easier, I'm uploading a PDF copy; many resources cited are not underlined, but are clickable and will lead you to the relevant website. Click here to download the PDF:

Download NLUGoogle.pdf

Lots of people came out to hear NLU prof Randy Hansen give an overview of Web 2.0 applications. I followed Randy and demonstrated some of the lesser known coolness regarding Google products. My favorite things to demonstrate are Google Book Search, adding books to My Library, and finding items in WorldCat. I also love showing subscribing to feeds from Google News and how to collaborate on and edit a Google map. The list could go on and on!

Interestingly, I asked people during the presentation who had heard of Google Earth, and I'm guesstimating that perhaps 15 people out of the 50 audience members raised their hands.  I continue to be surprised by the number of people who aren't familiar with these resources; it speaks to the need for continued awareness raising about the potential power of technology in education.

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Steve Dembo's Edublogger Quiz

Kristin Hokanson shared this via Twitter this morning and it's hilarious. Typical Steve Dembo humor permeates this embeddable quiz. This is a nice tool for using with classroom blogs, too.

Dipping Your Toe in the RSS Feed River

Here's a blurb from an ReadWriteWeb blog post that echoes what I was saying to session attendees at the ICE COLD mini-conference today. Don't even try to keep up, but think of your RSS reader as a pool of information that you dip into when you have time or the inclination! Click on the image to read the entire article.

Seven Tips for Making the Most of Your RSS Reader - ReadWriteWeb via kwout

2008 ICE COLD Mini-Conference

Here are my slides for today's presentation. I've given this preso a few times, and each time I tweak it a bit for the particular audience.

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Track the Torch in Google Earth and Maps

Check this out!  You can track the Olympic torch via Google Earth and Google Maps. Today it was in Argentina!