Kiva, A Way for Schools to Give

I have been searching for ways to address the issue of fundraising in school to provide foreign aid and I think KIVA offers a great service to make this possible.  Imagine a school choosing to focus on providing support to real people and actually being able to track the fundraising progress and the results. I love the message Kiva employs by empowering people to help themselves.  So many times money trickles from our fingers and dissappears from sight.  We can only hope that it is being funneled to those in need. Kiva could bring real people into your classroom helping teachers build global connections and to develop global citizens. Just take a look at their mission statement:

 

 

 

 

Podcamp NYC

I have a number of posts in the cue. They reside in the draft folder. This is true for my post on Podcamp NYC08. I attended and facilitated one session at Podcamp NYC last weekend. Chris Penn, the Podcamp Boston originator opened the unconference and a number of volunteer coordinators managed the event including Whitney Hoffman and John C. Havens. In sum I think I made some inspirational connections and I think a few people feel they picked up useful tips from my session. I will update this post to include a list of my new contacts, their podcast/blog URLs and some helpful tips to would be podcasters from my new friend Brad P. so don’t be too surprised when the long awaited RSS feed drops into your aggregator. I plan to make some headway this weekend.

If you are a teacher then you know how time accelerates in the last few weeks of school. You begin to wonder how you can possibly get everything done in such a short window of time. Ughh, exhausting isn’t it?

Person John C. Havens

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Backchanneling, Twittering, and Being in the Know

I recently read a post on Durff’s blog about backchanneling that got me thinking.  I would like to know if anyone is writing the insiders guide to backchanneling?!  Are there any rules, suggestions or websites that will help an infrequent twitterer, backchanneler or newbie become an insider? If there is a guide, who would be qualified to write such a thing? I mean are there self-proclaimed experts and authorities? The reason I ask is because I am wondering who are the authorities I should be listening to?  If there are indeed edtech authorities, on what merit did they become edtech leaders in the global sense?  What makes their contributions bar-setting revelations?  What have they contributed to the edtech dialogue?  What makes someone a voice for the edtech masses?  Is there a litmus test?  How do experts choose the people they accredit with certain accomplishments or cutting edge thinking.  How can we find out about all of the wonderful leaders in edtech who remain buried in the morass of backchanneling, twittering, chatting and more. There are frankly so many voices out there on the net it makes me wonder.  I feel there may be untapped circles of expertise that I am not yet aware of.  Will the real edtech authorities please stand up and be counted!

http://durffsblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/backchanneling-101.html

Sprout, the Growth of Ideas, Ideals and Children

There is a very interesting new tool on the scene, Sprout! It has some wonderful built in Flash. I discovered it by way of Chip-In. Sprout has a Chip-In feature. In efort to raise awareness and support for the SpringsAlive Community in Uganda I decided to use Sprout to build an Advocacy Widget.  You can see the embed on the Springs Alive blog.  For some reason I haven’t been able to get the code to work here but is posts smoothly to blogger.  See for your self.

new small voices vodcast on podomatic

I just completed editing and posting episode 31 of small voices.  This is my third annual play based on a piece of childrens’ literature.  A friend and coworker of mine, Heidi Holcomb, soon to be EdS in EdTech loaned me a containing examples of literature illustrating the butterfly effect.  I wondered how readily my students would make the connection between the cats in our story and the safety of the island. They listened intently to the tale.  I told the initially to listen carefully to see if they could solve the problem on the island. They each wanted to be the one to find the answer! Stories can be excellent teachers when students assume a role/purpose within the context of the a book.

My role was to ask questions and to help the students take ownership of the play. I call it a play but in reality it would take months to be able to produce this kind of thing sequentially and before an audience. Videotaping is the answer.  It enables the teacher to reduce each the play to scenes or even parts when filming. With 18 enthusiastic kindergarteners, the rule is divide and conquer!  Parental help is key as is a mind reading assistant.  I had both!  See for yourself. The editing is so so but I think you’ll agree, the movie is a living lesson for these children.

I found this lesson plan today based on the book I used.  Some of you may find this helpful in creating your own plans.

Teacher can hinder learning, agreed?

 http://www.cea-ace.ca/media/en/AntiTeaching_Spring08.pdf

Read this recently published article from Education Canada by Michael Wesch and challenge yourself to consider the possibility that teaching hinders learning.

Wonderful Project HP & Brian C Smith Support Teacher Innovation

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mst-portal

This is a wonderful example of what children can be motivated to produce with guidance from motivated teachers! This is by far the best example I have see thus far of teacher,

student and technology integration/collaboration at the elementary level. I am very encouraged by Brian’s work on this project and plan to get more details from him, show parts of the recorded video to my staff and hopefully inspire this kind of innovation at my own school.

Brian’s project also has a wiki: http://pondpartners.wikispaces.com/

This incredible collaboration shows teachers how they can develop a strong interest in science investigation among students, compassion for the environment, the use tech tools such as probes to collect data, ELA skills of documentation, the excitement of project based learning and collaboration across grade levels.

This is possible. This is what we should be striving for. Please, can we move beyond dioramas and posters. Think big! Use Multi-media and empower students to educate the world!

Upgrades to WordPress Interface

Deja vu! I used the snipping tool in Vista to show you the new interface for the posting page.  I almost missed the simple new add image, video, audio button on the right, above the post window. very nice because you can upload and  insert the image in one action. There is also a new toggle for full screen mode to expand your view of the work area.  Space upgrades are available as well.  I am a satisfied user

Rivers of Communication

I live near the Chattahoochee River in Georgia. It originates as a spring in the North Georgia mountains and empties into the Gulf of Mexico in Apalachicola, Florida. I have always admired the natural beauty of the river. It offers a peaceful respite from the noisy commotion of daily life. My children know this better than most. They are rowers and have spent countless hours honing their crew skills through daily practice with the team. It was crew that led us to Chattanooga for weekend, a scrimmage with the Baylor School. The races were held on the Tennessee River. Looking up river at the boats with the backdrop of mountains covered by mist created an ethereal setting. I love rivers. My husband and I stayed in town for the night and we watched, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk a 3D IMAX film. It was about river conservation ( a little preachy) but stunning scenery. Apparently climate change is only one of the many problems facing rivers. Dams are another significant problems contributing to global warming according to International Rivers, who protect the vitality of rivers and defend the people who rely on them around the world. Here is a quote from their website:

Dams as climate polluters

Scientific studies indicate that dams and reservoirs are globally significant sources of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and, in particular, methane. The latest estimate published in a peer-review journal is that dams and reservoirs are responsible for almost a quarter of all human-caused methane emissions. This 104 million tonnes of dam methane equals 4-5% of all human-caused warming.

An interesting statistic and that made me think. Atlanta is a booming area as is Los Vegas. Neither city is growing in proportion to water availability. The cities continue growing and increasing demand on a finite supply of water. Similar problems are occurring around the world. It’s like running up huge credit card debt without any way to pay repay it.

So why this sudden interest in rivers? Upon returning to Atlanta, my email contained a note from an old friend from my sophomore year at the American School of London. We’d lost touch for oh, I guess about 30 years! How amazing that the internet provides a river of information and we were able to reconnect. Dams to communication have been removed. As it happens Tim Kingston is actively involved in the International Rivers organization. He is an activist with a passion for rivers, water, the source of life!

United Nations = Facebook?

Why do I find this announcement somewhat disturbing and unsettling? Perhaps I am not seeing the big picture. Bill Gates suggests that countries will eventually mandate citizens to have FB accounts with 200 contacts each. I don’t know about you but why do I want a group of political leaders in charge of my personal info? Frankly I think I’m more comfortable with one private company. What do you think? I guess I’m just naturally suspicious but I smell a rat.

clipped from www.tomhcanderson.com United Nations to Acquire Facebook March 31st, 2008 � 3 Comments Bill Gates announced today that the Gates Foundation would settle the US debt to the United Nations, with back interested, through a proposed acquisition of Facebook, Inc. for $14.75 billion - the portion not already purchased by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) last year.According to Gates, “Social Networking Software has too much potential for both good and evil to be left in the hands of just one company under or one single government”. He feels that by leveraging Facebook.com, youth all over the world can become friends with each other and thus learn of each others differences and similarities. “This is the first step in eliminating poverty and war” said Gates, adding that “together with my Laptop for Every Child program, we can finally envision a world where empathy and peace win out over greed and competition.”