Dr. Z Records the Roman South Theater in Jerash.

Traveling to Jordan was a wonderful experience. You will find my musings and reporting in previous and subsequent postings. Believe it or not, I after 5 days of non-stop conferencing, consulting, broadcasting and schmoozing, I had a day to play tourist. I wanted to go to Petra, but It was a 3-hour drive each way which meant 6 hours in the car on my only day off. Therefore I decided to join my friends, Andrew and ??, in a visit to Jerash. 50 Kilometers north of Amman, it was only an hour drive to the location. It is known for its Greco-Roman ruins. It was conquered by the Romans in 63 BC and absorbed into the Roman province of Arabia in 90 AD. We visited a number of the ruins including the Hadrian's Arch, Hippodrome, South Gate, Zeus Temple and the South Theatre. We enjoyed the Hippodrome and Arch but I was really interested in the South Theatre.

This amphitheater has some of the best acoustics around.  Stand in the center of the stage in a selected square meter and you will find yourself in the "sweet spot."  It is designed that if you even whisper from that location you will be heard from throughout the theatre. This theater will seat up to 3,000 spectators. It is still used for some concerts and events.

Here is a video I made of a couple of performing Jordanian musicians.  It was amazing to see the number of bagpipers I bumped into during that week.



While standing there, Andrew urged me to sing my song about writing ABCD objectives.  here it is. At long last you will be able to see/hear a recording of Dr. Z singing "Are You Going to Write Objectives?"  The best part is that it is being sung in a Roman Amphitheatre
in the middle of Jordan. This must be serious!  BTW, notice how far away Andrew was from Dr. Z when he was signing this. There was no microphone, just the incredible acoustics.


So it's a little flat . . . it's the thought that counts. 

I hope that you enjoy these videos. It's just the beginning of my Jordan report.  Give me some feedback. What do you want to know?

Z

#3 - Empowering Students' Learning Through Technology workshop

The third of three workshops in the Technology-Empowered Learning workshop on 23 February, 2012 in Amman, Jordan.  This workshop is being presented to a group of TVET teachers and administrators. It is primarily designed to use the Florida Technology Integration Matrix to identify how technology is being used and how it can be expanded.

There will be some handouts that will not be posted until tonight.

The Empowering Students' Learning through Technology slideshow (in English)

Empower Students Through Technology

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Here is the slideshow in Arabic:

Empowering Students' Learning Through Technology (in Arabic)

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Resources used in the workshop:

• Technology Integration Matrix (Florida DOE) - 5 x 5 matrix used to identify how a learning experience fits into the Technology Integration and Classroom Characteristics criteria.
• Technology Integration Matrix (Florida DOE) - Arabic Translation (by Google Translate)

#2 - Creating and Using Problem-Based Learning in the TVET Classroom workshop

As the second workshop in the Technology-Empowered Learning workshop series I am giving here in Amman, Jordan, this workshop will be a hands-on experience where the attendees will actually go through the process of identifying a topic, authoring an essential question, designing a plan, and finishing the project with an external presentation.

This workshop includes some handouts that will be attached to this page in .pdf format (but maybe not until tonight.)

Here is the slideshow in English

Creating and Using Problem-Based Learning in a TVET Classroom

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Here is the slideshow in Arabic

Creating and Using Problem-Based Learning in a TVET Classroom (in Arabic)

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Resources used during the workshop:

• Buck Institute for Education - Valuable resource for PBL. The handouts for this workshop are based upon these resources.
• High Tech High School video -  See how PBL is fully integrated into the educational system.
• Brain-based Research - Good overview of the field.

How do you use PBL in your teaching?  Please share your experiences and resources.

Z

Broadcasting from Jordan

Even traveling to the other side of the world will not keep Dr. Z from his students. It is amazing that tonight I used three different formats of teleconferencing to connect between Amman, Jordan and Cedar Falls. This was all through my computer sitting in my hotel room.

My first electronic encounter was with my Classroom Computer Applications undergraduate class at the University of Northern Iowa.  I didn't want to teach a class from here, but wanted to provide my students with the opportunity to video conference with someone in the Middle East, me.  As you will see, I am here at a conference.

Jordan is 8 hours ahead of Cedar Falls, so if my students met for their 2:00 pm class it would be 10:00 pm here.  The content of this connection was yet to be determined, but it turned out quite well.

Sitting in the room with me were my colleagues: Andrew Thompson (Indonesia) and Aziz Aljardan (Saudi Arabia) were at my side when I Skyped back to our Technology Methods Lab in SEC 127 at the University of Northern Iowa.

Things went wonderfully well. Aside from my lousy backlighting, the connection was flawless (Thanks Rachel) and ideas flowed freely. Unfortunately, I didn't record the first half of the broadcast but we held introductions and my friends shared what they were doing here with my students.

We recorded the second half of the meeting and I am happy to share it with you.  Please watch this video and then share your reactions to it in the comments below.



This Skype video conference was followed by a 3-way video conference with my colleagues, Robin Galloway and Jason Vetter where we planned an upcoming meeting.

Fortuitously, my wife, Kathy, followed trend with a Google chat and Skype session.

The possible connections for individuals in today's world are incredible.

BTW, my Jordan adventure is occurring on many levels of experience. I will be sharing them with ou but in no particular order of sequence.

I look forward to your replies.

Z

#1 - Trends in ICT Education in the USA workshop

On Thursday, Feb 23, I will be presenting a 75-min workshop, Trends in ICT Education in the USA as a follow-up day of workshops for the Conference on Vocational Training in Amman, Jordan. This will be part of an all-day workshop entitled Technology-Empowered Learning.

Here is the SlideShare.net English Version.

Trends in ICT Education in the USA

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Here are the resources mentioned during the workshop:

• Seminar Wiki - Find and contribute resources used in this presentation.
• Ms Noor's blog - Active Jordanian secondary computer teacher's blog,Me, My PLN and Ed Tech Blog. 

Technology-Powered Learning

On Monday, Feb 20, I will be presenting a 30-min talk on Technology-Powered Learning at the Conference on Vocational Training in Amman, Jordan. This will be an exciting opportunity to share and discuss ideas for 21st Century Learning and Technology Education with educators from 20 countries.

Here is the SlideShare.net English Version

Technology-Powered Learning

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Here is the SlideShare.net Arabic Version

Technology-Powered Learning (in Arabic)

View more presentations from Leigh Zeitz

Resources mentioned in the presentation:

• Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology (.pdf)
• The Arab Millennials (.pdf)
• Readings, Watchings, Listenings and Doings (RWLD)
• Connectivism (Connected Knowledge)
•  iGoogle

If you have additional resources, please leave them as comments below.

Z

Dr. Z Presents on New Ideas in Vocational and Technical Training in Amman, Jordan

Believe it or not, I was invited to visit Amman, Jordan this week to give some presentations and workshops at the Conference of Vocational Training: Advanced Models on Training, Business, and Governance for the Vocational Training Corporation. This is a conference that is supported by Jordan's Ministry of Labor as well as the Malaysian UTHM consultants. There should be about 100 attendees from many countries from the Middle East and south-east Asia. The goal of this meeting is to work with Jordan (and other countries) to re-envision their Technical and Vocational Education Training programs in their high schools. 

This will be a two-day conference where we will have keynote speakers and then breakout sessions where 4 panelists will speak for 30 minutes each and then have 60 minutes of Q&A. The tricky part is that English is not the basic language for the conference. Arabic is the language of choice. This means that my presentations will be translated into Arabic and distributed to those who would like them. Only the keynote presenters will have simultaneous translation while the panelists' presentations will not.  This should be interesting to see how many of attendees will understand what I will be saying in English.  The REAL challenge will be to see if my jokes transfer.  Well, people don't understand most of my humor in English anyway so at least this time there will be a reason for them not laughing.   =-)

My presentation which I will give on Monday, Feb 20 is called "Technology-Powered Learning."  I will be talking about creating engaging and enabling learning environments for today's vocational students. This will include a discussion of the Millennial generation and how to best address their learning needs. While most of the research on the Millennial generation has been done in the Western world, it appears (both in the research and in casual observation) that the 12-30 year old generation is quite similar in how they are "plugged into" their environment. I will also be sharing ways that vocational education might be made more relevant to the 21st century workplace by implementing collaborative problem-based learning curriculum.

I will be providing 3 workshops. They involve Trends in ICT in the USA, Creating and Using  Problem-Based Learning in the TVET (Technology and Vocational Education Training) Classroom, and Exploring New Opportunities in Technology-Based Learning,  I will post these in English and Arabic as they come available.

The trip over here and the wonderful assortment of new colleagues from around the world have been quite exciting. I will try to blog the events as they transpire or soon afterwards so that you may enjoy them with me.  I will begin this travelogue in my next post.

I will have to warn you that I tend to be a terrible blogger when traveling because I am usually too involved in the experience to take time to write about it.

I will be Skyping with my Classroom Computer Applications class on Tuesday at 2:00 CST (10 PM Jordan Time).

Keep in touch and leave comments if there are specific things you want to know or see through me.

Z