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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Blabberize Yourself


Are you looking for a way to bring excitement back into your students' writing? Has writing become a process that no longer is attractive for your students?

Have them write scripts for their Blabberized pictures. Doesn't matter if they are people or animals or Martians. Blabberize.com is a site where you can upload a photo and create settings that will enable the mouth to move.

All that you do is upload the photo/picture.  Identify the area that you would like to have move when you create the animation.  Here's a hint. It works best if you pick the whole lower jaw so that it looks like your character is really talking.

Looking for a quick video on how to Blabberize?  Here is one made by one of my students.


How do you use Blabberize?  Can you direct me to an interesting collection of unique blabberized pictures?  Please answer in the comments below.

Z

Friday, April 13, 2012

Engaging Learning Using Emerging Technologies @ IACON 2012

What a wonderful opportunity to speak to the IACON conference in Altoona, Iowa.

Today, I am going to be talking about how we can engage our students using many of the tools that we have online today.

To begin with, our Twitter Hashtag is #IACON2012

You should be able to find the tweets using this hashtag by clicking here.

We also have collaborative notes.  This is a Google Page that is open to the world to edit. It could be more selective, but we are all good people - right? You can find this page at tinyurl.com/iacon12notes 


Readings, Watchings, Listenings and Doings (used by Dr. Z now or recent past)
This are blogs that contain multimedia resources that are to be reviewed and used for the various modules for classes.

Undergraduate: 
Graduate:

Apple - iBooks Author

Diigo.com

WikiBooks

Emerging Instructional Technologies wikibook

TPACKing for a Wonderful Educational Trip wikibook

Audio Feedback to Students

AudioBoo.FM 

Gaming

3DGameLab - Boise State University 


Tuesday, April 10, 2012

1:1 is NOT Enough

We have the privilege to join Iowa's leading educators at the 1-to-1 Institute. This is the third year for this event.  It has been a great success. This year I believe that there are over 1,000 attendees.

We have a whole team of UNI folks who are sharing their ideas.
Using QR Codes in the Elementary Classroom - Joshua Mitchell, Nelson Rokke, Robin Galloway and Dr. Ping Gao.

Here's the schedule for the conference. 

I will be sharing my ideas about how improving education will require much more than just buying hardware for students. Here is my presentation along with some links to the resources that I discuss.

Friday, March 30, 2012

How Do YOU Teach About the AECT Domains/Standards?

AECT Logo
Instructional Technology Educators,

Our Instructional Technology masters program at the University of Northern Iowa is aligned with the ECIT/AECT Standards/Domains. Consequently, learning about these domains is an integral part of one of our initial courses in the program.

We are interested in how you introduce these domains and what you do to make them meaningful to your students. Certainly, your students can read the Januszewski and Molenda book, but do you have videos or activities that you use when you teach the domains.

What do you do?  We would appreciate it if you could share your teaching techniques and tools. I promise to organize and share your responses.

Thank you,

Leigh Zeitz

Leave your ideas in the Comments section below.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

ITEC iPad and Google App Training Coming Soon!!!

ITEC iPad workshop ad
Want to learn tricks about using your iPad?

Looking for tips on engaging your students using Google Apps?

ITEC has found the need and we are filling that need - - - - - - AGAIN!!!

We are presenting workshops throughout Iowa to support educators in integrating these new technologies into their teaching.

Here is the calendar of events:


iPads in the Classroom Training (8:30 - 3:30)
This is a HANDS-ON workshop where you will be introduced to the basics of using iPads in the classroom. Programs will be suggested for you to download before the workshop and we will review using them during our session.

March 24     Cedar Falls @ UNI
March 31     Sioux City
April 14        Cedar Rapids
April 14        Algona
April 21        Decorah
April 28        Nevada

Google Apps in the Classroom Training (8:30 - 3:30)
Another HANDS-ON workshop where you will use and innovate using the Google Apps suite. 



March 31      Nevada


Cost:   ITEC Members   $125         Non Members  $150 (includes Membership)
             Lunch will be provides.

Questions about the workshops?
Contact Andy Crozier (acrozier@gmail.com) or Stacy Behmer (sbehmer@gwaea.org)

Questions regarding payment?
Contact Jeff Sypersma (jsypersma@nwaea.org)

If you have any other questions or comments, leave a comment below.  Have you attended one of the ITEC workshops in the past? What did you think?

Z




Sunday, March 04, 2012

ITEC's IT Conference on March 15 & 16 Tailored for Techees

ITEC Logo
Here it is.  An IT conference specifically designed for Technology and IT Directors.

This is where you can come to learn about Networking, Filtering, Firewalls, Moodle Setup, Google Apps Scripting . . .

This conference is NOT for everyone.  It is for people who have a technical interest in making technology happen in our schools.

When?   March 15 & 16   (Registration Deadline is March 8)
Where?  Ames Middle School in Ames, IA (3915 Mortensen Road)

Here is a list of some of the topics included:
  • Google Technical Deployment and Google Dashboard
  • Google Apps Scripting
  • Filtering and Firewalls
  • Networking (both Basic and Advanced)
  • Moodle Setup, Management, and Modification
  • Virtualization
  • Bring Your Own Desktop panel discussion
  • Deploying Netbooks
  • Deploying Chromebooks
  • iOS Management
  • Apple Lion Server Management and Imaging
  • Wireless solutions
  • School Web site products
  • Open Source Tools
  • How Students Can Provide Technical Support
  • Department of Ed session on SIF integration
  • How to Select Projectors and other A/V Equipment
Here is the grid for the many sessions. Click on the graphic to make it larger to read.  If you want a .pdf version, you can click here for a link to the actual grid of sessions.
Cost
  • ITEC member (1 day)                $65
  • ITEC member (2 days)            $125
  • Non-ITEC member (1 day)        $90
  • Non-ITEC member (2 days)    $150
  • Students                                    $10
Sound interesting?  This is the first of its kind in the state of Iowa.  Come be part of history and build technology skills that you can use immediately.

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Dr. Z Records the Roman South Theater in Jerash.

Photo of Jaresh, Jordan
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