Wikis and Blogs and VoiceThread . . . Oh My!

Image via Wikipedia

Wondering how you can make your presentations more interesting?  Trying to make your projects in class more interactive?  Here are some resources:

Wikis: 

• Wikis in Plain English
•  Wiki Resource Page on Active Web 2.0 page
• WikiSpaces.com 

Blogs 

• Blogs in Plain English 
• Blogging Resources Page on Active Web 2.0 page
• Blogging Examples
• Blogger.com

VoiceThread

• What's a VoiceThread Anyway? video
• Millennals and Their Learning Styles
• eRacism voicethread
• VoiceThread.com

How Do I Move to an Inquiry-Based Form of Teaching/Learning?

Inquiry-based learning seems to be a buzz word in the curriculum overhaul movement of today. I think that most teachers can explain the overall idea of inquiry-based as a method which replaces memorization with a learning experience that engages students to learn by questioning. The question is how many educators can use their present knowledge-base to transfer their existing coursework into a bone fide inquiry-based learning experience?  I am not certain that I can do it.

My Instructional Technology university courses don't usually include much paper and pencil testing.  Most of them involve hands-on learning with projects that apply to the students' professional lives and pursuits. This hopefully makes their work more relevant and they are definitely problem-based, but I am not certain that I am posing the problems in a way that would be considered Inquiry-based.

I am tired of hearing and talking platitudes about changing our educational system from a memorization-based learning experience to a student-engaging learning environment which challenges students to answer problems and convert information and data into useful knowledge. Is there a system for this conversion? Is there a checklist to better identify an inquiry-based system? Is there a premise for the questioning system that needs to be used to optimize this system?

It is difficult for a university professor to acknowledge his ignorance in an area of study where he is supposed to be proficient, but I don't think that I understand the formalized world of inquiry-based/project-based/challenge-based learning.  I know that it is more than doing projects. There is a level of cognitive development that needs to be nurtured to optimize the learning experience for students AND teachers.

I may have a better understanding of Inquiry-based learning than I am admitting here, but I just wanted you to know that I am beginning a pursuit to better understand and implement inquiry-based learning in my courses.

What do you know about inquiry-based/project-based/challenge-based learning?  What resources can you suggest? Are you using this format? What are you doing?

Thanks for your thoughts and support.

Z


photo: flickr.com/MarcoBelluci

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Our Students are Tomorrow's Change Agents

Recently, Magda Galloway blogged about students feeling like they can make a difference. She explained about how we completed our Educational Technology and Design undergrad class with a lecture on "Being a Change Agent in Your School."

This was an interesting way to bring closure to the class. We posted some polls in the CoverItLive backchannel that we ran during the lecture. It was interesting to see that 75% of our students thought that they would be change agents in their schools. 25% of them said that they weren't ready to be change agents. None of the students in the backchannel said that they wouldn't be change agents.

Read Magda's post to learn more of the specifics: Being a Change Agent AKA the Status Quo Sucks!

Innovating Education

Innovating Education is an opportunity for Dr. Z to discuss with UNI colleagues their visions, successes, anticipations and fears of creating learning environments to address the needs of the first digital generation, the Millennials.

One of the tools that we will be using during this hour-long experience will be a backchannel using the CoverItLive utility. It provides an on-going chat that will allow students to discuss the topics with each other while Dr. Z is exploring the topic.

The presentation will be going from noon to 12:50 CST. You are welcome to join in the discussion if you wish no matter where you are in the world. Please chime in.



You will be able to access the slideshow and resources that are mentioned in the discussion at the Innovating Education wiki.

Watch the Earth Shake and Twitter About It!!!!

Just heard about a 7.2 earthquake in Baja California through Twitter.  Can you believe that a friend was on a golf course in Palm Springs when she felt the shake. First thing she did was twitter this incident to her tweet-network. Next thing I knew, there were tweets from Palm Springs, San Diego and Orange County. One tweeter mentioned that he was following the LA County Fire Dept's tweets as they responded to earthquake news. (@lacfd) 

Anywho, I was looking for immediate information about the quake and I found the IRIS Seismic Monitor map. This is OUTSTANDING!!!!  Click on the map above (after you finish reading this posting and leave your comment) and it will take you to their live map of the latest seismic activity around the world. The color of the rings indicates the recency and the size of the rings indicate the magnitude. See the Big Red in the California region?

Click on these buttons to access informative educational resources:

Earthquake Headlines - takes you to the latest Google News about earthquakes;

Special Events - leads you to the Recent Earthquake Teachable Moments page on the IRIS site.

Education Links - links you to the IRIS page on their website that is filled with instructional resources.

This page is a lucky find. Do you see how you might use it in your teaching?

Share your thoughts with us.

Z

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Photo: IRIS Seismic (iris.edu/seismon)

You CAN Work Less - the Research Proves It!

Nice Mantra! Work Smarter, NOT Harder.

We have all heard about this idea that we need to be be smart about how we work. The only problem is that I consider myself pretty smart but I still find myself working ALL the time. That's not smart.

I recently read Matthew E. May's posting about How to Work Less and Do Better." He describes the same questions about what working smarter means. The great things is that he goes beyond wondering and cites a couple of studies that show working less can actually increase your productivity. One study tested the level of productivity for a Boston Consulting Group if their consultants took "predictable time off" every week. That is one uninterrupted evening free each week after 6 p.m. No work and no Blackberrys. Interestingly enough, their productivity increased and satisfaction improved.

Another study involved Lance Armstrong reorganizing his six hour workouts to well-planned four-hour workouts that achieved more. His 7-year record of wining the Tour de France is evidence of his success.

I must admit that lately I have been taking short breaks from my typical 15-hour work days. It doesn't mean that I don't still do 15-hour work days, but I do less of them. I tend to take all of Saturday off and sometimes don't even look at email. Believe it or not, I was at a conference where I went 4 days without checking email. Quite relieving, but I had 400 unanswered emails when I returned to the grid - It was worth it.

What about you? What is your work schedule? How do you give yourself a break? Do you give yourself a break?

You should.

Z


Related Posts.

Off the Grid and Lovin' It!

Complex Answers for Simple Problems? Thanks, Rube Goldberg

Automatic soup cooler (blog.tmcnet.com)

Albert Einstein once stated "Everything should be made as simple as possible but no simpler." That's nice, but not fun.
I have been a long time fan of Rube Goldberg. It is all about finding a round about solution to a problem. I like that. The Webster's New World Dictionary defines Rube Goldberg as a comically involved complicated invention, laboriously contrived to perform a simple operation.

That's called FUN!!!!

There is a certain charm and challenge in finding complex solutions. I remember building Revell plastic models of some of these solutions when I was 10 years old. Here's one for giving a baby a bottle.

This can be quite motivating to challenge your students to design these ideas. Purdue University has sponsored a Rube Goldberg Machine Contest since 1949. In 2007, high schools were allowed to join in the competition. These competitions build young engineers which integrates with their STEM program.

The 2010 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is challenging students to find a way to dispense an appropriate amount of hand sanitizer into a hand.

Here is a video of what some call the most complex Goldberg machine ever made. I don't know about that, but it certainly takes up this person's whole house so I wonder what this developer does for a real life.





Rube Goldberg has even made it big with the rock group OK Go. This video, This Too Shall Pass, is ingenious and more fun!!!





I just found a video about Gerberich's Gadgetry that isn't completely Rube Goldbergish but close enough to share here. Stephen Gerberich (originally from Iowa) posts his stuff on this Gerb - o - Matic website. He has displays in museums all over the country. A good introduction to his work is his motionclip.

Here is a link to his video archives.

Below is a 3-minute interview with the vodcast, Rocketboom.




Are you using Rube Goldberg-like projects with your students?
What have they created?
How are you integrating this with your curriculum?


Z

6-Word Stories - R Enough

6-word stories could be considered eXtreme short stories. It is said that Ernest Hemmingway once proclaimed his 6-word story, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn.", as his best work.

Wired Magazine asks sci-fi, fantasy and horror writers to write their own 6-word short stories.

• The sun explodes . . . eight minutes left. - Maximus

Pete Berg launched a Six Word Stories blog in Dec, 2008. This is where he stores thousands of 6-word stories. He has these catagorized by subject and author. It is possible to submit your own and receive comments from the readers.

• For Sale: Guitar. No strings attached. - Mathijs hoitsma

Visual six-word story group project on Flickr

• Bearded pensioner held over yuletide breakins - 5/10

Writing 6-word stories is not easy. You must first envision an event or tale that you want to tell. Then you whittle away the words it would take to convey your ideas about this story. Finally, you have the true essence of your dissertation.

Here is my first feeble attempt:

Blog posting today: six-word stories. - Dr. Z

What have you, can you, will you write in 6 words?

Have you used this in your classes? I met a teacher at my Google Teacher Certification class, but don't remember his name. He was doing some wonderous things with his students.

Please share your ideas on this.

Z

Dr. Z's Creative Cookbook for Collaborative Communication - WEMTA Keynote

Today, from approximately 9:20 - 10:45 CDT, Dr. Z will be giving a keynote presentation, Dr. Z's Creative Cookbook for Collaborative Communication, at the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association conference in Baraboo, WI.

We will experimenting with some audience involvement tools during this presentation:

Chat: We will also use CoverItLive (an open chat system) to allow those watching the presentation to participate in a backchannel discussion about what they are seeing. These participants will be both at the conference and at distant locations.

Twitter: Comments about the presentation can also be made using Twitter. Include the hashtag, #wemta , in your message and it will be automatically added to the CoverItLive conversation.

Video: We plan to broadcast the presentation through the internet using Ustream. This will allow viewers from around the world to enjoy the presentation.

Below are links to the CoverItLive and Ustream and connections. Just click on them and you should be able to get started in the experience. Share the word with your friends and let's see if we can get people from all over the world involved.

Cover It Live discussion for Dr. Z's "Creating a PLN" presentation at WEMTA

Begin by visiting our Presentation Wiki. It is filled with links for PLNs.

Here is a link to the CoverItLive online conversation that we will have during our presentation Using Web 2.0 Tools to Create Your PLN.

Below is the session window for the discussion that will be held during Dr. Z's presentation. You just need to click on the circle in the center of the window and it should open a window where you can enter your name and then enter your comments.

Begin by saying "Hello" to everyone and your city of origin.
Good luck. If you have any problems, turn to your neighbor. Together you can figure it out.

Z

P.S. The presentation will begin at 10:15 but the discussion will officially begin at 10:00 AM

TWITTER FEEDS: We have enabled this discussion to capture Twitter feeds with the HashTags:
#wemta
#wemtapln

As you may know, wemta are the initials for this conference "Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association". Include either of these in your twitter postings and they should appear here.

Creating Audio Spelling Tests Using MS Word

I just learned about an incredibly useful tool that is hidden in MS Word 2008 for the Mac. This is the Notebook Layout view. Looking at the image to the left, it doesn't look too special, but looks can be deceiving.

A friend of mine was looking for a way to create an audio recorded spelling list that students could use to test themselves on their spelling words. I thought that Word had this capability but I couldn't find it. Found my answer when I asked my technology guru, Rob Galloway. He suggested that I try the Notebook Layout view.

The Notebook Layout view for Mac Office is designed to work something like OneNote in the Windows world. It's greatest asset is that it includes a recording capability. This means that when you open a page to take notes, you can also turn on an audio recorder. The audio recorder records the speaker and then aligns it with your notes. That means that when you return to your notes, you can click anywhere on the page and it will playback the audio track of what the speaker was saying when you took those notes.

Pretty cool, eh? But that isn't why I am writing this posting.

I did a little experimenting and I realized that I could use this audio tool to create an auditory spelling list. The students would open the page that was designed for this week's spelling list. They would click on the Play button and then the voice would begin saying the spelling words for the student. The student could then type the words on the page and finally check them to see if they are correct. The student has complete control to pause in between words or go back to the beginning.

Another idea: It would be an interesting idea to use this tool to create one of these pages for each of the spelling lists in a spelling book. You could then distribute these 30-page documents (one for each week's spelling list) to your students at the beginning of the school year and they could use this each week to test themselves. (I know that this is a low-end application for technology but fits into some curricula.)

I could try to explain how this works, but I probably wouldn't be too successful. Here is a Jing video that demonstrates how to do this.

What do you think? Do you use this Word OneNote-like capability? If so, what do you do?

Z

. . . and now for something completely different!!!

I used this video by Steve Vai as an example video from YouTube when I was teaching my students how to embed a video into their blog. I fully intended to remove this video at a later time because it didn't really have much to do with educational technology.

After watching the video I realized what an awesome guitarist Vai is and how well he has orchestrated his group to support him. I decided that it has everything to do with educational technology so decided to leave it in.

Besides, this is MY blog and I, Dr. Z, am Reflecting!!!!!

Exceptional Skype Video by Silvia Tolisano

I was just reading Wesley Fryer's blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity when I found his reference to Silvia Tolisano's amazing video, Around the World with Skype.

This 20-minute video is the ultimate instructional Skype video. It begins with introducing Skype and telling you how to get online. She then provides a format for connecting with other classrooms, authors, and experts from around the world. This was enlightening. She wasn't just providing rules, sharing her proven methods along with examples of connections that she and her students had made around the world. AND she has created it in both English and Spanish.

Silvia Tolisano has an international project, Around the World with 80 Schools. I must admit that I don't know much about this yet because I just signed up to join the wiki and learn more about the project. I will definitely blog about this later.

I was most impressed by the quality of the informative and instructional video. Ms. Tolisano appears to have used the digital storytelling process where she recorded the narrative first and then found visuals to accompany them. I especially liked what appeared to be original photos where she posed a wooden doll to illustrate a number of ideas that she was discussing.

I am quite pleased to have found Silvia Tolisano and look forward to following her projects.

What have you found to support using Skype in your classroom?

photo and video: Sylvia Tolisano

Phished Through Twitter

I am embarrassed to admit but I was just Phished through Twitter. I must admit that I don't understand how a Twitter Phishing excursion works, but it is a problem.

About 2:00 this afternoon, I was having problems sending tweets. It suggested that I wait 60 minutes and try again. I waited, tried and failed. Then I waited another 60 minutes, tried and failed. I just couldn't tweet or Direct Message.

I began receiving Direct Messages from followers suggesting that I change my password because I had been phished. I changed my password immediately. Reviewing my sent DMs, I found a stream of DMs that my account had sent to my followers.

Mashable reported that the Twitter Phishing attack began on Feb 20. It begins when you receive a tweet that says "lol, is this you?" and it links to a site called "Bzpharma". DON'T GO THERE!!! If you go there and enter your information, you will be the brunt of a huge spam assault. The virus will also go through your followers list and attack them with Direct Messages that will include a link to that phishing website.

I don't remember clicking on a Direct Message like this. I have seen this virus come through email so I am careful about this.

However it happened, to all of you who received this virus DM,

I AM SORRY!

I still don't have access to Twitter. I see why they have shut down any of the infected accounts. I have contacted the Twitter Support people about this and will wait for their reply.

Tweet Safe and DON'T take the Phishing bait!!!

What have been your experiences with Twitter Phishing?

Z

Photo: flickr.com/ToastyKen

Animoto is AWESOME!

Creating a mash-up anytime soon? Watch the video above before reading any further.

Animoto may well be your tool of choice.

Animoto is an online video production application that was released in 2007. It is simple and effective. Animoto has turned video creation into a 3-step process:

1. Upload photos/videos - You upload the files from your computer.
2. Select music - Selecting music is easy. They provide a wide selection of music licensed under Creative Commons. This means that the artists WANT you to use their music for free as long as you acknowledge them - and Animoto does. You can also upload your own music if you wish.
3. Process the video - Now it's time for Animoto to select the transitions. Then it scrambles and cooks your video into a tasty media jewel.

Control freaks don't need to go completely off the handle. There are Video Tools that allow you to rearrange the clips/photos as needed. You can add text as slides all unto themselves. If you don't like the transitions, you can click the 1-Button Remix button to have it re-mash your photos (I have a re-mash at the end of this posting. It is the same photos in the same order but the transitions are different.)

Best thing is that you can share it from the Animoto website or through social media, email and even YouTube or SmugMug. Yes, you can even download it as a standalone video file. If you don't want to deal with any of this, they will mail you a DVD for $22 which seems a bit overpriced.

This program isn't designed for creating your typical educational video because it doesn't appear that you can overdub a narrative. Never-the-less, if you want to share a bunch of video resources. This is quick, easy and good quality.

Bernie Dodge tweets that they use Animoto for creating a curricular music video in the Tech for Teachers class at San Diego State University.

• 
  
• 
  
• What do you use for video editing? Have you used Animoto?
• Can you share some links for videos that you or your students have made?
• How are you using video production in your curriculum.

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Professor Destroys Laptop as a Warning for Students

Talk about an ego-maniacal professor. This professor has serious issues with student-based learning. Watch the video above and you will see Kieran Mullen, a physics professor at the University of Oklahoma, bathe a laptop in Liquid Nitogen and then shatter the computer on the floor with the threat, "Don't bring laptops and work on them in class!"

What does this mean? Why is he scared of students bringing computers to class? Laptops in class can be a distraction, but it can also be an amazingly interactive tool that will enable the students to find new ideas to integrate with the discussion. Robin Galloway writes about how we run a backchannel in our lecture classes so that students are able to discuss the ideas that are covered in lecture.

What do you think?

• Do you allow laptops in your lectures or classes?
• Do you encourage students to use their laptops in class?
• How do you use laptops to engage your students in the classroom learning experience?

Z

What's Wrong with this Picture?

OMG!!!

There isn't much to say about this photo.

Just in case you don't recognize the players, it is an Overhead Projector positioned to shine transparencies onto a Promethean interactive whiteboard. A document camera (left) is at the ready as well.

OUCH!!

What do you think? Leave your comments below.







Photo: Robin Galloway

APA Manual (6th edition) Changes Headings Format

Image via Wikipedia

I have been looking into the formatting differences in the APA Manual (6th Edition) to prepare for the seminar I will teaching this semester on Writing Graduate Papers.

I just found that this updated edition has a new and different headings format system. As you may know, the headings format has to do with where the headings should be placed and what sort of font they should carry.

They talk about Levels of Headings. These have to do with the ranking of the text section (or subsection) that is being titled by the heading. Each level is numbered.

The section titles (e.g., Methodology; Analysis and Discussion; or References) is at the top and it is a Level 1 heading. A topic heading in the Analysis and Discussion would be a Level 2 heading. Subtopics within that topic would be Level 3. It continues all the way down to the sub-sub-sub-subtopic  Level 5 headings.

The headings format in the APA 5th edition was quite confusing because the format for headings if you had 4 topic levels was different than if you had 5 topic levels. Our Instructional Technology Division at the University of Northern Iowa didn't like this ambiguity so we just created a standard guideline (.pdf) for how headings would be formatted regardless of whether you had 4 or 5 levels.

Guess What?   APA came to their senses and they followed our division's lead. They have released a new set of guidelines that apply to your headings no matter how many levels you have.

This set of guidelines is quite different than before.  If you click on the link to our previous headings guidelines (above), you will see that some headings were all caps while others were upper and lower case. Some were italicized while others were plain. Some were centered while others were left justified. 

This set of guidelines includes bold lettering. Actually, every heading level is in bold except level 5.  There is a great deal more indenting than previously used.  I like the bold, but don't know if I like all of the indenting.  They printed the APA 6th edition using this format and it looks OK, but I don't know . . .

Here are the guidelines:

Level 1              

Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase

Level 2

Flush Left, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase

Level 3
     Indented, boldface, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.

Level 4
     Indented, boldface, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.

Level 5
     Indented, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.

=== Sample===

Analysis and Discussion

Types of Learners

     Adult learners.

     Learning needs of adult learners. Knowles (1984) describes a set of assumptions for adult learners which include . . .

     The need to know.  Adult learners need to know why they need to learn something before undertaking the process of learning it.

===============

What do you think?  Is this an improvement?  When will you change over to this format?


You can read further online explanation of these new headings styles at the APA Style Blog.


BTW, I think that I found a mistake on page 63 in the sample headings. There is an example of a level 3 heading and it is written as "Life History Calendar."

Buying Research Papers is Cheating!!!

Have you ever purchased a research paper? What does it mean when you purchase a paper? Are you too lazy or too rich or don’t you “just get it” about why professors ask you to write papers?

I just had a company that sells research papers leave a comment on my blog and I rejected it. Maybe I am just being idealistic because students can always use Google to find these sites but I have no intention to support this criminal activity. For that reason, this posting will lack the many links that I like to include in my blog.

Not familiar with these research paper mills? Let me tell you something about what they are offering: These businesses market themselves as centers for “research paper assistance.” They suggest that you can purchase their papers to provide additional research for a paper that you are presently writing. HOGWASH!!!

They claim that all of their papers are guaranteed to each of their customers an “A+”. HOGWASH!!! This is ironic when their sites are filled with grammatical errors and misspellings.

They build upon the “Us and Them” structure that they claim educational institutions provide where the teachers make assignments and then “cast off” their students to fend for themselves. One of the sites asks if the students are “victims” of any of 5 research paperwriting problems. These problems include:

1. Where to find research paper help.
2. No knowing how to organize your extensive research.
3. Not have a clear idea of how to write a research paper.
4. Stuck on research topic selection.
5. Don’t know how to format a research paper.
6. Clueless about who to address your writing problems.

(Yes it IS true that their title says 5 problems and they list 6.)

Wondering how much this service costs? There is one site that simply charges $10/page but that is not the norm. Typically, the prices are not based upon quality or quantity, but rather urgency:

• 6 days or more $15/page
• 3 days $20/page
• 24 hours $25/page
• 8 hours $37/page

This means that these sources say that a student could order a 10-page university-level paper on Thursday morning for $250 and submit it to meet a Friday 3:00 pm deadline!

AND

These mills are claiming that each of the papers is ORIGINAL!!

What HOGWASH!!!

What is your opinion on this? In my next posting I will talk about why teachers assign research papers and what they can do about this plagiarism issue.

What do you do to address this kind of problem?

Photo: flickr.com/JOPHIELsmiles

Citing Wikipedia Using APA Style?

Citing Wikipedia in APA?

Why do we need to know that?

NO self-respecting educator would allow students to cite Wikipedia in a research paper! 

NO professional would try to cite Wikipedia in a refereed journal!

Why waste the time and effort to even consider how to cite it?

It's funny how the title of this posting will raise the dander of many an academic. It will cause them to respond exactly as the quotes above indicate. Many an academic will complain that Wikipedia is an indicator of how far our world has plummeted when they consider that a resource created "by the masses."  It is "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit."

This reminds me of a little known fact that Dr. David Thornburg mentioned once in a presentation I had the good fortune to enjoy. He was addressing this very issue of Wikipedia being considered unreliable because it was created and maintained by people who were not christened as "experts" in the field. He pointed out that the first Oxford Dictionary had been compiled by 800 volunteer readers back in the mid-1800s.

Many question Wikipedia's reliability.  It can be edited by anyone with an account.  Most teachers and publications don't accept it as a valid reference. I don't accept Wikipedia as a valid reference from my students.

But ask a room full of academics and educators about how many of them use Wikipedia and the only liars in the room will be the ones who don't have their hands raised.  Wikipedia is a WONDERFUL starting place for beginning research or getting familiar with a topic or even finding relevant references in the References and External Links at the end of each article.

Run a Google search on most any topic and there will be at least one Wikipedia reference in the first 10 links. Wikipedia is ubiquitous.  It is everywhere.

So what do you do if you want to refer to a definition in Wikipedia (not necessarily as an expert resource but as an example in a discussion) and you want to make an APA-appropriate citation?  Listen to Timothy McAdoo in the APA Style Blog.  His posting, How to Cite Wikipedia in APA Style, explains that it is quite similar to any other electronic citation with a couple of modifications to make it Wikipedia-specific:

Infinite Monkey Theorem. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved December 9, 2009, from
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Monkey_Theorem

 Give it a try. Do you use Wikipedia? What is your call on using it as a reference tool?

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The REST of the Story - Checkpoint Charlie

I was presenting at the Iowa Technology and Education Connection conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The great thing was that I got to meet a number of people who follow this blog. One of the interesting questions that I received was about the photo that I have in header above ^^^^.

Just thought that I would share "The Rest of the Story" with you.

This is from a photo of me in Berlin at CheckPoint Charlie in 2000. I was one of the professors who escorted a group of UNI students to visit schools in Poland and The Netherlands. We landed in Berlin so did a little exploring the streets. I had actually found a hat that fit my huge head and had Joe Smaldino take this photo.

I know that this posting had nothing to do with educational technology but just sounded like it might be of interest to some of you.

Here's a city e-visit to CheckPoint Charlie

Z

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Thankful for Free Apps

LifeHacker asked their readers to submit their favorite Free Apps. It was a simple process. They posted the challenge and the readers were to comment with their favorite apps. It appears that they had 484 comments with hundreds of suggestions. After a great deal of review, they whittled is down to:

The 61 Free Apps We are MOST Thankful For [sic]

Check them out. You will certainly find old friends, but you might be able to expand your toolbelt with some new apps you find.

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How to Cite Twitter and Facebook - APA Style

Twitter and Facebook have DEFINITELY made an impact on Academia!!!!  APA Style now has defined how to cite them in a formal APA-formatted paper/article!

It's not even in the latest 6th edition of the APA Style Manual (you remember, the one with so many mistakes in its first printing that they had to call back all of those copies and have issued a reprint - the question is, how do you cite the second printing of the 6th edition?  =-)

Well, Chelsea Lee on the APA Style blog has provided guidance and examples for citing these social media sources. She says that these formats will work until more "definitive guidance is available." So I guess this means that she has received the blessing from the APA Oracles to share these rules.

Chelsea provides her guidance in two postings:

How to Cite Twitter and Facebook, Part I: General
This provides the format for just referring to a Twitter feed (http://www.twitter.com/barackobama or http://www.twitter.com/zeitz) or a Facebook presence (http://www.facebook/barackobama or http://www.twitter.com/zeitz)

How to Cite Twitter and Facebook, Part II: Reference List Entries and In-Text Citations
This posting refers to citing particular posts.  These posts need to reference both the source and the specific posting.  The examples are more complicated than I want to post here so I will leave you to click on the title link to see how they work.

I teach a Seminar at the University of Northern Iowa on Writing a Graduate Paper.  I find it humorous how paranoid students get when they have to write in APA format. It becomes a barrier to writing because they are afraid that they don't know everything there is to know about APA.

IT'S ONLY A FORMAT, FOLKS!!!!!

By the end of my class, I have tried to demystify APA and convince the students that the important part of their writing is what they say and how they organize their thoughts.  The APA format is only to ensure consistency between authors and it can be implemented (and refined) towards the end of the writing process.

Sometimes it works . . . =-)

Trying to format the plethora of sources available in the world today is a moving target and I take my hat off to the folks at APA.  It's genius to run a blog that can be used to channel recommendations about formatting sources between their editions that are published about every 6 years.  It's just that educators shouldn't take the format's importance to the point of squelching creativity and original thought.

This posting about referencing Facebook and Twitter is only a small part of the many suggestions available.

What is your opinion about APA and how it's importance in teaching writing in schools?

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Gigapan photos

On January 20, 2009, photographer David Bergman covered his first inauguration and took a photo (actually 220 photos) using his Canon PowerShot G10 camera and then "stitched" them all together to create a 2 GB 1,475 megapixal photo (59,783 x 24,658 pixels). That's HUGE.

Big is good, but what is exciting about these shots is that the viewer can look at the whole photo from a distance or zoom into specific people in the photo. (Click here to see the dynamic photo.) It is similar to the kind of technology that you see in Google Maps or Google Earth but the typical photography enthusiast can do this.

The trick wasn't in his camera but in GigaPan technology. This Carnegie Mellon University GigaPan technology includes a robotic arm and the Gigapan Stitcher software ($450). Bergman attached the robotic arm to a railing. The Gigapan will take the photos for you. You just have to designate the upper left corner and the lower right corner. Press the GigiPan button and it will automatically take the photos (video tutorial here). When Bergman's photosession was complete, it took over 6 and a half hours for the Gigapan to stitch together the 220 images on his MacBook Pro.

GigaPan has set up an agreement with Google. Google Earth will begin including Gigapan panorama photos. This began in 2007 and I haven't checked it out yet, but should be rather exciting for seeing closeups of places in the world.

Taking closeups like this can be a little scary as a continuing intrusion into our privacy, but it should also be considered a new opportunity for "the rest of us" to venture into new photographic territories at a reasonable price.

What do you think? How can we use the Gigapan Technologies in our educational settings?

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5 Facebook Dangers (not involving predators)

"Wow Man!! I was SOO wasted!!"
"This job is really boring."
"I think that I am getting tired of my girlfriend."

These are all phrases that can get people into BIG trouble when they share them on FaceBook. FaceBook is a great way to communicate with your friends and share what's happening in your life, poorly selected photos and descriptions of your adventures can cause SERIOUS problems in getting jobs, being admitted to college, or even being sentenced in the courtroom.

Jackie Burrell's article, The 5 Facebook Dangers, in her Young Adults About.com column, provides an important list of ways that poor choices in postings can affect their futures in school, jobs, and court prosecutions.

Students don't realize how much their presence on the Web will affect their futures. Every semester, I discuss this issue with my university students and the fact anything they post on the web will "be there forever."  They see their social networking sites as great places to share things with their friends, but they don't consider the fact employer and admission offices search the web to find out information that isn't conveyed on their job/school applications.

Be careful what you post because it just might come back to haunt you in the future. 

BTW, related to Facebook but unrelated to what I have been discussing, I just found some research by Aryn Karpinski reported in April, 2009, compared the grades of students who use FaceBook to those who don't. They surveyed 219 students from Ohio State University and found that Facebook users in the study had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5.  Students in the study who didn't use FaceBook had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0. They also found that FaceBook users spent an average of 1 - 5 hours a week studying and non-users studied between 11 - 15 hours.

It should be noted that this research DOES NOT find a causal relationship between low school performance and using FaceBook. It merely found that those who used FaceBook tended to have lower grades and study less. Chances are that if they didn't use FaceBook, they would have found other distractions instead of studying.

Another question is how can university students have a 3.0 GPA average with only 1 - 5 hours of studying per week?  I have plenty of ideas about that, but that deserves another posting.