Filming Fun

Kieran, my 17 year old, didn't get a steady job this summer, but instead worked part-time at odd jobs and as a character for children's birthday parties. I was kind of disappointed with this, as I'm seeing the dollar signs flash before my eyes in the wake of it being 'almost that time' to begin paying tuition for University. I'm really hoping that he knows that we are serious about him trying to help out with paying some of those bills!

The silver lining for me, however, was the chance to watch boys play. Yes, 17 and 18 year old boys, hanging out at our place for endless costume changes, script practices and filming dates over a period of about 3 weeks. Kieran is hoping to go into a film studies program next year and his most recent facination is with Tarantino films (the opening of a new one this summer added to the excitement). He wrote a script, storyboarded it and began directing his buddies in this x-rated venture. They would then come home and gather round the iMAC and edit, revise, decide to re-shoot and reschedule another gathering. I was reminded too, of Kent Manning's advice to be a little more leniant about the content when it comes to what boys like (apparently a profanity edited version of Kieran's film might be coming, but it couldn't be Tarantino-esque without a quite a bit)!

It struck me that boys (and girls) grow up pretty fast these days and that the 'play' time, be it lego or building or whatever, ends pretty abruptly for boys and becomes about playing video games or playing sports. The kind of play that I liked seeing again this summer was the construction of something unique, something brand new, something they built. My sons have never been much for robotics or logo, despite my attempts to interest them, but drama and film are things that they definitely love.

When alone one rainy day Kieran also did one just for himself and posted it to You Tube, watching a few comments with interest as they came in, and being amazed that people actually viewed his movie... okay...tweeting it out might have helped :)  I've included the short, (not restricted for language and violence) one here, and believe me I would have tidied up my closet if I'd known it was being filmed!

This playful creation using media really reaffirmed for me that we need to give kids the time and the choices to be creative in their own ways!

Talking Blogs Are Here

You'll probably notice a Listen Now button on my blog, and a widget in the sidebar that allows you to subscribe to my podcast.

I've been getting ready to present at the AT4ALL
Conference in Milton next week and my presentation will be about literacy tools for the 21st century, thinking specifically of our students with special needs. If you are there, the session will hopefully go something like this:

This session shows parents and educators the new kinds of literacies with which our students need to develop fluency in order to develop 21st century skills. Web 2.0 tools like Google for Educators, blogs, wikis, rss, social networking, global projects, diigo and other online tools for literacy will enhance the education of our students with special needs, while allowing them to access collaborative tools that will be so important as they continue their education and move on to the workforce. This session will provide a practical look at some of the best ways teachers can motivate students and enhance their use of technology to improve their literacy.

I find this an important topic because while modalities available on the web are getting more and more diverse ensuring more and more access, it's still a pretty text-based place. If you can't read, it's difficult to navigate deeply and go beyond "surfing the surface" as my co-presenter Peter Skillen, would say.

This week, while I was checking out a really good article about where to start with using cell phones on a blog called The Innovative Educator I noticed the Listen Now button and soon found out that Odiogo.com allows you to create text-to-speech podcasts from your RSS feed to ipod, iphone, and MP3 players as well as instantly reading your content on the blog in a really decent voice!

It's called 'talking your content'. Very sweet! Another way to open access to those who struggle with reading, or perhaps if you have a class blog with younger students who are non-readers this will be a help for you! It's working great so far, although it seems to take a few hours to upload the feature to new blog posts, so we'll see how it goes as I get using it. You can see how it works immediately if you click on my older postings for now.

I'm looking forward to learning about lots of new tools to enhance access for special needs students (and ALL students) at AT4ALL...hope you see you there!

Thoughts about NECC 09

I've just returned from my 4th NECC Conference held this year in Washington, DC and once again I've found it to be great professional learning, especially from the perspective of connecting and re-connecting with both people and ideas. The big focus for me was student learning and projects with constructivist technologies: students inquiring, collaborating, and creating with tech, rather than a focus on tech tools. I feel refreshed in my mission to make sure that teachers are transferring control of learning to the learner...regardless of whether they have one computer or 30 in the classroom!

Dropping in on the Constructivist Consortium event meant seeing Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez and the folks from LCSI which was a treat! LCSI has launched a new piece of software called Transform which I'm excited to be experimenting with in the next few months.

A new release from Fablevision is an amazing software called Animation-ish...and yes...it comes from the writer of the book Ish, Peter Reynolds! I'm going to order that software and give it a whirl this summer. The interface is playful, creative and downright gorgeous.

Watching @garystager do a fabulous job speaking his truth at the ISTE Panel Debate about Brick and Mortar Schools was inspiring! I enjoy Gary's honesty and his dedication to what is right for kids, even when it goes against the bureaucracy of school boards, curriculum and policy makers.

I love seeing the real deal of classroom teachers at work inspiring kids and it was great to see @mariak, @kathycassidy and @marragem sharing their primary classroom uses of technology. They've started a wiki if you are interesting in joining in the conversation about how technology benefits primary students: http://primaryconnections.wikispaces.com

Two of the best things that I did was to revisit sessions by Alan November and Jamie McKenzie. Both of these guys have influenced my work in educational technology and it's been several years since I've checked in to hear them; it was definitely worthwhile to see their newest presentations that re-affirm the kinds of deeper approaches I'm trying to promote among the teachers and students with whom I work back in Guelph.

This year it was wonderful to spend time with so many of the educators that I know already from Ontario and the US, with the added bonus of meeting a bunch of people from my twitter learning network f2f! I spent a fair bit of time learning from the ISTE folks who have many suggestions that will benefit the delegates at the ECOO conference here in Ontario next November! I can't wait to share those benefits with Ontario teachers!

Another real highlight was meeting up with the Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium, a group of teachers who believe in student centred, experiential, ecological and equitable learning environments! I will look forward to becoming involved and learning from this wonderful group of people.

A visit to the Canadian Embassy from MindShare Learning was something I never thought I'd be doing in Washington! :)

Washington was a really great city and I'll have to go back where there is time for more sightseeing. I was grateful to stumble upon a very nice place to eat, sit outside and chat for ages with friends in Georgetown...I miss it already! :)