Last night's open Social Software in the Classroom session went extremely well. In fact, the stark contrast between last night's class and the class that "tanked" a week ago makes it hard to believe that the two classes are even related.

After twenty or so minutes of initial connection issues (our Ustream audio/video feed didn't work), we were able to have a wonderful discussion about social software and our students. Naturally, I used social software (the new Google Presentations) to facilitate the discussion. We finished our class reviewing some of the wiki basics we had covered in our first session, closing by discussing a few advanced wiki concepts (including wiki Templates and embedding RSS into a wiki page).

Technologically speaking, we ended up using YugmaSkype to connect teacher participants from around the world (teachers from various locations across the United States, a few from Australia, and one from Argentina). For the record, YugmaSkype was flawless (although my Skype quit out on us a few times - possibly from so many connections) and I anticipate using it again in the future.

Thanks again to all those that participated - our discussion was one of the best I've ever had in a Professional Development session. I hope to see you again next week (due up: Google Tools).

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Technorati Tags: socialsoftware07 education technology yugma skype ustream

In preparing submissions for the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference, I'm keenly aware of one great flaw inherent in the submission process:

• NECC 2008 submissions are due nine months before the conference!

In any other field, this nine-month gap may not be detrimental. In our field, however, nine months is an eternity. In the field of educational technology, the landscape changes, our attitudes change, and our students change.

Nine months ago, for example:

• There was no retail version of Windows Vista, no Feisty Fawn, and we all thought that Leopard would be out sooner than later.
  
• There was no iPhone, no iQuiz, and no iPod Fatty.
• There was no Google Presentations, no TeacherTube, and no Skitch (still in Beta, but definitely a must-have).

Nine months ago:

• The EduBloggerCon concept was still in its initial stages.
• There was no such thing as a chatcast backchannel.
  
• Very few people used Twitter.
  

Nine months ago:

• Virginia Tech was just another school.

And finally, just nine months ago:

• Very few teachers knew that Shift Happens and none were yet able to Pay Attention. : )
  

Indeed, to say that it's been a wild ride would be an understatement. I just hope that we can all write our NECC proposals in such a way to allow for even more change in the coming months.

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The technology demons were out in full force last night in our first "open" professional development session (Social Software in the Classroom). Indeed, the glitches were many. Nevertheless, the session did end on a high note as we engaged in a wonderful conversation about our need as teachers to include a higher level of social software in our classes.

Here's a list of the troubles we encountered (in chronological order):

• Turns out our district's firewall won't currently allow people to view Quicktime video streams emanating from within the district. Ouch - especially since this was how we planned to share screens.
• Twenty minutes later, enter YugmaSkype - For some strange reason, we weren't able to add all of the participants to the screen broadcast, even though we were connected through Skype. Weird.
• Twenty minutes later (and loads of audio feedback) I set up a Ustream broadcast.
• A minute or two later Sue Waters comes to the rescue, "Do you want to use an Elluminate room?" Did we ever!
• Except for one of the teachers at my site. Fifteen minutes later, we were still dealing with her $%@#! USB headset and it's incompatibility with Elluminate. Yuck.

Finally, we were able to hold a pretty decent discussion about Karl Fisch's video, changes in our world, and changes in our students. The participants were extremely patient (for which I am grateful), and those that went the distance left happy with how things turned out.

That said, I still want to thank those that made this, my first attempt at an open professional development session, an effort that I'd like to attempt once more:

• Ken Pruitt
• Dave Tarwater
• Sue Waters
• Gabriella Sellart
• Lisa Parisi
• Lisa Durff

Thanks for the efforts, guys. We'll chalk our efforts up to "a learning experience" and try it again next time. And since Robin and I hashed things out for over two hours today, I think next Wednesday's session will yield much better results.

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Well, here we go. I just finished setting up the video/audio stream with our district tech gurus (yeah, even smarter than I am) and holy crap: I'm starting to think that this thing is actually going to work.


Here are the details for this Wednesday's "open professional development session" entitled Social Software in the Classroom:

• There will be held once a week (for five weeks) beginning Wednesday, September 19.
• Class will be held from 4:30-7:15 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Click here to translate these times to your time zone.
• If you don't have a Skype account, you will want to create one ahead of time (free), as Robin Ellis will be moderating a Skype chatroom throughout the class. To join in, send her a quick message through Skype: robin.ellis1
• Our class wiki (with schedule and future participant portfolios) will be available here: http://socialsoftware07.wikispaces.com/
• A quicktime audio/video stream will be available here: rtsp://163.248.25.133/socialsoftware07.sdp. Because we will be using Quicktime to stream, you will want to ensure that your Quicktime software is up to date ahead of time. Visit this site to get the latest version (free).

If you are a teacher, administrator, or technology specialist that would like to learn more about the many free, online tools that can be used to enhance your teaching, then consider yourself personally invited to join us. We'd love to have you and look forward to an exciting, open, and collaborative experience.

Technorati Tags: socialsoftware07 education technology wikis quicktime skype professional_development

I had an excellent informal learning "session" today with Brian C. Smith (New York), Brian Mull (Louisiana), Karen Janowski (Massachusetts), Robin Ellis (Pennsylvania), and Kelly Dumont (Utah). In an attempt to discover the best way to build upon the model for global, collaborative professional development created by Darren Kuropatwa, I have been searching for a way to:

1. Share my screen
2. Stream audio/video of my class
3. Provide a chat-room for communication between classmates regardless of geographic location

Thus, as I was messing around with a partial solution (Ustream) for the upcoming Social Software in the Classroom professional development class that I will be co-teaching with Robin Ellis, I sent out a Twitter tweet announcing partial success:

Technorati Tags: technology education skype yugma ustream professional_development global