We plan to use the tool in a web 2.0 session for middle school teachers. EtherPad will allow us to collect a few words of reflection from every staff member in a few minutes near the end of the session. The combined text from the collaboratively written reflection will be transformed into a visual context using Wordle and we’ll display the collective thinking in a very powerful and compelling way.

I’ve been using this clip of Sir Ken Robinson from the TED Annual Conference for years, and there’s no good reason why I haven’t posted it here – so tonight I’m changing that omission! This clip has been a great idea-sparker for teachers, graduate students, and non-educators alike.

Robinson is a masterful presenter, and his content resonates with my thinking about the whole high-stakes testing push here in the US. External pressures shape our course, but it’s great to be reminded of the higher calling we have as a moral imperative. At about twenty minutes it’s not a quick view, but I gauarntee you will watch it more than once – and probably get others to join you… The video is available online -  Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Woopid is a great resource for Office 2007 and many other applications – both Mac and Windows. Check out their bundles at http://www.woopid.com/groups.php

I’ve only looked at the PowerPoint section, but it was an easy way to get up-to-speed on some fo the new features available in Office 2007 for Windows. (Not Keynote yet, but some nice improvements)

Tutorials are separated into short sections, most three to five minutes in length, so you can learn about a targeted skill/concept and then try it for yourself. Narration is well done, concise, and reassuring. The audio and visual quality are excellent.

I don’t know if the site will become a fee-based endeavor, but for now it’s a resource that you can recommend broadly. There are topics to help the beginning user, and enough depth to get even the most seasoned user a new skill or tip.

The interface couldn’t be easier! I’m anxious to check out the Picnik extension for Firefox too. I appreciate the fact that it will connect with “already online” pics you have in Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, etc – or allow you to upload a local image for editing. Once you’ve made your changes you can save the resulting file locally. I tried Picnik with a photo I had from NASA’s web gallery and I’m already hooked on the Orton-ish effect!

In a time when everyone wants your contact information Picnik allowed a surprising range of functionality without the need for an account. I’m sure I will create an account here (probably after I complete this post) but it’s refreshing to know I don’t need to. Account status allows you to archive your work on site, and purchase products created with your pics. I’m sure every grandparent would love a present wrapped in paper that features their grandchildren! You can even get your mugshots printed on a mug.

Amidst all the options one pressing question about Picnik comes to mind, “Do I show this to my teenage daughter?”. She’ll love it, but the rest of our family will only be able to use our computer when she’s asleep or out of the house

It looks like something worth exploring! I know I’m going to…Dave

The guy that started it all, Dana Atchley, had an untimely death. Others have kept his work alive and these “older examples” are still some of the strongest digital stories we have. Visit his Next Exit site and do a little exploring  http://www.nextexit.com/drivein/driveinframeset.html

Examples
Here are some other digital story links to help you get a sense of what this process can produce for you and your students:
http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/listdigitalpe.html#cat1
http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html
http://www.mobilelearninginstitute.org/ProDev/BAWP/OaklandUSD/OLA/ProDev_Summer06/
http://www.mobilelearninginstitute.org/ProDev/RCWP/DS2006/
http://www.storycenter.org/canada/index.html
http://storiesforchange.net/
http://www.digitales.us/

Music and images are so vital to the production! Here are a few sites to help you find royalty-free media. I can’t list these links without a short soapbox rant – it’s always best to create your own sounds, music, images, and other media!! OK now (without added guilt) feel free to browse through these links:

Music & Sound Effects
Music in Production Library format. Dave’s favorite “canned music” site (if you don;t have Garage Band to create your own) http://www.freeplaymusic.com/
Sound Dogs used to have free samples, but QT Pro may be needed to capture the samples now http://www.sounddogs.com/

Images
ImageBase at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco http://www.famsf.org/
http://www.bigfoto.com/
http://www.freeimages.com/

 Here’s a PDF file of a Storyboard Template used by Dana Atchley to help others create digital stories. This kind of scaffolding can be considered a pre-production, and production tool.

We are re-aligning the grades of our middle and high schools, and this provides an opportunity to develop a revised program of study. All this background to pose a question for our conversation…

What should an 8th grader be able to know and do with technology when they exit our middle school?

 ISTE’s National Educational Standards for Students (NETSS) provide a great framework, but I’m interested in the less formal, in-the-trenches answer that you might have in mind. Our digital natives are bringing increased skills to the table, how will we respond?

A new Google tool I recently discovered (and can’t wait to share with our staff) is the custom search engine. You decide which URLs are being searched when your students enter their keywords. This is great for elementary grades, or a secondary class that has a specific project or topic to explore!

I found about this site from the Head Of Class section in Edutopia. What I like most is how QuickMuse makes the process so visible to students. I looked at a Poem Playback from Rick Chess. Very cool.

I hope the QuickMuse site will inspire you to get creative with your students’ writing – or your own teaching. As always, I look forward to your thoughts, reactions, and responses.

TeacherTube appears to keep the best notions of motion video, collaboration, and knowledge sharing and package it in a moderated context for a school audience. TeacherTube certainly holds out a broad challenge in their slogan, Teach the World. I resonate with the notion that we can change our world, but I’d be ecstatic to just change our K-12 system in the United States.

It’s unlikely that our students will abandon You Tube, but at least while we’re in school we can access similar resources for our own learning. I’ll be searching the site for some great examples. Maybe I’ll make my contribution to teach the world and post something on TeacherTube myself?