Attending the K-12 Online Conference for the First Time

I attended the 7 Degrees of Connectedness session presented by Rodd Lucier. I had not heard of Rodd before. In fact, I did not recognize any of the presenters on the schedule (and I follow a decent number of educators through blogs and Twitter). Initially, I was disappointed by this. As I think about it today, I am realizing this is a great advantage to this conference. This is a chance to be exposed to a large group of fascinating people that were previously unknown to me. If they are purposely involving less famous educators, then I commend them for that. I was impressed with Rodd’s session, his tone, his candor, and his creativity of presentation. So, I followed him on Twitter (while watching, of course). These types of digital connections was the very subject of his session!

 

The session walks us through (literarily walking through different locations) the different ways that people connect online. Rodd’s message of the importance of connecting is echoed by each of his guest presenters. Each person talks specifically about one aspect of forming relationships online. The first step is reaching out. Next we follow people and communities who interest us. When we feel comfortable enough to participate, we begin speaking back through commenting, tweeting, blogging, podcasting, etc. The next level of knowing people online is through images. Then voice brings us closer together. Seeing video brings us even closer.

 

I appreciated how the session was not didactic. We are introduced to the “7 degrees of connectedness” at the very end of the presentation. The content throughout the video is very much related to the 7 degrees of connectedness, but we are not brought through them step by step. We are left to synthesize all parts of the session and build our own meaning from it. The big ideas that we are left with about entering the online world are:

Start by connecting with ideas.

Then, connect to the people connected to those ideas.

Share small things. Share often.

 

This session was more of a general discussion rather than about specific tools and strategies. However, as they spoke about the success of getting to know people online, I thought about the possibilities of connecting with students using similar methods. We could build rapport with students through online interactions while supporting them in positive, healthy online communication with peers.

 

This was my first experience with K-12 Online – and with any online conference. I really enjoy the flexibility of “attending” on-demand video sessions. Other than the convenience, this easily allows for viewing sessions individually or with a group. For instance, a school, or department could easily watch a session together during a meeting. The wealth of content in this and other conferences creates a serious dilemma, though. Is it the responsibility of a school or district to create time within employees’ contract time to engage in this sort of professional development? I believe that answer is unequivocally, yes. Too many educators are caught up in the day to day planning, preparing, researching, thinking, and completing paperwork and other requirements. Most teachers already take much of this work home with them on a daily or weekly basis. There rarely seems to be time for global, or even local, collaboration. I hope that leaders in this field quickly realize the benefit of opportunities like K-12 Online, and adapt our current system to be inclusive to this type of professional development. How can we enhance professional development without creating more of a burden of “required work” for educators?

Disappointed Apple Customer – Excluded from Mountain Lion Upgrade

Photo:  Some rights reserved by danes96

I have not blogged in a few weeks. I have been busy with the beginning of the school year, working with more students than ever, and on bringing more technology into the classroom.

This evening I attempted to upgrade my 5-year-old MacBook Pro to the Mountain Lion OS X, only to be stopped by a message saying that my computer is not compatible. This is after upgrading the memory last weekend. I guess it is just too “old.” This may be old news to some. However, this is this most upset I have been with the company, which is why I am taking to the blogosphere! Below, you can read the letter I sent the company today.

“I have been a loyal Apple customer for about 7 years now. I have owned and worked with everything from the iPod Mini to the Retina Display iPad. But I am extremely disappointed with the company right now. Last weekend I upgraded the memory in my MacBook Pro to 4gb in order to increase the speed and to allow the opportunity for upgrading to the Mountain Lion OS X. I had heard that machines from early 2007 would no longer be supported, but I thought mine was more of a mid-late 2007 model. When I attempted to purchase the upgrade from the App Store I received the dreaded message informing me that my machine was not compatible. This is very frustrating and discouraging for those of us who take pride in keeping our Macs in excellent condition, only to be left out of future upgrades. This looks like a decision to push customers to buy newer machines. With the high product costs and the high level of reliability of Macs, I do not see any other reason to exclude “old” machines that are only 5 years old. This is very disheartening, as I am now stuck with Snow Leopard on a computer that runs just as well as it did the day I opened the box. Snow Leopard is a fine OS but as software in the App Store progress, I will now be left out of opportunities for new apps. I can only hope that the company has a change of heart about this decision. Thank you very much for your time.”

Must Reads: Online Account Hacking

This is my weekly list of what I most want to share. What have I read that was fascinating, exciting, puzzling, or inspiring. Catch up on some things you missed from the past week. Maybe I dug up a few obscure gems that are totally new to you. Check out the brief ones now and save the more lengthy ones for later. Share and be share to…here’s the list:

The school year has started back up this week for teachers. It will definitely be a challenge keeping up with the blog. For example, I only have one link to post today. But I am determined to keep going (even if the posts become too minimal)! I hope to get more reading done by next week to have a longer list for you.

One man’s story of having his Amazon, Google, and Twitter accounts hacked, taken over, and some even completely deleted. Amazingly, he was able to have some contact with one of his hackers and their reasons for doing it might surprise you. If you have not seen this yet you definitely should read it.

Photo: Purple Flowers in France

This photo was taken at Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny, France. This gorgeous hillside village is only a 45 minute train ride outside of Paris.

Purple Flowers – Giverny, France

Each Wednesday, I publish an original photo along with some of the technical information. You can see more of my photography on my Flickr page.

My photography is licensed under Creative Commons (see details below). In addition, I ask that if you use any of my images that you try to show me how you used them. I think it would be interesting to see and track how my images are being used. Thank you.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Why is Pinterest Powered by Women?

Photo By KEXINO from Flickr with CC license http://kexino.com/ 

When it comes to statistics about women users of the social network Pinterest I have seen numbers ranging from 50-97%. But the most recent numbers are interesting because they have some context. According to comScore (via PC World), “68 percent of Pinterest users are women, and that these women drive 85 percent of the traffic on the site.” For one thing, women are the power users of this network, driving its success and popularity. These numbers may also shed some light on why more women are using the site. The numbers suggest that men are not necessarily deterred by the site, but something about the network encourages more female participation or less male participation.

Regardless of why this is happening, the phenomenon of Pinterest is of interest to marketers. With most free services online we pay in some way. According to Forbes, marketers have a clear view of people’s interest on the site. Brands have also been finding ways to use the service to promote and engage with consumers – in many cases, women.

There has also been much talk about Pinterest as a resource for teachers. In my own experience, it seems that this applies mostly to elementary school teachers who are looking for project ideas for their students or clever DIY ideas for things around their classroom. This may go without saying, but elementary school teachers are predominantly women. As a high school teacher, I have a very active professional network online through blogs, nings, and Twitter. I have yet to add Pinterest to my network of resources, but I know there are some high school and middle school teachers who have.

Technically, anything can be pinned to a board on Pinterest. It is not as if only wedding dresses, crafts, and recipes can be pinned (these are some of the more popular categories). For example, there is “The Board of Man,” which contains pins that are particularly masculine (via NPR). (Side note: just for the record, as a male, I am also very interested in cooking and DIY projects, but maybe that’s just me). Leaving the anomalies aside, could it be that since women populated Pinterest first, that more things of interest to women began to dominate the site, which in turn prevented more men from joining? As Pinterest’s popularity was exploding 6-8 months ago, media reports of Pinterest as the woman’s social network were widespread. Was this another deterrent for new male users who did not want to associate with this girly site? While Pinterest might be known for its ease of repinning items within the network, its rise in popularity has brought with it the “pin” button on most websites and mobile reader apps. This makes it just as easy to pin a new article as it is to tweet about it. This means that men (or women) joining the site are not limited to what has already been pinned.

Could there be a more psychological explanation?

Even without science, and just from our daily life experience, we understand that the brains of men and women operate differently. It doesn’t matter which is better. In fact, it would be reductive to claim one gender psychologically superior, because they are both complex in different ways. Could something about the layout and functionality of Pinterest be more attractive to the female brain? I do not have an answer to this, but we can look at this infographic (via Huffington Post) for the beginnings of some clues. This analysis considered all things social, but I consider Pinterest a social bookmarking service, so I will compare it to another service in that category. According to the graphic, Pinterest has the largest proportion of female users. Let’s compare it to del.icio.us, another popular social bookmarker, which has the scale tipped the other way, with 64 percent male users. Clearly social bookmarking is loved by both genders. So, why the different proportions?

The thing that really sets Pinterest apart, is its clean, visual interface. It begs the question, is there something about the visual layout that not only attracts women, but allows them to really benefit from the site. Is there something about the text based world of del.icio.us, diigo, and others that allow men to thrive in their world of social bookmarking? Or is all of this hype for nothing? Is it just a coincidence, the way the cards fell with Pinterest? Is there something real here, or are we just creating a narrative to sell papers and drive traffic to our blogs and news sites?

I will continue to use diigo for bookmarking, and I don’t have plans to join Pinterest anytime soon. I’m just not sure why.

Must Reads: A Cool Microsoft Project? Olympic Limelight, Airport Radiation, What’s Worse than Having Cancer? The Human Jukebox, and More…

This is my weekly list of what I most want to share. What have I read that was fascinating, exciting, puzzling, or inspiring. Catch up on some things you missed from the past week. Maybe I dug up a few obscure gems that are totally new to you. Check out the brief ones now and save the more lengthy ones for later. Share and be share to…here’s the list:

Tech and Media

How Steve Jobs Created Jobs

Very cool visual art project from…Microsoft? Shame on Google for not getting there first this seems like their type of project. Props to MS, although it is a bit hard to navigate at times.

Excellent essay on the effect of The Media and The Limelight on Gabby Douglas, and our other young olympic athletes.

Health and Politics

I am continually in awe of the human body. When we lose one of our senses, parts of the brain get repurposed to our other senses.

Scanners at the airports have always worried me in terms of radiation exposure. No matter your political position on domestic security, it is scary how little is known about the risks of these machines.

This is a small but powerful step in the right direction for supporting people exposed to chemical/industrial contamination.

Hear from a young woman battling cancer on the detrimental impact of health insurance and medical bills on the lives of patients and their families. As if the disease was not enough to deal with…

Must Watch

Amazing short talk on epiphanies and creative solutions to poverty, the economy, and environmental concerns.

The always creative and entertaining, CDZA Music brings us the human jukebox, this week. One of their best. Just plain old fun.

Photo: Track and Field – Hurdles

In honor of the Olympic Games and to signal the near end of the summer vacation, here is a photo from last year’s district track meet (I coach track at the high school where I teach).

Track and Field – Hurdles

Each Wednesday, I publish an original photo along with some of the technical information. You can see more of my photography on my Flickr page.

My photography is licensed under Creative Commons (see details below). In addition, I ask that if you use any of my images that you try to show me how you used them. I think it would be interesting to see and track how my images are being used. Thank you.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Is WiFi a Man-Given Right?

Photo by gibsonsgolfer CC license via Flickr.com

Early in the summer, we took a trip to Europe. This my first time using the Miami International Airport. I had my two-month-old iPad (3^rd generation) ready to give it the full mobile test – how comfortable will it be for use in airports, for reading and gaming on planes, and for doing work while abroad? The iPad passed the test, but the airports didn’t do so well.

Let me give you a short background of my traveling experience, so you know where I’m coming from. In the past 7 years I have traveled to San Francisco, Las Vegas, throughout the US East Coast, Italy, France, Barcelona, London, and South Africa. Miami had its many challenges, but I will focus on the technology aspects.

This was the first airport I have ever been to that did not offer free WiFi. To access their network there were paid rates by minute and hour. This was completely shocking to me, almost scandalous. Since I couldn’t dip too far into my offline activities that were reserved for the 9-hour plane ride, I had some time to think. I wondered if this was an anomaly, part of an already infuriating airport experience, or a new trend among travel ports. Was a getting a glimpse into a bleak future, a WiFi wasteland?

When I think about WiFi, it is always associated with the words “free” and “public.” This is thanks to many restaurants, coffee shops, and retailers who have been offering internet access free for years. Many large shopping malls also offer the free connection. As mentioned earlier, I have also experienced this public service at airports and some train stations. The precedent for free WiFi has been set by these businesses and organizations.

Given the atrocious airport where I was having this experience (can you tell I really dislike that airport?), I attributed it to a small pocket of WiFi dictatorship. Of course, I had to test this theory and try for WiFi once we landed in Paris. There was WiFi, but not free. Despite this, the city itself had signs in many areas claiming free, public WiFi. Unfortunately we were unable to connect to any of the hotspots with an iPhone. Even though we prepared it for international use, I wonder if there was still something about the American phone that was preventing the connection. At least the Parisian government valued public WiFi even if their airport did not.

The paid WiFi at the airports was still bothering me. I thought back to my time in New York. Free WiFi has been added to many of the public parks in that city. I also recently read about an initiative to install free hotspots at the city’s payphones. In addition, I now had evidence from Europe, that WiFi is an urban, public service. Even the $70-a-night hotels along i95 have free WiFi in the guest rooms.

I guess time will tell whether WiFi stays a public right, or moves in the direction of paid service.

Is WiFi a natural right? Is it a public service or a product? I would like to hear from readers about your opinions and experiences in different locations? Where have you found free WiFi? Where has it cost you money?

Must Reads: A Personal Glimpse at Amazon Founder, Free Tethering, Lying Authors, Comics, Healthcare, and More

This is my weekly list of what I most want to share. What have I read that was fascinating, exciting, puzzling, or inspiring. Catch up on some things you missed from the past week. Maybe I dug up a few obscure gems that are totally new to you. Check out the brief ones now and save the more lengthy ones for later. Share and be share to…here’s the list:

News and Tech

Well written piece from the New York Times. Interesting to see a glimpse into the private life of such an influential person. Amazon founder, Bezel, and his large financial support of gay marriage.

Is Groupon actually harming some small businesses? Interesting knowing that they are also seeing steep declines in their stock price lately.

Free tethering without penalty could set a new precedent in the cell phone industry, even if it is not a voluntary policy for Verizon.

A short comic about Jesse Owens in Nazi Germany for the Olympics. Plus this is an awesome comic website worth following. Useful for your personal enjoyment or for teachers looking for relevant, motivating materials.

The kind of woman who needs a late-term abortion. Although the essay is clearly for one side of the issue, you don’t have to be to read it. I was impressed with this powerful, expertly written piece of political writing with a fresh angle.

Health and Education

An Ed tech cheat sheet from Edudemic. Also excellent example of a straightforward, well designed infographic.

Five ways apples culture can improve your class. I was going to suggest reading Imagine: How Creativity Works, by Jonah Lehrer to go along with the above post. He delves into more creative, innovative organizations. But I just found out that he admitted to making up and misrepresenting quotes from Bob Dylan (the Dylan section of the book never sat right with me). Anyway, if you do get your hands on the book, I still think it is worth a read for the other sections, unless we find out he made those up too. Then I will recall this post like they have recalled his book…

Not all completely new information about weight loss but some interesting findings here worth taking a look at.

Long Reads

What Mississippi Can Learn From Iran? Informative, inspiring and with some absolutely crushing moments. Why are poor communities deprived of health care, and how can it be fixed?

Photo: Arc de Triomphe

This was my second time seeing the Arc de Triomphe, and it still blew me away – an impressive piece of architecture. Paris, France.

The Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France

Each Wednesday, I publish an original photo along with some of the technical information. You can see more of my photography on my Flickr page.

My photography is licensed under Creative Commons (see details below). In addition, I ask that if you use any of my images that you try to show me how you used them. I think it would be interesting to see and track how my images are being used. Thank you.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.