5:55am..I can't believe it

I can't believe that I've worked all night getting this image "thing" together. I didn't give up, but I had no idea that I would work through the night trying to get it together. After an hour or so of reading and looking for free tools online, I realized that I have Gimp on my computer already! So, I find a great tutorial and start my adventure. How was I to know that the visual aids they provided would be a stumbling block for the next several hours. It wasn't until I just gave up and moved to the next step that I realized that the visual aid didn't actually correspond with that step. And, I could have been done hours ago! Anyway, I have something created and I think after all of my attempts and restarts, I am familiar enough to try it again...hopefully not for a while though. Talk about CLT? I'm totally brain dead now...but will take the opportunity to find a drive through DD and treat myself to breakfast with Hot Chocolate.

Good night...or should I say good morning??????

How Much is Too Much?

This is a question that really racked my brain tonight (or early morning). I was experimenting with adding an image to my header. I have lot's of pics of family and friends...but how much information is too much? Although I love my nieces, nephews other relatives and friends, I don't know if I want to share my pictures on the web. Additionally, as I try to protect my right to privacy, do I really want my personal pictures posted? I don't know the answer to this. I like the idea of blogging and believe that I could actually begin to journal here. However, a what point is your personal life private when you work in the field of "public education". I know this is probably the million dollar question and if I had the answer, I could sell it to many companies, including local school districts, because it would solve all of the problems they foresee with giving students access to the "big, bad" Internet. (smiles) Wouldn't that be a life altering event if I could solve that problem.

Either way, I decided to share a little bit of myself and the person who makes me smile (on most days). You've heard the name often and now you have a face to attach to it. As you can see, I'm all smiles. We were celebrating our birthdays together in this picture, surrounded with family, friends, good food and drinks. I can't think of a better place to be.

Good night to all.

AG

The Other Side of Heaven

As much time as I spend working on my computer, I received a small taste of heaven today. I spent the morning in a hardware store getting materials to help my boyfriend's sister (and friend) clean out her flower bed. She recently moved into a new home and although the old residents planted some bulbs that return each year, the weeds were taking over. So, with some music blaring from the car stereo, we (along with my best friend) began the task of digging, pulling, and moving materials around the front of the house. There was joyous conversation and laughter and a feeling of relief. We discussed life and how manual labor really takes your mind off of the everyday stress we all had! We all received quite a work-out and after laying the weed barrier and mulch, we enjoyed a beverage on the front step as we admired our work. I was actually so exhausted, that when I came into the house to cool off, I actually laid down for a much needed nap. Afterwards, we began the preparation for dinner tomorrow. On a side note, I am anxiously awaiting the ribs, chicken, other grilled meat, sweet potatoes, potato salad, corn on the cob (from the grill), cabbage and other treats. And, of course a few mojitos around the pool to top the evening off. I'll be surrounded by family and friends and I will selfishly restrain from opening my computer all day tomorrow. Even though I may have a few aches tomorrow and even the day after, it was WELL WORTH IT! And, I realize that I may need to do this a little more often.
I just wanted to share my "other side of heaven".

Happy 4th of July!

AG

Desktop Publishing: a tool from the past?

I know there are many options available for the development of valuable and effective materials. However, as this applies to public education, I believe that there will still be a place for the older tools as well. Education tends to be less on the cutting edge of what's new and more towards what is affordable yet sufficient. I believe that these tools as we know it may undergo a face lift to become more user friendly, but the fundamentals of the software will remain the same....if only for our generation's use. I understand the desire to include the new and flashy, yet, studies show that this is not the most effective way to present information. And for this reason, educators, still charged with the task of presenting materials for educational purposes, will still need affordable tools to accomplish this task. And, I believe that we will see more need for these materials in several years to come. Companies that produce DTP will see the value in producing materials for larger corporations like public education districts and will begin to incorporate the components of newer tools into what is already available. They have to play the marketing game. And, unfortunately, many large contracts (government, public agencies, etc.) just don't have the funding to purchase the more expensive software.

Although free tools are available for use, there is still so much red tape in order to make these available for student use on a regular basis. Until school systems develop a strong acceptable use policy that will support the use of the internet and the tools available, they will continue to struggle with keeping up with current technology trends. However, some exposure to these tools will prepare our children for success when they begin training course for new jobs.

Having a conversation really works!

I was scheduled to present at HC summer institute yesterday. My presentation focused on utilizing iMovie to assist with behavior management programs in the schools. After I presented my idea, my plan was to have the participants actually spend some time creating an iMovie with me. Well, I found out the night before that computers were not available for me to use...so I would have to present without that component. Well, I really got nervous! How was I going to talk for 75 minutes and not bore the participants to death!!! Luckily, our previous week showed a great example of how to just have a conversation. So, that's what I did. I talked about how the idea came up, what we decided to do and I used my presentation as supplemental information to what I was saying. They didn't have to even really look at the screen. And, when they did, they were easily re-directed to my conversation. Needless to say, things went over great. I even had to stop myself for going OVER the time limit. What a wonderful lesson and great application of the concept to boot.

It works...and, I definitely plan to implement this concept in all future presentations.

Marketing the product: true technology integration

Marketing the product...what exactly does this mean. I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I'm learning about technology integration and how this really applies to the school system I work in. Unfortunately, I don't believe "the product", technology integration, is really being marketed well. I understand the struggle with budgeting concerns. However, when are the school systems going to really look at what the research is saying about the digital natives and how it is imperative to begin technology integration at all levels to ensure the success of our children? I also thought about how there are many school administrators who say they support the technology initiative and yet do very little to support it's integration into every classroom.

Perhaps, technology educators need to spend more time "marketing the product". We have to be the voice that local government members hear when they are proposing budget cuts that impact school technology programs. Perhaps we need to be the voice that administrators hear in the lunch rooms discussing all of the great ways we are integrating technology and how it truly impacts our students. And, what is needed to fully integrate technology programs. Perhaps we need to be the voice at the PTA meetings that presents a united effort (Parents, Teachers and Administrators) in providing the tools that our children need in order to be more successful in a technology infused society.

Perhaps we need to think of a new marketing plan that shares research, documentation and ideas of how we can effectively integrate technology into every classroom, before it's too late.

Coming Out of the Clouds

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I believe the task of sharing CLT with my staff will definitely bring some heads out of the clouds. I've witnessed really "tech savvy" staff with what they consider wonderful multimedia presentations that I would never have admitted that I created. Although these teachers are excellent teachers, I don't believe they are applying their prior knowledge about good teaching practices to materials that are created with technology. I too am guilty of doing this. I wanted to use technology so badly that I created busy and overwhelming materials that in retrospect weren't necessarily great teaching materials. And then, I took an online class at a university about creating powerful presentations without excess. This changed my entire perspective and I was reminded of these components when we discussed Cognitive Learning Theory this week. My approach to my staff? I'm thinking I would show them a presentation that was full of fluff. And then, ask them what the content was. I'm not sure how much they would get from it, but, I would hope to expand the discussion to what would they change about the presentation so that they could better understand the content. I would then introduce the components of CLT and ask the staff to establish some criteria for representations using the fundamentals of CLT. I believe this approach would be well received by my staff. I know there would need to be follow-up as teachers begin to apply what they learned in their classroom, however I believe it'd be a great start.

And, coming out of the clouds...well, let's just say it's all in efforts to view a bright new day.

Getting Started- blog post 1

Well, this is my first official post and it's been tiresome getting to this point. In selecting a tool, I was looking for a great beginner tool that I could learn the basics so that I have something to take back to school in the fall. With this in mind,I took some time this week to review the different options that were available on blogger. Blogger was recommended by a colleague as being a great place to start blogging. I enjoyed testing out the different functions, but got caught up in some of the settings that delayed my actual posting. But, I finally made it!

For the most part, I stuck with this tool because it is very beginner friendly. If I had stuck with the defaults on most options, I'm sure I would be blogging away by now. Although I now have to get the hang of this tagging thing. One of the most important features that I like on blogger is the ability to moderate all posts. Because this is such a taboo area in the school system, I had to tread very carefully in it's use. So I like the ability to review any information that is submitted prior to it's actual posting on the web. This will be a safety feature that I will need to enable for anything my students will use. I like the ease of being able to comment to posts and also the ability to link to my "future" website. I wasn't as happy with the graphics side of the site...but perhaps when I'm more html knowledgeable, I'll be able to change that around as well.

I haven't decided to 100% stick with this tool, but I'll need a little more time to investigate different tools as I become more familiar with the general idea of blogs and tags.

Any suggestions or feedback about the process are welcome.

Gannon-test

Hi guys...this is my first post. I'm trying to test this thing out.