Two more days until License Plate Game 2012...

but who's counting?  Everyone is getting ready for our annual summer 'adventure.'  The Californians are already trash-talking and staking out spots at the Wild Animal Park parking lot, while the hard-working, Mid-Westerners are quietly going about their business getting ready for opening day of LPG2012. 

“Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”
 ~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Five More Days...

...until the official beginning of License Plate Game 2012!  I thought this image exemplified how we are all feeling at this point as we 'anticipate' the beginning of License Plate Game 2012:  "PARTY FUN for all ages!"  Any suggestions for which person in the image represents you?  Only five more days!

Twitter Birth Certificate

Jeff Thomas recently wrote a post call Twitter Birthday Birth Certificate. I wish the birth certificate was downloadable, but I took Jeff's advice and made a screenprint of the certificate. Then, I used SumoPaint and quickly edited the screenprint. Viola! As you can see, the personalized birth certificate not only includes your Twitter birth date, it also includes your 'born on' facts, such as hours, days, months, and years since you joined and the name of your 'Godfather.' My Godfather happens to be my son. I don't know how Twitter knew Tom introduced me to Twitter, but they are correct! I've been on Twitter 3 years and 8 months. How long have you been on Twitter?

65 Days Until the Licence Plate Game (but who's counting)

How can you spot a license plate game player? A license plate game player might unexpectedly:

1. speed up and drive like a madman with a crazed look in the eye, curse and continue driving normally as if nothing happened (think Clark Griswold at the beginning of Christmas Vacation).

2. have a strange fascination with parking lots of all kinds, but especially: hotels, tourist attractions, malls, major league sports, etc.

3. scoff each time a Kansas, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas, plate is spotted (and begin a letter writing campaign to limit the number of visitors to Missouri from these states during The Game).

4. begin a letter writing campaign to other states asking for a law requiring that state to have one plate, that's it, no personalized, save the animal-du jour, university, etc., plates.

5. ask for telephoto and night vision glasses for an upcoming birthday.

6. make a run to the 'grocery store' about 10:00 p.m. (to scope out the motels after travelers call it a night) and come home empty handed.

7. not be able to converse while in the car without uttering, "What's that one say?" "Did you see that one?" "Wait, go back!" "Rats! I think that was a _____!" "What were you saying?" "YES (fist pump)!"

8. say, "Want to go for a ride down to the Arch?" "Need a ride to the airport?" "I love the VP Fair."

9. seem a 'little distracted' from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend.

10. download multiple copies of current state license plates from various web sites and have them scattered throughout the car because they all have different plates on them.

11. have sweet oldest sister on speed-dial just in case a major plate is spotted so that we can team up and beat the Californians...oh, wait, we are purists and don't share great finds. Never mind.

Am I missing any 'special' qualities that a License Plate Game player might possess?

Time to change

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists” ~ Eric Hoffer

License Plate Game--CA Sweep! and Worst Year EVER in STL!

There was an unprecedented California sweep--1st and 2nd Place--in our annual License Plate Game, 2011. Hurray for the newly crowned King and Princess of the License Plate Game, Team Cange, our 1st place winners AND for the 2nd place winners, Team Parkinson, who had never before placed in the long and storied history of the game, (even when they lived in Atlanta, duh), until now!

The two St. Louis teams went down with a collective five unfound plates: Team Gallina--Alaska and Hawaii and Debbie "Formerly Known As THE QUEEN"--Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. For Debbie "Formerly Known As THE QUEEN," 2011 was the WORST YEAR EVER!

With the sting of the reality that our annual summer fun game was coming to a brutally, unsuccessful end, the St. Louis contingent was presented with the following image to add salt to the wounds of defeat:



Yes, that is the Classy California Contingent calling (defeat obviously hasn't impaired the ability to create a cool alliteration) us losers! Losers? Are you really calling us, Losers?

Well, live it up CA because next year THE QUEEN will be back with a vengeance! Come 2012, the crown will be back in "The Lou" and victory will be ours!

ISTE 2011 and A Piece of History

Day 2 at ISTE11...amazing!

Keynote: Mindsets for the 21st Century:Unleashing Leadership Potential in Students - Dr. Stephen R. Covey and Muriel Summers with moderation by Boyd Craig

Favorite quote: "Seeing a child as a test score is the worst form of identity theft."


Coaching, Technology, and Community: Power Partners in Professional Development – ISTE

White Paper Release

Cognitive Coaching Program – Garmston and Costa

1. thought and perception produce all behavior
2. teaching is constant decision-making
3. to learn something new requires engagement and alteration in thought
4. humans continue to grow cognitively


Instructional Coaching – Jim Knight, Kansas Coaching Project

Equality
Choice
Voice
Dialogue
Reflection
Praxis
Reciprocity

Join ISTE Coaching Center

Get Ready, Get Set, Get Organized! – Beth Still, Josh Allen, George Couros, Paula Naugle, Jason Schrage

Edmodo:
a. private social learning platform
b. similar to Facebook for the classroom
c. Glogster imports easily into Edmodo
d. students cannot have one-to-one conversations
e. can collaborate with other schools using Edmodo

Livebinders:
a. 3-ring binder for Internet
b. can be used as a portfolio

New Media, New Literacies: Educational Transformation through Digital Creativity – Jason Ohler

1. ‘New media literacy’ instead of digital storytelling
2. Don’t use storyboarding! Use story map.
3. The "DAOW" of literacy - digital, art, oral, written

Late in the afternoon, I decided to walk from my hotel to see the Liberty Bell.



Day 3 at ISTE11...bittersweet

Copyright Clarity: Using Copyrighted Materials for Digital Learning – Renee Hobbs

"To promote creativity, innovation and the spread of knowledge."

Who is telling the story?

Educational Use Guidelines are NOT the Law!

Intellectual property is the 2nd largest export that we have.

People may use copyrighted material “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research.” ~Section 107, Copyright Act of 1976

The copyright law balances the rights of owners and users by deciding if the benefits the users more than it hurts the owners.

Is your use of copyrighted materials a fair use?

Nature, purpose, effect, amount

1. Did the unlicensed use “transform” the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
2. Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

Did I transform the work or did I copy it?

User’s Rights video ala Schoolhouse Rock

Transformativeness = add value + repurpose

Transforming to make something new = fair use

The Yeah, Buts: Answering the Top 10 Arguments Against Change – Will Richardson & Rob Mancabelli

Book: Personal Learning Networks

How to build a framework or strategy for change.
Favorite Yeah Buts: Check out presentation for top 10 results

1. Time
2. Fear/safety
3. blocking/filtering
4. it’s always been this way
5. watering down of rigor/standards
6. no access/technology
7. not proficient at technology
8. it’s disruptive in the classroom
9. no value in classroom
10. alignment with assessment

Two good books:
Switch by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Change or Die by Alan Deutschman

To effect change we need to elicit the emotional AND rational responses to ‘yeah but’

Brainstorm with the teachers (perhaps by a facilitator) what is good and bad about what change you are proposing…allows teachers to publically express “yeah but”

Can you Hear Me Now? Next Level of Mobile Learning – David Thornburg

The network is the computer.

Metcalfe’s Law > Moore’s Law

If the network is the computer, the browser is the OS.

Computing as a service

Internet world of stats

Mainframe computers + 40 years = iPhone

Disruption events in education:
1st phonetic alphabet – Gilgamesh
2nd mass produced book, books printed before purchased – Guttenburg
3rd mobile revolution – is as important as the phonetic alphabet and mass produced book

Students should be able to write their own software. App Inventor for Android Let kids invent their own apps and share via qr codes

Howard Rheingold – 21st century literacies
Attention
Participation
Collaboration
Network awareness
Critical consumption

Ray Ozzie – A New Day

A new day…
Multiple interconnected devices
Living in a post-PC world
Ubiquity reigns supreme

Day 3 was bittersweet. I was ready to go home, but I met several people that I wish I had met earlier in the week--shared passions and great conversations. Just more to look forward to next year in San Diego!