5 Ways to Know You've Geeked Out for Tech and Ed

Here are five telling signs that you've "geeked out" for tech and ed:

1. When you find yourself in your own race on a Saturday night, running red lights to get to the documentary, The Race To Nowhere.  Here's a shout out of "More power to you" to the ONE other viewer in the theater.  The Race To Nowhere is a documentary worth seeing.   Scott McLeod of Dangerously Irrelevant does a nice job on this blog post of highlighting some quotes from it.  These quotes are enough to spark intense "geeked out" conversation.

2.  When you eagerly check your email inbox on your smart phone shortly after waking up because you know somewhere between the hours of 3-6, your blogging partner replied to the tech/ed related emails you hit send to at midnight.   You've got mail-- music to your ears. 

3.  When a highlight of your day is reading ed/tech blogs via RSS feeds and tweets, a hashtag becomes meaningful, and you discover that there are a whole group of fascinating educators who have nothing better to do on a weekend night than to hang out on Twitter.  We're there...  @CheridyAduviri and @KaceyKintscher  

4.  When you design your own "personal learning curriculum" and listen to podcasts on your daily commute to work in your make-shift classroom on wheels. Their voices and ideas resonate with you throughout the day.  Seedlings with Alice Bar, Bob Sprankle, and Cheryl Oaks  continues to be a favorite!

5.  When you want to spend inordinate amounts of time applying new web 2.0 tools to education. Here are some applications we have made so far.  Tools like Posterous, Jing, Prezi, Animoto, etc. can equate to meaningful learning opportunities and fun!

Look for a future posts entitled "Why the World NEEDS More Tech Ed Geeks"  and "Why You Should Geek Out Too."  

Photo credit:  http://littlegeko.blogspot.com

Blogging as a Springboard: OSU INTO Presentation

We enjoyed giving our first co-presentation at a recent OSU INTO faculty development day.  The Prezi presetation below gives an overview of the main points.  Here are some links and sites we recommended to our audience.

Some recommended posts and links we have made so far for professional development

• Our Networks, Ed Sites and Web 2.0 tools tabs are works in progress.  They provide a place to start exploring and are categorized. 
• (ESOL specific for our presentation audience)  Check Out the 21st ESL/EFL/ELD Blog Carnival, Blogging Around ESOL, and  Links of the Month: February
• We RSS feed to the blogs and podcasts we have listed as well as others and highly recommend it!

A few posts that show our application of web 2.0 tools in the classroom

• Jing Offers Alternative Ways to Provide Feedback 
• Prezi Meet Jing.  Jing Meet Prezi 
• Mix It Up With Animoto 
• Playing With Words

Blogging Platforms we currently recommend

Posterous
Weebly--educator's account
Blogger
Future posts will continue to highlight these and other blogging platforms for educational uses.

A big thanks to those of you who attended our presentation, gave us additional sites, and expressed ongoing interest!  We invite you to participate by letting us know of future posts, workshops, or presentations you would like to see; contributing links; and/or sharing what has worked in tech in your own classes or professional development.

Happy blogging!

Links of the Month: February

Thanks to one of Cheridy’s TCE students this term for the picture created with Make Beliefs Comix.  This question inspired us to begin what we hope will be a monthly series of our favorite podcasts, webcasts, blogs, and/or links.

PODCAST PICKS

Cheridy’s pick
Click HERE to link to Women of the Web 3.0: Ed Tech Talk #121 (Scroll to the bottom of the page for the audio.) I’ve been intrigued by Skype in the classroom since my father did a Skype presentation at NECC. I am mulling over its possibilities and was delighted to listen to this podcast with one of my favorite bloggers, Syliva Tolisano of Langwitches.  

Kacey’s pick:
Angela Maiers interviewed Debbie Miller, retired Colorado teacher and writer, about her latest book Teaching With Intention. You can listen here.

LINK PICKS

Cheridy’s pick:
In keeping with the Skype theme, here’s a link to Syliva Tolisano’s seemingly amazing project Around the World With 80 Schools.  There are opportunities for connecting with classes grades 1 – possibly higher ed.  Drop me a line if you participate!

Kacey’s pick:
Last weekend, I attended the Oregon Reading Association's Annual Conference in Portland and came home with new reading strategy ideas swimming in my head! One of the presentations I attended was about iPod use in the classroom (stay tuned for the post). It got me thinking about Apps and how I might use them in the classroom. Perfect timing as Michael Gorman blogged ...There's an App For That and reminded me about I Education Apps Review! Thanks Michael! 

In wrapping up the post, here’s a stab at answering the question asked in the comic… Our ideas and links in our tabs at the top of our site are inspired by our passion to learn more about tech and ed integration by listening to podcasts, reading blogs, and exploring applicable sites.  We RSS feed to various blogs, podcasts, and webcasts.  We also find ourselves trying out sites that are in beta.  We are enjoying the journey.  Thanks for adding to the inspiration Theresa!  

Co-post by CA and KK

Check Out the 21st ESL/EFL/ELD Blog Carnival

Alice Mercer is hosting the Twenty First Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELD Blog Carnival!  (Wow, people in ESOL really do like their acronyms!  *See the bottom for an explanation of these fun letters.) This is exciting  for a few reasons.

• These carnivals offer a wealth of information and practical teaching ideas in one single post.  I am getting ready to teach a vocabulary class and am excited to explore the link about vocabulary.  I've also been thinking about incorporating TED Talks into my ESOL class, so the link on Alice's blog about this very topic has me anxious to read on.  

• This also serves as a motivator to explore past ESL/EFL/ELD Blog Carnivals accessible here on Larry Ferlazzo's site.   (Yes, it takes as long to type those acronyms as it does to say them.) 

David Deubelbeiss, whom I recently began reading, will host the April 1st edition.  I am pleased to hear that Shelly Terrell will host a May 1st edition on early learners!

Check it out now!  As a demonstration of enthusiasm, I will try my first tweet in keeping with my 2011 goals for trying out new technology-- it's called a tweet isn't it? (Thanks Alice for following a newbie on Twitter.)

Happy Exploring!

ESL = English as a Second Language, EFL = English as A Foreign Language, ELD = English Language Development, ESOL = English Speakers of Other Language, and the list goes on and on in the field...