Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Today the Tech Savvy Educator is officially one year old! I know, I know, one year and we’re already walking, talking, blogging, and collaborating. Just imagine what we’ll be up to during year two.
I choose June 1st of 2005 as the official launch so that I would have time to focus on blogging and community […]

From CNET Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about podcasting, a kind of mix of RSS technology, pirate-radio sensibilities, and iPod portability. Steve Jobs even announced that the next version of iTunes will support podcasting. But what the heck is podcasting, and how can you get in on the action?
In short, a […]

Edupodcaster extraordinaire David Warlick has just posted a blog entry and podcast he and I recorded last Tuesday night at the NECC conference. In the podcast, you can here Dave observing me posting a podcast from my mobile phone and going through the process of uploading it to my blog.

It’s interesting listening to Dave’s podcast considering it contains my entire Podcast A Go-Go podcast, both the recording itself and the process of uploading it. So it’s kinda like a podcast documentary of my mobile podcast. Nothing earth shattering, perhaps, but it’s certainly a hoot to listen to a few days after the fact. Boy, I wish I could have stayed at NECC for another two days - so much fun to be had…. -andy

I had to leave at the crack of dawn yesterday morning to catch my train to New York, which meant I didn’t get to see Deneen Frazier-Bowen’s NECC keynote at its scheduled time. But since she’s my long-time edtech homegirl, she was sweet enough to let me sit in on one of her rehearsals this Tuesday.

Deneen’s keynote wasn’t your usual Powerpoint-Slides-and-a-Longwinded-Speech kinda keynote. Far from it. Instead, she basically pulled an Anna Deveare Smith and performed a series of characters to help paint a portrait of what it’s like for today’s kids to be growing up as digital natives. The keynote began with a stiff, know-nothing school administrator fumbling her way through a Powerpoint, talking about educating kids the old fashioned way and knowing what’s best for today’s kids. Eventually, she gets so flummoxed with her Powerpoint that she runs off the stage to argue with tech support.

While Old Miss Frumpmeister is doing her thing back stage, Deneen comes back on stage dressed as a young hip-hop lovin’ teen. Her name is Eddy, and she’s a smart, tough kid who loves technology but isn’t trusted by her teachers. She tells a story about how she brought a palm pilot to class but gets busted for supposedly using it to cheat on a test, which wasn’t the case. The school principal makes a capital case out of it and refuses to listen to Eddy’s side of the story. So what does Eddy do? She posts it on her blog, which, of course, eventually gets back around to the principal. The principal orders her to remove the criticism of him from the blog, even though it’s spot-on accurate, and Eddy refuses. She’s then suspended from school, as people all over the world comment on her blog and rally to her cause.

Once Eddy exits the stage, we get to meet Maria. Maria’s in late elementary school, and she’s a bit hyper, but she’s got great ideas about math and science. She likes to find science websites and hopes to use them in class, but not all her teachers seem to care about her opinion. But thanks to one teacher who values her opinion, Maria gets to talk about her idea about participating in Net Day Speak Up Day during a meeting of the school’s teachers. She’s never spoken in public before, so she uses the voice recorder on her smart phone to practice before giving her big speech, then puts it on her audio blog. Eventually, the school gets involved in the project, and she talks about the results.

Some of Maria’s new-found courage comes from her older friend Joanna, an above average 11th grade student who likes to spend her free time playing online multiplayer games. At first her mother worries about the time she spends gaming, but then starts to notice how she takes charge whenever she’s interacting with others online. Her mother talks to her about how she’s learning leadership skills, a concept pretty much alien to Joanna, but eventually she decides to learn about youth leadership activities to see if she can channel her interests in a positive way. Enter TakingITGlobal: Joanna discovers the network and starts chatting with a girl in Egypt. She gets the idea of setting up a computer recycling program for African kids, approaching the company her mom works for in order to get the computers. Before she knows it, she’s an active TIG member, getting lots of media attention in her community as she mobilizes local businesses to help bridge the digital divide.

Eventually, the obnoxious administrator returns to the stage. While trying to sort out her Powerpoint, she apparently overheard the kids’ monologues. She’s forced to rethink her attitudes towards kids and learning, while recognizing the way technology can be used to inspire and invigorate young people.

Following the performance, Deneen returns to the stage, no longer in character. She describes how she’s spent time over the last few years interview countless young people, trying to get a handle on what it’s like to be a digital native. The characters she introduced during her performance are not verbatim re-enactments of actual people a la Anna Deveare Smith, but are composites and creations inspired by the students she’s interviewed. It was a whole new way to tell the story of education and youth media; I’m really glad I had the chance to see Deneen’s performance before leaving the conference.

For those of you who missed it, here are some podcasts of her characters. Not all the performances are complete, but they’ll give you a feel for what she did on stage at NECC. Special thanks to Deneen for letting me record them. -andy

Eddy
Maria
Joanna
The Administrator

David Warlick gets down with another podcast at the Apple Podcast Marathon

Even though podcasting was barely on the lips of anyone - let alone educators - when the NECC conference program was planned early last autumn, somehow the conference organizers managed to jump on the bandwagon with surprising success. With assistance from Apple and a team of Apple Distinguished Educators, NECC organizers have posted a series of podcasts from the conference, including recordings of sessions, an interview with the mayor of Philadelphia, and a podcast tour of Philly. Apple also hosted a podcast marathon last night in conjunction with the release of their podcast-friendly iTunes 4.9. They reserved a room that was supposed to fit only 120 people. When I showed up last night about 45 minutes before the session, there was a line out the door and around the corner. So many people showed up that they had to schedule a repeat session the following hour. Both were standing-room-only. I don’t remember the last time I saw so many educators psyched about a new tool that didn’t even have a classroom track record yet.

The excitement was palpable; Dave Warlick and I recorded simultaneous podcasts as the crowd waited to go inside, talking with people and learning about their interests in podcasting. Inside the room, Barnaby Wasson led a team of Apple Distinguished Educators giving an overview of podcasting and a demo of the new iTunes. He also introduced participants to mobile podcasting, encouraging them to set up a Blogger account so they could use Audioblogger for recording podcasts from their phone. One thing he neglected to mention was the need for a Feedburner RSS feed, since Blogger’s feed isn’t podcast-friendly; I made a note of it during ther Q&A session and Barnaby promised to add the info to their presentation slides so participants wouldn’t accidentally leave out this important, albeit technical, step in the podcasting process.

Meanwhile, there were probably at least half a dozen podcasting educators wandering the halls of the conference, posting recordings left and right. Now that I’m heading home I’ll definitely check out the various feeds, including Dave’s and Steve Dembo’s, so I can live vicariously through their podcasts. They’re both off to a great start, so I can’t wait to see what else they’ll be doing there.

Last but not least, here’s an overly excited podcast I recorded a few moments after the Apple podcast marathon. -andy

Against my better judgment, I’ve decided not to go to bed like a good boy and I’ve spent the last half hour or so compressing the podcast of my panel session from the NECC conference today so I could get it online for you eager beavers to listen to in the wee hours of the morning. It’s about an hour long, and features Web education luminaries Yvonne-Marie Andres, Bonnie Bracey, Dennis Harper, Patsy Wang-Iverson, Ed Gragert and David Warlick, with yours truly moderating. In the immortal words of Spalding Gray in The Killing Fields and Swimming to Cambodia, check it out, Sid. Now, where’s that confounded bed? -ac

Podcasting from the Marriott Hotel.

Podcast from the NECC conference waiting for David Weinberger to begin his keynote. For some bizarre reason, the free wifi at the conference center works everywhere except here in the main ballroom. -andy

Here’s a short, incoherent podcast from my mobile phone as I show Jamie Reinsch how to podcast. I’m still jetlagged, so cut me some slack, folks… -andy

Podcast of a group of drummers performing at the corner of Mission and 16th in San Francisco. -andy