David Prindle's Blog

From My Summer Vacation-Portage Glacier Alaska

2010-01-01T15:57:00.000-05:00

Thing 23-You Made It!

2010-01-01T15:45:00.002-05:00

Whew....finally made it. I now have a lot of stuff to ponder and use in class. Hopefully, I will be able to do this in the next few weeks. After all of the business surrounding layoffs in my district I hope now to get back to teaching my students. I will recommend this course to other teachers.

Thing 22-Online Video Addendum

2010-01-01T15:38:00.001-05:00

I have found TED.com to be a excellent resource and have created my own TED page for parents, students and teachers to access. http://www.hs.bcpsk12.net/dprindle/ted.html This will soon be migrated over to my new site.

Thing 22-Online Video

2010-01-01T15:24:00.002-05:00

This year (through the inspiration of a friend see her channel www.youtube.com/user/kristadawnprice/) I have started using online video. I have a Youtube channel and also have them stored on my website. www.davidprindle.com and www.youtube.com/user/dprindle1/ . I and many of my fellow teachers feel that Youtube is a great tool for the classroom. However, at BCPS it is blocked during the school day. It is accessible from 3 pm to 745 am which in my view makes no sense. The only dislike is you don't know what is going to be the next video that may be recommended by YouTube and they may not be appropriate for class. I assume if the student watches the video through my channel that won't happen. I plan on continuing the use of this. I will be saving my videos in several forms....Quicktime movies to be stored on our school server (since streaming video is blocked at school), podcast form (playable on an iPod) and if necessary mobile phone size. In order to be better at all of this I went out and bought a MacBook Pro. Having been a long time PC user this was a huge move. But the Mac does everything easier than a PC with preinstalled software.

Thing 21- Twitter

2010-01-01T14:31:00.002-05:00

I do have 3 twitter accounts. 2 for class and my own. However, I have not really used them yet to there full potential. I told my students that the class sites would be mainly for "flash" traffic. Snow day notices, good tv shows that would be of interest in class. Personally right now I only follow the Alaska Volcano Observatory. I am still trying to determine if Twitter will be a good thing to use in my personal or professional life. This is one of the tools that I will have to exam and/or develop further.

Thing 20-Bookmarking with del.icio.us

2010-01-01T14:01:00.002-05:00

Here is my username dprindle. I have put all of my bookmarks up. As soon as I can find time I will edit some of them down or create a new user name and just put up select ones. I will be using these in class and for EdTech PD in our district. As far as productivity I can see the benefit of having your bookmarks online when you don't have your own machine with you. Anything I can use to when I don't have my own machine with me with enhance my productivity.

Thing 19-Introduction to Social Bookmarking

2010-01-01T12:49:00.002-05:00

Not only would tagging be beneficial to fellow teachers but also to my students. If they can go directly to my delicious site they can then easily search it for current material rather than trying to weed through all of my book marks. I don't really see any disadvantages to this tool. An advantage is it also lets you control what fellow teachers and students need to see. I do like the tag cloud concept and will most likely add it to the sites that I manage so users can tell if my site has what they need.

Thing 18-Building Personal Learning Networks

2010-01-01T12:28:00.004-05:00

It is not a question if we will use a PLN for our staff PD it is when. We are in the process of formulating our Ed Tech PD plan. I have already created and compiled our resources at http://www.hs.bcpsk12.net/dprindle/edtech/ . The benefits I see to this type of learning is tht we can have a place for training videos, podcasts, discussions, ideas and suggestions. The problem will be getting more "seasoned" teachers to participate. However, for the most part most of the teachers in BCPS are open to new ideas . But in any organization you will have laggards whether by choice or lack of experience. Here is an interesting graph I saw at a MACUL conference. We for the most part this shows you can get about 85% of your district on board. Here is the conference website: http://survive-and-thrive.wikispaces.com/

Early Summer Morning in the Brook Range Alaska

2010-01-01T12:16:00.001-05:00

Early morning in the Brooks Range in July. Taken by the Koyukuk River in Wiseman Alaska.

Thing 17-More Web 2.0 Winners

2010-01-01T10:02:00.002-05:00

I already use several of these tools. Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Earth, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, You tube and one not listed Bing Maps. The main drawbacks to all of the these tools are students without internet at home, slow and blocked technology and sites at school, breaking the kids old school modes of wanting teachers to just stand and deliver and hand out worksheets.

Played the travel IQ game at least on my computer the map was too small.

Thing 16-Teach Digital

2010-01-01T09:47:00.002-05:00

All of the videos have good points. However, the third one was a little annoying. True there are teachers out there that need to get into the future. But, we still have to get information to the student and sometimes this is boring. I have long recognized that we are dealing with a TV generation that have a 10 minute attention span before they are ready for a commercial. Recently I have been letting students use what ever means they want to communicate their assignments. I am moving toward teaching more digitally but try to balance that with hands on and some getting the information out. Part of the problem at BCPS is all of the blocking that goes on and older slower technology and not enough to go around. I do love the TED talks and have created a page on my website of my favorite picks. www.davidprindle.com I along with others in the district have brought our Educational Technology group back together to help teachers do a better job in the classroom of using appropriate technologies and applications.

Thing 15- How to Use Podcasts In Class

2010-01-01T09:37:00.002-05:00

Actually I will be making my own video podcasts. As I said in Thing 14 my classes are visual. I will most likely record my presentations along with my class discussion in one of my classes. I have set up a podcast page on my website see http://www.davidprindle.com The one drawback to podcasting are the kids that don't have access to a computer and the internet at home. I still have to figure out how to combat that. In the future I could burn a dvd or cd for those students. The only push back I will get will be from the IT people in that they block all streaming media at school. My principal, curriculum director and supt, are foward looking and see teaching digital as a important tool.

Thing 14- Learning with Podcasts

2010-01-01T08:53:00.003-05:00

I have no doubt that podcast can be valuable in students learning. Our student in BCPS do dual enrollment Calculus and each class is also on a podcast. In math and science these casts can be useful for review or if just plain forgot how to do something. However, I don't feel that an audio podcast if OK for Science and Math from the standpoint you need to see some of what is being demonstrated or taught. I would prefer to use a video podcast.

As for the casts I liked here is one from Elizabeth Fagen superintendent of Tucson, Arizona, Talking about school funding in the recession. http://learningmatters.tv/blog/podcasts/schools-in-the-recession-podcast-50th-in-the-nation/3506/ She is expressing the same frustrations that we are going through here in BCPS and Michigan. It helps to know we are not alone.

Next is a Race to the Top podcast. By Historian Diane Ravitch. I chose this because we are in the midst of trying to obtain this money. http://learningmatters.tv/blog/podcasts/race-to-the-top-podcast-play-money/3428/ She outlines the weakness of the strings attached to money. She has some very valid points.

I chose to listen to a alternate view of the RTTT by Kati Haycock is president of the Education Trust. http://learningmatters.tv/blog/podcasts/race-to-the-top-podcast-a-fascinating-impact/3426/ It seems that she is on the side of charter schools. Based on looking at their website they seem not to be a promoter of public education. She does have some valid points about data collection and analysis.

On a personal note I am afraid that everyday we are losing more and more local control over our schools.

I have found a couple of "podcasts" made by a friend of mine I will use in school. They are more video's than podcasts. http://www.youtube.com/user/kristadawnprice#p/u/16/k4n7XlHa69I and http://www.youtube.com/user/kristadawnprice#p/u/14/AJBjnslKwac I am going to use these for our long term projects.

Thing 13-Sharing My Vision Part 2

2009-12-30T21:35:00.002-05:00

I used Slideshare since I already have an account there. This is a presentation I use in class. I have been flipping back and forth between Prezi and "PowerPoint" presentations to ween the students off the PPT types. I can see embeding them into my website or blogs. I have a parent blog. And this would be a great way to communicate a lot of information easily.

Thing 13-Sharing My Vision

2009-12-30T21:33:00.001-05:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Here is my second try. The 1st one didn't load right.

Geologic Time

View more presentations from David Prindle.

Thing 12-Productivity Anywhere

2009-12-30T20:46:00.002-05:00

I already use a presentation application that my students or I can access online anytime. If I sign in I can edit it and change it as necessary. It is called Prezi. You can find it at http://prezi.com Here is a link to one of my presentations: http://prezi.com/b_shw81wantb/ Some of the students like it others don't. What I am finding out with some of the new Web 2.0 and things I am trying to do in class students are having a hard time getting used to it. We have done a good job for the last 13 years training our kids to listen to stand and deliver. I teach seniors so it is hard to break that mold. Some of the more creative and/or tech savvy kids do like it though.

Thing 11- Google Docs

2009-12-30T20:35:00.002-05:00

I already use Google Docs. However, not in class yet. I am road testing some of my Web 2.0 things on my District Ed Tech group and our staff. Right now we are trying create a white list for staff and her is the link to our Google Doc. http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaLsCk8-GpC4ZGYzYjQyNG5fM2N6bWI4N3hx&hl=en

I am not sure that it will replace MS Office since you don't want every document edited. But we have found that if we don't pdf official documents people will change them and try to use the changes against the district. I think that in the future Open Office will replace MS Office because of one thing...ITS FREE!.

Thing 10-My Wiki

2009-12-30T20:27:00.003-05:00

Here is the address of the wiki I created for our District ED Tech group. http://bcpsedtech.wikispaces.com/

Here is a list that I created on it. http://bcpsedtech.wikispaces.com/Educational+Technology+Links

We will also use this to comment on our group assignment. We haven't really started using it since we have not met since I created the wiki.

Creating the wiki was fairly easy but there is about a 10-15 minute learning curve. It could be longer or shorter depending on your skills.

I commented on Benny's 23 Things Blog on his Thing 10.

Thing 9- Wiki's

2009-12-30T20:15:00.002-05:00

It could be possible that I will use wikis in the classroom in the future. Rather than for a class wiki it may be for projects than everyday class work. I think that Meredith Gorran Farkas' pros and cons sum up the good and bad of wiki's. Personally I am bit of a control freak and students having the ability to change and edit them. Students for the most part will do a good job but you will have the occasional wise guy that will leave something bad. I think that these would be good for professional development. At the MACUL Tech Collaboration Conference we used one and the entire class was able to interact during the training. This could be good in class but the major drawback all of the students may not have access to computers in the classroom.

Here They Come

2009-12-30T17:25:00.001-05:00

I am going to press to finish my 23 Things in the next few days. Spent most of vacation recovering from the layoff process BCPS had to go through. Sorry for the delay.

Thing 8-Locate Feeds That Interest You

2009-11-30T15:53:00.002-05:00

The biggest learning that I had with RSS is just setting it up after that adding was easy. I did it in two ways 1. Checked my usual sites to see if they had feeds clicked on the RSS button then copy and pasted the URL into the add box in Google Reader. 2. I used the suggestions in the left hand column that Google created based on my current feeds. My feeds consist of my blogs, GR and MI news, Alaska News and Ed Tech related site. I didn't really find any non useful feeds since I wasn't on that mission. I was looking for my usual papers, etc that I use everyday.

Thing 7-RSS and Google Reader

2009-11-30T15:46:00.004-05:00

I already use Google reader. I never thought about using it in class. But from the standpoint of daily or current events it would give students a common place to quickly catch on the days news or events depending on the class (Geology, Forensic Science/Crime, US History, etc). I use it in my personal life to keep up on the many papers and sources I use everyday in my life, professional development or at school. RSS and news readers put everything in one easy to find and access area.

Thing 6-Copyright

2009-11-30T15:33:00.002-05:00

I just came across this issue last night while creating a video for my class. It was not necessarily with the images or content but using background music for my video. After doing some research it looks like it would be hard to use copyrighted music without the permission of the artist, writer and music company. Luckily, I have my own artist in house and will be using some of his music with his permission. As far as the rest. I am very careful in what I use and if a do use it I will cite the source for the information. Whether it is an in text cite (i.e. PowerPoint) or at the end of a video in the credits section. On another note I have found this site where you can license your own work and let people know from you what is permissible use. It is called Creative Commons and it can be found at http://creativecommons.org/. I am planning on using it from now on and it is free. They do ask for donations.

Thing 5-Mash up

2009-11-30T15:12:00.002-05:00

Here is a really fun thing I will be using in class. It can't really be imbedded into my blog entry. But it is called Photosynth. I am using it in my Geology and Forensic Science classes. Soon my Forensic Science classes will be do Crime Scene 360 where they will be composing a 3-D crime scene using this software. Look for the video instructions in the next couple of days. I will be using it in Geology for 3-D landscapes descriptions and rock studies. Here is the link to my Photosynth page. It has a room, landscape and two rocks. http://photosynth.net/userprofilepage.aspx?user=dprindle This will be used more than I think a Flickr type site.

Thing 4-Photosharing

2009-11-26T19:36:00.002-05:00

I am currently using two different photo sharing applications in class. Flickr and Photosynth. My Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_prindle/) I am using mainly for Geology class. This summer I took a trip to Alaska and took many pictures for class. With Flickr I can geo tag these photos so the students can relate to the pictures to a geographic location. I am using my photosynth site (http://photosynth.net/userprofilepage.aspx?user=dprindle) to create special three dimensional photo collages for class. Whether it is rocks or landscapes for geology class or in Forensic Science we will be using it for Crime Scene 360. Students will be creating a crime scene and photographing the whole room and the letting Photosynth create a 3-D collage. Also see here about Photosynth (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html)

Time To Get Back In The Game-Things 0-3

2009-11-26T09:18:00.004-05:00

Been really busy lately with school and union stuff. So this is catch up weekend for the 23 Things.

Thing 0: I have had several online identities depending on whether it is for personal, business, or school use. Under my school identity I have many Google Apps in use. Google Docs, Reader, Blogger, iGoogle, News, Web, Talk, etc. I am using some of my personal places for school though (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube).

Thing 1: Web 2.0 tools are very important for learning. I have started using many of them for class. See http://www.hs.bcpsk12.net/dprindle/. Using these tools help students become more connected. I still do some traditional projects and work in class but try to think how can I change them using Web 2.0 tools. Part of my issue at school is that many of the things I use or would like to are blocked by our filter for both students and teachers. Kind of sad (Editorial comment).

Thing 2: As you can see I have created a blog for this class and have created them for my classes and for our Ed Tech group at BCPS. I will be also creating one for parents of students in my class.

Thing 3: It is incredibly important that we create students that are lifelong learners and we as teachers must continuously learn. I think with the advent of Web 2.0 tools most students are way ahead of their teachers as far as using these tools to continue to learn. We as teachers need to keep up and learn how to use and integrate these and future tools into our classroom so we (both students and teachers) can be life long learners.

Coming soon Things 4-8.

I Am Still Here

2009-11-19T18:50:00.000-05:00

I am still working on this course. I am also our Association President and we are going through mid year budget cuts and have been pulled away to that. I shall return.

23 Things

2009-10-28T09:45:00.000-04:00

This is the blog I have created for the 23 Things class with KISD. After the class is over I will continue to use for other endeavors.