Comments for Connecting the Dots

Comment on The Question Is: Is Google Changing What It Means to be Smart? by The way we use Google is what reveals our IQ « Maiambe’s Weblog

The way we use Google is what reveals our IQ « Maiambe’s Weblog — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:57:22 +0000

[...] Richardson’s balanced reaction, comparatively, got me thinking. I most closely identify with Mike Curtin’ vision that hypertext and Web 2.0 tools might dissolve cultural borders and unite disparate people and [...]

Comment on Irony 101: The Problem of Being Connected by Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:29:06 +0000

Can being connected prevent us from connecting? Absolutely!

I empathize with your work intruding on your NECC experience. I couldn’t get my e-mail to work at either the hotel or the conference center in San Antonio so that was one less distraction for me. Of course I’m paying for it now… =)

Comment on NECC Re-plugged? by Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:41:18 +0000

Hi Mike, lots of interesting conversations about how to improve next year… Like you say above, there seems to be some agreement that having TWO spaces (hopefully next to each other) would be useful.

Comment on NECC Unplugged by Mike

Mike — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:49:06 +0000

Beth-
The Tech Tasting was the brainchild of the tech committee in one of our elementary schools. The year before, they had taken a “curriculum afternoon” and created a schedule of mini-workshops around the building. This didn’t work so well because it was too spread out; people visited one classroom and then went home. This year we wanted to create a forum where teachers would be able to talk about what they were seeing at the various exhibits as they moved from station to station.

We sent out a blanket e-mail asking for people willing to volunteer but we also made our own short list of people who we thought would be good presenters and applied a little “gentle persuasion” to them. The faculty at this particular school are a very positive and team-oriented group, so it wasn’t a problem getting them all on board. We stressed that this was going to be simple and informal, so it was not a tremendous amount of work for them.

We set up 10 computer stations around the library and each presnter was encouraged to develop some kind of handout. I kicked the session off with a plenary where I explained the logistics and encouraged people to ask questions. The presenters all got to take a 20-minute break at various intervals so they, too, could view the other exhibits. We then had a follow-up meeting a week later where the whole group shared their ideas and reactions with the rest of the faculty and then worked in grade levels to discuss what goals/projects they wanted to pursue based on what they had seen at the tech tasting.

Cheers.

Comment on NECC Unplugged by Beth C

Beth C — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:12:30 +0000

Mike - thanks for your session at NECC Unplugged. I was interested in your mention of doing the Tech Tasting for teachers to showcase their work for each other. Can you share (here or through my email) how this worked, how you got teachers to agree to do participate and the like? Were students involved?

Comment on The Importance of Shopping Around by seconds

seconds — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:37:41 +0000

Very interesting…I never thought to look at different search engines…google has always been my favourite! Will definitely use more in future!

Comment on Getting Tough With Vendors by Doug Johnson

Doug Johnson — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:15:35 +0000

Hi Mike,

I mostly abide by your advice of going with a list of products/services/solutions I want to learn more about. But I also try to leave myself open to a little serendipity. It’s fun to find something unexpected and NECC is a good place to have that happen.

Enjoy the conference!

Doug

Comment on Toe-dipping or Cannonballs? by David Warlick

David Warlick — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:15:34 +0000

Mike,

Perhaps her process was the appropriate one, to learn and play with blogs, and wikis, and podcasting, and RSS, and to wonder about what all of this means. then to learn, either through some culminating workshop or through her own continued reflection that blog, wikis, and RSS do indeed fit together in ways that we control.

2¢ Worth

Comment on The Ed Tech Conversation: A Shift or an Expansion? by Vicki Davis

Vicki Davis — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:57:39 +0000

The mainstream media isn’t going anywhere — it just seems that nightly I hear the news reporters disparaging “bloggers.” Bloggers do this. Bloggers do that.

Look at the change in ISTE’s recording policy at NECC - backing off on requiring ISTE’s written permission to record on site — this was because of bloggers and from some of the terse comments I’ve heard, I don’t know that they are too happy w/ the edublogosphere about it.

I don’t think they are going anywhere — I just see signs of tension building as the edublogosphere wields more power. It will be interesting to watch.

Comment on Michel Foucault, Privacy, and Doubts about Web 2.0 by Mike Curtin

Mike Curtin — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:54:08 +0000

Vicki- Thanks for your kind words and for bringing many new readers to my blog. I’m a big fan and appreciate your taking the time to introduce some new voices into the conversation.

Nicholas - Wow, thanks for enlarging - and correcting - my understanding of Foucault’s thinking as it applies to web 2.0. I haven’t read him in a very long time, probably since I received my MA in English back in the mid-Nineties. I’ve just been thinking a lot lately about the whole idea of gaining power over someone by fixing him/her in your gaze and our newfound willingness, our excitement, at subjecting ourself to that gaze. Maybe what is so scary about this new manifestation of the dynamic is its permanence - we put it out there knowing that it’s out there forever now - and its precision: the surveillance is no longer a blurry image on a video camera but our very thoughts, feelings, conversations, and personal information writ large for all the world to see.