I’m positing a monthly “Tech Tips for Teachers” and I thought I might begin here. You can look for these at the beginning of each month.

T3: Tech Tips for Teachers

Open courseware classes. offer a free opportunity for you to increase your knowledge while working at your own pace. Learn new, creative approaches to teaching other disciplines, bring burgeoning technology into your classroom, and strengthen your teaching skills.

Create your own customized motivational posters. Turn a simple photograph into a humorous or sobering message. Make your own funny, parodied, or sport-related poster. Perfect for the office, classroom, teachers’ lounge, or church.

Student motivation: The discussion of new 21st-century skills seems to generate debate among people who are either for the concept or against it. Although that argument has merit, this presentation helps us beyond that particular debate and toward an inclusive discussion that improves instruction.

Assessment of wikis in classroom 2.0. With its underpinnings in constructivism as pedagogy, the “Currwikulum process” moves beyond the static blog to inform the writing process at various stages. For more about wikis, view here: http://hosting2.epresence.tv/JVLA/1/watch/53.aspx

Classroom game templates and clips. Who wouldn’t want to be a Millionaire or the center-square on “Hollywood Squares?” Incorporate sounds for the shows as well as the question format. Use clips from these shows: “The Price is Right,” “The Weakest Link,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader,” and “Survivor,” among others.

June, 2009

I have had an interesting experience dealing with the AP College Board. It seems that for the online institution I move two steps forward and then a step back. Last night, I received an e-mail that because our teachers have undergone the AP course audit, they should be able to transfer those courses online without difficulty.

So today I attempted to create a “new school,” only to find I did not have the necessary (and all-important six-digit code). So I call the AP College Board audit number and learn that I need to speak with a special person who handles online providers. When I ask if I can get her direct number, in case I’m cut off or the person does not return my call, the person from AP says he does not know that number and thus can’t give it to me. Right, and I’m Batman!

Sometimes I’m just incredulous about educators (here, department chairs) who cannot transition from seat time to proficiency. I’m working to place some AP courses online and though the credit we will give is 1.0 credit, some teachers think one cannot cover an AP course in a semester. Haven’t these people heard of block-scheduling on a “double period?

For integrated video and PowerPoint, we’ve been using e-Presence. Last fall, we moved the device to the Iowa School for the Deaf, just across the river in Council Bluffs: they have a professional studio and more bandwidth than anyone around with the exception of Offutt Air Force Base. Anyway, I made a couple of killer videos for my training class, only to have the videos fail upon publishing.

So after a discussion with the vendor in Toronto and a new patch and an upgrade, I’m back in Iowa tomorrow to “push out” the new videos or rerecord them again. In any case, I like to stay at least a week ahead of my class; at present, I’m about three days ahead.

Strangely enough, the device seemed to function best in my “Wayne’s World” basement with a my decade-old home video camera. Low tech, but functional.

In other news, I joined the Twitterati this weekend, which made me realize that I don’t go to very exciting places!

Preoccupied with board work this week. On Sunday, I flew to DC for a meeting of community college trustees. Before the meeting, however, I was off to see “The Chinese National Treasures,” which weren’t far from our hotel. A disappointment: the pandas look more like men in bear suits that real animals. For the conspiracy theorists: Maybe they are men in bear suits!

In Washington, my group from Nebraska did speak with Senators Nelson and Johanns, both of whom are about my size. Go 5′9″ men!

I returned from those meetings early to host my own board from the virtual world. We had a full day of meetings Friday. We discussed many topics, including ways to drive students and parents to our site. To that end, we’ll host an NCAA basketball survey and also a retreat aimed at mothers.

Last Friday I filmed my wiki presentation, pretty good except for cutting off my forehead when I moved too close to the camera. Also I looked down several times to make sure the e-Presence machine was taping. The previous week proved a fiasco: my video stopped about five minutes into the presentation, so I published PowerPoint slides without my commentary.

Later that afternoon, I redid the commentary on my home Mac and then posted to YouTube. I was pleased with the final result, but the process proved cumbersome.

This afternoon I received approval from the AP College Board to offer our classes online. I explained that our instructors have all taught their courses previously and had their respective syllabi reviewed by their College Board. Of course, I failed to ask about the lab for an enviornmental science AP course. Well, I’ll bask in my glory and call back at a later date.

I’m now working on a presentation on blogging in the classroom.

I was using the moniker of “Brockn’Roll” and “Brocktober” well before our new President. in fact, here’s a funny story: When I was at a minority-majority high school last spring for a presentation and I was introduced as “Dr. Brock,” one young African-American young woman cried out, “Obama!”

Spent most of the morning working a presentation on wikis. Very cool. I especially like how wikis work so well with small groups. After I have set up my categories, I sent let the students work on completing the puzzle. A good example of Web 2.0 and something teachers should be employing more often in the classroom.

Friends often ask what I like best about being the virtual administrator, working from my home office. Here’s my list:
1) Lack of interruptions: In my former position, my phone was ringing all the time. I’d be in the middle of something and some contingency would arise. These interruptions resulted in disrupted thinking and gave rise to spelling errors (thinking, I’d already done that!). Here, I jump when it rings because it happens so seldom. Also I have very few stop by my home office: the meter man once a month has not been a huge issue.
2) Appearance: I haven’t worn a tie in six months. I’m not sure I could ever wear one again. I’ve grown comfortable with my mock t-neck and jeans. Steve Jobs is my hero! Think of all the money I’m saving at the dry cleaner. Likewise, I shave when I feel like it, or have to meet someone. Here’s the big insight: my performance has not suffered at all; I’d like to think that it has improved.
3) Lack of Driving: In my former position as a district supervisor, I would say I spent @20% of my time in my car, motoring from school to school. So I’m saving energy and following Tom Friedman’s advice in “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America,” the scariest book I have ever read. Again, more time on production or play.
4) Affordable lunch: Whatever is upstairs. Probably do not eat as much. Certainly I drink less soft drinks. Today is snowy and too much trouble to go outside.

The Christmas break gave me a more prolonged time to read. I finally finished Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. Once again, I was reminded of the power of Web 2.0 thinking in our business model: We’re trying to establish a value-added site where teachers can go and have conversations and also find materials that will be useful in their classroom presentations. To that end, I’ve established a sandbox on the site for both teachers and students to play with a variety of tools, like Ging and Gong. What I haven’t done well is publicize it.

Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide had much of the same message, but a closer look at the business plans of both Flickr and Netflix yielded some insight. Netflix had a longer “burn rate” before moving up the J-Curve to profitability. Facebook also drew the attention of the author; the site is so ubiquitous now that I had forgotten that its infancy was at the university. Moreover, I added about twenty new friends to my Facebook page, a victim of my own success.

In Being and Time, Heidegger rails against “Durchschnittlichkeit” or mediocrity, claiming that the “mass mind” wars against or tries to oppress anything outstanding. In much the same way, vis-a-vis online work, some educators do not put forth an open mind toward the initiative, dismissing it offhandedly despite the research to the contrary. In this example, Dasein works as a leveling agent.

Heidegger at rest

I had an interesting incident yesterday as I was preparing for bed: I received an e-mail for the data administrator (with whom I have never communicated), addressed not to me, but to our connection at the school, questioning grades she had received from the online classes; at the bottom of the missive was the final grades I had forwarded last month to our connection. The data administrator also asked about first quarter grades and if she would be receiving something more “official” (her term).” I guess she meant an embossed transcript.

In the post, the data administrator did not copy or address our connection, but I certainly did with my reply, which listed the classes and the grades once again. Regarding first quarter grades, I noted that I had provided the school with grades every two weeks and that she only needed to give the date for the end of the first quarter and I would provide those marks also.

My question is this: Why wouldn’t our connection also forward along the name of the course? Or respond to her colleague before it got to me? I will make a call today to make sure everything is resolved.

Lastly I noted that both boys would be in a class I was teaching in the spring and I looked forward to having them in class. The online administrator, I find, has to work diligently to turn a negative into a positive.