Twitter-a new resource or new collective learning

Twitter has served as an on again, off again relationship. I started following celebs and got bored fairly quickly. I didn't have any friends on Twitter so left for a year or so. This summer I set a goal to learn more about it and did ok. I engaged in a chat and was excited to be retweeted internationally. I started back to work and looked at Twitter casually. 

Now it seems that it is a stream of useful web tools and resources. I believe that Twitter can serve as both an interactive learning environment where we push each others thinking and and a simple resource bank. It's up to us to decide whether or not the benefits outweigh the costs. Are we willing to work to build our own professional learning network?

iPad Video Transfer for Capturing Special Moments

At a recent pd session, we experienced one of those special moments where the teachers involved presented work that lead to a consolidation of learning for everyone. We, the presenters knew this needed to be captured. I turned to my newly acquired iPad and began filming. 

Everything worked great until I wanted to share the experience. 

I spent some time learning and this is what worked or me....

When the iPad was plugged into my computer (pc), I found 'My Computer' and found the iPad in the list of devices. I opened the file and dragged the video to my desktop. I tried o post it to Vimeo but the file was too large because t was in QuickTime format. I downloaded Hamster file converter and changed the video file to WMV. The video was then uploaded to Vimeo and I made it password protected.

An easy way to share with everyone........

Untitled

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Flash on YouTube

I have had one particular student asking me over and over to do Flash during computer time. I resisted, being a little afraid of Flash. Today, after seeing the 2d animation competition, I decided that I would go ahead but wanted to test it out with the grade 3's - yes Grade 3. I picked up this student from the special needs room and he, along with YouTube, taught the grade 3 student some simple animation using Flash. Next class, they will show their understanding of Forces using Flash.

Doing what we love.....

This is the beginning.
I have been reading and watching various post on the net that stress the importance of preparing students for their future which is not necessarily the world we live in now. Keeping this in mind, this blog will reflect my new learning about technology and will hopefully grow to represent the ideas of other teachers and sometimes, the collective thinking of the people who visit and share.