Suddenly this week, CPS (“the clickers”) became the hot-ticket item. Their use goes in spurts – for a while noone uses them, then all of a sudden everyone wants them. At the Erie 1 BOCES Technology Integrators Forum (TIF) thiis week, 2 teachers presented about their use of CPS. At Heim, quite a few teachers signed them out this week.

On the way back from TIF, Mr. Talarico and I got into a discussion about what the most important technologies are. We talked about many of the current and new tools out there, along with their pros and cons.

This leads into my question (revisiting a common idea) – If you were stuck on a desert island and could only have one item/piece/type of technology, what would it be? I have my thoughts about what it would be for me, but I’m going to hold back for a few days and see if I can get some other responses.

We had our first technical error today that prevented us from broadcasting video announcements. It became clear right afterward that the issue was not enough disk space on the hard drive of the computer. These video files eat A LOT of space, and the show was not saved as we expected. The crew (especially Amy as announcer) handled it great, and switched over to the PA announcements instantly. Although I’m bummed that the show did not go on, looking at the bigger picture, this is the first time this year this has happened. So, I think we have a pretty darn good track record so far.

On a different note, the time has come to begin the transition to 5th grade students doing the show. We have learned so much this marking period about what it takes to put on the production. There is quite a lot of management and technical work to make it happen, and the 8th grade crew has been outstanding. Some of them will be part of the “transition team” to show the 5th graders how things work. It will be interesting to see how this goes, but I’m looking forward to what happens!

But this time, we have a reasonable excuse! Dubbed the October Suprise, we in WNY spent almost 2 weeks recovering from a snowstorm that caused havoc by snapping major branches off of almost every tree in the area. The Russo household fared about the same as most – we lost power for 6 days, had some minor car damage, and our yard was a disaster. The picture does not do justice for how our street looked, but it gives you an idea.

Anyway, we missed 7 days of school, and will have to make up 2 of them during April break. At first it was weird returning to school, but very quickly we were “back to business.” With some schedule adjustments, we are back on track, and some good projects are on the way.

Merriam-Webster has updated its 2006 Collegiate Dictionary, and added approximately 100 new words. In the technology category, mouse potato is a newcomer, and the definition is exactly what you would expect. Like its cousin the couch potato who spends too much time in front of the TV, such is the case with the mouse potato and computer. And as scary as it is, supersize now joins the ranks of “official” words in the pop culture category. Hmmm…our society needs work…

Check out the sampling of some of the new words added.

Photo courtesy of parlau, via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 license.

Happy New Year!!!

Well, almost…still a couple of weeks before we start…sorry to our southern neighbors who are already back 🙂

Andy Carvin posted his Back to School: Five Predictions… today, and encouraged others to do the same, so here we go. I’ll start by briefly commenting on his five predictions:

1. The Cell Phone Wars Will Heat Up Across the Country Until a Number of Parents and School Board Members Spontaneously Combust

• Agreed, but only if you “pick this battle.” Let the phones in, but keep them off. Kids need to keep in touch after school, etc. A phone that is on during the day should be taken away until the end of the day. More of an issue here may be – how do you model non-cell phone use when staff members are seen routinely using them?

2. MySpace Loses It-Girl Status To Some Upstart Punk

• Way agreed on this one – the MySpace attention only taught teens to NEVER mention the sites they use.

3. Cyberbullying Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

• Neutral – I’m not sure if the amount will get worse, or just the realization of how bad it is. Our school has been much more concerned and focused on this issue, since it is something much more likely to have happen to a student than a threat from a predator (of course we deal with the predator issue as well).

4. Moodle’s Meteoric Rise Become a Hurtling Asteroid

• Neutral – Moodle is awesome, and will surely continue to grow. Bigger question – will Blackboard take the low road with its new patent on LMS and go after Moolde (and all the others) for infringement somehow?

5. Vlogging Becomes the New Podcasting

• Agreed – video is finally getting hot – easy tools have been around for enough years now that we have reached that tipping point, I believe. Storytelling in the digital age is so awesome – give the kids the tools, and stay out of their way!!! (but continue to guide them…)

So, for my predictions…

1. Web 2.0 will be understood by the masses. Things take time to “filter down.” DOPA will give the great new tools attention (albeit negative), but will bring the conversation to everyone’s breakfast and dinner tables. We’ll have to use whatever publicity we can get, and then take the teachable moment to show the power of the tools.

2. Video, in all its forms, will be hot (see above #5).

3. As much as we want to take 10 giant steps ahead in educational technology – we won’t. This is not meant to be a cold water item – just a mental note that we will feel the hurt of the 9 steps we don’t succeed in more than the joy of the one step we do. We have to go for the 10, or more, but also have to be our own best cheerleaders no matter what.

Thanks, Andy, for your post – it got some juices going!