Meg-O-Blog

2008-01-16T15:15:00.000-06:00

What was introduced today that was new to you?

Blogs
Google Page Creator
Twitter
Google Calendar
Image Chef
Google Docs
Image Chef
Lewis and Clark KMZ
What applications are you going to try within the next two months?
I will try using youTube with my staff
Google Earth will be downloaded at home
I will get Google Earth loaded on more teacher computers

I will learn to blog this week.
What would you like to know more about?

How to convince the powers that be that all of this is something to put on their agenda!

Dusting Off the Virtual Dust

2007-11-05T10:34:00.000-06:00

No excuse this time that it has been a very long time since my last post, but I am back blogging!

I am preparing for an administrator academy about blogs, podcasts ,and wikis here in Northern Illinois and I am wandering around the Internet, twittering (just started that last Friday morning), Skyping (started that a few months ago, but actually made my first independent call last night!),investigating uStreamed (Signed up last Friday, a participant uCasted me that afternoon) and my usual reading of my RSS feeds using Bloglines.

Many of you reading this blog post and wondering "YIKES, where has Meg been, under some virtual rock"? Actually, I have been busy teaching. Teaching all day and driving kids each evening. My teaching schedule was heavier this Fall than usual and in my mind I was keeping up with the great folks at classroom 2.0 over on Ning, researching using wikis, watching some great mashups on You Tube, investigating Teacher Tube, following my blogs using RSS feeds, and keeping up with my friends on Linkedin.

Just so you don't think I was standing still I also have been immersed in the virtual world of Second Life where I have been designing my dream home, serving on committees, and participating in amazing networking events. My avatar Meg Writer is getting more hits than my real name Meg Ormiston, based on the data from my Google Alerts. I have been using my shared Google Calendar to coordinate carpooling to and from school, and playing with Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

My current professional development is learning to master Google Sketchup, for this I am using videos found on You Tube. I LOVE this, and can see amazing applications for everyone! I particularly love to browse through the 3-D Warehouse and look at the things that others have built and shared. Still Google Earth is one of my favorite tools of all time, could rant and rave all day but not to be missed is the Street View in Google Maps.

With my teaching I also have learned how to use Garage Band to create Podcasts with students, Comic Life across the curriculum, and taught myself Adobe Fireworks. I have helped teachers create iMovies, Windows Movie Maker projects and made amazing websites using Google Page Creator. Exploring Flickr with various staff members they have created some great lessons, and others have learned advanced searching in Google to locate resources.

There is much more as I reflect over the last month working with k-12 teachers, but still look how much I missed in the short time. This world of Web 2.0 is absolutely amazing and it is changing every second.

As I reflect over what I have written here, I am wondering a few things:

How many of the sites referenced in this post will the administrators I am working with know and have used?
If I can't keep up with the explosion of possibilities how can our administrators add that to their over burdened plate?
How do we extend the learning beyond a one day face to face session?
How do we reach the teachers in the classroom with students and help them stay current?

Big questions, lot to think about!

Second Life

2007-07-31T16:16:00.000-05:00

I am wandering around Second Life and having a ball! This is such a learning experience for me, I love it! I have a house and I am about to totally rearrange everything. Come join me in-world at (SL) Meg Writer
http://slurl.com/secondlife/megwriter/80/27/22/

Visualize Information

2007-05-23T10:36:00.001-05:00

This was part of a blog post I read, amazing ways to visualize information!
http://mashable.com/2007/05/15/16-awesome-data-visualization-tools/

Tech Teachers the Digital Home of Meg Ormiston

2007-05-23T10:36:00.000-05:00

Tech Teachers the Digital Home of Meg Ormiston
Finally updated!!

I'm Back in Google!

2007-05-18T09:18:00.000-05:00

Celebrate!!
I have no idea what happened, but a few months ago Google stopped indexing most of the pages in my web. Upon further Googling I found this can happen for a number of reasons, none I even understood, much less did (I think). Today I did a search on something, there I was! Back! Now I have some serious updating to do!!
yiiipppee!

A Modest Curriculum Proposal | Edutopia

2007-05-16T18:11:00.000-05:00

A Modest Curriculum Proposal Edutopia
Like always Edutopia is right on! This example of teaching students to play basketball with a textbook is perfect. In so many of our classrooms the books are ruining teaching, the passion the stories. Instead we have a race to get through the book, but is that real learning?

Today is my SL Birthday!

2007-05-01T09:57:00.000-05:00

This is a copy of a post I made on the four eyed technologist blog, thought you would enjoy it!
Hello all!
I am giddy, especially about my new house on EduIslandII! What a wonderful opportunity to meet Ryan in real life, Existential Paine comes to life! Today is my birthday, I am one month old today, and no new wrinkles! I absolutely feel I have learned more in the past month than I have with my professional reading in years. Like most people I wondered in after hearing about SL, and wondered around orientation island like a fool. I chatted with a man in Italy and thought I was virtually visiting match dot com. I logged off and left.
Kathy Schrock dragged me back on April 17th and her teleport to the island saved me! Wondering around ISTE, meeting the wonderful helpful people, I started to get it. I jumped in with the help of my boys, and we are all learning together. They are over on the teen grid, having a great time!
For me the collaboration has been wonderful! I have met so many people willing to help! Existential Paine and Kathy really saved me! Think about how we could save so many other teachers from the isolated boxes we call classrooms. We can bring people in and talk professionally. My goal for my house is focus on k-8 curriculum connections. High school folks seem to “get SL” k-8 might need more concrete examples of what is possible. Just an observation, I am still a baby, one month old (today)and who am I to become the expert!
I better go make a Google Alert for my aviator, a birthday gift to me!
Come check SL out! My in-world name is Meg Writer!

SL vs. RL

2007-04-25T16:59:00.000-05:00

WOW,
I have spent some time the last week or so exploring Second Life, WOW! If you have not checked it out, you need to. I am hoping to get the last house on Eduisland tomorrow. It is probably blocked at school, and you need to download a small piece of software on your machine, so try it at home and let me know what you think. My online name is Meg Writer, look for me and I will teleport you to the island.
By the way RL stands for real life and it can really take that over!!

Windows Vista

2007-03-04T12:54:00.000-06:00

I know two posts in one day is more than you have come to expect, but I am setting up my new laptop with Windows Vista, and at the moment I really like the look and feel of it. I have not yet opened Office that I have read is very different. It will take some getting used to, but so far I like the look and feel!
Meg

Blogging Excuses Continue!

2007-03-04T12:43:00.000-06:00

My excuses continue! I was asked last night what am I going to do with all my free time when my School Board term is over, and I told them I was going to try and keep up with my blog! Love Margaret Johnson's comment about my first post in a loooooong time!
I have created a GooglePage with a gadget to help me with the countdown. http://megormi.googlepages.com/schoolboard

I look forward to joining the many dedicated bloggers!!
Meg

METC 2007!

2007-02-28T23:18:00.000-06:00

OK, OK, I know, I am a BAD, yes, BAD blogger! Excuses, I have many!
1. Young kids
2. I am a School Board President, stop laughing it is HUGE work!!
3. I surprised my boys this Fall with a new puppy, LOVE her "Napa Chardonnay" My Golden Retriever is amazing!
4. Writing two books at the same time.
5. Traveling and speaking.
6. Life. I (LOL) when David Warlick linked to my blog that needs a facelift, sorry, go to my website for content!! More soon! www.techteachers.com

Teddy Bear Blog from Brenda

2006-05-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

Hi Meg!Thanks for your great session at the ECOO conference, I really enjoyed it!Here's an example of changing times in education. In the past I've done the global project from iEARN.org called the Teddy Bear Project with my primary students using email. This year, I tried to make it more collaborative and visual...a place to tell our story and reflect on it over the year. We spent until January posting with our friends from Australia and now continue to write about the travels of our koala bear.Check it out at:www.mrssherry.blogspot.comI presented it at the ECOO and primary teachers seemed to really like the idea!

MAME Communication

2006-05-02T08:46:00.000-05:00

Hello all!
Just a note, if you send me comment on the blog I can't email you back because the link is from anonymous blogger, not your email. So if you send me a post try and send me your email also!
Thanks!
meg

Thanks for all the Comments from MAME!

2006-04-30T17:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone for your comments!
I have enjoyed a rainy day by the fire really diving into the world of publishing! We should have vblogged our time together, then they could have have been edited into podcasts and small vblogs on each of those topics. We could have vblogged Judy with her simple, yet fabulous presentation, thanks again!

Danny's report is now in cyberspace! Margy wanted to use it for a presentation on Tuesday, now you all can use it. There are three clips waiting for you to use. Keep me posted if you use them. Here is the link to the videos

Thanks for a great session!
meg

MAME Spring Conference

2006-04-29T07:06:00.000-05:00

Good morning!
We will use this blog today as our question board. Please leave questions and if we don't get to them today, I will answer them on the new MAME Blog!

Connectivism Blog

2006-03-15T17:51:00.000-06:00

Connectivism Blog: "I think this is the wrong question. People don’t want to visit your content. They want to pull your content into their sites, programs, or applications. This is a profound change, largely not understood by educators. We are still fixated on the notion of learning content, and we think we are making great concessions when we give learners control over content (and start to see them as co-creators). That misses the essence of the change: learners want control of their space. They want to create the ecology in which they function and learn. Today, it’s about pulling content from numerous sites and allowing the individual to repurpose it in the format they prefer (allowing them to create/recognize patterns). Much like the music industry had to learn that people don’t want to pay for a whole album when all they want is one song, content providers (education, museums, and libraries) need to see the end user doesn’t want the entire experience – they want only the pieces they want. We need to stop thinking that learners will come to us for learning content – our learning content should come to them in their environment."

Blogging Before Breakfast

2005-11-10T20:29:00.000-06:00

Hello Michigan Mame conference!
I am wrapping up my breakout session for the morning and I have found some wonderful resources for you to explore. Even if you can't make the session the links will be with my other digital handouts on my site at http://www.techteachers.com/conferences/links.htm

Send me a comment about your thoughts after the session!
meg

The Shifted Librarian Does it Again

2005-11-07T09:29:00.000-06:00

Jenny's blog was the first one I started reading, it it remains my favorite. Jenny's blog is filled with ways public libraries can better serve the changing patrons. Her message is also so appropriate for schools. Today as I was reading Jenny's blog as I prepared for the Michigan MAME conference, she taught me something new! I am sure it has been there all along, but today I clicked on Jenny's Blogroll and I can now see all the feeds Jenny subscribes to. What a great way to get started using RSS feeds and connecting to new blogs with the direction from an expert.
There are many blogs out there that I have no interest in reading, but Jenny is a great filter of information for me. As someone said in a session last week, a blog can be thought of as the Cliff Notes from various sources. Check out what Jenny is reading and writing about!

Everything Bad is Good For You

2005-10-19T15:15:00.000-05:00

I just completed this page turner, and wow is what I have to say. This book is a must read written by Steven Johnson. I am now rereading and focusing on how these ideas apply to change in education. This information on blogging caught me eye.

“more than eight million Americans report they have a weblog or online diary. The wonderful blog-tracking service Technorati reports that roughly 275,000 blog entries are published in the average day – a tiny fraction of them published by professional writers.” Page 119

“ Ater only two years of media hype, the number of active bloggers in the United States alone has reached the size of prime time network television” Page 119

“There’s plenty of arm chair journalism out there, of course, but the great bulk of personal publishing is just that, personal: the online diary is the dominant discourse mode in the blogoshere.” Page 119

“There is no denying the content of your average online diary can be juvenile. These diaries, in fact, were created by juveniles. But thirty years ago those juveniles weren’t writing novels or composing sonnets in there spare time; the were watching Laverne and Shirley. Better to have minds actively composing the soap operas of their lives than zoning out in front of someone else’s.” page 120

Now on to gaming!

Back to Blogging

2005-10-19T15:12:00.000-05:00

Sorry all that have dropped by to visit, I have been engaged in a number of other activities and now I will try and stay on track. I have been writing, and researching extensively about the power of using images and multimedia in the classroom. I also have been busy volunteering and driving my short guys all over the county!

Blogging Before Breakfast!

2005-03-17T06:45:00.000-06:00

Hi all at MACUL!
Hope you enjoyed the blogging session, send me a comment or a link to your blog. I would love to hear from you!
meg

Podcasting in Education

2005-01-23T11:01:00.000-06:00

Very interesting research I am doing on Podcasting. My researching slowed a bit when my husband joined the iPod craze and started using "my iPod", I am having great difficulty sharing! As I read in the Sunday Trib about the millions of iPods shipped this Christmas, I was thinking about the power or Podcasting to reach students and teachers in our schools. No more ignored morning announcements, subscribe to the feeds of information YOU need. I see a staff feed, sport feed, administrator feed, you name it!

I will continue to research and report back!
meg

Happy New Year!

2005-01-03T13:46:00.000-06:00

Hello all!
Finally calm has again settled at home after the holidays. I am back at the computer and back to research about Blogging. In an interesting twist I began some research about Podcasting and I am very intrigued. I know I am sounding like a geek (yet again!) but in simple terms a podcast is a recorded audio file posted to a blog that can play on your iPod or MP3 device! I listened to my first podcast and I see huge potential for our students, I must figure out a way to make this work!

Podcasting is a very new term, and I am up to my neck in research, but I am really interested in how the audio files can help the struggling learner. I will try and keep my blog updated as I collect my research. More as I continue!

Hi Everyone!

2004-12-07T16:15:00.000-06:00

Hello!

Yiiiiipppppeeee!

2004-12-01T08:03:00.000-06:00

Finally, finally. Talk about just in time learning! Check out! http://www.wbloggar.com/download/ The post and publish is amazing!

This is a Test!

2004-12-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

w.bloggar???

What is Your Action Plan?

2004-11-30T09:54:00.000-06:00

Create a short action plan for bringing blogging to your classroom or school? Share your plan in a comment.

How Can You See Blogs Being Used?

2004-11-30T09:51:00.000-06:00

In the classroom, how can you see blogs being used? Respond by creating a comment including the grade levels you work with.

2004-11-26T13:25:00.000-06:00

This is a test post through avantblog. I think passwords may be problem. Back to blogger for more info.

2004-11-26T12:34:00.000-06:00

This is a test post from avantblog... Not sure about this?

2004-11-26T12:33:00.000-06:00

Wow this is the first blog interface that has worked for me. There are no options for posting like blogger offers (spell check!), but it is VERY quick!

2004-11-26T12:31:00.000-06:00

This is a test post from avantblog... Not sure about this?

Back to Blogging on the Handheld

2004-11-26T10:45:00.000-06:00

I am back to my research about blogging on the handheld. I am deep in research preparing for the Michigan Handheld conference next week. I have discovered a number of new applications and I am about to test drive a few.
I am in search of a free resource that can be used in the classroom. I need a solution that does not need a hot sync to add comments. I am looking for a blog the teacher would create and students would interact through the comments. I will be sharing what I discover at the conference, if you have questions feel free to e-mail me!

The Reluctant Reader

2004-11-08T14:20:00.000-06:00

How could the use of a class blog help students reading and writing?

Use in the Classroom

2004-10-25T17:19:00.000-05:00

I am experimenting with using my blog to help participants in a workshop reflect on strategies and resources shared.
Specifically list five things you will use with students in the next two weeks.

Technology Tools to Support Reluctant Writers

2004-10-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

What roadblocks are your students facing when they are involved in the writing process?

Blogged Down!

2004-09-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the title, life is getting in the way of my blogging! All good stuff, just a lot of it at one time. We are rolling out handhelds to about one hundred classrooms, and working with the teachers, administrators and tech specialists to make the most of the over 3,000 handhelds. I guess when we look at it that way, the blogging moved down the priority list!

In planning I have learned so much. I will be back to share a few of the many tips and tricks I learned along the way!

Happy Labor Day!

2004-09-06T22:13:00.000-05:00

I hope all of you laughed as much as we did during this last official weekend of summer!

We are back and ready to jump start this school year. A few weeks ago I was sharing how important I think blogs will become for learning communities with my friends Margaret Johnson and Rosemarie Carroll, and they raced off and created their own blog! http://www.schoolblogs.com/palosblog/ This is a new site for me, can't wait to explore more! http://www.schoolblogs.com/ I have posted a comment by logging in and I hope to join their learning community as they grow!

Happy Back to School all!

Wikis Research Begins...

2004-08-31T21:23:00.000-05:00

Go to bed, stop researching!
Sounds good but it is so interesting. Again this has been on my list for a long time and I am happy to read about someone that is a few steps ahead of me. I will process this article in more depth in the next few weeks. http://kairosnews.org/node/view/3794
Send a comment if you have a thought!

2004-08-31T18:49:00.000-05:00

My "short people" during hockey season!

2004-08-31T18:30:00.000-05:00

Viewing Blogger with the Tungsten Browser

2004-08-31T17:46:00.000-05:00

The short answer is at this moment it will not work. Maybe it is the template I have selected, but I can only see a portion of the page and cannot see enough to read the entries. I will search around to see what other options there are for viewing the blogs.

AvantGo and comment posting

2004-08-31T17:26:00.000-05:00

Once set up, this free app AvantGo "refreshes" each time you hot sync, pushing information out to the handhelds. This can push out news feeds, or blog feeds. Setting up a lesson the teacher would pose a question on the class blog. Once the question is posed by the teacher, students can go in and make comments. The problem is, the comments are immediately pushed back to the web site, but to view them on the handheld there has to be another hot sync.
For back and forth communication I may have to go back to the browser on my Tungsten C and see if I can work with that to interact with the comments. From a management perspective multiple hot syncs per class period will not work, wirelessly or not!

Posting comments issues and ideas

2004-08-29T21:20:00.000-05:00

For me the fastest way to craft a comment is on the computer, not on the small “thumb board” on the Tungsten C. I could post directly into blogger through my Internet connection or save in Documents to Go and copy and paste on the TungstenC.

I do have to remember I am an old lady adapting to technology, the kids will have no problems. It will be interesting to see if we will need some keyboards for the classrooms. Going through Docs to Go will work, but it will take a great deal more time because there has to be a sync. No way an entire class can sync quickly!

Blogging on Handhelds

2004-08-29T20:29:00.000-05:00

Blogging on a handheld computer, the research continues. I am investigating how this can be done in high school classrooms using the awesome Tungsten C handheld. I am investigating the most seamless way to do this in a number of science and social studies classrooms. As I collect research I will try and share it here.

This site did a great job of spelling out the possibilities. http://www.palmsource.com/interests/weblogging/ For this project I need a free solution, so research continues.

So far so good

2004-08-19T14:47:00.000-05:00

My attempts at conversion are not working, I am going to stick with the Atom feed and see if it works for now.

Continued investigation

2004-08-16T15:55:00.000-05:00

I am in over my head as I try and convert the Atom feed to an rss feed. if I can get the feed to work in my news reader, I think I will be ok. I am just not sure how universal Atom is.

Not an RSS Feed...

2004-08-16T15:24:00.000-05:00

I am investigating Atom feed and rss feeds. I am getting lost in the html coding which is not one of my strengths.

Blogger creates an RSS feed of my blog!

2004-08-16T15:12:00.000-05:00

Finally, help to create an rss feed of my very own! Thank you Blogger! Exploring the many options available in settings for my blog, I was shocked to see one of the features is to create an rss feed. I have been researching rss feeds and I see such power for education.

My next step was to figure out how to create my own feed, and a quick click of the button and Blogger took care of it for me! I took the address over to my news aggregator and subscribed to the feed and I am set! Now I need to go back and update the tutorial I just created to add my feed to the list. WOW!

Handhelds and Blogging

2004-08-16T14:47:00.000-05:00

As I am gearing up for the new school year, I am exploring how blogging can be used with a new class set of Tungsten C handhelds. I have created this blog to test out blogging before school begins.

In particular I am interested in the use of the comments to communicate and share information with students. I have just changed my comment settings so anyone can post comments. This will be helpful when I am doing professional development with different groups of teachers. I did like the option though to limit who can post. One of the features to select is only making posting of questions available to people associated with the blog. I can also hide comments until they are read.

I am having trouble viewing my blog in the browser on the Tungsten, the text does not fit on the screen making it challenging to read. I can hot sync it and go through AvantGo, but then students need to hot sync to post information. AvantGo reformats the page to fit the handheld screen, making it very easy to read.

More as I explore.

RSS Feeds in Education

2004-08-10T16:36:00.000-05:00

The tutorial is complete and waiting for you to download it and explore the power of RSS feeds. I am researching how these feeds can be used in education, and have created a web page filled with information. I see great potential to help people get the information they want, when they need it. I see the power of the feeds for large school districts that need to share information with many different buildings. I see so much potential with the RSS feeds over e-mail groups to disseminate information. I did discover a school district that is using RSS feeds to share information with the community. Check out Bryan ISD in Texas, as I continue my research I hope to find more.

I will keep you posted on my latest research!

Time to Start Blogging!

2004-08-03T15:21:00.000-05:00

Well, I thought it was about time to jump in and give blogging a try. Over the past few months I have been researching how blogs can be used in the classroom to promote active learning. Time to jump in and try it myself, so I can share my experiences with other educators.
I see great power in communicating through blogs to reach a broader audience. Yet many educators I have talked with are afraid blogs will turn into nothing but rumor mills and sites for gossip. I will continue to research to see if this is happening.
I have put off starting a blog. One fear is I will not be able to keep up with my blog and keep it fresh. Another reason was I wanted to host my Blog on my own site www.techteachers.com but I tried repeatedly and I just don’t have the programming knowledge to pull this off. Another push back for me was my need for an editor. Publishing two books helped me to see the power of a good editor! It wasn’t until I read a blog (will search for the link) that blogging is more about the process of writing and not the final product.

So here I am with the thousands of other bloggers exploring, learning and experimenting with what a see as a powerful communication tool! More about blogging in education when I return!