Monday Night Homework

Tomorrow we will be peer editing our paragraphs for organization, grammar, and clarity.

2011 Digital Learning Spring Conference ??? Personalized Learning for the 21st Century

I recently attended the 2011 Digital Learning Spring Conference hosted by BC Partners in Online Learning. ??

The theme for this conference was Personalized Learning for the 21st Century. Highlights included a keynote speech from Alec and George Couros entitled "Conquering the Myths of Social Media and Learning" and a keynote speech the following day from Sir John Daniel entitled "The Global Challenge of Achieving Education for All – Some Challenges".

What most impressed me with organization of the conference was how much learning and collaborating was happening outside of the workshops themselves. ??A great number of workshops were recorded using Elluminate, allowing attendees the opportunity to "attend" other presentations at a later date. ??Also, Twitter posts (or "tweets") using the hashtag #edtechbc allowed people to discuss ideas, post quotes, and to build and expand a personal learning network (PLN) outside of traditional conference constraints of hours an location. ??This "back channel" discussion meant that some comments and replies were between people in different workshops.

This type of personalized, informal learning and collaborate shows the potential for learning across the curricula for both students and teachers. ??Now I have a few hours of other workshops to watch – in a sense, I'll be attending this conference for quite some time.

Test

Using my basic clamshell, non-qwerty cellphone

You’ve received a Message from a TELUS phone. For more information on TELUS Mobility’s Picture or Video Messaging, visit telusmobility.com/snap. If you don’t hear or see the file, download the Quick Time player.

Vous avez reçu un Message d’un téléphone TELUS. Pour obtenir plus d’information sur la messagerie photo ou vidéo de TELUS, allez à telusmobilite.com/clic. Si vous ne voyez ni n’entendez le fichier, veuillez télécharger QuickTime.

Career Network – What is it?

Memo.m4a

 

In a previous video, I briefly mentioned activating you career network.

So, what exactly is a career network?  A career network is all the people around you who can help you get a job in a field that interests you.  Your family, your family’s friends and coworkers, your friend’s family, your friends’ family’s coworkers, coaches and teachers.

You need to make sure everyone is looking out for opportunities on your behalf.  I can almost guarantee that if you pick any job you can think of, and we could find someone you know – who knows someone – who knows someone  —  who knows someone  who works in that field.

If everyone is helping you look, they will hear about opportunities in that HIDDEN JOB MARKET.  Someone they know will be willing to let you job shadow, start an internship, or a paid entry-level position.

Work Experience allows you this opportunity.  With a teacher helping to find you an unpaid placement in a particular career field, you not only have the opportunity to see if it’s what you expected, but you have the opportunity to make connections in the field. 

And your Work Experience placement provides the proof an employer wants of your employability skills.  Remember that proof of a candidate’s abilities was part of accessing the hidden job market.

Sent from my iPod

Resume Video – Chrono vs. Functional

Using the audio recorded earlier, I’ve now created a video. In this video, I’ve included an example of a chronological resume and a functional resume.
Students could do the same thing, piecing together several recordings and setting it to images or video. 

Resumes – Chronological vs Functional

Memo.m4a

Functional resumes allow a student to focus on the skills they've learned in their courses. ??Unfortunately, it's more specific to a particular career field.

Sent from my iPod

Heart Rate Monitors for SSA & online PE

For the last two months, I’ve been using a Polar Heart Rate Monitor during my workouts.  I’m in worse shape than I thought!

I can see a lot of uses for the monitors in facilitating distance education and mobile learning however.  These monitors give daily and weekly summaries of calories burned, time spent in each HR Zone, and resting HR.  A low HR means a healthy, strong heart – less beats are required to pump blood.  I was also surprised to see how much cardio my new weightlifiting routine provided, and how the amount of time required to return from an anaerobic threshold to a recovery zone heart rate shortened over the weeks.  This allowed me to gauge my effort and quantify my improvements.

For an SSA or online PE student, this would also provide valuable info to create nutrition/hydration/sleep journals, and set fitness goals.  It would also provide accountability, a common concern amongst those new to teaching at a distance.  

Many students have a difficult time gauging the physical demands their work.  With these monitors, they would be able to customize their training routines, as well as having a more objective measurement of their effort.

Job Searches

Most students look for jobs in the wrong manner.  If you have a specific career field in mind, why aren’t you dropping off specific resumes, tailored to that field?

Plastering resumes all over the city is fine if you don’t care what kind of job you get.  Watch the video to look at how to access the “Hidden Job Market”.  Employers generally don’t put up ‘help wanted’ signs or put ads in the newspaper unless they have no candidates already known to them.  This includes people to promote within the company, or friends and coworkers of the employers, whose opinion is valued by the employer.

By letting your career network know that you are looking, who knows who they will talk to!

PhotoBooth for Mac – Easy but Limited

PhotoBooth is a quick and easy way to record a video.  By using the Effects button to drag and drop a photo or video background, you are able to create a virtual greenscreen instantly.  It’s not going to fool anyone into thinking you and Forest Gump really were at all those historic events, but it’s good enough for informational purposes.

Unfortunately, there is no editing within Photobooth, so it’s a one-shot deal.  Any mistakes or poor timing means starting over from the beginning.  Watch the video to see the quality of PhotoBooth.

Check out http://bmclean43.wikispaces.com/Resources for more info on software, hardware, and articles on mobile learning, podcasting, and professional development

Enhanced Podcasts – Yes and No

So the audio will play just fine on my computer or iPod Touch.

I could also download the file and play the enhanced features on my laptop using iTunes. I could not download the file to my iPod Touch, however.

To access the enhanced features – the PowerPoint slides as chapter markers – requires syncing the iPod Touch with the computer.