Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

Now I’ve heard it all! I think I may be allergic to work, but allow me to explain.  I am new at a school that just underwent a major renovation.  The library acquired a state of the art video production studio and new shelving.  The office was carpeted along with the renovations.  This was finalized on November 8th, and I was allowed to begin scheduling the studio for use.  We jumped in with both feet and never looked back.

Then the gradual discomfort and itching began.  I attributed it to allergies in general, after all who wasn’t walking around with a sniffle?  In SC, we have allergens of different kinds all year around–there is no off season. Then I began thinking I was reacting to a sinus infection, though I’d never had that kind of reaction before.  I began consulting “doctor internet” and “doctor twitter,” asking for advice and what on earth it could be. I posted pictures to twitter so my friends could see what I was facing.    (I had even let dr internet convince me I had shingles in my eyes–ouch!) The first post to twitter about the issue was made on November 18th.

I even posted a picture (I am so brave) to share so folks could grasp the severity of the situation.

Since this picture is really embarrassing, you can just visit the flickr picture to get a good view (and laugh). Most of my Twitter friends were strongly recommending I go to the doctor.  But I had an eye doctor appointment coming on the next Friday, and would be leaving to go back home to Rock Hill (170 miles away) for that appointment.  So I delayed the visit, leaving Myrtle Beach Thursday right after school, and spending the night at home before going to a 2:00PM appointment.  But miraculously the next morning 90% of the swelling was gone, and I wasn’t itching at all. It was a miracle, or so I thought.

At my doctor’s appointment I did not even mention the rash or swelling. No evidence of it anyway…But I did return to school the next week.  But by this time, I had a full scale head cold that I suffered through right up to Thanksgiving, and so attributed the returned rash and itching to being sick (again, even though I’d never had that reaction before.)  After the head cold subsided, the itchiness remained. So I began to think I was having an allergic reaction to possibly my cats, which I only see on the weekends now.  It was the only rational thing I could think of, so I began taking Clariton daily, which did seem to help some. The  itchiness was still there, but only a minor nuisance, and by this time I had become increasingly aware of it, and tried desperately to NOT rub or scratch my eyes. So there was a significant decrease in the redness or swelling. During my two week break I had NO signs or symptoms. None. But  was taking a Clariton daily, and assumed that it was finally keeping the discomfort to a minimum.

Fast forward to yesterday, January 2, a workday at school. I spent a lot of time at my desk doing things and time in the studio getting it ready for a live broadcast from the studio and from a remote location. I was clear and fine when I arrived at school. But by lunch time all those symptoms had returned with a vengeance. At home last night, most of it went away. Note to self-at school, irritation flares up; away from school, irritation fades and disappears.  Today at school, once again, the irritation flared up with a nasty vengeance again. As I was talking with a friend at school, we both realized the itchiness started around the time all the construction was done.   The studio was finished and made available to us, and the library offices were carpeted (they had previously been tile.) Notice date on this tweet. November 8.

This is almost exactly when I noticed that my eyes were constantly itching.  I just never made a connection to the construction or perhaps even the new flooring.  

But I did ask my twitter network if anyone thought I could be be allergic to mold, mildew, or allergens in the library, getting several responses to make me beleive this. I even picked up the phone and called my principal, asking if we might could have the library tested for somethng causing my discomfort.  Her suggestion is to come to school tomorrow but stay out of the library–to see if the irritation returns.  She is the one that suggested it may be the new carpeting that was laid down in the office and the studio…So tomorrow I work all around the building and not in the library. I will be in the auditoruim for class meetings (helping kids with PPT presentations for 3 different class meetings,) and then I’m going shopping for some school accessories we have determined we need. I’ll drive back to Myrtle Beach for this shopping trip. If at the end of the school day I am free of irritation, my principal is going to call the district office to see what kinds of tests they can conduct.  What do I think needs to happen?  I want a air cleaner (thanks for the idea Carolyn) and I want to go back to tile in the office and studio. I don’t know if the studio will have sound problems with a tile floor, but by golly I’ll be a heck of a lot healthier and happier.

Last, if it hadn’t been for my Twitter network tonight, I wouldn’t have even thought about the “library” possibly causing all my discomfort. Thanks, network! I hope this is resolved soon, as the irritation makes me look ten years OLDER. Arggg.

As I see others reflecting on the year 2007 as it draws to a close, I must as well. There have been several changes for me including a new job, a new living arrangement for my family, and new opportunities that are as a direct result of joining the blogosphere and interacting with a network (like Twitter.) I won’t bore you with my favorites, but instead make some goals:

• Brevity - In my own blog reading I find it difficult to read long posts. I know I’m guilty of writing long posts too. So I have a goal–be brief and get to the point! I am planning to reduce verbiage, and try to say it with far fewer words, and instead use more pictures, and maybe a video or two (stored sensibly on video and picture storing sites–hello, YouTube, TeacherTube, Photobucket, & Flickr.)

• Relocate - I am becoming ever increasingly unhappy with Edublogs. I dumped blogger a year and half ago, and jumped ship to Edublogs, primarily b/c I feared Blogger would be blocked at school (and I was not disappointed.) Edublogs was good for me, but as I have grown, my material requires more space. Since it is time to pay for more space to be allowed the service, I see it also as a good time to explore hosting it on my own space/domain. I don’t even know if I understand it, but I have been assured help from my friends Chris Craft, Jennifer Wagner, and perhaps even David Jakes. (Counting on you all, actually!) Timeline? I don’t know. I need to get bills from Christmas squared away before I decide. But in the meantime, my posts will probably be limited.

• Video - I’m going to seriously look at adding video to my mix here. I’ve created myself a YouTube and TeacherTube account, and want to begin playing in the green screen department. Dean Shareski is responsible for that! (Note to Dean–You inspire me!)

• Redesign - I have some presentations coming up, and I plan to redesign them. I’ve been reading a lot lately about the 10-20-30 rule for presenting. I’ve also come to understand that folks don’t want to read it, they want you to tell it-and what better way than in a story. So I’m going to be hitting Flickrcc hard, and trying add in the mix some videos (for commercial breaks, as I heard one blogger call them–wish i could credit that person!) And I’m going to rehearse my spill in the best storytelling format I can come up with. Along with that, I hope to add some kind of interactivity to my sessions–though I haven’t quite figured out how yet. Anyone have any suggestion? Look out SCASL, SCASA’s SLI, and SC Edtech.

Okay, I know, I know, still way too wordy. Give me a break, it’s not 2008 yet! Rag me about it after the first. Happy New Year everyone!

Attribution:
Image: ‘massive change‘
www.flickr.com/photos/20532289@N00/31219031

As I prepare for my Christmas break, I am surprised at the number of teachers who drop by to ask my opinion about purchasing cameras for Christmas. So I have responded with the following information. Of course I am by no means an expert, so if you have knowledge above and beyond what I have to share, please feel free to comment, and I’ll pass on your tips.

Teachers, Several of you have inquired about cameras to purchase for Christmas.

VIDEO:

The flip cameras offer fine video quality for small home projects or taping kids in class, but not for LONGER projects. They are reasonably priced too, ranging from $125-$160. If you are considering one, I would ask the sales person to demonstrate getting video off the camera and judging the quality for your self. You might not be so impressed when you see the quality—I like to call it YouTube quality. But it’s decent enough.

There are many brands and types of video camera. I myself have been questioning whether a “hard drive” camera was a worthy investment. This website will talk about all the various types of cameras available to help you make a knowledgeable decision (even though it appears to be an instructional type site.) I confirmed what I had heard a good while back about the hard drive cameras, in that the video is not in a format that most “editors” can handle, and so must be converted first, which may degrade the quality of the film. If you don’t intend to edit any video, this is a fine purchase. These cameras have upwards of 30 to fifty gigabytes, and you will pay a pretty penny for them, anywhere from $450-$1000.

If I were buying a video camera, I would purchase one that takes mini-dv tapes. They are the least expensive for the QUALITY you get. The video file is in a format that can be recognized by most video editors, including the industry standard Apple program Final Cut Pro all the way down to the freebie on your Windows XP workstation (Windows Movie Maker) (NOTE: ALL the school videos shown on the news program have been created here at school with Windows moviemaker—and they were taped using a Sony mini-dv camera.) Yes, you’ll have to buy mini-dv tapes, but for the quality and considering most of us are “novice” videographers, you will be pleased as punch with this or other similar video cameras.

Another note about the mini-dv cameras—they will take still photos too, but check to make sure you are getting 3mp or higher. 2mp or less will not offer the quality to print out.

STILL PICTURE CAMERAS:

Still Image cameras—most of us want a point and shoot camera, as we are not necessarily interested in professional cameras that have lots of bells and whistles. There are many of these in the stores right now too. If you are considering a santa gift in the guise of a digital camera, Santa should look for this:

1) optical/digital zoom: You want the optical zoom to be higher than 3X. I typically disregard how high the digital zoom is, since all it does is crop and pixellate pictures—they will print out looking fuzzy and unfocused—that’s what the digital zoom does. Also, if you plan to use the digital zoom, get a tripod, because it is virtually impossible to be still enough to take pictures using digital zoom—no matter how still you think you are, camera shake will effect the pix –remember you breathe, therefore the camera will detect even this slightest movement.

2) Pixels. Get at least 3 –and in the stores right now, you almost cannot find a digital camera that does not at least have 5 megapixels. 3MP will print out great 8X10 pictures to frame and display. Also know that downloading the pictures from these cameras will require lots of memory, and you can absolutely fill up your harddrive with useless photos you will never use. Consider JUST downloading the ones that are good enough, or get an external drive (there are 160GB external harddrives for as low as $79, and they resemble an ipod. Small, portable. Cool.

3) LCD Display - if you have older eyes, you will want a fairly large LCD display. Many people don’t even look through the viewfinder anymore, but instead rely on the LCD Display to frame up a shot. You want menus to have readability too, so having a bigger LCD screen will help.

4) Memory cards. Cameras have almost stopped making the smaller ones, and lately the smallest I’ve seen is 512 mb, which translates to roughly 400 average pictures. WOW. (Remember you can fill up your harddrive—can anyone spell c-r-a-s-h?) Most memory cards available are now upwards of 1-2gb. 1600 pictures. Don’t forget you could crash your computer b/c you want to keep all those photos. If you like all your photos, get an external drive. Save pix to it.

If you want a quick and dirty tutorial on using your video camera or still camera, I don’t profess to know all, but I can offer some tips that will make you happier with your final product. Let me know.

Image Attributions:

Image: ‘untitled‘
www.flickr.com/photos/51035715376@N01/270680726

Image: ‘Anyone Have a Flip Video Camera?‘
www.flickr.com/photos/99291169@N00/2120710374

Image: ‘WD-H43 .7x wide angle lens‘
www.flickr.com/photos/86533050@N00/1342274233

Today I posted a video some sixth grade students made for a spot on our news program. One of my loyal readers wanted to know how it was done, so this post is an attempt to tell how the video was made. We did not use any really expensive equipment to make that video. The library has a Sony DV Handycam camcorder that was used by the kids to take video. I told them not to worry about the sounds, noises, or talking, as in all likelihood we would remove it and use our own voice over narrations. So I got a locker key from the office, and they got the camera and we went looking for lockers to shoot.

Once we had our footage, we came back to the library, and they set up my Dell laptop. Using a Compaq firewire card we connected the camera to the computer and turned it on. Almost immediately the computer asked if we wanted to capture the footage. I made the girls direct it to my external harddrive (notice the duct tape holding it together–i dropped it about a year ago!! It still works thankfully!) I learned sometime ago that if video was captured to a basic computer it may skip as the computer’s basic memory is not fast enough to handle video. (I had an entire Christmas program from school that skipped like crazy, and lots of disappointed parents.) I also don’t want to fill up my harddrive with a bunch of videos. So I sought out an expert–the video editor from my church, and he recommended an external hard drive that had 200GB of memory and a 7200 spin rate to keep video from skipping. I now have two of these, both four or five years old, which are great, b/c now all pictures and video go there.

Anyway, once we got our film on the computer, we used a very basic editor–the freebie Windows Movie Maker. The girls imported the video, and then we cut out and snipped unnecessary footage. I wanted them to cut more, but they were very protective of the video.

I had them create a cover or opening, and they used PowerPoint that was saved as an image. Pretty basic. Then they wanted to do their audio voice over. WMM allows you to, so they began by planning what to say. Before videoing, they had already written out a plan of what to get–lockers that were not closed right, lockers with things blocking the frames that might cause jams, and messy lockers. They had already selected the messy locker, and they decided to clean it out for the video too. That was cute. The guy who owned the locker kept asking if anyone saw anyone around his locker. They didn’t tell until he saw his locker on the show. They also told me his locker is already messy and full of clothes again.

Anyway, they did their audio narration section by section (as the clips imported were in pieces–every time the camera was stopped and started clips were created, so there were many.) They would mute the existing audio, and record their own.

They ran into a problem when they wanted to add transitions, as the narration would not align, so they only used one transition–a flip or rotate at the point where they cleaned out the locker. If one looks closely, it is in the wrong place, but they were pleased as punch with it.

I told them their video could NOT go more than 3 minutes, so they did not get to put any credits on (other than “the end”). Oh did they fuss. But they did not want to get rid of any footage, and we were at the end of their class, so they decided on just a quick “the end.” We used a CHEAP headset w/ a microphone to record it. They saved it as a movie file (.wmv in moviemaker) and then watched it again. They wanted music, so we looked in freeplaymusic.com for some. I finally had to lay down the law, as they didn’t have time to search– that would have taken a whole day again, and so I convinced them to use something I had already used for another project. So they re-imported their video w/out music in WMM, and added the song twice with a slight overlap at the end of the first time and the beginning of the second. The music was 90 seconds, so two times through was just enough. They saved it as a movie file, and that was the final project, which we played out during the news program the next day. The whole project took two days–one day to shoot and capture, and then one day to edit and finalize. (They are w/ me for 45 minutes each day.)

Our studio has a pc/tv converter, so inserting the wmv into a ppt slide allowed us t0 share it schoolwide.

These girls are already planning their next one, which will center on lost and found stuff. They are in the planning stages of a puppet show type video, where the clothes talk to each other asking where their owners are. Should be cute–IF they can pull it off.

Now that I’ve told you how it was done, I want to say that our studio has a fancy, expensive video editor, but my goal was to let the girls see that one does not have to use fancy expensive equipment to make videos. I think they got it too. They are all jazzed about the lost and found clothes puppet show. I also know that this could have been done using a 2.0 USB wire instead of a firewire, and that using a Mac would have been just as easy (but our school does not use Mac.) Even better, the new flip cameras make it even easier to capture video.

In recent years (if I must pinpoint a date it would be the summer of 2005) I became aware of the growing trends of podcasts in education. I explored podcast creation briefly, even making a couple of podcasts for my former school, using kids for all the talking, to post episodes that could be subscribed to through iTunes. I was a pod-fader however, because after making a couple of episodes, I lost interest. I cannot even find them on the Internet site I hosted them on, Podomatic. Honestly though, they were not riveting enough to refer back to. (Sue Waters told me recently that Podomatic suffered a glitch some time back, and lost all of her hosted episodes, so maybe that is why I can’t find the ones I had made previously.) But admittedly I am a pod-fader.

I remember being inundated with ideas for podcasts and video projects–never thinking to combine my two interests into a video-podcast. At NECC 2005 I went to every session that would cover podcasting or video editing. Back at school, after successfully recording and uploading the few podcasts I had students create, I let my interest sway, and began focusing more on video editing. I had some good success–I even went out and bought a firewire card for my computer so I could drop raw video from cameras into my computer for editing, and (shock and horror) opened up my computer and installed it myself. (I never asked my IT for help b/c I was so afraid they would say no. I just did it. I’m such a rebel.) Needless to say once I had mastered dropping video I began exploring video editing, and the rest is history. I mastered the freebie Windows Movie Maker, and progressed to Pinnacle (though I’m no expert at it) and even decided to move over to a MAC for better editing possibilities, and have dabbled with the industry standard program, Final Cut Pro.

Recently I was asked to give a podcasting workshop, so I needed to refresh my memory on it. Of course, now having a mac, I found the process simpler and cleaner in Garageband. But my workshop attendees as well as the teachers at my school were all using pcs, so I needed to brush up on my podcasting pc skills. I inquired around to find out who was the nearest district expert in podcasting, and made an appointment to meet with him. I just needed to clear up my fuzzy memory about all the steps to making a podcast. I found that the “expert” knew no more than me, and wound up picking my brain more than I picked his. I will even go so far as saying his podcasts are not podcasts, but rather audio files hosted on a static website. OMG! The part I was fuzzy on was getting them so that they have a feed and could be subscribed to through iTunes! He did not have a clue. Back to the drawing board. (NOTE: It was not a total loss, as I was introduced to a program he uses called Acid Music that really brings out the creative juices if they are there. Also, in his defense as well as many others, many educators feel it’s okay to call an audiofile hosted on a static website a podcast. It’s just me and my own personal refusal to believe an audio file is a podcast if doesn’t have a feed. So I will not slight him or any other educator who does this. I even take back my initial impression that his podcast program is a “poser,” a “wannabe.” It’s more than I had at the time.

I knew that a podcast simply needed an rss feed. So I do began scouring my networks for tips, tricks, ideas, and more to clear up what I fuzzily remembered from before. Thanks to MANY, but mostly John Woodring of Bluffton School District, who literally over the phone walked me through the step that allowed me to give my podcast a feed.

My friend Mr. Granito from school also created his first, and really all I can say that I did was encourage him. He is using feedburner for his feed, while I am using my edublogs site. I did have to delve into the forums to get an extension for my rss address, which translates to adding to the end of the blog’s url “/wp-rss2.php” so that iTunes could pick it up. Speaking of iTunes, John pointed out to me that all I needed to do was go to the iTunes store, point to podcasts, then scroll to the bottom to the section “Learn More” and use the information there. I used the “Submit a podcast” link there, and the rest is history. So I am now once again a podcaster. Will I be a pod-fader again? Only time will tell. I’ve added a podcast feature to the “@ the CMS Library” blog and to a new blog for school called “CMS Tiger Talk.” All are recorded by me, but hopefully I’ll be able to get others on board to help or better, create their own.

I must thank Mr. G for motivating me–his excitement is infectious. I also can thank Dean Shareski who shared the iTunes image and showed me where he hosts his podcast. Now the natural step is to progress to a video podcast. I have the podcast skills and I have the video skills, so now I just need to figure out how to make a video-podcast, right? Let’s just hope the next best thing doesn’t make me lose interest or I will once again be a podfader. I think I will ask for a digital recorder for Christmas. Anyone have recommendations?

I tried another “broadcast yourself” social network after the twitterverse were all inviting the network to come and check it out.  It does allow the “director” to pass off to other speakers or even others with webcams, so it has more potential. But they stream one “show” on their home page it seems all the times, and the few times I popped over, well, let’s just say it was no where near rated G or even PG.  I cannot even imagine opening this can of worms at school right now, even if I can log into a portal that allows me as a teacher to get to blocked sites.  But I will say it does have more potential than U-Stream.

Thanks Chris Lehmann for allowing me to have my 2 minutes of O-11 fame tonight.  More and more the conversations we are having using these tools asks where is the safe K12 portal?  Which of us knows a programmer who could help with this??  What exactly do we want from the site?

OY–my brain is on overload.

The blogoshere and twitterverse have all been in an uproar over the recent use of UStream.  Will Richardson invited all from twittervese to join him on UStream at University of Prince Edward Island’s New Media Institute, where he was giving a keynote address (watch it again here.)  Will literally let the chatrooms have a say in some of his keynote.  Not only did he demonstrate the power of Twitter and connected educators, he also showed us the power of UStream.  I am amazed to realize I was able to sit through the presentations that were streamed that day, and even participate in the backchannel of information from the chats.

There have been several instances of the blogosphere participating in these impromptu get together’s, but as Will pointed out tonight, with this broadcast allowing only one way conversations except the chat feature, it is still limited. Skype can at least allow a conference call where several can be included in a conversation, and best, if Yugma-enhanced Skype is used, the one who began the conference call can share their desktop, thus allowing for demonstrations of computer applications. Darren Draper the other night had a class, and invited anyone interested to come and see Google Docs and other social network tools used, literally walking us through, and inviting us into his presentation, using our questions as a guide for helping others learn the program and sharing a knowledge base that really helped me.  It just demonstrated to me the power of a network and shared knowledge and having conversation to enhance my learning like nothing I had ever experienced before!

Will’s impromptu get together the other night at a restaurant on Clyburn Street in Chicago (that included David Jakes and Steve Dembo in the video—and about 40 participants in the chat–see the chat archive here) and the one tonight with his nephew-in-law David Walker (and about fifteen chatters) really enhanced my understanding more. John Pederson created a wiki that streamed his Ustream and Will’s so we could see both Will & David in one stream and IJohn in the other, but none of us could figure out how to get IJohn’s audio going. But to see folks posting suggestions in the chat, and all working together to do some trial and error testing from literally all over the world was fascinating.

The first time I heard of Ustream was from Dean Shareski.  It MUST have been a twitter b/c I could not find it in his blog, but I distinctly remember visiting a UStream to watch a puppy in a crate who was whining, crying, and distinctly unhappy—I want to say it was his daughter’s new puppy. It was rather cute and sort of funny.  I thought it was neat that we could get a live glimpse inside his house, and my only thought then was that this could give a parent a way to follow what was happening in a classroom, w/o really being intrusive.  But I couldn’t think of a single teacher who I knew that would agree to this method of observation.  But atleast UStream could be the answer to my dilemma from the BLC conference, where I couldn’t go, but did get to be involved vicariously through the Skype chats that were happening. UStream could literally bring the conference right into my living room. Next best thing to being there.  (Wonder how long before conference planners manage to lock down the UStreams?)

Last, in the chat tonight we made some comparisons to Skype, and most agreed Skype is better for a two-way virtual face to face.  Someone inquired why Will kept looking up, and he shared that he had a projector there at home and had the stream and chat projected big on the wall for them.  I shared that my mom has a projector too, and we use Skype to talk. My Mom puts the projector on for skype (and to share family pics) when a large group is at her house (and she is 74).  Okay, I nearly fainted when Will was quite impressed with that! And even more impressive to me—he called me “Cathy!!”  You see, in the chat, I am listed as cnelson.  So how does Will know me by my first name too? WOOT! I’ve been noticed by a big wig in the blogosphere!

Today I was asked to share at a faculty meeting about the upcoming 2007 K12Online Conference that kicks off October 8th with an opening keynote by David Warlick. My principal assured me the last five minutes of the meeting were mine to do this promotion. I worried that no one would be interested b/c at the end of a MONDAY at the end of a faculty meeting (it even sounds depressing!) no one would listen or care. So I had to come up with a plan to entice them. I am ever so thankful for the teasers that have been posted this year. They are all good. I decided to show 2 very short ones, so I began going through them. Some did not make my cut b/c they were too long (but still good.) I wound up using Ben Wilkoff’s “How do you create change?” and Sylvia Martinez’s “Technology Professional Decvelopment: Challenging Assumptions.” In the middle of these two videos I played up the conference being a free, anytime, anywhere professional development opportunity. Sylvia had encouraged me to use Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s quote of:

…the event is completely free. It allows you to participant as much or as little as you want, whenever, and wherever you feel comfortable. Important thinkers and dreamers and practitioners will present. Connect yourself with their visions of how our schools are evolving, how learning is changing…(Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach)

But I kind of liked the way Sylvia paraphrased it, and since I was limited on time, I said in her paraphrased way:

Freedom, choice, empowerment. People who will inspire you. Connect as much or as little as you like.

In the middle I also talked up David Warlick (and I’m shocked to have to report no one on my staff new who David Warlick was!!) I pulled up the Quicktime video of his opening keynote from last year. I played and fast forwarded to show how he made his opening keynote, being in his home office, then the car, folllowed by on the walking trail, the train rails, and finally back in his office doing how to’s for using the resource he was plugging–one of his own if memory serves. I also made the comparison to learning on the rails, and traveling different paths (and speeds) in this come as you are, take what you need to know conference. I went over by about 2 minutes, but all were VERY interested. I only printed 20 K12Online flyers, but had to promise to print more. I’m pleased to know I had more interest than what I prepared for. Many asked a lot of questions afterwards, and as we dismissed, some told me they couldn’t wait to check it out.

I know I was enthusiastic in my short presentation, but I really hope some follow through with this.

Last–the other day I blogged about my sunk ipod that won’t work anymore. My principal seemed to have found me a great “used” one and privately presented it to me after the meeting today. It’s a 30 gb one, and I have no idea its generation, but it plays video, and she gave it to me to have. I am in high cotton once again. Now I can patiently wait for Christmas to get a new one.

As I read through the twitter from last night around 11PM  through until 2PM today, I am shocked and dismayed that another tool has been discovered and shared, that of WIZIQ.  Several of my twitter friends have already played around and experienced it, and yes I did say “played.”  One of my virtual friends has even blogged today about her feeling of giddiness, and  asked that oh so difficult question–do our school kids leave learning with a feeling of giddiness?  All I could feel was “left behind…”  since I went to bed last night, and then all morning focused on my morning worship.  But wait!  I did have a  sense of giddiness this morning.  During worship too, no less.  You see we are going through a series  about how to deal with “hurts, habits, and hang ups,” and I feel blessed to have gotten such a good dose of spiritual  blessings from this message series. While I was serving myself up some “how to’s” from the message, I was hard at work serving in my ministry, which is the music and television production ministry.  There is a team of folks at my church, all volunteers, who  serve the ministry with operating cameras, running sound boards, operating light boards,  capturing audio & video to a computer,  running  PPTs  for worship songs, solos, and sermon notes, and MORE.  We have a quite a team who manage to get everything done with equipment that I sometime say is only working because of band aids and our labor of love.  Today I had to run  all the PPTS  (sermon notes and  music worship) and switch  screens from those notes to appropriate videos when they were called for.  My favorite part of it was my cues to run the videos, b/c Pastor Mike said, “Oh you’ll know when its time, b/c I’ll just walk off the pulpit.”  No sleeping during the sermon for me. 

But I along with my team I attacked the task with a giddyness that was infectious, as we laughed and learned while serving our ministry, our church, and ultimately our Lord. One flaw–I accidentally left the video on our center screen a fraction of a second too long…long enough for the audience to get a glimpse of a DVD menu screen.  OOOPS. My bad. But I know the video that will go to our local cable tv this week will be clean as a whistle and no flaws will show, as that little mess up can be edited right out of the video.

I wander if our students feel the same…will their one little mistake be covered before an audience (their parents, future employers) get the chance to see it?  Will what is presented (and all work is for some kind of presentation–there is a target audience somewhere) be something they can reflect back on and be proud, and be able to say next time I will do this (like time the video so I don’t play it so long we all get to see the menu screen.)  I liken that incident to letting my petticoat or pantylines show.  I gave away a secret of sorts…

Oh well, Pastor Mike assured us today that we did a phenomenal job, and we had four folks join the church today…one a brand new Christian.  Best, I can say I had something to do with it, even though it was JUST in the technical background that no one usually sees or notices.  But we are all supposed to use our gifts to further HIS word. (We had three short videos to play out today, and one solo/ensemble piece with a looping video to run  during their song.)  I had my work cut out for me. But it’s a labor of love, I promise.

So I’ll have to catch up with Wiziq tonight on EdTech Talk.  Or maybe my twitter friends will catch me up.  Either way, I am excited to play with this “new to me” tool too.

Awesome! This was shared many times in the recent past, and I am considering sharing it with some kids–sort of as a starting point for conversation. I heard some other educators have shared it with their kids too, so I figure, why not?

Today I had kids for the first time–shocking I know. The library has had a slow start, and I’ve been pulled for all sorts of other things (my favorite being MAP Testing.) But I do understand we all work together, and I’m a member of the team trying to do my part.

As a way to introduce myself to eighth graders today, I showcased my interests: my blog, my aggregators–bloglines, my iTunes (just a screenshot) and pictures of the family. But they were intensely interested in my ipod! I pulled it out, hooked it up to speakers, and gave them a random sampling of some of my music selections. Many were stunned at my choices, since I have some really oldies as well as new material there. I played some Queen, Styx, Journey, Boston, Jimmy Buffett, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts, Nicole C. Mullen, Michael W. Smith, and a few opening in lines to some of my podcasts I subscribe to (like Bit by Bit, Moving at the Speed of Creativity, and a soap opera–Guiding Light.) I even shared a snippet from some of the audiobooks on my ipod, including The World is Flat and A Whole New Mind–which by the way I have still been unable to play off the iPod. (It will begin, but suddenly ends for no reason!!) It was funny to see the reactions of the kids. They were really surprised to know that I put books on my iPod.
I used this as a door to the discussion of Web 2.o tools, and how the Internet has changed to a give and take world, and how they can give as much back as they take. We talked about YouTube (and I made it clear they did not have permission to post me in YouTube!!) That got a laugh. And then we talked about the tools they have right in their pockets to add content, but then I disappointed them when they realized many of these tools (like flickr, many blogs, and YouTube) are blocked at school.

It was only a beginning, but I hope with this group I piqued some interest. I didn’t have that long to go over this, so they only got a taste, but my hope is that they will see me as one who is “up” on most things, and one they can turn to in asking questions. I do believe I impressed some, b/c at the end of school today, some passing eighth graders called me by name to say goodbye. Before today, I haven’t known a single student in the whole building to call me by name. That’s a start in changing the perception of the library for this school.

Oh, SYP I guess. Bad news today too. My fixed assett disposal forms (all 12 of them) will have to be rewritten so that the equipment that I’m ridding the school of is easy to identify. I was told today if the folks who come pick it up can’t identify it and match it to the sheet, it will not go. : ( But a fellow LMS at St. James Middle–Paula C. gave me a method to the madness of color coding using colored dots and NUMBERS so that when they look at a sheet, they look for items that have that colored dot. That will make the process easier. And all we have to do is re-arrange the line of stuff and put dots on the items, and perhaps NOT have to rewrite those sheets. For those that know about my eye surgery, I am also worried that I miscopied numbers–model numbers and serial numbers are microscopic, even w/ glasses!

So my next visit–I’m thinking about playing “Pay Attention” to start a conversation. Wish me luck.