mrplatts.com - Latest Comments

Re: The Horizon Report 2010 – One Year or Less Time Horizon (Part 2 of 4)

mrplatts — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:50:03 -0000

Oh, and thanks for all your comments on this snowy Monday! Perhaps I'll see you at some point this week!

Re: The Horizon Report 2010 – One Year or Less Time Horizon (Part 2 of 4)

mrplatts — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:48:10 -0000

I'm definitely not saying that there would be zero cost in implementing a . . . man I would love a catchy name for this plan. . . anyway "insert catch name for taking advantage of the tools that students already have in their pockets" strategy. In fact, there are lots of factors to consider, but I think that the immediate and ongoing costs would be considerably less than some of the other one-to-one solutions that are out there.

I'm thinking beyond the cell phone . . . netbooks, laptops, iTouch, you name it.

Re: The Horizon Report 2010 – Two to Three Year Time Horizon (3 of 4)

mrplatts — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:43:09 -0000

I feel like this is the dilemma. Many would like to think that we are (should be) in the post-textbook era, but our district isn't really big enough to have full-time curriculum designers, so it falls on you as the curriculum leader to piece it together. Maybe we can do a better job if we get the cream of the cream and present it in a bundled format, but what happens when the technologies change.

Re: Promethean – Check

mrplatts — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:39:11 -0000

Thanks for the tip! Do you think it would work in German? My 8th graders desperately need practice of this sort. I'll look into it. Have you found that online repository of Mathematics Manipulatives (http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/... useful on the Promethean board? I would kill for a resource like that in foreign languages!

Re: The Horizon Report 2010 – Two to Three Year Time Horizon (3 of 4)

Andy Lucas — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:49:54 -0000

5th grade is currently considering augmenting their curriculum via Blended Schools or some other digital format from our current textbook vendor rather than purchasing a whole new set of textbooks. Of course, that means a lot more work for me since everything is still piecemeal and not presented in one bundle. I'm also finding it somewhat difficult to create "buy-in" with a couple of them. Anyway, I think it's a start for the District.

Re: Promethean – Check

Andy Lucas — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:40:14 -0000

You should try using the "Explosion" tool (I think that's what it's called). Very useful for diagramming sentences. You can type in a sentence and then the the kids can come drag and drop nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. into different areas on the board. I saw it demo'd at TRETC last year ('08).

Re: The Horizon Report 2010 – One Year or Less Time Horizon (Part 2 of 4)

Andy Lucas — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:36:04 -0000

The concept of opening up the doors for cell phone use in school still intrigues me. I hadn't thought of the bandwidth issue though. I've noticed it slow down considerably already in the morning when everyone is taking attendance. We'd definitely have to change some of the infrastructure, as you said.

I'm a little more leery of open content, simply because I teach a subject that has a state standardized test. Not that I think it's a bad thing; I just think some things would have to change on a national scale if we are going to really be able to start teaching the way we should/could be.

Re: The post-conference bounce . . .

Joann — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:55:41 -0000

I've been to my share of conferences and it's fascinating how the edutech speeches tend to run together. Glad to see the Promethean people are still being effective in their presentations. Using a board for my art class and haven't been happier. Did they mention anything about their new software launch?

Re: The post-conference bounce . . .

mrplatts — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:38:07 -0000

This is true - I don't object to standards per se, and tagging of content would be great, but honestly, the state of Standards in PA as it is makes this an additional burden and frankly an "entry barrier" for new users, and especially those who are not necessarily tech-savvy.

Re: My Dad: Mick Platts (1959-2008)

coolcatteacher — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:19:45 -0000

I am so sorry about your Dad. The story of his life is very moving and inspirational. Thank you for sharing his legacy here with us.

Re: The post-conference bounce . . .

coolcatteacher — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:57:22 -0000

These are great reflections. Honestly, I think that if one can figure out the state standards in order to tag things, it would make it useful to find things for other teachers. In most cases, however, the standards are not simple and streamlined like ISTE's NETS but rather, are so obsolete and overly verbose that it would take a PhD to truly figure out the standards that are being met. In this case, the cumbersomeness is in the standards themselves.

I thing tagging with state standards is a great idea IF the standards are easily dealt with - I think some sort of meta standards would be helpful.

Great reflection! It is so important to do this and you and I agree on that one!

Re: Tagcrowd

Daniel Steinbock — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:54:15 -0000

I hope you've gotten a chance to test drive the new unicode-compliant version of TagCrowd, which should now work very well on your German texts.

Re: How I got started, and what difference it has made

Steve Dembo — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:29:52 -0000

Wow, I'm flabbergasted. And I think that's the first time I've ever used that word before! Thrilled to hear that I had a played a small part in your decision to become an active participant in the blogosphere. Really makes the whole thing feel worthwhile.

BTW, never seen whoshouldifollow.com Thanks for mentioning that one, looks golden!

Re: How I got started, and what difference it has made

mrplatts — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:26:21 -0000

Thanks for your comment -- I know what you mean by feeling behind. I think this can be from a combination of information overload, and loss of time. I don't worry about it too much. I just want to make sure that I'm doing a little bit at a time. Good luck!

Re: How I got started, and what difference it has made

V yonkers — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:10:43 -0000

I had the same experience this year in converting from a lotus notes based LMS to Blackboard. I really did not have as much time to use new tools in my teaching as I was spending so much time on curriculum development and changes in instructional design due to the differences in the two LMS platforms (just managing discussions became overwhelming as did the bugs in the blackboard program we use). Now I feel as if I am behind on newer technologies (such as Ning and visual information programs).

Re: How I got started, and what difference it has made

Doug Belshaw — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:42:03 -0000

Thanks for this, Richard - glad Karyn's got more ammo for her dissertation! You're absolutely right about Twitter - it's not only great for connections, but prevents those really short pointless blog posts that are really just a bit of a rant! :-)

Re: Wiimote Whiteboard – first implementation.

Miguel — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:01:32 -0000

Wow! Nice work!
I think I'm trying this.
Mig

Re: Wiimote madness

coolcatteacher — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:12:43 -0000

I will be watching to see. I'm all over this project this summer. This is great! I bet the whiteboard companies are "flipping out."

Re: RSS Awareness day

mrplatts — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:11:01 -0000

Heh . . . new RSS use -- lets me know when my new tv shows arrive at hulu.com ! Sah-weet.

Re: Introducing . . . Podcasting with a purpose

Miguel — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:32:42 -0000

Hey Rich!
First, congratulations on your new baby! Tell Marie I said congrats. I decided to stop by and see what you are up to. I know what you mean about the whole m4a format problem. I am having huge issues imbedding video and audio into hot potatoes. I know it can be done but the problem is, I can record my own voice onto my digital 8-track but then I run into the same problem that you were talking about; that darn format. Anyway, rock on! Hope you guys are doing well. I'm playing some shows soon at the altar club soon so I will let you know when that is.
Peace,
Mig

Re: Time keeps on slippin’ . . .

mrplatts — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:34:56 -0000

Oh, did I mention Forensics!? We are ramping up for the season! Thank god I have a strong crew of kids!

Re: Is the OS dying?

Zac — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:54:13 -0000

I was a long-time PC user that has gone Mac. However, that was mainly due to what the schools were using where I've worked. Now, my job with eMINTS has provided me a Dell laptop. If I had a choice, I'd go Mac everytime. Of course, with more and more of our work going online and the growing supply of freeware out there, it doesn't really matter as much as it used to...or as those clever Mac ads would have us believe.

Re: Moodle-mania

Andrew Robitaille — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:17:13 -0000

Hello. I've been using Moodle for a few years now and love it. I can't imagine being without it now. I teach at a primary school in Australia, and I've got children as young as 7 years old logging into Moodle at night to explore the resources. I've used Moodle to create an internal social networking site, chat rooms, forums and of course lots of excellent digital resources for our teaching units.