Ustream

With a webcam, you can broadcast anything you want, live to the Internet. Powerful stuff.

My tech II class today discussed practical business or educational uses of Ustream (as opposed to streaming World of Warcraft raids) We came up with these:
- Announcing a new product for a company
- Promoting your small business services (imagine a poor but talented graphic designer offering a screencast for a few scheduled hours every week to allow people to see how well they work from scratch) Or even a professional photography session for "Focus on You" photography... ;)

My tech class could teach a lesson in Photoshop, or how to present a PowerPoint, or act out a skit. We could even be answering questions that come up in the simultaneous chat that appears beside the video.

Limitless possibilities.

About Me

I am happily married with a beagle and cockerspaniel at home. My house is an old farm house and we have a 1/3 acre pond to swim in. I love computers and sports. I am what you might call a "nerd", but not the "loves to write programming code" type of nerd. I did football, basketball, and track in high school, and ran track at college (high jump). My wife and I love to travel through other states and countries. Our most recent trips include Boston (pictured here) and Europe (France/Germany/Italy).

Professionally, I am a computer technology teacher in a rural school in Ohio. I used to work for a newspaper with 100k Sunday readers doing Internet advertising, but I got bored with it and enjoyed teaching my coworkers about technology than I did selling and building Internet ads. That's when I became a teacher, and have enjoyed the last 4 years immensely.

One of my long-term professional goals is to be a part of a team that helps steer how professional educators teach. One of the methods I prefer is using real-world scenarios. These encourage students to think creatively about how to solve problems, but also to not be afraid to sweat (usually figuratively) a little through hard work.

Tech Lab Video Tour

Turns out I'm the official tour guide of my new school's tech lab. (Remember, NO NAMES! Internet Safety thing) So watch and be impressed.

First Day at P-G

The last students of the day just left and I'm exhausted and losing my voice. There's 5th grade through seniors in my day and it's a mental adjustment to have to switch between them.

I can tell that there will be some great kids who do fun and interesting projects. For the record I sincerely miss my old students and the great relationships I was able to build with them. I hope they are still getting a solid dose of tech and geekiness in their day. I have a very special box of gifts, letters and earrings(?) in my room here from them. Makes me feel appreciated.

My goal is to have evaluated the students and put in place a challenging but interesting curriculum before the week is over on Friday, 8/27/10.  The installation of the 12-cup coffee maker in my room is a nice touch.

Exams and Wii bowling: The last day

Had a wonderful last day today with my students. I noticed a few singing and dancing along with the surround sound system "Our song is the slamming screen door...". The jubilee that is the end of any school year. I remember the liberating feeling of the great release of stress as your stressful exams are finished and you have the whole summer to look forward to. I was very excited to receive some goodbye letters and even a collective group gift box with goodies in it. You guys rock.

Thanks to my tech students for making my job so fun. You're a great group, and would love to hear from you in the future after all your hard work pays off. Look me up in 5-10 years.

Stay Focused Seniors...

Just had a few seniors drop by to say goodbye (I'm referring to YOU bright yellow shirt and Hurley). Of course, it goes without saying that I wish success towards all of the graduating seniors.

I encourage all of you to stay focused on what your biggest goals are. It may be a certain degree followed by a certain job. You probably know some people that did NOT stay focused on those goals and got distracted by the many *ahem* opportunities that presented themselves at college or in their new living scenarios.

"Just having some fun" ruined a lot of great potential careers, so stay focused. I want to hear from you all once you have a great job (and free tickets to cool events, I accept those too.)

Mr. Suter

Bittersweet Goodbye's

I've been notifying students today that I'm officially leaving the Green and Gold. (I don't name schools/students/etc.) It's a bittersweet thing, as I've enjoyed and appreciated the staff and students so much. I hope the students here realize how good they have it, and how big of an opportunity it is to learn without distractions like drug raids, daily fights in the classroom/hallway, and gang affiliations.

To the tech club members, and tech class students: stay in tech! Regardless of who teaches it next year, there are opportunities for you if you just keep working with the technology every chance you get...in class is one of those chances. You'll be missed dearly, and would love to hear from you guys in the future.

Never stop being a student, even after you graduate high school, college, or beyond.

Mr. Suter

Digital Natives, Immigrants, and Aborigines

I read Aldon Hynes’s article (Reflections of a Digital Aborigine) that discusses several areas that could effect my high school computer tech class students.

Hyne's explains the (somewhat tired) concept of digital natives and digital immigrants, and considers himself therefore a digital aborigine given that he has been programming since the 60’s. The interesting part was the reference to a case in which some “digital native” high school girls beat a girl who was “trash talking” on MySpace, filmed it, and put it on the Internet. When teacher John Herman discussed the event in his class with his students, they said what the girls did wrong was video tape it and put it on the Internet. That’s what they did wrong? How strange that they beat the girl, and the worst part to these students was the videotaping of it. My (not research supported) feeling is that these digital natives should be re-categorized as naturalized desensitized digital squatters. Some of them assume ownership of these powerful technology with a misguided vision of what technology is, can do, and outght to be used for. I say misguided as they are products of their environments as much as their upbringing (Psychology students: see Nature vs. Nurture).

 Maybe They have been so overrun by the pace of the technology that they don’t appreciate the humanity of people that exist behind the 1’s and 0’s.

On another tangent, Hyne references the original “did you know…” video on YouTube. I followed that to the 3^rd rendition, located here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHmwZ96_Gos&feature=related

Near the end of the video, it says “By 2013, computers will have the computational ability of the human brain”.  That’s wonderful if I just need to add numbers. The power of the computer, though proportionately enormous when compared to decades past, has a long way to go to get to the human brain. Computers can’t even reliably get past the CAPTCHA images used to keep auto registrations on Gmail. An elementary kid can do that. When the computer CAN do that, the image can change to a dog overlayed with distorted numbers/letters. “Type the name of the animal and the letters you see.” Let’s see Mr. Compuer get passed THAT one.

Adobe Certified...Students?

Link to Recording

This school in Florida has Adobe Certified Experts (ACE) that teach students Adobe products (Photoshop, Flash, InDesign, After Effects, etc.) to the level that students have the opportunity to take the Adobe Certified Associate Exam.They then have college credit and are employable right out of school...

• Teachers are ACA or ACE certified
• Students can take the Adobe exams at school
• Cheaper Adobe Suite site licenses
• Student drop out rates fall while gpa's rise accrossed ALL curriculums

Listen to the recording (uses Adobe Connect Pro Meeting):
Link to Recording

Tech III/IV Assignment:

Read 2 articles on engadget.com
For each article, answer the question in 100 words or more: Who will this affect and how?

iPad articles

Google is big:
http://gizmodo.com/5517041/googles-insane-number-of-servers-visualized

99 iPad apps reviewed by the good folks at Gizmodo. This is research for our new iPad we ordered.
http://gizmodo.com/5516217/99-ipad-apps-reviewed?skyline=true&s=i

cat plays with the iPad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40&feature=player_embedded

Going International

The 8th grade students today learned what it means to connect across the world. I told them they were going to talk in a foreign language to a restaurant in any foreign country about something on their menu, all today. They doubted.
They:
- used Google Maps to find a restaurant and Phone # (gMaps because it lists restaurants in a nice organized format with websites)
- Used Google Translate to read about the menu choices. Also gTranslate to learn how to ask a simple question like "What is the cost of _____?" The translation can then be played by a computer voice out loud so the students can memorize their sentences and correct pronunciation.
- Used my extra Skype credits (I bought $10 worth for calling home from England while metal detecting last year) to dial the phone number
- Before the first students called to Frankfurt, Germany I had $9.48 in Skype. After the call I had $9.42. Now that's cheap international calling rates.
- We'll let each group (3 students) make a call during this week. This demonstrates the way technology flattens the Earth, and shrinks it, allowing almost anyone to communicate as if they are calling a neighbor.

During Comp8

The 8th graders are watching this right now. Published straight from iGoogle.

Typingweb

according to the certification test, I type 82 wpm. My goal is 100 wpm.

Tech 1's Google Presentations

Tech 1's created a "customer survey" of their companies using GoogleDocs forms. Question types were multiple choice, rating scales, and paragraph style. Students acted as customers of their peers' companies and filled out the forms.

Students used generated charts to create a web-based presentation of what customers thought of their company and a "Plan of Action" to improve any downfalls.

After presenting, one student was so nervous she had to open a window and hang her head outside to breathe.

I plan on adding this layout to my house someday. It's adds a gaming ambience. Available from www.whatisblik.com

Google Docs

Students can log in to their Ridgemont Google Docs at:
http://partnerpage.google.com/ridgemont.k12.oh.us

That's Amore

A world Champion Pizza tosser is here today. He needed to borrow my laptop to play a dvd on the projector. I hope I get a pizza out of the deal.

Monday...

My tech 1 class is watching me type this. You can blog right from your Google homepage using this Gadget. Try it sometime.

Post #1

We'll see how long this blog lasts. I hope I can use it for a long time to share what we're up to in the classroom.

The 7th graders are keyboarding with the covers on. One just grumbled "I hate keyboard covers".