TEDxNYED used more than $100,000 of equipment (most of which we rented for ~$9,000) to record/broadcast live in HD. We are currently editing the videos which will be placed on TEDx's YouTube channel. @mjmontagne asked me via Twitter if we would share our AV setup, so I fired up Inspiration and made a quick visual. If you have questions, feel free to ask.
Blackbaud is used by many schools and organizations for the products such as Raiser’s Edge, Education Edge, Financial Edge, FAWeb, NetCommunity, and others. They have historically been somewhat reluctant to let their data interact with other services. Because their database (your organization’s database) is normally stored on a Microsoft SQL database, you can access that database to do other things with it – like create your own website that pulls live data from your student information system, or other database.
Richard Kassissieh has done a lot in this regard, and now a group is forming in New York City/on the web calling itself Open Blackbaud. Adam Gerson, myself, and others have already joined, and if you have any interest in trying to figure out how to share data housed by your Blackbaud system into your other systems, you should join our group. We hope to share strategies and assist each other in these efforts.
Blackbaud is a huge company and as such has to move their development at a certain pace. I hope that this small group can be fast, elegant, and get a little creative.
I provided a little writeup for the NY techies list to help them get ready for the NEIT2008 Unconference, beginning on Wednesday. I posted the info on, *gulp*, email, so I’m redoing it here, now. We’re really excited to have author of SEND, David Shipley and Generation Yes educator, Sylvia Martinez there to help push the conversations.
Q: Is it too late to register?
A: Heck no! http://neit.wikispaces.com
Q: Need a ride to Mohonk?
A: Check the rideshare: http://neit.wikispaces.com/Ride+Board (thanks, Bill!)
Q: What is NEIT?
A: The NYSAIS Education and Information Technology unconference. For you auditory learners, listen to the NEIT2008 preview podcast at EdTechTalk: http://www.edtechtalk.com/21cl_83
Q: What types of tools should I bring with me?
A: Read the how to prepare guide: http://neit.wikispaces.com/How+to+prepare
Q: Who is coming to this thing?
A: So far, over 130 of “us.” But add your info to the who’s coming page (hint: click Edit This Page): http://neit.wikispaces.com/Who%27s+Coming%3F+2008
Q: How can I communicate with people during the unconference?
A: Via Twitter (http://twitter.com). Sign up for a free account, and start following: http://twitter.com/NEIT for unconference info. Oh, and see who else is on Twitter via the who’s coming page: http://neit.wikispaces.com/Who%27s+Coming%3F+2008
Q: How can I share photos during the unconference?
A: Via Flickr (http://flickr.com). Tag all your photos: NEIT2008 and they’ll automatically show up on the unconference wiki slideshow.
Q: Speaking of the unconference wiki, what is that?
A: It’s where you can find the schedule, rides to/from Mohonk, info on how to prepare, the schedule, the notes from breakout groups, photos, blogs posts and more. Oh, and you can edit it to year heart’s content! It’s here: http://neit.wikispaces.com/
Q: How can I contribute before, during, and after the conference?
A: Using blogs, podcasts, wikis, Twitter, and any other web2.0 tools, just tag things: NEIT2008
If you read all of this, nice work! Now that you’re geared up, just get up to the mountain safely. See you Wednesday,
arvind
on behalf of the NEIT2008 planning committee
http://neit.wikispaces.com/Organizers
p.s. what happened to shorter blogging?
Tags: NEIT2008, NEIT, unconference, Mohonk, NYSAIS, technology, education
Today on the ISED mailing list, someone posted a quotation from Nicholas Negroponte (of $100 laptop fame):
In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world) is that children are being trained to use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. I consider that criminal because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools.
The poster asked for people’s opinions and it generated a flurry of wide-ranged responses. Here are some highlights:
Here here! I find the fixation on teaching Word, Excel, and Powerpoint in schools troubling indeed. Are we training our students to think or to be secretaries!
then
These kinds of ideological pronouncements always make me crazy. As if “making things, communicating, exploring, sharing” and learning how to navigate office tools are mutually exclusive.
I agree that the emphasis in elementary programs should be on the exploratory and creative side. However, we don’t argue that children should not waste their time learning basic math facts, do we?
Mr. Negroponte needs to spend more time in school.
and
However, I would agree with Stephen
snipabout the realities of school. Why is using Microsoft Word not being creative? Isn’t the act of writing creative and isn’t it true that Word is a tool that makes writing,
editing, revising, and publishing easier? Isn’t Excel a way to analyze information? And I saw Dr. Negoponte’s Powerpoint presentation at NECC in 2006 so obviously there are communication uses for Powerpoint.I also worry about the “either” “or” nature of some of these arguments – why supposedly certain types of techology applications negate creativity and problem-solving in favor of productivity, for instance. Why isn’t our question “what’s in your toolbox and why and what are you planning?”
In my opinion, it all comes down to how these things are used, what work is being done, what goals we have, how are we encouraging higher order thinking, and what process we are following. And in the end in our schools the teacher is the singlemost important factor in success in spite of their being technology or not.
then
This and many other educational debates (“Chicago Math” v. Saxon Math, whole language v. phonics, ad infinitum) can never truly be resolved because their basic premise – that these are either/or decisions – is either just plain false or a convenient way for ideologues on either side of a bogus dichotomy to dumb down a much more complicated discussion than they would like to have.
There are many educators out there who respect children enough to create learning environments that are not predefined by someone else’s either/or and acknowledge the practical realities of everyday life while simultaneously embracing the wonder and joy of discovery and exploration.
We generally don’t find them on CNN or quoted in the paper. They are too busy getting things right and serving their students. The quality of our reflections on educational practice would improve greatly if we would take the time spent spouting either/or dogma and instead use it to watch, listen, and learn while these transcendently effective “both/and” people ply their craft.
and
If I ruled the world, a nod to a James Brown song, I would invite a group of talented English teachers, technologists, child development specialists, etc and put them in a very comfortable place for a year and ask them to come up with a writing tool for students at various levels of development. (Pay them of course!) It would not have to be two or three different programs, but it could be one that could be set up with various features that could be turned on as kids got older. We would then have a program that would be suited for writing as opposed to a tool that has been designed for corporate use with very little thought given to how kids learn. I think the last wp developed for schools was the Bank Street Writer. So by the weight of the two ton lb gorilla we use Word, and yes we can be creative with it but it could be a hella of a lot more creative and useful.
It’s amazing how you first read a quotation and it sounds so right. Then someone spins it in another direction and it sounds so wrong. I think those of us in the ed tech world know what Negroponte was saying. In my mind it translates to learning skills without context. No one need to learn how to use bold. People know how to emphasize words, and there is a difference. This was a major confusion and continues to be for ed tech programs around the world. How to we blend learning skills with higher order thinking? Do we teach kids PowerPoint or do we teach them how to make fantastic presentations using digital tools? If you say obviously the latter, can you do that without a digital slideshow tool like PowerPoint? And if you do, don’t you need to teach them that tool? While someone above argued that we are using overkill tools to teach our kids (which I agree with), I don’t think we are going to find a totally intuitive software package for creating digital presentations. I’m not willing to leave teaching to go design it, are you? So in the mean time, let’s do both, teach skills and context – just don’t pick only one; it’s not fair to the kids. Or you.
Your thoughts? Apologies for the long post, but I wanted to remember this conversation, so I posted it here. Right now we are discussing how private this list should be (archives are public though), so I left names off the quotations. To find the names, use the archives.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Nicholas Negroponte, PowerPoint, $100 laptop, skills, software, teaching, Word
I am constantly amazed by Internet innovators. There are new killer applications coming out every day.
One great app that I have blogged about before is Skype. Alex Ragone and I use Skype to produce our Internet radio show on 21st century education (podcast feed, or listen live). We conference call each other (totally free) using the Skype software, and Alex’s computer streams it live on the Internet and records it for podcasting purposes. You can then listen live and chat with us and other listeners. All of this is done using the free Internet! (free as in speech, not free as in beer)
Today I got an e-mail from the good people at Skype telling me that now I can call anyone in the U.S. or Canada for free. All I need is my computer with my free Skype software. Unreal. They used to make you pay for that, now they are giving that for free as well. Not to mention you can call anyone in the world who has Skype for free. They are also working on free videoconferencing.
If you like what you read, make sure to help fight to keep the Internet as it it. The internet service providers are trying to legislate their way into ending free choice on the internet.
Technorati Tags: 21st century, Alex Ragone, education, free, Learning Blog, live, podcast, podcasting, freedom, radio, resources, software, students, teachers, teaching, Verizon
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