After I ran my first marathon, I would look at myself in the mirror and still wonder at the fact that I could call myself a “marathon runner”.  There was something magical about that title – something that I didn’t feel like I quite deserved.  In my mind I always figured that my time wasn’t fast enough or my training wasn’t rigorous enough to be a real marathon runner.  Even after six events, there’s something elusive about the title and I still wait for the time when I can feel comfortable  wearing it.

Oddly enough, I feel the same way about calling myself a “podcaster”.

This year, I’ve started doing a bi-weekly podcast with two terrific colleagues.  The Ed Revolution is an attempt to recreate the great conversations I’ve had with these folks (and many others) at conferences, classes, or informal gatherings.  Not only is the podcast an opportunity to engage a lot of colleagues on topics which interest me, but it’s also a personal challenge.   It’s a chance to try my hand at something new.

I listen to podcasts daily, and have often wondered how I would fare on such a show.  So many podcasters are articulate and fascinating people, who really add value to my personal and professional learning.  I’ve podcasted with students and have tried to encourage them to learn from the process and build on their previous efforts.  However, as we all know, it’s one thing to say it and another thing to try it for yourself.

We’ve just finished recording our show’s fourth episode and I seem to become more reflective (and more critical) with each recording.  Nothing sounds quite right when I listen to my voice.  My ideas don’t feel as well-articulated as they should.  The worst part are the ideas which arrive after the fact – that pithy comeback or revelation that didn’t come.  It can drive a person crazy.

That said, I have to admit that I’m loving the whole process.  I feel like our show has gotten better in parts and continues to grow.  As I look back at the past few episodes, as well as forward to the next episodes, these are a few things that I’ve learned.

Relax and converse: This is the toughest thing for me, and the one aspect which I’m still learning.  In every broadcast so far, there are moments when I get wrapped up in making a point or answering a question.  Those are the times when I sound the worst.  I become so wrapped up in my own ideas and I forget to talk to my co-hosts and my audience.  On the other hand, when I manage to relax and connect with the rest of the team, I feel like things become natural and conversational. Trust those around you and listen.  Your thoughts will come.

Prepare but try not to script: Some may disagree with me on this one, but I think that a script can often become a liability in podcasting.  Preparing for a conversation with notes, ideas and research is terrific.  However, if you try and prepare your statements verbatim, it can also make you sound like you’re reading a scripted statement (which you are).  More importantly, if you are trying to have an organic conversation, make sure that you are able to be flexible in what you say.  A script can be anything but flexible.

Audio matters: I have to give kudos to Ben Grey for this one.  When we started this project, he insisted that we record a quality podcast.  It was important to him that our audio was as clean and professional sounding as possible.  He’s right.  Not only do I find our podcast more listenable because of this quality, but I feel that it has made me take the content more seriously.

Above all, I think it’s really important to like what you’re talking about and who you are speaking with.  Otherwise, why bother?

You probably have your own list of tips, and I’d love to hear what you think.

I was cleaning up the office the other day, when I happened upon a stack of older magazines.  I guess I intended to catch up on them sooner or later.  The cover story of the November, 2007 Wired Magazine caught my eye.  It was titled Manga Conquers America: How Japanese Comics are Reshaping Pop Culture.  The article was quite interesting.  It described the ups and downs of the Japanese comics industry – how it is experiencing a lull in Japan, but a surge in The United States.

The section of the article which really caught my attention dealt with dojinshi, which are basically self-published mashup comics.  Typically, dojinshi comics take characters and storylines from professionally published books and create their own storylines.  Much like other fan fiction, the stories can take on a very different slant – pairing unrelated characters romantically or often getting very intense in the action department.  Without mass-market concerns or government restrictions, these books take storylines and characters into crazy places.  In short, the imagination runs wild.

What is the most interesting thing about this practice is that it is done openly, under the nose of the publishers themselves.  While the manga publishing houses aren’t thrilled with seeing their characters involved in various twisted exploits, they also feel like it keeps their franchises in the public eye and allows the characters to develop in ways that a corporate entity couldn’t easily do.  They are willing to give up some of the profits to fan writers in exchange for the marketing and “product development”.

This whole thing got me thinking about how this can relate to the classroom.  Will Richardson (and others)  have written about the possibilities of Fan Fiction quite a while ago, and I feel like this is an idea which continues to evolve.  We all relate to our pop culture heroes in movies and books or TV, and it’s an exciting idea to challenge students to do mashups with these characters.  Or, students can write mashups using characters they’ve encountered in class readings.  On the most basic level, it gets kids writing.  Beyond that, online publishing makes the potential for audience fantastic.

As much as I am embarrassed to share this little tidbit, I can’t help but remember myself as a fifth grader, hammering out M*A*S*H stories on my Mom’s Olympia typewriter.  I shudder to think about my writing back then, but I would have been on cloud nine if I had been given the opportunity to publish my work online for people to read.

But what about extending the whole mashup concept to curricular design as well?  This is where the Wired article really got me thinking.  I’ve been inspired to sketch out some units for middle school students, challenging  them to create interdisciplinary projects – mashing up subject areas.  There is so much apprehension among our staff to develop and deliver IDU’s, that I’d be very curious to see what kind of curriculum our students could design.  Can they think far enough out of the box to find connections between different subject areas?  Would they find creative connections that we can’t?

Curricular mashups would require school administration to emulate the manga publishing houses.  They may need to sacrifice some control, so that innovation can move the “product” forward.  In the end, the creativity might engage minds and renew the way in which school is regarded.  Just like the manga mashups, it might be a situation in which everyone wins.

It’s been far too long since I’ve written in this space.  My queue is filled with half-started entries – reflections on the birth of my first child and the changes which have happened in my life.  I truly intended to publish these entries, and perhaps I will at some point.  However, in the end, I really want the focus of this blog to be the things that I find exciting in education.  I want to share what I’m learning every day and solicit the ideas of my colleagues.  Self reflection is part of that, but it isn’t my desired focus.

So I start again.

I can’t think of a better incentive to get my blogging butt in gear than the start of my new podcast, The Ed Revolution.  This bi-weekly broadcast is a shared effort by Scott Meech, Ben Grey and myself.  The idea behind The Revolution is to look at education through the eyes of three people who don’t claim to know everything about it.  All three of us love teaching and are excited by the possibilities that technology offers, but we also cop to the fact that we’re still figuring things out.  As our tagline says:

We may not always agree and we certainly won’t always be right, but it’s our hope to be entertaining and engaging for anyone interested in joining the conversation.

I couldn’t put it any better myself.  I’d love to hear what you think.  Give it a listen and share your thoughts.

Keep an eye on this space too.  I’ll try and be a lot more active than I have recently.

I headed up to the North Woods of Wisconsin this past week, for a little family R and R.  It’s really quite beautiful up there (see photo) and I was looking forward to the opportunity to unplug a little bit.  Karen’s family cabin is pretty rustic, so I wasn’t expecting a lot of laptop or network time.  I loaded my iPod with appropriate music for hanging by the lake (Shearwater, Fleet Foxes, and Yeasayer were favorites) and I brought along a few books to read.  The whole concept of “unplugging” kept running through my head, as if I was going to enter an analog lifestyle and transport myself back to summer in 1985.

I like the concept of unplugging.  Sometimes the whole world of educational technology wears on me.  The ideas move so fast and following the network is occasionally exhausting.  There are so many sharp minds sending along links, blog posts and tweets about new things, that it can get away from me at times!  I was mostly looking for a few days to process and find a place for these great ideas in my daily life. So, I sent a few final tweets and shut off the phone for the next few days (aside from occasional Cub updates).

I had purchased Neil Stephenson’s book Cryptonomicon several months ago, and I figured that this was a good time to read something for fun.  It’s a terrific read, vivid and fascinating.  I did notice, as I worked my way through the first couple hundred pages, that my mind kept wanting to comment on concepts that Stephenson was making.  I grabbed a pencil and started underlining and making notes on the pages (something that I never really did in my youth).  As much as I was enjoying the text and the feel of a paperback in my hand, I needed the interactivity.  The very act of notating the book made it more real to me.  I really felt like I needed to comment, in order to appreciate the book more.

All of this hadn’t really occurred to me at the time, but during my drive home I began to think about things.  It’s interesting to consider how interacting with digital writing (commenting, collaborating and publishing) has changed my regard for the written word.  I love books and I treasure every book that I have in my collection – fiction and nonfiction alike. However, I certainly don’t look at the written word as a simple one-way communication anymore.  Digital publishing allows us (and our students) a chance to take some ownership of the work.  Recent iPhone applications that I’ve used, like textonphone.com give us the chance to notate and discuss published works on the fly.  The game has changed and it’s truly exciting.

I’m back in the wired world again, and it hasn’t taken long for me to wish I was back in Wisconsin, drifing on a boat with Shearwater and Neil Stephenson again.  Sometimes “unplugging” allows you to float towards simple truths and realizations.  Sometimes it allows you to see yourself and your world in a whole new way.

I’m writing this with the new WordPress application for the iPhone. It’s really a very nice tool, not only for my needs, but also down the road.  As we try to figure out the strategies for iPod touches in education, a free application like this can be a great way for kids to keep their blogs current.  I only with that the touches had a camera — what a perfect way to upload and post photos!

Has anyone else used this application yet?  Any thoughts?

Besides the Wordpress application, I’ve been incredibly impressed with the potential of iPod/iPhone applications.  There have been several (some free) which have turned the iPhone into an indespensible tool for me.  It’s also just plain fun!  If you haven’t had a chance yet, take a look at these:

1.  Evernote – A great way to keep notes, voice memos and pictures in one place.  You can tag everything and easily organize your notes.  Then, just sync everything between your phone/pod, desktop and laptop.  It’s terrific.  Also, if you take a picture memo of text, Evernote will attempt to recognize the text and create tags.  Very slick.

2.  Pandora - Okay, I’ve been a big fan of Pandora’s music service for years now.  But the iPhone application basically gives you the ability to bring an awesome online radio station with you.  Pandora has transformed the iPhone and the iPhone has truly revitalized Pandora.

3.  Twitterific – This little application is a great way of following your friends on our beloved but unreliable microblogging engine.  It’s really a nicely thought out program, with the ability to tap on tweets and dig deeper into a post.  Good stuff.

4.  MLB at Bat- If you’re a baseball fan, this is a terrific little app.  Not only can you follow scores on the fly, but you can also tap on the score and have access to video of all major plays.  On a wireless or 3G network, the video is terrific.  On Edge, it’ll do in a pinch.

The new iTunes Application Store has really gotten me excited about the potential for iPod Touches / iPhones in education.  Not only does the new 2.0 software give us some ability to shape the end user experience (keep the kids from deleting all the educational content) but there’s an endless stream of tools out there for collecting information, sharing with colleagues and evidencing learning.  I don’t know where to begin.

We have been lucky enough to ge a number of iPod touches to use with our students.  Now, the fun part is thinking about where to start and how to use them.

If anybody has any experience with these devices or has any ideas of their own, please share them.  I’d love to hear what you are discovering.

I saw David Warlick speak this afternoon.  I’ve seen him speak before, but he always gets me thinking.  His presentations are not very classroom-focused, but are really more of a “State of The Union Address” about technology, children and learning.

I’ve heard some people complain about this kind of presentation – that if the session doesn’t specificly teach them how to do something it is without value.  I suppose that folks are welcome to this perspective.  For all I know, the classes and environments in which they teach require a more practical mindset.  However, I really did appreciate what the man had to say.  In a way, it reminds me that it’s critical to understand the culture before you can understand the classroom.

I know that we all try to keep the focus on the process and not the tool.  We also do our best to find ways to connect the curriculum with students.  However, listening to Warlick speak really did serve as a reminder of how quickly and significantly things are changing in the world of our students — and how easily they are able to adapt to these changes.

As I sit here, processing the little stories and vignettes about student-made World of Warcraft narratives and activist blogs, I can’t help but look at students in a different way.  The tools which we constantly congratulate ourselves for using (blogs, wikis, etc) are nothing to these learners – we might as well congratulate ourselves for using textbooks and pencils.  We should, however, give ourselves a hand for noticing that these are the quick, easy and effective ways that we can help students connect to information and evidence their learning.  Plus, we can use these tools to keep conversations going – make them dynamic.  That point hearkens back to a point made at the blogging communities presentation I attended yesterday; a final grade equals a potential conversation ended.

The scary thing is that, once you really consider this new world, it makes you want to scrap all of your lesson planning, and rebuild from the ground up.  It’s not that the old ideas or lessons are wrong, but the mode of delivery can change and the potential for growth and impact is exponentially greater.

I think that’s one of the things that I most love about educational technology – it’s a constantly changing and challenging.  Like our students, we also need to learn to adapt to these changes and make them a part of our communication habits.  It’s the only way that we’ll truly see value in them and make them a legitimate compentent of our students’ experience.

Day one of NECC has been a fascinating adventure.

The sessions have been packed.  Some colleagues have not been able to get into their chosen sessions.  It’s a shame, but it’s also a testament to the amount of interest that there is in teaching with technology.  Luckily, I was able to grab a seat for Konrad Glogowski’s session on Blogging Communities.

This was really one of those sessions that truly gets you thinking — gets you excited to go and implement what you just learned.  From the start, Konrad had me thinking.  He basically begins with a blank page, and challenges us to think about how we can help students confront that environment.  Any of us who sit down to write a post know that feeling.  However, the solution to the problem isn’t in creating prompts or questions to fuel a student blog.  The solution is in creating a space for students with a sense of ownership.  As Konrad said — a focus on community.

Without restating the entire presentation (I wouldn’t do it justice), successful blogging communities are centered around three steps:

1. Creating a space in which students can exchange ideas.
2. Extending the classroom discourse by giving freedom to students and acknowledging their work.
3. and Redefining your presence in this community, from that of a teacher to a reader (and commenter).

I’ve worked with teachers on blogging with their students, and I’ve often thought about the obvious differences between “classroom blogs” and the blogs which students keep outside of school.  However, Konrad did a wonderful job of articulating these differences.  In many ways, the dynamic centers around the need for control which still dominates instruction.  While a teacher may love the idea of blogging, they also need to see how true blogging changes everything.  The teacher needs to stop evaluating and start reading — become a part of the community!  The more that the teacher reads and sincerely acknowledges the work their students are doing, the more momentum they will see in the community.

As I look around the room, I see so many people who are nodding in agreement.  I imagine that most of these people either have a blog or follow a number of blogs.  In other words, true blogging has a sincere place in their lives.  Many of the teachers who I have worked with have yet to find the personal value in the medium, which hinders their ability to understand the value, as well as the real dynamic.

The role of the teacher, as Konrad describes, really makes them into a follower (and a co-publisher) with the students.  The degree to which this change adds value to the student work cannot be understated.  Where a final grade ends the writing assignment and the conversation, a comment only encourages the dialog and teaches students that there is a great deal of value in writing — that it isn’t the means to an end.  The value in that lesson is beyond measure.

So what’s next?  I feel like this presentation really opened my eyes.  I think back on the conversations which I’ve had with teachers, trying to help them figure out the value in blogging with students.  The answer was right there in my own practice and in the practice of colleagues who I follow online and admire.  Sometimes it just takes the right moment to bring everything into focus.

NECC is a very interesting world, thus far.  The conference hasn’t even started yet and I’m already feeling fatigued.

I have a love/hate relationship with instructional technology.  I really value the possibilities which technology holds for instruction, and I’m really excited at the idea of helping teachers use these tools with their students.  In my opinion, it’s really key to reaching kids.  Plus, it has the potential to unlock creativity in students and connect them with the curriculum in new ways.

It just becomes overwhelming at times.

I had a wonderful conversation with two teachers from Oklahoma in the Bloggers Cafe (which is already becoming subject of ridicule by some of our ed-tech luminaries).  These teachers commented that it’s very easy to fall into the trap of focusing on what you aren’t doing, rather than the wonderful uses which you’ve found for technology in the classroom. Everyone has a success story to tell, and it just adds up after a while.

From my perspective, this statement really touches on what overwhelms me.  People are so eager to tell you what is best and what has transformed their teaching: Digo, Blogging, Wikis, Podcasts, United Streaming, etc.  Everything is so great and so potentially transforming, that the possibilities become endless and it can make a techie feel very very small.  It becomes a struggle to feel like you’re keeping up, much less finding your footing in this world.

As I write this, I’ve decided that my goal is to find my niche.  I may not be master of all technologies in the classroom, but I need to be okay with this.  I need to celebrate the success stories of my colleagues (all 20,000 of them that have come here) and reflect on my own place in the ed-tech world.