Do You Believe in Me?

Last year at this time, many educators were sharing the video featuring Dalton Sherman addressing the Dallas ISD opening convocation in Dallas, Texas where he asked the rhetorical question, “Do you believe in me?”. I was reading a blog post by Miguel Guhlin about videos to reflect upon and he shared a link to the video entitled “Believe” that was created for educators in the Starkville, MS School District.

more about “Starkville, MS School District “Believe”“, posted with vodpod

Although this was designed for the Starkvile, MS School District, the sentiments shared are applicable to any student, teacher, administrator or superintendent.

So what about you, do you believe in ‘me’ with ‘me’ representing any student from any ISD in any city, any state?

Are the PODs Coming to your School?

I recently came across the presentation below about ‘Personally Owned Devices’ and was reminded that two of the largest school districts here in San Antonio are now allowing students and faculty to bring personal laptops or netbooks to use at school on the district’s networks. I included the NISD news announcement here and the new AUP associated with the new policy.

Most school districts ban students and faculty from bringing personal equipment onto campuses to use on the district network servers. This is a huge stray from the norm and poses many new challenges while opening the door to great possibilities for instructional tools with students as mentioned in the presentation by David Truss.

I came across the presentation embedded below on David Truss’ blog, ‘Pair a dimes for your Thoughts‘. David created the presentation for Alan November’s Building Leadership Communities-BLC09 conference and I thought it was extremely fitting with the new policies recently adopted in the two school districts.  After viewing the presentation, are the PODs coming to your school or school district this fall?

After viewing the presentation, will  PODs be coming  soon to a school or school district near you?

Edubloggercon 2009 Animoto

Great compilation of pics from Edubloggercon 2009. From the looks of it, a day of learning  and sharing was mixed with fun! David Warlick put together this Animoto from various people’s Flickr photo galleries and since I didn’t get to attend physically I appreciate every opportunity to remember Edubloggercon (ebc09) virtually!

WeAreTeachers Microgrant Applications Due Now

The WeAreTeachers (WAT) community is sponsoring another microgrant contest and applications are currently being accepted until September 18. The topic is ‘Student Engagement’ according to the WAT website.

Apply for a Microgrant to Increase Student Engagement.

There are definite elements to promote student engagement: playing, interacting, communicating, dreaming, questioning, and so on. Tell us about a project or idea to engage your students more fully. Then let your friends and the WAT community cast their votes. The ten persons who garner the most votes will receive the Student-Engagement Microgrant: $200 and a Flip Video camera to launch their projects.

What would you do to increase student engagement?

Memorizing facts and figures has its place in education. And that place is in the dusty halls of educational theories that work in the short term, but that fail the larger and nobler goal of actively engaging students and for awakening their hunger for knowledge, discovery, and self-motivation.

Voting begins September 21 and winners will be announced via email on October 7. This is a great way to fund small projects for your classroom or professional development programs. Be sure to submit your application and check back after September 21 to vote for your favorite  WAT microgrant!

"Sharks After Dark" Dive

Learning how to use the Scuba Gear

This morning I participated in the  “Sharks after Dark” event co-hosted by DEN in SL and PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors in Second Life. I had a fantastic time!

I arrived early for our dive tour to learn how to adjust our settings and put on our scuba gear. We were put into groups of six to go on the automated tour deep beneath the ocean’s surface. After exploring the ocean floor for awhile we surfaced and were taken back to the starting point. What an adventure we had!

Sunken Pirate Ship

On our tour, we saw all kinds of sea creatures swimming among the ruins of sunken ships and along the ocean floor. Dangerous sharks swam near us but none of us were harmed!

Surfing with the Sharks - DE*

Horseback Riding - DE*

There are a host of things to see below the ocean’s surface including caves, coral reefs and sunken pirate ships.

Several people went surfing or hang gliding at Dive World. I didn’t get to spend time as much time surfing or hang gliding as I would have liked to as I had to run over to the Elluminate room for our “Classroom 2.0 LIVE!” show but I will definitely return to the Dive World and explore the ocean floor and marine life.

Hang Gliding above Dive World - DE*

After you finished exploring the ocean’s floor, you can go horseback riding and tour the rest of the island. There are some wonderful vegetation and wildlife to see immersed throughout the sim.

Next time you want to go scuba diving but don’t want to travel to Cancun or Cozumel, hop online and head over to Dive World to take in the sights high above ocean’s surface by hang gliding or below and go diving. You will truly be amazed and delighted!

I want to sincerely thank everyone who helped make the sim in SL, the “Sharks after Dark” event and purchase of my scuba gear possible! Dive World is a fantastic resource  that is fun and informational. Thanks DEN!

Note: DE* – Images taken from the DiscoveryEducation’s Photostream group at Flickr.com

“Sharks After Dark” Dive

Learning how to use the Scuba Gear

This morning I participated in the  “Sharks after Dark” event co-hosted by DEN in SL and PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors in Second Life. I had a fantastic time!

I arrived early for our dive tour to learn how to adjust our settings and put on our scuba gear. We were put into groups of six to go on the automated tour deep beneath the ocean’s surface. After exploring the ocean floor for awhile we surfaced and were taken back to the starting point. What an adventure we had!

Sunken Pirate Ship

On our tour, we saw all kinds of sea creatures swimming among the ruins of sunken ships and along the ocean floor. Dangerous sharks swam near us but none of us were harmed!

Surfing with the Sharks - DE*

Horseback Riding - DE*

There are a host of things to see below the ocean’s surface including caves, coral reefs and sunken pirate ships.

Several people went surfing or hang gliding at Dive World. I didn’t get to spend time as much time surfing or hang gliding as I would have liked to as I had to run over to the Elluminate room for our “Classroom 2.0 LIVE!” show but I will definitely return to the Dive World and explore the ocean floor and marine life.

Hang Gliding above Dive World - DE*

After you finished exploring the ocean’s floor, you can go horseback riding and tour the rest of the island. There are some wonderful vegetation and wildlife to see immersed throughout the sim.

Next time you want to go scuba diving but don’t want to travel to Cancun or Cozumel, hop online and head over to Dive World to take in the sights high above ocean’s surface by hang gliding or below and go diving. You will truly be amazed and delighted!

I want to sincerely thank everyone who helped make the sim in SL, the “Sharks after Dark” event and purchase of my scuba gear possible! Dive World is a fantastic resource  that is fun and informational. Thanks DEN!

Note: DE* – Images taken from the DiscoveryEducation’s Photostream group at Flickr.com