Category Archives: podcast

MACUL 2011 Almost Here!

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So, I was sitting down to work on my presentation and I found myself wondering what MACUL would hold in store for me this year. I always like to pick a task to accomplish at the conference, something specific to seek out and learn about. One year it was RSS, another it was Web 2.0. I’m not sure what that will be this year, so I figured I’d check out what information was available on the MACUL site.

So far the only thing to go on is the registration booklet. The full conference brochure will be ready at the end of February. You can’t tell a lot from just the title of a talk, but I’m gonna try anyway. I found an interesting breakdown. For sake of comparison I also looked at the 2010 registration booklet. With sessions I only have titles to go from, but the workshops give full descriptions.

Here’s what I know saw:

  • In 2010 I just had to search for “Phone” to find all the stuff on learning with mobile devices. In 2011, I need to use phone, iPad, mobile, Android, and iPod.  There seems to be about twice as many talks and workshops about the use of mobile devices in the classroom this year as last. That would be 16 listed this year. More sessions will incorporate them I’m sure, but we won’t know till March.
  • Web 2.0 seems to be falling away. Last year there were at least 13 sessions listed with Web 2.0 in the title or description in the registration book. This year there are only 5. However, Blog jumped from one to five and wiki increased a bit too. I guess this year we’re being a bit more specific.
  • The use of video and podcasting are down a little. I guess something had to go to make enough room for all the extra cell phone stuff. This one is near and dear to me. <Shamless Plug> Come see me on Friday – Break the Cycle—Create Videos So you Can Stop Lecturing </Shamless Plug>

So, what am I going to search out this? I’m still not sure. I really like the idea of tablet devices like the iPad, but there really aren’t enough viable options in that space yet. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPad, but I want to see some competitors. Next year will probably be the year of the tablet, but not this year, I think.

This year looks like the year of the mobile device, focusing primarily on cell phones with the iPad and iTouch thrown in for a little spice. Seems to be a “use what they have in their pockets” approach. This is particularly interesting when you consider that most schools ban such devices.

What are you hoping to get out of this year’s MACUL Conference? Feel free to chime in below in the comments, or better yet surf on over and share on MACULspace.

Be a Podcast Celebrity!

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Want to share your technology and teaching story with others? WIT podcasters, Russ Barneveld and Barbara LaBeau from GVSU will be interviewing willing participants for podcasts, then posting them on iTunesU and the MACUL website. This is your chance to be a podcasting celebrity, share your wisdom with the greater educational community, discuss important issues affecting education in Michigan, gain thousands of followers in iTunes, and craft a media-empire!

Alright, so everything, but that last bit is probably true. Empire-creating statements aside, siting down to reflect about your conference or presentation experiences is a great way to process and internalize what you’ll be learning later this week at MACUL 2010. Consider giving a little bit of your time to help make the instructional time with your students that much better when you return from the conference next week!

If interested please contact Russ (barnever@gvsu.edu) or Barbara (labeaub@gvsu.edu) to schedule an appointment while you are at MACUL.

iLife Workshop

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Had an awesome time in Leslie Fisher‘s iLife preconference workshop today (hosted by SIG MM). Found the Faces tool in iLife iPhoto ’09 which is totally awesome face recognition – and connects to Facebook! How cool is that?!

Also had fun with Garageband and made a little podcast, with pictures…

Mini MACUL 2009 Podcast

for your 30 second viewing/listening pleasure.

I know, not as exciting as the podcast interviews that Ben Rimes has posted, but it’s a flavor of the learning that happens at the MACUL conference!

Hope that you can catch at least one session with Leslie Fisher this year!

Featured Speaker Podcast – Joe Brennan

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Each year, MACUL tries to bring in speakers that cover a wide range of expertise when it comes to successfuly integrating technology within the classroom. A perennial favorite, Joe Brennan is a master of New Media Narratives and Digital Story Telling. As a blogger for the Discovery Educator Network, an Apple distinguied educator, and a former ICE Educator of the Year, Joe brings a wealth of knowledge on the subject of digital story teling to our conference.

I had the pleasure to speak with him earlier this week, and learn some simple tricks and ideas to keep in mind when making movies in the classroom. Joe also shared some tips for first time conference goers, and gave some recommendations about getting started with digital story telling. If you haven’t had a chance to attend one of Mr. Brennan’s sessions, listen to a “sneak peak” of his session in our featured speaker podcast.

MACUL09 Brennan Interview

If you’re interested in attending one of Joe’s sessions he’ll be presenting “Simple Special Effects” on Thursday, March 19th at 2:30 in room W1-51 of the Cobo Center, and “Digital Story Telling: Makin’ Movies” on Friday, March 20th at 10 AM in room W1-51 of the Cobo Center. Joe makes mention of both the ISTE 30th anniversary site, and the Flat Classroom Project in the podcast. Follow the links to learn more.

Doing Web 2.0

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Michael McVey is a new professor Eastern Michigan University who began teaching a class, Web 2.0 Tools in Education, or something similar.  He basically threw a huge number of Web 2.0 tools at his students to see which would stick and which would be thrown away.  Everything was done in an online environment and he discovered that some work, and of course, some don’t.

Michael’s take on Web 2.0:

Recipients become Communicators…

How did they begin?  Started by using Flickr…everyone understands photo sharing.  What else did they use?

One of the first assignments was to create a social network on Ning.  As they set up their social network, they were also researching sites and tagging them in del.icio.us.  This then created a common pool of information to reference.

They used Doodle to schedule meeting times.  They also dessiminated information by podcasting with Gcast…also used podOmatic.

Every student was required to set up a blog on Blogger, which Michael subscribed to via Bloglines.  Bloglines is a aggregator that collects and keeps track of new entries to the blogs (and other sites) you subscribe to.  Because students were connected to each other and the writing/sharing that was going on, their own writing was positively affected.

Students also stayed connected via Twitter.  Wrote collaboratively with Google Docs and PBwiki.

Michael really enjoyed watching how deep and thoughtful student writing and ideas became.

What were some of the conclusions? (Oh…he’s going too fast.)  Obviously, some good and some not as good.  Probably won’t use Twitter again…it didn’t really help with collaboration.

Good job, Michael.  You have a lot of first hand experience that benefitted the rest of us.  The last session on Friday is probably the worst time to have your presentation, but there were lots of folks and everyone stayed until the end.