TIGblogs - Jim Gates

Jim Gates' Blog

One tired person's thought on the day
Something to think about... The state is spending a BOATLOAD of money putting laptops in the classes. THIS is our chance to take teaching and learning in a new direction, albeit, perhaps, dragging some teachers kicking and screaming along the way. But, what the state does NOT want is for us to get the laptops and touch boards in there, face the newly tech-armed teachers and say, "Ready, troops... STAY THE COURSE!" If all we can think to do with these new computers is to "research" on Google, type word documents and make powerpoints, then we MUST DEMAND more and better professional development from our districts. We MUST be learning about and using the collaborative web 2.0 tools and tagging and subscribing and collaborating and breaking the Office bonds. The $100 laptop initiative is shipping between 50-100 MILLION computers to third world countries, loaded with linux and Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird and other Open Source software. Rice University is leading the charge for FREE, open course ware. The world is being educated like never before. THE RACE IS ON!!! And, we're NOT in the lead. So, consider your skills. If they are not current then you owe it to the students to seek out professional development opportunities and do what is necessary to become skilled. throwing in my two and half cents

November 29, 2006 | 6:49 AM

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Links from Tuesday's session
I know that there was a lot going on this afternoon and I've been in a classroom long enough to realize that you weren't going to walk away with new, ready-to-use skills. It was intended to be a shotgun approach to some new technologies that you may want to investigate. Some resonated with you more than others and that's fine. Check 'em out. Here are links to the sites I mentioned; Skype - the free VOIP and video system. Amazing! The TIG Wiki for us to play with. Get one for your class, too. The Fischbowl Blog - get the Did You Know and 2020Vision presentations there. Flickr - The photo-saving site. Unlimited storage. Tag your photos. Subscribe to them. Bring them into your blogs or Moodle classes. Jim's Links to other web 2.0 sites - where you can find lots of links to some VERY cool sites My 'feedroll' - This is the public list of the feeds to which I subscribe if you want to know. K12 Online Conference - the free, online conference I mentioned with online professional development workshops Del.icio.us/jgates513 - my del.icio.us account. Subscribe to it!

November 29, 2006 | 6:48 AM

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blogs need wysiwyg editor
Wouldn't it be nice if these blogs used an editor window where we could simply choose a font rather than be forced to use html code? At 50+ this is entirely too doggone tiny a font to be read comfortably - or am I the only one who things so? Let's hear from you. BTW - the other posts look MUCH better in Firefox than they do in MSIE. Don't use Firefox? Give it a try.

November 28, 2006 | 11:38 PM

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