Kevin Sandridge's Blog (10)

Moving Towards Open Source

While taking part of the July 29^th EdTech Weekly – a weekly discussion of the latest news and resources of interest to the EdTech Community – an article pertaining to the Batavia, IL school district was passed through the chat. It seems that the Batavia School district is suggesting… Continue

Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 31, 2007 at 12:24am — 1 Comment

The Pleasures and Pains of Lifelong Learning

In her post entitled Frustrating, life enhancing learning, educator and author Lisa Durff shares the frustrations and ultimate elations brought about as one embarks upon the attainment of new skills, knowledge, and levels of understanding. I've only just met Durff, but she has already left an indelible impression on me as an educator who is willing to stretch her boundaries and risk…

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Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 28, 2007 at 3:51pm — No Comments

Teach 21st Century Skills with Scratch!

Thanks to Wes Fryer for his tip about Scratch, a new freely downloadable programming language based on Sqeak that will allow your students to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- all poised to share across the Web! Now we're talking!

According to Mitchel…

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Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 28, 2007 at 11:06am — 1 Comment

Call for "Getting to Know You"/ First Week of School Activities

Hello all! Figured I'd try reaching out to the Classroom 2.0 network for this one. A co-worker of mine is in charge of providing new teachers at our school with some handy "Getting to Know You" / First Week of School activities for Middle School-aged students. It's always a challenge finding things this age group will gravitate to. Often, they have one foot in elementary and one foot speeding towards....oh, Age 21!

I welcome any ideas/mini lessons any of you care to… Continue

Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 27, 2007 at 7:30am — No Comments

Tryin' on the Podcast with PodcastPeople

I know there are a ton of application purists out there who believe that the only way to go is to host software applications on their desktop, laptop, or server. While I can appreciate this viewpoint, and do have many software elements loaded on my laptop, I just can't shake the fact that I love hosted services - like PodcastPeople, a…

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Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 26, 2007 at 10:27pm — 1 Comment

A Lesson in ShiftHappens from Norway...

The above referenced story, about a school in Oslo, Norway turning things around by using technology, learner-focused planning, and participatory media just gives me the feeling of being home! Ok, they're in Norway and I'm in Haines City, Florida. Oh, and true, my school hasn't achieved quite what the fine folks at the… Continue

Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 26, 2007 at 10:24pm — No Comments

Textbooks? We don't need no stinking textbooks!

Ok, so I'm not really against using textbooks. I just don't like using them as a bible of sorts. I mean really, there are so many other resources available out there on the net, and it seems like not six months go by and there are key bits of information in my tech ed books that are already heading for the 'old news' category! I'd rather scour the web and rely on my network of fellow Web 2.0 educators to come up with new and exciting ways to educate and engage my students using information that… Continue

Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 26, 2007 at 10:19pm — 1 Comment

OMG! 21st Century Teachers Nurtured the Wong Way...

OMG indeed! Harry Wong, one of the most dynamic and continuously refreshing educational speakers of our era or any other penned an article that turns the whole Web 2.0/collaborative education focus around a bit by focusing, not on today's students, but on today's teachers - specifically, the teachers hired this year to replace teachers school districts recruited last year!

In the article, Training Gen Y Teachers for Maximum… Continue

Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 26, 2007 at 10:18pm — 1 Comment

Update: Slideshare now with Audio!

And the hits just keep on coming! Thanks to Jim Gates, for keeping me posted on this update. I really like SlideShare, but my only knock against it was the lack of audio. I'd seen other presentations online with separate mp3 feeds associated with them, but they always require you to pace through the slides yourself, based on verbal cues from the presenter.

Thanks to this update, you can create your presentation, create a separate mp3 file,…

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Added by Kevin Sandridge on July 26, 2007 at 4:22pm — No Comments