As my husband watched the Cowboys play in a pre-season game and I lay on the couch resting from cleaning house and yard work waiting for the dryer, a tweet caught my attention.

"I'm broadcasting the #elh2010 conference LIVE now. KEYNOTE speaker @ewanmcintosh on in a few minutes: http://bit.ly/x5gKE"

I clicked on the link and watched Ewan McIntosh's Keynote address for ELH 2010 Technology Conference near Melborne, Australia. While it would have been much nicer to be there in person, it was still great, participating from my couch. Here are some comments and websites from Ewan's Keynote.

Design thinking | immersion | synthesis | ideation | prototyping

First Day of school, use a Google form to find out what types of technology your students have so ... Read More »

Here's my entry into the Epic Tech Fail Day stories.

I am responsible for the technology staff development of teachers in a middle to large school district in Texas and during our recent week long staff development event I taught a class on Twitter, Polls and Surveys. We usually have this staff development event at one of the high schools, but due to construction it was held at a middle school. Everyone brought their laptop so they could load TweetDeck and use their Mac or PC instead of the student computers in the room. They also were required to bring their cell phone. After we started we discovered that the wireless in the room was very poor and things moved so slowly, that they either used the ethernet cord from the student desktop or changed over to the student computer. Then when we got out the cell phones, no one had reception ... Read More »

The Long Range Plan for Technology in Texas includes the recommendation that all Texas school districts,

I just attended the 2010 Reform Symposium World Wide eConference while reclining on my own couch. What an incredible opportunity. I found out about it Friday evening while looking through some tweets from those I follow. I managed to get in to two sessions plus the closing remarks and it left me wanting more. Since it was all archived, I can go back and view all the sessions. It won't be quite the same as participating live, but it will be educational, non the less. The presenters were invited to present because they are active Tweeters and Bloggers on education and technology. They were not high dollar presenters. Looking at their profiles, they were teachers, professors and principals with something to share. It was all FREE. WOW... online, from home....great... free, what an awesome combination!

In these days of budget cut backs and travel restrictions, we are so blessed to have people who ... Read More »

During a Career and Technical Education meeting today at Education Service Center XI, I became aware that my quest for education is unique and some find it interesting. As we explored the reasons behind the College and Career Readiness Standards in Texas, we shared a bit of personal history on our education journey. Here is my story.

To how many professional organizations do you have membership? How many professional conferences do you attend each year? Ever sat in a  workshop and thought, "I could have taught this?" Have you ever asked your supervisor for permission to attend a confererence and hear, "Not this year?"

If you have a conference you attend on a regular basis, maybe you should consider volunteering to be more than just a conference attendee. Your organization needs you to be the best it can be. There are usually many opportunites to volunteer for a variety of positions. You can volunteer to answer questions, hand out conference materials, prepare for a social event, facilitate a workshop for a presenter or present a workshop of your own.

We regularly take teachers to TCEA. The first time, they get to go without volunteering, but if they want to go the next year, they are required to submit a proposal to present.

Next time you go ... Read More »

Notes from session #TXDLA-133 Spanning the Distance Learning Divide - Hybrids and Pure Virtual Models

Houston has an Advanced Virtual Academy Advanced Virtual Academy . Students must apply for a transfer to attend the Advanced Virtual Academy. Students must be interviewed before acceptance to Advanced Virtual Academy. They also have a Virtual School that uses the blended model of instruction and students select from the time options where they must come to school.

They use vendors to provide the online courses and do not create their own courses. APEX, PLATO, The teacher of record modifies the courses for individual students and for the course.

Teachers are paid differently for different courses depending on the amount of work involved and they are paid by the student.

One thing I did not realize. A student cannot graduate in Texas from a virtual school without getting some credit from a face to face school PE cr ... Read More »

Are the needs of an online learner really any different from a F2F learner? I'm not sure they are. Do most classrooms teachers know and understand the needs of the students in their classroom? When I hear, "They (the students) won't do their work!" I wonder if the teacher understands the students' needs. According to reading from an online staff development course I'm taking, students need:
1. Relationships
2. Cooperation
3. Active learning
4. Timely feedback
5. Time on task
6. High expectations
7. Celebration of diversity of talents

Isn't that what face to face students need? The last time I checked, face-to-face students also needed all those things.
So what's the difference?
I believe that the real difference is the challenge of how to provide those things in the online course. There are so many ways to provide them in face-to-face classes or onl ... Read More »