State of the Network 08-09 June 8, 2009
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As I begin to write this, the bell has just rung at the high school and the students are yelling down the hall and hurrying to their buses after finishing their exams and EOC’s. It is the end of the year and one very different from any before it. I see lots of heavy hearts and nervous smiles around me and it’s hard not to dwell on what is going on around us. But, I am learning to meet the smaller victories with bigger smiles and I hope all of you digital members in the community are as well.
Yesterday, I approved the 207th member for Gaston Digital and could not be happier about the growth we are seeing. We started this as a little idea and have really tried to build membership in the last couple of months. Boy, have we learned alot about websites too? Whew.
We really appreciate those of you who took the time to take our survey. Almost all of the responses were very positive so I will take that as affirmation that we are on the right track. A couple of folks mentioned some things we will review over the summer before TLC.
- My own bold, perhaps too bold, choice of colors. We can definitely tone that down. I have personally never been married to that palette.
- The difficulty searching the current forums. We agree completely and have been looking for better solutions since before we even started. Sharepoint offers some great possibilities.
- The sheer amount of content on the homepage. This one is tricky. The homepage features snapshots of all of the features we offer and in some cases deleting them here, delete them elsewhere too. We are going to pull the text boxes later, but think people need instructions now. And we are going to pull the button and animation. We have noticed in from our analytics that a lot of you check the homepage and little else, so good or bad, we need to meet you there.
- And of course, many of you said we need to advertise more and do more training. That is all in the pipeline waiting for next year, so you just wait!
Thanks again for joining us and don’t forget your community next year as school starts. This can be a great way to bond together and share the load as it increases on all of us. Take care and have a great summer!
Gaston Digital
What applications do we use? May 21, 2009
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A number of people have asked what sites we are using to make all of the portions of Gaston Digital, so I thought I would address it here so those interested can dabble in them if they like. I should note that we are only using so many different sites because they are free and much more efficient at this point than trying to develop the tools from scratch.
1) The audio recordings are podcasts created using Audacity and then uploaded to Podcast Machine. There are blurbs about both on the podcasting portion of the Training page under the Learn tab. But basically, Audacity records audio and allows you to attach background music and Podcast Machine is just a site I use to store those files and make the fancy little player for me (because I don’t have a clue how). I like Podcast Machine because it allows 1 GB of storage for free and does not show anyone else’s podcasts from your page.
2) Jason created the presentation in the center at Prezi. It allows you to attach content of any kind across an endless plane and then make a route through the material so others can use the arrow to travel around on your plane as you see fit. The site just went public a couple of months ago, but it is a great alternative to a boring PowerPoint or a time-consuming video.
4) Obviously, we use Diigo to collect bookmarks, though we also use Delicious which is not linked anymore.
5) Under the Learn tab, the Training website is a wiki created in Google Sites. Google Sites is a free service for creating wikis made in such a way that a number of people can collaborate to author the content. However, the files you open are loaded onto Acrobat because they give you a lot of free storage, allow you to save as a pdf, and make a nice little viewer for files to be embedded, printed, or downloaded.
6) The blog you are reading is actually a feed from a blog made on Edublogs, which is still a great blogging site, though it only gives you 25 MB of free storage. Edublogs has a robust interface with a little bit of a learning curve, but it has over 100 free templates and a number of free widgets to integrate into your blog. It also provides the ability to make additional pages for your blog.
7) Finally, you will see on Jason’s discussion topic, an embedded storage device from Box, which is simply a free way to upload content onto the internet. Box stores files much like you would on your school’s server and then allows you to embed a box or simply a link onto your site.
I may be missing some, but these are quality websites to look over when you can. For use with students, Prezi, Google Sites, Podcast Machine and Edublogs can all be very quick ways to add technology elements to lessons. The other sites for bookmarking and storing documents have just been good timesavers for us sharing and developing content.
As always, please send us a comment, question, suggestion, or issue to us as they arise.
Thanks,
Gaston Digital
Video tutorials and Kindergarten Classes May 12, 2009
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I have learned three things today (so far, it’s early).
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How to get my way around tables in html code.
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Schools are downright creepy during EOG’s…you know the “It’s quiet…too quiet.” line.
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I am like grandparents to Kindergarten classes. I think they’re cute, fun, and love to be around them, but thank goodness I get to leave. No offense to Kindergarten teachers and today’s class was extraordinarily behaved, but I’d have no hope at all.
Anyway, an update. Gaston Digital is up to a whopping 153 people as I write this. Thanks for fighting the good fight of collaboration everyone. We are very excited about our growth and hope that participation begins to skyrocket with membership.
We have completed a couple of video tutorials due to popular demand and those are being formatted right now (thus the html reference) and should be up this afternoon or tomorrow. So far, we have a general overview or guided tour and a tutorial for uploading lesson plans. We will have some on adding discussion topics (added 5/13), the training wiki and how to customize your page coming up. We are linking a Diigo tutorial from their site as well concerning bookmarking websites using that service (because they already have them) and Jason has linked extensive tutorials to the Training wiki (under Learn) as well. Check those out! He’s outdone himself.
Again, we will be going live at the TLC, so register for those sessions and come check out Gaston Digital and Diigo with us.
If you have any specific questions, issues or suggestions, please drop one of us a comment or email. We need to know if we’re headed the right direction for your needs. Remember, post something. Read the message on the homepage, use the lesson template and contribute some material.
Thanks,
Gaston Digital
Gaston Digital is 6! (months old) April 27, 2009
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Look out everyone! Gaston Digital has gained 55 people since it turned 6 (months old), thanks to current members spreading the word. As of the publication of this post, we are at 125 127 128 members, not bad for a site only a few months old.
Now, we have heard it already. You are here and you need some help navigating or learning the ropes. We do not plan to offer training this school year. Our site is still a baby and has a lot of growing to do just as we do, so features may move around slightly, though we feel pretty good about the overall navigation. We strongly feel that we want you early adopters to be pretty pleased with the features. We will be rolling out some training at the TLC and into next school year. You should find video tutorials coming online within the next month or two as well. In the meantime, ask a buddy or one of the technology facilitators you see in the forums and we will help you.
We are very passionate about utilizing social networking as a resource for collaboration, however, please understand that this site is being constructed mostly during lunch breaks and after hours, so it is coming slowly. Leave us your feedback! Are we going in the right direction? Is something missing? Is this just a giant waste of our time?
Finally, post something. Read the message on the homepage, use the lesson template and contribute some material.
Remember the penny. “Got a penny. Leave a penny. Need a penny. Take a penny.” When you need a lesson, I hope that someone has been nice enough to have gotten the ball running somewhere by leaving one.
Thanks,
Gaston Digital
Gaston Digital Network on Ning April 1, 2009
Posted by gastondigital in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
This is your space. Use this space to share and collaborate with others in your school or from anywhere in the county. Use the Collaborate tab to discuss issues, ask questions, or share ideas. The Learn tab is still being built, but you can check it out to see training documents and research.The Blog page will take you to Gaston Digital’s blog where we comment on training and other observations in the classroom.
An experiment for now, but let’s see what we can make of it!
We are making an effort to leap into the 21st Century skills highly tauted in research, journals, and books, educational and otherwise. This social network is one of our initial efforts at a comprehensive foray into the digital world. We will be using it primarily in staff development and planning sessions to get people used to the idea of sharing content and ideas digitally to create a stronger and broader community of practice.
This site will serve the needs of digital immigrants trying to connect with each other in our district, searching for new resources, and compiling our reflections and materials from lessons we have already created. If you have stepped out to Gaston Digital, you are likely a person that is active in searching the web already. If you are, then you also likely share the struggles and issues of other immigrants to the digital world. You find all kinds of interesting sites, but there are almost too many to wrap your mind around and so many seem to do about the same thing. You feel proud one moment for finding the new “IT” site and then a week later find another that does the same thing better. There are still other sites that can help you organize your web searching, but why not help each other. You know what we need that applies to our district, let this be your digital world and dumping grounds. No one of us can be the internet sage always providing crisp answers to teachers’ and colleagues’ dilemnas, but together in a digital learning community, maybe we can!
This site will hopefully grow as we have more opportunities to expose teachers to it, but we want it to do so organically. If a number of comments pop up about a topic, look for it to move to a discussion topic or link of its own. We have some discussion categories set up to create broad strokes right now, but if other interests rise to the forefront they will get one too. Happy hunting and happy helping!!
Protected: Mrs. Collins Podcasts October 27, 2008
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