Webinar

Register Now to Attend: Beyond the Collaborative Project: Student-Created Content

On October 3 at 11am Eastern, Alan November, a long-time leader and visionary in the area of Education Technology, joins Jan Zanetis, Market Manager for Education at TANDBERG, to discuss the power of students as content creators. To read more about it and register, <a href=”http://now.eloqua.com/es.asp?s=206&e=72FBE03CD79946349970D367FEB837D1&elq=2F”>click here</a>

New Mexico becomes an ISTE Affiliate :)

Today, New Mexico got up and running with an ISTE affiliate. For further information check out http://nmste.org/

:)
~julia

FW: A Last Lecture of a Lifetime - Moving, Smiles and Inspiring

I subscribe to Elliot Masie's newsletter. To subscribe go to
http://www.masie.com/list/

His most recent newsletter spotlights an awesome lecture by Randy Pausch
that I'm watching right now. Yes, I'm both laughing and crying.
~julz

A Last Lecture: Randy Pausch Video Game Professor - Carnegie Mellon.

Here is a touching, moving and bittersweet item for us in the learning
field:

http://www.masieweb.com/lasttalk

There is a trend to ask thought leaders to present a "Last Lecture" at
colleges, delivering the presentation they would do, if it were the last
one in their lives.

However, Randy Pausch's was quite different. Randy is one of the pioneers
in Video Game Education and a professor at Carnegie Mellon. He was asked
to present a "Last Lecture" Here is the report from the Wall Street
Journal about this talk:

"Dr. Pausch's speech was more than just an academic exercise. The
46-year-old father of three has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for
just a few months. His lecture, using images on a giant screen, turned out
to be a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life.

He began by showing his CT scans, revealing 10 tumors on his liver. But
after that, he talked about living. If anyone expected him to be morose,
he said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you." He then dropped to the floor and
did one-handed pushups."

"He paid tribute to his techie background. "I've experienced a deathbed
conversion," he said, smiling. "I just bought a Macintosh." Flashing his
rejection letters on the screen, he talked about setbacks in his career,
repeating: "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how
badly we want things." He encouraged us to be patient with others. "Wait
long enough, and people will surprise and impress you." After showing
photos of his childhood bedroom, decorated with mathematical notations
he'd drawn on the walls, he said: "If your kids want to paint their
bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it."

"While displaying photos of his bosses and students over the years, he
said that helping others fulfill their dreams is even more fun than
achieving your own. He talked of requiring his students to create
videogames without sex and violence. "You'd be surprised how many
19-year-old boys run out of ideas when you take those possibilities away,
but they all rose to the challenge."

"He then spoke about his legacy. Considered one of the nation's foremost
teachers of videogame and virtual-reality technology, he helped develop
"Alice," a Carnegie Mellon software project that allows people to easily
create 3-D animations. It had one million downloads in the past year, and
usage is expected to soar."

A short video report on the speech is available at:
http://www.masieweb.com/lasttalk

The complete speech is available here:
http://www.etc.cmu.edu/global_news/?q=node/42

If you were to give your Last Talk, what would it be? I'd love to hear
from you about this at emasie@maasie.

Thanks to John Abele, our colleague and MASIE Learning Fellow, for passing
this on to us.

Recent PodCasts and Demonstrations:
Dan Pink PodCast: http://www.learning2007.com/danpink
Learning Changes Video: http://www.learning2007.com/changes
Social Networking Demo: http://www.learning2007.com/social

Interwrite Learning & TeacherTube Classroom Makeover Contest

TeacherTube \"Teach the World\"®

We at TeacherTube wanted to make sure our community members were aware of a great opportunity to win an interactive classroom makeover worth over $15,000.00. That\'s right-- $15,000.00! Interwrite Learning and TeacherTube are partnering to bring this contest to classroom teachers.

Check out all the details at http://www.teachertube.com/makeover. Your video submission could be the big winner!

Bethany

NACOL Standards of Quality for Online Courses

Here it is friends, hot off the press!

The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) has released a new publication, the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses. NACOL adopted the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Standards for Quality Online Courses and included a standard to include 21st Century Skills.

The National Standards of Quality for Online Courses can be found at the NACOL website at:
http://www.nacol.org/nationalstandards/

:)
~julz

The Map of Online Communities

An article in the Techlearning blog called The Art of Building Virtual Communities linked to a very cool graphic from Craig Bellamy's site, who credits xkcd for the image, what the heck is xkcd, I guess I'm gonna find out momentarily? Anyways, I don't understand why I don't see Julia Island in the BLOGIPELIGO...

For my Skype users

Though we love Skype, you should be aware that like everything else, there are security issues. Do not accept strange messages, files, etc. Remember to set those preference that I told you about.

On PC
1. Go to the Menu bar, select Tools > Options > Privacy.
2. Select Show Advanced Options
3. Make sure all of the right things are selected, i.e. Allow calls from: Only people in my Contacts list.

On Mac
1.Go to the Menu bar, select Skype > Preferences > Privacy.
2. Make sure all of the right things are selected, i.e. Allow calls from: Only people whom I have authorized, or Allow SkypeIn calls from Only people from my Contacts.

Here is an article about the current Skype security issue:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2181764,00.asp

Safe Computing!
:)
~julz

NM eTeachers' Workshop

This pic sent from my blackberry

NM eTeachers' Workshop

This pic sent from my blackberry

My iLife

My iLife would of course inlude a brand new 24 inch iMac ; an iPhone or the new iTouch iPod; then the new 160GB Classic is killer for storage and the baby Nano with video is simply adorable; but I've always thought that an iCar would be the ultimate iLife accessory; and then of course I'd need the iRing to rule them all... Was that the longest sentence ever? ;) ~ijulz dreaming of an iLife

Online Identity

This was a post I created for the students in our Online Teaching and Learning Graduate Certificate program: Branding vs. Pseudonymity When you decide to take your courses and your presence online, you start developing an online identity and an online persona. Some people don't mind a public or even branded online identity/persona. In fact, they foster it: See http://juliaparra.com It's important to have an online presence and an online persona in order to develop a thriving learning community and feel successful as a student and as a teacher.However, many people do not feel comfortable with their pictures and real identity being freely available on the web. Thus, it's a good time to reflect on how public you want your online identity/persona to be. My friend, Bethany is fostering a near-pseudo identity with her TekTrekker moniker. I say near-pseudo because her first name is scattered throughout the blog. So, depending on your attitude about the Internet, we recommend that you consider your online identity. If you want to brand yourself, use your real name. If you do not trust the Internet, consider a pseudo-identity, a way to interact with us and each other online yet remain somewhat anonymous. Creating Your Pseudo-Identity First, ponder a fake name that is unique and doesn't identify you. For example, a pseudo-identity that I might have considered is desertjewel. Second, set up your pseudonym email account. Gmail is our recommendation as you no longer need a secondary account. Hopefully, your pseudonym idea hasn't been used by someone else. This is where you might have to make adjustments to your chosen pseudonym. Third, create an avatar for your online picture. Yahoo Avatars is a fun still image avatar. Voki is great for your audio/video avatar. If you have a Second Life character, you can take a picture of yourself in Second Life and use that. More about avatars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(virtual_reality) Last, use your pseudonym and avatar image whenever you are asked to post something online. Resources for Further Exploration Why You May Need an Online Persona Your Online Persona Developing Your Online Persona Taking Care of Your Internet Persona Managing Your Online Persona Becomes a Key Career Skill Online Identity The Brand Called You Personal Branding What do you think about your online identity?