This is another test. Last year several of my students asked how they could embed flickr slideshows in their blog posts. This was dead simple and visually attractive. The photos are from my flickr account tagged summer07. They were taken in Squamish, Whistler, Mt. Hood, Seattle and Banff.

Click on the picture to advance the images or select one from the thumbnails below.

If you like this tool check out Pictobrowser.

I'm doing a presentation for Barbara Bareda's school today via skype. These are the slides I'll be using. They're here for the folks there to follow along with during my talk. Links are embeded directly into the slides. I'll record my end of the audio with audacity and turn it into a slidecast afterwards.

Full screen version.

I've been back from Denver for almost two weeks just haven't found time to blog about it all yet. It was a great experience ... but more about that later.

I had lunch with Chris Harbeck today. We talked about lots of things. He says I think too much before I write. That's why I write so little. He's probably right. Anyway, we also talked about a new site called Animoto. I'm just playing with this and decided to slap together a teaser of some of the content generated at the workshops I gave before posting it here.

Over at Animoto you select at least 10 pictures (jpg images), follow the dead simple instructions on screen to select CC music from a large list and Wham! Instant music video. Don't even need to add water.

More stuff from Denver coming soon.

Thanks for the push Chris! ;-)

I've been invited to Denver to do a couple of days of workshops with a group of teachers in the Adams County School District #14. I'm leading the workshops over the next two days.

Following my experiences at BLC with chatcasting I'm going to try to leverage what I've learned and weave it into the talks I'm giving. I'd like to see if we can push the envelope of what was done at BLC. You're all invited to participate. Here's what I'm thinking:

Chatcasting: Extending Professional Development Through Time and Space

Every session will be chatcasted in skype. I'm going to be teaching folks to chatcast as the intro to the 2 days I'll be working with them. Terry Freedman has agreed to act as one of the "Captains" of this venture. (Thanks Terry!) If you join us, you can be a Captain too. The Captain's Job is to welcome people into the chat and act as "rudder" to keep them focused on what's going on in the presentation. Since you won't be there live, asking participants things like: "What's he saying now?" is a good way to keep them focused on the content of the presentation and to provide opportunities to challenge or elaborate on the ideas I'll be sharing. I hope to see folks playing with the ideas and pushing back a little.

The plan is to take the chatcast and dump it into a wiki. I'll send them away at the end of the day with homework:

    i Reread the chatcast.

    ii Insert questions you still have about the content.

    iii Reorganize it in any way you like, or create lists, to highlight the "big ideas" and what the "take aways" were. i.e. What was learned? What do you want to know more about?

If you're available it would be a great way to concretely illustrate how easily these tools can bring the world into the classroom.

I think the main power inherent in web 2.0 tools is the ability they give us to play fast and loose with time and space. I'm hoping this will provide a means by which the conversations we start tomorrow will extend beyond Friday and perhaps spill over into a few classrooms here in Denver.

A Bit More About The Mechanics

TwitterCamp will be running on a projector off at the side of the room. (I've already tested it out. It'll work this time.) I hope to shout out to my twitter network and have them shout back. This will model some of my ideas about using twitter in the classroom.

You only need skype to make this work. Have your twitter window open if you like but the main stage will be on skype.

If you plan to join us (at about 9:30am North American Mountain Time) search Terry Freedman on skype and request to be a contact. He'll add you into the group chat.

I'll be teaching other people in the room how to do the same so that we distribute the load across more than one person and they will teach someone and so on. Hopefully, we can sustain the methodology in future sessions independently although you're welcome to join any of those as well.

Again, you will be the "rudder" through the first chat (with any other edubloggers that join us) and I will use your "conduct" as a model for how the participants should do it themselves in the later sessions. That is, if you want to come along for the ride. ;-)

You can see the agenda on the wiki. I'll be adding to it tonight and over the next two days.

So, what do you think? Any takers? ;-)

UPDATE
David Jakes, the creator of the chatcast phenonmenon, confirmed he will be live in the chat tomorrow morning. This party is starting to shape up. ;-)

I've been tagged by Wes and Chris so here they are ...

First, the Rules:

    1. Post these rules before you give your facts
    2. List 8 random facts about yourself
    3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
    4. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

My Eight
    1. I like to cook Chinese food.

    2. I like to eat Chinese food even more.

    3. I put myself through University working part time as a cashier at a grocery store.

    4. I've seen Grand Canyon from the North Rim and the South Rim. Pictures don't come close to being there.

    5. Rock climbing is my favourite outdoor sport. I climb exceptionally rarely.

    6. I love Supertramp; they're kind of an English version of Harmonium. Favourite song: "Un musicien parmi tant d'autres"; brilliant lyrics.

- Harmonium Lyrics

    7. My favourite part of any meal is dessert. Boston cream pie or cannoli; I can never get enough.

    8. If I don't get my "alone time" I become a basket case.

Tagging
I'm not going to tag anyone. Some folks don't like getting tagged for these things. You never can tell who would or wouldn't like being tagged; so, if you like this idea: TAG! You're it. ;-)

Just saw this. Woah ...

The phrase mind control more often makes me think of Derren Brown ...