Songhai Concepts

No Cyberbullying: Safe Digital Social Networking

2011-10-20T13:59:00.002-04:00

Delaware Futures students please click here to take the Cyberbullying Social Media survey

Welcome Delaware Futures Students, Spring 2011

2011-05-03T14:41:00.001-04:00

Brain Food
What shapes the minds of Delaware Futures students

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=be8aa2b54d" &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Delaware Futures 5-3-11&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Del Futures Senior Computing Workshop

2010-12-09T11:58:00.003-05:00

Welcome Delaware Futures Seniors

Back channeling is an excellent way for workshop participants to add their feedback, ideas and reflections to a specific discussion.
Please use the CoveritLive discussion thread below to share your thoughts about learning, FaceBook, Netiquette and the future of computing.

Del Futures Seniors

H Songhai
12/9/2010

Aldiko eBook Reader Android App Review - RK2808 Android Tablet

2010-12-04T09:27:00.000-05:00

In the coming months we will see a number of new tablet computers on the set.
Many of these tablets will sell for less than the iPad and Samsung's Galaxy Tablet.
How much you spend will depend on what you need from a tablet.

HOPE Charter School Information Session #1

2010-10-14T20:37:00.049-04:00

-------- -------- ------- ----------

This is the first in a series of Information Sessions that I will be sharing with the staff at HOPE Charter School and with anyone else in the blogosphere with an interest in computers, digital devices and K-12 learning. These Information Sessions will look at a number of easy and practical ways to use computers, smart phones and MP3 players in your classroom.

This year at HOPE Charter School we acquired 40 laptop computers but to date, only a handful of teachers have reserved the laptops for their classes.
The 1st and 2nd floor computer labs are also available to all teachers in the building. A few teachers have reserved the labs but It would be nice to see even more teachers taking advantage of the computer labs and the laptops - especially those teachers who require their students to prepare documents and conduct research. Reserve the laptops and computer labs here.

I'm designing these information sessions with your busy schedules in mind. As much as face to face is desirable, you won't need to come to the conference room or to the computer lab to participate in these sessions. All of the sessions will be online. I've created a discussion thread at TodaysMeet for you to share your thoughts and ideas. I'm interested in your thoughts about cloud computing with ZOHO and what constitutes the responsible use of computers, mobile devices and gadgets in the classroom.

The TodaysMeet thread will be available, online for one year. I am considering a new thread for each information session. You are welcome to join these discussions in your classroom, on your home computer, on your cell phone or on your laptop. The sessions are available online for your convenience.

After you watch the short videos and review the slideshow, please keep the conversation going by sharing your comments and recommendations in the TodaysMeet threaded discussion. You may also leave comments in the comment section at the end of this blog post.

Thank you for your participation.

ZOHO Writer + your classroom
= 100% Compatibility

Video #1 Introduction

Video #2 Benefits of ZOHO Writer

Information Session #2: Social Bookmarking With Diigo

Get On The Bus 2

2010-10-14T18:51:00.000-04:00

TV newscasts like what they see in Skype

2010-09-05T23:23:00.001-04:00

TV newscasts like what they see in Skype

-- When Pierre Thomas wanted to interview a source in Connecticut on deadline for a World News sto- ry on technology last month, ABC's cameras showed him sitting in front of a computer screen, talking...read more...

How does the Kindle stack up against the iPad?

2010-03-25T11:51:00.006-04:00

My laptop does everything the iPad can do and my cell phone can do everything my laptop can do. I'd never pull my laptop (or an iPad) out on the subway or on the bus, but I'd pull my cell phone out just about anywhere, to check my email and Twitter, listen to music, and take my pictures and watch videos and more.

But it's hard to read books and magazines on my cell phone for more than 15 minutes, the screen is too tiny. Reading books on the laptop works, but it's clunky, especially if you are on the go.

If you're a reader, then the Kindle is a no-brainer. It's sleek, trim and you have access to just about any book in print. The Kindle gives you access to newspapers, magazines and blogs and it comes with an indispensable dictionary widget. The dictionary eliminates the need for assorted reference books cluttering up your desk. The dictionary feature on the Kindle is a very smart and powerful tool.

Wikipedia is built into the Kindle and the Kindle reads pictures, plays MP3 files and reads PDF files. The Kindle does all that and fits in the palm of your hand. Put the Kindle inside a leather cover and you can discreetly read from it anywhere, in line at the supermarket, on the train, in the waiting room, and you won’t look like a show off or a geek doing so.

I've been studying and reading up on eReaders for about six months - Sony Reader, Nook, Plastic Logic Que Reader, Cool-er, and Kindle. I was really impressed with the Nook - on paper and was planning to purchase one, but just about all of reviews I read were unfavorable.
All of the reviewers pretty much said the same thing - the Nook is too slow, it crashes, it's clunky, it needs a firmware update... And from what I gathered, even after the firmware update, the Nook still left a lot to be desired.

I couldn't see spending $259.00 and not being totally pleased with my purchase, so I scratched the Nook from my wish list. I considered the Cool-er eReader. I especially liked the ability of adding an SD card to increase the storage space, but the Cool-er isn't wireless. The wireless Sony Reader was too expensive and, for me, visually, it was not as smooth and lean as the Nook or the Kindle. The Plastic Logic Que looks like it's an awesome device but it's way too big and way, way too expensive.

Then somewhere I read that you could read ePub books on the Kindle using a tool called Calibre. The ability to download old classics, for free, was at the top of my list of must-do's for an eReader. My ideal eReader had to have the ability to read books from Project Gutenberg and Google books.
I was not all that interested in the books on the New York Times Best Seller List.
I wanted to be able to read classics like Paul Laurence Dunbar, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Sojourner Truth, Joel Chandler Harris, Charles Chesnutt, Gibran, Hopkins, Budge, Confucius and more. My research was indicating that the Kindle could do all of that and more.
I checked and double-checked the ins and outs of Calibre and once I was convinced, I ordered my Kindle later that night.

My Kindle arrived in two days and then magic started happening.
The Kindle is perfect, the design, the weight, the price and all the books, the newspapers, the magazines and Wikipedia. Imagine your entire library in the palm of your hands.
The Kindle does everything you’d expect from an eReader exceptionally well.
In hindsight, the Kindle should have been my first and only eReader choice a year ago.

It just flat out works.

H Songhai
3/25/2010

Dell Mini 5 to be the vanguard of 'a family of tablets'" .

2010-02-26T17:42:00.001-05:00

A classroom of tablets or a clasroom of desktop computers?

How long before tablet computers are in every learner's back pack?

Check out: "Dell Mini 5 to be the vanguard of 'a family of tablets'" - www.engadget.com http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/26/dell-mini-5-to-be-the-vanguard-of-a-family-of-tablets/?icid=engadget-iphone-url

Well isn't this good to know. The Mini 5 isn't even coming out for at least another month, yet already we're hearing Dell has big plans for what's to follow. Wired has the dish straight from Neeraj Choubey, GM of Dell's tablet division, that there will be "a family of tablets" which will "scale up to a variety of sizes." It appears there will be a common feature set throughout the forthcoming portfolio, so it's likely going to be Android all the way, while Choubey also shared his company's intention to bundle "inexpensive data plans" with the new devices -- indicating a belief that carriers will accede to such ambitious ideas. And speaking of network operators, in a separate interview with Laptop, the loquacious gentleman has confirmed that Dell's working with ATamp;T on bringing the Mini 5 to the masses. Good to know, indeed -- now how about a release date?

-------------------------------

This article came from the Engadget iPhone App, which features everything from the latest smartphone news, to reviews and hands-on looks at laptops, HDTVs, gaming, and more. To learn more about the app or download it go here: http://www.engadget.com/downloads/iphone

Sent from my iPhone

The Shape Of Books To Come

2010-02-17T14:31:00.000-05:00

It's a fact that all new life begins with pain and the publishing industry in 2010 is no exception. eReaders like the Sony Reader, Kindle, Nook and Cool-er have given birth to a new and exciting breed of digital reading tools that have got the print and publishing industry reeling and looking for a funeral director - but is it time to start writing the publishing industry's obituary just yet? I think not.

While eReaders are slowly changing the way many of us read and interact with text, I believe there's a real good opportunity today, for a new breed of "super book" publishers and designers to come forth and take charge of an industry that is in desperate need of a face lift.

Super books, or the kind of books we will likely see on the iPad, the Nook, the Kindle, will talk, they'll play video and music, define words and of course, include rich hyperlinks. Think of the first time you interacted with the Encarta encyclopedia CD ROM.

This is all very exciting. Think of all of the possibilities that exist for young novelists, poets and playwrights. And while I am far from a programmer, designer or developer, I've got some pretty good ideas about what I'd like an electronic book to look and sound like. No doubt your students and mine have some pretty good ideas too.

Zinio Dynamic Design from zinio on Vimeo.

H Songhai
2/17/2010

What do students know about computers and computer concepts?

2010-02-17T09:09:00.001-05:00

Click here to take the Digital Literacy Questionnaire

Google Buzz... A Bridge To Google Wave?

2010-02-10T13:34:00.002-05:00

Just got my green light to start using Google Buzz. Google Buzz is "a new way to share updates, photos, videos, and more right in Gmail." You will need Gmail in order to use Buzz. Right now the jury is still deliberating. Will Buzz function as a bridge to Google Wave or will it serve as a Twitter look-alike?
Buzz is also available on the iPhone.

Here is a short list of resources and videos I've put together about Google Buzz and Google Wave.

H Songhai
2/10/2010

Evernote for iPhone as nice as desktop App.

2010-02-04T21:10:00.000-05:00

Wait for the 2nd maybe 3rd generation iPad

2010-01-28T17:46:00.004-05:00

Now that most of the iPad hype has settled and we have a pretty good idea what Apple's newest creation can and cannot do and how much it costs and when it will be released, it's time to ask yourself is the iPad really for you?

I've been following the iSlate, iTablet, iPad, Nook, Kindle, Cool-er, Que proReader, Sony eReader, Skiff Reader rumors for months - daily, bookmarking articles and images in Diigo and Delicious. My students have been writing reviews and reports on eReader technology since November. I even screen captured my Twitter page at 1PM on January 27th and honestly, by 3PM, I was, well, bummed out.

The iPad, as sweet and lovely as it is, just barely misses the mark for me. It's almost everything I thought it would be - Internet, email, photos, video, iPod, iTunes, App Store, iBooks, maps, contacts, 9.7-inch color display, but you can't multi-task, no video or still camera features, no Flash support, no port for SD cards and 3G flexibility will cost an extra hundred bucks. My MacBook can do all of that (except for the touch screen functions) and my iPhone can do 95 per cent of that. Maybe the specs will change when Apple introduces the 2nd and 3rd generation iPad, but until then, I plan to keep Stanza for the iPhone close and the idea of moving to the Barnes & Noble nook even closer.

The images and articles below pretty much say it all.

Kindle's death sentence commuted from besttabletreview

This very sage piece of advice from nooktalk

And this very interesting perspective from Scott McLeod

The Twitter wire around 2PM on 1/27/2010
(note, 190.375 tweets within 5 minutes!)

H Songhai
1/28/2010

Google Docs Now Features Thumbnail View

2010-01-27T10:21:00.000-05:00

Google Docs has made searching through your hundreds of Google Docs documents much more visually pleasing. Now you have the option to view your documents in thumbnail view.

Google Docs List View

Google Docs Thumbnail View

Thumbnail view is a really nice feature that allows you to see your documents in a more colorful and dynamic way. It's much nicer than the static list view we've grown accustomed to over the years. The thumbnail view really shines if you have slideshows and images at the head of your documents.

Thanks to Wesley Fryer and Kevin's Meandering Mind for sharing this information.

H Songhai
1/27/2010

Voice Search With Microsoft Bing

2010-01-26T17:52:00.002-05:00

Our Tax Dollars At Play

2010-01-26T13:49:00.002-05:00

A friend e-mailed me this image along with the caption below.
How can we not leave our children behind when our legislators are behind their screens playing Solitaire and poking around of FaceBook?

Hot off the Twitter Wire

2010-01-26T12:20:00.000-05:00

http://www.convergemag.com/workforce/5-Reasons-Why-Educators-Should-Network.html

Sent from my iPhone

iSlate/iPad/iTablet Rumors

2010-01-21T00:49:00.002-05:00

hyperecipy (@hyperecipy)
1/21/10 12:29 AM
RT @islateguide: Juicy new details on the #islate from the WSJ. newspapers, tv, textbooks & games http://bit.ly/72QD33

Sent with Tweetie

A library and more in your hands

2010-01-20T21:43:00.001-05:00

bargainsdeals (@bargainsdeals)
1/20/10 9:27 PM
Apple lines up 'iSlate' content deals for books and video http://bit.ly/6jRQpG

Sent with Tweetie

Sent from my iPhone

The Decade In Review

2010-01-14T11:39:00.002-05:00

One For The Paperless Briefcase

2010-01-12T19:55:00.002-05:00

I really like the idea of reading newspapers, magazines, books and assorted documents all on one slim electronic device.

The e-Reader story of CES 2010

2010-01-09T17:41:00.003-05:00

Check out: "The e-Reader story of CES 2010" - www.engadget.com http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/the-e-reader-story-of-ces-2010/?icid=engadget-iphone-url

One major trend dominating CES 2010 is the massive uptick in manufacturers showing off e-reader devices, software and technology. Vendors of all sizes are here in Las Vegas introducing products they hope will capitalize on piqued consumer interest and the predicted growth in the e-book market in the year ahead.

The biggest (literally) and most impressive electronic ink devices at the show are easily the ~~8.5 x 11-inch~~ 10.5-inch Plastic Logic Que proReader and 11.5-inch (displays measured diagonally) Skiff Reader. Two touchscreen devices with integrated 3G targeting two totally different audiences. The Que proReader's gunning to replace bulky stacks of business papers with support for truVue PDF files, MS Office docs, e-mail, and Outlook calendar support. The Skiff Reader, on the other hand, is being pitched as a consumer device with a compelling value proposition for publishers (by publishers) and content owners that will ultimately deliver multimedia on a wide range of devices and display types hooked into the Skiff Store -- just not the flagship Skiff Reader with traditional e-paper display.

Otherwise, the CES show floor is absolutely littered with electronic ink also-rans, hybrids, and new screen technologies looking to knock-off the incumbent Kindle, underlying E Ink technology, and Amazon juggernaut. If we're lucky, that's exactly what's going to happen later in the year. Read on to find out why.

If electronic ink is your thing then CES 2010 is the place to be. We've already told you about Orizon from Bookeen, the RCA Lexi, iriver Story, the Jinke SiPix readers, Hanvon WISEreader, the Cool-er readers from Interead, the Ocean and Tidal series from Copia, and a pair of E6 and E10 e-book readers from industry heavyweight Samsung. And these are just the most interesting of the dozens of new devices on show.

Spring Design's dual-screen Alex is all kinds of sexy, even better than the Barnes amp; Noble Nook thanks in part to the Armada processor's ability to cut through Android like an angry Jedi. And by inking a deal with Borders, Spring Design has a real chance at usurping the (unholy?) alliance that brought the Nook to Barnes amp; Noble. Regardless, by all account this appears to be the hardware Barnes amp; Noble should have chosen for its dual-screen reader.

We're also seeing an incredible variety of display technologies gunning for current and future generation e-Readers. The most compelling remains Pixel Qi -- a hybrid LCD technology that can be switched from a standard, full-color LCD backlit mode to a Kindle-like monochromatic reflective mode viewable in direct sunlight (while consuming 80% less power than standard LCDs). Better yet, 10-inch Pixel Qi displays have just started to roll off the assembly lines. The only confirmed Pixel Qi device at the show is the impressive Notion Ink Adam tablet. Besides Pixel Qi, Qualcomm, Fujitsu, and Philips are trotting out their Mirasol (with a rumored Kindle destination), FLEPia, and Liquavista display demos, respectively, while LG is demonstrating its Metal-Foil e-Paper display for the first time on the Skiff Reader.

Finally, we've got knfb's Blio; the PC and mobile device software that gives you access to millions of books in their original format.

Put it all together and we begin to see the story of a 2010 e-reader market that extends way beyond just e-books to include newspapers and magazines augmented with audio and full-color animations, video, and imagery. As such, dedicated monochrome E-Ink devices like Kindle and the Sony Reader will be forced even deeper into the niche they now serve as the year plays out. One thing's for sure -- monochrome electronic ink displays are not the future of e-readers. If you ask us, the smart money is on multi-purpose devices running hybrid displays from Pixel Qi (or similar) like Notion Ink's Adam. Not only does this avoid lock in to a single content provider, but you maintain full Internet access with the ability to subscribe to materials from Skiff, Barnes amp; Noble, Borders, Blio, Google, and iTunes, for example, while enjoying the type of rich multimedia experiences that main stream media publications are keen to pursue.

Kindle, and its E Ink peers, are officially on notice. ------------------------------- This article came from the Engadget iPhone App, which features everything from the latest smartphone news, to reviews and hands-on looks at laptops, HDTVs, gaming, and more. To learn more about the app or download it go here: http://www.engadget.com/downloads/iphone

Sent from my iPhone

Computing for the new decade... Coming in less than a month

2010-01-03T22:10:00.000-05:00

Use the camera feature of your cell phone

2009-12-03T11:16:00.000-05:00

If all classes were transparent, students would not miss a beat

2009-11-04T14:46:00.008-05:00

As the citizens of Philadelphia brace themselves for what could be a long public transportation strike, students who usually take public transportation to get to and from school are finding alternate ways to get to class and the alternatives don't involve buses, trains or trolleys.

I snapped the above photo while driving to work this morning. I did the caption in Bubblesnaps.
While I was driving this morning, I got to thinking how cool it would be if every classroom were transparent... and what if students didn't need to be present in the physical school building (everyday) to stay current with their classwork?

The transparent classroom is no dream. It can be any teacher's piece of the rock, but there are obstacles, for example, every classroom is not equipped with a computer for every student.and most schools don't allow cell phones in the building. Cell phones are just as powerful as desktop computers, but it takes time and effort to teach students how to use electronic devices responsibly - something many teachers and administrators are not willing to do. And of course, many teachers would rather have their students sitting in front of them, everyday, for 50 minutes, for any number of different reasons - handouts, worksheets, lectures, high stakes tests.

Fortunately for me, I've got a computer for every student. My students are able to work at home, or in the car, or on the beach, or while sitting in the park. They can access my work anywhere they have an Internet connection. They don't need to sit in front of me everyday to stay current with their classwork. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want to do that either. My classes are a totally paperless - I've not used paper in class in four years. All the tools and resources my students need to access, publish and save work exists in the cloud. They don't need me every single day for every little thing. The real work, however, is getting them to believe and understand that.

H Songhai
11/4/09

The Nigerians have the right idea

2009-11-04T13:57:00.001-05:00

The Nigerians have the right idea

I came across this on my Twitter wire. Hat tip to Robert W. Hughes for
this timely proverb.

How to Avoid Malware on Facebook and Twitter: 8 Best Practices

2009-10-31T10:43:00.000-04:00

Good information here from the folks at ReadWriteWeb. Be smart, be safe and know what to avoid on Twitter and FaceBook.

How to Avoid Malware on Facebook and Twitter: 8 Best Practices

Apple MacBook Touch coming soon

2009-10-24T12:02:00.004-04:00

The MacBook Touch looks like an awesome device. Rumor has it the "Touch" will debut in January and ship sometime around June of 2010. The video below comes on the heels of the debut of the Nook eReader by Barnes and Noble. The Nook continues to get high marks from eReader observers, especially because of its color touchscreen. It's also expandable up to 16 gigabytes and runs on the Google Android operating system. The Nook has WiFi and 3G capabilities and Barnes and Noble together with Google will offer hundreds of thousands of books, newspapers, and magazines for eReaders to choose from.

As for the MacBook Touch, well, I'll have to see one and touch one first before investing somewhere between five and eight hundred dollars for a device that will, after all do everything you want a laptop or desktop computer to do. That's a big decision. On the other hand, I'd like to know how the "Touch" handles USB devices like external hard drives and USB hubs and if it is robust enough to handle detailed Final Cut editing, screen capturing and video capture devices like Dazzle and Canopus? Can I import video from a camcorder? Firewire? I have a few questions. From watching the video alone, the MacBook Touch really looks it could be the standard for Tablet Computers. In the meantime, I'm holding on to my aging black MacBook. I add another two gigs of memory and she'll be just like new again.

H Songhai
10/24/09

Twitter works in the classroom

2009-10-22T14:21:00.000-04:00

Twitter is more advanced than e-mail, just as powerful as text
messaging, comparable to blogging, encourages concise and focused
writing, promotes safe digital social networking and functions as a
powerful web search tool. Why then are there so few school leaders
and teachers using it to supplement classroom learning?

We need three outs. How long is that flight back to LA?

2009-10-21T23:39:00.001-04:00

Change your reading ways

2009-10-21T22:14:00.001-04:00

This new eReader by Barnes & Noble is going to change the way we buy and read books, change they way we read and browse through magazines and change the way we buy and read newspapers. The Nook and other eReaders like Kindle, Cool-er and Sony will change the way students study and take notes, even change the way we read and present publicly.

H Songhai
10/21/09

Nook: Barnes & Noble eReader

Bill Cosby on USTREAM

2009-10-19T23:43:00.005-04:00

The Cos and Company (Cosnarsti) were right on the money tonight
with their virtual town meeting streamed live over Ustream.
I tuned in late and only participated in about 30 minutes of the 90
minute virtual meeting but what I witnessed and participated in was
impressive.
Hat tip to The Cos for extending the conversation and especially for
doing it in cyberspace.
Find out more about Bill Cosby's virtual town meeting and his new
group, Cosnarati at billcosby.com

H Songhai
1/19/09

Twitter-delphia - How news events of the past would play out on present-day devices

2009-10-15T12:37:00.218-04:00

My Media Literacy class is about to take on a project called Twitter-delphia - for a second time. The project comes from radio host Michael Smerconish. Smerconish's Twitter-delphia first appeared in the Philadelphia Sunday Inquirer, June 28, 2009. The thought behind Twitter-delphia is meant to show how news events of the past would play out on present-day devices.

The Smerconish article reads and looks like this

I think this will be a good project for my students because it requires them to multitask in an organized way while using a number of Web 2.0 tools. They will research their home town, find and imagine quotes by legendary and not so legendary Philadelphians, use social bookmarking tools, use twitter to conduct research, add hyperlinks to their writing, use image editing software and possibly do some audio and video editing.

To begin the project, the students will create a storyboard (24 slides) in either ZOHO Show or Google Presentation. Slides should be one color, border less and no designs or graphics. Each slide (frame) must contain a newsworthy observation or quote by a noted Philadelphian.

The observation must be about Philadelphia - Philadelphia's history, politics, people, the environment, sports, transportation, crime, art, religion, music, philanthropy and more, so long as there is a Philadelphia angle and the action took place between 1920 and 2010. The observations must be historically accurate and spoken or imagined by an actual player or witness to the event being described. All observations must be written in 140 characters or less.

The students will practice surfing the web intelligently using smart keywords and phrases.
The students will learn how to use Diigo to bookmark, highlight and annotate web pages.
I'm requiring them to compile and arrange all of their web findings for this project inside of Diigo.
They will use the free and web based Aviary Image Editing software to create original layered images to add to their individual slides.

We will use the PrintScreen key over the course of the project to capture important screen shots.
Slides can be saved as jpeg image files and imported into Movie Maker.
We will use Aviary Audio Editor to create an original music and narration track.
Export movie sequence to local computer and upload to student's educational blog.

Deadline to be determined.

H Songhai
10/15/09

eReaders here to stay.

2009-10-15T00:25:00.002-04:00

Barnes & Noble to roll out new eReader by end of the month.

Read more from Best Tablet Review

The New Face of Citizen Journalism (is in your pocket)

2009-10-06T15:24:00.005-04:00

See it. Shoot it. Share it. The NBC Philadelphia iPhone App

A few years ago it was not uncommon to see on the TV News a disclaimer attached to any sort of video or photography shot by John Q. Public that read, amateur video/photography provided by John Q. Public. That little disclaimer always bothered me because a lot of John Q. Public's work was anything but amateurish - think Rodney King, the London subway bombing, the Virginia Tech massacre, the Zapruder film. All of that historic footage was recorded by regular folk like you and me. But have you noticed, with the explosion of digital cameras and cell phone cameras how all that amateur talk has all but faded away? No one is calling anyone an amateur anymore. In fact, the news bureaus encourage viewers to send their pics and video to their TV stations. This new NBC Philadelphia iPhone app proves my point, positively, expertly!

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.

H Songhai
10/6/09

TweetGrid, A New Way To Search Twitter

2009-10-01T16:11:00.001-04:00

I came across TweetGrid yesterday over my Twitter wire and all I can say is wow-o-wow-o-wow! TweetGrid has to be the most comprehensive twitter search tool I've yet to come across. It ranks right up there with TweetDeck in its ability to display multiple (up to 9) twitter feeds inside of one clean and compact desktop dashboard. TweetGrid displays your individual Twitter feeds according to hashtags and keywords.
So where have I been...? because according to TweetGrid (on Twitter) TweetGrid turned one year old in September.

As it happened, I was searching tweets last night with TweetDeck, another visually pleasing and powerful Twitter search tool, when I discovered a post from mrarrah.com asking readers to check out his TweetGrid. I clicked his link and saw a neatly organized, compact grid of Twitter feeds all in one neat desktop dashboard. I then test drove TweetGrid for myself and found it to be a real beauty. I tried out all of the different grid patterns: 1x3, 2x3, 3x3, adding new keywords inside of each search box and the results were thrilling. I was blown away by the sheer amount of information I was able to aggregate inside of one neat window.

I've experimented with an number of tools to keep my twitter feeds organized - Netvibes, TwitterGadget, TweetDeck, Tweetie and Twitterific, just to name a few, but TweetGrid is the best I've come across so far.

Here is an example of a TweetGrid for Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker.

Click the image above for enlarged view

I recently broke the three classes that I teach into three specific hashtag groups. Separating my classes by hashtags allows me to organize, index and check each class individually and separate from the others. So far, TweetGrid is the best tool I've found to keep all my students visible and consolidated by class group, in one convenient location. Try it, you'll like it.

Below is an image of my classes broken up by hashtags as seen on Tweet Grid

Click the image above for enlarged view

H Songhai

10/1/09

On e-Paper, Digital Books and Readers

2009-09-27T10:46:00.001-04:00

This from CBS News. How long before this technology becomes a reality in schools across the United States... and is it practical? Will the high school class of 2012 be the first class to graduate totally paperless?

Watch CBS Videos Online

H Songhai
9/27/09

Big, bulky textbooks are old school... in 2009

2009-09-21T20:26:00.000-04:00

In other words, tomorrow you will be able to access all of your books on your cell phone. No more four and five pound text books. Awesome!

Search Special With TwitterGadget

2009-09-18T05:37:00.001-04:00

As Twitter continues to evolve, the whole Twitter experience is beginning to look and feel more
like a search engine/e-mail/data sharing platform, than just a mere micro blogging tool.
This video demonstrates some of the far reaching versatility of TwitterGadget.

Classwork for 9/15/09

2009-09-15T11:02:00.000-04:00

Click here to get list of web pages and blogs

Blogging and Twitter (off site) just became a little easier

2009-09-11T14:47:00.004-04:00

Don't know exactly why it took me so long to add these two time saving tools to my "digital backpack" (ScribeFire Blog Editor and TwitterBar), but I suspect they will change the way I approach blogging and making Twitter posts from here on out.

This is a compelling quote.

2009-09-10T13:30:00.001-04:00

Saw this on my Twitter network.

Excerpt from President Obama's address to America's students

2009-09-09T11:09:00.000-04:00

HOPE students and staff listening to President Obama's

address to America's students.

Click here to hear an excerpt of the President's speech.

What do you know about computers and the Internet?

2009-09-09T09:23:00.001-04:00

HOPE students please click here to take the Digital Literacy Questionnaire

H Songhai
9/9/09

The 3R's Reading, (w)Riting, Reconsider

2009-09-04T20:58:00.006-04:00

Had a lively discussion last night with a couple of buddies from college about the newspaper industry and why that industry is dying slowly in many cites across America. One friend, Bill, a journalist, said the that the newspaper industry is losing millions of dollars because of the Internet and because many young people just don't read. He said the newspaper industry needs to adopt a new model, consider distributing newspapers for free, maybe, but newspapers need to adopt a new model that's in step with the times we live in. And I think he's right - to a degree.

Young people love to read I said. They send dozens of text messages everyday (writing) and they receive dozens of text messages in return (reading) on their cell phones. Teens read and write all day, everyday. They also read and write through their social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

We all agreed that writing in txt msg code, cleverly codified as it is, leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to submitting a report or an essay for a class. Students need to know how and when to code switch. It's okay to use txt msg code with your friends but not a good idea to use it when submitting formal papers. A student would be foolish to write a college essay or fill out a job application using txt msg code. That's where the teacher's work needs to begin/continue.

Look around you. Our students are reading and writing and being artistic and creative with their gadgets everyday for hours on end. They're enthralled with their devices on the bus, at the dinner table, while driving, during my class. And no, they are not reading the New York Times or the Washington Post and no they are not using the correct spelling or proper grammar when they write, but they're in the ball park. They're writing, they're communicating. They're exploring the World Wide Web. Our job is to coach them and to drive them home.

______________________________________________

I wrote this note with my cell phone.

It can edit it, e-mail it to a student
or a parent and save it to my cell phone.
If I'm not satisfied with the note and decide
to start the note over again, I can trash it.

I took this picture last year in Virginia, with a cell phone.
Every student on the trip ( a college tour through Virginia)
had a cell phone. Hundreds of text messages were sent and received
over the five days we spent touring campuses.
They were reading and writing daily.
_______________________________________________

Most smartphones like the one above allow you to
download and read books right from the device itself.
It's possible to have all your text books for your
different classes on your cell phone.

_______________________________________________

Above are several books that I downloaded and

saved to my cell phone that I am currently reading.

_______________________________________________

When I think about the amount of reading, writing and text based

socializing that students do with their cell phones and on the web, it

astounds me that there are so few of us willing to bring even the

slightest bit of cell phone technology, MP3 science, digital social

networking or cloud computing into the school building.

I think the sign above says it all.

H Songhai

9/4/09

Music Courses offered at HOPE Charter School

2009-09-03T13:51:00.002-04:00

We will be offering music classes at HOPE Charter School this year.
General Music, History of Hip-Hop and Choir.

Click here and listen to a musical excerpt from our brand new music instructor, pianist and composer, Ms. Madhumita Sen.

Easier said than done

2009-08-31T19:51:00.000-04:00

Picture of my classroom one week before the start of school.

It's easy for me to practice Twitter, blogging, hyperlink writing and
podcasting. It's easy for me to get excited about the paperless
classroom, personal learning networks and iGoogle.
I have most of the tools in my classroom to make that happen.
(and the students do too - in their pockets)

Adjust Facebook Settings

2009-08-29T16:39:00.006-04:00

This is a really good screencast about adjusting the privacy settings in Facebook. The screencast itself, is enabled through a web-based recorder called Screenr. Screenr also works hand in hand with Twitter.
For example, once you create a screencast with the Screenr recorder you can immediately post that final screen recording up on Twitter or post it later if you choose.

Thanks to my colleague, Ed Bujak for telling me about Screenr. He appreciates a good screencast and I know he's been looking for a decent screen capture recorder.

H Songhai
8/29/09

Everybody Loves The Sunshine (State)

2009-08-10T13:30:00.009-04:00

I just spent an awesome week in Florida, visiting colleges and universities with eleven high school students from the Delaware Futures College Prep and Academic Enrichment program. While in Florida we visited the University of Central Florida, Rollins College, University of Tampa, University of South Florida and Bethune-Cookman University.

The students were outstanding. They were focused, inquisitive and get this, they all used their electronic devices (cell phones, and digital cameras) to document and archive their five days in the Sunshine State.

As we made our way around the state, I too got a chance to snap dozens of pictures of the students, the campuses and the many attractions that make Florida such a favorite destination spot for visitors world-wide.

During our stay, I got a chance to experiment with Loopt, a really cool application that turns your cell phone into a social compass. Loopt allowed me to update my physical location (through my cell phone) and to post that map information to Twitter and to FaceBook. It also allowed me to create an RSS journal feed of all of my notes, photos and updates, wherever I was in the state.

H Songhai
8/12/09

What would Cecil B. Moore have said?

2009-08-10T09:22:00.010-04:00

CLICK ABOVE TO ENLARGE IMAGE

Thanks to Philly talk show host, Michael Smerconish for this extremely clever example of Twitter usage over the last 90 years. The original piece first appeared in the June 28, 2009 edition of the Philadelphia Sunday Inquirer.

I was so impressed with the thoughtfulness behind Twitter-delphia that I e-mailed Mr. Smerconish and told him that I would like to use his model as a class project for my digital archiving students. He e-mailed me back and asked that I keep him posted...

So with the "big talker's" blessings, my students will re-create a similar Twitter-delphia model that spans 90 years of Philadelphia history. The students have until Friday of this week to submit their final lists. For this project though, my students will do something Michael Smerconish could not do in the newspaper: the students must include at least two hyperlinks per tweet and one link must be a multimedia link. We'll see how that all plays out. I will keep you posted.

H Songhai
8/10/09

Cast Your Networks Wisely

2009-07-28T11:29:00.007-04:00

This thought provoking article by Mike Phillips of Website Magazine speaks to the relevance and importance of social networking in today's society. It makes me ask the question are any Philadelphia public, private or parochial schools represented on Twitter or Facebook? And if not, then why not?

Read entire article here

H Songhai
7/29/09

Tomorrow will be awesome!

2009-07-17T12:01:00.006-04:00

Thanks to Scott McLeod for sharing this video - Microsoft Looks Ahead to 2019. Tomorrow looks awesome. I can't wait!

Baby Skates...Trick Videography

2009-07-10T08:44:00.004-04:00

I came across this video while looking around the CBS News web site. These little guys would be perfect for the roller derby.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Going Paperless

2009-06-30T12:15:00.011-04:00

On the last day of school, I spoke with my vice-principal, Mr. King about the idea of our high school going paperless next year. By going paperless, I said, we could foster a learning space where students, teachers and administrators could share in the creation of a diverse, scholastic archive of student work that would include essay writing, research projects, collaborative works and multimedia projects. We would also help students to better understand and build those ever so important personal learning networks that everyone is cheering about now.

I told him that when teachers and administrators go paperless, when we think digital, when we think green, we help students to create an easily accessible and transparent record of their scholastic productivity over a given period of time. I told him that even the most organized and meticulous teachers in our building would have a hard time finding a specific report of a particular student from five years ago. It's just too much paper to keep up with. On the other hand, if we start now to digitize all student work through blogging, wikis, twitter, FaceBook, podcast and YouTube, then that work would be instantly accessible for decades!

I suggested to my vice-principal that it might be a good idea if our students, teachers and administrators were required to use an online office suite like Google Docs or ZOHO for all school related business - papers, reports, projects, memos, announcements, e-mail, surveys, slideshows and more. I told him that If we could agree, as a school, on a single delivery method for works shared between students, staff and administrators, at the very least, we could avoid the mad rush of students frantically trying to prepare and print final projects and other reports ten minutes before the start of their next class. I must have heard "can you print this for me?" a hundred times during the last two weeks of school. (I haven't seen an Ami Pro or Word Perfect document file since 1995)

The good news here is that Mr. King agreed with me. He agreed that we need a single delivery method for students to get work to teachers and for teachers to share work back with their students. He was quite receptive and open to the idea of using blogs, wikis and podcasts to create and share work. But even better than that, he liked the meta idea of our school going totally paperless next year.

I'll keep you posted.

On that same note, here is a link to an outstanding blogger who, too realizes the enormous potential of going paperless.

H Songhai
6/30/09

Electronic Books On Your iPhone

2009-06-26T21:37:00.017-04:00

School, the building, the halls, the passes, the time sheets is all over. The students, their iPods, their cell phones, their questions, their ideas, all finished - at least until September.

Everybody take a five. It's summertime! ...and the learning is more compact, more accessible and more convenient than ever. Today, learning is ultra portable and cell phones are the lightest and brightest gadgets in the class. Today's cell phones can take you around the world and beyond the stars.

Photo courtesy of phoneszoom.com

Last weekend while browsing through Wesley Fryer's blog I read how he was using Stanza, a free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Stanza is a wireless electronic library for the iPhone which once installed on the iPhone or iPod Touch, allows you to download full length books, newspapers and blogs onto your mobile device and read your books anytime and anywhere you are. Downloads are sent directly to your iPhone or Pod in a matter of seconds. It's a breeze to search through the thousands of free and for-pay books. You just tap your finger on the screen, download and read.

Photo Courtesy of lexcycle.com

As I scrolled through the various eBook shops (BooksOnBoard, Fictionwise, O'Reily Ebooks, Feedbooks, Project Gutenberg, Random House and many more), I recognized that at least half of the classic literature being taught in high schools today was available for free to download.

Stanza's online catalog

Stanza's books by subject

The reading experience is very good. You can adjust the font size to fit your particular needs. The type looks as good, if not better than book or newspaper type. Choose from thousands of books with just the tap of your finger. What's really powerful is having access to your complete library anywhere and at anytime. You can even create your own documents on your computer and upload them to your phone and read them on Stanza.

Addendum

Ebooks and readers are starting to get a lot of attention from universities, school administrators and teachers around the world. Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader Digital Book Eucalyptus and InterRead's COOL-ER are just a few of the ways that readers can take their digital books, audio files and other paperless documents with them wherever they go.

Related articles

Will Richardson on Cloud Books

Wesley Fryer on Irrelevant Paper

Google Notebook listing of eBook and eReader resources

H Songhai
6/27/09

SPACE: International Poetry Journal

2009-06-11T14:39:00.005-04:00

The fourth edition of SPACE features current and past Media Literacy/Digital Archiving students from HOPE Charter High School, as well as students from Colorado, Mississippi, Australia and Vietnam. HOPE Charter High students featured in SPACE include Cindi Gil, Tiana Whitaker, Neary Prang, Brittany Turner, Kendall Woods and Johnathan Williams.
Special thanks to SPACE editor, George Mayo for putting it all together. Nice work Mr. Mayo!

H Songhai
6/11/09

Digital Archiving/Media Literacy End of Year Reflection

2009-06-08T08:58:00.001-04:00

Digital Archiving/Media Literacy End of Year Reflection

My School Looks and Sounds Like

2009-06-04T12:41:00.005-04:00

What does our school look like today?
What sound does our school make on a Monday morning, on a Wednesday afternoon?
What sound does our school make on Fridays in the cafeteria?

In a few years school will be wherever you are - in your kitchen, on your porch, on a train or even in another country.
By the time many of you are seniors, school will be able to fit in the palm of your hand. You can literally do that now!
You will be able to watch and listen to your instructors and classmates anywhere and at anytime.
These are very exciting times to be a student.
Take advantage of it.
Seize the day!

H Songhai
6/4/09

The Changing Face of Schools Today

2009-06-03T14:19:00.002-04:00

H Songhai
6/3/09

Share video over the web with twitvid.io

2009-06-02T10:48:00.008-04:00

Okay, so I'm not Denzel Washington, I promise, I'll stick to blogging. But you've gotta check out twitvid.io what a cool way to share video over your twitter network. CORRECTION: In the above video I incorrectly referred to Air France flight 474 as flight 477. The correct flight number is 474.

H Songhai
6/2/09

How To Create the Digital Archiving/Media Literacy Final Exam

2009-06-01T11:28:00.003-04:00

H Songhai
6/1/09

Engaging Students With Twitter Gadgets

2009-05-27T12:22:00.021-04:00

It seems like every day, twitter and a galaxy of satellite applications is making it easier for us to share pictures, music and audio across our twitter network. Recently in our Digital Archiving class we started using twt.fm. to listen to and share music with others in the "twittersphere." Yesterday I asked my students to use twt.fm to post three jazz tunes by three Pennsylvania musicians - Sonny Clark, Lee Morgan and McCoy Tyner. I figured that none of the students would have any of those post-bop musicians on their MP3 players, so I explained to them what is a discography and how to look for specific compositions from a discography. After that little tip, the students found the tracks easily and within minutes the classroom sounded like Ortliebs Jazzhaus.

Listen to a sample here.

Other cool twitter tools we use include TwitterGadget - Twitter Client. This clean little app allows users to submit status updates to Twitter via your iGoogle homepage or Gmail Account.

We use Twitpics for posting pictures directly to twitter. The image below is from Google Maps/Street View. For this activity the students were asked to pick a location in their community where they would like to erect a movie theater.

I blogged about Dial2Do a few weeks ago, a fantastic tool for sending audio messages to twitter. You can also send audio messages to Google Calendar, send audio e-mails, audio text messages and more. I first learned about Dial2Do from blogger and educator Lisa Durff, over what else - my twitter network.

We've also had a lot of fun using twitter to share movies and television shows from hulu.

And the fun and learning doesn't stop there. A few days ago Professor Scott Mcleod posted a tweet about TwitMic a shiny little app for the iPhone that allows users to post crystal clear audio to directly twitter.

Listen to this blog post via TwitMic

H Songhai
5/27/09

Media Literacy/Digital Archiving Final Exam

2009-05-22T11:02:00.006-04:00

According to this word cloud there are 39 ways to create a Media Literacy/Digital Archiving final exam, but you (Media Literacy & Digital Archiving students) only need 20. Stay tuned for details.

H Songhai
5/22/09

High School TV Executives in Charge of Programming

2009-05-19T21:41:00.020-04:00

Yesterday my Digital Archiving students became TV executives in charge of programming. That's right, high school students - freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors with the authority to create original news and entertainment program lineups for either daytime or prime time television. How did they do that? They did it very easily by creating an account at hulu.com.

Here is how Wikipedia describes hulu

After my students created their hulu accounts and decided on a three hour block of programs, they shared their original lineups on Twitter and embedded their five original episodes on their education blogs.

Hulu.com offers over a dozen channels including news and information, food and leisure, action and adventure, drama, sports, family and music. Hulu is free and streams magically right across your screen. Hulu also offers full length movies! It's really easy to share content from hulu. With one mouse click you can share and post content to a number of social web sites including MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and delicious. But the best part about hulu is being able to watch your favorite TV shows and movies on your cell phone, iPod, laptop or desktop computer whenever and wherever you like. Missed last week's seasons finale of 24? No problem go to hulu.com and watch Jack Bauer and company over and over again. Everything the net has is yours.

Share video content to social networking sites quickly and easily.

H Songhai
5/19/09

Classwork 5/12/09

2009-05-12T08:57:00.001-04:00

H Songhai
5/12/09

Cell Phones In The Classroom

2009-05-11T18:55:00.009-04:00

If students and their cell phones go together like hand and glove then Dial2Do might help students to use their cell phones more responsibly in the classroom. Dial2Do is a really cool voice to text service that allows users to send e-mails, text messages, and make Twitter posts right from your cell phone. Registered users can also phone in events to Google calendar, record reminders and post to Blogger. Yesterday my Digital Archiving students created Dial2Do accounts and used the service to mark themselves present in Twitter and to send direct e-mails.

As cell phones get smarter and more affordable, it's only a matter of time before our classrooms will have even more students using the voice recorder, camera and bluetooth features of their phones to record assignments, lectures and presentations.

H Songhai
5/12/09

Classwork for 5/8/09

2009-05-08T09:47:00.002-04:00

Click here for today's classwork

Fun with Bubblesnaps

2009-05-07T09:32:00.001-04:00

Create a Virtual Music Library in Netvibes

2009-05-04T09:10:00.006-04:00

Digital archiving is more than scanning, recording, converting and indexing files. It also involves creating virtual archives and libraries in cyberspace. Subscribing to RSS feeds is one of the easiest ways to build a virtual archive. RSS Feeds come in all shapes, sizes and colors: news feeds, blogs, Twitter and photo services are just a few. In my Digital Archiving class I recently created several pages in Netvibes to collect the RSS feeds from all of my student Twitter users. Netvibes really works well as a one-stop spot to collect the daily tweets from my students. Netvibes keeps all of my student feeds together in one neat and organized location.

Another really cool place to subscribe to RSS feeds is at Rhapsody.com.
When visiting Rhapsody.com, look for the RSS feed symbol (see below).
The symbol is listed under your favorite artist or group.

From Rhapsody, click the RSS symbol, then click subscribe, and copy the link address. Next, switch to Netvibes, click Add Content, Add A Feed, then paste the feed into the little window. Add the feed to your Netvibes page and the feed will attach to your feed page.

Here is an example of one of my Public music pages in Netvibes. All of the feeds are from Rhapsody.com.

H Songhai
5/4/09

Add your Twitter feeds to Netvibes

2009-04-30T10:22:00.003-04:00

Twitter is one of the hottest social networking tools around today.
But how do you read and organize your various feeds? There are several
ways to organize your feeds including TweetDeck, Twitter Gadget and Be Twittered.
Another way to organize your feeds is to organize your feeds in Netvibes.
The slideshow below demonstrates how to add Twitter feeds to Netvibes.
If you have questions about adding your Twitter feeds to your Netvibes page
send me a tweet @ songhaiconcepts.

H Songhai
4/30/09

Classwork for 4/29/09

2009-04-29T09:37:00.001-04:00

Digital Archiving Students,
Here is a link to today's classwork.

H Songhai
4/29/09

Gadget Graduates and Swine Flu Update

2009-04-28T09:32:00.003-04:00

Digital Archiving students.
Click here to take Digital Archiving survey #14.
Today's topics include cell phones and the Swine Flu epidemic.

H Songhai
4/28/09

Digital Archiving Survey #13

2009-04-27T09:37:00.003-04:00

Swine Flu spreading across the Americas

Click here to take Digital Archiving Survey #13

H Songhai
4/27/09

Virtual Paper and Electronic Journals

2009-04-23T09:16:00.007-04:00

The Philadelphia Tribune is now available online. The entire newspaper as well as the magazines and supplements can be now be read from your web browser. This is especially timely since we just celebrated Earth Day yesterday.

As Digital Archiving students, your virtual holdings (online magazines, RSS feeds, delicious links, etc) are as important as your digital holdings (MP3 files, JPEG files, and assorted movie files).
Many companies are now publishing "virtual papers" and "E-Editions" of their paper newspapers.
Companies like Zinio and The Internet Public Library are leading the way in the area of virtual publishing. Visit Zinio's web site and you will see dozens of popular magazines and journals - ranging from sports to photography and from fashion to health. Most of these magazines are available by pay subscription, but some are free! With mobile devices becoming more powerful by the week, it is only fitting that publishers change with the times. E-editions and virtual newspapers are gaining popularity and importance every day, visit one today and see for yourself.

H Songhai
4/23/09

How much dropouts cost city, taxpayers?

2009-04-21T09:23:00.007-04:00

Mark yourselves present in Twitter.
Click this link and look for this article - How much dropouts cost city, taxpayers...then answer the following questions - According to mayor Nutter how many students drop out of school? How much less does a dropout earn than a high school graduate? How much on average does a drop out earn over his or her lifetime? How much does a high school grad earn over his or her lifetime? How much will college graduates with a bachelor's degree earn over his or her lifetime?
What earning path are you setting yourself up to pursue?

Please post your answers in Twitter.

(image - The Philadelphia Tribune, April 21, 2009)

H Songhai
4/21/09

Digital Archiving Survey #12

2009-04-20T09:29:00.001-04:00

Click here to take Digital Archiving Survey #12

Digital Archiving Survey #11

2009-04-13T09:25:00.001-04:00

Digital Archiving students, click here to take Digital Archiving survey #11

H Songhai
4/13/09

Classroom Twitter

2009-04-01T22:23:00.013-04:00

After almost two years of trying to figure out just how we might use it in the classroom, my Digital Archiving class is finally using Twitter as a regular part of our classroom routine. We started using Twitter last week and I'm pleased to say that it's been a big hit with the students. Right now we're using the service for three main things:

Students use Twitter to mark themselves present
Students and teacher use Twitter to send each other direct messages
Students use twitter to list what they accomplished in class that day

In the next few weeks I see us using the service to do other things like back-channeling during class, sharing important web sites across the classroom and school, expanding our personal learning networks and sending and receiving audio tweets with Dial2Do. This week I used Dial2Do to post several tweets onto my Twitter page and onto my Google Calendar. It worked perfectly. Dial2Do is an amazing tool. It's convenient, compatible and the ultimate real-time application.

To get things started, I created a classroom Twitter account and asked all the students to follow my tweets. I post the day's classwork on Twitter before class starts so when the students arrive the classwork is waiting for them inside their Twitter gadget. I post class news, announcements and project updates on the network during the course of the class period. Since I am following all of my students I can see immediately when they post information on Twitter. I can also recognize those students who do not make their daily posts.

It only took the class a few minutes to realize that in addition to following me, that they could follow each other on Twitter. When they discovered that they could follow each other and send direct messages across the classroom, the language, and seriousness of the young network went from schooly to silly. I explained to the students that our classroom Twitter network was for scholastic purposes only, but if they wanted to create a network of friends, separate from the classroom network, that they could do so. I told them to just keep the language and content clean at all times. My advice to them was don't post anything you would not want your mothers or grandmothers to read.

Last week the students were instructed to follow President Obama on Twitter. This week they added two local news feeds, cbs3 and phillydotcom. Yesterday they started following noted blogger and podcaster Wesley Fryer. Tomorrow I plan for the students to follow the local public television station here in Philadelphia, WHYY as well as the Associated Press. As media followers the students get the latest local, national and international news delivered right to their desktops. And because the tweets are 140 characters or less the content is very easy to digest. Following the media on Twitter is similar to subscribing to feeds in Netvibes, iGoogle and Pageflakes. The main difference is that with Twitter the feeds are short, 140 character blurbs.

I've been pretty frank with the students about using profanity and inappropriate language while on Twitter. The same holds true for MySpace, FaceBook, Tagged, and other social networking sites. It is so easy to post rude and offensive tweets, especially when you are alone and behind closed doors. But many digital natives and many digital immigrants fail to realize that their footprint in cyberspace is much larger than their footprint in the physical world. What a student posts on Twitter, MySpace, FaceBook, et al becomes public record, so think before you post. You can never be too sure just who is watching and following you.

Overall I am very excited about the way the students have embraced and welcomed Twitter into our classroom business. There is an awful lot of work that still needs to be done, but I think it's gonna be alright.

I've compiled a handful of Twitter pages and related articles in Google Notebook. I plan to add more links to this page over the next few weeks. Feel free to share it with others. Leave a comment if you have suggestions or recommendations. This is a very exciting time to be a teacher and an even more exciting time to be a student.

H Songhai
4/2/09

Digital Archiving Survey #10

2009-03-31T11:33:00.002-04:00

Click here to take Digital Archiving Survey #10

Digital Archiving Survey #9

2009-03-23T09:33:00.000-04:00

Click here for Digital Archiving Survey #9

Digital Archiving Class Through 3/20/09

2009-03-20T11:16:00.003-04:00

I hope this slideshow gives you a clear idea of the work all Digital Archiving students are responsible for as of 3/20/09. See me right away if you have questions about any of the assignments.

H Songhai
3/20/09

Convert WAV files to MP3 Format With iTunes

2009-03-18T09:54:00.004-04:00

This short slideshow reviews some of the steps you need to take to convert your Audacity WAV files over to MP3 format using iTunes. Once you convert your Audacity generated WAV files over to MP3 format, you will need to delete the original WAV files as they are very large files and take up valuable space on your hard drive.

Digital Archiving Survey #8

2009-03-17T08:21:00.004-04:00

Click here to take Digital Archiving Survey

Digital Archiving Students

2009-03-13T09:18:00.001-04:00

Click here for Digital Archiving Survey #7 - Week of 3/9/09

Pandora Liner Notes and Sampler

2009-03-10T09:12:00.005-04:00

Use Windows MovieMaker to create complementary liner notes for your Pandora Radio Compilations. MovieMaker affords you a few more bells and whistles than Google Presentation. If you have a headset/microphone you may add your voice to your liner notes project.

The liner notes/sampler above was assembled using Audacity for the audio and MovieMaker for the motion. First, create the audio sampler in Audacity by cutting and joining short musical statements from the hour long audio track. Export the audio sampler to your music folder. Try to keep the audio sampler under two minutes and thirty seconds.

Next, import the short audio sampler into MovieMaker. Create titles in MovieMaker to display the song titles and import photographs of the artists/composers.

See me if you have questions, ideas or suggestions.

H Songhai
3/10/09

Classwork 3-9-09

2009-03-09T11:32:00.001-04:00

Click here to take Digital Archiving Survey #6

All Aboard!

2009-03-04T09:32:00.004-05:00

Here is an example of the "Liner Notes" all Digital Archiving students are responsible for creating. The "Liner Notes" serve as a complement to the Pandora Compilations that you are currently editing and compiling in class.

All students must create a Liner Notes presentation in Google Docs for each Pandora compilation your edit. The Liner Notes must be published and embedded onto your blog.

Today, you need to begin editing Pandora Radio Compilation #126 (Jazz). Click here for song list #126. See me for a copy of the actual audio file.

H Songhai
3/4/09

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

2009-03-03T10:40:00.000-05:00

Click here to take Digital Archiving survey #5

Editing Audio With Audacity

2009-02-26T19:41:00.001-05:00

H Songhai
2/26/09

Digital Archiving Tools

2009-02-22T22:51:00.015-05:00

Our Digital Archiving course will be broken into three parts

AUDIO ARCHIVING

MP3 editing
LP records to digital conversion

VIDEO ARCHIVING

Converting and editing analog video
Digital video formats and compression

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCANNING

Newspaper archiving
Flatbed scanning

We will spend the next several weeks editing MP3 files with Audacity.
We will listen to and learn about composers such as William Grant Still, Coleridge Taylor Perkinson, Charles Mingus and Claude Debussy.
You will need headphones for the audio and video sections of this course.
I strongly recommend a flash drive too. With a flash drive you can take your class work with you, out of the school building and work on it at home.
You'll find good deals on flash drives and USB headsets at Radio Shack.

I personally prefer the USB headset over the ear buds. The USB headset feels better on my ears than the ear buds and the microphone is perfect for making Skype calls and making professional sounding recordings in Audacity.

An SD card and a card reader is helpful if you plan to shoot and scan family photos. SD cards and card readers work exactly the same as USB flash drives.

I plan for this to be a fun and informative course. You will discover artists, scientists, educators, and political figures that you probably were never aware of. You will discover new lands, new names and different languages. There will be very little lecturing. I will be available to handle software issues and to answer questions about file management and archiving, but for the most part, students will be expected to work independently and to produce a reasonable amount of Digital Archiving work every week. This will be very challenging because you will be using headphones as a regular part of your learning. The temptation will be great for you to listen to your personal music and to watch your favorite videos when you should be focused on Digital Archiving work. You will need to exercise self control while behind the computer.

Over the next three months, you will use Blogger and Google Presentation to publish an electronic catalog of the various Digital Archiving projects that you compile and index.

H Songhai
2/23/09

Digital Archiving Basics

2009-02-18T10:52:00.005-05:00

There is an old expression that goes "it's impossible to know where you are going if you don't know where you came from." The same holds true for Digital Archiving basics. You must know where all your media is in order to intelligently move forward with any multimedia based computer project.
The short slideshow below speaks to that issue and illustrates some very basic file management concepts.

H Songhai
2/18/09

Post Your DTV Projects On Your Blog

2009-02-06T09:34:00.002-05:00

Media Literacy Students:
Post your finished Xtranormal projects onto your blog.
The slideshow below shows the steps you need to take
to embed your Xtranormal project onto your blog.

H Songhai

EduCon 2.1

2009-01-28T21:39:00.036-05:00

A Conversation and A Conference

Words really can describe the awesome gathering of learners that shared, exchanged, wondered and taught at EduCon 2.1 held January 23rd through the 25th at the Science Leadership Academy here in Philadelphia - I just can't find them all.

There were over 60 presentations facilitated by some of the brightest minds in education today. There was also a brilliant team of hosts, camera people, and tech support folks from the Science Leadership Academy who kept the conference lively, upbeat and grounded. Attendees came from as far away as Australia, Morocco, Great Britain, California, South Carolina and Camden, NJ. I did not spot many teachers from the host city, Philadelphia.

It was refreshing to see and hear Dr. Molefi Kete Asante at the Friday night panel discussion.
Dr. Asante is a prolific author and Professor of African Studies at Temple University. To the question "What is the Purpose of School" Asante said "we need to encourage openness and inquiry in our schools." He urged the crowd to welcome diversity and to look beyond Greece and the West. You must also consider the extraordinary contributions of Egypt, India, China and Zimbabwe Asante said.

Dr. Stephen Squyres surprised many of us in the crowd when he said that the entire mission statement for the Mars Exploration Rover was just one paragraph long. Imagine, a one paragraph mission statement to send the space rover over 200 million miles away to Mars and our schools continue to hand out reams and reams of paper in bulky three ring binders to teachers and staff at the start of every new school year. Does policy and procedure change that much from one year to the next that schools need to use so much paper? I doubt it.

Saturday and Sunday started with speakers and panel discussions. After that, we were free to participate in on any of the sixty plus conversations being facilitated by folks like Will Richardson, Gary S. Stager, and Kristen Hokanson .

I couldn't attend every session, but the few sessions that I did attend were top notch. I enjoyed Tonia Johnson's conversation, 2.0 for Struggling Learners. Johnson is a Science and Technology coordinator from Commerce City, Colorado. She uses Web 2.0 tools to engage her students and to combat "language poverty."I especially liked the way she used several Google applications (docs, forms, blogger and presentation) as well as Wordle, and PBwiki to get us to think about how and what we teach. She also gave us an opportunity to type down, submit and discuss some of the tools that we use in our different classrooms.

Other important conversations included James Lerman's "Why Is It So Hard to Get Schools to Integrate Technology?...And 10 Things You Can Do About It!" Lerman said that teachers (especially teachers who use technology) should create "virtual departments" at their schools. In these virtual departments, Lerman said, teachers can collaborate, plan and share ideas and resources with colleagues outside of the traditional PD meeting space. Lerman also talked about the need to fix education and suggested we start first by focusing our efforts on people not the system.

Sessions I'm sorry I missed include:
The Best Educational Ideas in the World with Gary S. Stager, Ph.D.,
Transforming Schooling in and for the 21st Century with Jonathan Becker, J.D., Ph.D.,
Transparency Through Teams and Technology with Jason Levy
Using Social Media to Define the New Humanities Classroom with Antonio Viva
Forging Student/Teacher Relationships in an Era of Shared Learning with Marcie Hull, Jeff Kessler and Tyrone Kidd of the Science Leadership Academy.
There were dozens of others that I wanted to attend but my ubiquitous belt was not working.

The Wordle glyphs at the top of this post represent the three days at EduCon 2.1.
The dozen or so pictures below are from Saturday and Sunday.

H Songhai
2/1/09

Create a Video And Win $600

2009-01-06T11:45:00.005-05:00

Brainyflix is offering $600 in prize money for the top SAT Vocabulary video. Submit your videos by March 16, 2009. This contest is open to students nationwide and is being sponsored by a group of MIT alums who are trying to make SAT Prep fun and free for all. See SAT word list here.

For more information visit the Brainyflix contest web site.

H Songhai
1/6/09

Organizational and Creation Tools

2009-01-05T12:09:00.014-05:00

I stumbled across these cool organizational tools over the holiday break: Swurl, Favthumbs and PictureTrail. All three programs are free, web based and should be a part of every student's virtual backpack.

Bring your web life together with Swurl. Swurl works like an aggregator for many of your important web based accounts including delicious, blogger, flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Picasa and many others. Swurl is like a one-stop-shop-spot that organizes many of your important links, pics and posts together in one lean online work space.

Favthumbs works hand-in-hand with delicious. Favthumbs converts all of your delicious links into a series of colorful thumbnail images. The thumbnail images can be resized to fit multiple images on a page (as many as 50) or a large single list of thumbnail images. It is a really cool way to get a visual representation of all of your delicious links.

PictureTrail is a really handy tool for creating slideshows and short videos out of your original digital photos. It's a free service, it's easy to use and it's big fun. Enterprising students will immediately see how PictureTrail can be used together with tools like Camtasia, and Snapz to generate video files. Those files can then be imported into programs like iMovie and MovieMaker to create dazzling image sequences.

Sample of PictureTrail Slideshow Tool

H Songhai
1/5/09

On teaching in the lush gardens of YouTube, iTunes and MySpace

2008-12-26T12:54:00.012-05:00

Once in a while in my Media Literacy class, I'll pump up the volume on a video, a podcast, or a selection of poetry - mostly for effect, but mainly to better illustrate a point or to demonstrate how a particular technical move should be done. On several occasions my colleagues have stuck their heads in my room and asked me to tone it down. Some days, I get so absorbed with presenting and sharing media that I forget that I have teaching neighbors on both sides of me. I oblige them of course, no problem. But then, there are some days when you can literally hear a pin drop - it's that quiet. Eighteen computers whirring, nineteen brains a churning, ah, sweet engagement.

As much as I enjoy turning up the volume and sharing the Ugly Beauty of a Thelonious Monk, or the swelling chants of an Amiri Baraka, I believe I'm most effective in the classroom when the room is quiet - when all you can hear is the whirring of the computer fans. When the room is quiet the students can think better and help each other (which they do expertly) and I can work one on one with the struggling students to help extinguish the little technical fires that regularly flare up in a Media Literacy class. I believe that a quiet classroom also gives students a chance to take a mind breath and to reflect on the multiple tasks at hand.

In my Media Literacy class all students are required to bring headphones to class. See my post, Tools You Can Use. The students use their headphones to listen to podcasts, watch topic specific videos and to make audio and video recordings. Well, at least according to my course outline and syllabus, that's why they bring these items to class. But here is the reality: only a handful of students have spent the $29.00 to buy the headphone/mic sets and only a smaller few use their headphones to listen to podcasts and to watch topic specific videos. Instead, an inordinate amount of time is spent listening to the musical styling's of T.I., Sasha Fierce and T -Pain. There is also a lot of fascination with street fighting and beat down videos. These distractions are a given in the 21st century classroom.

It is a major challenge to keep teens on task in the lush gardens of YouTube, iTunes and MySpace, but I must admit, that since we've been working with Audacity and MPEG Streamclip, there has been a significant increase in responsible and constructive headphone usage in my Media Literacy class. My biggest complaint these days is reminding students that headphones are for private listening and that neither I nor the students sitting near them should hear your audio if you are wearing headphones.

Fighting, plagiarism, insubordination and cutting class notwithstanding, I believe that keeping students engaged and productive in the lush gardens of YouTube, iTunes, MySpace, Facebook et al, will be one of the biggest challenges for 21st century educators. I started teaching rather late in my career - at the age of 40 and after my first week in the classroom, I quickly learned two invaluable lessons: 1. that I needed to bring my own teaching props to class - television, camera, microphones, books, magazines and 2. that the "sit and get" approach to teaching would not work for me nor would it work for my students, at least not everyday. "Sit and get" worked for my generation in the '60's and the '70's when the teacher was the grand poobah of all things scholarly and there were no laptop computers, no cell phones, no MP3 players and of course no Internet. But that was 40 years ago. Since then, the educational landscape has changed drastically.

Information is super abundant today. It is on my MP3 player, it is on my cell phone, it's on my digital camera and on my flash drive. Information is all over the Internet, in podcasts, on YouTube, on bliptv, and on iTunesU and don't forget that seemingly endless repository of information available through iGoogle, Netvibes and Pageflakes? Let's face it, even the grandest of poobahs would seem shallow and uninformed alongside all of the information available over the Internet today.

For those of us toiling daily in the digital vineyards, a huge part of our job in 2009 will be to remain open and receptive to the best practices and approaches for keeping our students engaged and productive in the lush gardens of YouTube, iTunes and high tech gadgets.
We can accomplish this through meaningful (just-in-time) professional development and through focused, face-to-face exchanges with our colleagues down the hall and around the corner. Another important part of this challenge is to broaden our own virtual learning networks by subscribing to educational podcasts, educational blogs, and participating in webinars and conferences like K12 Online, EduCon and Classroom 2.0. These forums are hosted by some of the best thinkers and developers working in education today. Most of these sessions are free, downloadable and easy to archive. It's a great time to be a student and an even greater time to be a teacher!

H Songhai
12/26/08

Wrapping up the What's On My MP3 Player project

2008-12-18T23:09:00.010-05:00

As you wrap up the What's On My MP3 Player project, please add the Google Reader MP3 player to your blog. Insert this code into your blogger edit window to embed an MP3 player onto your blog. See me for details about embedding this code onto your blog. From Audacity, you will need to export your project as a .wav file and then upload that audio to your wiki. This is a little tricky, so see me for specific details and instruction.

And finally, type all of the artists and podcast titles you used in this project into worldle and create a word glyph. Use the PrintScreen key to take a snapshot of the wordle word glyph and insert that image on your blog together with the Google Reader MP3 player.

H Songhai
12/19/08

iPaper and Scribd: Toward a Paperless Classroom

2008-12-14T08:24:00.007-05:00

When I first started blogging in 2005 I made a pledge to myself and to my students that our class would operate as a 100 percent paperless classroom. 2008 marks my fourth consecutive year of operating a totally paperless classroom. There are a number of reasons why I don't use paper: paper is too expensive, most students do not value paper, papers are messy, papers are hard to keep up with, students lose papers, teachers lose papers, papers get dirty, papers rip, papers drop and fall out of order and so on and so on and so on... Those are just a few of the reasons why I don't use paper.

Most of my colleagues use paper - paper memos, paper projects, paper handouts, paper tests, paper worksheets, paper quizzes, paper essays. I know this because I man the primary computer lab at my school and daily, a dozen or more students come to the lab needing to print essays, reports, 20 page web sites, college applications and the obligatory poster board pictures. I don't have a printer in my classroom, but there is a printer down the hall where I can send print jobs for students who must have paper.

I always ask those students who are paper dependent if their instructors will accept an Email submission in lieu of a printed paper. A handful of my colleagues are open to receiving assignments via Email, but the majority of the students at my school, despite their expertise using MySpace and Face Book, do not have Email accounts and/or do not know how to send an Email with an attachment.

In all fairness, it's easy for me to talk about the benefits of going paperless - I have twenty computers in my classroom. My colleagues have only one. I've heard talk that more computers are coming, but until then, what's a teacher to do?

One solution might be to start using Scribd. Scribd is another one of those free and amazing Web 2.0 tools that make document sharing as easy as pointing and clicking.
Users can explore thousands of documents on the Scribd web site and submit and share their original work in a matter of minutes.

Below is an example of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. The iPaper was authored by Andrew Churches and added to Scribd by Darren Kuropatwa.

Blooms Digital Taxonomy v2.12

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Teaching Education andrew churches blooms taxonomy

Smart and practical web tools like Scribd make the idea of a paperless classroom a very plausible endeavor. Users can upload a variety of document files that they create as well as read the thousands of beautifully created documents that others have submitted to Scribd.

If students, teachers and administrators are looking for an alternative to paper, then Scribd is, without a doubt one of the best ways to create professional looking documents and deliver those documents to a global audience with ease.

H Songhai
12/14/08

Listening Forward

2008-12-13T15:41:00.013-05:00

I'm listening forward to next week when my Media Literacy students post their finished versions of What's On My MP3 player onto their education blogs. Many of them have been working very hard sampling music and dissecting podcasts in order to meet the December 17th deadline. The project is essentially an audio mashup. The students are using Audacity to cut and arrange a series of music sequences and podcasts into smart musical and spoken word statements. After the students gather and organize their media (a series of 12 second sequences or less) they will begin the tedious job of stacking and arranging their audio sequences on the Audacity timeline. The project length is between two minutes and 30 seconds and three minutes.

Last week I introduced the students to MPEG Streamclip, a powerful media player and editor that I discovered while reading Wesley Fryer's blog. MPEG Streamclip is the perfect complement for a project like this. Here are some of the features I like best about MPEG Streamclip.

Allows users to set in-points and out-points on audio or video media
Allows users to export video to a variety of different formats
Users can export video to audio
Users can copy the URL from YouTube and other video sites
Cutting and trimming media is intuitive and user-friendly

Give MPEG Streamclip a whirl. It's fun, easy to use, and best of all, it's free. I think you'll like it.

H Songhai
12/13/08