Removing barriers to MEANINGFUL technology use!
Getting Tech Into Ed - The Podcast Returns
Well, hello strangers. It has been far, far, far too long! As those of you who have visited the site previously can see, we went through some major upgrades since the last time we aired a new podcast.
What has changed? Well, to begin with, our family has welcomed another member: Sophie Grace. With our oldest daughter Ella keeping us constantly on our toes, and our bubbly little Sophia biding for our attention, that has been the primary change that has filled our lives.
However, passion is a tough element to suppress.  Educational technology has truly become a passion and a mission for me over the past few years, and I truly enjoy the opportunity to share new ideas and thoughts with you.
Another new element has been added to the show. My wife, Stacy, has agreed to step into the world of Getting Tech Into Ed. Stacy is a marvelous school psychologist with an upbeat, energetic passion for her work, a solid understanding and focus on literacy, experience with K-8 students/teachers, a limitless well of innovative ideas, and a wide array of interventions and techniques to help struggling and special education students. Having her to assist me as we explore technological innovation and share our findings with you will certainly increase the depth and bredth of the topics we cover in the show.
Also, mobile podcasting has finally found GTIE. I am now using an iPod Touch to record some of my podcasts. One of the primary hang-ups for me is finding the time to get in the studio and record and edit new material. Using the iPod Touch and an app called iPodcaStudio to record shows while on the go, I am able to overcome that issue. One of the hangups at this point is a drop in sound quality, but I'm exploring ways to fix that with a new cable and a lapelle microphone. I'll let you know how that experiment goes for me. I am doing my best to take some of the road noise and "tininess" out of the mobile recordings, but that is definitely a work in progress.
What's in this episode?
In this episode I am recording in the car. I have been eagerly anticipating attending the WEMTA conference for quite some time. However, I began to think about the irony of my growing enthusiasm for attending this conference. What is most exhilarating about attending a conference is sharing your ideas and taking new ideas from people at the conference. However, these people are often complete strangers that we do not work with. I questioned why I don't find this same enthusiasm to share ideas with my colleagues in my own department/building/district.
This show is my rambling thoughts on that issue. It does provide some motivation and some ideas as to why I don't feel excited to share with my colleagues on a daily basis. Perhaps in identifying why I do not attempt to share often (and I am as honest as I can be about the issue), I can begin to change that pattern to allow my closest colleagues to become a trusted part of my personal/professional learning network. As I conclude in the show, in doing so, maybe I will find even greater satistfaction daily if I can begin to count on the people I work with to actively participate in the journey of integrating technology into their/our classroom instruction together.
Sign off
I want to thank you for your time in reading/listening and sharing this site/podcast with others. I also want to encourage you to share your own ideas and reflections with Stacy and I. Please email comments, show ideas, or feedback to gettingtechintoed@gmail.com.
Here's to being back in the podcasting game! You'll hear from us again soon.
Brian and Stacy Yearling
Getting Tech Into Ed co-hosts
What has changed? Well, to begin with, our family has welcomed another member: Sophie Grace. With our oldest daughter Ella keeping us constantly on our toes, and our bubbly little Sophia biding for our attention, that has been the primary change that has filled our lives.
However, passion is a tough element to suppress.  Educational technology has truly become a passion and a mission for me over the past few years, and I truly enjoy the opportunity to share new ideas and thoughts with you.
Another new element has been added to the show. My wife, Stacy, has agreed to step into the world of Getting Tech Into Ed. Stacy is a marvelous school psychologist with an upbeat, energetic passion for her work, a solid understanding and focus on literacy, experience with K-8 students/teachers, a limitless well of innovative ideas, and a wide array of interventions and techniques to help struggling and special education students. Having her to assist me as we explore technological innovation and share our findings with you will certainly increase the depth and bredth of the topics we cover in the show.
Also, mobile podcasting has finally found GTIE. I am now using an iPod Touch to record some of my podcasts. One of the primary hang-ups for me is finding the time to get in the studio and record and edit new material. Using the iPod Touch and an app called iPodcaStudio to record shows while on the go, I am able to overcome that issue. One of the hangups at this point is a drop in sound quality, but I'm exploring ways to fix that with a new cable and a lapelle microphone. I'll let you know how that experiment goes for me. I am doing my best to take some of the road noise and "tininess" out of the mobile recordings, but that is definitely a work in progress.
What's in this episode?
In this episode I am recording in the car. I have been eagerly anticipating attending the WEMTA conference for quite some time. However, I began to think about the irony of my growing enthusiasm for attending this conference. What is most exhilarating about attending a conference is sharing your ideas and taking new ideas from people at the conference. However, these people are often complete strangers that we do not work with. I questioned why I don't find this same enthusiasm to share ideas with my colleagues in my own department/building/district.
This show is my rambling thoughts on that issue. It does provide some motivation and some ideas as to why I don't feel excited to share with my colleagues on a daily basis. Perhaps in identifying why I do not attempt to share often (and I am as honest as I can be about the issue), I can begin to change that pattern to allow my closest colleagues to become a trusted part of my personal/professional learning network. As I conclude in the show, in doing so, maybe I will find even greater satistfaction daily if I can begin to count on the people I work with to actively participate in the journey of integrating technology into their/our classroom instruction together.
Sign off
I want to thank you for your time in reading/listening and sharing this site/podcast with others. I also want to encourage you to share your own ideas and reflections with Stacy and I. Please email comments, show ideas, or feedback to gettingtechintoed@gmail.com.
Here's to being back in the podcasting game! You'll hear from us again soon.
Brian and Stacy Yearling
Getting Tech Into Ed co-hosts
Episode 4: Building a personal/professional learning network
Over the past few years I have been on a journey of my own in my experimentation with technology in my classroom, and I remember so well the scary and frustrating moments where I questioned my own motivations for incorporating technology. There were many stopping points for me along the way where I spent a lot of time searching for answers to questions and for solutions to problems. And it is in reflection of this that I’m offering the topic of today’s show: building a educational technology professional learning community that can surround and support you in your own journey.
The reality is that motivated teachers need to find ways to work more collaboratively and efficiently to train themselves on the use of technology that will enhance the education of our students. So let’s look at a couple of tools to get you started to help you build your professional technology network.
Popular podcasts
The most important piece of my professional learning community has been the podcasters that I have adopted into my life. I want to share a few great starting tips that will get you on the road to implementing this essential element into your web of professional growth.
- Find someone you like listening to. Someone where you like the sound of their voice, and the quality of their advice.
- Find someone who updates regularly. Podcasters start and stop their podcasts every day, and as a result, their isn’t that guarantee of longevity. Finding someone who has invested the time and the effort to produce regularly over a long period of time is the best bet you will find in the podcasting world.
- Find an aggregator that you feel comfortable with. The two aggregators that I use are: 1) Itunes and 2) Juice.
And here are a few of the shows I strongly recommend for teachers who are truly interested in finding more ways to get technology into your classroom instruction.
- Ed Tech Talk Weekly Round-up: This is a show for those of you who want a lot of links to new instructional technology tools, resources, and articles.
- The Tech Teachers by Ray and Holley: I like this show because the hosts are passionate about the use of technology in their classroom and in their daily lives.
- Tech Chick Tips: These ladies are fantastic, practical and tech savvy, but they always focus on how the technology can solidly integrate into the classroom seamlessly.
Best blogs
Another way of connecting on the Internet is through the more standard use of text. Here are a few links for those of you looking for recommendations. However, searching for blogs is something that anyone can do, and you really need to find a blog that speaks to you and that you will actually keep up with.
http://www.jameslogancourier.org/ 2007 Winner for the Weblog Award for Best Education Blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010200468_pf.html This is a list from Jay Matthews, a Washington Post Education Columnist, in which he compiles links to his favorite education blogs.
Finally, I’m inserting a link to the 2008 Edublogs Awards page. There you can search through the nominations and categories to find blogs/resources that you really like and could learn something new from: http://edublogawards.com/2008/
Join an online community
In the Web 2.0 world, there are communities of educators and educational thinkers and decisions makers that are uniting in one piece of online real estate. By becoming an active member you gain the “networked” status that so many professionals attend time-sapping conferences for.
Classroom 2.0 : This is an online community of nearly 15,000 members focused on the uses of technology, specifically web 2.0 tools, in the classroom.
Essentially, Twitter is a type of social networking tool. I “grew”my network and found that the people I followed were doing interesting things and were adding interesting content to Twitter. As a result, I was getting interesting links each day.
I’ve dropped a link to a list of some of the top people to add to your Twitter network into the show notes. This is one place to go right away after signing up for a Twitter account. Trust me, Twitter is useless without a network, so that is really one of the first things you want to do. http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2008/11/29/top-10-education-people-to-follow-on-twitter.aspx
If you are interested in following me on Twitter, you can add me: brianyearling
Tech Trials: Wetheteachers.com
This week in tech trials, I want to share a resource that I’ve just found and that I am experimenting with as we speak.
We the teachers was founded by a couple, Nate and Amy, who saw a need for a free online community where resources (lesson plans and files) could be shared between teachers. From the description on the page, it sounds as if the couple is committed to keeping the resource free and open for teachers to collaborate online. It is free to join, and there are many benefits to being a member of the community.
Members of the community can upload their best lesson plans, can join groups online, and can upload their best files for all to share. They can also download those same files from people across the country and across the world, so it is a site that is definitely worth a look for any teachers interested in gaining an instant community of teachers to connect with.