West Coast Tour

It's been a terrific trip to California! In a single week my son and I hit two Google Summits, attended a team building day 

and keynoted the kick off event for the Burton School District school year. 

(We made it to some fun places too!) 

My favorite part of the trip, however, came before we even got started. I said to Kaiden, "We're headed to California, is there anything you'd like to see while we're there?" I assumed he want to see the huge sequoia trees (we did) but he thought for a second and said, "Caine's Arcade."  Now, if you don't know about Caine's Arcade watch this video . . .  

 . . . and you understand why I was so excited that of all places, he wanted to go there. Two things came to mind, first how did he even know about Caine's Arcade, and second was it still even around?

He told me he learned about it from his teacher last year (kudos to Mrs. Maxium) and then we researched to see how to get there. We used all the typical online tools you'd guess, Google Maps, Search and Facebook and found directions. 

We got to meet Caine's dad (and get a Fun Pass of course) and I realized that his rockstars - are not the rockstars I had at 9 years old, but other kids his age making things he can relate to and sharing them online. Enter Minecraft video walkthroughs. The reason why a kid from Maine would even know to trek to east L.A. and search him down was the video, so as the school year begins, imagine ways to promote the work you do and connect your students with those around the world.

Alan November's Building Learning Communities Conference

Another amazing year at +Alan November's Building Learning Communities. This years began with sessions on creating Digital Portfolios in the Classroom and was followed up with the Tech Sherpas teaching and learning from educators from around the world! 

One of the highlights of the trip is getting to spend time with +Darren Kuropatwa. He was generous enough to join the Tech Sherpa Show after his terrific keynote.

Here's a blast from the past, one of my students interviewing +Darren at BLC 2008! 

(Like Darren says, nothing on the Internet ever goes away!)

Tech Sherpas - Episode #51 Minecraft Day!

This host this week are Kern and John.

   

  

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - Episode #50 Learn Everywhere Conference

This host this week are Billy and Jared.



   

  

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - Episode #49 Conversation with teachers at Texas district LCISD

This host this week are Matt and Kern.


   

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - Episode #48 Buying Domains for Students

This host this week are Jake and Kern.
 

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - Episode #47 Back to Blogging

This host this week are Matt and Kern.

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show: Episode #46 Interview with Megan Fowler, Student Inspirational Speaker with Cerebral Palsy

This host this week are Matt and Megan .

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - Episode #45 on using the Chromecast as a kiosk, Google Apps Security and where the Tech Sherpas will be this summer.

This host this week are Matt and Jake.
 

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - Episode #44 Migrating Google Sites across domains and Hangout Apps on www.AppMenu.info

This host this week are Zack and Kern.

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - Episode #43: All the apps in one place at www.AppMenu.info

This host this week are Matt and William.

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show Episode #42 - Using the Eye-Fi Card in the Classroom

This host this week are Matt and Kern.
 

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We will be back next Tuesday at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show Episode #41 - www.TeachToLearn.org

This host this week are William and Jake.

 

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We will be back Tuesday at 3:00 E.S.T.

Tech Sherpa Episode #40 - Meet the iWizards

This host this week are Josh, Hayden and Jackson.
 


 

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We will be back next Tuesday, March 4th at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpas - Using Google Presentation to create a school newsletter.

This host this week is Kern.

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We will be back next Tuesday, February 25th at 3:00 EST

The Tech Sherpas go to Texas

I love my job. 

And one of the best parts of being a teacher is being able to provide experiences for students they otherwise wouldn't get. This week I had the opportunity to bring two of my Tech Sherpas to the Texas Computer Educator Association Conference in Austin. 

The presentations we covered were: Implementing Google Tools District-wide, Using Google Hangouts in the Classroom and most importantly, Using Students as Tech Support. 

Events like this are such huge experiences for my students, (who had never flown before) and it's not just presenting. I've always felt that public speaking is like juggling. You can't read a book or watch a video on how to do it well, you have to actually DO it! Again and again and again, making mistakes perhaps, but getting a little better each time. And the way for our students to get better at it is for as authentic a setting you can get for them. 

One of the analogies I like to share about the benefit of bringing kids at conferences comes from Douglas Edwards' book, I'm Feeling Lucky. Edwards was Google's 59th employee and in the book he talks about his interview with one of Google's founders, Sergey Brin. Near the end of the interview, Sergey informed Edwards, "I'm going to give you five minutes, when I come back, I want you to explain to me something complicated that I don't already know." Brin explained later that he asks because if an interview otherwise goes poorly the time wasn't a total loss since he'd learned something new. I feel the same about having students present. In addition to whatever the attendees get from a presentation, the time is doubly valuable as a learning experience for the students. 

None of this trip would have be possible without the amazing support of Tech Smith and a HUGE thank you to Monica Martinez from TCEA for inviting us!

Google's Tour Builder and YouTube Fail! - Tech Sherpas

This hosts this week are Jake and Kern.
 

Everyone knows that YouTube has become the de facto video player for the Internet and like the Internet there's great educational stuff there (and ridiculous stuff as well.)

I've been using Google Hangouts On Air with my Tech Sherpa students to provide tech support for over a year now and one of the best features is how a Hangout On Air is automatically recorded and added to your YouTube Channel. My students help educators with tech support questions and have a recording to share later with others. Perfect.

Until now.

I attempted to start a new Hangout on Air and was greet with this message:

One of our previous videos from months ago had been flagged with a copyright notice that we had used music from the Dutch Hip Hop band Fakkelbrigade.  



I'm sure is was the automated system that tagged our video and I disputed the claim (we've never had music in our videos) but the response was going to be up to a month later! d

Luckily it only took a few days to be resolved, but it made me ask myself what would I do if using Hangouts On Air was 'mission critical' for a project I was doing with students or teachers.  

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We will be back next Tuesday, February 4th at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - Interview with Lucy Gray

This hosts this week are Matt and William.  

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We will be back Tuesday, January 28th at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - January 14th

This hosts this week are Josh, Hayden and Joe.

LINK TO THE SHOW NOTES

The topic covered this week: 

"How do you create an 
Android Mobile App?"

MIT App Inventor

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"How do you connect
with home bound students?"
Double Robotics

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We will be back Tuesday, January 21st at 3:00 EST

Tech Sherpa Show - January 7th

This hosts this week are Matt and William.

LINK TO THE SHOW NOTES

The topic covered this week: 

Interview with Don Varney from 
Central Maine Community College

Question from Jonathan:

"How to embed my Blogger journal  
into my digital portfolio."

CMCC Portfolio Template

We're also joined by Dee Lanier and some of his tech students to chat about projects.

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We will be back Tuesday, January 14th at 3:00 EST