OTA Training

I am teaching a class this summer on Google Earth and one on Picasa. The class is offered through the Oklahoma Technology Association. Sign up at http://www.oktech.org/189110331165824110/site/default.asp

Google Chrome

Well folks, Google Chrome is out. I downloaded it at school and it would not install via our firewall. Downloaded it at the studio. Firefox was running and Chrome wanted me to close out to convert over the bookmarks. I was in the middle of a 1983 set from the Grateful Dead and was not about to close my browser. Later, when I was closed out of Firefox it was easy to import bookmarks and passwords to the Chrome browser. It is nice. Tabbed browsing. The tools button on the far right and no menu selections at the top of the screen make it a bit disconcerting. It looks good to me thus far.
Back at school they have blocked the Chrome Download altogether.

Technological Pedagogy

Thinking now about the teaching of technology. Wesley Fryer over at the Speed of Creativity got me going again on all of this. So many questions, so few answers. What needs to be done? What can I do? What is possible given the constraints of technology, time, training. What can be implemented, how to do so, how to keep up? It is really enough to fry the brain of a semi-technology literate fellow. I can only imagine what it must be like for someone with little to no tech knowledge. What next?

OTA2008

We are at the OTA conference today and tomorrow. Technology. There is always more to learn. It is so inspiring to see folks using technology in the classroom and sharing their knowledge and experiences with others. It also reinforces just how wonderful my fellow teachers are at Sequoyah.

Technology Training

I have been thinking about unified technology training for teachers. The OKTechMasters program put together a method and a course of training teachers that would superior to anything I have seen else where. Funding for the fantastic program was eliminated and the program folded. It was a statewide program that trained many teachers in the basics of technology and provided a sort of light house on the shore for teachers on a stormy sea. I don't think we have access to any of those materials on the web anymore. I did not even get my OKTM website backed up before they took it down.
The Intel Teach to the Future program has great promise. I took the initial training at UCO and even taught my required course to other teachers. This program provides a uniform method for putting together lesson plans and resources for technology teaching. A great idea and strong support but limited in its implementation.
There is the new Google Teacher Academy being conducted on the coasts. Hopefully, they will make their way to the interior of the country and we can establish something here in Okie Land. Any one know of any other universal programs for teachers and technology so we can all be on or near the same page?
Technology guru's, excited teachers, lassie-faire teachers, and non-implementors need to come together.