Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Web 3.0

During one of our work sessions we explored the concept of Web 3.0 to try to develop our own working definition of what's coming next. We concluded that a good, basic definition would be to describe Web 3.0  as a personalized web experience based on semantic indexing.

When I finally had a chance to sit down at a computer to spruce up my own blog by searching for new Blogger Templates, I experienced a bit of Web 3.0 in the search result pictured below. You can see this is BETA, and it only made one connection through Gmail, but I can see where this is going.

My conclusion? I think it's a good time for a reminder about keeping a professional web presence. Google yourself!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Final Summer Session Today

At last! The goal today is to work on our wiki and move to a place where we can wrap up what we've done and also continue work virtually when we are ready to plan to return to school this fall.

Attending in person?
Please sign in and then jump to our wiki.

Attending virtually?
Please read the Announcements section. I would appreciate you publishing links to all of the great projects you've been sharing with me via email.  Please publish them in the wiki for preview and discussion.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Attention: New Digital Leaders

It's time to wrap up required seat time for New Digital Leaders. Completion of 5 seat time sessions is your ticket to being a Digital Leader. In addition, you will earn 1 hour of U97 credit for your hard work this summer. Please go to the tab at the top of this blog to check your seat time and email me at your earliest convenience to follow up.

Blogging Tip: Managing Pages

This summer many Digital Leaders have been fine-tuning blogs through the use of Pages. Did you know you can hide pages on your blog? This could be useful for many reasons.

  1. Create a page and use it for an upcoming project during the school year.
  2. Hide a page after you no longer need it, but save it for next year.
  3. Create a page with links to all of your projects so you can find them when you need them.
  4. Create a page with links to student work and use it when needed.
  5. Create a draft of a page now, clean it up and use it later.
To hide a page, go to Design > Pages and look in the column on the left-hand side of the box that appears.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Gmail Signature: Create a Link

Many Digital Leaders have set up the Signature in Gmail with a link to their blog. Until now, you had to show the messy web address because you couldn't create a link or include formatting in a signature. That has changed. Now you can create a link, include bullets and more. Go to Settings > Signature and try it for yourself.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Final Summer Sessions at Central Office

There are two summer lab sessions left. Anyone wanting to put in some seat time can do so at Central Office from 8:30-11:30 on Monday and/or Tuesday of next week. (July 26th-27th) We have the 1st Floor Conference Room reserved and I think you will appreciate this workspace.

Reminder: New Digital Leaders agreed to attend 5, 3 hour seat sessions this summer in order to be named a Digital Leader. 19 sessions were offered in June and July. Please contact me by email before July 28th if you have not been able to fulfill this requirement.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Summer Collaboration & Work

If you are feeling a bit out of the loop this summer in terms of what you should be doing as a Digital Leader, that is understandable. After all, there are about 40 Digital Leaders now and I've provided you all with a variety of ways to participate, collaborate, contribute and learn. For the sake of clarification, here are some of the things you may be doing. 


Most Important:
Always check this blog first. It has all the lastest news and it is what I use to keep the Digital Leaders group going. Always start here.


Summer Lab Session: See schedule at the top of this page 
  • 3 hour sessions continue to be held at Brooks this week and next week.  After that, they are over.
  • New Digital Leaders can fulfill 15 hours of required seat time
  • Original Digital Leaders can attend to collaborate and/or take care of business such as 
    • completing your log of hours.
    • asking questions about the log of hours and getting it done.
    • discussing what Digital Leaders next year will mean for you
    • putting in time for the Virtual Classroom class. (U97 credit available)
The Wiki: See link in the sidebar
  • The wiki is open to all. Choose your level of participation.
  • Learn about participation on the Digital Leaders Wiki itself. 
Questions...Comments...Concerns...
Email me or stop by to chat in person. Check summer lab schedule

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

WallWisher Follow Up

This is a quick message to those of you who found WallWisher in our Wiki and worked on it this morning during our work session. As a teacher, you do want to sign up for a free account. Please remember to use your newly adopted standard "teacher" password to ease the burden of logging in.

If you signup for a WallWisher account you can easily access all of your Walls and you will get some control over them.  I know many of you like the tool because it doesn't require a student login, but in general if you can get a free teacher account for anything appropriate for education, do so. It will make things a bit easier.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Work Sessions: July14th

Work sessions will be held at Brooks from 8:30-11:30 and again from 12:30-3:30. If you arrive at 8:30, I hope you don't mind helping me greet the Dell Training participants and getting them into their designated  rooms. A list of participants by room will be taped to the doors.

Also, I have published some topics for discussion on the Wiki (See sidebar for access) We will choose one and discuss it during the session. This is published on the Announcements page. Anyone can edit.

Work Sessions: July14th

Monday, July 12, 2010

Lab Session July 13th - 12:30

The next lab session will be held at Brooks, from 12:30-3:30, in the 1st floor B Wing.

Startup Tasks

  1. Please sign in. The electronic signup is located in the sidebar.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

We're moving to Brooks!

All Dell Training Sessions and Digital Leader work sessions have been moved to the Brooks Media Center for the entire month of July. This is a very good space for all of the work that needs to be done. Kevin Anderson and I are going over tomorrow to set up this learning space.

Attending a work session?
Please contact the tech department to pick up your Dell at your earliest possible convenience and plan to bring your new laptop to the work session with you.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Lab Session: July 8th

Two work sessions will be held at Central Office on Thursday.

  • Times: 9:00-12:00 OR 12:30-3:30
  • Location: 1st Floor Conference Room 
  • What to bring? Your Dell if you've picked it up. If not, please make arrangements to pick it up at your earliest possible convenience.
Sign up for Summer Sessions above.