It’s open house here tonight! Phew makes for a VERY long day and I was at a networking event for Women In Film last night that now is making my eyes blurry - but not too blurry to make myself some updated business cards (what an eejit to show up to a NETWORKING event with little to no cards!)! I was able to break today for a caffeine kick before the parents arrived at 5:00. It is really a great opportunity to place the kids’ names with their PARENTS’ faces. Although I don’t see many out of the 150+ that I teach in a given semester, it helps to make contact. Most of the ones who come by are NOT the ones who really need the parent contact, however. I have struggled in the past with parent-teacher contact, but have gotten MUCH better at making those calls, and it has paid off! If a student misbehaves, does not show up for detention, is tardy, or is failing, it is important to make that first call home to not only try to nip the bad behavior early, but to also cover your own butt! Seriously, documenting your contact with a parent is critical - especially if you do not get a reaction. If it comes to the point when administration has to get involved, these records of reaching out substantiate your concerns and claims.

Classes are going really well so far this year. My media classes (3 sections) are PACKED into the lab and we have kicked off the first project building animated identity pieces in Flash with voiceovers. The kids are enjoying bringing childhood photos to scan, and listening to their own voices tell their stories about home. My freshman are…freshman! They are sometimes tough when your voice is on empty, your energy is low, and your patience is THIN! But the kids were hooked from day one when we took the cameras out for a scavenger hunt - the challenge is keeping them hooked in. Their energy is super high which keeps me on my toes! No matter how many times I do a lesson, the 9th graders always tend to surprise me, impress me, and challenge me. They are writing, scanning, and creating audio, imagery, and video clips to embed into their eportfolios. We are also studying the history of the web and how it works, learning vocabulary that they will animate into slide shows. I trully enjoy teaching the seniors. We are pretty laid back now, once a week, brainstorming and remembering projects over the years to include in the senior portfolio. We will kick it into high gear second semester as they prepare for the Senior Exhibition in June. And lastly, my Advanced Web class is working on job searches, ethics in the workplace, and resumes before meeting their clients (real ones!) to build web sites for by January. I am pretty disappointed that I have such a small number of students in the one section - this curriculum has been my baby over the last 2 years!! But it allows me to focus more on the video curriculum that I wanted to revamp, and I will not be driven crazy by keeping track of a dozen clients’ needs on a weekly basis! I also am pleased to have some “regulars” stop by the lab on Mondays - we dabble in podcasting, 3d modeling, and all things tech/art/whatever interests them … and I learn a ton from them too! I am hooking students here and there up with IT and web jobs through the TechBoston Consulting Group which makes their eyes light up with pride! Gotta make that money! ( :

13 minutes left…and yet I have to go home and search for apartments that I have no time to look at this week. Landlord kicked me out. Elderly mom moving in…STRESS much?! And my master’s classes are revved up this week too. Sigh. Busy busy!

Wow so I haven’t written in ages - no kidding! - and now I have all the time in the world to blog…well, at least until Monday! The last 2 months of school were pretty crazy. I was managing 3 sections of 40 students and 11 clients in the Advanced Web class of sophomores….wrapping up PSAs with the juniors…planning the Senior Portfolio Exhibition and Evaluations… and grading, grading, grading until ( sigh ) it was all over. I will post separately my reflections on those projects, along with pix from the field trip to Cloud Place.

“So what are you doing for the summer?”, you ask? Relaxing…and I have 4 jobs! Seriously, I ramped up the freelance web design, am teaching a 4 day PD for BATEC next week, am consulting for Facing History and Ourselves on their documentary project from July 16 - Aug 2, and am once again “Professor Radden” by teaching the Intro to Computers class at Bunker Hill twice a week. Phew. And so when I complained yesterday of being bored, well, I reminded myself of the weeks ahead. But seriously, I am looking forward to all of the micellaneous projects I am involved in this summer! Last summer, I did not do a thing - but I needed the rest after a tumultuous school year. But I really needed the money more! Learned that lesson…and that I can still be a beach bum and get work done. Although, now that I am only steps away from the beach…actually it gets easier to do both since I can quickly transition from sand to sufing…the web, that is!

 Students watched the final PSA’s completed by the Junior level Media Seminar students today! The students used Adobe Premiere to edit their digital videos about such topics as teen violence, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, suicide, and online predators.

So besides owning that company called Microsoft, Bill Gates also owns Corbis which happens to own the rights to over 100 million stock photos, including most of the world’s most recognizable images - Marilyn Monroe from the 7 Year Itch, Einstein sticking his tongue out, JFK Jr under the President’s desk…you can picture them in your mind, but you can’t republish them without forking over at least $250 per image! In response and in light of the emergene of collaborative archives of imagery such as Flickr and iStockPhoto, Corbis has made moves to corner the microstock business and basically be the first one an advertising agency calls for the rights to not only images, but stock video clips, and even songs.

He may have a limestone cavern full of the originals (which is cool in and of itself), but can he really attain and monitor the rights to EVERY stock media in advertising? Phew. And all this while saving Africa. Go Bill.

Related article : A Photo Trove, A Mounting Challenge

Tim O’Reilly has teamed up with WIKI creator Jim Wales to form a collaborative consensus of a Blogger’s code of conduct. Anonymous posts can get nasty and unfounded viral gossip becomes downright libelous, but the cries for free speech and against censorship keep the forums open to anything. O’Reilly and Wales are calling for a consensus of acceptable guidelines which bloggers can contribute to in a wiki.  They envision the placement of graphical tags on posts, and the citing of sources to support any claims. Don’t expect any “blog police” to  patrol the web for violators, though, once guidelines are set. The whole system relies on the blogging community to police itself, just like the way wikipedia operates.

It’s sad to think that we need to publicly set standards of behavior online, but I do agree that it is necessary. Go on any myspace or to a you tube video and there is at least one  antagonistic comment like “that’s gay” or “you suck” or worse that serves no intellectual purpose to its posting. But the guidelinesa are only as effective as the people who enforce them, and thsoe people are the very users themselves. What O’Reilly and Wales and the rest of us are hoping for, is that we out number the haters.

Ms. Manners for the web!

http://blogging.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Blogger%27s_Code_of_Conduct

NYTimes article

Today, Microsoft revealed more than 100 of its research projects at the annual Microsoft Research TechFest 2007. Among some of the innovations are ways to get kids as early as the age of 4 into programming, turning your PC into a telescope, and mapping the structure of a web site like constellations in the galaxy.

http://research.microsoft.com/

No, *NSYNC has not teamed up with the W3 Consortium. Just my little way of saying there is no need for tables anymore in web design. With the adoption and universality of CSS, HTML tables and spacer GIFS are a waste of space - downloaded space, that is. One CSS makeover actually reduced a web site’s home page from 40KB to just 15KB! Check it out - this article breaks down the whys and hows.

So when will I “take the plunge”? Well seeing as I have to move my web site over to a new host and actually PAY for my bandwidth, I’ve got some converting to do. This summer, (once I get my now spyware-free desktop back), I will clean up my online act by converting my HTML galleries to Flash slideshows, eliminating any javascript (it’s SO old!), and converting my tables to pure CSS. Sigh. I love this stuff!

…about fancy FLASH intros! Studies show that most users click “SKIP.”

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060614/1159239.shtml

What Users hate most about the web

The top 5 trends in community college IT education were released by the NWCET.
They are :

1. Podcasting
2. IT Infusion Into Other Disciplines
3. Business Intelligence
4. Gaming
5. Market-driven programs

Related Links :
http://www.nwcet.org/predictions.asp

EdWeek released its 9th annual State Technology Report. Every year, EdWeek publishes a comprehensive assessment of how each state’s technology and education policies support the use of data to improve student achievement.

How did Massachusetts do? Here’s our report card :

Access to technology D
Use of technology D+
Capacity to use technology C
Overall grade D+

See how your state measures up : http://www.edweek.org/ew/tc/2006/35stc.h25.html

Related Links :
http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2006/05/04/index.html