Podcast Playlist for Innovative Educators

The learning never stops for Innovative educators. When you’re jogging, cleaning, driving, or out walking your dog, a podcast provides a great way to keep the learning going while you’re doing something else.

Here is my current podcast list.  

10 Minute Teacher

The 10-minute teacher is a 5-day a week show for  remarkable teachers from around the world who are very busy.  Every weekday get inspired with quick interviews of important trends, topics, and tools impacting K12 teachers.

Host: Cool Cat Teacher’s Vicki A Davis’s

Crazy Genius

Big questions and provocative conclusions about technology and culture.

Host: The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson

EdTech After Dark

EdTechAfterDark is more than just a discussion about education or technology. It's an idea. An idea that even when the sun goes down, our school communities never stop moving forward for our children.

Hosts:  Ed Tech After Dark’s Dan Koch, Alex Stubenbort, Zac Leonard

Freakonomics Radio

Discover the hidden side of everything with each week as Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything.

Host: Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner

Modern Learners

Expert interviews, real-world stories, and provocative insight in a fast-paced, interview-style podcast

Hosts: Modern Learners - Will Richardson and Bruce Dixon.

No Such Thing

The podcast is about learning with technology, the realities and exciting potential, but it’s also about youth and the practitioners who support them–youth developers, museum educators, teachers, mentors, counselors, parents–as they grow their identity, and journey forward.

Host: Mouse’s Marc Lesser

#NYCSchoolsTech

The #NYCSchoolsTech Podcast amplifies the innovative practices of NYCSchoolsTech staff and inspires others in NYC and beyond.

Host: #NYCSchoolsTech Educator Nancy R. Ribak Altadonna  

These are podcasts that I listen to or have been recommended to me by #NYCSchoolsTech colleagues including Lori Stahl-Van Brackle, Clemencia Acevedo, SteveBorba, and Kim Landman.  

Money-Saving Facebook Setting Phone Providers Don't Want You to Know

If you have Facebook on your phone, you may have noticed that videos automatically play.  If you are not connected to WiFi this eats up your data. Here's what my data looks like:

When talking with some colleagues we were discussing this and found out how to stop that from happening.

Here's how:

Step 1 - Go to "Settings"

Step 2 - Go to "Media and Contacts"

Step 3 - "Choose when videos autoplay"

I like the videos so I selected "On Wi-Fi connections" but you may want to select "Never autoplay videos." 

Do this and your monthly data fee is sure to go down.

Tool to Brand Yourself or School with a Logo

Educational institutions are becoming more and more aware of the importance of branding staff and schools in our digital world. However schools and districts often don't consistently have and/or use their logo and slogan in their materials. In fact often staff do not even know their slogan and in many cases if they do, it does not seem meaningful or relevant and/or they are unsure where it even came from. 

Your Slogan: What Do You Stand For?

To begin thinking about branding you can start by thinking about yourself, what you stand for and what a consistent slogan can be across platforms. From there you can think about your employer. My slogan is, "Passionate about real and relevant learning." 

Once you have your slogan, you can begin to create your logo. A convenient site for that is an online logo maker called DesignEvo. 

Getting Started

You can start by searching templates then customizing them.  Here's what that looks like:

From there you can customize the design and the words.  It all can be done in a matter of minutes. Easy peasy.  

I designed one for myself which you can see below.  

Logo made with DesignEvo

Use in Schools & Classrooms

There are so many ways this could be used in a school setting.  For example students could design logos for themselves. From there they could have a contest for a class logo.  Each class could submit a possible school logo that could be voted upon.  

Your Turn

Do you have a logo and slogan for yourself, school, or district that is predominately displayed in digital and physical spaces? If you do, how does that help the community come together and get on the same page about what you stand for? If you do not, what are you waiting for? Hop on over to DesignEvo and give it a try. 

New Infographic: 8 Dates All Teachers of #EdTech #DigCit #MediaLiteracy Should Know

Post this on your wall for 2018/2019 school year as a reminder of all the dates you can celebrate ways to prepare modern learners.

Visit the infographic here.

No. You Haven’t Been Hacked Or Cloned On Facebook

Do you have friends who are you sending around this ridiculous message?

They’re sending it even though they didn’t get another friend request and even if they did, why would it make any sense to forward a message to people about something you supposedly received from someone else?  And, if this person received a friend request from you, why would they ask you not to accept a friend request from them?

People are not even bothering to comprehend what they are carelessly sharing with others.

Sigh.

Friends are forwarding this, posting it on their Facebook timelime, even  going as far as deleting messenger (the best platform-agnostic tool in which to communicate) over a silly, nonsensical, fake, chain post.  

People are also getting mad at Facebook rather than the friends who are spreading spam. People are also spreading incorrect advice suggesting folks change their password.  This does nothing if someone has cloned your account. Cloning an account is something that can happen by someone creating an account using your pictures to make it look like your account. Changing your password does nothing. Reporting the account does.  More on that here.

Here’s the thing…

If you have not verified something is true, keep it to yourself.  

If you don’t have the time to verify it, keep it to yourself.

If you like the idea, and don’t care if it’s verified, keep it to yourself.

If you don’t care if it’s true, you think it is interesting and want to share, keep it to yourself.
If you can't help yourself because you love sending spammy chain messages to people, resist the urge, keep it to your self.

If you don’t want to keep it to yourself, you are being an irresponsible digital citizen and that makes your friends uncomfortable and suspect of what you say and share.  

Don’t be that person.

Developing A Community High School - Lessons from @BrotherAmouzou at #TLTechLive

Wisdom Amouzou shared his approach to developing a community high school with education leaders across the country at the Tech & Learning Leadership Summit in Denver, CO.

His approach consists of these four phases:

1) Participatory Research 2) Mission, Vision, Values 3)School Model 4) Community Outreach

The Community Design Team consists of 23 students, 8 parents, 6 community members, and 10 educators who came together twice a month for dinner meetings where every member had an equal voice in providing input into the school’s model and design.  

The Community Design Team created the below schedule consisting of five components:

Here is what each component consists of:

Fun Examples: -Performing Arts -Sports -Chess -Travel abroad

Here is what a student schedule might look like:

Here are the three truths that make up why this approach is necessary:

Empower High School will open in fall 2019.  You can learn more at EmpowerHighSchool.org.