I was at North Junior High School Monday morning, trying to help English teachers figure out a way for students to write, share, and publish their work. In the process, I found out just how locked down Internet access is for our students.

I discovered that almost ALL social networking, video sites, and collaborative writing tools are NOT available to the students at North Junior High. Blogs, one of the best and easiest ways to encourage reading and writing, writing fluency, editing, and authentic writing, are not available. I did discover that some aspects of Google Apps were available and immediately made the decision to have students begin using Google docs, one of the easiest and most powerful ways to write, collaborate, edit, and publish writing. However, Google Sites, an important and effective way to showcase and share student work online is not available to students.

Why do I argue for opening the Internet to students? Not only does filtering of helpful websites harm our students, but it can help perpetuate and create a “digital underclass,” students who don’t have access to the rich, informative, entertaining, and collaborative tools that students who have Internet at home automatically take for granted. The students who only can access the Internet from school are left behind by our school systems, unable to participate in communities of learning, watch videos, create and collaborate, and simply experience the world. How will these students compete in a job market highly dependent upon technological skills and expertise?

What is the reason for filtering of websites? If we believe that limiting students to certain websites will eliminate their going to unacceptable sites, we are kidding ourselves. The students who have cell phones with web browsing, for instance, can view any website they want, ON SCHOOL GROUNDS. Again, here is the issue of the haves and have nots.

We teach future teachers how to effectively integrate technology in the classroom, using the rich, interactive tools we now have at our disposal. It’s time the schools provide access to these tools, such as blogs, wikis, videos, and social networks. Boise Schools–Open the Internet to our students. Now.

I’ve been talking a lot about Google Voice, this great new tool that allows you to have ONE PHONE number that will ring multiple phones. It would be extremely helpful for people who have multiple phones (a home phone, a cell phone, a work phone), yet want to have one number that would ring all phones if needed. However, you don’t have to have multiple phones as a reason for using Google Voice. I use Google Voice (you will need to ask for an invitation from Google to get this service) as my one phone number I provide to students to contact me, NOT my cell phone number.

The main reason I use Google Voice as my phone number I provide to students and others is the screening feature of GVoice. I can screen all unknown callers, requiring that they identify themselves before I answer the call. Also, I can listen in to the voicemail and decide whether I need to take the call right away or answer later. (Remember those phone answering machines?)

Google Voice transcribes the phone messages (although not quite perfect yet) and provides a web-interface where all of my messages are viewable and archived. Plus, I can call the person back through this web interface (you need to identify the phone you want your Google Voice number to use–in my case, it’s my cell), send them a text message, or email them.

Google Voice also provides you with a call widget, which I place on my Moodle course sites, for students to get access to my Google number.

And now, some very clever people have created a Google Voice Desktop App, which sits on your desktop and notifies you when new calls come in, allows you to access your account quickly, and probably will mean that I’ll use Google Voice even more often. Here’s the link where you can view and download this app: http://rstoeber.com/projects.html (Below is an image of what this app looks like.)

Again, you will need to send a request for an invitation to get Google Voice, so do that first. If you are lucky, like me (hey, Google, I’m still waiting for Google Wave!), you will receive an invitation and be able to use this powerful tool.

Our department (Edtech at Boise State) uses Adobe Connect Professional to conduct live meetings, to archive and access collective resources, and to publish Adobe Presenter on-demand presentations. Adobe Connect Pro is not cheap, but it is a very robust, full-featured, and fairly dependable web conferencing system. Remember, I’m talking about web conferencing . . . not video conferencing, which is quite different.

Web conferencing allows users to connect through any Internet connection (preferably hard-wired), with simply a computer and microphone/webcam. Video conferencing systems cost a lot more and require dedicated equipment at both ends. Web conferencing has its weaknesses (loss of data due to Internet packet traffic and bandwidth issues), but sure offers a lot of advantages in distance education since any person with an Internet connection can meet online and experience an almost face-to-face conversation.

Adobe Connect Pro offers many ways to communicate online, such as VoIP communication, sharing applications, interacting with a whiteboard, file sharing, participating in live polls, online presentations, breakout rooms, and many other ways to share and interact. You can set up a perpetual online meeting room where students can meet with instructors and other students. Instructors can set up meetings to address certain needs, such as additional, just-in-time training, or troubleshoot student problems. Distance educators can set up virtual office hours, where students can drop in and chat with an instructor during scheduled days and times. Students can collaborate, brainstorm, and use the meeting rooms to conduct presentations. These meeting rooms can be used just like a face-to-face meeting, only you can meet without having to travel. It’s very convenient and efficient.

However, you don’t have to pay a lot of money to experience Adobe Connect. You can sign up for a free Adobe Connect Now account, which allows you to host a meeting with up to 3 people. The meeting rooms are NOT perpetual, which means you will need to set them up each time as needed (they will close after 20 minutes of inactivity), but the meeting rooms are very convenient and include all of the popular features of Adobe Connect Professional.

Actually, I like the screen sharing features of Adobe Connect Now BETTER than Adobe Connect Pro. In Adobe Connect Now, screen sharing includes a very handy screen sharing palette, which allows the person who is sharing to view other people in the room and comments. In Adobe Connect Pro, the user who is sharing the screen does not see the meeting room. I would really like to see Adobe Connect Pro include this feature in Adobe Connect Now. Below is a picture of the screen sharing palette visible to the person sharing his/her screen:

Web conferencing continues to be competitive and the prices should keep going down while services increase. Figuring out what you need and how the licenses work is probably one of the most difficult aspects of deciding upon a web conferencing system. But for starters, you can at least try out some of the free services, like Adobe Connect Now, to see how they work for you.

I subscribe to the Google For Educators discussion group and just received a notice about another Google Teacher Academy (http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html). This looks like a great opportunity if you are a K-12 teacher and would like to be a Google Certified Teacher. Here’s a short introduction included on the Google webpage for this program:

The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.

You will need to complete a questionnaire (created in Google Docs forms, of course) and also create a short video answering one of two topics. I know we have many creative K-12 teachers in our online EDTECH masters program at Boise State who would qualify for this program. You will need to pay for travel to Washington, D.C. and lodging, but perhaps your school would be willing to pay for this. After all, you will become a Google Certified Teacher, a great asset to your school. After you complete the program, one of your main goals is to then train the teachers at your school and beyond in how to use Google tools and other evolving technologies that can enhance learning.

Although the information about this academy indicates that local participants are preferable, they are encouraging educators from all over the country to apply. If you would be able to maintain communications with teachers in the academy, then you may have a better chance of being accepted.

Application deadline is November 9, 2009. Good luck!

I just received my invitation to use Google Voice, so I’ve been spending some time playing with it and seeing just how it can be useful to me. You can read about Google Voice here and view some very good videos about it. Also, check out the Google Voice Blog to read about new features and the progress of this amazing tool.

Google Voice provides you with a Google phone number. You can designate which phones you want this phone number to ring–your cell phone, your work phone, your home phone (does anyone really have a home phone anymore?)–so you can just have one number to give out. If your work, home, and/or cell phone numbers change, it’s no problem if you’ve been using your Google Voice number, since you can easily edit the phones you want your Google Voice number to ring.

You can customize how you want your calls to come in–to approve them before answering, for instance. You can even listen in to someone’s voicemail and then accept the call if you want to take that call. Conference calls work with up to four people, too.

I’ve been thinking about ways I can use this tool as an online instructor. One feature I am using is the Google Voice widget, which is a very nice looking widget that users can click and call me with my Google phone number. I can decide how I want to receive calls, and I can even have them go directly to my Google voice mail without answering. If you get a lot of messages and want to save them, no problem with Google Voice. Like your Google email, you have lots of storage. And of course you can search for any part of a text or voice message within your Google Voice account.

All voice mail messages are transcribed, so you can also quickly look at what your caller said without listening to see how important the message is.

I think this is going to be a huge timesaver for me to answer questions from my students, will enable an easy and direct way for students to contact me when I’m not online (I ask them to use Gmail chat for quick questions), and will continue to make online courses more like and even better than traditional face-to-face ones.

So, request an invitation to Google Voice if you have not already: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/. Once you’ve tried it out, I think you’ll come up with some ingenious ways to use Google Voice.

A really cool and potentially powerful learning tool is the Visual Thesaurus: http://www.visualthesaurus.com. If you’ve never visited this website, prepare to be amazed. It provides a visual view, a connected pattern of words and their meanings. You can view in 2D and 3D, easily locate meanings, see words used in context, but most importantly, see how words relate to each other or how they are connected.

The Visual Thesaurus looks like a series of wheel spokes, with the word you are investigating in the center and the related words radiating off of your main word. Here’s how this tool is described on the Visual Thesaurus home page:

The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words. Its innovative display encourages exploration and learning. You’ll understand language in a powerful new way.

Say you have a meaning in mind, like “happy.” The VT helps you find related words, from “cheerful” to “euphoric.” The best part is the VT works like your brain, not a paper-bound book. You’ll want to explore just to see what might happen. You’ll discover — and learn — naturally and intuitively. You’ll find the right word, write more descriptively, free associate — and gain a more precise understanding of the English language.

Visual Thesaurus offers a very easy to use online manual: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/howitworks/manual and tips and tricks, as well as an educator section that includes some ideas on how to use the Visual Thesaurus in the classroom. They have a home page blog, with sharing of word lists by users, posts by people associated with Visual Thesaurus, and other cool stuff you can subscribe to, such as a word of the day.

You can create custom word lists (VocabGrabber) from reading assignments, so students can discover new words and their associations. You can even participate in online spelling bees and compete with other Visual Thesaurus users. Hey, I’ve finally found something I think I can compete well in!

Well, the good news is that this tool is very powerful, can help students in their reading comprehension and vocabulary development, is easy to use, and of course available online. The bad news is that it is not free. DARN! However, it is not terribly expensive, either. It will set you back $19.95 for a single yearly subscription. You can also set up a group account for up to five people, with each additional person being charged $10. Visual Thesaurus also offers institutional subscriptions, but you need to contact them to get pricing.

Here is  how schools could use the tool:

1. A school purchases an institutional license and provides professional development for teachers to learn how to use the tool, providing explicit lesson plan examples for each discipline or content area.
2. Teachers would be required to use the tool and report back at the next professional development meeting, demonstrating how they used the tool and the outcomes.
3. At the end of the year, the school could evaluate whether the tool was being used, get student feedback on the tool, and decide whether to continue with the yearly license.

And here are some ideas for teachers in using the tool:

1. All content areas: Student create visual maps of their own identities, for a beginning of term ice-breaker activity and discuss their map with the class.
2. English teachers: Create pre-reading vocabulary lists for student access. Create spelling bees from list of new words learned.
3. Social Studies/History teachers: Students create maps of historical figures.
4. Math/Science teachers: Students create visual collections of new math terms.

I know I’m just scratching the surface with ideas, but know that many of you are already using Visual Thesaurus in your classrooms. I’d love to hear from you and see how you are using it. As for me, I’m going to purchase a yearly license for myself and my 13-year old daughter. I can see so many applications right away . . . creating custom word lists from her reading, participating in spelling bees, and subscribing to the Visual Thesaurus blog. We all could use a little help in improving our vocabulary.

I just finished reading The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, by Ray Kurzweil. I will freely admit that much of what Kurzweil says in the book exceeded MY human intelligence, but overall I would highly recommend the book, especially to those of us in the field of educational technology. So much has happened so fast in our field, and according to Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns, we are in for even larger and swifter changes. Here’s an excerpt from Kurzweil.net (http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1) on this Law of Accelerating Returns:

An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense “intuitive linear” view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate). The “returns,” such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There’s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity — technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.

Kurzweil discusses a lot in this book, but another interesting law he discusses is Moore’s Law. This law came about through a guy names Gordon Moore, who invented the integrated circuit and became chairman of Intel. Moore discovered in 1965 that the surface area of a transistor was being reduced by about 50% every 12 months. This prediction was later updated by Moore to 24 months.

Anyway, what this means is that every two years, twice as many transistors can fit on an integrated circuit, doubling the speed and the number of components on a chip. As we now know, the cost of integrated circuits keeps decreasing, since we can pack on twice as much every two years. Kurzweil says that this observation is valid for all types of circuits, from memory chips to computer processors.

Unlike Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns, Moore’s Law on Integrated Circuits will eventually break down after about 60 years. After that, Kurzweil predicts that integrated circuits will take on different forms, perhaps three dimensional circuits.

There is a LOT in this book to read and consider (and not understand!), but it is a very interesting read, especially if you want to get a glimpse of the future, which isn’t that far away. And Kurzweil tells us that changes are now going to come much faster than they did in previous centuries. Kurzweil predicts that by the year 2020 (yeah, that is only 11 years away, and you will have to read what he says about the concept of time) that a $1,000 personal computer will match the computing speed and capacity of the human brain.

If you want to read more about Ray Kurzweil and find out more about this fascinating person, go to http://www.kurzweilai.net and prepare to be amazed.

One of the best things about Firefox is the add-ons. And one of my readers provided me with a great link of Firefox add-ons for educators and here is the link: 99 Awesome Firefox Add-ons for Educators.

If you’ve been reading this blog, you will know that I am a Firefox aficionado with the goal of migrating the entire world to this amazing browser. If you don’t have Firefox on your machine, just go to http://getfirefox.com and install it. It doesn’t take long, it’s free of course, and then you can begin to experiment with many of its add-ons.

The 99 awesome Firefox add-ons list is really good, and enticed me to revisit some familiar tools. Feedly is one of those tools.

Feedly is a feed-reader with style, a way to view your RSS feeds in an interesting and journal-based approach. It’s like a custom newspaper prepared just for you, that includes all of your feeds. If you still are not using RSS feeds or don’t know what they are, then please don’t waste any more time getting started. It’s easy . . . heck you are already using RSS and probably don’t know it. Do you have a custom Google home page, for instance? Then, you are using RSS technology. Do you subscribe to podcasts in iTunes? Yeah, you guessed it . . . RSS.

So, go to some of your favorite blogs, websites, anywhere you see the now familiar RSS icon, click it, and subscribe to some feeds using Google. (I’m assuming you have a Google account.) Google Reader is a fine feed-reader (this is where all of your feeds are displayed so you can read new content in one place instead of having to go to 10 individual websites), but feedly takes it many steps further. Feedly (kind of cute name, too) displays your stuff in a readable, engaging format. And that’s how I like to read things! Readable and engaging.

Click the image below to display a larger screenshot of part of my weekend edition home page in feedly to get an idea of what I’m talking about:

To get feedly, go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=feedly download and install. Like all Firefox add-ons, you’ll need to restart your browser. Then, start reading all of that stuff you’ve been wanting to read but never do in Google Reader. Feedly rocks.

Last spring I watched the loooong YouTube video (see below and be ready to have at least an hour of your time blocked out) of the Google Wave introduction and immediately signed up to become a tester.

The video helps explain (kind of) what Google Wave is. It’s marketed as a software that changes the paradigm of how we communicate. Of course, as anyone who uses technology knows, it’s hard to change people’s behavior when new software tools are introduced. Look how long it has taken for people to embrace wikis, for instance, or even blogging. We are creatures of habit and it’s hard to change those habits, even if they are counter-productive.

The words they use in this video, “unbelievable,” “powerful,” and “you will forget you are looking at a browser,” are pretty accurate. The engineering leadership behind this “magical product” came from two unassuming brothers, Lars and Jens Rasmussen, the same guys who built Google Maps.

Email today was invented more than 40 years ago, before the World Wide Web. It’s hard to fathom that, really. As our computers and networks have advanced over those 4 decades, Google asked the question, “What would email look like if it was invented today?” Google Wave is supposed to be that invention.

I look forward to the adaptation of email, with it becoming more interactive, efficient, and productive. Using a single communication tool with vast and multiple functions makes sense to me. And if you take a look at some of the apps that can support Google Wave (check out Ribbit if you want to be amazed) you can almost begin to fathom just how powerful Google Wave can be. Ribbit can used with Google Wave to enable voice communication in various forms. No more setting up conference calls with AT&T!

So, where can you go on the Wave? I don’t think anyone really knows. That is why Google invited people to become beta testers of Wave. I requested an account last spring, but was not invited by Google. Imagine that! However, you can still join the Wave if someone who has a Wave account invites you. Or, fill out this online form to request an invitation to Google Wave: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/

And may the Wave be with you.

The other day I received an email from a faculty member, asking me if there were any free forum tools that allowed threaded discussions. She said she had looked at http://www.freeforums.org but could not see any way the discussions could be viewed in a threaded format. I had never heard of free forums, so of course had to detour whatever I had been doing (must not have been that important, since I don’t remember what it was!) and take a look at it.

Free Forums is actually a very powerful tool to quickly create online discussion forums. It is based upon the very popular and feature-rich phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com), an open-source software you can install on your server. However, in some ways, the software is TOO powerful. All this faculty member wanted was an online discussion board for student teachers to use to experiment with threaded discussions, understand how they work, and figure out strategies for using them for teaching and learning. So, what might be another option?

I did what all people do who are looking for more information . . . searched for “free threaded discussion forums” using Google. And guess what popped up?!? None other than an old favorite, a tried-and-true, trusted tool called Yahoo! Groups. I had used Yahoo! Groups a few years ago for a project with teachers who wanted a centralized location to talk, post files, and schedule meetings. It was one of the easiest and most versatile tools I could find at the time. And perhaps it still is.

Next, I created a sample group to see how the discussion forums work in Yahoo! Groups. One of the things I had forgotten, but I will tell you, is that once you create a new topic (which would be a discussion forum, in my lingo), it takes a few seconds or even minute for that topic to appear in your discussions. You need to be patient, but it WILL show up. From there, you can reply, of course, and then the discussion forum will display very nicely, in a threaded format. (See image below for a quick example.)

So, my advice to all of you is: Don’t forget to revisit old tools. Yahoo! Groups is one of those old tools that has proven to still provide the tools we need in the ways we need them. And of course, I provided this tool as a possible solution to the faculty member’s question.