Random Thoughts

Too Many Projects Not Enough Time

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I can’t believe how time is flying by this 2nd Semester. It’s our last 6 months in Thailand and of course when you want time to slow down so you can fit everything in it does just the oposite. 

No excuses, I haven’t made the time to blog lately and find myself sitting here at 6am in the van on the way to school with a moment to reflect. 

What I’ve been up to:

School:

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All of a sudden the last two weeks have been packed! Our school is hosting the regional basketball tournament and this year we’re going to try and live stream the games as well as have students commentate them live. When you have 5 teams flying in from 5 different countries not everyone can travel with them, so streaming the sports has become almost expected by spectators back in their home countries to keep up with the action. We’ll be live February 2,3,4 here in Bangkok and you can watch the games and see how we set this up using Ustream, Google Docs, and a blog here.

Also on the school front, I took advantage of the holiday season knowing that teachers were going to come back to school with new toys; iPhones, iPads, Android Phones and new computers. I saw an opportunity to provide some training to teachers around their own personal use of technology. We know that if you start using technology in your personal life where it’s meaningful to you that those skills and understandings transfer over to your work life as well. Learning to take a video of your kids and e-mailing it to family is the same as taking a video of your students and e-mailing it to the parents. 

The after school sessions were the best attended sessions I’ve had so far this year even with the power going out during the Android training, we found an emergency light and carried on. 

People are hungry for information, especially when it relates directly to their personal lives….make trainning personal!

Ninja Program:

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Logo for our T-Shirts @ ISB

The Google Apps Ninja Program that I started back in September and blogged about here has completely taken me by surprise. There are now over 150 educators who have access to the Google Docs. Seeing that there might be something here that I can support long term I decided to move all the files to their own Google Apps domain. So the Google Apps Ninja Program is now officially found at www.ninjaprogram.com the website isn’t finished but after reading this blog post if you are interested in using the files and helping to keep them updated, fill out this form and I’ll get you in. I’m excited to focus on this next year as one of my projects.

COETAIL Online Cohort:

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As I blogged about here a couple weeks ago the COETAIL Online Cohort will be kicking off February 5th and I’ve been hard at work preparing for the almost 50 International Educators who have signed up to take the course. WOW is all I have to say about that! I was hoping for 25 (one full cohort) and have 42 people registered with the February 1st deadline just a few days away. If you’re interested there are still a few spots left. 

Update: I did get clarification from Buffalo State – SUNY that Canadian Educators living in Canada are eligible to take the program.Basically any educator outside the U.S. is eligible to take the program (don’t ask me why…some Higher Ed thing).

I’m looking forward to a great year of learning with these educators spread all over Africa, Asia and the Middle East. 

 

That’s what has been keeping me busy these past few weeks. I’m finding myself in this weird place of starting project and preparing for all the things I want to do next year as a consultant and starter of cool stuff and the full time job I still have. It’s leaving very little time to do much else….but I can’t complain because I’m doing what I love! 

As the van pulls into school….let another day begin. 

 

isb
 

I started blogging in 2005 and found it such a powerful way to reflect and share my thinking about technology, this generation, and how we prepare students for their future not our past.

2 Comments

  1. Your power outage and iPhone comments reminded me of a story my teaching partner tells.

    He was in on a mountain bike trip in Thailand, eating dinner, when the lights went out. An engineering friend turned on his iPhone (to continuous lighting) and put a glass of water on it. The light refracted and lit up the whole table area.

    Little piece of trivia that may help for future outages.
    Janet

  2. Abigail Cooke Reply

    Hello, I am currently a Secondary Education student at the University of South Alabama, in Mobile, Alabama, taking EDM 310. This class focuses on blogging and learning how to use today’s technology and applying it in the classroom. All of the students in EDM 310 were assigned a different teacher’s blog to read and summarize on our own blog. First of all, I find it very interesting that you have traveled to and lived in multiple different countries. Just visiting is one thing, but actually living and teaching there is awesome! I could not support you more on holding sessions for other educators on how to use “new technology”. I know a few people who will not get a “smart phone” or refuse to up-grade to a new computer because “it’s just too complicated”. Furthermore, I think your Ninja Program is a splendid idea! I just recently found out about the apps and wish I had found them earlier. The “prizes” for the students are great encouragement! Finally, I think the COETAIL Online Cohort is a great idea for educators as well; hopefully, educators in the future will not be set on using books, but rather computers and tablets. If you would like to read my summary of your blog, I will be posting it February 12. Here is a link for my blog: http://cookeabigailedm310.blogspot.com/ and for our class blog: http://edm310.blogspot.com/. I am also on Twitter at @AbigailCooke1.

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