Mr Bass Online

As I wrote in my last post, next week I will be doing some joint writing with folks around the idea of mentor texts in the digital writing workshop. However, I wanted to take a moment and write out/explain how we are going to aggregate all of our posts into one spot. With all of us blogging at different websites, I wanted to be sure to pull all this thinking together to share and record this event. It had to be automatic so none of us had to “do” anything other than focus on our writing and our ideas. Basically, I wanted the tech to take care of the process so we could take care of the thinking. What follows is an explanation of what I did, how I set it up, and why I chose to do it this way as opposed to the other possible solutions.

One of the goals that I had when we began talking about this project is to pull all of the blog posts from each of the five blogs into one spot. I had toyed with using Delicious, Diigo or another social bookmarking tool so that we could each bookmark our posts into one common space. However, I quickly decided against that because, from my point of view, I wanted to completely focus on the writing, not the process that I would have to go through (and teach everyone else to go through) to bookmark all these posts.  I knew that there had to be a way to do it using the RSS feeds that each blog created. In the past I had toyed with the website ifttt.com. This site basically uses a trigger that I can set up to signal another action, also defined by me. To simplify that process, what ifttt (which stands for “if this then that”) allowed me to do was create an event on their service that looked at the RSS feed that my blog creates and searches for the term “mentor texts”. If it finds the term “mentor texts” in my RSS feed, then, it would pull the entire text of my post and do something with it. In this case, I wanted it to post someplace else.

Ifttt.com has a number of preset services (they call them channels) to choose from that you can activate to create events or triggers. Using the API of tools like Evernote, Twitter, and YouTube (see a complete list of channels here), ifttt uses the language of the web to pull all of these services and then do another action. The two channels that I chose were the “feed” channel and the “Posterous” channel. Posterous is a blogging site that makes it really easy to share content. I had set up a Posterous account quite awhile ago but never did much with it. Seeing that ifttt worked with Posterous, I set up the RSS feed for this site so that whenever I posted something and tagged it with the phrase “mentor texts”, ifttt would recognize it, pull the entire text, and then repost it to the Posterous blog that I set up for this project. To set this up, I had to activate both the feed and Posterous channel on ifttt and then create the task.

Kind of surprisingly, it worked flawlessly with my blog. I posted a number of test posts and within 15 minutes (the amount of time ifttt checks my feed), whatever I put in that post showed up on Posterous including any pictures or media.

My next step was to go back to ifttt and take the task that I had created and make, what ifttt calls a recipe. Basically, this creates the formula for the task and lets you copy it. Using that recipe, I set up Franki’s blog and had her test if for me as well. This is where it got a little more complicated.

What I learned when I set up Franki’s blog:

• Not all RSS feeds work the same way – I knew that there were different types of RSS, but I didn’t really know the difference between and “atom” feed and an “xml” or regular RSS feed. Whenever I’ve needed to use RSS before (usually with an RSS reader) it just worked.
• Blogger’s feed wouldn’t pull the full text.
• Only a new feed item would get pulled into the Posterous blog, no past posts would be pulled in.
• Ifttt searches the entire text, not just the tags.

Armed with this new knowledge, I went back to Franki’s feed and added a short line of text at the end of the existing blogger feed. Franki’s feed is “http://readingyear.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default“. This is an atom feed that ifttt doesn’t recognize. However by adding the text “?alt=rss” to the end of her feed, you are redirected to the regular RSS feed which works famously.

Troy, Kevin and I all use WordPress so there was no need to change any of our feeds. Franki and Katie use Blogger and adding that bit of text to the given feed URL worked fine. Tony uses Typepad which also creates an atom feed. In the case of his blog, I just changed his feed from http://keeferto.typepad.com/blog/atom.xml to http://keeferto.typepad.com/blog/rss.xml and it worked.

After having everyone test each of their blogs to make sure it worked, I decided to do one more thing so that I can really stay hands off with the technical side of the project and focus on the writing. I wanted to be notified whenever my tasks in ifttt was triggered and one of us had posted a new topic on the Posterous site. One of the things I really enjoy about Google Calendar is that I can get text message notifications when an event is added or to remind me of an event. Ifttt also has an SMS channel that I can set up to text me when a new post is put up on Posterous. So now, any time any of us posts something next week, ifttt will post it to Posterous and then I will get a text message so that I know I have something new to read.

For a project like this, I think this is an ideal solution. It automates the whole process and takes those tasks that I would normally do manually and takes them off my plate but will still aggregate all of our thinking into one place. The technology is working for us and getting out of our way so we can focus on thinking and writing around this project.

To see the results of our thinking around mentor texts, visit the Posterous site and follow along.

For about five years now, Franki Sibberson and I have been having regular conversations about writing and learning in the digital age. At NCTE this year, Franki and I did a sessions with our friend Becky McCraw, entitled “Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop” prompting a number of conversations around the role of digital tools in the writing process as we were thinking about and planning for our session.

In the midst of one of our conversations, an idea formulated about focusing some writing around it.  So, during the week of January 8, we’ll each be posting on our own blogs about the thinking we’ve been doing, the things we’ve learned from students, and our own writing.  We are hoping you’ll join us by thinking along with us about this idea of mentor texts in the digital writing workshop. You can join in the conversation by reading our blogs, posting your own thinking to your blog, commenting, etc.  We thought this would be a fun way to have a larger conversation about ideas we are thinking about. We love the idea of pulling lots of voices together around one idea.

Participating in the series will be:

Franki Sibberson, a librarian in Dublin, OH will be blogging at A YEAR OF READING.

Katie DiCesare, a primary teacher in Dublin who runs an incredible writing workshop will be blogging at her blog, CREATIVE LITERACY.

Troy Hicks, author of THE DIGITAL WRITING WORKSHOP and BECAUSE DIGITAL WRITING MATTERS. He will be blogging at his site, DIGITAL WRITING, DIGITAL TEACHING.

Kevin Hodgson, 6th grade teacher and author of TEACHING THE NEW WRITING will be blogging at his blog Kevin’s Meandering Mind.

Tony Keefer, an amazing 4th grade teacher in Dublin, Ohio will be blogging at at ATYCHIPHOBIA.

And I’ll be blogging here.

Each of us has committed to posting several times during the week of January 8 around the topic of Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop. I am hoping to revisit some of those staple professional books I mentioned above to reground myself in the role of mentor texts and what they mean for writers.
We hope you’ll join us in thinking about this!

Last Thursday we hosted our second film festival in the Parkway School District and, from the reaction we got from parents, teachers, students and administrators, it was a resounding success. If you’re interested in seeing some of the films, visit our gallery.

I’ve written about it before, and I’ve been trying to think about what I want to say about the work that students did for it.  The stories that we heard about the work that students did was amazing and I’m hoping to get some of those stories out, but, for now, until I decide what I really want to say about it, I’m going to refrain other than to say it was a good night. From watching my own kids walk down the red carpet, to the pride I felt knowing that we had over 1300 people in attendance as we honored the work of approximately 1000 kids, I just simply still don’t know what is the most important piece to chronicle.  So, as I think, I hope you enjoy some of the films.

As I was going through my reader this morning, I ran across this post, Presentation Zen: Tokonoma and the art of the focal point.  About half way down the post there are some examples of ways to change the presentation of information.  I’ve been thinking/working on a number of presentations for this year and I’ve been really trying to move away from text heavy sites and use pictures to illustrate my points rather than relying on text.  This isn’t new information and I don’t know that I necessarily do it well yet, but my thought process has definitely changed.

Here is an example of one of my slides.  I don’t have  a before, but what I wanted to do with this is create interest without overwhelming with text.  I went on to talk about the importance of story when it comes to video creation in the classroom.

Here is another example from the same presentation. In this one I decided that rather than list all the next steps in regards to our upcoming film festival, I wanted to illustrate stepping stones as I discussed them.

I’m not convinced that this is necessarily the best way to approach this, but I definitely like having less text as a part of my presentations and having my explanation be what drives the content.

Here is the entire presentation.

Today I decided that I had seen the “update your WordPress” warning long enough and thought that I might as well do it. Since I last used the update feature with Bluehost (my hosting company that I highly recommend) they had updated their system and I couldn’t do the one click update. So, thinking ahead, I backed up all my posts and installed the most current version of WordPress over my blog. I figured it would erase everything and, sure enough, it did. So glad I backed up!!

Anyway, after a little reconfiguring, you have what you see here. A new look with some new plugins. I like the look of this one better and, in a way, I’m glad I took the time. I’ve been rather neglectful of my blog but with this new look, I think I might just get back to writing more often. So look for more stuff from me.

As a side note, I’m pretty sure that my feed has now changed. Not sure why, but I’m also not sure where to change it or, for that matter what it used to be. I guess I should really start to pay more attention to those kind of things. Maybe the new look will help me. We’ll see…

I was surprised, excited and a little disappointed when I found out that Malcolm Gladwell was going to be a keynote speaker for NECC this year in Washington D.C.  Surprised because I was just finishing his book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference; excited because I was becoming more familiar with his work and disappointed because I don’t think I will be fortunate enough to be able to attend NECC this year.

Lately I have been thinking, planning and attending meetings concerning teacher development in regards to technology.  How can we most effectively help teachers consider their practice and try to use technology to enhance their classrooms.  We have multiple solutions and are still very much at the thinking, talking and planning stages.  However, after reading Gladwell’s book, I think that one of the things we might want to consider is how might we most effectively use the people who are most directly impacting kids — teachers who are in the classroom.  So, as a part of our planning process, maybe we need to look at the Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen so that we might create our own “epidemic” of technology integration.  According to Gladwell, each of the groups has their own strengths and roles in the spreading of an idea or concept.  If we could identify and harness the potential of these people, would an epidemic follow?  I’m not sure.  However, from my time in the classroom, I do know a few things when it comes to teachers.

1. Connectors are vital to spreading the word.  Teachers talk to each other about practice, about students, about challenges and about successes.  As educators, we come to our classrooms to help students.  That help takes on many forms, but overall, we have the same goal.  We spend countless hours being developed but until a connection is made and it’s something that has been proven to work, we are reluctant to change our approach.  If Connectors can see results in their own practice, the word will spread about what is happening in their classes.

2. Mavens are also vital to spreading the word, but they look for ways to help their colleagues.  When Maven teachers finds something that works, they will learn as much about it so that they might help others.  I would consider myself a Maven in that aspect.  As a classroom teacher I was often called upon by my fellow teachers, administrators in my building and at the district level and even parents and students to help them work through technology problems that they might be having.  I wanted to help make their lives easier and knew enough about technology to help them.  What this prompted was a learning revolution for me as I attempted to solve their technological woes.  It was fun for me but it also had a greater purpose in that I was helping others for the betterment of education.  There are Mavens all over the district that want to help just as I did, but I think we need a method in which to identify them so that we can give them the support they need as they help their colleagues.

3.  Finally, we need Salespeople to help “sell it” to our teachers.  To create an “epidemic”, we need to have buy-in from those who are reluctant.

We are all at different places in our learning and have different needs, but I have made a commitment to help teachers (not just in my district) use technology in their classrooms.  I just wonder what the little things are that can help us reach that tipping point and where can we find them.  Do we want an instructional technology epidemic?  Is that even feasible with the amount of content that is crammed into the curricular offerings of our public schools?  Can we afford not to have technology in the hands of our students?

As I continue to think about the plans in my own district, I will continue to think back to and make connections with this book and Gladwell’s ideas.  Is there something there?  I’m not sure, but maybe as I follow my Twitter friends and find a backchannel for the keynote, I’ll find some clarity.

Back in September when I went to Chicago for the Google Teachers Academy I found out about a project that another Google Certified Teacher was doing entitled “Greetings From…” Postcard Geography. It’s a great project that I wanted to get involved in so I contacted a Social Studies teacher from one of my schools and asked her if there was any way we could incorporate the project into her curriculum.  She was working with a group of her students on a project that detailed the history of some of the neighborhoods in St. Louis.  Her students have created PowerPoint presentations and it was my hope to use these as a part of the project.  I spent a great deal of the day today trying to figure out a way to embed their presentations into the placemarks as a part of the Google Map.

Unfortunately, and much to my chagrin, I was not successful.  My first thought was to put the PowerPoints into Google Presentations and, hopefully, embed them.  I knew that it would be problematic because the embed code from Google Presentations uses the <iframe> tag which Google Maps doesn’t support.  So I tried services like Slideshare and Zoho which uses <object> and <div> tags.  I even went about trying to hand code it using <embed> codes.  It works in a blog and on a regular site but it didn’t work in Google Maps.  So, it looks like rather than embedding the presentations, I will be linking out to them.  It’s not my first choice, but after lots of research and lots of frustration, I think that I’m going to give up on it and focus my energies elsewhere.  So be it.  Maybe someday Google will get all of their services to talk to each other.
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