Webinar

Register Now to Attend: Beyond the Collaborative Project: Student-Created Content

On October 3 at 11am Eastern, Alan November, a long-time leader and visionary in the area of Education Technology, joins Jan Zanetis, Market Manager for Education at TANDBERG, to discuss the power of students as content creators. To read more about it and register, click here.

New Mexico forming an ISTE Affiliate :)

Today, New Mexico started the process to form an ISTE affiliate. For further information check out http://nmste.org/

:)
~julia

Upcoming NM eTeacher Event!

Hello NM eTeachers,

The required upcoming eTeacher workshop is happening soon, hopefully you all have your calendars marked for:

• Saturday, October 20 – all day (8:30-5:00)
• Sunday, October 21 – all day (8:30-5:00)
  

Lunch and a Hospitality Table will be provided both days.

You will be paid:

• $200 to attend the 2 days of training
• $150 per diem for the training days if your participation requires a hotel stay
• 40.5 cents per mile for travel (If you carpool then only the driver receives the mileage)
  

Make your Reservations Now! Room Rates are good through Sunday, September 30th.

Request the NMCA RETA eTeacher room rate of: $65/single and $70/double
Email suceppib@nmsu.edu to request a roommate.

ClubHouse  Inn & Suites Albuquerque
1315 Menaul Blvd. Northeast • Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107
Phone: (505) 345-0010 • Fax: (505) 344-3911
Toll Free: (866) 345-0010 CALL FOR RESERVATIONS

Full hot breakfast and Happy Hour (5-7 PM) included
Free Wireless Internet

Where are we meeting? Glad you asked!
Desert Ridge Middle School
8400 Barstow NE
Please park in back of the school

Exit Paseo Del Norte
Go East on Paseo Del Norte
Turn left onto Barstow
School is 3 blocks down on right

Brief Agenda
Saturday, October 20
8-8:30 Registration and Hospitality Table
8:30-4:30 Lunch provided onsite

Sunday, October 21
8-8:30    Hospitality Table and Socializing
8:30-2:30 Lunch provided onsite

We look forward to seeing you all! And please note that this information is being sent to your blog as well. If you need a principal or superintendent to be informed, you can give them the blog address. You should bookmark it as well.

:)
Sincerely,
Susie Bussmann and Julia Parra
Regional Educational Technology Assistance
http://reta.nmsu.edu
toll free: 1.800.821.1574
office: 505.646.3524
cell: 505.571.5430
fax: 505.646.2044
suceppib@nmsu.edu
juparra@nmsu.edu

Interwrite Learning & TeacherTube Classroom Makeover Contest

TeacherTube \"Teach the World\"®

We at TeacherTube wanted to make sure our community members were aware of a great opportunity to win an interactive classroom makeover worth over $15,000.00. That\'s right-- $15,000.00! Interwrite Learning and TeacherTube are partnering to bring this contest to classroom teachers.

Check out all the details at http://www.teachertube.com/makeover. Your video submission could be the big winner!

Bethany

NACOL Standards of Quality for Online Courses

Here it is friends, hot off the press!

The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) has released a new publication, the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses. NACOL adopted the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Standards for Quality Online Courses and included a standard to include 21st Century Skills.

The National Standards of Quality for Online Courses can be found at the NACOL website at:
http://www.nacol.org/nationalstandards/

:)
~julz

For my Skype users

Though we love Skype, you should be aware that like everything else, there are security issues. Do not accept strange messages, files, etc. Remember to set those preference that I told you about.

On PC
1. Go to the Menu bar, select Tools > Options > Privacy.
2. Select Show Advanced Options
3. Make sure all of the right things are selected, i.e. Allow calls from: Only people in my Contacts list.

On Mac
1.Go to the Menu bar, select Skype > Preferences > Privacy.
2. Make sure all of the right things are selected, i.e. Allow calls from: Only people whom I have authorized, or Allow SkypeIn calls from Only people from my Contacts.

Here is an article about the current Skype security issue:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2181764,00.asp

Safe Computing!
:)
~julz

Me-Publishing

We need to keep K12 online students and teachers in mind as well when we read stories like the following. At RETA, we are experimenting with technologies that allow teachers collaborative, co-creation opportunities and the ability to me-publish. Current tools for experimentation: RETA Blog RETA Wiki Julz wiki - Let's Change the World NM eTeacher Blog - you're here NM eTeacher Wiki The following story is from Elliot Masie's Learning Trends. To subscribe go to http://www.masie.com/masie/default.cfm?page=techlearntrends "Me-Publishing" Imperatives: Your employees want an opportunity to"me-publish" their profiles and perspectives at work! Let me share an interesting story from a young employee that I met on an airplane: This young man had been recently hired by a Fortune 100 company to work in their procurement office. On his first day of work, he asked the HR person conducting orientation where he could publish his profile. This was a perplexing question to the facilitator who responded that his profile was already in their HR system. The new employee replied: "But, where do I post my profile so that everyone else in the company can see what I am about?" He kept his profile on Facebook and MySpaces up to date and used these social networking systems every day. So, he just assumed that a big corporation would have a similar system. He wanted to be able to see who had graduated from his college, who shared some of his same interests, even who already knew the massive system he was about to learn. His model of learning and "belonging" involved a degree of "me-publishing" and social networking. He was amazed that people could work for a 50,000 person company and not be able to self-publish their profiles and experiences. The HR orientation leader told him he should get used to the fact that big companies didn't foster that type of networking and it could be used to help recruit away some of their best talent. Actually, her response had the same effect. One week later, he resigned and went to a company that gave him the tools and permissions to keep a daily work blog and access to an internally secure social networking system. By the way, he took a 15% reduction in salary in order to be in a better topography of knowledge sharing. Don't do this just for your NextGen employees. The age of me-publishing and social networking is upon us and will be leveraged by every generation of our workforce. We can create models that protect the company's interests while deeply fostering the power of the network and the wisdom of crowds."

Online Identity

This was a post I created for the students in our Online Teaching and Learning Graduate Certificate program and I thought it might be relevant here as well. At least it's something to consider:: Branding vs. Pseudonymity When you decide to take your courses and your presence online, you start developing an online identity and an online persona. Some people don't mind a public or even branded online identity/persona. In fact, they foster it: See http://juliaparra.com It's important to have an online presence and an online persona in order to develop a thriving learning community and feel successful as a student and as a teacher.However, many people do not feel comfortable with their pictures and real identity being freely available on the web. Thus, it's a good time to reflect on how public you want your online identity/persona to be. My friend, Bethany is fostering a near-pseudo identity with her TekTrekker moniker. I say near-pseudo because her first name is scattered throughout the blog. So, depending on your attitude about the Internet, we recommend that you consider your online identity. If you want to brand yourself, use your real name. If you do not trust the Internet, consider a pseudo-identity, a way to interact with us and each other online yet remain somewhat anonymous. Creating Your Pseudo-Identity First, ponder a fake name that is unique and doesn't identify you. For example, a pseudo-identity that I might have considered is desertjewel. Second, set up your pseudonym email account. Gmail is our recommendation as they no longer require a secondary email account. Hopefully, your pseudonym idea hasn't been used by someone else. This is where you might have to make adjustments to your chosen pseudonym. Third, create an avatar for your online picture. Yahoo Avatars is a fun still image avatar. Voki is great for your audio/video avatar. If you have a Second Life character, you can take a picture of yourself in Second Life and use that. More about avatars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(virtual_reality) Last, use your pseudonym and avatar image whenever you are asked to post something online. Resources for Further Exploration Why You May Need an Online Persona Your Online Persona Developing Your Online Persona Taking Care of Your Internet Persona Managing Your Online Persona Becomes a Key Career Skill Online Identity The Brand Called You Personal Branding What do you think about your online identity?