Friday, April 22, 2011

Winner of the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z!

Thank you to all the educators who participated by populating the spreadsheet with almost 200 interactive tools that would take advantage of the touchscreen on the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z. The spreadsheet is located here if you are interested in viewing the list of the tools!

As the rules stated, if there were any duplications of tools submitted, the later submission was deleted from the spreadsheet before I picked the winner. (There were five duplicate sites submitted.)

I used the Random Name Generator suggested by Richard Byrne, to pick the winner. It is a great little tool and one you should put in your classroom technology toolbox!

The winner of the Lenovo M90z is Megan Black! 

Screenshot of the result from the Random Name Generator

Congratulations to her, and thank you again to everyone who participated! And thanks also to Lenovo and Ivy Worldwide for running this contest!

If you wanted some other chances to win a ThinkCenter M90z, take a look at the list below for additional giveaway contests!

Lenovo M90z Giveaway Participants

Site Start End Date
Free Tech 4 Teachers Apr 14 Apr 18
Ilja Coolen \ ICSS Apr 15 Apr 19
Physician Mom Apr 16 Apr 20
Scrubd In Apr 17 Apr 21
Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch Apr 18 Apr 22
Steve Hargadon.com
Apr 19 Apr 23
Box of Tricks Apr 21 Apr 25
Clinton Fitch.com Apr 22 Apr 26
Around the Corner Apr 23 Apr 27
Tech Savvy Ed Apr 25 Apr 29
Small Biz Technology Apr 26 Apr 30
Ablet Factory Apr 27 May 1
Click Newz Apr 28 May 2
Geekazine Apr 29 May 3
21st Century Education Technology Apr 30 May 4
A GeekyMomma's Blog May 1 May 5
Marsha Collier's Musings May 2 May 6
VA Networking May 3 May 7
Your Virtual Assistant May 4 May 8
Jake Ludington's Media Blab May 5 May 9
Mobile PC World May 6 May 10
Dangerously Irrelevant May 7 May 11
Bud the Teacher May 8 May 12
Kikolani May 9 May 13
Geeks To Go May 10 May 14
Chad Lehman.com May 11 May 15

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Bloomin' Google redux


There has been much positive feedback to my Bloomin' Google page (http://kathyschrock.net/googleblooms/) Thanks to all who sent me notes!

But, through my Google Alerts, I have seen that others are questioning the use of the tool and where I placed things and the limiting of the creativity of teachers. (Geesh!) There were various reasons for its development and why I put things where I put them.
  1. Finding and utilizing ALL of the Google Tools gave me a good 100 hours of experience across the board. I was able to eliminate the tools that are just information sources and focus on the rest.
  2. Being an a avid follower and studier of Andrew Churches work with the Revised Bloom's Digital Taxonomy for the past year, I feel I really understand how it works. I had created, with his permission, my own version of the triangle using mainstream Web 2.0 tools and utilities, and had been showcasing that in various presentations.
  3. As a Google Certified Teacher, I wanted to see if Google even HAD the tools to target each level of the taxonomy. I made the decision as to what level I assigned them to based on my years of experience with teachers and students and curriculum and assessment.
  4. Another of my goals was to introduce teachers to the "less common" tools in hopes they would explore them. I, too, found out so many cool things about the tools while working on this project. I have since adapted my presentation about the Digital Taxonomy to showcase the lesser-known Google tools that can be used at various levels.
I stand by my choices, and could have included the rationale for why I put things on the various levels. It truly was hard to do, and I put a lot of thought into it. However, I felt it was better if I stepped back and allowed the creative teacher minds to contribute to the spreadsheet of ideas both with their successful practices and ideas sparked by "Bloomin' Google".

In addition, there has been some chatter as to the Creative Commons license type I assigned to the information I created. I don't want alternate versions out there that are attributed to me. This one is mine,  and you can use it, but think about ways you can develop your own.

For instance, if you are a content area teacher, create a Digital Taxonomy using the online tools and sites relative to that content area.  (You are the creative content expert, not me!) Provide the justification for what you picked or provide a form for others in your content area to add to the information you present.

I hope this provides information in addition to the 140 character tweet that announced the project and the previous blog post!

Kathy

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Lenovo Thinkcentre M90z Contest (April 18-22)


I am part of the second round of the giveaway promotion of the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z. This promotion, administered by The Influential Network on behalf of Lenovo, has people in various jobs create a contest to support their area of expertise. Each giveaway is run for 5 days and, once it is closed, a single winner from each contest is chosen to receive a ThinkCentre M90z from those who participate in the contest.

There are a few of us in the educational technology field participating in the giveways, and, since one of the participants has his contest running first and had the same idea as I did, I am going to change my parameters. Richard Byrne will be gathering the information I was interested in and there is no reason to have it duplicated.

I posted a blog entry about my initial impression of the Thinkcentre M90z here a few months ago. You might want to read it and read up on this great new machine!

My contest runs from April 18, 2011 at 6am (UTC -4:00) until April 22, 2011 at 7pm (UTC -4:00). The winner will be chosen randomly and announced on this site at 8pm (UTC -4:00). My contest will be open to anyone in education (whether practicing teachers, undergrad or graduate education students, or educational consultants) and will ask participants to contribute an online resource that works well (and is pedagogically-sound) using the touchscreen of the Lenovo.

Our students are very "into" touchscreens with the influx of tablets into schools and their own personal lives. I have seen young children try to use a desktop computer's screen as a touchscreen, and, of course, it does not work!

However, this model of the Lenovo Thinkcentre M90z DOES have a touchscreen, so I will be asking you to find some good resources to take advantage of that capability.

The link to my contest page is here. Below, you will also find links to all of the others who are participating in this giveaway and the dates of their contests (and you will find some really cool new blogs to follow, too!)

Update April 18, 2011: Link to my contest page!

Lenovo M90z Giveaway Participants

Site Start End Date
Free Tech 4 TeachersApr 14 Apr 18
Ilja Coolen \ ICSSApr 15 Apr 19
Physician MomApr 16 Apr 20
Scrubd InApr 17 Apr 21
Kathy Schrock's KaffeeklatschApr 18 Apr 22
Steve Harg
adon.com
Apr 19 Apr 23
Box of TricksApr 21 Apr 25
Clinton Fitch.comApr 22 Apr 26
Around the CornerApr 23 Apr 27
Tech Savvy EdApr 25 Apr 29
Small Biz TechnologyApr 26 Apr 30
Ablet FactoryApr 27 May 1
Click NewzApr 28 May 2
Geekazine Apr 29 May 3
21st Century Education TechnologyApr 30 May 4
A GeekyMomma's BlogMay 1 May 5
Marsha Collier's MusingsMay 2 May 6
VA NetworkingMay 3 May 7
Your Virtual AssistantMay 4 May 8
Jake Ludington's Media BlabMay 5 May 9
Mobile PC WorldMay 6 May 10
Dangerously IrrelevantMay 7 May 11
Bud the TeacherMay 8 May 12
KikolaniMay 9 May 13
Geeks To GoMay 10 May 14
Chad Lehman.comMay 11 May 15