Gotta Keep Reading – Ocoee Middle School

I know there are some who don’t like videos like these, but I’d have to say this is pretty fly!  I like it! 

Hokanson’s American History

I have been thinking about ways to entice the old guard into the digital world in a meaningful way that gets them to look at their strategies for teaching in a new light.  As I’ve contemplated this challenge I have tried to take a list of benchmarks (I know, I know!!!) as a baseline to build an online course (based on an open courseware approach).

In a matter of roughly five hours I have created the following framework for a project-based learning approach.  The projects/assessments are not there specifically as I would have students piece that together based on their needs (see student resources).  It is a work in progress, but I am considering some sort of professional development that follows this approach.

Hokanson’s American History

Thanks Miss Parsons…

My high school typing teacher recently passed away.  Miss Parsons taught me to type way back during the 1982-83 school year.  I’m still typing thanks to her!  Some things we learn become so entrenched, so natural, so valuable, that we forget the person or persons that deserve all the thanks.  Miss Parsons deserves all the thanks for much of my success in life due to a simple skill that she patiently taught to countless students over the years.  I can honestly say I think of her often as I put together reports, presentations, type blog posts and the like.  She made it all possible, and many others benefit from what she taught me.  I will be forever grateful.  Thank you Miss Parsons.  Until we meet again.

Interesting Clip on a Teacher’s Morning…

I will say I grew up on a ranch and there are several professions that start early (and end late and should get more compensation for what they do), but I like how this clip captures what goes on in a teacher’s morning.  I look forward to seeing and learning more about this video project.

Time

2002

I have been, sporadically now, blogging for three years and have now moved into the fourth.  Time has passed very fast, and I have been wrapping my head around that ticking sound I can hear from our “bird clock.”  25 years ago to this very day I entered the MTC in Provo, Utah for a 3 week training that sent me off to the then Colorado Denver Mission.  I spent time in northwestern Kansas, in the mission office in Littleton, Colorado, in Grand Junction, Colorado, and finished off in Cheyenne, Wyoming with responsibilities over Kimball and Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  That all seems like ancient history to me and especially to my young children (Remember there are 5 children, and some of them aren’t young anymore – Hannah soon to be 18!).  Much has been accomplished in my adult life, but my youth set the very important stage, or foundation, for all that has come to pass.  Time is what allowed it all to happen.

2009

As a historian I am always amazed at the process of looking back and how age provides perspective.  It is difficult in our youth to grasp the past or find interest in it.  When we are young time is slow, especially on a warm summer day fishing beside a meandering stream.  Imagination plays a larger role in our lives as youngsters, and its too bad we lose some of that along the way, or at least forget to imagine.  I imagine great things ahead in my life and my family’s life.  I can see a future wrought with challenges, but I also have the perspective to realize that all things can be overcome.  That’s what I like about being here in my mid 40s.  As a doctor recently stated to me, “You have half your life ahead of you.”  Interesting to think about and quite exciting at the same time!  What will it bring?

I know that the choices I have made in the past are benefitting me greatly at this point in life.  Sure, there have been bumps in the road, but this old world deals those on a daily basis.  There will be many more choices along the way, and I hope to enjoy and reap what I sow.  My children are in the same boat, and my dream is that they feel somewhat the same way I do when they reach this point in their lives.  It’s nice to be a part of their growth, and I enjoy helping them speed through time.  It is fast, fun, and fantastic!

Waldenbooks CLOSED…

Our local Waldenbooks is closing, is closed, it’s going away, gone.  We are in a changing world where media has become available at the click of a mouse.  I can’t say I don’t understand why the store has closed.  Trends seem to make this inevitable especially in small town America.  So, what to do?

We still have a library if you want a good book, and the library card is cheap!  My kids love to go to the public library.  They also loved to go to Waldenbooks, but those days are over.  Our family has a Barnes & Noble account online, and we order books from Amazon, etc., but there is something about the tactile process of perusing a new book.  It gives you time to get the idea of what it is about, it stimulates your imagination as you look at the cover art, and now we will have to drive several miles to get that opportunity.  Sure there is a used bookstore in town; yes, there are new books at Walmart, but well, you know.

I grew up in a place where there was no bookstore.  The library was “the bookstore” and it was a 15 mile drive one way, but my Mom took us there, often.  I spent time in schools that had huge libraries compared to the middle school and elementary libraries my children attend today.  My home has more books, on shelves, available to my two youngest kids than they have at their elementary school.  So, what’s my point?

Waldenbooks has closed, and I think maybe the library might too!  Oh it won’t happen all at once, but the Kindle and other handheld devices are bringing a slow death to the printed word.  Is this bad?  If the power goes out, yes!  That will never happen:  Haiti.  Not every child has access to a Kindle nor can go to a Waldenbooks or Barnes & Noble, but for now they can go to the library.  As we know there are more than books, there are computers hooked to the internet, and there are people.  The greatest resource are the people.  Hopefully, if a kid lives 15 miles away they have a mom, dad, grandparent, someone who will take them there, to the library.  Hopefully.

The Quants: Formula for a Meltdown – WSJ.com

In an excerpt from his new book, The Quants, Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson shows how a brilliant new breed of mathematicians and computer scientists nearly destroyed Wall Street.

Also, read the Wall Street Journal Article:  “The Minds Behind the Meltdown“

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An Introduction to Technology Integration | Edutopia

“Using technology, students monitor their own musical and athletic activities and analyze the data and feedback to improve their performance.”

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WiMAX for School and the Last Mile?

What is WiMAX?  Well, the following video from CES somewhat tells you:

The last mile is a challenge when it comes to providing connectivity to students beyond school and in rural areas.  WiMAX is a solution.

It really is so much more, and I will be sharing more about WiMAX as I gain experience with it!  Stay tuned!

How WiMAX works?

Intel’s WiMax info

Diigo Links…

Diigo Elementary Level Links

Diigo Secondary Level Links

What is Diigo?

Why I Deleted Several Social Networking Subscriptions…

The final day of 2009 brought me to a point I had been contemplating for several weeks:  What social networking sites should I no longer use?  I considered using suicidemachine.org to delete my accounts, but it would have had me join another social network to share why I “commited internet suicide.”  No thanks!  I began with MySpace, long ago unused and a dinosaur in the short history of social networking.  FriendFeed, MyLife (formerly Reunion I believe), and Classmates were next.  I joined the “class reunion” sites long ago before things like MySpace and Facebook took over that niche.  There were others, but I now thought of doing away with Facebook and Twitter; however, Twitter stayed as it has become a great professional tool, and I like the useful information I get from those that I follow (Thanks to you all!).

Facebook was staring me in the eyes like a wounded animal (Believe me, I know the look!), and I thought of all the Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc. posts I would be missing and that brought me to my senses:  I discontinued my account with Facebook!  I was free!!!  I had time on my hands, and I got things done in record time.  All I really had to check now was Twitter, and that could rack up responses in between real life as I hardly have anyone I follow anyway!  I played Apples to Apples with my kids, went to occupational therapy, read a book, researched and ordered a new piece of art, watched several great bowl games, and even shared a lengthy conversation with my wife!  What a refreshing chain of events.

Now, I know I could find ways to optimize my use of social networking sites; however, most people don’t really care what I say anyway, and I’ve tired of “listening” to those that “talk” all the time.  I have so many other things to do I honestly don’t have time to spend on much of this network that supposedly draws us together and breaks down walls.  I think it has become mostly a series of people on soap boxes, with everyone shouting at the same time, and no one is really listening, or cares to listen (Twitter is a perfect example of that, and I will have to filter my list better!).  Many talk of the “conversation,” but generally those that do are carrying it on with themselves or with a select few.  It’s tough to get in on these “conversations” that supposedly are taking place in the digital world.  I’d swear it’s like high school all over again!  You have to be in the right clique to get noticed, I left that behind 25 years ago, and I’ve got no desire to go back!  I’m 44 years old for heck’s sake!

With social networking tools I was in contact with former classmates from high school and college, sure I had family contacts, and even several of my former students in my friends list, but they have always been in/on my list, and they can find me if they really want too.  I have developed a web presence since the late ’90s, and I am out there for the finding.  I’ll still be using YouTube, Flickr, Ustream, and will continue this blog (almost at the 3 year anniversary!), and I plan to make myself available at my office during the work week and will welcome the opportunity to stop by and visit, in person, if anyone wants me too!  My home is yours, and I may be stopping by your house with cookies, my fishing pole, or even my mountain bike once I get up the nerve to ride again since breaking my arm.  I need human to human, face to face, smile to smile contact at this point in my life, and I am bound and determined to facilitate it!

The photo in this post is of my three boys and I on a fishing excursion over 3 years ago!  It seems like yesterday that we were together on that trip.  Time flies, and social networking can take us away from these people!  My Grandpa Hokanson and I used to fish almost everyday.  I’m talking EVERYDAY!  We fished in the middle of a western Wyoming winter catching whitefish by the hundreds, we fished in the summer with homemade rootbeer in our glass bottles catching cutthroat trout, we fished in the fall and listened to bull elk bugle in the mountains and hills right near the Salt River, or the Snake, or the Greys.  We also talked to each other, a lot:  a whole lot!  So much so that when he passed away  when I was 16 I didn’t have anyone else to really talk to because he was my guy, the one I trusted and confided in on a near daily basis.  I began to build a new, bigger network that included Farmville and Mafia Wars types but also encompassed an interesting bag of mixed nuts, if you will, over the years.  Most of those relationships were developed while in the same room or location.  This includes many of the people that were in my digital, social network.  The problem is, in that social network I still missed them.  You see, they weren’t really there, or at least they were only there in a limited number of characters.  Grandpa and I never limited our characters, and that was a really good thing.

Happy New Year everyone.  Stop by the place if you get a chance, or I’ll come over.  :-)

Netbooks: A Cost Effective Digital Learning Solution

The following is an article I posted on our district website detailing our recent netbook deployment.  North Platte Public Schools in North Platte, Nebraska has roughly 4200 students:  1 high school, 2 middle schools, and 10 elementary schools.

Netbooks: A Cost Effective Digital Learning Solution

by Neil Hokanson, Educational Technology Director North Platte Public Schools

December 21, 2009

During the fall of 2008, the North Platte Public School Technology Department began to evaluate netbooks as a digital device solution. Netbooks are small laptop computers (with 10 inch screens) that have all the computing power of a regular laptop without a DVD or CD drive. The cost is roughly 1/3 that of a regular laptop and much cheaper than a desktop computer. Best of all the devices are portable opening up use anywhere, anytime. Pilot projects were tried in the North Platte High School Science Department and at Adams Middle School to see how the devices held up and met the needs of teachers and students.

In the spring it was determined, from building level technology plans developed by teaching staff and administrators, that a netbook would be a priority solution to increasing the number of digital devices throughout the school district. Plans were made to identify the number of devices that the district could purchase within the parameters of the technology budget, along with identifying stimulus funding as an additional source, to get devices in the hands of students. Three deployments were developed and the technology department has been facilitating that process since the summer months.

The first deployment brought 150 HP mini devices to Madison Middle School in August. Staff and especially students have been using these learning tools in a variety of ways to provide students new methods and experiences in practice, research, notes, developing presentations, creating art, for communication via email, creating brochures, and photo editing. Furthermore, the initial deployment at Madison has enabled the sharing of a wealth of information concerning the deployment, maintenance, use, and overall value of netbook computing that now spans many schools in the district and benefits other schools as netbooks are deployed elsewhere.

After the Madison deployment, and following budget approval in September 2009 and a meeting with the school board technology subcommittee, the second deployment was started and has been recently completed. 300 netbooks were placed in North Platte High School, 150 at Adams Middle School, and 30 each were deployed to Eisenhower, Hall, Lake, and Osgood elementary schools. Older computers from the high school were redeployed to McDonald, Washington, Eisenhower, Hall, and Osgood to provide equity with a thin client classroom solution that was done in most of the other elementary schools last school year. Since the middle of December 2009, including existing digital devices (laptops and desktops), computing has gone from as much as 12:1 to at least 3:1 digital devices per student in many schools.

The third deployment is well under way and will bring 120 netbooks to Jefferson, 90 each to Lincoln, Washington, and Cody, and 60 of the devices will arrive at Buffalo in the coming weeks. By the end of the 2009-2010 school year there will be at least 3:1 computing, with Web 2.0 capable devices in every school in the district. Schools that are at 3:1 will be identified as “next in line” to receive any new devices in the future and a replacement cycle is now in place to keep digital devices updated and renewed over the coming years.

Netbooks have facilitated a cost effective solution for the North Platte Public Schools in getting as many updated digital devices in the hands of students that we can in an equitable, wise, and fiscally responsible manner. Along with an updated network and server backbone over the past couple of years, teachers and students are reaping the rewards of 21st Century digital learning right now in the North Platte Public Schools, and the future will build upon the use of these devices to increase learning, facilitate collaboration, break down walls by opening up connections to others outside the classroom, and by developing a thinking culture that will prepare our students to be successful in an ever changing world and global economy.

NPPSD Netbooks Slideshow!!!

6th Grade Concert – Adams Middle School Concert

6th Grade Concert:Adams Middle School Concert

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8th Grade Concert – November 5, 2009 Adams Middle School

8th Grade Concert – November 5, 2009 Adams Middle School Fall Concert

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NPHS Jazz Ensemble Concert 12/15/2009

NPHS Jazz Ensemble Concert 12/15/2009

more about “NPHS Jazz Ensemble Concert 12/15/2009“, posted with vodpod