Many of you are aware of Twitter and its primary purpose. If you don't, Twitter is a social networking tool that allows its users to send text based messages, up to 140 characters in length, to those who have signed up to receive these posts.

According to Wikipedia, below are some Enterprise uses for Twitter.

" Businesses such as Cisco Systems, Whole Foods Market, Dell, Zappos.com, and Comcast use Twitter to provide updates to customers. " The Los Angeles Fire Department put the technology to use during the October 2007 California wildfires.[6] " NASA used Twitter to break the news of discovery of what appeared to be water ice on Mars by the Phoenix Mars Lander. [7] [8] Other NASA projects, such as Space Shuttle missions and the International Space Station, also provide updates via Twitter. " News outlets such as CNN and the BBC have also started using Twitter to disseminate breaking news or provide information feeds for sporting events.[9] " Several 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns use Twitter as a publicity mechanism, including that of Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama.[10]. The Nader/Gonzalez campaign uses Twitter and Google Maps to show real-time updates of their ballot access teams across the country.[11] " The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Engineering is using Twitter to relay information to students.[12]

It would be interesting to see how schools could use such devices to engage and instruct students. Could schools relay messages to its students for important messages or for important updates? What about reminders about school related events and deadlines? What about the individual classroom teacher that provides "tweets" (Twitter messages) to students as prompts for future discussion or simple classroom reminders? What do you think? Looking for anyone with Twitter experience to share how they feel it could be used in education.

Please share your comments.......

Many local Charlottesville residents who have access to cable are familiar with the CATEC Guest Lecture Series that we show through Public Access, Channel 14. These are speakers that come to CATEC and talk to our students about career paths, opportunities, and the like. We've filmed and edited around a dozen of these sessions that focus on particular career clusters.

Next year we are expanding this series through a different medium. Beginning in the fall we are creating a "Speaker a Day" that will be posted on our web site for our students and web viewers to see. These 15 minute presentations are designed to give brief overviews, speeches, or lessons that pertain to career and life development for our high school students. With 180 days in the school year, we are striving for 180 presenters to shed insightful information for our students.

Each presentation will be filmed in the morning from 8:30-10am with the use of a flip-video and will be posted through YouTube with a link on our web site for others to view. Each video will remain up for one week on our main web page and then moved into our electronic library and categorized for future viewing.

This type of exposure is great for the businesses and our students.

We are signing up speakers now. Email Darah Bonham at dbonham@k12albemarle.org to sign up for your 15 minutes of fame for next year.

I had the pleasure of attending the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council Awards last Thursday evening. It was great to see such a wide variety of business and technology leaders mixed with those representing high academia in the audience. I was impressed by the synergy of the two groups who have joined together to make this partnership seem like a natural fit. It was also comforting to listen to the stories of the Innovation Awards Finalists and their drive to achieve success-however it be defined.

The Red Apple Awards specifically caught my attention as it recognizes the educator in K-12 that best utilizes technology in the classroom that benefits student learning. Melanie Dusci (Henley Middle School), Christine Esposito (Upper Walker Elementary), Donna Shifflett (Ruckersville Elementary School), and Beth White (Western Albemarle HS) are all to be commended for their work and wiliness to "push the envelope" forward to assist with student engagement, learning and the use of technology. Beth White won the recognition which included a check for $2,500 in her name.

I believe that technology, innovative practices, entrepreneurship all speak to the themes that we should be promoting within our schools today. The ownership and empowerment it provides to our students can be immeasurable. I applaud the CBIC group for their efforts in organizing this event and I look forward to collaborative opportunities with CATEC that will benefit our students in the future.

We've discussed in previous posts of the power of technology and how schools can use various mediums to assist with student engagement and student learning. While most schools/classes take advantage of accessing information on the web, schools are reluctant to "broadcast" on the internet for a number of reasons-many legitimate.

"You don't know what you don't know" is a common phrase used to describe the inability to assimilate a new experience with past experiences. I use this often to frame how we make our instruction at the school relevant to a teenager based on their own past experiences. This same phrase can be used for teachers as well and our approach towards technology. We don't know the impact of collaboration and production on the web until we actually experience it. Here's an example of what I mean.

Last Friday, CATEC sponsored its first annual Business Partnership Luncheon. Part of the event included the induction of four members into our newly created CATEC Wall of Fame. Family members of the inductees were invited to attend. Using a Flipvideo, we filmed each of the introductions to the presentations and posted them on our web site www.catec.org while linking the video to YouTube. One of our recipients was Lance Van de Castle, a longtime teacher and supporter of CATEC who passed away last March in an automobile accident. While his wife was there to accept the recognition on his behalf, his immediate family members were not and , in fact, weren't even aware of the award being presented. (our own fault). That was until the YouTube posting. Two days after the original posting of the presentation, Lance's father, who is currently in Australia, gets an email indicating that someone had come across the video and wanted to share it with him. How the person came across the video is one thing, but the sheer power of the medium, in this case YouTube, to communicate to someone half across the globe is another.

While the instantaneous communication of this type of communication isn't surprising, it still opens our eyes to the impact that a medium, in this case YouTube, has on bringing people and ideas together. I believe that this is but another example of how educators must continue the pursuits of using resources beyond the classroom walls, in a safe, protective manner, to open up more opportunities for our students with the ability to learn, share and collaborate.