John Costilla's Blog (116)

My TCEA Review

The theme for the 2009 TCEA convention in Austin was "Accelerate Technology," obviously a play on the racing industry. So it was off to the race track for me. As I made my way down the isles of the exhibit hall, it was less acceleration and more of the same — clickers and… Continue

Added by John Costilla on February 9, 2009 at 6:30am — 1 Comment

Live @ TCEA with Only a Mobile Phone

I will be headed to TCEA this morning to connect and meet up with friends and colleagues at the Texas education technology conference. Using my mobile phone and Qik, I will live feed and capture small segments and share here throughout the day. Feel free to join in or preview recorded sessions. I will also be sharing pics using Flickr and Twitter to post status updates. My goal is to see how much content can be captured all from the use of my mobile.

Links to… Continue

Added by John Costilla on February 4, 2009 at 6:45am — No Comments

15 Seconds of Fame

Using TwitterFox, I am able to get quick Twitter updates on my browser as they come across the twitter pipes. I came across this very short post from Chris Pirillo.

Curious as to how my avatar would appear in his video, I (… Continue

Added by John Costilla on January 29, 2009 at 10:46am — No Comments

Wisdom of Crowds in plain YouTube

James Surowiecki

Mr. Surowiecki gives a compelling talks about the power and collective wisdom of crowds. He believes we can arrive at superior decisions by aggregating our collective intelligence in groups.

Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter… Continue

Added by John Costilla on January 27, 2009 at 10:45pm — 2 Comments

Innovations @ CES 2009 in Review

So after a two week hiatus from my blogspot, I thought I would share my review of CES 2009. If you have never been to the CES show in Vegas, to say it is overwhelming would be an understatement. I met lots of interesting folks and even had an opportunity to take a quick photo with The King himself. CES is the largest conference in the… Continue

Added by John Costilla on January 21, 2009 at 12:34pm — No Comments

Disrupting Class Outside the Classroom

Probably out of context from the entire article, I read this excerpt from the following post: The Role of Educational Leaders in Implementing Web 2.0 from… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 30, 2008 at 9:37am — No Comments

Share your great writing tips

Writing teachers can turn their favorite teaching tricks into gold in a contest aimed at gathering best practices for teaching writing in the classroom. The contest rewards the best ideas submitted by teachers as judged by their peers. Now through January 1, 2009, teachers who submit tips at http://contest.thewritingteacher.… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 17, 2008 at 7:48am — No Comments

Building Personal Brand

"Interactions + Feelings = Brand"

Products are brands, Celebrities are brands and even ordinary people are building their own brand with Web 2.0. Influence and interactions can catapult your brand. David Armano provides a very practical overview of building your own personal brand leveraging social media.

5 Tips for Branding… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 17, 2008 at 7:23am — No Comments

Preferred Student Communication Tools

I've discovered this information first hand when I first turned on text messaging on my kid's cell phones. My son, a freshman in high school, managed to rack up 3,500 text messages in one month, and that's having been grounded from his phone for two weeks that month. My daughter is much better, she still calls us, old timers, but chooses to text her friends in college.

Only 12% of students currently check email on their mobile, but eROI…

Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 15, 2008 at 7:08am — No Comments

My Podcast with Wes Fryer

A couple of weeks ago, I had an opportunity to attend a webinar in Oklahoma on Web 2.0 Collaboration and Communication. While I was there, I participated in a brief interview with Wes Fryer. Preview or download the podcast below to learn how this Web 2.0 organization that I am involved got started and where it is going.

A special thanks to… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 12, 2008 at 7:56am — 2 Comments

Tips for a better you.

A friend of mine gave me this and I wanted to share with you. These are great tips and thoughts to ponder as you go about your busy day. I have this posted on the side of my desk and try to take time to at least do a few a day. I've perfected #9.

Tips for a better you.

1. Take… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 9, 2008 at 7:54am — 2 Comments

My "Speedy" 2008

This weekend I spent some time gathering all the videos of events from this year. This is my family video yearbook in 60 seconds. Enjoy!

Merry… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 8, 2008 at 12:08pm — No Comments

You "gotta be HD kidding me" Tube

Unbelievable, beautiful, and amazing quality in HD.

This is the original YouTube video in "normal" quality.

This is the same video in HD quality.…

Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 5, 2008 at 1:50pm — No Comments

Blended Learning and Web 2.0

This past week, I was able to participate in an ISTE webinar titled “Dr. Z’s Creative Cookbook for Collaborative Communication.”

The started out with a lot of promise by sharing a PollEverywhere quiz about who had a… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 5, 2008 at 10:43am — No Comments

The PD Learning Curve

I think about the many times I attended professional development or training sessions as a teacher and how often much of it was done at the beginning of the year, during semester transitions or during staff development days throughout the year. Much like this image ironically titled "Creative Strategies for Professional Development," it was a lot of sit… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 3, 2008 at 7:46am — No Comments

Is YouTube the new Google?

Can a site like YouTube be the next Google? Will video be the prevailing format that folks… Continue

Added by John Costilla on December 2, 2008 at 7:34am — No Comments

Teachers have value.

I came upon this post @ Dumb Little Man. I love these posts because every now and then in the midst of searching for technology tips or Web 2.0 stuff you come across a little jewel like this. The question is simple, are you adding value? A few years ago, I would have wanted monetary value, better this or that, but as my kids get older and I look back at how often I… Continue

Added by John Costilla on November 25, 2008 at 8:23am — No Comments

Shift Happens again..?

I've seen versions of this over time and obviously what we see are the basic threads of rapid information growth, our place in the global technology world, and a sense of urgency to jump on board. Meanwhile jobs are being lost, more houses in foreclosure, companies are shutting down, bailouts are being requested by leading banks, car companies and the like. With more information and more access and more "connectedness," where are these new jobs? I'm excited about the promise of 2049, but what… Continue

Added by John Costilla on November 21, 2008 at 6:59am — No Comments

21st Century Learning

Web2.0 and the Future…

Continue

Added by John Costilla on November 20, 2008 at 8:41am — No Comments

A not so LIVELY Google.

So is this caused by a down economy with cut backs or is this a result of less than desirable traffic, revenue models and stickiness? Earlier, I made a post about "Free" services moving to different models including the embedding of ads inside the content and deeper into the application vs. traditional banner ads. That did not sit well with some… Continue

Added by John Costilla on November 20, 2008 at 8:22am — No Comments