Hello, my name is Randy Rodgers. I have been in public education for 21 years, including 11 in the elementary and middle school levels, and was once even fortunate enough to be named district secondary teacher of the year. The past 10+ years have been out of the classroom & in the instructional technology field in Birdville ISD, in the enchanted suburbs northeast of Fort Worth. I recently loaded up the family and moved to south-central Texas to embark upon a new adventure as the Director of Digital Learning for Seguin Independent School District (Go, Mats!).
A lot has changed since I learned basic programming on a Commodore Pet back in the 80s. Unfortunately for a lot of students, many classrooms have changed very little in that time (or much, much longer). They are ready for us educators to get with the program and teach like we live–surrounded by and dependent upon technology. I am completely psyched by the unstable nature of technology! It is completely opposed to sitting still, and the changes that happen here affect everything else in our profession and beyond. That is why I do what I do–to help teachers keep up and see where they and their students fit in with all of this evolution occurring around them. Professionally, I have presented workshops and keynotes at TCEA regional and state conferences, CAST, and Jump, and have consulted on using Web 2.0 technologies in the curriculum. In my spare time, I am working on a PhD in educational technology, I go fishing whenever possible, and cheer on my kids in soccer, music, robotics, etc.
Need a Presenter/Speaker/Trainer?
I am very passionate about all of this, and I’d love to talk to your staff about it! If you wish to reach me about speaking or consulting (Web 2.0, creativity and innovation, 21st Century Skills, general technology integration), you may reach me via this blog, by email at randyrodgersits <at> gmail <dot> com, or through Google Voice, at 817-601-5585. I’ll do my best to motivate, entertain, stimulate change, and create a positive revolution where you are–you’ve been warned! Thank you for visiting, and don’t be a stranger!
Technorati Tags: web2.0 technology blogs wikis parents
What a forward-thinking educator!! Genius!!
Greetings from the DC area!
Thanks for the post on sketchcast. That is a very cool site. I am looking for animated-type ways to do technology lessons for our teachers and students. Do you have any other creative arts sites or projects? Also, are there site that have other people’s sketchcast work?
Thanks!
Ryan Osweiler
http://portermsblog.edublogs.org – Tech Osweiler Page!
Instructional Technologist
Woodbridge, VA
Ryan,
You might want to check out Kerpoof.com . It is a fun site for creating student artwork. Also, given the ages of your students, digital pics would be a great thing to explore. Picnik is a tremendous tool for editing images. Scrapblog is another good site. This one allows students to create visual blogs in the form of slideshows, including text, graphics, photos, and music. Hope this helps!
Is this the same Randy Rodgers who graduated Richland High School in 1986?
Hey, Teresa! It sure is. How are you?
My dearest techno-savvy Billy Crystal:
Champion:
While you have been chunking challenging chips for change, I have chuckled while the chalk churns. I choose to chime in on the chains, yet cheeky children in “ch…evys” constantly chant their cheesy chaff in my chamber chipping at my “ch…ivalry.” I’d rather be chasing chatter about this charter wich chu.
Cheerio!
Hi Randy, I came across your blog on the net. I had the opportunity to undertake some research on web 2.0 earlier this year and produced a directory of free web 2.0 tools for teachers. I thought you might be interested in having a look, there may be one or two sites new to you. It is a work in progress so still a few sites and categories to add.
The address is http://web2educationuk.wetpaint.com
Hey Randy,
For my organization’s website, I am writing a series of stories about good educational blogs for higher education educators (and students) to read. I was interested in yours. Would you mind if I pulled some quotes for the story? If not, I’ll make do without them! I’ll make sure to shoot you the link to the story if it’s published on our site so that you can see it!