Wes+Fryer-+Oklahoma

Hello! My name is Wesley Fryer, and I'm honored to be included in your workshop activities! (My Gizmo ID is wesfryer.) I taught in the [|Lubbock Public Schools] (Texas) for six years and spent five years at the [|Texas Tech College of Education] as the Director of Distance Learning and webmaster for the college. As a K-12 teacher was a high school teaching assistant, taught 4th grade, and was an elementary technology integration facilitator. For the past year I've served as the [|Director of Education Advocacy for AT&T in Oklahoma]. I've now lived in [|Edmond, Oklahoma] for a year! I've been very involved in technology integration since I started teaching in the mid 1990s, and I LOVE to learn and help others learn. I'm married and have 3 kids, ages 9, 7 and 3. You can learn more about me by checking out [|my blog and podcast] ("Moving at the Speed of Creativity"), reading [|my bio page], [|my vitae] (which I haven't updated in months unfortunately), or if you want to listen to something fun, check out [|the recorded podcast I made with my son this past weekend] about his first impressions of [|the free "Scratch" programming environment] from MIT. I also post [|lots of pictures to Flickr], but most of the images of my kids are hidden for family/friends only. (Those I've designated as "family/friends" in Flickr at this point!) All the workshop and presentation resources I share are available online at [|http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com].

One of the projects I'm involved with now that I'm VERY enthused about is the [|Oklahoma Digital Centennial Project]. I love listening to digital stories, creating them myself, and helping others do the same. We've been telling stories to each other and listening to stories since "the cave." With the digital tools now at our fingertips. the possibilities for safely sharing our voices with a global audience (on "the global stage") is staggering. [|UthTV] is one project that I like to share with others which embodies this power and potential. I also love the [|Global Voices Online blog]. I think most of us have barely begun to comprehend the implications of citizen journalism tools in the hands of "the people." These tools can be used well or poorly, and I think our job as educators in the 21st century is to help students and other learners we work with make GOOD choices with the tools we have now. This is a theme of my presentations on [|"safe digital social networking"] and [|"digital dialog"] which I share fairly frequently at conferences and other teacher professional development venues. My digital storytelling workshop and presentation resources are available [|here].

I'm a co-convener for the [|K-12 Online Conference] again this year, and am REALLY enthused about the communities of learning and support which continue to evolve through K12Online and other events and tools. If you want to know what I'm up to right now, check out [|my Twitter page]!

A couple more random facts about me: I'm ABD and need to write my dissertation for my PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. I'm working to finish that next year. I was a summer AFS Outdoor Skills Program exchange student to New Zealand in 1987. I've traveled to Turkey, Peru, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Canada, The Dominican Republic, Jamaica, The United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico. I'm an Eagle Scout. I have broken the sound barrier (flown supersonic) over the Atlantic Ocean in a F-111 Fighter/Bomber. I've voluntarily jumped out of a perfectly good airplane 5 times. I ardently believe in and support universal human rights. I'm a lifetime member of the National Geographic Society. I love making [|stop-motion movies with my kids]. I wrote a $1.3 million grant which permitted 2 of our local middle schools around Lubbock, Texas, to purchase laptop computers (iBooks) for all 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and teachers in their schools, along with lots of professional development as part of the [|Texas Technology Immersion Pilot Project]. I had the pleasure of meeting the amazing [|Sheryl-Nussbaum Beach] in person for the first time in March 2007 at the SITE conference in San Antonio. Our family has two golden retrievers, ages 11 and 6. Some day I want to have a house in the country, where I can build an enormous treehouse that is half as amazing as the one [|Kevin Honeycutt] and his son have built. :-)

If you have specific questions for me, feel free to edit this page and add your questions below, then I'll see them in advance of our "speed dating" activity on July 17th!