Beta testing period begins!

We have officially launched the Salty Chip! We found a few minor bugs in the beginning, but the beta testing period is now underway – likely for the duration of the month of February. Those of you who are visiting during this period will notice a link at the bottom of the page that invites you to report any bugs that you find.

I have started uploading some ‘chips’ to start each of the categories, and have invited some interested early adopters to do the same. In the coming weeks, I will open it up to my preservice students who have been eager to upload their lesson and unit plans. I have suggested that when they do, they consider uploading them to the network both as a whole unit plan (and several are in ppt since they have shared them with their colleagues) but also in the individual component plans as they can be searched separately and used with various other units. You will notice that in a short sample that I have posted (Speak – an introduction to a multimedia novel unit) I put a header on the document inviting people to download, modify, use, redesign and then upload their new and improved version of the lesson idea. It is the willingness to share our planning, our emerging understandings, our successes and our flops. Ultimately, our practice will improve the experiences of our students – which is our goal. Once we have a good start here, we’ll promote the site broadly – through channels that invite students into the discussion as well. We will soon be linking to ‘Creative Commons’ licensing and integrating ways for contributors to indicate that licensing option on their work.

To learn more about this, check out the clear slideshare presentation developed by the very clever educator, Rodd Lucier.