Technologies for Collaboration and Learning

Wondering who to follow on Twitter

2011-03-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

The DPI has gotten into the Twitter arena:

DPI's main Twitter feed shares major news as well as DPI-ConnectEd stories and retweets from other DPI feeds
State Superintendent Tony Evers
Social Studies
Personal Financial Literacy
BadgerLink

Mobile Learning

2011-03-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

We won't be discussing this in this class, but this article from eSchool, Mobile Learning: Not Just Laptops Anymore, looks at the growth in student owned mobile devices. Near the end of the article the author discusses two different ways of controlling access through these devices that has some bearing on our discussion of Internet Safety.

Second Life and education

2011-02-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

Immersive environments and simulations (SIMS 2) are gaining popularity in education. ISTE has provided a list of some educational examples of SL uses.

Also check out the Serious Virtual Worlds Report for as description of "real capability to offer very practical engagement and social interactions with realistic contexts, to offer conceptual experimentation and to create role plays that facilitate for example different interpretations of historical events and more textured use of information (eg overlay of data and images) to scaffold learning."

Social Media and Wisconsin Politics

2011-02-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

As we talk about the use of social media in class, there are real world examples of its use in Wisconsin politics today. The Daily PAge (from the Isthmus weekly paper) offers a guide to social media campaigns against the governor's current agenda (http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32233). This is just one side of the issue. I'm sure there are resources presenting the opposing viewpoint, too. Channel 3000 also provides an overview of social media on the protests. Think about how resources like this could be used to analyze the current situation and different viewpoints with students. As an example of the traffic, check out the Social Meteor tracking of tweets for the first week.

You may also find the PBS lesson plan on Social Media and Non-Violent Protest useful this week.

Use of Images on the Web

2011-02-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

In some of the discussions about unit plans, the question came up about using images on the web and copyright. If you get an image off a webpage, from Google Images or from Flickr, there is a good chance it is copyrighted. Anytime you see the copyright symbol or a note that all rights are reserved, you can't just take that image and put it on your webpage, even if you site it. The best way to be safe is to use images that are either clipart and you have rights to use them or ones that have an appropriate Creative Commons license. This is a new conception of copyright where the creator keeps certain rights and allows users specified uses of their intellectual property. You can look for images (and videos and other resources) with this license by going to http://search.creativecommons.org. For more information on how this works, see Get Creative.

Website Evaluation

2011-02-20T10:46:00.000-08:00

Alan November's reading sparked a discussion on web evaluation. While it is a vital skill to teach, many teaches don't feel they have the skills themselves in web evaluation. The school librarian can be a valuable research in teaching these skills. There are also a wide range of resources available. Here are a few resources you might want to check out.

Widener University Web Evaluation Tutorial
ALA's
700+ Great Sites Evaluation Criteria
The ABCs of Web Evaluation
Evaluation Criteria
(http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html): a checklist on accuracy,
authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage with links to examples
CyberGuides (Karen McLachlan)
Hoax?
Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!
Thinking
Critically about Web2.0 and Beyond (UCLA)
Evaluating
Information found on the Internet (John's Hopkins University)
Berkeley's
Evaluating Web Pages (tutorial)
The Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly
For Kids

Website
Investigator
- a site for young elementary children
WebMAC
Junior - elementary level
WebMAC
Middle - middle school
WebMAC
Senior - high school
Kathy Schrock's
Guide for Educators: Critical Evaluation Surveys

Bogus web pages (use to demonstrate critical evaluation of web resources)

Curiosity and Questioning

2011-02-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Much of what November and Warlick talk about relate to both what and how we teach our students. As several people have noted in their posts, student questioning and ownership of their own learning are vital to creating learners who are curious and use their skills outside the classroom. The real question is how to we motivate students to want to question and develop / maintain a sense of curiosity. Young students have this naturally, and it doesn't disappear as they grow older but instead often goes underground during school hours because it isn't what is expected in school. When teachers feel pushed to teach for test performance, the questioning student can be more of a distraction than a welcome addition to the class. How can we meet the requirements put on us and still develop these all important 21st century skills, building on students' natural curiosity?

Several people provided examples of simulations that they are using in their classrooms that allow students to develop questions, test out hypotheses, fail, and learn new concepts. These are definitely a step in the right direction. Others mentioned projects where students were allowed to follow personal interests. How do we build time in the curriculum to allow students to fumble around as they search for questions of interest to them? How do we help them explore and then focus their research? Consider that the school librarian is someone who can help as you do this with your students.

Finally, look at the work done with immersive environments, simulations and gaming in education. The Games, Learning and Society program at UW-Madison is a leader in this area and has been doing some exciting work. Eica and Rick Halverson, Constance Steinkuehler, Kurt Squire, Elisabeth Hayes (Arizona) and James Gee (Arizona) are faculty members associated with this program. Check for the GLS Conference, generally in June at UW-Madison.

Zotero

2011-02-13T11:53:00.000-08:00

I recently started using Zotero which to me is useful for managing citations, bookmarks and notes. I like the fact that you can combine books, articles, blog posts, webpages, newspaper articles, etc. all in one list with the ability to add standalone notes that you then put into folders as well as tagging. It's a little like mixing delicious and RefWorks. I also like that it, too, appears in the lower corner of my web browser, so it is always available. Andrew mentioned it in a comment, too, so he would be a reference if you want to know more.

The Zotero Quick Start Guide is a place to go for more info and a brief video.

Switching between Delicious and Diigo

2011-02-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

You can actually import bookmarks from one service into another one. Go to this link: http://www.diigo.com/import_all/prepare?service=Delicious

I also found these instructions if you want to use both (Diigo’s “Save to delicious” feature (found under Tools once you login) allows you to simultaneously add your new bookmarks to delicious.).

Go to the Diigo site for more information on using Diigo on Smartphones and Ipads as well as Diigo for Education where you can create class accounts: http://www.diigo.com/education.

Delicious also has apps for iPhones and Ipads to track your bookmarks. Both can also be added as gadgets in iGoogle.

Lots of options out there.

Using Google in High Schools

2011-02-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

Buffy Hamilton, librarian of Creekview High School in Georgia, has develop pages for various classes using technology tools for research. Check out her guide on Google for videos you might use to help your students use these tools. Other guides show the uses of Twitter, RSS feeds, wikis, etc. in student research.

Using GoogleDocs on your mobile device

2011-02-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

On the iPhone, GoDocs is really what you want to view and edit GoogleDocs. I think it costs about $4.99. I'm not sure about Android apps for GoogleDocs but I'm sure there is one either available or in the works.

If you go to GoogleDocs help, there is a section on using GoogleDocs on a mobile device (http://docs.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=15141). It shows what it looks like on a Mobile device and how to use it for editing.

Creating your PLN

2011-02-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

How do we track our personal learning networks? As you are gathering links to blogs and wikis and people who are forming your own professional learning community, how do you keep it all organized? There is no one right way to do this. Some people use an organizing tool like their own wiki to link to other resources of use to them. I personally like my iGoogle page where I have an RSS reader that shows my favorite blog feeds, a Twitter gadget where I can follow Twitter, a Delicious gadget that shows my delicious bookmarks, a Flickr gadget that shows my pictures, my email, etc. Other "start pages" like Yahoo can do this, but NetVibes, iGoogle and PageFlakes are particularly good as organizers. Some people add links to the sides of their blogs for other blogs and sites they find useful. Figure out what works for you and begin to build your PLN. Remember, you can always get rid of things that prove to be off target or lose their usefulness.

Blogger and other communication tools

2011-01-28T14:15:00.001-08:00

Have you noticed that some of the templates in Blogger have a short panel of icons for other social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook as well as email and Blogger itself? This allows you to tie together different methods of communication and collaborating. Try sharing a particularly interesting post to Facebook (or Twitter when we get to it a little later). Do you think this would be useful in a school setting?

Have you also noticed that some blogs appear to elicit more comments than others? What makes you want to read and contribute to a blog (your classmates' or others')? Have you commented on the blog of someone you don't know? How woud you feel if you got comments from non-classmates? How do you think your students would feel if they got comments from someone outside the school?

Smartboards and collaboration / communication

2011-01-28T14:07:00.000-08:00

Several people mentioned that they got Smartboards or some type of interactive whiteboard in their classroom. These seem to be all the rage right now. I'm interested in how they are used for student collaboration and learning beyond just presenting information or short "quizzes" using some of the notebook features. I've been reading the research on IWB and Marzano's study (Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards, Educational Leadership; Nov2009, Vol. 67 Issue 3, p80-82, 3p) shows they have an impact on student achievement only if learner-response devices are used with them, graphics are used to represent information, or they are used to present information in an unusual context to reinforce learning.

Have you seen them used as tools for collaboration and communication?

Using Voice Thread

2011-01-22T08:42:00.001-08:00

This week we shared some ideas using VoiceThread. I created a short video with some questions and people in the class responded either in text format or audio format. Here are some questions it raised for me. What do you think?

Did you prefer contributing by text or audio? (No one tried video contribution)

How would your students react to this way to share their ideas?

Does it encourage conversation or just serial posts? How could you use it to develop a dialog?

Is there a need to have someone go back and summarize the conversation at the end of the week?

Did you find it useful to have pictures of contributors?

What skills are you learning through your own online learning experience? What skills are important to focus on if we want students to guide their own learning and work online independently and collaboratively?

Problem Solving in Course

2011-01-17T16:30:00.000-08:00

In this course, you will be immersed in a range of technologies. You may find that you are uncertain and uncomfortable because many of you are working with new technologies and skills that you have not used before. most of use are comfortable with email, word processing, creating presentations, and searching in Google, but this class will ask you to use some of the web 2.0 tools for collaboration and sharing knowledge creation. There may be some of you who call yourselves digital natives but most of us will be digital immigrants for whom these are new.

One of the skills you'll need to use in this class is problem solving and learning when and who to ask for help. Try out new things on your own first, but please feel free to ask your classmates, your students in school, your teenage children, others out there on the Internet and the instructor for help. Look at this as an adventure where you won't always feel in control.

You will also notice that this blog has been used in previous sections of this class, you reading back through old posts may be interesting for you.

Wisconsin Survey

2010-05-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

This email recently came from John Pederson on the wetech listserv (Wisconsin technology coordinators). Think about the data he presents and what it means for schools.

"Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, recently presented the keynote at our WiscNet Future Technologies Conference. In short, these folks do a ton of data collection about educational technology use in schools.

Julie presented two bits in particular that caught my eye.

1. When Wisconsin students were asked to describe their own level of proficiency with technology, only 21% self identified as being "advanced" in their technology use. I think we as adults often over estimate the abilities and attitudes regarding students and technology.

2. 28% of students Grades 3-5, 45% of students Grades 6-8, and 58% of students Grades 9-12 have their own laptop computers in Wisconsin. Chew on that a bit and consider what it tells you about how you should be thinking about your infrastructure over the next 5-10 years. Will you allow them? Should you provide them? Will this number increase as the costs drop or decrease as the number of mobile devices increases? What does this mean for your network? What are their parents expectations? Is it fair? Does being fair matter?"

-----
John Pederson
Educational Technology Liasion - WiscNet
johnpederson@wiscnet.net
http://wire.wiscnet.net

Twitter to Keep Parents Updated

2010-05-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

I found this example last year of Twitter used in an elementary classroom. The kids share with their parents.

Engaging People via Twitter

2010-05-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

Do you want more followers on Twitter? Do you want to engage in real conversations? Read Cindy King's 12 Tips to Engage People on Twitter.

Social Communication

2010-05-03T13:53:00.001-07:00

Now that you have experienced Twitter, you may find it interesting to read Aliza Sherman's post, How Social Media is Affecting the Way We Speak and Write. Are we more concise? Do you use different spellings? Are we more revealing?

Digital Pencil

2010-04-27T12:18:00.001-07:00

Here's an elementary school application called Digital Pencil that is being used in Grandview Elementary School "to support the writing process -- draft, revised draft, edited draft to a published piece -- allowing students and teachers to work on and review student writing from any computer which has access to the internet." We often talk about things that are used in the secondary schools, but this looks like something that could be used at the elementary level. Class subscriptions are available. Also look at some of the links along the side for other tools recommended.

Encouraging people to comment on your blog

2010-04-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that some people are getting more comments on their blogs than others. One reason may be that they post earlier in the week, so there is something to read and comment on, but it may also be that they offer a new way of looking at things, a practical example that others can relate to, or additional information about the topic. Think about how you can make your blog both a reflection of what you are thinking and something interesting for others to read and comment on.

Teachers and Students Using Social Networking

2010-04-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

Doug Johnson did part of a webinar on Constructing New Learning Landscapes and talked about essential conditions. One thing he promoted was the need for networking guidelines for teachers, especially as many of us did not grow up in a networked environment. Take a look at Mankato School District's proposed guidelines for teachers.

Changes to GoogleDocs

2010-04-13T16:59:00.000-07:00

If you liked GoogleDocs when you created your project last week, check out the improvements they are making in a post from TechSpots.

Google for Teachers

2010-04-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

Joyce Valenza, in her blog NeverEnding Search, shared links to a free document called Google for Teachers. It doesn't focus on common uses of GoogleDocs, but instead looks at some of the less well-known tools and different ways to use the common ones.

Webinars this week

2010-04-12T06:47:00.000-07:00

As you build your personal learning network, you'll find that webinars are a good way to get ideas on who to use these technologies in teaching and learning. Classroom 2.0 and The Future of Education provide a series of weekly webinars on a rage of topics conducted by people from all over the world. Sometimes it is a famous author like Daniel Pink or Ken Robinson talking about their work. Other times it is practitioners sharing their experiences. Sometimes you learn as much from the chat backchannel going on during the presentation. The entire schedule can be found at http://www.learncentral.tv/.

In light of our recent discussions, you might want to check out these:

Tuesday, April 13 3pm CDT (US) :
MSP2 SERIES: “Google Apps for Educators" with Rachel Lacy.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/58400

Wednesday, April 14 2pm CDT (US):
EDUCATION FOR A DIGITAL WORLD: “Adventures in Virtual Collaborative Authoring” with
Sandy Hirtz and Dr. Kevin Kelly.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/65716

Wednesday, April 14 2:30pm CDT (US):
EDUCATION FOR A DIGITAL WORLD: “Immersive Gameworlds for World-Wide Change” with
Natasha Boskic. Video and computer games in the context of contemporary educational practice.
http://www.learncentral.org/event/65718

All you do is go to the link a few minutes early, download the software and listen in. For most of them, you can ask questions either through the chat or with a mic at the end.

Moving forward from where we are

2010-04-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

There has been lots of discussion this week about what we'd like to do if we could access some of these tools in our schools. David Warlick in a post on his 2 Cents Worth Blog called It Was Good Enough for Me poses a series of questions to consider and actions to take, focusing on what we want children to learn and the relevant and compelling learning experiences we want to create for them not the technology for technology's sake. What do you want our dream classroom to look like and why?

Digital Media and Schooling

2010-04-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

In an interview with Henry Jenkins, Rich Halverson from UW-Madison talk about his new book, Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America where he examines the incompatibilities between schooling and technology. In the interview Halverson said, "Digital media provides a path to personalizing and customizing learning that is often at odds with the batch processing model of, especially, K-12 schooling. This has meant that digitally literate young people have come to understand that there are at least two living channels for learning - 1) an institutional channel, and 2) a peer-driven, interest-driven, and unregulated digital media channel." Think about what this might mean for how students choose to learn.

Check out the first part and part two of the interview or look for the book.

Value of a Personal Learning Network

2010-04-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

David Warlick in his 2 cents Worth Blog recently talked about The Teaching Profession. Think about the conditions he suggests help define what a teacher is and does in this technology-rich, information-driven, and rapidly changing world as you are developing your personal learning network and thinking about the types of learning that can take place using the tools we are testing out in this class.

Issues of Internet Safety

2010-04-01T08:12:00.001-07:00

The Wisconsin DPI recently announced a series of meetings around the state called Wisconsin Project Safe Childhood: Training for Educators and School Liaison Offices on April 21, 26 and May 12. It is sponsored by the U.S. Attorneys Office, the Dept. of Justice and DPI. I believe they have done a similar session in the past.

In response to the announcement, Keith Schroeder (no relation), a school librarian from Howard Suamico and a former WEMTA Board member, issues this response. He raises a number of important issues to consider if you choose to go to the session. I'd also highly recommend looking at the work of Nancy Willard and Justin Patchin. Dr. Patchin spoke at the recent DPI meetings for librarians and tech coordinators and offered a well-documented, thoughtful view of cyberbullying. Keith has given me permission to share this posting with you.

From Keith (March 31, 2010):

While I think the combined DPI and AG presentations have been a step in the right direction (see email below), I think it’s good to understand that much of the information and statistics out there are based on misinformation (or disinformation as Nancy puts it) that has been circulating for years. Based on solid research and statistics, Nancy Willard (nationally from the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use http://www.cyberbully.org/ ) and Justin W. Patchin (locally being Co-Director, Cyberbullying Research Center Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Department of Political Science University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire http://www.cyberbullying.us/ ) and others have been saying that a fear based approach to internet safety education does not work. Based on information on the Wisconsin AG website I am concerned that much of this presentation will be fear based and want to make sure you access some of these other sources of accurate information, if you haven’t already.

Here’s a bit of background taken from various sources relying heavily on information from Nancy Willard from CSRIU:

For the last decade, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the state Attorneys General have been providing disinformation (Nancy’s word) or "half-truths" about the risk associated with online predators. Nancy believes that NCMEC is the source of the disinformation. As the leading research center in this area, the Crimes Against Children Research Center, has stated: "The publicity about online “predators” who prey on naive children using trickery and violence is largely inaccurate."

The inaccuracies include the statement, which is in the Wisconsin AG's public service announcement, that "one in seven children will be solicited by a sexual predator." The actual study, by CACRC, asked teens whether they had received unwanted communications of a sexual nature - something that happens with frequency in high schools. Only 8% of these communications came from older adults. The remainder was received from teens and young adults. The teens who received these communications responded effectively. The vast majority reported no distress.

Other frequent disinformation presented is that this is a major area of risk, that predators frequently engage in deception - pretending to be other teens - and that they are tracking teens down based on personal contact information they have posted online and abducting them. The actual research demonstrates that arrests for online predation accounted for just 1% of all arrests for the sexual abuse of minors, just over 600 arrests in 2006 - a concern, yes, but compare this concern to the estimated 100,000 teens who become involved in sexual trafficking every year. The teens, who present many other risk factors, meet with these abusers knowing they are adults and intending to engage in sex - statutory rape. Additionally, risk prevention professionals know that the "scare tactics" approach to risk prevention is entirely ineffective.

A recent study by the FCC found that 24% of people with and 46% of people without broadband access "strongly agree" the Internet is too dangerous for children. This high degree of fear, which many of the nation's top researchers and risk prevention professionals believe is grounded in the disinformation about online predators, is a major factor that is preventing schools from shifting to the 21st century educational environment enriched with interactive technologies. “Trying to prepare students for their future without these technologies in school is like trying to teach a child to swim without a swimming pool” quoting Nancy Willard from a recent presentation for a grad class and also from her website. The Project Tomorrow Speak Up http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/ research has found that students report that after their schools receive "Internet safety instruction" most of which is being provided by organizations that are presenting this kind of disinformation, the teachers restrict their Internet access. Project Tomorrow believes that unwarranted fear about the Internet is a major barrier to the use of the Internet in schools.

Thus, based on an assessment of the language included in the announcement (see below) of these summits and the information on the Wisconsin State Attorney General's site, I believe there is a possibility that this presentation will include this same kind of approach leading to the same results in our schools. As I said Justin Patchin and Nancy Willard are highly credible in the area of cyberbullying. Some great current statistics and resources are available from Justin Patchin’s website http://www.cyberbullying.us/research.php and Nancy Willard has a great handout on “technopanic” that can be found here: http://www.cyberbully.org/documents/Techno-Panic_002.pdf The report outlines the commonly found disinformation - or "half truths."

I am not an expert, but have merely given you some information on the disinformation (as Nancy calls it) out there to help you to better understand the issue. I know the goal of the AG is to keep kids safe, just like it is our goal. I don’t feel, though, we should rely on bending the facts to accomplish that goal nor do I feel that we should rely on a fear based curriculum to accomplish that goal. Internet safety education, including a social media and bullying curriculum is vital to keeping our kids safe online! I am very glad that our DPI sees the importance of this and is offering this forum. I encourage you to attend but to also take the time to check out some of the resources that I’ve addressed before you attend. Take a look at your curriculum. Is it strictly fear based? The more we know, the better off and safer our students will be. Thank you, DPI and AG for helping to inform educators.

Keith

Keith Schroeder

Library Media Specialist

Bay Port High School

Howard-Suamico School District

2710 Lineville Road

Green Bay, WI 54313

Phone: 920-662-7157

eFax: 720-247-3332

Google Voice: 715-330-4618

Skype: keith.schroeder

Google Wave: keitschr@googlewave.com

email: keitschr@hssd.k12.wi.us

Use of NetVibes by Students

2010-03-27T07:07:00.001-07:00

Buffy Hamilton, a high school librarian in Georgia, has been co-teaching a class about using web2.0 tools with high school students. They have been working on a research project on veterans issues. You can follow her progress in the Media21 class through her blog (theunquietlibrarian) and on a recent post at ALA Learning. One of the things she has students doing is creating their own personal NetVibes pages as personal learning environments. A recent post on her blog provides examples of how students are using NetVibes through videos they have created.

In Their Own Words: Students Provide a Video Tour of Their Netvibes Learning Portals

WEMTA Wiki

2010-03-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

The Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association recently held their annual conference in the Wisconsin Dells. There were a range of presentations dealing with libraries and technologies in K-12 education. The conference wiki now includes handouts from a number of the presentations.

Benefits of Blogs in Education

2010-03-25T21:12:00.001-07:00

While blogging is a relatively new technology, there is already research that looks at benefits of using the tool in education. Here's just one example of some potential benefits. Check in ERIC or Academic Search in Badgerlink for many more.

Duffy, Peter and Bruns, Axel (2006) The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities. In Proceedings Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006, pages pp. 31-38

More Education Blogs

2010-03-25T21:07:00.001-07:00

Although this list is over a year and a half old at this point, it may still have some blogs of interest to you as a teacher.

50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers

Adding Widgets to Your Blog

2010-03-25T20:56:00.001-07:00

Once you get comfortable creating regular blog posts, you may want to add some widgets to your blog just the way you could add a search box along the side using the settings. Top 10 Widgets for Your Class Blog suggested widgets such as a calendar, a polling tool, a Voki, and ways to track traffic on your blog.

Real Uses of Real Web2.0 Tools

2010-03-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

CESA 5 has had EETT grants for the past several years. Over the past two years they have run professional development opportunities on Digital Tools and have shared many of the teachers' lesson plans on their website as well as a range of resources used in their project in year 2 and year 3.

Web 2.0 Technologies that Facilitate Collaboration

2010-03-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

Bud Talbot, a science teacher, talks about ways he uses web 2.0 technologies to extend the collaboration going on in his science classroom, e.g., group problem solving, group lab activities, pair-share, peer tutoring, jigsaw, and student teams/games. He uses a variety of technologies for:

extension of in-class group time
online group workspaces
sharing updates
sharing work with an outside audience
documentation

Teachers as Learners

2010-03-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

Will Richardson, in his blog webblog-ed, recently posted about new roles for teachers. He said, "We still need to be teachers, but kids need to see us learning at every turn, using traditional methods of experimentation as well as social technologies that more and more are going to be their personal classrooms." I think this provides a basis for what we are doing in this class - learning to create our own learning networks in a networked world. This can help us understand how our roles as teachers are moving toward facilitating conversations among our students and with people and resources outside the classroom. It is worth reading the entire post and the related links at Teachers as Master Learners.

Networked Learning Manifesto

2010-03-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

John Pederson, Educational Technology Liaison for WiscNet presented his ideas on how our learners and learning are changing, focusing on the idea that networks enable new learning, new conversations, and new relationships. His Networked Learning Manifesto offers ideas on why it is important for schools to facilitate communication among learners. Many of the web 2.0 tools we'll look at in this class can facilitate this conversation. The readings listed at the bottom of the page provide others who are discussing these ideas.

Curricular Uses of Web 2.0 Tools

2010-03-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of something that came across a blog I read regularly. You can download Terry Freedman's The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book for free. As you think about the technologies we discuss each week, this can provide some good examples of how they are currently being used by real teachers.

URL: http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/cgi-script/csIndex/csIndex.cgi?command=vf&id=82&f=QW1hemluZyBXZWIgMiBQcm9qZWN0cy5wZGY=

Does technology challenge what it means to be educated and how we educate our youth?

2010-03-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

There has been discussion about how web 2.0 tools can support education as well as how our students' changing relationship with technology impact how they learn best. Check out Crossroads in Education: Issues for Web 2.0, Social Software, and Digital Tools by Patricia Deubel (2008) for a discussion about how creativity and collaboration, personalization, and collective knowledge building will impact what we do in schools.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2008/04/16/crossroads-in-education-issues-for-web-20-social-software-and-digital-tools.aspx

Customizing your blog

2010-03-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

Once you have the concept of adding a post to your blog, you may want to customize your blog. You do this by selecting Customize in the upper right menu and adding Gadgets (small pieces of code that add features to your blog). The Blog Archive is generally there by default, but you might want to add things like

Useful Links (add your own links you go to often),
My Blog List (add other blogs you want to regularly go to),
Search This Blog (adds a search engine for your blog), and
Followers (allows others to follow your blog).

Blogs have become such powerful tools that there are libraries and teachers that are creating their entire websites just using a blogging tool like WordPress. In unit 2, we'll look at how you can turn your blog into a RSS Feed that allows you to put it on any webpage or in a RSS feed reader so that you don't have to come back to the blog to read the posts, but can have them come to you.

Putting links into blogs

2010-03-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

If you ever want to create an actual hyperlink in your blog, simply type the word or URL you want linked, highlight the words and then click on the little link symbol in the menu bar (It is right next to the T with the color blocks). Type the link in the box that comes up and you're good to go.

It will look something like this:

David Warlick's 2 Cents Worth Blog
Will Richardson's weblogg-ed Blog

Uncertainty and Problem Solving

2010-03-16T13:38:00.001-07:00

If you are reading this you managed to find your way to my blog for the class. In the first few weeks (and maybe even longer for some people), you'll find that you will often be uncertain and uncomfortable because many of you are working with new technologies and skills that you have not used before. We've mastered word processing, creating presentations, and searching in Google, but this class will ask you to use some of the web 2.0 tools for collaboration and sharing knowledge creation. There may be some of you who call yourselves digital natives but most of us will be digital immigrants for whom these are new.

One of the skills you'll learn in this class is problem solving and learning when and who to ask for help. I'd like you to try it out on your own first, but please feel free to ask you classmates, your students in school, your teenage children, others out there on the Internet and me for help. Look at this as an adventure where you won't always feel in control.

Teacher uses of social media professionally

2009-07-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

WGBH recently did a study of how teachers currently use social media in a professional context and projected uses in the future. Through these focus groups they found that teachers want to find high quality materials for their lessons. They see three main purposes for social media:

"Finding appropriate rich media resources, activity ideas, and lesson plans more efficiently.

Learning from and communicating with other educators.

Storing, organizing, adapting and sharing rich media resources and related materials in one place."

WGBH Teachers' Domain Pathways Stage II Evaluation: Focus Group Report

The Unquiet Library 2009-2010

2009-07-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Buffy Hamilton, a school librarian in Georgia, has posted a mindmap of her library for the next year. Many of the technologies we talked about in class, plus quite a few more appear on her map. She sees the following roles for the library media specialist:

Change agent
Information sherpa (I interpret this as a guide)
Learning architect
Learning concierge (gatekeeper, chief assistant)
Innovator
Inspiration agent
Ambassador of information fluency

If we want to introduce valid uses of these technologies in teaching and learning, we need to take on all these roles.

Pulling it all together

2009-07-19T10:04:00.001-07:00

It seems overwhelming to keep up with all the sources of information on web2.0. A post in Musings about librarianship by Aaron Tay entitled Aggregating Sources for Academic Research in a Web 2.0 World looks at this issue for academic research and offers a wide range of tools. While he talks about researchers in higher education, many of the same tools could be used by teachers and librarians for their own professional development and eventually by their students. I need to check out FriendFeed to see how it can pull things together.

Communicating with "Your Tribe"

2009-07-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

In the blog Social Media Schools (November 19, 2008) , Darren Alff talks schools and social media. See the exerpt from his posting below as we think about our role as school library information specialist. He describes the role of leader of the school tribe of students, administrators, teachers, and community. This sounds like an appropriate role for use as we help others learn about these technologies as well as support the curriculum.

Should Your School Be Using Social Media?

(http://socialmediaschools.com/should-your-school-be-using-social-media/2008/11/#)

"... I first of all need to be able to communicate with my tribe and reach them in a way that is both comfortable and convenient for them. I need to be able to reach my tribe when, where, and how they want to be reached.

For this reason, I don’t want to rely solely on one means of communication. Instead, I want to be everywhere and anywhere my tribe might be. This might mean that I communicate with my tribe via my website, my blog, my local newspaper, my community websites, magazines, email, postal newsletters, RSS, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Plurk… and anywhere else my tribe might be found."

Library Web Services

2009-07-10T14:19:00.001-07:00

In an all-day workshop on APIs and mashups, Karen Coombs of the University of Houston offered numerous examples of how libraries can enhance their catalogs and websites. Her materials can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/litapreconf2009. While I don't see school librarians doing coding in PHP and XML, I do see using some of the widgets on a library webpage and even playing around with creating really simple ones on their own. There were also interesting suggestions for linking from an online catalog to resources elsewhere (e.g., book covers in Amazon or LibraryThing), reviews, etc.

Yahoo Pipes is a simple way to find some already created mashups as well as find some and modify them to meet your needs. Try out creating a mashup from multiple RSS feeds on specific keywords.

Facebook and libraries

2009-07-08T06:55:00.001-07:00

Will Richardson put out a question about use of Facebook in K-12 and got no examples. I think in most cases it is blocked and/or there are issues with using it with younger students. David Lee King created a screencast of how public libraries might use Facebook with his library as an example. At the same time there was a recent study that seems to indicate the biggest new group of users of Facebook are over 30, especially those in the 50+ age group.

Do you see a role for Facebook in K-12 education? Do you see Nings as providing some of the same features in a constrained environment? Is it the environment or the connection with friends (including those geographically remote) that is most appealing?

Move to online

2009-07-08T06:27:00.000-07:00

While this article is talking about academic journals, I think digitization and online online is definitely the move for academic information. The question is how far behind is K-12 nonfiction? If that is the case, how will school libraries support users of information in a largely online environment?

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/07/academic-publisher-reportedly-going-online-only.ars

Check out some of these posts

2009-07-08T06:01:00.001-07:00

Joyce Valenza is encouraging bloggers to share their favorite posts. Check out the ones she has chosen at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1240046124.html.

Music editing online

2009-07-04T10:29:00.001-07:00

I'm not a musician, but Jam Studio looks like it has possibilities for creating soundtracks for multimedia projects. All you need to do is be able to pick chords that seem to go together and you're started on composing a piece. Give it a try.

Tips for Teachers

2009-07-03T09:42:00.001-07:00

101 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teaching Students about Social Media is really for teachers who need to learn about it themselves. While it is geared to higher education, there are useful resources in Internet safety and managing one's online presence along with links on blogging and using Twitter.

Podcasting and cell phones

2009-07-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Check out this site for a method to create MPG3 files using a cell phone. This could be another method to create those files for podcasting.

http://drop.io/

NECC SIGMS Ning

2009-07-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

I found using the NECC Ning a bit confusing, but there were a few useful things about the conference. You might want to look at the wiki they created. It has presentations from several leaders in the field. I thought David Loertscher's ideas on the school learning commons to spark some ideas.

http://neccsigms.pbworks.com/

Sixth Sense

2009-07-02T09:30:00.001-07:00

You may have watched the movie by this name, but here's a new technology that changes how we might interact with technology. Think about what this could mean for how we interact with the world in the future. Think about where the information is coming from.

http://necc2008.ning.com/video/ted-technology-entertainment

Animoto and free / licensed media resources

2009-07-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

After looking at Animoto as Nancy suggested, take a look at the Children's Crusade example (http://animoto.com/education/casestudies#civilrights). I think it is a good example of how we might teach media literacy by focusing on the power of carefully selected images and limited text.

Related to that, you might want to look at some free media resources. Sounds Aboundz is a great tool to purchase for royalty free music and GarageBand loops offer the ability to create original music, but there are other sources on the web you might want to check out.

Creative Commons Search (http://search.creativecommons.org) does the same type of searching as the search box in Firefox for CC. It searches multiple sites.

http://www.seabreezecomputers.com/tips/freemusic.htm provides links to music under Creative Commons licenses.

FreePlayMusic (http://www.freeplaymusic.com/) has free MP3 music downloads.

The Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) has video and audio in the public domain or under different types of licenses.

BlipTV (http://blip.tv) has video, some with Creative Commons licenses (largely TV shows).

FindSounds (http://www.findsounds.com/) is a search engine for audio.

Stock.xchng (http://www.sxc.hu) has over 350.000 quality stock photos by more than 30.000 photographers.

SoundSnap (http://www.soundsnap.com/education) has sound effects that can be downloaded for a monthly fee.

Are there any others that you use?

Following Versus Subscribing

2009-06-22T11:02:00.001-07:00

Following is a new feature of Blogger. Here is the difference between adding yourself as a follower and subscribing to a blog (which is really the same as adding it as a RSS feed).

Follow: This allows you to let the blog writer and others know that you are a fan of this blog.
To use:

Click on the Followers widget.
Choose to follow it publicly or privately.
This will show your icon on the blog page and put it in your Reading List.

Reading List / Subscribing: Your Blogger Reading List, located under your list of blogs on your dashboard, enables you to subscribe to any blog with a feed. It will update instantly each time a new post is published on any blog in your Reading List.
(See Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=99761)

To Use:

Click on the "Blogs I'm Following" tab under "My Reading List" on your Blogger Dashboard.
Click on the blue "Add" button
Insert the URL of the blog you'd like to follow in the URL box.
Click the add button.
You can follow publicly or privately.
This will also add this blog to your Google Reader account.

Keeping track of all your tools

2009-06-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

There are so many tools that can be used to connect with others on the web. As you begin to find and then narrow down the ones that you follow over time, you might want to look at some of the personalized start pages like iGoogle, NetVibes and PageFlakes to pull it all together in one place. I personally use iGoogle, but NetVibes has a nice feature that you can make a public page for others to see. This would allow you to create a personal page for your things and a public one either for teacher resources or for student resources. You can add different tabs for different types of users. I haven't used PageFlakes, but I have heard of librarians using it to create subject pages for their schools.

Setting up your own blog

2009-06-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

Everyone should have a blog set up by the end of the week. Make sure to post your blog URL and the email you use to the discussion group. Four more things you'll want to do:

1. Go to Customize tab and then Settings. Under Comments, either allow Anyone to comment or Only Registered Users. If you do the latter, you will have to add all of us by email addresses (see picture 1).

Only Registered Users: if not logged in already, visitors will be prompted to log into Blogger before leaving a comment. If they don't have an account, they can create one.
Anyone: anybody in the whole wide world can leave comments

2. Under Permissions, allow anyone to view the blog.

3. Set up a page on something like iGoogle, My Yahoo, NetVibes, or PageFlakes so that you can follow the blogs of each of your classmates and me. Put in the URL of each blog to follow it.

4. Go into each blog, read the posts, comment on at least one posting in each, and add yourself as a Follower by clicking the Follow button in each.

New resources on Web2.0 tools

2009-06-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

I just "attended" an Elluminate session lead by Joyce Valenza and three other school librarians. There were many ideas and resources shared, but the two sites you have to check out are:

http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/

http://newtoolsworkshop.wikispaces.com/

Both offer excellent information on uses of Web2.0 tools in schools.

Digital Research Tools Wiki

2009-06-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

This wiki collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively, organized by research activity. While it has many more sophisticated and commercial works, there are also a number of free, web-based tools that could have K-12 application.

http://digitalresearchtools.pbworks.com/

2009-06-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

A post on Will Richardson's blog referenced this article:

English
Social Studies
General

Current Practice

Seminal Articles

Calendar

Volume 1, Issue 1 ISSN 1528-5804

Print Version Commentaries Submit A Commentary

Carroll, T. G. (2000). If we didn't have the schools we have today,
would we create the schools we have today? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 1 (1). Available: http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss1/currentissues/general/article1.htm

The article, written in 2000, promotes the idea of schools becoming networked learning communities where both teachers and students are active learners. It notes:
"Each member has a role as a community learning resource.

If you are an experienced learner in the community—practiced at solving problems—you have a role to play helping others to learn. You may bring past knowledge and experience, and you will learn more as you help them learn.
If you are a young person or a novice at learning in a particular field, you still have a role to play as you construct your own knowledge and understanding, and through that process contribute new insights, experiences, and creations that enhance the learning of others in the community."

In a Web 2.0 environment where collaboration, participation and creativity are possible and students and teachers can all participate, these roles could be supported in Carroll's "learning communities" (not communities of learners of learners where individuals are engaged in his own learning. Hopefully in this class we can move away from the transmission model of teaching to a more two-way learning mode where we learn from each other.

It's an article well worth reading and thinking about where you see education and schools moving and how we can get to the point where we focus on learning.

VoiceThread

2009-06-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

After my first experience of creating a quick and dirty presentation in VoiceThread, I can see many uses of it as a presentation tool that allows collecting feedback. It even allows drawing on an image or video to highlight a specific point to make the feedback or comments more pointed.

In reading today, I saw a heading of a presentation:

Edublogs Live! VoiceThread: A 21st Century KWL

That raises the image of using it not just to collect feedback on an image but also for brainstorming questions and learning what a student knows, wants to know, and even learned about a specific image.

Value of blogs in education

2009-06-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

If you are wondering if blogs have any value in your classroom, read Stephen Downes's posting on Blogs in Education (April 2009): http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/04/blogs-in-education.html. It provides an overview of some of the uses as well has benefits for students.

Another article to review is Anne Davis's Rationale for Educational Blogging (EduBlog Insights, 2007): http://anne.teachesme.com/2007/01/17/rationale-for-educational-blogging/.

Getting Started in Blogging

2009-06-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

One of the most important features of Web 2.0 is the ability to not just read what is posted on the web but also the chance to share one's own ideas with others and get feedback. Many of us may be following blogs for news, personal interest or professional development, but few of us are actually maintaining our own blog.

For most of us, it is uncomfortable at first to share our ideas with the world, but if we expect our students to do it, we have to first become comfortable doing it ourselves. For this class each person will have a blog to reflect on what we are doing in class, communicate with others in the class, and begin to develop their own ideas on how web 2.0 tools might be used in classrooms and libraries.

Image uploaded on April 3, 2007 by acroamatic: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/239/445631409_39f3506540.jpg?v=0 (Creative Commons license)