Check out the work that summer allows!
Donna W, Beth C, Charlene K, Michele L
It has been most impressive. There are still two more weeks of classes. Aug. 4, WHS and Aug. 11, @WES all about assistive technology and Universal Design for Learning.
Come Join the Fun!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Highlights for this month!
In an effort to support my classroom teachers I am going to publish a monthly collection of the newest classroom resources.
My first for elementary students is a site created by two retired teachers I met at NECC. I will be interviewing them soon and will like the podcast here. They designed the site as a place for students with reading levels from 2nd to 4th grade to research animals, presidents, geography and they are constantly adding to their site. We purchased a subscription from them for our elementary school. It was less than 100.00 for the whole school for the school year. This is such a bargin. You can get more information by going here http://www.facts4me.com . I hope you enjoy their site as much as I do. Be sure you bookmark their site when you get there.
This is for anyone looking for primary source documents from American History. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is making primary documents available from all eras available FREE of charge. There are podcasts from historians, lessons plans , and a searchable database of more than 60,000 primary-source documents and transcripts for classroom use and online exhibitions. Also you will want to check out their related site, History Now. If you have never used primary source documents with your students make this year the year you try it out.
This is for anyone looking to engage and motivate their students with lessons and digital resources used by other teachers in your subject or grade level. You can search Nortel Learnit, and Curriki for great ideas and lessons. You can also pay it forward and send in your own lesson ideas for others to use. Check out and register for this site, Nortel Learnit. I love this statement on their lesson plan page, " The 6E's lesson plan format was developed by teachers in consultation with faculty from schools of education in North America and is based on a constructivist model of teaching.
My first for elementary students is a site created by two retired teachers I met at NECC. I will be interviewing them soon and will like the podcast here. They designed the site as a place for students with reading levels from 2nd to 4th grade to research animals, presidents, geography and they are constantly adding to their site. We purchased a subscription from them for our elementary school. It was less than 100.00 for the whole school for the school year. This is such a bargin. You can get more information by going here http://www.facts4me.com . I hope you enjoy their site as much as I do. Be sure you bookmark their site when you get there.
This is for anyone looking for primary source documents from American History. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is making primary documents available from all eras available FREE of charge. There are podcasts from historians, lessons plans , and a searchable database of more than 60,000 primary-source documents and transcripts for classroom use and online exhibitions. Also you will want to check out their related site, History Now. If you have never used primary source documents with your students make this year the year you try it out.
This is for anyone looking to engage and motivate their students with lessons and digital resources used by other teachers in your subject or grade level. You can search Nortel Learnit, and Curriki for great ideas and lessons. You can also pay it forward and send in your own lesson ideas for others to use. Check out and register for this site, Nortel Learnit. I love this statement on their lesson plan page, " The 6E's lesson plan format was developed by teachers in consultation with faculty from schools of education in North America and is based on a constructivist model of teaching.
The model we have developed is called the 6ES Model of Instruction (6 E's and an S--Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate, Extend, and Standards)." from the Nortel Learnit , learn about their lessons.
I loved their lesson, Getting Along for early elementary, with a clear social studies theme.
Then this one for grades 7-12 Our troubled world, global issues.
Just by checking out this website your first month of school would be planned!
Come back next month for some more goodies.
Over and out!
I loved their lesson, Getting Along for early elementary, with a clear social studies theme.
Then this one for grades 7-12 Our troubled world, global issues.
Just by checking out this website your first month of school would be planned!
Come back next month for some more goodies.
Over and out!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Half way to accomplishing my summer goals and meme!
I just realized that I am halfway through summer vacation, (sorry for this brutal reminder), and halfway through accomplishing my meme. My professional learning circle has expanded. My toolkit has expanded and become more purposeful and streamlined. I am adding an online component to my in district professional development course. My learning on a good path!
BLC a session I was able to uStream
I was fortunate enough to attend the session put on by Darren and Clarence. Here is the uStream of their presentation, after fashion, I do get out of the way so you can actually see the presentation.
Here is Clarence's site. Here you will find Darren's site.
Now the focus of this post should be on you viewing the Ustream, however, a quick note about the "background". It is so easy to set up an account to Ustream.
Then configure your laptop with the videocam to allow you to record both video and audio , you select start recording, start broadcast, send out a twitter to your network, or email folks the stream URL for your "TV" station, you are in business!
This makes the learning transparent. This makes a meeting transparent. This makes a meeting available for all to attend whether f2f or virtually. Try it.
Here is Clarence's site. Here you will find Darren's site.
Now the focus of this post should be on you viewing the Ustream, however, a quick note about the "background". It is so easy to set up an account to Ustream.
Then configure your laptop with the videocam to allow you to record both video and audio , you select start recording, start broadcast, send out a twitter to your network, or email folks the stream URL for your "TV" station, you are in business!
This makes the learning transparent. This makes a meeting transparent. This makes a meeting available for all to attend whether f2f or virtually. Try it.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Friday, July 18, 2008
BLC08, David Truss
Thursday, July 17, 2008
UDL Concord Consortium Science for Middle and HS
Use this site http://itsi.concord.org/share/blc08
Introduction to our afternoon, with probes and their science lessons.
Probes, http://itsi.probesight.org
Use the probes or use the models already uploaded to the site and given data.
I made activity 1085 on temperature.
Introduction to our afternoon, with probes and their science lessons.
Probes, http://itsi.probesight.org
Use the probes or use the models already uploaded to the site and given data.
I made activity 1085 on temperature.
Web 2.0 for Newbies, Jim W. November Learning
This is a way to deliver the message to new teachers. In 1991 the first Mosaic Website was built, the Internet wasn't just for science anymore. So our students just graduating in 2008 have been alive as long as the Internet. Things are changing so quickly.
This session is totally full, and people are sitting on the floor.
Jim had us introduce ourselves with each other, I met a woman from Detroit.
You want to get a network so when your kids are creating their content, you can get someone to comment on their work. Do this with staff as well.
When youtube is blocked, you can use Zamzar at home and download the youtube video and it is converted so you can use it at school.
Look at the purpose of why you will wiki, blog, moodle, etc.
Shelly Paul has created a website with 15 min. videos on how to use some of the web 2.0 tools. Check it out!
http://k12learning20.wikispaces.com/
Blogging is easy to use and allows feedback in a controled way and it allows students to share. Comments should be approved.
Blog is chronological, the wiki is more like a book, table of contents,etc.
Much easier than using the old websites.
If teachers are blogging, then administrators need to use RSS to make those connections.
Jim is calling a website to demonstrate gcast! Then it is published to the web instantly.
Great presentation.
This session is totally full, and people are sitting on the floor.
Jim had us introduce ourselves with each other, I met a woman from Detroit.
You want to get a network so when your kids are creating their content, you can get someone to comment on their work. Do this with staff as well.
When youtube is blocked, you can use Zamzar at home and download the youtube video and it is converted so you can use it at school.
Look at the purpose of why you will wiki, blog, moodle, etc.
Shelly Paul has created a website with 15 min. videos on how to use some of the web 2.0 tools. Check it out!
http://k12learning20.wikispaces.com/
Blogging is easy to use and allows feedback in a controled way and it allows students to share. Comments should be approved.
Blog is chronological, the wiki is more like a book, table of contents,etc.
Much easier than using the old websites.
If teachers are blogging, then administrators need to use RSS to make those connections.
Jim is calling a website to demonstrate gcast! Then it is published to the web instantly.
Great presentation.
Universal Design for Learning
http://udl.concord.org/share/blc08
This is dedicated for younger students. This is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Initial starts in grade 3/4 and 5/6.
Carolyn shared the different ways that the information on the portal is available to students, larger/smaller fonts, Spanish/English, speech to text. This is all based on science content. When text is highlighted it auto reads.Students control their input with various changes, feedback and real work.
The Smart Graph Work, is an intuitive graph that gives instant feed back to the student.
Trying to make all the tools, under the learning, to work smarter and more explicitly.
Venier and Pasco probes work with this grant.
5e's BSCS. engage, explore, explain, extend, ellaborate
So activities are based on the above. The Plant photosynthesis project takes the data and sends to the interactive graph. Data collection.
The electricity probes offer a chance to collect data based on the movement of gears etc.
Stories and the CAST story builder.
Since the teacher has a portal, kids log onto the portal, and all the data is saved at the UDL research site.Kids will see all the data collected and are able to write a report based on real data. This is the FEB. edition.
The scaffolding:
Level 1:one or more examples of good responses. Students asked to add to the response in their own words.
Level 2: Students selects the best of several suggested multiple-choice responses.
Level 3: Parts of response are provided, but missing content.
Level 4: Clues are given
Lefel 5: Multiple choice answers to choose from, and chance for the kids to add.
Cloud unit, with a story. Students read the stories over a couple days and then begin the activity.Some stories use models, some use probes.The glossary will be teacher controlled, so words can always be on, or only at the beginning of a chapter.
The questions are scattered throughout the activities.
As part of the teacher portal, teachers control the level the student begins, whether the student can choose the level.
the teacher's computer collects the data to send to the research. The teacher has a program to see what the kids are doing on their computer.
The snapshot function, and student can also take a snapshot of their activities to build information for their report. The snapshot has an interactive piece, text box, draw, and use the snapshots to build a record of the project. The snapshots are then used to answer the questions from the unit.
Alternative assessments.
Teacher can access the test data from the whole pre-test down to a specific student. There is a bar graph showing progress for each student.
Using the CAST story builder, the coaches help encourage the student about specific prompts.The coaches offer help during activities and prompt the student to follow the activity steps and collect data.
Collecting data from AK, MA, MO,CA.
Now we can sign up for the portal, as a teacher.
http://udl.portal.concord.org
Always looking for school districts to be part of this project!!! K-12
This is dedicated for younger students. This is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Initial starts in grade 3/4 and 5/6.
Carolyn shared the different ways that the information on the portal is available to students, larger/smaller fonts, Spanish/English, speech to text. This is all based on science content. When text is highlighted it auto reads.Students control their input with various changes, feedback and real work.
The Smart Graph Work, is an intuitive graph that gives instant feed back to the student.
Trying to make all the tools, under the learning, to work smarter and more explicitly.
Venier and Pasco probes work with this grant.
5e's BSCS. engage, explore, explain, extend, ellaborate
So activities are based on the above. The Plant photosynthesis project takes the data and sends to the interactive graph. Data collection.
The electricity probes offer a chance to collect data based on the movement of gears etc.
Stories and the CAST story builder.
Since the teacher has a portal, kids log onto the portal, and all the data is saved at the UDL research site.Kids will see all the data collected and are able to write a report based on real data. This is the FEB. edition.
The scaffolding:
Level 1:one or more examples of good responses. Students asked to add to the response in their own words.
Level 2: Students selects the best of several suggested multiple-choice responses.
Level 3: Parts of response are provided, but missing content.
Level 4: Clues are given
Lefel 5: Multiple choice answers to choose from, and chance for the kids to add.
Cloud unit, with a story. Students read the stories over a couple days and then begin the activity.Some stories use models, some use probes.The glossary will be teacher controlled, so words can always be on, or only at the beginning of a chapter.
The questions are scattered throughout the activities.
As part of the teacher portal, teachers control the level the student begins, whether the student can choose the level.
the teacher's computer collects the data to send to the research. The teacher has a program to see what the kids are doing on their computer.
The snapshot function, and student can also take a snapshot of their activities to build information for their report. The snapshot has an interactive piece, text box, draw, and use the snapshots to build a record of the project. The snapshots are then used to answer the questions from the unit.
Alternative assessments.
Teacher can access the test data from the whole pre-test down to a specific student. There is a bar graph showing progress for each student.
Using the CAST story builder, the coaches help encourage the student about specific prompts.The coaches offer help during activities and prompt the student to follow the activity steps and collect data.
Collecting data from AK, MA, MO,CA.
Now we can sign up for the portal, as a teacher.
http://udl.portal.concord.org
Always looking for school districts to be part of this project!!! K-12
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Dr. Joyce Valenza Libraries Accessible
Great ideas.
Put up an Amazon wishlist for parents and community to purchase books.
Use online polls.
Use Google calendar to have classes sign up for a time slot.
Reading polls to help purchasing.
Use a poll affirming /confirming what was learned in the latest lesson.
How can I sell the databases as user friendly.
Catalog, not use the label find books.
Use igoogle pages or pageflakes, that puts all the collections on the web, widgets, webpages, tools, dictionaries. Get the RSS feed into the page and you will see how it refreshes.
By using these resources, it is how you will be an informational user in this century.
Can we create an igoogle text?
Set up a Pagecast.Calendar, to do list, CNN news, assignments, One url and the kids have the information.
Youtube toolbars, Murdoch, University. LIBX,( for colleges, not K12) wehn it goes to google books or youtube, it tells you whether your library has that selection.
Federated searches:
Search that goes across the webtools, Clusty, Google, comes up with one result list. Federated searches only use the language of the time of the journalists. So like World War I, doesn't come up unless you search The Great War
Kartoo does a visual search,
Clusty comes up with categories, horizontal search and brings up things you would not normally see.
Blog searches and set up RSS feeds.
uhighdatabases- Univ. Chicago.
Gathered all streaming media searches in one place.
Research channel for university lectures.
ebooks and audiobooks
Encyclopedia of life- fabulous for K-12, being developed now
Wikijunior-full color booklets for kids age 8-11.
Free ebooks.
Wikibooks, human body.
Are you available to your students, reference service, email
Dr. charles Best Secondary School Library, put a translator on the page, it is a widget. bestlibrary.org
IM service for messages from kids.
If one deaf student need this. Ask the libraria IM
Are you linking to your states. available 24/7,
Interlibraryloan is the best, availablbe to kids.
Pathfinders on your web.Add 5 to the webpage. Use feeds in the pathfinders.
Noodle tools.,citation
Middle school pathfinders, can be in delicious. Delicious link in EBSCO, and you can't embed, so go with a page, wiki.
History Reference center EBSCO.
Copyright friendly media, all the sources, so kids can mashup legally.
If the are content creators must have.
Free open source and Web based Applications,
list the open source options and web based options.
Open Curriculum from all universities.
MIT HS open courseware
Online Research guide for the HS, with links.
NoodleBib 250.00 per year, has a notetaking tool and an evaluation, and teacher can see how the student is doing.
Bibme.org- is automatically fills in based on the available information.
The unquiet library
The Yes department
Research and documentation Online for sample papers in MLA and APA style give to kids so they can compare what they are doing.
Reading 2.0 Using Technology to Promote books, not replace Then.
Readingtech.wikispaces.com
Kid volunteers enhance the books with the online media links in the back of the book.
On the library computer homepage, the kids sit down to a quesitons, who would you invite to lunch. Good way to get started. Kids entered picture into contest showing them reading, get a 50.00 Amazon certificate.
Summer reading list, online? It is a wiki? Can parents get to it?
International Children's digital library- for elementary
Edina Public Schools- embedded reading list, Book reviews by kids.
teenreads.com
Cool chatter Plug into terrific writers
Lookybook, picture book shelfari 300 books for now.
Shelfari- joycevalenza
Library Thing, will connect to your catalog, use library thing tags.
Playaway, the simplest way to listen to audio on the go!!!
Google book search, set up ebooks, collection of classic books, made available for the full book, these are public domain, Shakespear, Mark Twain
Book Glutton- social place you can make comments and have discussion for inside your class.
Global Studies ning, group for each books kid reading in social studies.
Birthday book club, have your community purchase books for their kids birthday.
Joyce has so many great ideas for library media centers.
Put student writing on the web pages and celebrate student work.
Put media in a parking place on a ning, and then have the code to embed on webpages.
The adventures of Superpresentationman--watch this.
Student work, writing, video and student art, Flickr-where you can isolate pieces of the painting or photo and comment about it.
Student orientation online in the wiki for anyone who misses the day.
Celebrate Student Life!
Put up an Amazon wishlist for parents and community to purchase books.
Use online polls.
Use Google calendar to have classes sign up for a time slot.
Reading polls to help purchasing.
Use a poll affirming /confirming what was learned in the latest lesson.
How can I sell the databases as user friendly.
Catalog, not use the label find books.
Use igoogle pages or pageflakes, that puts all the collections on the web, widgets, webpages, tools, dictionaries. Get the RSS feed into the page and you will see how it refreshes.
By using these resources, it is how you will be an informational user in this century.
Can we create an igoogle text?
Set up a Pagecast.Calendar, to do list, CNN news, assignments, One url and the kids have the information.
Youtube toolbars, Murdoch, University. LIBX,( for colleges, not K12) wehn it goes to google books or youtube, it tells you whether your library has that selection.
Federated searches:
Search that goes across the webtools, Clusty, Google, comes up with one result list. Federated searches only use the language of the time of the journalists. So like World War I, doesn't come up unless you search The Great War
Kartoo does a visual search,
Clusty comes up with categories, horizontal search and brings up things you would not normally see.
Blog searches and set up RSS feeds.
uhighdatabases- Univ. Chicago.
Gathered all streaming media searches in one place.
Research channel for university lectures.
ebooks and audiobooks
Encyclopedia of life- fabulous for K-12, being developed now
Wikijunior-full color booklets for kids age 8-11.
Free ebooks.
Wikibooks, human body.
Are you available to your students, reference service, email
Dr. charles Best Secondary School Library, put a translator on the page, it is a widget. bestlibrary.org
IM service for messages from kids.
If one deaf student need this. Ask the libraria IM
Are you linking to your states. available 24/7,
Interlibraryloan is the best, availablbe to kids.
Pathfinders on your web.Add 5 to the webpage. Use feeds in the pathfinders.
Noodle tools.,citation
Middle school pathfinders, can be in delicious. Delicious link in EBSCO, and you can't embed, so go with a page, wiki.
History Reference center EBSCO.
Copyright friendly media, all the sources, so kids can mashup legally.
If the are content creators must have.
Free open source and Web based Applications,
list the open source options and web based options.
Open Curriculum from all universities.
MIT HS open courseware
Online Research guide for the HS, with links.
NoodleBib 250.00 per year, has a notetaking tool and an evaluation, and teacher can see how the student is doing.
Bibme.org- is automatically fills in based on the available information.
The unquiet library
The Yes department
Research and documentation Online for sample papers in MLA and APA style give to kids so they can compare what they are doing.
Reading 2.0 Using Technology to Promote books, not replace Then.
Readingtech.wikispaces.com
Kid volunteers enhance the books with the online media links in the back of the book.
On the library computer homepage, the kids sit down to a quesitons, who would you invite to lunch. Good way to get started. Kids entered picture into contest showing them reading, get a 50.00 Amazon certificate.
Summer reading list, online? It is a wiki? Can parents get to it?
International Children's digital library- for elementary
Edina Public Schools- embedded reading list, Book reviews by kids.
teenreads.com
Cool chatter Plug into terrific writers
Lookybook, picture book shelfari 300 books for now.
Shelfari- joycevalenza
Library Thing, will connect to your catalog, use library thing tags.
Playaway, the simplest way to listen to audio on the go!!!
Google book search, set up ebooks, collection of classic books, made available for the full book, these are public domain, Shakespear, Mark Twain
Book Glutton- social place you can make comments and have discussion for inside your class.
Global Studies ning, group for each books kid reading in social studies.
Birthday book club, have your community purchase books for their kids birthday.
Joyce has so many great ideas for library media centers.
Put student writing on the web pages and celebrate student work.
Put media in a parking place on a ning, and then have the code to embed on webpages.
The adventures of Superpresentationman--watch this.
Student work, writing, video and student art, Flickr-where you can isolate pieces of the painting or photo and comment about it.
Student orientation online in the wiki for anyone who misses the day.
Celebrate Student Life!
Podcasting with Purpose BLC08
Check the links at www.bobsprankle.com. There is also a wiki.
YOU can view the presentation for this.
Bob shared the movie the students made explaining podcasting.
Students are writing their pieces before they record them. There are many edits, peer edits and many rehearsals, and editing.
It is a workshop of activity in the classroom.
Notice the music in the movie, makes the movie!
http://www.bobsprankle.com/blog/ Look for Room 208, presentations.
The Learning Pyramid, see the link on the website.
Creating purpose, points to the book by Richard Brattigan So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away
Podcasting with purpose, the students no longer publish for the refrigerator, but for the world.
Check out 21st Century Skills.
Great links. Presentation. http://spranklepodcastblc.wikispaces.com/Keynote+Presentation
Links:
http://spranklepodcastblc.wikispaces.com/Books+and+Articles
Michael Richards shared his CoveritLive for Darren's presentation, thanks Michael.
http://mrichme.edublogs.org/2008/07/16/bcl-session-2/
YOU can view the presentation for this.
Bob shared the movie the students made explaining podcasting.
Students are writing their pieces before they record them. There are many edits, peer edits and many rehearsals, and editing.
It is a workshop of activity in the classroom.
Notice the music in the movie, makes the movie!
http://www.bobsprankle.com/blog/ Look for Room 208, presentations.
The Learning Pyramid, see the link on the website.
Creating purpose, points to the book by Richard Brattigan So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away
Podcasting with purpose, the students no longer publish for the refrigerator, but for the world.
Check out 21st Century Skills.
Great links. Presentation. http://spranklepodcastblc.wikispaces.com/Keynote+Presentation
Links:
http://spranklepodcastblc.wikispaces.com/Books+and+Articles
Michael Richards shared his CoveritLive for Darren's presentation, thanks Michael.
http://mrichme.edublogs.org/2008/07/16/bcl-session-2/
This is not a Test, Clarence Fisher
Snow Lake Manitoba, CA
Live blogging from BLC08
Clarence is setting the stage for his presentation, 1,000 people in Snow Lake, a small mining community. It is 2 hours to get anyplace from Snow Lake, 7 hours to the airport.
However, if you look worldwide, it is the best small place to learn.
I love that Dennis Richards , a superintendent , is Ustreaming this presentation!
You can live in a remote or rural place and still be global.
What happens when you start making connections, what are the trends, change happens.
What do you do with the technology and your pedagogy. The tools will change, but good pedagogy doesn't change.
What can we learn from businesses? Teamwork, transparency, empowerment, communication. Collaboration will allow you to do different things.
What opportunities do we make for kids?
Going global, going public.
What innovation is needed in your classroom for your kids? Think classroom.
Clarence's challenge is distance, not access. He has no museum, no movie theater.
A business has a challenge, the smartest person may not be working for them, so challenge is how to get the benefit of that person outside of your business.
How do we put our kids in touch with these people?
Networks change everything. Networks have changed things for business. It is always learning, always working, 24/7.
Kids are network to the underground digital network. They go home and connect and lear how to use new things.
Clay Shirky's book. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.
Innovation is about trust.Innovation is people centered, not technology centered.
We have creative kids who go home after school and create!
Do we encourage creativity, the prototype culture in school? Is it because it might not work, it might fail? How to we encourage that learning from mistakes to find the better answer or better solution?
We need to try, we need to fail, we need to try again with something else or different until it works.
Afrigadget is a blog.http://www.afrigadget.com/
We have failed to re-imagine education for our time. How do we re-invent ourselves and our classrooms. A failure of imagination!
Get out of the way of our students! This is in response to blogging and students wanting to publish at night for their audience in Australia who are just waking up.
Clarence started a project with schools internationally and had the kids decide the project.
All kids worked on Google Docs and created a script, use all the pictures, then pushed this out to the web. Using free tools, kids globally created a project. The student project, Poverty. This was an eye opening project, the kids in Snow Lake considered poverty not having the latest tool, in Kuala Lumpur, the poorest of the poor have nothing. It put poverty in perspective.
New project Thinwalled classroom. connecting a classroom, bookclub online, 3 kids from Snow Lake, 3 kids from LA.
The kids set up a moodle chat for discussions. The chat crashed, so the kids moved to another chat and contacted the teacher with the copy of the other chat. Thinwalls.edublog.com
He has a wiki studying societies wiki which is the social studies book that the students create. He builds on it and keeps it around. This came about because the students were using the same social studies book he had when he was in school. It even had his name in it.
Classroom as a studio for artists, architects,to create, shape and re-shape, lots of time with ebbs and flows. Teacher is the network administrator, the network in and outside the classroom, the information network.
Live blogging from BLC08
Clarence is setting the stage for his presentation, 1,000 people in Snow Lake, a small mining community. It is 2 hours to get anyplace from Snow Lake, 7 hours to the airport.
However, if you look worldwide, it is the best small place to learn.
I love that Dennis Richards , a superintendent , is Ustreaming this presentation!
You can live in a remote or rural place and still be global.
What happens when you start making connections, what are the trends, change happens.
What do you do with the technology and your pedagogy. The tools will change, but good pedagogy doesn't change.
What can we learn from businesses? Teamwork, transparency, empowerment, communication. Collaboration will allow you to do different things.
What opportunities do we make for kids?
Going global, going public.
What innovation is needed in your classroom for your kids? Think classroom.
Clarence's challenge is distance, not access. He has no museum, no movie theater.
A business has a challenge, the smartest person may not be working for them, so challenge is how to get the benefit of that person outside of your business.
How do we put our kids in touch with these people?
Networks change everything. Networks have changed things for business. It is always learning, always working, 24/7.
Kids are network to the underground digital network. They go home and connect and lear how to use new things.
Clay Shirky's book. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.
Innovation is about trust.Innovation is people centered, not technology centered.
We have creative kids who go home after school and create!
Do we encourage creativity, the prototype culture in school? Is it because it might not work, it might fail? How to we encourage that learning from mistakes to find the better answer or better solution?
We need to try, we need to fail, we need to try again with something else or different until it works.
Afrigadget is a blog.http://www.afrigadget.com/
We have failed to re-imagine education for our time. How do we re-invent ourselves and our classrooms. A failure of imagination!
Get out of the way of our students! This is in response to blogging and students wanting to publish at night for their audience in Australia who are just waking up.
Clarence started a project with schools internationally and had the kids decide the project.
All kids worked on Google Docs and created a script, use all the pictures, then pushed this out to the web. Using free tools, kids globally created a project. The student project, Poverty. This was an eye opening project, the kids in Snow Lake considered poverty not having the latest tool, in Kuala Lumpur, the poorest of the poor have nothing. It put poverty in perspective.
New project Thinwalled classroom. connecting a classroom, bookclub online, 3 kids from Snow Lake, 3 kids from LA.
The kids set up a moodle chat for discussions. The chat crashed, so the kids moved to another chat and contacted the teacher with the copy of the other chat. Thinwalls.edublog.com
He has a wiki studying societies wiki which is the social studies book that the students create. He builds on it and keeps it around. This came about because the students were using the same social studies book he had when he was in school. It even had his name in it.
Classroom as a studio for artists, architects,to create, shape and re-shape, lots of time with ebbs and flows. Teacher is the network administrator, the network in and outside the classroom, the information network.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Assistive Technology Goes Mainstream!
This is also posted at TechLearning
While thinking about a plan for this blogpost and preparing for a summer week of professional development for my staff I came upon Karen Janowski's website and UDL toolkit.
I thought I would start out with the challenge. Read further and find out why. As chefs we have a toolkit of our favorite resources in our kitchens, as bloggers we have our favorite links and feeds, as learners we have our favorite resources, so why not start a toolkit for our challenged learners and be explicit about the tools. Karen explains what Universal Design for Learning is about:
Change is centered upon Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which proposes that multiple methods of :
* Representation
* Engagement
* Expression
promote learning for ALL students. Flexibility is embedded within the curriculum. The book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age available in its entirety at the CAST website, expounds upon these principles and this is a MUST read for all educators.
When I was consulting with some special educators at my school and I shared how to use a couple of online tools to help the students with their writing, the special educator asked me if all the regular educators knew about these tools and resources. My flip answer back was did you already know about these tools? Now that you have learned this you need to share! This prompted my developing a week long course, this post and the challenge!
If you knew that this all existed and didn't do anything to promote this, then you and I are NOT change agents. This is the right thing to do for all our learners.
Check out what Lisa Thumann,Senior Specialist in Educational Technology CMSCE,
Rutgers University , is doing in her work with teachers.
Lisa Thumann is also working with schools in New Jersey in her work as part of Rutgers University outreach and you will find her toolkit represented here.
Finally, if you needed one more reason to engage in this work of promoting tools for assistive technology for all learners here is a testimonial I heard yesterday.
I met an occupational therapist recently who explained how a student of hers began using VoiceThread for her school projects. This may not seem remarkable until you learn that the student, although able, would not speak in the classroom. Once VoiceThread was added as a tool in the classroom toolkit, the student was empowered to make changes with much peer support.The student recorded her school projects in VoiceThread, her peers were thrilled to hear her voice. Make change happen for your students in need of these tools.
What is your toolkit? If you make a toolkit page of resources please share it here.(Send your link to assistivetechtoolkitATgmail.com) I will make a page and share the resources with all.
Here is my first attempt at making an assistive technology tab in igoogle. I will explore other ways in Netvibes and Pageflakes. I am looking for ways for students to create their own toolkit using some web 2.0 tools.
Resources:
Where did I learn all about this? I attended the Edubloggerconeast, unconference, yesterday in Newton, MA. I highly recommend this type of unconference to anyone looking for professional learning. You can check out how Liz Davis made this happen. You can see the organization here at the wiki.
Huge thanks to Alan November for recognizing the importance of unconferences and sharing space before his Building Learning Communities 08.
While thinking about a plan for this blogpost and preparing for a summer week of professional development for my staff I came upon Karen Janowski's website and UDL toolkit.
I thought I would start out with the challenge. Read further and find out why. As chefs we have a toolkit of our favorite resources in our kitchens, as bloggers we have our favorite links and feeds, as learners we have our favorite resources, so why not start a toolkit for our challenged learners and be explicit about the tools. Karen explains what Universal Design for Learning is about:
Change is centered upon Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which proposes that multiple methods of :
* Representation
* Engagement
* Expression
promote learning for ALL students. Flexibility is embedded within the curriculum. The book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age available in its entirety at the CAST website, expounds upon these principles and this is a MUST read for all educators.
When I was consulting with some special educators at my school and I shared how to use a couple of online tools to help the students with their writing, the special educator asked me if all the regular educators knew about these tools and resources. My flip answer back was did you already know about these tools? Now that you have learned this you need to share! This prompted my developing a week long course, this post and the challenge!
If you knew that this all existed and didn't do anything to promote this, then you and I are NOT change agents. This is the right thing to do for all our learners.
Check out what Lisa Thumann,Senior Specialist in Educational Technology CMSCE,
Rutgers University , is doing in her work with teachers.
Lisa Thumann is also working with schools in New Jersey in her work as part of Rutgers University outreach and you will find her toolkit represented here.
Finally, if you needed one more reason to engage in this work of promoting tools for assistive technology for all learners here is a testimonial I heard yesterday.
I met an occupational therapist recently who explained how a student of hers began using VoiceThread for her school projects. This may not seem remarkable until you learn that the student, although able, would not speak in the classroom. Once VoiceThread was added as a tool in the classroom toolkit, the student was empowered to make changes with much peer support.The student recorded her school projects in VoiceThread, her peers were thrilled to hear her voice. Make change happen for your students in need of these tools.
What is your toolkit? If you make a toolkit page of resources please share it here.(Send your link to assistivetechtoolkitATgmail.com) I will make a page and share the resources with all.
Here is my first attempt at making an assistive technology tab in igoogle. I will explore other ways in Netvibes and Pageflakes. I am looking for ways for students to create their own toolkit using some web 2.0 tools.
Resources:
Where did I learn all about this? I attended the Edubloggerconeast, unconference, yesterday in Newton, MA. I highly recommend this type of unconference to anyone looking for professional learning. You can check out how Liz Davis made this happen. You can see the organization here at the wiki.
Huge thanks to Alan November for recognizing the importance of unconferences and sharing space before his Building Learning Communities 08.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Monday, July 14, 2008
EdubloggerConEast July 14, 2008
Live blogging our breakout sessions.
Pedagogy Matters with Richard S. facilitating
Outline the Construct
Behaviorism- shaping- rewards, ex. grades, stars, reinforcement
Connectivism,George Siemens, when you are connect to so many people it really capitalizes on the social learning aspects of constructivism, it is the wikipedia effect, the google docs, If you are accomplished in using your network tools,
Cognitivism- intellectual complexity or cognition-determined right answer, programming language,
Constructivism-building meaning based on experience, project based learning, socially based, Montessori,
-Universal Design for learning
Differentiated Instruction
Inquiry model, studio,
Understanding by Design - multiple representations
Our job,in 10 min. come up with an example of an explicit connection between an activity and one of the pedagogies.
Internet Safety Activity for 5th and 6th graders:
Listen and learn about Internet Safety and Cyberbullying rules. Then students create a poster, comic or skit about a safety rule. Follow up- actually build a page and publish and demonstrating that they follow the rules. This demonstrates the pedagogies of Connectivsm, students created their page and worked with others to complete the task, the teacher was NOT the only one in charge, all students helped one another, Understanding by Design, because all students in regular ed and special ed completed the task.
Art/music collaboration: history of silent films, background,and how can we make this more open to different kinds of students? break students into groups? not so product driven?
Language arts/ vingnettes and podcasts with music,
Digitial Storytelling- 5th grade, kids personal narrative, music, sound effects, shared with the audience world wide, blogged and podcasted so on web
behaviorism: rewarded for their work
constructivism: engagement, personal narrative
Google Tools: teachers investigating tools themselves and thinking about how they can use them in classroom
greater opportunity for creativity, more about how tools could be used
Voicethread: bridging podcasts and vodcasts, where the focus on the up-front preparation before you get to the technical tool
Scratch: give kids the basic and then allow kids to explore the tool and mimic what they learned from other things
Then there was a discussion about the value of exploration with a software or piece of hardwarde and then people can go on to construct their own knowledge about a particular item.
Pedagogy Matters with Richard S. facilitating
Outline the Construct
Behaviorism- shaping- rewards, ex. grades, stars, reinforcement
Connectivism,George Siemens, when you are connect to so many people it really capitalizes on the social learning aspects of constructivism, it is the wikipedia effect, the google docs, If you are accomplished in using your network tools,
Cognitivism- intellectual complexity or cognition-determined right answer, programming language,
Constructivism-building meaning based on experience, project based learning, socially based, Montessori,
-Universal Design for learning
Differentiated Instruction
Inquiry model, studio,
Understanding by Design - multiple representations
Our job,in 10 min. come up with an example of an explicit connection between an activity and one of the pedagogies.
Internet Safety Activity for 5th and 6th graders:
Listen and learn about Internet Safety and Cyberbullying rules. Then students create a poster, comic or skit about a safety rule. Follow up- actually build a page and publish and demonstrating that they follow the rules. This demonstrates the pedagogies of Connectivsm, students created their page and worked with others to complete the task, the teacher was NOT the only one in charge, all students helped one another, Understanding by Design, because all students in regular ed and special ed completed the task.
Art/music collaboration: history of silent films, background,and how can we make this more open to different kinds of students? break students into groups? not so product driven?
Language arts/ vingnettes and podcasts with music,
Digitial Storytelling- 5th grade, kids personal narrative, music, sound effects, shared with the audience world wide, blogged and podcasted so on web
behaviorism: rewarded for their work
constructivism: engagement, personal narrative
Google Tools: teachers investigating tools themselves and thinking about how they can use them in classroom
greater opportunity for creativity, more about how tools could be used
Voicethread: bridging podcasts and vodcasts, where the focus on the up-front preparation before you get to the technical tool
Scratch: give kids the basic and then allow kids to explore the tool and mimic what they learned from other things
Then there was a discussion about the value of exploration with a software or piece of hardwarde and then people can go on to construct their own knowledge about a particular item.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Tribute to Vicki Davis, Cool Cat Teacher
You know it isn't often that you meet someone virtually, work with them for a year and finally meet up with them and make great connections. Well, this is how I first met Vicki Davis.
Vicki and I were approached by Jen Wagner and Sharon Peters to make a quartet and become the Women of Web 2.0 in an effort to present at NECC07. It came about when Jen was listening to the male bloggers at NECC06. This had nothing to do with the male bloggers, some of them are counted among my virtual and face to face friends now, but the women's voice was lacking.
Our proposal was accepted. We all chatted online, we decided to try a live podcast, called a webcast, since I had taken WebcastAcademy and was a beginning webcaster. That was back in October 2006! Now 84 or so shows later, Vicki is leaving the show and moving on to make more time for her family and more flexibility in her global projects.
What will this mean? Well, first of all Women of Web 2.0 has taken on a life of its own. The audience and members make the show in the chat room and by being guests. This organization will live on. This organization will change and this organization will be by the educators and for educators.
However, this is my tribute for Vicki! I have learned so much from Vicki. I really admire that she has been so transparent in her presentations, she provides google chats for the back channel, for her classrooms, she blogs about them, for her turmoils, she chats/blogs/struggles openly about those moments and gathers information from her network. She is constantly looking for purpose with new web tools, she is constantly looking to make connections and provide opportunities for others!
Her organizational skills are incredible. She has calendars I have never heard of, she makes connections I have been part of and she orchestrates many behind the scene ideas with great chutzpah! I mean, Thomas Friedman has been part of Flat Classroom, and now VIcki and Julie are in his book!
I am so glad that Vicki was able to come to Maine and get introduced to our wonderful teachers, was a huge positive part of our ACTEM Conference. She is now part of our Maine family.
Vicki has paved the way for those of us in education to continue to make connections, to market ourselves and to look to the future. I am proud to call Vicki Davis a friend, I am happy to have met her family in San Antonio, and I am glad she will be taking more time to hang with her family because family time is precious. You need to be available to make those memories that will get your family through good times and tough times. I agree with the blogger who said, I don't want to regret missing my family times, I can never make those up,( that is why I took my Mom to dinner this June and missed a show) but I know my educational peers will be with me through those times and will carry me through those times. So Vicki, enjoy your family, make your own schedule and keep in touch!
Vicki and I were approached by Jen Wagner and Sharon Peters to make a quartet and become the Women of Web 2.0 in an effort to present at NECC07. It came about when Jen was listening to the male bloggers at NECC06. This had nothing to do with the male bloggers, some of them are counted among my virtual and face to face friends now, but the women's voice was lacking.
Our proposal was accepted. We all chatted online, we decided to try a live podcast, called a webcast, since I had taken WebcastAcademy and was a beginning webcaster. That was back in October 2006! Now 84 or so shows later, Vicki is leaving the show and moving on to make more time for her family and more flexibility in her global projects.
What will this mean? Well, first of all Women of Web 2.0 has taken on a life of its own. The audience and members make the show in the chat room and by being guests. This organization will live on. This organization will change and this organization will be by the educators and for educators.
However, this is my tribute for Vicki! I have learned so much from Vicki. I really admire that she has been so transparent in her presentations, she provides google chats for the back channel, for her classrooms, she blogs about them, for her turmoils, she chats/blogs/struggles openly about those moments and gathers information from her network. She is constantly looking for purpose with new web tools, she is constantly looking to make connections and provide opportunities for others!
Her organizational skills are incredible. She has calendars I have never heard of, she makes connections I have been part of and she orchestrates many behind the scene ideas with great chutzpah! I mean, Thomas Friedman has been part of Flat Classroom, and now VIcki and Julie are in his book!
I am so glad that Vicki was able to come to Maine and get introduced to our wonderful teachers, was a huge positive part of our ACTEM Conference. She is now part of our Maine family.
Vicki has paved the way for those of us in education to continue to make connections, to market ourselves and to look to the future. I am proud to call Vicki Davis a friend, I am happy to have met her family in San Antonio, and I am glad she will be taking more time to hang with her family because family time is precious. You need to be available to make those memories that will get your family through good times and tough times. I agree with the blogger who said, I don't want to regret missing my family times, I can never make those up,( that is why I took my Mom to dinner this June and missed a show) but I know my educational peers will be with me through those times and will carry me through those times. So Vicki, enjoy your family, make your own schedule and keep in touch!
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Live Blog of Ian Jukes @ NECC 08
Ian recommends for all of us to take the digital diet challenge. He has the challenge here at his handouts page.
We have to learn to teach to the whole new mind, from Daniel Pink.
He says many, kids in school learn in spite of what we do. The top one third do this with ease. We need to direct our teaching to the other two thirds of our students.
These are our students! This is our audience!
Think of the language in the tests, identify, describe, these are the verbs from the lower end of Bloom's Taxonomy. We are not testing analyze, synthesize, the higher order verbs and activities.
We are not preparing kids for the world they are graduating into.
Everyone in our society needs to be about creativity and problem solving. We need to be teaching 21st Century Literacies.
Math not about equations, students need to understand numeracy.
Reading is not about reading text, but also comprehending text and images.
Writing is not about writing text, but also about communicating with text and images.
If we just learn or teach the 3 R's, we will prepare them for the 20th Century, their past, our comfort. They will not be prepared for the 21st Century.
Difference between literacy and fluency. Fluency is intuitive, unconscious, and internalized skills.
Technological fluency involves transparent use. It is not the pen but what we do with the pen.
It is not about teaching kids excel, it is about teaching kids to be problem solvers. Not about power pointless!
The issue, is critical thinking, time management...
You need to use the camera to get the photo for the assignment! Learn about the technology is the by product.
Media fluency, is not about operating the camera, the audio recorder, but looking at the content and understand how that medium is communicate the message. How is the media shaping our thinking!
First part! more coming.
Part 2---
We need, as teachers, to stop telling the whole story. We can't do this all the time, we need to teach lazy! We need to stop standing in front of kids telling them how smart we are! We need to allow the kids to think outside the lines.
Teachers need to withdraw progressively from being the thinker and teller in the classroom. We need to let our students progressively take charge of their learning so we create independent learners, who know how to find information and solve problems in a creative and new manner. As parents we get this, why can't we as teachers put this into practice?
Why does education rule how students should be learning? Why not put the students in charge of their learning? What would students say about using social networks, cell phones, text messaging in their learning environment?
Oh my, we must let students collaborate, it has to happen! If we are to prepare our students for success we must make environments for our students to collaborate in meaningful ways.
Digital tools for students are not optional! They are part of their culture. There are no boundaries for our students.Students need to create digital products so they can share what they know about the content, the process is as much of value as the product. Digital tools enhance the learning. Choose the better tool to create the product to solve the problem.
Students need guided and supportive feedback with an authentic audience to solve real problems. We need to re-think assessment and evaluation.
Use his handouts you will find the link to many handouts, keep on with the conversation!
Read Teaching for Tomorrow by Ted McCain Corwin Press
Read Here Comes Everybody!
You can email Ian at iajukes@mac.com!
We have to learn to teach to the whole new mind, from Daniel Pink.
He says many, kids in school learn in spite of what we do. The top one third do this with ease. We need to direct our teaching to the other two thirds of our students.
These are our students! This is our audience!
Think of the language in the tests, identify, describe, these are the verbs from the lower end of Bloom's Taxonomy. We are not testing analyze, synthesize, the higher order verbs and activities.
We are not preparing kids for the world they are graduating into.
Everyone in our society needs to be about creativity and problem solving. We need to be teaching 21st Century Literacies.
Math not about equations, students need to understand numeracy.
Reading is not about reading text, but also comprehending text and images.
Writing is not about writing text, but also about communicating with text and images.
If we just learn or teach the 3 R's, we will prepare them for the 20th Century, their past, our comfort. They will not be prepared for the 21st Century.
Difference between literacy and fluency. Fluency is intuitive, unconscious, and internalized skills.
Technological fluency involves transparent use. It is not the pen but what we do with the pen.
It is not about teaching kids excel, it is about teaching kids to be problem solvers. Not about power pointless!
The issue, is critical thinking, time management...
You need to use the camera to get the photo for the assignment! Learn about the technology is the by product.
Media fluency, is not about operating the camera, the audio recorder, but looking at the content and understand how that medium is communicate the message. How is the media shaping our thinking!
First part! more coming.
Part 2---
We need, as teachers, to stop telling the whole story. We can't do this all the time, we need to teach lazy! We need to stop standing in front of kids telling them how smart we are! We need to allow the kids to think outside the lines.
Teachers need to withdraw progressively from being the thinker and teller in the classroom. We need to let our students progressively take charge of their learning so we create independent learners, who know how to find information and solve problems in a creative and new manner. As parents we get this, why can't we as teachers put this into practice?
Why does education rule how students should be learning? Why not put the students in charge of their learning? What would students say about using social networks, cell phones, text messaging in their learning environment?
Oh my, we must let students collaborate, it has to happen! If we are to prepare our students for success we must make environments for our students to collaborate in meaningful ways.
Digital tools for students are not optional! They are part of their culture. There are no boundaries for our students.Students need to create digital products so they can share what they know about the content, the process is as much of value as the product. Digital tools enhance the learning. Choose the better tool to create the product to solve the problem.
Students need guided and supportive feedback with an authentic audience to solve real problems. We need to re-think assessment and evaluation.
Use his handouts you will find the link to many handouts, keep on with the conversation!
Read Teaching for Tomorrow by Ted McCain Corwin Press
Read Here Comes Everybody!
You can email Ian at iajukes@mac.com!
Guess who is coming to dinner? What happens when you invite one person to dinner in San Antonio, NECC 2008?
This post is also at www.techlearning.com/blog
52 diners show up! No this is not a bad dream, it is a reality.
About 6 weeks ago, in the Twitterverse, many of us were setting our sights on converging in San Antonio for NECC 2008. Well, in the old days, about 365 of them ago, we probably would have sent an email to a few friends, and asked them to invite a friend and we would name a restaurant and a time. Probably by the time dinner rolled around we would have a dozen or so folks deciding upon a place to dine, all of us then would walk to the restaurant and have a fabulous time.
Fast forward to May 2008, 365 days later, and Sharon Betts asked a twitter friend to meet up with her for dinner at NECC08. All of this took place on twitter, a social network where one can leave a message with no more than 140 characters, to an individual or to the group, while singling out an individual.
Sharon made a "mistake" and messaged the crowd on twitter rather than a direct message to the friend. In a matter of 2 min. someone else responded that they too would like to meet up for dinner in San Antonio. In a matter of 20 minutes, there were over 20 people interested in meeting for dinner. The numbers swelled, and a project ensued. Sharon created a wikispace in order to collect ideas for restaurants, a meeting time, directions etc.
In the end there were over 90 people who signed up for dinner. While only 52 were able to attend, when was the last time you organized a dinner party for 52? Sharon searched and found a great spot in San Antonio, on the blue trolley line. She reserved a space for 90 of her closest friends and a time was agreed upon. Now, you may be thinking this is not so remarkable. YET!
You see, many of us in the group had only chatted by twitter, or blog comments or chats at edtechtalk.com . Many of us had never met face to face. And especially since a whole contingent of people, were traveling from Australia, the UK, all around the US and Canada, this was an event! How could you say no to this event?
Now, if you are still looking for purpose in using Twitter, think if you might use this social network tool to find information about a new Web 2.0 tool, a new book, a new idea, an old idea needing a revision, a collaborative project for your classroom. I can tell you that I rely on twitter as a comprehensive tool in my daily communication among my peers. I can rely on my twitter friends to come to my rescue when I am in need of an idea or support about something.
This is the spirit of NECC, trying something new, trying something using the new tools, sharing with others and keeping the conversation alive. Thanks to Sharon and all who participated. Not only was I able to expand my knowledge, I enjoyed meeting each and everyone of you face to face. Our collective knowledge is more dynamic than our own knowledge.
52 diners show up! No this is not a bad dream, it is a reality.
About 6 weeks ago, in the Twitterverse, many of us were setting our sights on converging in San Antonio for NECC 2008. Well, in the old days, about 365 of them ago, we probably would have sent an email to a few friends, and asked them to invite a friend and we would name a restaurant and a time. Probably by the time dinner rolled around we would have a dozen or so folks deciding upon a place to dine, all of us then would walk to the restaurant and have a fabulous time.
Fast forward to May 2008, 365 days later, and Sharon Betts asked a twitter friend to meet up with her for dinner at NECC08. All of this took place on twitter, a social network where one can leave a message with no more than 140 characters, to an individual or to the group, while singling out an individual.
Sharon made a "mistake" and messaged the crowd on twitter rather than a direct message to the friend. In a matter of 2 min. someone else responded that they too would like to meet up for dinner in San Antonio. In a matter of 20 minutes, there were over 20 people interested in meeting for dinner. The numbers swelled, and a project ensued. Sharon created a wikispace in order to collect ideas for restaurants, a meeting time, directions etc.
In the end there were over 90 people who signed up for dinner. While only 52 were able to attend, when was the last time you organized a dinner party for 52? Sharon searched and found a great spot in San Antonio, on the blue trolley line. She reserved a space for 90 of her closest friends and a time was agreed upon. Now, you may be thinking this is not so remarkable. YET!
You see, many of us in the group had only chatted by twitter, or blog comments or chats at edtechtalk.com . Many of us had never met face to face. And especially since a whole contingent of people, were traveling from Australia, the UK, all around the US and Canada, this was an event! How could you say no to this event?
Now, if you are still looking for purpose in using Twitter, think if you might use this social network tool to find information about a new Web 2.0 tool, a new book, a new idea, an old idea needing a revision, a collaborative project for your classroom. I can tell you that I rely on twitter as a comprehensive tool in my daily communication among my peers. I can rely on my twitter friends to come to my rescue when I am in need of an idea or support about something.
This is the spirit of NECC, trying something new, trying something using the new tools, sharing with others and keeping the conversation alive. Thanks to Sharon and all who participated. Not only was I able to expand my knowledge, I enjoyed meeting each and everyone of you face to face. Our collective knowledge is more dynamic than our own knowledge.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Graduation speech from Ms. Lewia
I asked Ms. Lewia if I could refer to her speech for those of you who may not have been at graduation. She presented this speech with great polish!
Good Afternoon, Administrators, Senator Collins, School Board Members, Faculty, Staff, Parents, Family members and the Wells High School Class of 2008.
When I was asked to give the graduation inspirational speech, I said, “Are you kidding”… For those of you out there that know me this is not my forte. But this is a special group of graduates! I have enjoyed following all of you over the past four years and look forward to hearing about your new adventures.
I want to share with you today an inspirational story that I read many years ago from the book of Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul. This story is one of my favorites.
It is titled TRUE HEIGHT.
See the passage True Height.
Today I would ask you to be brave. Explore the great big world out there. Open your hearts and your minds to new ideas and fresh suggestions. If I could give you one bit of advice it would be to try something new every day of your lives, even if it only means taking a different route to work or school. That way, whatever else that journey of life brings, it won't bring boredom.
I’ll leave you today with An Irish blessing that goes like this…
May the sun shine, all the day long, everything go right, and nothing wrong. May those you love bring love back to you and may all the wishes you wish come true.
I wish you all the best in your futures, I love you all and always remember…
YES YOU CAN!!!( At this point a banner dropped from the podium Yes You Can!)
Thanks Ms. Lewia
Permission to post this has been requested from Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises.
My favorite quote, as soon as graduation was over, a student was heard saying, "I can't believe my text box is full!"
Good Afternoon, Administrators, Senator Collins, School Board Members, Faculty, Staff, Parents, Family members and the Wells High School Class of 2008.
When I was asked to give the graduation inspirational speech, I said, “Are you kidding”… For those of you out there that know me this is not my forte. But this is a special group of graduates! I have enjoyed following all of you over the past four years and look forward to hearing about your new adventures.
I want to share with you today an inspirational story that I read many years ago from the book of Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul. This story is one of my favorites.
It is titled TRUE HEIGHT.
See the passage True Height.
Today I would ask you to be brave. Explore the great big world out there. Open your hearts and your minds to new ideas and fresh suggestions. If I could give you one bit of advice it would be to try something new every day of your lives, even if it only means taking a different route to work or school. That way, whatever else that journey of life brings, it won't bring boredom.
I’ll leave you today with An Irish blessing that goes like this…
May the sun shine, all the day long, everything go right, and nothing wrong. May those you love bring love back to you and may all the wishes you wish come true.
I wish you all the best in your futures, I love you all and always remember…
YES YOU CAN!!!( At this point a banner dropped from the podium Yes You Can!)
Thanks Ms. Lewia
Permission to post this has been requested from Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises.
My favorite quote, as soon as graduation was over, a student was heard saying, "I can't believe my text box is full!"
Friday, June 06, 2008
Professional Development Meme
It seems that a Meme kicks off my jump into summer! So, I am happy to oblige Michael Richards with my entrance into this meme. Especially since he was tagged by Skip Zalneraitis (twitter=skipz), who considers himself a newbie in this world of social web tools. So, Welcome Skip!
Here are the directions:
Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.
Here are the rules:
- Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
- For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
- Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
- Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
- Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
- Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
- Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
- Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.
Here are my goals:
1. Learn how to use Podcast Capture on my macbook for instant podcast or videocast publishing.
2. Make some face to face connections with my virtual cohorts while at NECC and BLC .
3. Make my 4 summer professional development courses available online!
Tagging!!!
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Monday, June 02, 2008
Dear Teacher Redux
Dear Teacher, ( substitute your name here)
This was posted originally at http://speedofcreativity.org as a guest blogger!Thanks Wes for allowing me to be a guest blogger. With a 3 day span I am really challenged to produce a daily post. Well, here goes. These ideas and opinions are mine and do not reflect Wes’ thinking on these subjects.
Dear Teacher, (substitute your name here)
I have heard recently that teachers don’t get much thanks from their students until sometimes years later when you notice that we have become productive members of society. But, I want to thank you for this year and perhaps….. well, read on.
Thank you for knowing your content area. That is really important for you to know your content so the administration, parents and students have trust in you to transfer that knowledge to us. I want to especially thank my World After 1945 teacher for having assignments from our book and for making sure that I learned the dates of important world events and the impact of those same events (from the textbook author’s perspective) and for having assignments where I just had to fill in the blank.
I want to thank my literature teacher for having assignments from Beowulf ( Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem composed in the later Early Middle Ages (in the 8th, 9th or 10th century), and for making sure that we read the old English version and translate it into modern day meaning. I am sure I will use that knowledge when I am writing a technical manual about how to navigate the website of my future business.
I want to thank my math teacher for having assignments from the textbook and for making sure that we learned how to answer the questions at the end of the chapters on our own, as that is the sure way to determine if the students understand the process.
I want to thank you for keeping the school day short enough not to interfere with my most important and significant learning which happens as soon as I leave the building. After all, I am easily able to finish my fill in the blank answers, reading assignments and predictable answers to your questions. Which leaves me enormous amounts of time to pretend to my parents that I am researching a topic for my World After 1945 class, Mom, I can’t come do my chores just yet. (Translate I am adding some photos to my Facebook and tagging my friends to see what they are doing, I’ll do chores at the last minute.) I want to thank you for keeping my assignments short so as not to interfere with my (MMORPG) Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
where I meet up with friends from all time zones and like it is my job to take on a role in this game. Oh Dad, I can’t come and move the trash yet, I am finishing up my math problems, it is a little difficult tonight I can’t solve for x in this really long equation.
Last but not least, I want to thank you for keeping cell phones and mp3 players out of the school day, you can’t imagine how distracting it is for me to have to answer all those text messages during school and keep in touch with my circle of friends including calls and messages from my parents when there have been changes in our family plans.
But, I was wondering if maybe next year we could add just a few social networking tools to your content? I was thinking it would be interesting to chat with some students in India to find out what kind of information they are learning in their classes since I will be competing with them when I go for a job or enrolling for college. I wonder if they learn about mathematics the same way we do. I wonder how long their school day is, how long their school year is? Then I am wondering if the kids in the UK are still reading Beowulf, and how their teachers teach them about the purpose of Beowulf in today’s world and wouldn’t it be interesting to have a dialogue or chat with some kids in school in the UK. Finally, I was wondering if there was a way we could work on an environmental problem with some kids from around the world to see if there is something that we have in common and if some of us have ideas that might just help the environment now rather than waiting 5-9 more years when we finish high school.
You see, teacher, I am curious, I want to learn, I want to be challenged, I want to be engaged in my learning. To be honest, your curriculum doesn’t always provide for the connections I need to make my learning purposeful. But, I do want to thank you for trying to deliver the content and knowledge. Please add one technology tool, social networking, let us work collaboratively like we already are when we are outside of school. Hey, give us great assignments and we will work longer and harder. You will see.
Fondly,
Your 21st century student.( substitute one of your student’s names)
*******
Here are some great blogs and wikis designed for the 21st century learner.
Thanks to Clarence Fischer for the Clarence Fisher Project, SnowLake Manitoba, Canada
Darren Kuropatwa Winnepeg Manitoba, Canada
Susan Ettenheim, Eleanor Roosevelt High School, NYC, Youth Voices
Alice Barr, Yarmouth High School, ME
Here is a collaborative science program, worldwide connections.Globe
Over and Out,
Cheryl Oakes, guest blogger
Redux=is a Latin word that means "brought back", "revisited". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Redux
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Dear Student Redux
June 2007
Dear Student, (fill in your name)
This was posted originally at http://speedofcreativity.org as a guest blogger!Thanks to Wes for this opportunity. Thanks to students everywhere for this inspiration. Thanks to teachers and administrators for all you do.
Dear student,
Thank you for kicking off this series of letters. I must say you have given me pause for thought. However, your questions are really unsettling and puzzling to me. Your questions don’t have just one answer! Your questions can not be answered by me reading a book or an article. Your questions can NOT be googled. Your questions have to do with me collaborating with others and having conversations.
Hey student, will you show me, will you share with me?
I remember playing monopoly and someone, usually the banker held the money and the rules, well now think of monopoly as a 3D version with you trying to make money by buying up property and others trying to get around the board without landing on property with too many hotels, with helicopters zooming in with vacationing guests, travel agents bidding their clients to stay on Boardwalk, it is the best and you trying to watch behind your back for the next new guest, real estate broker, banker etc. who is sneaking up behind you! Monopoly could not be played in a hurried fashion. However in todays online games the pace is frenzied, hurried, yet the time flies by!
Different realms appear in online games,there are so many rules, rules, rules, there is NO WAY most of the players read many of the rules. If you don’t read the rules, then how do you play the game? Trial and error, collaborating with friends and enemies! Multi tasking, chatting, collaborating! Even if you read some of the rules there would be many exceptions and cheats to get by the roadblocks. If you read the rules you would never get to play the game.
So, what are you learning student? That although there are rules, and explanations about the games you are engaged in, the reading you do is not fill in the blank! There isn’t much that is static, there isn’t much that is historical about what you are playing. By this I mean, the games haven’t been around for a long time so you are constantly learning how to do things, new learning. However, it looks like to me that the most important things to do in these games is that you learn how to collaborate, chat with others, find the right time zone to enter the game and be aware!
Hey student, will you show me, will you share with me?
Blizzard Oates ,
avatar name in SL,
aka Cheryl Oakes
Here are some of the few resources I found about online gaming. Take a risk and read further.
Beth Ritter Guth, is a college professor who has designed her college literacy classes in Second Life. Read some of her students work, you will be amazed at the depth of their writing! Students here are NOT just writing for their teacher, they are writing for the world.
Ex Paine , is a secondary teacher, check out this site for great conversations about gaming, Second Life and how it all impacts education.
Teen Grid in Second Life, here are some resources for examining Second Life for a teen grid and how Teen Second Life could be used for educational purposes.
Here are fascinating essays on MMORPG’s and economics and education. There is even an online conference in fall 2007.
The reason the army has taken the challenge to develop one of the most popular online games is this is where they are spreading the word and marketing. Look at their success. Look at the changes they have made in the past FEW years. Has education even made a stab at these kinds of changes? Have you?
Beginners guide in World of Warcraft 2. Teachers and administrators check out the reading level in this online manual. Check out the comprehension if you think these games are dumb. Better yet, read a few paragraphs and check your own comprehension. I don’t mean see if you can answer questions about your reading either. Go to the game and see how long you survive!
PS
Or you can be like me and check out an easier version of an online game Webkinz.
When I was researching for this story my niece popped up online and asked if I wanted to play a game in Webkinz. She is 500 miles away, and I only see her a few times a year. However, through Webkinz I get to play games with her and watch her strategies grow and sometimes I even talk to her on the phone and she explains the games to me. She is 8 and I am 55. I am learning so much from her and I know I will be able to apply this to other games as I mature in my gaming profession. BTW, she beat me in the game! I, for one, am glad I have some summertime to perfect my game image. Now if I can only learn how to land gracefully in SL, I would meet my standard!
Redux=is a Latin word that means "brought back", "revisited". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Redux
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