Jerrie's Web 2.0 Class

I have had a delicious account for a long time, but what I haven’t done is share my bookmarks with anyone. I think this is one of the most important tools for teams of teachers and even teachers and students to create a collection of resources. I am not sure if schools block this site or not, but I think if a schools block sites like this for good reasons that we have to find other alternatives. We’ve been experimenting with an open source way to create a DIGG-like site called PLIGG, for example. I want to learn more about delicious and see how to create groups. I think the group concept is even more exciting than simply sharing. Having access to experts’ collections is really exciting. It is sooo valuable!! Thanks for those links!

I have been a part of NING for a while. I participate in the ISTE Ning, the ISTE conference Ning, and I’m a member of the Classroom 2.0 Ning. It is so cool. However, I just have trouble finding time to participate. I am on Facebook almost every day for my personal life/friends, but I don’t take enough time for professional social networks, but it is very good and important–especially for technology leaders. In small school districts, there may only be one technology leader. That person MUST have use social networking to have a professional learning community with other people who do similar work/have similar interests. YES, I am very interested in using social networking in my own practice. In my classes we create a great learning community, but after the class is over, students lose their access to our learning management system (GA View Vista). I want to find a way to keep in touch with our graduates and keep learning from them. Hoke is exploring ELGG which is an open source system that is housed/managed locally. Unlike Ning, the district or organization has more control and this eliminates some security issues. He is exploring using ELGG to make a social network for tech leaders throughout the state. I think that’s very interesting and I hope to learn with him and the GSTE/CoSN groups with whom he is working.

I am working on the new Teacher Quality Partnership grant that KSU received. As I work with many of my colleagues we struggle with the question of how to train and retain teachers for high-need areas. Results of a survey titled “What Keeps Good Teachers in the Classroom” was interesting. The full article can be found at: http://www.teachersnetwork.org/

In this survey, 80% of teachers reported that network participation encouraged them to remain in the classroom; 90% shared that it improved their teaching practice. 59% cited that network participation prompted them to develop better relationships with students’ parents.

Colleagues’ support was the only school culture factor significantly associated with teachers’ long-term retention.
This finding makes it critical that urban schools create and maintain professional learning communities. Since this is a major goal of the grant, I was happy to find a resource that helped me see the importance of this goal

Okay, PageFlakes has me thinking more than any other assignments. It is both unique from and similar to other tools I use. I use iGoogle as my homepage and it’s much like that, but the ability to share and collaborate is very unique. I think the ability to share and collaborate with only certain people also makes it great for school settings. It really makes a secure web site possible. Students being able to contribute also makes it Wiki-like. Honestly, I cannot quite wrap my brain around it yet! I have played with it for over an hour and I simply need more time–and maybe a chat with Jerrie and how she uses it. I think I’ll make it my homepage instead of Google and play with it for a while. It seems like I can add all my Google tools, but also more–plus I can share it.

Google docs are incredible. At first, I was a little clunky in creating a document and formatting it like I wanted, but I think I got it! There is a lot of functionality and the collaboration elements are amazing. Like the video says, I have huge version control problems. I really notice this when working with doctoral students on long pieces of work like their dissertations, comps, and applied research. Okay…three ideas:
1. In my work, we are always aligning curriculum to standards. I created a table with all the NETS-T standards and a group of designers (professors) creating a new program can input the courses where they think they can address the standards. After this first step we can see which standards are addressed, where, and which ones are left out.
2. I think when students are doing a jigsaw the “forms” function would be great. We could input an article summary and create a collection that all could reference. I do this a lot in classes and I think this would be a much better way of sharing instead of downloading and uploading templates.
3. I am going to create a folder for each doc student and share it. This way we can keep working on drafts and not have to hunt old emails! This will make our lives easier!

ALL my examples include collaboration because that is the way we work and learn. I think this is the strength of google documents. However, I can see me making folders, too. It would save me from having to make sure the file is on a specific computer. With Google docs, I could access it from any computer. Very nice!

WOW! you can spend time on You Tube. The timer idea is necessary. Okay… I found two You Tube videos that I can use in class. One is Scott McLeod talking about Technology Leadership. We have focused on training teachers for many years, but administrator training is equally as important. I can assign this video in EDL 7105 Technology Leadership. The second is a really short video about teaching in the 21st Century. I looked through many videos that would help preservice teachers begin a conversation about the role of technology in education and, more broadly, what it means to teach/learn in the 21st Century. I chose this one because it is POSITIVE! So many are scary and depressing and competitive! Uggh!
For the “how to videos,” I viewed some videos that a speaker at GAETC had alluded to…the “how to cheat series.” These are a must see for teachers and very funny…and scary…but also funny. Great for starting discussions. For the “fun” video, take a look at “Everything is Amazing but Nobody’s Happy.” It discusses technology and our impatience with things as a culture. It’s very true–and very funny. Great discussion starter to think about the 21st Century Learner and how technology is not the end-all. We still need to be nice, caring people! I’ve posted links to all of these.

Teacher Tube is a great resource.  I think you have to “kiss a lot of frogs” to find a prince, but the opportunity for students to publish is alluring for me.  I think we still have to think about anonymity/safety for students, but the opportunity is great.  I see a lot of traditional “learn about” kind of videos, but if students are taking the teacher role, that’s okay!  I don’t assume that students find teachers talking on the Web much more interesting that teachers talking in schools, but there is a time and place to deliver information. Great site.  I downloaded a movie on Administrator walk throughs and emailed the authors permission to edit it a bit.  I think it would be a very powerful introduction to why administrators need technology skills–after all–even administrators need time to dance.  I posted a link.  I want to use it at orientation.

I previewed a lot of podcasts. Mostly from the “skip the tuition,” “learn out loud,” and “PBS” sites, because I had looked at the others quite a bit before. I concentrated on looking at the college ones because I wanted to see how professors were using the Podcasts. I thought there was a big difference between the professionally created ones like on PBS and what professors were doing!! I want to make mine look cool. I think there is a lot of application for podcasts in the university classroom–especially for online courses. With the new technologies, I am seeing less and less need for meeting face to face. Even when it is a face to face class, it is nice to get the lectures out of the way so that you can do the discussions/coaching/group work that needs to be done f2f. I want to make podcasts at this point as an orientation for courses and lectures. I also am most interested in having STUDENTS create and post pod casts. It is a great way product for students to demonstrate their learning. I am not a big podcaster now. I subscribe to a few, but seldom listen to them. I do not make podcasts…so thanks for this session. It supports my number one professional learning goal at this point.

This is brilliant! I’ve been looking for something like this. It reminds me of the “we read” application on FaceBook, but it’s better. I think students would really like this…but I have a question. It has advertising. There are books on this site that are inappropriate for under-age-18 people and the site could put kids in contact with people they don’t know. SO…I think it is a great idea, but do districts allow it? Do we have examples of how districts are using it? How can we make it safe-or-how can we make something like it that is safe? These are just questions I want to pursue. I don’t expect anyone to answer them for me–but if you do have ideas/insights….let me know!

I took time to read a couple of old Edutopia things I’d “starred” to save and read later. They are both on gaming in education. One was an interview with James Gee and the other focused on a group from University of Wisconsin. Games have had a bad reputation in the past, but there are all sorts of new,exciting trends–multi-user games and student-created games! I want to learn more! Both of these resources can be found on Edutopia.org

I checked out “Quizlet,” which at first might seem very traditiona–reinforcing memory of facts, etc. However, I like the collaborative quality of the tool. It would be great to have students work in groups to create discussion questions or little quizzes about content. As a teacher, I’d “borrow” some of the good ones for the actual test. I have a student who says this is such an easy tool. She prefers it over Survey Monkey, Questia, etc.