"I'LL MAKE THEM AN OFFER, THEY CAN'T REFUSE!"

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~Alvin Toffler

As I struggled (and I do mean struggled) with this week's topic...WHAT'S NEXT?...I found the above quote quite poignant. It really gets at the heart of the matter when we are talking about the role educators play in this digital revolution with today's children.

Educators need to "unlearn" old teaching habits of being the expert in the classroom and imparting their wisdom. They need to "relearn" teaching strategies that allow them to "learn" along side their students. Being literate in the 21st century means accepting that their are new ways of learning that are developing at a faster rate than we can profess to keep up with them and therefore as educators we must become more facilitators and learners WITH our students. In order to keep ourselves in the game, we must be willing to give up some of our more traditional methods of engaging our students and dive into these amazing new tools for information literacy that are available on the world wide web.

OK...that was Heather's Philosophy of Education in the 21st century 101...if you read that and gleamed a speck of comprehension....then you passed!

So...what IS next if we as educators are going to strive to stay cutting edge in the improvement of our children's education, specifically in regards to integrating technology in their learning? What tool do I think would make the biggest impact on the staff and students in my school?

With all the reading, reflecting and discussions over the past couple of weeks regarding blogs, I am more convinced than ever that BLOGS are the place to begin! A huge undertaking...perhaps... BUT worthwhile!

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/88949661@N00/302510560)

I decided to share my thoughts in a personal debate using the "tried and true" method of comparing the PROS and CONS. So here goes...

PROS

• I believe there is a reason Will Richardson's first chapters in his book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web tools for Classrooms" begins by looking at blogs. As Richardson states, "...what I find so powerful about Weblogs today...writing to the web is easy. And there is an audience for my ideas...Weblogs have such huge potential in an educational setting." (p.17)Almost all other Web 2.0 tools seem to need somewhere to showcase themselves and the blog provides the perfect portal for linking up podcasts, videos, photos, voicethreads, etc. I guess I see the blog as the template or forum from which all the other tools can be shared in one easily created space!


• As Will stated, it's easy! Many teachers are already using some form of Word processing. Blogs simply provide a more technologically integrated, environmentally friendly, wider audience and...let's face it, a more fun means of sharing what you could type and print onto a piece of paper!


• As we have learned throughout this course, blogs have SO MANY uses for both teachers and their students. Anne Davis wrote a post for her blog Edublog Insights where she shares her Rationale for Educational Blogging. She provides a list of amazing reasons for blogging with students that I will refer to often when the argument of blogging with students is ever raised amongst parents or peers. Two of my favorite points were:
  "Blogging provides the opportunity for our students to learn to write for life-long learning.
  Blogging affords us the opportunity to teach responsible public writing. Students can learn about the power of the published word and the responsibilities involved with public writing."


• These two previous points bring me back to my list of "pros" for blogging. As students and teachers begin using blogs, they will hopefully begin to see the potential for their blogging beyond just what is required for a course or teacher, but as a means of communicating with the world outside the classroom walls on their own time and for years to come. As long as they have an audience (the internet), there is always someone listening to their ideas and may be ready to respond and strike up a conversation. As Anne Davis states, "(It's) that outside connecting audience that makes a difference. It is exciting. It is motivating." It's what has kept her blogging with her students since 2002!


• Blogging also allows for the opportunity for teachers to begin discussing and investigating the issues of internet safety. It becomes more real to students when THEY are the writers and publishers of the content that is presented on the web. Another priceless site I found about blogging in education, (specifically tips for internet safety) was at Teaching tips.com entitled 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers. You have to check this one out!


• For our school and staff, I believe that blogs will open our classroom doors to our parent community. With assessment trends involving parents more and more and on a much more frequent basis, I believe that blogs will help to bridge that communication gap between teacher, student and parent and get parents more involved in their child's education. I found an interesting blog post at Inspiring Teachers entitled Blogging and Parents that shares many ideas for what a blog could contain to help parents in supporting and teaching their children at home. I get rave reviews about how much parents appreciate my classroom blog as they often feel disconnected as working parents from what is going on in their child's day-to-day learning.


• Once teachers have established what a blog is and how easy it is to create their own. I feel it would be important to introduce them to the many examples of blogs, both for professional learning and as examples for their own classroom, so they could see the potential and usefulness that a blog can offer. I couldn't introduce blogging to a group of teachers without Supportblogging.com as it is contains a wealth of resources for edubloggers alike!

CONS

Will Richardson to the rescue again, in an archived post entitled The Future of Blogs , Richardson clearly outlines many of the concerns surrounding the employment of blogs in schools. It was interesting how he started out reminding everyone of his passion for blogging in education and that this post was presented to begin an important discussion about “what are the obstacles and how do we overcome them to keep blogs evolving and branching out in education!"

• TIME - There is no doubt that blogs require time to learn about, set up and to maintain, something many teachers already don't feel they have enough of with what is already on their plates. This is where teachers need to let something else go in order to introduce something new. As well, school divisions need to be offering up opportunities through in-servicing to promote these new tools. Richardson puts it simply,"without a fundamental shift in how we perceive and fund education, this will remain an intractable roadblock for all but the most highly engaged and motivated."


• ACCESS- This is a huge "con" in our school when it comes to anything involving the use of the computers over an extended period of time. "When can I get into the computer lab? It's always booked! We don't have enough computers!" I'm sure you've all heard it and in truth it's a fair concern but there are ways to modify what you do to make blogging work for you (or any IT project). The concept of center based learning so only a few computers are needed at one time is one such solution. Another block for some school divisions is access to a good blogging host site (fortunately for me that is not an issue.).


• FEAR - I may get ridiculed for this but I think teachers fear change more than any other profession, mostly because of what change implies...but that's a totally different post! I liked Will's statement, "to take a leap into the unknown with blogs is scary at best and nightmarish at worst. Especially if the tools demand not just an understanding of technology but a redefinition of good pedagogy." Again, back to Toffler's quote, we need to learn, unlearn and relearn to become literate in this 21st century and in order to do that we need to make changes and face our fears. Will refers to Barbara Ganley (a teacher and notable edublogger) who addresses the fears teachers have regarding Web 2.0. In researching more about her, I stumbled across a somewhat eerie video she created entitled "Teacher Fear/Fear 2.0". Is this what we fear?


• SAFETY - Richardson devotes a few pages in his book to "Blog Safety" (p.49) with many suggestions for teachers to keep their students safe (using pseudonyms or first names only, never divulging personal information, creating an Acceptable Use Policy that students and parents have to sign when using blogs, removing the "navbar" so students can't access other blogs that may be inappropriate, etc.) Blogs are an open arena for students to publish their thoughts freely and of course this will have its implications if teachers are not moderating comments and checking on their students' blogs regularly through RSS feeds.
  

So how would I take on this challenge of teaching this tool to my fellow teachers and peers?

Within Manitoba, the province has created a continuum entitled "Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum" which was first developed in 2004. The implementation of this new "curriculum" has been the main focus and school plan goal in most divisions since its introduction. This in itself creates the perfect avenue when introducing new technology ideas to our staff as it has become mandatory for staff to report on how they are developing "Literacy with ICT" in their classrooms and with their students.

I joined our ICT committee for the first time this year at our school, in hopes to infuse what I have learned in this course into our school learning environment and to help facilitate the implementation of the Literacy with ICT continuum. I also participated in a two day workshop with the creators of the document in order to become a school leader in the process of educating our staff on Literacy with ICT. I am hoping with these new experiences my staff feels comfortable with my knowledge in the field and are ready to pursue the idea of blogging as part of the implementation plan.

The website for the Literacy with ICT in Manitoba is an excellent resource for school leaders as there is a whole section dedicated to providing the support and information needed for those taking on that role. This is not a responsibility that I take lightly nor do I necessarily feel like an "expert" in the field. On the website I found this statement (that is some serious food for thought) as we take the journey into teaching our peers,

"Effective leaders understand how to balance growth through change while, at the same time practising aspects of culture, values, and norms worth preserving. They know which policies, practices, resources, and incentives to align, and how to align them with organizational practices. They know how to gauge the magnitude of the change they are calling for and how to adjust their leadership strategies accordingly."

WOW! That is a lot to consider! Fortunately, I am quite proud of the work Manitoba has done in creating, promoting and beginning to implement this document. I only hope to get my staff as excited and enthusiastic about blogging and the integration of ICT in their pedagogy!

Hopefully we can start a generation of life-long learners (and bloggers)!

Since I started with a quote, I saw it as only fitting to end with one...

Change always comes bearing gifts. ~Price Pritchett

The ABC's of BLOGGING IN EDUCATION

A LITTLE BACKGROUND "TRIVIA" FOR YOU!

According to Wikipedia, a "blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video." In "The Rough Guide to Blogging" , the author Jonathan Yang attributes the term "blog" to Peter Merholz who coined the phrase in 1999. An article written for Educause Learning Initiative entitled "7 things you should know about blogs" describes how "blogging has evolved from its origins as a medium for the online publication of personal diaries to a respected vehicle for editorials on specific topics and represent an alternative to mainstream media publications."

THE "ABC'S" OF BLOGGING (for Professional Learning and Educational Purposes)

Tonight I was inspired by my 4 year old daughter's bedtime story, "K is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo" by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees, which she had picked out from the public library just this morning.





I wondered... 'Could I make a list of the ABC's of blogging in education, that I had learned over the past few months (and in particular while preparing for this post)?'





Well...let's give it a shot and see how far I get!

A - Audience- Blogging provides an audience for our students' writing as well as for the questions we have as educators to our fellow edubloggers and specialists in the field.

B - Blogging (of course) - The act of blogging itself made me a writer again, not just the teacher telling the students how to be better writers but by blogging, we engage our dorment inner writer and grow as professionals in our field.

C- Connecting, Collaborating, Commenting, Creating, Community - (There were too many C-words to pick just one!) Blogging both for professional development and with our students is without a doubt one of the most exciting ways to connect and collaborate with students (or other educators) from around the world to create new learning communities. Here is a sample blog from a grade 4 class where their blogroll consists of blogs from around the world! You can imagine the connectivism the students must be feeling in that classroom as they comment and collaborate with them through blogging.

D - David, Doug and Anne Davies - Just to name a few of the Edublogging, Web 2.0 experts that I've been following and learning from over these past few months thanks to their RSS feeds!

E - Engaging - Everytime I "click a link" in the edublogosphere, educators are talking about how we must engage our digital learners with technology. Blogging is definitely engaging! I'm sure you've seen this video, A Vision of K-12 Students Today.

F- Friends - Blogging has created new friendships for me professionally (and hopefully personally!) where I can continue to learn from them and contribute back.

G - Growth - The community of edubloggers is growing everyday and with them comes their wealth of knowledge and expertise for me to learn from and grow.

H - Helpful - I can't believe how helpful these edubloggers have been in my journey into Web 2.0 during this course. I've learned from them, been inspired by them and will continue to follow their postings for years to come.

I - Introspective - By reading and writing so many blogs, I've been getting very introspective about myself as an educator and an individual in this great big internet world out there (deep..I know!).

J- Journaling - Blogs have taken the art of journaling for professional development to a whole new level as our "online journals" are read and commented on by so many experts in the field.

K - Kindergarten - Even at the ripe old age of 5, children are beginning to find their voices through blogging as early as kindergarten. Check out this blog of kindergarteners I found who are using Blogmeister. If that's not motivating I don't know what is!

L - Librarians - Through reading blogs and getting into the blogosphere, I have become accutely aware that librarians are truly at the heart of this technological world of education and have a lot of power as leaders and educators to make a change in the way the students and teachers (under their wings and even around the world) can make use of the Web 2.0 world outside their classroom walls. Joyce Valenza is inspirational with her blog for SLJ, her amazing virtual library site, her teacher librarian wiki and her development of the Teacherlibrarian Ning. (As you can tell I'm a fan!)


M - Manage - Blogs have helped me manage my "educational" life. I am able to use my classroom blog to manage my communications with my parents and I use my "professional learning" blog to manage my links, bookmarks and thoughts on my growth as an educator.



(Phew! I'm halfway there! Only 13 more letters to go...)



N- Networking - Blogging both professionally and for our students is a safe and effective means of networking amongst peers.

O- Oh my gosh! - I still have 11 more to go!

P -Publication - This was sort of a "eureka" moment for me when I realized that every time I post something on my blog (both classroom and for learning), that I am creating a "published" piece of work that is out there in the public. Blogging is the best form of authentic work for students and a great platform for professionals to feel a sense of accomplishment as they publish a blog.

Q - Questioning - As I have begun reading so many different edubloggers and their opinions, I've learned to start questioning what I am reading and not take everything they are promoting from their "soapboxes" as gospel. Questioning blog content and the credibility of the blogger is a critical factor in using the blogosphere as a PD forum for both our students and fellow teachers.

R - Reflection - There is nothing like writing a blog to make oneself reflect...on anything! It's amazing what is out there in the blogosphere that people find the time to write (or reflect) about. In a more useful manner as PD, blogs can be an excellent tool for reflection on our current and future teaching practice.

S - Subscribing - By subscribing to numerous (or only a few) great blogs/bloggers that impact you as a professional on the way you teach or make you stretch your thinking where technology and the future of education are headed, is key to using blogs as a great PD source (assuming you take the time to read them!)

T - Transforming - Blogs are transforming classrooms on a daily basis as they are integrated into more and more of our students learning experiences to make them more authentic. These same transformations can take place with educators using blogs for PD as they "play" with the same learning tools as their students but for their own professional purposes in mind. Will Richardson has a short video where students are sharing how their learning has been transformed. http://campus.belmont.edu/chenowit/dragonstale/WebLoggingSmall.mov

U - Universal - Blogs have become a universal means of communicating with countries and people from around the world. It's amazing how students are able to share their work and ideas with students halfway around the globe and in many cases, make a difference in their lives! As Will Richardson states in his book, "the walls of the classroom are literally made irrelevant by the creation of communities of learners that span oceans, races, genders and generations."

V- Vicki Davies - The CoolCatTeacher blog has been on my Google Reader since the beginning of this course and I love her weekly education updates. What a great PD boost for teachers to receive every week! Also, her contribution to Web 2.0 education initiatives with her development of the Flatclassroom Project is astounding!

W - Will Richardson and Weblogg-ed - How could I write a list of the ABC's of blogging with out mentioning our course expert and guru in the field of blogging in education? Need I say more? Actually, I can...but that would take too long! His book has been my Web 2.0 bible and a great starting point for any educator ready to take on technology in their everyday classroom. It just about says it all!

X - eXamples - Sue Waters (The Edublogger herself!) has a great post full of examples of class blogs. Make time to check it out, it's worth it to get some new ideas! Another great source for examples and ideas for educators interested in blogging is SupportBlogging.com created by Steven Hargadon. It's an amazing resource for teachers using blogs, thinking about using blogs or just interested in learning more about educational blogging! Thanks, Steve!

Y- heathersYearn2learn.blogspot.com - My little blog in the world wide web where my very own professional learning and development has been taking place for everyone and anyone to witness and comment on. It is forever out in publication for me, my children and my children's children to visit and read...as long as there is an internet! Wesley Fryer made a video entitled Perspectives on Classroom Blogging that expresses this idea as well as summing up many of the other great reasons for blogging in education.


Z - Zany - This zany list is finally done!


This ranting and raving about the benefits and "bonuses" of blogging would not be complete without looking at what needs to take place in education, if this edublogging movement is going to make an impact on a much grander scale. Anne Davis wrote a terrific post in her blog not too long ago (I remember because I "starred" it in my reader) that really speaks to a problem we need to address as educators...TIME! Her post was entitled "Thinking about change". Davis makes a bold but true statement about how educators need to use wikis, blogs, social bookmarks and the like but our days are filled with other priorities... "until the educators’ learning and growth is truly made a priority within our schools , I don’t think we will make the progress we need to achieve... A reflective culture of learning and growing must be nurtured in our schools." This is where we need our educational leaders and administrators to see this as a necessary part of their teachers' professional growth and provide the time and resources to make it happen. As Anne Davis asks in her post, "How can we make change happen a little faster in our educational world?"

MY REVELATION!
I can honestly say, after reading SO MANY blogs both personal, professional and playful; that blogs come in all "shapes and sizes" and convey all kinds of opinions and information. Within the act of blogging (which includes reading, writing and commenting on them), there is a culture and community fostered that is incomparable to picking up a magazine/textboook, sitting in a lecture hall or writing a paper for only you and only one other person to see (your teacher). Will Richardson and his Web 2.0 counterparts have turned me into a blogging diva, both in and out of the classroom. I thoroughly enjoy my daily dose of blog reading on my Google Reader and love writing my classroom blog every Friday (yes...even on a Friday!). I am anxious to share my classroom blog with others, turn my fellow teachers into "edubloggers" and ultimately, get my students blogging!

RSS = Ready + Set + Siphon!

(http://joevans.pbwiki.com/RSS+Feeds)

Is this where we are headed? What an exciting prospect!

WHAT IS RSS?:

At the beginning of our EDES 501 course, we were asked to set up an aggregator to have a better understand of how this Web 2.0 feature worked before commenting and reflecting on it in our blog posting. As with any new technology, I asked my husband what an RSS aggregator was...he had no idea. His answer to everything is "Google it!". Before jumping onto the net, I knew there was a chapter in Will Richardson's book so I read the beginning and set to work creating my aggregator (note: I didn't read the whole chapter back in September). I was ready to summarize what I had read to my husband but he was already on the internet and setting up his reader account. He LOVES it! He had several blogs he enjoyed surfing but was always using his bookmarks to locate them. He couldn't believe he hadn't heard of this RSS thing before!

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication (in some of the other articles I've read, they call it Rich Site Summary). One of my favorite definitions and explanations for RSS was in a video created by Wes Fryer "simply" titled "What is RSS?" ( A fun way to learn for this visual learner!) I loved his analogy of RSS, referring to open water as all the information "out there" and your RSS aggregator acting as the faucet that brings it together in a condensed version and you access it as you wish (OK, so you have to see the video!). In my own words, I would explain RSS as a way for you to receive your favorite blog updates and other social networking tools all in one place so you are not "clicking" all over the internet. It's a great way to stay on top of the latest news, trends, sport's scores, techno tips and much, much more!


SETTING UP MY RSS FEEDER AND INITIAL EXPERIENCE:

As a Blogger and "friend" to google I decided to keep all my accounts in one place (sort of) so I set up a Google Reader account (instead of Bloglines as recommended by Will). I started by subscribing to my fellow classmates' blogs (so cool!) and then began subscribing to the Web 2.0 expert bloggers as I found them during my research of our Web 2.0 topics for this course. It was kind of neat how their blogs would contain Blog lists that they followed so I'd check them out and add them to my Reader. (This Web 2.0 thing...it's all so connected!!! LOL) I kind of got addicted to subscribing to these blogs and my feeds started growing at a rate faster than I could read them. Thus began my first "sifting" experience as I had no choice but to delete the ones I found I wasn't reading anyway or that didn't really provide any knowledge that was helping me at this time.


The next step for me in dealing with RSS, was when I added it to my personalized homepage account (igoogle). Everytime I open Internet Explorer my igoogle homepage appears with my Google Reader account updated and ready for me to read. And read I did! This was not always a good thing as I was initially logged onto the computer to get my course work done or check my e-mail and would then find myself "sidetracked" and consumed by the posts that I'd found in my Reader. Fun, yes...productive, no! (Don't get me wrong...I still love my Google Reader feeds!)

So as you can see, my intial experience with RSS was really for me and my learning and I hadn't quite made the connection to how this could help my students.

FURTHER READING AND INVESTIGATION INTO RSS in EDUCATION:

With our post on RSS feeds finally looming, I began to do more investigation and reading. Time to pick up that chapter by Richardson and REALLY read it this time..no skimming!

Wow...now that's a lot of technology jargon that I wasn't prepared for. I was beginning to see the use in the classroom but I was pretty confused by how to access all these feeds, how to subscribe to them and how to group them all together!

Along with Richardson's chapter on Killer Apps, I also read an extensive article (PDF) by Quentin D'Souza entitled Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators: A Guide to RSS and more. (He covered many of the same topics as Richardson but enlightened me to the fact that I could be adding my bookmark network addresses to my Reader so I could be updated on any additions they made to their Delicious accounts! I'm sure many of you have already figured that one out!)
With Richardson's and D'Souza's indepth look at how RSS can be used, I was little overwhelmed with all the ideas so I tried to organize my thoughts in a web. ( My students are currently involved in a project at school using Inspiration so...not to be too puny but I was inspired to use a graphic organizing tool to web out my thoughts.) Since I don't have Inspiration installed at home, I thought I'd try out the web-based version called Webspiration (yes...another collaborative Web 2.0 tool).

On this web you will find what I have learned about the uses of RSS for educators and for students. (Click on image to enlarge)





Since this is a Web 2.0 tool, the whole idea is to have collaborators to help build on my web. In order to be able to collaborate on my web, you need to be invited through your e-mail address. So just for fun, I have sent out an invitation to a few of my classmates that have been part of my discusssion group. Please feel free to make changes and add to it!

In my other explorations in learning about RSS, I came across the Google Reader blog with tons of tips and ideas for using Google Reader and RSS feeds and better late than never I found this Common Craft video of Google Reader in Plain English. I also found a few blog postings with different ways to use RSS such as Louis Gray's 30 Different ways to use RSS.

WHAT IS THE "DOWNSIDE" TO RSS? IS THERE A "DOWNSIDE"?:

I can't say as there is a lot in the way of a "downside" where using RSS is concerned. Here are a few thoughts I have:

• I've had that feeling of "information overload" when I haven't visited my aggregator for a while and my list of subscription updates has exceeded 100 (I think I actually reached 208 at one point!).
  
• It would be a lot of work to initially set up a reader and fill it with sites/subscriptions on a specific subject or topic that students were researching (although it would "pay for itself" in the end I'm sure)


• I have a hard time imagining younger students using and reading feeds off of an RSS reader (I wrote that with a bit of sarcasm...I hope you can tell!)
  

As you can see, I really don't see a lot in the way of problems with using RSS!

To try to alleviate my stress with too many feeds, I decided it was time to organize my subscriptions into folders and only access the feeds that were pertinent to me at the time! Currently I have 5 folders (my EDES 501 bloggers, Personal fun, Web 2.0 experts, Librarystuff, Technology and now I'll need to make a folder for my Social Bookmarking Network updates!).

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Looking at all the Web 2.0 tools we've been learning about in this course, this is one tool that as an educator of K-8 students I don't feel will be as commonly used for me ( beyond my own personal and professional growth). I also feel like that is a lot more I need to learn about RSS and using aggregators in the classroom.

Since I never read any blogs before this course and now I am getting updated blog postings sent to me on a regular basis, I can't believe how much more intune I feel with the world of "edutechnology"! Referring back to the cartoon at the beginning of my post, it's hard to imagine but I wonder if this IS what our students will be reading more of than books in the near future?

To summarize how students and the general public can benefit from RSS, I will quote the words of Will Richardson, "...it will make you and your students smarter, more effective consumers of information. RSS is a technology that will change your life, if you let it."

SOCIAL NETWORKING ..."Confirm or decline this request"

This week I had a hard time separating the "mom-me" from the "educator-me" on what I have always perceived as a controversial topic…social networking. So my story begins on a Friday night, my husband and I are enjoying a casual glass of wine over a baguette with some olive oil dipping sauce and discussing my latest “Web 2.0 tool of the week”. My youngest daughter is playing with her My Little Ponies collection and my 7 year old daughter is on the computer earning Kinzcash on her Webkinz site. All of the sudden, I have this revelation and I ask my daughter, “Can you chat with other Webkinz owners?” and my husband pipes up, “Yeah, she sent a card and a gift to her cousin!” YIKES! My daughter has already ventured into the world of social networking unbeknownst to me!

I quickly downed my glass of wine and hit the network…it was time to find out more about these cute, furry, little Webkinz and what they were really capable of. (OK…I’m exaggerating a bit for the sake of effective blogging) but I found a short, informative video for those of you who are not as informed on the Webkinz craze http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-27417.html . The safety measures that make up this site are so tight that it’s really not a social networking site in the sense that there really is no one-on-one peer interaction but as the journalist in the video stated, “This could be the start of web addiction at an early age if not used in moderation.” Just to set the record straight, my daughter is not on the Webkinz site very often as she has to fight her mom and dad’s time for computer use (that’s a whole other topic!)

My personal experience in social networking began with my sister-in-law’s insistence that I become a member of Facebook because she had found this forum the best way to connect with her friends. (She and my brother have moved several times over the past 10 years). I was never convinced and refused to join! Soon my husband had also joined the ranks of Facebook along with his 15 year old daughter (she had joined 2 years prior) and were trying to convince me it was “safe, private and secure”. Sorry…still unconvinced! Along came this great course at university that asked us to join a social networking site to be able to comment on the experience…OK…I give up…let’s give it a shot! Now I realize I had options in my choice of social networking sites (WOW! Did I ever!) but I guess I found the excuse that I needed to give this Facebook thing a try!

I’m not going to speak to long about Facebook as I found so many other topics regarding Social Networking that are far more interesting to discuss here. Let’s suffice it to say that at first I was mesmerized by Facebook! I found old friends (and acquaintances) that I haven’t spoken to or seen in YEARS!!!! I started to begin conversations with them through e-mail but found I couldn’t keep up…I didn’t have the time for this “socializing” right now! I had university posts to write, articles to read, kids to raise, classes to prepare (and the list goes on!). With all the excitement that came with finding old friends, came the realization that I don’t have time for that. I don’t have the energy or the “free time” to jump on this Facebook band wagon right now. It just didn’t fit into my lifestyle. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the friends that live right across the street from me, never mind thousands of kilometers away! I also hated the use of the term “friends”. People were inviting me to be their “friend” but I was never really their “friend” in high school, why would I be their “friend” now? I guess you can tell I’m not the biggest fan of Facebook and I really couldn’t see its place in education at all. So where do SNS fit in the world of education? Time for more investigation…

I’ve come to rely on the experts in the field of education and technology as I research many of our Web 2.0 topics and not surprisingly, most of them seemed to feel the same way on the topic of Social Networking. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace don’t really have a place in the classroom setting BUT that being said we can’t ignore the fact that students have made this a priority in their lives and how the communicate with their peers.

I loved Vicki Davies post entitled “It is about Educational Networking and NOT Social Networking” . Throughout her entire post she draws a line through the word social to make her point about referring to this tool as an “educational” network and not a social one. “We should stop calling it "social" networking unless it is for Social. Social is just one spoke of the wheel of life. Here we're talking education.The students don't want us in their private lives any more than we want them in ours. We've got great platforms, let’s make them practical now.”

In reading posts by both Vicki and Will Richardson, they referred to an article written by Danah Boyd in response to a well-blogged about debate by The Economist focusing on the topic of social networking in education. I too found Danah’s words inspiring! I think this is when I came to a realization about social networking and just Web 2.0 tools and technology in general. It's not about the tools themselves but how we use them and apply them in education. Ok... that doesn't sound very deep so I'm going to have to refer to Danah Boyd's words instead as she puts it much far more eloquently than me!

"It's (technology) a tool. Just like a pencil. Figure out what it's good for and leverage that to your advantage. Realize that there are interface problems and figure out how to work around them to meet your goals. Tools do not define pedagogy, but pedagogy can leverage tools. The first step is understanding what the technology is about, when and where it is useful, and how it can and will be manipulated by users for their own desires."

I think this speaks particularly to social networking as it is so feared and frowned upon by adults and educators alike, they've ignored it and "blocked it" hoping it will never make its way into our schools.

So how can we take this "tool" and make it work for us in the classroom? CAN we make it work?

Remember my rude awakening on Friday night about my daughter's social networking with Webkinz? I decided as the responsible parent I claim to be I better check out this idea of "safe social networking" on my search engine and came across an article in eSchool news entitled "Safe Social Networking Sites emerge". Mind you, this article does date back to June 2006 but it was more than I knew on the topic so it had to produce new information (at least for me!). The article lead in two directions; one, that there ARE safe social networking opportunities out there for young students (my main focus as a K-8 educator)Whyville and Imbee to name a few and two, there is a scope of learning that comes with using SNS that is integral to their use and that is internet safety! A quote from the article as stated by the executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance,

"... it's extremely important that we teach children how to stay safe and secure on the internet when they're young and going through school, so they know how to be proper cyber citizens in the future. We see schools as a great opportunity for [teaching] kids to stay safe online".

I couldn't agree more! There is a plethora of sites on this topic and definitely an area that must be addressed as we look at using social networking in our schools or more importantly even if we are NOT using them directly in our schools because we KNOW they are using them at home! (Just for your musings, I found a great post by Vicki Davies for parents on the topic "11 Steps to Online Parental Supervision of your Children".)

As for using Whyville or Imbee in the schools, I did check out both sites which contain lots of resources for teachers to use this tool in the classroom in a very safe and secure environment. It would be a great place to begin teaching what it means to be an ethical and safe digital citizen and have some fun learning at the same time!

As you can tell from my ramblings this week, this topic sent me off in many directions!
My own list of social networks appears short but seems to be growing:

• I'm still a member of Facebook (but rarely checking my page),
• I've become a member of the Teacher Librarian Network Ning (I had to check out this Ning thing and had fun creating a funky pink page and saying "hi" to my U of A classmates who'd joined),
• I didn't realize that Shelfari was a social network (and as you can see from my blog...I am a member!),
• I am an online learner with the U of A using their Blackboard as my "educational" network (and possibly created some lifelong friends and colleagues),
• I'm not a member of Classroom 2.0 (as of yet) but I subscribe to its RSS feed,
• I share my delicious bookmarks in a network environment
• ...and as Will Richardson stated (and I strongly agree) "the hardest and best work is building a network node by node through blogging and reading and creating and developing those relationships with all the messiness that the Web allows for." So I guess you can count this blog (and my classroom blog) as yet another social network!

For me, right now, social networking is working at its best in a professional learning capacity, in universities, high schools, adult learning centers, etc. where they are capable of differentiating between 'social' and 'educational' use of the networking tools.
As you can see from my list above (and I'm sure I'm signed up in more that I'm not even aware of as of yet), I have become a "social" learner (in this course and on the net). That being said, I guess I can't knock it too much and I have to allow for its educational possibilities for my own students K-8 (and eventually my children...just not yet!).

Social Networking in the TL environment

Send me a message if you're a member!

A Symphony of Haunted Houses

Our grade 5 class had a blast creating haunted houses with graham crackers and Halloween candy. They were very proud of their masterpieces. Enjoy their final creations!

AN EXPERIMENT IN VOICETHREADS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/2814949746/in/set-72157607042629773/


OK! So this is totally unrelated to Voicethreads...but I saw Celine Dion in concert on Tuesday at the MTS center here in Winnipeg, now that woman has a VOICE!!!!!!!!

On that "note"(no pun intended), let's begin my little scientific investigation...

Objective:
The purpose of this experiment is to learn how to use Voicethread (a multimedia sharing Web 2.0 tool), play with the tool and discover how it could be implemented into the 21st century classroom.

Hypothesis:
Based on my prior knowledge and experiments working with Web 2.0 tools that incorporate images and voice, I predict that this tool will be a fun and effective way to integrate technology and learning in a collaborative and connective environment.

Materials:
- Computer with internet access
- Microphone or headset for recording
- Photos or images to upload
- An idea of what you wish to share with the world (or privately)

Procedure:

1. Visit the Voicethread site and find out what all the excitement is about! Investigate the Browse section of Voicethread to see examples of Voicethreads done by others as well as checking out the tutorials on how to do a Voicethread presentation. What exactly is a voicethread? The definition I liked best was on the Ed.Voicethread page that described it as "a place for creating and collaborating on digital stories and documentaries, practicing and documenting language skills, exploring geography and culture, solving math problems, or simply finding and honing student voices." Another basic little description on voicethreading was on a slideshare presentation called "V is for Voicethread". Put simply in this presentation, a voicethread is an online application where you upload images and comment on them...simple enough?
2. Register for this FREE tool with an e-mail account and password.
3. Hit the CREATE button in the Voicethreads home page and follow the steps outlined on the page
4. Choose an image or images to upload that you wish to comment on (or have other people comment on!)
5. Set up your headset/microphone/webcam to comment on your image (once it is uploaded). The fun part about Voicethread is the ability to comment on your images in 5 different ways...telephone, audio (with microphone), video (with webcam), typing in your comment or uploading an audio file! Due to time (and energy this week), I chose to use my headset and create an audio comment (which seems to be one of the more popular media for commenting).
6. Decide what it is you would like to say about your image(s) and begin "recording".
7. For fun, play around with your mouse while you are talking to utilize the videodoodler option.
8. Once you are finished your voicethread and wish to have others comment on it, you must save your work and decide how you want to SHARE it. I found this very easy to post to my blog by embedding it into the html editing on my blogger site. Be sure to make your voicethread PUBLIC if you wish to have others view it and be able to comment. (I had to post it twice as I forgot to make it public the first time.) The settings for the privacy of your voicethread are easy to adjust and understand, as it gives you a summary of your settings once you have made your selections.
9. Visit other peoples' voicethreads using the BROWSE feature on the Voicethread site and practice leaving comments on other peoples' images. I really enjoyed this as it made my "research" of voicethreads more than just reading but I could interact.

Observations:

Through this "experiment", I could see how Voicethreads could play a fun, interactive and authentic learning experience for our digital learners. Playing with this tool myself, I found it extremely easy to use and could definitely see this being my next big "technology" project with my students. I only ran into some difficulty in my "playback" as I had not "allowed" permission correctly for Voicethread to use my recorded voice. A simple fix that took me about an hour to figure out (AAGGGGHHH!) In my "observations" of voicethread, the acclamations for this tool were abundant. Interestingly, I ran across a blogger who seemed a little bit less enthusiastic and actually made me pause for a moment to reflect on this tool. Gary Stager (another educator that promotes technology in education) wrote a blog entitled "Stop the Voicethread! Please!" where he states, "The VoiceThread examples I have seen are little more than digital book reports with images not owned or created by the student (author) and with narrations suffering from too little planning and editing. The audience for such "productions" eludes me.Some of these slapped together multimedia collages are about as entertaining as a slideshow of someone else's vacation photos." It was a bit harsh but made me think that we need to ensure that these new Web 2.0 tools that we are working with are being used in the most effective way possible and not just a "pretty and fancy" way to say we are "using technology" in the classroom. I didn't ponder long on Stager's comment as I continued to look at other examples of Voicethreads that prove how effective Voicethreads can be in our students' learning experiences. Here are a few others I have "observed" that are good examples:

A grade 5 mathcast - http://voicethread.com/share/8753/

An example of a virtual field trip - http://voicethread.com/share/168350/

Color poetry - http://voicethread.com/share/39992/

Art club projects - http://voicethread.com/share/116426/

Let's face it, the list of examples could go on and on... some GREAT , some just OK...but if it serves the purpose you were intending, then it IS an effective tool for you to use!

Conclusion:

I can conclude that Voicethreads ARE indeed another easy-to-use, fun and effective Web 2.0 tool that can open up our classroom walls to the rest of the world through creativity, collaboration and connectivism! Wes Fryer is a big promoter of Voicethread. I accidentally came across my first Voicethread experience in one of his blog postings that showed up on my Google Reader in early October. He was creating a Voicethread with his daughter about the book she was reading in class (Charlotte's Web) to get her "thinking" about the book she was reading rather than doing a worksheet about syllables in the vocabulary of the book. This posting lead me to another one entitled Great Voicethread Resources in which Fryer states some of the key benefits of Voicethread in education. "Voicethread can be effectively used to not only learn and explore the knowledge and comprehension level aspects of our formal and informal school curriculum, but also to delve deeper into higher order thinking skills including synthesis, analysis, evaluation, and creation." Now you can't tell me that's just digital storytelling!

Application:

After this "experiment" with Voicethreads, the possiblities for "applying" this new knowledge in my classroom are endless in my opinion. I already have plans underway to create a community of discussion around our next literature circle theme of Friendship in books. As well, I love the idea of making a class yearbook through Voicethreads! There were so many awesome examples of voicethreads to view and learn from, I found an array of examples and ideas for "application" from the following sites:

Voicethread4Education

VoiceThreadning.com

Great Book Stories

A terrific resource I came across on my journey with Voicethreads was a pbwiki done by an e-learning consultant within my own province. John Evans works for MECY and has created this wiki for our Literacy with ICT curriculum continuum. It is full of excellent tutorials and resources for teachers who are making technology a priority in their classrooms. I found it very helpful in my exploration of Voicethreads this week.

Simply stated "A VoiceThread can be managed with little effort, creating an heirloom that can be shared by students, parents, and educators alike. You can hear the pride and excitement in their voices as the students “publish” and archive their work."

Nothing gets me more "pumped" about a new tool in education that makes learning fun and real for the students in which they are able to show pride in their work and can't wait to share it with others!

VOICETHREAD PIRATES...AGAIN!