yearn2learn

Glogster

2009-04-07T13:07:00.000-05:00

It's time to RENOVATE our PD for technology integration!

2009-03-28T12:52:00.008-05:00

"Now more than ever, education leaders must focus strategically on educational technology profesional development (ETPD) for teachers" (Harris, 2008)

There is no question that the need for Professional Development in the area of technology integration is required for teachers to keep up with the increasingly digital world that our students are living in. Unfortunately, the path our Professional Development has taken in the past has not been working in our attempts at ETPD...it's time for some renovations!

I'm a huge fan of home improvement T.V. shows such as "Holmes on Homes", "Trading Spaces" and "Real Renos"! As I read through this week's readings, I started to get the sense that ETPD really needs to go through a major renovation. The methods we have been using for professional development in this field have not been addressing the needs of the teachers as learners and therefore technology integration is not transcending into their teaching practices. I really connected with the article by Kimberley Ketterer "Coach, Nurture or Nudge, How do you learn technology best?". In this article she identified three unique styles in which teachers prefer to deal with the learning of technology integration:

1. The Coaching Style - They are willing to take risks, but they need support and encouragement from a colleague and embrace feedback from their coach.
2. The Nurturing Style - They need a teaching partner to help develop and model lessons, someone to help build their confidence.
3. The Nudging Style - These learners need to be gently pushed, prodded and cajoled into learning how to integrate technology and their development is very gradual.

As I read these different styles, I could actually visualize different members of my current staff in each style! As a future TL in my school, taking on the role of technology integration PD leader of ETPD renovations, I could tell I was going to have my work cut out for me! Simply put in the 4 part series of articles by Judi Harris..."One Size Doesn't Fit All"! There is definitely a need to renovate our ETPD to help teachers learn technology integration in the manner that best fits their individual learning styles and program goals.

As teacher-librarians or "contractors" for ETPD renovations, this may require tearing it all down and beginning from the ground up to construct and re-build how we educate our teachers about technology integration. As Scott McLeod states in his article "An Absence of Leadership", "We will see few tangible, long-term benefits from technology in most schools until they have leaders who know how to effectively implement, build upon, and sustain technology -related initiatives." That's a pretty tall order for a teacher-librarian or any "expert" designated as the information technology leader in a school, so where does one begin with a renovation project like this?

In the words of Camilla Gagliolo, "How best can we, as technology leaders, inspire teachers to take advantage of these opportunities to engage students in 21st century learning?"

I guess if I'm going to play the role of "contractor" of renovations, I'm going to need a pretty hefty toolkit of ideas to begin this project. I decided to try and pool many of the suggestions made in this weeks' articles to create a resource for myself (and others) in our future endeavors towards ETPD in our schools.

So, let's take a peek inside my toolbox:

begin with a set goal in mind, whether it is awareness, curriculum integration in a specific content area, change in instructional practice or school cultural change (Harris, 2008)

build a professional learning community (ie. collegial collaboration, feedback at community or individual improvements, etc.) (Gagliolo, 2008)

establish a teacher mentorship program within your school

hold regular meetings and training sessions on ET

set up co-teaching opportunities in the classroom

celebrate successes by sharing at staff meetings

create a set of laminated "keys" that contain information on experts and their area of technology exptertise, so they can be a resource for teachers

"provide a fabulous Library 2.0 learning space and robust online information portal that provides good reading and quality in-depth information resources in all possible formats" (O'Connell, 2007-08)

let students provide the information and be the teachers...take a step back (yikes!)

become the "knowledge broker" in your school for continuous technology integration and support for your teachers (or find someone who can play this role...good luck!) (Plair, 2008)

enourage online professional learning (like EDES 501....I just had to get that one in there!) I guess you could call this the DIY strategy of professional development and one that has worked wonders for me, but isn't for everyone!

classroom visits for teachers to observe other teachers integrating technology to gather ideas and confidence

action research and study groups on ET (Within my school division, teachers are required to develop our own Professional Growth Models and submit these at 2 different points in the year. Teachers are given 6 different models to choose from that best suits their learning styles and needs. An ideal situation but a challenging one for administrators and most teachers to monitor on their own.)

I'm sure this list could go on, but it's a great starting point and demonstrates the many possibilities for renovating our ETPD. As with home renovations, there are always barriers and obstacles that need to be overcome and there is such a gammit of choices in styles, colors, sizes and materials in making those improvements.

"Once teachers make the paradigm shift to the positive role that new instructional technology strategies and tools could have in their classroom, it is just a matter of deciding how they will learn it best." (Ketterer, 2007)

Technology Integration! Hot off the presses!

2009-03-22T20:38:00.004-05:00

EXTRA, EXTRA, BLOG ALL ABOUT IT!

LATEST BREAKING NEWS… “THE USE AND INTEGRATION OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY!”

(Let`s have some fun with the 5W`s today, shall we?)

WHAT...What is effective technology integration?

Anita McNear in her article “School Wide Technology Integration” helps to define “successful integration of technology” using a model of instruction known as TCPK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) that was developed by researchers Mishra and Koehler. According to their research, successful integration of technology is when pedagogy, content and knowledge are weaved together and “how technology adds to the pedagogical toolkit.” I knew when I was reading this article that this sounded all too familiar. Once again, I have to refer to our Literacy with ICT continuum that has been developed here in Manitoba for K-8 teachers! The model used by our team of developers reinforces the idea that effective technology use in the learning process and educational setting should not be a supplementary class or lesson anymore but rather a relationship where technology is infused in the students’ learning. Here is a quote directly from our Literacy with ICT document, along with a diagram to visually represent this idea…

“The pedagogy of Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum encourages movement from “ICT as supplementary to the curriculum” to a model that infuses ICT across the curriculum.

A supplementary relationship separates ICT and curriculum in space, time, and personnel - separate computer labs, computer classes, and computer teachers. A complementary relationship begins to connect ICT with curriculum in various ways. An integrated relationship allows the classroom teacher to bring ICT into the classroom so it is available at teachable moments. An infused relationship allows the transparent application of ICT, wherever and whenever appropriate, to enhance critical and creative thinking.”

WHO...Who needs to be involved to make technology integration happen?

In order to be truly successful and feel that technology IS being integrated and not just “more noise that teachers must respond to and filter out”, then according to David and Margaret Carpenter in their article “All Aboard!”, technology integration has to be a collaborative process wherein “the teachers, learning specialists and administrators comprise a Collaboration Team based on the idea that everyone should participate and ‘own’ the curriculum.” At the same time, “the teacher is placed in charge of the process but put in conversation with the instructional technologist, the library media specialist and the gifted-and-talented coordinator.”
Clearly everyone needs to be part of the integration of technology in an educational setting in order for it to be effective and improve teaching and learning, without making it the sole responsibility of any one educator or specialist.

In our point/counterpoint discussions this week, the topic of technology courses in our university training was raised with the revelation that most of us had either had a poor experience in learning about how to integrate technology into our future teaching practice or (like myself) none at all! In the article, “Technology Integration and Instructional Design”, the authors discuss various models of instruction for teaching technology integration to pre-service teachers and provide an eight module approach to learning new technologies and creating lesson plans for students. What an amazing opportunity for the next generation of teachers to experience! This type of university course for our 21st century teachers has to be a MANDATORY part of their training if we’re going to make technology integration a reality in our classrooms.

But let's not forget those veteran teachers out there...it's not too late for them either. Check out this video from edutopia.org entitled "Conquering Technophobia: A Classroom Teacher warms to Digital Tools":

WHERE...Where is technology integration happening right now?

The integration of educational technology is happening globally in classrooms, libraries and forward-thinking schools around the world. Even where a digital divide may exist, attempts at making technology a part of our 21st century student learning and teaching is making its way into classrooms and learning environments everywhere.
Just take a look at this site: http://futurekids.com/ where over 65 schools from around the world and the U.S. are focusing on computer literacy and their mission statement states they are “creating a worldwide community that integrates the power of technology to facilitate and improve student performance.”
Truthfully, you don’t have to look to far nowadays to find a teacher integrating technology in their practice. Type in 'edublogs' into Google and let your exploration of classrooms where technology integration is happening begin!

WHEN...When should technology integration take place?

As outlined in my previous quote from our Literacy with ICT continuum, “ICT integration needs to be applied in a transparent relationship WHENEVER and WHEREVER appropriate to enhance creative and critical thinking of our students.”
Just read the article, “Meaningful Technology Integration in Early Learning Environments” and you can see how technology has been integrated into this early childhood program using digital tools such as the internet, digital cameras, and an interactive whiteboard to ensure opportunities for the children to learn in a technologically rich environment with purpose and meaning. These tools are used in a center based approach on a regular basis in this classroom setting, NOT as a separate class or project!

WHY...Why should teachers make technology integration a priority in their practice?

Read the headline…it improves teaching and learning!! OK, so you want some proof?
The proof is in the engaged faces of our 21st century learners in a technology integrated classroom. The proof is in the speed at which new concepts and ideas can be accessed with the integration of technology. The proof is in the motivated and empowered teachers that are using technology to create purposeful, collaborative and creative lessons for their students. The proof is in the new curriculums and tools being introduced into the school systems that are finally addressing the needs of the 21st century student.

Unfortunately, not all technology is being integrated appropriately! A study done by Cable in the Classroom entitled, “Learning with Technology” states “poorly designed programs that lack an instructional foundation; casual, purposeless use of technology in the classroom; and lack of alignment between desired learning outcomes and the application of educational technology all threaten the success of any learning-by-technology endeavour.”

Mullen and Wedwick state it best in their article, “Avoiding the Digital Abyss”, “To be successful in the world, students must learn to manipulate various forms of new media with a high level of comfort and skill, and school must become a place in which students can acquire the necessary skills for technological success.” Frankly, teachers don’t have much of a choice when it comes to making technology integration a priority in our schools. If we want to prepare these students as best we can for their future, we have to!

It’s not the 5W’s without asking HOW…How do we make technology integration happen so it is purposeful, infused, outcome based and “seamless”?

This week’s required readings for our EDES course were filled with examples, models and ideas of how to make technology integration a reality. From the plethora of examples on the Edutopia website or the list of “20 easy ways” from the Education World article, “Technology Integration Made Easy”, it would seem easy to begin integrating technology right away. For some teachers, this isn’t a difficult feat and rather a part of their current teaching practice, for others, there is a digital divide that they need to bridge before technology integration is easily accomplished for them. Professional development opportunities need to be provided for these teachers, computers and other digital tech tools need to be made available, as well as having your administrative team on board in the pursuit of effective technology integration. All these things need to be considered before all educators can implement this model of “seamless” and “infused” technology education.

As for myself, I don’t need anymore convincing! I have become a techno-education junkie and I’m doing my best to quickly spread the word. I take any opportunity I am given to share my knowledge about Web 2.0 tools, integrate them purposefully into my own classroom environment and continue to develop my professional learning about this technological education revolution! As a teacher-librarian, I hope that I will be in a better position to help make technology integration a priority in our school, through team-planning and providing professional learning workshops right in our own school. As for right now, I am a blogging classroom teacher, a voice-thread addict, a wiki wizard wannabe, a SMARTboard convert and a member of our IT committee at school. I guess you could say I am trying to practice what I preach and hopefully my fellow teachers will follow suit.

I’m going to leave you with these final words of Marc Prensky from his article, “Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom”,

“Let’s not just adopt technology into our schools. Let’s adapt it, push it, pull it, iterate with it, experiment with it, test it and redo it, until we reach a point where we and our kids truly feel we’ve done our best. And lets do it quickly, so the 22nd century doesn’t catch us by surprise with too much of our work undone. A big effort? Absolutely. But our kids deserve no less.”

Thanks, Marc, I think sometimes we need that reminder!

What does your digital tattoo look like?

2009-03-15T18:06:00.005-05:00

“Most young people are extremely likely to leave something behind in cyberspace that will become a lot like a tattoo – something connected to them that they cannot get rid of later in life, even if they want to without a great deal of difficulty.” Born Digital (p.53)

I heard that quote after watching an interesting Google video of a TV show called Digital Age entitled, “Does anybody care about privacy anymore?” It was an interview with John Palfrey, the author of Born Digital, giving his views on privacy in our digital age. It wasn’t that anything in the interview was “new” or “enlightening” to me but rather it reminded me of how everyday I am leaving behind digital markers of myself…my shopping habits, my personal interests, my banking records and the list goes on!

On another surf through the web on privacy, I came across this “interactive” demonstration subtitled “How much information about your daily life gets recorded by big business and Big Brother?”…YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT. (You really have to give it a try!) It’s another reminder of how we share little pieces of ourselves everyday without even thinking about it or knowing it!
All of this made me wonder…if I have been so unaware, how aware are the young people that are growing up in this digital age that every little thing they do “digitally” is being “recorded for posterity for generations to come”?
In this video, Digital Dossier, you get an idea of how the students we teach today are creating a digital file of themselves from the moment they are first born…

Keeping Andy’s digitally recorded life in mind…is there much we as educators can do to protect and safeguard the privacy of the digital natives we are teaching today?

Well, let’s say …YES and NO!

YES…
Fortunately, I think there’s a lot we can do and a lot that is already being done! After viewing the 3 part series of Google Videos on Privacy, I was somewhat impressed with the fact that such a large conglomeration would go to such measures to ensure the average “Googler” was afforded such degrees of privacy (if they were willing to learn about them and use them, that is!). I always feared these courses would get a bit technical but if “cookies”, IP addresses and chrome buttons is as technical as it gets, I’ll be fine! If the engineers at Google are actually trying to help us maintain a degree of privacy with our online activity when using Google, it’s the least we can do to impart this information to our students as Google is often their first choice as a search engine, both academically and personally.

Along with Google, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has also made several resolutions to help in the education and awareness of the privacy risks involved with increased online activities in children and young people. It was reassuring to know that the Canadian Government is taking action to keep up with the growing online environments and the development of their privacy practices.

Another great tool for guiding students and the general public for that matter on how to protect themselves with their online activity is through a visit to Privacy Town, created by Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs. I found the checklists and protection guides a handy resource and user-friendly approach to informing the public of their rights and how to guard their privacy.

NO…
Unfortunately, it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with the growing social networking trends from Facebook to twitter to the next best “ning” (no pun intended). Regrettably, it’s not until after a significant breach of privacy or what I like to call a “learning moment”, that a young person realizes the impact their “social” actions have made into their ever growing digital “tattoo”. It’s refreshing to know that many educators and bloggers are looking out for our best interests with resources about privacy using Facebook such as the posting I found here.

As the video of Andy and the Digital Footprint experiment demonstrates, it’s almost impossible not to be leaving some form of your private life in cyberspace. What it amounts to, is how MUCH is given and for what PURPOSE!

Doug Johnson points out in his article, Lighting Lamps, “rights are always accompanied by responsibilities.” As 21st century learners, these children are growing up with a right to express themselves freely using the internet as a vehicle for their voice, opinions, images and other multimedia forms of expression. However with this powerful tool, they must understand that they have a responsibility to use it safely and that whatever they choose to publish digitally can be copied and shared for generations to come. Not a responsibility that should be taken lightly…by either our children or us as their caregivers!

As for my future role as a Teacher-Librarian?

The issue of privacy came to light for me in the article, “Privacy Matters” by Helen R. Adams when she raised the point that there is a “lack of understanding of or support for privacy rights for minors using library media centers.” Our discussions this week brought up this point frequently. How often do we send out notices to parents about overdue books without considering whether the students wish to share with their parents what they are currently reading? Where does the line get drawn between “keeping parents informed” and “protecting the rights of the child”?

Obviously there are some weighty issues surrounding privacy in our dealings with students and particularly in their experiences with online learning/socializing environments. If our digital natives don’t care about the “tattoo” they are leaving behind in their digital lives, I think it’s important we show them why and how they should!

Digital IP... more than a footnote!

2009-02-22T12:54:00.005-06:00

(PugnoM’s photostream on Flickr)
Intellectual Property, Copyright Laws, Digital Citizenship and Intellectual Freedom…although these terms were not unfamiliar to me, the implications and my understanding of them as an “up and coming” teacher-librarian of the 21st century were not as clear and well-defined. Let’s just say they were always a little FUZZY for me!!
So, I thought it best to go back to the basics with a “tried but true” KWL session…

KNOW…What did I know about “intellectual property”already? (Sadly, not as much as I’d thought...or liked to think!)

-Yes, there are copyright laws that teachers and students must follow!
-You shouldn’t copy out of a workbook that is designed for ONE student!
-Be careful what you “cut and paste” from the internet, as most of it is covered by copyright and you do not have permission to use it.
-It is illegal to copy directly from a text (digital or paper) and claim it as your own without citing the author and relevant information (ie. plagiarism)
-There ARE places on the internet to find pictures to use in projects that are “copyright free” (ex: http://search.creativecommons.org/)
-Most students are not informed on these laws and rules regarding “intellectual property”…for that matter, neither are most teachers!

WHAT…What do I want to learn about “intellectual property” in order to ensure my students (and fellow staff members) are respecting it in our digitally evolving world?

-What are the definitions of the terms: intellectual property, intellectual freedom and digital citizenship?
-What exactly are the laws surrounding intellectual property and copyright here in Canadian schools and libraries?
-What resources are available for me and my students to learn more about intellectual property so we can apply it on an on-going basis?
-Why are some students today not understanding and respecting the intellectual property of others?
-How can we as educators or as teacher-librarians help to bring awareness and the importance of understanding intellectual property to our students without appearing like “Copyright Cops”?
-Will we ever get through to these "digital natives" that "cutting and pasting" is a crime even though they don't see the victim?

LEARN…What did I learn about this topic that will impact my role as a teacher-librarian and educator? (TONS!!!)

-Since I had to make these definitions a little clearer for myself, I found the explanation of Intellectual Freedom in the article "Kids, Know your Rights!" a very simple and effective explanation. According to the ALA, "Intellectual Freedom is a natural right that every human being on this planet is born with, and that we should be able to see, read, or hear all sides of an issue before we decide what is the best thing for us to do." As a teacher and hopeful TL, it's clear that my role is to ensure my students are given those opportunities, either fighting for their right to access internet sites that are being unnecessarily blocked or providing them with literature that may extend their thinking or safeguarding them from censorship, etc.

-Intellectual Property or Copyright? In the article, "Social Responsibility" by Rebecca Butler, the differences between them can be hard to articulate to students (even teachers). My basic understanding from this article is that intellectual property can be defined as the "fruit of one's intellect"(Wherry 2002) and is categorized according to copyright, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and brand names...that's a lot to swallow for your average student. For years teachers have been toting the importance of "using one's own words" and not plagiarizing, but in today's digital classroom and educational experiences of "cutting and pasting", those rules are becoming very blurry and students don't understand the responsibility they have to respect the "intellectual property" that is available in the open forum of the internet! That is where we, as their teachers and role-models MUST play our part!

- To better understand the laws of copyright...specifically here in Canada, I found many invaluable resources: Copyright Matters (an excellent reference for Canadian specific laws pertinent to educators) and The Ethics of Information Use, A Teacher's Guide by the School Libraries in Canada 2001.

-There IS a problem that exists with students respecting intellectual property today! I believe one of the biggest reasons for that stems from the people they respect and learn from the most...their parents and teachers. Sadly, I have to put myself in that category as well, as I am guilty of committing "intellectual property offenses". How do I come to my defense? Ignorance in some cases, budget constraints in others and more recently, time restrictions to "get it done"! None of these are worthwhile excuses but are definitely the antithesis for my 'lack of respect of intellectual property laws". What is my point? Teachers and parents are the ones that need to make the change and bring this issue to the forefront for our "digital citizens" of today and tomorrow. My favorite article on this topic was Mike Ribble's "Passport to Digital Citizenship" where he states,"Students need to see that their teachers are following the proper technology-based citizen behaviors being taught to them." This means that, "we need not only to educate our children on the issues that are occurring with technology but provide resources for our teachers and parents as well."(Ribble, 2008) To reinforce this point, Tammy Morris states in her article, "If we, teachers and parents, do not clearly understand copyright and fair use issues, how do we properly teach our students?"

-Luckily for us, there are many resources available to help teachers (me!):

"Intellectual Freedom For Youth" article by Annette Lamb was full of lesson ideas and great website resources. As Lamb states,"School Library media specialists should investigate the value of online tools for furthering intellectual freedom by promoting creative thought, communication and collaboration." She suggests Eight Ways to Take Action which is also available online with several links here!
I am a big fan of the work that Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey have done in promoting Digital Citizenship. Their website is full of excellent resources for teachers, http://www.educ.ksu.edu/digitalcitizenship/TeachingDC.htm# . They've also published two books to help educators in educating students on becoming responsible digital citizens, Digital Citizenship in Schools and Raising a Digital Child. Their nine elements of Digital Citizenship are a great building block model to begin discussing and teaching these issues with our students. The Four Stage Technology Learning Framework helps teachers to guide them through the process of teaching our students about Digital Citizenship.
Right here in Manitoba, we have resources right at our fingertips within our Literacy with ICT continuum document. In the "Affective Domain" of the document, two areas of general outcomes center around "Ethics and Responsibility" as well as "Social Implications". The Literacy with ICT site contains valuable resources in itself to help teachers begin integrating these outcomes into their technology learning experiences.
Videos!!! There's nothing like some great audio-visual tools to help students understand the concepts of copyright "What's Copyright?"and CreativeCommons . Wesley Fryer has a great slideshare on his blog entitled "Copyright for Educators"(an American viewpoint of course) to help get teachers thinking more about copyright...I know there are more!

- I don't know if we'll ever be able to get students understanding how important and profound the topic of intellectual property really is, until it reaches them personally! Another idea that Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey developed was the idea of a "Technology Driver's License". I loved the idea so much that I want to make it part of my classroom and teaching (and include it here on this blog as well). So I began my first step towards becoming a role model for my students and I e-mailed Mr. Ribble himself to ask his permission to use this activity with my students and on his blog. He surprised me and replied very promptly (and favorably as you can see!). It's funny...with just this one small experience in following proper copyright protocal, I realized how easy and satisfying it is! It's given me hope and motivation to make the teaching of "intellectual property" and digital citizenship an integral part of my technology experiences and libary program and to help create responsible 21st century digital learners!

P.S. Thanks again, Mike! I'll be buying those books for my school library!

A short and sweet Q &A session on FILTERING!

2009-01-31T16:23:00.011-06:00

Here's to keeping it short and sweet this week! (Yeah...right!)

(Thanks Erik Kastner for this great new tool! Spell with flickr)

Filtering, Blocking, Accessing, Securing, Protecting, Banning...Every article I read this week seemed to call it something different but it doesn't matter what you call it, the simple fact remains that the issue of filtering has gotten somewhat out of control in the past few years as the internet and its storage of tools has grown. Some educators, administrators, government officials and IT Directors are fearing this evolution of technology (particularly the internet) and thus creating barriers to restrict access for our students as their way of dealing with the situation. Instead they should be providing them with the necessary knowledge and capabilities to learn from and deal with the "objectional, offensive and inappropriate" material that is out there. As Stephen Abram states in his article "Justifying the Social Tools", "Fear and misinformation should not triumph over logic and an agenda for learning."

Many questions I had never really thought of before discussing this topic, came to mind as I reflected on our readings this week. I decided to sit down with myself in a Q & A session, trying to tackle some of my own questions on the issue:

Who should be responsible for making these decisions? I believe it should be those that know our students and what they NEED in order to get the best possible education for their future...the teachers (or librarians of course!). As Mary Ann Bell put it best in her article "I'm Mad and I'm not going to take it anymore!"..."It is time to give educators the professional respect they deserve rather than let technology personnel who have not studied education make choices about access."

Does this help our students to filter the internet or harm them? There is no doubt that by filtering the internet we are helping protect our children from some of the harmful, offensive and inappropriate material on the web but as many experts on the topic discuss "we tend to place too much trust on the filtering software itself" (Bell, 2006) thus creating a false sense of security and leaving students unsupervised as they surf the net. Not only that but by not educating our youth on internet safety and how to deal with objectionable material while that are at school, we leave them ill-prepared for it when they are faced with it in an unfiltered environment such as at home, on their PDA's, public libraries, cybercafe's... (I think you get my point!).

What about content that has been blocked but IS appropriate and important for students to access? What teacher, in frustration, hasn't come across a site that they wish to access for educational purposes but received the "This site has been blocked" warning screen. Mary Ann Bell addresses this issue vehemently in her article, "Filtering Woes Redux" with several examples of teachers wishing to access information and being denied, worst yet, those that went through the proper channels and had to wait over 7 months to finally recieve access. Youtube has always been a "bone of contention" for many teachers, as it does contain a lot of inappropriate material for children but also provides a wealth of resources for the teacher at their fingertips (literally).

Are we infringing on the intellectual freedom of our students by filtering? From the age of 5 - 9 or so...I think not, parents are still guiding their children in developing their values and understanding what is right from wrong. Parents act as the filters for young children in everything they do. But as our students mature and their ability to make independent critical judgements grows, they are also able to assume responsibility for what they are reading, publishing, creating and doing! They have a right to intellectual freedom that an "overzealous" filtering system will not allow them to attain.

Can filtering be accomplished without compromising the education of our students to prepare them for a socially networked future? I'd have to say NO! If we continue to filter out such things as social networking sites and other Web 2.0 technologies without properly informing our students on how to use these tools effectively "...is to ensure our schools produce unprepared students - students who have to learn about such sites in an underground kind of way or who can't compete with others in the fully connected world of the future." (Abram, 2007) Enough said!

What can I do in my own school/ school division to get the message out about filtering? I enjoyed Doug Johnson's article, "Change from the Radical Center of Education", particularly when he discussed the principle of "looking for truth and value in all beliefs and practices." At times, those in the position of IT director and teachers, may not see "eye to eye" on the issue of filtering ,Johnson's principle reminds us that "when two sides are able to find mutual values, change is more likely to happen." Perhaps if IT directors and those teachers school divisions who are seeking to reduce filters were able to sit down and find that "mutal value", they could come to a reasonable compromise on the issue. In the meantime, Don Hall had made a great suggestion in his article, "Web 2.0 The Virtual Wild Wild West" that I could see myself adopting as a TL in my school (and a teacher!); EDUCATE my colleagues, students and parents about internet safety and filtering from a more informed perspective and most importantly "stay abreast of news in the rapidly changing and expanding Web 2.0 world."

OK...I said short and sweet so I'll finish now with this finally quote from Mary Ann Bell,

"The internet is not going away, and it is going to increase in complexity as well as value as an information source. Librarians, teachers and administrators need to work together to use the best the Internet has to offer and to help students be successful and safe searchers."

What's in YOUR "bag of tricks"?

2009-01-25T12:34:00.009-06:00

My thoughts and reflections this week were inspired by a blog post from the Shifted Librarian, Libraries and the Net Gen that popped up on my Google Reader. The post summarized many of the issues we have been discussing this week regarding who these "digital natives" are and how we as "digital immigrants/pioneers" need to adapt our teaching strategies to engage these new learners. An interesting observation she noted was from a pool of photos on Flickr that were tagged "whats in my bag". Check out this photo...

Is this what our students are carrying around in their backpacks today? They say you can tell a lot about a person from what they have in their purse/bag! What are the contents of this bag telling us about the 21st century student?

According to Marc Prensky in his article, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, "Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach...Our students today are all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.", what Prensky and many others refer to as Digital Natives. By the looks of the contents in the bag shown above, this statement couldn't be more true. I certainly wasn't carrying around those things in my school bag back in the 80's. I guess that makes me the Digital Immigrant, "Those of us who were not born into the the digital world but have , at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology."(Prensky, 2001). However, my husband was not so thrilled by that definition, ironically he is several years older than me BUT earned his Computer Science degree and technology has always played an integral part in his career. He feels more like Kathy Schrock, a digital pioneer ( he used the term "frontier"), "someone who has grown up with the technology and adopted each technology as it came about."

Whatever we may "label" ourselves and our students, the simple fact remains...educational trends and teaching strategies are always changing but now, more than ever, we are faced with a different group of children that require a different set of tools and methodologies to engage them and prepare them for their futures! This presents challenges for those of us who would call ourselves "digital immigrant teachers" to keep up with the "digital native students" in our classrooms. As Prensky notes, "Digitial immigrant instructors are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language." We need to make changes in how we teach these students to ensure they are not only engaged in their learning experiences but that they are being prepared for their digital futures. These were the same recommendations that students themselves expressed in Greenhow's article, Who are Today's Learners?.

After reading, The AASL's , Standards For the 21st Century Learner and the ISTE's NET list of standards and performance indicators, I realized that teachers have some pretty high standards and expectations to meet in order to be the most effective teachers for the 21st century student. It's no wonder that some teachers who are trying to meet these standards are feeling overwhelmed as they are barely treading water in the advancements of technology and others feel it is too much to take on and back off altogether from technology integration. Does that mean these organizations have created a seemingly impossible task by expecting digital immigrants (such as myself) to teach the 21st century learner these skills? I don't think so! But it can't be expected to happen overnight...that's where my "bag of tricks" theory and achieving a balance in our teaching strategies can help "digital immigrant" teachers reach the 21st century learner.

My "bag of tricks" theory is not that complicated. It's nothing new. In fact, as a creative, innovative teacher who loves making learning fun and authentic for my students, all it requires is reaching into my evergrowing, "tried and true" arsenal of teaching strategies that really engage my students, AS WELL as making additions to that "bag" with new tools of the 21st century. I think as educators we need to remember that we are also lifelong learners. We need to be prepared to learn these new skills and digital world advancements to better understand our students so "we can tap into, reinforce, build on, and extend their knowledge and experiences" (Greenhow, 2008) and create a balance with more traditional strategies that continue to foster growth, learning and excitement in our students.

What implications will this have on my teaching, my school and how my students learn? I hope a lot! I've already tossed around the terminology of "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" in the staffroom to see what kind of reaction I get. Mostly, I'm met with awe and a few lightbulbs going off as teachers realize that "yes, our students are different and that we are on different playing fields when it comes to our knowledge and use of technology". I'm not sure many of them have taking a lot of time to think about what that should mean to them as their teachers and how they might need to change their way of teaching. What does that mean? I think it's time for some serious professional development in our school, just to become aware of the students in front of us and those coming up!!

For me personally, I like to think that I am moving away from the title of "digital immigrant" and moving toward (what my fellow classmates have so affectionately titled a "digital dual citizen"). My students and I still enjoy some of the more traditional learning settings, such as oral presentations, groupwork projects, creating hands-on 3-D products and so on. At the same time, we are learning and growing together with such Web 2.0 tools as Voicethreads, wikis and of course my classroom blog. I love my "bag of tricks" and I am more than thrilled to be adding to it on a regular basis as I enter this digital world that my students (and my own children) have been born into.

Check out my cute digital natives! Is this a familiar site in your home?

I think my favorite quote (which is posted on my blog), fits this week's issue to a tee...

"If we teach as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." - John Dewey

"Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

2009-01-13T14:33:00.019-06:00

"Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!"

- Dr. Seuss

No more famous words could be spoken after reading the articles in the School Libraries Worldwide Journal vol.14 or after hearing (and reading) the empowering and motivational Manifesto of the 21st Century Librarian created by Joyce Valenza. I can honestly say I'm not sure what made me think of the book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss... but all of the sudden I found myself sifting through my 7 year old's extensive and (unorganized) collection of picture books stored under her bed, just to locate it. I opened its pages and began reading through the inspirational words and intriguing snippets of advice Seuss weaves into rhyme, all the while thinking about the role of the 21st century librarian. You have to read it, again! It was amazing how parallel the whole story and theme fits with the challenges and "exciting times" that lay ahead for a teacher-librarian; a TL who is ready to engage the newly identified learner of the Net Generation, accept the new literacies of today's students and begin to teach these students with a whole new arsenal of tools and techniques! (That was a mouthful!)

At the risk of sounding too corny and bit "over the top", I have to say I was truly moved by Joyce Valenza's podcast of her manifesto. As a 15 year teacher who has finally come to the realization that I want to play more of a leadership role as an educator (but not as an administrator) and I have always loved the environment and ideals of the library as a "learning commons", I couldn't be more excited about the prospect of becoming a "teacher-librarian of the 21st century"! That being said, I couldn't help thinking..."Can I do all this? Can I make Valenza's manifesto a reality in my school and in my career as a new TL?" Like the young lady in the podcast who had just graduated Library School, I could definitely relate to her question, "What should I be doing?" Whether Joyce's Manifesto of a 21st Century Librarian is used as a checklist, an instruction manual or a set of guiding principles, I found it an amazing springboard from which to launch myself in the right direction towards being an effective and indispensible teacher-librarian for my school and most importantly the students of the Net Generation.

After reading the articles in the School Libraries Worldwide Journal vol.14, I seemed to hear the same underlying message being stated but in a variety of different ways and under a myriad of statistics and research documentations...students of the 21st century have changed and we as educators need to keep up with these changes in order to make school and specifically the library a useful and relevant place for learning in their digitally carved lives! That being said (very simplistically I might add), these articles tackled many diverse aspects of the 21st century learners; from defining their characteristics as in Doiron and Asselin's article to analyzing the validity and usefulness of Web 2.0, videogames, popular culture media and open source journals as the "new literacy" in our traditional school libraries.

So what did this all mean to me as I read through these articles?
The good-ole fashion student that I am, I had printed off each of the articles, pulled out my handy-dandy highlighter and pen to take notes as I read. It all seemed quite ironic as I read about the Open Source Journal Systems where Kopak shares the reading tools of the OJS with hypertext linking and an annotation area to store your ideas as you read...hmmmm! (I'm definitely still a work in progress in the 21st century learning department.)

As I look back on all the keypoints I had highlighted from the various articles, they all seemed to be the "action phrases"; the sentences and statements that were urging educators and librarians on to what they needed to do to "keep up" and be effective for our students of today!

I learned SO MUCH in reading these articles, it was almost a bit overwhelming and intimidating. So I thought I'd attempt to construct a list of the ideas and 21st century learning principles that I'd like to (someday) incorporate into my libratory or "learning commons" and make it part of my own little manifesto (not surprisingly similar to Joyce's I'm sure!):

"develop students competencies in a variety of print and digital technologies to communicate and learn" (Doiron and Asselin)
educate students on how to properly use a search engine instead of the "click and grab"
help students to develop their critical literacy skills to evaluate information and not take it at face value
make research projects in school more meaningful opportunities for inquiry, creativity and collaboration
help our Net Generation with their quest for "social transformation" by assisting them with the tools they will need to accomplish this such as using Web 2.0 technologies
foster the respect and values that our students require when working in an open source environment ensuring they know they have responsibilties when working in the Internet
stay current myself in such things as popular culture media, video games, social networking, etc.(not hard with 3 daughters aged 4 through 15!) in order to create the "literacy of fusion" (Doiron and Asselin) in my school library program
make the library an "interactive learning community" for students to "develop their own personal knowledge and understanding of the curriculum" (Todd)
be a leader in the educational field to share the amazing potential as a learning tool that Web 2.0 and other media-rich literacies can play in our schools and libraries to keep our 21st century students engaged...

I know my list will grow and continue on as my experiences as a teacher-librarian become more real and my knowledge in this field expands in the coursework and personal professional developoment that I pursue. For now, I see a lot of challenges that lay ahead for teacher-librarians. The educators/authors of these articles are sending the "library world" a clear and urgent message; the needs and interests of our 21st century learners are constantly changing as their digital world continually evolves and pulls them further and further away from the idea of school being a fun and important learning environment. It is now one of the most integral parts of our job...to keep our students engaged, challenged and feeling that their school is "listening to them" and providing them with the tools they need in order to survive in the 21st century world. I loved the analogy by Doiron and Asselin, to "make school libraries the bridge between in-school and out-of-school literacies".

"So...

be your name Joanne or Christine, Carol or Kathy

or Chris, Danielle, Shiela, Rhonda, Jes, April or Joanie

you're off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So...get on your way!"

-Dr. Seuss

A ROCKIN' WEB 2.0 COUNTDOWN!

2008-12-06T14:30:00.017-06:00

Confession time...I've always dreamed of being in Times Square New York for the dropping of the ball and Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve party! So with Christmas fast approaching and the festivities beginning, I can't help but wonder if this is the year...

(http://livedesignonline.com/stagingrental/TSq06_IMasterV.jpg)

In the meantime, I thought I'd celebrate my own Rockin' Web 2.0 'New Year' Countdown, so put on your party hats and let loose...

Note: In the spirit of April's Top Ten List, (Thanks, April! I loved the format!) I decided to start at 10 and work my way down. In my countdown I've included mostly the highlights of this course and some keypoints that I've learned from my peers along the way. Thank you all for sharing and playing with me over the last 3 months!

10. Online Learning - This was my first course using an e-learning system (ie. The infamous Blackboard). An online learning environment provides the best opportunities for a learner; it gives you a community of learners to share and learn from, fascinating discussions that provide prespectives I wouldn't have considered, the opportunity to connect with your instructor easily and the convenience of working at your own pace (sort of) and on your own time. Will Richardson's dream of the Web 2.0 educational system of the future works for me!

9. Discussion Questions - OK...I have to be honest here...I dreaded these bi-weekly assignments on Tuesday nights (yes, I'm the last minute girl!). But the information I learned doing my own research and reading, along with the unique ideas and angles that my colleagues shared provided a wealth of valuable websites and interesting discussion topics. One of my favorites occurred one night when Darryl and I were reading and sharing our thoughts at the same time. We shared some "chatty" banter back and forth making the sometimes grueling work of reading and replying a lot more fun! I was grateful that our class was divided into smaller groups as I never would have been able to keep up with more than 5 other classmates' discussion questions and I felt a little closer to those peers in my group!

8. My yummy Delicious bookmarks - This tool has been my saving grace since the week we explored it as one of our Web 2.0 tools. It's almost like I don't know what I did without it! I'm using it as a PD tool as I check out the bookmarks of some of my favorite edutech experts. I organize my research and readings for each weeks' discussions and blog postings using my delicious account and I'm storing away some great sites that I don't have time to explore now...but that I hope I'll investigate at a later date. What can I say, I love it!

7. My very own igoogle page! - I came across the personalized homepage idea during the week we were discussing how to organize ourselves on the web. I chose to go with igoogle simply because most of my accounts are with Google but there are many others. What a great tool and a serious highlight of this course for me. I love my igoogle page with all my add-ons: my facebook account, my delicious bookmarks, access to my blogger dashboard, my Google reader, Winnipeg weather (YUCK!), a Youtube search outlet and much, much more! '

6. RSS feeds and my Google Reader - Reading my feeds on a daily basis (or so I try) has got to be one of the most rewarding professional development strategies I've ever come across in my 15 years of teaching! I learn something new almost everytime I open up a new feed. This will definitely be the tool to keep me on my game with learning technology and feeding my enthusiasm for Web 2.0 in education. However, this wasn't one of the easiest post to write about as I'm still struggling with how this tool could be used within the K-8 environment.

5. Flickr, where have you been all my life? - Wow! This site is loaded with resources for a teacher, a student...anyone for that matter. I've used Flickr so much already! I've uploaded my students' artwork and created slideshows for the parents on our class blog (Group of Seven and self-portraits), I only allow my students to use the creative commons search in Flickr when they are looking for images for projects and I access it myself for my own blog. A true highlight during our photosharing exploration!

4. Wikispaces and more! - So this was actually my second choice for the tool I would like to introduce to my staff. I really feel like I have just scraped the surface with the potential that wikis have to offer. My students in my book club absolutely love playing on our Myrcamania wikispace that I created for this course. For most of them, this was their first experience using a wiki (and hopefully not their last!). Christine's post on her choice of wikis for PD provided some great resources for me to pursue further. I like the idea of a class yearbook wiki? Whatta ya think?

3. The ABC's of Blogging - I have to be a little narcissistic here...I am quite proud of this post! It's a definite highlight for me. I worked so hard on this one and even my sweet, dear husband (who was away on business) read my post from afar and sent me a comment telling me it was my best one yet! Not only do I love this post but I truly believe in the power of blogging, blogs, bloggers, the edublogosphere and ever other word that you can make with "blog" in it. They're blogilicious! It was my tool of preference and believe it or not, I've already got two more members of my staff blogging! VICTORY!

2. Buying a logitech headset - You think I'm crazy, don't you! It all begin with podcasting and then moved onto Voicethreads or maybe I just like hearing the sound of my own voice... but I knew I was hooked! I felt like such an expert walking into Future Shop. I was quickly bombarded by an eager salesclerk asking if I needed any help. My response? "I'm looking at purchasing a quality headset with a USB drive to use for Voicethreads, podcasts and Skype!" The revelation? I never would have even known what those things were two months ago and now I can actually create them...with my own headset!!

1. "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" by Will Richardson - Let's face it...without this book as a guide and bible for me throughout this course, I think I would have drowned. Not that reading it was such a highlight but the information within its pages was priceless and will continue to be a source of inspiration when working with Web 2.0 in education. I look forward to reading Will's Weblogg-ed posts and have just recently found his wikispace too.

I guess I could have started my countdown with 20 because there were definitely more highlights to this course...discovering Joyce Valenza's virtual library, learning how to create hyperlinks, making my first avatar, becoming a member of two Nings and so much more!

However, with every good New Year countdown comes the hangover...

So my lowlights aren't that bad...in fact I believe they are quite manageable!

Becoming a student again has been a challenge for me... I struggled with balancing my family time, prepping for school, reading/researching for this course and having any personal time for myself. Time was a factor that was NOT on my side! I really wanted an opportunity to play with these Web 2.0 tools further once we had discovered them.

I guess that takes me to my continued learning and integration of Web 2.0 tools in my classroom and professional learning. I am so anxious to begin using these tools in more depth with my students. In fact, thanks to Jes's post with the link to Langwich's blog, I've registered myself (and my class) in the Educator's pro account with Voicethread and we're going to create voicethreads around our literature circle novels on the theme of Friendship. The students are so excited (and I'm sooo nervous)! I'm going to "practice what I preach" and loosen the reigns, as my students and I will be learning together! I won't be the "expert" in the room with all the control and believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to it. I guess that's what is in store for my New Year of 2.0!

Let me raise my glass (one final time) and make a toast...To a great set of classmates and a helpful, knowledgable instructor...Have fun with your new arsenal of tools, making new connections and discoveries along the way! May you have a healthy and happy 2009! Cheers!

My husband has informed me that New York and my beloved Times Square is going to have to wait for another year...oh well...I guess I can always check it out online!

MY WEB 2.0 CRAPPY GRAPH!

2008-12-04T14:45:00.006-06:00

I had way too much fun doing this! Check out my Crappy Graph! I made this using a Web 2.0 tool introduced in a recent post by Sue Waters.

So here are my Highs and Lows of Web 2.0(totally simplified of course!):

Needless to say, it's a very primitive tool with not much ability to erase or enlarge to fit in more information. It's just plain simple fun! I guess you could say it is an example of how my learning with technology will continue after this course. My RSS aggregator Google Reader is my new best friend. I check in with it almost every day and learn something new from all the Web 2.0 experts that I subscribe to. Tools like this Crappy Graph (yes, that is what it is called...I think it's aptly named!) and other "pointers" and ideas are constantly being shared among the edublogger learning community. It amazes me!

In the words of Darryl, "Hold on to your party hats folks, there's more to come!"

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

2008-11-29T15:02:00.015-06:00

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

2008-11-21T19:39:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-11-16T15:21:00.000-06:00

(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"

2008-11-11T15:38:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-08T22:08:00.001-06:00

Send me a message if you're a member!

A Symphony of Haunted Houses

2008-11-03T21:03:00.001-06:00

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

2008-11-02T12:48:00.000-06:00

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:

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?
Register for this FREE tool with an e-mail account and password.
Hit the CREATE button in the Voicethreads home page and follow the steps outlined on the page
Choose an image or images to upload that you wish to comment on (or have other people comment on!)
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).
Decide what it is you would like to say about your image(s) and begin "recording".
For fun, play around with your mouse while you are talking to utilize the videodoodler option.
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.
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!

2008-11-02T12:47:00.001-06:00

ALOHA TO WIKIS!

2008-10-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

A Wacky Wiki poem
By Heather Eby

Wikis are a collaborative and user-friendly Web 2.0 tool!
Integrated in your classroom learning, it transforms group work for the 21st century school!
Knowledge at your fingertips with Wikipedia and other educational wiki pages!
Innovative ideas and helpful wiki experts can take you through all the creative stages!

OK…so I may not be much of a poet but you’ll have to excuse me as I wrote it “wiki, wiki”! (I just love using that word!) This past week has immersed me into the wacky world of wikis and I can’t seem to stop thinking about all the different ways I can use my new wikispace site!
The internet was abound with sites and information to help anybody get started using wikis, either in the business community, personally or in education. Let’s face it, everyone has heard the term “wikis” but what EXACTLY are they and how do you use them?

WIKI PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:
As with all our latest endeavors, I began with our course guru, Will Richardson's chapter on wikis. Now here is a man excited about the possibilities of wikis and especially the phenomenon of Wikipedia. I’d also viewed Lee Lefever’s video Wikis in Plain English when this course first started so I had a basic understanding of wikis and their purpose. I’d certainly been reading a lot of wikis since the beginning of this course with all the research on the various Web 2.0 tools. My favorite example of a wiki that I’ve been using a lot is Webtools4u2use and of course the most famous wiki of all, Wikipedia that defines a wiki as "a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content...".

WIKI HOST RESEARCH:

Not being a complete stranger to wikis, but never having made my own before, I knew I had to do some research on the best wiki host to choose for making my "practice" one for this post. I started with an article I found in the School Library Journal written by Shonda Brisco entitled "What wiki is right for you?". She compared three of the main hosts used in education (and ones that I had also heard of before). The article was very helpful as far as pointing out all the pros and cons of each site. She also recommended another source for comparing different wikis called the WikiMatrix. Of course, I had to check it out! YIKES!!! I had no idea there were sooooo many options out there for creating a wiki. They had 110 different wiki hosts to compare on their "matrix". I played around with the Wiki Choice wizard on the site but found some of the questions I had to answer were a little over my head.

A WIKI TOUR:

I continued on with my search for the perfect wiki host when I came across a video presentation by Mark Wagner that he had presented at the K12 Online Conference in 2006 entitled "Wiki While You Work". I spent over an hour watching it and learned A LOT! It was actually entertaining too! (I understand he is doing an advanced wiki workshop at the K12 Online 2008. I'll have to check that one out once I've got the basics covered!) I guess you could say that that presentation plus my faith in one of my "trusted sources" such as Joyce Valenza brought me to my final choice to go with wikispaces.com (although I know she uses Pbwiki too!) Currently wikispaces is offering incentives for educators to use their site by offering their Plus package free which guarantees you an ad-free space with more flexibility in your options. I've always been a push over for a good deal so I decided to give wikispaces a go! Due to the tutorial given in the video presentation by Mark Wagner, I found creating my wikispace very easy and fun. The tricky part was deciding on which of the many "wacky wiki" ideas I had been conjuring up this past week that I wanted to begin with first.

WIKI IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM:

I felt a little investigation into the educational wikis of other teachers or articles pertaining to classroom ideas would help me make a good decision. A great source I found for classroom ideas was at TeachersFirst Wiki Ideas for the Classroom . There were numerous ideas for how to use wikis. Here are some that they offered that really appealed to me (and some I've made up on my own):

a wiki "fan club" for a favorite author

a virtual tour of your school for open house or the school website

an encyclopedia on a special topic (ie. Explorers or Nutrition)

a math wiki to explain problem solving strategies

a "Be the Science Teacher" wiki that the class shared experiments they had presented

a travel brochure of New France

a collaborative class poetry anthology

literature circle discussions

progressive stories

a book club sharing their opinions

a yearbook of your class where each page represents a month in your room

Of course these are just wiki ideas for the classroom and collaborative projects with the students. Wikis can be used for the teachers:

to share ideas

study groups

professional development opportunities

to create class "websites" to organize their work or assignments

to create the materials/books/outlines for study

As noted in an article by Educause Learning Initiative entitled "7 things you should know about Wikis", "The possibilities for using wikis as the platform for collaborative projects are limited only by one’s imagination and time." I couldn't agree with that statement more!

MY OWN WIKISPACE:

I wanted to make my wikispace something I could use in my teaching career right now (and "kill two birds with one stone" as they saying goes!). So I designed a wikispace for my MYRCA reading club that I started this year for the grade 6-8 students in our school. My idea was to have the students in the club sign in as members and collaborate with each other to create a page about each of the books nominated for the award. I did a lot of the "prep" work for the wiki by creating the page itself for each of the 18 books nominated and left it blank for them to "fill in" after they have finished reading the book. (This is where I see the "time" element in creating a wiki, being a factor!) I guess I should just let the space speak for itself and give you the address to visit: http://myrcamania.wikispaces.com/ .

As you can see from the wiki, the students have not yet had an opportunity to visit or log in to the wiki. It's been one of those crazy weeks at school (We had a two day in-service on Restitution on Thursday and Friday!). I also wanted to figure out exactly how I should tackle the whole privacy and informing parents issue. This lead me to yet another area of investigation in my learning about wikis and web 2.0 tools...

WIKI WARNINGS?:

In Mark Wagner's video presentation, he mentions that it's a good idea to inform the parents about your wiki projects before beginning the wiki adventure and getting the students' work out on the world wide web. Of course, he recommends all the necessary measures to keep your students' identities secure and private such as pseudonyms and not referring to your school or its location if you so desire. I thought I'd look into some sample letters for a basis to start in creating my own before the students in my club began using our wikispace. I found a quality resource on wikispaces itself entitled Wiki Issues. On the page, it has a link to a Wiki Warranty (a downloadable word document) that goes over the "rules and etiquette" of using a wiki for both the parents AND the students thus addressing one of the drawbacks of wikis. The "warranty" letter was very thorough covering the purpose of a wiki, safety concerns, terms and conditions and consequences of violation; finishing off with the parents' and students' signatures. Although I thought it was a great idea, I fear the old adage that I might be "opening a can of worms". Would I be putting more fear and concern about the use of wikis into the heads of the parents where there really is no worry in the first place? I put this idea of a letter forward to a colleague in my school who uses wikis with her class. She has never sent home a formal note about wikis to her parents but merely does a thorough job with her students in educating them on internet safety and keeps her wikis protected. I still haven't decided which avenue to take but if I do choose to send home a letter I think it would be much shorter and follow the KISS principle!

WIKI WORDS OF WISDOM:
I guess I want to sum up my thoughts and feelings about wikis by looking at their benefits and of course some of the concerns around Wikis. Again, Mark Wagner's video presentation helped to highlight many of the amazing advantages of wikis:

engagement and motivation for our students

how personalized and individualized they can be for our learners

they can address the many learning styles of our 21st century students

wikis provide a meaningful, authentic and purposeful outlet for their work

they promote inquiry

encourage reflection

improving writing skills

most importantly collaboration and working with tools of the 21st century

Looking at the flipside of wikis, there are some areas of concern:

the source of wikis and their reliability

inappropriate content

vandalism (although most of this is correctible with the "history" feature of most wikis)

cyberbullying using wikis

I think many of these areas of concern make for teachable moments in educating our students on the use of Web 2.0 tools or the internet in general! They shouldn't be avoided or blocked but rather addressed and evaluated.

After this week's "work with wikis", I can say without a doubt, that wikis will be a Web 2.0 tool that I will be using on a regular basis and can't see myself teaching without (now that I know how easy they are and what they are all about!). I will have to quote from Richardson at the end of his chapter on wikis and say that "the wiki bug has bit me"!

A VIRTUAL LIBRARY FAIRYTALE

2008-10-18T14:14:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there once lived a sweet, young librarian who loved books and teaching others about the wonderful world that existed behind her library doors. She woke up every morning looking forward to the hustle and bustle of her library filled with students researching using the encyclopedias, young children flipping through their favorite dog-eared nursery rhymes, teenagers scanning their favorite magazines and adults looking up their latest hobby of interest or the next bestseller! She was always busy helping her patrons and keeping up her card catalogue. Nothing else in the world made her happier than the smell of fresh new library books and the buzz of the overhead lighting mixed with the murmur of people absorbing new knowlede all around her.

Sadly, over time she slowly started to notice that the number of patrons in her library were starting to diminish. There seemed less excitement in the air. She was particulary surprised at how few students and teenagers were visiting "her" library anymore. What was happening? Where had everybody gone? More importantly, what was she going to do to make her library the happy place of learning that it once was or at least make sure that the students, teenagers and other patrons that had once frequented the library, had a way to access the information that they needed anytime and anywhere?

OK...I didn't intend to write my entire post as a fairy tale but at least I caught your attention (I hope you're not too disappointed.)! By the way, this was not a personal narrative as I am not a teacher-librarian (yet) and only made up some fictitious character, although I imagine this young librarian is probably out there somewhere if they have not yet discovered the world of the virtual library!

As a classroom teacher for the past 15 years, I've lived a bit of a sheltered life from the developments of public and school libraries and was unfamiliar with the term "virtual school library". After some primary investigations and asking the pointed question to our course instructor, "What is a virtual school library?", I discovered that it wasn't really something new to me but a term that was just new!

An obvious beginning for me was to explore various "virtual libraries" that were out there. I began with Joyce Valenza's virtual library and was welcomed with an eye-catching, graphically appealing, user-friendly site! I was in awe and had a field day clicking through her links! I couldn't help thinking, "Could I do this for my school some day? Is it possible?".

So why exactly does a TL need to make a "virtual library"?

I found a book through Amazon.com entitled, Your Library Goes Virtual by Audrey Church. Unfortunately, it wasn't realistic that I had time to read this now (or to find it at my local bookstore without ordering it) so I searched the internet for Audrey Church to see if she'd written any articles and found a conference presentation site that contained a PowerPoint she had presented in November 2005 that was available for downloading entitled, "Your Library Goes Virtual: Why?When?How?". I only wish I had been at attendance because her PowerPoint was full of terrific information. Her PowerPoint resources lead me to an article by Joan Lippincott entitled, "Net Generation Students and Libraries" that really drove home the need and main reason why virtual libraries aren't so much an option for libraries anymore but more of a necessity!

Lippincott pointed out that "students often find library-sponsored resources difficult to figure out on their own, and they are seldom exposed to or interested in formal instruction in information literacy, they prefer to use the simplistic but responsive Google. Libraries need to find ways to make their information access systems more approachable by students, integrate guides to quality resources into course pages, and find ways to increase their presence in general Web search engines."

Joyce Valenza reinforced this same point in her article, Find Your Path! Making Research Easy with Virtual Libraries. "If students are going to be effective seekers and users of information, they need two types of guidance: information skills critical for the twenty-first century, and customized, appropriate, and well-designed online learning environments. Virtual libraries do the job on both fronts."

With such excellent "arguments", the role of the virtual library seems absolutely essential to me for any viable and up-to-date twenty-first century library (school or public) to meet the needs of today's "patrons" (students or the general public)!

So what do these virtual libraries need to include in order to be most effective?

I guess it's obvious that different types of libraries will need to address the type of "clientele" that they serve most frequently. When "checking out" the various virtual school libraries that exist for either elementary, high school, university or a city's public library, they all have basic elements in common but also contain other more specific tools that aid their particular users. Joyce Valenza has been compiling a list of some common features in school library websites in her wikispace. Here are some of the common features she has found in her study:

-online catalogs OPAC

-subscription databases

-web references

-links to news sources

-pathfinders

-links to Web search tools

Valenza includes a few others in her article, "Find your Path!" :

-mental maps and navigational aids "virtual libraries let students envision the scope of their resource choices by helping them create mental maps for the information landscape and by using physical library metaphors to organize Web resources."

-documentation advice

-handouts, lessons and activities

-reading motivation (This is one of my favorites...especially for the middle school library!)

-"ask-a-librarian" type reference service

-parents' page

-library events

Among these features, the term "pathfinders" was new to me also! Valenza describes a pathfinder as "a web-based tool customized to meet the needs of a particular group of students for a particular assignment, linking students to the specific resources recommended by their teachers and librarians." Now that's something I could see myself wanting to explore in my own classroom. I'd love to be able to work with my TL to create one for my students on a particular unit of study so they would learn that there is more out there than Google and AskJeeves!

Where can I find some great virtual libraries to model and learn from?

After being absolutely amazed by Joyce Valenza's virtual library, I wanted to see what was a little bit closer to home, so I began exploring our school division's various websites in search of "virtual school libraries".

Here are a few worth sharing, that really caught my eye as great examples:

-Bairdmore School Library
-Van Wallegham School Library Wiki (not as glamourous but good information)
-Fort Richmond Collegiate Library Wiki
- Linden Meadows School "Techtalk" blog (This is actually one of my school's blog pages that is currently inactive due to staffing changes but is a great start towards becoming a type of virtual library.)

Some other virtual libraries I spent time perusing were:

- Walter Reed Middle School Library
-Greece Athena School - this had a great link to the Big 6
-Kentucky Virtual Library - this site had a great research link for kids "How to do Research"
-Menasha Public Library - of course I was directed to this virtual library through my KidLit blog -Tomlinson Middle School - I loved all the resources available for teachers AND students on this library site. The librarian seems to be very involved in everything going on in the school (as a great librarian should be!) I bookmarked the Google Earth link as I'm interested in learning more about how to use this in my own classroom!
John Newbery Elementary - This was a terrific site with a great example of Pathfinders! It was colorful and attractive for the younger learner (and me)!

What are the pros and cons of virtual libraries?

The "pros" seem pretty obvious to me:
-reference access 24/7
-helping our students in finding authentic, appropriate information off the web
-making the library "user-friendly" and inviting for the "non-reader" types
-helping teachers to access professional development material and resources for their students
-keeping up with our digital learners on their terms
and much, much more!

It's hard to believe that there may be any "cons" to virtual libraries. Here are a few things to consider:
-keeping all websites and reference links current
-updating it regularly
-keeping it fresh and fun to visit
-not getting an audience after all the hard work of putting it together
To me, these "cons" don't seem that difficult to surmount! With the extra work that might come from the updating, the time will return to you two-fold in the time saved pulling these materials from the shelf or helping sift through the same material, year after year.
As for attracting an "audience", it's all about promotion and regular referrals to your virtual library on an LCD projector or Smartboard everytime a class enters your library!

I am totally sold on the idea and concept of virtual libraries and can't wait to have the opportunity to create one of my own someday! In the words of Joyce Valenza ,"If you build it, they will learn!"

Campbell / from the UK library journal "Ariadne"

(found on library_mistress' photostream on Flickr)

Hopefully today's teacher-librarians will become more comfortable with technology, making virtual libraries part of their library world and won't need to be using "white-out" on their computer screens like Miss Faversham!

MY PODCAST PERFORMANCE!!

2008-10-09T22:39:00.000-05:00

This podcast is a tour of my classroom blog! It might make more sense to hear it as you check out my "other" blog.

My Recipe for PODCASTING CON POLLO!

2008-10-08T22:16:00.000-05:00

(I guess you could say I felt like this chicken...staring blankly at the computer wondering where to begin on my quest for learning about podcasts this week or perhaps this is what PODCASTING CON POLLO looks like!)

Podcasting con pollo is a delicious (wrong word...it's a new tool this week so let's try a different adjective)...I've been experimenting in the kitchen (at the computer) with this scrumptious (yes, that's better!) recipe for PODCASTING CON POLLO! If you're unfamiliar with the term "con pollo", it means "with chicken"; which is how I would describe my reluctance and fear to learn about podcasting this past week!

So here it is (my recipe for ) PODCASTING CON POLLO!

Ingredients needed:

articles about Podcasting from which to learn

supportive and knowledgeable colleague

recording microphone headset (USB plug worked best)

computer

Audacity open-source program

Lame MP3 encoder

Divshare.com

Personal and professional blogs

and finally..

A willing participant (me!) to create their first podcast!

Step 1: Begin your reading of articles and books about podcasting before attempting one on your own. It's important to understand exactly what a podcast is before beginning the process of making this recipe.

In an article by Esther Kreider Eash entitled Podcasting 101 for K-12 Librarians, she defines it simply as "a digital audio file that's created, shared and heard". According to this same article, The New Oxford American Dictionary chose "podcast" as its 2005 Word of the Year. If this word has been so prevelant in society since 2005, it was definitely time for me to be "sinking my teeth" into this new technology and finding out how this could benefit me and my students.

Step 2: In order to prepare a proper "Podcast con Pollo" it is necessary to become familiar with podcasts that have already been created and used in an educational setting so you will know how your final product should turn out!

Will Richardson, Esther Kreider Eash and Wesley Freyer all recommended "Radio Willoweb" and Bob Sprankle's podcasts as excellent examples of podcasts in action! It was amazing to listen to students sharing their learning so globally, you just new they were having fun while they were creating, thinking and producing their work! I also wanted to figure out how to access the recommended podcasts by Joanne in her trailfire and discussion response but by using itunes as the source rather than just clicking the links. It was fairly easy for me to do this as both my husband and I each have our own ipod Nanos and access itunes frequently (but only for music....not anymore!) As pointed out so clearly in her article, Podcasting 101, is that podcasting provides a unique, affordable and diverse opportunity for professional development by listening to other educators share their knowledge and expertise through podcasts. The idea of being able to subscribe to a favorite podcast and be able to listen to it whenever and wherever you want is a huge bonus! I'm subscribing to Women of Web 2.0 and Bob Sprankle's Seedlings podcasts. I'm curious to see how faithful I am to taking the time to listen and learn using this method (I think I'll try Joanne's workout idea!)

Step 3: Now take the next ingredient in your recipe, a supportive and knowledgeable colleague, and beg her to spend some time with you as you learn this new and exciting tool!

A wonderful friend and "technogeek" as she likes to call herself, sat down with me and explained the process she has used with her students in the past when creating a podcast. It was a relief to be "preparing" my podcast (con pollo) with someone who knew their way around the kinks that can befall someone when tinkering with downloading software in a school division with so many blocks and "requests for service" when we want to add new software to our computers (even if they are free!).

Step 4: Take the last 6 ingredients in your recipe and mix them slowly and methodically together, being patient with the final ingredient to ensure it is well rehearsed and "ripe" before adding to the mixture.

Before I could begin recording, I needed an idea. I wanted something that I could share with my students as well so they could see what "learning" I am doing this year too! Since they visit our blog every week and we had just started it up. I thought it would be fun to create an "online tour" of our classroom blog. I'd read somewhere (so many articles I've been reading I sometimes forget where I find the information) that it was better not to read from a perfectly written script otherwise it sounds too rehearsed or monotone so I just wrote down some key points I wanted to make and "winged" the rest!

With my "sketched out" script, I downloaded Audacity as suggested by Will Richardson (and my colleague) and plugged in a headset (from the school's computer lab) into the USB outlet. I tested it out a few times to ensure it was working and began broadcasting my "tour". I must admit it was a bit weird talking to myself in an empty room but I was impressed with the final results. I would LOVE to have played with the Garageband features on our school's Macs to add the flair of a music introduction or background but due to time and my inexperience with podcasting (and using Macs), I decided to keep it simple and try that feature out the next time!

In order to "share" my podcast with you, I needed to select a site that could upload my recording and share it through my blog. Through word of mouth at our school, Divshare had come highly recommended for its ease of use and because the school division had not blocked it (yet!).

Before I could upload it, I had an extra step to take through an MP3 encoding site called lame. I'm not quite sure why this was required (this is the part of computers that baffles me!) but we needed to do this in order to make it an MP3 audiofile before Divshare would accept it. After that, using Divshare was so easy! Once it was uploaded to Divshare I simply copied the html code and pasted it into my blogger posting page under the html tab and VOILA!! My first podcast!

Step 5: With your Podcast Con Pollo finally prepared, it is important to use this recipe again and again with others (your students or colleagues) to perfect it, enhance it and reap the benefits of its unique "flavors"!

What surprised me the most about this Web 2.0 tool was all the ways it could be used in the classroom, not unlike photosharing and videosharing, except with the safety and security for parents that their child's identity would remain private but their voice and ideas could be heard!

In Podcasting 101 for K-12 Librarians, the uses of podcasts were endless. Here are just a few that I could see myself using some day:

- on a field trip using an MP3 player to document observations and notes

- conducting oral history interviews

-storytelling

-book reviews

-readers theater dramatizations

-readings or personal responses to novel studies or literature circles.

-on-demand tutorials

-sharing school news as a radio broadcast

-poetry readings

Another amazing site I found that shares an abundance of ideas for podcasting in the classroom and had links that would explain exactly how to integrate those ideas in a more step-by-step manner, it was called (ironically) Ideas for Podcasting in the Classroom.

What really drove home the benefits of podcasting for me, was a comment made by Eash that I hadn't even thought of but I deal with everyday in my classroom as I attempt to differentiate my instruction for the many needs and various types of learners. "The podcast is a viable alternative for delivering research content or lessons to students who need remedial or extended support. Auditory learners particularly benefit when podcasts are incorporated into the teaching model..."

Another terrific article I read that inspired me even more to be incorporating this tool into my teaching was written by Wesley Fryer entitled Classroom Audio Podcasting. Some of the benefits he highlighted were:

-"Podcasting is cheap!" With budget cuts and other areas of education needing funding, technology doesn't usually come cheap but podcasting only requires the use of a microphone and a computer.

-It invites an audience for the students from around the world as well as creating a "window into the classroom" for parents and community members to understand what is going on inside our classrooms.

-"It encourages students to communicate without all the bells and whistles that other types of multimedia modalities employ (eg. slide transitions, lighting, props, etc.)...helping students to focus more on the message's content and effective delivery."

- "Podcasts are interactive, creative and most of all FUN!"

To finish off my analogy of podcasting to a recipe (a different twist on this week's blog posting!), my suggested serving size and recommendation would be that Podcasting con pollo is for EVERYONE and that someday I hope to serve my Podcasting recipe con fiducia (with confidence)!

"To Furl or not to Furl? That is the question!"

2008-10-05T13:44:00.000-05:00

And what a loaded question it has been for me this past week! The term “to furl” is actually a sailing term that describes the action of rolling/folding up a sail using a system of pulleys and ropes to make life easier for a sailor, rather than doing it manually (on your hands and knees and stuffing it into a bag!) I guess the term is not far off in its comparison to social bookmarking as we ‘FURL’ our favorite sites in an easier manner using a system of tags/keywords instead of stuffing them into folders on one computer!! (As a sailor, I just had to throw that analogy in there!)

However, that being said, not unlike all the other tools we have been investigating in this course, social bookmarking was an even newer one for me. The safest and most reliable place to start my learning was with Will Richardson’s chapter on The Social Web in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful web tools for the classroom. As I was reading his book, I was once again convinced that FURL must be the way to go with social bookmarking.

Setting up my Furl account was fairly easy! I loved Will’s screen prints in his book. (It helps out the visual learner in me!) It all seemed to make sense to me…I could have private sites or public sites, I can share with certain subscribers or to everyone, I categorize my sites by keywords (or tags), I can rate the sites and even write comments about it. Everything was going “tickatyboo” for me until I got frustrated by how long it took my computer to save a new site on Furl??? (I still can’t explain that one!) and by all the extra features that bookmarking a site with Furl involves.

So I began finding articles that reviewed or discussed Furl and found an informative piece written by Jim Wenzloff entitled, Furl, Furled, Furling. Here was another educator “sold” on Furl.net with a step-by-step guide to using Furl. He had a lot of great suggestions for using it in the school setting such as:

1. Web sites for student research or projects

2. Book recommendations

3. Professional research

4. List of books you would like to read

5. Placing web links on your school web page

6. Students can find resources at home and access them at school and vice versa

7. Share what you are reading on the web or view what your peers are reading on the web

8. Web site collections by school topic

I still wasn’t 100% convinced that Furl was the way to go without giving del.icio.us a try, the other recommended social bookmarking site. I was even more influenced after reading a few articles in Education World. Doug Johnson’s article entitled, It’s delightful; it’s del.icio.us! explained the bonus of being able to create more than one account so you could set up different accounts for different classes you teach, or different subject areas and using special tag codes created for your students.

I also liked the tag cloud features that deli.icio.us had to offer; another great visual for those of us who need a more graphic system of organizing. The del.icio.us page itself seemed easier for me to interpret, my computer saved the sites faster through del.icio.us (added bonus!) and my igoogle page is able to access my personal del.icio.us account whereas I couldn’t seem to get my bookmarks from FURL to log onto it. As you can see from my del.icio.us tag cloud on the sidebar of my blog, I eventually went with del.icio.us!

I still have some organizing and tagging of bookmarks to do since I imported all the FAVORITES from our toolbar. My biggest word in the cloud is bookmarks because that is the word that del.icio.us tags onto a site that hasn’t been properly tagged or edited yet.

I guess my investigation into social bookmarking seems a bit two-sided with only Furl and del.icio.us but I did read an article by Lorrie Jackson at Education World entitled Sites to see, Social Bookmarking that mentioned Scuttle and Buddymarks as other possible choices, especially for use in the schools as they are monitored for appropriate sites or can be administered through the schools’ own server.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is a great tool for myself personally managing recipe sites, vacation spots, my children’s favorite online game sites and other sites of personal interest as well as educational sites for great lessons and tips. I’m still a little overwhelmed with the work it will take me to tag all my existing sites but I know it will work out in the end. I’m excited at the idea of sharing socially and getting connected to sites discovered by fellow educators, librarians, even working moms with yummy 20 minute recipes!

As for the possibilities in my teaching or school, I mentioned a few above but here are a few I could really see myself using…

-Collecting sites for students in preparation of research projects (particularly for those at the younger grades)
-Sharing great sites amongst my fellow teachers
-Creating collections of resources for different subject areas
-Sharing with other teachers within study groups for professional development
-Creating a tag cloud of educational sites for my students on our class blog page
-Accessing my favorite sites that I found at home…at school!
-I’m sure more will “crop up” along the way!

To look at this phenomenon of social bookmarking more critically, I couldn’t help feeling a bit overwhelmed at the idea of creating another account and setting up yet another system of “organization”. Frankly, I thought I was doing really well with my Google Reader, my igoogle page, my list of Favorites and of course my blog of interesting links. Even after learning all the many benefits of social bookmarking, I was still leary of what Will Richardson refers to as “information overload” in his blog posting Tags vs. Trusted Sources.

Will I get bogged down with more websites and information than I really need? When do I start limiting it to just the places I know and trust?
Is it possible to get too much information and reach “total brain collapse” (Will’s words not mine!)?
Isn’t this just another search engine under the glorified name of “social networking” and Web 2.0?

I think Richardson says it best when he states “We are all going to find our own unique solutions. Bottom line is balancing the desire for relevant information about topics that you are interested in with the time you have to put into creating systems to bring that information to you.” I think in the end, the time invested in tagging and organizing sites WILL be worth the benefits I will reap in new information for my students and staying on top of my own personal “game”! I am very interested to see how consistent and faithful I will be to this new system of organization over the next few months and to further investigate all the potential that social bookmarking (specifically del.icio.us) has to offer!

A VISION FOR VIDEOSHARING

2008-09-27T21:30:00.000-05:00

I won’t lie…this week I was somewhat intimidated by our latest topic of Web 2.0 as we were asked to learn about video sharing! You’d think I would have been more excited considering my revelations and enthusiasm for photo sharing but I’ve always felt a little more uncomfortable behind a video camera. Luckily, digital cameras are equipped to take short video clips too thus giving me a sense of familiarity and reassurance that I can do this!

So I began my research of video sharing by going on to the most popular sites used by teachers such as Youtube, Schooltube and Teachertube to see what videos for educational purposes (or NOT!) were out there and being shared right now. Of course I came across everything from teachers videotaping lessons in various core subject areas, students who’d created short video stories, lectures of a more serious nature on technology in education and hilarious parodies of librarians (I loved the Cookie monster in the library video!)

With a little more insight into what all these videos were like, I decided to begin some reading on video sharing opinions and ideas by “educators” on the net. I also visited Joanne’s trailfire suggestions for video sharing. Needless to say, I was blown away by the lecture on Youtube by the anthropologist, Michael Wesch on An Introduction to the Anthropology of Youtube. Some of the statistics he stated “9000 hours of video are uploaded to Youtube everyday and 88% of it is new or original material” made me realize how much video (and video sharing) is a part of the culture of our digital learners. It only makes sense to make it part of their education and teach them how to use this tool in an effective way to learn, share, collaborate and more! My favorite term that Professor Wesch used in his video was “participant observation”. Since I’ve begun this course learning about Web 2.0 tools I have been somewhat “forced” out of my comfort zone into becoming a “participant observer”. (Don’t get me wrong…I’m loving it and learning sooooo much!) I truly believe the only way to learn about all these Web 2.0 tools is by participating in them, experimenting with them and observing what they are like “by doing” not just by reading about them. All of the aforementioned being how we want our own students to learn…which brings me back to video sharing in education!

In my quest for learning about video sharing as a means to increase our students learning potential and “engage them”, I’ve sorted it into two categories:
a) by viewing the amazing archive of incredible video footage out in the world wide web (analyze it, respond to it, share it, etc.) AND
b) by creating the video clips and movies to share with others (practice what they’ve learned, create, collaborate, etc.)

Although this division of “categories” helped to sort my thinking, I quickly came to realize that they are really one in the same when it comes to the concept of video sharing. When you are using such sites as Youtube, Teachertube, Schooltube, or Classroom 2.0 students have the ability to be using that service to both watch, analyze, create, comment on and share. Another interesting blog I read entitled A Teacher’s Tour of Youtube written by Chris O’Neal, reinforced my belief that there was definitely a place for video sharing in the classroom. Lessons could be taught in critical thinking and analyzing about authenticity, appropriateness and copyright infringement.

So I wanted to begin examining videosharing sites more closely and wondered what else was out there for students, which brought me to a blog posting entitled “The Ultimate Comparison Guide to Online Video Sharing”. I realized at once that there was no way I could possibly examine all the possibilities for the students and would have to rely on colleagues in the technology field, my fellow TL classmates and the more popular video sharing sites as my starting points. So Youtube, Schooltube, Teachertube and Classroom 2.0 became my sites of choice (for now!).

However as I began to explore these sites more closely, I came across many of the hurdles that were mentioned in an article I read entitled “Teachers tap Video-sharing in the Classroom” written by Joseph DeAvila. I found “weeding through the clips to make sure they are relevant for my class was very time consuming” even with tags and related videos to help you. It takes time to sit and watch them all for quality and relevance. (Although when you find that profoundly moving video, it feels like time well spent!) Another hurdle I encountered (not surprisingly) was the fact that Youtube and Schooltube (that was a surprise!) were blocked by my school divisions server. I was especially disappointed by this when I wanted to share a video with my staff that was on Youtube. (Thank you Darren for finding the video, “A Vision of K-12 Students Today”) With a little investigation I soon discovered that it was possible to download videos onto CD or save it to a memory stick using a service called KeepVid. The video was an effective tool for my staff, who are very reticent to make technology a priority in our school. The blocking of Schooltube was particularly surprising considering what I’d read about it on Barry S. Brit’s Myspace post entitled “Using video and social networking as tools within education”. According to Brit, Schooltube videos must be approved by registered teachers, follow school guidelines and adhere to the STN code of ethics. When I accessed Schooltube at home, I realized a school must become a member (FREE!) but I wonder if that is even an option for our school division. Something I’ll need to further pursue.

However, Teachertube was accessible as well as Classroom 2.0. I was really pumped to try a video with my class and work through an upload onto one of the sites but simply ran out of time so I thought I’d try my own webcam video blog at home and discovered our computer is not hooked up with a microphone (a hurdle I have to overcome with my husband as we discuss upgrades to our system…wish me luck!). One site that I could play with was animoto.com. At first I considered this more of a photosharing site as you use pictures from your digital camera and then upload them into the program, at which time they are turned into a video with music you have picked out from their library. Animoto is not a free service ($25.00/year subscription) but my husband and I loved it and signed on with videos produced for our family and friends to enjoy! I posted one below (nervously, as these are photos of my beautiful girls at the lake this summer) but a proud mom with growing faith in the world of social networking and security settings. Couldn’t you see the students in your classroom going crazy for this style of videosharing?

With my new found knowledge (although far from an expert as I still feel the need “to participate” and create), I began to consider the possibilities for my classroom. I discovered a few ideas from another posting by Barrie Brit entitled “Video Use in the Core Curriculum”.

Some of the ideas I thought I could see myself using were:
-video taping a T.U.S.C. meeting (The Ultimate Speaking Club)
-a news report on current events
-“Be the Science Teacher” and the students teach the class an experiment
-Oral Book reports or literature circle discussions
-Poetry readings
-French presentations
-Advertising…making book commercials, etc
-Exploring videos of students in another country
-Videotaping myself teaching a lesson and sharing it on my blog for parents or practice for students have difficulty learning a certain concept
-And the list goes on…

As a final thought on video sharing, I still share and understand the concern and angst of parents as they worry about their children being videotaped or photographed and shared on the internet (particularly as a teacher in the elementary setting). As the educator excited about implementing these new tools in my teaching it is critical I address these issues when introducing photo or video sharing opportunities to ensure I’ve received written permission and have performed a careful examination of the privacy settings to restrict our audiences to only those that the parents have approved. With that being said, in the words of Barry S. Brit, “…we can not let fear make us miss the boat. Your discussion on a certain topic will come to life as students are able to blog their comment, post pictures and create and share videos that take your discussion beyond the classroom and become links in a never-ending chain of learning, research, exploration and communication”.

Animoto (example of video/photosharing)

2008-09-26T08:04:00.001-05:00

These are my beautiful girls enjoying the lake this summer!

A video worth sharing!

2008-09-25T12:22:00.001-05:00

When I found this video at Classroom 2.0, I was so motivated to get into my classroom and make "some noise" with technology! I shared this video with my staff at our School Plan meeting to finally send home the message that technology needs to be a priority in our school!

Find more videos like this on Classroom 2.0

PHOTOSHARING FRENZY!

2008-09-20T17:20:00.000-05:00

This has been a really fun week for me as I’ve explored an old tool and looked at it in a new way…digital photography and now the idea of sharing it with the world (or perhaps a small community of invited users). I am a huge fan of using photography in the classroom! Over the past few years, my objective was simple, to capture the students in action as they are learning, print off the images and share them with the class in the form of a poster or sent home (in print) in a newsletter. After this week of reading, exploring and experimenting with photosharing sites, it’s opened up so many new opportunities and ideas for me to expand my love of using photo images in my teaching practice.

I began this journey reading Will Richardson’s chapter on “Fun with Flickr” in his book, Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts and other Powerful Webtools. It is very evident that he is a big fan of the potential and vast warehouse of photo imagery possibilities that Flickr has to offer. The list of possibilities had my creative wheels spinning, from writing “Flicktion”, keeping up with current events, using it for sharing classroom learning with parents and more importantly with other schools around the world! So off I went to explore this famous “Flickr” site. It was everything Richardson had promised and more. There was so much information and various ways of manipulating Flickr images that I was somewhat overwhelmed at first. However, I dove in and created a Yahoo account just so I could experience it first hand. As you can see from my first uploaded image to my blog (below), I figured it out.

My exploration of photosharing sites did not end with Flickr. I began searching the net for various articles or thoughts on photosharing sites. I ran across a wiki from the online journal Classroom 2.0 http://wiki.classroom20.com/Photo+Sharing that listed a few other photosharing sites. Once again, I began my “clicking” frenzy as I began to investigate more possible sites for sharing photos with my students, parents and “community at large”. I found such sites as Webshot, Smugmug, Photobucket and Zoto just to name a few. I loved Bubbleshare ! It seemed very user-friendly, but what caught my eye was Scrapblog . I guess I’ll have to take a moment to admit my secret obsession with scrapbooking (even though I don’t have an ounce of time to commit to it). I am addicted to buying all the fabulous scrapbooking tools, paper and stickers available on the market! The summer is my chance to catch up on my daughter’s birthday scrapbooks and now I’ve started School scrapbooks for each of them too. But let’s get back to Scrapblog… with only one click, I fell in love!! My two favorite passions all in one place! I couldn’t resist! Below this post you can witness my first attempt to create a scrapbook on line. I wanted to share my new found knowledge with my students and parents (as well as with you) so I created a “virtual Open House” for those parents who were unable to attend our Open House on Tuesday night.
For those artistic and creative souls in your class (and there are many!), this is so much fun to play with and create! The numerous templates, stickers and editing functions could have your students busy and having fun for hours (perhaps a bit dangerous for those of us with limited time in the computer lab!!).

As I continued to investigate photosharing, I came across another wiki at http://www.teachinghacks.com/wiki/index.php?title=Photo_Sharing_in_Education which listed several even more great ideas as to how to incorportate photo sharing into our teaching practice.

Here are just a few of their ideas:
1. share, comment, and add notes to photos or images to be used in the classroom
2. embed your photos into your school or class web space
3. inspire writing and creativity
4. create a storybook using shared images
5. create a presentation using the photos, annotation and slideshow in flckr

I guess you can tell, I am really excited about this Web 2.0 discovery and the many possibilities it will have for me in my classroom (and future school library…here’s hoping!)

This week I also set up my RSS aggregator with Google Reader and uncovered some amazing educators and experts in the field of Web 2.0. One of my favorites was David Warlick. With all my research on photosharing this week, I came across some inspirational words from his Colearner wiki from his presentation entitled “Harnessing the digital landscape” http://davidwarlick.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage
“Never before has the classroom become so much a part of the world around us. Small digital cameras have affected how we look at war, love, family and friends, poverty, wealth, culture, and nature. Students can record their environment, share these images with each other and the world, and become archivers of their own experience.”
Photosharing has definitely allowed us the capabilities to expand our students’ learning from the pencil and paper, the textbook and the highlighter and the ego-centric nature of their four classroom walls to the global culture that is growing and developing around us!

With all the positive educational opportunities available for learning with photosharing, one has to play devil’s advocate and reflect on possible downsides. This brings me back to my constant concern with parents and their overprotective nature which will not allow photos of their children “on the internet”, which I can’t blame them. Fortunately, from what I could tell in my “investigations”, all of these photosharing sites are quite secure in their “sharing” choices (public or private…or specific e-mail addresses, passwords or groups). Now it becomes the teacher’s role to inform the parents so they can make the choice for themselves.
Another “fear” of course, is the inappropriate material that can ‘inadvertently’ surface when searching for photos on such image databases as Flickr. This has been a hot topic of discussion in our course work with EDES 501 this past week which has given me a whole other issue to explore. I definitely agree with my colleagues who feel it is a perfect opportunity to make it a “teachable moment” and educate our students on the risks and appropriate responses to unwanted images. Even with these few downsides, I’m still in awe of the capabilities that photosharing can have in our teaching practices. In the words of Richardson, “the power of the Read/Write Web is being able to create and connect content through publishing in ways we never thought possible”. So now it is time to explore those possibilities and make those connections. Photosharing seems like a good place to start for me!

Summer sailing! (Flickr practice)

2008-09-20T15:52:00.001-05:00

Summer 2008 062
Originally uploaded by heather_eby

This is a typical scene on Lake of the Woods for my family in the summertime. After a long day of sailing, we tie up with fellow sailors for an evening of swimming and socializing! As they sang on Grease "Those suummerrrr niiiiiiights!!"

Example of Photosharing

2008-09-20T14:39:00.000-05:00

BUSY PLAYING!

2008-09-15T17:27:00.000-05:00

OK...I've been a bit neglectful of my blog BUT trust me when I say I have been busy!!!!!! I haven't been blogging but I've been playing! I just go from one click to another to another! I love it and I hate it! I can't believe all the wonderful information out there. I feel like I've been living in a bubble where technology and advancements in student learning have been taking place over the past few years when I read all the information out there. Yet on the other hand, I am definitely feeling the strains of information overload and lots of technojargon that is beginning to scare me. Yet I plug on... :)
So where do I begin...I guess I started with trying to find some blogs that I would want to include in an aggregator or RSS feed as Joanne had suggested we do as soon as possible. I read the chapter in Will Richardson's book on RSS feeds and began with technorati.com and found it very confusing. Links were taking me to other links and I found it unreadable (for me) so I moved onto bloglines as suggested in Will Richardson's book. It looked fairly easy to manage but I wanted to try to start keeping all my "Web 2.0 tools" together which brought me to Google reader as I already have an account with Google for my blog. (With all these wonderful free tools comes more e-mail accounts and passwords than I can manage or keep track of!)
Back to my Google Reader, I find it easy to use but tricky finding blogs and "feeds" that I want to include. Many feeds came with more articles than I was interested in reading which brings me to learning about TAGS. I haven't quite mastered that one yet but I think (hope) it won't be too confusing. So I've decided to keep my feeds simple by limiting it to everyone's blogs in our course as well as a few of the Web 2.0 experts and School Library Journal blogs to keep me reading and "current" on latest trends.
Today I played around with Flickr for awhile and found myself creating yet another account with Yahoo in order to subscribe and try it out. I haven't quite figured out how I would like to practice it but I love the idea of starting with some Flicktion as suggested in Will Richardson's book. Language Arts being my favorite "subject" to teach (no huge surprise as I bet many of us are as teacher-librarians or future TLs), I'd like to try it out on my students. There's nothing like putting what you've learned into practice. I've also been playing with the Flickreplacr Bookmarklet too! I'll see if I can get it to work on my blog...cross your fingers for me!

MY "PAPERLESS" PONDERINGS BEGIN!

2008-09-09T10:59:00.000-05:00

The world of blogging and making my thoughts and learning experiences public begins! As you can see from my profile, I am a teacher and now I'm a student once again. I have set up this blog for my first course with the University of Alberta's online distance education program in Teacher-Librarianship, specifically for my EDES 501 course learning about Web 2.0 tools.
In all honesty, this is not my first foray into the world of blogging as I used a blog for the first time last year as my grade 5 classroom newsletter. As Will Richardson advised in his book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms", it's an excellent way to get your feet wet and get comfortable writing in a new format. Not surprisingly, it was a huge hit with my students' parents. My one hitch remained that many parents did not check the blog regularly and I was updating it weekly (a lot of work!). So I investigated further and found out about Google group e-mailing and set up an account for my parents and added them as members (with their permission) so that they would receive an update in their e-mail every time I entered a new post! I had unknowingly begun my "paperless" journey into the world of Web 2.0.
I guess I should mention that I was using Blogger.com as I was referred to it by a fellow staff member at our school. Now that I have begun this course, I also wanted to investigate other blog host possibilities but fell into a comfort zone once again with Blogger (after much reading and playing). However, I really enjoyed http://edublogs.org/as I found myself clicking on all kinds of links and learning something new at every click. Sue Waters (the Edublogger) shares so many different views and ideas on using Web 2.0 tools, specifically blogs in the classroom. I finally had to log off after "information overload".
Since I first started last fall with Blogger, they have made some changes to their formatting and added some new gadgets (although many come with unwanted Ads...blogger beware!)
As you probably noticed, I also had fun playing with my discovery of "wordle.net" while applying my header. It was a tricky job trying to get it to paste into the header but I learned a lot in the process. As my header words indicate, I am eager 2 learn and as the vocabulary shows, there is a lot out there to explore!
I've already started thinking about how this can work in the classroom (or my future school library!). I'm a huge fan of Literature Circles and Book Clubs and would love to start there with my students posting their responses and opinions. I know that in all subject areas the possibilities are endless. I'm anxious to hear how my fellow adult learners see blogs working in their different situations.