A short and sweet Q &A session on FILTERING!

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"?

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!"

"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!

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!

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!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PROS

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

CONS

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

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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Change always comes bearing gifts. ~Price Pritchett

The ABC's of BLOGGING IN EDUCATION

A LITTLE BACKGROUND "TRIVIA" FOR YOU!

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

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

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





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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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



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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Z - Zany - This zany list is finally done!


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

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