Part II - Drum Roll Please......

Well, after much contemplating, I’m going to have to go with BLOGGING as the tool I would like to first introduce to my staff. There are several reasons I’ve chosen blogs as the web 2.0 tool of choice and here’s a few of them.

1. Each teacher at our school has the space on our school webpage to have a class webpage and when this was created, each teacher also was given a blog page to link to their class webpage. The nature of this blog is to simply post information for the public/students to learn about what is going on in the classroom. The only people that are able to comment on this are those who have access to edit the school website. This is simple blogging. However, from here, teachers may branch out to include students in blogging by introducing them to sites such as class blogmeister.com, blogspot.com, or edublog (other blogs could be used as well).  

2. You can start small and expand your blog as your comfort level grows. Teachers may use a blog as a posting of informational items to begin and then expand it to collaborate with peers, have students respond to blogs, have students create and post blogs, etc. The possibilities are nearly endless but it doesn’t have to be too complex in order to achieve the purpose that the teacher sets out.

3. Access. Teachers can access their school blog from anywhere they have internet access. This goes without saying that this is truly one of the great benefits of web 2.0 tools. It really is anytime, anywhere learning for anyone who is involved in the blog, from publisher, to reader to commenter. From a parent perspective, it is great to be able to check out what students are doing at any given time. Depending on how the blog is being used, a parent (or anyone if the settings are set up to allow) can easily visit the class webpage and see student work, teacher informational postings, etc. As well, students are able to access this from home as well, so they can check on assignment due dates, events, offer comments on other student blogs, offer peer editing advice, etc.

4. Student learning benefits of blogging. There is something to be said about having your work published so it is accessible on the internet for the teacher, peers, classmates, family, or the entire world (depending on the settings the publisher chooses). Often, students take more pride and ownership in their work if they know that their audience is more than just their teacher. Teaching with Web 2.0 “Writing can be transformed from a one-on-one communication between teacher and student. With the use of a school-centered blog students can also receive advice and corrections from their peers.....Both blogs and wikis promote peer editing. This gets students more involved in the writing process, thus strengthening writing, editing and communication skills.”

5. Student engagement. Technology in general provides a tremendous hook for many students. The school I teach at is in the core of Regina and many students do not have exposure to technology at home as many others may in better socio-economic communities. I have worked to a great degree with classes integrating technology into the curriculum and just as much research states, student engagement greatly increases and classroom management issues decrease when students are working with technology. Using Technology to Enhance Engaged Learning for At-Risk Students by Barbara Means states that “New technologies can provide meaningful learning experiences for all children”. The last course I took I did an action plan/proposal for a 1 to 1 Laptop Program for our school. In my research, I found the studies overwhelmingly stating that student engagement greatly increases when students are given technological tools to assist in learning. The inquiry method fits so well with technology and blogging is just one avenue students and teachers can explore with technology.

I am sure that I have have just touched the tip of the blog iceberg, however in my school environment where I have a limited amount of technologically literate teachers (and students to a certain degree), I feel that blogging would be a good starting point for many teachers.


The Greater Plan

I’ve already started this with our staff by offering “lunch & learn” technology sessions. We began with having teachers become more acquainted with the school website. 2 sessions have been offered for teachers where we learned some of the basics of setting up a class webpage and setting up a blog page linked to their webpages. I was really surprised with the number of teachers who turned out to learn about this wonderful tool. This has provided a great springboard for teachers to make information more accessible and learn together in a non-threatening environment (Oh, and it also helped that we fed them too!). From there we have explored iBooks and how we can use these in our classes and have students create and publish their learning. They have really loved this and it has become a great link with our school literacy goal.

I’d like to continue to introduce different technological tools with teachers through these lunch and learn sessions and I feel pretty good about teachers being receptive to the opportunity to learn more and collaborate with myself on a regular and ongoing basis. I was really impressed with the ease of VoiceThread, so perhaps I’ll explore this next with students and teachers. I’ll leave that one for a little while though as I don’t want to overwhelm teachers, especially when they may not be too tech savvy.

Here’s for the future of 2.0 in my world!

DB

Blogs vs. Wiki’s vs. Podcasts vs. VoiceThread. And the Winner Is……….WHOA! Back up the bus Bussiere!

When considering which web 2.0 tool I would like to introduce to my staff, the 4 that really stood out from the others were blogging, wiki’s, podcasting and voicethreads. When considering which would be the first to roll out, I think I need to consider several factors.

1.     Comfort level of staff using technology

2.     Which tool would staff embrace and not see as a steep learning curve

3.     Most bang for our buck (meaning the ease the tool is integrated into the curriculum with the least amount of prep)

4.     Time investment by staff

5.     How the tool benefits student achievement

6.     Grade level

 

That being said, there is a lot to consider when making a choice of which tool to use with staff. Being in a Pre-K to grade 8 school, not all web 2.0 tools are as easily implemented as others. So, how do I decide? I think the first step is to make all teachers aware of the tools available.

 

How do I do this without taking up too much of their valuable time?

I think I would like to post an example of each of the tools on the Virtual Library Web Page and tour teachers through each example. From there, it would be nice to give a brief overview of each tool and give teachers time to think about the learning implications for each tool.

 

As of this moment, if I were to decide which tool to use, I’m not quite sure which I’d choose. I’m still deciding.

 

The answer will be posted soon!

DB

QualiTy PD (get it? it rhymes! If you say it like a rapper, it sounds way cooler!))

I’ve blogged. So what! Anyone can blog, can’t they? What’s the purpose of my blogging? Have I simply shared my thoughts in my course with the instructor and classmates? Is it just a simple practice of reflection using an on-line journal rather than the traditional paper and pen method? While I have been focusing on how to use blogs in the classroom, I have somewhat pushed the idea of blogging for professional development on the back burner. So, here I am. The course is nearly over and I have learned many things that I can easily take into my world as a t-l. The focus has been on student learning but have I made the connection with and blogged for the purpose of professional development? I’d like to think I have to a certain degree.

 

 

Resources

 

Will Richardson has posted on his Weblogg-ed blog a posting called Blogs for Professional Development. In this blog Richardson links to and gives praise for Karl Fisch’s blog “The Fischbowl”. Richardson makes specific reference to Fisch’s explanation of a staff development program using blogs to reflect upon and share progress on school goals with the focus being on technology. As you scan through the page, you’ll see the list of teachers (colleagues) who have blogs and regularly update their pd as a result of this focus. It creates another way for teachers to share and reflect outside their 4 walls of the classroom.

 

Online Education Database has posted their top 100 education blogs. This list is very helpful because it categorizes the blogs so you can easily seek out which blogs appeal to you. The categories include Learning, Library & Research, Technology, Teaching, etc. I took a quick spin through some of the links and there are some excellent blogs that you could easily subscribe to an follow for professional development. Of course you’ll find links to well known blogs such as Weblogg-ed and Warlick’s 2 Cents Worth but there are numerous other blogs that may not be as popular or share the same large following that Warlick & Richardson have. When you get a chance, check a few of them out!

 

Edublogs must be one of the most comprehensive resources blogs availble. It hosts links to educational blogs on a wide variety of topics for all levels of educators. It not only offers many resources but also offers support, feedback & discussion, forums, etc. on blogs. It reminds us that we are not alone in this and that others are in the same boat and they are trying to support us however they can.

 

What does it mean for educators?

 

Quite often I have heard the same statement from teachers saying that there just isn’t professional development opportunities on a particular topic, or perhaps there just aren’t enough hours in the school day to meet with colleagues and share best practices or meet to plan units together. Well, here’s where blogs can help out. No longer do we have to worry about distance or time. We now have an amazing amount of wonderful resourceful people available through blogging. There are blogs that cover almost every imaginable topic available for teachers where we can reflect on, share, and have conversation with  others on the topics that are important to us. Whether that be on a web 2.0 tool and how to use it in the class, or on classroom management techniques and challenges. Blogs are so much more than a reflection tool, instead, you can regularly be updated by your RSS aggregator on the topics that matter most to you. You don’t have to go out looking for ideas or re-invent the wheel (a task that teachers are all to familiar with).

 

Another wonderful use of blogging is that it can assist in professional research especially for continuing education students or for those who are keen to keep up to date with the latest in educational research. As one develops their subscription to various professional blogs, current and latest trend research is at your fingertips without ever having to visit your local library. As mentioned earlier, the research does not have to be in your own world, instead, you are able to actively read, contribute and comment on research around the world as it is shared. Anytime, anywhere learning continues to evolve!

Wrapping another blog up!

 

I never would have imagined how much professional blogs could have assisted in my own professional growth and learning. Prior to this term, I hadn’t really thought of blogging with the purpose of pd. Now, I must say, I’m a little addicted! I’ll approach research with a different lens when it comes to taking other classes, and even in my daily seeking of professional material or ideas. There are so many wonderful, credible resourceful educators out there and they have done so much for others by blogging and sharing using this powerful web 2.0 tool. I’d really like to initiate a professional blog for colleagues in the near future. Perhaps we can begin to tap into this wonderful resource and become more web 2.0 with-it while we’re at it!

 

Signing off, a dejected Riders fan,

DB

 

P.S. Congrats to the Stampeders & fans on their Grey Cup victory tonight!

I can't think of a catchy title for RSS!

Kicking it off

I started off this week in the same place I have been for many of my blogs. First I took a look at the Common Craft video RSS in Plain English. Quickly into the video, I realized I’d already watched this in a previous week (which one, I’m not sure) but I found it a good refresher anyways. I wasn’t sure that I’d have much to say about this topic as to me, the information seems pretty straight forward. The main point is that the simplicity of setting up an aggregator can really save people great amounts of time. As Lee Lefever explains in RSS in Plain English, rather than going out to look for new information on the web, subscribing to your favourite websites and blogs can change this process and as a result have the latest information automatically brought to you. Of course, as I did more exploring, I learned more (go figure!).


What’s the difference between aggregators?

There are all kinds of aggregators out there and they all do the same basic thing but with different layouts. Vienna has been the aggregator that I have been using for the past year. Vienna was designed for Macs only and since I’m a Mac guy, this is what I was initially used. As I began exploring this topic more I started to check out some of the other aggregators such as Google Reader. The more I used Google Reader, the more I like it! I really like the fact that it can be used as a tool to share blogs/news stories with others. The tabs at the bottom of each story/blog that you have subscribed to give you the option to add notes, and share with other individuals who you might think will benefit or be interested in.

Another wonderful thing about Google Reader or Bloglines and other web based aggregators is that it doesn’t matter where you are or what computer or hand held device you are using, you can easiy access all you subscriptions as long as you have internet access. This is another reason I am moving away from using Vienna which is set up on a particular computer. With more and more of our information being stored online, it makes me wonder if we need to have large hard drives on our personal computers anymore. There is always the chance of your computer crashing and you losing valuable material but if you save everything to web based applications, your data is always secure (isn’t it?)!

As we have explored the various web 2.0 tools over the past 2 months, sharing seems to be a common theme. Having important information automatically delivered to you can be beneficial in so many ways whether it is your favourite news website, favourite blogs, students blogs, wiki’s, photo sharing sites, etc.


Educational Implications

Professional - Let’s say one of your professional goals is to stay on top of top news stories or blogs that are relevant to your teaching. Rather than adding a site to your bookmarks and continually checking to see if anything of interest has been posted, you can subscribe to that site and have new stories, blogs and updates automatically delivered to your aggregator. This simplifies the process of always searching to see what is new at your favourite sites and blogs.

There are definitely some websites that I know change daily (news & sports pages) and I still prefer to visit the homepage and scan through the items that are of interest to me rather than have all the stories sent to my aggregator. Where I really see aggregators used to their potential is in those sites that are not updated quite as regularly as news pages. This way, you don’t always have to go back to the website/blog and see if anything is updated which can take a significant amount of time since only some pages within a website may have been updated.

Students - Aggregators could be used by students as they work on projects where they are collecting information from the web. If each students set up a google reader account, they would be able to subscribe to sites that would be of interest and assistance when they are collecting information. The possibilities are numerous with students, perhaps they just read a great book from an author. They could subscribe to that authors website to keep up to date with new materials that the author may be working on. A great feature I discovered within Google News is that you can search a particular topic and subscribe to all stories on that topic and have them automatically sent to your aggregator. So much for all that wasted time by students frivolously searching the internet for relevant and current information. This could really streamline the process for students of all ages!

Another wonderful benefit suggested in web 2.0 new tools, new schools is that these subscriptions are free and you can just as easily unsubscribe as you can subscribe.


Professional Readings

• Sharon Housley offers a list of possibilities on how RSS feeds can be used positively in the educational field at a variety of different levels on her website RSS Specifications.
• Will Richardson on Weblogg-ed offers 123 postings on RSS which include uses in education, thoughts on various aggregators, educational implications for using RSS and various other great articles.
• David Parry from the University of Albany offers an article called The Technology of Reading and Writing in the Digital Space: Why RSS is crucial for a Blogging Classroom. This article looks at the importance of RSS in the class for technologically immersed classrooms and how this can really improve writing and reading skills with students. This article is valuable for all educational levels as he looks at how “RSS alters the transmission (reading and writing) of digital knowledge” and as a result, we must change the way we teach students how to read and write using the web.
• The Educational Development Centre at Carleton University offers a gread pdf that gives a great overview of RSS and includes a short list of advantages and disadvantages of using RSS in education. http://edc.carleton.ca/files/Repo/file_69/RSS%20in%20Education.pdf


Wrapping it up

As always, I’ve learned something new. I can’t say I’ve really used RSS for it’s full potential yet, but I think I’m on my way. I'm certainly going to use RSS more as I continue my classes when I am collecting research on topics. I think this will assist in cutting down on time doing research and collecting relevant materials. I haven't played with the Google News function that I mentioned above much so this is one I definitely will play with in the future. I have a keen Social Studies teacher at my school that I think I will start out with professionally. I can see students setting up a Google Account and setting up Google Reader as they embark upon inquiry based learning in the new year. This is a project I'm looking forward to assiting with!

Well, another week and another tool to further explore!

DB

"About Face! At Ease Soldiers of Learning"

The Facebook Factor

Well, I’d avoided signing up for a Facebook account as long as I could. When I received the outline for this class, I realized that in order to be prepared for this portion of my learning, I needed to set up an account and get started exploring Facebook. So in the spring I started my Facebook account and began my social networking journey. To be honest I’ve been skeptical of the whole Facebook thing from the get go. Here are my top reasons for my skepticism.

1. Time. It’s another thing that would take up more time in an already busy schedule. Between a hectic school schedule, spending time with my family, running kids to evening and afternoon activities, and trying to maintain a fitness schedule (running a few times a week), sometimes there isn’t enough time in the day to fit “extras” in.

2. The friend competition. From my limited exposure to Facebook (prior to obtaining an account), I viewed Facebook as little more than a competition by participants to accumulate the most “friends” (a term I use very loosely with Facebook). I’ll get into this a little more a little later in this post.

3. Using it as a communication tool. When I wish to communicate with my “friends”, I usually use more traditional methods such as the phone, email or face to face visits. Call me crazy but these work for me.


So, what do I think about Facebook after using it over the last few months?

I haven’t strayed too much from my original thoughts on Facebook. I’m not sure I personally see the value of a Facebook account. I see people I know who have hundreds of so called “friends” in their profile and I wonder what the purpose of this collection of friends really is. Are these really your friends? Doubtful. In my experience, I’ve collected 40 some “friends” mostly through invitations initiated by others, not myself. Do I consider these people my friends? Not really. Most of them are people that I went to high school with. In most cases, I didn’t even have anything to do with many of these individuals and I would hardly consider them my friends. So, what’s the purpose of adding them to my list of “friends”? I also have 10 people who have sent me an invitation to be their friend who I for the life of me can’t figure out who they are. I’m guessing they went to my high school but I haven’t bothered to pull out my yearbook to check. I figure if I don’t remember them of the top of my head, they really don’t play much of a role in my life. So, if I don’t respond to their invitation to be their “friend” and choose to ignore them, am I offending them?

Is on-line social literacy an important new literacy as Stephen Abraham suggests in “Scaffolding the New Social Literacies”? There are all kinds of arguments both for and against such social networking sites. Is it a relevant new literacy for students today? Absolutely! How does it fit into school? Good question. There are many websites, blogs and wiki’s that suggest different uses for such sites as Facebook, My Space, Bebo, Twitter, etc. that give suggestions on how to use such social networking sites for educational purposes.


Educational Implications (Educators)

Whenever I think of educational implications for web 2.0 tools I usually think first about student use in the classroom and then later think about what it means professionally for teachers. This time, I’d thought I’d tackle what Facebook means for educators and how teachers could use such social networking sites for professional development opportunities.


Professional Learning Communities

I could see how teachers could create a “friend” list of professional colleagues. From there, you could post messages and regularly communicate with others about educational topics from planning to sharing of resources and beyond. Nings are another tool that can accomplish this same goal. I’m not sold that Facebook is the tool of choice for this sort of communication. The structure of Facebook is set up to be a much more social setting. Could you personalize your page so it is more educational? Certainly but I’m not sure it would be worth the time invested in doing so unless others are planning on doing the same. Ning’s are more suited to this sort of on-line collaboration (Ning's in Education).


Social Networking & Safety

An issue always at the forefront of discussion when it comes to web 2.0 tools is that of safety for users (particularly students when we are using the application in an educational setting). Social Networking Sites: Safety Tips for Tweens and Teens is a website that is published by the American Federal Trade Commission. It offers some precautionary information for people to consider when using social networking sites such as Facebook. Included are also several links to websites that offer other safety and precautionary information when exploring the web.


What I’d Like to See in Facebook

Here’s my two cents on Facebook and how I’d like to see it evolve for me to get the most out of it.

I’d like to see “friendships” evolve into communities where common likes, interests, information are shared. Some topics possibly…
a. Entertainment ideas
b. Restaurant info
c. Book title sharing
d. Parenting practices
e. the sky is the limit!
I’m sure it is possible to do many of these things through other web tools (such as Shelfari), but it would be nice to be able to include this on the Facebook page. Perhaps this is possible and I just haven’t explored it enough.


Wrapping it up

I still am skeptical about creating such social networks for students using tools such as Facebook and MySpace largely due to the inability to control some of the content that is available on individual pages. I fear that this tool will not be used to is educational potential because of the “social” focus of the application. Can it be fun? Addicting? Useful? Absolutely, but I’m not sure if an educational setting is the proper place for it. There are so many other Web 2.0 tools with much more learning potential in my humble opinion.

DB

Checkin' out the new digs!

I can't get this paint off my hands!

VoiceThread Part II

 

Well, here I am again. Another Sunday, another blog. What’s that? You don’t sense the excitement in my voice? Hmmmm…….Okay, as I mentioned a few days ago, I haven’t spent as much time exploring VoiceThread as I would have liked (&*#$@* painting) to but I think I’ve come up with a few ideas on what to do with it and where to use it. My original plan was to have my kids put together a VoiceThread slideshow of our new house that is being built, but here I am on Sunday night, they’re in bed and I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to say and do on my VT. I’m sure it won’t be half as interesting as if my kids did it but I’ll take you on a tour instead (at least there are some pictures of my kids in it).

 

 

Educational Resources

 

I did a quick search on google and found all kinds of sites that have educational uses for VoiceThread. VoiceThread ning is a relatively new website that has been created for educators to share their experiences using VT in the classroom. There are only a few members to date, but I’m sure this will grow as VT is used more frequently.

 

Moving at the Speed of Creativity (one of my favourite blogs) by Wesley Fryer posted a blog on why VT has become one of his favourite web 2.0 tools to use recently. The article provides some great arguments on why educators should use VT and provides several links for educators to further explore VT.

 

What would a list of good resources be without a wiki on the current topic? Here’s a wiki created by Colette Cassinelli titled VoiceThread 4 Educators Wiki. In the true sense of technology, this educator is using a powerful web 2.0 tool to collaborate with others about a web 2.0 tool (smart eh! Joanne…feel free to award bonus marks for that web 2.0 connection). I love the fact that she has organized her sidebar by grade level (not too broad of a grade span) as well as included links for library, admin, ed tech, best practices, etc. A pretty handy and useful site if I do say so myself.

 

There are countless other fantastic sites that have suggestions on how to use VT in the class at a variety of different levels. I can’t wait to tell teachers about VT and help them integrate it into the class. You could use this in any subject area and is a great way to tap into the multiple intelligences to meet different learning styles.

 

 

My World

 

I have been busy working with several classrooms this fall putting together ebooks. This has been a great experience and we plan on doing several others as the year goes on. Now that I’ve been exposed to VoiceThread, I think I may revamp some of my initial plans (which I’m sure will drive a few teachers crazy) and do some digital story telling using VoiceThread. I could easily post this on our school webpage so the world could see how our students are learning and what they are learning. The wheels are turning as we speak. I’m really starting to regret not spending more time on this tool during the week. I know that my kids would have love this too!

 

 

Reflection

 

I can’t get over how easy this VoiceThread thing is! When we talk about how so many of the web 2.0 tools are so easy to use, this really redefines simplicity in my mind. Here is an application that literally takes minutes for even the most web-paranoid individual to use. Uploading your photo’s is probably the most complicated part of VT and once you figure out how to do this, a few simple clicks will get you on your way and published.

 

VoiceThread has some great tutorials as well if you do need any assistance getting started. Hats off to the creator of VT in making sharing easy as pie!

DB,

The latest VoiceThread fan!