Edunology

I publish a monthly newsletter for my school district. In my last issue before the summer break I discussed personal learning networks. I provided 5 options that teachers and administrators could look into in order to begin to develop their network.

Technology has allowed for 24/7 learning on-demand. I started building my personal learning network about 3 years ago. I have never been so excited about learning since it became so easy. I have access to thousands of individuals who share the same interests as i do. Many of these are professional contacts, but some are individuals with similar personal interests Ex: fly fishing, travel and the health/fitness. I check/communicate with my network many times throughout the day. I learn something new every time I do.

My network consists of the following:

A maintain a feed aggregator page. I use Igoogle and Google Reader. I subscribe to a number of blogs. Each time someone updates their blog postings i receive an update in my aggregator. I subscribe to blogs that focus on many topics. Primarily i subscribe to Educational Technology Blogs. I also subscribe to some that relate to my personal interests.  This has probably been the number 1 resource in my network.

I am a member of Twitter. Currently my network consists of about 300 followers. I network with individuals who work in educational technology. I also follow espn, cnn and some other organizations that I am interested in. I must admit that i do not spend a lot of time on Twitter. I find it hard to find the time to stay connected. I do not use mobile technologies to connect to it. However, every single time I do interact with my network i walk about with at least 3-5 new resources, ideas or thoughts. I sometimes use it to throw out questions. It has been a valuable resource for me.

I am a member a few social networks. Primarily I am a member of NING networks. The most notable is www.classroom20.com. This is a network for educators who utilize web2.0 tools and technology in general in their classrooms. Recently they have reached 25,000 members. I could go on an on about the value here but i will leave it at ” you have to join”.  I subscribe to updates in the forum in my feed aggregator.

I read a number of publications. Most of them I subscribe to in my feed reader. I can get a quick snapshot of the new articles. I can then decide which ones are of interest to me. It makes it very easy to stay on top of multiple publications without spending a lot of time. The best part is that it is free. A few that i read are eschool news, the journal, technology and learning and ASCD publications.

I maintain a social bookmarking account. I use www.delicious.com. This is a powerful tool. Social bookmarking sites allow you to save your favorite websites on a website. This means they are accessible from any computer with an internet connection. You add and access bookmarks easily by installing a couple of buttons on your internet browser toolbar. I have organized thousands of sites with tags (keywords that you apply to sites you bookmark). The real power of this service is the social aspect. You can search and share bookmarks with everyone that uses the service. I have networked with many individuals who share the same interests that i do. I am constantly reviewing their resources in addition to my own. It is such a time saver and a valuable tool.

Open courseware and video sharing are the newest addition to my network. www.academicearth.org, www.ted.com, itunesU,  ustream, and other open course providers are some of my favorites. i can watch short videos or take complete courses on topics that are of interest to me professionally and personally. I can even take part in live workshops. I am really starting to take advantage of these resources lately.

I encourage you to start to develop your own personal learning network. If you would like to read my newsletter that discusses RSS feeds and developing you ”PLN” you can view it here. I invite you to add me to your networks and feeds as a start. I will share my contact info below.

twitter: walkerd
delicious: dwalker500
Classroom20: dwalker500
Skype: dwalker500
Gmail: dwalker500

Are you looking for a way to connect your content with real life experiences for students? Are your students struggling to see the relevance in reading a particular story or learning a particular critical thinking skill? Would you like to have a Nobel Laureate show your students how he or she uses the skills your are instructing?

The open source teaching project is an excellent tool to make real-world connections between your curriculum and the work done everyday by industry leading professionals.

A recent article in the THE JOURNALstated this about the site:

The open source teaching project is a Tennessee based program that helps students make real-life connections to academic content. It is a free digital resource that brings students up close with leading professionals across a variety of fields to help them see the real-world relevance of their studies.”

This program send interviewers to speak face to face with experts in a range of fields. The interviews are posted online and are free for anyone to access. They also include teacher resources, lesson plans and blogs.

One section of the site contains interviews with college admissions officers. Districts who have utilized these interviews in instruction have witnessed a distinct transition in the way students organize and prepare college admissions materials after taking part in these lessons.

A majority of the interviews are audio only. However, they are in the process of adding video components as well. Included on the site are the questions that are asked for each area of expertise. I found this to be a valuable resource. With the technology we have available in Jefferson we could easily conduct some of our own interviews. We are also setup to host video conferencing sessions. These questions would be useful for those projects.

I encourage you to take a look at this resource. If you are interested in putting together a lesson using these tools I would be happy to assist. If you would like to organize your own video conference or interview with a subject area expert please let me know. I am always here to assist.

Enjoy this new resource!

I have been a member of Delicious for a long time now. I have used it primarily to bookmark all of the great websites I find online. I am a big fan of social bookmarking. However, it has only been within the last year that I really started taking advantage of the “social” aspect of  social bookmarking.

For those of you who are not on the social bookmarking wagon yet, here is a short summary. Traditional bookmarking of sites consisted of adding them to your favorites. You can add the site and place it in a folder. While this is helpful it has limitations. The major limitation is that you can only access these favorites from the computer you saved them on. You are also limited in the how you can organize them for retrieval.

Social bookmarking is web based. You can access your boomarked sites from any computer with an internet connection. These services also allow you to add ‘tags” to your  bookmarks. Tags are keywords that you assign to a bookmark. You use these tags to organize and search your bookmarks. You can bundle your tags to be better organized. This is the equivalent of putting them in folders.  By downloading some toolbar buttons you can add and access sites in your delicious account right from your Internet explorer or firefox toolbar.

The most power feature of social bookmarking is the “social” aspect.  Delicous and other social boomarking services are a network. You not only have access to sites that you bookmark, but you also have access to sites that other delicious users bookmarked. The service allows you to add members to your network to make it easy to view their bookmarks. You may be interested in this if you know of other users that share the same interests or profession. You do not have to have someone as part of your network to search their bookmarks.

This is the feature that i have only started to really use in the past year. It has replaced about 40% of my Google searches. You can search by tags on the site. The results that are returned will be seperated by 1. sites you bookmarked, 2.S ites your network bookmarked, 3 Sites that users on delicious bookmarked.

A simple search on “smartboard Math” returned hundreds of websites that other delicous users had bookmarked. What a time saver. Instead of sifting through thousands of google results i have  list of a couple hundred pre-approved sites. Other users thought these sites were good enough to bookmark. If one of these people are in my network then the validity and relevancy of the result is even stronger.

Planning a trip? A tag search of ”rome” and possibly “restaurants” should provide a variety of bookmarked sites.  What about “social studies” “lesson plans”?

Every  post has a number at the end of it. This is the number of people who also bookmarked this site. By clicking on the number you get to see the usernames of the people. This is a great way to add users to your network that share a common interest.

Delicious has become one of the web2.0 tools that i use everyday. As it grows and my network grows it is becoming even more valuable. I encourage you to check out this resource.  I have put together a social bookmarking tutorial page on my wiki. There are printable instructions for using delicious as well as screencast tutorials.

Enjoy

If you have not read Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind” i recommend picking it up for some summer reading.  The book discusses the tranisition of our world economy and the skills that are necessary to be successful in the 21st century. Pink discusses how “Right brain thinkers are wired for 21st century success”.

Your left brain is logical, linear, by-the-numbers; the right side is creative, artistic, empathetic. Our country is entering a new era — the so-called conceptual age — during which right-brained skills such as design and storytelling will become far more crucial than traditionally left-brained skills such as accounting and computer programming.

While the latter skills are readily outsourced, transformative abilities such as empathy and creativity are crucial in a new age “animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life,” he writes.

Daniel Pink  in his interview with Oprah Winfrey stated:

Pink: In many professions, what used to matter most were abilities associated with the left side of the brain: linear, sequential, spreadsheet kind of faculties. Those still matter, but they’re not enough. What’s important now are the characteristics of the brain’s right hemisphere: artistry, empathy, inventiveness, big-picture thinking. These skills have become first among equals in a whole range of business fields.

The partnership for 21st Century skills has developed an outline of the skills necessary to be successful. 

1. Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes
2. Learning and Innovation Skills
      *Creativity and Innovation
      *Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
      *Communication and Collaboration
3. Information, Media and Technology Skills

Based on this reality why are our schools moving in the opposite direction. Never before has there been such a focus on left brain education. Standardized testing has taken over. Many schools are seeing their fine arts departments shrink to make room for test prep courses. Computer labs are being scheduled for test prep applications. Project based learning and technology integration are pushed aside because of time constraints. Time that is being taken up by core subject curriculum that is an inch thick and a mile wide.

We are even seeing physical education classes limited in order to extend time in Math and Science courses. The focus on testing has out weighed the fact that obesity rates among our children are at an all time high. Music, art, wood shop, and robotics courses must defend its existence with each budget.

We are creating a educational system were every student is expected to have the same needs (nclb) and are expected to follow the same path (left brain driven). We are expecting all students to master left brain subject areas and pushing aside the importance of fine arts. Everyone is being prepared for college?

In order to break this cycle we as educators must push for alternative instructional strategies. Allow for creativity and design in the classroom. Utilize technology with your students for activities other then keyboarding, test prep and skill and drill. Get better at analyzing the data that you are generating from test prep activities so you can transform your instruction to address the needs and allow for more right brain activities. Look to design lessons that incorporate left brain subject areas but allow for the development of the right brain.  Develop alternative assessments that allow students to demonstrate understanding through assessments that showcase their creativity. Give our students some flexibility to explore their creative side. We owe it to them to prepare them for their future not the future we prepared ourselves for.

The Atlantis space shuttle is en-route to the Hubble telescope. You can follow @Astro_Mike on twitter to witness the first real Twitter update from outer space. Mike Massimino will be twittering from space.

I see an opportunity to use this with students in elementary and middle school. If the timing is right you may be able to engage in a conversation with him.

Here is my example of technology integration using a project on global warming. I welcome comments, concerns or additions.

Topic: Global Warming

1. Create a feed aggregator page. Subscribe to feeds on the topic. You can subscribe to blogs, news feeds and searches. (igoogle, pageflakes, google reader)
2.  Gather a number of resources and bookmark. (dilicious, diigo

3.  Organize your facts on a Group wiki. (wikispaces, pbwiki)
4.  Develop questions to ask an expert in the field. Organize these questions on a wiki and ask the expert to respond. You could also organize a video conference with this expert. (wikispaces, skype)
5.  Find blogs on the topic. Review postings and comment on ones of interest.
6. Develop your own blog on the topic. Post your opinions and ideas. Ask for feedback. Share your blog with the individuals who’s blog you read. (blogger, wordpress)
7.  Organize your research into a final outcome. You could create a multimedia presentation, website, wiki, video or presentation. (ms photostory, movie maker, wikispaces)
8. Publish your final outcome for others to comment on.  (Voicethread, teacher tube, you tube, school tube)

What is the ideal middle school technology literacy curriculum? What is the perfect course structure? Should their be a formal computer applications class at all? Should the technology program be totally infused into the content areas? If we select that method do we need a formal lab or should we be looking at laptops and netbooks?

I am currently working on a middle school curriculum for a 6, 7, and 8′th grade computer course. These are the questions I have been asking myself. What should be the role of the computer applications teacher. Should the primary focus be on developing fundamental skills using various applications? Should the focus be totally on content area using the available technology were applicable? Should the computer applications teacher be instructing the students on how to use tools like photostory, movie maker, powerpoint, wikis and blogs so that when a classroom teacher infuses them they do not have to teach the basics? If we do not have formal lessons on double spacing text, creating a table, editing a  picture, were will the students learn it? These are not the things they are doing at home. In many cases the classroom teacher are not knowledgeable themselves to spend class time teaching these mini lessons. The frustration of having to show “the simple things” causes these teachers to not want to utilize the technology.

My current opinion is that we still need to teach the fundamentals of applications. However, in a computer applications class we can develop project based lessons that culminate with the creation of a final project. Within this project exists a series of mini-lessons that will address the basics of each application. There also will arise a series of ‘teachable moments” that can be the most valuable moments in a lesson.

An example that i am providing is the project of creating a digital story/documentary on a global issue using MS photostory 3. This project addresses a few of the cccs in our state. It is interdisciplinary and is authentic and relevant.  The outcome will be a video presentation. Within this project are a series of mini-lessons.

1. File and folder management - where to save your images, project and documents and how to retrieve them on a network.
2. Internet Searching - How to find the info you are looking for, searching strategies, image searches, sources.
3. Information Literacy- How to validate sources of information. Blogs, wikipedia, databases etc..How to cite online sources.
4. Working with pictures- How to select appropriate image resolution, how to save an image, copyright, creative commons, image manipulation in photoshop or other software.
5. Writing and Storyboarding - How to organize a script. Planning your story.
6. Creating of you Multimedia Project Using MS Photostory. -Narration, transitions, music.
7. Publishing your work and commenting on the work of others. - Peer review. Collaboration with a school in another part of the world. Possibly a school who is a victim of your global issue. Discussion through a wiki.

This is one example of how the “computer class” can remain a relevant course and a valuable addition to a school.  By working on the fundamentals of the tools in this class, the students are entering their core content classes with the knowledge necessary to utilize these tools as an alternative assessment. A content area teacher can offer students the option of creating a multimedia presentation, website, wiki, blog or podcast as an assessment of their understanding. The necessity to spend time teaching these skills in the classroom should not exist.

I have started to research the benefits of Moodle vs. Sharepoint. I have a couple of needs that I would like to address. I first want to provide an opportunity for teachers in my middle and high school to be able to extend their classroom beyond the 4 walls of their room. I would like to introduce tools such as blogs, wiki’s, multimedia etc.. Moodle seems to be my best option for setting up these virtual courses. It is a perfect solution to have all of these tools centralized in one place. It seems easy to use and simple to setup. The best part is that it is free.  I have worked with moodle briefly on my own professional development site.

My second goal is to provide an intranet portal for our high school. Currently faculty members receive numerous emails throughout the day. These emails include: daily attendance lists, lists of students attending field trips, lunch menus etc.. Many times we receive two or three revisions of each memo. What I would like to do is to create an intranet webpage to host all of this information. Through windows group policy we could make this page the Internet explorer home page for all staff members.

Based on my research to date it appears that Sharepoint will work best for this problem. Our district currently has a license for sharepoint server 2003. This is the full version of sharepoint. There is a free version of sharepoint called sharepoint services that is available on any windows 2003 server. Although it does not have all of the features on the full version. The free version would most likely be a good enough solution for the project.

Sharepoint appears to manage announcements and document distribution/revisions very well. It is also LDAP compatible. This should allow all authenticated users in the school to not have to log in. It is fully integrated with active directory. 

Moodle does not appear to organize an intranet start page as well as Sharepoint. I have found that everything is based on courses. Once you create a course you have the ability to do everything that I require. I am concerned about staff having to click too deep to get what they need. I want to make it simple to retrieve the information they require. 

Sharepoint does not appear to organize the class materials as well as Moodle. I have not found an option for gradebooks or quizzes. Moodle also appears to organizes the class sites in a much more user friendly manner.

There was a discussion on this same topic on Classroom 2.0.

I welcome input from everyone regarding this comparison. My current decision is to use both. I will use Moodle for courses and sharepoint to manage information and documents sent to faculty members.

Wikipedia is the number one resource that students cite when conducting research. It usually is one of the top 10 search results for most topics researched by students. Because wikipedia can be edited by anyone most teachers question the accuracy of the data. In most cases, faculty members will not accept or recommend wikipedia as a primary source.

While I am in agreement that not all of the information is accurate I have found that most is. I like to utilize wikipedia when conducting research. I find that complex topics are explained in an easy to read format. I typically site information from wikipedia in my professional development classes. I also use it to understand more complex IT information that i need to know for my network admin responsibilities.  I think it is a great place to start. I do agree that all information found on wikipedia needs to be checked and double checked for accuracy. It should not be your primary or only source.

The greatest resource on Wikipedia is the references. At the bottom of all entries is a references section. There it cites all the sources of information used to create the entry. These references are an excellent place to continue your research. This is a much more refined and effective method for finding sources then going through thousands of google search results.