I'm going to attempt to host my first full skypecast and we have an ambitious agenda. This is the culmination of amazing week of wikis at our k12wiki.wikispaces.com. The pages were absolutely amazing and I'm going to feature them in the upcoming weeks.
I hope you'll join us tonight at our 8 PM EST Skypecast. Here is the information and the agenda. I will say that less than 5 points separated our top five scoring wikis! It was very competitive! The winners will be in your classroom!
Here is the plan:
SkypeCast at 8 PM EST tonight, Monday, October 30th!
1 - Go to (https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=45270) on Monday, October 30, at 8 pm EST. (I will be there at 7:40 to test things out.) 2- Sign in. 3 - If you have trouble - send a text message via skype to coolcatteacher for help. (Before the show starts, after it starts, it will be too late!)
Agenda for the Skypecast Monday
For K12 wiki participants: I have included the order and the listing of those who have let me know they will be in on Monday. Please e-mail me at coolcatteacher@gmail.com if you plan to attend so that I can add you to the agenda. Agenda for you to edit(Go to the agenda for you to edit to add your name and info. I also want you to add your blog there if you have not e-mailed it.)
8 pm EST Welcome from Vicki and an overview of the project (Vicki Davis)
5 minutes Overview of Tandem learning process and potential with wiki projects. (Vicki Davis, Sharon Peters)
5-7 minutes Introduction of Judges - Stewart Mader, Jennifer Wagner, Andrea cannot attend but will send me some notes. From this point on, Stewart and Jen will "jump in" as they have thoughts about the wiki projects.
20 minutes Discussion from those groups that would like to share their wiki experience - 20 minutes
10 minutes Discussion from judges about what they observed was effective on the wiki project. (Point out things you liked about each wiki.)
Stewart Mader
Jennifer Wagner
Vicki will read notes from Andrea Forte
5 minutes Announcement of winners: Each participant who contributed - New thing to add onto your resume. (Will post the names of contributors to a page.)
3rd place (tie)
2nd place
1st place
Best Wiki of Conference
5 minutes Where do we go from here?
Announcement from Jennifer Wagner of Technospud projects about classroom matching for wikis.
Wiki projects.
5 minutes Recap and challenge from presenter Vicki Davis
The best Web 2 article this week was written by a 19 year old!
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Wow! Nineteen year old blogger-prodigy Brian Benzinger over at Solution Watch has done an amazing three part series on Web 2.0 in the classroom. READ IT!!
It is an essential must read and must share set of articles. I have read each of them and highlighted the article's content and my biggest "take aways" for you.
Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0, Part 1 Oh my goodness, You have to read this one! It would take a student to start as he did, with the students. (I think us teachers tend to start the process with us, however, true education is something that happens WITHIN a student not TO a student.)
He reviews student organizers. I am going to have computer science test and review the following: Stu.dicio.us (student organizer and social notetaking tool), Gradefix (homework tracker), and mynoteIT (note taking.)
He also profiles teacher and club management options, including some course management options that may be great for those of us not wanting to undertake open source installations on our local server.
I'm going to show our math department Create a Graph. When we do resume building, job hunting skills, I am going to familiarize my seniors with Emurse (online job hunting/resume building with tracking stats on the hits taken on your resume!), and we will use hResume Creator to take our resumes and make them HTML compatible for our e-portfolio project. We will also review the "best news source for students," as he puts it - Newsvine. Brian says:
"I could have picked any ol’ news site for this post, but Newsvine is, in my opinion, the best news source for students. It’s a clean and friendly social news site containing articles from the Associated Press, ESPN, and New Scientist as well as user contributions. Students can browse the site comfortably, rate news articles, participate in article discussion, and even start their own news column where they can write and publish articles. More on Newsvine."
Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0, Part 2 This great article discusses office applications, web based applications, and thoughts on whether web-apps are ready for education. (I would ask is education ready for web apps.)
This is a great article for those looking at other technologies to integrate into the classroom. I reworked the curriculum this year for my ninth grade class and used a model I call the "intuitive learning" model. I developed it from my over thirty years of computer use. People have always asked me, "Vicki, how can you sit down at a new computer program and know how to use it so quickly." Well, without knowing it, I had a system. That is what I'm teaching my students. I teach them to learn how to learn.
My ninth grade class this semester focuses on word processing, however they have also used writely, zohowriter, Google Docs (after it gobbled up writely), wikispaces, and classblogmeister. (We're doing a short module on web pages in word and will then go to Google Page Creator.) After reading Brian's post, the next word processing target is Writeboard.
(There is also a hidden gem in there, Competitio.us -- although it is used for competitive intelligence tracking for business, it has the ability to do feature comparison matrices that are amazing. I am going to have my students use it in computer graphic design when they "invent" their companies with products to market. I always have them do an analysis of the competitive landscape. I will also use it for their genuine assessment in Computer Fundamentals when I have them compare the aspects of various word processors. It is a graphic organizer tool par exellence! Wow!)
Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0 Part 3 Blogging, photosharing, educational podcasting, wikis, videosharing, Web 2.0 courses, School 2.0, and some other cases including a fascinating Harvard class that is being offered for free over at Second Life. Brian says:
It may sound odd, but some students are now learning in their SecondLife. Harvard Law School has recently started a new course called, CyberOne, where students actually log into their SecondLife account and learn in the massively popular virtual world. The CyberOne course website states, “Enrollment to the Harvard Extension School is open to the public. Extension students will experience portions of the class through a virtual world, known as Second Life. Videos, discussions, lectures, and office hours will all take place on Berkman Island. Students from anywhere in the world will be able to interact with one another, in real time.” For those of you interested, head over to the CyberOne website and watch this video trailer (YouTube) that can give you an idea of what to expect.
Note for people who think the world hasn't changed These three well written, amazingly insightful education and Web 2.0 articles are written by a nineteen year old kid with an associates degree.
Bloggers take note and look at his style. Although he writes a long article, he clearly outlines for you in the opening sentence what his post is going to be about. (A habit I will emulate.) He has a great use of graphic tools (note the red arrows beside his favorite picks) and an effective use of hyperlinks. He refers back to his previous posts where need be.
These three posts reflect 20 or 30 hours at least of research (at least it would for me.) The world is not just flat, it is upside down!
We are standing on our heads learning from those who used to be at the "bottom of the educational foodchain." (And I include myself at the bottom.)
My favorite college professor, Dr. Philip Adler, always told me,
"Vicki, if you set your mind to be the best, doors will open. The great leveler of discrimination is excellence because the world of the future is one where brain power is going to be vitally needed, and that world will be yours."
All of you who sit around having pity parties thinking that "I don't live in a good location." (I live in a town of 6,000. or "Poor me, I work at a small school." (I work at a school of 350 K-12.) or "I am behind." (I started in November 2005.) Stop the pity party and get blogging! You CAN make a difference!
What to do about filtration? Allow ad hoc distributed filtration!
Friday, October 27, 2006
Do you wrestle publicly?
I have been this week. I’ve been grappling with issues, new ideas, new tools, and a very exciting wiki project. I wrestle with the questions that plague educators everywhere. I wrestle with my good fortune. (And its public because I blog about it!) You see, I am a teacher but also have the good (or not so good) fortune to also be the technology administrator and I control my own filter.
Bud Hunt had a profound comment in the midst of his keynote this week. He was talking about an engaging discussion that he and his students were having about the problem of school violence. As they wrestled with thoughts about how to solve the problem, they began to “ask the Internet.” Immediately when they typed in “school violence” it triggered the filter. Bud says,
“It is frustrating to teach information management when you can’t find answers. Driving into a filter is like driving into a brick wall, it stifles interest in continuing the journey.”
I have control over my filter. If this were my scenario, I would go and allow the search and then after class, promptly turn off the ability to search those questions. So, let's propose solutions!
I don’t like to complain without proposing solutions. I’ve had countless educators complain that they could only participate in the K12online project from home because it was blocked. Or the Math wiki being done by Jeanne Simpson and Chris Harbeck for the k12wiki project. Their assignment was to find and categorize math videos according to standards. However, Jean can look at the wiki, but because YouTube and Google video are blocked, she cannot see the embedded videos.
I would propose one of the following two solutions:
Ad Hoc Unblocking with Accountability
1) An adhoc login for teachers to allow something to be unblockedfor a specified period of time –
Teachers should have the ability to “sign into” the filtration service at their school. Then, they could use their username and password to enable a certain search or service for a specified period of time (i.e. October 30th from 8 – 9 am) I want youtube to be unblocked.
All use (or abuse) of the unblocked service would then be monitored. It would be the teacher’s responsibility for monitoring the use in their classroom. It would be tracked and monitored under the teacher’s user id. Think of it like signing up for a video projector or television cart. You are signing up for the use of a resource – access to a certain site or location.
One of the drawbacks with the first suggestion is that some schools have one filtration service for the entire school system or school. I believe if there was a mechanism to have a primary filter installed for the school, but for technology classrooms to have their own filtration either through a virtual partition or separate device.
This would allow the technology classrooms to unblock and allow certain domains without affecting access for the whole school.
Let people do their job and hold them accountable. Stop throwing rocks, please!
We have too much to do to keep throwing rocks at one another! Fighting over filtration causes resentment, inefficiencies, and frustration. There are valid points on both ends of the filtration discussion, however, the bottom line is this… student learning.
Student learning…
Student learning…
Not, "it needs to be easy for a technology administrator to manage."
I’m sorry, but classrooms are tough to manage too. Nothing about schools are easy and caveats abound. (Just ask principals who scratch their head with the student who always seems to find the one thing left out of the handbook!)
Neither does it does need to be, "everything should be unblocked and let teachers do anything they desire." We as teachers must be responsible and accountable.
The Fact about "Sex"
I mean, really, what teenage boy can resist typing in “sex” at Google? The word "Sex" should be blocked in 99.9% of the cases in schools.
However, what if a biology teacher is teaching asexual reproduction. Shouldn’t they be allowed to request that search be unblocked temporarily? (It happened last week, and I did unblock it!)
Accountability and Flexibility with filtration
This ad hoc method of enhancing filtration would give both accountability and flexibility. Would it be harder for technical administrators to handle? Sure it would.
Would it be harder for teachers to deal with than having everything unblocked? Sure.
But wise men know when to meet in the middle.
The teachers have to request the ad hoc unblocking of items and then administrators or tech support could allow or deny the request. We do so many other less important things this way, why not apply this to filtration?
Perhaps there is something out there that allows this. I actually have to log into my filter and unblock and reblock things. (I keep a list.)
Manufacturers need to take note.
Manufacturers who want to work with schools should get their act together and offer such an ability to progressive schools who know there is something more. (My husband who is from an industrial background wonders if something couldn’t be set up in Sharepoint to manage this.)
We’ve automated gradebooks, testing, attendance, lunchrooms, etc. and a piece of paper has to be filled out to unblock a website. In fact, there is NO system in place in many schools for getting sites unblocked. (According to the e-mails I get!)
This is about teaching.
Letting technology administrators with no accountability for curriculum or testing make all filtration decisions is about like letting the janitor decide how to lay out the room. (As we say in South Georgia, it is like “the tail wagging the dog!”)
Teachers should be able to group their desks for cooperative learning projects (some can't do that either -- if this is the case at your school, get Marzano's Classroom Management that Works and read the research) and they should be able to have a system for requesting access to online resources. It just makes sense.
To tell teachers to trust “Big Brother” with no method of recourse is telling them “Act like a professional, but I’m not going to treat you like one.” It is demeaning to the professionals that teachers are.
Leave the pity party and join the problem solving party.
So, folks, you know I don’t like pity parties and we've all heard enough complaints on this one. (Over and over and over at all live K12 conference events! It is the silent giant in the room.)
I've been a programmer,and I know we have the programming know how and ability out there to create interfaces to allow ad hoc teacher filtration and provide accountability.
There are enough GREAT technology administrators and principals out there who can tackle this one. There are enough trailblazing teachers who would take the responsibility seriously and come up with some best practices for handling such a system.
I want to know who is doing something like this? Does it exist? If it doesn’t, the discussion should start.
After all, I think most educators truly want what is best for student education. And if you think that you can’t find useful information in blocked places, go to the Math Wiki created for the K12 online conference and look at the videos that Chris and Jeanne are posting. That should be enough to convince even the most vehement opponent of ad hoc filtration.
Ad hoc filtration capabilities for teachers with administrative approval.
Somebody needs to be talking about this!
Let’s join the problem solving party and leave the pity party behind.
It is easy to fell overwhelmed and unimportant. It is easy to say, "that's not my problem" or "that's not my student" or "that's none of my business" when we see problems. But it has dire consequences.
For anyone who entertains the thought of being indifferent about the importance of educating our youth, tell them this story.
You see, the very nature of things can be disturbed by cold indifference. On March 29, 1948, everyone living within earshot of Niagara Falls squinted into the winter sunshine as they craned their necks to hear .... nothing.
Nothing, because heavy winds had pushed the ice fields of Lake Erie to block the entrance of the Niagara River near Buffalo, NY. The river had stopped. Against the natural order and every law of nature, icy, cold obstacles stopped the natural order of things.
It resumed only when the ice shifted.
I would challenge you to consider that many of our educational problems stem from cold indifference. Indifference of some who would rather filter out everything instead of working with teachers to unblock certain sites in an ad hoc manner. Indifference of those who would rather force schools to conform to their knowledge base than to learn something new. Indifference of those who think that yesterday's success in the classroom will also be the savior of tomorrow. Indifference of those who just want to get a paycheck and would rather play Solitaire. Indifference of people who would rather throw money at problems than their lives.
Educating children and teens requires passion. I believe that a good teacher has one thing undergirding everything in their classroom... an honest, genuine love for their students. Because students see frigid indifference and they tune it out. They see enough frigidity in this tough, cold world.
What they want to see are warm bodies with open arms who will push them to excellence beyond what they realize that they can do. Teachers and administrators who will push their own envelope of knowledge before they ask students to do the same. Teachers who don't just "bide their time," call in sick to staff development, and complain. I'm sorry, folks, but if somebody invited me to a pity party ... I'd skip. No one wants to be around the hopeless, indifferent frigidity of a person who has given up the dream of making a difference!
Educating is truly the greatest calling on earth. Instead of just putting money in the bank, you are carving meaning into the lives of students and leaving a mark on your own soul. If you truly love your students. If you truly give them all you have and come home at the end of the day used up on your quota of words and wondering how you will even move from one room to the next. If you teach with all you have and all you are. If you care so much that you lay awake at night thinking and praying about how to reach that one student who is not just getting it...
then you have achieved greatness.
You, my friend, are great because you have poured out your one life and multiplied all of the love and passion you have into hundreds and thousands of other lives.
Sadly, I had a student transfer in this year. I asked him who his teachers were last year.. he couldn't tell me their names. He said that was "OK, because none of them knew his name anyway."
This profession is about caring. It is about doing the impossible and reaching the remote.
It is about striking that rock of knowledge against the flint of an unlit psyche so many times and with such persistence that sparks emerge and catch fire the flame of the quest for knowledge that will never be extinguished.
We must always want to be better. We must be willing to put up with being misunderstood, underappreciated, and underpaid. For, what we do, if we truly care, we would do without compensation.
Teaching is a noble profession, the most noble in my opinion. I've never felt so rewarded and so full of meaning in my life. My river will never stop because of indifference.
I must say that this project is getting very exciting! With over 30 educators from almost every continent, the wiki work is heating up! I had over 64 edits in my bloglines after I retired last night at 10:30! Some of the work is amazing!
As I and the moderators of each area worked to create the "critical questions" for this project we asked ourselves several questions:
What are some topics that will require even the most highly educated teacher to do a little digging on the Internet? (We want to give the experience of learning via wiki.)
What questions, if they were answered in a meaningful format, would most help other educators in this emerging Web 2.0 world?
What questions do we think are most important for helping students succeed?
I was so excited when we finished the questions and the participants started posting, I actually did a few leaps for joy at my desk! This is a great project!
I am giving you a copy of what I"ve posted on the wiki homepage -- if any of the links do not work, go to http://k12wiki.wikispaces.com. And if you see a question you could contribute to, then ask to join up. I will allow up to 5 participants on each wiki through tomorrow. We really need another person on the Science area so we can do that wiki!
Virtual Art Galleries Students crave an audience. Some art programs are beginning to experiment with virtual art galleries. Your assignment is to propose guidelines for an effective online student art gallery and some methods that may be used by beginners to do this in ways that teach art, provide an audience, and protect privacy. Participants: ckaminski, sadams23 - Orlando, FL
Wiki #2 - Math
Effective Math Videos It is can be difficult to “differentiate instruction” for Math. With the inception of GoogleVideo and youtube, an increasing number of entertaining, informative math videos have become available to supplement the math curriculum. The problem is that most math educators do not know that they are there. Your wiki assignment is to find video on the web that could supplement a math curriculum. Include a hyperlink to the video (or embed it in the wiki). List the objective that is taught through the video, and your suggestions how it may be used. Optionally, if you find classrooms that are effectively using video as a mechanism to reinforce math concepts, share that information. Participants: charbeck1, Winnipeg Manitoba Canada; JSGeometry Decatur, AL
Wiki #3 - Languages
Tandem Learning in Language Instruction What is tandem learning? What are ways it can be used in the high school language classroom through the use of technology? (Include hyperlinks, resources, and examples.) Participants: MrsEngra Camilla,Ga.- Spanish; langwitches, Jacksonville, FL - Spanish
Wiki #4 - Literature
Self Publishing for Teachers Every student loves an audience, but many classrooms are not allowed to blog or wiki. Self-publishing is an emerging option for some teachers to consider. What are some self-publishing resources that are easy for teachers to use and instructions for their use? Can you find any examples of schools or teachers already doing this? What ideas do you have for their use? Participants: catenglish Camilla, GA; nancyscofield, Colorado City, CO; texasschoolmarm, Camp Wood, TX
Wiki #5 - Literature
Tandem Learning in Language Arts What is tandem learning? How can tandem learning be used with student writing? Propose a tandem learning structure for the posting and evaluation of essays using Internet-enabled technology. (Include the structure for the student posting the essay, the student evaluating the essay,and the teacher(s).) Participants: readerdiane; crisp, Nicholasville, Kentucky
Wiki #6 - Science (Need one more participant.)
Simulated Laboratory Resources for K-12 science Computer laboratories are starting to replace the hands-on labs used in some advanced science courses. Look up some articles on the debate. It is difficult for teachers to determine which experiment should be done in the simulated laboratories and which should be done in an actual lab. Find some experiments. Include a hyperlink to the experiment, the hypotheses that is being tested, and your opinion about whether it would be better to do in a real environment or the simulated one. Participants: wbosworth, Greendale, WI USA Because there is only one person signed up under Science, this participant may either: recruit other people, post alone, or join another assignment of your choice.
Wiki #7 - Social Studies
[[Code of Ethics for Teaching Citizen Journalists|]]Citizen Journalism Code of Ethics What is grassroots journalism (a/k/a citizen journalism) and what are examples of how it has affected recent news? Include examples. Propose a code of ethics for citizen journalists that could be shared in a high school or middle school classroom. Participants: julielindsay - Bangladesh; reuw - Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, Israel; mrehberg - Jackson, MI
Wiki #8 - Technology
Disruptive Technology in the Classroom What is disruptive technology? Why is it called that? Create a list of disruptive technology, explain why it is considered disruptive and try to find one example of each technology being used to teach in an effective manner. Participants: qdsouza - Toronto, Canada; CLykowski - Lambertville, Michigan; jgates513, Summerdale PA.; aquiram - Yuma, AZ
Wiki #9 - Technology
Tagging to help Teachers A wealth of curricula are being uploaded to youTube, Google Video, blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. Some of things are being “tagged” appropriately and some are not. (See also folksonomy.) What is tagging? How can teachers use “tagging” to catalog their work? What would be the benefits of tagging standards? Create a proposed standard procedure that can be given to teachers to help them determine how to “tag” their digital work that is uploaded to the Internet so that it can be found and used appropriately. Participants: reuw - Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, Israel, rmom - Unionville, PA, jfriesen - Austin, TX, eweinb04
Wiki #10 - Technology
Student Data Storage- Needs and Methods Students are increasingly required to produce and accumulate digital work. It is often stored in computer labs and purged at the end of the year. What is student data storage? Is it needed? You are to create a proposed methodology for student data storage that would be accessible to students after high school and also protects student privacy, rights and is fair (length of time it is available.) Participants: bookbird, Aliquippa, PA; maloneGE -VA; susanvg; cm_scholz - Cairo, Egypt
Note from Vicki: I almost took this one off, but when I showed my students the five questions I had drafted, they voted this one on. They said that this is their single biggest frustration and worry. Some students at other schools have created whole video productions that were "lost" over the summer. Students feel that they have a right to theri digital work and it often harms them when they cannot secure copies of their resume, etc. If our job as educators is to help students, this is an essential issue that should be discussed. I hope the participants will be excited about this assignment because my students said and I quote, "Teachers need to talk about protecting student digital work, it can be there to educate our grandchildren!"
Wiki #11 - Elementary Ed
Elementary School Internet Safety Code of Conduct One of the risks of bringing elementary students online is that of internet safety and privacy. Propose an internet safety code of conduct for elementary teachers. (include hyperlinks.) Optionally, you may include a list of reasons that elementary students participate in online activites. (You may include examples of worthwhile projects. This should include hyperlinks.) Participants: mjantzi Gifted Ed.Teacher (Gds. K-5) in Virginia; Brune (Gordon Brune), 5th Grade Teacher, Mamaroneck, NY; mrdarylpearson - Saskatchewan, Canada; coffey - Virginia
Is it too late to sign up?
(You may request to join projects in progress through Friday 10/27. Limit 5 per project.) A - Get an account with wikispaces B - Request to join this space (Tell me your name, your school, your location, the age you teach, and a little about yourself and the PROJECT YOU WISH TO JOIN in the comments. I will do my best to accommodate everyone, but may not be able to.) C- I will add your name to the project that you are assigned here on this home page. D- Go to the home page of this wiki - http://k12wiki.wikispaces.com. Click the Notify me tab and sign up for either e-mail updates or updates via RSS. (This will tell you when we've entered the next phase of the project. Just make sure to check your e-mail/ RSS reader on Wednesday to see your instructions for editing. Or just come back here.)
Guidelines to Get Started
Here are the recommended steps. 1- The hyperlink above is the page that has been created to wiki this topic. (Click on the page to go there and begin editing.) 2 - First you should divide up the question into major headings. Type them in the wiki. Leave space in between for the text. 3 - Start by defining the topic. You may want to search on wikipedia or Google. Read information, go back to your wiki page, click edit, and summarize the information. Include a hyperlink to the source of your information. 4 - Repeat #3 until you have a good definition. 5 - Read what you have on the wiki and ask yourself, "What do I still not understand?" Go to the Internet and answer that question. Come back and post. 6 - Remember to subscribe to your page on the Notify Me tab so you know when your partner(s) posts!
How long should I spend?
We are recommending 10 minutes on one day, then, walk away and let your partner post. Then, add 10 minutes the next day. Judges will be e-mailed a list of projects which have postings on Sunday morning at 9 am EST. You should complete your postings to the wiki by then, although you are encouraged to update your wiki project any time you have additional information.
What if I don't know anything about the topic?
The topics were selected are emerging, new topics. The purpose of this project is to show you how wikis create experts on a topic within a very short period of time. You will find that your research on the Internet causes you to form an opinion and add it to your current knowledge base. Remember, Wikis are not word processors. Go out to the Internet, grab a "nugget" and come back and post and save.
Project Notes
All project instructions will be posted to the home page of this website.
For complete project instructions, visit the project page.
If you want to "play" on the wiki, go to the sandbox. Remember that people who post innappropriate information will be removed from the space!
We have created a mini help on wikispaces section to help you.
Discussion Area
Go in the discussion area to discuss questions with your partner. (Remember to subscribe to the changes on your page!)
Moderators
You have Moderators available to help you. If you post your question in the discussion area, they are "patrolling" via RSS and will emerge to help you and answer your questions on Thursday and Friday. (Moderators will not available on the weekend.)If you need help, you can go to the brief guide on this space or click help in the top right corner of every wikipage.
Virtual Art Galleries Students crave an audience. Some art programs are beginning to experiment with virtual art galleries. Your assignment is to propose guidelines for an effective online student art gallery and some methods that may be used by beginners to do this in ways that teach art, provide an audience, and protect privacy. Participants: ckaminski, sadams23 - Orlando, FL
Wiki #2 - Math
Effective Math Videos It is can be difficult to “differentiate instruction” for Math. With the inception of GoogleVideo and youtube, an increasing number of entertaining, informative math videos have become available to supplement the math curriculum. The problem is that most math educators do not know that they are there. Your wiki assignment is to find video on the web that could supplement a math curriculum. Include a hyperlink to the video (or embed it in the wiki). List the objective that is taught through the video, and your suggestions how it may be used. Optionally, if you find classrooms that are effectively using video as a mechanism to reinforce math concepts, share that information. Participants: charbeck1, Winnipeg Manitoba Canada; JSGeometry Decatur, AL
Wiki #3 - Languages
Tandem Learning in Language Instruction What is tandem learning? What are ways it can be used in the high school language classroom through the use of technology? (Include hyperlinks, resources, and examples.) Participants: MrsEngra Camilla,Ga.- Spanish; langwitches, Jacksonville, FL - Spanish
Wiki #4 - Literature
Self Publishing for Teachers Every student loves an audience, but many classrooms are not allowed to blog or wiki. Self-publishing is an emerging option for some teachers to consider. What are some self-publishing resources that are easy for teachers to use and instructions for their use? Can you find any examples of schools or teachers already doing this? What ideas do you have for their use? Participants: catenglish Camilla, GA; nancyscofield, Colorado City, CO; texasschoolmarm, Camp Wood, TX
Wiki #5 - Literature
Tandem Learning in Language Arts What is tandem learning? How can tandem learning be used with student writing? Propose a tandem learning structure for the posting and evaluation of essays using Internet-enabled technology. (Include the structure for the student posting the essay, the student evaluating the essay,and the teacher(s).) Participants: readerdiane; crisp, Nicholasville, Kentucky
Wiki #6 - Science (Need one more participant.)
Simulated Laboratory Resources for K-12 science Computer laboratories are starting to replace the hands-on labs used in some advanced science courses. Look up some articles on the debate. It is difficult for teachers to determine which experiment should be done in the simulated laboratories and which should be done in an actual lab. Find some experiments. Include a hyperlink to the experiment, the hypotheses that is being tested, and your opinion about whether it would be better to do in a real environment or the simulated one. Participants: wbosworth, Greendale, WI USA Because there is only one person signed up under Science, this participant may either: recruit other people, post alone, or join another assignment of your choice.
Wiki #7 - Social Studies
[[Code of Ethics for Teaching Citizen Journalists|]]Citizen Journalism Code of Ethics What is grassroots journalism (a/k/a citizen journalism) and what are examples of how it has affected recent news? Include examples. Propose a code of ethics for citizen journalists that could be shared in a high school or middle school classroom. Participants: julielindsay - Bangladesh; reuw - Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, Israel; mrehberg - Jackson, MI
Wiki #8 - Technology
Disruptive Technology in the Classroom What is disruptive technology? Why is it called that? Create a list of disruptive technology, explain why it is considered disruptive and try to find one example of each technology being used to teach in an effective manner. Participants: qdsouza - Toronto, Canada; CLykowski - Lambertville, Michigan; jgates513, Summerdale PA.; aquiram - Yuma, AZ
Wiki #9 - Technology
Tagging to help Teachers A wealth of curricula are being uploaded to youTube, Google Video, blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. Some of things are being “tagged” appropriately and some are not. (See also folksonomy.) What is tagging? How can teachers use “tagging” to catalog their work? What would be the benefits of tagging standards? Create a proposed standard procedure that can be given to teachers to help them determine how to “tag” their digital work that is uploaded to the Internet so that it can be found and used appropriately. Participants: reuw - Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, Israel, rmom - Unionville, PA, jfriesen - Austin, TX, eweinb04
Wiki #10 - Technology
Student Data Storage- Needs and Methods Students are increasingly required to produce and accumulate digital work. It is often stored in computer labs and purged at the end of the year. What is student data storage? Is it needed? You are to create a proposed methodology for student data storage that would be accessible to students after high school and also protects student privacy, rights and is fair (length of time it is available.) Participants: bookbird, Aliquippa, PA; maloneGE -VA; susanvg; cm_scholz - Cairo, Egypt
Note from Vicki: I almost took this one off, but when I showed my students the five questions I had drafted, they voted this one on. They said that this is their single biggest frustration and worry. Some students at other schools have created whole video productions that were "lost" over the summer. Students feel that they have a right to theri digital work and it often harms them when they cannot secure copies of their resume, etc. If our job as educators is to help students, this is an essential issue that should be discussed. I hope the participants will be excited about this assignment because my students said and I quote, "Teachers need to talk about protecting student digital work, it can be there to educate our grandchildren!"
Wiki #11 - Elementary Ed
Elementary School Internet Safety Code of Conduct One of the risks of bringing elementary students online is that of internet safety and privacy. Propose an internet safety code of conduct for elementary teachers. (include hyperlinks.) Optionally, you may include a list of reasons that elementary students participate in online activites. (You may include examples of worthwhile projects. This should include hyperlinks.) Participants: mjantzi Gifted Ed.Teacher (Gds. K-5) in Virginia; Brune (Gordon Brune), 5th Grade Teacher, Mamaroneck, NY; mrdarylpearson - Saskatchewan, Canada; coffey - Virginia
Is it too late to sign up?
(You may request to join projects in progress through Friday 10/27. Limit 5 per project.) A - Get an account with wikispaces B - Request to join this space (Tell me your name, your school, your location, the age you teach, and a little about yourself and the PROJECT YOU WISH TO JOIN in the comments. I will do my best to accommodate everyone, but may not be able to.) C- I will add your name to the project that you are assigned here on this home page. D- Go to the home page of this wiki - http://k12wiki.wikispaces.com. Click the Notify me tab and sign up for either e-mail updates or updates via RSS. (This will tell you when we've entered the next phase of the project. Just make sure to check your e-mail/ RSS reader on Wednesday to see your instructions for editing. Or just come back here.)
Guidelines to Get Started
Here are the recommended steps. 1- The hyperlink above is the page that has been created to wiki this topic. (Click on the page to go there and begin editing.) 2 - First you should divide up the question into major headings. Type them in the wiki. Leave space in between for the text. 3 - Start by defining the topic. You may want to search on wikipedia or Google. Read information, go back to your wiki page, click edit, and summarize the information. Include a hyperlink to the source of your information. 4 - Repeat #3 until you have a good definition. 5 - Read what you have on the wiki and ask yourself, "What do I still not understand?" Go to the Internet and answer that question. Come back and post. 6 - Remember to subscribe to your page on the Notify Me tab so you know when your partner(s) posts!
How long should I spend?
We are recommending 10 minutes on one day, then, walk away and let your partner post. Then, add 10 minutes the next day. Judges will be e-mailed a list of projects which have postings on Sunday morning at 9 am EST. You should complete your postings to the wiki by then, although you are encouraged to update your wiki project any time you have additional information.
What if I don't know anything about the topic?
The topics were selected are emerging, new topics. The purpose of this project is to show you how wikis create experts on a topic within a very short period of time. You will find that your research on the Internet causes you to form an opinion and add it to your current knowledge base. Remember, Wikis are not word processors. Go out to the Internet, grab a "nugget" and come back and post and save.
Project Notes
All project instructions will be posted to the home page of this website.
For complete project instructions, visit the project page.
If you want to "play" on the wiki, go to the sandbox. Remember that people who post innappropriate information will be removed from the space!
We have created a mini help on wikispaces section to help you.
Discussion Area
Go in the discussion area to discuss questions with your partner. (Remember to subscribe to the changes on your page!)
Moderators
You have Moderators available to help you. If you post your question in the discussion area, they are "patrolling" via RSS and will emerge to help you and answer your questions on Thursday and Friday. (Moderators will not available on the weekend.)If you need help, you can go to the brief guide on this space or click help in the top right corner of every wikipage.
Just some notes for you. (I've been spending so much time in the K12 conference that I'll be posting more about that later.)
I've been using this conference as an opportunity for me to introduce Web 2.0 in depth to my 10th grade class and basic RSS to 9th. Here are the tools I've used:
Vyew - Desktop sharing and chatting. We've used this in 10th grade along with skype to test conferencing. It is pretty stable. I discussed the opportunities such programs have in light of our World is Flat discussions that we've been having. It creates a great discussion for how customer service can be around the world but help a person on their own computer.
Netvibes - I used to teach bloglines, however this summer, I began to use NetVibes. It is just easier for beginners to understand. When they really "get" RSS, they thank me. I had over half the class come in and tell me thank you.
Airset - This is my indispensible calendar tool. I showed my students how to create calendars and to subscribe using NetVibes. One student really got it and created a test calendar and shared it with her friends. They all imported into net vibes. That is so useful!
Gliffy - Drawing and editing. They love this and just so happen to have a Spanish project where they have to draw a floor plan of their home. Gliffy is just perfect for this!
Firefox 2.0 - The new firefox was released Monday. I taught my 9th grade how to search for the download on Google, find it, download, AND install it. (Yes, we did it all, I know I can do it myself, however, they would miss a great learning experience.) We made bookmarks, live bookmarks, discussed and used add ins, added search engines. I also had then subscribe to my classblogmeister blog using a live bookmark. Finally, for my 10th grade, I found a hack that let's one start Firefox from your memory key with all of your settings coming from there. We are going to try that tomorrow. The new Firefox also introduces a great discussion of phishing with all of the anti-phishing features it has. If you use a lot of plug ins- don't go out and upgrade, they don't guarantee that all of them work yet!
Of course, we wiki everything! These are just some of the things that we've done yesterday and today. In Accounting it is our two weeks of SAT prep. We are making review videos and have divided up the material. They are actually excited! We'll see how that goes and if I have some to share with you.
I also enjoyed a great evening at Tapped In. Jennifer Wagner, the Technospud, taught me what to do. I wandered around and finally, a kind "receptionist" helped me find the right chat. Jennifer has some great new projects coming up including a holiday card project, a Charlotte's web project with a real online web component (but hey it teaches adjectives!), and an e-mail project! They are filling up so quickly now and she is limiting the size, so make note of the sign up dates.
Have a great night and remember that pioneers have to blaze trails that are very uncomfortable and difficult. If too many people think "it" is a good idea, you're too late. You're right on time.
The K12 online conference has officially begun. I've already had two teachers sign up for the live wiki project.
To say I'm nervous is an understatement! After this wild weekend after having my 11 tips for supervising your child online picked up by Lifehacker and the typical scathing remarks that accompany such a link from such an amazing blog. (Gee, I've never been called a pessimist before! My husband says I'm too optimistic. And a few other evil things that I did not print in the comments.) I guess I'm feeling a little, well, unsure. On the conference blog, I sit amidst a list of incredible presenters with amazing things to say,
I wonder, (as I am sure all presenters do)
"Will anyone know how I poured my heart, soul, and gutts into this presentation for the conference?" "Will they make fun of my audio gaffs as I learned to do video as I made the presentation?" "Will anyone join in the K12 live wiki project?"
I do have several teachers here that are participating, but I'm downloading the presentations and giving them out on CD!
They wonder --
How does it work? How to I participate? Why is it free?
So, edubloggers, your work is cut out for you. Share the news of the conference and help others participate. (via cd if necessary) As for me, my Mom always told me that if I learn something new that can help others, it is my job to teach others and share it and that is what I've done. If one classroom benefits, then great. But, I always feel this way when I speak or sing or put myself out there.
It is a feeling of vulnerability that I guess that no one likes too much. I do know this, I feel called to this work. I am called to be a teacher and to encourage and share what I learn with you! I am grateful that God has blessed me with so many kind readers who are so gracious and encouraging (even when drive-by commenters do their dirty work on me!) Here is my K12 presentation as reprinted from the conference blog with permission.
Presentation Title “Wiki Collaboration Across the Curriculum”
Bio Vicki Davis is a teacher and technology administrator at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia. She has taught for four years at the high school and middle school level. For ten years prior, she taught professional development courses for teachers and college level adult computer literacy training. She is known for her award winning class wiki, wiki-centric classroom structure, and use of broad scope of Web 2.0 tools to improve student performance. She is a graduate of the Leadership Georgia program and graduated first in her class from Georgia Tech. She actively blogs her experiences at the Cool Cat Teacher blog and has been cited in the Boston Globe and Wired News for her work with wikis.
Description Vicki loves it when she gets students excited! She loves it even more when she know that she has covered difficult material and the students had fun and retained the information. Vicki has become convinced that research-based think-pair-share and post lesson summarization are employed effectively whether you use paper, oral discussion, or online collaborative learning tools such as the wiki. The basic methodology (and result) is the same although the medium is different.
Last November 2005, Vicki was a scared beginner when she ventured out onto this new Internet that experts call Web 2.0. Within one month, her class wiki was named wikispace of the month and was being recognized as a model classroom for wiki use. But the most profound change was inside her classroom. Her classroom went from a challenging, rigorous curriculum to a challenging, rigorous, and fun curriculum with increased student involvement. Vicki will share what she has done with you in the hopes that you can learn more quickly than she did.
Vicki has done this in two ways: a video with show notes and a live wiki project for YOU to join in. So, if you want to learn something new (and have a sense of humor) we hope you’ll join the presentation. Vicki welcomes feedback on this blog or on her Cool Cat Teacher blog.
Video Presentation Outline:
Wiki Background
Why students need to know how to wiki
A brief overview of the active portion of this project
The pedagogical use of wikis in the classroom
Wiki assessment strategies
Common questions from school administrators
Note: To show you how rapidly things change, this presentation was finished on Sunday, October 15th and on Monday, October 16th, wikispaces has announced a new feature to help with the concurrent editing problem of wikis.
Active Project Outline: The K12 Wiki Project 1 - Sign up to participate at the conference wiki project wiki - http://k12wiki.wikispaces.com/ Our live wiki project. Sign up and request to join the space before 8 AM EST Wednesday, October 24th. All project instructions are on the wiki home page.
2 - Team Announcements You will have your team assignments posted on the wiki Thursday, October 26th.
3 - Wiki on your topic for up to 20 minutes You will have until Saturday, October 28th to spend two 10 minute sessions editing your wiki. (Vicki will have volunteers on the wiki to answer your questions and help you.)
4 - Awards Three Amazing judges, Andrea Forte (wiki researcher), Stewart Mader (wiki author), Jennifer Wagner (international collaborative teacher projects) will evaluate and judge the best wiki of this project. (See the K12wiki for their bios.)
5 - Listen in on the skypecast Winners will be announced at the concluding skypecast (https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=45270%29 on Monday, October 30, at 8 pm EST (October 31 at 1:00 am GMT). Some of the judges will join us and we will give you some ways that you can match your classrooms to wiki with others that match your objectives.
The first podcast of Women of Web 2.0 is now posted at EdTech Talk. We discuss some neat things, from keyboarding to the fact the children of famous people are now tarnishing the rep of "dear old Dad" with their blogs or myspace presence.
Introduction of each of us, how we got into Web 2.0.
What Web 2.0 tools each of us have implemented.
Benefits of implanting Web 2.0 in the classroom.
The Dangers of NOT implementing Web 2.0 in the classroom.
What is Women of Web 2.0 and who is included?
Q & A
Nice surprises include a discussion with Sus from Denmark about the efficacy of using translation services on your blog and a short sidetrack into keyboarding discussions. (I think this is the hidden enemy of everything we are doing with technology and most are strangely silent. This is another case of some people assuming that kids just intrisicly "know" how to do these things.)
I've been leery of committing to a weekly podcast myself but I think I and the other ladies have worked out an arrangement and between us. This way, each of us can participate but if we need to put our family first for school events, we still have flexibility!
"Our mission is to provide a professional feminine voice in educational Web 2.0 discussions. Conversations coming from the women of web 2.0 will move across gender, race, and country lines and display the beautiful diversity of the internet kaleidoscope. We are advocates for professional ethics, emerging technologies, collaborative projects, quality best practices research, and teaching students critical thinking skills. We are non-partisan and pro-student."
We are not for women only! The Women of Web 2.0are the four of us (for now!)
I hope you'll join in the wow2 bulletin board, where the four of us visit and respond to questions and learn from YOU!
OK. It has taken me two days to download and to get my computer to open David Warlick's Keynote for the Online K12 Conference. I have almost given up, but finally figured it out!
Windows Media Player nor Real player nor QuickTime will view MP4 files without a codec installed. A Codec is like a translation service.
So, here is how you do that. (It took me 30 minutes to figure it out.)
1 - Go to http://www.free-codecs.net/FFDShow_download.htm 2 - Download the FFDShow program and go with the defaults. (Unless you have a video editor and know what you're doing.) 3 - Extract and Install the program which will install the codec. 4 - Open your preferred video player and then Go to File --> Open and Open up David's Movie that you have already downloaded onto your computer!
This should do it! I will also say that I had to try to download the presentation at least three times, but it just downloaded lickety split for me a moment a go.
I hope you enjoy it and I'm about to grade and listen to Dave!
I'm sure there is an easier way to do this and if you have it, let me know. I have to work at it!
The K12 conference is just a little over a week away but the preconference keynote was delivered today.
For those of you who don't know about this amazing opportunity, many of our Web 2.0 leaders have organized the first ever online K12 conference. I am going to be presenter in the Week in the Classroom area (Monday, October 23) and produced a 28 minute educational video with show notes about how I wiki in the classroom. Here are some dates and times to be aware of.
1) Graduate School Credit
If you want to participate in the online K12 conference for graduate school credit, you need to line it up now! Three graduate school credits are being issued for your participation! What a great opportunity! Sign up now!
2) Get ready to listen
David Warlick, the man who got me started in a "new life," delivered a fireside chat tonight via Elluminate with the very energetic Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach moderating! (Whew is she an amazing dynamo!) He also posted an amazing keynote that you should listen to (just download it if you have broadband, it is 85 mb)
These will be hosted at Elluminate so, before you get ready to listen, go ahead and download the Elluminate Software at http://tinyurl.com/rpt4a
I will participate with the other Week 1 presenters on October 26th at 7 pm EST. I don't know how much talking I'll have to do with the other amazing folks that are presenting! (I really just like to sit there and soak in the joy of being around other people in the same boat.)
3) Get Ready to Learn
This is a great opportunity to learn. The agenda has been posted. Remember, that for the items except for the live events, you can download and watch/listen while you're doing other things. (Like grading papers!)
4) Come on and Wiki With Vicki
I'm so excited about my part of this, I'm going to give you a little "heads up." We're going to have a live wiki option for my presentation. I will release the URL next Monday and you can sign up on Monday and Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, registration will close and I will pair you up by subject area to wiki (according to the wiki guidelines I use in my classroom) on a topic that hopefully most of you KNOW NOTHING about with 4 other teachers from around the world! Then, next Thursday through the following Sunday, October 29th, you will take time to post.
I want to demonstrate to you how rapidly you (and your students) can become an expert on a completely new topic! It will be fun and I'm asking that each participant only wiki in 2 - 10 minute sessions -- no more! That is the format I use in my class and I want to show you that wiki-ing doesn't have to take long.
I will be using the model that I have in my wiki classroom and will have some "volunteers" helping you and answering your questions.
Skypecast, Monday, October 30th at 8 PM EST Then, on Monday, October 30th at 8 pm EST, I and the judges who are available will do a live skypecast to summarize the project and discuss the potential uses of wikis in education. Jennifer will also have an amazing announcement about how teachers will be able to find other classrooms to "wiki with" in the future.
Awards
I'm most excited about our judges! I'M PSYCHED! We will judge the wikis and announce several "best wiki of conference" awards. Our judges are Stewart Mader, Jennifer Wagner, and Andrea Forte. Let me tell you a little about them.
Stewart Mader - Stewart Mader is Senior Instructional Technologist for Life Sciences and the Brown Medical School at Brown University. He publishes the blog Using Wiki in Education, which focuses on using the wiki for collaborative curriculum development and group learning, and includes interviews with wiki makers and users, example wiki uses, and product reviews. On October 24th, he is publishinga wiki-based book titled Using Wiki in Education. It's a collection of case studies from teachers using the wiki in a variety of settings, from high school to small liberal arts college, major research university and fully online/distance learning. The book will be available online at wikiineducation.com.
He has taught science both in the classroom and online, specializes in using social software and wiki technology in education, and works with faculty to apply technology and assess its impact on student learning. He previously served as Educational Technologist at Emerson College, Instructional Designer and Interim Director of the Faculty Center for Learning Development at University of Hartford, and has collaborated with faculty at Long Island University on a series of teaching and learning projects. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from University of Hartford, and is pursuing an M.S. in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology from the University at Albany.
Jennifer Wagner In 1999, Jennifer was looking for an interesting way to collect data for a science fair project and posted her question to the EdTech newsgroup board, and the O.R.E.O. Online Project was born. The O.R.E.O. Project is now in its eighth year and TechnoSpud.com hosts seven online projects during each year. She recently was the USA winner for the Global SchoolNet Foundation Teacher Award in 2006 and also was a finalist for 2002, 2003, 2003, & 2004 for her online projects and effective uses in teacher telecollaboration.. In addtion to this, she also has been awarded the Inspired Teacher Scholarship -- Inspiration Software 2005, 2006 Time Warner Cable National Teacher Awards Finalist, Surfaquarium Award, & SIGTel Online Learning Award 2006 3rd PlaceI Her TechnoSpud website also has a monthly newsletter with Great Links, Software Reviews, and a 30-Minute Technology Tip for teachers to print out and use immediately in their classroom or lab.
Jennifer graduated from Pacific Christian College in 1992. Though self-taught in many software programs, Jennifer continues to take any technology course she has time for. Jennifer was a tutor on AOL for several years, AACTchJen, in the Homework Help Area. She also teaches online at LVS Online in all Office programs. However, one of her favorite activities is traveling the US providing enthusiastic seminars and leaving teachers excited with ideas on how to use their computers immediately in their classrooms. She just published her first book, 35 Tech Tips for Teachers which is available at www.lulu.com/techospud and is proud to be a founding member of the Women of Web 2.0, an online presence for educators using the tools of Web 2.0.
Andrea Forte is Ph.D. candidate specializing in human-centered computing at Georgia Tech's College of Computing. Her current research focuses on written communities of discourse and social contexts for learning through writing. With support from the National Science Foundation, she is working with Amy Bruckman to develop new wiki tools for classrooms and investigate notions of audience and identity as she explores how students' writing practices are transformed as they interact in online spaces. Andrea holds an MLIS from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (now School of Information) at University of Texas at Austin and a BA in foreign language and literature with a minor in philosophy from Western Michigan University. The Active Wiki Project So, you get an opportunity to experience a true wiki learning process with amazing researchers, writers, and international educational project managers giving you feedback. I don't know of any paying conference that gives you that! (This one is FREE!)
It doesn't stop there! The Web 2.0 pie is so big and there are so many of you out there doing groundbreaking things. There are so many other amazing presenters that are doing things at this conference. I was going to post a list of my must listens, but I want to listen to them all!
This is an amazing opportunity!
Lots of good intentions out there to take part.
Well, right now if you're really an advocate of Web 2.0 in the classroom, stand up and tell everyone about this conference!
If they hear it from someone else, then you have more credibility! Email the hyperlink to the conference, have teachers in at lunch to hear some highlights. Download it and put it on a professional development folder on your server (to save bandwidth!) Require each teacher to pick one or two conferences and then report back to the other faculty.
It is time to put your actions where your blog is folks, and birth some newbies here! Get out there blog, print out, e-mail, and talk it up. The time is now.
Do not quit! My Dad always says "if everyone says its a great idea, you're too late."
Google For Educators Google has some new tools for us to use to use Google in the classroom. Actually Google is part of my Socratic teaching method already. As I peruse it, I'll let you know what I find.
Google Teacher Academy If you live in Northern California, you should apply for the Google Teacher Academy (http://www.edgateway.net/cs/google/print/docs/754) The applications are due October 22 and you need to create a one minute video. This is going to be a pilot program! Go for it! Google Says:
The November 7th, 2006, pilot program is available only to K-12 educators working in Northern California. This includes classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, technology leaders, administrators, and professional trainers. The event is FREE, but participants must provide their own travel. For the pilot program, we only have room for 50 experienced educators. An application is required to participate, and Google will select educators into the program based on their professional experience, their passion for teaching and learning, and their successful use of technology in K-12 settings.
If you go, I'd like to set up an interview with you afterwards so we can share with other cool cat teacher readers what you learned!
The implication of not teaching blog-ethics is profound.
In the Article in the Washington Post: Kids Say the Dardest Things in Their Blogs, (hat tip Bloggers Blog) we learn that Wayne Watts, senior Vice President of AT&T, is having to answer to regulators for disparaging remarks his son Jared makes about Cingular (a subsidiary of AT&T).
The article says:
Unlike their parents, today's youth have grown up in the age of public disclosure. Keeping an Internet diary has become de rigueur; social lives and private thoughts are laid bare. For parents in high-profile positions, however, it means their children can exploit a generational disconnect to espouse their own points of view, or expose private details perhaps their parents wish they would not.
Futhermore, the gossip site, Wonkette.com goes through the web ferretting out what the children of newsmakers are doing on the web. What are they finding?
California Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray's younger-than-21 daughter Briana posted a series of pictures of herself on MySpace, including one where she poses with a cooler full of Miller High Life. Last fall, NBC star Tim Russert's son, Luke, posted a photo of on Facebook of himself clutching a cup and posing with four bikini-clad women in a hot tub.
The article goes on to summarize the state of blog awareness in America:
"Many of them don't think they are committing public acts by posting a blog, but the power of search is that it makes it pretty darn easy to find," said Lee Rainey, founding director of Pew. Parents and increasingly school systems are warning children about the implications of posting things on MySpace, for example, he said. But parents are only starting to become aware of their own vulnerability, he said. "Things that used to be inside familiars or within a small audience now have a global audience."
The Case for Progressive Internet Freedoms in the Classroom
Kids don't drive alone when getting their license. They get a learner's permit. We know that it is wise to have someone in the passenger seat who can advice and warn so that no permanent damage is done (hopefully.)
Likewise, we must get in the passenger's seat and guide students into their experience on the Internet while still in high school. Will they make mistakes? Yes, it is part of learning! Kids aren't born walking and they aren't born blogging ethicly either!
I have to go back and advise students and suggest that they take things down all of the time! It is part of learning. However, the difference is I am teaching and they are responding.
What about walled gardens? OK, a walled garden could be the first step, but it is not the final step. Kids do not live in walled gardens. They will graduate to a very real, shark infested Internet world that will prey upon their ignorance.
We must not let them graduate ignorant. We must teach them how to blog, post, and converse in meaningful ways and understand the implications of everything they do.
Meanwhile, some bloggers are pannicking as their mother's start blogging! Without wisdom, family spats can take on a whole new, very public dimension! (It works both ways!) And don't forget, if you have a disgruntled student, they too can take your weaknesses public!
It is a new world and a new day. Education must evolve to combat the ignorance of appropriate content that has accompanied our knowledge of technology.
Lots to think about and do. More on that later. For now, I want to share something with you that I had shared with some blogger friends over e-mail. This is a tough time for many of us as we are at the end of marking periods and swamped with things to do. Life can be stressful! (How is that for an understatement?) Here are my six steps for stressful times: They are what help me when I max out!
1 - Find the Magic 5
When I have a list of more than 20 things, I take out a highlighter and highlight the FIVE most important things. FIVE. Not ten, not six... five! Then, when I begin work, I start on the first one. After I complete it, I do the next one. And then the next. If I finish all 5 , I highlight five more.
This keeps things manageable and gives me a sense of accomplishment! Otherwise, I drown and do nothing! Break it down! 2 - The "Wind Down" Window
When I have trouble leaving work at work or ending my workday (what teacher doesn't grade in front of the TV), this is what I do. I set a time to "get off work." It may be eight or it may be nine pm. But, I look at the time I need to go to bed and I try to back it up at least an hour. Otherwise, I end up having pity parties because I feel like I work until sun up to sundown.
There is a story that changed my life. It goes something like this:
A man was having trouble working too much, and then something changed. When a man asked the busy executive what it was, the executive asked him to meet him in his office about 6:30 the next evening.
When the man came to meet the executive, the executive said, "Now, let me show you my end of day routine." He walked over to a one day at a time calendar and tore off the top sheet. He walked over to the trash can slowly. Paused for a moment with his eyes closed. Threw it in the trash. Flipped off the light and walked out the door.
The man say, "Wait a minute. What did you do there at that trash can."
The executive said, "I just stood at the trash can and said, 'Lord, this has been a good day. Thank you for this day. I got some things done that I wanted to do and some things I didn't get done, but it was a good day just the same. I have enjoyed this day and I appreciate it. Now this day is over and I ask that you help me tomorrow and be with me tonight as I live my life. I trust you to handle the things I didn't do until I get back tomorrow. Amen.'"
(This came from either Dale Carnegie or Norman Vincent Peale - I have read so much of their stuff it runs together.)
There is only so much you can do in a day! Do what you can and then walk away! You aren't made to run 24/7. Without your rest you will be unable to use your time well tomorrow. Give yourself a moment to breathe so you can move on! 3 - Remember the richness of relationships
You could offer me the world, but I'd rather look into the eyes of my children or husband. They are my wealth. Never trade what is transitory for what is eternal.
Sometimes being there is more important than being somebody!
If you are a parent, you are the one person who can do your job. No one else can or will love your child as much as you. It is your job to keep your children on a routine, love them, nourish them, and be their advocate and ears.
Prioritize what is important! No one can love those kids, that invalid parent, or those in your intimate circle like you. What would happen if you surprised your kids with cookies tomorrow or bought a special outfit for some snuggle time with your spouse? (I knew that would get your attention!) You become rich!
4 - Encourage others.
When I am most down and hungering for encouragement, I find that I get an instant mood boost by finding something that another person does well and praising it. Honest praise is rare in this world.
I love finding things that others do well and praising them for it. Every good teacher I know does the same. 5 - Keep perspective in failure
We all have setbacks. "Life" without an "F" is "lie." (Yes, I made that up!) We all fail sometimes because we're human! If we never failed, we'd be perfect and that's not possible!
But God doesn't make "F" people. I tell my students that their grades do not determine who they are. Every person on this planet is made by God and is an "A" in his sight. God doesn't make F's.
So, we all have an "F" sometime or another.
However, failure is not in falling, failure is in not getting up.
6 - Remember what beauty is.
This is especially for the women. As we grow older, we will allow ourselves to "disappear" if we value ourselves based on beauty. In a world gone awry that emphasizes so much the importance of appearance, I have a different take on beauty.
I teach this formula to girls:
actions + attitude + appearance = beauty
Do you know a woman who grows more beautiful with age? We all know them. It is the quiet inner peace of a well lived life that exudes a beauty that botox cannot emulate.
I'm not going to let anyone tell me what I have to buy or do or be or think to be beautiful! I take good care of myself, I am kind to others, and I am not snobby or boastful. I will not let Hollywood define my beauty!
I am beautiful because God made me and if I'm good enough for Him, I'm good enough for me! Enough of that size six, gotta have designer handbag stuff! Teachers don't make enough for that anyway. Going down that pathway is surely the path to discontent and I reject it!
Yes, I wouldn't be caught dead without makeup and I like to look nice. But I don't have too look like a desperate housewife to be desperately happy! I like myself just fine and I'm not genetically altered or hermetically sealed! I'm just me!
In Conclusion As much as I love blogging about Web 2.0 and teaching, I have a desperate desire to encourage educators. It is time we encourage one another and help one another. Every child deserves a good education. Happy teachers are better teachers than those who are not.
Find joy in your career. For although many do not appreciate teachers, according to my own faith, the God I believe in sent his Son to earth.
When my students speak, I prepare to listen and be inspired. I am devouring Thomas Friedman's Book, The World is Flat. I handed my students an excerpt and asked them the following question of the week:
From your excerpt of the book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, you are to select the topic that most interests you. You are to explain and discuss this thought with one adult that you respect. After discussing you are to post the following:
20 points 1) A brief synopsis of the topic you have selected. Explain it. 10 points 2) Why that topic interests you. 10 points 3) The profession of the adult you have discussed the topic with. 30 points 4) Their reaction to the topic and whether they agree or disagree. 30 points 5) Your thoughts about how this topic will impact your future decisions concerning career, classes that you will take, and your future.
I structured the question this way because to explain it to another person, particulary an adult, requires a more advanced understanding of the material. I wanted them to read it! My amazing students never let me down! (I always wonder if they are so amazing because I believe it and treat them in such a way.)
In particular, I like Friedman's assertion that:
CQ (curiosity quotient) + PQ (passion quotient) > IQ
So many teachers spend more time on teaching that they forget to get excited about what they are teaching! Class is so much more enjoyable when your teacher is having fun because it rubs off on you! If you care about what you are trying to learn then you will do your hardest to learn it and go over the top about the subject. You will be a self educator and a self motivator! No one learns more than when you are genuinely curious about a subject.
I discussed this with my mother, an interior designer, and her overrall reaction to the subject was agreement. She is a very artistic individual, and she said she only did well in the artistic-minded subjects in school, but her IQ level based on GPA did not shape her success as a designer. It was her enthusiasm for what she loved to do and her passion for other people that brought her to success. She stated that many intelligent people have a propensity to seek knowledge from others because they are usually, or feel as if they are, intellectually superior. Although that is not always the case, someone who is an avid learner of his passion will be more likely to continue learning about it. When I was struggling with a decision, my mother along with another adult I respect told me the same thing: do what "you" want to do. Life is too short to waste time doing something you do not love. My mother said that passion gives someone a curiosity to develop and learn about the subject in which he or she is interested. Lack of interest makes for a lack of effort.
With this idea in mind, I will be sure not to wade through college mired in subjects that do not interest me. I will take relevant courses and strive for a major I can enjoy and excel in. I read a book recently that said "Make an adventure out of everything." I think that can be tied into this idea. If I can apply adventure, curiosity, and passion to my life, it will take me much further than a high intelligence quotient could. People with high intelligence, if they have not already, must use their intelligence and see the potential they contain. Whatever career path, college courses, or future choices I may make, I will be sure to choose something I can enjoy. I only want to give my all, my 100%, and how can I do that if I do not have a desire to do so?
Wow! Blogging allows me to add a whole new dimension to my classroom and tackle important subjects that we only have time to briefly discuss in class. It allows me to immerse my students in information that I believe is important. It allows us to discuss things that MEAN something and not just content.
Although blogging is another thing to grade it is more than that. It connects me to my students. It makes it more. And for those who are concerned about teaching writing -- I want you to go the blog of CC and notice her post. She did this in a computer science class! If you want writing across the curriculum, blogging is a great way to do it!
Again, we use blogs for opinion and wikis for fact in my structure. I'm sure as I go through each post and comment (I comment on every blog post) that more cream will rise to the surface from these exceptional children!
What have you blogged about with your students that has changed your life?
Join our Women of Web 2.0 EdTechTalk Sunday at 4 pm EST
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
My friends and I at the Women of Web 2.0 and I will be hosting a live Ed Tech talk this Sunday -- 4 pm EST; 8PM GMT. We hope to have time for questions.
I haven't blogged about the Women of Web 2.0 because we're still getting a lot of resources together. Despite what I hear some people may think, we just feel there is a need for a feminine voice in Web 2.0 discussions and haven't really seen a lot of inclusion of women in some things. Because so many teachers are women, we just think it is important that a female voice be included.
However, we are consulting many "friends" and others as we have our discussions and men are certainly invited into our bulletin board and online discussions. Basically, the women of Web 2.0 are the four of us who've decided to get together and do something a little different.
The Web 2.0 movement moves across gender, race, and country lines and we expect all of our discussions to reflect that. Just think of it as a corner of Web 2.0 meant to reflect a feminine view of things. Don't read more into it than it is.
If you have suggestions or ideas, join in the discussions in the bulletin board over at Wow2. We're planning a weekly skypecast and some other collaborations as well. The neat thing is that between our classroom experience, recent education degrees, theses, and international project coordination experience, there is a pretty good representation of most aspects of Web 2.0.
We've had some fun skype calls recently as we've planned things and have submitted for a panel discussion of practical Web 2.0 in the classroom for NECC. This plans to be a neat "aside" project of mine.
I hope you continue to do what you can to stay inspired, stay afloat and stay positive. Just the other day, some teachers at my school decided to ask that we have some staff development to learn about Web 2.0. I haven't pushed it on anyone, I just let the students do the selling!
Since I posted about how to search for educational videos on Google, I've seen several posts bemoaning the lack of educational searching capabilities on YouTube. Actually, the capabilities are there, although You Tube certainly hasn't made it easy. I have several suggestions for how we educators can better utilize YouTube.
#1 - Request the Education be added as a category.
B- Fill in the following information: Subject: Customer Service Topic: Suggestions/ Feedback Video: None
C - Copy and paste the following information in the suggestion box (or write your own):
As part of the educational community, I would like to see an education category on youtube. Currently, we can search for educational videos on Google and find a wealth of information that can be used in our classrooms. There is no easy way to do this on youtube. Please consider adding "Education" as a category on YouTube. Thank you.
#2 How to use YouTube for Education Now.
Currently there are two groups on YouTube that you can upload your videos too. First of all, I think that the K12 group (located at: http://youtube.com/group/K12 ) managed by Dean Shareski in Canada seems to be a good group to upload to. I have created one at http://youtube.com/group/coolcatteacher for my videos. (Warning: Your video must be less than 10 minutes, they rejected my skype demo and I'm going to have to shorten it.)
You can go to youtube and join and then find me and subscribe to my videos. (It sounds a lot like blogging, huh?)
What we need to do We need to pioneer the use of these spaces. Perhaps the reason that so many administrators want to block things is that they do not see the usefulness for their classrooms. It will take those of us who have supportive administration to use these tools effectively and document our work and results to encourage others to create a rich environment for their students through the use of video.
I did a straw poll of my students after discussing a short excerpt from the World is Flat. I asked how many would rather learn from the History Channel or a History Textbook. Ninety per cent -- the History Channel. Is that a surprise? Not to any of us who know students.
It doesn't mean that we need to hand over our classroom to the Tube -- it means that we need to harness the power of video as a technology that immerses students in rich information.
Join Youtube today. Post your videos. Advocate the set up of an education category. We cannot rest our hands on the spacebar and wish that the Internet was more education friendly. Wise websites understand that if they can get the use of teens now, they'll have them in the future, so momentum is on our side.
Using Skype in the Classroom (or just learning how to use it!)
Saturday, October 07, 2006
I have been learning how to use skype in my classroom and have taught students how to use it as well. I had my first skypecast with my Computer Science class yesterday.
I haven't been this tired since I taught wikis last November! The students LOVE it and we're thinking of so many ways to use it in the classroom. I chronicled my adventures in a 13 minute video for you and have outlined how to set up skype and how I have my students set it up in the classroom. (I used moviemaker to produce, and CamStudio to do the screen shots.)
I also had selfish reasons for making the video. I know that a lot of other students and parents are going to ask me to help them and I can refer them to the video after I post it to the wiki!
I will share a lot more with you later, because I'm on my way to a big football game! (Go Georgia Tech!)
How I taught Skype to My Classes
Like everything, you must vigilantly supervise this. You must check student profiles to make sure they haven't put anything in them and you must "scare them" before embarking on Skype. here is how I introduced it:
1) I talked about what Skype is. (Internet telephone service that allows you to chat, share files, share hyperlinks, and conference call as well as see each other on video.)
2) I talked about the profiles, safety and security concerns on skype. (Watch the video.)
Do not put your real name under full name.
Never go in Skype Me mode.
Do not complete your profile.
No usernames with meanings that can be misconstrued.
Do not Skype Out (or call a landline phone) they get 5 free minutes and you don't want them calling home from the computer!
3) I had each user set up their service and make a Skype test call.
4) Then, they had to Add me as a user and call me.(This was required for a grade.)
5) THE TEACHER PHONE CALL
On the phone call with me, I showed them how to turn on video calling, use the avatar that came with our web cams to protect their identity and how to launch a side chat. I also looked at their profile information and told them if anything needed to be removed. After the call was almost over I said, "Good job, you have received a 100 for making your first successful Internet phone call." I now want you to start adding and calling your friends in the class and using what I taught you.
Each student was required to call me and add me to their contacts so I could see the details available publicly.
6) CLASS CONFERENCE CALL
After I spoke with each student, I addressed the class and told them I was about to call a large group of them and as soon as they answered to mute their microphone. To demonstrate how I conferenced, I put a copy of my laptop screen on the projector. Holding down the Ctrl key, I selected those I wanted to call and clicked the green call button.
When you conference, you can only have 10 people (you can call 9) at one time, so I had to split the class in half. On the conference call, I talked about muting their microphones. I pointed out how each person's name glowed as they spoke. I also talked about uses of the side chat and sent them all a file to see how that worked. I also sent them a hyperlink and allowed them to ask questions on the side chat.
You can get echoes on this activity particularly if they don't use mute and if their microphone is not close enough to their mouth.
We discussed skype safety and other issues about skype. I showed them how to leave a chat or a call. I also had them look at each other's profiles and note if there was anything revealing or misleading in them. I asked them to conference with each other. I hung up and called again for the other half of the class. 7) The Skypecast-
I was brave and did this for only one class on a topic. I've got to refine this. We the same trouble that I had when I began using skypecasts... making it so you could ask for the microphone! I've got to refine this.
I will probably do one with a class for the K12 Online conference. I will be doing a session on wikis and am excited about it!
Skype is a great tool and I'm going to be using it in my classroom. As with any Web 2.0 tool, you must be extremely vigilant. You may want to block and then unblock it when you want to use it in the classroom. (Yet another case for ad hoc filtration abilities, like I have.)
It is exhausting to teach because you are calling and observing and talking and engaging everything.
Beginners The video is for beginners. I had the hardest time learning to use skype! I had several other fellow educators look down at me for "being so dumb" that I didn't know how! I had to struggle with it and appreciate those who've helped me, particularly the women of web 2.0. They didn't talk down to me once!
It is OK to be a beginner and now I can call my sister in Orlando for FREE!!! WHEEE!!
I'm having the students brainstorm how to use Skype and they've come up with some great ways. More later... now for football. Go Jackets!
As I was uploading a video I made today about how to use skype in the classroom, I came across an amazing trick for finding educational videos on google Video.
1 - Go to Google Video - http://video.google.com 2- In the search box, type: genre:educational 3 - Follow it with anything you want to find video for.
You can type genre:educational chemistry ( just follow my hyperlink) and there are some AMAZING chemistry videos from college professors. Talk about showing students what college will be like, how about letting them hear a lecture from a college prof, maybe they'll appreciate you for a change!
What a great opportunity! Stephanie is a perfect example of a person who took teacher complaints and turned it into a meaningful answer that will not only give great resources but demonstrate the power of Web 2.0 collaboration as well.
This idea started on this post (thanks to Vicki Davis for the suggestion!) and has grown as I have discussed it with other teachers and some ed tech folks within my district. This site will be accessible to my teachers and others within my district — but it is also open to EVERYONE.
The site is set up so that anyone may visit and post comments on any of the topics — which will hopefully lead to a growing collection of real examples from real classrooms and class websites.
Another aspect of my agenda in creating this site is to begin connecting technology to the accepted “best practices” that our district expects to see in our classrooms. In this day of high-stakes testing and frequent complaints from teachers that they “don’t have time to use technology” in the classroom, I wanted to try bridging the gap to help my teachers see that technology doesn’t have to be an add-on. I want to help them understand that technology doesn’t have to distract them from focusing on the curriculum.
She is an amazing educator with a good attitude and this is a great resource! This is not a person who just talks about Web 2.0, she is taking the opportunity of Web 2.0 and the need for research validated practices and connecting them.
Because we don't have a large school system for such a collaborator, I'm going to contribute to her wiki when I have meaningful things to contribute. Good job!
Scott over at Dangerously Irrelevant has blogged about the Technorati rankings of top edubloggers.
(Talk about shockers, listed on this unofficial list is a blogger who lives on the backside of no-where -- ME! As we say down here, "Now isn't that a hoot!" )
So many of these bloggers are my inspiration. (Actually, a few were left out - Stephen Downes, an early encourager of mine is ranked 2,784; SpunkyHomeSchool is 2,963.) However, I hope folks (myself included) don't get too caught up in this numbers game.
I just hope that all edubloggers (and bloggers in general) will remember a couple of things:
#1 Quality not quantity -
Are you contributing to meaningful conversation?
Time is valuable. In the early days of my blogging, I read a post that said that the only way to have a widely read blog is to post frequently. I didn't agree with that AT ALL!
At that point, I made a resolution to only post when I have something to say! Somedays I have a lot of things to share and other days, I don't.
If you don't have anything to say, then DON'T SAY ANYTHING! Life is too short to waste it blogging about nothing and reading blogs about nothing.
Eventually, people will figure it out and not waste their time reading your blog.
#2 Go for stock not shock
You can be heard and people will take stock in what you say without you having to resort to shocking tactics.
In a world gone astray, I do not find it necessary to color my language with weak words. And that, in my opinion, is profanity! Weak words for those who have just gotten out of first grade. As for adults, we must learn to discuss and disagree without stomping our virtual foot and dropping on the floor in a tantrum for attention.
One tantrum may get you attention, but like most spoiled brats, if you do it enough, others will just tune you out!
#3 Have a mission. Blog because it makes you better and you make make the world better. Discuss topics where you can make a difference. Don't just scatter chaff to the wind, but take a pistol and aim it at a target. Focus on your calling. Mindless surfing will rob you of online purpose and measurable results.
I think this is why so many people quit blogging. They have a passion but they try to be everything to everybody. Have a belief system and stand for something.
I am on a mission!. I honestly believe that every beautiful, precious child in this world deserves to be well educated. I could care less about the real and artificial lines we draw between ourselves, every educator I know wants to do a good job and wants to reach children.
The blogosphere is a great opportunity to work together and learn from one another! I want my classroom to benefit! I want to help others! I LOVE TEACHING!
#4 Stay real.
Blogging cannot supplant your personal relationships in "real life." Although we make friends and embark on adventures via the blogosphere, we still must relate to others.
#5 Keep perspective.
If you think you're important, try dipping your hand in a bucket of water and pulling it out. When we're gone we leave the same mark in the popularity index as your hand did in the water!
Those who get an overblown sense of importance become inneffective in their daily lives. Do not put your hope in vain things.
I've never been popular (well, maybe a little in college), but then again, women who like academic things often aren't put at the top of the guy date wish list, are they? I cannot value myself by my Technorati ranking or comments or anything else but by whether I am accomplishing the purpose I am here for and serving the One I believe in with all my heart.
It is kind of like valuing yourself by what students think of you! Any good teacher knows that they are often unpopular today. Ten years a go every little girl wanted to be Brittney Spears, now they think of her as a joke! You should blog because it is what you believe in. It should not be dependent upon whether people like you, disagree with you, agree with you, or think you're great! If you scrutinize these things too much you become like inneffective politicians who make decisions based on the latest poll. Keep it in perspective and know that those who make a difference attract enemies and friends. #6 Everyone has a place.
Each person has influence within their sphere. You may have four readers (I had 3 for at least 2 months!) and you make a difference to THEM! There is a place for each person on the blogosphere. Never talk down to newcomers. I started blogging last December! Some people treated me like an idiot my first month or two, but there is a right and wrong way to do things.
I believe in treating each person with dignity and respect. If people flame out, it is not often at me, but they had a bad day. I've only had one web encounter where kindness and professionalism just didn't work. (I handled it by blocking everything that person sent my e-mail! Viola! You've been erased!)
#7 Be willing to change The only people who like change are babies in dirty diapers, and they yell the whole time!
The willingness to change is a decision. If I have a post, and commenters make valid points, I add to my post. If I see things a different way, I change my mind. I NEVER change it because of pressure, but change it because there is a reason and I've pondered and usually prayed about it.
No one on this planet is right all of the time. Likewise, no one is wrong all of the time either. Even an uneducated hothead can have a point sometimes!
#8 Help others.
If you like a blogger, the first thing you should do is link to them and then ping technorati. If you don't know how to "ping," just go to http://www.technorati.com/ping/ and type in the URL of your blog. (If you're a serious blogger, you should set up an account and claim your blog, but that is another post.)
#9 Don't help the harmful There is an inverse to point #8. If you do not like someone or agree with them and you link to them, you help them! However, if you cite them as a source, ethically you MUST link to them.
Just remember, that some people say stupid things just to get a lot of links. One of the fastest ways to climb is to spark controversy. Is there any wonder that the political blogs are at the top?
If I find something morally offensive, unless it is in the mainstream media and I can truly do something to help the situation, I stay away from linking to it. Some will disagree with me, but why I am I going to help someone who is doing terrible things?
#10 Think before you Blog
Once you've blogged and posted, it is done. If it is controversial, I usually sit on it for a little while. You can hurt people and put them on the wrong track. If your readers see you as the expert, and you state something that is not true, you've just done harm.
If you are a teacher and you are blogging, expect your students and parents to read your blog! Don't turn your blog into a gossip session or administration bashing forum. Just because they don't read today, doesn't mean they won't tomorrow! Speak well of others. See the best in others.
Do not impune bad motives to others when you do not know them. YOU DO NOT KNOW THEM! As we say down here, "You catch flies with honey not vinegar!"
I've found that those who see the best in others receive the best out of others but the disgruntled never find happiness. Let's get an edublogger in the top 100. I'd love to see an edublogger in the top 100! Since Will is the highest, if each person reading this who has a blog links to him in this way, perhaps there is a chance. (Weblogg-ed ) There is a real street cred that comes from getting in the top 100.
If we want education heard, this is a way to do it. So, pick your favorite blogs, link to them, and start pinging!
ITunesPodcast
Digg/coolcatteacher
Flickr/coolcatteacher
Facebook/Cool Cat Teacher
Friendster/Cool Cat Teacher
Linkedin/coolcatteacher
Twitter/coolcatteacher
YouTube/coolcatteacher
Del.icio.us/brightideasguru
Wikipedia/brightideasguru
coComment/coolcatteacher
Upcoming/Cool Cat Teacher
Technorati/brightideasguru
Blog/Cool Cat Teacher
Blippr/coolcatteacher
. I handed my students an excerpt and asked them the following 
