Labels: inspiration

"I am interesting in connecting with someone with knowledge of Japanese Medieval times related to the gardens, temples, etc… If that is not possible, then I would like to address the cultural aspect of Japan. My students would be asking questions about Japanese’s food, clothing, and lifestyle. If all possible, linking everything to Japanese medieval times would be preferable. If you can point me to someone, I would really appreciate it."

Labels: flatclassroom

Labels: inspiration

"Students, picked by lottery, come daily for six weeks to learn word processing, spread sheets, and Internet use, on our one, slow connection, acquiring a useful skill for future employment. Computer education groups repeat on a rotating basis."

"He has set up a blog and has a Facebook profile, but to update them he has to ride his motorbike an hour into Phnom Penh. "

• Contribute the $10 -- If her school raises the most, the Sharing Foundation will give her $50,000 additional for the school. (She has already raised $19,000 with bloggers and facebook contributors.)
  
• Answer Beth's Questions: (If you write a blog post, use the tag bethkanter_cambodiacampaign)
  
• What advice would you offer to Mam Sari about incorporating computer instruction on a REALLY slow connection and with one computer connected to the Internet?
• Are there any web resources or books that you think I should send over to him to read?
• Dream a little dream with me, if we had a fast Internet connection, what are the possibilities?
• Answer the twitterpoll by replying in twitter @coolcatteacher the answer to this question, " How would you do web2.0 in rural cambodia with cell phone connection?"

An Internet Lesson in a Rural Cambodian Village: And Then You Wait ...

I launched a bloggers campaign and Twitter Wall of Fame as part of the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge. (To learn more about the Sharing Foundation, see this article) I've been reaching out to my network, and Vicki Davis is one of the people I turned to for to ask for help with the from her network of wired educators.

Yes, I hope they will contribute the $10 so we can win the $50,000 (which will certainly help us make improvements to our computer school and the Sharing Foundation's many other programs), but I am also want feedback about how to improve a computer program in a rural village in a developing country with really slow Internet. I know it is difficult without being there ..

The Sharing Foundation's Computer School was opened in 2006. Computer classes are held every morning utilizing donated laptops and desktops (that are hand-carried over by Dr. Hendrie on her quarterly trips) Students, picked by lottery, come daily for six weeks to learn word processing, spread sheets, and Internet use, on our one, slow connection, acquiring a useful skill for future employment. Computer education groups repeat on a rotating basis.

I observed Mam Sari, our head English teacher (and computer geek) teach a Google search lesson and captured video above. Mam Sary gets on the Internet via his cell phone connection which costs the Foundation roughly $28 per month. It's slow, but he is able to teach a lesson to the students about how to find supplementary materials for their school assignments. One of the students asked if Google was the best search engine. Mam Sary said, 'Yes, Google is the best." This is amazing because during my last trip in 2004 when I taught ESL, these students gave me a blank stare when I mentioned the words computer and Internet.

As I mentioned, the cell phone connection is really slow. I loved how Mam Sari introduced this to his students. He said, "type in your search term, click on search, and then you wait." Since we only have one Internet connection, all 15 students were huddled around the computer. Mam Sari did not waste this time, he engaged them in a discussion about the content they were searching. (The bad health effects of smoking)

Mam Sary also received several of the video cameras Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson brought over to Cambodia last July donated by Doug from the video blogging community. (Jay and Ryan not only created this fantastic video about the Sharing Foundation's projects, but have also donated and asked other video bloggers to support the cause.) Jay and Ryanne taught him how to use the camera and I helped him again a month later when I was there.

That is Mam Sari. He attended the Cambodian Bloggers Summit with me. We participated in a small group role play exercise. Our group was assigned to "Social Media." First we discussed the definition of the term. It became clear that social media in Cambodia means "any media that can solve social issues."

Mam Sari was thrilled to learn about the Web2.0 and is very interested incorporating some of the ideas into his instruction, but unfortunately our very slow Internet connection doesn't make it easy. He has set up a blog and has a Facebook profile, but to update them he has to ride his motorbike an hour into Phnom Penh. The connection is to slow for blogger or Facebook to load. If we had a better Internet connection (very expensive to get high speed Internet in our rural village), we could do more. For example, English lessons on Skype with students in US, post some of the videos created with the cameras on Youtube, use his digital tape recorder to create podcasts, student blogs, etc.

So, my question to Vicki's network is:

• What advice would you offer to Mam Sary about incorporating computer instruction on a REALLY slow connection and with one computer connected to the Internet?
• Are there any web resources or books that you think I should send over to him to read?
• Dream a little dream with me, if we had a fast Internet connection, what are the possibilities?

There has already been over $19,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 650 people like Jay Dedman, Ryanne Hodson, and Coffee with Doug. If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause, there is only a few days left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life and maybe help us get a faster Internet connection!

Labels: communityservice

The grassroots movement of teachers to connect will become more pronounced in 2008 with administrators, researchers, and consultants having to take notice. Teachers will wonder why they need "facilitators" when it is more efficiently done themselves and districts will realize that teachers need time to be "teacherpreneurs" as they create and collaborate on projects with their colleagues around the world. E-Learning will become an integral part of the face to face classroom with students learning to collaborate not only with their seatmate but with teammates from around the world.

Labels: predictions

"* Another research paper, published in 2007 in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology by a psychiatrist at Tel Aviv University, recommended that Internet addiction be regarded as an extreme disorder on par with gambling, sex addiction and kleptomania."

"The first thing to do is take a long, hard look at how you are using technologies, and then to start to set some limits," he said. "You have to take off a couple hours and make those hours important enough that you don't allow yourself to be interrupted. I think we should have certain rules. We don’t break up, fire people or break traumatic news to people via e-mail or text message." "

Note to my readers: This entire post is written by and is the opinion of Louise Maine as a blogger that I have been mentoring. If you quote this article, please link to her post above and cite her (except as noted where I have added my comments.)

Is Science, Math, and Technology truly for All?
simulpost with Hurricaine Maine

by Louise Maine
Hurricane Maine Blog
printed with permission
(c) 2008 Louise Maine, All Rights Reserved
edited by Vicki Davis

Recently, I become so frustrated and I guess down right defensive of my position that blogging and any other application that promotes and develops critical thinking is an excellent addition to ANY science classroom.

"I’d love to see science teachers using blogs to focus instead on the creativity of science and scientists in general, its wonders and powers, and above all, WTF it’s actually used for in the real world" and "process being the ultimate teachers in how to use this stuff effectively for learning."

The point was made in the comments that blogging would be best for the big ideas. I agree with this statement. But, as a fellow science teacher, I think science teachers are so inundated with the details, that we often miss the big ideas.

Blogging is for Good Teaching but Good Teaching isn't Necessarily to Teach Blogging

That is what we teach.

The debate over the state of Science Education

Even politicians are discussing this. Barack Obama discusses the problems with science education on his website. He advocates for a “strong science curriculum”. But, what is that? (Note: Every candidate has a viewpoint, but this post is already long enough).

You can find many articles about deplorable test scores from U.S. children.

There is another viewpoint and we must consider it. In Businessweek's Article, the Science Education Myth, the article discusses how a non-partisan review of the data shows that test scores aren't so bad! (As I was reading I thought: "Enough about the test scores, what are they really measuring?")

Vivek Wadhwa states at the end of the article:

“Perhaps we should focus on creating demand for the many scientists and engineers we graduate. There are many problems, from global warming to the development of alternative fuels to cures for infectious diseases, that need to be solved. Rather than blaming our schools, let's create exciting national programs that motivate our children to help solve these problems.”

Rather than argue the point online, I decided to head to the back room where all my old books are in hopes of finding something to help me with what we should do to improve science education. Science for all Americans caught my eye.

Just how relevant today is this book that was published back in 1990?

Obviously, the Michigan Department of Education felt strongly about it back then and gave it to all the science teachers in the 90’s. It was met with cynicism then too. It is co-written by Project 2061 founder F. James Rutherford.

• I did not have to get very far re-reading to clue into the same ideas that we hear today. The arguments in the preface of the book (Rutherford, F. James and Ahlgren, A. Science for all Americans, Oxford University Press, 1990, p. vi) are (this is pretty wordy, so hang in there)Science, energetically pursued, can provide humanity with the knowledge of the biophysical environment and of social behavior that it needs to develop effective solutions to its global and local problems; without that knowledge, progress toward a safe world will be unnecessarily handicapped.

• By emphasizing and explaining the dependency of living things on each other and on the physical environment, science fosters the kind of intelligent respect for nature that should inform decisions on the uses of technology; without that respect, we are in danger of recklessly destroying our life-support system.
  


• Scientific habits of mind can help people in every walk of life to deal sensibly with problems that often involve evidence, quantitative considerations, logical arguments, and uncertainty; without the ability to think critically and independently, citizens are easy prey to dogmatists, flimflam artists, and purveyors of simple solutions to complex problems.
  

Note: I should have been with David Warlick at a Science Blogging Conference where it was mentioned that “responsibilities lie with the reader” and “people need to be learning critical thinking skills”.

• Although many pressing global and local problems have technological origins, technology provides the tools for dealing with such problems, and the instruments for generating, through science, crucial new knowledge; without the continuous development and creative use of new technologies, society will limit its capacity for survival and for working toward a world in which the human species is at peace with itself and its environment.
  
  

• The life-enhancing potential of science and technology cannot be realized unless the public in general comes to understand science, mathematics, and technology and to acquire scientific habits of mind; without a scientifically literate population, the outlook for a better world is not promising.
  

The text also makes the case for crushing workloads of teachers and a lack of a modern support system to back them up. I think those in the edublogosphere are changing the lack of a support system mentioned.

“As the world approaches the 21st century, the schools of America - when it comes to the deployment of people, time, and technology - seem to be still stuck in the 19th century.” (Rutherford, F. James and Ahlgren, A. Science for all Americans, Oxford University Press, 1990, p. viii)

This text was written 18 years ago and the case could be made that we have not improved anything yet!

Our current paradox

This whole paradox describes the failure to encourage students to work together and to share ideas and information. Are we treating them like the lab rats of famed scientists in that they are being "done to" instead of being "part of" the process?

So, what are the common ideas recommended from the book?

The reasoning for change is based on the belief that a scientifically literate person understands science, mathematics and technology are used together and needs to be evaluated critically. Citizens use knowledge and a scientific way of thinking for the better of the individual and the society.

Whether you teach science, math, technology, or any other subject, critical thinking can be emphasized.

A scientific way of thinking creates a more informative, resourceful, and creative human being.

If you had access to information and had the habits of mind to use information, can the world be a different place?

Google says Yes!
Google must think so with its coming launch of an open source science repository, also discussed in Wired Science.


Our goal for our students and humanity depends upon the habits of mind for ALL students to read, understand, and use critical information.

Promote the change…

It am uptight to think that the responses to this post may be purely negative and that the big idea may be missed. I suggest the following:

• Understand that what is considered a basic science, math, and technology education today is very different than that of yesterday.
  

• All of this will require leadership, communication, collaboration and sharing. The more who engage in collaboration and discussion, the stronger our preparation for students will be.
  


• Have students uncover the facts/formulas/ideas rather than do something with just the facts they are given. This is not an afterthought final critical thinking question but how we should initiate the instruction instead.
  


• Focus on comparing/contrasting/evaluating information.
  


• Identify the revolutionary and conservative values that underlie all knowledge and examine both ends.
  


• Emphasize the scientific habits of mind which are not specific to science and every teacher can cultivate these:
  

1. Observation and manipulation of data and information
   


2. Communication skills to share with truth and clarity
   


3. Read and listen with understanding
   


4. Critical response skills.
   

As I skim through the book to read to the end, it strikes me that what is being done in the edublogospere today is the premise of the kind of reform needed for scientific literacy to happen.

Not top down reform, but bottom up linking those at the heart of the discussion to one another in order to support one another and exact change.

(As we were discussing this article, Vicki Davis said to me,

"This makes me think, what if more scientists blogged their reflections as they went instead of writing it down. What if a scientist would let us be PART of pure science by videoing and posting his/her observations. What if my students could literally be observers as PART of pure science in action. What would happen? What would be the effect? Or would they not be able to do this because they THINK science is a set of arbitrary rules. What if they were truly exposed to the fuzzy bleeding edge of scientific exploration. Could they handle it? Could teachers handle it? I doubt it. Perhaps we are more concerned about using the mental faculties of memorization over that of observation." )

I am still in the journey of my own education and best practices along these lines. Perhaps more sharing starting with the teachers can move all of us forward. I implore your thoughts and ideas on this discussion.

This post is from Louise Maine of the great new blog Hurricaine Maine and is part of my own desire to foster, mentor and encourage new bloggers. (See my call to new bloggers If you were Cool Cat Teacher for a Day, What would you say? ) Immediately, I received a response from Louise that she has something to say and boy does she!!!! (Hey, beginners, if you want to be "mentored" and coached on a blog post, here is your chance.)

Labels: guestblogger

"1. Learning to use one’s mind well
The school should focus on helping young people learn to use their minds well. Schools should not be "comprehensive" if such a claim is made at the expense of the school's central intellectual purpose."

5. Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach
The governing practical metaphor of the school should be student-as-worker, rather than the more familiar metaphor of teacher-as-deliverer-of-instructional-services. Accordingly, a prominent pedagogy will be coaching, to provoke students to learn how to learn and thus to teach themselves.

Prolearner = Producer + Professional + Learner

Democracy and equity
The school should demonstrate non-discriminatory and inclusive policies, practices, and pedagogies. It should model democratic practices that involve all who are directly affected by the school. The school should honor diversity and build on the strength of its communities, deliberately and explicitly challenging all forms of inequity.

• Sarah at Edueye View - Traveling with fellow Maine educators Alice Barr, Colleen King, toured Marcie Hull's art classroom. (I was excited to see that Marcie uses the same text I use for my digital film class: Filmmaking for Teens: Pulling Off Your Shorts. I'm also using the American Film Institute curriculum available for free at United Streaming.)
  
  Sarah also shared a mini-transcript of the websites and tools mentioned at dinner:
  

"Dennis Richards got the ball rolling at one point where he asked our end of the table to share one new tool we were excited about. I shared my Olympus WS-110 audio recorders (I heard about them on Wes Fryer’s blog) which have served me and my students well over the last three months. Dennis Richards shared Mind42, a mind mapping web app that can be used collaboratively and will save all of the various iterations as you go. I also mentioned the Mac Heist software purchasing opportunity – the iStop Motion and SnapZPro alone made it a deal for me - but apparently the 15 day window is now closed. Next year maybe?. Maria Knee brought up the Snowball Mic, which she just got for her classroom, and a case for the video recorder that I need to ask the name of again..."

• Tim Stahmer from Assorted Stuff talked about the tour on his blog. I love the quote from Tim:

"Chris , the principal, has said many times that this school is not about technology and that was apparent. Every student has a laptop but everyone we met wanted to talk about student projects and the learning going on, instead of showing off the boxes and wires.The primary emphasis here is on collaboration and using all the tools available to extend the learning outside the building and the “work day”. And the staff made it look so easy. :-)"

"Again, it’s critical that children learn to sing, play with other children, build with blocks, play in the sand, and read books. But I wonder how learning to read, within the context of these online experiences, might differ from how we traditionally learn. For this four-year-old, reading almost immediately becomes a tool that improves his experience. It’s a skill that he uses to work his environment and, in this case, feed his pet, buy cloths, interact with and impress other children, and teach and learn."

"I’m with you on reading, but what is really social about using your toy in conjunction with anonymous others in really primitive cheaply produced software? How is this richer than playing with dolls/animals/blocks/cars/the long-gone imaginative play/dressup corner in bygone classrooms?
Have you seen the Webkinz software? It makes Math Blaster look like high art.
Webkinz is undeniably a brilliant stroke of tschochke marketing. Kids may even love them.

However, isn’t there a danger of projecting too much educational and sociological significance onto an elephant purchased in an airport gift shop?? Just because some of
us found a voice online does not mean that everything changes."

"My daughter and many others at our school love webkinz. And I think perhaps that Gary thinks the software is "crumby" because he is not the demographic target. The target is kids and they love it.

My 10th graders used the Webkinz to create an online safety course for our elementary school and it was an incredible success! We are planning a follow up! The students can still remember everything they were taught: do not share passwords, only add friends that you verify via voice, and other things about safety that were intertwined into the course.

Anything can be used to teach if it is planned and thought through and adapted for what it does well.

This is how our children relate to one another it is part of their lives. They also congregate on xbox live, play each other's Mii's and all sorts of things that take them out of their cocoon. However, we cannot discount their experience as a valid one. Yes, they still need exercise and to be well rounded.

What bothers me is why older generations always feel that the younger generation is only valid if the younger childhood relates to their own. I can remember my parents "kicking me off" sesame street telling me to go play outside.

Let them be who they are and join them. It is fun and we might learn something. Or we can just stomp our feet and say "be like me" as they look the other way and laugh.

Listen. Learn. Help the students be what they should be. Listen to what they say about what they are doing. We might all learn something about how to be better teachers and to relate better to today's student."

• Grassroots Video
• Collaboration Webs

• Mobile Broadband
• Data Mashups

• Collective Intelligence
• Social Operating Systems

• Grassroots Video http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+video
• Collaboration Webs http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+virtualcollab
• Mobile Broadband http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+mobile
• Data Mashups http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+mashups
• Collective Intelligence http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+collectiveintelligence
• Social Operating Systems http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08+socialos

Labels: technology, trends

1. • Kim Cofino's Ustream for her Teacher PD

   All PD sessions for her teachers are online at ustream.

   to wow2_20080122 education learning PD ... saved by 6 other people ... 1 day ago

• Kim Cofino's Blog

Dear Vicki,

You probably don't know me as I'm a not so recent graduate of 1991. The reason I'm contacting you is that you can imagine my surprise as I'm reading through Friedman's book The World is Flat and find a section in there about Westwood Schools in Camilla, GA.

It was quite an inspirational story, but I think it only confirms what we’ve known now for a while: the access to and dissemination of information is no longer limited by infrastructure and physical location. Small towns and small schools now have access to just about everything that their larger counterparts do.

What you do with that information is up to your imagination and the limitations of the 24 hour day. It’s a great leveling force for students at any level, and I’ve seen this develop from the days of CompuServe with a dial-up connection on my Commodore 64 in the early to mid 80’s to coming up with ways to apply that technology to my current life and career.

Keep up the good work, the world is watching! If anyone else is left there from my times, please tell them I said hello.

Oliver **Full Name removed**, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO

Labels: academics, alumni

Labels: education, leadership

Therefore, effective today, and running until January 31, 2008, we’ll be donating sponsored Yugma Premium accounts to bloggers who ask. Each sponsored account will be good for 12 months ! All a blogger has to do is request an account by sending us an email at renee[at]yugma.com. You must include your email address and blog website address. (Limit one sponsored Yugma account per blog site.

"I had to struggle with what I’d do if my administrator said she WASN’T ok with me blogging publicly and in any relation to our school - how tough am I? How strong are my beliefs on this issue? Well, I decided that my beliefs about not blogging anonymously are strong enough that the issue needed to be addressed. Vicki’s constant use of the phrase “professionalism in blogging” made me realize that this WASN’T a choice - it had to be done, and soon. Especially with all the attention my angst-ridden posts were getting! So, how’d it go?

As usual, my worries were completely and utterly unfounded. My principal is a visionary in education and treated me like the professional I am - it’s understood that I won’t compromise the confidentiality of our students or the integrity of our district and I’m now free to blog under my full name without the fear that it will somehow come back to haunt me in the future. I was chomping at the bit to write this post immediately, but was at school - this is my own project that I do on my own time. I respect that and had to wait until I was off contract time. So, I’m finally updating the saga, and actually, the saga’s over for me! I feel so much better about what I’m doing here and look forward to being able to connect on an authentic level with my readers and others in the blogosphere."

"For all the new or fearful bloggers out there, I’d suggest working your PLN to find a mentor - mine have been invaluable to me and I wouldn’t be writing this right now if it weren’t for them. Thanks to all who offered advice this past weekend, especially those who actually posted comments, it means a lot to me."

Labels: blogging

"I moved my blog from such a place to this comfortable new home a couple of months ago. The symptoms that the parents were no longer there at my old “home”: no response at all to any “contact tech support” email (of course, this happens at very busy places, too), no recent press releases, and no updates to their Wordpress software. The result was that spammers took over. Without software updates to stay ahead of the latest spam tactics, my blog was overrun with Viagra and porn-filled “comments,” clogging the moderation queue to the point that I had to turn off comments on all but the most recent post. Without updated blogging software on my “family” servers, I was unable to add better spam tools or BACK UP my blog. The host site had locked access to do things myself. In the end, I had to walk out the door, leaving all my worldly possessions (posts and comments) behind in a sort of suspended animation (visions of Miss Havisham’s decayed room with cobwebs, lost in time?). My blog was an orphan.

I spent a long time trying to take everything with me, to no avail."

"OK, so I'm writing this down for the chat -- she says that at the beginning of the 6th grade year only 4% (100-96%) had literacy skills equal to those of those in silicon valley. At the end of the 6th grade year 75% of the 6th graders had literacy skills EXCEEEDING those of the students in silicon valley. The study will be widely reported in the next 2-3 months."

Labels: WOW2

"Wow, yesterday was a huge one for me in blogging education. I cried out for help on whether I have a right as an educator to blog about my experiences, and was given many resources by my PLN."

"After reading all of this, my bravado fled and all the horrible images of being ushered into an administrator’s office and told I’m fired started flooding my mind. I tend to react to things fairly quickly, so I changed the name of my blog to Reflection 2.0 and changed the email address in the about section. The part that killed me the most was removing a bunch of the links (still some out there I didn’t have time to get) to my classroom blog - I’m SO proud of that, I hate not being able to link to it. I know there are still some things here that could lead back to a pretty definitive ID, but at least it won’t be quite so glaring. If you have a bit, check things out and do the legwork to try to hunt me down! Let me know how long it took

For the record, though, I HATE doing it this way. I use this blog as a way to connect with my PLN and who knows, maybe make valuable career contacts for the future. I’d like to be known for my contributions to the blogosphere, and it just seems kind of wrong to be doing it without full disclosure. As you may remember, before all of this yesterday, I was all excited about putting my picture up on my About page! Now, I do know that if I were to change my content and just do a resource-sharing blog with one cool 2.0 tool a day it wouldn’t be such an issue. I don’t WANT to do that though. I probably wouldn’t blog at all if that was what I had to do. "

"I was up front with my administrators about my blogging and signed up the curriculum director as one of the first readers of my blog. I asked her to let me know if there was ever anything she was uncomfortable with me blogging and she never has.

It is important to remain a professional at all times and never give away the identity of your students. However, just remember that there is great opportunity on the positive side. I've gotten over $80,000 worth of grant money in the form of software and services from companies who believe in what I'm doing that have benefited my students!

There is an incredible benefit including the new students that have come to the school because they are particularly impressed with our technology program. Parents expect technological excellence and you can be proof of that.

As long as you keep private internal issues and don't air your "dirty laundry" you should be fine, however, I've been completely open with my administrators from day one. There is a lot of fear out there and I think it is unfounded IF teachers learn to blog as professionals."

Labels: blogging

"What is your favorite Web 2.0 tool that you are using in class right now. Share your grade level and location."

Labels: twitterpoll

Top 100 > Tweeterboard : Conversation Analytics for Twitter via kwout

"I don't even know what that means."

coolcatteacher Twitterpoll: Where are you from and what do you do? For a blog post I'm working on. Respond @coolcatteacher in your response. 06:35 PM January 17, 2008 from web

coolcatteacher OK, everyone, I'm trying to get my editor friend @ellenu 100 friends -- we have 10 more to go. She's doing an article on building community 06:09 PM January 17, 2008 from web

• I check it to see "breaking news" -- Believe it or not I found out about the Virginia Tech Shootings There from @andycarvin
  
  
• To find people to help me test new Web 2.0 tools for the classroom - There is a alot of vaporware out there... I'm not going to use anything in my classroom unless it is safe, it works, and meets an objective of mine. (I like it when its fun too.)
  
  
• To Uncover Great Stories - Sometimes I do freelance work and I use it to find the "stories" of teachers and educators who deserve to be heard but might not have been in the news yet.
  
  
• To Tap in the Power of the "Network" - If I have a big problem and need a solution, if I twitter it, I'll have an answer in seconds.
  
  
• To demonstrate the Power of the Network - I use this to demonstrate by asking the people in my network to shout out where they are from.
  
  
• To let people know what I'm doing. I use twitterfeed to stick in blog posts (and I send my twitter updates to my facebook account to update my status there as well using a facebook app for twitter since facebook is blocked at school.)
  
  
• To help others do these same things and share.
  
  
• To get a good laugh (like the joke from Riptide_Furse last night about TechCrunch's top 10 telephone tricks.)
  
  7 Tips for Using Twitter Wisely

1. Get Snitter
   When you do, click options and set as I've done on the right (except for the pink!!)
   
2. I am a big believer in the Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity Model -- I usually check twitter in the morning and at night when I'm blogging.
   
3. I set direct message to text me on my cell phone. This gives my network a fast way to encourage me and reach me if I can help. In fact, this past summer when my grandmother died, my friends direct messaged me and I received texts on my cell phone at the funeral. It really meant a lot!
4. Understand that Twitter is a lot like going to a conference. Twitter is full of "happy accidents" and chance meetings. Most of us don't read every general twitter.
5. I read all of my @coolcatteacher replies
   If someone takes the time to reply to me, I will read it and usually respond. It is faster than e-mail and shorter too because I'm limited to 140 characters. There is a trick to this.
   
   To do this, go to your twitter home page, click Replies and settings and make it look like this below. (That way if someone is not your friend you can still see their reply.)
   
   
6. I respect the direct messages and keep them private.
   Several people responded over direct message for the twitter poll, however, that is private to me so I only included the public messages below. It is how I send my e-mail or other private info to others. (Doggone it twitter, alphabetize that thing.)
7. Focus on the people. It is not about the technology but the people that technology allows me to connect with. It is about network and PEOPLE. Twitter is efficient, easy, light, and useful. Although MacWorld took the service completely offline a few times this week, its still a great service. I believe in teaching and learning effective technopersonal skills and twitter is one thing I do every day.
   
   

"In their current incarnation, social network sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace should not be integrated directly into the classroom. That said, they provide youth with a valuable networked public space to gather with their peers."

1. Separate from their entrenched personal social networks and
2. Free from contextual advertising.

"I have yet to hear a compelling argument for why social network sites (or networking ones) should be used in the classroom."

"I get it now, I see why they like Facebook."

Labels: trends

If you were Cool Cat Teacher for a day... what would you say?

1. Offer advice on how to get it better
   
2. Post it on my blog
   
3. Include an excerpt in an upcoming blog post
   

Labels: blogging

"The second annual Education Blogosphere Survey is now open for business! 4 screens. 25 questions."

• Percentage in my organization who actively read/ write blogs -- 10% now, at the end of the month it will grow -- actually our private Ning is doing that all on its own.

• Technorati Authority: 529
  
  (it was almost 700 before Christmas, but that is what happens when you don't blog for two weeks -- be careful if you focus too much on these numbers, you'll not have a life!)
  
  
• Technorati Rank - 7725 (before christmas in the 4,000 -- again, ditto)
  
  
• Number of technorati Blog Reactions: 2522
  
  
• Subscribers: 2142 (that I know of -- I have 6 feeds and 5 of them only show me numbers for bloglines.)
  
  
• How many feeds in my aggregator: 131
  
  
• My favorite post on my own blog: The frontier of education: Web 3D
  
  
• Favorite post on someone else's blog: I guess it's Time to Blog --
  
  Darren Draper's first blog post because it is the first time I realized that I could really make a difference. Darren has brought so much to the blogosphere and there are thousands of Vicki Davises and Darren Drapers out there just waiting for some encouragement. I'm not the only one who encouraged him to come on board, mind you, but I was part of it.
  
  
• Favorite education website: http://edtechtalk.com
  
  
• Favorite Technology tool (besides your blog) http://wikispaces.com

• Who do you primarily credit with encouraging you to blog? David Warlick, who answered my "dumb" first question like a gentlemen and treated me with respect when it was obvious I was ignorant about Web 2.0. Without him, I wouldn't be blogging.
  
  
• What is your favorite podcast? Women of Web 2 (of course) but if I had to pick another it would be This Week in Technology with Leo LaPorte -- he has been someone I've learned from since he started on TechTV.
  
  
• What is your Blog Birthday? December 1, 2005 with the first post dated December 8, 2005.
  
  
• How long did it take you after you heard about blogs to start blogging? 3 days
  
  
• What RSS reader do you use? Google Reader
  
  
• What other Web 2.0 technologies do you use DAILY? twitter, wikis, Technorati, Google Docs, Skype, Delicious
  
  
• If you could change one thing about the edublogosphere, what would it be?
  
  I would wish that those people who READ but don't blog feel like a part of things and know that they have a voice.
  
  
• What do you wish you could tell everyone about the edublogosphere?
  
  My favorite thing about blogging is the COMMENTS. I live for them, breathe for them, hope for them. Comments tell me what to change and how I should think differently. I love it when someone makes me say, "Hey, I need to rethink that" or has a well thought out contrast. I trust people who see different perspectives and are willing to tell me what they think.
  
  I also think that sometimes there is a need to e-mail someone privately instead of humiliating them publicly. If I misspell a word, I would rather someone send me an e-mail or do a comment (and say don't publish this) so I can fix it, because when we blog often it is done quickly and sometimes things slip through. Those are the times I feel like quitting b/c I am a perfectionist and it hurts when I screw up. But hey, I'm human and I'm a blogger.
  
  
• What do you wish you could eradicate in the blogosphere?
  
  Death threats and profanity. Small minds think that they can intimidate voices into being quiet. I am still missing Kathy Sierra terribly and wish she'd give us all a present and come back during 2008.
  
  As recently as last December I received a death threat as well as some comments akin to those sent to Kathy calling me derogatory names and filled with sexual perversion. I wish there was a prefilter before it got to my premoderation or a "spam capture" or "smut capture" with automatic e-mail sent to the person who does it as well as a log of their IP address done automatically. These are a distraction and when they get back to my family, it makes them want me to quit.
  
  
• What is one thing you would say to bloggers?
  
  It is hard to keep blogging. Know WHY you do it. Know WHAT it is you are trying to accomplish. BELIEVE in your own voice.
  
  DO NOT GET HUNG UP ON THE NUMBERS. Numbers come and go, but dependable, honest, people will always have a place in the edublogosphere.
  
  If you have some enemies it means you're doing something worth doing... you're not a THREAT if you're doing NOTHING... a slug is a threat to nooone.
  
  Remember it is about CONVERSATION -- none of us is a lone voice in the wilderness... be a part of it... comment on blogs with meaningful comments, welcome newcomers, help newbies. Comment on your own blog to converse back. (I'm behind on my own comments.)
  
  Be careful about ADVERTISING, context sensitive advertising seems attractive but often doesn't pay like you might think. Some ads might come up that will hurt your message. A good name is worth more than great riches and you may find that the freelance work is far great than any advertising $ you may get. People need to know if it appears on your site that it passes muster with YOU.
  
  Have FUN. If it isn't fun, QUIT!
  
  If you're a teacher, don't blog because it will get you out of the classroom... you may find that you turned your back on the only SHANGRI LA you've ever known.
  
  Be a professional. Don't call NAMES don't be unkind. There is a right way to disagree and a wrong way. Model what we want our future to be.
  
  

Labels: blogging

Dangerously Irrelevant: Convergent v. divergent thinking in K-12 schools via kwout

Labels: creativity, education

A Teacher's Life via kwout

• At home, you snag a picture of a web page and post it in a place for your students to see. (It might be a "blocked" site but you could use the graphic in this way (unless kwout is blocked).)
• You can use it to create posts about best practices with copies of the web page.

Labels: tools

Labels: ethics

Please join us Tuesday night at 9 PM EST, 8 PM CST, etc. at ETT as we have a lively conversation about the importance of New Media Literacies and addressing the “digital discrepancies” that comes with socioeconomic status in our societies.

Labels: WOW2

"The Jekyll and Hyde nature of school acceptable use policies is tolerated by many, ignored by most. We are willing to suffer the monster at the perceived benefits of the good doctor."

1. I think the answer lies in a couple of things... vendors awareness of these issues and the providing of social networks, wikis, blogs with sharable text-related clip art along with our textbook subscriptions (since we'll be using e-books soon enough anyway.) IT is about the NETWORK, textbook companies. THE NETWORK!
   
   
2. More user friendly and accurate creative commons searching along with citation generating plug ins for our firefox (or any) web browsers.
   
   
3. Some sort of image/ link checking program for classrooms to run on their websites. This would be amazing. Automate it, check and and e-mail it to me. A turnitin.com for wikis and blogs.
   
   
4. Automated citation building wikis and blogs that extract the links from the blog or wiki page and automatically post the citations in the proper format at the bottom of the page.
   
   
5. Standards for citations on web pages and photographs to make it happen (through the use of hidden META tags or something of the nature -- it will take this to make #3 and #4 happen.)
   
   
6. We promote filters that allow Ad Hoc Content Filtration. (I still believe this!)
   
   
7. The edublogosphere to discuss what would help these problems and actively promote change.
   

• Being able to effectively synopsis your thoughts in 140 characters requires higher order thinking
• It is is more inclusive of those with lower bandwidth capabilities or do not have computers (they can use cell phones)
• Contributions can be made "on the go" (via cell phone)
• It would potentially allow a greater number of people to participate

"Our efforts should not be to integrate technology into the classroom, but to define and facilitate a new platform on which the classroom operates. When the platform is confined by classroom walls, and learning experiences spring from static textbooks and labored-over white boards, and the learning is highly prescribed, then pedagogy is required.

However, if the platform is a node on the global network; with text, audio, and video links to other uncountable nodes on the network; and the connections are real time and clickable, and tools are available to work and employ the content that flows through those connections; then the learning happens because learners have experienced personal connections — and they want to maintain those connections by feeding back their own value."

"This item captures what will be theme in the year to come, the Flash-memory based computer (and associated computing devices). I even say a card today on which you attach various components - video camera, touch screen, etc., and build our own Flash-based computer on the fly. As Seb Schmoller says, the OLPC was just the beginning."

Labels: technology

"My classroom is beginning to look more like a mish mash each day rather then a coherent arrangement of technology. I used to dream of the day when I would have 20 new white iBooks to work with. All of the students connected and sitting prettily behind their clean new boxes. Now I have two old desktops (2 others have died this year), the one tiny Asus laptop ( still waiting on my other 10), eight students who bring their own laptops from home in a rainbow of Dell, Gateway, Toshiba and Sony colours, as well as two students who now realize they can use their new iPods they got for Christmas as more then containers for music. We are still living in the days of no cell phone service here (although rumours abound of its impending arrival in the spring....) or I'm sure I would have them in class as well. The point is just that the kids and I are both realizing more each day that the technology is just a channel, a pipe, a point of access to what is really important; the connection, the information, the people out there."

"I am looking to get a device of some type in as many students' hands as possible. Since many applications are moving to the Web, and there seems to be wireless Internet access in many places in our schools and communities, I am looking at the low-cost devices such as the Asus EeePC and the upcoming Everex Cloudbook."

"When it comes to instructional technology, we really do worry too much about this box or that one.

In most of our high schools, where there are too few computers for students to use, iPods, cell phones, and personal laptops are banned, thus eliminating many potential learning tools from the classroom.

Instead of narrowing our focus to specific boxes, we need to use whatever tools are available to give our kids connectivity, enhance learning and get the job done."

1. Finding devices to allow students ACCESS
2. Using the best device to fit the CURRICULAR purpose (although in an ideal world, having cloned devices is ideal, it may become less possible)
3. Controlling and restricting BEHAVIOR versus device
4. Being willing to CHANGE

Labels: productivity

Labels: blogging