T&L in a Networked Enviornme - Recently Updated Pages

May 4-10

Torchgirl — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:33:52 CDT

How does assessment change in the networked classroom?

(From last November but still relevent)
This week I am in Kuala Lumpur at the EARCOS Administrators' conference. I've finished 4 presentations and have two more to do tomorrow. As always I've been playing with new tools, new ways of learning, and new ways to support teachers and administrators in this new networked work.

This week I've been playing with the new site called ustream.tv. All you need is an internet connect and a web cam and you can create your own TV channel on the Internet. So I've been streaming my presentations in real time over the Internet to anyone who cared to watch. During my session yesterday I went to my Twitter network and posted that I was "going live" with ustream. In no time at all 40 people were watching me from around the world...with only about 15 people sitting in front of me....talk about a strange feeling when there are more people watching you on the Internet then are in real life in front of you.

The best part about ustream.tv is that it records all your episodes. So you can easily copy and paste some coding and embed them into any web page you chose. So if you head over to my handout wiki where I keep all the notes for my sessions you can view my presentation and follow along with the notes.

I've had really good turn outs for most of my sessions. It's great to see principals, superintendents, and board members coming to these sessions and wanting to learn how school changes in a networked environment. I think people are starting to feel the pressure. Either you are going to be a networked 1:1 school or you're going to be left behind. It is a tool, a tool that our students already use to learn, want to use to learn, and we're not allowing them to use because we don't 'get it'. I kept stressing to the admin today that you do not need to know it all, you just need to know where to go to find the answers! And that is how a networked classroom changes. We teach students to find answers, to locate information, and to make meaning of that information on their own.

The 5th graders at our school just finished a "Tribes of the World" project. I saw an opportunity to catch learning in action. I ran up to my office, grabbed my iPod and mic and proceeded to capture learning.

Take a listen to the podcast and be thinking about these questions:

1. How could you use this for assessment?
2. Listening to the parents what skills are they saying are important for students to learn? Are we teaching those skills?
3. Could you do something similar to assess an assignment or project in your room?

How does assessment change in the networked classroom? What is it that is important to learn? How do you assess skills through content?

Take some time on this one. Let it role around in your brain a little. I still struggle with it...so it's OK for you to struggle with it too.

Siemens: Pages 123-145
Google Reader

Assignments:

Blog Topics
- Assessment
- Topic of your choice

A Tour of Second Life

Let's set a time for our second life tour. Let's plan to meet "In World" on Sunday May 18th, 8:00pm EDT (That's 8:00am Monday Shanghai time).

Here's what you need to do to prepare:

1. Sign up for a Second Life account on the Second Life website (Free)
2. Download Second Life to your computer (Works on both Mac and Windows XP)
3. Watch the videos below to learn more about getting started with Second Life
4. Post your Avatars name below
5. For the class meet me at ISTE Island. Once you have downloaded the software and things are working visit the ISTE website and click on the link to take you to ISTE Island. Don't worry as long as I have your SL name I can bring you along!

Second Life Names (add your name here once you have it):
Utes Torok a.k.a. Jeff Utecht
Evelyn Zeimer a.k.a. Kim Tufts
Sherry Dawner a.k.a. Sherry Hegstrom
Patti Laks a.k.a. Patti Sullivan

Getting Started with Second Life Part 1

April 27-May 3

Torchgirl — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:47:08 CDT

How does teaching change in the networked classroom?

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(The following is from last October but I think still relevent to this topic)
I have an interesting week coming up. Monday I am giving a 45 minute presentation to our high school students on Internet Safety. Of course with HS students you can't call it Internet Safety...so I've decided to take a positive approach and call it "Creating your online profile". We're going to take 45 minutes and look at how what you post online does in fact create your digital profile. Whether it is facebook, youtube, or search history. Anything and everything you do on the internet is kept some where....and students just don't get that.

After the 45 minute presentation I then spend the rest of Monday and Tuesday going class by class and talking with students on a more intimate level. I'm struggling with how do you talk to students in their world? You know they are going to be looking at me going "Yeah, we know this Jeff!".....could be my toughest crowd to date.

In my research for the presentation though I did come across some great stuff about what is happening out there in the "real world." How universities are using Facebook and Myspace and doing Google Searches on incoming students. Here are some links if you are interested.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22093513-26040,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2006-03-08-athletes-websites_x.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TakeControlOfYourLife/Story?id=3171218&page=1
http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSN0224087420070806

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So what does all of this have to do with teaching in a new network space?

The last two weeks you have seen a glimpse of how I think teaching changes in the classroom. I hope you have enjoyed reviewing some of the material created over the last two years at the K12onlineconference.org. You have been a learner in a network space. Over 40 people from every corner of the world coming together to create digital content. Digital content that will forever be available to people connected to the Internet.

In a networked world, anyone and everyone becomes teachers. You no longer need to know it all, you just need to know where to go to find the information you need to teach. Are teachers doing this? Are teachers learning to use the networked information to teach in their classrooms? Why or why not?

As I prepare for Monday's presentation for the students I can't help to think that what if teachers were teaching how to use the space. If students were learning that adding content to the Internet can and is a good thing. That using information from the Internet is a good thing...but that "With great power, comes great responsibility." ~Spiderman (My favorite line for students)

Podcasts and frustrations

Many of you have experienced frustrations with creating and uploading a podcast assignment. Let me say that all I expect is that before this class finishes that you have a podcast linked to your blog so you have time to try and figure it out.

And figure it out you must. :) I gave very little direction for how to create a podcast...and I did it on purpose (I know I'm mean!). What I want to do is push you to learn something new. To work on your searching and acquire new skills on your own. Sure I could have created a video for you, could have given you all the information and walked you through step by step on how to do it. But what would you have learned? How to follow directions?

Teaching in a networked environment means allowing people to create their own knowledge. Allowing them to find the information they need and create meaning from it. Creating a podcast isn't easy and it takes time to learn all the little steps needed to create and publish a podcast. But once you learn it...it becomes a powerful tool.

Siemens: Pages 115-122
Google Reader
K12online conference presentations

Assignment

Blog Topics

Teaching in a new networked world
Your choice

Looking long term: Mark your calendar

I ask that you work on your collaborative wiki project just one more week. I don't even know what you are doing or where you are doing it at...but I'm excited to see what you have created. Can someone post the link here: http://etwb.wetpaint.com/

Second Life:
Sunday May 18th at 8pm EST a tour of Second Life
We'll spend about 90 minutes touring Second Life. Please make sure you have downloaded the program and created a free account at secondlife.com before this time. There are loads of tutorials all around the web to help you get started. Don't worry about walking or flying...we'll learn that when we get there. Make sure you add me as a friend my SL name is Utes Torok.

Live Final Podcast via Skype
Saturday May 24th at 8pm EST a live Podcast on On Deck (be online on Skype at 7:30 for set up and pre-show)
Instead of having a guess speaker for the class this time, I thought I'd try something new (always trying something new) I thought we could do a live podcast on my On Deck network www.thethinkingstick.com/ondeck I think this will be a great way to wind up the class, have one last meeting via Skype as a whole class and discuss what's ever on your mind. We'll have a live audience so it should be interesting. We'll go for about an hour or until we run out of things to say (which I never do as my wife always reminds me :) ) Don't worry I'll do all the recording and stuff from my end...you just need to be on Skype and ready to go!

If anyone has issues with these dates please let me know soon so we can make sure everyone is there. Thanks!

May 25-31

jutecht — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:33:07 CDT

Final Thoughts

Well we made it. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It's the toughest part about living overseas, not being with family during the holidays. We do have a great friend network here though, so a bunch of us got together ordered a Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pumpkin pie from a catering company (yes that's how you do Thanksgiving in China!) and had a wonderful time together.

Jeff's final reflection here:

Yesterday on The Thinking Stick I created an ad for New-Schools based off an ad I read in a Men's Health magazine (Yes, my mind is always on education!) I share this with you as my parting wisdom of where I feel the networked classroom of the future will take us:

SOON, EVERYTHING WILL START TO CLICK. There’s a reason the new school clicks with so many people. It’s supposed to. Throughout the school, you’ll notice an uncanny familiarity to your life beyond the walls.
Consider, if you will, the new classroom that comes standard. It’s engineered with more than students in mind. The push-button world has been taken into account. The multi-tasking tendencies of modern society have been duly noted. The result is a classroom that doubles as a remote control for the rest of the education system. And that means instant access to everything from 3D maps to over 700 voice-activated information sources.
Every resource is selected in anticipation of your every need within the school. And every one of them is arranged precisely in relation to your needs within the class. Which means greater accessibility. More flexibility. And independent control without leaving a classroom.
It may become your next essential modern learning device. That’s the goal, really. To deliver the kind of school that becomes indispensable. Quintessential. Absolute. Human. The all-new school. More spacious, more luxurious, more complete and unique, from those who know it best. Teachers.

Course Evaluation:

Your last post for the course is a reflection. PSU is asking that you fill out this form and e-mail it to medk12comptech@plymouth.edu. I encourage you to give both PSU and myself feedback on this course. This is the second time this course has been offered and both PSU and I need to know A) Is it worth offering and B) What can I do to improve the course. I am teaching this course if it is offered again. So please take some time to fill out this form and e-mail it in. I hope this evaluation will also help you in your own reflection post of what you learned and your thoughts about the journey we took these past 12 weeks.

Blog Topics:

Course Reflections
Topic of your choice

Thank you all for the conversations. You have my Skype ID, my e-mail. Please feel free to contact me if you need ANYTHING.

Thank you all for the journey!

Jeff Utecht
www.jeffutecht.com
www.thethinkingstick.com
www.utechtips.com
www.techlearning.com/blog

May 11-17

jutecht — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:31:40 CDT

A one-to-one ubiquitous classroom?

That is every child has a laptop.

Different people have different stances on how to go 1:1. Do you have the students buy the laptops, does the school buy the laptop, or does the state (like in Maine) buy the laptops. There is one thing most agree on, that is that the computer is a new tool that we need to be using. We need to allow students to use this tool in their learning. They are already using it to learn, we're just slowly adopting it in schools. With programs like the One Laptop Per Child program just getting started could the computer be the equlizer for the world?

Here's my thoughts on the subject (if you care :) ). I believe that each child starting in 4th grade should have their own laptop. That this laptop, in a perfect world, would belong to them, it is a personal extension of their schooling. Just like the PeeChee of old. We all had to buy the PeeChee but it did not take us long to customize that PeeChee to our liking. Whether is was drawing on it, putting our name on it, adding stickers, or throughout the school year adding notes to it. I was ours...it was personal.

Students today feel the same way about computers. I encourage you to watch the next time a student goes to the computer lab, or takes out a school owned laptop. The first thing they do is customize it to their liking. Change the desktop picture, change icons, the way the mouse works, etc. They personalize it, they see it as their machine.

Schools such as mine struggle with this. Each time a student takes out one of the laptops from the cart they change something, soon things are moved to places that they can't find it. We tell the students again and again not to change any of the settings, but to them, it's what you do. You customize it.

This is why I strongly believe the laptops have to be owned by the students. They need that personal ownership that allows them to customize it so it works the way it needs to work for that student. We all like different colors, like different ways things look and feel and for this generation that also means the computer.

I believe that if schools are not thinking of going 1:1 at this point in history, then they will soon become extinct. Especially in the high school and middle school where so many of our students already use the Internet and computers on a daily bases. When our students come to school they have to 'disconnect' from their learning networks. Facebook, msn messanger, etc are where they learn. Where they connect with others, and when they go home it's the first place they turn to for help with assignments.

How many of your students check out a book for research before checking the Internet? How many are watching more YouTube videos than TV? Education is behind, we no longer engage our students in the manner in which they learn. Have a watch of this video from The Fischbowl:

April 20-26

jutecht — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:31:18 CDT

How does a network classroom and Web 2.0 tools change Professional Development?

Personal Learning Networks

As we head into the 8th week of this course I want you to start thinking about the Personal Learning Network (PLN) you have started to form using your Google Reader.

On page 81 Siemens talks about pace of knowledge development today and how we just can't keep up. As the half-life of knowledge continues to decrease and the amount of knowledge known to us continues to increase we cause a gap of what we know, what we think we know, and what we think we should know. Let's apply that to our students.

What should they know?
What do we think they know?
What do they need to know?

The problem with these questions is the answers are based off of what WE know. What we were taught and what we were told we would need to be successful in this world....but knowledge has changed, the world has changed, the pace of knowing has changed...do we still need to know what we know or do we need to know something different?

Confused? Me too!

A personal learning network is a network that you create that gives you the knowledge and understanding that you need and want. Your Google Reader is the start to your PLN. It is your path way into the network of knowledge. You read, respond, follow links, read more, and expand your knowledge on a given subject. I gave you a starting point for your PLN but my hope is you will continue to customize it over the coming months/years so that it fits your needs. Some of you have already started. Twitter is another network for learning...a weird one, but a network all the same. Actually I'm trying to fomulate my own blog posts about Twitter as an RSS reader. If you are like me (and from your blog entires some of you are) you find more links in Twitter then you do in your Google Reader.

Your PLN is your pathway to the information you want in a information overload world. You can waste a lot of time looking for information. By creating your PLN you start to cut through the info you don't want and focus in on what you do want.

What does this mean for our students? They already know the power of a PLN. Facebook and Myspace are two examples of sites our students today use to create their PLN. They learn from each other in these spaces, follow each other, and read what they want to read and learn what they want to learn. How do we take this powerful learning tool and use it in our school?

What if every student had a RSS reader? What if it was manditory at your school? What if each teacher gave students feeds to sites they wanted them to follow? Could you use this in a classroom? Would it be interesting to students? Could you help students cut through the information maze and help them focus on what was important for your class?

One teacher at my school last year did just this. He was a 5th grade teacher who set each student up with a netvibes account (another RSS reader) He then gave students blogs and websites to read based on what they were studying. As their topics in the class changed, so did the feeds in the student's RSS readers. After awhile the students started adding their own feeds, reading and learning about stuff that interest them, writing about it on their blogs, and learning on their own.....let me say that again LEARNING ON THEIR OWN.

Isn't that what we want? In an world were the half life of knowledge is roughly 3 years how important is the knowledge we give our students?

Netvibes (which I love and use) has just released a new verision that has what they call a "Universe" basically a way to make some of your feeds and information public. I just complited setting my universe up at www.netvibes.com/jutecht and I set one up for our school www.netvibes.com/saschina you can read my blog post about it here.

One of my favorite principles of connectivism is "The capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known." (pg. 31)

That's it for me.....we must continue to learn, we must teach our students to not just aquire knowledge but to seek it out, expand on it and learn more. One way to do that is to create a PLN around what you want to know, and continue to learn!

This week is also Screen Free week. My wife is the elementary school counselor and she does this with the students at our school, so I participate as well. The last two years I wasn't looking forward to putting down the computer, turning off the TV for 7 days outside of work and having to fill my time with other activities. We don't realize how much screen time we have until we voluntarally give it up for a week. So I'll taking this week off. I'll play the guitar more, and read two books that I have. Here Comes Everybody and Wisdom of the Crowds (audio). I'm looking forward to having an excuse to read these books and spend time off the computer. If you decide to do the same.....good on ya! :)

Siemens: Pages 103-114
Richardson: Ch. 9
K12onlineconference.org
Find Current Reading

Assignments:

Blog Topics

Web 2.0
Personal Learning Networks

April 6-12

shegstrom — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:06:14 CDT

Podcasting

Please listen to this podcast for this week.

After reading Richardson Chapter 8 on podcasting take some time to listen to some podcasts. Do some learning on your own and see if you can produce your very own podcast. It's not hard, basically talking into a microphone, your thoughts, your ideas. If you are using a Mac I recommend GarageBand (Comes free on your mac) if you are on a PC I recommend using Audacity.

You can do a search on youtube.com to find videos that will walk you through both programs. Or search google for text based tutorials. When you have completed your podcast you will have to find a podcasting service to upload them too.

www.archive.org and podomatic.com are two that people have used before.

This week I'm giving you very little guiance on purpose. I want you to go out there and learn how to learn. Can you search and find the information you need? Can you learn a new program? Where are you going to look for help?

Creating a podcast is a three step process:

1. Record the audio file (you choose! Can you be you interviewing someone, or you just talking about something random, or about this class. You could record a lesson you do at school or record students talking.)
2. Upload the audio file (must be in mp3 format) to the web using some sort of podcast or file hosting service
3. Link the audio file to your blog turning an audio file into a podcasat (It only becomes a podcast when you share it with the world!)

Please note that the do date for this is the end of the course....for some this might be a HUGE learning curve. Take your time, learn something new, and do it right. :)

Good Luck here are some good podcasts to get you started. If you use iTunes you can search for more on your own.

http://www.thethinkingstick.com/ondeck
http://davidwarlick.com/connectlearning/
http://academicaesthetic.com/
http://edtechtalk.com/ (A collection of great educational podcasts)
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/

At the end of the course we will all come together via Skype and podcast a conversation about this course, what you have learned, and where you plan to go from here. So be thinking about that. It will be in our final weeks of the course. I'll arrange a time that hopefully will work for all. What's better for you?

Morning?

Night? Weeknights work well for Patti... (Me too.. after 7 or 8 - Kim)X Me too Sherry.

Weekend?

Weekday?

Feel free to click the Easy Edit button and put an X next to an option above.

Richardson Ch. 8
Siemens: Pages 67-78
Listen and subscribe to educational podcasts
Find Current Reading

Assignments:

Create a podcast
Blog Topics

Podcasting
Topic of your choice

April 13-19

jutecht — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:51:48 CDT

K12online Conference

http://www.k12onlineconference.org

Take some time this week to watch or listen to some of the sessions. Take part in the conference by leaving comments on the conference blog or writing a reflective blog post after watching a session. Make sure you link back to the conference blog and label (tag) your blog post with k12online07 and k12online2007. Those are the two tags for the conference.

The K12online conference is a free conference put on by a couple of educational bloggers that has become highly successfull with some amazing information being shared freely on the Internet. Take this week to scan through over 100 video and audio presentations that you can download and watch or stream live from the web. Even though this conference was 6 months ago now the content is always available to learn from. An amazing conference that you'll want to put on your calendar for next year! Free from the confort of your own home..what a great way to learn.

Start collabertive project
These internet tools are great for creating collabertive projects. And wikis are the perfect tool to learn/practice collaberativing with other teachers. Over the next 3 or 4 weeks I would like the three of you to work together to create a site (or part of a site) that deals with the theories and tools we have been discussiong so far and as we move forward. I'm leaving this VERY open and want the three of you to be creative and create something that you can use in your classes. A coolbertive site that lists tools, that talks about standards for your area, etc. You decide how you want to organize it and how you want to commumicate as a group.

Why are you doing this? As we start using these open coolbertive tools with other classrooms around the world it helps to understand how to work together around and with these tools. I have four projects I'm helping to support right now with teachers from American, Thailand, and Korea and teachers here at my school. Learning how the tools work and the best way to communicate around them are skills I want you to reflect on for this project. Please pass along the link to the site once you have all agreed where to 'build' your project.

Readings and Assignments:

Siemens: 79-102
Watch at least two sessions from the k12online Conference
Blog Topics

Reflect on sessions from k12online
Reflect on sessions from k12online

March 16-22

Torchgirl — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:41:27 CDT

Blogging and conversations

Last week you had your first two blog posts. Blogging is, at its roots, a conversation between you and whoever else decides to read your thoughts. You will notice that I only give you topics and not questions or an outline to follow. That is because blogging is a reflective act, and only you can decide what "School 2.0" means. What thoughts does it provoke in you and what do you think of the whole 2.0 movement. Now that you have your RSS reader (Google Reader) set up I encourage you to start making a habit to at least once a week read entries from other bloggers or even visit their blogs to leave comments or search the term School 2.0. I hope that you find blogging a worthwhile activity in these coming weeks, and like me make it a part of your daily/weekly Professional Development.

We'll slow the pace down this week. No new tools, take some time to get your feet under you, do some reading, some reflecting and find your routine.

Blogging is about conversations, conversations in an open format. What makes blogging different then journaling is the ability to link to the information you are talking about. I encourage you to link anything and everything you talk about that is linkable. The web is smart, it tracks links to and from other web sites.

This is how we connect ideas and thoughts. So for example this week when you blog about connectivism I suggest you link to George Siemen's site on connectivism or his blog.....where you link is up to you. The important part is linking the information together. Again, make sure you have added the other two students (love having a small class of 3 this quarter) to your RSS reader so that you can follow and comment on their thoughts on this course as we move ahead.

Readings:

Richardson: Ch 2,3
Siemens: Pages 25-48
Blogs (Your Google Reader)

Assignments:

Blog Topics

Connectivism (Siemens' Theory of Knowledge)
Your view on what blogs are

March 9-15

Torchgirl — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:35:51 CDT

Why all the fuss?

What is it with all the geeks today making a stink about how technology is changing our world? Why all of a sudden do we HAVE to be teaching With (big word there) technology?

Before I continue I would like you to watch this 8 minute video created by a Technology Coordinator out of Colorado. This video has a great story. The short version is he created it in August of 2006 to show all the teachers in his district at the start of the school year. A year and a half later, the PowerPoint that he created has been viewed over 5 million times and has been continually updated with the latest information. Karl Fisch is the creator and I encourage you to add his blog The Fisch Bowl to your RSS reader if you don't already have it.

March 23-29

KimTufts — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:23:10 CDT

RSS, Social Bookmarking, and Media Sharing

Follow me at EARCOS
FYI: It's my Spring Break this week and I will be in Kuala Lumpur doing presentations at the EARCOS Teachers conference. Just know that I'll be out this week if you are looking for help...try your network. :)

That being said if you have time you can follow me throughout the conference as I plan to stream my presentations live on the Internet. You can check my blog for more details. Also, handouts for all four of my sessions can be found here. http://thinkingstick.wikispaces.com/EARCOS08 This is another wiki site called wikispaces. I like wetpaint better, but it's blocked in China :( so I have to use wikispaces to get any work done. Hopefully once I move to Bangkok next year I can move all this content over to wetpaint. I'll be on twitter most of the conference so be looking for updates there on what I'm doing. OK...now back to your regularly scheduled course. :)

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Google Spreadsheet
You should have received an e-mail from me with a link to a Google Spreadsheet that is your 'grade sheet' for this course. This is where I will write down the assignments as you complete them. If you have not received this link or you would like it at a different e-mail address please e-mail me and I'll send it where ever you want it. :)

Google is an amazing program. Seeing that you have a Google account already I strongly suggest that you play around with Google Docs. You can upload any Word or Excel to Google Docs and then edit them there or even share them with others. Others can either be viewers (like you are to your grade sheet) or Contributors where they can add and change the document. Google has also just added Google presentation which I haven't had a chance to play with yet but from what I hear it's pretty good. There is also (released about 4 weeks ago. Google Sites which is suppose to be their wiki. I'm excited about this tool and look forward to playing with it as well.)

So think about this for a minute. A free web based Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and now Presentation software that you take with you where ever you are connected. You can share with whom ever you like collaborate on projects/papers and even publish them when you are finished or download them as a Word or PDF file. How does this extend our teaching? How does this tool alone change a networked classroom? What does this mean for schools who cannot afford the licensing fees of Microsoft. As my wife likes to say "Google is Goog!"

RSS
So you have been playing with your RSS reader (Google Reader) for a couple weeks now. Some of you have posted about it on your blog and how easy it is to use and how it helps you to manage your information. Again what RSS does is change the flow of information. Instead of you going out looking for information...information comes to you in one central location. Again Google as taken this one step further recently by releasing Google Gears. After installing Google Gears you can download your Google Reader to your laptop. Therefore you do not have to be connected to the Internet to read your information. For someone like me that has an hour bus ride to and from work...this just made my ride that much more productive.

RSS is really starting to catch on with other sites besides Blogs. Most newspapers now offer RSS feeds not only for the newspaper but for specific sections to the newspaper. So for example I subscribe to the Seattle PI RSS feed for the Seattle Mariners and only receive updates that deal with the M's and not the whole paper. Think of the trees I'm saving...and the fact this is where I usually go anyway when I pick up a newspaper. :) In fact...for better or for worse I have not read a hard copy of a newspaper in almost 3 years. But I have a stream of news coming in from different papers all around the world on the topics I'm interested in.

RSS in the Classroom
How can this simple tool also affect the classroom? Let's look at one example of how RSS could help you or your students with a topic. Let's take the topic Global Warming. We're going to use Google (Yes I think they are amazing!) News and do a search for the latest articles from around the world that talk about Global Warming.

Here is what I got:

So now lets look at these results. First the green arrow points to the number of articles that include the words Global Warming. The blue arrow shows from where in the world this news article is coming from, and the red arrow points to the RSS feed.

So think about this for just one second: You have over 29,000 news articles from over 4,500 newspapers around the world (according to Google) and once you do this search and add the RSS to your reader you will be continually updated with the latest news articles from Google's News search. You now have the topic of Global Warming coming from different perspectives around the world. The UK looks at it differently than China than does the US. Think of the conversation you could have in your classroom.....if you really want to stretch this into a High School subject, think about current events and searching for something like War in Iraq. You now have different views of the war from different countries....mind blowing cool if you ask me! Don't forget this is a one time search....add the RSS and the updates come to you!

Social Bookmarking
OK...so let's move on to Social Bookmarking. Delicious del.icio.us (somebody was thinking on that one!) is probably the most popular. I also use Diggo. The nice thing about Diggo is that when you bookmark something with Diigo it will also bookmark it to my delicious bookmarks at the same time. For the purpose of this class we'll be looking at delicious. Will Richardson does a really good job of explaining how these social bookmark serves work and to truly understand them you need to understand tags.

I'm going to encourage you to use tags on your blog posts. Blogger calls them "labels" why? I don't know...the world calls them tags and that is really what they are.

You can see from the picture above that when you add labels to a blog post that they show up at the bottom of your blog post. At the same time there are blogging services that are watching blogs and categorizing these tags. Technorati is probably the most popular. You can go to Technorati and when you put in a search term it looks for all the blog posts with that tag. Now social bookmarks work the same way. When you save a bookmark in delicious you tag it with the words that make sense to you. You can then go to delicious and search for web sites based on what people have tagged. Oh and did I mention each tag comes with an RSS feed! That's right...go to delicious search for the tag "podsafe" and scroll to the bottom and you'll see an RSS feed for that tag. You can now add that to your RSS Reader and find when new sites are found that have music on them that can safely be used on podcasts.

One of the down sides to tags is that there are no rules to tagging. However there are some commonly followed practices...as I see it anyway.

1. Try to put words together...especially names. You should tag anybody's name you use in a post like is: jeffutecht
2. Think of tags as categories and you can use more than one. So if I was going to tag this page I would use. rss, socialbookmarking, mediasites
3. You will find that you will come up with your own tagging system soon...although you'll also find that it will keep expanding...and that's OK. Here is the tags from my blog and that's not all of them...that's just all I could fit on the screen at one time. (BTW jingproject.com is what I use to take pictures of my screen...great program!)

Below is an image of what you see when you are posting a blog with steps (on the image) of how to create a hyperlink. Please remember to hyperlink to anything and everything that is linkable possible (I like that!).

Media Sharing
I'll let you explore and think about the use of these ones on your own. :)

YouTube
TeacherTube
VoiceThread
My Schools YouTube account (Just to see how schools can/are using YouTube)

Oh ya....all of these sites have RSS feeds too. :)

Readings

Google Reader
Richardson: Ch. 5,6,7

Assignments:

Blog Topics

RSS
Social Bookmarking
Media Sharing

Web 2.0 Today

Torchgirl — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:46:54 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Patti's Blog

Torchgirl — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:00:34 CDT

Click here to get to my blog page...
Tried this first, working on deleting folder page

Patti's Profile Page

Torchgirl — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:35:58 CDT

I've just begun taking an online course entitled "Teaching in Networked Classroom" I'm hoping I can collaborate with others to see what they do in their classrooms. We're a lucky school in that we're almost 1-1 in grades 6-8. In addition we have a cart of laptops for each grade level. This works however I feel pretty isolated as I'm the only technology teacher and since the elementary school wasn't making their AYP I've been teaching over there too. It doesn't leave much quality time to reflect on what the heck I'm doing every day.

I'm lucky to say I'm happily married too, to some guy I met in college almost 25 years ago! We have two great sons (okay, they're teenagers and I'm not sure I'll live through these days). This year my husband quit selling stuff and went to work at Brewster Academy. He's trying to build an ice rink up there (or so he says). Anyway, he's a bit closer to education and how powerful quality education can be. They have an incredible technology lab there where I peak in and am amazed. They've been working 1-1 since 1996.

I graduated with a B.S. in Education and taught regular Ed in grades 2, 3, and 6th in a couple districts (with a move in between). I left and worked as a Training Manager for 15 years and a Project Manager for network engineers for a few more before returning to teaching as a Computer Technology Teacher. What I realize is the more I learn, the more I want to learn more.

Blog, blog, blog:

Patti Anne's, Torchgirl's blogs

Sherry Hegstrom

shegstrom — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:06:00 CDT

Hello, By way of introduction, my name is Sherry Hegstrom. I am currently a graduate student at Plymouth State University with an anticipated graduation date of 12/08. I am working towards my M.O.E with a concentration in computer technology education. My goal is to secure a full time position as a computer technology educator within the state of New Hampshire.

I am the mother of two (ages 15 and 11) and have been married for 16 years. Before pursuing my career in education, I was a Unix systems/Technical support engineer for 10 years. I got laid off in 2005, just when I was getting truly tired of my beeper going off at all hours and spending very little time with my family. I decided to try substitute teaching while I looked for my next job, just to find out that it was my next job. I would say that within the first month, I had truly taken to the students and the educational environment. I loved seeing their faces everyday, and I loved the interaction, no matter what the subject matter was or is. I began taking educational courses at a community college in the area and then transferred to Plymouth State last Spring.

Last year I was offered four long term substitute assignments in the content areas of science and technical education. I ended up working as a long term substitute for a total of 5 1/2 months and also taught summer school to 6th - 8th grader's in the content area of earth science. I mention these long term assignments as I had no idea as a short term substitute how much work was involved in being a teacher. I really did think it was 6 1/2 to 7 hour days. I now know that it's actually more like 10. You work weekends to catch up on grading, planning lessons, doing curriculum mapping, finding new and exciting ways to present material and managing your classroom and I love it. It was unfamiliar territory teaching science last year but it only added one more passion I didn't know I had. I love science and do not remember it being so cool when I was in middle school. I have obviously decided to teach what I do and know best, computers. It will always be a part of who I am and I look forward to the day when I have a class of my own where I can share my love of technology. Until that day, I continue to substitute on a daily basis, enjoying the students and varied curriculum. Did I mention I'm still looking for a job? :)

Click on the image below to access my blog.

Kim Tufts Page

KimTufts — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:53:49 CDT

Welcome to my Page!!

I am taking this course (my last official one!! Woo Hoo! ) so I can finish up my Masters of Education with a concentration in Computers and the education certificate. Although, I am already a certified computer teacher K-12 for the State of NH. I work at Gilbert H. Hood Middle School in Derry, NH and teach 6-8th grade. I plan on graduating May 10th.. although we won't be done for a while after that.. and I suspect my Capstone Project might take me into June.. so unofficially I will be done in May!

My newest venture this year was teaching myself HTML coding. Then teaching it to 120 8th graders over the course of this year! I am looking to learn CSS sometime as well as some of the WYSIWYG editors. We teach the 8th graders how to code their own websites by hand to create their eportfolio. They link artifacts to their site and write some reflection pieces. I also am a huge fan of Moodle and use it daily with all of my classes. I love this site (wetpaint), but it is OPEN to the world.. and that is an issue with our school district. Slowly but surely, hopefully it will change.

I have been teaching for almost 3 years now and I love it. I actually put in to teach Math, that was my major in college, but they asked me to teach computers!

I am looking forward to finishing up my degree and who knows what I will do with my free time?? Ha Ha.. There is never enough of that. I am eager to learn more about using web 2.0 tools in my daily classes. I do some, but not a lot right now.. system constraints, etc... We do use Apple computers and I am a huge convert! Hated them at first and now would never go back !

I have a great husband and three great kids.. you can see them on my profile page! Read all about me and my quirks! :)

Hobbies.. just being a TAXI driver most of the time.. bringing my oldest to dance in Londonderry - competitive dancer! and then my other two to hockey practices and games all week long and all weekend long.. I love it though! Can't get enough of their hockey games. Dance competitions are fun too.. but too long! I like to read magazines.. quick things.. and love to read educational things too. I get lost in "web mining" and can't get my self out of the computer sometimes. Check out my links on my profile page. I added my link to my delicious account..... Beware.. it is not very organized! :)

Look forward to working with all of you in this class. Kim

CLICK BELOW TO GET TO MY BLOG:
http://hockeymomblog.blogspot.com/

Twitter web address:
http://twitter.com/kimtufts

Skype Call sign up

Torchgirl — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:55:49 CST

Sign up for a time when we can chat via Skype. I will be helping you to set up your RSS reader, learn how to subscribe to blogs, and just get to know you and what you hope to get from this course. If you want to add me as a contact to your Skype, my Skype ID is jeffdaneah.

Please know that I am in Shanghai China which is GMT +8. Or 13 hours ahead of EDT (Until Daylight Savings...then 12)

If none of these times work for you please contact me via e-mail and we will find a time that works. (All Times EST)

Time (EST)	Name	Skype ID
March 3, 8pm-9pm	Kim Tufts	KimTufts
March 4, 8am-9am
March 4, 10am-11am
March 5, 8am-9am
March 5, 9am-10am
March 6, 7pm-8pm	Sherry Hegstrom	shegstrom
March 6, 8pm-9pm	Patti Sullivan	torchgirl

Grading

jutecht — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:12:23 CST

Blog Assessment: 30% of final grade

You are required to have 30 Blog entries by the end of the course. There are 22 blog entires built into the schedule which gives you 8 extra ones that you need to complete at some point on a topic of your choice that deals with the material being covered in this course.

Blogging is different than writing papers. It's more casual, more personal. I encourage you to spend some time reading edublogs (Your Google Reader) to get a feel for how others write and reflect on their learning. The most important part of blogging is remembering to link to your sources. If you reflect on class readings remember to create a hyperlink to the web site where the book can be either downloaded or bought. If you talk/reflect about something someone else wrote make sure you hyperlink to their blog. Without hyperlinks blogging is just writing. With hyperlinks blogs become conversations. (You can read this article I wrote for more about conversations and blogging)

Blog Comments: 10% of final grade

Blogging is nothing without comments. You are required to comment a minimum of 20 times on other classmates blogs. Comments help to start conversations or keep conversations going. Comments are more than complements, they help both you and the blogger reflect on what is being written, what you are thinking, or helps to push your thinking in a new way. I encourage you to read comments left on other edublogs to get a feel for what I'm looking for.

Podcast: 20% of final grade

Create a successful podcast and link it to your blog. Simple right? The podcast can be on a topic of your choice. It can be you talking about something you read, reflecting on what you are thinking about teaching and learning, or an interview with someone. I'm more interested in you learning the skill of producing the podcast than the topic covered.

Guest Speaker: 20% of final grade

We will have two guest speakers during the course walking us through some of the new tools that can be using in a networked classroom to extend learning. It is required that you attend both of these sessions.

Attend the K12online Conference: 20% of final grade

This Conference is completely free, completely online, and completely amazing. We'll be talking about it more during the conference.

Course Outline

jutecht — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:10:15 CST

Teaching and Learning in the Networked Classroom
CE 5160
Credits: 3

Description: The evolution of the World Wide Web from what is being called Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 has brought about a new way of teaching and learning in this digital age. The use of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasting, videocasting, and a host of other free tools are allowing educators to connect to knowledge and each other like never before. Learners will gain hands-on experiences with Web 2.0 tools and explore the learning theory that supports their use in a networked classroom environment.

Standards - NH DOE 507.22

(1) Relative to the knowledge of technology tools and resources, the following shall apply to the area of proficient computer and technology operations and concepts across platforms.

(2) Relative to the integration of technology across instructional settings.

(5) Relative to the evaluation of technology in instructional settings.

Texts:
Richardson, Will (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press
Siemens, George (2007). Knowing Knowledge. (Free PDF download)

Objectives:
1. Explore the learning theory of connectivism
2. Identify strengths and weaknesses of Web 2.0 tools and their use in the classroom.
3. Explore, classify, and evaluate hardware and software tools that support the technical, functional, and pedagogical components of a networked classroom.
4. Explore the theory of a one-to-one computing classroom.

Course grade will be based on the following:
22 Blog Entries
20 Blog Comments
1 Podcast
1 Collaborative Project
Must attend two presentations by guest speakers.

Outline:

March 1-8
Purchase Books, Download Recourses, Sign up for Skype Call, Create Google Account, Gain Access to course wiki, Create and publish an introductory page.

March 9-15
What is a networked classroom?

Siemens: Pages 1-24
Richardson: Ch. 1
Find Current Reading on creating a networked classroom.
Read and analyze the Department of Education School 2.0 page.
Read and analyze the web site Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Activity: Set up RSS reader
Blog Topics

School 2.0
Your first thoughts

March16-22
Blogging and conversations

Richardson: Ch 2,3
Siemens: Pages 25-48
Blogs (Your Google Reader)
Blog Topics

Connectivism (Siemens' Theory of Knowledge)
Your view on what blogs are

March 23-29

March 30 - April 5
Wikis in education

Richardson: 4
Siemens: 49-66
Find Current Reading on the use of Wikis in the classroom.
Research and explore educational wiki projects.
Start Collaborative Wiki Project
Blog Topics

Wikis in Education
Topic of your Choice

April 6-12
Podcasting

Richardson: 8
Siemens: Pages 67-78
Listen and subscribe to educational podcasts
Find Current Reading
Activity: Create a podcast
Blog Topics

Podcasting
Topic of your choice

April 13-19
Virtual Learning Environments (VLE)

Siemens: 79-102
Find Current Reading
Blog Topics

VLEs
A topic of your choice

April 20-26
How does a network classroom and Web 2.0 tools change Professional Development?

Siemens: Pages 103-114
Richardson: Ch. 9
K12onlineconference.org
Find Current Reading
Blog Topics

Web 2.0
Personal Learning Networks

April 27- May 3
How does teaching change in the networked classroom?

Siemens: Pages 115-122
Find Current Reading
Blog Topics

Your choice
Your choice

May 4-10
How does assessment change in the networked classroom?

Siemens: Pages 123-145
Find Current Reading
Blog Topics

Assessment
Topic of your choice

May 11-17
A one-to-one ubiquitous classroom?

Google Reader
Find Current Reading
Blog Topic

One computer for every student
Topic of your choice

May 18-24
What are the different one-to-one solutions?

Laptop
Thin-client
PDA
Find Current Readings
Blog Topics

Comparing one-to-one solutions
Topic of your choice

May 25-30
End of course reflections

Blog Topics

Course Reflections
Topic of your choice

May 18-24

jutecht — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:01:31 CST

What are the different one-to-one solutions?

Second Life session Sunday May 18th at 8:00pm EST!

There are many different 1:1 solutions out there for schools. I think some are better than others, and over the last couple of years we've seen the price fall on laptops to a point that it's hard to consider anything else. Yet, as fast as technology is changing who's to say that the laptop won't soon be replaced by something else.

First I'd like to bring your attention to the One Laptop Per Child program. MIT set out a couple of years ago to create a $100 laptop that third world countries could buy and distribute to children. A great cause, but what has happened over the past 2 years has revolutionize the laptop industry. As the program caught momentum companies were wanting to get on board by creating parts for the laptops at a price that would try and keep the $100 laptop at it's cost goal. It's hasn't quite happened yet as the XO Laptop costs about $150 to manufacture. But because of the program, companies from chip makers to monitors, to power supply companies have been forced to rethink how they create parts. There are now 3 models that are under $200. Intel release one earlier this year.

This holiday season the OLPC has opened up to allow others to purchase the laptops with a get one give one program. For $300 you get a laptop and give one to a child in a developing country. It's already on my list for Santa we'll see if I"ve been a good boy this year. :)

This of course opens a world of possibilities. If every child here in China was given a laptop, even in the poorest of villages what would that do? How would that empower them? The laptops have built in wireless, but it's not your standard wireless. Basically one computer needs to be connected to the Internet via a phone line. That laptop becomes a wireless access point for the other laptops to connect through. So even in the most rural of areas one telephone line is needed to connect a whole class to the Internet. Making a network classroom possible almost anywhere! At one point they were talking about (I'm not sure if it ended up happening) putting a local copy of wikipedia on the machine for students in their language. So here in China the student would get a laptop with a copy of the most connected, most current, largest encyclopedia in the Chinese language. Do some reading and searching on this cool little machine and think about how this could revolutionize education systems around the world. If students in Africa could connect with students in China and student in China could connect with students in the US to do projects, learn together, talk, listen, read, and write together....the network becomes even more powerful!

Do some research on some of these other types of machines that could be used in a networked classroom. Which best fits education? Of course trying to predict the future is difficult and with Microsoft releasing this in 2008 how does that add a whole other dimension to what learning and a classroom could be?

Laptop
Thin-client
PDA
Find Current Readings
Blog Topics

Comparing one-to-one solutions

Assignments:

Blog Topics

Second Life

Comparing one-to-one solutions

March 30-April 5

jutecht — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:53:03 CST

Wikis in education

Will Richardson in Ch. 4 does a great job of giving an overview of what wikis are, how they can be and are used in education. They are a very powerful tool that, because of their collaborative nature, are creating some great connections between students all around the world.

Two of the top wiki projects that were done last year (06-07) were by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. Julie is a technology teacher in Bangladesh and Vicki in Georgia. I encourage you to take a good half hour or so and look over the two amazing projects called The Flat Classroom Project and the Horizon Project.

Both of these projects used the wiki site wikispaces.com. A great free wiki site that is giving away 100,000 ad free wikis to educators.

A Google search for educational wiki projects will show you others as well.

Free wikis that you might want to check out.

wikispaces.com
pbwiki.com (blocked in China...for some unknown reason...just an FYI)
wetpaint.com (what we are using for this class)

There are other open sources wiki software as well that a district or teacher could install on their own system and use internally if they wanted to.

Richardson: Ch. 4
Siemens: 49-66
Find Current Reading on the use of Wikis in the classroom.
Research and explore educational wiki projects.

Assignments:

Blog Topics

Wikis in Education
Topic of your Choice