Web 2.0 School

Scott Weidig and I are teaching a Web 2.0 School course this summer. We have broken the 5 day course (four hours/day) into Organizational tools, Social Networking, and Utility Tools. The remaining two days will be devoted to the participants creating lessons that can use the tools they find will support the lesson. Please visit the wiki to see the course and please feel free to explore any of the items on the site. Some of the wiki pages will look familiar because they are taken directly from the Fremd TechSpot wiki which is geared for Fremd Teachers. The Web 2.0 School wiki will be reserved for the class.

Today is the third day of the course and we have let the teachers go out on their own to discover everything they can about the tools listed under the Utility section of the wiki. The teachers are continually showing one another what they can do with the tools. Brainstorming classroom applications has become the mantra for the day.

I just observed Darrell Robin (SHS English teacher) and Karl Craddock (FHS Science teacher) having a conference call using Drop.io, an online storage site. The beauty of this tool is that you can 'drop' a file, fax, voicemail, etc. to the site and visit it from anywhere, anytime. Imagine students in a class conferencing live while looking at a document that someone has dropped for others to view. Drop.io could be the answer for teachers who want a place where students drop an assignment for the teacher to pick-up later. Drop.io has a widget feature that allows you to put it on your blog or website. So, students could visit your blog or school website and click on the 'Drop' icon and turn in their assignment right there. They are not able to see other files that have been dropped in so confidentiality is maintained. This offers a little more flexibility than relying on a drop folder on our Extras drive that one would have to access from school or via NetStorage.

Below is an example of a cartoon created by Karl Craddock. I've saved this as a delicious bookmark to most of you, by the way! Karl experimented with ToonDoo as part of his 'assignment' for the class. Is that a thong I am wearing? Enjoy the laugh but be sure to let us know your classroom applications! I can already see the World Language teachers jumping on this one!

Another example of a relatively new Web 2.0 tool that we investigated is Wordle. This tool lets you turn text into a visual 'map' that shows the frequency of certain words by making them larger than others. This is a wonderful tool for pre-reading a selection and getting the gist of what the selection is trying to convey. Below is an example of a Wordle that visually shows the highlights from a reading selection about using tags! Many options are available for your Wordle. Try it out and let us know how you might use it with your students!



I am very excited to follow these teachers as they finish creating their wikis, blogs, drops, Wordles, and other applications using Web 2.0 tools. Feedback from these teachers will help Scott and I tailor the course to meet the needs of teachers. I also look forward to learning how these tools are actually impacting their classroom teaching and student learning. You can help by sharing what you do with these tools or any form of technology. There is not much data out there on how the use of technology is affecting 21st Century teaching and learning so any data we can gather will help support or even disprove the notion that technology is, indeed, helping.

New Beginnings

Another year has whisked by with many new educational technology changes being put into place.

The DEG improved in speed, recently, and new features are making it ever easier to do the tasks we used to grudge over in the past. Many new improvments are in the works and teachers are generally pleased with the progress, albeit, slow progress that is being made. I am impressed with the patience teachers exhibit as they absorb every single bit of electron text I send as I report pro-active instructions, or reactive fixes to problems with the DEG.

The Apperson Scanners are another matter altogether. I encourage you read Nicole LaBeau's post on her own and department frustrations with the machines, especially during finals week. I could not write a better essay on this topic. I am hopeful that changes will be put in place either during the summer or during the coming school year.

I have more to write and will continue after I help my daughter get a truck to help her move out of my house to her own dwelling in Lincoln Park this Saturday!

The Five Phases of Flattening a Classroom

Please take a moment to read this excellent blog posting by Ryan Bretag. Here is a teaser...

"...this article isn't another push for organizations to embrace a collaborative learning culture. It is a push for teachers to stop waiting for the organization and become a collaborative professional learner by changing fundamental behaviors inhibiting this and embracing action items that will allow it to happen."

Off you go, then. Don't come back here until you've read the post!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading his blog post and commented on it at that site. I am including my comment below, as well. It's in green.

I thought about our Fremd house as I read the post. I am seeing a good amount of collaboration among teachers at Fremd and I like to think our continued use of technology is partly to thank. For example, teachers ask teachers how to do this and that with the new tablet PCs and it is my hope that these conversations continue and include more talk and walk about best practices in their teaching. They are replacing old practices with better ones in the hopes that students learn better. Way to go, I say!

The key to this is managing your time by collaborating with others in your personal teaching network so that your teaching bag is full of tools for all kinds of learners. You won't have to worry about having enough time to collaborate becuase collaboration is part of what you do everyday. All of us took time in the past to learn how to be the teacher who continually looks at our own teaching and student learning with a critical eye toward continued improvement. I am so proud of so many teachers at Fremd who practice their teaching and student learning this way. Collaboration has become a way of life and survival for them as it was for me when I was in the classroom. As Ryan states, 'What if your students told you they did not have time to learn your subject?'

My comment to Ryan's post....
Closing the door to learning is key for me. This is what I encounter most often from teachers. The reason? Time. But this is 'false' time. Many teachers continually think teaching 21st Century skills are just something else to add to their already full plate instead of realizing that collaboration with colleagues will always keep that plate fairly clean! [This may seem like a confusing statement but it is very clear once you move this way!]

Second, the notion that a teacher is an independent contractor who can, and often will, do what they darn well please in 'their' classroom regardless of school/district goals is a very real attitude. Professional Learning Communities force teachers to expose themselves, as you say, and for many, this is frightening. Yet, this is what we expect students to do on a daily basis in a collaborative classroom.

Alfie Kohn, 'What to Look for in a Classroom,' (1998), mentions cooperative learning can be threatening because

1. it reduces control and predictability,
2. it demands attention to social goals,
3. it challenges our commitment to individualism, and
4. it challenges our commitment to the value of competition.

The same things could also be said about teacher collaboration and personal professional development. There is comfort in familiarity and teaching the same way year after year is easy. Teachers have to be reminded to 'see' students. What works for this student may not work for the next. What are your options? Collaborate with colleagues (near and far!) for they may have some thoughts worth thinking about and implementing. Explore Web 2.0 tools and the possiblities they offer for differentiated instruction.

Ask one simple question everyday, "Are the students actually learning anything?" It's not our plates that should be full but our bag of teaching tools that should be overflowing. This comes from "exploring, challenging, refining, and enhancing your professional practice" [everyday].

Forums

While I like the wiki notion, I'm still working on learning more about them. I have blogged with classes and as a daily (or weekly) class update for students, parents, and any helpers to students to access. With my creative writing class, I want something that students will use to interact with one another, free-form. Designing a blog for this was easy, getting students to participate freely and willingly was is more of a struggle. Comments ranged from, "I only do those for class when it's part of my grade, and then only sometimes," to, "Do we have to?"

When my answer to the 'have to' is, "No, you don't HAVE to; I thought it'd be a nice place for claiming victory over wrting struggles or venting through writer's block," I shy away from dictating exact numbers of posts required per student. I realize I can dress up the blog much more to help lure students to it, but I am considering the notion the class overwhelming suggested of a forum. Not only would it perfectly direct my aims to target free conversation on-line about writing, students 'promised' they'd partake. Either way, I would like to try one.

Any thoughts on how to start a forum or what requirements are needed, or limitations, for that matter? Last year I did jump into a on-line forum and found the interaction much different than blogging. It's more like a major party-line, phone conversation than a blog induced stack of letters, notes, and messages; forum felt more phone-like while blog felt more pony express like, in terms of idea and thought exchange. That was just my experience on one forum, though. It's something I'd like to try, if anyone has thoughts on how best to do so....

I have been browsing through Go2web2o.net and found this new search engine called Searchme. It is a visual web browser that lets you look at large pictures of the actual website before you actually visit the website. It also has a wonderful feature that will help you narrow your search if your intital entry is too broad.

This search engine is currently in beta testing mode and you do have to be invited to partcipate in the testing, but that is a simple click to request. Below is a video from the website. Check it out!

SharePoint Showcase

Has anyone used an online software called SharePoint Showcase?

At the ICE conference I went to a one-day workshop on using this software which is an "one-stop" shop for all your online portal needs (content management, discussion boards, wikis, calendar book, etc.). The instructors indicated that free version with not all the features as I just mentioned is offered in a wws 3.0 version. This is a Microsoft Windows driven software package. I have provided a link that outlines all the features of this software. Quite powerful. I am not sure of the site-license cost. Bob Small indicated that the district is looking into creating something internally and that it is one to two years out in the strategic planning agenda.

http://www.sharepointshowcase.com/default.aspx

Let us know if you have used this software and its pros and cons.

Happy Teching!!! - Tony Miller

2008 ICE Conference

My first workshop of the week was Web 2.0 Tools for Developing Differentiating Digital Content. Quite a bit of time was spent on learning to use the Digital Generation's Curriculum wiki. I liked some of the philosophy that was discussed as Web 2.0 tools can be used in different ways for different learning styles.

Using the wiki, however, seemed difficult. We had to learn some formatting commands in order to place pictures, add audio, etc. The wiki I created is called Understanding Matter. If we want to move teachers away from being web developers, I'm not sure this particular wiki is the place to go. There are other options such as wetpaint, wikispaces, pbwiki, etc.

Visit Classroom 2.0

Let me know what you think!

Proof Happens

Most of us are cautious about new technologies and claims that they will improve the teaching and learning in education. Often, we need to see the proof before we take the plunge. So, who are the people taking the plunge without seeing the proof?

For some people, the proof lies in their own imagination or idea of what learning could look like should the technology exist to make it a reality. This often leads to discussions with others who are able to share and/or expand on the idea. Discussion and imagination leads to action. Ultimate proof is found in actually using the technology and witnessing first hand how the students are benefiting from it.

Wiki technology is out there as a powerful collaborative tool for both teachers and students. Will students buy in to this technology? Is there any proof it is helping students learn? Fremd English teacher, Trish Weidig, wanted to find out after her Schaumburg High School Technology Coordinator husband, Scott, had directly approached her on the topic of using a wiki in her teaching. Not convinced about the usefullness or how her students would react to using a wiki, she decided to bring the idea of creating a Tale of Two Cities wiki to her English students.

Trish pitched the idea to students in her first English-108 class of the day. Reception was positive. During the day, two students from this class (Nigel Rolfe and Jeff Pearson) had visited our Drop-in lab, created a wiki for the class and, by the end of the day, eight students already signed up to use it. By the next day, some 20+ students were ready to go. The students also began to discuss parameters such as who will moderate student additions to the wiki and how to best communicate this information to all participants. Trish is floored by all of this as the wiki is already being driven by students.

Nigel and Jeff also came to me on their own to share what they had done and invited me to be a part of the wiki. I was impressed with their concern about privacy for the students and limiting the use of the wiki to class participants. They also told me Trish is already establishing additional parameters with her classes.

Trish is taking a bold step. She may or may not find the proof she needs to show that the wiki is changing the way she teaches and her students learn, but, she is taking the step rather than simply dismissing the possibility.

Wiki Resources

Think Wikis (Super site for ideas on using wikis in education and other wiki links)
WetPaint (Free Wikis with minor advertising by Google)
WikiSpaces (Free wiki and no advertising to educators but this site has pages that get websensed! Augh!)

Teaching, and Learning with Web 2.0

If you blog, use a wiki, Facebook, Thinkature, Zoho, Delicious, Podcasts, Digital Stories, RSS feeds, or any tools like those listed to the left in your teaching, you are part of the Web 2.0 Learning Community. These tools are not a fad and they won't go away. They are being used by teachers, students and businesses every day. The list of Web 2.0 tools continues to grow. I look at this list and I get scared. How can I possibly keep up? I can't. What I can do, though, is pick a few tools and really try to see how they could be and are being used in the classroom. I can choose to be a mover and a shaker by using Web 2.0 tools with my students or I can choose to be moved and shaken by them.

Wikipaedia defines Web 2.0 as an idea in the head rather than a new form of the internet. Regardless of the definition, it cannot be denied that these tools share one common feature; the ability to share information. 21st Century learning is all about collaboration and the skills necessary for functioning in a 21st Century world can be taught using Web 2.0 tools.

George Benard Shaw said, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself." I hope you continue to be unreasonable.

Please try to carve out some time over winter break to really learn how to use your blog. The Award Winning Blogs noted on the left and the Fremd Classroom blogs listed below are great places to get you started.

Exemplary Blog Sites

The list to the left, Award Winning Blogs, provides links to the best blogs out there...at least in the opinions of those who voted for them! The Edublogs site provides very useful education examples. In fact, the finalists have just been announced. I'm impressed.

By the way, don't be afraid to check out other blogging sites. Like Blogger, you can get an Edublog in seconds. The nice thing about Edublogs is that it has a tie to the Education community straight away. For example, on the front page of the site is a link to 10 Ways To Use Your Edublog to Teach.

Below is a list of other blog providers you might want to evaluate. Just so you know, some of these may be websensed at school because of social networking...

Blog Hosts
Edublogs
Dairyland
TypePad

Server Side (Blogs that require a download and installation)
Greymatter
Moveable Type
WordPress

How do you add a picture to your Blog homepage?

How can I get a photograph on my blog homepage. It is asking for a URL address, is there an easy picture upload feature?

Blogging Basics!

Our TechFeast for today will be for you to create your own blog! Please come back to this page for some quick links to some thoughtful commentary on blogs.

Good Reads

Blogging Ballet

Beginning Blogging by David Jakes
http://newtools.pbwiki.com/Blogs

Teaching Today Article
http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/blog-basics

Blogging in Education-A huge resource compiled by David Warlick
http://davidwarlick.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.BloggingInEducation

Examples of Classroom Blogs
AP Calculus AB
AP Calculus AB 2007-2008 Scribe Notes
Arty Reflections
Math 306

Fremd Classroom Blogs
(Join the Community of Fremd Bloggers! Send Mike B. the URL of your blog and it will be listed here!)
F.A.S.T (Jaclyn DeRose)
E319 (Sabra Gerber)
AP Government (Amanda Schmidt)
Miller Management (Tony Miller)
US History (Mary Brotsos)
Art Class (Jerry Cargill)
Photography Class (Jerry Cargill)
English 101 Update (Nicole LaBeau)