Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Sites that Caught My Eye Today 07/09/2008

Posted by ultralitemp3

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Friday, June 20, 2008

Mainstream Media vs. Blogosphere: Mainstream Ed vs. Edublogosphere?

Posted by ultralitemp3
It is no secret that mainstream media tends to dislike the blogosphere and many bloggers (particularly political ones) dislike mainstream media.

However, I find the current Associated Press assault on quotations used on the Drudge Retort (with links, mind you) as short as 35 words to be #1 Shortsighted and #2 the wrong thing to do for mainstream media. (Hat tip to Will Richardson and Jeff Jarvis.)

It is all about eyeballs. Whoever gets the eyeballs gets the advertising dollar.

However, if mainstream media would wake up and realize that many of us are getting our breaking news from twitter, (I've settled for following BreakingNewsOn from the Netherlands - REAL news sources inundate me - they do about 3 updates a day.), perhaps they could add value to our lives instead of inundating us with 24/7 news online. Online, we don't want 24/7 news -- if we want that, we'll watch cable. We want snippets of the news and updates, we need meaning--- quality over quantity, for goodness sakes.

So, this week, the New York Times reported that the AP will clearly define the proper linking policies for bloggers.

I do entirely agree with one quote in the article from Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P:

"“Cutting and pasting a lot of content into a blog is not what we want to see,” he said. “It is more consistent with the spirit of the Internet to link to content so people can read the whole thing in context.”"


I agree with this entirely, although I disagree with how they went about trying to make this their point!

If you write about it, link it.
That is good netiquette and soon, it may be illegal to do otherwise.

Blogging is not something for the lazy. Just this week, someone wrote a blog article about me (not linking to article on purpose) and in it, told the readers to go to my blog and give me a thank you. There was just my name, no mention of my blog name.

Now, let me ask you -- how are those readers going to find me? Was it really a compliment or was it really not? It was not kind to the reader and not good netiquette.

Additionally, splogs often copy ENTIRE blog posts from here and use it without linking. I have no method of recourse against them. I've seen some educators do this in the past, although it is not as much of a problem.

Additionally, I have seen some companies take entire blog posts WITHOUT my permission and have had to deal with that as well. Companies who steal content and think creative commons is permission to steal AND DON'T Link back to my blog. I notice this at least 4-5 times a week.

So, mainstream media shouldn't think they are the only one's in this. And bloggers don't have the time to pursue all of the perpetrators.

Teach the right way!
But I believe it is VERY important to teach students to link to their sources, even if they are commenting on a post. It is the right thing to do.

We'll see what happens with this, however, this whole incident shows the growing tension between the blogosphere and mainstream media outlets who still haven't quite begun to understand the blogosphere.

Controlling the news is something that a few organizations have done for quite a long period of time and now anyone with the ability to blog, wiki, take photos, or record things can break news from anywhere. Many news organizations are disconcerted as well they should be.

And it is just beginning in education
I also predict that this same upheaval is just beginning in education. Just as the political and news blogosphere is drawing increased dislike from established journalists, so too will many teacher, administrator, and educator bloggers in the coming years.

It is all about power and when power shifts, the establishment fights back.

It has only begun in education.

I would like to say that many in education have been welcoming to a newcomer like me. As a relative newcomer, I would find that many in edtech (particularly the edubloggers) have been incredibly welcoming. (But maybe that is because most edubloggers are relative newcomers too, at least to the edublogosphere.)

However, there are also many in establishment who have NOT been welcoming at all. This is their hill and they've been on top for quite some time and think someone is coming to push them off.

(This is mostly in the form of those in edtech who don't read the edublogosphere, whether intentionally or not, really leave others out of the conversation-- me included! I've seen this happen between edubloggers, though, and it is something we must all be careful about. The "you're not worthy of eye contact" type of thing.)

I get a lot of "and who are you" types of comments when I travel. My response, "I'm just a teacher."

(Which makes most mad, however, it is a litmus test for me with those I meet. If a person immediately says -- "but teachers are very important" -- I know a lot about that person. I believe that teaching is an amazingly noble and tough calling that is misunderstood greatly. If someone says, "oh" and moves on, then that is all I need to know. I am just a teacher and teachers have made me who I am.)

Well, I am planning to stay in the classroom. I hardly think my 5-6 conferences a year are going to hurt anyone.

However, when many more teachers like me begin to do 5-6 conferences a year, as they will, the backlash will happen.

SomeONE is not coming to push off the establishment off the presenters circuits -- but ManyTEACHERS are!

I predict that classroom teachers will increase in prominence and voice in education, despite the efforts of many to tell teachers that they shouldn't be blogging and shouldn't be speaking. I also think that many in the trenches like administrators, curriculum directors and IT directors will also. I think that being an ACTIVE person in the trenches is the new currency at conferences and carries a lot of merit. (I also happen to think that presenters with a lot of teaching experience in their background are also in high demand.)

I hope that we can handle the changes that are coming well and model for the other sectors of society how it is to be done.

What are we here for?

The way I feel about it is that we should all be here for the students. It is about making sure our classrooms are doing a great job of not only educating students but helping them find their individual talents. It is about helping our country thrive in the years to come.

If anyone is in the classroom for a power trip, they are certainly there for the wrong reason. Now, the speakers/ pd circuit -- that is a whole different animal.

What will happen we we truly start seeing more teachers at conferences, that is anyone's guess.

What will happen as more teachers write their own textbooks and self-publish on lulu?

What will happen as open source curriculum begins taking hold?

What will happen when students start creating their own voice outside of adult control?

What will happen when a group of anonymous editors writes a source of educational material that has more readership than any printed book in existence? (Um, that has already happened in Wikipedia.)

We are talking major shifts in organizational structure. We will have organizations in education that emerge than haven't been heard of yet. And we will have organizations that have been a mainstay for many years disappear.

I'm not one who wishes for this to happen, but as a product of a business school, it is happening.

I believe that business has great value to offer education and vice versa. I also think that not one side has all of the answers in what needs to happen for education to evolve from a failing mush of student-mass production with an excessively high failure rate to a personalized learning environment that allows students to become well educated AND find their strengths. We need to work together.

The trenches have never been more attractive or more terrible!

But the shift in power, the shift in money... any time this happens it isn't pretty. It just isn't.

Don't get out of the edublogosphere... join it. Just know that many have hidden agendas and it takes a while to know what they are.

And don't think that anyone has ALL the answers (especially me!)

I happen to think that the infusion of many excellent practicing teachers into professional development and the collapse of the float for discussion of best practices is a good thing for education.

I think that teachers, students, and others working around the world together make education stronger.

My own personal mini-sabbatical for a few weeks helps me come back to things and see some things about behind the scenes turmoil and power struggles that I'm seeing in my own email inbox.

Power shifts cause powerful disagreements and there is more there than we know.

Be ready.

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Monday, June 16, 2008

A little Taxonomy with your Folksonomy?

Posted by ultralitemp3
Who am I?

Well, when I use wordle to take a look at the tags I use in delicious, I see a lot about who I am.

(to see the larger image of this picture, look at this Java image in the Wordle Gallery.)

Wordle takes a word cloud of any text that you either paste in or your delicious tags. The larger the word, the more you use it.

So, obviously, education is something that is important to me. Other things: teaching, web 2.0, blogging, tools, free, innovation, flat classroom, horizon project, wow2.... all of these give a snapshot of the things that are most important to me.

Interestingly, although these tags come from delicious, it wasn't until I began using diigo that true consistency emerged as I would like to see it. The ability to have standard tags (so I don't accidentally misspell, etc.) has helped me.

I have been accused before of wanting to "standardize the Internet."

Nothing could be further from the truth!

I don't want to standardize -- folksonomy is great. However, the problem is consistency when it is wanted.

When do I use standard or consistent tags?
  1. When I want to Do something

    The tag "education" sends a link to an autopost in diigo to my blog. This is where my morning post with links comes from every morning. It is automated!

  2. When I want to share something

    The education group on diigo has a standard tag dictionary -- that way if you wanted to just follow the links under a certain tag like education_new app - you could follow the RSS feed for a subset of the data. These little subsets are a gold mine. For example, I have tags for researcher_thoughtleader that are intended for those staying abreast of educational thought.

    We are all beginning to experience a little RSS overload and are going to need to get smarter and more efficient about it. For this reason, I organized some of my own tagging. Mainly because if you look at the bottom of my tag list, you'll see a lot of redundancy mostly because of misspellings or because I forgot my own tag that I wanted to use.

  3. When I want to automate something

    I do this in my own bookmarks - which I am using to build current wiki pages for science, math, english teachers, etc. that I don't have to update because I used a consistent tag of my own. We used this on the horizon project to share research with the students that was embedded on the wiki via the rss feed from delicious for that bookmark.

  4. When I want to find something from a group of people

    (like my students.) I am moving to the point where every assignment has a "tag" -- so when I need to find the artifact, I can easily search for the tag and find it whether it is a picture, video, blog post, or anything. So, for example, all of my students had to upload a photo to the Horizon Ning for the student summit, the tag was whs_studentsummit, so I could just go to the page that aggregated all of the tagged files together and get them in one place. Sometimes the biggest challenge with grading in this environment is finding what you are to grade. Having an assignment TAG saves you a lot of time.
So, no, I do not advocate abolishing folksonomy -- it is very useful, particularly for those who are looking at trends that are emerging. For those who watch trends, folksonomy is great.

But for teachers or those sharing links with others for PD, using a standard or consistent tag with a purpose is a real time saver and necessity. Using a standard or consistent tag for oneself and with others with a common purpose, like the horizon project or Advocates for Digital Citizenship, Safety, and Success, it can be a real helper.

Will taxonomy mess up folksonomy?

Of course, the argument is that these consistent tags or "standard tags" will mess up the folksonomy of the Internet and in some respects, I could see that to be true.

However, from a practical standpoint, I really need a way to aggregate things in one place in order to give my students options AND allow them to join in projects with 250 other students or so without getting lost by their teacher. (I have them tag everything they do with WHS as one tag so I can find their work easily.)

And I don't know how much value it is when one time I tag something free and another time free_tools -- those things really belong together.

The problem is always when one IMPOSES something on another and that would never be the case.

For me it is a matter of utility and usefulness. I have a job to do and need to be more efficient. Using a standard tag (or consistent tag) in this case really helps me save time and spend my time with students instead of looking for a needle in a Ningstack or Wikistack!

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Friday, June 13, 2008

Sites that Caught My Eye Today 06/13/2008

Posted by ultralitemp3

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Saturday, June 7, 2008

Lively Loud Reading Fun with the Crazy Professor's Reading Game (4th grade)

Posted by ultralitemp3


I really enjoyed this video. I know that he's marketing his services, but I love the lively, excited, LOUD atmosphere in the classroom. (It kind of reminds me of my own.)

I think that often administrators love to see quiet, orderly, reading students in a classroom and that a teacher might even get in trouble for this classroom!

I really enjoyed this. Has anyone ever used a reading game like this.

I do think that we have to get out of our mode of thinking that a teacher is at the front and the students are quietly listening. Sometimes an active, chaotic, bodily kinestic engaged, loud environment IS the most conducive to learning.

Now, I know that this is a video that they have made, but I still believe that the good classrooms is really loud a lot of times. Cool video!

And watch it until the end... the summarizations are VERY powerful! (Funny at the end how to teach the class to be quiet with the volumeometer.)

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Using Comic Books to Teach

Posted by ultralitemp3
I really enjoyed looking back at this interview with Chris Wilson over at Open Education about the use of comic books to teach.

To me, the important point to remember that just about anything can be used to teach, however, when you use something that kids like, you have an edge and it is magnetic. (Cool tools, technology, excited teachers)

We should not be opposed to the use of just about any tool... we should be opposed to bad teaching. Teachers who don't want to be there, don't have their heart in it, and don't take the time to plan and make their classrooms a center for learning excellence.

The most important quotation to pass along (please read the whole article) is:

"This is a much larger subject than one may realize. For my part, when I use the term “comic,” I am referring to the generalized genre of comic literature. That is literature that uses both text and art in a sequential manner. For more on this, I suggest you read

by Scott McCloud. It is required reading for anyone who cares at all about comics, especially teachers who want to use comics. It will help people understand the history of comics and why it is indeed an art. To understand what happens between the panels of a comic page is to understand why comics is indeed literature."

I love using comics and adore toondoo.


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Friday, May 30, 2008

Sites that Caught My Eye Today 05/30/2008

Posted by ultralitemp3

  • Samsung's Hope for Education - Win $200,000 for technology

    This is a cool grant requiring a 100 word essay about how technology benefits and helps education and is one I'll be doing in the fall -- it is only open to schools in the US but it is public and private -- check the website for rules and good luck.

    Info from their site:
    "Each year, Samsung's Hope for Education holds a contest where students from schools nationwide can write a 100-word essay about how technology benefits and helps education. In 2008, the top winner receives a grand prize of over $200,000 worth of Samsung technology, Microsoft software and cash grants from DIRECTV, as well as the SCHOOL CHOICE® educational television programming package. Entries are open now. Contest will run until August 31, 2008."

    tags: education, grants, edu_news, administrator, all_teachers

  • Tales of an Inner-City Teacher: Crunch Time....

    I love the pictures on this blog showing the students using the computer, on the floor... everywhere, working on individual research projects. (Got to this blog to see the final products.) At first I said, "display boards?" but then I realized the amount of computer work required to create these display boards and I saw the age of the students and the number of computers in this classroom.

    This is a tremendous amount of work. Applause here from me to Kristi, another teacher blogger who I "met" from yesterday's post (hey go back to yesterdays and leave yours!)

    tags: edublog, education, edu_news, curriculum, all_teachers, bestpractices, edublogger

  • Michel Foucault, Privacy, and Doubts about Web 2.0 | Connecting the Dots

    Fascinating ponderings by Mike Curtain about how many of us are relinquishing our own privacy. This is a very thought provoking post and yet another one I wouldn't have read, had he not linked to my blog post yesterday asking for bloggers to share their links.

    This is a very powerful blog post. Wow! I personally think there is a balance here, but also agree than many are not considering the privacy they are relinquishing when they post things that don't belong out there for everyone to see. Internet privacy is an illusion, it really is.

    tags: education, privacy, ad4dcss, digital_responsibilities

  • Technology in the Classroom: Animoto

    Kudos to Brooksie, a new blogger that I found when she left her link on my blog today. Such a great resource. She's doing a nice job!

    tags: education, edublog

  • - Animoto: Education -

    Brooksie over at CD Tech (http://gcedtech.blogspot.com/2008/04/animoto.html) showed me this. Brooksie left a message introducing me to her blog on yesterday's post and wow, I learned something new!

    Animoto will giv eyou a FREE code to make full length videos on animoto! This is a really cool free tool but we've been using the 30 second version! I didn't know we could use the full version for fREE! Wow! So cool

    tags: animoto, education, edu_newapp

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Friday, May 23, 2008

Sites that Caught My Eye Today 05/23/2008

Posted by ultralitemp3

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

The evolution of PD

Posted by ultralitemp3
Kellie has a great post on her blog as she contemplates the evolution of PD.

She says:

"A recent a post from coolcatteacher (“Get Past Teaching Apps”) got me thinking about how to approach technology “instruction,” but it’s honestly been something that I’ve been thinking about for awhile. Her post is about what she does with kids in the classroom, but with our upcoming summer technology workshops, I am wondering if we should shift our focus for teachers....

With all the talk of transforming education rather than reforming education, maybe we should use technology workshops as a way to look at “new” methods of instruction based on brain & learning research."


Please read her whole post - -it is right at the heart of what many of us involved in PD at our schools are thinking. (Me too!)

What started as a mini comment evolved into a full blown blog post, so I'm cross posting my comment to her blog here.

My response to Kellie's questions:

"This is a tough one -- I love teaching teachers and covering things that are useful to them like SmartArt in the new Office -- they love that. But in addition to smart art -- classtools.net would be a great addition with its graphic organizers.

Also, having them "find" things to do the job after they've gotten a start. I believe in teaching my students how to learn new software and have a book in the final stages on this topic and how I do it in my classroom.

But, it is a struggle with teachers. It needs to be appropriate to the learning style of the teachers there. Here are some things I think teachers should be creating:

1) Use netvibes or igoogle to create a personal learning network on their subject of interest.

2) Have teachers look through their PLN and blog their thoughts on what they've learned in a private Ning set up for the PD needs of your school. This is where they are to share what they've learned.

3) Teach teachers the basics of blogging including the all important embed code and teach them to embed videos into their blog post and share based upon that using teachertube and other tools such as that.

4) Have teachers take photographs and upload them to the Ning. If they have a cell phone, teach them how to do that.

5) Finally, have an assortment of samples and let them pick one for their "project" - it could be voicethread, classtools.net, etc. but they are to create a lesson plan using the tool and create their sample of how this would look (a demo) -- blog it and embed it in their blog and have others evaluate it. (Or, have them share it in another space that they are already familiar with if Ning doesn't work, like the areas built into united streaming or your internal Moodle.)

Once they are connected and sharing -- have them listen to a podcast on edtechtalk or k12online and report back to the group.

I think PD should be less about 10 consecutive hours in class wearing out oneself and retaining nothing than about connecting teachers to one another and to the experts in their discipline and getting them comfortable with sharing in online spaces.

I'd rather have a 10 hour commitment with perhaps a 3 hour orientation to the spaces - one hour a week for 4 weeks and then a 3 hour conclusion, sharing, presentation get excited time to discuss how it would work in class.

We need to move PD to become part of our daily and weekly practice -- reading our RSS reader, listening to podcasts as we wash dishes -- learning from others and sharing what we're doing -- PD is evolving and it looks as if you are on the cusp of that sharing -- great job!"
I'd like to finish with this, if you want to build Habits of ongoing learning then you need to make PD a habit for everyone from the administrators, teachers, and curriculum directors. Cramming everything into a 10 hour session is the easy answer and the modus operandi but not the way to sustainable transformation.

If we need to change our practice as teachers we also need to change the way that PD is delivered.

How many times can we sit here and listen to the sage on our stage talk about how we aren't to be the sage on the stage any more.

There is a huge double standard in professional development that needs to stop. Conferences, professional development classes and ways we teach teachers need to evolve to match best practices too... is it any wonder why teachers aren't learning?

This is something we struggle with too and I'd love to see more like the work done by Disruptive Innovators (and ongoing pd for librarians), and Open Professional Development by Darren Draper and Robin Ellis and the incredible work done by my friend Dr. Cheri Toledo -- she's just plain good to name only a few.

What are the transformational PD courses that you've seen? What are the best practices that truly improve the classroom? Please share.

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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Sites that Caught My Eye Today 05/10/2008

Posted by ultralitemp3

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Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Maria Knee is for Me: Wins Kay L. Bitter Vision Award for Excellence in Technology-Based PK–2 Education.

Posted by ultralitemp3
I really love it when someone I know wins awards. It means so much to put names and faces with the awards that mean so much and restores hope in the whole system of actually picking out one person out of so many amazing, under appreciated teachers.

Maria Knee from New Hampshire has won the Kay L. Bitter Vision Award for Excellence in Technology-Based PK–2 Education. (She's shown in this picture with my friend Bob Sprankle)




I met Maria Knee in Maine this year and she changed me! We implemented a Digital Citizenship program in our elementary school using Webkinz after she taught me how she was using it in her classroom.

Maria loves her classroom and that is where she wants to be. She is well spoken enough to travel the speakers circuit with the best of them but wants to teach. If you get caught in the same room with Maria, count yourself lucky and take some time to listen... I promise that you'll learn something.

As humble as they come but as good as they get... Maria Knee you are a teacher for me! Keep at it!
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Friday, April 25, 2008

Sites that Caught My Eye Today 04/25/2008

Posted by ultralitemp3

  • Home - Microsoft Popfly

    Microsoft Popfly lets you make mashups and build web pages without knowing code. I am to the point I don't teach the detailed web site creation coding I used to. I teach RSS, embedding, creating wikis, uploading media of all kinds, but I just don't know how important coding is any more at the basic level.

    I want to spend some time tinkering with this.

    tags: mashup, microsoft, education, ad4dcss, geeks4, edu_newapp, technology, techintegrator, hz08, hzmeta, govt_business

  • Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : Popfly Coin Flip Mashup Tutorial

    This is a fascinating blog post about how Alfred Thompson used PopFly to create a mashup activity for a classroom demo for teachers. He also took this document from word into Live writer to make a blog post.

    It is important to look at many ways to do things. I found this information very insightful and cool.

    tags: computerscience_teacher, education, edu_newapp, lesson_plans, techintegrator

  • Listening to the Audience (Twitter) at Web 2.0 Expo: The Balance of Value vs Entertainment - Annotated

    Excellent overview from Jeremiah about the use of twiter to backchannel at a conference. Backchanneling is something I think that is very important, but there is very definitely a best practice.

    Here were my comments to Jeremiah:

    "I am a classroom teacher and LOVE the backchannel (they are great for test reviews -- like group notes and more) and won't do a conference presentation without one, that being said, I wouldn't use twitter for it.

    Like you said, many people don't use twitter or get it.

    I like to create a "backchannel room" so that it is archived and recruit ahead of time at least two people:

    1) A backchannel "moderator" - they answer questions and I call on them several times to ask for their summary of what is going on in the backchannel (this is when I'm the main presenter)

    2) A google jockey -- they drop the links I'm talking about in the backchannel chat.

    I also like to ask the people in the backchannel to share best practice and what they are doing. I've had people comment that the one hour with a backchannel and me presenting was more meaningful than a whole day at a conference. (More compliments to the backchannel, I'm sure.)

    I've seen backchannels handled very poorly and it was TERRIBLE. It was chaos. And actually downright rude to the speaker. (More like backstabbing than backchanneling.)

    I've also seen it used well and it was incredible!

    The archiving of the backchannel gave me rich links as a presenter and participant AND also feedback on the session which I referred to later as the presenter.

    The backchannel is great -- I just like to use a backchannel ROOM especially for the session (inviting "friends" from around the world who are also watching on ustream) -- and then creating an archived copy of it.

    I think backchannels are very important and you've hit on the core of what is happening in the evolution of professional development and conferences. "

    tags: backchannel, education, professionaldevelopment, hz08, connectingpeople, hzmeta, ubiquitousplatform, virtualcollab, govt_business

  • MA21stCenturyLearning » home

    I spent the day with Emily Vickery, the teacher/administrator at Montgomery Academy in AL, responsible for their PD. This is her wiki, where she shares with others at the school what they are doing. We talked about using RSS and diigo to give links. She is doing great work and will be presenting at NECC on July 2nd -- her students are going with her!

    tags: education, professionaldevelopment, bestpractices

  • SurfTheChannel - Home

    This is a website where tv enthusiasts are sharing videos and collaborating. This is an example of how television and all of our entertainment is evolving to become more customized.

    In addition to creating personal learning networks, we will also be creating personal entertainment networks (PEN's) -- all via this amazing thing we call RSS. Understanding RSS is not only important for learning but just living your life.

    User created content is here to stay.

    tags: hz08, connectingpeople, usercontent, video, arts_entertainment, education, digital_access, ad4dcss

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Monday, April 14, 2008

My passion is quilted in these letters: ad4dcss

Posted by ultralitemp3
Since I have not yet responded to the Passion Quilt Meme, I've been prompted yet again. This seems a time to unleash my biggest passion for teaching today's students.

Forgive me, I may get emotional.

My heart breaks for these parents who are struggling with the kidnapping and beating of their child for the sake of Youtube popularity.



This news show outlines what happens and talked to a psychologist.



My Prediction
We have a small window of opportunity to suggest and create structures of what WE, the educators who use these technologies, suggest we should do about the whole digital citizenship, safety, and success issue.

Then, we will be TOLD what to do because of our lack of action. And we know how that goes.

This came up Sunday Morning, when many of us came together in a little impromptu meeting with Sue Waters and Al Upton in elluminate (I'll post the link to the recording when it is released.) These are the brainstorming whiteboard pages (unedited). NOte that there are a lot of things on there WE WOULDN't do, but sharing the brainstorming screen will help summarize the things we talked about.











A lot of us are passionate about it. And we're sick of "talk" about cooperation on the matter.

So, here is what we have:

  • A Google Group to serve as an easy-to join e-mail based network for discussing what we're doing. I suggest subscribing to a DAILY DIGEST to prevent getting too much e-mail. For now, the group is named Advocates for Digital Citizenship, Safety, and Success.
  • A "tag" to serve as our focal point to "collect the conversation - ad4dcss
  • Everything updated is being put on the Conversation Aggregator page I created on Netvibes. (Note: This comes from some comments from Jon Becker and Kate Olson -- wishing that we could "control" and aggregate a conversation. This page is being set up to track all of the things tagged ad4dcss. We cannot control the conversation but we can certainly work to include newcomers and ANYONE interested in the topic... even the Non-Geeks. And this was important enough to set up the tags and tracking.)

Why did we pick that?
Well, it sort of came up as an accident and aggregation of everyone's thoughts, but it stands for Advocates for Digital Citizenship, Safety, and Success.

We're beginning to pull together some activities, much of which will just happen from the fact that everything is aggregated! If you us ad4dcss in your twitter post it goes to the netvibes page and I've found that the most useful thing so far!

Some things already spotting through this new looking glass are:
  • Parents as Partners discussion tonight about how to educate parents with students at www.edtechtalk.com - 8 pm EST
  • Professional Learning Board is helping us set up a Moodle Training site for Advocates and others interested in this topic -- we need some volunteers to help Kate set it up.
  • Group blog - This is for those who want to share discussions around this topic. If you're interested, contact Vicki by leaving a comment here. It is meant to be a resource for Advocates and those interested in this topic.
  • We will have some upcoming impromptu and planned sessions. If you want to hold a session and you have an elluminate room or online place to "meet" -- let me know and I'll give you some talking points of groups that are forming.

Current action items are:

  • Listen to the elluminate recording
  • Ask educators interested in forming a grassroots organization to promote online AND OFFLINE action advocating digital citizenship, safety, and success to join this group - http://groups.google.com/group/ad4dcss
  • Join the Diigo Group to share links (See http://digiteen.wikispaces.com for the categories UNTIL group is set up.)
  • Anything you write about the ideas for organizing -- what needs to be done! Tag it ad4dcss if you twitter it type #ad4dcss
  • Join an upcoming discussion or plan to host one. Add them to our Google Calendar page (to be posted soon.)

Current ideas under ACTIVE discussion

  • Global Action Days ("Flash Point" Projects) - eVents, Student projects, bringing out the student voice en masse on these topics.
  • Develop of a curriculum wiki by teachers on these topics
  • Online professional development
  • Talking points documents that may be printed and shared offline to administrators, boards, teachers, etc.
OK, so my question to you is this. Do you want to be an advocate? We are focusing on sharing resources ONLINE so that we may all be more effective OFFLINE. We've got to take this out.

We all have different areas and ways that we may share, so share in the way you feel most comfortable.

Hinges of History
But I'm going to say something here. Some of my favorite books are the Hinges of History books.

We swing upon a hinge of history at this moment. IF you are online now and getting comfortable with this technology, there is a reason. And it is probably so that you may do your part to advocate wise, safe, successful use of the Internet in your area.

We are all too busy and can work together to create materials and other things to do this. If you want to be an advocate, for now, we're open for anyone signing up as long as you want to join in the conversation AND spend a little time ACTING on it. Find a group, organize a group -- ACT.

I'm busy too, everyone. But, I've already bought the domain names and am going to let this be my "virtual volunteerism" project.

Perhaps we are made for a moment such as this. But I'm telling you, I'm tired of this happening and ready for some SUSTAINED efforts on this area.
If we don't do it, people who don't understand the Internet nor our students will tell us what we will be doing.

In five years when you are implementing those edicts, don't come complaining if you didn't at least try.

The debate over the word "digital"
Now, there has been some debate over the word "digital citizenship" and "digital literacy" because after all aren't these subsets of citizenship and literacy. My answer is, OF COURSE THEY ARE.

However, at this point, the mass of educators has not yet understood nor accepted the fact that they are a subset and for that reason, now, we are stuck appending the words "citizenship" and "literacy" with the words digital so that we may be clear in our meaning and laser focused in our efforts.

Maybe someone can debate that elsewhere, but I believe we need to birth some cooperative efforts that will accomplish something.

So, what do you think AND what do you want to do. What are your friends talking about "doing." Let's not just do SOMETHING but do the RIGHT THING, in effective, meaningful, thought out ways.

So, I guess I should tag some people for the passion quilt meme that I hijacked for something I'm really passionate about: Kate Olson, Jon Becker, Sue Waters, Alfred Thompson, and Vicky Hennigan (another newcomer) AND anyone else who wants to!!!

Who's joining in? Who's already doing things? Let's get it started!

tag: , , , , , , , ,

The Rules

  1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.

  2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
  3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.

  4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce etc.

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Links for the Day 03/29/2008

Posted by ultralitemp3

I'm testing the feature that lets me post annotations and links from diigo to here. I know that many of you are getting sick of hearing of this little tool and if you're a beginner, perhaps you should wait, however, for me, I'm finding it useful.


Forgive me as I learn to work through the kinks here. It may be bumpy at first, but this gives me a more robust way to share links -- many of you have e-mailed me that you like my link goodness best! This way it can become part of my blog... I'm still not sure I want it here, and yet there are STILL people who go to the site directly and don't understand RSS.


FeedFlare™ Catalog

tags: blogging, twitter

These are the cool feedflares that you can add in addition to those already used in Feedflare -- for bloggers using Feedburner to RSS things. There is a new one called twit this.

Streamline It Part I: Diigo or Bust : Metanoia

tags: diigo, edu_newapp, techintegrator

Ryan Bretag says, "Okay, here it is. I’m dumping Zotero, Delicious, and Google Notebook for Diigo. Blasphemy to some, I know, but I can basically get all I need in one: "

This chart by Ryan Bretag summarizes what the sites can do. He left off a few but this is great.

A Collection on "Internet Safety Information" (cyberbullying,cybersafety,internetsafety) | Diigo

tags: administrator, all_teachers, cyberbullying, digital_citizenship, digitalcitizenship, internetsafety, techintegrator

A great list that I came across from the educators group on Diigo-- this is a collection of internet safety information -- great resources. This is an excellent tool.

Top News - Analysis: How multimedia can improve learning

tags: all_teachers, bestpractices, curriculum

An analysis of existing research supports a notion that already has begun to transform instruction in schools from coast to coast: that multimodal learning--using many modes and strategies that cater to individual learners' needs and capacities--is more effective than traditional, unimodal learning, which uses a single mode or strategy.

My Membership - Group Widget | Diigo Groups

tags: diigo, edu_newapp

Group widget for the Educators Diigo Group

Group Tag Dictionary

tags: all_teachers, diigo, edu_newapp

This is the current tag dictionary -- we really only get 17 that show up and I had to truncate the names -- but if you join the group and send pages to the group when you bookmark these tags will come up.

educators | Diigo Group

tags: all_teachers

This will be my first "official" bookmark to the educators group on diigo. I'm sending it to the group to make use of the standard tagging dictionary I've set up to use with this group -- this will help us share at a further level.

Keeping students cybersafe! « On an e-journey with generation Y

tags: connectingpeople, digital_citizenship, education, hz08, hzmeta, internetsafety

Some good best practices from a teacher on keeping students cybersafe. I like this practical list and think it should be shared. It is important that we teach students about how to be safe online and good digital citizens.

**TIP: Click the annotated link below**

This morning I came here before I went to twitter. This seems to be the place to be right now. Sti | Diigo Message System Annotated

tags: @education_trends, collectiveintelligence, collectiveknowledge, connectingpeople, coolcatteacher, diigo, education, hz08, hzmeta, twitter, virtualcollab

This is a very honest, open discussion between educators about why diigo or delicious -- I think the fact we can have this conversation within diigo at all says a lot for the usefulness of the tool. Diigo is an emerging tool for social bookmarking and collective intelligence.

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: The Five Phases of Flattening a Classroom

tags: collectiveknowledge, connectingpeople, education, flatclassroom, hz08, hzmeta, virtualcollab

I wrote this post to outline the progression I take my classes through to get them to the state where they may collaborate directly with students in another country. I put a lot of time and thought into the progression of collaborative skills.

Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Wiki collaboration leads to happiness

tags: collectiveintelligence, collectiveknowledge, connectingpeople, govt_business, hz08, hzmeta, usercontent, virtualcollab, wiki, wikinomics

This incredible chart says it all about the importance of wiki collaboration. This should also be a message to bloated bureaucracies looking to squeeze that last bit of efficiency out of already overworked staff. This is an important chart for horizon project students to include, I believe.

Blackboard claims initially denied

tags: education

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued its Non-Final Action on the re-examination of the Blackboard Patent. We are studying the document, found here, but in short, the PTO has rejected all 44 of Blackboard's claims.

The Map Is Not The Territory: the changing face of the edublogosphere at dougbelshaw.com

tags: blogging, edublogger, education, researcher_thoughtleader

Doug Belshaw's ruminations on the edublogosphere and how it is changing. I'm going to be thinking on this one.

tag:

Read more »

Content Filtration: A little dirt for your health?

Posted by ultralitemp3
This was literally my first post on Tech Learning back in November of 2006 and I forgot to cross post it over here. I find myself referring back to it a lot as content filtration policies come under review and I wanted to share it here. I believe it is still relevant today.

Content Filtration: A little dirt for your health?

Modern science has invented numerous methods of removing allergens from our lives. We have air purifiers, hand sanitizers, and anti-dust mite methodologies. What should have happened is a decrease in allergies, but what has happened is a dramatic increase .

When asked about how to help kids with allergies, researchers have made the bold statement , "Let them eat dirt! " As I read these articles, I was struck with the parallel to the content filtration debate that rages in education today.

Who can resist "sex"?

I am a believer in having some sort of filtration in place, particularly to prevent the inevitable teen curiosity about sex from finding inappropriate websites. I mean, what prepubescent boy can resist typing "Sex" into Google?

In the above analogy, notice that allergists say "play in dirt" but do not say "play in sewage." Playing in sewage would kill children. Likewise, I consider pornography, hate speech, weapon construction, profanity, and the "dark" areas of the Internet to truly be the sewage of the Internet. This type of thing should definitely be filtered and we should protect our children from it.

The Dark Side of the White List

However, I believe that the practice of "white listing" (only allowing websites to come into your school which you specifically permit) is going to create more problems in the long run than it will help. Just as the body needs exposure to dirt to create immunity, students need exposure to the real world to create discernment.

I believe that students will suffer from their own ignorance as they emerge into the world uncognizant of the "virtual tattoo" they are creating in their on line spaces and naively trusting every site they view. Ignorant students post inappropriate pictures and subject matter, and just do not understand how to thrive in our socially connected world. (Just take a look at the Gossip website that takes the Myspace pages of public officials' children or the son who is taking teenage rebellion to new heights as he throws a wrench in the AT&T / BellSouth merger.)

What do teachers say about filtration?

I was stirred by Bud Hunt's keynote for his strand in the K12 online conference two weeks a go. He was talking about a captivating discussion that he and his students were having about the problem of school violence. As they typed in "school violence" it triggered the filter.

Bud says,

"It is frustrating to teach information management when you can't find answers. Driving into a filter is like driving into a brick wall, it stifles interest in continuing the journey."

I teach using the Socratic method (by asking questions) and Google is a key part of this method. I am fortunate because I do control the filter at the school and am able to unblock things if it is necessary to class instruction. When students emerge from my class, they must be self teachers. They must be able to use RSS to aggregate information and discern both sides of the issue and objectively discuss issues.

If you are in charge of filtration, listen up!

Solutions can emerge on this issue, but professionalism and trust must be present if improvement is to occur. To me, this discussion boils down to several things:

  • If you want students to treat teachers with respect, treat teachers with respect.
  • If you want students to treat teachers as the authority, give them some authority.
  • If you want teachers to act professional, treat them like professionals.
  • If you want to hold others accountable, accept accountability for your part of the equation.
  • If you want your teachers to be innovators, allow them to be connected to hotbeds of innovation. (Excited teachers are better teachers than bored ones.)
  • The morale of your classrooms is related directly to the morale of your teachers. (This issue is a morale killer!)
  • Good learning is fun and exciting! It is OK to laugh and learn!
  • Sometimes it is more important to do the right thing than to be right.
  • Spend your time removing roadblocks, not being one.

I am fortunate because I have absolutely incredible administrators. Not everyone is so lucky.

What Schools with Overly Strict policies Might have Missed This Week

For those who believe in strict filtration, let me tell you about how you might be missing out:

  • Math videos organized by NCTM math strands (on Google Video and YouTube) (from last week's k12online wiki project .)
  • Discussing Time Magazine's Invention of the Year - Youtube - (I don't advocate just surfing youtube, but teachers should be allowed to display these great videos.)
  • Google Earth - They have added featured places this week. You can literally fly from your home to the great wall of China. You can go in the crater at Mt. St. Helens. You can fly through cities and look at the deserts of the world. Social studies, history, current events, and social awareness teachers have so many exciting resources here.
  • Newsmap - The incredible visual display of current news based on Google news aggregation (it has different country and world views) - This is incredible for cultural literacy and should be used in all social studies classes. I use it to create my questions of the week on classblogmeister.
  • Skype - This is fun to use software that turns your computer into a telephone/chat machine and has been a great addition to my classroom. My students can chat me questions (even if I'm out at a conference), I can hand out files to the class, and they can collaborate on team projects across the room. It makes for a quiet but exciting classroom. The business world is integrating chat into every workstation so that employees can work better together. Students need to know how to use it effectively as well. We don't use it all the time but every day in my Computer Fundamentals Class.
  • Netvibes - I use this incredible RSS aggregator with my students. They can sign in and have it read my blog, their classblogmeister assignments, changes to their wiki projects, and keep up the latest technology. They will not always have me to help them "keep up" with innovation. They have to become aggregators and assimilators themselves! (This is part of my strategy to teach them to be lifelong learners.)
  • Gliffy - My students used this amazing online tool to complete a Spanish project. In this project, they were to design their dream home and label it with the correct spanish words.
  • My students use and love tools such as Airset to manage and share their calendars (including homework and test calendars). It sends them text messages on their cell phones to remind them of upcoming tests and projects and their calendar. It will also synchronize with PDA's if they have one. (I use it and it synchs with outlook and my PDA!)
  • My students have begun using MyNoteIT to create and share their class notes.
  • My students use Librivox to download public domain works (like William Shakespeare) onto their iPods. (This is an essential skill for auditory learners!)
  • As part of information literacy we often use Wikipedia and contrast it to other sources of information to determine fact and error.
  • My students use Google Video, youTube , and very soon will be using SlideShare to integrate meaningful content into their wiki projects on Wikispaces.
  • My blog -- Teachers e-mail me from around the US that they have to go home to read my blog. They have to print it and take it back to work to follow the tips, ideas, and instructions. Somehow, "blogs are evil" and are blocked carte blanche from their system.

In Conclusion

When I blogged about this topic , I got many responses. I'd like to share a few with you (added emphasis mine):

"This is hot hot hot issue at our school. Emails have flown back and forth for the last two weeks between frustrated teachers and administrators about too much blockage! I lost half of my class time the other day because my students were blocked from my moodle and personallearningspace blog - which I had asked to be unblocked (and permission was given) last week. I had to give up on my plans to communicate with some students in Israel and move to plan B."

"My son is in debate and has repeatedly had problems accessing sites at school that contained evidence needed for a debate case. When the teacher has requested that particular sites be unblocked she has met with a brick wall...if a student is trying to access a site that is educationally sound and the only answer we have when it is blocked is "sorry but it is blocked by the software" then I think we are telling our students that we are not capable of making judgment decisions ourselves. I think that filtering is great for protecting our students but it needs to have a human factor.

"Many of us are out there working within the system, one in which technicians determine access for the students. When requests for more access are met with LESS access, you learn to keep your mouth shut. It is about power, and teachers have none in this one."

Being effective educators requires facing tough issues


This is my first post on TechLearning, and I know this is a controversial issue. I understand that there are bandwidth issues as well as control issues here at stake as well as some real (or imagined) sue-happy parents who would love to have "little Johnny" come home complaining. However, we have lessons to teach, high stakes testing, and we must be relevant to the children we are teaching.

The easy answer is to block everything; good education is never easy.


In my opinion, in schools where people care, filtration must begin having a human component. The easy thing to do is to just turn it all off.

In businesses that overconcerned about cutting costs, the saying is -- "OK, cut it all off -- close down and that will cut costs." I think that is what some educators have done; they have cut it all off: and cut their classrooms off from meaningful, relevant education.

So what should we do?


Returning to the adage about allergies, filter out the sewage with software. But allow teachers the authority to have some sites unblocked and hold them accountable for the appropriate use and the results of that use. If you trust them with the kids, you should trust them with the Internet.

Let the teachers teach students how to discern accurate, appropriate sources of information and do not over sanitize the Internet. Its not possible and its not healthy. We are an information society. That is what we are producing. The best filter ever invented is the human brain. The best supervision is the teacher, not a piece of software. If teachers aren't responsible, they shouldn't be teaching.

How will history label our generation of educators?


Robert F. Kennedy said:

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."

How will this generation of educators be labeled? What do you think about this issue? Does your school have a solution that works for you?

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