Teching Around with Web 2.0

How Will Technology Change Our Schools?

2011-07-28T21:08:00.005-06:00

There is an interesting article from ISTE I came across via a tweet from @isteconnects titled How Will Technology Change Our Schools Over the Next 10 Years?

As the article states, technology is changing so rapidly it is too difficult to predict how education may change over the course of a decade. Cultural trends will help shape the future of education in such areas as:

*Mobile devices
*eLearning
*Real-time distance education
*Social Media

...and the list goes on. One thing seems to be certain, for the first time ever, educators must prepare students for a future that no one can predict (as stated by David Warlick at a Literacy and Learning in the 21st Century Conference, November 2, 2010).

Twitter Tech Tips

2011-05-31T14:41:00.013-06:00

Twitter is a continuously growing social networking and micro-blogging tool. If you find yourself still contemplating joining the Twitter nation, here’s Common Craft’s introductory video on Twitter in Plain English.

Twitter Search in Plain English illustrates how…
•To discover emerging information
•To find trending topics
•To receive real-time news
•To use hashtags and connect information

This week I found a link via my Twitter PLN listing 6 Things You May Not Know About Twitter.
1. Jump through your Twitter profiles.
2. Hide Retweets from specific users.
3. View the timelines from Twitter profiles.
4. Keyboard shortcuts.
5. Update your Twitter username anytime.
6. Check who’s following you.

Qwiki: The Information Experience

2011-03-22T08:19:00.001-06:00

Qwiki is a multimedia website that synchronizes information drawn from Wikipedia articles and other sources on the Internet. Text and images are summarized on the screen like a moving slideshow with a digital voice narrating the information. This website offers visitors free access, although you can sign up for an account to receive more information access.

Qwiki at TechCrunch Disrupt from Qwiki on Vimeo.

Blog This, Read That

2011-01-31T16:19:00.006-07:00

It is always insightful and refreshing to read new blog postings from interesting Twiter PLN colleagues. There is never a shortage of new, good blog postings. Actually, I can't keep up with the amount of blog postings I would like to read vs. the number of postings I have a chance to read each week. I have found an abundance of educational blogs that combine professional perspectives, personal insights, exciting educational initiatives, new Web 2.0 tools...and the list goes on. Here are three unique, and different postings that recently found their way to my blog reading this week. Great postings, check them out!

What do we really need to focus on? from Technology: Figuring out how the pieces fit.

So The Journey Begins: The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators from Teacher Reboot Camp.

Thoughts on Combining Technology Integration for Educators with Primary Research from the Social Constructivist.

Tweets Worth Mentioning

2010-11-30T09:51:00.013-07:00

As always, Twitter provides me with an endless supply of rich professional resources, websites, tools and networking opportunities. The past two weeks have been no exception. Here are a couple highlights from my Twitter PLN that I thought were worth passing along.

How to Solve Tough EdTech Problems: 5 Articles to Start Your Week

Google Docs Updates; Now Supports Drag and Drop File Uploading

The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You

8 Ways Technology is Improving Education

Powerful Ingredients for Blended Learning Wiki

28 Education and Technology Keywords or Hashtags to Follow on Twitter

K12 Online Conference 2010

2010-10-30T16:57:00.004-06:00

Another K12 Online Conference is here! This fantastic online event is a free conference organized by educational volunteers from around the world interested in promoting, sharing and improving innovative ways Web 2.0 technologies can enhance student engagement and learning. Join the Ning, participate in fireside chats, follow communication via Twitter, download podcasts from iTunes or access archived events.

K12 Online Blog

K12 Online Conference Ning

K12 Online Wiki

Student Blogging

2010-09-30T09:46:00.003-06:00

More and more teachers are introducing the blogosphere to their classrooms, whether it be through a school blog, class blog or student blogging. For the first time I have taken on a project with grade 7 students to introduce them to the blogging world as content creators. We will be using the ultra easy blogging tool from kidblog.org as individual students can blog without email addresses. While searching for a blogging tool that was appropriate for student blogging in my school, I came across a number of useful websites dedicated to blogging resources, tools and information.

50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers

Blogging in Education

Bud the Teacher’s Wiki on Blogging

What You Wanted to KNOW About Student Blogging

No More Pencils, No More Books…Back-to-School Shopping Can Be High-Tech

2010-08-29T14:16:00.003-06:00

Back to school means that students are going to be immersed in a high- tech learning environment full of mobile devices, wireless laptops/notebooks, interactive whiteboards, and much, much more. The three C’s - connectivity, creativity and collaboration are linking students to a global learning community like never before. High-tech learning can mean exciting shopping for technologies that can enhance anywhere, anytime learning for students. Many students are now opting to use their own personal technology devices at school. So, how does a back-to-school shopping list read in the 21st century? The back-to-school shopping list has morphed into items that could include personal laptops, USB memory sticks, Smartphones, iPads, iPods, tablets, and netbooks. Back-to-school during my formal years included shopping for three ring binders, duotangs, coil scribblers, lined paper, HB pencils, highlighters, pens and so forth. Today’s student learning identity is redefined in ways, one being as simple as a back-to-school shopping list.

Teaching Students to be ‘Tech-Skeptical’

2010-07-31T14:38:00.002-06:00

Teaching Students to be ‘Tech-Skeptical’
Inside Higher Ed published an article this month titled Technologically Illiterate Students. Once upon a time the educational technology landscape used to consist of expectations for students to handle straightforward word processors which would navigate simple search engines and straightforward software. The technological divide used to be about hardware haves and have-nots. Today’s technology goes far beyond those simple times and technologically literate students need to be much more sophisticated. Today’s technology goes far beyond those simple times. Almost everyone has access to hardware and software. The 21st century focuses on access to information in a Web 2.0 sharing, collaborative environment. Students today are digitally savvy natives; students know how to handle hardware and software. What they need is to be taught is how to be ‘tech-skeptical’, that is “the critical capacity to glean the implications, and limitations, of technologies as they emerge and become woven into the students’ lives” (Kolowich, 2010). Even students in this digital age aren’t inherently equipped with the skills associated with tech literacy. Educators can help prepare students through K-12 and post-secondary education by:
• weaving digital literacy into existing curriculums
• encouraging students to draw on real-world examples
• leading discussions on the ethical use of technology
• teaching students how to scrutinize and filter information

The future should be information friendly.

Kolowich, S. (2010). Technologically Illiterate Students. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/16/techliteracy

Teachers would help me learn better if…

2010-06-08T18:07:00.002-06:00

I came across a posting last week titled “Hey Teachers: This is How I Learn.” from a blog titled TeachPaperless: Seeking social solution to the mysteries of 21st century teaching and learning. The philosophy behind the blog is to help educators create paperless classroom through integrated technology learning communities. The June posting tells the story of a classroom discussion between a teacher and a class of students. Here are some of the thoughts from students who would learn better if…
•Teachers focused on applying lessons to real-world learning
•Teachers applied more assessment for learning
•More groups projects were the norm
•Teachers stopped using boring PowerPoints to teach
•Lessons were more interactive, hands on
•Teachers used different instructional approaches (do we remember the Theory of Multiple Intelligences?)
•Teachers gave less homework
•Technology was utilized more often

It was interesting to read the thoughts of the students. How many of us [educators] think we are always creating engaging, interactive, exciting lessons? How many of us (who teach multiple grade levels) can really identify how our students learn best each and every day? Each student is an individual learner with a unique learning style. Do we remember Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences? Can we name all eight of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences?
• Spatial
• Linguistic
• Logical-mathematical
• Kinesthetic
• Musical
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalist

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences is based upon the research first presented in his 1983 book Frames of Mind, stating that there are different intelligences in which people are able to learn (Giles, Pitre, & Womack, 2003). Today more than ever, “learning through a variety of unique experiences allows children to better understand themselves as lifelong learners, and to see how others acquire knowledge and apply their skills” (Hampton, n.d.,p. 1). An educational awareness of the theory of M.I. has helped stimulate teachers to discover new ways of teaching all students in the classroom (Guignon, 1998), thus opening up the world of learning to all consumers. Howard Gardner’s research on multiple intelligences has influenced educational thinking practices since his theory burst onto the academic scene.

Teachers would help students learn better if...

Giles, E., Pitre, S., & Womack, S. (2003). Multiple intelligences and learning styles. Retrieved from http://www.coe.uga.edu/epltt/mi-ls.htm

Guignon, A. (1998). Multiple intelligences: A theory for everyone. Education World. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr054.shtml

Hampton, R. (n.d.). Multiple Intelligences. Retrieved from http://www.lth3.k12.il.us/rhampton/mi/mi.html

Digital Citizenship

2010-05-16T09:29:00.004-06:00

One of the focuses we continue to address in education is digital citizenship, Internet safety and cyber ethics.

“Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students/technology users for a society full of technology.” (Digital Citizenship, 2010).

Many online websites have developed specific resources for teachers, students and parents. The Internet is an exciting tool full of infinite resources, information, education and entertainment. However, students need guidance and direction of how best to appropriately explore the Internet and become responsible, safe digital citizens.

Get Web Wise
The Government of Alberta created this website to educate parents, teens and children on Internet safety.

Be Web Aware
Be Web Aware was developed by the Media Awareness Network, Microsoft Canada and Bell as a national Internet safety program.

We’re On To You
This provincial site is sponsored by Alberta and Children Youth Services.

NetSmartz
NetSmartz has created resources for educators, parents/guardians, teens and kids.

GetNetWise
This site was developed to help online users make informed choices and decisions using the Internet.

SafeKids
SafeKids provides tips for social networking, Internet safety, cell phone use, and cyberbullying.

KidSMART
An Internet safety website for students, teachers and parents full of resources and interactive activities.

OnGuard, Online
This site provides tips and multimedia resources on how to protect your personal information when using the Internet.

References
Digital Citizenship, (2010). Digital Citizenship: Using Technology Appropriately. Retrieved from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Home_Page.html

Sweet Search

2010-04-14T18:57:00.001-06:00

Sweet Search is a new search engine passed along to me via a blog visitor who first heard about the resource through a Seedlings webcast on EdTechTalk. Sweet Search is an engine that is designed for students through the expertise of research professionals, teachers and librarians. It searches approximately 35,000 researched and approved websites, whereby drastically cutting down the number of search hits students would encounter through the major search engines. This kind of search engine is a welcome addition in information literacy learning as educators continuously strive to help students receive the most relevant and credible information possible in their learning environment.

What Are You Searching For?

2010-02-16T13:51:00.001-07:00

There are dozens of search engines available for online users to access. It is important to recognize that while Google is the most popular search engine on the web today, it is advantageous to explore different engines and not simply rely on retrieving information from one source. Students need to be well-informed citizens that are able to seek out information from multiple sources. While Google continues to dominate as the number one search engine, it should not be the only means to which students are researching, retrieving and using information. Students no longer have to rely on textbooks, libraries or the classroom to access and receive information necessary to complete assignments. Internet tools offers up a world of immediate knowledge. However, educators need to guide and nurture the skills it takes for students to become effective information consumers.

“To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information”. (Wikipedia, 2010)

Search engines are tools intended to help us search out information on the World Wide Web. When searching the web, there are a few basic tips to pass along to our fellow educators and students:
•Narrow the search topic into keywords or phrases
•Spelling counts!
•Searches are not case sensitive
•Use precise words for your search topic
•Punctuation is usually not necessary
•To locate an exact phrase, place quotes around the words
•Explore as many search results as possible

Recommended search engines for students include:
LearnAlberta
Ask Kids
Quintura for Kids
Thinkfinity

Wikipedia (2010). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_literacy

How do we ensure specific tech tools match student learning goals? #edchat

2010-01-13T12:33:00.003-07:00

Edchat continues to be an exciting collaborative conversation forum for educators via Twitter. Edchat discussions happen Tuesday’s on Twitter and I would invite you to participate using two simple steps:
• Login into the TweetGrid
• Follow the hashtag #edchat

Last night’s #edchat discussion revolved around the question “How do we ensure specific tech tools match student learning goals?” The discussion was very fast paced, but worthy of following because of all of the resourceful and insightful comments from Twitter’s technology PLN. Highlights from the discussion include a snapshot of the following comments:
• Committed teams of educators is the key
• It’s not about the tech tool, but the way students use the tool
• New tech tools have taken over, we cannot ignore the power of their learning potential
• New tech tools bring new energy to the learning environment
• DETA Digital Education Teacher Academy
• Tech is a means, not an end
• Do not separate tech from curriculum, integrate/infuse
• New tech tools support ‘relevant’ learning
• Don’t focus on the tech, focus on learning goals at hand
• Many web tools are blocked by districts
• Tech tools needs to be taught & modeled with best teaching practices
• Focus should be on developing sound pedagogy
• How do we evaluate the value of a tech tool?
• Application of knowledge are signs of learning and understanding
• Educators should be using tech tools everyday
• Is education overwhelmed by technology?

Finally, a Wordle from last night’s edchat created by web20classroom lists a culmination of key words from this week’s topic.

Technology Videos Worth Reel Time

2009-12-27T15:39:00.009-07:00

Video sharing sites such as YouTube and TeacherTube offer up a great deal of educational content, consisting of a wide range of appropriate resources for all subject areas and grade levels. Here are a few notable technology/21st century literacy videos worth sharing.

Digital World: Kids Today
The 21st century has created a new digital culture through the use of web tools and technology. Kids today are using new digital literacies to communicate and connect.

Pay Attention
Today’s students can be labeled as digital learners, so why should we pay attention?

A Vision of K-12 Students Today
How did you learn? How do students today learn? A snapshot how best to inspire and engage digital learners today.

Discover Information Literacy
Great introduction to information literacy and how teachers can help students ‘discover’ information literacy:
D Define
I Inquire
S Search
C Collect
O Organize
V Verify
E Express
R Reflect

Ian Jukes: Understanding Digital Kids
Ian is a well-known Canadian educator, author, consultant and keynote speaker. One of his educational missions is to make sure that educators are properly preparing students for the future.

The Machine Is Us/ing Us
This is the second draft of a very interesting video. Who is using who? Are we driving the technology or is the technology driving us? You be the judge…

Did you Know 3.0?
Karl Fisch created this poignant snapshot of the Information Age, Globalization. This latest version has approximately 2.6 million views.

Explanations in Plain English
CommonCraft produces an easy-to-understand video series on emerging online tools such as:
• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Web Search Strategies
• Social Media
• Social Bookmarking
• Social Networking
• Wikis

K12 Online Conference 2009

2009-11-14T17:28:00.004-07:00

The K12 Online Conference 2009: Bridging the Divide is right around the corner. Educators from around the world come together to present innovative ways technology and Web 2.0 tools can be used for instructional learning. This year’s pre-conference keynote presenter is Kim Cofino, 21st Century literacy specialist from the International School in Bangkok, Thailand. Kim’s blog Always Learning gives participants an overview of her presentation titled Going Global: Culture Shock, Convergence and the Future of Education.

Getting Started…
To participate in this free online event, register by joining the K12 Conference Ning. During conference dates, participants can view content online or download content and then post comments on the conference blog.

The conference runs between December 7-11th and December 14-17th. Over the two weeks more than fifty presentations will run as well as three ‘fireside’ live events. This conference was first hosted in 2006 so there are well over one hundred archived events for educators to access.

Literacy and Learning in the 21st Century – David Warlick

2009-11-04T18:46:00.006-07:00

Today I attended an Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium session titled Literacy and Learning in the 21st Century presented by David Warlick. This was the first time I had the pleasure of listening to David speak in person. What a great learning day!

One of the first questions he threw out to the audience asked “What is the web going to be like in five years?” He deferred answers to this question in interviews given by Google CEO Eric Schmidt. I didn’t catch exactly which interview David pulled his information from, it is worth listening to a variety of Eric Schmidt interviews posted on YouTube. Some of Eric’s predictions included:
• A web dominated by Asian content
• Bandwidth increasing exponentially
• Sites like YouTube making significant profits
• Real time communications growing

How much information is too much information? David reminded us that literacy today is not just about reading and writing, but instead knowing how to find information, ask questions and find answers. For the first time ever, educators must prepare students for a future we know nothing about! We are simply preparing students for an unpredictable future, or what David calls The Perfect Storm. What do we need to do to prepare our students? We need to pay attention and bring their outside experiences into the classroom – blogging, social networking, creating, collaborating, connecting, authoring, and publishing. Education must be relevant; education must keep pace. Teachers must steer classrooms forward as if they are ‘Learning Engines’. The best thing we can teach students is how to teach themselves. Being literate today means questioning information, exposing information and becoming an informational ‘digital detective’.

These thoughts are just a small part of a connected learning session presented by David Warlick.

A Day In The Life of 2.0

2009-10-31T16:16:00.013-06:00

This posting was inspired by Joyce Valenza’s School Library Journal article titled “My 2.0 day and the response/rant about our cover argument” from October 15, 2009. Have you reflected on your digital 2.0 life and how it has transformed over the past couple years? What does your digital daily routine look like professionally (or personally)? How many times a day do you have to type in a user name and password? How many different user names and passwords do you manage? It is really quite interesting to list how the digital world impacts my daily routine.

First thing in the morning I check all four of my email accounts – two personal and two educational accounts. Are four email accounts too many? Once I arrive at school the 2.0 life really begins. I check in behind the scenes with the school blog, Technology Learning @Camilla. Are there new comments posted that required an administrative reply? From there I login to my professional Delicious account so that my laptop is ready to use the Delicious quick launch buttons in my browser.
On any given school day, I will login to most, if not all the following digital tools:
• Blogger
• Discovery Streaming
• LearnAlberta
• Promethean Planet
• VoiceThread
• Slideshare
• Podomatic or Podbeam
• Wikispaces

Throughout the day there are numerous web 2.0 tools, Internet resources and digital applications that are part of the regular technology landscape in my classrooms:
• Google Earth
• Wordle
• Audacity
• Photo Story 3

After the school day is finished and I have arrived home, I quickly boot up the laptops. It is now time to manage more digital accounts at home. Some of these applications are simply for personal use, some are an extension of my professional day that can only be managed at home.
• Teching Around with Web 2.0 Personal Blog
• Twitter
• Google Reader
• Google Docs
• Shelfari
• Skype
• Flickr
• Picasa
• ZoHo Notebook

How many Ning’s are too many Ning’s? It is not enough to belong to one educational Ning these days. Each time I read about the creation of a new Ning on Twitter, I suddenly find myself joining the community. I tend to follow some of my favourite Twitter colleagues into new social communities because I don’t want to miss out of the amazing discussions, resources, and sharing. Although I belong to a handful of social networks, I regularly manage four social networks:
• The Educator’s PLN
• Canadian 21st Century Teacher-Librarians
• Classroom 2.0
• Stenhouse Publishers

I have over forty web accounts, and that number is somewhat underestimated as there are many more web 2.0 accounts that I used and have forgotten to type up on my master list.

My day is digitally busy. The rapid growth of emerging technologies will continue to keep my 2.0 life in a state of typing in user names and passwords.

Is life now one big login?

My Personal Learning Network

2009-10-17T16:45:00.010-06:00

Building my own personal learning network (PLN) has been professionally rewarding. Next to my graduate studies, my dedication to developing my PLN has been an invaluable investment. Connecting with technology professionals, educational experts and creative individuals through such networks as:
Twitter
EdTech Talk
Classroom 2.0
The Future of Education
Canadian 21st Century Teacher-Librarians

The opportunities to connect locally, provincially, nationally and globally 24/7 have open up dialogue for critical thinking conversations on a variety of educational topics to support my professional learning, which in turns allows new knowledge to be woven into my instructional practices. My PLN provides daily support, gives answers, asks questions, and shares resources.

Look beyond your classroom, your school, your district…there is a global PLN out there ready to
Connect, Communicate, Converse

"You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes."
~Winnie the Pooh

Stenhouse Online Book Reviewers Club

2009-09-06T21:17:00.011-06:00

I am pleased to announce that I will be part of an online book reviewers club for Stenhouse Publishers.

My online educational responsibilities include:
• Participation on the Stenhouse blog
• Posting book reviews and author information on this blog
• Hosting/participating in blog book tours

I look forward to this new partnership over the next school year and invite administrators, teachers and instructional coaches to join the Stenhouse Publishers Ning for lively discussions on new educational resources supporting professional development.

The first book I will be reading is A Sense of Belonging Sustaining and Retaining New Teachers by Jennifer Allen. Jennifer is a literacy specialist from Maine who has created professional development programs and workshops at the local and national levels.

Take the opportunity to browse the entire book online and then join the Ning discussion!

Twitter #edchat

2009-08-21T17:52:00.016-06:00

Edchat has become an exciting collaborative conversation forum for educators via Twitter. Edchat discussions happen Tuesday’s on Twitter in two different time zones – 12pm and 7pm (ET).
• Follow the hashtag #edchat
• Each week hosts a new educational topic

There are great bloggers who have explained, in detail, Twitter and edchats. Here are just a few samples:
Teacher Reboot Camp
The Cool Cat Teacher
Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom

I participated in my first edchat discussion on August 18th and was pleasantly surprised at the thought-provoking discussions with last Tuesday’s topic “What Objectives are Necessary for Effective Tech Integration?”
• Technology should become increasingly transparent
• Innovative educators needed
• Do innovative educators always equal good educators?
• Encourage and engage colleagues
• Teachers engaged in teaching; students engaged in learning
• Explore new resources and tools
• Focus on content, not the technology
• Tell admin, show admin, involve admin
• Tech needs to be adopted, not adapted!

I found myself continually refreshing my Twitter page as the conversations were lively and constantly evolving from people joining in throughout the evening. Is this kind of conversation worthwhile? Absolutely! I have added a number of new technology experts to my professional learning network (PLN), and have gained new followers who share in my educational interest in technology.

Dare to Tweet in #edchat…it will do your PLN good!

A Whole New Mind

2009-07-31T13:16:00.031-06:00

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future is a book by Daniel H. Pink. This book was recommend reading from a few of my colleagues and while I am not quite finished reading the book, I am fascinated with Pink’s provocative commentary on our global future.

Chapter One, titled Right Brain Rising, gives readers a refresher of the misconceptions vs ‘the real stuff’ in the different roles between the two hemispheres of the brain.
We need both left and right brain approaches to live fulfilling, productive lives. So why does Daniel H. Pink feel the need to emphasize the right-brained approach?

“Last century, machines proved they could replace human back. This century, new technologies are proving they can replace human left brains” (p. 44). Automation and technological developments are shifting the emphasis in the workplace away from information-based, analytical focuses to narrative, storytelling, and empathetic right-brained thinking.

Pink outlines four defining ages in chapter three (p. 49):
Depicting the historical progression of society shows the evolution from left-brain domination to the right-brain rising.

In part two of the book, Pink introduces six senses essential in the Conceptual Age.
• Design
• Story
• Symphony
• Empathy
• Play
• Meaning

“These six senses increasingly will guide our lives and shape our world” (p. 67).

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future will take readers on a fascinating journey exploring the future that we should no longer be waiting for, but instead embrace as it has already arrived.

A School Year in Review

2009-06-22T17:43:00.020-06:00

Another academic school year is quickly coming to an end. It has been a busy one! Reflecting back to the beginning of last September, I was unsure of how I was going to get through what seemed like an overwhelming glance of the year at hand. The Fall began with my final regular graduate course titled Exploration of Web 2.0. A fantastic introduction to Web 2.0 tools alongside the creation of this blog as a partial requirement for the course. A plethora of new tools, applications, articles, reports, books were introduced as part of the professional learning. I found myself completely engaged in the twenty-first century participatory culture of Web 2.0 and new technologies.

Technology highlights of my academic school year and my last year of graduate studies include:
• Becoming a blogger
• Following blogs
• Streaming slideshows and creating collages in Flickr/Picasa
• Subscribing to Delicious as my main social booking account
• Creating podcasts using Audacity and PodOmatic
• Exploring virtual libraries
• Creating wikis in pbwiki
• Attending Internet Librarian 2008 Conference in Monterey,CA
• Using VoiceThread personally and professionally
• Attending Kaleidoscope 9 Children’s Literature Conference
• Becoming a Tweeter by joining the Twitter nation
• Setting up Google Reader as my aggregator for RSS feeds
• Using document cameras & Promethean Boards at school
• MEd Convocation Day, June 4th

There’s so much more technology learning to come.
I’m inspired to share more.
I’m motivated to learn more.

Twitter: What Are You Doing?

2009-05-18T16:49:00.002-06:00

The Power of Twitter
Well, the secret of Twitter is really out! Last month, Twitter was revealed to millions more as Oprah sent out her first tweet on April 17th Friday’s Live Show. I suspect Twitter will be a little more crowded now because everything Oprah endorses explodes in popularity. Recently there have also been a number of ‘Twitter Wars’ between media moguls and celebrities, all competing for the title of Twitter King or Queen. It is easy to dismiss this tool as frivolous and a waste of time. Everyone has their own reason for using Twitter – personal, professional or both.
Although Twitter was developed in San Francisco in 2006, I have only been tweeting since 2008. I had a little trepidation at first, not knowing exactly what was worthy of saying in 140 characters or less. In the beginning I truly did not understand the power of this application. However, the more I use it, the more I understand Twitter’s power in building networks and facilitating professional connections. For the most part, I choose to follow people, institutions or industry experts working within the field of education (public, private, government), technology and media specialists, and Web 2.0 enthusiasts.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a tweet from someone I was following stating that he had just updated his blog with a posting titled 3 Reasons Why Twitter Works in Education. The blog posting described Twitter in three words:
·Simple
·Communication
·Connections

Twitter is simple. It gives users quick, short updates leaving readers the choice to follow a link for extended reading, or skip over and continue browsing tweets.

Twitter is an instant communicative platform that networks and connects with others who may have similar interests, thus creating social and professional connections that establish online relationships which may prove to be professionally beneficial.

The University of Minnesota has officially sanctioned using Twitter as part of their Digital Media program as outlined by Terry Freedman in his article Twitter in the Classroom.

Tim O’Reilly has much to say in his commentary Why I Love Twitter. Six key points outline the “architectural features” that O’Reilly finds impressive – simple, cooperative, sustains natural social grouping with privacy support, provides alternate interfacing, and is an ever-evolving application. O’Reilly specifically describes more of Twitter’s benefits as being able to:
-pass along tidbits of news
-follow interesting people
-learn from others
-track interesting ideas
-shape the future

Local, national and international media has jumped on the Twitter train. Marshall Kirkpatrick gave interesting insight into How We Use Twitter for Journalism on the ReadWriteWeb last spring. I receive Twitter updates from my local media outlets such as the Edmonton Journal, CTV Edmonton news, and Global Edmonton.

To sum up, Twitter is a simple communicative outlet that allows people from around the globe to network and connect.

What about the educational implications of this Web 2.0 tool?

Grown Up Digital

2009-04-01T20:33:00.009-06:00

Last week I ordered my copy of Don Tapscott’s Grown Up Digital book. I had recently heard a great deal of buzz from some of my colleagues about this book being a ‘must read’ for educators. As I sorted through my Spring Break reading stack, Tapscott’s book made it to the top of the pile as the second book to tackle in my short break from teaching. Of course I had my trusty highlighter pen and pad of post-it notes before reading Tapscott’s research and insights on how the Net Generation is changing our world.

Chapter 1 titled The Net Generation Comes of Age. “The bottom line is this: if you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future” (p.11). Equally important is that if we understand the past, we [educators] can begin to understand how our personal views, behaviours, attitudes and attributes are shaped through our own generation. I found it quite enlightening to read about the expectations defined for my generation (Generation X). Tapscott defines my generation by saying “Gen Xers among the best-educated group in history” (p. 14). That definitely puts a smile on my face as I prepare for my MEd convocation this spring!

While I’m not quite finished reading the book I had to post just a few of his comments from the beginning section that struck me as important factors to understanding the Net Generation:

· The Net Generation assimilate technology because they are growing up with it; adults accommodate technology – this presents a more challenging type of learning (p. 18).

· As adults we must change our established thinking patterns to truly accommodate new technologies (p. 18).

· The Net Geners are active collaborators, initiators, organizers, readers/writers, and strategists (p. 21).

· Net Geners are forcing the education system to change “from a teacher-focused approach based on instruction to a student-focused model based on collaboration” (p. 11).

Once I have finished reading the book, I suspect that I will have more comments on this fascinating look at the Net Generation.

Blog Book Tour Visit with Johanna Riddle

2009-03-05T19:33:00.004-07:00

In my last posting I had the opportunity to review Johanna Riddle's new book Engaging the Eye Generation: Visual Literacy Strategies for the K-5 Classroom (2009) published by Stenhouse. I hope that blog viewers had a chance to read some excerpts online. Some of you left comments/questions on the blog, I also received a few questions via email.

What sparked you to write this book?
It’s always interesting to watch the progress of sharing ideas and to trace the synergetic domino effect of that decision. If you are reading this blog, then you know how important it is to connect and collaborate with others in our profession.

My interest in visual literacy is grounded in my training in art education, and that interest was inherited from my mother and my aunt, both of whom were art teachers. In the context of the art classroom, I spent a good deal of time teaching students to interpret visual information, and to develop original visual work with intention and skill. As I moved from art education to the world of the media center, I began to see clear links between writing devices and visual devices, such as metaphor, context, inference. I also began to look at picture books with a new eye, as a crucial nexus between visual and traditional literacies. In addition, I was beginning to explore the role of technology in education. I began to build a textual/ visual approach to literacy, often frame worked in the context of informational literacy. I decided to share these ideas at FAME, our state media conference. Someone in the audience mentioned my presentation to an Adobe colleague, and that resulted in an invitation to become an Adobe education leader. A prime benefit of that alliance was access to software and training that I was able to infuse into the classroom. I also offered training to my school faculty. It was about this time that I also began to write for Multimedia and Internet @ Schools magazine. The magazine editor, Dave Hoffman, invited me to speak at the MMIS East conference in Washington, D.C . Immediately after that presentation, a high school teacher from Pennsylvania came up to me and said “My principal wants me to teach this way, but I don’t know how! Have you ever thought of writing a book?” (My response was ‘No!’) She even mentioned Stenhouse Publishing, a company that specializes in books by teachers, for teachers. I sent a sample chapter, a proposed outline, and a query letter to Stenhouse, and the rest is history. The moral of the story: You never know who is listening to your ideas, and where in life they may lead you. We all have something valuable to share. Go for it!

What are some of the biggest obstacles or barriers for teachers when it comes to integrating technology into their lessons?
The first word that popped into my head when I read this question was “fear”. It’s an intimidating barrier. We fear failure, fear loss of control, fear the unknown, fear looking stupid. I know, because I have felt that fear! My mantra is "Embrace the fear, and do it anyway." When you build a community of learners on a foundation of trust and respect, that foundation supports everyone involved in the community--including you. We expect our students to "let go in order to learn" and we must be willing to do the same. Be brave! We need to make a concerted effort to understand and embrace technology as a creative, communicative tool for relevant learning, and not just a screen and keyboard for viewing software-learning programs.—think of the creative difference between filling in the lines of a coloring book, and creating an original painting on a blank canvas.

Management issues create another barrier. Too many of us are still teaching in that old factory model. We are inured to the format of whole group instruction; it's familiar, comfortable, and seems the most efficient way to check off all those little boxes at the end of the day. King Schedule doesn't do too much to help us move away from that old tradition. These days, so much in education is also driven by state testing, federal, state, and district mandates, and various other incremental requirements that seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm very interested in the dynamic decision of school districts such as Adams 50 in Denver, Colorado, who are scrapping the old factory models entirely, and rebuilding their education programs through a 21st century lens. Talk about embracing your fears and doing it anyway! I’ll be watching their progress with interest, and cheering them on as they boldly go where no man has gone before!

What suggestions do you have for teachers who are digital immigrants and are trying to incorporate 21st century skills into the classroom for the first time?
Teachers are doers. We cultivate an amazing ability to focus and respond to the tasks before us. We may be less likely to take time for reflecting, mapping, and "big picture" professional development. But that’s the essential starting point. If our ultimate goal is to prepare our students to successfully participate and contribute to life in the 21st century, what skills do they need to develop in order to experience that success? It’s a question that we, individually and collectively, need to consider carefully. Further, we must consider it in the context of the world, and not just the classroom. I sometimes perceive a big disconnect there. I mention, in Engaging the Eye Generation, the impact of Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind. That book inspired me to look at teaching, and learning, in a radically different way. There are some excellent resources in the back of my book. I know that they helped me to establish of vision of the ultimate learning goals that I held for my students. Once that vision is in place, you will look at your curriculum, benchmarks, and standards with a fresh eye. Then start to make those changes, in simple ways. When you see how engaged your students become in learning and how rich and relevant your content becomes, I promise you will be hooked. There is nothing more rewarding than a classroom of students who are excited about the world of learning that you are opening to them.

How important is it for a school to have a vision that recognizes the importance of 21st century literacies and technology integration?
It’s essential. If the way we choose to approach education—as a community of learners-- is not relevant to the ways that today’s students interact with, perceive, and apply information, then we are missing the boat. These literacies and integrations are skill-building processes. That means that everyone must be on board to learn, communicate, and apply those skills.

Have you had experience teaching adult education? Are the processes and projects in the book adaptable for the adult classrooms?
My experience with adult education has been limited to the university classroom and workshops and training within the context of professional training. But you bring up an excellent point: If visual literacy is a crucial process, and a learned process, how is it being addressed at every level of education? Anyone familiar with the GED knows that visual literacy skills are assumed; that test requires proficiency in visual interpretation, not only in the form of map, graph, and chart reading, but in the direct processes of interpreting and inferring meaning behind photographs and political cartoons. So, engaging adult learners in visual literacy strategies has direct correlation to the level of proficiency required for the GED. Right now, I am involved in a project with high school ESL students. They’ve written stories about their experiences as immigrants, and are creating digital stories. A final piece of the project will be a digitally altered, interpretive self-portrait, which will serve as the CD cover for their project. This is a good example of a multiple literacy project that could easily adapt to an adult education context—simultaneously teaching traditional literacy skills, visual and technological literacy skills, as well as pronunciation, inflection, and presentation skills. It serves a higher purpose as well, that of giving voice to the students who participate in these modes of learning and expression.

To what extent do you think that teachers have adapted 21st century literacies into their personal lives?
I think that the answer to that has to be as individual as teachers themselves. Some adaptation is unavoidable. After all, we are living in a multimedia world. Consciously, or unconsciously, we are perceiving and streaming in information nearly continuously. Whether we choose to be passive recipients or empowered communicators of those literacies is up to us.

I would like to thank Johanna Riddle for visiting Teching Around! Thank you to Stenhouse for facilitating this blog book tour visit.

Blog Book Tour

2009-02-21T10:42:00.004-07:00

On Friday, March 6th author Johanna Riddle will be visiting Teching Around. Please feel free to post questions about 21st century literacies and technology integration to the comment section prior to March 6th and I will post her responses.

Engaging the Eye Generation: Visual Literacy Strategies for the K-5 Classroom by Johanna Riddle

2009-02-15T15:51:00.003-07:00

Author Johanna Riddle has written a new book titled Engaging the Eye Generation: Visual Literacy Strategies for the K-5 Classroom (2009) published by Stenhouse. I have come across some of Johanna’s work throughout my graduate studies and enjoy reading her thoughts, as a media specialist, on Web 2.0 tools, 21st literacies, and technology integration. Johanna has over twenty years of educational experience as a teacher, media specialist and arts administrator. She takes readers on an educational journey emphasizing the power of visual literacy with today’s learning generation. This book is a great resource for grades K-5 teachers (and probably beyond) as we all must forge ahead not only recognizing 21st century learners, but how to best teach this multidimensional generation.

Browse all of Engaging the Eye Generation online!

The way that students are learning today is an ever-evolving process. Johanna opens with an introductory question asking “How do we change the way we teach to best reach today’s learners?” (p. 1). Engaging the Eye Generation answers that question and more. To genuinely reach students with meaningful, authentic learning experiences, educators must prepare them to “navigate life in the twenty-first century” which in turn means we “can’t keep looking at teaching through twentieth-century lenses” (p. 1).

The introductory section is particularly interesting as it lists eight fundamental categories of literacy found in today’s information-based society identified by the North Central Regional Education Laboratory from work already established by the International ICT Literacy Panel.

Basic Literacy
Scientific Literacy
Economic Literacy
Technological Literacy
Visual Literacy
Information Literacy
Multicultural Literacy
Global Awareness

“Rather than merely “new”, today’s literacy is multidimensional, incorporating many different ways of receiving and expressing information and often involving creative collaboration. Visual literacy is central to such communication” (p. 4). Johanna starts at the beginning by setting the stage to introducing 21st century literacies and visual skills by comparing them to the beginning stages of reading in young children. The process is a slow sequential one that gradually becomes learned and more complex taking students beyond traditional literacy boundaries.

Chapter 3 begins by saying
“When we embrace the notion that how we teach is as relevant to the learning process as what teach, we naturally begin to expand our instruction to address a wider range of learning styles and literacies. We continue to work within traditional disciplines, but our approach to teaching those disciplines broadens. The inclusion of art, technology, and imagery adds power to traditional tools such as books, paper and pencils. Our students become actively engaged in visual, auditory and kinesthetic interpretation and production of information. As we reach into their world, we transform the everyday business of teaching and learning into a shared, creative journey” (p. 55).

With the advent of all of the new literacies weaving their way into educational instructional environments, developing these literacies is important because it nurtures active engagement through a shared educational journey.

Johanna carefully details her experiences with visual literacies. I think this will remind educators that developing visual literacy skills not only differentiates learning but recognizes that there are a number of ‘multiple intelligences’ that need creative inspiration in the learning environment.

A blog book tour will be taking place here, more details to come. If you have questions you would like to ask Johanna, please post them in the comment section of this post.

Happy reading!

Visitor Map Widget

2009-02-09T22:01:00.004-07:00

I thought it would be interesting to post this visitor map and watch the little beacons blinking from all corners of the globe.

Visitor Map Widgetgreat free widgetsWidgetbox

The Architecture of Web 2.0

2009-02-05T23:05:00.002-07:00

I revisited an article written in 2006 titled ‘Web 2.0 The new internet “boom” doesn’t live up to its name’ by Paul Boutin. Interesting that only a few years ago ‘Web 2.0’ was considered a buzzword by some, while others were wondering what exactly Web 2.0 meant. Tim O’Reilly (who is credited with creating the term Web 2.0) wrote a ‘compact’ definition describing Web 2.0 as:

“Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.”

Software, if continually updated, gets better as more people use it. The more people that create and use accounts with such tools as Delicious or Twitter, the more it makes the network of sharing and collaboration that much more powerful and meaningful. The “architecture of participation” describes the natural foundation in which Web 2.0 is built. Thinking, linking, connecting, interacting, sharing, collaborating (the list of descriptive words is exhaustive). Web 2.0 lives up to its name, and more.

O’Reilly, T. (2005) Web 2.0: Compact definition? Retrieved from http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/10/web-20-compact-definition.html

Why Let Our Students Blog?

2009-01-22T21:48:00.001-07:00

What a great little video. Why should we let our students blog? How many educators are actually asking that question? How many are still asking what is a blog?

I took key themes from the video and created a Wordle summary of why it is important to recognize the power of the blog.

Will Richardson has much to say about students blogging. One of my favourite postings on his blog is titled Why Weblogs? The posting is a running collection of compilations from different sources. The first story interestingly describes the lack of connection students made between their participation in the ReadWriteWeb as active reading and writing. “To them, the Internet and other forms of electronic discourse were not associated with their concept of “reading and writing” in the school sort of way”. As suggested in Richardson’s posting, students may indeed see blogging, texting, emailing etc as recreation, not necessarily associated with formal 'school-type' learning. Encouraging students to take part in the blogosphere can create an authentic learning experience that engages passive Internet participants to create conversations that can continue to evolve anytime, anywhere.

Let’s Talk About EdTechTalk

2009-01-19T17:25:00.002-07:00

If you are visiting EdTechTalk (ETT) for the first time and want to find out more about this site, you might just visit the ‘About Us’ section. The opening statement sums up the goal of this highly valuable educational website. “EdTechTalk is a community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology.” There is no shortage of topics to meet your professional development needs. The plethora of technology shows on the website line-up is well-rounded and sure to satisfy all techy appetites. The current ETT line-up includes:
• 21st Century Learning
• EdTechTalk K-12
• Making Connections
• EdTechBrainstorm
• EdTechWeekly
• Parents as Partners
• EdTechTalk
• It’s Elementary
• Teachers Teaching Teachers
• Women of Web2.0

There are several different ways in which to catch the ETT action:
• Listen to a live webcast
• Access show archives
• Subscribe to a RSS feed

I was first introduced to EdTechTalk last fall during my Web 2.0 graduate course as some of the podcasts were posted on the course Trailfires. Wanting to get to know more about the personalities hosting EdTechTalk, I began following their blogs and reading their Tweets on Twitter. What I can say for certain is that educators who are interested in expanding their knowledge about 21st technologies cannot pass through this website without taking time to sample a webcast.

I have become an avid fan. I have become an avid fan so much so that I have subscribed to multiple shows through my iTunes. What better way to enjoy a webcast at leisure than by uploading the iPod and hitting the play button!

Image to Word Image

2009-01-04T20:49:00.001-07:00

A random find. While I was searching through the Internet, I stumbled across Textorizer Generator, a free widget that transforms images and logos into a world of word imagery. I decided to try it out as the examples on screen looked fun and interesting.

There are two ways in which try out this tool, download the application or use the online version. I chose to use the online version. According to the creators, Safari, Opera and Firefox are the browsers that work best and this seems to be the case as I first tried creating an image in Explorer with no success. I then moved into Firefox and had an interesting time trying to create something recognizable enough to post on the blog. After a few failed attempts with different logos and pictures, the blogger symbol was finally a logo that proved to be successful in this textorizing experiment. Little did I know that there is an online community of textorizer images posted on Flickr.

From this...

To this...

I used the phrase Teching Around with Web 2.0 to make up the text imagery. Would this application easily be incorporated into an educational setting? No. Most schools use Internet Explorer as the desktop browser. However, the potential to create some cool digital art is waiting for those who are willing to go on a Safari, perform in Opera or travel into Firefox.

Teching Around in 2009

2009-01-01T21:22:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year! With the celebration of welcoming in 2009, I decided that Teching Around needed a makeover. I dedicated some time this week changing colours, gadgets and rearranging components within the template. Out with the old, in with the new…well, at least out with some of the old blog and in with a few new things. I have not given much thought to blogging over the holidays. A much needed break was in order. However, I expect 2009 to bring new insights into 21st century learning, technologies, and ICT skills in the field of education. It is time to start researching more Web 2.0 applications, articles, and catch up on my RSS feeds.

Yes, it is time I updated my blog!

Thinking, Linking & Blogging…A final Reflection

2008-12-07T14:25:00.004-07:00

My EDES 501 Web 2.0 Learning Tools course was everything I thought it would be and more. I expected that we would be exploring Web 2.0 tools, but I had no idea that I was going to take a journey into the blogosphere that, in the end, has helped spark a transformation in the way I approach technology infusion and instruction.

I was originally not going to take a fall session course. After finishing an intense six week summer course I was prepared to take a semester off and enjoy a little break from coursework. It was by chance that I saw this course on the schedule and decided to register in it because of my keen interest in educational technologies. I have genuinely enjoyed this course and have become more aware of Web 2.0 emerging tools that, in turn, have enhanced my personal and professional growth.

There was nothing intimidating about the content of this course for me. However, there were a few challenges in learning the ‘workings’ of a variety of 2.0 tools in the short timeframe we had because of new topics to tackle each week.

Reflecting back to my first blog posting (the introductory blog) I remember experiencing difficultly getting started. I asked myself how to best take that first leap of faith into the blogosphere and still protect my personal privacy through a public blog. I struggled with creating and maintaining personal privacy boundaries. I didn’t want these boundaries to overshadow the professional background I needed to establish in order to make connections with future blog readers and followers. My introductory blog begins “I’m not sure what to expect…” and ends with “I'm still not sure what to expect...Web 2.0 possibilities are enormous...Oh, the places we'll go!” From my introductory posting to this reflective one, readers can see ‘The places I’ve been…’

Some Challenges...

After posting my introductory blog, there were a few technical bumps along the bloggy way. There were two frustrating points in the course of incorporating 2.0 tools:
-Using the Flickr photostream
-First time video uploading

Week one was about investigating photo sharing sites such as Picasa and Flickr. I decided to focus on Flickr as I thought that site looked simple and one that I could easily introduce to staff and students as a web based tool. I saw potential to use Flickr as a source to run a slideshow highlighting my favourite children’s book covers on the sidebar of my blog – great! My book covers were uploaded and in a photostream posted to my blog – no problem. I continued to upload in Flickr, saving new photos in a different folder set, but during this while composing a photo blog posting I noticed that my new set of photos fused into my book cover photostream and my slideshow was out of control in my sidebar. It took several days to fix the problem, causing me to shutdown my slideshow gadget while repairing the situation. To this day I’m still not sure why the two sets combined together, but this is a problem I want to explore and resolve.

In week two we were asked to explore video sharing sites, which would ultimately lead to having to upload and post my first video. While the actual process was only a matter of copying the embedded URL information, it cause technical grief for a few days. For some reason I could not properly embed video into my posting. Frustration set in because I noticed that many of my classmates had posted videos on their blog, so I was my blog rejecting my attempts? After some Blogger help and navigating through my settings, I discovered that I had inadvertently turned off a vital editing command. Video problem solved!

This cartoon is reflective of my thought process (or lack thereof) during the first week of class discovering that I had to become regular blogger…for a couple months…what could I possibly have to say that was interesting? It was difficult taking the first blogging step…it will not be difficult continuing…

Blogging is not a spectator sport!

Some Highlights...
One outstanding experience that will resonate long after this course is over is all of the professional connections generated through my active participation in the blogosphere. These connections were developed by following bloggers, commenting on blogs and writing weekly blog postings. First and foremost, thank you to all of my classmates! Your wisdom and individual insights into Web 2.0 tools has kept me reading your blogs with great anticipation and learning from your experiences with sincere gratitude.

Andrea’s Adventure’s in Web 2.0 documents Andrea’s Web 2.0 journey as seen through the eyes of a very dedicated teacher-librarian who is committed in sharing her new found knowledge with students and staff.

Bruce’s Saudixpat’s Weblog was a voyage into ‘cyburbia’ by articulating his personal progress along the way coupled with his writings about executing current student technology projects during the duration of this course.

Carol’s Tea for [Web] 2.0 blog not only invites readers on her professional technology journey, but she also invites readers to discover her personal growth through the lense of family experiences using Web 2.0 tools.

Chris the Teacher has a blog writing style marked with great enthusiasm in all of his postings. I enjoyed his videos, diagrams, and pictures that were carefully researched to fit each topic.

Christina began her blog journey asking valid questions about blogs and how they relate to the classroom (some of the same questions I had in the beginning). It was nice to read how her excitement level around Web 2.0 tools built up over the semester on Exploring Web 2.0.

Jacquie’s Great Digital Divide is about one educator’s journey into becoming more comfortable with Web 2.0 tools and connecting her new knowledge with meaningful learning opportunities for all students.

Danielle’s postings on 2.0 teaching and learning in her Docendo Discimus 2.0 blog often reflects on how emerging tools can relate to students at the primary grade levels. I welcome her thoughts on weaving 2.0 tools into a primary setting.

Following Jan’s Incredible Blogosphere Journey has provided me with an overabundance of valuable professional links, articles and references. I appreciate the ‘incredible blogosphere’ resources harmoniously hyperlinked into all postings.

Jo-Anne’s blog EDES 501 Web 2.0 Learning Log demonstrates insightful reflections that exemplify her commitment to professional development. I enjoy the thoughtfulness of her blog postings and wealth of resource sharing.

Sheila’s Spinning a Web about 2.0 highlights her blog evolution from initial trepidation to one of excited pleasure in sharing her 2.0 learning with staff members.

Where do I go from here? I wrote Web 2.0 tools into my professional growth plans submitted to my principal in September. I had every intention at the beginning of this course to access my new learning and us my participation as a springboard to launch 2.0 into my instruction for students, and as a leader to support educators on staff ready to embrace new technologies.

I plan to incorporate Web 2.0 tools into a couple projects within the primary and elementary grade levels. I have accomplished this at the grade three level by converting a language arts project created in Word and converted into a Wordle document (printed in colour and currently being displayed in the primary hallway).

A special thank you to University of Alberta course instructor Joanne de Groot. I have enjoyed reading your insightful comments and look forward to future blogosphere connections!!

"By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn." ~Latin Proverb

I’m inspired to share more.
I’m motivated to learn more.

Oh, the places I'll go!

Blog #11 What's Your Favourite Tool in the Web 2.0 Tool Box?

2008-11-30T11:44:00.002-07:00

Technology has rapidly advanced over the past few years to include an extensive list of new technologies and applications such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, social bookmarking, RSS feeds, webcams, and portable devices. While the list can be exhaustive, there are educational applications and technologies to suite educator’s instructional needs for addressing 21st century learning.

The educational landscape has experienced exponential growth and change, and will continue to do so whether we welcome change or not. Over the past couple months I have welcomed new approaches in learning, exploring new applications and researching the educational implications of Web 2.0 tools. My personal and professional Web 2.0 tool box is full of new learning, new experiences and new connections.

What’s Next?
Focus on Staff Development
The best approach to integrating Web 2.0 tools in my school would be through school-based professional development. As a media specialist and technology leader, I remind myself that delivering onsite teacher technology professional development should be inviting, meaningful and relevant in making curriculum and instruction connections. The ever-present expectation of delivering the provincial Program of Studies goes hand-in-hand with Alberta Education’s focus on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Outcomes. “The ICT curriculum is not intended to stand alone, but rather to be infused within core courses and programs” (Alberta Education, 2008). There are educators still struggling with these ICT outcomes even though these outcomes have been around since 2003. How do I help teachers move into the Web 2.0 when some are struggling with Web 1.0? Richardson (2006) reminds us that “education has been slow to adapt to these new tools and potentials” (p. 3).

Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms provides teachers and administrators with a hands-on approach, illustrating some of the most powerful Web 2.0 tools transforming education today. The 2008 edition now includes updated research, Internet safety and a section on information literacy.

What’s Next?
A Web 2.0 Overview
What are Web 2.0 tools? What exactly does the emergence of Web 2.0 tools mean for teaching, for learning? I want to begin to integrate my Web 2.0 learning from this course into my school setting. As a teacher-librarian, one of my roles is as a technology leader. I would like to approach the introduction of Web 2.0 tools through a school-based professional development session. This would require me to begin at the beginning, presenting an introductory overview of the ever-evolving Web and an explanation of Web 2.0 tools. There are a few links to articles and websites that pay particular attention in highlighting the new read/write Web.

‘Net Know-How: Web 2.0 Overview
Alberta’s 2Learn.ca Education Society provides a brief overview of the new face of educational technologies, describing Web 2.0 “where the central theme is to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing” (2Learn.ca Education Society, 2008). I particularly like this introduction because it talks about the new connecting technologies in three distinct areas:
Convergent Technologies: blogs, rss feeds, wikis, collaborative real-time editors, webcams, e-mail guestbooks, directories.

Portable Technologies: cell phones, picture/video phones. MP3/iPods, PDA’s.

Peer to Peer: realtime [i.e. Skype], direct sharing of files (audio, video, data). (2Learn.ca Education Society, 2008)

What is Web 2.0 Anyway?
This Techsoup article describes the new philosophy of the Web by saying that people are no longer passive consumers, instead “they should be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own purposes, as well as those of their communities” (Krasne, 2005). Krasne features three popular Web 2.0 tools:
-Blogging
-RSS
-Tagging and social bookmarking

Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning?
This Educause Review article is a more advanced reflection of the rapid developments in the world of Web 2.0. This resource would be more appropriate for technologically advanced colleagues who consistently use technology and the Internet to enhance their professional learning and teaching practices. As a technology leader it is imperative to recognize that teachers on staff will be in different stages of their own technology knowledge, instruction and comfort level. As educators we differentiate instruction for our students. It is equally important to differentiate professional development for our colleagues.

What’s Next?
Blogs & Social Bookmarking
Blogs
Blogs are one of the main tools that (I believe) provide a foundation for many Web 2.0 tools. Blogs present readers with a variety of ‘applications used with an application’. Readers are easily exposed to a selection Web 2.0 tools because blogs typically house different tools such as voicethreads, RSS feeds, blogrolls, YouTube videos, social networking references etc. The list is exhaustive. What makes blogs an important 21st century tool is that they are developed through a series of conversations and reflections, engaging readers with questions, links and ideas, and they ask readers to participate (Richardson, 2006). Learning is active participation. Expecting all staff members to jump into blogging is unrealistic, however encouraging them to comment on blogs is a goal that many could easily accomplish.

As I commented in my last posting, I view blogs as having two distinct purposes - blogs as professional development and blogs for professional development - I would promote both purposes to teachers. There are blogs to suite general educational needs, and blogs to suite specific subject areas. Here is one example of a provincial blog suitable for all teachers on my staff:

Alberta Assessment Consortium Blog
An extension of AAC’s webpage, the Consortium focuses on a wide range of assessment topics, quality professional development, and partnerships with a variety of educational stakeholders.

Once educators can recognize the power of the blog, it is equally important to introduce them to the power of student blogging.
Teachers may have some preconceived thoughts that blogging is for older students or even adults…not the case. Blogging? It’s Elementary, My Dear Watson! talks about using this engaging tool at the K-6 level by discussing what you need to begin blogging and Internet safety concerns.

It is important to not only provide technology professional development from a teacher’s perspective, but also from an administrator’s perspective. Miguel Guhlin wrote a three part series on essential Web tools for administrators. In his second article, Five Essential Tech Tools for Administrators Part 2, he challenges administrators to blog because as leaders they (administrators and blogs) can “empower powerful conversations” (Guhlin, 2008). Guhlin quotes Dan Ostreich’s (2008) blog Unfolding Leadership by further stating that “the reflective leader opens the difficult conversations that people in a relationship need to have… blogs can help us explore those conversations -- and because of their openness, invite conversations that help us learn as leaders -- in advance, as theoretical exercises before we ever have them in person”.

Social Bookmarking
“Whether it’s blogs or wikis or RSS, all roads now point to a Web where little is done in isolation and all things are collaborative and social in nature” (Richardson, 2006, p. 89). All roads must lead to social bookmarking!

Saving bookmarks on individual computers (at home, at school) is an ‘old out-of-date way’ to access bookmarks, or to quote Lee LeFever from Common Craft, he would say “boo!”. The cumbersome task of transferring bookmarks through hyperlinks or cut & past documents are steps that many teachers will no longer have to endure. This is the second essential tool for teachers to place in their Web 2.0 toolbox.

Once teachers see the exciting possibilities of integrating new emerging technologies, the transition of 21st learning and teaching can truly take place. My school has embarked on a formal ‘professional learning community’ project this year and what better way to promote new Web technologies than to infuse technology into our PLCs, after all “web 2.0 is all about open-ness and collaboration”(MacManus, 2007) and so are professional learning communities.

2Learn.ca Education Society. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.2learn.ca/nkh/nkhw2about.asp

Alberta Education. (2008). About information and communication technology (ICT). Retrieved from http://education.alberta.ca/teachers/program/ict.aspx

Guhlin, M. (2008). Five essential tech tools for tdministrators part 2. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/guhlin/guhlin008.shtml

Krasne, A. (2005). What is the web 2.0 anyway? Retrieved from http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/archives/page9344.cfm

MacManus, R. (2007). Fear of web 2.0. Retrieved from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/fear_of_web_20.php

Ostreich, D. (2008). Unfolding leadership. Retrieved from http://www.unfoldingleadership.com/blog/?p=171

Blog #10 Power to the Blog: Meeting Your Professional Development Needs

2008-11-23T10:06:00.001-07:00

Early in this course, I very quickly started to see the power of the blog. Not only was it evident that “emerging online communication tools have the potential to unleash a new level of creative thought in the classroom” (Dyck, 2004), it was clear that the blogosphere was an ever-evolving continuum of learning.

Weblogs (or blogs) are extraordinary vehicles for building collaboration and exploring professional development through non-traditional means. Blogs connect global communities of professionals together to support professional networking and is a means for educators to express (and find) new found knowledge, share instructional practices & research as well as interact within educational communities not bound by traditional boundaries.

Traditionally each year educators outline and plan their professional developments needs through school, district and provincial opportunities by attending seminars, workshops, conferences. Since blogs are created, posted and saved on the Internet, the world of professional development is at the convenience of the Internet user. I view professional development through blogs in two ways:
-Blogs as professional development
-Blogs for professional development

Alberta Education defines professional development as follows “Alberta's teachers are lifelong learners. Professional development and other learning opportunities equip them with the tools and knowledge they need to help students reach their full potential” (Alberta Education, 2008).

Kim Cofino is someone I have been following on Twitter for a couple months now and learned a great deal from her blogs, tweets, and involvement in emerging educational technologies and 21st century learning. She has created a wonderful diagram showing the models of professional development delivery as outlined on her blog posting titled Sustained Change: The Next Level of PD. Kim describes focusing on group PD as an essential next step to “building a community of learners in an institution” (Cofino, 2008) and a step that can be truly be enhanced through Web 2.0 tools. Doug Johnson seconds this notion on her blog by commenting that her writings resembles his knowledge on Professional Learning Communities established by educational guru Richard DuFour. Confino (2008) also reminds educators that focusing on group professional development allows people “to tap into a diverse group of experiences, knowledge and imagination”.

Blogs as Professional Development
The Fischbowl is a staff development blog for high school teachers exploring 21st century learning, constructivism and technology instruction. This award winning blog gives the teachers on staff a chance to explore professional development by exploring collaboration and sharing through a blog forum.

Blogs for Professional Development
K-12 Online Conference is a unique online conference organized by educators for educators since 2006. This blog provides a plethora of amazing resources and materials for educators interested in emerging technologies in education. Blog resources include links to wikis, video & audio podcasts, voicethreads, supporting links and blogs.

I would say without doubt that my participation in writing a blog, as well as my subscriptions in following blogs would be defined as blogs as and for professional development. One of the first assignments in this course was to sign up for a minimum of five blogs to enhance my own personal professional development. It was hard to know where to begin because the more I searched for blogs, the more the found. My professional development focus was going to revolve around Web. 2.0, technology and teacher-librarianship. I decided to choose a balance of bloggers from different areas within the field of education, some well-established bloggers in the field, and some with a smaller audience.

My blogroll:
A Year of Reading
Also titled ‘Two teachers who read. A lot’. I was quite impressed with this blog as it is updated daily and has been online since 2006. Two teachers (who are also authors) dedicate their daily blogging to posting book reviews and poems the in the field of children’s literature. As a teacher-librarian, subscribing to this blog is having daily valuable professional development….free.

Beth’s Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom
Beth Knittle is a K-12 Technology Integration Specialist in a large school district. One of the statements that stood out in Beth’s ‘About’ section said “blogging has been an integral part of my growth as an educator. I tend to write about Learning and Educational Technology” (Knittle, 2007). For me, this statement fit perfectly into my blogging professional development commitment. In recent posts, Beth has committed herself to ‘Be a Better Blogger’ through a personal thirty-day challenge. This November focus is timely because my course is quickly coming to an end and I wonder if I will be challenged to not only sustain my blogging but continue to improve my blogging. What professional challenges will I encounter as I try to continue blogging?

Heyjude
Judy O’Connell’s well-established blog is journey through emerging technologies & Web 2.0 and how it impacts school libraries. The multifaceted focus between technology, Web. 2.0 tools and school libraries were all of the components I wrote up on my professional growth objectives submitted to my administrator in September. Over the past couple months this site has provided valuable insight into media literacy education, microblogging etiquette, and Twitter. I have become an avid Tweeter on Twitter because of Judy’s enthusiasm, and will continue to follow her blog and her tweets.

Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch
Kathy was on my professional development radar years ago when I attended a one day session on best Internet sites for education – Kathy’s name came up several times during that presentation. This blog has provided valuable website links that I have used several times over and posted on my own blog (ie. Dumpr).

The New Digital History Education
Joel Ralph has introduced me to interesting and interactive Web 2.0 tools and links, my favourite being Wordle. Recently I used Wordle in a grade 3 technology project to formulate and create a word cloud from a vocabulary list students typed into Microsoft Word.

Weblogg-ed
It was not a difficult decision to follow Will Richardson’s blog, after all his book Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts was on the required reading list for this course. Richardson writes for educator’s and bloggers alike, communicating all things Web 2.0. I have accessed an abundance of resources (current and archived) from wikis and RSS, to links and best practices.

My professional development over the past three months is immeasurable as the educational value of blogs is priceless. I have engaged in professional development at home and at school through the RSS subscription feeds in my Google Reader account. Richardson suggests that educators must become bloggers to fully understand the learning potential of blogs as instructional tools. Now that I have blogging experience, can I promote the power of blogs to my professional colleagues. I would begin introducing blogs by promoting following blogs relevant to their instructional and professional focuses. After that, the next step would be to conduct an introductory blogging PD session for colleagues ready to participate in the process. Many of the blogging applications are free and quite easy to set up. Using my blogging knowledge and experience thus far, Blogger would be my first choice. However, there are other applications worthy of mention:
Blogger
WordPress
Technorati
Edublogs
Bloglines
Xanga
Blog.com

As a blogger I will continue to reflect on my voice in the blogosphere, concentrating my postings on Web 2.0 and teacher-librarianship for and as professional development.

Alberta Education. (2008). Professional development. Retrieved from http://education.alberta.ca/teachers/role/pd.aspx

Cofino, K. (2008). Always learning. Retrieved from http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2008/11/09/sustaining-change-the-next-level-of-pd/

Dyck, B. (2004). Log on to a blog. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/voice/voice123.shtml

Knittle, B. (2008). Beth’s thoughts on technology in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.bethknittle.net/WP_Blog/?page_id=91

Blog #9 RSS Feed Me

2008-11-17T14:10:00.001-07:00

Learning at the beginning of this course that one of the assignments was to follow a minimum of five blogs and I was overwhelmed at the thought of keeping track of new blog postings. I also wasn’t sure how best to follow the blogs. Who knew a little orange button would make the task so simple. This was how I came to know about RSS feeds and feed aggregators (also called feed readers). It’s funny how I new the little orange icon was meant to feed something to me – had no idea what I was feeding on if I clicked on that familiar icon…

What is RSS?
“By using RSS, users get more control over what they see and when, and save themselves time as well” (Butterfield, 2007)
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a digital format for delivering regularly updated web content “from news sites, online catalogs and blogs without the laborious process of visiting individual sites, wading through outdated content and managing annoying pop-up ads.” (Ly, 2005). RSS benefits online readers who want to “subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator” (Wikipedia, 2008). Lee LeFever’s RSS in Plain English video provides a basic explanation of RSS feeds and how this benefits regular Internet information seekers.

Renovated Reading Through Aggregated Feeding
Subscribing to RSS feeds solves a problem for people who regularly use the Internet. Using a feed reader or aggregator allows web users “to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually” (WhatIsRSS, 2008). Feed readers can display subscriptions from hundreds of different websites on a single page in the form of a short summary. Users then can scan through summaries quickly and decide whether they should the headline links to read complete articles or postings (Ly, 2005). There are plenty of choices to sign up for a free feed reader:
Google Reader
Bloglines
NewsGator
My Yahoo!
Netvibes
Pageflakes

Getting Started
I chose to use Google Reader as my aggregator for no other reason than I currently used Google applications in variety of other capacities. Setting up a Google Reader account is extremely easy and only requires a current email address, a password and agreeing to the Google Terms of Service. After that, I began copying and pasting blog URL’s into the ‘Add Subscription’ box and my aggregator was now up and running.

Expert Village has created a ‘How to Use Google Reader’ 15 part video series, detailing how to change settings, find and organize content, searching and sharing tips, subscribing to feeds and bookmarks as well as using Google Reader on your cell phone.

Introduction to Using Google Reader -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

RSS Feeds in Education
Will Richardson has written a RSS: Quick Start Guide for Educators outlining everything you need to know regarding RSS feeds for:
-weblog and website searches
-news searches
-group searches
-bookmarks
-combing RSS feeds

There are a variety of ways in which RSS feeds can specifically enhance instruction in the classroom.
-Educators can collect student blog content in an aggregator using RSS feeds
-Students can subscribe to new blog comments or specific topic content tailored to their learning needs
-Educators can track the written content going in student blogs through RSS feeds
-RSS feeds provide parents and other staff members with the opportunity to view student work as they are interested
-Students can syndicate Internet bookmarks using Furl or Delicious by creating RSS feeds or subscription tags in these accounts
-Students can follow their favourite authors or keep up with the latest book releases
-Educators and students can RSS subscribe to broadcast podcasts (video and audio)

Andy Carvin provides an introductory overview RSS Feeds: Making Your Favorite Websites Come to You through the PBS Teachers website. He reminds educators that while all blogs and news websites provide RSS feeds, some site take it a step further by providing multiple RSS feeds based on category topics and subject areas. One example of this is the New York Times which categorizes dozens of specific subject areas supporting the idea of users being able to customize their news content feeds. This kind of customized news site is advantageous for students wanting to follow streamlined news events such as world news, book reviews, or science news.

Alberta Education has a RSS feed on their homepage inviting all stakeholders (administrators, teachers, students, parents) to subscribe to news feeds released within the Ministry.

Cool Stuff
RSS feeds are offered in an assortment of subject areas and topics. If you have an online appetite for regularly updated digital content or news, there’s probably a feed to fill your informational needs…
The Weather Network
Word of the Day
Unique RSS Icons & Buttons
Create Your Own RSS Icon
RSS Calendar
View the latest pictures on Flickr

Butterfield, G. (2007). Tech teacher: Cut through the web noise. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/tech_teacher.pdf

Carvin, A. (2006). RSS feeds: Making your favorite websites come to you. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/09/rss_feeds_making_your_favorite.html

Ly, A. (2005). RSS feeds collage students’ diet for research. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-08-01-rss-research_x.htm

Wikipedia. (2008). RSS. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)

WhatIsRSS. (2008). What is RSS? Retrieved from http://www.whatisrss.com/

Blog #8 Social Networking: Let the Conversations Begin

2008-11-08T19:10:00.002-07:00

This Web 2.0 topic could be the largest one to tackle. Where to begin? “Social networking websites help people connect with others who share their interests, build online profiles and share media such as photos, music and videos” (Glaser, 2007). Social networking allows people to come together ‘virtually’ by sharing common backgrounds, goals, topics of conversation or collaboration.

Wikipedia lists over 100 hundred social networking websites with a little disclaimer “please note the list is non-exhaustive, but is limited to some notable, well known sites” (Wikipedia, 2008). What motivates the first-time user to join an online social community? It may be sparked by an electronic invitation from family/friend or colleague, a professional purpose or simple curiosity.

As I researched online to find out which networking sites
were the most popular in 2008, I quickly discovered that each resource I found posted slightly different results. Two social networking powerhouses that consistently ranked in the top two were MySpace and Facebook, while others listed in the top ten changed slightly. Here are a few of the most common sites from my search:
MySpace
The most popular of the networking sites, with a Wikipedia listing of over 240,000 registered users. Interactive network full of personal profiles, blogs, photos, videos and music.

Facebook
A network utility that connects members with friends, family and colleagues unique to their world.

Bebo
A social media network where members share their profile and can explore videos, music, authors and join in groups which share common interests.

Friendster
Helps members stay in touch with existing friends and create new ones.

Classmates Online
Find and connect with friends and acquaintances throughout schooling from kindergarten to university.

LinkedIn
Focuses on career networking for potential clients, field experts and business providers that can also help provide job opportunities.

Twitter
A micro-blogging social community that allows users to read each other’s updates, also known as ‘tweets’. Posts must be 140 characters or less in length.

Hi5
Find friends, display photostreams, or build a homepage to express your personal profile.

(Image created using Wordle)

Why Join a Network?
A social network provides members with unique connections between people that might not otherwise be possible outside of the Internet. Imagine building relationships that have no global boundaries, sharing experiences, problem solving, collaborating, learning and teaching all through a free social network. “Social networking is currently one of the most interesting phenomena on the Internet. Millions of people belong to online social networks” (Bell, 2007). A Dummy’s Guide to Social Networking gives new social consumers a quick introductory guide to contemplate before making a commitment to a network.

It is important to be familiar with the Terms of Service for each network as they all vary slightly. Wikipedia’s List of Social Networking Websites page provides a comprehensive overview of the 100+ most notable sites that include defining the membership’s focus group, number of registered users, and registration requirements (ie. Open forum, invitation only, age restriction etc). It is noteworthy to find out whether or not the social network you are interested in has membership fees that will only then provide all-inclusive access to the network. An example of this is joining Classmates.com. Initial sign-up allows users to register a free account, but information and access is quite limited without purchasing a Gold membership.

While I don’t personally have Facebook or MySpace accounts any longer, I do not miss them. I have chosen to participate only in social networking for professional purposes through places such as Ning and Twitter. I don’t want to be social networking in the same places students and parents may be venturing and so I have consciously chosen to limit my social networking interactions. I have made unbelievable professional contacts with specialists from around the world in the area of education, technology, media, literacy and music. My most exciting social networking gain came from attending the Internet Librarian 2008 Conference in Monterey. By noon of the first day conference attendees were tweeting comments about the conference, it was listed on the front page of Twitter Search as one of the hot topics. Out of nowhere I could view dozens of conference participants who also actively networked on Twitter.

Embracing Social Networking as a Professional
My focus on incorporating social networking would mainly be at the collegial level at school. Educators have wonderful opportunities at their fingertips in finding networks suitable for enhancing online professional learning opportunities, instructional areas of interest or professional growth needs. A few examples…
NECC 2008 (National Educational Computing Conference) site gives attendees an online professional development opportunities to extend learning post conference.

Yahoo! Teachers is a peer social network strictly designed for teachers, created by teachers.

Social Networks in Education Wiki houses a wide range of social networking websites for educators categorized into helpful topics and subject areas.

Classroom 2.0 is a “social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative or transformative technologies in education” (Hargadon, 2008). This is a support network for educators who want to engage in digital dialogue, share video and photos, access wikis and blogs as well as join groups of interest.

TeacherLibrarianNing is an online community build for teacher-librarians and educators by Joyce Valenza.

New Social Literacies
As educators we must recognize the world in which our students live in and that one of social community and networking. We must teach our students how to be socially effective in the digital world, how to engage responsibly, interact safely and be well-informed 21st century citizens (Smith, 2007). Social networking can not only change the way educators instruct lessons, but change the way students look at education and expect instruction. If schools have access to social networking sites, educators may embrace teachable moments with these sites and help address new merging social literacy skills. Students need direction in developing and nurturing these new skills to ensure safe, responsible decisions as they connect to digital communities around them.

Stephen Abram (2008) highlights the importance of emerging literacies in education, specifically social literacies. Schools must now “expand the teaching of information literacy, computer literacy, media literacy, critical literacy…” (p. 21). The security watch-dogs of these social sites try make them as safe as possible, however Abram (2008) reminds us that “they are only as safe as the user has the awareness and skills to make good judgements” (p. 21). He suggests to parents and educators that at different stages in a young person’s life we help them define a level of awareness about their personal information.
“What would we tell others about ourselves in our family?
What information would you email grandma versus a stranger?
Do you share more or different things when you’re out in your neighbourhood?
When do you tell people your whole name and address?”
(Abram, 2008, p.23)

Not only do social networking sites promote new social literacies, they can also support student learning by:
-Building online communities
-Promoting social discussions and collaboration
-Allowing shared grade level or subject specific resources and research
-Creating interest groups and forums

Social Networking Safety Concerns
Many school districts block sites such as MySpace and Facebook. These sites are often not as secure as they need to be, and anyone can view profile information and contact users who set up an account. Educators want to encourage students to express themselves with healthy social networking interactions but can a school computer lab provide the safety net young students need? Can educators guarantee that students will maintain privacy settings while using a social site at school? Social networking sites also can open up behavioural concerns with a relatively new phenomenon called cyber-bulling. Cyber-bulling can be defined as “the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others" (2Learn.ca, 2008). The 2Learn.ca Education Society has excellent resources for educators and parents on Internet safety as well as a Web 2.0 overview. I do not have access to these kinds of sites at school and I don’t think that I would jump into using them if access was opened up as there is a complex process to ensure all students have parental permission in using accounts such as these.

Abram, S. (2008). Scaffolding the new social literacies. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools. 15(2), 21-23. Retrieved from ProQuest.

2Learn.ca Education Society. (2008). Net know-how: Cyberbullying overview. Retrieved from http://www.2learn.ca/nkh/nkhcboverview.html

Bell, E. (2007). A dummy’s guide to social networking. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.ca/news/column/8ba3be240a010408011d3f0bae419646/pg0.htm

Glaser, M. (2007). Your guide to social networking online. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/08/your-guide-to-social-networking-online241.html

Hargadon, S. (2008). Classroom 2.0. Retrieved from http://www.classroom20.com/

Smith, F. (2007). How to: Use Social-networking technology for learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/how-use-social-networking-technology

Wikipedia. (2008). List of social networking sites. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_sites

Kaleidoscope 9

2008-11-07T18:35:00.002-07:00

Kaleidoscope 9 Children’s Literature Conference Calgary, Alberta
November 6-8, 2008, Story: Bridging Worlds

This was my first Kaleidoscope Conference sponsored by the Alberta School Library Council. I have been waiting to attend this conference for a couple years now as it only runs every four years. The conference celebrates children’s literature through interaction with a plethora of internationally recognized authors and illustrators. My highlights include meeting:
Ian Wallace (The Sleeping Porch)
Janell Cannon (Verdi)
Shaun Tan (The Arrival)
Tim Wynne-Jones (Rex Zero, King of Nothing)
Melanie Watt (Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach)
Wallace Edwards (Alphabeasts)

Today’s opening plenary session was a provocative presentation by Dr Jack Zipes (Professor at the University of Minnesota) titled Resisting Happy Ends: Telling Tales of Truth to Children. His lecture begins “Once upon our time, truth vanished from our globe…”. Storytelling pervades all cultures and all boundaries. It does not make distinctions between adults and children. Can we continue to tell tales today to bridge cultures? How can storytelling provide hope for children? What stories should young children read? These are just a few of the questions Jack touched on through his unique perspective of fairy tales and folklore. At one particular moment in his presentation he declared that 90% of children’s literature is schlock and there are no nutrients in schlock! Interesting statement considering the audience demography!

Shaun Tan knew at the age of 12 he wanted to be an illustrator/author. His description of a picture book being ‘sustained meditation’ speaks volumes in his choice to author characters that don’t speak through words, but instead invite natural storytelling to take place through drawings. The Arrival was book that took several years to come to a final format. This book originally started off as a 32 page picture book with abstract cartoon like characters. Tan wanted The Arrival to be a book where readers would slowly digest the illustrative detail on each page, thus the process of getting rid of the words and transforming this into a ‘wordless read’ began to take shape.

I was terribly excited to listen to Ian Wallace. After all, his book The Huron Carol is listed on my blog slideshow as one of my ‘Favourite Children’s Literature’. According to Wallace “the cover is the most important image in the book” as this image invites the reader in for the first time. And yes, those of us in the audience were treated to a few bars of the Huron Christmas Carol by Ian himself.

Kaleidoscope 9 - Calgary, AB

2008-11-07T18:29:00.001-07:00

Kaleidoscope 9 Children's Literature Conference, November 6-8, 2008

Blog #7 VoiceThread: Weaving Voice into Multimedia Learning

2008-11-01T15:13:00.002-06:00

What is VoiceThread Anyway?
“A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too” (VoiceThread, 2008, p.1). YouTube offers up multiple pages of VoiceThread videos providing tutorials, educational platforms for integration, and quick guides for new users. TeacherTube hosts just as many selections for VoiceThread video tutorials, in addition connects viewers to videos specific to classroom instructional frameworks. What better idea to introduce students to the concept of creating their own VoiceThread by playing a tutorial video titled How To Use VoiceThread moderated by two elementary students.

Voice Thread is a Web 2.0 application that captures and publishes educational voices. Brenda Dyck (2007) points out that by giving children a voice in education we support educational philosopher John Dewey’s work claiming “that the inclusion of student voice is a necessary step in learning (p.10). She further describes VoiceThread as an important tool which provides students the opportunity to record educational commentary about experiences important in their personal learning.

Creating a VoiceThread
In order to create a VoiceThread, you must first create an online account using the VoiceThread homepage. Signing up for an account, like most other Web 2.0 tools, was a simple process using an email address and creating a personal password. As usual, I jumped instantly into the tool’s ‘create’ mode by uploading digital pictures from one of my travel adventures. In each new Web 2.0 application I use, I like to go straight into working in the application and compare the ease in which users (like me) can navigate through the learning and creating process. There are three main tabs: Browse, Create, and MyVoice. The Browse tab gives users the opportunity view new files in three categories: Today, This Week, This Month. It is amazing scroll through the three category pages of the Browse tab and see the diverse range of topics and image for each thumbnail.

Clicking on the Create tab opened up a blank page for uploading images, documents or video. I had no difficulties uploading a small group of digital pictures from my computer. There are several other pathways for uploading including Flickr, Facebook, existing VoiceThread files and direct URL addresses. I arranged the digital pictures into order and gave each slide a title. Using my trusty inexpensive microphone, I recorded brief comments for each picture. The recording process took longer than I had anticipated. While not a difficult task, I was not satisfied with my recording the first time through for any of my eight pictures. The finished product was now ready for uploading to my blog. Using the Share button in the Create tab provides three options before uploading or embedding the final product. Users have options such as private/public viewing, moderation on/off feature and listing your project on the VoiceThread browser. The application defaults to private, so in order to share this on my blog I had choose the public option. This was something I did not realize at first because I embedded my VoiceThread and in trying to view it for the first time online I received a message saying that this was a private VoiceThread and was not viewable. Easy problem to fix. I re-embedded my now public VoiceThread using the Blogger choice as my uploading destination. My first VoiceThread was created and posted on my blog.

Educational Implications
The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (C4LPT) ranked VoiceThread in spring 2008 in the top 25 free online Web 2.0 tools educators should have in their toolbox. VoiceThread is a versatile tool for both educators and students to utilize within instructional and learning environments.

VoiceThread promotes asynchronous discussion and learning for all subject areas. An asynchronous is advantageous because it gives students control over when and where they conduct their learning and participation in a VoiceThread project. Asynchronous learning also supports flexible scheduling for collaboration between students to work at their own pace.

It encourages collaborative feedback and interaction on a project for participants and viewers to collectively share thoughts and narrate while watching simultaneously.

Using this tool naturally supports differentiated learning by supporting students who have difficulties communicating through the writing process. Verbal-linguistic learners can thrive in this type of learning environment as the tool provides oral narration and storytelling participation preferences.

This application is also a great investment for educators to focus on teaching new multimedia skills, building interactive participation for all and developing new approaches to curricular projects while infusing ICT outcomes.

The amount of educators using VoiceThread is growing rapidly. There is no shortage of ideas, project initiatives, resources and professional development online. One of the first websites to visit would be the Delicious VoiceThread Tag. There are over 6000 bookmarks tagged using this application, more than enough resources to encourage first time creators to jump right in.

What’s the Buzz?
Comments posted on the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies (2008) website from educators who classify VoiceThread as one of their favourite ‘must use’ Web 2.0 tools this year:

"I love the collaboration feature of this tool. It's great for digitalstories and even greater because participants can comment on each other's stuff...with audio!" by Janice Petosky

"Social audio and social imagery personified. A perfect demonstration of how digital media can be integrated into the curriculum and at the same time explains the value of digital storytelling." Andrew Middleton

"Again, new, and FREE. I’ve had students creating and commenting on each others’ projects. Nice work, easy tool, good fun." John Curry

Examples of VoiceThread Resources
Educational Software Wiki
A wiki dedicated to VoiceThread tutorials, projects, classroom ideas and embedded examples.

EdTechTalk: #112 VoiceThreads
The Teachers Teaching Teachers series on EdTechTalk podcast narrative discussion on VoiceThread in education.

VoiceThread 4 Education Wiki
A comprehensive collection of educational focuses using VoiceThread.

VoiceThread for Educators Ning
This Ning site is for educators who develop, build and collect VoiceThread resources for use in their own classroom.

Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. (2008). Top tools. Retrieved from http://c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/voicethread.html

Dyck, B. (2007). VoiceThread: Capturing and sharing student voice with an online twist. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck019.shtml

VoiceThread. (2008). About VoiceThread. Retrieved from http://voicethread.com/about/

Internet Librarian 2008 Conference – Day 2

2008-10-21T16:12:00.002-06:00

Of course it wouldn’t be a great conference without il2008 Delicious bookmarks to share.

Keynote
Search Engine Land: What’s Happening Out There? - Danny Sullivan
Technology guru Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land describes Google as the easiest and probably best search engine around, possibly for many years to come. It is staggering to hear the high percentage of website traffic that is a direct result from a Google search. Danny did give an overview of some small search engine contenders that keep many people satisfied within their own little niche in the search engine world:
Eventful
Yelp
Kayak
Trulia
Zillow
Digg

Does Google rule the world? You be the judge...

Enterprise Trends: Beyond the Simple Intranet - Stephen Abram
I was a few mintues late arriving, so the first words that I heard Stephen say went something like this…If you do not have a Facebook account you are irrelevant! I quickly found a seat in the auditorium as I knew this presentation was going to be interesting. There were plenty of dedicated Bloggers quickly posting Stephen’s thoughts on their blogs (I think in real time). I will defer a better accounting of the session to one of the Twitter enthusiasts I follow, Connie Crosby, who typed up great notes as well as uploaded video from the session. At one point in the session, Stephen described how he had been involved in helping train librarians and teachers how to not answer questions from students, but instead learn to teach information literacy skills.

Stephen’s Top 10 Social Networking Sites That Have Influenced the US 2008 Election:
1. You Tube
2. Second Life
3. My Space
4. Facebook
5. Wikipedia
6. Ning
7. Twitter
8. Mozes
9. NowPublic
10. MyBlogLog

Blog #6 Wiki = What I Know Is...

2008-10-20T20:48:00.001-06:00

What is a wiki? When one asks the question what is a wiki?, one must refer to the most famous wiki of all – Wikipedia. Wikipedia defines a wiki as “software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. These wiki websites are often also referred to as wikis." (Wikipedia, 2008, p.1). There are some great YouTube videos to further help in understanding the simplicity of developing and using wikis:
Wikis in Plain English
Wet Paint Wikis in Plain English
pbwiki – Getting Started

There are three types of wikis:
Public
Allows anyone to view, create and edit content on the pages. Some public wikis require users to create an online account before adding/editing content; others allow anonymous participation.

Protected
Information viewing for the public, but edited by authorized users.

Private
Wikis created for internal communication within an organization and only authorized users can view and edit information.

Did You Know...
Wiki is the Hawaiian word for ‘fast’
-The expanded definition of wiki means ‘what I know is…’
-WikiWikiWeb was the first wiki application written in 1994 by Ward Cunningham
-In 2007 the word ‘wiki’ entered the online version of the Oxford Dictionary

The World of Wikipedia
Developed in 2001, Wikipedia is a free, online multilingual encyclopedia that houses approximately 10 million articles. “If you want to get five opinions from four information professionals, just mention Wikipedia” (Badke, 2008, p.1). This website is often labelled as unreliable, untrustworthy, inconsistent and shallow. Yet, millions of users quickly find the answers they are looking for, no matter the subject area. Badke cites this website as the number one ‘go-to’ reference in the world (Wikipedia also cites this fact as well). Richardson (2006) calls Wikipedia “the poster child for the collaborative construction of knowledge and truth that the new interactive Web facilitates” (p. 61). Each day thousands of Internet users “engage in the purposeful work of negotiating and creating truth (Richardson, 2006, p. 62).

There are challenges to using a website like Wikipedia in a school setting. Because many of the authors are anonymous, sometimes believing the trustworthiness of the sources makes it difficult. Richardson suggests educators should take time to check Wikipedia’s information accuracy. In a school setting, Wikipedia could be considered a starting point for research, but should used in conjunction with other resources and references. “If we begin to look at Wikipedia as another opportunity for our students to contribute what they learn and know to a larger audience, I think we can begin to appreciate it for the really incredible site that it is” (Richardson, 2006, p.64).

Creating a Wiki
There are a number of applications to choose from when setting up a wiki. In his video ‘Wikis in Plain English’ LeFever suggests the following wiki applications:
pbwiki
Wetpaint
Wikispaces
It is important to note before you choose a wiki application, it is advantageous to search for one that fits your needs.
-Not all applications are free
-Some 'private' and/or ‘advertising-free’ wikis have a small fee
-Teachers can apply for free educational wikis space (ie. Wikispaces)

Brian Satterfield's article Exploring the World of Wikis on Tech Soup, suggests four key points to ponder before building a wiki:
-Will a wiki make the process of sharing information more accessible than the current format used in collaboration? (ie. Email, file documents)
-Find out whether non-technical contributors are willing to invest time learning new online applications
-Have enough preliminary content to launch a functional wiki
-Ensure the wiki will be maintained and updated

If you interested in contributing to an existing wiki such as Wikipedia, note that (surprisingly) there are policies and guidelines already in place to avoid chaotic dumping of information. Pressley and McCallum’s article Putting the library in Wikipedia list some of the formal ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ in Wikipedia’s online contributing culture. Also noteworthy in their article are helpful ‘Tips and Techniques’ for new wiki contributors. It is imperative that wiki creators and editors recognize copyright, fair use and responsibilities that apply to using technology in education. Education world has created an extensive curriculum article series titled The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use: A five-part series reminding online users and authors to educate yourself and your students. It is imperative that wiki creators and editors recognize copyright, fair use and responsibilities that apply to creating, publishing and editing Web-based applications. Education World has created an extensive curriculum article series titled The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use: A five-part series reminding online users and authors to educate themselves and their students.

A humorous look at Professor Wikipedia on YouTube…

Wikis in Schools
As one of the merging Web 2.0 tools, wikis are becoming increasingly popular for a variety of reasons:
-Anyone can create a wiki
-Wiki applications are either free or inexpensive
-Wikis support collaboration, knowledge sharing, and collegiality at the school and district levels
-A tool to teach students how to collaborate with others
-Creates online learning communities for teachers and students
-Creates authentic audiences for students’ work
-Read/Write Web is a vehicle for students and teachers to share and learn in meaningful ways

Joyce Valenza has created the teacherlibrarianwiki with the main purpose to “use this space to SHARE our best wisdom and our best instruction--the new understandings, lessons, units, handouts, rubrics, presentations, images, and teaching tips that have been either rotting in our file cabinets or posted and lonely on our individual sites” (p. 1).

Badke, W. (2008). What to do with Wikipedia. Online. 32(2). Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/online/mar08/Badke.shtml

Education World. (2008). The educator's guide to copyright and fair use: A five-part series. Retrieved from http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml

LeFever, L. (2007). Wikis in plain English. Retrieved http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/217495

Pressley, L. & McCallum, C. (2008). Putting the library in Wikipedia. Online. 32(5). Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/online/sep08/Pressley_McCallum.shtml

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Satterfield, B. (2006). Exploring the world of wikis: Collaborative web sites organize information, encourage participation. Retrieved from http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/page5511.cfm?cg=searchterms&sg=wiki

Valenza, J. (2008). Teacherlibrarianwiki. Retrieved from http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbwiki.com/

Wikipedia. (2008). Wiki. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki#History

Internet Librarian 2008 Conference

2008-10-20T20:27:00.003-06:00

Internet Librarian 2008 Conference @ Monterey, CA
Beyond 2.0: User-Focused Tools & Practices

WOW! Beyond 2.0? I didn’t know that existed. Beyond 2.0 makes me think of some kind of mysterious unfamiliar territory one might find in Area 54. Attending my first il2008 (now referring to the Twitter search tag) is exciting, overwhelming, and exciting…again. Gotta love a conference that has a live wiki and blog simultaneously feeding information to attendees with latest conference chat.

Internet Librarian Conference Wiki
Infotoday Blog

Some Highlights...
First highlight was picking up my registration materials stuffed into the standard, and very useful, conference bag. Among the items found inside was a large glossy book containing print versions thirty-five (yes, I counted) presentations taking place over the three days. Attending all of the sessions is never an option, so having this reference book is fabulous!

Here is a sampling of two sessions I attended today...

Opening Keynote: Communities & Communication in a Social & Mobile World – Howard Rheingold
The keynote speaker this morning was Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs and one of the creators of the Social Media Classroom. Howard gave an interesting opening address on merging, existing and yet-to-be merging technologies that he calls the ‘participatory media’. Web 2.0 applications are ‘platforms for participation’, are they not? One statement that he made resonated with me (as it did with many in the audience) and that is “If you want to keep up with technologies you must keep up with the literacies!”

Super Searcher Shares: Search Tips Spectacular! – Mary Ellen Bates
A jam-packed session filled with Internet search tips resulting in a barrage of new websites for my Delicious account. Super Searcher Shares: Search Tips Spectacular websites are posted on Mary Ellen’s website.

Here are a few of my favourites websites from Monday's presentations:
Google Translate
Google Translate allows users to search for articles, research and news beyond the English language. Type in your key ‘translated search’ word or phrase and request Google to search through the language media of your choice. Over 30 languages are ready for translation through translation software.

Google News Timeline
Google’s news archive website where users can search for news events, people, ideas etc and see how they have been discussed over a timeline on the Internet. Click on the ‘Show Timeline’ graphs spikes in the popularity of the archived request.

Yahoo! Glue
The Yahoo! Search engine for India, this version displays your search requests with Wikipedia boxed viewing.

Serph
A Web 2.0 search engine.

Carrot2
A cluster search engine.

Image Chef
A site to customize digital pictures with your own text.

Well, it has been a very busy day. More to come…

Blog #5 The World of Virtual Libraries

2008-10-19T10:23:00.001-06:00

What exactly is a virtual library? “Virtual libraries are multipage online resources devoted to the needs of their specific learning communities” (Valenza, 2005, p.54). The Government of Canada’s terminology for a virtual library states “virtual libraries are delocalized and universally accessible; instead of having a physical address, they are constructed on Internet sites” and “individuals access them via a computer connected to the Internet, navigate from one site to another, and participate in discussion groups, seminars and conferences organized on these sites. They may also download documents to their own computers for later consultation” (Government of Canada, 2008, p.1). In her article The Real and the Virtual Intersecting Communities at the Library, Kelly Czarnecki (2008) writes that “The virtual community can often work in concert with face-to-face interaction such as discussions or programs the library might provide. Being able to offer both, especially to people of a generation comfortable with finding their friends and developing their likes and dislikes through a virtual community, is a great library service” (p.11).

While many school libraries have space on the school webpage, many simply post general library information that does not reach out and engage the user. From a virtual library homepage, users should be able to access databases, search engines, references and school information. Given the wealth of information virtual libraries can offer, one thing is certain is that they can offer users library services ‘after hours’. An example of an exemplary virtual library school homepage is that from Joyce Valenza’s Springfield Township High School. The artwork is colourful and fun, the homepage links are easy to follow and the site is not overcrowded with information.

Students Prefer Digital Learning
In 2002 the Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey of approximately 2,000 middle and high school students on how students incorporate the Internet into their schoolwork. The results showed that 78% of students choose to use the Internet to conduct research (Minkel, 2002). The study titled The Digital Disconnect: The Widening Gap Between Inter net-Savvy Students and Their Schools discusses in depth how students today view the Internet as a ‘virtual library’, replacing traditional school or public libraries. Students voiced concern with traditional libraries by saying “students say they must ‘wait in line to check out books and other materials and pay to use a copy machine to duplicate important material for reports and projects. Material online, however, can be printed directly from the Internet onto a local printer’” (Minkel, 2002, p. 1). Students in the study also mentioned the lack of quality Internet access stifled online learning because of school filtering and blocking tools. Little research exists regarding Internet use and students homework habits. The study of virtual communities “is important because of the pervasive nature of the Internet has linked the world in ways never imagined” (Czarnecki, 2008, p.11). The impact that the Internet has on information searching and retrieval is extensive. A more recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that “64% of online teens in 2007 (ages 12-17) have participated in content-creating activities (up from 57% when the study was done in 2004) (Czarnecki, 2008). Cultivating virtual library services within a school setting can enhance and expand learning opportunities available for students by promoting a comprehensive online community.

The digital generation of learners today need to access rich digital resources, search engines and subscription databases. A school’s virtual library “can become an integral part of the instructional culture of the school” (Valenza, 2005, p.57). Essentially virtual libraries are windows that open up a world of learning by providing systematic order to information such as WebQuests, curricular lessons, archived information, website sharing, and handouts. Research conducted by Keith Curry Lance indicates that students’ academic achievement scores are higher in schools where information technology is incorporated and library media specialists teach information literacy (Church, 2005). One common element found in both public and school libraries is the ‘Ask Me’ or ‘Ask a Librarian’ feature.
University of Alberta - Ask Us
Library of Congress - Ask a Librarian…
Toronto Public Library

Creating a Virtual Library
Before designing a virtual school library, you will want to consider the following three key elements: content, graphics and links. Web designers will want to add detailed components that enhance the three key elements to their fullest potential. Before undertaking the task of creating a virtual library take time to visit existing sites and read resources that give web design tips. A great place to begin background reading is with Minkel’s article listing seven recommendations in Remaking Your Web Site in Seven Easy Steps.

The best way to gather creative ideas for building a virtual library is to invest time visiting, reviewing and analyzing existing sites. Well-constructed virtual libraries should reflect age appropriate information, databases, links and resources that are maintained and up-to-date. Here are a few examples of well-structured, aesthetically appealing virtual libraries:

Elementary Schools
Birch Lane School Library
Barbara Bush Virtual Library
KVL Elementary Schools
John Newberry Elementary School
My favourite out of the four listed above is the Barbara Bush Virtual Library. The white background gives the page a clean, easy to view landscape. The small photos used in conjunction to reference links are age appropriate for the elementary setting. There is an abundance of relevant links to engage and satisfy users across all elementary grade levels.

Middle Schools
Calgary Board of Education
Virtual Middle School
The Calgary Board of Education homepage is similar to Joyce Valenza’s Springfield Township High School. The use of colourful designer artwork is enhanced by multimedia animations. Students have access to ‘Ask a Teacher-Librarian’, web tools, subject specific links, career pathways, reference centres and research help.

High Schools
Harry Ainlay High School Library
Cherokee High School
Harry Ainlay appeals to my online curiosity by creating a website that is organized in an aesthetically appealing way. Well orgainzed, this site does not utilize an overabundance of icons, but instead controls information through the main menu at the top of the page through five main links: Library Home, Resources, Databases, Services and Information.

Post Secondary Insitution
University of Alberta
I access this site on a regular basis. Actually, I probably do not utilize this site enough in my graduate studies. What is really a significant development in the accessibility of post secondary virtual libraries is recognizing the references and resources needed to support distance-learning programs such as the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning program. Virtual libraries at this level help promote parts of academic institutions enormous resource and reference collections to undergraduate and graduate students reaching out to all corners of the globe.

Church, A. (2005). Virtual school libraries – the time is now! MultiMedia & Internet@Schools. 12(2), 8-12. Retrieved from ProQuest.

Czarnecki, K. (2008). The real and the virtual intersecting communities at the library. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools. 15(3). Retrieved from ProQuest.

Government of Canada. (2008). Handbook of terminology. Retrieved from http://www.translationbureau.gc.ca/index.php?cont=699&lang=english

Minkel, W. (2002). Pew study: Students prefer ‘virtual library’. School Library Journal. 10(1). Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA246147.html?q=virtual+libraries

Minkel, W. (2002). Remaking your web site in seven easy steps. School Library Journal. 5(1). Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA213910.html?q=remaking+your+web+site+in+seven+easy+steps

Valenza, J. (2005). The virtual library. Educational Leadership. 63(4), 54-59. Retrieved from ProQuest.

Blog #4 The Audacity of Podcasting

2008-10-11T15:22:00.004-06:00

Will Richardson (2006) defines podcasting as “the creation and distribution of amateur radio” (p. 112). Ester Kreider Eash, author of the Podcasting 101 for K-12 Librarians article defines podcasting simply as “a digital audio file that’s created, shared, and heard” (2006, p. 1). Eash (2006) writes that there are two fundamental reasons for using podcasts in education: (1) a method to retrieve educational information authored by others and (2) to distribute information through personal creating and sharing.

Discovering that podcasting was this week’s Web 2.0 focus I had to quickly determine where I had placed my computer microphone. It has been over a year since I created my first podcast in a previous graduate course. Actually that was also the last time I had used the microphone. While my experience as a creator is limited, my experience as a podcast consumer is a little more extensive. Once I found my microphone, it was time to begin the process of recording. The recording application I had used in the past was Audacity. This 'easy-to-use' application is great for recording and editing audio files. It is also the recommended program of choice by Will Richardson in chapter 8 of his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Remembering the simplicity of Audacity’s editing features was reason enough to use it again for this course. My initials thoughts on recording a podcast was to show how I could incorporate this tool into a primary school setting. I chose to read a picture book titled ‘So, What’s It Like to Be a Cat?’ by Karla Kuskin. Having book talks or audio book podcasts available for young students with reading difficulties or disabilities is a way to provide differentiated learning and a great way to promote the library collection, reading and literacy to students. After the recording process was complete it was time to choose an application to upload and share my podcast, and I chose to use PodOmatic. The process of uploading the mp3 file to PodOmatic was not terribly difficult but it took me some time (mainly due to my unfamiliarity with the program) to complete all of the steps required to post a podcast. The final step was to upload the podcast to my blog…and the process was complete.

Education, Podcasts and Podcasting
If podcasting is a new concept for students and educators, I recommend showing them Podcasting in Plain English created by Lee LeFever at Common Craft. This video gives a simple explanation of podcasting whether you want to create your first podcast or you simply want to listen to podcasts. LeFever lists three reasons as to the rising popularity of podcasts:
-Podcasting is a digital medium accessible for all computer users
-Podcasts are available through subscriptions making following favourites an easy task
-Podcasts are just not limited to listening on computers, there are numerous mobile gadgets that serve as portable listening devices

Podcasts are created so that digital consumers and learners can listen to shows on demand at their own convenience. What makes this form of learning inviting is that there is an over abundance of free podcasts for all subject areas. Kathy Schrock, one of the bloggers I am following, has created an online podcast rubric so that educators can take time to evaluate What Makes a Good Podcast. Many educators take time to analyze the content of websites, however it may not occur to everyone to evaluate a podcast with the same care. Kathy provides a printer friendly PDF version for teachers to follow thirteen educational guidelines to evaluating the quality of podcast in an educational setting. Below is a partial screenshot of the podcast checklist developed by Kathy.

What influence and implications do podcasts have on education for students…for teachers?
-Provide differentiated instruction by adapting content in response to student learning profiles.
-Supports verbal-linguistic learners using Garndner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
-Allows students and teachers the ability to have access to professionals and educational experts worldwide
-Facilitates professional development and distance learning for educators
-An exciting Web 2.0 format for engaging learners
-Asynchronous learning that allows students to review, replay and revisit information

Managing Your Podcasts
Many bloggers (readers and creators) recognize the importance of an RSS aggregator to help manage the continual updates blogs receive on a regular basis. Doug Johnson’s article Don't underestimate the importance of the aggregator echoes the value of managing current Internet feeds. I use Google Reader as my main application for updating Web 2.0 information sources, but have taken time to view the following tools as well:
Bloglines
FeedReader3
Pageflakes
ZoHo

Something that I had not experienced until this week was managing podcast subscriptions using iTunes. As LeFever stated in ‘Podcasting in Plain English’ one needs a podcatcher. On occasion I would find podcasts, listen to them through my laptop, and place them in an audio file for future reference. This was a timely and disorganized way to find, listen and store podcasts. This past week I set up a handful of my favourite subscriptions and now have an orgainzed central location to locate and listen to podcasts…now and forever.

There are many free podcasts on the Internet, too numerous to list. I conducted a few searches this week, finding podcasts for a variety of educational subject areas. One website of particular interest was The Education Podcast Network. This site arranges podcasts by subject area and is host to podcasts created by professionals and students alike. Here is a random sampling of podcasts I found searching through the Education Podcast Network:
Japanese Pod101.com
Learn to speak Japanese through free daily podcasts.
The Bobby Bucket Show
A podcast site for teachers, students and parents focusing on authors and reading.
National Geographic
Free science, nature and video podcasts.
Sax Tips Podcast
Music lessons, tips and technique for playing the saxophone.

Eash, E.K. (2006). Podcasting 101 for k-12 librarians. Computers in Libraries. Retrieved http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr06/Eash.shtml

EdTechTalk. (2008). Woman of the web show #65.
Retrieved from http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/219581

LeFever, L. (2008). Video: Podcasting in plain English. Retrieved from http://commoncraft.com/podcasting

Johnson, D. (2008). Don't underestimate the importance of the aggregator. Blue Skunk Blog. Retrieved from http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/236172

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Schrock, K. (2008). What makes a good podcast. Retrieved from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/evalpodcast.html

Podcast

2008-10-11T15:21:00.003-06:00

Blog #3 A Del.icio.us Recipe for Success

2008-10-03T22:21:00.003-06:00

Visiting Wikipedia Social Bookmarking gave me an interesting overview to the history of social bookmarking. I was surprised to read that this concept dates back to 1996, with some of the major players (Delicious and Furl) around since 2004. How did this Web 2.0 tool escape my knowledge over the past couple years? The first I heard of social bookmarking sites was during a professional development workshop I attended last winter, hosted by well-known technology specialist Judi Wolf from Ohio. The session was titled ‘Best of the Best Websites that Enhance Instruction and Learning’. Judi guided the session through her Delicious account, showing an enthusiastic educational audience the wonders of social bookmarking.

After that presentation I had created a basic Delicious account of my personal (with private settings) bookmarks, though not exploring further the many features this tool has to offer. To tell the truth my original account has sat idle for a couple months as I have not updated links or visited my universal bookmarks – not sure why? Last week I decided to create a second account, this time housing all of my professional websites with a public sharing setting (username cmt1). Two features that I wanted to check out first were the ‘subscriptions’ and ‘network’. I was a little hesitant of using the subscriptions feature, not knowing if my account would be inundated with thousands of links automatically. Not the case. Subscriptions is basically a ‘holding tank’ for millions (yes, millions) of bookmarks under the tag(s) requested. I set up a subscription to ‘Web2.0’ and was shocked to read that I was now a subscriber to over 3 million websites tagged with the same name. The second new component in Delicious I engaged in this past week was the network feature. I added a small collection of classmates usernames to my network and now have their professional collection of bookmarks on hand for reference.

What are some of the implications for instruction and learning?
Social bookmarking is set up to provide universal collaboration for students and for teachers alike. Searching, investigating and learning through the Internet provides users (both students and educators) with an overwhelming wealth of exploration and knowledge, not always easily managed. However, using a site like Delicious can assist in the learning process by providing a unique opportunity for collaboration, information management and social sharing. Students have the capacity to build an online resource bank of Internet sites applicable, and tailored to, their learning environment. In Trailfire #8 “Taming the Beast: Social Bookmarking” Will Richardson writes about the importance of students building digital resources by stating “so not only are they collecting sites for themselves, they are collaboratively building a classroom resource” (Richardson, 2007, p.1). There is an obvious ‘working together’ theme that can emerge from using these applications in everyday learning situations.

Thinking about my own school setting I can envision several approaches to creating a school account or assisting teachers setting up grade level accounts within the K-6 division. As teacher-librarian I can either take on the task as a technology leader or support grade level teachers in creating one shared account housing general educational tags, grade level tags or combination tags that focus on subject and grade level themes. Delicious is an easy application for beginners to understand and utilize in the inquiry and research processes.

The Internet is changing the way we find and collect digital information and Educause makes a salient statement by saying “It may become less important to know and remember where information was found and more important to know how to retrieve it using a framework created by and shared with peers and colleagues (Educause Learning Initiative, 2005, p. 2). As a teacher-librarian I still believe it is important to recognize and reference where information comes from, but it is becoming equally important to have a universal storage and retrieving system for digital information. One observation I have noticed the past several years (and including this year) is that teachers still use ‘old school’ practices by having young students write down Internet addressed before visiting the computer lab. This method is arduous, time consuming and for some young students just an impossible keyboarding task. Having a universal Delicious school bookmark in the browser will eliminate wasted instructional time.

It is time to support and encourage our colleagues who already value the importance of learning through such initiatives as ‘Professional Learning Communities’ and move them into a socially collaborative sharing environment...online.

I checked out the list of social bookmarking sites on Wikipedia and found it remarkable that there were 24 listed. Also interesting were the listings for similar social sites in areas such as social cataloging and social citations. While Delicious is my chosen site for social bookmarking I decided to check out a few other options out there to see how they compare.

Jooce
Jooce allows users to organize their Internet sites, digital files, photos, and emails, creating a universal desktop for digital customers always on the go. Site provides users with unlimited space for storing information with a private/public accessibility option.

Digg
Digg is a site for users to share Internet content from news, podcasts, and blogs. Digg promote online community conversation about the Internet topics people are most interested in. The creators of this site have limited users to only registering for one account.

Faves.com
What is interesting about this site is it has a corresponding Faves.com Blog. This social bookmarking site was launched in 2006, boasting that is has a strong international audience of online users – top three countries using this site are the United States, Italy and Japan. A toolbar icon is available for quick saving.

MyWeb
Another branch of Yahoo! is MyWeb where three simple themes ‘Share, Save, Discover’ are featured for those wanting to maximize their Yahoo! account. This was the only bookmarking service that I found had an age restriction in their ‘Terms of Service’ agreement stating “parents of children under the age of 13 who wish to allow their children access to the Service must create a Yahoo! Family Account” (Yahoo! Inc, 2008). MyWeb was introduced to Yahoo! fans in 2006.

CiteULike
Developed in England this site is different from all the others. CiteULike is set up as social bookmarking, but focuses completely on bookmarking citations from academic research and papers. Users can store small bookmarks of text from research journals thus building online bookmarked bibliographies and references to share with colleagues. I did not find this site easy explore which leads me to believe that this site is definitely for a narrow audience of specific academic users.

Educause Learning Initiative. (2005). 7 things you should know about…Social bookmarking. Retrieved from http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/199340

Richardson, W. (2007). Taming the beast: Social bookmarking. School Library Journal, 3(1). Retrieved from http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/199339

Yahoo! Inc. (2008). Yahoo! Terms of service. Retrieved from
http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html

Pay Attention!

2008-10-03T18:54:00.001-06:00

I was in Twitter and someone linked the following 21st Century Learning video from TeacherTube into their tweet. An interesting commentary about students, teachers and learning today.

Blog #2 Reel Viewing

2008-09-24T17:45:00.001-06:00

'Digital World: Kids Today' from YouTube is an interesting video commentary about social networking and the digital generation of learners today.

Exploring video sharing sites this past week was thoroughly enjoyable! Sites such as YouTube and TeacherTube can offer up online consumers video sharing and video viewing in educational capacities, consisting of a wide range of subject material for all grade levels. I found a couple distinct differences between incorporating video sharing sites versus photo sharing in an instructional setting. First, students and teachers are able to freely access both YouTube and TeacherTube sites in my school (something which was not the case for the photo sharing sites). Also, I am more familiar with using the video sites to compliment or supplement instruction in the classroom and have used video sharing sites much more so than photo sharing sites.

One little glitch I experienced that caused a few days of grief was trying to upload a video into my blog. I could not find the 'edit html' button and kept receiving error messages in the process. I used Blogger help, and thought the instructions were outlined in a straight-forward manner. It took a couple days to figure out that I was missing a default command in my global compose settings. Life was good after the setting was changed and saved.

I invested many hours this past week sifting through both sites and really value the multimedia perspective video can bring into any classroom. Both sites are easy for users navigate through and all viewers will find a plethora of video choices from a vast array of subject areas. The only negative experience researching this topic was the significant difference between the amount of time it takes to load and play a video on a school computer compared to the time it took on my home laptop. much my researching for appropriate videos to compliment lessons at school are usually conducted at home.

I discovered that YouTube is not only used for video sharing but also an avenue for video blogging as another outlet for young people to live their lives 'virtually'. According to Wikipedia video blogging (also called vlogging) is when blogs are embedded into a video format (Wikipedia, 2008). Video blogging has become more popular over the past couple years with regular bloggers. Many vloggers on YouTube have sequential numbering included in their titles, making the process of following video blogs that much easier. I conducted a search of Web 2.0 vlogs on YouTube and was pleasantly surprised to have an over abundance of video blogs to view. My viewing choices included titles such as ‘Web 2.0 is not the future of education’ to ‘Web 2.0 and its benefits for the students’ education’. Comparing those contrasting titles alone tells me that many people have much to share through video blogging. The interesting possibilities are endless when it comes to thinking of ways that students can incorporate video blogging into their learning. This format would lend itself to be a creative format for students to record an inquiry project from start to finish.

There are a couple features about TeacherTube that I appreciate as an educator. The top menu bar on the screen displays helpful links to guide users through the most popular, most viewed and favourite videos on the site. This quick reference can help educators see what others find worthy of viewing. Through the online sharing format, TeacherTube continues to meet one of their goals of trying to promote the online educational sharing of instructional videos.

Last year in the spring my school hosted a school-wide ‘Literacy Week’ to promote literacy, authors, and reading. During this week I hosted a Comic Café to launch new comic books and graphic novels purchased for the school library collection. As I promoted this genre throughout various grade levels, I discovered that there was an enthusiastic fan base of graphic novel readers in the school. What was really interesting was that a couple of students indicated to me that they were excited about some of the new graphic novel series added to the school collection because they were fans of the manga videos posted on YouTube. Posted here you will see one short video excerpt from the original manga series Fruits Basket. I had no idea that YouTube contained videos to compliment the Japanese print series. Since learning from my students that manga videos were available on YouTube I began using short video clips to promote various books, authors and reading.

Exploring around Beth’s Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom blog, I found one past post where she had posted a wiki listing of all of her favourite videos, podcasts and slides to share regarding 21st century learning and technology. What a wonderful idea to have a narrowed list of quality videos that have been viewed and approved of by a leading educational technology expert!

Some other video sharing sites I chose to explore this week include:
One World TV
This site based out of the UK is an online video sharing community focused on climate change and global justice.
Big Think
Contains accessible interviews from today’s leaders, academic thinkers and celebrity activists.
Yahoo! Video
Not only is Yahoo a popular search engine, but also host to an online video sharing community.

Yes, there are plenty of choices to make when it comes to video sharing and video viewing sites personally and professionally. Educators must take time to determine which online communities are appropriate to use and which sites work best for potentially uploading and/or sharing educational video experiences at school.

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. (2008). Video Blogging. Retrieved
September 26, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlog

Blog #1 Dare to Photo Share

2008-09-21T20:01:00.001-06:00

I have perused photo sharing sites in the past, but have not used any sites to personally or professionally upload photos for sharing. The two main sites I explored this week were Picasa and Flickr. My experiences exploring both formats were quite different and I have some unresolved problems yet to figure out. One being unable to upload a movie of photos I created Picasa, the other one not being able to establish different photo sets in separate photostreams.

In the initial creation of my blog I used Flickr to upload book cover images of my favourite children’s books and place them in a slideshow. My immediate response to Flickr was ‘wow, this is easy and fun at the same time’. However, this past week presented multiple challenges that in the end were not resolved as stated above.

After the fiasco of having my travel pictures mix into the same photostream as my children’s literature pictures, I decided to investigate the workings of Picasa 3. Couple key elements that make Picasa a great photo sharing tool include:
- Great editing, tuning and special effects
- Collage and movie options
- Direct ‘sync to the web’ into Google
- Post photos directly to a blog
I spent time creating photo collages and movies, editing pictures and creating photo files to get a sense of all of the possibilities these two photo sites had to offer in the world of education…actually the possibilities of creative learning are endless. One project I would love to try out would be to create a digital photo portfolio for students, documenting their school year through photos and keeping them organized chronologically in files. At the end of a school year students would have a great digital album to take home.

My biggest concern with sites like Flickr and Picasa is that in order to have students experience these sites they must create online accounts. Students in my school district do have open access to sign up for Google or Yahoo accounts as both sites are blocked.

Through reading Kathy Schrock’s ‘Kaffeeklatsch’ blog this past week I was introduced to Dumpr. Dumpr is an easy to use photo site for creating fun photos to save, share, print, blog or upload to social networking sites. Users are not required to create accounts to upload and print pictures. There is would be a great learning opportunity to teach young students how to upload digital pictures, choose a fun format in which to view the picture and print.

I did check out some of the recommended sites from the “Digital Storytelling” article by Linda C. Joseph. One site worthy of mention is BubbleShare. I did not explore the inner workings of this site (as I just didn’t need to register for another online account this week), instead I surfed the site on the surface. This site really plays to the younger audience with enjoyable clipart, fun frames, and a calendar maker. What differentiates this site from Flickr is that it promotes unlimited space for users.

Photo sharing sites promote ‘digital storytelling’ through the photo lens of the user!

Another Cool Photo Site...

2008-09-20T22:14:00.001-06:00

This Rubik's Cube photo was created on Dumpr.

Wonderful World of Wordle

2008-09-18T22:23:00.002-06:00

I created this fun technology picture through http://wordle.net/. The workings of Wordle is wonderful. One of the blogs I am following is Joel Ralph's titled 'The New Digital History Education'. This blog explores how educators can use technology to enhance experiences in education in the social sciences and humanities for studets. While reading his blog I came across an interesting piece of digital artwork that he created using Wordle. He points out some of the creative uses for this website in relation language arts and literacy.

Wordle Wonders

2008-09-17T22:16:00.008-06:00

Flickr Has Flickr'd Me Into Frustration!

2008-09-17T22:16:00.006-06:00

Well, Flickr has presented some frustrations over the last 24 hours. I decided to upload some travel pictures and begin to create the next assignment. I placed my 'Children's Literature' downloads in one set, and my new photos in a different set. For some reason they combined together and I had one giant mixed up slideshow on my blog. I spent hours last night, and again this afternoon trying to fix a mixed up photostream. I ended up deleting all my uploads and started from the beginning.

Cuban Crisis Converted

2008-09-17T22:16:00.005-06:00

I created a movie in Picasa of pictures from my Spring Break 2008 trip to Cuba. The movie plays in Picasa but I could not upload the video into my blog. Not sure why? Instead I had to compromise and build a collage from few favourites.

IN2N with Blogging

2008-09-14T16:05:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure what to expect…

How does one make a commitment to a blogger program when one doesn’t blog? There are so many decisions to be made. My journey started by taking time to view templates within some recommended programs. I would equate the experience to browsing eye-catching book covers on the 'new releases' shelf at Chapters. I was shopping around to see what template caught my eye. Spending time navigating around the blogs from the previous section of this course also helped establish Blogger as my choice. Once I made the commitment to 'minima dark' a brand new baby blog was created! I quickly celebrated by sending out 'blog announcement' emails to all my friends and family.

So far I am impressed with the ease in which I can create and design a customized template. As a beginner blogger one important criteria for me was that the application be 'user friendly' enough not to have to worry about wrestling with technical malfunctions, but instead be easily engaging enough to support the creative development of content as each week brings new expectations in the Web 2.0 assignments.

As a teacher-librarian I am always trying to keep myself 'IN2N' with current technologies in relation to curriculum and instruction. One question that I have repeatedly asked myself is 'What role do teacher-librarians, as media specialists, have in a school as technology leaders?' Growing up in a digital information age, students have accomplished technical skills such as downloading and instant messaging. Leadership in the higher-level digital literacies are needed in this information age and teacher-librarians can position themselves to take on the role. Technology has rapidly advanced the past few years to include a list such as podcasting, social networking, and video-conferencing. The Web 2.0 is included among the list of current technologies that has advanced the Internet and has the capabilities to embrace collaboration and inquiry in today's classroom.

I'm still not sure what to expect...Web 2.0 possibilities are enormous...Oh, the places we'll go!