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Here’s a spelling activity that I’ve never seen before. I thought it was fun and innovative and wanted to share it. (Hat tip to Tom Barrett)
What are some ways that this activity could be extended?
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Karl Fisch’s famous presentation has undergone another iteration as Sony BMG Music Entertainment remixed it to be shown to “150 of the company’s top executives gathered in Rome for [their] annual Global Management Meeting. As part of Sony BMG’s mission to improve the music experience for consumers living in “exponential times”, the video illustrates the demand for change.”
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We’re in the second and final day teaching our professional development workshops with the Power Center Academy. This is a new charter school that will open its doors to students for the very first time next week. Take a look at PCA’s mission and consider ways that you can contribute to their worthy efforts.
We’re going to be looking at collaborating with online productivity tools this afternoon. I’m briefly going to highlight a few strategies and examples for using Google Docs and leading a quick collaborative activity. I went ahead and put together a self-guided module to which the teachers can refer for additional resources, video examples, and a more in depth look at integrating online word processing with teaching and learning. I invite you to share your related ideas and resources at the bottom of the wiki page.
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I’m excited to be working with Kannapolis City Schools again (Previous Posts: 1, 2). I’m helping provide professional development for part of their grant funded technology integration initiative called IMPACT. I’ve been asked to facilitate the following workshops:
Please share any resources, information, cases, scenarios, etc. that you think will help teachers learn more about these topics by clicking on the session titles above and adding your contribution to the Notes and Resources from My PLN section at the bottom of each wiki. Rest assured that I welcome your input in this endeavor!
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I’m spending today and tomorrow with teachers in McNairy County Schools. I’m looking forward to them discovering Andrew Churches’ revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and related resources. We’ll also explore ways to effectively integrate a wide variety of digital technologies and Web 2.0 tools with teaching and learning. Watch for us as we venture out into the network. We’ll be using the following tag for everything related to this professional development workshop: mcnairypd (and #mcnairypd on Twitter).
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I’m still trying to catch up from my recent trips to Kannapolis, EduBloggerCon and NECC. I have notes, pod/vidcasts and photos that I intend to share but more pressing matters (Family, research and writing, preparations for professional development workshops and 2nd summer semester courses) have kept my attention. Here are a few things that I want to make sure I at least go ahead and point out.
Measuring What Really Matters: The 21st Century Skills Assessment Project
“…a collaborative effort designed to create viable methods of assessing of higher order learning outcomes, and the higher-order skills required by independent, lifelong learners.”
ISTE’s Classroom Observation Tool (ICOT)
"A FREE online tool that provides a set of questions to guide classroom observations of a number of key components of technology integration."
Ed Tech Action Network
"ETAN provides a forum for educators and others to engage in the political process and project a unified voice in support of a common cause – improving teaching and learning through the systemic use of technology. ETAN’s mission is to influence public policy-makers at the federal, state and local levels and to increase public investment in the competitiveness of America’s classrooms and students."
Possible Federal Funding for Educational Technology
There is a possibility that we will see more funding for educational technology and perhaps even a large funding program similar to the PT3 initiative.
We learned about this possible opportunity during the Teacher Educators (SIGTE) meeting during NECC. I’ve been intending to write a post about it, but I think my good friend, Drew, covers all the high points. The following message was originally posted on The Playground.
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation to fund an educational technology initiative. However, the U.S. Senate looks to be undecided on whether they will support funding. You can be involved. Go to the Ed Tech Action Network and put your zip code in the box at the top of the page. It will generate a letter to your U.S. Senators that you can modify as you see fit. In the next month, there is a chance that we will see more funding for educational technology and perhaps even a large funding program similar to the PT3 initiative.
Please take some time and voice your opinion,
Drew Polly
I’m posting this again as the course will begin in less than a week. Please join the fun!
I’m teaching a special topics seminar this summer for graduate students. The topic will be Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies. I began preparing for this course in June 2007 and I’m very excited about it. While we’ll consider common trends and issues and survey many of the popular tools and services related to Web 2.0, the heart of the course will be learning to effectively integrate Web 2.0 technologies and principles with teaching and learning. The focus will be on K-12 education but accommodations can be made for individuals from other fields (health, corporate, military, higher education, etc.). This draft version of the Course Topics provides an overview of the likely curriculum.
While the dominate driving force in the development of the curriculum and resources has been the upcoming class, I always planned for this to be a relatively open learning community. In keeping with the principles of Web 2.0 I encourage the participation of everyone with an interest or expertise in this topic. You may contribute to the discussion and fun by using the following tag/keyword: idt7078
Related Resources
Here are the presentations/discussions that I attended/ participated in during the first half of this afternoon.
A Plan for Wiki Adoption by Ken Pruitt
Ken’s presentation was an adaptation of Stewart Mader’s Wikipatterns. Ken shared suggested strategies for implementing the use of wikis at all levels.
Educational Technology and the Law facilitated by Jon Becker and Scott McLeod
While preparing for the Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 seminar I’ve realized how important it is that I become more knowledgeable about copyright, intellectual property, plagiarism, and related topics. I especially liked how they were able to pose existing IRL analogies for the virtual situations under discussion.
I’m off to the the much anticipated (at least by me) poster presentation of the ISTE Classroom Observation Tool. I plan to share what I learn soon.
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I’ve spent most of today participating in the following sessions and meeting online friends in the Bloggers’ Cafe. I’m looking forward to the presentation of the ISTE Classroom Observation Instrument (ICOT) later today. I’m curious to see how it stacks up against similar instruments like LoTi. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to post my thoughts about it. For now, here’s what I’ve attended to day.
Diigo: A Swiss Army Knife for Your Browser by Maggie Tsai, Diigo Co-Founder
Maggie gave a crash course in the basic features and use of Diigo. After her presentation she asked to interview me on camera and I reluctantly agreed. I shared some of the most common ways that Diigo is being used by my students, teachers with whom I mentor in professional development, and by me. She also asked me to share ways that I thought their technology could be improved and I reiterated ideas that I’d previously shared on Miguel’s discussions (here and here) related to this topic. I was pleased with her responses to my technical and design suggestions (She even contacted the engineers about one of the issues while we were talking.) and she provided Diigo’s rationale for why the ads, for now, will continue to exist throughout the tool. She assured me that they are indeed considering
Creating a Ning Network from Scratch by Steve Hargadon
If you want to learn about setting up your own Ning you might as well learn from the master. I’m comfortable using this “tool” but Steve provided useful insight regarding design and implementation which I found valuable.
Using Understanding by Design (UbD) to Create Technology Rich, Deep Learning Unit Plans by Chris Lehmann and Marcie Hull
There are oodles of similar models out there but I found this one to be practical but thorough. I’m going to take another look at Understanding by Design when I return home.
Diving Deep into Google Earth and Google Maps
Web 2.0 in Teacher Education (Program Info)
Designing the 21st Century Global Learning Environments (Program Info)
I’ll be updating this post throughout the day to alert you of things happening here at EBC San Antonio. The full list of sessions is here. I’ll be sharing information form the sessions that I’m attending. The session titles are in bold.
Social Networking for Professional Development
Scott Merrick is sitting next to me and streaming this discussion live.
Social Networking in the Classroom
Vicki Davis is sitting by me and is streaming this seession here.
EduBloggerCon (EBC) and the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) are just a few days away and I’m very excited about attending each. In addition to the great presentations and workshops I’m sure I’ll experience I’m looking forward to meeting many of the people from my online personal learning community (PLC) in person.
Here’s a bit of information about me and my EBC and NECC activities. I hope I see you in San Antonio.
Most of you have probably figured out by now that I don’t actually look like the image to the left, so I’ve included a photo of what I do actually look like in this post.
I’m a member of the NECC 2008 Nework at Ning and encourage everyone interested in K-12 technology integration to join this group regardless of whether or not your attending the conference. You can view members’ profiles and add them to your network. Visit my profile page to learn more about me and add me as a friend.
Drew Polly and I are presenting a bring your own laptop (BYOL) session Tuesday morning. The title is Integrating Virtual Manipulatives into Elementary Mathematics Classrooms and it promises to be fun, energetic, and engaging. Full details about meeting time and place are available here. We’d love to have you join us.
I’ve agreed to be part of the Diigo team’s EduDiigo presentation. I think there are many positive implications related to the rollout of this educational-friendly version of one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools. I’ll share the details of this session once I have them.
I also think I’m teaching a session as part of the NECC Unplugged slate of goodies. I’ll post the details here when I have them.
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I’m spending the next couple of days providing professional development for some of the tech-savvy outstanding teachers with Kannapolis City Schools. My classes will be focusing on teaching and learning with Web 2.0 (Becoming my new thing, I guess.) and creating and using podcasts in the classroom.
Note to my online PLC:
I hope to demonstrate the power and benefits of an online personal learning community (PLC) during my time here, but I’ll need your help with that. Please share your ideas, resources, examples, and advice on these topics. I’m sure the teachers here at KCS would appreciate and benefit from your input. You can respond in the comments section of this post or add information to the related section on my wiki.
PLEASE share! 
News Notes Diigo Notes
Shared Google Reader