Clif’s Notes

It’s Good to Be Back

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:

• Instructional Design in the Digital Age
• Interactive PowerPoint Games and Modules
• Selecting and Implementing WebQuests
• Telecollaboration in the Classroom
• Educational Podcasting

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!

NECC This Afternoon

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.

NECC This Morning

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.

This Afternoon at EBC

Diving Deep into Google Earth and Google Maps

• Lucy Gray’s presenter notes
• Adding images in Google Earth
• Geotagging
• Maps, directions, and more
• Google Book Search Library Project

Web 2.0 in Teacher Education (Program Info)

1. My presenter notes
2. Alternative to the term Web 2.0 is the Read, Write Web
3. Teacher education and professional development that effectively helps teachers better integrate technology with teaching and learning
• Allow the teachers to select their own goals and help them reach them
• Online social networks can more easily provide the in-time assistance, coaching, mentoring, etc. that individuals during development/learning, but teachers often don’t think about using the networks
4. How do we prepare teachers to teach in the 1-to-1 environment?
   • The emphasis should change from "teaching" to designing learning that engages the students.
5. Resources for future teachers
   • Social Network
   • Bookmarks

Designing the 21st Century Global Learning Environments (Program Info)

1. Building on some online discussion that has been ocurring for the past year here and here.
2. If there were no barriers what would education look like? Brainstorming notes

This Morning at EBC

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.

1. Should it be organized or self-forming?
• Should the tool(s) be dictated?
2. An atmosphere promoting risk-taking is imperative.
3. Teachers know what they want to learn. Professional development should be tailored around them rather requiring them to attend PD in which they had no say.

Social Networking in the Classroom

Vicki Davis is sitting by me and is streaming this seession here.

1. Teachers in the room are using Ning, Elgg, and several private online communities.
2. Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis updated us about the Flat Classroom and the Horizon Project.
3. How important are digital citizenship and pedagogy in these decisions?
4. If someone says a curse word in the classroom do we close the school? If there’s a fight at recess do we quit having recess? Why do we over react to these problems in online spaces?

Greetings from North Carolina

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!

Teaching Economics with an Educational Game

What do a stranded alien race and microeconomics have in common? You just have to see this to believe it!!!

Here are some random thoughts that I’d very quickly like to share.

Discussion

1. What is your reaction to this instructional strategy?
2. What other ways could this be integrated with the curriculum?

Summer Wiki Challenge

I finally setup and began using my own wiki recently and have found it to be a useful technology. Use of the technology was quickly integrated into my productivity strategies and I’m left wondering how I ever managed without it. In a very short time I’ve already found the need to setup additional wikis and have begun collaborating with colleagues on several other wikis that aren’t mine. As with most Web 2.0 tools, wikis are very easy to use and offer a wide variety of possible uses.

I received an email from Wetpaint’s Education division stating that “wikis are a fantastic way to keep your students engaged in learning over summer vacation — and to help them prepare for the coming school year.” They suggest the following strategies to help you get started.

Create a summer reading wiki where students can choose summer reading titles and post their thoughts — all before the first day of school!

Share a preview of your syllabus with your students to give them a sense of what they can expect when school is back in session.

Collaborate with other teachers to share your ideas for a successfull fall semester.

Personal profiles let students get to know each other before the bell rings on the first day.

SOURCE: Wetpaint.com Education - Ideas for wiki-ing this summer

I had a few other ideas that might encourage teachers to begin using a wiki this summer come to mind.

• Use a wiki to collaborate with colleagues as you prepare instructional units, assignments, field trips, supply lists, and more for the coming year.
• Provide a weekly math challenge for students to encourage them to keep their math skills and knowledge sharp.
• Allow students to share their creative writing or poetry on your wiki. This would be an opportunity to encourage practice in writing, reading, critique, peer review and editing.
• Host an online art gallery, photo essays or video journals around a specific topic or theme.

Take a look at this list of ideas for using wikis this summer being compiled at Wetpaint’s Wikis in Education.

Discussion

1. What other strategies for using wikis do you suggest?
2. Will you accept the challenge to begin using a wiki this summer?

Let’s Help a Student

The following request is from a college student and came to me through a couple of friends. She is seeking assistance with her research paper. I’d like to include your input along with my response.

My paper is focused on the Internet being incorporated into the classroom as a resource and the need for high school teachers to be trained on how to use the Internet in their classrooms and how that will benefit students. If you have any information in this area or know anyone else who I could contact that might have information that would be great.

Newsletter on Educational Technology

Throughout the years many of the preservice and in-service teachers in my classes, workshops, and presentations have requested that I start an email newsletter. They indicate that in addition to this blog they would like to receive occasional emails sharing rich resources related to technology integration. I’m excited to announce that I have answered these requests.

Clif’s Newsletter on Educational Technology focuses on the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning. Subscribers of this free service will receive occasional emails providing valuable resources and information about lesson plans, activities, technologies, research, etc., related to educational technology.

OPEN TO PUBLIC
Subscription to this newsletter is open to everyone. You are encouraged to share this with everyone with an interest in education (teachers, administrators, homeschooling families, friends, classmates, co-workers, etc.). Everyone is invited to receive this free newsletter.

PRIVACY POLICY
Your email address will never be shared with others. You may unsubscribe at anytime.

MANAGING SUBSCRIPTIONS
You may subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter as you wish.

Civil Rights

We will be taking groups to tour the National Civil Rights Museum during this weekend’s Professors of Instructional Design and Technology Conference. It’s an awesome museum and I believe everyone should visit it at least once. I’ve been about a half dozen times just in the past two years.

The following video is available at TeacherTube and would be a great way to introduce a unit on the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. I suggest consider combining the video with a journaling activity or reflective exercise (such as a pod/vidcast, presentation, or photo essay).

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Related Posts

Civil Rights Museum

Educational Resources: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Crisis in Darfur: A Mini-Lesson that Teaches So Much

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Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0

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

• Course Wiki
• Google Reader Shared Items
• Diigo Group
• News Notes on This Topic
• More Coming Soon

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PBS Focuses on Digital Storytelling during May

I just ran across a couple of really good resources from PBS Teachers that I wanted to mention here. Here’s the first one.

May 1, 2008 - This month’s Media Infusion blogger, secondary school educator and filmmaker Joe Fatheree, looks at digital storytelling as a means to create independent learners, promote collaboration, improve research and writing skills, and educate the whole child. Fatheree takes readers through a step-by-step process of filmmaking that can be adapted for use in many contexts with students of varying ages.

PBS Teachers invites educators to visit Media Infusion in May and ask questions, comment on Fatheree’s suggestions or offer some of their own.

–From PBS Teachers

We the People…

I’m old enough to remember the Schoolhouse Rock videos airing between cartoons on Saturday mornings. I really liked (most of) them as a kid. I rediscovered them years later as a classroom teacher and was even more impressed by them. Not only do these videos cover a lot of curriculum they are also artistically impressive. My wife and I are getting to enjoy all the Schoolhouse Rock fun again with our kids.

We’re looking at integrating higher order thinking skills and word processing in one of my classes right now. The following video is connected to the lesson. Reminisce and enjoy!

Let’s share ideas about how any/all the following could be integrated with teaching and learning.

• This or any Schoolhouse Rock video
• Word processing technologies (desktop or online alternatives)
• Higher order thinking skills

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