Clif’s Notes

Social Networking Humor

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?

EBC and NECC Preparations Underway

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.

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!

Developing Educational Technology Courses

As I’ve previously mentioned, I’m teaching a special topics course this summer titled Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0. I’ve enjoyed engaging with many people from around the world on the topic and content of this course and encourage anyone with an interest to join the fun.

Kimberly McCollum left the following comment regarding one of my previous posts on this topic.

I also teach a course about technology in k12 education, so I [am] really interested in your curriculum. What is the balance between pedagogical theory and tool training in your course? Also, with so many tools out there, how did you decide what will be included or excluded from the course?

I think Kimberly has asked some very important questions – questions that many others will be facing in the very near future – and I’d like to start a dialogue here. Here is my slightly edited reply to Kimberly’s inquiry.

Wow, these are good questions that do not have simple answers.

This course will primarily focus on teaching and learning with the understanding that the technology is meant to enhance learning. You can look at the draft version of the Course Topics and see that we’ll begin by looking at various instructional models, rationale for networking, the principles of web 2.0, related current topics and issues, and more before we ever look at any specific tools.

We’ll survey a variety of Web 2.0 technologies and the learners will have some flexibility in which tools they choose to use (For example, for the social bookmarking unit the learners could choose to use Diigo, Del.icio.us, etc.). Again, the tools are not the primary focus as many will be vastly upgraded or obsolete 18 months from now. The idea will be for the learners to become familiar with each general group or genre of tools and begin developing strategies for integrating them with teaching and learning in their own classrooms during the coming school year.

I’ve tried to group the tools according to use in the classroom. For example, I’ve grouped everything related to audio together. This class does not seek to be on the bleeding edge of innovation so we’ll look at tools that have examples of being implemented in classrooms and have at least a small community of edu-users. I intend to allow for some flexibility to allow for emergent learning opportunities as learners discover topics and technologies of particular interest to them individually.

The number of groups of tools that can be studied will likely be more than we can study in the course, so I anticipate that we’ll all learn some of the most common tools together (blogs, wikis, microblogging, etc.) and then I’ll allow the learners to customize their learning by picking 4 or so of the remaining half dozen groups as they deem most appropriate for their needs, interests, personal/ professional development, etc.

As we survey all these tools, we’ll always bring the conversation back to the educational merits each brings to the design of instruction. I do not believe in using technology for the sake of using technology, nor do I wish for anyone to leave my class with that misconception.

I encourage you to join in the development of the content through the course wiki and welcome your input, suggested resources, ideas, engagement before, during, and after the course.

Those are my thoughts at this point. I still have just over a month until the course begins, so let’s discuss this more.

• How would you balance the "pedagogical theory and tool training" in a course like this one?
• How would you suggest organizing the content?
• With which technologies do you think it is most important for educators to be familiar?
• What suggestions for improvement can you offer?

Related Resources

• Course Resources
• Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 (Introductory Post)
• Traditional Approaches and Digital Alternatives
• Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy
• Teach Web 2.0
• MSU Grad Students Technical Tools
• OpenPD
• TechnoThursdays

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Integrating 2.0 Tools Meaningfully

UPDATE:
Technical difficulties interfered with this interactive activity. I apologize for the frustration this caused many of you. Here’s an example of a successful live blogging session.

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This is cross-posted from the PIDT Blog.

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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 resources below.

All the best,
Clif

Resources

• Clif’s Notes
• Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0
• Presentation Notes via PIDT Wiki

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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.

If You Give a Teacher a Mouse

This is a clever idea and highlights many of the current key points and issues related to technology integration. Kudos to Amy and the others hat worked on this project.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

I think this could be developed into a piece that would be widely viewed and discussed in education circles. It’s quite good as is, but I believe it could become even better. In true Web 2.0 collaborative form, let’s consider ideas for building on the existing video. So, here’s the question…

What suggestions would you make for improving this?

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More Social Networking Comic Relief

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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