Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.
Category: Teaching
K-12 Online Conference
The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2007 conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 8, 2007. The following two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.
Click here for information about podcast channels and conference web feeds.
Sputnik’s 50th Anniversary
Today marks the 50th anniversary of Sputnik’s launch into space. It was the first artificial satellite to successfully orbit the Earth. Its impact on American education probably can not be truly measured, but it was an event that fueled the race into space and brought about quick reform.
What do you think teaching, learning, and technology would be like today if there had been no Sputnik?
$15,000 Interactive Classroom Makeover
TeacherTube and Interwrite Learning are partnering to bring a great contest to classroom teachers. This contest provides the opportunity to win an interactive classroom makeover worth over $15,000. Your video submission could make you an your students the big winner! Contest rules and information are available here and you can check out the contest entries here.
Teaching and Learning in the 2.0 Era
Many of this blog’s readers and many of my students have asked me to provide an overview of the buzz-term 2.0. As you’ll see in just a moment, it is reported to have all started with the use of the phrase Web 2.0 back in 2004 and was soon followed by phrases such as Learning 2.0, Presentations 2.0, School 2.0, Identity 2.0, and Office 2.0 just to give a few examples. All of these are ideas that represent a change/ evolution/ revolution in thinking and practice. Clearly each of these terms has really cool and innovative technologies associated with them, but we must not get distracted by the toys. I think it’s far more important that educators and instructional designers consider the philosophical, theoretical, pedagogical, and pragmatic implications of these ideas as I think each could potentially influence education in the future. I intend on posting more about this later, but for now let’s start at the very beginning. Here are introductions to the terms Web 2.0 and Learning 2.0.
Let’s Set the Scene
- If you have access to Integrating Computer Technology into the Classroom, I encourage you to read Chapter 1, Rethinking Computers and Instruction. Otherwise, proceed to the next item.
- Consider the information presented in the Shift Happens presentation.
Web 2.0
- An Introduction to Web 2.0 – This post includes 2 videos that will provide you with a quick introduction to the concept of Web 2.0.
- Web 2.0’s Potential Impact on Teaching Learning – Includes the viral video Web 2.0…The Machine Is Us/ing Us.
- Web 2.0 entry from Wikipedia – Look over this information and become somewhat familiar with the big ideas. I’m not expecting you to become an expert on this. Spending 5 minutes here should be just fine.
Learning 2.0
- Learning 2.0 entry from Wikipedia – This is a very quick read and provides a basic introduction to the idea of Learning 2.0.
- Example of teaching and learning 2.0 – 13 Yr. Old CEO of Innovative Educational Gaming Company
For Your Consideration
Free Educational Software
My friend Neil Hokanson had an interesting post on his blog about a suite of open source (which also means FREE) educational games for young children. The software is called Childsplay and is available from SourceForge.net. Neil explains that Childsplay has “several games in the software that test basic math and language arts skills along with other exercises that practice matching, listening, and memory skills. The activities help children learn fine motor skills as they navigate the computer keyboard and identify specific number and letter keys, mouse, and mouse pad movements.”
I encourage those of you with learners that are under 10 years old to take a look at Childsplay. Please share your review of the games in the Comments below.
Clif
The 11th Annual Beyond Access Inclusion Conference in Memphis, TN
The Restructuring for School Inclusive Environments (RISE) Project will be hosting the Beyond Access Inclusion Conference on November 27, 2007 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN. “The 11th Annual BEYOND ACCESS Inclusion Conference is designed to provide educators, administrators, parents, and related service providers current information on the best and most promising practices in inclusive education. This year’s conference theme, “Inclusion: Mission Possible,” reestablishes the commitment of educators and schools to become innovative in meeting the educational needs of diverse learners through inclusive practices such as response to intervention, differentiated instructional approaches, co-teaching methodology, and positive behavior support activities. Participants will learn from other practitioners and experts in the field of education better ways of including not only students with disabilities, but all students, through effective educational practices” (from conference site). The conference has grown into a regional conference with approximately 500 people attending last year from Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, and California.
Presentation Proposals
Please consider submitting a presentation proposal related to students with special needs in general education classrooms. It is an especially good opportunity for graduate students to present in a very supportive atmosphere. Proposals are due by September 15, 2007.
Conference Registration
Registration information is available here.
We Didn’t Start the Fire: A Brief History of the U.S.A.
Scott Allsop has taken Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire and created an educational video that depicts all the historical events that Joel sings about. Tracey Osborn uses Allsop’s video and takes it even further. Osborn created this webpage that provides the song’s lyrics and hyper-links all of the historical events metioned to related online resources. Wow!!! I could see some kids just going crazy with this kind of activity. You know they’ll even do this at home and come back the next day still talking about all the history that they’ve absorbed.
You can watch the video here…
…or you can also view/download this video (and many other great videos for use in the classroom) from the awesomely cool TeacherTube.com.
What impact do you think this kind of lesson would have?
Provocative Quote
“We would never consider teaching children to read without also teaching them to write. In the same manner we must teach our children not just to read electronic media but also to create digital media themselves.”
–from Ann Bell’s new book Creating Digital Video in Your School
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I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on Mrs. Bell’s claim. Please share your response by clicking on the Comments link below.
Clif
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize — much less cultivate — the talents of many brilliant people. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. — from TED Talks
Do you agree or disagree with Sir Robinson’s assertions?