This week I attended and presented at the Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Below are some of my take-aways from the Conference.
Educators Range of Use
I had a great conversation with Chris Longe after the banquet about professional development. She gave me permission to quote her, "Some teachers are really pushing the envelope on a lot of the Web 2.0 technologies being presented here, while others are still trying to find the mailbox". This really fit well with the Coaching Educators’ Use of Information & Technology session I presented on an EETT grant I'm evaluating. I think administrators are key in helping educators move ahead with technology. I think that administrators need a couple of tools in their toolbox to help teachers move forward with technology. (1) They need to have buy-in and a belief that technology is important for their students (2) they need to be able to recognize what effective teaching practices with the use of technology are and (3) they need a variety of coaching strategies to deal with the large continuum of teacher comfort levels with technology.
Web 2.0 Conference Strategy
This year's WEMTA conference was filled with Web 2.0 tools and the word "collaboration" was everywhere. Diane Dorsh, in charge of technology for the Neenah Joint School District, shared with me a strategy that she uses with her colleagues when going to a conference. They start a wiki and everyone who goes to the conference contributes to it. That way it can be shared with everyone in their district. What a great use of a Web 2.0 tool!
Adventures on Second Life
Another presentation I did was on Second Life. A lot of educators ask me how Second Life can be used in education. I chose to share a couple of videos to help the audience better understand the potential that virtual worlds provides.
The first video I shared was a video that gives a nice overview of the power of using Second Life as a simulated environment.
I also shared two videos of the Pacific Rim/ Project. One of the things that I challenged the audience to think about while watching these videos was what ISTE NETS Standards, AASL Standards, 21st Century Skills, and Content Skills this project would cover. When you think about this project from this perspective it is truly amazing how deep this project is!
Part 1:
Part 2:
After showing the videos one person made the comment that she was glad that I showed this because she always had sort of creepy idea of what Second Life was and this really helped to see how it could be used in education.
Next, we met Michelle Kowalsky virtually in Second Life. Michelle is Michelle is a professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey and teaches school library media specialists. She recently finished her dissertation in which she studied communication patterns among librarians in Second Life.
The audience found it humorous because I couldn't always keep up with Michelle and my avatar was a little slower and more clumsy than her. Some people came up to me after the presentation and said that it was nice to see me struggle and that they were having trouble or feeling frustrated learning how to move and interact in Second Life. I think part of that is because we as adults don't like to be unsuccessful at something, but failing is a part of learning and important part of learning and we've forgot what it feels like to learn something unfamiliar and new.
We suggested that you go to ISTE's second life island if you are a newbe educator in Second Life. Another person asked where you can find other schools on second life- http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL
Mar 25, 2009
Mar 23, 2009
Emerging Technologies from a Student Perspective
Last Friday I had the privilege to serve as a judge at the ACSI Annual Multimedia Festival hosted by Azusa Pacific in Orange County.
Students from private Christian Schools all over Orange County brought multimedia projects (websites, podcasts, movies, PowerPoint presentations, publications) to be get real world feedback on their work.
I was impressed by the students motivation to learn. They told me that they liked it when it was hard and I talked with students who even taught themselves html through self-paced tutorials on the Internet.
One school brought projects that were related to an assignment they had been given in which they were to research an emerging technology of their choice and analyze the pros and cons of using this technology. I was completely blown away with their ideas and deep thinking around this topic. A lot of the choices were centered around cell phones. For example Augmented Reality (which I had never heard of before) was one of the choices. There were also some presentations on the evolution of robotics such as in the use of The Crusher an unmanned vehicle being used by the military.
Students from private Christian Schools all over Orange County brought multimedia projects (websites, podcasts, movies, PowerPoint presentations, publications) to be get real world feedback on their work.
I was impressed by the students motivation to learn. They told me that they liked it when it was hard and I talked with students who even taught themselves html through self-paced tutorials on the Internet.
One school brought projects that were related to an assignment they had been given in which they were to research an emerging technology of their choice and analyze the pros and cons of using this technology. I was completely blown away with their ideas and deep thinking around this topic. A lot of the choices were centered around cell phones. For example Augmented Reality (which I had never heard of before) was one of the choices. There were also some presentations on the evolution of robotics such as in the use of The Crusher an unmanned vehicle being used by the military.
Responsible Use Policies
A couple of weeks ago I had a great conversation with David Jakes, the Coordinator of Instructional Technology at Glenbrook South High School in the hallway at the CoSN annual conference in Austin. Mr. Jakes was proposing the idea that schools should have responsible use policies instead of acceptable use policies.
This was in line with some of the comments made by one of the panelists at the International Symposium who talked about the need for schools to share risk meaning that schools should not be the only ones responsible for risk management of the Internet.
I read another good quote this week that falls into this category when I was preparing for my presentation on How New Media is Changing the Way We Learn for the WEMTA Conference.
"The Web is not a babysitter, it’s not a friendly place full of rocking chairs and whittling, but with the right parenting and sensible precautions children and teens can use the Web safely” (“MySpace Deemed Harmful to Children...Well, Duh”, http://websearch.about.com/b/a/217893.htm).
I think we are going to see a lot of shifts in AUPs and school's approach to Internet safety in the next five years.
This was in line with some of the comments made by one of the panelists at the International Symposium who talked about the need for schools to share risk meaning that schools should not be the only ones responsible for risk management of the Internet.
I read another good quote this week that falls into this category when I was preparing for my presentation on How New Media is Changing the Way We Learn for the WEMTA Conference.
"The Web is not a babysitter, it’s not a friendly place full of rocking chairs and whittling, but with the right parenting and sensible precautions children and teens can use the Web safely” (“MySpace Deemed Harmful to Children...Well, Duh”, http://websearch.about.com/b/a/217893.htm).
I think we are going to see a lot of shifts in AUPs and school's approach to Internet safety in the next five years.
Mar 14, 2009
DDI Team Presents in Long Beach
Yesterday, I flew in from Austin from the CoSN Conference to my home town of Long Beach, CA. Our Data Driven Instruction team presented at the California Charter School Conference at the conference center in downtown Long Beach. (I cannot tell you how great it was to present in my home town!)
Dr. Stanley and Dr. Tubbs did a wonderful job and really engaged the participants in some meaningful discussion on data driven instruction practices in their schools. We were really impressed by the exit reflections that the participants left with us. We have posted these on our DDI blog at http://data-driven.info/ .
Dr. Stanley and Dr. Tubbs did a wonderful job and really engaged the participants in some meaningful discussion on data driven instruction practices in their schools. We were really impressed by the exit reflections that the participants left with us. We have posted these on our DDI blog at http://data-driven.info/ .
Mar 4, 2009
CoSN Horizons Emerging Technologies Forum
The Consortium of School Networking is hosting an online technologies forum on emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on K-12 teaching and learning. Please join this exciting conversation by going to http://www.cosn.org/Communities/Forums/tabid/4432/Default.aspx and signing-up to participate in the forum. A username, password and directions on how to access the forum will be emailed to you.
Mar 1, 2009
Conversation, Community and Connection
This weekend I came across two interesting pieces on Twitter.
The first was an article in the Financial Times entitled Sweet to Tweet.
I found the six secrets to online success interesting:
Immediacy- Real-time flow of comments and adaptability to mobile handsets makes it more immediate than blogging.
Brevity- Limiting messages to 140 characters makes them easier to produce and easier to digest.
‘Pull’, not ‘push’-The ability of users to choose whose tweets they follow makes it less random than e-mail.
Searchability- Messages can be searched, making the content more accessible than the comments on a social network.
Mixing public and personal- A user’s personal contacts are on an equal footing with public figures.
‘Retweeting’- By copying and retransmitting messages, users can turn the network into a giant echo chamber.
I also listened to a piece on NPR called Welcome to the Twitterverse in which Andy Carvin was trying to convince Daniel Schorr to sign up for Twitter.
My key take-away was "Twitter is the new “water cooler” ... where you read the things you have to know but wouldn’t find out otherwise".
I totally agree. Why do you use twitter?
The first was an article in the Financial Times entitled Sweet to Tweet.
I found the six secrets to online success interesting:
Immediacy- Real-time flow of comments and adaptability to mobile handsets makes it more immediate than blogging.
Brevity- Limiting messages to 140 characters makes them easier to produce and easier to digest.
‘Pull’, not ‘push’-The ability of users to choose whose tweets they follow makes it less random than e-mail.
Searchability- Messages can be searched, making the content more accessible than the comments on a social network.
Mixing public and personal- A user’s personal contacts are on an equal footing with public figures.
‘Retweeting’- By copying and retransmitting messages, users can turn the network into a giant echo chamber.
I also listened to a piece on NPR called Welcome to the Twitterverse in which Andy Carvin was trying to convince Daniel Schorr to sign up for Twitter.
My key take-away was "Twitter is the new “water cooler” ... where you read the things you have to know but wouldn’t find out otherwise".
I totally agree. Why do you use twitter?
Building Knowledge Networks
This week I finished teaching the PODetc course Tech Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems.
One of the students, Ruth Timbrook, posted the following reflection on the course. I asked her if I could share this as I think she did a great job of capturing what the course was about.
This course has definitely changed the way I see my own relationship with technology in the micro and macro sense. On the micro level, I can now better grasp "good" ways in which to get information I need. Previous to this and other courses, I always went to Google to search for things, every time I needed them. Sometimes I spent hours looking through search results. This has been a great lesson in learning to cherry pick only what I need. It is a big sea of info out there, and the trick is to swim the the correct direction. On the macro level, I better understand my own (and everyone else) role in the "world" of technology. I understand how my own creations or edits will affect others information searches. It is really great to be able to tap into the minds of people around the world and learn from their experiences as well. Previous to these courses, I probably would have searched for "published" material to get info, and never would have looked to things such as blogs for help. The exchange of information between all users is an incredible opportunity. It makes me appreciate the knowledge of others much more, and I will implement this exchange with my students in the future.
One of the students, Ruth Timbrook, posted the following reflection on the course. I asked her if I could share this as I think she did a great job of capturing what the course was about.
This course has definitely changed the way I see my own relationship with technology in the micro and macro sense. On the micro level, I can now better grasp "good" ways in which to get information I need. Previous to this and other courses, I always went to Google to search for things, every time I needed them. Sometimes I spent hours looking through search results. This has been a great lesson in learning to cherry pick only what I need. It is a big sea of info out there, and the trick is to swim the the correct direction. On the macro level, I better understand my own (and everyone else) role in the "world" of technology. I understand how my own creations or edits will affect others information searches. It is really great to be able to tap into the minds of people around the world and learn from their experiences as well. Previous to these courses, I probably would have searched for "published" material to get info, and never would have looked to things such as blogs for help. The exchange of information between all users is an incredible opportunity. It makes me appreciate the knowledge of others much more, and I will implement this exchange with my students in the future.
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