Showing posts with label PODetc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PODetc. Show all posts
Jun 21, 2009
Jun 20, 2009
Tech Literacy 102 Tag Cloud
This week I am finishing up another section of our online PODetc Course Tech Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Networks.
Its been a great group in which we've been learning about foramtive assessment strategies, iPod Touches and social constructivism (not necessarily in that order lol).
Below is our tag cloud from the course:
The next time this course is offered is August 3rd-28th. You can learn more about the course at http://www.podetc.com/PODetc/Technology_Literacy_102%3A_Building_Knowledge_Management_Systems.html
Its been a great group in which we've been learning about foramtive assessment strategies, iPod Touches and social constructivism (not necessarily in that order lol).
Below is our tag cloud from the course:
The next time this course is offered is August 3rd-28th. You can learn more about the course at http://www.podetc.com/PODetc/Technology_Literacy_102%3A_Building_Knowledge_Management_Systems.html
Mar 1, 2009
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.
Feb 7, 2009
Diigo
This morning I went to a live webinar put on by Classroom 2.0 on the social bookmarking tool Diigo. This was the first Classroom 2.0 webinar that I have attended and it was great! They have one every Saturday at noon Eastern Time. You can view their calendar at http://live.classroom20.com/calendar.html . (Next week they will be talking about Skype).
Here are some of the highlights:
Diigo does some things that Delicious does not do. For example, you can annotate. What they mean by that is you can highlight and add stickynotes to sites you bookmark and share this with others. One of the presenters said she requires her students to do this when they bookmark a site. That's kind of cool because it helps get at those higher-order thinking skills of evaluating what's important, and summarizing important concepts.
Another big difference is in how you can share your bookmarks. In Delicious you can add people's Delicious bookmarks to your network. However, Diigo has a lot more options. For example you can have certain tags posted automatically to a blog in a tag cloud or as a list of links.
You can also create groups. If you are a teacher, once you have a Diigo account, you can upgrade to an Educator Account. You will then have access to a Teacher Console which will allow you to manage your groups. You can make groups private and enter students in without having to have an email address for them. Traditional groups have advertising, but educational groups do not.
Another cool thing about the groups, is you can have a group dictionary of suggested tags the group use. When you go to bookmark something, the tags automatically appear as buttons to choose from.
You can also "mirror" your bookmarks in both Delicious and Diigo.
This fits great into the PODetc course I'm teaching on Building Knowledge Networks. This week we are working on using social bookmarking to start to organize information around a topic we want to learn more about.
As some of you know who have taken online classes from me before, I like to do the assignments along with the course participants. I have decided I'm going to research how social networking is being used in education and organize my information in Diigo and mirror it in my Delicious account.
I'll let you know how it goes!
Here are some of the highlights:
Diigo does some things that Delicious does not do. For example, you can annotate. What they mean by that is you can highlight and add stickynotes to sites you bookmark and share this with others. One of the presenters said she requires her students to do this when they bookmark a site. That's kind of cool because it helps get at those higher-order thinking skills of evaluating what's important, and summarizing important concepts.
Another big difference is in how you can share your bookmarks. In Delicious you can add people's Delicious bookmarks to your network. However, Diigo has a lot more options. For example you can have certain tags posted automatically to a blog in a tag cloud or as a list of links.
You can also create groups. If you are a teacher, once you have a Diigo account, you can upgrade to an Educator Account. You will then have access to a Teacher Console which will allow you to manage your groups. You can make groups private and enter students in without having to have an email address for them. Traditional groups have advertising, but educational groups do not.
Another cool thing about the groups, is you can have a group dictionary of suggested tags the group use. When you go to bookmark something, the tags automatically appear as buttons to choose from.
You can also "mirror" your bookmarks in both Delicious and Diigo.
This fits great into the PODetc course I'm teaching on Building Knowledge Networks. This week we are working on using social bookmarking to start to organize information around a topic we want to learn more about.
As some of you know who have taken online classes from me before, I like to do the assignments along with the course participants. I have decided I'm going to research how social networking is being used in education and organize my information in Diigo and mirror it in my Delicious account.
I'll let you know how it goes!
Jan 22, 2009
Reflections of Survey of Emerging Technologies
As I wrote in an earlier blog post, I am currently taking a PODetc course Survey of Emerging Technologies taught by Theresa Stanley.
The course has forced me to take some time to try some new emerging technologies that I have wanted to try for some time.
The first was subscribing to Google Reader. I have been a long time subscriber of Bloglines and use it as an aggregator for various ed tech blogs that I read. I have been meaning to try Google Reader for some time to compare the two. I am absolutely loving Google Reader. One of the really nice features is that you can embedd it into your iGoogle page. I decided to subscribe to some education sections of newspapers. It has been nice having it on my home base with all of my other widgets every day.
The second tool that was new to me was Delicious. I have been meaning to get an account for some time. It was so easy to set up. My favorite part is the social part. The fact that you can share book marks with your friends is really powerful. My Delicious Account is at located at http://delicious.com/tstephens12.
So far it has been a great class and I would highly recommend it to those of you who want to carve out some time to try new tools. Theresa's next class is starting March 2nd. You can visit our website for more information.
The course has forced me to take some time to try some new emerging technologies that I have wanted to try for some time.
The first was subscribing to Google Reader. I have been a long time subscriber of Bloglines and use it as an aggregator for various ed tech blogs that I read. I have been meaning to try Google Reader for some time to compare the two. I am absolutely loving Google Reader. One of the really nice features is that you can embedd it into your iGoogle page. I decided to subscribe to some education sections of newspapers. It has been nice having it on my home base with all of my other widgets every day.
The second tool that was new to me was Delicious. I have been meaning to get an account for some time. It was so easy to set up. My favorite part is the social part. The fact that you can share book marks with your friends is really powerful. My Delicious Account is at located at http://delicious.com/tstephens12.
So far it has been a great class and I would highly recommend it to those of you who want to carve out some time to try new tools. Theresa's next class is starting March 2nd. You can visit our website for more information.
Jan 18, 2009
Registration Closes Monday!
Registration for taking the following PODetc Online Courses for graduate Credit closes Monday, January 19th, 2009.
Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom
Description: This online course examines the ISTE standard "Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity" and how educators can apply and integrate it into their current curriculum. This course will give classroom teachers insight into how to balance their curriculum with integrated technology. Participants will design curriculum to be used in their classrooms and work in a collaborative environment to share ideas and build a surplus of useful strategies and ideas as determined by the community of practice.
February 2 - February 27 (4 week course)
Technology Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems
Description: This online course is appropriate for administrators, teachers, library media specialists, and technology leaders. We will focus on the examination of online tutorial sites, social networking tools, and knowledge management systems as sources of just-in-time support for integrating technology into the teaching and learning process!
February 2 - February 27 (4 week course)
Earn 1 Graduate Credit through the respected University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
or Participate in a noncredit option through the Online Professional Development Leader PODetc!(PODetc -- Professional Online Development from the Educational Technology Community).
Note you can register after January 19th if you are not taking these course for graduate credit.
Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom
Description: This online course examines the ISTE standard "Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity" and how educators can apply and integrate it into their current curriculum. This course will give classroom teachers insight into how to balance their curriculum with integrated technology. Participants will design curriculum to be used in their classrooms and work in a collaborative environment to share ideas and build a surplus of useful strategies and ideas as determined by the community of practice.
February 2 - February 27 (4 week course)
Technology Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems
Description: This online course is appropriate for administrators, teachers, library media specialists, and technology leaders. We will focus on the examination of online tutorial sites, social networking tools, and knowledge management systems as sources of just-in-time support for integrating technology into the teaching and learning process!
February 2 - February 27 (4 week course)
Earn 1 Graduate Credit through the respected University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
or Participate in a noncredit option through the Online Professional Development Leader PODetc!(PODetc -- Professional Online Development from the Educational Technology Community).
Note you can register after January 19th if you are not taking these course for graduate credit.
Jan 1, 2009
Stephens Group Words for 2008
I recently added a cloud tag to my blog. It was interesting to reflect on which words I tagged most often in 2008.
21st Century Skills-- This year we added a new belief statements to our mission statement, "We believe all students need to graduate with 21st Century Skills". All of our professional development efforts have been aligned to support this belief statement.
MDMC2008- - MDMC stands for the Milwaukee Digital Media Conference. This year's conference was a huge success. We had 120 educators collaboratively work with us on real world digital media projects at the Milwaukee County Zoo. You can read more about the conference in an article published by The Milwaukee Journal.
One-to-One Computing- - This year The Stephens Group started a new division of our company on One-to-One Computing with four consultants who have experience working with one-to-one computing programs. We started a free social networking site around this topic and currently has 37 members from all over the country. One-to-one computing was also the topic of my comps paper and will be my dissertation topic too- so I'm sure it will be tagged a lot more in 2009.
PODetc-
PODetc is also a new division of our company. It stands for Professional Online Development for the Educational Technology Community. The online relationships that have been developed are truly amazing. We have had teachers and administrators from all over the world in K-12 and higher ed take our courses. On Monday we start our fourth session of graduate courses for educators. We currently have five courses aligned to the new ISTE NETS Standards for teachers.
Social Networking & Twitter- - As Tammy Lind, our director of professional development stated recently, "I have learned more from people on Twitter this past year than all of my professional development including my master's degree combined". Consultants need to be constantly learning. Social networking tools such as Twitter and CollectiveX have helped us reach out to our clients, share information with one another, get just-in-time support and brought us closer together. I'm sure we will be leveraging these tools even more in 2009 as we broaden our personal learning networks.
Ultraportable Devices- This year through an internship with CoSN I had the opportunity to work on a report on ultraportable devices. I have become really interested in this topic as it also related to my dissertation. In my consulting work, I have been surprised that school districts have been somewhat reluctant to go this route with their hardware purchases. If we are really serious about providing student centered learning experiences, I think these devices have huge potential for changing the teaching and learning process.
San Jose Digital Media Course- This year we held a course at the San Jose Museum of Art to create vodcasts (or video-podcasts) using a method of inquiry that can be used in any discipline. We will be holding the course again June 22nd-29th. More information is available on our course wiki.
Wiki- 2008 was definitely the year of the wiki for The Stephens Group. The Stephens Group has seven wikis. Some are internal for consultants to share information and collaborate. Others such as our Information Technology Planning Wiki are to share information with clients. We use this one a lot with our clients as a means of sharing research and best practices when developing strategic information technology plans. Our biggest wiki, however is the wiki we created for this year's digital media conference. Educators worked in teams to create multimedia wikis around exhibits at the zoo. We are very proud of their work! You can view their wikis at http://mdmc2008.wikispaces.com/Directory.
It comes as no surprise that the most tagged word in 2008 was Web 2.0. Many of the technologies we are using as a company have not changed from 2007. However, what is changing is how we use them. Our company has consultants and clients in multiple states. Web 2.0 tools has really allowed us to work more efficiently and seamlessly across multiple timezones.
I'm looking forward to seeing what new words get tagged in 2009!
Dec 9, 2008
PODetc Feedback
I was just reading the online survey results of our last session of our PODetc course Introduction to Instructional Technology in the Classroom. I am so proud of the feedback we received I wanted to share some of the participant comments:
This course can be applied to my profession immediately and will improve options available for use in the classroom and in staff development.
This information will allow me to share many new opportunities to colleagues and give me greater insight for ideas and how to use for classroom use.
I thought the course was very good. It exposed me to a variety of new technologies, forced me to try them, and the feedback was excellent. The best part was being able to do the course work online as time permitted.
I have been able to discover and explore so many new tools/ideas - I now have so many new ways to improve my professional practice.
I shared some of the resources I learned about. My students will benefit by my having a broader background.
This course can be applied to my profession immediately and will improve options available for use in the classroom and in staff development.
This information will allow me to share many new opportunities to colleagues and give me greater insight for ideas and how to use for classroom use.
I thought the course was very good. It exposed me to a variety of new technologies, forced me to try them, and the feedback was excellent. The best part was being able to do the course work online as time permitted.
I have been able to discover and explore so many new tools/ideas - I now have so many new ways to improve my professional practice.
I shared some of the resources I learned about. My students will benefit by my having a broader background.
Nov 25, 2008
New PODetc Courses
PODetc's 4 NEW spring online courses are now open for enrollment on our site and University of Wisconsin-Green Bay's Education Outreach. Our courses are closely aligned with ISTE's new NET-Standards for teachers. We also address the Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework in each course.
Our NEW spring courses:
* Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom
* Survey of Emerging Technologies
* Technology Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems
* Technology Literacy 103:Utilizing Social-Networking Support Tools in a
Leadership Capacity
More information is available at our PODetc Course Catalog.
Our NEW spring courses:
* Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom
* Survey of Emerging Technologies
* Technology Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems
* Technology Literacy 103:Utilizing Social-Networking Support Tools in a
Leadership Capacity
More information is available at our PODetc Course Catalog.
Nov 16, 2008
Flat Classrooms Cont.
We just finished our first PODetc course Introduction to Instructional Technology in the Classroom. It was a blast! One of the things that I was reflecting on is how online courses have the potential to flatten classrooms. I felt more connected to my students in this course than I often do in face-to-face environments where I am an instructor.
The instructors became co-learners with students and we tackled different issues related to the ISTE NETS standards for students. It was fun to see knowledge distributed and constructed between all of us.
We start a new section on Monday and I can't wait to start the process again. You can find out more about our PODetc courses by visiting our website at http://www.podetc.com/PODetc/Course_Catalog.html.
The instructors became co-learners with students and we tackled different issues related to the ISTE NETS standards for students. It was fun to see knowledge distributed and constructed between all of us.
We start a new section on Monday and I can't wait to start the process again. You can find out more about our PODetc courses by visiting our website at http://www.podetc.com/PODetc/Course_Catalog.html.
Nov 4, 2008
Flat Classrooms
This is our second week of our first PODetc (Professional Online Development for the ed tech community) Course. The course is an introduction to the new ISTE NETS Standards for Students.
It has been so exciting to see real students enroll and participate after all of our hard work creating the course architecture, content, and getting our courses accredited. The best part has been the online discussions from teachers literally all over the world and the diverse perspectives that they have about teaching and learning in an increasingly global society.
This week we are looking deeply at globalization and how to incorporate that in the teaching and learning process. One of the assignments was to listen to a discussion between the two teachers who founded the Flat Classroom project. One of the teachers made a statement in the discussion that has really resonated with me. She said, "this project has really flattened the relationships between students and teachers". What she meant by that is that it is more peer to peer co-learners instead of the hierarchical expert disseminates information. I'm doing a lot of thinking about how I can work this into my presentation at the ACSA Leadership Summit in San Diego later this week.
It has been so exciting to see real students enroll and participate after all of our hard work creating the course architecture, content, and getting our courses accredited. The best part has been the online discussions from teachers literally all over the world and the diverse perspectives that they have about teaching and learning in an increasingly global society.
This week we are looking deeply at globalization and how to incorporate that in the teaching and learning process. One of the assignments was to listen to a discussion between the two teachers who founded the Flat Classroom project. One of the teachers made a statement in the discussion that has really resonated with me. She said, "this project has really flattened the relationships between students and teachers". What she meant by that is that it is more peer to peer co-learners instead of the hierarchical expert disseminates information. I'm doing a lot of thinking about how I can work this into my presentation at the ACSA Leadership Summit in San Diego later this week.
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