This summer I was fortunate to collaborate with Doug Johnson, Blue Skunk Blogger, on the “Guidelines for Educators Using Social and Educational Networking Sites”. [Version (1)(2)]
Starting this week, I will be traveling to our buildings to discuss with teachers about friending and security settings within one of the most popular social networking sites… Facebook. I have created a slideshare (below) to coincide with the discussion. If you have trouble seeing some of the slides, it will be helpful to put it into full screen mode.
Teachers, please be informed and make good choices when creating your social profiles and posting personal information in the online environment!
Two weeks from today, schools in Minnesota will be in session. Our homes and schools are in a whirlwind preparing for the 09-10 school year. Parents are hopefully finishing their school shopping while many of our teachers are beginning to get their classroom ready for their incoming students.
Today…times are not only changing – they HAVE changed. I began my journey with this district 13 years ago and as I reflect on how the world has evolved….it is astounding! Back in 1996, the district installed its first LAN with 30 Windows 95 – Pentium 133 MHZ desktops. Email was a luxury, gradebooks weren’t electronic, word processing wasn’t quite the norm, and no one had even heard of Google. Today, email is viewed as an archaic method of communication, students and parents have portal access to their teacher’s gradebook, desktop word processing is being replaced with cloud computing, and students come to class with Google in their pockets.
This year is pivotal. I have had many educators come to me with BRILLIANT ideas – Blended learning, Wikis, Classroom Blogs, Video projects, podcasting, and classrooms infused with Web2.0 tools to assess their students’ learning.
So what is the worry? I am fearful that there are still educators who are dusting of the curriculum and lesson plans that was utilized back in the days of the 133mhz Pentiums. Furthermore, I am even more worried about the future of the students whom will sit (and get) the same education as students did 13 years ago. As many of our educators are rising to the 21st century education challenge, taking risks, continuously trying to improve and develop high quality, relevant courses and classrooms, there are still those whom are perfectly content teaching as they did in 1996. Is this still acceptable? Are these classrooms preparing our students to truly be lifelong learners in a global economy?
As I have been working on an online course I will be presenting in a couple a weeks, I wanted to show how a widget works within a blog or content managment system. It basically saves the end user a few steps to review the content. (more intereactive) I could also embed audio that would make the content even more engaging. As you look at the following presentation, do you have any advise for me to make my course expectations better?
I stumbled on this story from ABCnews that highlighted a program out of India where students have English tutors via cell phones. I think it is very thought provoking that schools in other countries are embracing this technology while US schools still ban it. “They take the phones everywhere – so ANYWHERE becomes a classroom.” It is an amazing story and I encourage you to watch the video.
I was recently asked whether or not Moodle should be a main topic in training our teachers and administrators in online learning. Here is my response:
Moodle is a vehicle, a tool and/or container for online learning. There is no doubt in my mind as online learning or hybrid courses expand in our schools, that teachers are going to need a session on tips and tricks in Moodle. However, what I see as a bigger need, is continuous sessions on how effectively utilize online learning to support and meet the diverse needs of our learners. Moodle is not the cure-all, and should not be the only tool considered in an storm of new tools and enhancements. A two hour session is great for our teachers who are hand-holding, hands-on learners. HOWEVER, more importantly… we will need to develop networks of learning to support this endeavor when teachers need it – by teachers who use it… not when WE decide to schedule it. Online professional development, just as online learning for students, will be driven by the needs of each individual teacher.
As for the administrative training…that is a different beast. Many administrators, do not understand the benefits of online learning and have not “bought in” to its effectiveness. Many of them haven’t even taken an online course and now are the key decision makers in the policy and procedure of online learning? That is ludicrous. If you think of the journey to administration..it is supported by years of classroom experience, followed by some administrative theory and practice. This a whole new landscape!!! Should Moodle be the focus of this training? I say no. Can it be embedded? Of course. Our administrators should be encouraged to take online training, participate in the learning communities right along with our teachers. Actually, I take that last statement back.. Why do we have to encourage this learning? Shouldn’t they WANT to do this for the benefits of our schools?
This is a great 20 minute video by Sir Ken Robinson! I encourage you to take a few moments to watch it. I happened to stumble on it again and decided to share it with you! What are your thoughts? Is he right? How can we bring creativity back in our classrooms?
I just skimmed the May 2009 District Administration article “A Call for Collaboration” and was reminded of a group project I recently completed with some grad students from UW Stout. For the first time, in my online learning career, I have made an interpersonal connection to fellow students! Typically, in a complete asynchronous environment this does not happen. In a world of text, it is very hard to identify with people. For my own personal learning journey, the best experiences come from a blend of synchronous and asynchronous tools. With the rise of Web 2.0 tools… making that personal connection has become increasingly easier to accomplish!
If interested in learning more, you can check out our work on our group wiki OR see the summary of our project by clicking the voicethread below! Enjoy!
I remember just a few years ago, we focused on learning how to use technology tools. I took a look at our technology curriculum (5yrs old) and that was pretty much what that curriculum was all about. Learn to use the computer, Learn to use Office Applications, Learn to keyboard, Learn to communicate, Learn to find information on the Internet.
Lets fast forward to today. In just a short time, it seems as though the world has transitioned from learning how to use the tools, to using the tools to learn. We can no longer use technology tools just for the sake of technology or because our kids are tech savvy!
David Warlick pretty much hit the nail on the head when he stated,
It is not a bad reason integrate technology – to motivate learners with more familiar information experiences. But what bothers me is that it appears to ignore the greatest and most critical reason – that an increasingly connected, technology-rich, information-driven, and rapidly changing world alters the “what” and “how” of education.
We are no longer preparing children with the skills and knowledge that they will need for all of the rest of their years. In my father’s time, it was common to graduate from high school (or not), take a job, and do that job for the next 35 or 40 years, retire, and live another 10 years. Expectations were not much different when I graduated from high school almost 40 years ago.
But today, I suspect that much of what we teach won’t remain valid for five years after graduation – and that may be a generous statement.
Our focus should not be on using technology to make our students easier to teach. It should be on crafting learning experiences, within networked, digital, and information-abundant learning environments, where students are learning to teach themselves, and begin to cultivate a mutually common cultural and environmental context for for their lives.
Online learning, Web 2.0, Social Media, and the Participatory Culture are all having disruptive affects to the learning of our organizations, classrooms, staff and students. These terms also coin new skills that will be relevant to our students as they leave our school and go to college and/or global workforce.
We have always been fortunate. We have a great community, greatschools, great staff, and great kids. But I am becoming increasingly worried that if we do not address these new learning environments and new skills needed to be TRULY successful in the 21st century, we are in trouble…
So what are our roadblocks? I am not at all an expert here…but these are the big roadblocks I see to move us from a traditional industrial aged district to a 21st learning institution.
Education. We need to educate ourselves to understand the affects the new media can bring to the learning table. (This also means to be motivated to become a self learning organization.) This is probably the most significant issue because when we talk or hear about these new technologies and learning environments, it is very difficult to promote their use, when key leaders and teachers are not using them themselves. A personal example is my recent use of Twitter. I knew what it was, how it worked. But I NEVER fathomed the learning potential of this new tool until I started using it. This is my aha moment, what aha moment have you had lately? Why not share it?
Computers. I have seen a significant rise in computer use in our schools. This is good! As more teachers begin to utilize web/electronic media in their classrooms, our computer labs are becoming utilized more and more. The problem is that we are also are utilizing computer labs for state and standardized testing. We literally shut down our labs, for weeks at a time, to accommodate these tasks. Take away the computer time, we are taking away their learning time. The other day, I did a count of all the wireless devices (like iPods) in our high school and was amazed to find about 1 in 5 students are bringing these devices to our school. Of course I would LOVE to see a 1 to 1 computer program in our school, but until then, maybe we should figure out how to utilize the devices our students already have access to. They come to our schools with the Internet in their pockets… why not use these tools to our advantage vs developing policies to prohibit their use?
Time & Money. This is probably the most difficult issue of all. Our economy is down the tubes and we are stretched to the max with responsibilities beyond our control. It is going to take some time and is definitely going to take some money to get there! However, If we do not step up to the plate now, what will it cost us five years from now? What affects will this have on our students, our community, and our society?
I know this may come across as doom and gloom, but I do feel that have an extraordinary advantage because we have very VERY talented people right here in our district and community. What are your ideas? How can we start making a change today! This is not going to be a one man show, but a movement by many! So are you interested?
This weekend I learned that the Minnesota Department of Education now has a twitter! My very first cell phone notificaton (from them) came from the MDE Twitter account regarding the Swine Influenza virus. Of course the topic is somewhat scary to me, but what is interesting is how this technology can rapdily inform the masses. I noticed that there were many news organizations following MDE and I suspect that this will also be a way to alert the media? Wow.
It was probably about a year ago that I signed up for my twitter account. I knew what it was, and had somewhat of an idea of how it worked. But, what I didn’t really understand was the educational value to this new communication medium. It was about two weeks ago, I was found and followed. (somewhat of twitters way of “friending” ) Come to find out my very first follower was a teacher from my district and, as the systems manager for the district, I decided I should probably start utilizing this tool.
My first question I had to figure out…Will I use the tool professionally or for personal use or a little of both?
So I went back to my dusty old account and immediately started to follow the “tweets” of some of the edtech bloggers I have enjoyed over the years!
The KEY to twitter is to program the application with your cell phone! (Remember standard text charges may be applied so be careful) I was able to set my phone up to sent my first (via text messaging) tweets to my account! Note the image below “from the web” was a short message sent via the twitter website. “from txt” was sent via my phone!
You also can decide which of the people you follow (subscribe to), you would like to have sent to your phone. To test this out, I chose Scott McLeod’s and waited.
Monday morning I received my first official tweet from Scott! He was having George Siemens do a live blogging keynote. First of all, I had no idea who George Siemens was nor did I understand what or how you could have a live blogging conference. I was amazed. Obviously while George was up giving his keynote, Scott and other students/faculty were having a side discussion about the address! The microblogs were all recorded and then posted on Scott’s blog. I really wish I could have heard the keynote, because the conversations they were having were very interesting.
At any rate, I now had the ability to send and receive microblog’s (aka tweets) from virtually anywhere. I did not need a computer with a wifi hotspot to update or receive the latest information! This was my “aha” moment. Even with RSS feeds, there is some limitations with being on the computer, logged in, exc. Twitter was instant. If I had interest in the content (limited in 140 characters) I could follow up with my computer or smartphone and explore further. I am only beginning to understand the educational opportunities this tool can have. It has had, in the short 2 weeks I have used it, a profound affect on my learning!
So thanks to daytonflyer for finding me and waking me up to this new tool. I look forward to the new learning journey that lies ahead!
This weekend I learned that the 
It was probably about a year ago that I signed up for my 
