Transforming Teaching Through Technology May 31, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Link Collections.add a comment
I added a new resource to the presentation page from T4 – Jordan School District Transforming Teaching Through Technology. T4 includes a terrific introductory video entitled Pay Attention. Below the video are a number of additional links and resources about blogs, wikis, podcasts, cellphones, and much more.
http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/content/view/221/35/
More Bandwidth May 29, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Net Neutrality.1 comment so far
Business Week has posted an article about the possibility of more bandwidth for home use. In the 12 years or so of connecting to the Internet, my home bandwidth has increased dramatically. Recently, for the last two or three years, it hasn’t changed at all. Time for an upgrade? Possibly. Subscribing to TV shows, having 3 or 4 computers online, listening to streaming radio, and it all adds up. What would you do with more bandwidth? The article answers that question in part, however part of the answer can only be understood once the bandwidth is available. The other question that didn’t get asked is who will pay for the upgraded infrastructure? Is this a Net Neutrality issue? Are we all going to pay for something whether we want it or not? Also, in an even more connected world, what are we doing to prepare our children?
Poking Fun of Ourselves May 23, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Humor.add a comment
Wired has posted a funny look at mashups today. It presents a series of humorous potential mashups of existing sites. While these may be in questionable taste for the workplace or school, they do remind us to lighten up and remember to have a little fun at our own expense.
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/alttext/2007/05/alttext_0523
Copyright, but for how long? May 22, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion.1 comment so far
The New York Times published an opinion piece by Mark Helprin entitled “A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn’t Its Copyright?” In the article the author presents a well written piece favoring the granting of copyright ownership forever and likens the current situation where original ownership expires after a set amount of time to theft without precedence in any other segment of society.
A few of his arguments are thinly veiled straw men, where the authorship of a book or an invention is compared to a department store or property owner. The former can resell his work any number of times, while the latter only once per item. At times the author seems to even contradict his own position by evoking the founding fathers who established limitations to copyright, and then claiming that if they had only known one could make a living by writing or inventing surely would have protected their inventiveness by giving the first one to express an idea to forever own that expression.
He does make a good point that ideas are not at issue, that ideas are not copyrighted. But any invention is built upon the foundational ideas of those who came before. This is true for the creative arts as well. In the case of the author himself, he is credited with being the author of “Winter’s Tale” which last time I checked was the title of a play by a rather famous author. Under the rules that Mr. Helprin proposes, he could never have written anything that had already been written or brings to mind the works of another author by using the same words earlier written, and should turn over his profits to the descendants of the original author.
Imagine for a moment all of the opportunities that theater groups would be denied by being restricted from performing A Christmas Carol. The words and images of those winter visitations are a part of the fabric of our society and help shape new authors not because it is still owned by the estate of Charles Dickens, but because it belongs to all of us as part of the public domain. Expand that to a world where every idea is owned only by the first to bring it to publication and you quickly reduce an innovative and creative modern world to the slow pace of a snail. While the idea itself is not at issue, the propagation of an idea needs a vehicle, and publishing in its many forms, is the best, most effective way of sharing that idea with others. Some ideas are too important to limit to only the small class that can purchase them.
Of course, that’s just my opinion. Where do you stand? Read the article and take your own stand.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/opinion/20helprin.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2
2nd Annual K-12 Online Conference–”Playing With Boundaries” May 22, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos.1 comment so far
Announcing the second annual “K12 Online” conference for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. This year’s conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.” A call for proposals is below.
OVERVIEW:
There will be four “conference strands”– two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday – Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in any of a variety of downloadable, web based formats and released via the conference blog (www.k12onlineconference.org) and archived for posterity.
FOUR STRANDS:
Week 1
Strand A: Classroom 2.0
Leveraging the power of free online tools in an open, collaborative and transparent atmosphere characterises teaching and learning in the 21st century. Teachers and students are contributing to the growing global knowledge commons by publishing their work online. By sharing all stages of their learning students are beginning to appreciate the value of life long learning that inheres in work that is in “perpetual beta.” This strand will explore how teachers and students are playing with the boundaries between instructors, learners and classrooms. Presentations will also explore the practical pedagogical uses of online social tools (Web 2.0) giving concrete examples of how teachers are using the tools in their classes.
Strand B: New Tools
Focusing on free tools, what are the “nuts and bolts” of using specific new social media and collaborative tools for learning? This strand includes two parts. Basic training is “how to” information on tool use in an educational setting, especially for newcomers. Advanced training is for teachers interested in new tools for learning, looking for advanced technology training, seeking ideas for mashing tools together, and interested in web 2.0 assessment tools. As educators and students of all ages push the boundaries of learning, what are the specific steps for using new tools most effectively? Where “Classroom 2.0″ presentations will focus on instructional uses and examples of web 2.0 tool use, “New Tools” presentations should focus on “nuts and bolts” instructions for using tools. Five “basic” and five “advanced” presentations will be included in this strand.
Week 2
Strand A: Professional Learning Networks
Research says that professional development is most effective when it aims to create professional learning communities — places where teachers learn and work together. Using Web 2.0 tools educators can network with others around the globe extending traditional boundaries of ongoing, learner centered professional development and support. Presentations in this strand will include tips, ideas and resources on how to orchestrate your own professional development online; concrete examples of how the tools that support Professional Learning Environments (PLEs) are being used; how to create a supportive, reflective virtual learning community around school-based goals, and trends toward teacher directed personal learning environments.
Strand B: Obstacles to Opportunities
Boundaries formalized by education in the “industrial age” shouldn’t hinder educators as they seek to reform and transform their classroom practice. Playing with boundaries in the areas of copyright, digital discipline and ethics (e.g. cyberbullying), collaborating globally (e.g. cultural differences, synchronous communication), resistance to change (e.g. administration, teachers, students), school culture (e.g. high stakes testing), time (e.g. in curriculum, teacher day), lack of access to tools/computers, filtering, parental/district concerns for online safety, control (e.g. teacher control of student behavior/learning), solutions for IT collaboration and more — unearthing opportunities from the obstacles rooted in those boundaries — is the focus of presentations in this strand.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS:
This call encourages all, experienced and novice, to submit proposals to present at this conference via this link. Take this opportunity to share your successes, strategies, and tips in “playing with boundaries” in one of the four strands as described above.
Deadline for proposal submissions is June 18, 2007. You will be contacted no later than June 30, 2007 regarding your status.
Presentations may be delivered in any web-based medium that is downloadable (including but not limited to podcasts, screencasts, slide shows) and is due one week prior to the date it is published.
Please note that all presentations will be licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.
As you draft your proposal, you may wish to consider the presentation topics listed below which were suggested in the comments on the K-12 Online Conference Blog:
* » special needs education
* » Creative Commons
* » Second Life
* » podcasting
* » iPods
* » video games in education
* » specific ideas, tips, mini lessons centered on pedagogical use of web 2.0 tools
* » overcoming institutional inertia and resistance
* » aligning Web 2.0 and other projects to national standards
* » getting your message across
* » how web 2.0 can assist those with disabilities
* » ePortfolios
* » classroom 2.0 activities at the elementary level
* » creating video for TeacherTube and YouTube
* » google docs
* » teacher/peer collaboration
KEYNOTES:
The first presentation in each strand will kick off with a keynote by a well known educator who is distinguished and knowledgeable in the context of their strand. Keynoters will be announced shortly.
CONVENERS:
This year’s conveners are:
Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of Mathematics at Daniel Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his pedagogical practice and for “child safe” blogging practices. He has more than 20 years experience in both formal and informal education and 13 years experience in team building and leadership training. Darren has been facilitating workshops for educators in groups of 4 to 300 for the last 10 years. Darren’s professional blog is called A Difference (http://adifference.blogspot.com). He will convene Classroom 2.0.
Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach, a 20-year educator, has been a classroom teacher, charter school principal, district administrator, and digital learning consultant. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member teaching graduate and undergraduate preservice teachers at The College of William and Mary (Virginia, USA), where she is also completing her doctorate in educational planning, policy and leadership. In addition, Sheryl is co-leading a statewide 21st Century Skills initiative in the state of Alabama, funded by a major grant from the Microsoft Partners in Learning program. Sheryl blogs at (http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/). She will convene Preconference Discussions and Personal Learning Networks.
Wesley Fryer is an educator, author, digital storyteller and change agent. With respect to school change, he describes himself as a “catalyst for creative educational engagement.” His blog, “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” was selected as the 2006 “Best Learning Theory Blog” by eSchoolnews and Discovery Education. He is the Director of Education Advocacy (PK-20) for AT&T in the state of Oklahoma. Wes blogs at (http://www.speedofcreativity.org). Wes will convene New Tools.
Lani Ritter Hall currently contracts as an instructional designer for online professional development for Ohio teachers and online student courses with eTech Ohio. She is a National Board Certified Teacher who served in many capacities during her 35 years as a classroom and resource teacher in Ohio and Canada. Lani blogs at (http://possibilitiesabound.blogspot.com). Lani will convene Obstacles to Opportunities.
QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about any part of this, email one of us:
* » Darren Kuropatwa: dkuropatwa {at} gmail {dot} com
* » Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach: snbeach {at} cox {dot} net
* » Lani Ritter Hall: lanihall {at} alltel {dot} net
* » Wesley Fryer: wesfryer {at} pobox {dot} com
Please duplicate this post and distribute it far and wide across the blogosphere. Feel free to republish it on your own blog (actually, we’d really like people to do that) or link back to this post (published simultaneously on all our blogs).
Too Much Access to Data May 21, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Data.add a comment
eSchool News is reporting that the Indianapolis Public Schools has accidently published confidential student data online. It will be interesting to see the financial implications for the district as a result of this accident. It also points out one of the potential pitfalls for schools as we move toward more and more data collection about our students and the educational process.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryRSS.cfm?ArticleID=7088
Highlands Ranch Cohort May 20, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Opinion.4 comments
I just wanted to say that this is a very good group I’m working with in Highlands Ranch. This is a hard working group, on time, and very supportive of each other. You guys rock!
One-to-One or Not to-One? May 18, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, OLPC, Opinion.add a comment
A recent conversation came up where school technology representatives were debating the merits of technology in general, and specifically the worth of laptops in schools. This followed the New York Times “Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops” article. One particularly well thought out response came from a friend of mine, Craig Herrera:
Just my two cents worth – In a school with little space and a middle school population, I find the laptops a nice addition to the lab. Since I have classes pretty much all day in the lab, the laptop cart is available for check out by teachers. Sometimes the students are just word processing, sometimes they are doing research, the bottom line is that the laptops are being used as another educational tool. Can these tasks be accomplished with other tools, yes, but the laptops offer a convenience that we like here. Are the laptops more work for me, the STR, a little, but I feel that the extra work is worth students being able to accomplish some of their academic work. I also agree that training for staff and students is key to making laptops work for a building. Are laptops a miracle, no, but they help when space and schedules are tight.
Craig makes many good points and I support his position. What position do you take? Should schools have laptops for students? Who should provide them, the students or the schools?
