Way Too Much of a Good Thing February 29, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Humor.add a comment
Will Richardson posted an amusing item on his blog about the Ultimate Conference Attendee. I guess with the current favoritism shown toward un-conferencing, the tools mentioned could apply to just about anyone. He includes Ustream, Twitter, VoiceThread, del.icio.us, etc. About the only things left off the list are blogs to personally reflect on the experience and Ning to set up a community for the attendees. Now I know there is such a thing as being too connected!
http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/the-ultimate-conference-attendee/
97, 98, 99… 100 February 29, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Opinion.add a comment
1 in 100 adults are behind bars. Okay, admittedly this has little to do with technology, or education, but I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a better way than locking up so much potential. Will these numbers improve when our students are adults, or only accelerate? What else could be done with the funds it takes to imprison someone that could help them be a productive member of society?
Twitter - I’m In February 28, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.add a comment
So I set up a Twitter account today. Very simple. I added a few people I would like to follow, also very simple. It will probably take a while to figure out what to do with it, so if you have any Twitter suggestions, let me know. I did find a four part set of Twitter screencasts if you want to see how to jump in to Twitter yourself. Oh, I almost forgot, my Twitter name is villagegreen!
http://www.disruptiveconversations.com/2008/02/want-to-learn-a.html
Talk About an Author Study! February 27, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Book Review.add a comment
The students at Arapahoe High School have been studying Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” and the author will be joining them for a video Skype call for a 90 minute question and answer session. Details, along with a Ustream link to see the session for your self can be found on Karl Fisch’s “The Fischbowl” blog. This takes the idea of an author study to a new level when you can include participation from the author.
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2008/02/ustreaming-and-live-blogging-daniel.html
Smart Twitter February 24, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.3 comments
I guess if Howard Rheingold is hooked on Twitter, I probably don’t have many excuses left not to try it myself. I’m a firm believer in finding people who know more than I do about something and trusting them enough to see things their way. It is a great way to learn something new.
http://www.smartmobs.com/2008/02/23/why-im-hooked-on-twitter/
Colorado Conversation: Roundtable With Barbara and Clarence February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions, Edubloggers.add a comment
This conversation is run through http://www.mebeam.com/alpharoom.php?room=colearning
Barbara Barreda - K-8 principal from Los Angeles, CA.
Clarence Fisher - 7th and 8th grade teacher from Snowlake, Manitoba
B- our students have a limited view of the world. Working with C’s students has expanded their horizons.
C- B and I met over the Internet, through blogs, through Skype
C- we wanted ‘Thin Walls’ to go beyond an online project. A lot of it was experimental. We started off with VoiceThreads. We went from there to blogs. We did a novel study together. We’re learning to be facilitators, to get out of the way, to develop the tools as they are needed.
B- my students live below the porverty level, but in a private school, our parents make a lot of sacrifices. We work to get computers donated, we use open source solutions.
C- we’ve found that the open source and web based solutions lend themselves to collaboration better than the commercial tools.
C- we’ve worked on common rubrics, some common grading standards. It is difficult to assess (through existing standards) manners and collaboration. We’ve had to develop many of the tools ourselves.
B- some of our teachers have shifted to assessing skills.
B- we’re going to be working on that global understanding through the rest of the year.
Are you seeing a change in the writing skills of students who are collaborating online? C- they become writers of their own account. They learn the authentic voices of that are their own. They learn about voice and audience. We live in a world where experts are going away and everyone has an equal voice. B- we have a better idea of students’ thinking than we would in regular classroom interactions because we have the whole conversation. C- the ability to access and review the transcript provides a window we don’t have otherwise.
C- students are IM-ing each other, but we haven’t see much social networking. B- I have a MySpace account and haven’t seen much interaction on the part of the students.
B- we’re trying to show that these are learning spaces, not just games. C- active mornitoring on the part of the teacher helps students learn to be good digital citizens.
C- the Asus eeepc’s we got were flying off the shelves for sustained silent reading. To me reading is reading.
B- give them (teachers) permission to make mistakes and time to try new things. (I think this applies to students too!)
http://colearning.wikispaces.com/Thin+Walls
Colorado Conversation: Student Panel February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions.add a comment
These are as close to direct quotes as I can type. My apologies if I’m paraphrasing or misquoting. These students are incredibly articulate and represent a reason for optimism for our future.
“It’s not about the technology, it’s about learning. Technology has allowed me to take charge of my learning.”
“It’s okay to fail.”
“We need to start earlier than high school.”
“Each individual education needs to be tailored to each student.”
“Laptops add so much energy to the (classroom) environment.”
“I’m a visual learner but I have terrible handwriting so I take notes on the laptop. It means less work outside of the classroom.”
“Look how many laptops there are out in the room.”
“This is preparing us for after college, for the professional world.”
“Technology can enhance your classroom, to make it more constructivist, to take it beyond the classroom.”
“It feels like it matters more when you put something online. It is more meaningful.”
“It is something that you can continue learning from even after the assignment.”
“The student can become the teacher.”
“The cell phone should be embraced in the classroom. We can text each other. We can be online. We can be live-blogging with our cell phones.”
“The cell phone is a good example of trying to add technology that isn’t necessary. When I’m in a class taking notes, I don’t need my cell phone.”
“We’re reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, and we’re blogging with him.”
“Students need to find a passion and take leadership for their own learning.”
Colorado Conversation: IT’s Elementary February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions.add a comment
IT’s Elementary: Collaborative Classroom Practices from the Lenski Elementary Teachers (Linda Jones, Boni Hamilton, Trecie Warner, Marcia Parrish, Jen Leavitt, Dana Wilhelm).
Quick introductions around the room. Participants include computer coaches, building reasource teachers, classroom teachers, tech coordinators at both building and district level, librarians, school principals, district network director.
How is technology used to support writing at Lenski? Where have we been, where are we now, and where are we hoping to go? Wikispaces will allow for student accounts that do not require student email accounts.
Step-up-to-writing teaches organization well, but the work all sounds the same. One key is to adopt vocabulary school-wide so that each grade level builds on the previous.
Selecting text and converting to table allows a process to deconstruct their writing and facilitate peer editing. Setting a goal, like every writer needs to make at least three changes, allows all levels of writers to focus on improving. Sometimes numbers can be too literal. Color coding is a key to understanding the organization of the writing, for example, one color for first sentences, one for concluding sentences, another for supporting ideas etc. Directions and examples are on the Lenski writing wiki linked below. It may be helpful to tell students (once they have learned to put them in) to remove transition words like ‘first’,'in addition’, and the students begin to vary those transition words on their own.
Only the classroom teacher can truly integrate technology into the curriculum, because only the teacher know what happens before the lab, what will happen after the lab, and what individual students will need. Classroom teachers should view the lab as an opportunity to enlist the support of additional teachers for writing. - Paraphrased from Boni Hamilton.
The focus at Lenski has been to move up the chart on Bloom’s Taxonomy.
http://colearning.wikispaces.com/IT%27s+Elementary+Collaborative+Classroom+Practices
http://tied2lenski.wikispaces.com/
Colorado Conversation: Learning Is Change February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions.1 comment so far
Ben Wilkoff, Cresthill Middle School (DCSD) - Starts with a discussion about learning. What is learning? Lots of different ideas, which reinforces my own working definition. Learning is an individual journey to know yourself, and your place in the world.
The presentation from Learning is Change does a nice job of asking the question: http://learningischange.com/
The next question to spur conversation is: How do you create context? Is connecting a way to create context? Is community? Is currency? Ben brought his students to the Students 2.o blog to provide a conversation. His students started from there and extended the conversation to their own world. One teacher in the room said that he has a ‘no tech’ zone in his classroom to limit the wired connections. It is quite true that technology doesn’t create quality learning or teaching. Someone else made the point that technology is just another tool. The demands of the content, and the standardized tests, sometimes limit the connections or context that can be created in the classroom.
Ben moved along to Google Docs and a conversation his class had around the book The Lord of the Flies. Guiding questions around utopia/distopia are placed in a Google Doc and the students work in small groups to respond. What is collaboration? For me, it is a setting that allows for the opportunity for participation and input from every member of the group.
Change directed classrooms: “All knowledge is constantly changing, and so are students’ understanding and demonstration of knowledge.”
Conversations are another component to developing context. Context is also a Continuous process that isn’t limited to a single classroom but relies on access.
Where do we go from here? How do we make our classrooms more authentic?
http://colearning.wikispaces.com/LearningIsChange
Learning 2.0 A Colorado Conversation February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions.add a comment
I’m attending the Learning 2.0 A Colorado Conversation today, and will be posting periodically. It is good to see so many familiar faces, and also to see so many unfamiliar faces. I’m hopeful this will be a day that challenges me to gain a better understanding of how technology and learning fit together. The conference has a virtual component if you want to come along.
http://colearning.wikispaces.com/
Phun February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Opinion, Tools.add a comment
Okay, this rarely happens any more, but I just experienced one of those moments when my jaw dropped and I said to myself “this changes everything” but after watching the video embedded below, that’s exactly what happened. I found Phun reading a Clarence Fisher post on Remote Access. Please read his post as well as watch the video. What is Phun? While it might not be obvious to many, what was obvious to me is that Phun is the simplest programming environment I’ve ever seen. I’ve always believed that computers at their best become a way to change education when students control what the computer does. This is one reason blogging is important, because it puts the students in control. Phun does that for programming. It makes it simple for students to create simulations and alter a virtual environment of their own design. Phun is absolutely Phabulous!
http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2008/02/phun.html
The Internet Is My Hard Drive February 20, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion.add a comment
Bruce Schneier has posted an interesting commentary on Wired that essentially says the Internet is becoming more and more our hard drive. As that happens, we are subject to intermittent drive failures and some of our ‘data’ is lost. This can happen when a site is hacked and there is no backup, or when a service goes off-line like my Blackberry did last week.
I guess it is inevitable that the more stuff I keep on the Internet, or on any technology, the more susceptible it is to getting lost. Still, it isn’t like I go around and record every conversation I have for future playback, or commit every thought to paper ‘just in case’ I might need to remember what I was thinking. As I get older, and am more likely to forget something, I don’t see rediscovering already discovered ground as such a big deal. I’m getting more comfortable with it in fact.
I would have to say that the risk of losing something is more than balanced out by the benefits I gain by keeping something on the Internet in the first place. I get access to it from anywhere I can access the Internet. I can connect my ideas to the ideas of others and extend those ideas in new ways. Others can connect to my ideas and do the same. I also benefit from the process of writing itself.
So I guess I’m good with the idea that ‘my stuff’ on the Internet isn’t permanent, that it is still subject to the randomness of life. Even if I woke up tomorrow and all of my web pages and blogs and wikis were gone, it was all worth it. And just in case, I’m going to see if I can find a way to back up my blog before I go to bed tonight!
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/02/securitymatters_0221
Unplanned Obsolescence February 20, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Opinion.add a comment
I ran across an interesting post on Infomancy today about obsolete skills. When I was a student, I was pretty good at threading film reels. I could also change the typeball on an IBM Selectric typewriter. I’m sure there are many other good examples of skills I picked up that are now obsolete. I’ve been able to move on and continue to collect skills that will probably become obsolete as well. For example, I can set a temporary greeting on my voice-mail when I won’t be at my desk for an extended period of time. Good to know for now, but for how long?
So I’m left wondering what skills we are passing along that are doomed for obsolescence, and what are we doing to encourage the skills that will allow our children to move on and continue to learn new skills as they become necessary. Below is a link to the list of obsolete skills, just in case you were wondering if any of your own skills are as obsolete as my own. I’m also sure that there are lists of skill we do need, but how long until those lists become obsolete?
http://obsoleteskills.com/Skills/Skills
RSS assignment February 19, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions.add a comment
I recently revamped much of the online class that I teach for Lesley University. The class is comprised of 6 two-week modules. Each module has two parts, usually one longer assignment, and the other a collection of shorter assignments. In reorganizing the assignments, I placed two previously separated assignments together. In one assignment, the class finds blogs to keep track of and review in an effort to better understand what blogs are and how they work. In the other assignment, the class sets up an RSS feed and adds a number of feeds. They report back on the experience, and which feeds they selected.
Okay, in hindsight, this may be obvious, but shouldn’t these be the same assignment? At one time it seemed to make sense to provide multiple activities, but now that the two assignments are together in one place, it sure feels like it might have been more successful if they were combined into just a single assignment.
With so much that could be included in the class, it is sometimes difficult to know what to keep. There are additional assignments for setting up a their own blogs, and visiting each others blogs to leave comments, but I’m interested to know how others ‘teach’ blogs and RSS. If you have any successful strategies, or definite pitfalls to avoid, please leave me a comment on them.
Podcast Summit Live! February 19, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions, Tools.2 comments
But the Teacher is making great use of CoveritLive to provide a live feed from a podcasting summit. I’m happy to see this both because it shows a good use of the tool, and also because I wasn’t able to attend the summit. Thanks Bud!
http://budtheteacher.typepad.com/bud_the_teacher/2008/02/live-blogging-c.html
