Web 2.0 to Go!

Okay this post actually came from TWO items in my reader. I first heard of this from The Blue Skunk Blog! Is that a projector in your pocket??? That’s right. A data projector that fits in your (shirt, not coat) pocket and connects to an iPod or iPHONE!!!!!! Okay the other read came from Pogues Post. Where he details the product a little more!! Wahoooo, can you imagine walking in to a class with your ipod/phone and this little baby?!

I decided to explore a tool that I have not used before. mnemograph. This is FREE web based timeline software for creating and SHARING (there’s that word again!!) history and project planning. While my attempts at creating a site based on my “Personal Learning of Web 2.0″ went a bit awry, here is a great sample on the WRIGHT BROTHERS.  I know several of our history teachers use timeline tools and we even have software for creating timelines on our computers BUT the BEAUTY of this is that it can be used for COLLABORATION AND SHARED. 
 
Once you choose to make a timeline accessible to the public, a URL and a piece of HTML will be available at which to share your timeline.
It is built on the (Adobe) Flash platform so when viewing, you can “grab” the timeline and drag it left and right, and zoom in and out to view centuries at a time or just hours.  Very cool and did I mention that it is FREE!

Because I think we have a foundation of Web 2.0 in our county, I wanted to see some new ideas of how other Districts were using it. Throwing the Box Away was the session I “attended”
109 classrooms from three different schools in Pinellas County, Florida were a part of a “Leveraging Laptop” project to accelerate Science achievement and meet the needs of all students. 6-6 week projects for the students. The key to this entire project was the connectivity between all the teachers through meetings, blogs, online learning networks.

These teachers took the Standards, the grade levels and then the topics to see where could these schools work together. The key was the creativity of the teachers that mapped the curriculum. They sat at round tables and reviewed the “gaps” in the curriculum with media specialists and other subject teachers and talked about what kind of lessons and activities were being currently used. Where were students missing it. Most did not have technology when the original activities were first planned. They used these sessions to “drive” what they wanted to do.
Each teacher had a presentation station with projector. Each school received 5 mobile labs, podcasting stations and software, lab sensors and data loggers and digital still, video and web cameras. Professional Development and support was the key to success! Four days with e-mentors teaching e-skills, 5 days on curriculum development, E-coaches that was then published online using Universal Builder and an additional 5 days on how to use the tools. They also had ongoing online and onsight coaching support from the District and other e-coaches and e-mentors. All had access to tech tools and resources through high quality professional development.
They focused on 6 projects, Living Relationships, Weather, Habitats, Ecology and Florida Environment and Water. Here is a link to the powerpoints that outline these projects.
Unexpected growth in areas of classroom blogs, podcasts, video and image shows. The students realized that they could make a difference and change. This changed teaching practice by integrating the technology, collaborating with other classrooms and teachers, they published and maintained podcast, blogs and students became involved in the curriculum design and planning.
WOW!! I am so excited about this idea of an online conference. I think that should be a goal in Cherokee County to utilize our Alumni Teach 21 teachers to develope an online conference!! DEBBIE????????

Photo attibution: i love butter
This photo was found in flickr and represented the evolution of technology. I absolutely love flickr and especially appreciate all of the beautiful, creative and interesting endless supply of photographs that can be found. Freda and I attended a Visual Literacy session at NECC this summer with Lynell Burmark and she shared so many fantastic ways to use images with students. Flickr is the mother lode of images!!!
I like to share flickr search tools like this Flickr Tag Browser with my teachers. They love being able to give visual cues to the students and show how they relate to other topics.
The topic that I have selected to use is technology and web 2.0 tools such as blogging!

Creative Commons really opened my eyes to how copyright REALLY works! (that and my buddy Esther!!)Professionally it has made me ever so conscious of the material I use DAILY in my presentations and training materials. I love the concept of CC that artists, writers, musicians WANT to share their materials and allow others to be creative with them. I use the intro video in my class when we discuss Flickr and other photos sharing sites. It is such a big hurdle though to make it HABIT to license your creations and observe the rights that others have set.
I am noticing increasingly that the CC logo is appearing on more spaces and believe we need to be educating our students on what this means. I mean seriously how many kids do you think have ever heard of Creative Commons?!! We have a lot of “splaining” to do Lucy!!!

Photo by Malingering
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

I visited the home page of wikipedia and started out with a controversial political article, the discussion page was so ANGRY that I went back and selected another topic that is pretty timely, Homelessness. I bumped from homeless laws, homeless cities to a full page on homeless people. There are actual categories of individuals who are homeless. People who to most of us seem invisible are in wikipedia. The discussion and comments throughout the history of some was interesting.
I know wikipedia has taken a bad rap in education but what a rainbow of information that might otherwise go unnoticed. This spoken by a child of the sixties and seventies who’s only research material was a set of ChildCraft encyclopedias. (we couldn’t afford Britannica!)

Okay, so I think I combined my last post as part of 7 A, so I will catch myself up!! RSS feeds are to me the equivelant of publishing my very own newspaper. Filled with articles that are customized just for me.

Photo by ingirogiro
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

I have seperate folders for my types of feeds to keep myself organized. One for creative and artistic feeds and one for technology and professional blogs.
I am currently following several blogs on creativity and developing creativity but one that I stumbled on is purely voyeuristic!! IT is called My First Year of College, and it seems to be filling in the blanks that my daughter is not!!

I think RSS should stand for Revolutionizing Sandi’s Studies!  Seriously, it has completely changed the way I gather and absorb information. I find myself able to quickly skim, sort and save information that is important to me and my particular interests. Not just for professional technology use but for personal topics like creativity sites.
Because everything I do comes back to my ultimate customer, the STUDENT, I love to read Student 2.0. I particularly related to the post “Think Different” by Sean, The Bass Player.  His revealing observations on some educational systems is right on the money. I use this old Apple commercial video as the introduction for my Web 2.0 class.

I tell my teachers, that they are the crazy ones. The round pegs in the square holes and that this journey into Web 2.0, if they allow it, will change the way they view teaching.

My first sneak peak into the word of Web 2.0 was several years ago when my husband, (who is not particulary tech savvy) asked me if I had ever heard of podcasts. He said that Georgia Tech had a “podcast” and you could listen to it anywhere anytime.
I started investigating and was hooked. Podcasting led to blogging, blogging led to wikis and suddenly the web 2.0 world EXPLODED! My children, in middle school at the time were using technology like instant messaging and zanga to communicate. So I knew that there was something to all of this connectivity!
There is such great significance to be found in all of the collaboration and people actually joining their gifts, talents and knowledge TOGETHER to create even more gifts, talent and knowledge!!
I felt as excited as I was about these technologies, we could use them to engage our students. Web 2.0 is so empowering to all of us. It gives EVERYONE a “voice” and an audience. Add to that the pricetag, which in most cases is FREE, the ability to collaborate and become multiple voices and you have what I believe to be the most significant addition to our education backpack in the last 100 years!

Photo by Travelin’ Librarian
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Being a lifetime learner is a natural for those involved in education. One of the things that draws us to the very nature of technology is that it is always in a state of change. Around every bend is a new challenge and adventure.
I think the most challenging part of being a lifelong learner is keeping my toolbox ORGANIZED! There is a daily barrage of tools and determining what is relevant and useful and what is not is often difficult. I have found some web 2.0 tools such as social bookmarking to be a great resource in keeping myself organized. (However, even that becomes large and out of control after a bit!)
I think the easiest habit for me it 7 1/2. HAVE FUN! I think learning is great fun and have found that the act of “play” as a teaching tool to be very effective. We tend to spend more time learning when we are ENGAGED! (Hey, there is a concept for our students!!)

I definitely feel the most import habit is to mentor and share. What good is having all of these fabulous tools, tips and tricks if we don’t share them. Our Teach 21 program is all about mentoring and passing on what we are doing to better the greater good. It is exciting to watch the ripple effect as teachers AND students share what they are doing with these terrific new tools. It is also thrilling to have the students come back and share what they themselves have discovered.