Podcast of the week: Classic Poetry Aloud

Two weeks ago I began a new series of weekly reviews of podcasts that can be used in education. While I did not do such a great job making the second posting, I am back on track. Last week was the final week of a graduate class, so I trust you will give me a little slack.

Classic Poetry Aloud

Classic Poetry Aloud is an excellent example of how audio can enhance what simply reading cannot. You can subscribe to the podcast by following linking to any of the subscribe buttons on the podcast page. Additionally you can view any podcast going back to May 2007 by following the link of the podcast page to the blog page.

The purpose of the Classic Poetry Aloud Podcast is “to add another dimension to the enjoyment of poetry: listening“. As a teacher that has previously taught English, students often lack the understanding that poets write poems to be read. I have compared it to reading music lyrics; without the inflection of voice it does not mean the same. While textbook publishers have previously released audio CDs of the poems within their texts, this limits the teacher to only those poems within the textbook. Classic Poetry Aloud makes use of any poem beyond the limits of copyright limitations. The poems range a large variety of authors ranging from William Blake to Thomas Wyatt with numerous in between. The poems are organized by themes including the Romantics, War Poems, Love Poems, and Season just to name a few.

The blog site also note a Top Ten list based on listener downloads. Many of these also make my top list.

“If” by Rudyard Kipling

“O Captain! My Captain!” by Walk Whitman

And a few of my personal favorite that did not make the Top Ten

“To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence” by Jame Elroy Flecker

“To the Virgins to make much of Time” by Robert Herrick

If you teach poetry, you should be able to find at least one poem you enjoy and would like to teach. If you enjoy poetry this podcast is in your corner. If you have never appreiciated poetry, give it a try for a week. You might find something new you like. Don’t worry, I won’t tell.

Enjoy your day,

I’m talking ’bout practice

Last week I read a blog post on the Freakonomics blog previewing an upcoming article on stats and the Celtics. While I am not an avid fan of the NBA, do not like the current style of the game preferring instead the team aspect of college ball, I do follow certain teams and players. Historically, I have been a fan of Boston and since they drafted KU standout Paul Pierce I keep track of their progress.

The internet being what it is I quickly found myself following links and began reading a post detailing the debate on practice versus talent. As both a teacher and a coach I enjoyed the message of the article.

“In other words, whatever innate differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person “encodes” the information. And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice.”

This statement supports several of my beliefs. One is that there is no such thing as luck. I feel that good preparation allows people to take advantage of situations. I have several examples from my coaching , but since you will have take my word for those instances I will cite a recent event familiar to those who follow college basketball and one in which I was able to witness first hand. Mario Chalmers game tying three point shot at the National Championship was dubbed by many in the media as a miracle.

While I admit that the shot was not textbook form, YouTube proved that the play itself was not a first time attempt. It is clear that this play, and thus the victory, was the result of practice as much as it was talent.

Aside from once again plugging the glorious year of sports that fans of the University of Kansas were able to enjoy, my athletic reference come with reason. There are multiple reasons why sports are so prevalent at educational institutions. It is because that many of the skills that enable students to become successful student-athletes are transferable from the sporting world to the classroom. It has become cliché to call these transferable lessons “life skills.” Personally, I feel I starting becoming successful in the classroom when I realized that I could take my coaching philosophy into the classroom to make students successful. While I realized that teaching history and English would be slightly different than teaching wrestling, I also become conscious that all three subjects were simply different disciplines. The bottom line was that my students needed practice, repetition, and active learning to improve on the skills in the classroom.

Think about it. If I tried to teach my student-athletes how to wrestle by lecturing for the majority of practice and then give them a multiple choice exam would they really master the skills required to improve? We structure our practices with a short demonstration (guided lecture) followed by longer sessions of drilling (active group work). In addition to this, after several weeks of nothing but practice we begin weekly competitions (assessment). So why is it that many in education feel that it is necessary to conduct their class by controlling the information?

I admit that I do follow some of the old school means of teaching. I administer one multiple choice exam per quarter. I think that every course has to do this as students must be familiar with the style of this type of assessment due to state testing and SAT/ACT exams. But I also feel that this type of assessment is a poor channel for gagging student understanding of information. However, I feel that if my students can master the “messy assessments” that people such as Wesley Fryer advocate then my students can pass a standardized exam once they understand the methods to taking such exams.

The bottom line is that students cannot truly understand the content unless they are active in the learning. If you simply teach students how to pass an exam then you are doing nothing more than teaching them how to memorize information. True learning comes from understanding. While I was an average wrestler, I feel that I understand the sport as proof from my coaching record. As you end this year and begin to reflect on your lessons and courses for next year I challenge you to make a change toward active practice. During wrestling practices I often walk around the room and make adjustments to technique on an individual basis while the rest of the room proceeds without someone looking over their shoulder. In the classroom, I walk around drinking my coffee and individually guide my students in the same method. My challenge to you…drink more coffee and lecture a bit less.

Enjoy your day,

Another yearly assessment–room for improvement

As another school year comes to a close I have the opportunity to reflect. My first reflection is that I did a poor job or keeping updates on my ideas and project on this blog. This is due to several reasons, primary of which is that I was teaching two new courses this past year while trying to adjust two courses I am teaching for the second year. While I have plenty of ideas and notes from the current school year; I also have a new plan. As I look toward reaching my goal of being a more reliable publisher of ideas I was able to make a more organized plan.

The goal is to publish three entires a week divided into three specific categories. Two of these categories address specific goals and tools my school currently uses: SMART Boards and iPods. The third entry will address various thoughts based on my readings for the week. Additionally, I aim to publish one entry reviewing a podcasts and one on a tool or application.

As with most people I enjoy the pressure and my rationalization for procrastination is that I thrive under pressure. That said, keep after me. Feel free to email or nudge me on Twitter if you feel my thoughts are valid and I seem to be dropping the ball.

Enjoy your day,

Wikis: Why Sharing Makes Sense

As July turns to August the temperatures continue to rise and the time to reorganize for the start of school is upon us. Since my first year of teaching I have always declared that I would spend June re-organizing my syllabus while everything is fresh in my mind. 0-4. At least this year I wrote down my ideas so I can continue my progress in mashing everything together.

The first task in my summer cleaning involved deleting duplicate files. Over the past four years I have adjusted most every document I have created. Technological improvements what they are, I have acquired a new storage device about every six months. While this is great as the number of files I own increased, I never properly took the time to update my files choosing instead to simply add to the files.

As I am now nearly complete in my task of eliminating duplicate files, I look to share my ideas and documents with my fellow teachers. The past few years I have copied my files onto CDs for new teachers who shared my courses. Not professing to have all of the answers, just looking to help a fellow teacher out and possible save him or her some time in reproducing a document from scratch.

While these new teachers have confirmed to me that this is helpful, eventually the CDs disappears. So for this year, how about a wiki.

Last year while answering the request of a teacher on an English list-serve I loaded up a Julius Caesar unit to my Wikispaces blog wiki. Over the summer I realized that this could be useful if our entire English department or possibly the entire school did the same. Coincidentally Miguel Guhlin wrote about the power of sharing around the same time. I must say that I agree with this idea.

As part of my summer reading this summer I finished Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. While I will present a more formal assessment of the book later, the most outstanding item from the book to me is that while business is embracing collaborative technology, schools are typically slow to respond to the same stimulus. One day the education field will realize that when we stop wasting time by holding on to the information, we can address more important tasks. Who cares about the credit as long as you get the job done. If we share our ideas and the grunt work of creating files, then we can use the time saved to improve the education of our students. If we can share our ideas with another school who is trying to figure a new way to teacher Julius Caesar, then someone else will help us in the future.

Enjoy your day,

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

iTune U: The Potential for Change

A few months ago Apple announced the launching of iTunes U as a separate feature. I am excited about this announcement for a variety of reasons. Podcasting is becoming a common theme for those who discuss Web 2.0 applications. However, some in education feel that podcasting is a fad, too complicated, or any of several excuses for not embracing this powerful tool. The launching of iTunes U provides a powerful endorsement of podcasting in education.

While universities have been taking advantage of iTunes and podcasting for the past few years, the introduction of iTunes U puts podcasting in education into a larger light. The number of K-12 podcasts in growing rapidly each day. When I first started exploring podcasting two years ago the Education category on iTunes had the sub-categories of K12 and Higher Education. Since then the sub-categories has expanded to include Ed Tech, Training and Language Courses. The number of educational podcasts is so great that if I do not place time limits on my searches I end up spending most of my evening searching and listening to various educational podcasts. The introduction of a specific University feed on iTunes can direct lifelong learners or educators.

Open/Free Learning

I embrace the fact that I am a nerd. At any given moment my TIVO will have between 10-20 hours or recordings from the History Channel. I recall in college using Yahoo to locate the syllabus or project assignments for courses at universities I did not attend, simply because of an interest in the topic. The only deterring factor to this practice, setting aside that I kept this practice a secret from my roommates, was the time involved in the process of searching for assessments. iTunes U will allow people with similar addictions the opportunity to attend courses as if they were at the school.

Continued Content Development

As an educator I am excited about the chance to continue my education. I have found that time is against me, preventing me for keeping active all of the podcast subscriptions on my iTunes. That said, the ability to subscribe to a college level course is a great tool. Last year I taught a course in economics. While I enjoy this topic, I have not studies this discipline since my junior year in college. The ability to enroll in college level economic courses is a great advantage for me. I cannot only use such courses to recall the explanations of topics that my and other professors use, but I can experience the changes in these explanations since my graduation.

Podcasting ideas

I began using podcasting in my English courses in reaction to the NPR series “This I Believe“. After my wife tipped me off to the series, I thought it would be a good essay topic for my students. This lesson is my favorite of the year and my students tend to enjoy the process. In planning this lesson, I realized that the odds were against one of our essay hitting the radio waves, so we began podcasting the essays. While I do not know that I will be able to get such ideas from courses on iTunes U, I am optimistic.

Future Change

The high of my excitement for iTunes U is the possibilities for change. In a podcast in early June, George Mason Professor Russ Roberts interviewed Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. Towards the end of the podcast, beyond the 45 minute mark, Pink and Roberts begin to discuss the idea of great professors who cannot communicate their discipline. Pink notes that the common statement that, “Professor X knows his subject, but does not know how to teach,” is an incorrect statement. Pink argues that if a Professor truly knows his or her content, then they could relate this information to the students. I admit that until I heard this podcast I subscribed to the theory that a professor could be smart, but not a good teacher. Given time to digest Pink’s position, I must agree. If someone truly understands the information they teach, they can relate this information to the audience. In fact, I believe that understand how to connect with your audience holds more weight than being brilliant in your field.

Why mention this? I recall when Duke assessed their iPod initiative one of the concerns by professors was student attendance. One professor noted that he began implementing pop quizzes because students were passing exam by simply listening to his podcasts and quit attend class. The response to this professor, paraphrasing because I cannot find the bookmarked article, was to transform the way you conduct class. If your students can pass the course without attending class, then why should they. My hope is that more college professors will realize how podcasting can liberate them from lecturing as much as shift the learning in courses. Then again with the growth in K12 podcasting, if college professors do not embrace podcasting, students are going to eclipse them and by using the right brain thinking rule the university.

Enjoy your day,

iQuiz: interactive iPods

I have ended my continental travels for the summer and am finally settling back in to school mode. My wife and I took a relaxing trip to Cozumel for our anniversary. The day after our return I headed up to Fargo, ND to coach at the USA Wrestling Cadet and Junior National Championship. While the upcoming school year was the last thing on my mind while in Mexico, the fifteen hour drive to Fargo provided ample opportunity for ideas. Unfortunately my hotel did not have a stable wireless internet connection, so these I listed these ideas on my Treo to be formalized upon my return. That said …

iQuiz

If you have not heard about this recent addition to iTunes, check out this overview. I first heard about iQuiz at NECC. Yesterday I create my first iQuiz using iQuiz maker and it is as easy as advertised. I based the quiz on my presentation on iPods to the faculty at my school in July. I intend to distribute the quiz to members of the faculty, allowing them an opportunity to practice playing with iQuiz and review some of the information from the presentation.

Review:

The iQuiz Maker application is as user friendly as advertised. Creating new questions is a simple as typing a blog article. I was able to create questions by both typing directly into the application and also by copying and pasting from OpenOffice. My intent by doing this was to see if I would be able to easily transfer questions from quizzes already made. After purchasing iQuiz from iTunes, $0.99, I was able to export my quiz, sync my iPod, and began playing.

Likes:

Besides the ease of use of the iQuiz Maker I enjoy the potential of this application. The iQuiz Maker allows the creator to choose from either True and False or Multiple Guess questions. For T/F questions you can include a clearification note if the correct answer is False. iQuiz also provides the user with a variety of statistics. In addition to the last score, iQuiz also provides the record score and average score. The statistics also display the percentage of correct answers broken down by T/F or Multiple Choice Questions on a latest correct and overall. The simplicity of the application and readout of statistics allow for high potential.

While I am not endorsing standardized exams, I do enjoy trivia games. I feel that a teacher can use iQuiz Maker to create fun reviews specific to the content in his our her course. If a teacher has already typed out review questions it would take little time to copy and paste these questions into iQuiz Maker and export them for student use. A teacher can use the same questions from the class review activity for the iQuiz. This will simply provide students another opportunity to review the content and practice on the style of the questions.

iQuiz would also be a great alternative to comprehension quizzes. I detest spending class time to administer a quiz to ensure the completion of homework. With iQuiz a teacher creates a comprehension quiz and sends that home with the students. The next class period I could check that they completed the quiz during the class warm-up. While I realize that a student could easily complete the quiz while reading the assignment or complete the quiz without reading, the same is true of any take home quiz. Students in my courses understand that memorizing the information does not prove anything. They must be able to own and to use this information.  Additionally if a student is taking a short-cut on a low impact daily quiz, then this students has outside circumstances that should be addressed. The difference between a traditional quiz and and a portable iQuiz is the students has the opportunity the review the information on the quiz and get instant feedback at anytime in the future. This way a student who realizes they cannot recall the information requested by the quiz, they can review these questions anytime in the future in a non-confrontational environment. With automated, instant feedback the student does not have to ask someone else and face embarrasment in reviewing a quiz the teacher assigned the week before.

Requests:

While iQuiz Maker is a great addition to iTunes, there is one main improvement I would like to see made on the next version. I would like to see more use of the Correct Answer Explanation. While the use of this feature for False answers is nice, the opportunition to provide an explanation or strees a specfic point when the answer is True would be nice. Additionally, the use of a Correct Answer Explanation for multiple guess questions would be even better. Aside from the request, I feel that this is a great addition to iPods and a great addition to educational technology.

If you are using this new program or begin using this program, let me know about your results.

Enjoy your day,

July iPod session

Earlier this week I presented to some faculty member at my school the various ideas on how to use iPods in educational settings.  I shared some of the ideas from my classes and ideas that other teachers used in the Freshman courses last year.  I also showed off the iQuizmaker that I learned about at Tony’s presentation at NECC.  While I have not created any quizzes yet, I love the idea.  This is definately an application that I will use in my courses this upcoming year.

To further promote what we are doing and to document some of the lessons and ideas I created an iPods in Education wiki.  If you are curious about how you can use an iPod to enhance your class take a look.  If you have ideas that you want to share, log-in.  The password for the wiki is education.

I am off for an anniversary trip with my wife.  I will check back after our trip.

Enjoy your day,

Alan November–NECC 2007 Notes

Expanding Boundaries of Learning: Designing Rigorous and Globally Connected Assignments

Alan November

Recording of presentation

Location: GWCC Murphy 1 Tag: n07s722

 

Questions by Alan

 

1. Have you traveled outside U.S.

   1. Yes

2. Will you students compete globally?

   1. Yes

3. Do you students connection w/ others outside U.S.?

   1. Yes

4. Do you students have a global work ethic?

   1. No

5. Have you been to a presentation by someone not from U.S.?

   1. Yes/no

6. Web 2.0 tools blocked

   1. Majority block 3

7. Who currently owns the learning?

   1. 38 government

   2. 26 teachers

8. Who should own the learning?

   1. 95 students

 

Alan

Shares idea that students should own learning.

• Not a technology issue

• Question is global work ethic

Brother MIT educated engineer

• Team is now in shanghai

• Once he is done training unsure what to do

• Not motivated to work on own, organization dependent not self directed

• Culture of school is dependent on students to be managed

• Should reverse dependency to interdependence

• Daughter’s graduation speaker said students ready to conquer the world

• Alan states student able to but only ready to take courses

 

To create students who control learning teacher must create authentic audience

• Research says students need instant feedback

  • Students recording poems needed second takes

  • Not happy with first recording

• Students need global, not paper, voice

  • Students need to be taught courage with their voice

• Teacher from Maine, Bob Sprinkle 3rd grade

  • Every Mon producer review of academic matter from previous week

  • Jobs: writer, reader, producer, actor

  • Kids rotate

  • Evolved into math corner, writing show, everyone wanted their own show

    • Student show work ethic

    • Must know content to create show

  • Teachers do not need to know how to podcast, kids will do this

  • Teachers need to know when and what to podcast

Marco Torres

• Video produced by former students who graduated already

• Students realize the need for a change in the system

  • Technology allows students to be with teachers

  • Teachers are not ready to hand over classroom

 

Teaching in a prison school

• Student motived by real problems

• Motivated those who do not want to learn

Teaching American history in Lexington

• Should we teach American version or British version

• If you confront people with a version of the truth they do not know they interact

• Have students find this information

• Textbook limits this information

• Allows students to build curriculum and build research skills

Great Gatsby

• One version read across the world

• How do those outside the US view the work?

• Then you can fully understand impact of book

• Students own learning when they bring in the assignments to complete rather than given assignment

 

Do not need technology integration team, rather global integration team

 

Hiroshima

• Read essays by student in Japan written in English

• Need to understand views of others

• Can hold debate via Skype

• Class debate or debate b/w two cultures: which is more authentic?

 

Searching for authentic audience

• Need to understand how to search properly

• Using country code when searching

 

Closing

• Underestimated ability of students

  • Need job and can create podcasts

• Need for global audience

  • Fill iTunes will content rather than block it

• Need global interaction

  • Skype groups

  • Ability to receive comments from audience listening

• This will allow for boundaries to go beyond time and space

• RSS will allow for control to shift to students while viewing results

I Didn’t Know You Could do That with an iPod–notes

Below are my notes from Tony Vincent’s presentation. I have a recording that I will upload later. I will also load this to GoogleDocs. This will probably not happen until tomorrow as I try to get to a couple of more session today and I am flying back to Dallas tonight. Overall it was great. As those attending, especially those sitting on the floor or standing in the back against the wall.

 

UPDATE: Recording of the presentation. Also available at the Final Curve podcast.

 

 

 

I didn’t know you could do that with an iPod

 

www.Learninginhand.com/ipod

Tony Vincent

Omaha, NE

Fifth grade and tech specialist

 

Blog Tag(s): necc, n07s611

 

 

Last year left school to do presentation and conferences full-time

Join retired teachers at Willowdale Elementary School

 

Things you may not know–beyond audio and video

1. Audio tip
   1. Transfer all CD from music programs to iTunes
   2. Go into preference
      1. Choose advance tap and import
      2. Import CD and eject
         1. Sucks all music off CD and then ejects when done
2. Podcasts
   1. Learning in Hand–Troy’s podcast
      1. Downloading videos
      2. Customizing the main menu
      3. iPod shuffle tips
      4. Hard disk mode
      5. iQuiz
      6. Notes
      7. The 5 Rs of Troubleshooting
      8. RSS Feeds
      9. Slide Shows
      10. Understanding DRM
      11. Voice Recorders
      12. Free Audio on the Web
   2. Raido WillowWeb
   3. Out City Podcasts
3. Sync Address Book and Calendar
   1. Select iPod on left tab
   2. Under Contact you can sync Calendar and Contacts
   3. Click apply when done creating settings
   4. On iPod go to Extras, then Calendars
      1. Flag means event
      2. Scroll to and select with center button
   5. On iPod go to Extras, then Contacts
      1. Works the same
      2. Section for notes on Contact section
      3. Students can create glossary by replacing contact information with words and definitions
      4. Create historical contact for historical figures
4. Photos
   1. Created States PowerPoint
      1. Converted to jpeg
      2. Create folder titled State flashcards
      3. May need to rename individual files to ensure leading zeros to keep in desired order
         1. Ex. 001 not simply 1
   2. Select photos tab
      1. Select all or State flashcards folder
      2. Sync photos
   3. On iPod select photos
      1. Go to State Flash Cards
   4. Can be teacher made or student created
   5. Can use any PowerPoint or flash card idea
      1. Need to remember text side
   6. A group created a tip calculator using images
      1. It looks as if it is calculating, but is actually a series of images
      2. Title slide stated to spin to begin
   7. ColorWheel
      1. Same idea
5. Hard disk mode
   1. Flash drive or external hard drive
   2. Connect iPod
      1. Check enable disk use
      2. Works just as a normal flash drive
      3. Must now manually eject disk
         1. My computer–drive F or E
            1. Can create folders for storage organization
         2. Can eject via iTunes also
6. Notes
   1. Create notes for viewing on iPod
      1. List of Prepositions
      2. Text document only
      3. Under Hard disk mode drag and drop to Notes folder
   2. Create a list of preposition, vocabulary words, ect
   3. 4000 character limit per file
   4. www.ipod-notes.com
      1. Will convert to a series of files
   5. www.iPodPress.com
      1. Cost money, but lots of documents for viewing
      2. US Constitution–free doc
      3. References, cliff notes, etc
   6. www.anchorfree.com
      1. Zips a file showing wifi locations in a give areas
      2. Free
      3. No maps all text
7. RSS feeds
   1. Mac users
      1. iFeedPod–free
      2. does not run with iTunes, separate program
   2. PC users
      1. iPodSync–$17 cost
      2. Runs same as above, separate from iTunes
   3. Connect iPod
      1. Launch iFeedPod or IpodSync
      2. Does not use iTunes
   4. Syncs all RSS feed entered
   5. Eject iPod from computer
   6. Go to notes
      1. Loads new notes, could take some time to load
   7. Sorts by blog feed
8. Quizzes
   1. Video iPods only
   2. Under games on iTunes–$0.99
      1. Pay for quiz, can sync on multiple iPod if synced on same computer that you downloaded
   3. iQuiz maker–create your own quizzes
      1. Will drain batter
      2. Create quiz with multiple choice answers
         1. Can design to display correct answer if answered incorrectly
         2. Can play multiple times
            1. Keeps track of how you do each time
            2. Displays latest, record, or average
      3. www.iquizmaker.com
         1. Mac or PC
         2. Multiple choice, true false
      4. www.iquizshare.com
         1. Share the quizzes your create
      5. Kaplan has released similar program
         1. $4.99 each program
9. Interactive Content
   1. Choose your own adventure type game
   2. iWriter–$30 for Mac of PC
      1. www.talkingpanda.com
   3. www.Mogopop.com
      1. Another alternative
10. Much more available his podcast and website

New Tools, New Schools: Starting the …

New Tools, New Schools: Starting the Conversation about Web 2.0

 

 

 

Gwen Solomon, TechLearning.com with Timothy Magner, Will Richardson, Lynne Schrum and David Warlick

 

Technorati tag: necc, n07s702

 

 

Richardson

• Blogs motivate kid, real work changes classroom
• Kids need to become learning environment
• Challenges, yeah buts,
  • Lack of tech, admin understanding, time
  • Even though a lot of teacher who use these tools, pedagogy has not changes
    • Transfer from paper to cpu
  • Skills require deep understanding by teachers and admin in their own practice
  • Halfway down the road
    • Understand tools
    • Need to understand pedagogy

 

Warlick

• Staff development–topic
• The kids are different, teachers are not
• It is about respecting the audience
  • On-line handouts via wikis
  • Share password, respect audience to add to content
  • Tag presentation to draw in audience
• Aggregator for del.ic.ious
  • NECC is emergence of learning, cannot turn around without learning
• No one tool, always something new to facilitate learning

 

Schrum–higher ed representative

• Technology is fun, but does it improve student learning
  • Not a lot of evidence on the bottom line, which is unfortunately test scores
  • How do we document this success
  • Everyone has stories, need documentation
  • How do we get the story out
• Pre-Service piece
  • Need models
  • Research does show that educators will do anything to help students learn if they believe a task works
• How do we do this?
  • Good models specific to content
    • Math, social studies, etc
    • Tools and teaching in each subject is different
    • Key is collaboration
    • Researchers willing and desire to work with teachers who use this new technology

 

Gwen Solomon

• Need for models
• Wonderful new tools, give new capabilities to teachers and kids that provide new experiences
• One thing if principals and administrators tell teachers something works
• Different if teachers tell each other, via stories

 

 

Timothy Magner

• Everyone today went through industrial education for industrial society
• None of us has idea who information school looks like
• No common entry point
  • People know what school is like (football, prep assemblies, etc)
  • People know what Web 2.0 is
  • What is school 2.0?
• School 2.0
  • Links home, school, community
  • Potential to fundamentally alter school
  • Cannot embrace everything or will lose mission, must embrace some to change dynamic of structure
  • What are students going to do in 6 hrs that will meet their needs?
    • Empowering education system not buying cool toys no one can use
  • Global community discussion
    • Teachers, administrators, parents–all must be involved
  • Visual world, need to create a common visual of this idea
    • Sketch is just that, must allow for something to be erased, added, collaboratively creative

 

 

 

• Gwen Solomon, www.TechLearning.com

 

• Send your stories, experiences to: Gwen_and_lynne_book2@yahoo.com

• David Jakes
  • Five guys on skype chatting about the panel while it is going on
  • Using it as idea to bounce ideas off each other
  • Using web 2.0 as professional development
• Richardson
  • Must use the tools to understand networking
    • Myspace for better of worse is networking
  • How to engage ethically, safely is question
  • Teachers must be comfortable in personal, professional way
    • New tools transfer the power of learning
    • Teachers must engage in the technology so they can express the power of transfer to students
• Magner
  • Technology allows for a lot of informal learning
    • Using Google to answer a question at lunch
  • Artificial discussions b/w home learning, after school learning, in-class learning
• Schrum
  • Until people are comfortable in using these technologies they will not using them

 

 

• Garrett (Gary) Brown–Sydney
  • Want to embrace web 2.0, noting will be blocked
  • Leadership team is required to blog as professional development
  • Building schools with open plans and learning teams
  • Seen bad uses of web 2.0 just for the sake of using web 2.0
  • Invite anyone who wants to join
    • Catholic school
  • School director taken some flack for opening all site
    • Principals discuss openly what myspace accounts and videos on youtube he or she has seen with students
    • Deters students from improper use of such tools
• College student from Washington
  • Wants social network that will allow students to work and study together
  • Implementing www.scriptovia.com
  • Plagiarism is an issue
    • Have been working with www.turnitin.com to combat this
  • Looking for teacher input
• Skip Olson, Minneapolis–retired guy
  • Sees schools as spirit killers
  • Unless we change the business of school as learning environments…
    • 9-3, aug-may
  • these wonderful tools and opportunities will be shut down at school door
• John Henderson, 32 years old
  • Did not know a world where VCR was difficult
  • Right now parents and students are becoming the same way
  • Do not know if we can be patient enough to wait for schools to change
• Parent, created website for his kid’s school
  • Website was form of communication
    • Dates, handouts, volunteer opportunities
  • Parents now pushing teachers to keep up
  • www.Thegroupery.com
• Parent/Rutgers University instructor
  • Key is pre-service teachers
  • Have no idea of Web 2.0 apps
    • Google docs
  • By spring they are comfortable and have their own stories
• Scott Garagan, Pennsylvania
  • Job is professional development
  • Face time is an issue
  • Library sites are great
    • Maryland create system to teach web 2.0 applications
    • Step by step, check the box system
    • Twenty-three tasks to complete
    • Library 2.0–google to locate
• Question for panel members
  • Potential entrepreneur educators, is this something on the horizon that will challenge the current design
  • Lynne Schrum
    • No, system of education is so engrained that it does not allow challenges
    • Some charter school, but not much difference
  • Tim Magner
    • A lot of new models in charters, home school, etc
    • Challenge is how to make alternatives within the system
    • It is like diet and exercise
      • Must have incentive to make change (i.e. new swimsuit)
    • 2/3 People without kids in system, they do not see the need for change to system
  • Gwen Solomon
    • Web 2.0 tools will force systemic change
    • Again hitting the need for models
• Edutopia has several video examples on-line
  • Ex. acme animation hooks up students with professional animators
• Teacher from N. Carolina
  • Used United Streaming to demonstrate glass blowing
  • Kids where reading story, character was glass blower, they had no concept of the glass blowing industry
• David Jakes
  • Two minutes to tell what it is to be an American
  • http://www.jakesonline.org/