Weekly Tech Tip 6.8.11

This is another is a series of weekly tech tips I'm sending out to the teachers I work with in our Teaching American History Project.

Name a free resource teachers can use to find out both the latest in education as well as a place to get tons of resources. The answer, of course, is Twitter. This social networking service is SO much more than meaningless updates of the lives of washed-up celebrities or random musings of angst-ridden teens (in fact, more adults are using Twitter than teens, but that's another story). Twitter is famous for its 140 character updates and the fact that Lady Gaga now has 10 million followers (or some such ridiculous number), but educators can use the service to get relevant information for the classroom. GOOD magazine posted a short article about why Twitter is a useful tool for teachers. Tom Barrett, a primary teacher in the UK, has also listed 5 Things to Get Your Twitter Network Off The Ground. The published Google Presentation 33 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom (this document is crowd-sourced, so educators from all over the world have contributed to it as they have new ideas for incorporating Twitter into the classroom) offers specific ideas for using Twitter to collect and disseminate relevant educational information. A few minutes of Twitter a day can connect you to a world of resources you didn't even know were out there (and the opportunity to collaborate with other classrooms). Yes, you do have to use Twitter at home or in the local coffee shop, but it's totally worth it. Get started by following me (I'm mswojo on Twitter) then check out the people I follow and select some who seem interesting to follow and so on. You'll be glad you did.

Part I: On Networking, a Reflection from #Googlegti

Why Part I? I have a feeling this will be a multi-part reflection because I still have so many things running through my head. For this post, I'm going to focus on the importance of networking. I've written about this before, but my experience at GTI hammered it home.

First, when I was accepted  to the Google Teacher Academy in 2008 (truly a highlight of my career) I told some friends and asked them some questions about it. Of course, none of them had applied or were going to GTA, so they couldn't help me much (though not for lack of trying). When I got to Mountain View the day of the event, I saw that people were talking to each other like old friends. I wondered how that was possible given that participants came from all over the world.

It turns out that many of the participants had connected through Twitter or Facebook and other social networking sites before GTA. Once I got home, I immediately signed up for Twitter and began developing my PLN.  Over the past two years, I've realized how incredibly important it is to get connected to other educators. Some charge that the relationship kind of feeds on itself and we end up patting each other on the back, but I learn something new every day and some of it does challenge my thinking.

This time, I was determined to connect with people BEFORE the Google GEO Teachers Institute. I started searching in Twitter and suggested that we start a Google Spreadsheet with our Twitter IDs so we could all follow each other. I'm still managing the spreadsheet. During the event, another participant, Diane Main,  set up a Facebook group for us and we're still using the forum set up by the Geo Education team at Google.

While at GTI, I was able to talk in person with several teachers I'm connected to online, but had never met in person. Karen McMillan, Danny Silva, Diana Laufenberg and Ian Usher gave me some interesting things to think about while we were at Google Headquarters. Making these connections in person only enriched my already fabulous experience. Meeting these educators and SO many others was like really tasty icing (not that fake, sickly sweet stuff) on a really good cake.

So what to do? Get connected. Stay connected. Try any of these to get started, but get started.

• Twitter your life in 140 characters. Ask questions or share links and lesson plans.
• Facebook has room for teachers. Really. You can search for open groups of teachers who teach your subject or grade level to start.
• Plurk is similar to Twitter. I'm not on it, but I know there were die-hard fans at GTI.
• Linkedin is more of a professional exchange, but has lots of possibilities.
• Edmodo now has the ability for teachers to connect with each other. I'll have more on my visit to edmodo headquarters later.

Are there any that I missed? Leave a comment here. The more teachers connected to other teachers, the better off we are.

A Twitteraholic’s Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter | The Edublogger

This blog post from Sue Waters is a fabulous introduction to Twitter! Everything you need is right here. One of the best tips? You don't have to be on Twitter all day to get something valuable from it.

• 
  
  A Twitteraholic’s Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter | The Edublogger
  
  
  
  

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Another redesign for the blog

You might have noticed that this blog has gone through another resign. Last year's redesign was because I was tired of the old look and wanted something more lively and fresh. I had to go to a template outside of Blogger to get what I wanted. I felt like I really accomplished something because I was able to go in to the HTML and make changes that I wanted without breaking the template. Exciting stuff.

Yesterday, Melanie Holtsman posted a link to Draft Blogger on Twitter. I didn't even know about Draft Blogger, but I played around for awhile and here you have the result. Draft Blogger has additional templates with greater flexibility and more modern design. Read the blog post about the changes and how to get them on your blog.

The question is, why go through another redesign? Well [insert sheepish look here], I had trouble reading my own blog. I found the contrast between the text and the background was too stark and the overall size of the font too small. Sometimes the letters blended together. I wear glasses and have for years, but I was concerned that if I was having trouble, others might be as well.

The grays and blues are more soothing to my eyes (and I hope yours too). The borders around each post nicely package the entry. I noticed that I need to add more visuals to the blog (this has always been a problem, but it seems more apparent now) and I will continue to tweak the design a bit (for examples, the subhead needs to be a little darker). My goal though, is to keep it simple and easy on the eyes.

What do you think?

Recording devices and the modern classroom

Last week, I saw this post from @coolcatteacher, Vicki Davis, referenced on Twitter. Even though "Spies Like Us" is three years old, it is still relevant and I'm sure there are many, many additional cases of teachers and students being called out by surreptitious video and audio recordings.

It is a reality of our modern life that video cameras are everywhere. Just do a YouTube search on your school. Even though many schools ban recording devices, you will most likely find video that has been uploaded.

I certainly don't have a solution to this problem, other than the advice to be mindful that you could be recorded at any time. One the one hand I find this thought to be an invasion of privacy, but on the other I wonder if this knowledge will help us become better teachers because we know that people could be watching. Even if it did make us better teachers, is this the right way to improve practice? We live in strange times, indeed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_ford/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Top 10 List via Teach42

Last Saturday, Steve Dembo shared this Prezi at the NICE Miniconference and was kind enough to also share with his Twitter followers. It's his list of the Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Educators.


Many of these are fantastic tools for the classroom, some I have never tried. I love Glogster, but still have to deal with blocks in my district. Teachers at my site got some great work out of students using Glogster before it got blocked last winter. Why was it blocked? It was flagged as a social networking site. This year, I've discovered Wix and my students really like it. Many of them now have their own accounts and regularly create Wix projects for class assignments.

I've also had pretty good luck with Edmodo and Wallwisher as I've described here and here, respectively. Prezi is a fun way to do presentations and is much more interesting than more traditional presentation tools. I've also used Wordle with good success. I've even used Poll Everywhere and really need to do so more often. It's really kind of funny that I was thinking of Poll Everywhere last week while at our district budget community meeting. When community members arrived, they were asked to check out an Activote clicker to participate in the session. I wonder how, if we're so deeply in debt, the district can afford the price tag of an Activote system with nearly 100 clickers. They could have done the same thing for less than $100 with Poll Everywhere. Go figure.

I haven't used Delicious, but instead use Diigo, a similar social bookmarking tool. Unfortunately, both services are blocked in my district. Why? They are flagged a social networking. I recently signed up for Kidblog, but haven't started using it with my students quite yet.

Next on my list to try is Voicethread. We're currently working on a project in class that will fit nicely with Voicethread so those students who are up to the challenge of trying a new tool, will be able to check it out. I hadn't heard about iPadio, but I'm very intrigued by it. What can beat a podcasting solution from a phone?

This is a great list of tools to try in the classroom. If you haven't used any of them try one (Wallwisher is probably the easiest). If you don't like it, go to another. That's how this stuff works. There's something out there for everyone.

It's not just an escalator

I've been watching the discussion on Twitter and several education blogs about the idea of teachers (and others in education) being stuck. Many of us don't seem to be willing or able to think outside the box to make the necessary changes in education. Someone posted a link on Twitter to this video yesterday (unfortunately, I don't remember who it was) saying that it reminded him of the conversation. I have to agree. I've watched the video several times and I keep thinking that here we have solutions right in front of us, but so many of us aren't doing what it takes to make it happen. When will we get off the escalator?

Online Media Editors

I had NO idea there were so many free media editors out there. 30+ Free Online Multimedia (Photo, Audio, Video) Editors has the list. I've used a few of them, but have never heard of most of them. Thanks to @suebb on Twitter for posting this link!

To Block or Not to Block?

I work in a district where internet filters block access to sites determined to be inappropriate. When I try to access these sites I get a message telling me under which category the block falls. Most frequently I get messages claiming the sites are for 'social networking/dating' or 'adult content.' Sites blocked include:

• Glogster
• Diigo
• Ning
• Twitter
• Delicious
• Wetpaint
• YouTube
• Retaggr
• Facebook
• MySpace
  

In the past eight years, I've had one request to unblock a site granted. That was for Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index.

So, what is the point of this post? Two great posts bring this issue to the forefront for me yet again. First, at It's All About IT, Lisa writes about the ethics surrounding the use of proxies to allow students access to blocked sites. One of the things she does is suggest how useful these sites could be for teaching students about ethics and digital citizenship:

I talk to my students about topics like Identity Theft, protecting digital privacy, and CyberBullying. It would make so much sense to pull up a site (like FaceBook) and go over things like the TOU and EULA. For example, I had a number of grade 7’s last year who had FaceBook accounts. Even ones who were younger than 13 (FaceBook’s minimum age). A valuable discussion to have….not possible with the site blocked.

This practice could be very useful. I believe that it is important to teach students about responsible behavior online. I made the conscious decision not to allow the use of proxies in my room after an unfortunate series of events that led to our newspaper program being shut down for several weeks while hard drives were reformatted. The ultimate problem did not result from using proxies, but the attitudes rising from proxy use in direct violation of district policy probably helped.

Then I read Alex Couros' post on 'Freedom Sticks.' In it he describes his frustration in working with teachers to develop their tech skills only to be stymied by filters. His solution was to give each teacher a 'freedom stick' of portable apps that ultimately bypassed the filters.

The comments on both posts are instructive as well. It seems to me that those of us trying to integrate technology are trending more toward Dr. Couros' so-called guerilla tactics to give students (and teachers) access to information and resources that would otherwise be blocked.

I'm not sure where I am on this spectrum. While I don't allow the use of proxies, I am extremely frustrated by my inability to use certain Web 2.0 tools. My restrictions are not due to respect for the filters or authority, but because I don't want to risk losing data similar to last years' incident. I certainly don't have the solution, though I can see myself becoming more and more frustrated as time goes by.

Things I've Learned from Twitter v.8.19.09

Yesterday, Roger Zuidema posted on his blog "Top 5 Things I've Learned on Twitter Today 8/19/09." With all the fuss about Twitter (including the claim that 40% of all Tweets are useless) I thought I'd follow suit. This is my list from 8.19.09 and includes links, articles and the like from about 5:30-6:30 am PDT.

• @jutecht Just Blogged: Netvibes.com in the classroom http://bit.ly/17LkMn (I think I'll have to try this out. Great idea to push content to students)
• @russelltarr How to make a Youtube interactive video! Very cool idea for the classroom! http://tinyurl.com/ljk4xs Awesome idea for students to work through video semi-independently.
• @suzannewhisler 10 Ideas for Engaging Learners with Cell Phones Even in Districts that Ban Them by Lisa Nielsen. http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/22554
• @frontlineblog Express censured for fourth time in two weeks over undeclared advertorials http://bit.ly/3SA8Ew As a newspaper adviser, I believe it is critical that we discuss ethical issues in class. This is a great example.
• @AEJMC Chadwick Matlin: Huffington Post + Facebook = the Future of Journalism http://ow.ly/ky2x Hmmm. Do I want someone tracking my reading habits like this?
• @dwarlick I liked the colors so much that I changed my blog theme (http://vk2.sl.pt). Check out Personas (http://vk3.sl.pt) I started out by looking at the blog and Personas, then went on to David's post on education reform and the Obama administration here.

Just recently, I've had several educators ask me about Twitter and my infatuation with it. Some claim there is nothing useful out there in the Twitterverse, others say they just don't get it. I always encourage teachers to start by following me, then looking at who I follow (and who is following me) to find educators posting great ideas and resources. Try it, you might like it.

School Board Bans Facebook, Twitter For Teachers - District 299

• School Board Bans Facebook, Twitter For Teachers - District 299

  I find this policy disturbing. While my district in no way suggests that I give my cell phone number to my students or use Twitter to keep students and parents informed, it is strongly suggested that I do make myself available for questions or concerns. That means using district email (which drives me crazy because I can't search!) and my desk phone, I'm sure. However, if we're trying to be more efficient and transparent, doesn't it make sense to communicate with our clients (students and their families) where they are? Your thoughts?
  

  tags: facebook, twitter

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Leadership Day 09: Let Go

Leadership Day 09 comes at an interesting time for me. I just returned from a fabulous five day workshop with the California Geographic Alliance. The subject? Leadership and Reform. Now, this organization is different from a school site, but I spent a lot of time thinking and writing about how groups of like-minded people function.

This morning, I've been reading blog posts written for Leadership Day 09 and have found some great insights so far. First, Lesley Edwards, the Web-Footed Booklady, asks if any of us have been in meetings where our administrators have shared what they learned on Twitter that day. Ummm, no. I'm not even sure my administrators know what Twitter is, other than something to be feared and therefore blocked. Beth Still, of Nebraska, has written about the benefits of social-networking. I agree that Twitter in particular has revolutionized my PLN. I would also agree that teachers and students who are networked have MANY more learning opportunities each day. Selena Ward emphasizes the point that change in schools cannot happen without the true support of administrators in her "Letter to my Administrator." Kelly Hines suggests that administrators must model leadership through learning by integrating tech tools into daily learning and information sharing.

Another key point came from Joseph Bires in his post "Top 10 Ways to Predict the Future."

8. Professional Development is a micro NOT a macro process.

Each teacher is responsible for his/her own growth because they are a professional. Each school needs to grow into a “community of practice”. As a leader, you can take ownership of creating that community within your school and create opportunities for collaboration, but you need to make each teacher responsible for his/her own growth. Develop a personal learning network and model how you are growing, but keep the locus of control for professional development on the individual not the school.

So, where does this leave me? I've come up with a short list:

1. Administrators must support their teachers in profession development that is important to the teacher and his/her own learning.
2. Administrators must nurture practices that give teachers time to truly collaborate even if that means skipping the day spent going over test scores or learning about the latest in brain research. These might be important, but if you don't have teacher buy-in and teachers don't know HOW to collaborate, what is the point?
3. Administrators must model technology use and encourage teachers to do the same. THEN, everyone must talk about how new tools are making their teaching and learning more effective.
   
4. Administrators must be willing to look at how and why students are using technology and support teachers' efforts in using those tools in the classroom. No, it's not always going to be perfect and some students are going to try to take advantage, but we can't throw out the baby with the bath water.
5. Administrators must LET GO. Yes, just let go of the desire/need to control everything. Imagine what would happen at the school site became a model of shared power, where teachers were expected to improve their practice in meaningful ways and use technology to help themselves do that. Distributed power is not something to fear. With appropriate leadership teachers will make the right decisions.

Leadership Day 09 isn't really just about using technology or encouraging development of 21st century skills. It's really about creating and nurturing an environment where the educational community can work together, have tough discussions, and make changes happen to benefit our students.

Happy Birthday to My Blog!

Holy Cow! An entire year has gone by already. My intent with this post was to reflect on my Ed Tech journey over the past year and all that I have learned, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to put it into any coherent form. When I think about all I have learned my mind jumps from one thing to another like a drop of water on a hot skillet. Therefore, I will simply make a random list about my growth over the past year.

1. I STILL can't believe that I went to the Google Teacher Academy at the Googleplex last summer. That day started this whole wild ride and I've loved every minute of it. Sometimes I'm successful with all of the cool tools I learned about and sometimes I'm not, but it's always interesting. I feel very fortunate to have had the experience with Google and the fabulous presenters that day. As a result, I have become MUCH more of a tech evangelist. Our students use technology to get information every day, but it seems that many in education are reluctant to tap into that.
   
2. Within a week of attending GTA I had started this blog and joined Twitter. As I've said before here and here, I learn something new on Twitter every day. For me, Twitter is primarily a professional thing; I follow teachers and other education professionals. Just last night, because of Twitter, I found the YouTube Reporter's Center and links to several blog posts summarizing sessions from NECC '09.
   
3. In the past year I've learned to be less afraid of technology. Actually, I'm not sure that I ever was afraid of it, I was just cautious. This week I've given my blog a facelift and earlier in the year I finally figured out the timeline gadget in Google Spreadsheet. Both of those tasks would have been beyond me a year ago...not so much that I couldn't do them, but I would have been afraid to try.

So, where does this leave me? I know I still have much to learn. I find I spend much more time thinking about how to make my classroom more student centered. I believe this is especially important now that I am in a journalism lab. The dynamics of the physical layout, in my opinion, demand a different way of teaching and learning. There are new tools that I want to try (like Skype). I want to attend more webinars this year and plan to 'attend' this year's K12 Online Conference in December.

I am looking forward to learning this year. Stay tuned for updates!

Part 1: Searching for Social Bookmarking

While I've personally used Diigo for nearly a year, I have yet to use social bookmarking services with my students. Earlier in the school year, as my geography students were researching climate change, I wanted a place where we could collect useful links as a group. That was when I discovered that Diigo was blocked by district filters (interestingly, as shareware/download because of the toolbar). Not to be deterred, I quick went to Delicious, but, alas, that was blocked too.

I thought about Google Notebook, but since Google has stopped development, I'm not sure how long it will be around (though they promise that current users will continue to have access and I can create new notebooks with collaborators). The other downside to Google Notebook is that I can't recommend it to other teachers as new sign-ups aren't being allowed.

So, I'm looking for something that is: 1) not blocked at school, 2) easy to use, 3) I can recommend to other teachers.

I put out a request to my Twitter PLN and was inundated with possibilities. I had no idea there were so many social bookmarking possibilities out there! Now my task is to begin sorting through the possibilities and choose a few to test at school.

My first task is to go through Larry Ferlazzo's "Best Social Bookmarking Applications for English Language Learners & Other Students." After that, I'll start mowing through Wikipedia's list of Social Software.

Stay tuned for updates....

Twitter for Everyone

Who doesn't twitter these days? It seems the world is overflowing with tweeple (twitter people) evangelizing and recruiting converts. Some come into the nest reluctantly, others willingly. But what this comes down to is whether or not Twitter is a useful tool. I say yes, it is and, fortunately, many others agree. This is where this post comes in. What are people saying about the usefulness of Twitter (and other microblogging sites) anyway?

Laura Walker recently posted "Nine great reasons teachers should use Twitter." Walker points out that "together we're better" and that's what I find with Twitter. Most of the people I follow are teachers. What is truly amazing is that I get something out of the links people share EVERY day. Really. Just yesterday @kyteacher posted a link to her school's wiki page for differentiation. Not only does it define various ways that one can differentiate, but it shows specific ways that teachers can differentiate instruction and content.

Also, @zemote shared this video from YouTube on Twitter in the classroom (as he pointed out, the story shows students using microblogging tools other than Twitter, including Edmodo).



Finally, @dajbelshaw served up another great eLearnr guide on using microblogging sites such as Twitter, Edmodo and Shout'em in education.

What's amazing is that I got even more out of the links shared yesterday than what is here. The conections that I am able to make and the learning I am able to do using Twitter are far beyond what I could make using more traditional methods (wait, how did I connect with people before Twitter?). Check it out if you're not already there. It will be worth your time.

Where Have We Gone?

I thought this was an excellent question. Where have we gone during our lives? This morning, I found, again through my PLN on Twitter, I found this map maker at BigHugeLabs.com. I polled my geography classes to see how widely we had traveled as a group. This was what we came up with.

Cultural Geography Class Travelers

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Timelines in Geography

On Friday, my geography students were finishing up a paper timeline on the territorial expansion of the US and Canada. They had gathered the information using their textbook, then created an outline with dates and events before putting those events on a larger piece of paper. Several of the students finished early so I put them to work on two projects that I wanted to test out.

First, I put two students on Mnemograph.com, an online timeline creator that I found through Tom Barrett on Twitter. They entered their data, then added pictures and descriptions. Mnemograph allows timeline builders to rank events in the timeline, but the students hadn't gotten to that by the end of the period. The timeline can be viewed here. I'm not sure how this happened, but the events where students were inserting graphics got moved. They were also having trouble finding the graphics when viewing the timeline. It was frustrating for them to not have things "stick" where they wanted them to.

Another group of students worked on a timeline in Google Docs. We used spreadsheet, then inserted the timeline gadget. I had written last summer about my frustration with the Google Docs Timeline Gadget, but now it works like a charm! I had one student entering the data, two others searching for images that might be appropriate and two more searching for websites that would be relevant for additional information on the topic. The next class had one group proofreading descriptions and adding more detail, one checking images, another checking relevant websites, and a fourth group double-checking dates and event names. Students loved the collaborative aspect of the task and next time will use the discussion feature in spreadsheet. The second class was able to show small groups of their classmates what they had been doing and, generally speaking, they asked for the opportunity to do more lessons like that.

While some students were definitely more comfortable doing their timelines in the paper and pencil fashion, others reveled in the challenge of doing their timeline in a new way.

The Buzzwords of 2008

• The Buzzwords of 2008 - NYTimes.com

  I love buzzwords and 2008 produced a bumper crop of them! Some are right on, some are silly, some are sad when you really think about it. Wonder how many will stick around?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

TIME also has their list of buzzwords for 2008. While not as extensive as the list above, it's still entertaining.

Day 29: Teachers, Promote Thyselves!

Well, the "30 Days to Being a Better Blogger Challenge" is almost over. I'll be sad and a bit at loose ends when I no longer have a task each day. Today's challenge (or rather yesterday's, but I'm not getting to it until today) is to be a Rock Star. Yes, teacher, promote thyself.

I've noticed over the past couple of years that many teachers are loathe to promote their own accomplishments. I have found it difficult to get teachers to talk about their continuing education, professional memberships and activities or their honors and awards. When you do back them into a corner they will speak about it, but they seem to speak with great reluctance. I'm not sure why that is. I was part of this group in the past, but I'm getting better about letting people know what I am doing.

How have I done this? First, on my Retaggr card (which also serves as my profile here) I have put many of my professional activities including the fact that I'm a Teacher Consultant with the California Geographic Alliance (and have been since 1994), that I'm a Google Certified Teacher, and that I am a Certified Journalism Educator. I also added that I am the 2008 Secondary Teacher of the Year in my district. That was a hard one for some reason. I have also added my professional activities to my email signatures on my district and other email accounts. On my gmail account, I also added my Twitter name and this blog address. I even got business cards at 123Print. My business cards now have my professional affiliations, my Twitter name and my blog address.

There are a few things about which I am still not overly comfortable discussing. For example, I don't spend a great deal of time talking about my role as the lead California Coordinator for My Wonderful World, a National Geographic-led public awareness campaign to highlight the need for geographic education in our country. Within my geography circle, I do talk about the campaign, but at my site, I'm pretty quiet. I am fortunate that the district curriculum director is interested in the program, so she gets me talking about it all the time.

So...why is it that teachers seemingly don't want to be rock stars? I'm not sure. Has this post been easy to write? Not really. I wonder if there is something in our make up as educators that makes it difficult for us to promote ourselves. As educators, we do need to promote our accomplishments more. We can start within our own circles of education, but eventually we need to expand beyond that. Teachers, Promote Thyselves!

Accessibility for All

I love Twitter. I always find something new and interesting there. This morning, I found Karen Janowski's blog "EdTech Solutions: Teaching Every Student" through Lisa Thumann's "Thumann Resources" blog.

Karen has posted a free Technology Toolkit for Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In otherwords, there are dozens of free resources for the classroom to help all students become more successful learners! I had no idea all of these resources were available and can hardly wait to try some of them out.