21st Century Learning

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2007

Larry Ferlazzo has started putting together various “Best Of” lists for this year, starting out with his picks for the best Web 2.0 applications for education.  Check it out! He starts off with the fourteenth best and ends with what he thinks is the best one. 

"I’ve chosen Vi.sualize.us as my fourteenth pick.  It’s a “social bookmarking” site like del.iou.us, but for images.  You can save, categorize, and write a description of images on the web.  It provides countless lesson opportunities." My pick for the thirteenth best Web 2.0 application is Sketchcast.   You can “draw” on a whiteboard and record an audio explanation at the same time.  You’re given a url for your creation and/or you can embed it into a blog.  Others can leave comments about your Sketchcast, too.  It’s particularly good to demonstrate how to solve math problems."

For the entire post and all 14 top pick websites go to Larry's site.

Computer World New Zealand Article

Computer World NZ posted this article after attending my workshop given in Wellington, New Zealand. They just about got it right, only two minor errors. First, as I was introducing Will Richardson who greeted the Kiwi educators through Skype, I shared a story he tells about Wikipedia (crediting him)-- in this report they left that part out. It is still makes a great point the way they tell it though. And secondly, Darren Kuropatwa (In Canada) was the math teacher, not a US math teacher. Let me know what you think of the article.

Complete Article Available here

3G phones put NZ ahead in education tech

Web 2.0, advanced technology for handheld digital communication and a willingness to innovate in education places New Zealand at the forefront.

By Stephen Bell Wellington | Thursday, 29 March, 2007

New Zealand cellphone calls may be expensive, but we are further into the third generation of cellphone technology than many Western countries, including the US, says Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, an educational technology specialist from Virginia.Nussbaum-Beach was keynote speaker for the Tuanz education conference last week.

She says the confluence of Web 2.0, advanced technology for handheld digital communication and a willingness to innovate in education places New Zealand at the point of a “perfect storm” for new uses of digital technology in education.

The internet, and particularly Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs and social networks, has given this generation of young people a new outlook on information and learning, Nussbaum-Beach says. It will no longer be possible to teach them in traditional ways that rely on the teacher as the font of all knowledge and memorising as one of the chief elements of learning.

There is little point in committing a huge number of facts to memory when they are immediately available, with latest updates, in response to a simple web query. Emphasis will, rather, be on the creativity of the student; what they can achieve by combining and interpreting information from different sources — including their fellow students and other people accessible online.

She cites the case of a student who uploaded his draft research paper to Wikipedia as an article, watched while knowledgeable people corrected his mistakes and added further information and pertinent references; then downloaded the result as the final version. A conventional teacher would have said “do your own work”, she says, but it’s hard to draw a firm ethical line between this kind of interaction and the normal process of consulting authoritative sources.

Web 2.0 will bring to the fore both an increasing range of instruments, such as 3G cellphones, for using the internet and a variety of software agents, tailored by the user to scan the internet continuously for the latest information on a particular subject. Agents will also take the form of “avatars”, representing the users themselves, and relating to other avatars in virtual worlds such as Second Life.

Skype is “an amazing tool for the classroom” Nussbaum-Beach says, allowing a class to bring in an author or expert to discuss their book or field of study with a class. She demonstrated this at the conference, calling a mathematics teacher in the US, who demonstrated how he interacted on problems in trigonometric functions with his students, giving them the grounding for a study of calculus.

The idea of a teacher being put out of work by a computer may be passé, but teachers who fail to embrace the opportunities offered by digital technology are likely be put out of work by teachers who do, Nussbaum-Beach says.

I Generation- Hey You're Part of IT!

This is who we teach. This is the medium they use. We need to speak in their native tongue.

Sign of the Times...

Rick Broida over at LifeHacker posted this about the newest search engine Ms. Dewey.

Google? Yahoo? Dogpile? BO-RING! Who says a search engine can't be innovative, entertaining, and easy on the eyes? That's the idea behind Ms. Dewey, a comely, "interactive" librarian who stands around waiting for you to type a search term--and throws out the occasional smart remark if you take too long. Fairly funny stuff, though you'll want to keep the volume low if you're at work; she's pretty chatty. And although nothing she says deserves more than a PG rating, this is definitely a site aimed at grownups (and, let's be honest, male grownups). — Rick Broida

http://lifehacker.com/software/search/ms-dewey-the-saucy-searchengine-librarian-208369.php

According to Forbes it is a Microsoft creation. I was amused and laughed for about 15 minutes. And though I found the actress really entertaining,  I would never use it for a search engine.

Gizmodo calls Ms. Dewey "The Search Engine that Reprimands Your Searches"

Anyway... it will not be very useful for educators in the classroom, but might be good for a few laughs with colleagues.

Year Two for Alabama Best Practice Center's 21st Century Teaching and Learning Project

Exciting was the word of the day as 200 teachers, administrators, and other educational leaders gathered in Birmingham, Alabama for the second year kick-off of the ABPC 21st Century Teaching and Learning Project.

The purpose of the 21st Century OctoberFest was to gear up for a busy second year of this incredible  professional development program that encourages powerful conversations and practice around 21st Century teaching and learning.

Last year, with support from the Microsoft Partners in Learning grants program, ABPC recruited small teams from 20 forward-thinking schools across Alabama to participate in a professional development program we call “Keeping Up with the Net Generation.” A second cadre of schools have been selected for Year Two of the project. Click here to read what participants said about the project from last year's involvement.

The program began with an overview of project given by Cathy Gassenheimer, President of the ABPC and  John Norton my co-lead on this porject. Next, I gave a presentation with the intent of introducing the foundational ideas of 21st Century Teaching & Learning. A virtual handout was made available via a wiki

From 12:30 – 2:30

We split up into two strands, one for Beginning Schools and one for our returning schools which we are calling Advanced.

Four rotations – 25 minutes each with 5 minutes of transition time – (25 -30 participants in each session)

Topic 1: Blogs (hands-on session with computers)
Beginning Schools: Charlotte Wilson and Suzanne Culbreth
Advanced Schools: Schools: Darren Kuropatwa (facilitated by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach (me))

Topic 2: Wikis (presentation style w/ handout)
Beginning Schools: Felicia Myers and Jeanne Simpson
Advanced Schools: April Chamberlain 

Topic 3: Social Networking (presentation style w/ handout)
Beginning Schools (Social Networking): Brandi Caldwell
Advanced Schools (Podcasts): Randy Fullington

Topic 4: Tapped In (hands-on session with computers)
Beginning Schools: Scarlett Gaddy and Jackie Thornton
Advanced Schools: Aimee Smith and Juliana Coleman

The sessions were great because they only lasted 25 minutes-- designed to give participants a taste and access to resources for further exploration on their own with lots of follow-up in our Virtual Learning Community on Tapped In. Some folks compared the experience to speed dating-- get in there, meet each other, and move on.

Flickr - Click here to see pics from the day's events!

We ended the day meeting in the Beginning and Advanced Cohorts.

Cathy Gassenheimer and John Norton meet with Beginning School Teams.

If you would like to know more about our plans for year two of our Powerful Conversations work please check these two FAQ docs out.

FAQ about Beginning Schools in the ABPC 21st Century Teaching and Learning Project

FAQ about Advanced Schools in the ABPC 21st Century Teaching and Learning Project

There is quite a bit written about Year One of the project in this publication.

If Not Us, Then Who?

I was over at  Around the Corner where Miguel Guhlin posts, reading his latest Girls and their Gadgets

I was moved. I so identified with the ideas and feelings he expressed.

I'm sorry, I see the benefits, but it appears that giving kids access to  the Read/Write web is like putting a loaded pistol in their hands without education. And, how many kids have to be bullied online before everyone wakes up (no, not you edubloggers...the other people who haven't read your blogs) and realizes that digital citizenship, that       education is the only way?

I remember I watched a documentary on automobile safety once. It emphasized the problems this innovation had in the beginning before they had figured out the rules and regulations of driving. Lots of people died and were hurt. Because this was a new technology (cars) they had to figure out what to do to keep folks safe as things happened. Mistakes were made. Rules were rethought. Lives were saved.

I have four kids. The youngest is 18. I have taught them all to drive. As they showed responsibility, I let them have their own car. I also let schools help educate them about driving and to practice driving with them. But I never relinquished my primary responsibility in determine when they were ready. For one of my children that was at 16 and for another it wasn’t until 18. And now, I still ride with them occasionally and gently coach from the side. Because like the Web, cars can be dangerous places.

The point being, as a society we didn’t just say-- look this car thing, yeah it has great potential, but at what cost? Folks who championed the cause saw it through and did what they could to protect and educate along the way until they got it worked out.

My Space. What a mess. I have one daughter there who is 24 and we have an ongoing conversation about what is appropriate and why online. She is an adult, but I still coach her through this Wild West Web.  I have a My Space account. So should you. I model responsible use. And those  who I am trying to influence think I am cool to be there.  It  serves as a cultural identifier that let's me have a place at their table and enter into their conversations.

My second daughter and son have bailed from My Space and they are using Facebook, this in some ways is much better. At least many of the pictures of past students I am finding are less sensual and the conversations are usually about their studies in college. There are abuses there too, but it seems to be less.

My youngest daughter, 18 who still lives at home, has chosen to avoid both. She blogs on Live Journal and not as often. However, she can text message and uses her Ipod like there is no tomorrow.  It was her choice not mine, and her friends rag her for it all the time. I am so proud of her for taking a stand.

Miguel thoughts continued to resonate...

As an ed-tech admin, I can sympathize...I want to turn off the Web at school and home. I have to fight that urge. It's too simplistic a response...it's too late to do that. We have to move forward, painful as the journey is and will become.

I also wish at times we could just turn it all off. Just as I wished they never had to drive. As parents and educators it is natural and right to want to protect our children and students. But rather, our job is to teach them to use the tools they need to survive in society in the safety net of our homes and schools, so that when they step out to use these tools unsupervised they will be discerning.

It is mentally overwhelming. I remember when they placed that first child in my arms thinking, “How will I ever do this all right?” I had a similar reaction my first day in the classroom. But if not us, as their parents and mentors, then who? We cannot simply give up. We have to go where they are and model and coach. We have to be consistent. We have to care deeply and remember that for some of the students we teach, we are the only significant adult with which they will ever have meaningful conversations around this topic.

We teach students to not run with scissors, to not talk to strangers, and to travel safely in a 5000lb lethal weapon. We can teach them to be safe and healthy on the Web.

Thank you fellow educators for all you are doing to help make this realty. Working together we can each make a huge difference for the students on our watch. And who knows? We just might hit the "Tipping Point" in our lifetime. In the meantime, we are helping to champion the rules of the road, much like they did at the onset of the automobile.

EduWikipedia

EduWikipedia

I have had several conversations as of late with folks about the dis-connect of all the connected learning taking place in Education 2.0. Randy Fullington, one of the Alabama Best Practice Fellows, commented how it was confusing tryng to navigate through all archived in the virtual learning community with all the resources we had gathered (much of it things edubloggers like you are creating and so willingly share) John Norton and I decided we had to come up with a better way to organize all we were pulling together around 21st Century teaching and learning.

Then Will Richardson, Darren Kuropatwa and I were talking the other day and the topic surfaced again-- around all the excellent resources we were all creating. It seems as if we are all working so hard in isolation and really duplicating effort in many cases-- which kind of smacks in the face of what connected learning could be...

Today Will posted this...

And to be honest, this is all stemming from a bigger burr in mybrain of late that has to do with the seeming randomness of all of thereally great work that people in this community are starting to create.It’s just feeling like it’s all over the place, and that if we could insome way get our collective act together, we could start creating anincredibly valuable resource. I know it’s all about small piecesloosely joined, but wouldn’t it be great to point the newcomers to onespot that was a clearinghouse for all of this work? Not to mention thevalue it would have to us old timers in terms of bringing people in. Imean all of a sudden, it seems like everyone has a wiki, and most allof them have great intent and good content. But there’s also a lot ofduplication of effort, and more importantly, dis-connection, at leastthat what it feels like to me.

Am I wrong?

And more importantly, what to do about it?

More conversation ensued and we decided the answer was to create EduWikipedia- the place for all edubloggers to get their act together!

What we need is a master Index where we can all link to all thingswonderful and good that we are doing in our own education 2.0 spaces.

The easiest way I see to do that is through a wiki. So please join me over on EduWikipedia- The place for us all to get our collective act together!

http://eduwikipedia.pbwiki.com
Password = connected
Share it wide and far in all your networks.

Together we can create a Table of Contents for a collectiverepository of Educational Web 2.0 related tools, resources, experts andso on.

After we create the sections in the Index– we still continue tocreate in our own spaces, we just link what we create in EduWikipedia–so we can all benefit from the awesome things we are all doing toimprove education.

Join me… help create this incredible resource!

technorati tags:connected_learning, Darren_Kuropatwa, sheryl_nussbaum-beach, will_richardson, wiki, web, web2.0, collaboration

Blogged with Flock

Reactions to Non-connectivity

We are moving. It is so humbling when you have to pack all your belongings in boxes, separate trash from treasure, and try to ignore the dirt that is revealed as you move furniture and empty your house. The toughest part of the move is not being connected. I called 1 week ahead-- but the earliest I could get connected was sometime Tuesday. I left the computer up at the old house even though now the rest of my things are scattered about at the new house. It is maddening. I keep thinking-- I need to do this online and this, all the while the boxes are everywhere and calling my name.

Not being able to check in online periodically is annoying. My son has refused to deal with it. He took all his equipment over to a neighbor's house in the new neighborhood. (A friend of his from high school) He spent the night there last night just so he wouldnt have to be without connectivity.

My daughter wants to check her Live Journal, but she says her problem would be if we took her cell phone away. She lives for text messages.

Personally, it is the inconvenience of it. I teach online, I create and consult online, and I have many school responsibilities online; to not be connected- puts me further and further behind.

I found this advice. http://weblogs.asp.net/pleloup/archive/2003/12/04/41319.aspx

But it just isnt working. Maybe I should move a cot over here and camp out until Tuesday.