Welcome
Come back often!
May 2, 2008
Conference Attendance -- Real and Virtual
I've been sitting in a wonderful session today at Princeton called The Future of Children. This is all focused around the latest edition of the journal Children and Electronic Media.
Besides the presentations, there are many laptops around the room. Many of the attendees are participating in backchannels. Some of the sessions were Ustreamed. The people in the room contacted friends and colleagues around the world who couldn't attend and they are all in the chats as well. Note, that this is all the work of the conference attendees, not the conference conveners.
All of the people I see clicking around me are engaged and exchanging interesting insights in the chats. And they are all concerned both about their own learning and that of their colleagues. The chats are posted -- by the presenters and participants -- at various blogs.
Of course, I'm also checking email and I come across this headline.
University nixes web access during class: Officials see internet as a distraction for students in eSchool News
Banning internet access in classrooms, Levmore said, would restore basic rules of politeness and professional etiquette between students and professors.
The people I see are using their computers to check figures, to collect links and readings for themselves and others (like Ann Oro's del.icio.us links tagged 08Princeton) , and amplifying their own learning by actively discussing the presentation as a way to get the information into its proper context in their own minds.
This was a great day, enhanced by the informal interaction with a great group of caring educators!
Posted by Pat on 8:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 1, 2008
Finally Getting Twitter...
Last night, I think I finally started to "get" Twitter! I had my window open and just randomly commented on whoever I saw say something interesting. Kind of the "bull in a china shop" approach. Had some wonderful exchanges with Mindelei (who I only know from last night's conversation), DMCordell (who I've followed on Twitter and worked with online), and many others.
The conversation was all around David Jakes' recent blog post, Tragedy of the Commons, and a blog post commenting on this from Al (no last name), Special Twitter Message.
Okay, I'm not going further down that path, but it did get me thinking and tweeting.
The question everyone seems to be grappling with is how to balance followers and following.
- Should you follow everyone who follows you? Is that a question of sociability or building your source of information?
- Should you expand your list of folks you follow and graze widely or should you prune your list to those who say something you find useful?
- What's the right number of each?
Besides my ed tech RSS feeds and podcasts and Twitter friends, I have a number of technology-focused feeds, podcasts and Twitterers. Among my favorites are Leo Laporte's collection of podcasts and GeekBrief.TV They are both Twitterers with many followers. (Check the list at Twitterholic) For them the whole point is really to get lots of followers so they can tweet out updates to their products...their blogs and podcasts which have the advertising that pays their bills.
BTW, the Twitterer with the most followers is BarackObama who is following more people than follow him ( 27,746 - 27,393). Hillary Clinton only has 3554 followers and only follows 0, not even Bill! And who knows this is the real deal....after all one of my MySpace pages is this one.
Posted by Pat on 12:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 25, 2008
Beyond Second Life
Last night I spoke to a parents' group about Social Networking and balancing the opportunities and dangers on the Internet for kids of varying ages. By the end, we started to get to the fact that we really are at the very beginning of all of this when we look at things like Club Penguin or MySpace.
Today, I came across this slide show from Cory Ondrejka
. Mr. Ondrejka offered this as the final session of a faculty seminar at the Annenberg School at USC, part of the Charles Annenberg Weingarten Program on Online Communities (APOC).
Mr. Ondrejka was the CTO of Linden Labs and a leading architect of Second Life so he's got an important and well-informed viewpoint on all of this.
And in my continuing Twitter story....I came across this via a tweet from gsiemens directing me to a blog post from Brett Bixler with this slide show embedded.
This is the kind of thing the I hope I got across to parents as we think about what social networking will mean in kids' lives.
Posted by Pat on 7:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 23, 2008
Did I miss anything?
Today, I'm attending the final day of the Internet2 Spring Meeting in Washington, DC. Right now, the main session is going on, but I hate sitting at the back of the room straining to balance on one of the chairs and trying to see over everyone's head to squint to view the PowerPoint slides. Instead, I'm in a comfortable chair in the lobby, watching the whole thing via the live stream, which of course will be available long after they finish talking. And, I'm not the only one.
At the same time, I'm working on a presentation I have to give tomorrow first to a K-8 faculty and then to their PTA. The topic is social networking and Internet safety. So many great resources, including access to full transcripts from the latest Congressional hearings.
Meanwhile, I've got my twitter stream coming in and came across this poem posted at the Library of Congress Poetry 180 project.
I don't know what all this means but surely people who don't live in this world are missing something, right?
Posted by Pat on 11:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 30, 2008
How do we know?
A few weeks ago, I put in a proposal for our state conference called "How Do We Know?" My intent was to focus on how we glean truth from the information we find online. This is a burning issue for teachers as they plan research assignments in this age of Wikipedia.
As I gather my thoughts and my resources, I'm finding that the question is reforming around three new themes that really contribute to the way I find myself dealing with information as I do other parts of my job: overseeing a team whose duties include managing a network, developing for the web and supporting hundreds of laptop and desktop computers.
All of these require access to an ever changing ocean of information available through Google, endless access to unknown folks who offer support but lie along a continuum of expertise, and the varied skills of our team.
So, the real questions for "How Do We Know?" revolve around 3 questions for me.
- How do we know when the amount of digital information now exceeds 281 gigabytes?
- How do we know when we have to separate "truth" from outright false information and myriad shades of truth?
- How do we know what to know next when we can pursue seemingly infinite paths to knowing more about the areas of our careers?
I think these are the real 21st century challenges today. I suspect that for our students some will get much easier an some will get harder, but I don't think any of these will really go away. What do you think? I'm looking for comments here and on my presentation wiki.
Posted by Pat on 9:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 27, 2008
Blogs, Wikis and Safety?
Just finished reading an interesting blog post from Wes Fryer of Oklahoma entitled Blogs, Wikis, District Polices, Walled Gardens and the Open Web. Wes talks about how his belief in and ongoing support of students and teachers operating in the Open Web.
The starting point for the conversation is a video from gfrancomtube entitled District Policies Regarding Blogs and Wikis This is a mashup of a 1960's video of a father and son discussing drugs, with a mix of the original audio and some new audio from grancomtube discussing district policies that keep students safe from predators on the web by keeping their wiki and blog usage in some protected space. (Unfortunately, if you look at this from your school, you may very well just see a black square since the video is only available on YouTube.)
Contrast this with the article "Online 'Predators' and Their Victims: Myths, Realities, and Implications for Prevention and Treatment" from the Feb-March 2008 issue of the American Psychologist. This article reviews just who the predators are, what behavior is most likely to put kids at risk, and just what risks really exist. Turns out it's not what we've all been taught for the past several years. The article is fascinating in both its extent and citations, but it boils down to some things we should have known from the start. 1) Kids who engage in risky behavior (chatting with strangers, posting suggestive pictures, etc.) are at risk. 2) Kids who hang out in risky places (unmoderated chatrooms, private chats with unknown individuals, etc.) There is no evidence that blogs or wikis are dangerous, including MySpace.
While I've grossly oversimplified the article, both of these resources (the YouTube video and the article) make great starting points for formulating realistic approaches that protect kids and enable kids to prepare them for their lives in the 21st Century.
Posted by Pat on 3:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 21, 2008
Preparing my next presentation
I'm starting to really think about my conference presentation for this year's Delaware Instructional Technology Conference. My topic and blurb as submitted.
How Do We Know?
When we were in school, the question was "What do you know?" Now, for most of us, the question is "How can I know this?" and "how do I know it's true? " This presentation will go beyond searching to discuss some real-world dilemmas in Knowing in the 21st Century.
Of course, that was when I only needed 50 words and a catchy title!
When I started out, what I really wanted to focus on was how we help students "know" the difference between what's true and what's not on the web. I really liked the article from TechLearning by Kathy Schrock and it made clear a lot of the issues in learning on the web. I also want to include the powerful words of Bob Sprankle's third and fourth graders from a few years ago about using Wikipedia. Of course, the latest story along this vein is the tale of the college study group via Facebook at Ryerson University.
But with my recent use of Twitter, I'm finding another dimension of this topic. I've been "collecting" a number of local experts who help identify useful or interesting new bits of information. I'm also learning to look at other experts through the eyes (or tweets) of those I'm following. For example, David Warlick's tweet today led me to a great post More Twitter types from Martin Weller, a Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University in the UK.
I'm thinking this is a different kind of "knowing" that consists mainly of a kind of swimming in the knowledge base that is constantly swirling around me.
I've set up a wiki to collect other ideas for my presentation and would love folks to post their del.icio.us links for me.
Posted by Pat on 1:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 6, 2008
Making More Sense Out of Twitter
Still trying to figure out what makes sense in my use of Twitter, I found this video via a Twitter post from Mark Wagner.
One thing Twitter is doing for me is really putting me into touch with the people I want to listen in on. I saw this 3 minutes after Mark Wagner's tweet. 3 minutes later Jeff Utecht tweeted that he had blogged about it!
And don't forget to follow me!
Posted by Pat on 8:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 21, 2008
The Twitter Question Continues
Continuing on my quest to learn more about Twitter, I've been checking regularly. Yesterday, I was home sick so I had my laptop close by all day and checked in between naps. At one point, I saw a tweet from Steve Dembo announcing an online evening session from Discovery Educator featuring Vicki Davis. I signed up and attended last night -- yes, all from my laptop and my sickbed! And all because of twitter.
Also, yesterday I checked back on my first blog post about twitter and what should turn up but a comment from David Warlick. He claims not to be a big twitterer, but I think our viewpoint differs a bit. David posts his whereabouts on a regular basis while I'm happy with one or two a day so far.
Right now, I think I'm in the harvesting stage. As I see someone who appears interesting I follow their name to their twitter page and "follow." Often, I'll get a message saying they have now elected to "follow" me back. Guess that's how the network grows! My most recent additions were Peggy George, a retired principal from Arizona, and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, with a lenghthy ed tech resume.
I'll keep playing with this!
Posted by Pat on 10:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 19, 2008
Twitter???
Over the course of the past year, I had been trying out del.icio.us in an attempt to see just what it was that everyone thought was so wonderful. Happily, I too now see the value and use del.icio.us all the time to manage my bookmarks. In fact, I am finding new uses all the time and am much better prepared to share it with the teachers I work with.
This year, I'm setting out to find out the same thing about twitter. Last week, I attended PETE&C and heard everyone talking about the value of tweeting on Twitter. (Yup, that's the jargon!) I have had a Twitter account for quite some time but I just don't get it yet. I've spent the past few days finding some interesting people to follow. So far I've added David Warlick, Vicki Davis, and Steve Dembo. I've seen a number of interesting things, but mostly I've been distracted from doing "real work." I also get the feeling I'm not in with the "in crowd" here.
Hopefully this post will attract some comments that will help me understand this better. I'll be back!
Posted by Pat on 4:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 1, 2007
Thinking about Web 2.0 Tools
The Sept./Oct. 2007 issue of the Educause Review has an interesting article called Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs! Oh, My! What Is a Faculty Member Supposed to Do? by Patricia McGee and Veronica Diaz. What particulary caught my eye was a chart which relates the new "web 2.0" applications to the kinds of work that goes on in every class, the function or purpose for the task and the tools to get the job done.
Web 2.0 Applications
from the article
Type Function Tools Communicative To share ideas, information, and creations
- Blogs
- Audioblogs
- Videoblogs
- IM-type tools
- Podcasts
- Webcams
Collaborative To work with others for a specific purpose in a shared work area
- Editing/writing tools
- Virtual communities of practice (VCOPs)
- Wikis
Documentative To collect and/or present evidence of experiences, thinking over time, productions, etc.
- Blogs
- Videoblogs
- E-portfolios
Generative To create something new that can be seen and/or used by others
- Mashups
- VCOPs
- Virtual Learning Worlds (VLWs)
Interactive To exchange information, ideas, resources, materials
- Learning objectives
- Social bookmarking
- VCOPs
- VLWs
In working with schools and teachers, we get such a limited amount of time and so few opportunities to do professional development that we fall into the trap of talking about the tools and training on the skills for those skills. What we really need to do is to focus on the problem to be solved and then apply the appropriate tool. Of course, the ideal would then be to have the teachers be able to get support in using the software as they need it...
Posted by Pat on 2:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 28, 2007
Google Jockeys, Live Blogging, and Parallel Thinking
Recently, I've presented several sessions where I've used a Google Jockey and employed Live Blogging, as I learned from Karl Fisch and Anne Smith. The results have been mixed, but then again, these are educators in very large groups who are just getting their heads around the idea by the time the whole thing is over. I'm quite sure that a second day of this would yield better results. In fact, when I used the approach in my class this summer, things went very well by the second question.Two things occur to educators as they experience this. First, the big question of "how will I ever get this to work in my classroom?" This NYTimes article about using a laptop in meetings seemed right on point as people in the work force figure out the etiquette of using a laptop, maximizing efficiency, and participating in the meeting.
That brings up the other question. This one is "can they really split their attention like this?" There have been lots of experiments which prove that students can and do, and get better at it all the time. (Remember when we had to study in a quiet place???) (see Prensky, "Do They Really Think Differently?) The real proof is that after adults do this a little bit they start realizing they can do it. Then the fun can begin.
Posted by Pat on 1:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 23, 2007
Milton, Delaware & the 21st Century
The world just keeps shrinking! Today, I am sitting in a meeting in Arlington, VA. At this minute, I'm listening to a speaker from NASA Learning Technologies and we've just spoken with someone from England via the Internet.
Of course, I'm not just listening but also reading email. This just arrived.
I can't help but share that we are beaming with joy for our students who have been recognized on Will Richardson's blog! This has opened up a flood of comments not only on this site, but on their class own classroom Wiki! How cool is this?!!! Delaware is on world's map for some really awesome stuff! And we are so grateful for the DITC Teacher of Excellence showcase that propels these opportunities! This recognition is the payoff for all of our hard work!
Check out these comments! Better yet, make your own!
http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/business-cards-we-love-to-see/
Lori Roe
Instructional Technology Specialist
Cape Henlopen School District
http://web.mac.com/lori.roe/iWeb/Roe/
So off I went to check this out. Sure enough, Will Richardson, who was the keynote speaker at the Delaware Instructional Technology Conference last week, has commented on his blog. That's cool because he is one of the big names right now in using the Internet effectively in the classroom.
But cooler than that are the comments on his blog. The 8th graders in Milton, Delaware are commenting on the blog of the author of the textbook that their teacher used last summer in a university class. They are commenting along with many educators from around the world.
I spend a lot of time talking to educators about 21st Century Learning. This is happening now in Milton, Delaware.
Posted by Pat on 12:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
April 5, 2007
New Internet Safety Wrinkles
This week, I'm updating my presentation called "Social Networking, Internet Safety and the Collision called MySpace" to present at the Delaware Instructional Technology Conference 2007. Since last March, I have been delivering versions of this presentation to various faculty and parent groups. With last year's news blitz of scare stories, many of them true and many of them staged, I tended to emphasize safety over networking. But this was hard for me since I really believe in the value of networking for authentic learning. Hopefully, I hit a balance.
As more study has gone on, it seems that, just like in real life, kids that engage in risky or promiscuous behavior are the ones that are most likely to get approached by predators. What that really means is that parents should incorporate a digital version of "don't talk to strangers" into the usual repertoire. What it also means is that kids who use the social networking sites intelligently can do so intelligently.
Okay, so now that we've got MySpace and FaceBook pretty much under control, two new sites may give some pause. Right now there are two big deals in the tech community. Twitter.com allows anyone to do real-time blogging from their computer or cellphone. Each "tweet" is limited to 140 characters. What is interesting is the frequency that these come at you. There are also new mashups that incorporate tweets in realtime. The most famous of these is twittervision.com.
The second one is justin.tv. This fellow has committed to wearing a camera and microphone 24-7 for the rest of his life! Currently the tech community is wondering about his prospects for marriage and dating.
Posted by Pat on 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 9, 2007
Why do people post on the Web?
Here's something that caught my eye today -- Why Do People Contribute to Digg or Wikipedia? This is of particular interest after Time named You as the 2006 Person of the Year.
This really affects us on two levels. First, as we use this site for research or information, it's very useful and interesting to know about why people might post to these sites. Knowing what the motivation of the folks who contribute may help make more informed decisions about what to trust.
Second, knowing why people contribute may help in crafting assignments with "authentic audiences." Why will some students shine and others shy away from these? Are there strategies in creating those assignments that we should take into account?
I don't know the answers to either of these questions, but I do think it's important to think more about the questions than the answers and develop new questions every day.
Posted by Pat on 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 21, 2006
A Gift of Information and Time
One of the things I stress to teachers that I work with is to "walk the walk." In this case, we continually preach about "lifelong learning." Then we set up 2-hour inservice training sessions or offer summer courses that are over and done. The biggest complaint I hear from teachers is "not enough time" to keep up with all the new developments.
Well, here's a gift from the The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Each year they create the Horizon Report which highlights six technologies that the underlying research suggests will become very important to higher education over the next one to five years. Of course, those same technologies will be equally significant to all educators and indeed any of us interested in improving our own learning.
The reason it is such a gift is that it provides a synopsis of each of the technologies to enable anyone to begin learning about them, great examples of the application to learning with links to online articles about the products. But the piece I found most valuable was a very short reading list on each technology that allowed me to really hone in on particular technologies and things I didn't understand about each one.
So here's a gift of information and time, the 2006 Horizons Report.
Posted by Pat on 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 27, 2006
Managing the Free Flow of Information
Here are three interesting quotes I heard today.
The first is from Sasa Vucinic of Media Development Loan Fund, a New York nonprofit organization providing low-cost financing to independent news businesses in emerging democracies.
"More than 80 percent of people live in countries without a free press. In other words, more than 5 billion people can't trust what they read in the newspaper, hear on the radio or see on TV, and do not really know what is happening in their own country."
The second is the article "Blogs And Wikis Move In As E-Mail Overload Becomes Unbearable" from Information Week, which says that businesses are using these new formats to manage the transmission and receiving of information.
The third concerns schools and Social Networking sites from an article in eSchoolNews.
"More than three years after social-networking web sites such as MySpace and Facebook first began cropping up online, school leaders still struggle with how to set policies regarding the use of such sites both inside and outside of school--and many school systems lack these policies altogether, according to a recent survey."
I was struck by the three counterpoints. In the first, we have a group that is actively attempting to increase the free flow of information so that people can access and harness information for their own daily lives. In the second, the free flow of information has become so overwhelming that new strategies are needed to manage it.
But the third story was the scariest, we have already claimed that our students are Digital Natives who understand how to utilize the technology to manage their lives and information. They have clearly embraced social networking as a way to operate in the digital landscape. With 3 years behind us, educators are still baffled by the whole phenomena. Surely, there is a way to bridge these three ideas and harness the technologies to lead and support students to manage information.
Posted by Pat on 2:36 PM
November 22, 2006
Blogs as Tutors
I just got a note from one of my students from the summer. She's been using Edublogs to the scaffold her students in Spanish class. Her level 2 students write about different topics that she assigns. Then her level 4 and 5 students respond. This is a great way to do online tutoring that could be used for any subject area.
For me, the interesting thing is how much we can do now in education without spending more money. Back in the 90s, there was an awful lot of "build it and they will come" mentality. That really didn't pan out very quickly. I think we underestimated just how much hands-on time people needed to become comfortable with being online. Now that cell phones and e-mail are our regular way of doing business, everyone has an online persona or at least modus operandi.
In addition, the new tools like blogs and wikis enable us to have these new interactions with very little muss or fuss, and better yet NO COST! Every day I see something even more exciting than the day before. I'm hoping that people will take a look at this Edublog at senorawilson2.edublogs.org and see the future!
Posted by Pat on 11:41 AM
October 23, 2006
An amazing class blog
I just stumbled across the most amazing blog I've seen in quite awhile. This is a team blog known as Smith's 9th Honors Class Blog. What's amazing is that it is used as part of the classroom discussion process. While students are using the fishbowl process to discuss the novel, others are using the blog to post comments and additional questions. In fact, in the single class period I just observed, there were 201 comments!
I just posted a link to this blog posting into their class site and invited them to help me understand the process a little better. What an amazing time to be in school!
Posted by Pat on 11:46 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 7, 2006
Wikis in the Classroom 2006
I've gotten a request from some advice on my use of wikis in the classroom so this seemed like a good thing to update here.
1. I've got an entry about wikis on my old blog. Most of that information is still good. I would add that a good place to set up a wiki for free is wikispaces.com. As educators, we can also get an ad-free wiki by signing up for a blog at edublogs.org. Just be warned that this wiki has a little bit non-standard editing options. Also, while wikispaces.com has been quite responsive, the edublogs.org server can be extremely slow!
2. I've got a couple of completed courses that used the wiki for display and conversation.
From summer 2006, EDUC 639: K-12 Technology Integration
From summer 2005, UAPP 667: IT Topics for Non-profit and Government Managers (a distance course)
3. I've collected some advise on best uses of Wikis. One is a blog entry from the Cool Cat Teacher Blog called Wiki Wiki Teaching- The art of using wiki pages to teach The other is a brand new article in Technology & Learning http://www.techlearning.com called Wild about Wikis.
Posted by Pat on 1:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
