For+Tuesday+the+26th

Assignments Due On Tuesday the 26th.
 * test drive home equipment
 * think about a possible project...mulling time
 * readings from Richardson: How do we want to do this so we learn and don't go crazy? Maybe split the chapters, have a couple of you lead us through the chapter using the guidelines on the syllabus.
 * reactions to today's class (bottom of Monday's page)

Discussion Notes:

Within chapter two Richardson explores the use of Weblogs (Blogs) in the classroom as a means to enhance learning experiences of teachers and the students.
 * Chapter 2 Weblogs: Pedagogy and Practice Summary (Dan)**
 * Big Ideas:**

Simply put, Blogs are easily updateable websites where whatever information is deemed valuable to an individual or group is recorded, reflected upon, and possibly responded to. Blogs can serve any number of purposes—from a personal journal, professional portfolio, a site for feedback, editing, and criticism, or simple calendrical events.

The chapter opens immediately with sited examples of Weblogs that have worked well in the past, and are working well presently for teachers and students *. Richardson offers an extensive list of the many uses of Blogs as tools in the Classroom (listed on pages 40-42). To name a few uses here is a short list:
 * How to apply them to teaching and learning as you know it now:**

Keep a log of experiences, reactions, and comments Reflections on daily activities, or readings Provide assistance in any given area Explore ideas, issues, or concerns Post information, schedules, photos, or achievements Link classes

__[|http://technosavvy.org/__] [|http://central.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/mf069/] [|http://budtheteacher.blogspot.com/]__
 * Example Blog Sites:

Children can benefit from Blogs in an invaluable way. Because they are so adaptable to the needs of a classroom, or individual student, Blogs can implemented as supplementary support as an informative aid (such as a “how to” section) or an educational task (such as a journal or educational portfolio).
 * How to apply them to teaching and learning so more children are better served:**

Coupled with helping students teachers can also learn from their observations made from the Blogging community. One example might be by possibly observing their students’ progress in their works overtime, or by having other classes and teachers review the original Blog’s efforts.

Big Ideas: - Social interaction through blogs and wikis allows us to create connections, not just content. The power of this interaction is creating many resources to tap into by using Social Bookmarking Services. -"Tagging" sites or using keywords helps organize links that can be saved into your personal account. This service takes all the entries that you tagged and connects you with all of the people who posted those links in the first place. -Many social bookmarking sites have been created in the past few years. Here are two that stand out for very different reasons. 1. Furl.net (owned by Looksmart) is a tool that you can use to construct your own personal piece of the web.Can use it for saving sites, ides quotes, etc. Furl lets you view a variety of information about a page, including picture of that page. 2. del.icio.us is all about sharing links in as easy a way as possible. Finding and connecting to relevant information is not done through search it is done through the tagging system. Extremely easy to use with students because you only need a user-name and password. -These social bookmarking services allow us to read and connect with what others read as well.
 * Heidi Ch. 6 The Social Web: Learning Together**

Teaching and Learning: -Easy way to save information relevant to curriculum -Share important resources with colleagues -Puts a whole new spin on researching a project for students

More Children/Better served -Students connect with people around the world and find similar interests/swap information -Students have a sense of "ownership" and independence -Students and teacher collaborating on projects

Big Ideas: 1. Wikipedia, or wiki's, is a collection of information from many sources that can be editted by anyone at anytime. This does raise the concerns about misinformation being added to a wiki. However, using the history link the misinformation can be replaced with the previous, correct information. 2. Wiki's are a collection of research gathered in most cases by numerous people already, so why not let students use that wiki as a major source for a paper or project? Also along those lines, should we encourage students to add to a wiki? 3. When using a wiki in a school it is a good idea to give students control. This will give them a sense of ownership for the wiki. With this sense of ownership students will teach each other. 4. Two wikis to try in the classroom. First, a pb wiki is one where the student and teacher have the same sign-in and password. The downside with this is that the teacher can not tell who made any changes. Secondly, there is JotSpot where student and teacher can have seperate logins and passwords. The downside is that this is only good for five people and 20 pages. Teaching and Learning: 1. Students could have a real sense of ownership over a wiki that they have created. 2. Can be a way for the teacher and students to work collaboratively on a project. 3. Students can post information, watch it change, and re-edit it as many times as they want to. More Children Better Served: 1. Students would have a means to communicate their knowledge using a media that they may be comfortable with. 2. Students would have a chance to work together, teach each other, and responses/ideas from other in or outside their school community. 3. Teachers can use wikis to share ideas/lessons with each other in a school, district, state, etc...
 * Hannah Ch 4**

BIG IDEAS: Wikis (Inculding Wikispaces, Wikipedia, Wikiquotes and so on)are open source tools which anyone can edit at anytime. This opens the door to possiblities which were previously not avaliable. Wikis can serve as a host for a community of indvidiuals with particular interests to contribute in shaping, morphing and defining something in an ever changing way. With this new resource, we start to shift the learning model from I-talk-you-listen to a more communial approach where everybody becomes the "editor in chief". Wikis have also been used in corporate settings (such as BMW and Disney) to help individuals to work on documentation and allow them to change what is needed. Because of the limitless access, some concerns have been raised about the reliablitiy of the sources. To test this, a professor made 13 predetermined errors on the sight known as Wikipedia, all of which were corrected within a matter of hours. This attests to the theory posed in this chapter that there are more "editors" out there who want to make these sources right instead of wrong.
 * Jenni Chapter 4 (as well... finally posted!)**

APPLICATION TO TEACHING AND LEARNING: Having these tools not only creates numerous opportunites for new lesson plans, but it also can provide opportunities to put students in the drivers seat of their educations. Within the chapter, Richardson poses the idea that, for example, when a student writes a report on global warming, why not let he or she post their findings on a site like Wikipedia, where they can in return learn about the editing process that a page goes through? Having this write-then-edit source also provides an opportunity to learners who may learn better through correcting already created pieces. This new approach provides an opportunity for us to appeal to the learning styles of potentially forgotten learners.

MORE CHILDREN BETTER SERVED: Some places have begun to take open source sites to host larger ideas. In one instance, some textbooks are being written and "published" on a Wiki site, where numerous individuals can access, learn and even contribute to it. South Africa High Schools have put all of their curriculum on Wiki sites where teachers across the country can access it and use it to best serve their classrooms. Wikis provide opporunity to communicate (and even conversationalize) information to a larger audience that might not have previously had the resources or funding to access that same information before.

JB

//**big ideas** Will Richardson acknowledges that technology can be big, bad and scary for many adults these days. However, he demands that this should not be an excuse to investigate its potential in your classroom. He wants all educators to know that technology is not only the wave of the future; it is the trend of today. He believes that the sooner educators realize the potential of technology; the opportunities will come rushing in. In his chapter on Real Simple Syndication (RSS), Richardson justifies a tool that catches updates on whatever topic the user chooses. An RSS collects information from a variety of sources and compiles it in one area for the user to peruse. For instance, if you would like to read updates on Global Warming this is easily done with an RSS feed and a tool called an aggregator or feed collector. This was one chapter where he uses step-by-step explanations to explain the value of RSS not only in the classroom, but also in life. **Tara**
 * Tara Chapter 5**

I have always been skeptical of technology in the classroom. It seems whenever you plan a stellar lesson with various elements of technology something goes wrong. Maybe I just have bad luck, or maybe I was tainted in my student teaching days, nevertheless, I have always needed a bit of convincing when it comes to incorporating anything beyond a PowerPoint presentation or a Video clip on YouTube. This is where Richardson comes in. I thought the chapters that I read were not only excellent how to guides for technology, but they also provided the justification (the "why factor") behind technology in the classroom. He was pushing so hard for tools like RSS that it almost came across as an infomercial. Although past experiences with technology have not always been pleasant, he did convince me to try to incorporate it on some level. I was fascinated with the RSS application and I thought of many ways that this could be used in my World History II classroom. Now I need the time to follow through with the step-by-step guide he provided to see where it can take me. **Tara**
 * Application to Teaching and Learning:**

Richardson was right in saying children have more knowledge about the “up and coming” technologies than most adults. The more children that have access to the Internet, the wider the gap becomes. However, where children would be better served is through proper instruction on the Internet. What I find troubling are those students that rely solely on the Internet for their information and research, leaving the age of books behind. While I am all for collaborating with technology, I am finding more and more students practicing the “click and find” method. When students cannot click on google and find what they are specifically looking for, the positive potential technology serves crumbles to the ground. I strongly agree with Richardson when he says that teachers need to serve as a model to students when it comes to using technology in appropriate way in the classroom. This means many teachers, including myself, have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to technology for life and the classroom. **Tara**
 * more children/better served**//

__**Charlie Chapter 7.** [|Flickr] big ideas:__
 * text is not the only language that can be manipulated
 * manipulating images and using them in various ways draws upon and extends rich analytical and expressive thought
 * SO many good ideas about the integration of photos in any discipline

teaching and learning:
 * any curriculum can be enriched by either using photos on flickr or by uploading a collection of images to flickr
 * photos can be searched by tags
 * text alone is limiting (cr's interpretation of this incredibly useful chapter); photo inclusion can push spoken and written literacy
 * flickr easily allows children to annotate sections of uploaded pictures AND enables others to comment on same (check out the [|work] of this third grader)
 * privacy can be controlled but any image is in the public domain, like it or not

all learners:
 * would have high motivational input - you are putting your stuff up there for the world to see
 * content can be interesting to girls who can be turned off by internet activity (technology is one of the last gender bias frontiers)
 * hands-on aspect of working on computers would focus some kids who need same
 * if played right, can bring kids into the learning game who might be turned off by "the same old stuff"

Chapter 3: Weblogs: Get Started (Laurie)

 * Big Ideas:** “The true potential of blogs in schools comes when students and teachers use them as publishing tools.” (45)
 * When starting to learn about and/or use blogs, it is very important to remember to begin small. Your blog is a public document, so when publishing items, it is imperative that you keep your audience in mind as well.
 * Just like other teaching, modeling is key in the technological environment. It is important to make use of blogging before integrating it into your teaching. Good blogging comes from good reading (of other blogs). Having students start by reviewing other blogs is a great way to peak their interest.
 * As teachers, we try to teach our students the value of ownership. It has been shown that students work harder, and often perform better when they feel invested in what they are learning. In the blogging world, this can also be the case. Personalization is a great way to allow students to feel that they 'own' their own space. However, this also brings to light the matter of assessment.
 * It is very important to set clear goals/objectives, examples, and expectations. Our students need to be aware of both their teachers' and peers' expectations in the learning community. This can often be achieved by creating rubrics that clearly state the objectives and/or goals of blogs in the classroom.
 * In an ideal environment, the students begin to form their own online community. The role of the evaluator, which was assumed by students when learning and examining blogs, now shifts to that of a connector.


 * How to apply them to teaching and learning as you know it now:**
 * Blogs can be used in many ways. They are a great way to create community among students. I could envision students communicating from all over the world with this technology!
 * Blogging and the review of material would really force students and teachers to take a look at the reliability of information on the internet. In a time where social communities like Facebook and MySpace are so prevalent, teachers would need to take the time to differentiate between an educational blogging environment, and an online social community.


 * How to apply them to teaching and learning so more children are better served:**
 * I think a time is coming where people will shift the way that they think about blogs. I would really like to see blogs used as reflective and narrative writing environments where all students could receive peer evaluations from one another.


 * Useful Links:**
 * http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ (Will Richardson's blog)
 * http://www.budtheteacher.com/wiki (Great resources for blogs in schools)

Schedule for the Tuesday the 26th.
 * Gathering / CyberCafe


 * Report In and Discussion of Readings / 426


 * Charlie Time / 426
 * teacher planning
 * from novice to expert
 * the context of planning
 * sequence
 * parts and wholes
 * ability to shift on a dime
 * internalize alignment of content/method/assessment/learner
 * the eled. lesson plan format
 * Work Time / Various Places
 * use [|Plant Parts Lesson]
 * use [|diagram of plant] if helpful
 * >exp: critique lesson using format
 * <exp: find sections of format in lesson; record impressions


 * Share Time / 426
 * report out from planning discussion
 * Next Steps / 426
 * Tomlinson: 1-44
 * how could the Plant Parts Lesson have been improved given this reading...what would you have done, not done - do this as notes to yourself for our discussion

Reactions to Today's Class. //Approximately 100 word entries//. //Please don't add separate pages here. Just add your entry to the one that comes before as a new paragraph. Leave your initials after your last sentence. CR//

Today worked really great for me. I really enjoyed listening to each other talk about the individual chapters in Richardson's book. I also felt as if the group was a bit more relaxed with one another, and I can tell this class is going to get better and better over the course of two weeks.

I was amazed at how much information I actually retained from last night's readings! It has been 3 years since I have been in a classroom setting, and I found myself really struggling with focusing on material. This material is very dense, so skimming definitely won't work:p I am sure it will get easier. On the plus side though, I am REALLY enjoying reading this material. The information is current and applicable to my interests.

I was especially interested in talking about using rich multimedia to convey information - like podcasting and screencasting. When I taught in California, I was able to make use of a program called SnapZPro in order to make instructional video's for my colleagues and students. Has anyone else used a program like SnapZPro to capture either still screen shots or full video? **LG**

I’m really pleased to learn about all the technologies available for classroom use. I’m particularly excited about the possibilities for authentic communication through writing. My students look at me funny when I ask them what they are trying to say—that’s not the purpose of writing for class. Class writing has to be a certain length and it has to include a certain number of things that the student has remembered from what the teacher has said. I can beg students to make it matter, but why waste sweat and tears on that, unless they are seeking approval or a good grade, which works for some, but not all. Creating real audiences through blogs and podcasts seems like a great way to bring in an audience. The challenge is to find/ create authentic audiences who have the time and inclination to consume, student written or recorded media and texts. On the flipside, the challenge is to reach a threshold of quality, such that this consumption is not merely an act of indulgence on the part of the audience. One possibility that occurs to me is that kids could record various content---dramatizations of stories, songs, jokes—and this could be podcast at adult daycares for dementia patients. Conversely these patients might be able to record interesting memories for the students (and for themselves)

In my class we did an activity that a student shared with me from another class. This was a “chalk talk” where I wrote a question on the board and no one was allowed to speak, but anyone could write on the board. We filled the board and several pieces of paper I had to hang on the wall. Some cool outcomes were that certain students wrote a lot, who rarely speak up in class and confrontations about ideas were more direct than is usual in class discussions. Kids called one another out when they disagreed. So it was basically a lo-tech discussion board. I wouldn’t necessarily want to disembody it by taking it online, but it does make me think that some discussions could be held between classes on line and that this might be successful with high school students.

Finally, the lesson planning discussion makes me nervous, because I think of all the times i just ran out of time or energy and went into class with barely a plan. I sometimes feel like the education writers make it all sound like it’s the easiest thing if people would just do it. I have a nasal voice echoing in my brain admonishing: “Teachers who fail to plan plan to fail.” Well sometimes I did fail to plan. I’m glad we’ll be talking about learning objectives, because I think that’s sometimes where my planning falls apart. What are all those nice little packages of learning within the nebulous discipline of English that I need to deliver into the brains of my pupils? TA

I have to say that today was much less stressful than the previous one. Starting in the Waterman café allowed me to relax and converse informally, as well as prepare for the day. This gathering made me look forward to what was ahead and anticipate sharing our reading assignments. I found the time we shared our excerpts from Richardson’s book informative. We were all able to share our view of his “big picture”, while introducing savvy technology tools for work and play. I especially loved the work time allotted to exploring these tools. I have set up a small RSS feed and cannot wait to use it more! I can already imagine the benefits it possesses with relation to research and development of content materials.

The one area I keep returning to throughout these discussions is the way to incorporate what we are learning into my classroom. My interest is high, but I struggle with a few areas. There is a “lack” of technology in my high school and disinterest in researching the benefits of technology by most administers at MUHS. What could I do the change this feeling of negativity in the school? How could I serve as an example to other faculty members? This may be an area for me to explore further in the next few weeks.

Finally, I appreciated the return to lesson planning to conclude our day today. The UVM model served as a reminder for what I need to be providing my students each day, whether it is as concrete as a three page plan or not. I found the most important aspect of our conversation was acknowledging that no plan is ever perfect, or set in stone. When we have eight set of eyes looking at one example it becomes clear that we are all bringing our own experiences to the plate and therefore change the plan accordingly.

Tim-I loved your lo-tech form of a message board. That could be adapted in so many ways and applied to every type of class.**TM

I like the "down time" in the morning so we can ease our way into class and it's a nice way for us to be able to get to know one another better. Our class discussion on the chapters from Richardson's book was very insightful and basically opened my eyes to a whole new world that I have not been exposed to. It can be overwhelming but it absolutely amazes me with all the possible tools we can use and what we can do with them inside a classroom. It's nice to have class time to explore and actually see what we just read about.

I really enjoyed going over the lesson plan format and then talking with my group about it. It was also encouraging when we all came back together and heard the other group commenting on the same ideas. I am really curious to see what we all bring to the table tomorrow in terms of changes in the lesson plan. I like hearing everyone's ideas they have based on their experience and background. HH**

It was so nice to go over all the different parts of the book (there are so many different resources!) where everyone got to talk about them in their own words. Having an interactive discussion with visuals certainly helps me to understand things a whole lot better!

I loved learning about Marco Torres, the individual who had taken these resources, personalized them, and even intergrated that into reaching out to students... way cool!

I also loved looking at the idea of turning learning into a conversation as opposed to a lecture. Now that we have access and insight into these great tools, its nice to discuss how this looks in terms of how this helps us to become better communicators of knowledge as a teacher. I think these can also give opportunity to the students to take the initiative to be active and interactive in their learning experiences. What a great way to involve a classroom, and to appeal to a number of different types of learners!! JB

The why of planning is pretty self-evident. Like everything else, it's a learned skill. THere's a kind of developmental jester involved in the process as well. Just when you get good at planning, the automatic nature of it takes over and you don't have to. On the other hand, even the most seasoned teacher every now and then can use a return to the drawing board to blow the cobwebs away from forgotten subtleties of the process. (I probably didn't spell that right but you get the idea.

Also, I liked the work we did on the web yesterday. I have to remember that free play remains a very valuable learning event, especially for adults! cr

I genuinely enjoyed the Richardson chapter discussion we had. The relaxed workload coupled with group feedback was really beneficial to me. I think we all felt that there is quite a bit of technical information in that little book, though valuable and highly interesting, somewhat intangible—or theoretical as far as actually using it in conjunction with a classroom. I know for at least myself, I can’t wait to begin practicing what we have been learning. I especially like the ideas of pod-casting and video-casting. I found the UVM and the Discovery Channel lesson plan exercise fantastically informative. DI