Saving YouTube Videos: When Embed Just Doesn't Work

Here's a quick tip for the day. KeepVid allows you to download streamed videos so that you can view them offline. This is especially helpful if you want to show YouTube videos in a school setting when YouTube is blocked. However, remember your digital etiquette and cite the source! Give credit where credit is due...

Writing Collaboratively: Wiki's or Google Docs?

There has been much discussion lately about the use of collaborative tools in education, especially to solve problems and create joint artifacts. In the "old" days, you might just use email to share comments or send a document back and forth. Today, there are much better options. Google Docs lets multiple users work simultaneously on a document and Wikis let multiple users update the same workspace.

I am currently in the process of writing a book with some colleagues who reside in different states and we have used both Google docs and Wiki's as part of our process. As features do vary by Wiki platform, I'll be discussing Wikispaces unless otherwise noted. There are several advantages and disadvantages to each which I will outline here:

1. Font Styles & Colors
Google Docs has a much easier interface and friendly formatting than Wikispaces. For example, in Wikispaces, changing the color of the font for a bulleted list and its heading only changes the list items. The heading remains its original color. Wikispaces also generates a popup window to make these formatting changes whereas Google Docs works the same way as Microsoft Word (inline).

2. Organization
Wikispaces wins for organization. It is very easy to set up sub-pages and link them on the sidebar. It's also easy to create links to the sub-pages from higher level pages. Because Wiki's allow you to view and edit the the underlying code, it is much like HTML. Linking to pages and anchors is a fairly common task. Google Docs uses something called bookmarking to create tags within the document, but all of your editing is still in one long document which can get unwieldy - Fast! If you want to have "sub-pages" you have to create separate Docs and open each one-at-a-time. It's not easy to move among pages at a whim. For this reason, we quickly decided to use Google Docs to maintain our main outline (to become our Table of Contents) and use Wikispaces for the actual editing of sections and chapters.

3. Comments
Both Google Docs and Wikispaces have their pros and cons. Google Docs is by far the easiest tool to use to make inline comments about a given piece of text. Two different methods are offered.

• Comments - These are placed right next to the text in a shaded box with an automatic date/time stamp.
• Footnotes - These are placed in a right-hand sidebar that resembles a comic strip bubble. When you click on the bubble, a pound symbol next to the word or phrase is highlighted.

Both of these mechanisms are useful for providing feedback or editing suggestions, or notes about something needed to be added later. Wikispaces offers no easy way to add inline comments about specific textual items on a page. We have taken to using red or bold text in [brackets] to indicate notes to each other. However, Wikispaces offers a different feature called Discussion. In the case of Wikispaces, this is a discussion board that lets users make overall comments about a specific page and tracks the comments in threads. Other Wiki platforms like Wikipedia and Wikibooks offer Discussion in the form of blank page with running commentary. PBWiki doesn't seem to offer a place for discussion.

Since comments are a major component of collaborative spaces, it will be important for you to evaluate which of these features works best for you, taking into account the other factors mentioned in this blog.

4. Notifications
Another important component for collaboration is notification of changes. Google Docs offers a way to send a message to collaborators (under the Share drop-down) where you can tell your fellow collaborators of changes you made. Other than this forced method, it doesn't seem to send notifications automatically. Wikipages is somewhat opposite. While there is no way to send a message to collaborators, each member can request notifications of either a given page or the entire Wiki site. Notifications can be sent either in email form or via an RSS feed to your favorite reader. Ideally, I'd like to see both options offered: push and pull notifications with both tools. PBWiki has this option - the creator decides if updates made by members automatically sends a notification by email (push) and the creator also decides if members can access the RSS feed (pull).

5. Changes
Regardless of the notification method, both tools let you view recent changes that have been made. Google Docs calls it revision history which is really what it is. The nice part is that you can revert back to previous versions, but discovering the changes in the most recent version is difficult. The first few words of the changes are listed but formatting changes simply say "no text added". The only real way to see the changes is to select revisions to compare and search through the long document for highlighted text by color (a different color is assigned to each user). Wikispaces works similarly in that you have to choose two versions to compare but instead of highlighting changes by user, it highlights changes by "inserted text" and "deleted text" which I find easier to manage. Another nice feature is that it lets the user add a comment about the changes made which show up in the history list.

5. Other Features
There are an assortment of other features that each tool offers but these are not standard across the board so I'll just list a few here.

• Google Docs - Import/Export with MS Word (allows you to interchange with .doc format) & Publish to Web (converts document to HTML and makes it public).
• Wikispaces - Wiki Statistics & Space Usage (tells you about the traffic and usage of the Space). The biggest selling point for me with Wikispaces is that they offer a free Plus plan if the site is being used for education.
• PBWiki - Folders (lets you create folders containing sub-pages rather than having to manage the organization of sub-pages yourself) & Tags (another way to organize the page).

Hopefully this will help you decide which tool to use depending on the goals of the collaborative project.

Google Gadget "Motion Chart" as a Mindtool

In my most recent class: Computers, Problem Solving and Cooperative Learning we are studying about how Mindtools can be used in the classroom to promote critical thinking and problem solving skills. These technology tools provide the opportunity for students to analyze, organize, inquiry and hypothesize in ways that are difficult to do without such tools. Mindtools include such technologies as concept maps, spreadsheets, expert systems, databases, presentation software, and modeling/simulations.

In the case of spreadsheets, gathering data and representing the information visually in the form of graphs and charts allows students to see new relationships among the data that they might not originally detect from the raw numbers. It ideally will also prompt them to ask questions about patterns and trends that become visible.



Google Docs spreadsheet was used to create this representation showing Immigration Trends in the U.S. since 1850. The Google Gadget Motion Chart culls data from several columns including "entity" and "time" to present an entirely new view of the data. Very cool! I think students will definitely appreciate and embrace this tool as a way to enhance their own learning.

View the full set of data and change axes and variables for different results.

Observation Notes: How one Science teacher is integrating technology

I began my official observation hours this month and this entry begins a series of observation notes from the 100 hours I will eventually accumulate.

This entry concerns several 9th grade science classes at MS 202 - the Robert H Goddard school taught by Mr. Exume, with the help of the technology specialist, Ms. Deninn. The Robert H. Goddard is primarily a middle school covering grades 6-8, however they are expanding to become a high school beginning with 9^th grade in the 2008-2009 school year. Every classroom has a SmartBoard and the school is part of the 1-1 laptop program.

I spent several periods with Mr. Exume’s classes and I could see wide variation among the students. One of the biggest differences I noticed was that the 9^th graders were able to carry on real conversations (one girl walked me to the teacher cafeteria, asked if I was student teaching and what school I went to and told me she wants to go to NYU) and engage in thoughtful discussion. The subject that Mr. Exume was discussing that day was about classification of species. The general format was that Mr. Exume presented his notes on the SmartBoard including some pictures and videos while students took notes on their laptops. He also had the students break out into groups to work on classifications. The students print, save to a Flash drive or email their notes at the end of the period. One girl was asking a lot of questions and in particular consistently brought up issues of testing on animals. After several minutes of this, Mr. Exume suggested to the girl that she meet with the “newspaper committee” to write an opinion piece on the issue. He explained to me after that this topic had come up several other times throughout the year and it was a sore topic for some of the girls. The girl commented that there are no more newspapers this year. In my conversation with Mr. Exume, I suggested that he might want to encourage the girls to write a blog on the topic which he thought was an excellent idea for next year. Mr. Exume ensures that all his lessons and presentations are available on a shared network drive at the beginning of the year and students can download any or all of them at any time for use as a study guide.

Mr. Exume spent his free period providing me with resources that he uses in his classroom. Here is a snapshot of some of these resources.

• The Review Game Zone - Because of the time of year, Regents review is a big part of the curriculum. This site is a review site for Regents questions and it also allows the teacher to input their own questions. For example, here is a soccer game with review questions on classification.
• Power Media Plus - This is a subscription service that Mr. Exume uses to embed videos and other media into his Powerpoint presentations. He finds this helps to clarify complex subjects. The site lets you save videos to your hard drive for use in other applications.
• Virtual Labs: Utah Genetics Lab - Contains virtual labs on genetics. Frog Dissection - Virtual Frog Dissection. Mr. Exume is going to allow the use of this latter one for the students who choose not to dissect a real frog. InnerBody - Used to teach and study about human anatomy.
• YouTube & TeacherTube – TeacherTube is allowed in the school but YouTube is blocked. However, sometimes there are useful videos on YouTube that Mr. Exume will use in his classroom. He does this by loading the video at home and playing the cached version at school.
• Drop.io – Used to share large files between students and teachers.
• Engrade - A free service used by Mr. Exume to record grades, among other things.
• Lesson Planet - Mr. Exume uses lesson plans from this site to help enhance his own curriculum. Requires a subscription. I told him about Curriki which contains free and open lesson plans.
• Enchanted Learning - A compendium of worksheets for teachers. Subscription required.
• Classroom Performance System – Mr. Exume is going to be using these CPS Clickers to do Regents review preparation throughout the month of June. I will be going to observe this in a few weeks.

My Life as a Shadow - Part IV

It's been a while since my last shadow entry, but I'm bringing the topic back. Yesterday, I spent the day shadowing at P.S./M.S. 188 - The Island School on the lower east side of Manhattan. Unlike my other experiences, this one was not elementary school. This time it was with 6th, 7th and 8th graders. At the beginning of the day I didn't notice much difference in the grade levels but my the end I could tell that the 8th graders were much more independent and followed directions more thoroughly.

As opposed to my experience at Drexel Avenue elementary, the technology teacher here, Mr. Lahana, taught the students the same lesson across all the grades. However, the implementation was slightly different. Mr. Lahana uses TechBrarian, his own website, to post lessons for the class. The students listen to a 5 minute overview and then proceed to work on their own as the teacher goes around the room helping them. "Room" is somewhat of a loose definition since it's really an extension to the building that used to be outside and has been converted to the Internet Cafe.

Today's lesson was part 4 in a unit about how sneakers are made. Each student is supposed to listen to a video, fill in their concept map with their notes using either Bubbl.us or Inspiration and then proceed to the next step. In this case, the next step was to watch two videos (Beginner, Advanced) that Mr. Lahana created to show them how to design their own sneaker, download a sneaker template from Pig Magazine and then color the sneaker to their own preferences using layers in Photoshop. The last step is for the students to upload their creation to their blog.

Mr. Lahana chooses to use Blogger for each student and manages the blogs from the master class blog with each students' blog listed in the blogroll. I thought this was interesting because the blogs are out in the open with no security or privacy settings, however the master class blog is secure. Also, the students love blogging and it encourages them to write carefully and thoughtfully. Mr. Lahana shared with me one of the students blogs which contained a sensitive and honest portrayal of his relationship with his step-father and lack thereof with his "ancestor" - his birth father. I choose not to share the link to this young man's blog for privacy reasons.

I observed that the students behaviors during class varied by both class and grade level. Most did not watch the videos before attempting to design their own sneaker and then needed assistance along the way. Some, especially the 8th graders, followed the directions more closely. Some chose to work on their blog instead of the lesson of the day and some requested permission to use GarageBand as an alternative to the lesson. The environment was fairly freeform although I could see that some students were given more freedom than others, presumably the better behaved students.

Other tools that Mr. Lahana encourages students to use include ToonDoo which lets you create comic strips and embed them in blogs, XtraNormal which lets you turn text into animated movies, and Shelfari which students use to review books they have read and share reviews on their blog. I would say that Mr. Lahana knows his audience based on the tools he lets them use and the examples he gives them to make his point. He also uses Renzuli Learning for differentiated instruction and Keynote to create presentations that highlight student work.

My assessment was that the technology classes are focused primarily around teaching technology as opposed to integrating technology into other subjects. I asked Mr. Lahana about this and he explained that the Island School is focused on creativity and innovative outputs from the students. His lessons are all about creating and a school video that he showed me described the student population as the "future innovators of tomorrow". So, the presentations of student work that Mr. Lahana creates is a measurement of how well the students are doing. He also creates individual "profiles of talent" videos for each student, and the school also has 2 talent periods per week. It's for this reason that using GarageBand instead of doing a lesson is permitted. It's also the reason behind the schools policy "No dissing around here" which was seen in the school video and heard through the day. Students need to know that they are free from ridicule in order to create personal and creative work.

To conclude, the students seem to enjoy their time on the computers although many of them do not have computers at home. They do want to listen to music while working but it is only allowed sometimes. They also like to be free from "infractions" (points they get for improper behavior) because infraction-free students can enter the Internet Cafe at lunchtime and get free time on the laptops. It is interesting to note that Mr. Lahana uses a Google spreadsheet to manage infractions so everyone can see it during class. The last period of the day, normally reserved for test prep, is also open to students to work on their blogs when it is not test season.

While, I am not sure how much technology is being used in other classes, it is obvious that the use of Web 2.0 tools and the very concept of Social Media is very much at play at the Island School. Students relish the opportunity to use technology as creative outlets.

Webby WebQuests

I'm back from a short hiatus to tell you about the most recent project I've been working on. I recently took a seminar on how to integrate technology into curriculum using WebQuests. As an aspiring Educational Technology Specialist, I decided that I should create a WebQuest for my final project that would be usable, so I recruited my husband and his 4th grade class to be my guinea pigs.

But, let me take a step back. If you are at all interested in using technology in the classroom, I suspect you have heard of WebQuests, but I believe there may be some misconceptions about what they really are. Some people think they are just eFieldTrips. Some people think they are just a way to collect Web resources for a project. But, strictly speaking, a WebQuest is more than that.

A WebQuest is a learning platform designed specifically to take advantage of Web resources in a more focused way for students. All WebQuests ideally follow the same format. They identify a realistic task that will help students achieve the learning goals desired. The process section is where the majority of the work is done and it has 3 main steps.

1. Set the background knowledge needed to accomplish the task.
2. Break up into groups which will be assigned different roles. It's beneficial if some of the roles conflict with each other. Each group will research the roles using the identified web resources and do an activity to check for understanding.
3. Come back together as a class to complete the task. The WebQuest should end with a call to action.
   

A WebQuest should take advantage of all that the Web offers over printed, traditional material. So things like research data, archival primary sources, multimedia, communication & conversations, and publishing/participation are a big part of it. Now, obviously, some schools are going to block things like YouTube but hopefully if enough of us start including them in educational ways, this will change. For now, my advice is to make sure the content from these sources enhances the overall content but is not absolutely required to fulfill the real-world like task. Hence, the WebQuest should be "Webby" not "Schooly".

Are you ready to see mine now? You might have gotten an idea what it's about from the picture above.

Colonial Values and America Today


My goal was to make history relevant for students today through a culminating unit on American history and how colonial values have shaped America. So, feel free to peruse around this WebQuest, ask me questions, and try it out for yourself!

Virtual Schools and Cyberschools

In a report from Education Sector in June 2007, Virtual Schools are examined and their contrast to cyberschools is discussed. If you don't know the difference, don't worry. You are not alone. Cyberschools are schools that we typically think of where students attend full-time and all of their schools is online. However, virtual schools are typically used to supplement learning and students generally attend school in a traditional setting.

Why is this relevant to ed tech? Because with online courseware popping everywhere from places like Kaplan University and MIT's Open Courseware to iTunes U and YouTube EDU, online supplemental learning will become part of an ed tech educator's bag of tricks. You just have to know when to pull out the right tool.

Here is my assessment of the article:

I hadn’t given a lot of thought to all the aspects of online learning before reading this article. I also hadn’t considered that many home schooling families might transition to cyberschools or integrate virtual school courses as a supplement, but I think that it makes a lot of sense. A few of the points mentioned in the article are worth noting and expanding upon. 1) On page 1, the authors speak about the impact that iTunes had on the way people collect, listen to and share music and more recently videos but they fall short of mentioning iTunes as a management system for many online courses delivered in podcast or videocast formats. iTunes U offers a whole new dimension to online learning that many K-12 schools and higher education universities are already tapping into. 2) The advantages of the personalized learning highlighted by FLVS on page 2 as “any time, any place, any path, any pace” is an interesting perspective. I think we can all agree on the first three items – this class is an example of any time, any place, as I have logged in at times convenient for me throughout the week and from any location including my home office, laptop anywhere, and work office. Even any path is clear as we select the courses that we want to take to design the curriculum required by our chosen Master’s. However, any pace is not something that I have experienced in any of my TC online courses. At least not the way they explain it in the article. Any pace in a TC course is work as slow or as fast as you want within the week on a given unit, but there are also units in the syallbus and assignment deadlines associated with each one. I don’t believe that any TC online courses are organized in such a way that you can complete the course in less than a semester or take longer than a semester to complete it. Has anyone had experiences with courses like this? Do you think it would be beneficial if there were courses like this at TC? 3) I think the article does a good job of identifying challenges such as costs (and how they differ from traditional classrooms), online teachers and the differing methods by which they must teach, funding considerations and growth aspects. 4) The fourth and final point I would like to make is that emphasis for virtual schooling seems to revolve around the high school level and yet the article refers often to “K-12” experiences. Do you think that virtual schooling could be effective for younger grades? In what way? What would be the different design configurations that would need to be considered? Regarding the Box on Pages 9-13: In the box on page 9, there is a discussion about the fear that cyberschool students would not develop “social skills and real world survival abilities” but I think this is an irrational fear, dependent upon how the online school is implemented. While students would not have the same in-person socialization - parents and others would need to ensure they get this from outside school experiences, and many would already be getting through in person classes they are taking or through their athletic and artistic pursuits – they will also be getting a digital socialization that many in solely traditional classrooms would not experience. This digital socialization will be key for any future 21st century career. Likewise, online schools have a unique ability to offer constructivist, and hence, more real-world like opportunities for learning. I liked that the policy recommendation on page 10 discusses the future innovations that will only serve to enhance the types of online learning that could be made available in the future and that they specifically mention things like immersive simulations and cognitive tutors that we have discussed in this class. It’s good to know that policy makers are considering these tools. I also liked that policy makers are considering ways to take advantage of economies of scale thorough things like collaborative curriculum design and sharing of lessons and methods. For example, the non-profit Curriki is trying to encourage this very behavior among teachers everywhere. Lastly, I have experienced, in several TC courses, the trend towards blended learning and I believe that this practice will continue and grow in the future.

The Facebook Revolt

"Do you own Facebook? Or does Facebook own you?" asks the title of this article in New York Magazine this week. If you read some of my other posts, this article might sound like a bit of a contrast. It sounds like Facebook really is a democracy. Why? Well, after a group arose protesting the new Terms of Service, Facebook actually offered users the opportunity to comment on a revised ToS, will review the comments and allow users to vote on the new ToS during the week of April 20. (Don't forget to vote - they need at least 30% of members to vote to "ratify" it).

But, this is not the only part of the article that drew me to it. It brings into question the whole idea of social networking and sharing - the participation age, I like to call it - and ponders the effect that Facebook has on our own lives. Beyond that, it clearly explains some very real new terms in this era of social networking.

• Folksonomies - Like the old library filing system uses a taxonomy to categorize information, so Web 2.0 is organized by tagging and other social categorization conventions.
• Social Graph - The network representation of your online social life.
• Digital Self - Your whole online persona
• The Cloud - A networked hard drive; the future storage of your information

The article raises some interesting questions. Feel free to post comments with your thoughts on these....

1. "Your digital self could be even more sensitive, and powerful, than your real self". There is lots of talk about people being bolder and less inhibited online, but this seems to indicate the opposite: A more self-aware and sensitive online self. What do you think?
2. Facebook and other social networks are continuously trying to balance functionality and privacy issues. Users are on a "perpetual search for the perfect balance of unity and autonomy on the Web"? Where do you fall on this issue? What is most important to you? And how do you think this will differ among different generations of users?
3. No one asks for a phone number or email anymore. It's just "I'll find you on Facebook". Facebook, the utopian promise of a place where everyone is equal, where reflection is abundant and where, through social cohesion, there is a "chance to save the day". If this is true, if Facebook presence becomes ubiquitous and real social change can result, how does this impact how educators should think about technologies like social networks and their use in the classroom? How should educators change their teaching methods as a response to understanding students online persona and the world in which they live?

Read the article and let me know what parts stood out for you. What components are important to you? Why?

Thoughts on Readings - Week 4

Wikipedia: Exploring Fact City

This article compares Wikipedia to a city, a metropolis online. I'm not sure I would go that far but it does represent what we mean by digital citizenship. It's a democracy for all that choose to participate. And that's where the concern also lies. Is Wikipedia credible? Is it a crutch? Last year, one of my husband's 4th grade students chose a famous person to do a biography about. His entire report was a word for word paragraph from Wikipedia. Now, plagiarism issues aside, was this even representative of the person? How accurate was it? Was it simply laziness that caused this student to rely solely on Wikipedia or did he think it was a complete picture of this person? The article identifies that one of Wikipedia's founding principles is "Assume good faith". That's great but as adults we may be able to discern when something is inconsistent with "good faith", but can a 9-year old? The article muses that it's the "sidewalk-like transparency and collective responsibility that makes Wikipedia as accurate as it is" but the question is, how accurate is it? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Wikipedia and use it often. I just don't rely on it to be the sole provider of answers. As educators, we need to encourage the use of multiple resources to cross-reference data and ensure accuracy. The non-linearity feature of Wikipedia - the ability to get lost and follow multiple paths finding ever more interesting information - is great but only if the information is reliable. In some ways, I love the fact that Wikipedia is open to all. It's a true democracy of information. And, Wikipedia, themselves have chosen not to require expertise which, in the opinion of the author, "has made all the difference". Absolutely, this is true in terms of growth and popularity. But, maybe there ought to be some way to discern content that is shared by experts from those that aren't - this mostly in an effort to help younger audiences analyze the accuracy of the data.

Feeling Too Down to Rise Up

This article proposes that the digital generation, while still invested in widespread anger over such topics as AIG and the economy, are less likely to demonstrate in front of buildings and explode into riots; that they are passive because "anger remains corralled on the Internet" and it is unlikely that the "Obama administration [or anyone] will do much to assuage the anger [that way]." I have to disagree here. The author claims that technology separates us but I believe it actually brings us together. The very idea of LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter and more is that these technologies bring us together with people who share common interests or who want to remain connected in one way or another. Additionally, the author notes that we are too self-involved, reading our own niche news and listening to our own personal playlists, and that this means we can't have effective rebellions, again, because we are in our own little worlds. On the other hand, wouldn't you think that these niche preferences would eventually make us experts? Experts who then provide valuable insight to the group, rebellious or otherwise. The author feels that rebelling publicly or even political engagement is to expose your own inadequacies, but I don't see that at all. In fact, the Internet gives us a whole new forum to express discontent and likely hides inadequacies when so many others agree with the sentiment. The author alludes to the necessity to bring back "real protest, nonviolent civil disobedience, even good old-fashioned town-hall meetings". Excuse me, he must have missed the Barack Obama Open for Questions virtual town hall just last week. I believe that social tools like Twitter are even more empowering (not to mention safer) than riots in the street and the impact these technologies have will cause more action to take place by the recipients of the dispute than ever before.

Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast?

Facebook is growing astronomically and it suggests tht Facebook is becoming an "essental personal and business networking tool". I would not have argued this point last week, but it's even more clear to me now. On Monday, I found out that my job was being eliminated and almost immediately I realized the impact that Facebook would have on me and my network. My peers, my partners, my customers - they all wanted to be my friend, to help me find a job, to introduce me to others. Of course, there is the expected use of Facebook - students chatting with each other, sharing pictures, posting their favorite American Idol etc... and there is also the less common but apparently growing in popularity application of using Facebook as a genealogical search tool (Cool!), but another use is worth mentioning to counter the article above. "Facebook has also become a vehicle for broad-based activism". Hmmm, and some people think the digital generation doesn't rise up!

The other aspect of the article that is worth discussing is Facebook's own perception of itself. They view the most important metric as the amount of information "zipping across its servers" not the number of members. They believe all the recent changes they are making to the interface are to make "the act of sharing" easier and faster and will soon introduce dynamic page updates instead of forcing a refresh. However, what I found most interesting is that they believe Facebook is NOT a democracy. What? We keep talking about how Web 2.0 and Facebook in particular are all about participatory democratization of information. So, how could Facebook not be a democracy? Well, they believe that Facebook is more a medium of communication and that they have "enough perspective to ... be caretakers of that vision". The problem is that the members of the Facebook community "feel not only vested but empowered to challenge the company." So, what does the future of Facebook look like? Well, two views might give us a clue.

1. Facebook is not a "homophily" - Facebook users associate with people of all different mindsets, ages, ethnicities and relationships. This is how you build a network of value and I suspect this will continue to grow although some privacy challenges will need to be overcome.

2. Facebook is the new DoubleClick - Interactive advertising by engagement is the wave of the future. Get users to become fans of your brand and tell their friends and so on and so on (like the old Shampoo commercial). Get users to vote for their favorite products and you build brand loyalty without even realizing it. When users participate, it is way more effective than a pop-up annoying ad or click-through that must be followed.

The Celebrity Twitter Ecosystem

This is a brief article about how Twitter has emerged as a sort of anti-tabloid for celebrities and highlights the interrelationships (the social graph) among famous people. I refer to it as an anti-tabloid because in most cases it's the celebrities themselves who are posting updates and not their publicists, so it's very real. It's not gossip, it's their real lives. And, I think that is the point of Twitter in the first place: for all us, it's a place to comment on your own lives and let people with similar interests converse with you. Let's not forget that celebrities are real people too, with real interests, and there is no reason you can't share an interest with them. I think this would also be a very interesting way for students to present a biography of a famous person they respect - follow them on Twitter and add that to any other research about the person.

Web 2.0 Explained

Some great links on the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 and a discussion follows.

I really liked the way this video captured the essence of Web 2.0.



Two sites mentioned really stood out for me and I was wondering if any of you have experiencing using these and would please comment on your thoughts. They are Zoho - sounds sort of like a competitor to Google Docs with more features, and Jooce - described as taking your desktop with you but doesn't really take all your files with you - only those that you choose to make mobile.

A graphic representation of Web 2.0 - Does a good job of representing what the video explains but in a neat little picture.

Differences between Web 1.0 and 2.0 - Blog by Advergirl.
I liked the concept of the examples from Advergirl but I have to say that I think some explanations would have helped her case. I did quite see how some of her examples demonstrated the difference in Web 2.0 vs. Web 1.0. For example:

1. Finding information to making connections. In this one, it's very clear. Switchboard is a lookup service, Linkedin/Facebook connects friends or other contacts and Prosper (pretty cool,BTW) connects unknown people together for mutual benefit.
2. Directed behavior to finding by browsing. Not sure I get this one. How does the Barnes and Noble or HomeDepot site differ from Crate and Barrel?
3. Answers to Connecting to Support. Again, how does RevolutionHealth differ from WebMD? I get that SisterWoman is supposed to be like getting advice from friends with specialities. Think Lifeline.
4. Value Propositions to Simple Value. I would have liked to see some explanation for the examples chosen in this category.
5. Reading to Writing. Wasn't sure I get this one at all. Hill and Knowlton seem like a consolidation site of different articles, but I'm still confused about what Squidoo is all about (even though I have a Lens) and how does FoodTV have anything to do with reading?
6. Accessible to Personal. Again, not sure I see the connections between this category and the examples. Also, NewsGator seems like a brand, not raw and how is Firefox or Target personal?
7. Expert voice to peer credibility. How is NY Times "peer credible"? It's certainly not in the same way that Yelp or Digg are.
8. You to Me. I get that Kashi is trying to get user participation though I'm not sure MySpace fits as a good example for raw.
9. Content to Multimedia. Like she starts, she ends with a good example. About is static content, YouTube is peer videos and Chow is the brand including videos on how to cook, etc...
   

Barring my critique of Advergirl, I do believe concepts such as "personal" and "peer credible" are representative of what we mean by Web 2.0. However, I think there may be better examples that the ones provided. I also think we have to include concepts such as "collaboration", "participation" and "sharing".

From the perspective of educators, Web 2.0 does expose completely new challenges for teaching and yet, I would argue, also opens up entirely new and exciting opportunities for teaching.

My Online Presence - Part II

This is a continuation of My Online Presence - Part I. The main difference is that part I covered tools that I was already quite familiar with. Part II is going to highlight some new tools or categories that were introduced to me through my Digital Media class and my recent experiences with them.

Photo Sharing
Shutterfly - I've been sharing photos for a while and I started with Shutterfly because it didn't require viewers to login to access my albums (like some others out there!) but it's also very different from today's photo sharing sites.
Picasa - I've switched over to Picasa beacuse it's so easy to upload files, create public albums, and uses your Google email address as the login.
On Photo Sharing - You may have noticed that you can't find my albums on Shutterfly. That's because they are not public. You have to be sent a link to view them. It's kind of like the "unlisted" feature on Picasa. That's another thing I love about Picasa - you can choose to make albums public, unlisted or login required. Now, Flickr and Fotolog may be great, but just how many photo sites do I need? If someone wants to convince me why these are better, I'm all ears.

Video Sharing
YouTube - My main location for video uploads, although I sometimes just use Picasa for "home movies".
TeacherTube - I just signed up for this so no videos yet. I also couldn't figure out how to link to my space, so add me as a friend: robinmichele.
On Video Sharing - At first, I really wasn't sure why anyone would want to view my videos unless they were at the same event (a wedding clip, for example) but then I discovered many other uses: posting videos for classes, promoting my company, getting followers who are interested in the same topics as I am, etc... I look forward to seeing how TeacherTube can help expand my edtech network, especially using the TeacherTube toolbar. A tool that I like to use to help make some fancier videos or video segments is Animoto. I thought Odeo was another video sharing site but it seems like you can't upload, only browse & subscribe.

Text and Video Streaming
Qik - I created an account but you won't see anything there because my phone is not supported.
FlixWagon - I created an account but you won't see anything there because my phone is not supported.
CoverItLive - I found this on a blog I'm following and thought it looked cool, so I created an account although nothing is streaming live on it at the moment.
On Video Streaming - The first two are for video streaming via cell phone and while I think the concept is great for streaming live events, I can't see that I would ever just stream my life or whatever random thing I happened to be doing at any given point in the day. Again, for event, happenings, etc... it could make sense. I really wanted to use this at CommunityOne last week. Unfortunately, my phone was not supported by either of these two sites and I couldn't find one that does support PalmOS. I'm not holding my breathe either since PalmOS is being discontinued. :-( The last one is for text streaming of live events and while I can't think of an application for its use right now, I think it will come in handy in the future.

Video and Voice Blogging
Seesmic - I just created an account on Seesmic, so you won't find any posts yet.
Snapvine - I just created this voice blog widget but haven't posted anything yet.
VoiceThread - I've had an account for some months but really haven't done anything with it.
Utterli - Just created this account. I'm putting it here because it seems to be like a voice mini-blog. It probably could go under the mini-blog section in Part I also.
On Video & Voice Blogging - I have to admit, that I'm not sure what to do this. I guess I'll learn more about video blogging at the workshop I'm attending but for now I don't see the value. Why not just use YouTube or embed a video in your regular blog? It also sort of reminded me of other tools like VoiceThread and SnapVine, hence my links to them included in this category.

RSS Tools
Feedburner - I have an account and use feedburner to provide an RSS feed for this blog but really don't take advantage (or know the advantage) of many of its features.
Google Reader - My main reader for RSS feeds. For now.
On RSS Tools - To be honest, I haven't found one that I love. I use Google Reader primarily to capture all the feeds I want to follow but it requires too much effort to check often. I also use the Windows Vista gadget which is at least "in my face" when I log in. I also downloaded SplashNews for my Centro but haven't successfully imported custom feeds. I tried the evaluation version of QuickNews which was ok - I might have to buy it. Definitely open to suggestions on good feed readers! For some useful feeds on educational technology, check my blog roll and also go to EdTechTalk and subscribe to the shows that interest you.

Wiki's & Online Collaboration
Wikispaces - I'm a member of several wikispaces (collectiveintelligence, educon20, eduplan, and globalschool) and a creator of another (bogs4c). You can also see the working details of bogs4c.
Wikibooks - I contributed a chapter to a book on Wikibooks for a class on managing educational technology resources.
Google Docs - I've included this here because I've used Google docs to host group collaboration on a number of projects.
On Wiki's & Collaboration - I'm a big fan of these sites. We use Wiki's all over the place at work and it's an easy way to work together on projects. I enjoy collaborating with others to work towards common goals.

Bookmarking
Del.icio.us - A list of my favorite bookmarks. Very easy to search and browse.
Diigo - Similar to Del.icio.us. Same bookmark list, but I have found that posted bookmarks are easier with Diigo and it will copy them automatically to del.icio.us.
Digg - Bookmarking of articles, videos, pics. I have an account but don't really use it.
Bibme - I listed this here because I use it as a personal bookmarking site for all my research.
Pocket Knowledge - My e-Portfolio for school.
On Bookmarking - When I first started using these, I'd think I'd like them too much being quite comfortable with my Firefox bookmarks, thank you very much. But, the biggest advantage for me is being able to bookmark and view regardless of where I am. I don't really use the friend features of these sites too much.

Miscellaneous
Second Life - For fun, I'm Risa Wade. For work, I'm RobinGoldfarb SunMicrosystems. Yes, we use Second Life at work for meetings, training, press conferences, etc... It's kind of fun but I think the potential for uses in education are even more interesting. Check out the open source equivalent of Second Life: Wonderland. Stay tuned for more on this at Pocket Knowledge.
Ping.fm - I signed up for this because it sounded interesting. Send multiple updates at one time. Makes sense. However, I have 2 problems with it. 1) From what you know of me by now, I like to keep work, school and personal stuff separate. So, what I'd like to see from ping.fm is a way to group accounts and send an update to that particular group. Of course that will only work if they fix this second one. 2) I want to be able to send an update to multiple accounts of the same type (all my Twitter accounts, all my Facebook accounts, etc...) but ping.fm only lets you enter one of each type. If anyone knows of an update consolidator that lets you do these things, please let me know!
Lenovo Social - A good overview to Social Networking but doesn't let you join the community or anything. In fact, for a site about social networking, it's pretty anti-social.
Squidoo - So, I created a Lens called AllEdTech but I'm not sure what to do with it. I wasn't even sure what category this should fall under. It's sort of like a blog site, or maybe a bookmarking site, but focused on one particular topic. I'm going to have to play with this a bit more to figure it out.
On All The Rest - I'm sure there are a ton more things out there that I've missed but we'll just have to discover them together.

Twitter Tools for the Soul

Twitter is a great new networking tool but it can be extremely overwhelming when you first get started. How do you manage all these tweets? How do find people to follow? Who's following you? To help you manage your Twitter experience, here is a list of Twitter tools that I find most useful.

1. Tweet Management

Both Twhirl and TweetDeck have their advantages. I like Twhirl because it lets you monitor multiple twitter accounts at the same time but the interface is not nearly as good as TweetDeck which lets you view tweets, @replies, and direct messages in nice, organized dashboard. Try them for yourself and see what you like best.

The other way that I keep on time of tweets is through my cell phone. Because I'm a diehard PalmOS fan, a dying breed, I use MoTwit. Not nearly as good as good as TwitterBerry for the Blackberry but it's all I've got.

Still, these weren't sufficient for me because I found I was getting stressed about all the tweets I was "missing". I envision a Twitter wristwatch that has a continuous stream of tweets that I can peer down at when I ever I want, but since that doesn't exist, I settled for the next best thing. My big concern was missing tweets with relevant and interesting links so I created an RSS feed of all my Tweets containing URLs using Yahoo Pipes. I've made the code accessible so that anyone can use it. Click on Twitter_URLS, select "Clone" (if you are not already logged in to Yahoo you will be prompted to login) and change the username and password in the code to your own. It's easy. I promise!

2. Who's Following You?

Ah, that's the big question. You are posing all these tweets out to the twitosphere but just who is reading them? And do you want them to? Here are some nifty little tools to keep track of your followers.

Finding out details about who's following you:
If you want to check out the profile of a specific Twitter follower, try SocialWhois. For example, if you enter Robin611 (my Twitter id), you’ll see my self-defined Twitter description, what I’m interested in and where to find me online. SocialWhois is limited by the fact that information either comes from SocialWhois itself, Twitter or FriendFeed.

Another handy Twitter tool is TweetEffect. TweetEffect will let you know why people are choosing to follow you based on your latest tweets.

Finding the ones that you don't want to follow you:
There are many direct marketers and other less-than-savory folks out on twitter. To protect yourself from these unfriendly followers, try using TwerpScan. The caveat is that you need to login to run this. Twerpscan will provide a list of followers they recommend blocking.

My new favorite is TweetSum which gives you a list of people who are following you that you are not yet following (plus the ones you are) and gives you a rating that tells you how annoying they may or may not be. I don't put much faith in the ratings because some of the "more annoying" followers listed on my page actually provide some of the most useful information. However, I like the graphical view of new followers, their latest tweets, their profile info, etc...

Who's stopped following you?
The last one is Qwitter, as the name implies, lets you know when people stop following you and will tell you which was the last post you made that *might* have caused them to remove you from their list. You get email notifications periodically.

2. Who (or what) do you want to follow?

Before Hash tags were "invented", there were several sites that allowed you to search for followers based on common interests and some were better than others. With hash tags, there are even more. Here is a list with some of the ones I've used and comments about each.

• TwitterRel would send you a list of people twittering about a particular keyword but I never had much success with this tool.
• CityTweets is kind of fun to find people either twittering from or about your city.
• JustTweetIt lists categories that other twitters self-proclaim to tweet about, although the categories are somewhat limited.
  
• I like Twannabe because it automates the process of looking at who your followed are following.
• Monitter provides real-time keyword searching for up to 3 at a time and you can associate it with a location.
• Twitter itself hosts TwitterSearch to find specific topics. It's probably the easiest place to start.
• One of my favorites is TweetGrid, which lets you enter a hash tag and see real-time tweets using that tag.
• WeFollow is brand new and lets you browse popular hash tags or search for your own. You can (and should) add your twitter account to the list.
  
• The one I've been using for the longest time is TweetScan. What I like about it is that you can add up to 5 search terms and get an email notification on a regular basis with a list of tweets that mention those keywords.
• Hot off the presses: Get Twitter results in your Google searches. It's a hack that uses the Greasemonkey plugin for Firefox, but it's pretty slick.
  

Now what?

I think we can all agree that Twittering can help with professional development - it's easy to meet other teachers who are doing interesting things with technology, for example. Just search the keyword "edtech" or start following people that I'm following and you'll have a big network before you know it. But, how can we use Twitter as an educational tool? I can't say it better than this post by Steve Wheeler - Teaching with Twitter. Thanks, Steve!

Thoughts on Readings - Week 2

Yes, I know I just posted Week 1 earlier today, but I'm a little bit behind and trying to catch up...

Here are the readings for today:

1. Thompson, Clive. "I’m so Totally Digitally Close to You". Also called "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy".
An interesting review of how Facebook, Twitter and more came to be and the social connectedness that the drive. I found it interesting that Facebook Newsfeed was added after the fact, and that so many students were concerned about privacy when it was introduced. Having to wait to join until after it was open to the public (not being a student at that time), I've always had the Newsfeed component active. It is afterall what makes Facebook so social. Thompson describes the Newsfeed as a sort of "ambient awareness" like sensing someone's mood just by being next to them. What's most relevant about this article, and I think will become more relevant as this post continues, is that Facebook can be seen as a "reaction of social isolation". It makes people feel closer to each other even though they may be quite far away. Similarly, Twitter streams allow you to have ongoing conversations with people who have similar interests and get to know each other on personal and/or subject-oriented levels. Thompson observes that these tools are less cognitively demanding than email because email invariably requires all of your attention and these "ambient updates" just pass by you. You are not expected to respond. That's true - I often miss days of tweets going by but am able to pick up right where I left off. Thompson also notes that it's hard to make plans and have a busy social life (because of all life's other committments) but it's "easy to tweet all the time, to post pictures of what I'm doing, to keep social relations up". Is it? I still find it hard to keep up on all my blog postings, tweet about everything I'd like to and update Facebook statuses often. It's still a time drain. It's just a different drain. In my mind, it's still worth it, it still enhances my social capital, but it's still a balance. Just for fun: Here's my overall Dunbar number: Facebook (182+60) + Twitter (95+11) = 348. What's yours? Count up all your friends on all your Facebook profiles and all the people you are following on Twitter.

2. Putnam, Robert. "An Interview with Robert Putnam". Also called "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital"
I'm not sure where to get started on this one. While he redeems himself somewhat later on, I found myself doubting the accuracy of his figures way before I got to that point. Putnam's claim is that America's social capital has been on the decline for several decades and it needs to be fixed. First of all I want to mention that this was written in 1995, over 10 year ago. Next, I want to refute several points that he uses as proof.
a. Voter turnout is down - Remember this is 1995, before the fantastical election of 2000, before 9/11, before a presidential campaign brought out the youth vote on Facebook. He also mentions that young people don't care about voting, like generations before. I alway have and I think this has been forever changed because of social networking. He also mentions that political involvement is more common with middle-class parents, but in actuality I was more active when I when I was single (because I had more time) than now being married.
b. Citizens are not engaged - While I can't speak to all of the types of engagements he mentions, I'll comment on a few. PTA participation is down from 12M in 1964 to 5M in 1982. He doesn't address whether or not the amount of children in school has also gone down proportionally (think Baby Boomers now grown up) or about the fact that many students now have 2 working parents. The same applies for lower membership in Women's groups. Working women have less time for engagement with these organizations. He mentions this briefly later on, but it's too late.
c. Loosening of bonds within the family and neighbors - Again, this is not my experience. I'm extremely close to my family both nuclear and extended. And, the answer to "How often do you spend a social evening with a neighbor?" is actually quite often. Especially when I lived in city - I had neighbor friends in my building. And even now in the suburbs I've become friends with a group of neighbors who get together every few months. This point is an overgeneralization which affects his credibility.
The real kicker is this. He speaks about how technology disrupts many "opportunities for social-capital formation". He clearly did not have the forethought to envision the impact of the Social Network then. He alludes to the fact that "horizontal ties" can be more productive as far as social capital but can't see that technology will enable that rather than hinder it. Ok, maybe I'm being a bit hard on the guy given that that Web 1.0 was barely a blimp on the radar screen in 1995 but it calls into question the relevancy of this article in todays times. You might want to take a read at Howard Reingold's posting on Participative Pedagogy for an alternative outlook on this topic. I should probably stop but I feel the necessity to share with you that I can't help but laugh reading Putnam's statement on the "new 'virtual reality' helmets that we will soon don to be entertained in total isolation". I wonder how he feels about Imaginary Worlds like SecondLife or the numerous MMORPGs that exist today?

3. Perez, Sarah. "How to Reach Baby Boomers with Social Media".
A quick little article that highlights how Social Media is growing and reaching all populations. The article itself is quite derogatory in tone and I'm not even a baby boomer. The comments make up for the simplistic thinking of the author. Comments that stood out include "People forget that it was boomers who invented the whole PC/Internet thing...", "It's not a matter of making the process simple. It's about making it civilized and informative", and "I am one of what you classify as 'older boomers', and I socialize on facebook, use twiter, am on friendfeed, have several squidoo lenses and websites on different subjects; have created my own videos; buy AND sell my goods on the net..." You go, Marilyn, you go girl!

And that concludes my thoughts on Week 2 readings...

Thoughts on Readings - Week 1

I thought Prensky's readings deserved a post of their own. This post will capture my feedback on the rest of the readings for my Digital Media in the Classroom course for Week 1.

Week 1

1. Lamb, Brian. "The Online Classroom is about to become a noisier place".
Slightly dated, but the gist is that audioblogging and podcasting will offer a new medium for educators to "transmit knowledge and foster communication". Agreed. This is already being done in a variety of ways. Teachers listen to podcasts like EdTechTalk to learn about new topics and strategies in the classroom. Students listen to podcasts that they subscribe to and download from iTunes. Teachers are encouraging students to record their own podcasts to build frameworks for creative writing, express interests in various topics and more. To hear some examples, watch my video on Social Networking in the Classroom.

2. Budin, Howard. “Self-Publishing on the Web and Democratic Education”, Chapter 16, Social Studies and the Press.
Unfortunately not available on the web for you to access, so I'll mention the highlights here. Basically Budin argues that the ability to self-publish on the Web offers a unique opportunity to teach students about democracy in another way; a way that goes beyond traditional lectures on government and citizenship. He speaks about Dewey's conception of a democratic education followed by a description of tools for self-publishing. These include things like blogs, discussion boards, cartoon creation sites, sites that solicit youth wriing, shared writing sites, wiki's and sites that allow for student work to be published. But why are students interested in self-publishing? The same reason I am and you probably are and many others are too.
a. Free expression (a highly democratic value) - "I can reach the world".
b. Self-discovery - Discover your own interests and learn to value your own point of view.
c. Anonymity - Express yourself honestly and forcefully, without being judged.
d. Blending of communication and expression - Provides instanteous feedback.
e. Participation - Ability to share and get involved.
I personally have experienced many of these since I've started self-publishing, especially free experience and self-discovery. Budin explains that educators will need to use these tools in certain ways to teach elements that are essential in a democratic education: communication, information gathering, decision making and diversity. What was most interesting to me were some of the ideas that Budin suggests for using these tools in the classroom. Obviously educating teachers on these tools is the first step. Beyond that he suggests enhancing in-classroom discussions with asynchronous online discussions outside the classroom, creating class blogs and websites and maintaining online personal journals, working on collaborative projects and goal-oriented real world involvement.

3 Rosen, Jay. “The Weblog: An Extremely Democratic Form in Journalism”
This article, like Budin's chapter, discusses how self-publishing is a democratic form of journalism. Specifically focusing on blogs, Rosen illuminates how journalism has changed with the advent of personal blogging. Both formal journalistic reporting and blogging record history in the "struggle against forgetting". One of the advantages he highlights is that amateurs and random citizens can "speak in the same public space" as professional journalists, CEOs and celebrities. At least for now. My question is: Why for now? Will that change? If Obama could change long standing rules and keep his Blackberry, why would a simple thing like shared blog spaces change? Weblogs give anyone and everyone who wants it a voice to be heard thoughout the world. I believe it can, and should, stay that way.

4 “Personal blogging and eduation".
I wasn't too impressed by this reading. It basically describes what a blog is, how personal blogs are differentiated from others and briefly highlights that blogs will be useful in the educational realm.

5 Alan November, “Teaching Zach to Think”.
A scary but relevant account of the dangers of assuming that everything you find on the Internet is true. This was a great reading to help educators to help their students learn to critically assess the sources of information they find online. There are three evaluation methods that we, as educators, need to teach students to use when referencing online material.
a. Purpose - What is the goal of the website? Make sure students not only know the purpose, but also know that it may not be immediately obvious.
b. Author - Is the author an authoritative source? Make sure students check Google or other search engines to evaluate the background of the author. What are they qualified to speak on? Do they have biases that cloud their judgement?
c. Meta-Web Information - Is the site valid? Where does it fall in the context of other sites? Make sure the students know how to tell if a website is really a personal home page. Also, make sure they research what others sites link to it. They can do this by entering link:url into the search string at AltaVista.
Lastly, encourage students to look "beyond the Internet for sources of authentic information" include 1st person accounts where possible.

Stay tuned for more reviews over the next few weeks.

Digital Learners

I realize it's been a while since my last post. If you read that one, you know that my father was very ill. He passed away about a month ago and I haven't been motivated to write anything. However, I love this video that I had to watch for class and must share it with you. It's absolutely captures what we ought to be doing with technology in schools. Enjoy!



I attended a Learning conference this week called the Learning Innovation Network. Stay tuned for a review of the 2 day conference...

Social Networking Tools in the Classroom

This video report provides a review of social networking and Web 2.0 usage in the classroom. This was my midterm project for one of my classes as part of my Master's program in Ed Tech, but I thought you would all enjoy seeing and listening to some of the exciting ways that teachers are utilizing these tools in the classroom. This video report highlights three different perspectives.

• Jen works for an education non-profit that services many schools in the New York City school district. Her job is to integrate technology into the curriculum at many different schools in the district.
  
• Liz is an Instructional Technology Specialist and Director of 21st Century Learning outside of Boston, MA and she discusses technology integration at several schools in which she has worked.
  
• "Linda" is a teacher in a 5th grade classroom on Long Island, New York known as “North London” collaborative. She, along with a co-teacher, are utilizing technology in innovative ways to enhance learning(Names changed).

I invite you to comment on this video, especially to add ways that you are utilizing blogs, wikis, podcasting and other social networking & web 2.0 tools in your classroom.

My Life as a Shadow - Part III

My most recent shadowing opportunities were at Denton Avenue School in the Herricks School District and at Solomon Schecter Day School in Jericho. One of the things I love about these observations is that they are all so different from each other and I have learned so much from each event.

At the Denton Avenue school, I observed in a 5th grade inclusion classroom taught by twitter friend, @LParisi (blog) and fellow twitterer @csouthard (blog). I actually came to have this opportunity through twits with Lisa and I am very grateful for it. Their classroom is unlike any other that I have yet observed in. I was introduced to the class as someone who wanted to be a "computer teacher" and they all told me that I had come to right class then! They knew that they were doing something special in the class and they loved it!

The day I went was "Flag Day" which is a big deal in this particular school. Ever since 9/11 they have a huge assembly, everyone comes dressed in all sorts of red, white & blue, and they have a barbeque for lunch. Not having much notice, or items in my closet, I wore a black NASA shirt with red, white and blue sequins. The students noticed right away and told me that they had been doing a unit on NASA and the space program that involved multimedia interaction and immediately asked the teachers if they could watch more of it today. But, that was not on the agenda. The assembly took up a lot of the morning. I learned that the flag outside the school was one of the flags that flew outside the capital on 9/11. Kids who were in the band played American songs and the Human Relations club gave some special recognition and awards. The teachers surprised the kids with a slideshow and songs.

When we got back to the classroom, they went to work on their "Cinderella Stories". This came out of a lesson on Settings. They were to write their own story in MS Word and then draw bodies representing the characters in their stories. They were encouraged to use the internet to get styles of clothing, etc... to copy as they drew. Then they took pictures of their fellow classmates and teachers (and even asked me to be in one! - which was really cute) and attached the heads to the bodies. Then they were to scan in each of the characters, edit in Photoshop if necessary, and use PhotoStory to animate the story. They also needed to record voiceovers for each scene. This was a totally impressive use of technology and while the students were at different levels of skills and some more or less ahead of others, they were all enjoying it.

After lunch, we had the "Morning Meeting". They normally do this in the morning hence the name. The first part is the greeting. A few kids have to decide what the greeting will be. Today we all went outside and went around a circle in "snake formation" introducing ourselves and saying good afternoon. This, along with the Human Relations Club, I see as ways to teach respect and kindness (as well as professional behavior). The second part of the meeting is "podcasting". Each day 2 or 3 students will tell a story about something and ask for questions and comments. The questions have to be relevant and not "all about me". The person telling the story is speaking into a voice recorder for uploading to their own personal blog. They use classblogmeister for this. They were very disappointed to learn that they would not have access to edit these blogs after school was over. So, the teachers offered to teach them how to use their own personal blog, assuming they get a signed permission slip from a parent. Part of the lessons they learned in creating their own blogs was about what it means to be a good online citizen and why cyberbullying is bad. For their podcasting, they use Audacity to edit audio and either GarageBand or Gcast to upload student podcasts. I was asked to participate in Morning Meeting by telling my own story of where I was on 9/11 (in the World Trade Center). Most of the students asked a lot of good questions. I was impressed.

At this point it was almost the end of the day. While the students are waiting to be called for dismissal, they play "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?". At one point there is a question on how something is spelled. One child went to the dictionary but another child went right to the Franklin Talking Dictionary on the teachers' desk and found the answer the fastest. These students are definitely comfortable with the integration of technology in the classroom.

This particular class has won several awards for their use of technology which includes such things as a joint project using Skype with a class in the Midwest, among other things. The teachers are well known for the high quality of technology integration. Some things I learned throughout the day include:

• Email is used extensively. They collect emails at the beginning of the year and they are expected to use it to retrieve homework assignments and the like.
• They make extensive use of the SmartBoard. For example, they often play a Jeopardy type game for learning math or science, etc...
• The teachers use a lot of methods that they learned through "Responsive Classroom" training, which they highly recommend.
• The Herricks school district is extremely supportive of this classroom and its teachers.
  

From a professional development perspective, these teachers attend a lot of conferences. They submit proposals to speak at conferences like SCOPE and Teaching & Learning Celebration. They teach at Teacher Centers and Board Meetings. They use Google Docs to take notes at conferences so it makes it easy to blog on it later.@csouthard is currently going for a Masters in Ed Tech.

To get a glimpse of some of projects being worked on this classroom - dubbed South Paris Collaborative - check out their website.

A few notes on my day at Schecter (This is where my husband works). Unfortunately I attended during the last week of school so not much learning was going on. I met with the computer teacher (the students go to the Computer "Special" once per week). This day was 1st graders and they were just playing some online games and also using KidPix. They did crave attention and I helped some of them make Father's Day cards. The rest of the time I spent in my husband's classroom doing low-tech activities like reading them a book and helping them to write letters (with pen and paper!). I was invited back next year to see more of what they are doing with technology.

EdTech Tools from the Cyberbullying Conference

I'm going to try to categorize some of the tools that were highlighted at the conference and provide links to useful information.

Skill Building

• Oracle’s ThinkQuest contests - Students work in teams to build innovative and educational websites to share with the world. Along the way, they learn research, writing, teamwork, and technology skills and compete for exciting prizes.
• Oracle's Think.com - Collaboration around the world.

Collections of Lesson Plans / Online Safety

• ThinkFinity from Verizon - General lesson plans and educational activities
• TeachToday - Lesson plans around online safety
• Cartoon videos - Stop Cyberbullying videos
• Lesson plans from the Anti-Defamation League on online safety and social justice.
• Have students take the Social Networking Quiz
• KidZui is the Internet for Kids! Let them search kid friendly sites knowing they are safe.

Professional Development for Educators

• CyberSmart - 21st Century Skills

Hope this helps!

My Life as a Shadow - Part II

The next day after shadowing in Long Island, I went to Queens at shadowed at P.S. 206 in Rego Park - also an elementary school but for Grades K-5. At this school, I spent a lot more time running around to different classrooms. The way technology is taught at this school is that Grades K-2 go to a Computer Lab for one period. Grades 3-5 get technology brought into the classroom or go to a different room with laptops(e.g. Social Studies).

I knew two teachers at this school. Lori is a big advocate of integrating technology in the classroom. She teaches 5th grade and she actually had an intern from Columbia University assist in the classroom all year on Wednesdays. So, naturally, I went on a Wednesday. She had lined up several different observations for me throughout the day. However, periods 0-2 were open. For period 0, I actually tried to help her setup the Mac with an InFocus projector so the students could do their presentations later in the day. The big problems here - well for one thing I am not a Mac person (though I expect I will become one soon!) but more importantly they didn't have the right adapter. So, we skipped that step for now and focused on reading. Some of the kids come in early for extra reading help which is period 0. In the 1st period, they worked as a group on math word problems and I was asked to help with this activity as well. For 2nd period, they had ballroom dancing and I found myself in a circle doing these dances (only some of which I actually knew!). There are 19 boys and 9 girls in the class so they were happy to have another female!

For 3rd period, I sat in on a 4th grade class who were working on their social studies laptops. They are so called this because that it was they are used for. The teacher, Laura, in this class uses PortaPortal to organize the lesson plans for each grade and class. This site lets you organize bookmarks, create folders, etc... So, in this class, we were talking about the American Revolution and also NYS History. You can see some of the collateral that was used. The 4th graders knew exactly how to log into the PS 206 Portal to see the materials. Laura displayed the website on the page and reviewed with them some details about the American Revolution that they were obviously supposed to already know. Then she showed a short video about the Revolution. Then the students were able to use Mac laptops to find answers to questions on a worksheet about the American Revolution. When she wants the students attention, she has her own method of getting it. She calls out "Pacman" and the students know to close the Laptop to form a Pacman shape (not all the way closed, but just enough so they can't see the screen). Laura also told me she uses Google Earth and WikiSpaces in the classroom.

Then I joined Lori again for 4th & 5th period because the intern from Columbia was there at this time. We did several activities include 2-3 student presentations of a project they had been working on. They used PowerPoint to create slides to talk about their Country reports. The presentations were supposed to include graphics that they either got from the internet or clip art and font styles. Some were better than others. The second part of the lesson was on creating newsletters. They were going to write a newsletter so the intern taught all the students (who each had a laptop) how to create columns in Word.

For 6th period, I visited the Computer Lab which had a 1st grade class. They were having a group timeout when I got there. The teacher didn't say or do anything for 10 minutes. Then she let them go to the Macs in the room and told them they could do StarFall, Millie's Math House or Clifford. I think KidPix was another option. This is what they did for the rest of the period. I was underwhelmed. I asked the teacher about this and she said that they are playing educational games and while some did have educational components I felt there was so much more they could be learning. Maybe that's what they just happened to be doing today but it seemed like this was pretty much the routine.

For the last few periods of the day, I floated around. I went to Maris's classroom because she is a friend of mine and they were doing a lesson on butterflys. I also spent some time back in the Computer Lab because I wanted to see if it was different with 2nd graders. It started out the same. They were in a timeout but eventually she let most of the kids go to the computers. Some of them still had work to finish their "All Abouts". They were supposed to pick something that they like, put a picture of it on a page and then write a few sentences about it. One girl was having a lot of trouble. She was writing about the beach but she had all sorts of spelling and grammatical errors, and her fonts were different. The teacher told her to fix the fonts but she needed hand-holding from me to do it. I told her "highlight the text, change the font size, change the font color, etc..." She couldn't process the whole thing at once but knew how to do it one at a time. The teacher didn't even care about the spelling & grammar but I walked her through it anyway. She was happy when she finished. The other students were all supposed to be working on "Interactive Skills Online" from Internet4Classrooms - aka Second Grade Skills.

I finished the day back in the Social Studies class with a group of Special Ed kids who were working on creating Presidential Baseball Cards. They were doing research on laptops about 5 presidents and they were going to have to create cards of the facts. Laura showed me a project they had just finished where they wrote about the Iroquois Indians and had to create a Word Find with various related terms. She told me they use PuzzleMaker to do this.

That's about it. Like I said, a very different experience. But both were very valuable from a learning and growing perspective.