Glogster - Limiting student accounts

Just a quick post in case you missed it. Glogster is limiting free student accounts to 100 on any accounts created after February 28th so if you are thinking of signing up - now is the time to do it!

The Power of Web 2.0

If anyone ever doubted the power of You Tube - would this have ever happened without this venue? And if it did, would we have ever seen it?

Generation YES, and a New Administration

Just read the article Adding Student Leadership to Your Technology Plan by Dennis Harper which was very insightful in describing ways to try to get schools and teachers to move forward in the use of technology and 21st Century Skills in our classrooms. Involving the students in the development and execution of the Technology Plan allows for better insight for the adults into the ways students use the technology and would motivate greater acceptance and embracing of the tools by the students. Our kids today are Digital Natives, a term coined by G. Alex Ambrose in his video Googlios: A 21st – Century Approach to Teaching, Learning, & Assessment. In that sense, then, who better to aid in the professional training of these tools than our students themselves? The article talks about the GenYES initiative wherein students and faculty together claim ownership and responsibility for collaborating and teaching each other the myriad tools available, and together they develop a Technology Plan, which includes students serving as full participants in all aspects of development and execution. Harper starts his article with the statement that 92% of people in the schools are students, and most technology plans focus on the role of the other 8%, being the faculty. He goes on to say that “this is especially unbalanced given the fact that today’s students are increasingly savvy about the role technology plays in modern life.”

As a case in point, I had students after school today and I was struggling in trying to find and capture a video segment online. A student came up to me, suggested I do a few things, and he had fixed the problem. I know for a fact that our kids are much more tech savvy than most teachers, and use the technology daily in the ordinary facets of their lives. What a better resource for teachers and school administrators than our kids to help develop a technology plan that works for them!!

GenYES is a technology initiative that reaches out to students to involve them as full members of a team to develop a school-wide technology approach. The article states six ‘time-tested’ ways to involve students in the writing of such plans, including having students serve on committees, using students as trainers and support systems, as tech support agents, resource developers and communicators, as well as peer-mentors, peer-reviewers and peer-leaders. All these help to foster and create ownership by students of the approaches taken, and also ensure that the needs and tools that students use are incorporated into any executed plan. The article then discusses strategies that help schools migrate from the ‘talk’ to the ‘action’.

This article hit home in the sense that our school district is beginning a search for both a Superintendent and an Assistant Superintendent. I suggested to school committee members and peers that our search criteria should include the investigation into an administrator who can be a visionary when it comes to technology and 21st Century skills. The installment of a new superintendent is certainly a perfect opportunity to help set direction, leadership and a clear strategy for taking our schools into the future. If this administrator can set aside traditional approaches, and encourage the embracing of our students and inviting them to participate in the development of a modern technology strategy, then we will have certainly turned a new page for our schools and 21st Century skills.

Why Twitter Will Endure

For: The Twitter Skeptic
From: A former Twitter Skeptic

On Twitter, anyone may follow anyone, but there is very little expectation of reciprocity. By carefully curating the people you follow, Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information.

The article can be found here as well as on our wiki page.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/weekinreview/03carr.html?pagewanted=1

Changing times ...

Remember those tiny candy hearts with the imprinted messages we gave and received on Valentine's Day? I saw an article recently about those hearts. New messages include: text me and tweet me.

More Info. on Fair Use and Copyrights in the Classroom

I found a presentation entitled "Steal This Preso! Copyrights, fair use, and pirates in the classroom!" by Mathew Needleman, a second grade teacher. It makes a nice companion to the reading for the next session of the course. It is cleverly done and fun to watch. He mentions his blog, which contains links to sites dedicated to media in the public domain. These links will be very useful for teachers who are committed to using Fair Use guidelines. The title of this post links to the presentation.

Drew Schrader: Keeping the Literacy in 21st Century Literacy

The title of Schrader's presentation drew me in because it covers a topic that has been a concern to me since I began learning about 21st century tools and skills. I have always worried how easy it might be to put the tools before the content and ahead of good teaching practices. Schrader has those same concerns and used this presentation to give teachers concrete stategies for using online tools in a meaningful way.

He had three ideas, all geared toward high schoolers, but I can see using 2 of them with my 6th graders.

The first idea was to use a tool called Sreentoaster when demonstrating Think Alouds. Screentoaster allows you to record both the computer screen and your voice as you narrate what you are doing and the thoughts you are discussing. With the availability of online books, Schrader sees the potential for pulling up a text and demonstrating ways to access the text, ways for students to "metacognate about what they are reading." He envisions this being a tool to help increase comprehension. Students can potentially go back and watch these various presentations on how make meaning from the text, listening to their teacher's words again, reminding themselves of comprehension strategies that easily could have been forgotten after only hearing them once.

I can see how this can be used as one of many tools that help teachers help students develop the ability to comprehend a text. I like how it is not doing anything that a teacher wouldn't try to do with other tools- it is just giving us another option for how to help our students learn. The recording feature makes it really stand out for its usefulness and its ability to improve what we already do.

The second tool he described was Diigo, and he suggested using it to annotate text that you assign your students to read online. Diigo allows a user to highlight areas of text on a webpage and add sticky notes that contain extra information. He had both an article and a book that he used as examples and showed the various notes he put in the stickies. All were aimed to remind students to look for details or to point out a particular technique used by the author.

I would love to try this with my students. I am most often encouraging my students to read more and not simply scan all webpages. Maybe highlighting the headings of sections I want them to focus on would be helpful in making sure they read those entire parts. The sticky notes would help when used as reminders of what to be looking for; they might keep students on track. I can also envision them playing with just the sticky notes and ignoring the reading. I would hope that would lessen as the newness wears off.

The last tool he described was Prezi and he suggested using it for Mind Mapping. I would not be comfortable using this tool for helping my students organize their ideas. I am much more confident that this would work with high schoolers; I think using paper and pencil with my 6th graders does the job just fine. It seems a bit too sophisticated for my audience.

I appreciate Schrader's concern for content and his desire to give his audience concrete ideas that will be useful in the classroom. I also appreciate his willingness to admit that he has been guilty of putting "a neat tool ahead of good practice." It seems very easy to do, especially if you are new to the tools yourself. I like both his ideas and his reminder to always keep the learning goals in mind.

One last note- he mentioned a book titled I Read It, but I don't Get It. I missed the author's name, but Schrader described it as an essential read for teachers, especially at the high school level.

Video: The Lost Generation

Below is a video that was shared by a colleague at work today. It was originally shared on YouTube, so some of you may have seen this.  I found this to be both very creative and thought-provoking, especially for those of us that work with adolescents. This is not one of the K-12 videos we are all working on, but a video showing keen insight on behalf of the teen herself.  Maybe you had seen this before, but if not, take a few moments!

One Approach to CIPA : Little Kids, Big Possibilities

When Kelly Hines began her presentation discussing CIPA, I have to admit that I looked back at the topic to make sure I had chosen the right link.  However, as I listened to her opening rationale I found myself nodding in agreement.  So often, I am intrigued by a website and want to use it with a class only to find that it is inundated with ads or links to an inappropriate site.  Very seldom do I let students even use search engines unless I am sure that I can ensure that they will only see results that are for children.  This need for vigilance makes me, at times, a hesitant user of the Internet.

I was interested to see how Ms Hines approached adherence to the law and found sites that she deemed  child friendly.  The first site she discussed was Wallwisher.  I had not heard of Wallwisher before and so I used her access link and found that it was as described.  The ability for children to post notes and then to manipulate them as a class could definitely be useful.  I was a little perplexed about how she had students post  during a movie (someone who visited her link, asked if the students had laptops but there  was no answer to their question when I viewed the wall) but that was only one example.  

The next link she provided was Wordle - a site I enjoy both personally and professionally.  I was concerned about using the site with students since some Wordles are not really topics you'd want students to see but under FAQ in the Wordles site, I found that they give complete directions for how to block areas of the site that could be problematic.  

Less helpful, was her discussion of Comic Creators because I didn't hear any specific websites (or perhaps missed them) that would allow students to create their own comics.  I do agree that comics capture student's interest (just look at the surge in "graphic novels") and would motivate writing.  I did a search and found http://www.readwritethink.org/MATERIALS/comic/  that looks promising.

The last site covered was the social networking group edmodo.com.  A place where students can share ideas and files, reflect and take polls.  Again, it was helpful to have a link to explore that didn't require me to sign up.

I enjoyed this presentation the most so far of the ones I've watched for a couple of reasons.  It allowed me more in-depth coverage of the sites she discussed, gave good examples of practical classroom uses and provided links for hands-on practice.  It also was very age appropriate for the grade levels I teach.  

Kim Cofino: Going Global k-12 Conference

I watched Kim Cofino's conference back in December but luckily took a lot of notes, so I am able to summarize my thoughts here today! Her video really opened my eyes to the varied ways people deliver and receive an education, depending on where they live and what kind of school they attend. I'd never given much thought to international schools, simply because I have never really been exposed to them. I knew they existed, of course, but that was about it.

It seems that the children she interviewd have a fairly broad persepective of the world and know a fair amount about cultures different from their own. I think that is great. The children I teach don't have much opportunity to mingle with people from different countries, and this video showed me some of what they might be missing- the authentic experiences which deepen understanding, the ability to embrace new experiences, and the flexibility to adopt new communication styles when needed. It also illustrated just how important learning about cultures is, especially if you are not able to immerse yourself in one.

I enjoyed her use of Southeast Asia as a metaphor for 21st Century Learning. I thought it was a clever method that made the qualities more memorable- it certainly seemed to make sense. It made me wonder- are public schools and educators in Southeast Asia using 21st century methods in their classrooms? Since they seem to have such a handle on the way they work?

I was introduced to a new concept- 3rd culture kids. I'd never heard that term and am glad to know what it means.

More than ever, I feel a longing to travel and experience new cultures. I struggle with a feeling of confinement and limitation that comes from seeing the innovative ways other educators are getting out and about in the world. It makes me want to go beyond my small -town -America borders and challenge myself to do things differently in a new place. Why am I not teaching in Thailand???

Well, there are lots of reasons. Not the least being that I enjoy what I am doing here. And I am learning through this course that you don't necessarily have to be in a place to get some experience of it- that is what online tools are for!

We're off to see the Wizard

Joyce Valenza is one of the powerhouses of the library world.  Somehow she manages to teach, blog, present, wiki, create pathfinders, innovate and probably makes a mean batch of brownies also.  When I saw that she was one of the presenters at the online conference, I had to watch her.  I ended up with a 5 page handwritten (how non 21st century of me) list of websites and apps.   I was pleased to see how many of them we had covered in class.  Now, I'm rethinking the project on demonstrating our digital learning.  I'm not sure if I'll change it but I want to try out some of the new tools to see if they would be a different way to approach the project.  

If you watch her presentation, be prepared for the possibility of being a little overwhelmed - did I mention I had five pages of links?  I almost wish she had broken it down into shorter videos - maybe one on online safety and ethics, one on research, one on creativity & innovation and one on collaboration.  I would have liked to have seen more examples for each website, they sounded so intriguing.  But, I can put on my own ruby slippers and follow the yellow brick road of links that wait for me.  I'm off to see the Wizard!

Going Global:Is it the chicken or the egg?

Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?  After listening to the keynote speech on Going Global, I wondered whether becoming a "third culture kid" is the result of living in different cultures so that "where you are from is hard to answer" or is it a mindset that some people have, even if they've never left their hometown.  Certainly, I've known narrow minded people who have traveled the world and expect it to be the same as the U.S.   Also, I've met people who are open minded and  questioning without leaving home.  I tend to believe that our students can be  just as tolerant, appreciative and empathetic as those in International Schools without ever leaving our country.  It is one of our jobs as teachers to expose students to other cultures and to bring the world into our classrooms if we are to truly prepare them for the future.

We now longer have the luxury of believing that we can be an island onto ourselves.  Our economy is so intertwined with the economies of other cultures that we need to know how to collaborate creatively, to adapt and to look at the world globally.  Again, we have the chicken and the egg question.  Did technology create a global economy or is it a response to the creation of this economy.  Either way, we must be proficient users and teachers of technology if we wish our students to be successful.  

So, I am going to try to be better at exposing my students to the world.  One way I will start is to use Kim Cofino's advice and work toward creating my PLN with different countries.  Step one - "learn by lurking."  Wish me luck!

K12 Conferences

Classmates,

I have had little luck with the "You Might Be a 21st Century Leader If..." presentation. I would, however, like to recommend Jen Wagner's "If You Host It, They Will Come."

You can read my summary at http://stoweslrhs.blogspot.com/

Wagner's presentation offers several ideas for compelling on-line projects. In fact, I couldn't wait for the presentation to finish because I wanted to e-mail my sister, a 3rd grade teacher, about one of the projects.

So, I took a deep breath... (k-12 Post)

So, I took a deep breath and tried again. I browsed the list K-12 Conference videos and clicked on "You Might be a 21st Century Leader If ..." Okay, I was attracted to the title- the whole Foxworthy spin. I clicked and started the video... Click..click..scratch...click. The presentation bounced from PLAY to PAUSE to LOADING... Feeling frustration mount, I aborted the video. I went back to the menu and clicked on "Slippery Rocks and Hard Places." A presentation by Dennis Richards. (See how I eliminated the chance to get frustrated again?)

Richards identifies twelve gaps that we as teachers and learners "must all acknowledge, experience and understand if we are to move toward the emerging new story of learning." Ahh, structure...

Richards states that we must prepare our students to be "lifelong learners." The world demands "adaptability and flexibility." Referring to the students, he states, "We owe it to them to understand this reality."

For each gap, Richards provides a "bridge" to success. He does not demand that we do certain things nor does he tell us what we are not doing as a culture. He says not to "discard" what we have learned but encourages us to think about our techniques in a fresh way.

Take Bridge #8- Collaboration. I was particularly attracted to this bridge because of the way I've been leaning in the classroom over the past few years. I have discovered the value in team work as individuals can bring their strengths to an assignment or project. Richards sees collaboration as "an opportunity to share." With this opportunity, individuals can become better informed. Informed individuals can adapt, are flexible, and are well-suited for the process of life-long learning.

My New Year's Resolution? Become more flexible. Step One- return and view "You Might Be a 21st Century Leader If..."

Kim Cofino's Global Presentation

I have a page and a half on notes on Cofino's presentation. I found it terribly short-sighted and subversive. I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same way? All I noticed was an air of "I am smarter than you because I live overseas." Which, by the way, she spells as "oversees."
Cofino lost me eleven seconds into the presentation when "honered" appeared in the subtext. I became skeptical immediately and perhaps watched her project with a tainted eye.
In Bangkok, which was also misspelled repeatedly for her English speaking audience, Cofino has seen monks using cell phones. This apparently is a big deal because they are adapting to technology because they have found it useful. Kim stresses, that as Americans, we need to do this. Really? She can't find any evidence? This is what I mean by short-sighted. When I was a kid, I told my mother in the morning before school that I needed to be picked up after practice at three o'clock. If practice was cancelled, I used the office "landline" or the pay phone to let her know I would be taking the bus home. Haven't we adapted today? Kids text. Parents text. Parents can text and let their kids know the moment they've arrived in the school parking lot. And the kids get the message- instantly! Too bad we Americans haven't adapted like those monks in Thailand.
I see Cofino's point overall, that yes, technology needs to be brought into the classroom. However, her evidence is lacking. She acts as though Americans can't adapt to anything. Take for example the guy who stresses that living in a foreign culture has taught him to adapt because you never know when a ten minute ride "might turn into a two hour ride." Kim, ever been on Interstate 95 heading into Boston during rush hour?
Cofino failed to leave me with a sense of urgency about establishing a global community in the classroom. Instead, she left me wondering about what she was really trying to say.

Changing My Twitter Name

Okay, I was skeptical about Twitter. All I knew about it was that professional athletes were getting themselves into trouble with their Tweets.
I have seen the light. The "25 Ways" article helped to open my eyes. I am much more responsive to joining a network of educators.
To become more accessible (and user friendly, I suppose) I've created a new Twitter account.
Please follow me at BillSLRHS.

Free Technology for Teachers

While exploring many Tweeter sites I came across this Web blog site which has had a good deal of information, so thought I'd share. The author of the site is @rmbyrne on Tweeter and the link for the post is Free Technology.  In his latest article he addresses several topics, including these most popular of the week.  I find the information on the Web Site informational and relevant, and I do enjoy the Tweets as well!

Here are the most popular items of the last week from Free Technology::
1. Six Easy Ways for Students to Create Videos Online
2. Video - What Kids Learn When They With Digital Media
3. The Teacher Chronicles - Web of Web 2.0 for Schools
4. Most Teachers Have or Will Download YouTube Videos
5. 3 Great Common Craft-style Videos Made by Kids

Helpful hints from Tweeter

MrMusselman

While expanding my Personal Learning Network (PLN) a fellow Tweeter contact shared this with me...wanted to share these twitter sites with all. There was probably a better way to do this, but this would reach all of us in the class. Mr. Musselman's suggestion is also to check out the lists of other Twitter members as a way to expand our own networks. And don't forget the Twitter 4 Teachers link.

@rjr52 "Big Three" (not Celtics) to follow for edu: @web20classroom @rmbyrne @tomwhitby - convos and blogs are fantastic #FF

Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom

Helpful Blog Introduction

As I wandered the seemingly infinite resources of the internet I happened across some information located at the McGraw-Hill website. The information about an introduction to blogs has helped clear up questions and concerns I had. It is an older site (2006) but the information stated about blogs and how they can be utilized to enhance student learning is straight forward and easily understandable. I especially like the suggestion of how blogs could be used to get older students to act as peer mentors/editors for younger students. Another nice point the page makes is that there are risks about blogging and that schools/teachers must prepare students before they allowed to blog.

A bad point about the site is that the links for additional information about blogs are “dead links”.

The site can be found here:
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47

The Horizon Project

A quote from The Horizon Report

"Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives."

Here is a link I found that talked about making mathematics come alive through the use of technology and how it empowers students and meets the current standards.

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~itconf/papers96/kimmins.html

"Specifically in the realm of mathematical concepts and skill development, technology(1) empowers students to deal with multiple representations, (2) enhances ability to visualize, (3) increases opportunity to construct mathematical knowledge, and (4) enhances opportunity for individualized and customized diagnosis, remediation and evaluation (kimmins,1995)."

With students becoming more technology capable we must meet their needs but if it is not pertinent to the class our hard work will be lost. Technology is not just an add on but needs to be an integral component of the class.

Tweeting?

What kind of message are you sending through your tweets? AnalyzeWords analyzes the emotional, social, and thinking styles of your words.

Click the title to read the article. A link to AnalyzeWords is found in the story.

Responding to Compteach

I just wanted to add this link in support of Compteach's comments. Pardon the cliche, but Big Brother has been watching us for a long time ... http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/koppel/interactive/interactive.html

Conversely, I recently read an article on the digital footprint and how employers are encouraged when they find the names of potential employees on the web. Many like to see that these candidates are tech savvy and using the computer as a tool.
The writer of the article suggested typing your name in its various forms to see what comes up in a search. Try it in Google. Google images, etc ... The writer then suggested taking certain measures to eliminate any negative "footprints."

I did the search and came across something I did not expect- My name on a site called ratemyteachers.com The site is used by students to evaluate their teachers. Not for the thin-skinned!

Digital Exposure

At the beginning of the course we signed up for a variety of online accounts. At the time many were nervous about revealing personal data and even struggled with choosing user-names etc. I read an interesting article in Discover Magazine (hard copy version) entitled Digital Exposure by Elizabeth Svoboda. The article discusses online data mining that gathers details about our personal lives and habits from our online activities. It then discusses negative ways that this information can be used. I was not able to find the actual article online but Shirley Frazier discusses the article in How to Protect Yourself Against Data Mining. Also, the article can be obtained as a podcast from AIRS-LA: Audio Internet Reading Service of Los Angeles. #i3cs21

11/12/09

The format of tonight's class proved informative. It was nice to put names to a few more faces. The inner/outer circle exercise helped me gain a better of understanding of where we stood on our learning paths.
One question that I wanted to ask, but didn't ... Was it my turn to bring the food???

Google-Proof Questioning

I found this blog site called The Electric Educator while exploring all the resources out there, and it caught me as pertinent, especially since we’ve been reading on the new Bloom’s Taxonomy for the 21st Century skills. As we have all been teaching ourselves these new skills and jargon for 21C, and probably just barely on the “knowledge” level of the hierarchy, I thought that this was interesting for our own thinking and approach in the classroom. I know I have been frustrated at times by the simple “cut and paste” of many student reports, and wished I could find a way to help wean them off that approach to web research. Actually designing your activity for the higher level thinking skills and actively encouraging the students to truly research, understand, analyze and then create (synthesize) their product just makes so much more sense. I have a major project coming up, and will take a closer look at the tasks and work I am asking students to create. It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds!

A Learning Update

While I have a few minutes here at school I thought I'd share an experience yesterday in my classroom. In one of my earlier posts I mentioned a web site called www.twitter4teachers.com. Dennis also has it in his list of sites to visit.

Through that I made contact with a fellow grade 8 science teacher at the Parker Middle School in Reading, MA. He is a very enthusiastic young teacher with an awesome command of technology in the classroom. Yesterday my classes watched a live-streaming video from his classroom where his kids were doing presentations on the Seasons and the Earth/Sun relationship – topics in the Earth Science curriculum we both follow. As we watched his students present their work via the video link (www.ustream.com ), we also had the chance to ask questions via text messages from 1-2 cell phones in my classroom. The messages were sent to another site (www.wiffiti.com) where my kids could see their questions appear on the screen, and then the Reading students would answer our questions real-time. It was quite the experience for both me and my kids as I began to see the possibilities of sharing educational experiences with others, anywhere, in the world!

I had also begun to develop a working blog and website for my own use in my classroom. I am using edublogs.org as the blog development tool as it is available in most schools and gets through the firewalls. Feel free to take a look at the link….and I welcome any and all suggestions! Mr. Ruggiero's Science 8-2

Students are coming back in…time to go!

Interesting Web 2.0 Videos

I found these videos at Discovery Education to be very interesting.

They highlight some very nice tools.

MPaul Learning Log

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The digitial footprint results of this course for me are two-fold. First, I know a little more about a lot of things (Prezi, Animoto, xtranormal,...). See my hotlist of saved sites with the many additions from this course which I would get to as time permits: http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listhighschmr.html

Second, I know a lot more about one thing (blogs with g-mail and you tube added). See the blog I created for my Transitional Algebra class: http://transalg.blogspot.com/ My student blog is, in effect a hotlist with graphics and video added since I disabled the comment feature (as I also did in the my parent blog, prefering they call me), preferring the students and I talk live and that they comment, if they like, on Facebook with the other Kahn Academy users.

Certified in instructional technology since the early 2000s, I have seen the technology itself go from electronic print and graphics to that plus audio and video with the purpose then and now to enhance learning, which is fine if the district permits the technology, the technology is fast, and constructivist theory is at play.

Even without tech glitches, the old "is it or isn't it a webquest" issue remains in that: Is the technology use advancing higher level thinking? For example, is getting blog comments from overseas in and of itself diversifying thinking, if, as in the flat classroom audio comments we heard the comments consist of only praise from both near and far. On the other hand, contact is a start that can lead to tolerance then empathy, as international school speakers in the Corvino conference video explain.

My reflections below continue to reveal my viewpoint about keeping technology in its place as a medium. Overall, I am glad this technology course maintained the traditional class meeting format. Electronic class meetings or comments only are not the same, even if they don't involve travel time or class time, as a co-worker of my husband observed. The other day the receptionist at the private bank where my husband works as the mail guy, whose four courses away from a Masters of Management at Cambridge College, where he is normally one of the two or three people in a class whose first language is English, was talking to him about the University of Phoenix finance class she is taking. Her comment on the over-emphasis on online learning was "There is something missing."

CLASS 1 10/15/09 Top 3 & Kiva Reflection

* Tech Skill: Prezi as an alternative to PowerPoint

* Thinking: reinforcing emotional context for math (branching off Kiva blog)

* Math: Hooda dress-up addition webpage with worksheet

Math sinks in better when there is an emotional context.

* The emotional context canrange from off-topic small topic like Ramon noodles being a favoriate after school snack which leads to students elaborating on whether they pour the water off to have noodles only, add cheese, or like the crunch of eating them raw.

* Emotional context could also be goofy metaphors to make the math stick like comapring a multi-step problem to a cement barrier with an orange detour sign making you go around the block before continuing on your destination like haviing to use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the missing side to use it as the height in the area of a triangle word problem you are doing.

* Emotional context could be simultaneously emphathizing as a global citizen and empowering yourself to act as a global citizen as in the Kiva project, all the while learning. With empathy itself being a worthwhile skill to develop such reeal-time math in the real-world develops amth and altruism.

However, as George Washington concluded when trying to motivate soldiers, interest outways altruism as a long-term motivator. Therefore, even if students were not particularly motivated by the social justice angle to Kiva math, as some of the post's comments indicated, the students' interest in getting a good math grade would motivate them to engage in the Kiva content, possibly deriving the humantarian added-benefit.

CLASS 2 10/20/09 Top 3 Preconceptions about Creativity and Innovation

* Learning: hybrid (online and in-person) learning enacts collaboration usefully, such as, watching blogging tutorials as a group with instructor

* Tech skill: signing up for g-mail e-mail for this tech exploration, first using it for You Tube sign up then for blogger signup

* Thinking: seeing "Engage Me" about UK students wanting to use their tech formats for schoolwork

CLASS 3 10/29/09 Top 3 How Communication/Critical Thinking/Problem-Solving Different from Past: Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

* Tech Skill: stuggles of copy-pasting Word to blog

* Tech Skill: Diigo as site to use tags to store sites and tags usefulness for group research

* Thinking: When taking an interest in student's day, ask "What did you do that was creative today?"

ESSAY: A $1 video from Redbox, "Adoration," turned out to be about technology on the knowledge and self-knowledge levels and about what happensa when a virtual extension in the classroom impacts a teacher's job evaluation.

Knowledge-wise, the movie showcases the main character's using a chatroom of nine on-screen faces. Similarly, an older generation of nine chat faces also advance the movie's plot.

Self-knowledge-wise, in the special features of the DVD the film director elaborates on his movie's main theme, which that is while technology, from recording video comments of a soon-to-be-deceased relative or listening to chat rooms of your peers or of your peers' parents, gives a person more perspectives to think about, as Mike Welsh also emphasizes in his display of Web 2.0 technology's changing how we think, ultimately, however, since the virtual world offers no follow-up caring, working through intra- and inter-personal conflicts continues to occur only in the real world.

The impact on teacher's job evaluation results from how the peer and parent chat rooms come about in response to a student's posting ideas that are an offshoot about a foreign language-poetry-drama class assignment. The teacher in the film was held to task for her high school student's extrapolating the assignment to the virtual world, where distortions occurred, though while not her intent, the distortions' impacting her job evaluation.

Therefore, while knowing how to use the latest technology for fun and for school is useful to gain perspective, ultimately all real growth continues to occur within one's self. Furthermore, others' commenting via technology can present a distorted view of a teacher's assignment, their generating virtual evidence that can effect a teacher's job evaluation.

CLASS 4: 11/12/09 Top 4 Preconceptions about Creativity and Innovation

* Tech Skill: MAP: 'pe-chak-cha' info--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha - 5-minute slide show format

* Tech Skill: MAP: Making Movies--http://www.xtranormal.com/ - Write summaries in cartoon format.

* Tech Skill: MAP: Photostory Tutorial--http://millie.furman.edu/mll/tutorials/photostory3/index.htm - MS SW to merge text and photos

* Tech Skill: MAP: Screened Sites--http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/ - Like Google custom for pre-screened student web searches

10. Cyberternity: Producer Emily Voigt tells a story about a guy named Wyatt, fixed in time. --http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2009/09/18

ESSAY: Creativity & Information Literacy

A NPR broadcast profiled views on how that when we die, those we have left behind may go through our hardcopy belongings and papers, but how will they get our passwords to take care of the electronic information we leave behind and in some cases, continue to appear to still generate once we are gone? Items to consider are how to put into persepctive out-of-synch messages from the dead, so to speak, as well as how to forward to your heirs your e-info.

Messages from the Dead: In her short story about people living in "cyberternity," the author explores the various reactions loved ones who receive e-messages from deceased loved ones who at an earlier age, at least earlier than the time of their deaths, wrote messages that they timed to be sent at a future date, years later, for example, when they, the senders, would be not only older but would presumably also have revised views since their younger days even as you, the recipient, conceptulize a deceased loved one as now being older, in synch with your won parallel growth, so that the message that pops up is disconcertedly from the younger them.

Is receiving such as electronic message comforting (receiving an additional thought from one you loved) or disturbing (getting a disorganized message whose content no longer reflects what the deceased person's real-time, so to speak, age and current thought would be)?

E-Access to Passwords for Deceased: Fee-based web companies exist that will store your electronic password information to forward it upon your death to those you had designated. Customers who have faked their death date test out the site to make sure it works as promised.

CLASS 5 11/24/09 Media Literacy

For people with access to and knowledge of the technology to engage with the current media literacy tools, of course, it's fun and fast; plus, it brings people together virtually, verbally, and pictorally. Issues would be 1) the have-nots feeling left out and 2) as with chat rooms, even with sincere comments, the conatct is just virtual, like on an acquaitance level, even with voice tone and non-verbal gestures transmitted electronically. As the director of the movie "Adoration" said in its special features, human issues still need to be worked out in real time within and between humans sans the technology of the era.

CLASS 7: 01/14/09 Top 4

* iTunes University warehouse of high-quality ed videos

* Slideshare to get embed code for PowerPoint presentations ao can upload them to blog

* Conceptual Age, Dan Pink's addressing right-brain six-senses emphasis (design not function, story not argument, symphony not focus, empathy not logic, play not seriousness, meaning not accumumlation) as abundance drives and for future jobs demand

* Social Networking sites for educational purposes: how Moodle changed font given teacher requests; also, need to consider district policy, teacher skill, student access, appeal to nonconformist students

K-12 ONLINE CONFERENCE OBSERVATIONS

1 & 2 of 4) TWO KIM CORVINO VIDEOS

Kim Corvino's 2008 "Connecting Across Continents" and 2009 "Going Global" presentations emphasize that teachers can use technology to engage students in online projects that are not just in the classroom but that are global. The purpose is a non-tech, age-old one: to build tolerance through exposure that can with maturity develop into empathy and appreciation through reflection.

While this noble goal makes learning the technology to implement it via online means a tempting carrot, some cautions exist regarding 1) the consequences to self-perception of too much global learning especially for those who do it physically ("third culture kids") and 2) an overemphasis on high-tech flashy and soundbite learning and an under-influence on what can be said for reading and reflection that requires a comfort-level with solitude.

Too much exposure to too many cultures, especially that when done from physically spending years in a variety of places, can leave people feeling "I didn't fit in with either culture," also stated as belonging to all and none, feeling connected but not belong.

To avoid the sense of alienation from multi-cultural overload, using global online projects offers a moderated alternative that is technology-dense, creating time demands, as in our 3Cs course, just to learn the technology in order to apply it. Future teaching will demand it; however, by then many teachers now will be retired and the new crop of teachers like Kim in her 30s and those even younger coming up will have grown up with the technology, so the tech-learning curve for them will be less of a time-eater, allowing them to give their students this safer-to-the-psyche-than-living-there exposure to other cultures. Even the presentation quality of Kim, whose a tech specialist, improve dramatically between the 2008 and 2009 conferences. Simultaneously, this new batch of teachers will be fluent not only in technology but also in another language or two, itself learned through effective technology venues.

Nonetheless, all is not lost for those teachers low on the technology learning curve since there remains something to be said for books and time to think, which both entail a comfort level with time alone, itself a skill worth developing and which needs to be done largely unplugged. Books, such as. "Eat, Pray, Love," a memoir of a budget-world traveler divorce, and ""First Came Love, than Came Malaria," a memoir of a Peace Corp volunteer's life with her husband, himself a Peace Corps and CARE employee, in South America, Africa, and the Middle East rivals for ex-pat life insights those from the international school experience, a "gated community" version of multi-cultural immersion as experienced by the student relocated from an American suburb to a Swiss one.

While using technology in the classroom requires learning time for this generation of teachers plus involves a host of district access problems, such global online projects are a safer-to-the-psyche way than physically living long-term in multiple cultures. Still derived from such projects, as also from books, is the tolerance building that leads to empathy and appreciation, arrived at through a comfort level with solitude, tolerating and appreciating time alone itself being a necessary skill set.

SOURCE: Kim Corvino Wiki Resources--http://going-global.wikispaces.com/Resources which includes Collaborative Projects Links--http://going-global.wikispaces.com/Resources#toc14 which itself includes 'Connecting Across Continents' Sample Collaborative Projects--http://globallyconnectedproj.wikispaces.com/ which eventually leads to an explanation of the collaborative project; 'Connecting Across Continents' Explanation Video--http://k12onlineconference.org/?p equals 335 but the actual project is , 'The Reading Connection' [K-6]--thereading connection.wikispaces.com

CLASS 8 01/28/09

STUDENT TECH PLAN INPUT

About students' having input into district tech plans since a discoonect exists bewteen how they use technology on their own versus in or for school ... as the new guard of teachers who use tech tools as comfortably as the alphabet or the times table become the teachers and administrators writing the district tech plans over the next decade, tech plans, still written by teachers and maybe still without student input, will, nonetheless, better match student use of technology in school with student use of technology out of school.

Furthermore, even if survey tools allow student input to district tech plan surveys, independent of technology, the issue of a child's view not being as comprehensive as that of a grown-up makes the child's view of lesser weight, allowing them to be kids without shouldering the adult burden of the import of decision-making about district tech plans. Just because technology might make all votes appear equal, they are not.

TWITTER'S USEFULNESS AND LONGEVITY

About the NY Times Twitter article, it seems it is a handy screening and linking tool to get current useful info. Plus, it does encourage being succinct. However, ironically, while hours can go by using it, it enourages lack of patience with listening to an individual develop an idea over pages and pages or minutes and minutes.

CONFERENCE VIDEO #3: BLOGS IN EFL CLASSROOM
Students, with varying degrees of participation and skill, as in any other assignment, used blogs both to learn how to use them and to better learn a foreign language, the blog's providing both forum for prolonged and varied discussion.

CONFERENCE VIDEO #4: PEEK INTO ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM HEAVILY USING ELECTRONICS--
http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=553
With only three student computers, this creative, organized, and tech-savy teacher provides second graders with traditional and digital skills. Includes some helpful references for practicing math operations (the tutpup website), spelling (spelling city.com), or keyboarding (dancenet typing site). Shows not just what's out there but what is being done for enhancing learning by using tech (limited hardware but extensive web links) in classroom.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMENT: While listening to the BBC, my husband told me how a flood trapped thousands of tourists at a famous but remote Inca site in Peru. While some were able to be helicoptered out, the BBC asked the stranded tourists to e-mail them about being a tourist stranded by a flood at an ancient ruin with help eventually, weather-permitting, on the way. Therefore, as the "Adoration" director would say, technology made interesting insights available. However, the tourists themselves, who sent e-mail to the BBC or not, were still humans dealing with the intra- and inter-personal fears and discomforts of Nature's making them stranded in an uninhabited but historical jungle with mostly strangers.

My thoughts on Kim Cofin's quote

Issac Newton said: " If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." I believe collaboration is key to education and learning. I am lucky to work with highly qualified and creative people in the math department at Silver Lake. As a team we were able to bring our MCAS scores up 9.5 points from the previous year. This class is the perfect example of collaboration at work. Several of my building colleaques are in the class and we connect regularly, give support and encouragement when needed. I am privileged to be able to stand on the shoulders of many giants in my department. ~(thank you Joe, Pam, Steve and Laurie)

Comment on Ken Robinson's video clip

I just watched the Ken Robinson video clip. I enjoyed it but do not totally agree that schools are killing creativity. As an educator I feel my creative wings have been clipped. While at Silver Lake I have worked under four principals, each bringing their own flavor to the building. We have also suffered budget cuts. Luckily we have had our math and ELA coordinators reinstated and although one does not like the watchful eyes they have, it is comforting to know they are first in the line with the MCAS firing squad.
Perhaps I should address the elephant in the room now, I refer to MCAS. Let me just say I am not a fan of it. I think it stifles my teaching and the creativity of students. You are not suppose to teach to the test but I do, we all do. I believe it causes more stress for me than it does the student. I agree there needs to be some accountability but I find it ironic that we are taught to teach one way yet we test another way. Ken Robinson says that "creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value." Scott Adams says "creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes." MCAS testing seems to stifle creativity, not our schools and teachers.