Week 12: The Last Hurrah!

Welcome to the last week of Learn and Earn! Brandon and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you over the course of the past three months. Each week we continued to be impressed with the insightful and thorough comments you offered in response to the assignment and in response to each other. Your engagement in this effort really exemplifies Tahoma teachers as lifelong learners and risk takers. We hope it has been a worthwhile experience for you.


A couple housekeeping issues:
For those of you taking this class for clock hours, soon we will be sending out the paperwork for you to fill out and return.

Also, don’t forget, this Thursday from 3:30-5:30 we’ll be hosting a fact-to-face session in the Teaching and Learning Library. Just drop by for as long as you want to get help with a project, make up a missing “assignment,” etc. Yes, there will be after school snacks.

This week, for your last “assignment” we’re asking two things:

1. Go back to one or two previous posts and take a look at your classmates’ comments. Choose one or two of these comments to respond to by answering someone’s question, providing your perspective on someone’s idea, offering a suggestion, etc.

2. Provide your feedback about the class using the form below.

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Week 11: Great Idea! Put It on a Post-It Note

Wallwisher is a website which allows users to post messages on an electronic bulletin board. This website gives you the ability to post a question and easily get feedback from your co-workers or students. Here are some suggestions for using Wallwisher:

• Brainstorm ideas before a unit (What do you know about the Great Depression?)
• Get ideas from staff about best teaching practices.
• Kids could post “sticky notes” recommending their favorite book.
• Answer a specific question: What types of mammals live in Washington State?

Your task for this week is to create a Wallwisher board. You may choose adults or students to respond. Once you create a board, you’ll need to either email or post the link to your SWIFT site. Instructions are on SharePoint, if you need them: How to Create a Wall for Student Comments

Assignment: In your comment below, please post the URL of your Wallwisher board (so we can click over and check it out--we won't participate unless you tell us to) along with any ideas or comments you might have regarding use of this tool.

P.S. Starting last night some teachers started having difficulty posting their comments. I'm not sure why this is happening since I can't recreate the problem from my computer. If you have troubles, AND they persist after shutting down and restarting, please let me know.

Week 10: From Mike to Me to You

One of the benefits of my job is that I occasionally (okay, often) get sucked into the Internet and usually end up discovering something worthwhile. This is a common scenario: Mike sends me an email with a link to something cool he read or found online (yes, many of my best ideas are really courtesy of Mike Maryanski--thanks, Mike!). I check it out when I find a window of time. From there anything can happen. Today, it started with a interactive site where news is hosted by ants. (Yes, you read that right: ants.) I played around with it for a bit, then I forwarded it to some of our primary teachers for their review and possible use. Then, I revistited the blog where Mike had found the reference to the ant anchors, and  that's when I found this little gem (actually it's a pretty big gem, I think) for you: Interactives, produced by Annenberg Media (they are bigwigs).

To quote Kelly Tenkely's review at the iLearn Technology blog: "Interactives is a truly amazing website for teachers and students. Interactives provides educators and students with strategies, content, and activities that can enhance and improve students’ skills in a variety of curricular areas including math, literature and language, science, history, and the arts. The site has great webquest/interactive activities on a variety of subjects for first through twelfth grades." Interactives is part of the Annenberg Media Learner.org site which offers "Teacher professional development and teacher resources across the curriculum" (to quote them). After spending just a few minutes clicking around, I realized there's a wealth of high quality resources here for teachers and students.

So check it* out and add your two cents' worth below. Did you find something you can use? What?
*By "it" you can choose Interactives, the iLearn Technology blog, or the Learner.org site.

For those of you who won't be able to resist emailing me to get the link to the news-reporting ants: http://www.whatsyournews.com/index.html

How about that? An entire post with no reference to Google. :) Have a good week!

Week 9: Copy Right with Creative Commons

Welcome back! I hope you had a nice, relaxing break. This week we'll be exploring copyright issues in the digital environment.

Until recently, students didn't really have to worry about copyright and fair use guidelines. Teachers were in danger of violating copyright law nearly every time they stepped up to a copy machine, but students were just the passive recievers of our transgresions. Things are different now. Students (and teachers) have easy and ready access to a wide array of media and digital content. Fair use guidelines permit students to use copyrighted pictures from the internet in their reports, or copyrighted music in their projects. However, fair use stops protecting them after they leave the school environment. (NOTE: We're talking about copyright issues here, not plagarism. Copyright is a legal issue. Plagarism is an academic issue. It's important to keep the issues separate. Citing a source (like a photograph) which you should always do, doesn't protect you from breaking copyright law.)

We're working on lessons that will teach students about responsible (both legal and academic) use of other's content, but in the meantime, there are a few things both teachers and students should know. Read Encouraging Student Creativity with Creative Commons over at the PBS Teachers website (which, by the way, is a fabulous resource).

This week's prompt: Think about the students you teach. How and what might you share with them related to copyright and/or Creative Commons?

Looking for more information about copyright?

• TeachersFirst collection of copyright resources
• Do You Have a Simple Explanation of Copyright? blog post at U Tech Tips (includes a handy video) 
• Kimberly's personal collection of copyright-related links.

This just in! Google Docs has added some cool new features including the ability to upload and store any document (e.g. a Word or PowerPoint file) without changing it to a Google Doc. Then there's the ability to have 50 people SIMULTANEOUSLY edit a document. Yes, that's 50! But I'm really excited about the new drawing tools.  (You didn't actually think I could refrain from talking about Google for a whole week, did you?)

Week 8: May I Present . . .

Sick of PowerPoint? Yes, there are other presentation tools out there. To see how many just take a look (right) at the array of Web 2.0 tools tagged with the word presentation. Some require a download, so you and students could use them on your personal devices, but not on school computers. Others live entirely online--nothing to download.

For this week's post I'll feature two options and one resource you might not we aware of.

Google Documents has a presentation tool. (I know I said no more Google last week, but I can't help it.) It works pretty much just like an older version of PowerPoint. Its main virtue is that it's collaborative; something that PowerPoint definitely is not. Several people can view and edit the same presentation (up to 10 people can edit at the same time). Imagine that! Instead of your students saving their PowerPoints to the public drive or passing around a jump dirve, their team project can live online--they can access it from home and school! Another benefit is that when they share it with you, you can see the revision history. Did someone say they did all the work? Well, why not just take a look. NOTE: To use Google Presentations, you need a Google Account. To have a Google Account, you must be over 13*. Another NOTE: If you want to learn more about using the collaborative nature of Google Docs, make sure you attend the Summer Conference--we'll definitely have some classes.

And now for something entirely different! Prezi! You've got to see this one to believe it. (Here's the link to the Prezi pictured to the left.) It's a zooming, non-linear presentation editor. Unfortunately, Prezi restricts its use to those over 18*, so it's off bounds for most of our students. Nonethless, I can imagine some of you using it in place of PowerPoint for some of your own presentations. When I first started playing with Prezi last year (or was it the year before?) I faced a steep learning curve because I was so used to the linear format of PowerPoint. Nonetheless, I loved the idea. So much more interesting than a traditional powerpoint--watch the 1-minute video at their site to get the idea.

Finally, do you know about Slideshare? Slideshare is a presentation hosting site. Folks from all over upload and share presentations they've made. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yes, someone probably already has made a presentation about your topic. I like browsing to see what's  available for my own learning, for examples of good (lots of images/little text) and (unfortunately) bad (few images/lots of text) presentation examples, and for slideshows I might be able to use myself.

Bonus: One more thing (sorry): Do you know about Pecha Kucha? Pecha Kucha is a presentation format devised in Tokyo in 2003. Presenters get 20 slides and 20 seconds to talk for each slide. The slides are forwarded automatically while the presenter speaks. Pecha Kucha Nights are held all over the world now. Maybe there's a Pecha Kucha Day coming to a classroom near you? Let me know, I'd love to come.

This week's assignment (choose one of the following):

1. Investigate Google Presentation, Prezi, or one of the other web 2.0 presentation tools. What do you think? Report back here.
2. Check out Slideshare's collection of presentations. Here's the link to their education section. What did you find? What could you contribute?

*I mentioned age requirements twice in this post. Why? Because we need to make sure we're aware of the age requirements sites have AND that we're having students comply with them. It's not okay to tell students to lie about their age in order to use a site. You can find age requirements in a site's Terms of Use. (Yes, you should be reading the Terms of Use--especially if you're using the site with students.)

Week 7: Can't Get Enough of Google

So, last week I asked you to submit some information using an embedded survey-like tool. (Thanks, by the way.) That tool was actually a Google Form which works with Google spreadsheets to help you collect information in a VERY EASY way. I embedded that form into the blog post, but I could have just as easily shared a link (like I did when I invited staff to submit session proposals for the summer conference). So, like I said, it's easy to create a form, but the best part is that as folks submit their information, that information is sent directly to a spreadsheet. You need a Google Account to create a form, but anyone can fill one out. Oh, and did I mention it's easy? Need convincing?

Here's a little video showing just how easy creating a form is.

Using Google Forms from 10Tech on Vimeo.

Anyone who has the link to your form can submit answers--respondents don't need a Google Account, so yes, using this with students of any age would be easy. Just post the link on your SWIFT site. You could probably even embed the code into your SWIFT site--I just haven't tried that yet. (If the words "embed code" just freaked you out, don't worry--no one expects you to do this.)

If Google Docs are new to you, you might want to learn a little more about them here.

So, for this week's assignment, two options (choose one or do both for extra credit*):

1. Give Google Forms a test run. Try it out and make one. Even if you only share it with your significant other, collect some responses. Come back here and tell us about your experience. OR
2. Can you imagine using Google Forms in your classroom/professional role? If so, how?

*No, there's not really any extra credit. :) But if it will help, I will put a star by your name in the "grade book."
Finally, I'll try not feature Google again next week. It's hard though, there are just so many cool things.

Week 6: Mid-term--How's it going?

Well, we're at the halfway point. How is it going?

For this week's assignment, I'm asking you to do three things:

1. Provide a little bit of information about your experience so far by answering these questions:
2. Revisit the previous two blog posts (find access to the archived posts in the lower right corner hand of this page), and read through folks' comments. Find at least one thing to comment on and "reply" to that comment by clicking "reply" and leaving an insight, answer, or suggestion to that comment. One of the benefits of blogging is the conversation it allows for. Imagine if we had done this class via email. I could have sent you each week's post in an email and you could have responded to me with a reply to that email. However, notice how much richer it is to see and respond to each other's thinking using the blog instead.

3. Leave a comment to this post with your "mid-term" reflection. Anything you want to share is fine, but here a few questions you might want to consider: How is this set up working for you? How does learning this way stack up next to more traditional ways of learning? Have you learned anything about the way you learn that might impact how you teach? Any suggestions for the second half of the class? Remember--commenting on someone else's post counts. And, of course, thank you for your feedback!

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bybri/2604493952/