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.

>

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/

Week 5: What a View!

Have you checked out Google Street View yet? You should because Google Street View has probably already checked out you! You’d be surprised where you and your class can go. Reading a book set in Iowa? Might as well “drive” down Temple Ave. in Shell Rock so that students can get a glimpse of the vast terrain. Or maybe “drive” by the Guggenheim on 5th Ave. in New York City. It’s easy—just visit Google Maps, plug in an address or just zoom in on an area you wish to “visit.” Look for the little yellow guy and drag him over to one of the street views that are available in that area (available streets will be highlighted in blue).

This week, tell us how you might use Google Street View in your classroom. Be creative! It’s not just a mapping tool. When I looked at my house using Street View, I was able to use clues (evidence) in the view to determine the day and time (well, I narrowed it down to a 4-hour period) they must have driven down my street.

OR

If there isn't a way you could use Street View, visit the Google for Educators page or the Google blog (side note: it's really amazing what Google offers beyond search) to to learn about some of the other great resources Google offers that might be useful to you and your students. Let us know what you find and how you might use it.

Week 4: Seek and Ye Shall Find (a Threaded Discussion Add-on for Your Blog)

Many of you are already using the discussion feature of your SWIFT site to host online discussions with students. Some teachers use it as homework prior to an in-class discussion and some as a way to extend lessons beyond the school day. If you want to learn more about using the discussion feature of SWIFT, see page nine of the SWIFT User Guide. One of the limitations of the SWIFT discussion feature, however, is that the discussions aren’t threaded. This means that as students post comments, the comments simply appear in chronological order, making it difficult for a student (or the teacher) to respond to a particular comment that may have appeared early on in the discussion. Threaded discussions allow people to respond to particular comments; they allow the conversation to branch off into different directions.

Unfortunately, Blogger (the tool we’re using for this class/blog) also doesn’t offer threaded discussions, making it difficult for me (or you) to reply directly to someone’s comment. However, a solution has been found! I have uploaded a third party application that will now allow for threaded commenting from this point forward on the blog. Yippee! You’ll notice when you comment this week that the interface looks a little different—but fear not, all you’ll need to do is type in your name and email address when you post your comment. (And, if you see someone else’s comment you’d like to comment on, go ahead—that can count as your comment.)

So this week’s lesson has two themes (see below). Chose one to comment on this week (each theme has two prompts to choose from).

Theme 1: Using online discussions (SWIFT or other tool) with students

a. If you have experience with online discussions, what tips do you have to share? What have been the benefits?

OR

b. What might be some ways you could incorporate online discussions into your class? If you’re new to this tool, what questions do you have for those who already use it?

Theme 2: If you believe it should be possible, it probably is—all you have to do is look.
(Back story: I knew Blogger didn’t offer threaded discussions, but I figured that I’m not the only person who wished it did, so I Googled “adding threaded discussion to Blogger.” That led me to a blog post about third party applications I could add to the blog to increase interactivity. That’s where I learned about Intense Debate—the application I’m using to provide threaded discussion for our class on this blog. Within 15 minutes I had followed the step-by-step directions for editing the blog template, copied and inserted the HTML, and—voila!—we had threaded comments on the blog. Did I really know what I was doing? No. I don’t know HTML. I don’t know how to edit a blog’s internal template. But I do know how to search for an answer to a question/challenge I have AND I know how to follow directions. That’s all it took.)

I offer this as evidence that there is a solution out there for most of our challenges if we look and are willing to invest in a little risk taking. If I had seen this issue as a problem, I might have just begrudgingly accepted my plight (no threaded commenting) and would not have investigated further. However, I felt comfortable taking matters into my own hands and did some self-directed learning—something I think we (and our students) are going to be expected to do more and more of in this new digital world. In my role, I am confronted by this reality day after day, yet every time I am amazed and delighted. What about you?

a. Share a time you went online with a question/challenge and “taught” yourself how to do something new.

OR

b. Do it now . . . what’s a question/challenge you have in your class right now? Go online and look for your solution. How did it go?

Week 3: You're #1 with Teachers First

Great ideas and comments last week--check them out if you haven't already! I hope some of you may choose to create an assignment like this for your students. If you do, let me know--I'd love to help you do some of the pre-planning and thinking. Brooke commented that now she needed to learn how to make the videos. I really believe students, when shown examples, can figure something like this out. We don't have to be the experts (thank goodness!). But we do have to help students learn how to learn and provide clear rubrics that spell out the expectations. That doesn't mean they won't need help, stumble as they go, etc. but I think we need to embrace that and make it part of the assignment. Okay, enough of that . . . on to this week's topic.

New Web 2.0 tools and digital resources come online every day. Many of these tools and resources offer intriguing possibilities for teachers in our district who want to leverage technology to meet one or more of the components of Classroom 10. Others are simply Classroom 1 and 5 content and activities dressed up in digital attire. In order to avoid the trap of using technology for technology’s sake, savvy teachers need to make thoughtful choices about which tools and resources they want to use with their students.

Some teachers read blogs like Free Technology for Teachers and Moving at the Speed of Creativity to find out about new tools. Another resource is the TeachersFirst website. This site “is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. [They offer their] own professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our subject/grade level search, keyword search, or extensive menus.”

One feature of TeachersFirst that I particularly like is their weekly email that contains a link to the featured sites of the week. When I click on this link each week I can quickly scan through the dozen or so sites, each listed with a brief description including grade-level appropriateness, and select which ones I want to investigate further.

This Week's Assignment
This week spend some time at TeachersFirst. Sign up for their weekly email or just search for tools/resources by grade-level and subject area. Get a taste of the featured sites for this week. Poke around and find one tool or resource that is intriguing to you. But don’t fall into the “technology for technology’s sake” trap. Find a tool or resource that could be used to meet a Classroom 10 learning goal in your classroom.

Have fun exploring, then come back here, and post your find (include the link to the site) explaining how it could be used to meet a Classroom 10 learning goal. (Don't worry--keep it simple, you're not writing a lesson plan here, you're just sharing an idea.)

Week 2--Simple: More Complicated Than It Seems

Wow! What a great response! There are nearly 50 of you taking this class (and over on the Elementary version, there's another 50). Way to be a life-long learner! If you haven't checked out people's comments from last week, you should take a quick look at the huge variety of participants' backgrounds and interests. We've got a great group. One clarification, some of you indicated that you thought you would be learning about blogging in this class. Indeed, you will learn a little bit about blogging since we're using one. But while there will be at least one or two posts specifically related to blogging, our real goal is to expose you to a whole variety of tech tools and resources. So, in that vein, let's get started with this week's topic.

Last week I mentioned the folks at Common Craft and their Plain English videos. One of the things I find so intriguing about their product (simple explanations) is that the technology they use to make their videos has been around for decades. Twenty years ago, if you had some dry erase markers, a white board, paper, scissors, and a video camera (and a clever mind, of course), you too could have made similar videos.

However, it’s only in the last few years that you could have so easily created a market for your product. Social media like YouTube, Twitter, and blogs allow content like that offered by Common Craft to be shared both effortlessly and quickly. Indeed, the world our students will live and work in is rapidly changing. Someone with a good idea and an internet connection can start a business, find an audience, and/or collaborate with others from around the world.

This week I’d like you to do two things:

1. Visit the Common Craft site and do some self-directed learning. Want to know more about Twitter? Watch Twitter in Plain English. Want to really understand how the Electoral College works? Watch Electing a U.S. President in Plain English. Or, perhaps you’re new to social networking—check out Protecting Reputations Online in Plain English.

2. Consider how the simple explanations that Common Craft produce actually require some fairly high-level thinking. In order to produce a simple explanation for a general audience one needs to have a thorough understanding of the concept and the ability to tease out its essential components, an understanding of people’s background knowledge, possible misconceptions, etc. Sounds like complex thinking to me.

Now for your prompt: How might you capitalize on the thinking required to make such videos? What possibilities exist in your class for students to demonstrate their understanding of a concept by making a “plain English” video? Share a concept from your content area that you could ask students to demonstrate in this manner. Then, identify one criteria you would want to include in a rubric if you were actually going to assign and grade a project like this. (Essentially, I'm asking you to offer characteristics of what makes a good "plain English" explanation.)

Welcome to the Secondary 10Tech Learn and Earn Class!

Welcome, everyone!

Over the course of the next 12 weeks (excluding breaks, of course), I'll be sharing a variety of technology tools and resources with you. I'll be using this blogging format to post a new "lesson" each week (on Tuesdays). Along with reading and following the directions in each week's post, I'll prompt you to offer a comment related to that week's lesson.

Since we're using a blog for this class, this week's lesson is intended to help you become familiar with how blogs work. Begin by watching this short video from the geniuses (I think) at Common Craft:


If you liked the way the Common Craft folks explain things, check out their other Explainations in Plain English; you'll be glad you did. (I particularly like Zombies in Plain English, but I digress.)

As mentioned in the video, one of the perks of blogging is the community it creates. One way we'll be taking advatage of that feature is through commenting. Commenting on a blog is easy. Simply look for the comment link at the bottom of a post. Click on it to leave your comment. After you've typed in your comment, you will be asked to identify yourself. For our purposes it is important that you DO NOT identify yourself as "Anonymous." Either create and use a Google account that idetifies you accurrately (if your username is iluvsoccer72, we won't know who you are) or select the Name/URL option and type in your name.

So there you have it! This week's lesson is nearly complete. But before we're done, you need to post a comment. Since we're just getting started I'd like your comment to introduce yourself. Include why you're taking this class and what you're hoping to learn.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

Just a reminder, comments are due by Monday morning, 8:00 a.m. Have a great week!