This is the final blog of a series about using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. This section looks at  our school’s “practice run” using blogs in the classroom and the lessons we learnt.

BEGINNING BLOGGERS

We had a clear purpose, and support from the school leadership to move forward on the weblogs. Once we started our blogs, eleven in all, it became clear that we needed some guidelines to define the tone and purpose of the class blog pages. One of the surprising comments from teacher who looked at the work the others were doing but wasn’t actually a participant was that “this could be used by parents to compare teachers.” Clearly this wasn’t the tone that we wanted.

In retrospect and for the future the main philosophy /guiding principals should be:

• The class blogs are collective blogs to give you and your students a voice and a way to communicate with the local and global community. For example if you browse through “ejourney with technokids” you can see the opportunities that Web 2.0 has opened up for communicating and collaborating. According to the interview transcript shown on the blog, the students particularly enjoy talking to students in another country.
• The class blog is an avenue for students’ to construct meaning through reflection and sharing their learning with an authentic audience. TaNuj^’s Weblog is an excellent example of a student reflection. It is also for teachers as can be seen by Dean Groom’s response to the student blog.
• The blog can add impetus to the Inquiry Process through collaboration with experts in the field. [In M3’s blog on Sustainability the students each give their ideas in their own words adding to the knowledge of the individual.
• It is an opportunity to showcase your grade and the work that you and your students do, and to keep parents and the community informed.

However the impact was immediate. The communication about classroom work in the first few blogs was far more than had gone home in the past year. It was visual, informative and varied according to the class, just as each class is different each blog had an individual feel to it and the added bonus was that the first comments were from students.

Conclusion

My initial idea sounded like a simple solution to a problem. Now I understand how complex it really is and how much work there is still to do. I also understand that it was absolutely necessary to take this step…leap, …plunge into web 2.0. In fact I find it difficult to image a classroom that should not be using the web 2.0 tools in some way. I am inclined to agree with Hargadon when he said it was bigger than the printing press

One last example of web 2.0 in education, and perhaps my favorite, is an infant grade in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in Canada. The students have pre-service teachers as blogging buddies. The student teachers follow one child’s writing in Mrs. Cassidy’s blog throughout the year, responding to the child’s blogs, but noting the development in writing over the year. A win win situation all around. In an interview Cassidy explains what she does in her classroom and how each student has a blog, which is an online portfolio, and how blogging buddies work with her students. (Cassidy, WOW2 Show #91, 2008). Clearly Cassidy is an outstanding educator with very good technological skill. She has many awards to her credit, but Cassidy has shown that student age is no barrier to using Web 2.0 tools with students and how powerful it can be for communicating, creating and collaborating.

Additional Helpful Links
http://deangroom.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/the-3rs-are-now-the-3ts/

http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2006/09/posting_student.html

This is part 2 of a series of blogs about using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. This section looks at the reasons why we need to change the way we teach to include web 2.0 tools.

What Do the Experts Say About Web2.0 Technology in Education? – Part 2

Steve Hargadon- “Web 2.0 is the future of Education” (Hargadon, 2008)

Hargadon is director of the K12 Open Technologies Initiative at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), and the founder of Classroom 2.0. The social network Classroom 2.0 has over 13,000 members who are(Classroom 2.0, 2008) interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. He is well respected and very active in writing and speaking about Web 2.0 issues relating to education.

Hargadon believes “that the“ read/write Web, or what we are calling Web 2.0, will culturally, socially, intellectually, and politically have a greater impact than the advent of the printing press. (Hargadon, 2008)

He identifies ten trends that have particular importance for education and learning. I have summarized and combined the trends into categories that I think will make sense and be relevant to our school situation.

Information, collaboration and opportunity are part of our core business as educators. We have a responsibility and a moral obligation as teachers to help students access the tools they will need to make sense of their real and online world. Web2.0 is already part of all forms of modern communication, providing access and opportunities now and in the future so it must be included in the school curriculum.

David Warlick

David Warlick  is an educator, author and consultant in educational technology. He is a strong supporter of Web 2.0 and advocates that teachers take advantage of the unique capabilities of the technology.

“David Warlick has been an innovator and leader in the field of educational technology and a prolific programmer. His classroom blogging site, Class Blogmeister, serves more than 100,000 users, and his attribution tool, Citation Machine, receives more than a half-million page views a day.”(Warlick D. , 2006, p. Bio)

“Blogs have grown like a range fire and they have exerted amazing influence on our lives, causing us to redefine journalism and political activism. Blogs also hold enormous potential for education as teachers and administrators have a new avenue for informing and inviting the broader learning community and for students as they learn to communicate by becoming part of the global conversation.”(Warlick D. F., 2005, p. 5)

He discusses the way our economic system has changed from the Agricultural Age through the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age that we have today. He explains how and why the curriculum must change to address the nature of information that is a result of technology.

He groups the Web 2.0 outcomes into three purposeful areas for educators and students. Collaboration, communication and information are three essential elements for rich inquiry based classrooms. There is no easier way to achieve these elements than to use the web 2.0 technology.

“Today, the world is a different place. Our sense of the future has changed, our students are different, and the very nature of information has changed. Technology has advanced at a rate that would have been unbelievable to me when I was growing up. As a result, there is a fundamental question that faces us today, as educators and as communities. What do children need to be learning today? ..and How do they need to be learning it?”(Warlick D. , 2006, p. Welcome)

References:

Classroom 2.0. (2008). Main. (Hargadon, Producer) Retrieved Nov 12, 2008, from Classroom 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com/

Hargadon, S. (2008, July 25). Web 2.0 is the Future of Education. Retrieved November 2008, from Steve Hargadon K-12 educational technology: collaborative web technologies, free and open source software, and the future of education. : http://www.stevehargadon.com/2008/07/web-20-is-future-of-education-talk.html

Warlick, D. (2006). Retrieved Nov 12, 2008, from CoLearners: http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?page_id=3

Warlick, D. F. (2005). Raw Materials for the Mind. Raleigh, North Carolina, USA: The Landmark Project.

Convert Your Web Page to Web 2.0 and Your Staff Along with It. #1

This is the first in a series of blogs describing our school’s journey to using Web 2.0 technology in our classrooms . It includes the background research, reflection on a trial run, and problems and possible solutions.

Why Change to Web 2.0?

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is not a new invention but a shift in the use and capabilities of the World Wide Web. Previously the Internet was used mostly to retrieve information but now, due to changes in the software, users can easily and without technical knowledge participate as contributors, collaborate online and have access to online software.

“These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies (the practice of catgorising content through tags).” (Stilton Studios, 2008)

Teachers and students who participate in Web 2.0 have powerful tools to construct knowledge, collaborate locally and globally and to be creative with many powerful and free online tools (think, communicate  and create).

Part 1: The People:

Since discovering web2.0 (blogging, online personal learning networks, wikis) I can’t help but feel all teachers should know and use these tools. I’m not sure if it is part of human nature that we have to share and bring others onboard to think the way we do because it is reaffirming or because we believe it is important and our duty to nurture our peers.  I feel there is an urgency to inform teachers about the educational online world. So much is going on in the “webasphere” especially in education, that if teachers are not connected then I fear they are being left behind and can only provide an outdated education program.

Part 2: Community  & Communication

The web site at our school is professionally designed and provides lots of information for parents and prospective families about the history of the school, the curriculum it offers, newsletters, contact details etc. However the communication is directed one way- out to the community. Even then only one or two people in the school have the technical knowledge required to upload information. Putting student work on the web page for viewing is limited by the time it takes one person to do it and without any avenue for feedback, one wonders if anyone even sees it.

Part 3: The Solution:

To solve both problems I believed we could convert the web page to weblogs and by giving the staff ownership of their own class blog they would begin to learn about web 2.0. This sounds simple, but of course there are many complications and responsibilities when you combine publishing material to the wider community, students work, and multiple teachers with a wide range of skills and knowledge.

•    Student safety and privacy,

•    school integrity, and

•    teacher’s professional image

…all have to be considered and protected. And this is a big change in the underlying philosophy of a school, which until now has had almost complete control of material that was published or written to the school community. The school now has to consider the “digital identity” that it is creating.

The Australian, Victorian Department of Education has links to documents, advise and help guides for schools and teachers who want to start their own web 2.0 pages. I have linked to some of the material below.

Documents School Must Have

Internet Acceptable Use Policy for Students

Student Images Agreement

Acceptable Use Policy for School (or Department’s) ICT Systems

Documentation Teachers Should Read

Copyright Information Sheet for Schools(National Copyright Unit, 2008)

Student safety and blogging(DEECD, 2008)

Global Teacher – Blog Directory and Web 3.0 Community(Global Teacher)

It is important to have the essential cyber safety rules and protocols in place before starting weblogs to protect student online identity. For example

• Student photos if the student can be easily recognized will not be used
• Only first name and grade, or initials, or an online name will be used
• All comments will be moderated by the teacher before appearing on the page

In our trial period we decided to follow the Department’s(DEECD, 2008) advice with becoming “proficient with your own teacher blog” (DEECD, 2008) before creating any student blogs. From my own experience the best way to understand how blogging can facilitate learning is to have your own blog and this is one time in teaching ICT that I think it is important for teachers to have prior learning before introducing it to their students.

References

DEECD. (2008, Oct 21). Teacher > Global > Blogs. (S. o. (DEECD), Producer) Retrieved Nov 12, 2008, from Department of Education and Early Childhood Development State Government of Victoria

Stilton Studios. (2008). Glossary. Retrieved November 12, 2008, from Stilton Studios: http://www.stiltonstudios.net/glossary.htm#w

Audio e-Learning – Helping students make sense of their learning!

How often do we ask students to rewrite information in their own words only to find what they have written is nonsensical or merely a rearrangement of the original text with some synonyms thrown in (the clever ones can do this with the online thesaurus) ? It is my experience that students are reasonably good at collecting information but much poorer at making sense of it. They can travel three quarters of the distance on their inquiry-learning journey but fail to fully complete it. They struggle to use the information they have collected to reconstruct the meaning for themselves. They might appear to have done the work but have not really answered their query or created new knowledge for themselves. However, when you ask students to paraphrase or read what they have written they will admit that they are not sure what it means or that it does not make sense. Gordon Wells emphasizes the importance of speech and writing as a means of building and clarifying knowledge.

“the fact that the processes of thinking, such as categorizing, hypothesizing, reasoning, and evaluating, are not only realized in language, in the sense of being made manifest in speech and writing, but also actually constructed and improved through its mediating means.” (WELLS, 2001)

• Students speak before they write and if we really want to know what they are thinking then the first form of communication should be oral especially for primary students who are still in the early stages of developing their writing skills.
• Finding the words to verbally report the meaning is different to finding the words to make a written report.
• Writing is more difficult than speaking and so students are much more likely to write things that do not make sense than they are to say them.
• When they speak they get immediate feedback by listening to themselves and realize that what they have said doesn’t make sense or that they don’t understand the material enough to articulate it.

While planning the curriculum for students in ICT my goal was to have the final product a spoken one so that students were more likely to access and construct information and new knowledge. I wanted to have students more involved in the process by making the realization of new information spoken not just written.

Two examples of Audio e-Learning in Practice

1. PowerPoint with Oral Commentary

My first exercise was to have grade five and six students reflect on what they had found out in their first inquiry unit. The students had completed a PowerPoint with information about their learning styles (visual, auditory or tactile/kinesthetic) and in which ways they were intelligent according to The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Wikipedia) defined by Howard Gardner. They had used online surveys to gather the information and wrote about the results on the slides, noting whether they thought the results were an accurate reflection or not. The final requirement was to create a verbal commentary as a summary of the information on each slide, to enhance the information presented, but not read it word for word to the audience. The students created a series of short sound files and inserted them onto the appropriate slide to play automatically within the slide show.

Technically this was not difficult, but it did challenge a number of students in terms of making the final step in their learning, constructing knowledge for themselves from the information and linking it to their experiences.

The final product with the verbal commentary was insightful and much more engaging for the audience who are usually teachers and other students. Listening to the presentations quickly gave the teacher a clear indication of the student’s critical thinking skills and at which stage of the Bloom’s Taxonomy they are operating. (CHURCHES, 2008)

2. Radio Show

The students at my school have a live one-hour radio show on a community radio station each week (97.7FM 3SER Wed 2-3pm). All students in grade 5 and 6 who want to present on the radio have the opportunity to do. The show involves script writing, collaboration with peers (they work in teams of 4), careful selection of music and practice to deliver their scripts with a credible and interesting voice.

The program has certain elements that students are expected to talk about such as their interests, a community oriented subject and a link to the current classroom inquiry unit but it can include other original material such as stories, poems, songs etc. The radio show provides a genuine audience for their work. The focus is clearly on their oral expression and the digital recording equipment is the key to helping students evaluate and improve their skills.
The students take advantage of every opportunity to interview special visitors to the school. They use the pre-recorded interviews on their show and if applicable spend time editing and adding sound effects or music to enhance the interview. Creating surveys and analyzing the results to share with their radio audience has been another popular topic for some students. This is a very powerful learning experience integrating a number of key curriculum areas with genuine purpose, written (script) and verbal (presentation on radio) articulation of results and authentic audience.

The final element of that has been added this semester is that the students select a 2-3 minute interval of their show to Podcast to iTunes . Students are excited that their work is available in the “real world” and that their parents and friends can download their personal podcast.

As the year went on it became easier to see how to add an audio component to the lessons. More importantly it became clear that students needed to make audio files as a part of their everyday work to help them develop literacy and thinking skills. There are more examples of audio e-learning on our school blog from various grade levels using a variety of programs.

WELLS, G. (2001). Action, Talk and Text: The Case for Dialogic Inquiry. In G. WELLS, Action, Talk and Text: Learning and Teaching Through Inquiry,. Teachers College Press.

Dueling Mics via Flickr by roland

Photo : students completing a radio show in our own studio

I have always been a strong believer in the importance of students’ oral language as a key step in their literacy development and in clarifying their thinking while learning. I also believe, as teachers, we tend to gloss over its importance, by not giving enough time in the school program for specific oral language development. For example the Early Years Literacy Program (used in Victorian primary schools in Australia) prescribes an hour for reading and an hour for writing every school day for students in grades P -4. Where is the dedicated time for developing oral language, especially in the early years?
Last year I was the full time ICT teacher for students in P-6 at my school and in an effort to improve my own skills in planning for oral language development I took every opportunity to introduce an audio aspect to the ICT lessons that I taught.
Below are some examples of how to integrate audio in the classroom.

Audio e-Learning and the Curriculum

It is a logical step that we should be spending more time developing students oral language skills if we want them to be good at using language to help process thinking at higher levels. I have selected the major teaching emphases for speaking recommended by the West Australian First Steps Oral Language Program to show how we can implement a digital audio e-learning program for students.
The West Australian First Steps, Oral Language Developmental Continuum was designed to provide teaching strategies to ensure that students achieve the National English Outcomes set out in the National Profiles. (EVANS & ALLEN, 1996).
The list below features an overview of the aspects of oral language that should be developed specifically to improve the student’s ability to use the speaking component of language. The features are common to all phases of development but of course the level of performance and material would become more complex as students progressed.

Major Teaching Emphases (EVANS & ALLEN, 1996)

Components, which are common to all phases of development.

• focus on language structures and patterns through songs, chants, rhymes and stories and the aesthetic features of writing
• develop student’s ability to adjust their language to suit particular purposes, audiences and situations – structure experiences that challenge students to select and use different styles of language to suit a range of audiences and purposes
• develop and extend student’s use of vocabulary in different contexts -promote the use of subject-specific vocabulary
• help students to give and receive simple explanations, information and instructions – help students to give and respond to increasingly complex explanations and instructions

Audio e-Learning

Examples of how Audio e-Learning can enhance learning

• Record and listen to students – Share with the grade, Podcast those that are popular and publish to web page. (Arrowhead Elementary School) is a great example
• Audio e-learning is the ideal way for students to practise language to suit particular audiences. Recorded can work can be shared with the grade, parents, year level, school level, published to the web and or used on a Radio Show. Recording allows for the students to receive feedback and to polish their performance.
• When students create a commentary for their Inquiry learning topics, they have the opportunity to demonstrate the use of subject specific language in context.
• Screencasting using simple recorders that come with Interactive whiteboards (Notebook Recorder is part of the SMARTBoard software) or free software downloaded from the internet such as “Jing” is an great way to create a procedural text that has a visual and verbal element. Sceencasting records all the movement on the computer screen while it records the student’s oral commentary. Eric Marcos’s Mathtrain website is an excellent example of screencasting.  (Mathtrain.tv)

There are many ways that technology can help students develop the components of oral language. The list I have provided is not exhaustive and is growing everyday as technology improves. It can be as simple as attaching a microphone to the computer and recording a sound file for a PowerPoint presentation or as complex as blogging with a mobile phone (Year 10 Agriculture).  Photostory and Voicethread are both excellent, free, software where the students’ voice can be the main form of communication.

Talk to Me -Flickr photo via Daniel F. Pigatto

Microphone – Flickr photo via sparetomato

We have a Coaching program at our school where all teachers nominate another staff member as a coach. The staff Coaches have had some training in how to be a Coach and are from the School Leadership team and Expert Teacher Class of teachers. The purpose of the Coaching Program is to help teachers achieve personally chosen professional development goals.

Michele Martin writes about Mental Clutter in her blog the Bamboo Project and I can see that one of the outcomes of our Coaching program is to help teachers reduce mental clutter. I know at least that it helps me define what my big goals and priorities should be. Losing sight of goals is one of the main offenders of mental clutter that Michele has identified.

“Related to the whole goal/priority thing, I realized that I’m not really clear in my head about what my big goals and priorities should be. I’d become so reactive and responsive to work and issues coming into me, I lost track of what I really want to have happen. This created its own form of mental clutter that created a vicious cycle, blocking me from really knowing what I want to do work-wise.”

The Coaching program has the potential to keep teachers on track. It is very easy to become reactive and responsive to situations at school. Issues have to dealt with as they occur and often hijack our day but it is important to keep an eye on the big goals. Having a Coach around is a physical reminder of what we promised ourselves we would achieve.

Flickr photo via speartoons