I started this post with a view to have the “Here Comes Learning” presentation below, support my staff Professional Development presentation about the importance of blogging. I’m sure a number of teachers still wonder why they should consider starting a blog. I spent some time working through the considerable information that Will Richardson presents in just the first twelve minutes (the rest of the presentation will have to wait for another post) and now I realise the question is much bigger than just blogging or wikis.

It’s not “Why should I blog?” but “Why should I be connected?”

Will Richardson is a renown author and leader in the field of Web2.0 technologies in education. He was a presenter at the NECC09 in Washington and I, fortunately, was able to attend the session. His message to teachers is that they must be part of the huge technological shift that is happening, that they must use and own the technologies so that they understand them and so that they will ready to teach students what they need to know about using web2.0 technology in ways that are effective for learning.

Here Comes Learning by W.Richardson and SNBeach

Here Comes Learning – Wiki with more links to this presentation

My summary of the Importance of Teachers being Connected by Will Richardson

• Students use the online world for social reasons but, also, increasingly to learn things -see the video about the bow drill which Will mentions throughout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuFsDN8dsJU&feature=channel_page
• Will quotes Clay Shirky when he says that the ability to form global groups about things we are passionate about which include all levels of expertise and the power of the group in an online world are part of signiificant change – a “Techtonic Shift.
• We have incredible access to raw data (see the Iran tweets, photos). We no longer depend on the traditional news sources to know what is happening. We need skills to critically analyse the information for importance and accuracy.
• These new technologies are having an impact on businesses. Companies monitor the conversation and how people form groups around their products. This is easily seen in Twitter when businesses follow and respond to those who use their product name in their tweets.
• Information Literacy has changed not just the way we write (Twitter and blogs) but the way we read and critically analyse information. New literacy skills are needed and suggested by the National Council of English Teachers :

Develop proficiency with the tools of technology Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

• Students are using the technologies Primarily to Socialise but now they are beginning to connect in interest based ways tapping into the millions of potential teachers, who are out there, when and where they need to do it

The problem becomes that many children/students have no adults that can teach them how to use technologies for ways that are effective for learning. Teachers need to understand these technologies, understand the shifts, own the technologies and make connections for themselves.They need to take time to immerse themselves in internet type environments to meet the challenge of providing students with the skills they will need in the 21st Century.

The second part of this presentation was concerned with the Professional Development model that will support teachers to develop deep seated skills and connections.

Blogging like anything else has protocols and “political correctness” that you become aware of once you are part of the environment. Linking is one the big must dos, not just because it is the right thing to give credit if you have used others ideas and writings, but for self interest because it helps people find your blog as well.

Others have written about this in a far more eloquent way than I have so the following links are ones that I have found practical and very informative.

This post from the Problogger clearly explains why you should link in your blog and how it can help you develop an audience.

The Edublogger tells you how to link to other blogs and gives the following reasons for linking

1. A person’s blog if you mention a blogger.
   
2. The post if you are talking about a particular post on a blog”

Linking is an important part of blogging but do it for the right reasons. Don’t overlink or it’s a bit like crying wolf. Readers will only follow your blog if you have genuine content with relevant links.

Photo thanks to Flickr

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.

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

based on the Connect Learning with David Warlick podcast episode 98

I was listening to the podcast with Chris Lehmann about Educon 2.0 Conference. Chris Lehmann is the “Principal” of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. It is a school with Year 9 and 10 students -and growing- with a progressive philosophy using web 2.0 technology to achieve their goal. They collaborate with their students in all matters, work closely together as a staff and always have the “scientific” approach as the understory for their pedagogy.
Inquiry Research Collaboration Presentation Reflection
It sounds like a dream school, one that is beginning to look like a true school of the future, one that has stepped out of the mould away for the stereotypical institutions that we know as schools. It is no wonder that Chris Lehmann talks so enthusiastically about his school.

Secondly, this is the second podcast that I have heard the same story told the by podcast author. In this scenario David Warlick had his podcast notes on iTunes infected by porn spam and he had only found out about it through his Twitter network. He didn’t know the person who had found the spam bu the way that the spam was discovered was by a podcast user who didn’t know David but made a comment on Twitter for someone to tell the him of the spam. This is exactly the same as the previous story but different people. “An example of the “bigger mind” a community of people who you are in conversation with.”

This is the whole point of Web 2.0. It is about the community of like-minded people who you may never have met but are “in conversation” with.
I feel I am at the edge of this conversation not quite in there. I know it is difficult at the beginning to build the conversation because a conversation can’t be one way. It means having to have something to say too and being prepared to make comments and read what others have to say. I know that it is worth it because I can see the conversations that others are having.

It is the biggest revolution in professional communication in my lifetime. Instant messaging is huge but the way this has grown to become a tool for Personal Learning and Professional Growth is powerful.

Drupal a dutch word to mean drop even though the original idea was to name it dorp as in small village or community (typo). Another powerful open source product that might help revamp our very static web page into a dynamic one where a number of people can contribute. Drupal is for web site design but promotes a collaborative ownership.
It is interesting how quickly State of the Art web pages become old hat. The only way really to manage to keep it up-to-date is share the input. The static nature of web pages was a result of the specialised knowledge in designing web pages, uploading material, and or using html. According to John Jones Drupal may offer a solution.
I like the idea of letting some students have leadership for their grades in knowing the “how to” put it up with the support of their class teacher and peers in choosing “what” should represent their class on the web. I think I will try something like this next year.
The idea of having a consultant building or supporting schools to build web sites (as John Jones does) would be fantastic if it was funded by the education department. Think of the promotion for government schools!
“Moving at the Speed of Creativity”
Podcast259: Drupal for Education by John Jones 1:05:10 18/06/08 This podcast is a recording of a presentation by John Jones on June 12, 2008, titled Drupal for Education.
The Drupal web site looks to me like it would take some serious work to learn Drupal but it assures me that if I wanted to invest some time it would be possible. Maybe next holidays…