Right from the beginning it was delicious!

Over three years ago, I started to experiment with web2.0 tools. The first tool was blogging but the second one was delicious! This opened my eyes to the wonderful world of web2.0! Here is what I could do!:-

1. Save favourites online rather than in my browser
2. Access bookmarks from any computer with the internet, anywhere around the world.
3. Look at other people’s favourite websites.
4. Create a personal learning network.
5. Find many bookmarked sites for topics I was interested in eg podcasts etc
6. Find other people who were interested in the same topics.
7. Found delicious to be user friendly, useful and great tool to show others the power, benefits of and need for web2.0. It was often used at conferences and staff PD to encourage the use of web2.0.
8. Share my online discoveries with others
9. The ability to tag and find resources quickly

Delicious featured in my top 10 web2.0 tools for the first two years and was featured in conference presentations that were made. My students were encouraged to commence their own delicicious accounts, especially those in the senior years of school.

It was with sadness that yesterday my tweet feed revealed that Yahoo was considering shutting down delicious (see also post by pcmag). Yahoo has since responded on the future of delicious.  Although I also have a diigo account, delicious has always seemed easier and more user friendly.

Here are 10 alternative sites to delicious from searchengineland. I am also intrigued with diigo and the fact that you can create web slides with bookmarked sites. See Michael Ghulin’s post on how to create the webslides and Slide Thinkfinity into the Curriculum with Diigo Slides

Announcements today are saying not to panic and that yahoo is looking for an alternative platform for delicious, so I will do little now, except

1.  read up more on the alternatives eg exporting bookmarks ,   Export, Import and Migrate Your Delicious Bookmarks and then ensuring that I move my delicious bookmarks into diigo.
2.  download a firefox applet that will save bookmarks to both delicious and diigo

Here are some sites to explore on the use of diigo (Thanks to John Pearce)

1. Examples of student learning with diigo
2. Bookmarking using diigo in the classroom and this youtube video
3. Getting started notes for diigo by John Pearce

More alternatives

1. xmarks – needs downloaded sync
2.  googlebookmark
3. pinboard – has a small annual cost

Website of the Day

Here is an interesting eBook developed by google. It shows the future direction that reading, presentation etc can take. Google has published this online book to honour the work of Tim Berners-Lee, who put invented the World Wide Web, in November,  20 years ago.

Enjoy this book, its graphics and taste the future of reading – 20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web!

What is this thing called ning?

Nings are powerful personal learning network generators. The first ning that I ever joined was classroom2.0 and from that ning alone, I have established an amazing number of connections and developed a powerful personal learning network. Too often, I forget that most people are only just learning about web2.0 tools. As I have worked with several groups of teachers over the last few weeks, most of whom are new to the technology, I wish to write some posts to help any newbies along the ejourney.  So let me introduce you to a ning.

When you logon to a ning you will be taken to the home page. The home page summarizes content. Content usually appears in chronological order.The appearance of a ning will vary depending on the moderator(s) and focus of the ning. However, on the home page of most nings you will find:-

 Tabs at the top and also links within the page allowing you to navigate around the site. These include the following:-

My page

 The personal page belonging to you, the member. You can customize your page to suit your own tastes and needs.

Forums/discussions

Used to actively seek advice, deeper understanding, clarification, responses, feedback or answers to questions from other ning members. The statements should trigger discussions and invite virtual teamworks to share opinions and knowledge, via comments. This is where the power of the ning starts to be experienced.

Blogs

A blog is a personal writing journal or diary used for entries, reflections, reports or memoirs. The comment feature allows others to provide feedback, opinions or just enable conversations to take place.

Media page:- features videos and photos.  These should be appropriate to the theme of the ning. Videos can be self produced or embedded from online. Code can be grabbed from online video sites eg teachertube, youtube etc and embedded into the ning for direct play. Videos should be kept as small as possible, (email size to allow quick replay for all internet users)

Also found on the home page:-

• Latest activity: – this lists the latest happenings on this ning eg who has added the latest  blog posts, discussions, changed their profile, made friends etc. It alerts you to the latest material that has been added.
• Events:- displays any upcoming events and announcements
• Photos:-  a slide show featuring all photos that have been uploaded. (These should be appropriate to the theme of the site) They can also be accessed from the media tab.
• Quick add:- an option to quickly add a blog post, discussion, event, music, video, photos etc
• Comments can be made for any content on the ning. This is where conversations take place, interactive learning begins and valuable personal networks establish.

Be active on the ning, make friends, check out the latest discussions and blog posts, add comments and start discussions of your own. Remember, no question is too ‘dumb’. Participate and watch the benefits emerge from having a powerful personal learning network.

Alternatively, you may wish to view a tutorial video.

What is a Wiki?

In the latest post by Sue Waters in the edublogger, Sue has asked for feedback from the readers regarding wikis.  Here are her questions and below them is my response.

1. How do you explain to people what a wiki is?
2. Reasons why you use wikis
3. How you use a wiki for professional learning or with your students?
4. Examples of your favourite wikis
5. Questions you always wanted answered about wikis

A wiki in simple terms is a web page that can be edited easily by one person or by many. It can be used as for a collection of resources, but its most powerful use is for collaborative purposes, where members can work in virtual teams to achieve a site full of rich material that can include text, links, images, video, podcasts and other multimedia etc.

My first use of wikis was to keep all the online resources that I have found in one easily accessbile website. However, since then I have used wikis with global staff and students. The flatclassroom projects use wikis for the collection of materials from the virtual global student teams. The netgened project was  a fabulous project that has just finished.

The flatclassroom and digiteen projects are work in progress at the moment and their wikis can be seen from the preceeding links.  Look at this  example of a great student developed wiki page for the netgened project.

Our grade 3-7 students are involved in the es1001tales es1001tales.wikispaces.com and the ms1001tales where students are grouped together with two other schools from two other countries. They each write astory, place it on the shared wiki and their group members read it, provide feedback and positive ideas for improvement. After two more drafts their work is complete, images are added etc. In 2008, my year 9/10 students answered questions for Susie Corbett’s USA students so that they could accurately complete travel posters for Australia. Here is her final comments on the wiki, once the project was completed:-

“Thanks to all you people who contributed to this wiki, especially you Aussies, you are AWESOME! We learnt much about you and your country. Collaborative tools such as  wikis offer a way to travel and communicate beyond backyards without even leaving the classroom. This was a whole lot more fun than researching with an encyclopedia!”

Grade 4 and 5 added a podcast to globalexplorers

My year 8 students are the sounding board for a project on Africa  I am also starting wikis for each of my subject areas as resource collections initially. I love the work that Vicki Davis does with eportfolios and her students. I tend to use blogs as e-portfolis, but Vicki uses wikis.My students have had to learn how to tag, add discussions, write in the history tab etc. Wiki wars have occurred and it has been a steep learning curve.

I would love to know how to add RSS feeds from delicious and diigo.

Going viral!

At times, I would hear both Vicki Davis mention that it becomes ‘viral’ after awhile. I wondered what she really meant by that, but as I watch my students over the last few weeks, I understand completely what that word means.

This year, I am determined to incoporate web2.0 tools into my VCE classes. As the year 11 accounting students were studying budgeting, I thought this may be the ideal opportunity to introduce google sheets and the chat function within it. So, students were paired or placed in a group of 3. They were not allowed to sit near each other and had to register for a gmail account. Then with just the use of the chat function in google sheet they were to work together and draw up a budget for a trip to schoolies week at the Gold Coast, at the end of the year.  They were given either $1500 to $3000 (each group was given a different amount) as their personal savings. The word budget was not mentioned at all. They then had to work out what it would cost and show the proposed costings on the sheet.

Students had to quickly learn how to use formulas and they worked the chat really well and learnt how to work collaboratively on the sheet. When they had finished, they added some images, manipulated headings etc and added colour. To finish the exercise they wrote up a report in MS Word. This was a valuable exercise and students could see the potential for such collaborative work in other subjects or from home. That was Wednesday last week.

On Monday, I had my year 12 Information Technology Applications students and when I entered the room, they were busy working on google sheets and docs. The virus was spreading. Today, the year 10s were at it and so it goes….. My older students set up an igoogle page, and they have placed some amazing widgets on there. Each morning, I hear what the Aussie dollar is doing, the weather and far, far more.

Best tool for online student publishing

Blogging, blogging, blogging..

So, was my reply to a query on classroom2.0 recently about the best tool for online student publishing. The lively discussion has centred primarily around blogs, wikis and nings but I would like to justify in this post, the use of blogging as the number 1 tool.

A student blog is a far more personal interactive website than any of the others. It may be used for journal entries and for publishing school work across many subject areas. It becomes the student’s own webpage, a page that will not be lost in lockers, school bags, left in the classroom, on the table, forgotten about etc.

Students love to have their own space and love to make it look good. On their personal blogs, they can feature and publish:-

• their class work eg English stories (chacha, year 7) LOTE sample 1 (voki by fluorgreen, year 9)  sample 2 (Shezza yr8), home economics (leecie yr 10) and school work in general (skippy, grade 6)
• Display work eg MS Office documents (Jade, year 8 student)
• Spreadsheet work
• art work eg sample 1 (Che grade 5) and sample 2 (Tadfish, year 8)
• digital storytelling
• podcasts
• photography (yr 7 honka) and
• mind mapping (grade 6 skippy)
• Show extracurricula activities eg school camps sample 1 and sample 2
• Record outside school involvement
• reflections (yr 9 flurogreen)
• work students just want to publish sample by  grade 6 student

The list could go on, but publishing by this means gives parents, grandparents and other teachers’ access. It allows students to connect, communicate and collaborate with the globe. What greater audience could students have for their work. Comments allow feedback, communication, reflection etc/

The power of blogging

Sue Waters has requested responses to her post on helping her to inspire future teachers. Thanks Sue, and this is part of my response to your request.

The different technologies used in my classrooms are as follows:-

• Blogging – globalstudent, a campus of edublogs
• Live blogging – coveritlive
• Google apps – word, sheet, forms, reader, earth, street etc
• Podcasting – audacity, sony acid, podomatic, iTunes
• Digital storytelling with MS Moviemaker or Sony Vegas Movie Studio
• Skype – videoconferencing
• virtual classroom with discovere
• Wikis with wikispaces

 This post will concentrate on blogging, the one that I love using most of all. Our school features the following:-

• School home blog page with links to staff, subject and class blogs
• Class blogs- grade prep to year 9
• Students blogs from grades 4-8 and majority of years 9 and 10 (see links to all from my globalteacher blog site on RHS sidebar) See  great examples of a  year 9 and year 6 student blog.
• Two personal blogs -documenting my journey for both personal reflection and to share with other teachers and  the other on my journey to share with my students, lesson plans, extras for when I am absent, reflections, filing cabinet, resources etc

As I teach grades 2 to 12 information technology, I try to give the students a prompt for each lesson  or each week, to keep the blogs active.Many web2.0 tools are used eg Images, digital movies, voicethread, wordle, cartoon making. Befunky is used to manipulate photos and images to disguise students, to keep the blogs interesting and dynamic. Students love their work to look good. Much use is made of irfanview and MS Paint to resize and rename photos for uploading into blogs. Teachers across subject areas are now encouraging students to use their blogs as a showcase and a powerful, interactive tool for writing, recording, reflecting, reporting and assessment.

How it has helped the students (and staff)

• Authentic audience – Students are always more motivated when there is an authentic audience eg Steph a young grade 5 student recently and independently put her own post prompt up “I’ll ask the world a question (that’s you) and you answer it  Whats your favorite movie and why?” To the absolute, sheer delight of Steph, she got 20 global comments from USA, Israel, NZ and Aus, which has encouraged her to write frequently and in greater depth and check out this wonderful comment from a teacher in AZ (guess that means Arizona)

Bonnie Keene // Aug 3rd 2008 at 11:44 am

Hi Steph! Congrats on your first question to the world! I’m a 4th grade teacher in Tucson, AZ and I can’t wait to have my new students answer your blog (I think I’ll make it one of their first technology assignments) Before they answer you, I need to give you my answer. I am a total movie freak, so this is a really tough one for me …hmmm….I think I’d have to say The Princess Bride. I’ve seen it so many times over the years, and it still makes me laugh. It’s one of those fun movies that people quote all the time. The book’s great too, btw.

• A yr 10 boy whose work was not fully completed work in the traditional subjects, asked if he could put a piece of his English work onto his blog. After adding feedjit to his sidebar widgets, he found that he had been googled by someone in Paris!!!  Imagine his delight and the motivation this provides for further writing activities.

• Providing a support community in times of grief eg Honka. Class work is often affected by lack of concentration, but feedback like this helps the healing process and eventually the learning process resumes.
• Immediate and powerful exposure to the globe, its cultures and digital citizenship. The students take it in turns to set a post prompt and one from Connecticut asked us:- So my question for you is this:What is your favoite holiday and what are some traditions you have? Most chose Christmas. However, we sometimes get extra students in our class now and our students have little exposure to any other cultures, when an extra student came on board with this comment:-

I wouldn’t really do anything because i don’t celebrate Christmas, after all it IS for Christians and i am Muslim. So I don’t celebrate it, but we could buy trees and do Christmasy things too you know, but my family don’t really. Some Muslims like me decorate the house, have fun with friends and play games have BBQ’s too and play in pools, visit relatives, go amazing places like Cool Parks and Luna Park and Harbour Bridge.
Yes, so there. But as muslims, we have Eid to celebrate, which is a different celebration for a prophet of ours. We do MANY things listed in what i said a few sentences ago. It is SO FUN!!!! Our traditions are go to a religious muslim tower where we pray called “Jamaii”, hard to pronounce i know. We pray or just say prayers at home for god. And some other traditions go visit relatives and eat Arabic or food from our countries (lebanon for me though!).
Alot you have to learn there! Think you’ve learn somethings??

• The blogs can feature multimedia, so students can use images, videos, podcasting rather than writing for classwork.
• Show what they are doing in class.
• Discover hidden talents eg photography
• Keeping parents and grandparents informed – Parents are beginning to make comments and grandparents from the UK often comment on their grandchildren’s blog posts.
• Conversations can start and this is where the real learning and discussion work can begin.
• Pride, improved self esteem, increased confidence as dots appear on their clustr maps and the comments come in.
• Students direct their own learning

Some notes

• The first 5 mins must be kept free, for students to check their clustr maps or feedjit maps and feeds. Students will look up the geographical location of their dots, respond via comments and/or email. This gives them an authentic task when they have a real person to email or respond to.
• Sometimes, they will be encouraged to comment on at least two members of the class’ blogs
• Students will actively go out and seek other student blogs to get dots and comments
• Many will happily post further entries at home and in their spare time.

bOyS aNd GiRls CoMe OuT tO PlAy… Hey ‘Teach’, that is YOU!!

 

“Teachers need time to play to enable the successful uptake of web2.0 . “ 
This comment of mine sparked much debate amongst the participants of Session 3, day 1 of the online Knowledgebank conference where a fast and furious chat continued behind the scenes.  And I just loved this comment from peggyg

“Now that I am ‘retired’ when I tell people I’m spending lots of time ‘playing with technology’, they just smile. They have no idea that I am learning more through this ‘play’ than I have learned in years of schooling/education!”

Many key points were raised by various global participants and are summarised below:-
@cathy From an administrator’s point of view, teachers need to feel safe to play. Teachers need to be willing to facilitate students when they ‘feel (see) the need to learn”. This is totally different to directing the ‘shots’.  Should ‘play’ be given another name eg learning activities or sandboxing, experimenting with new technologies? @peggyg requested a better term than “play”, as to most people ‘play’ does not equal learning. “I  believe in constructivism and constructing knowledge but not just free play – without intent and purpose”. @coryplough responded with “Play means learning by doing but not under pressure of assignment in the beginning.”
Teachers need to play with the tools to learn how to use them. They need to know how to play and maybe what to play with  @Carole McCulloch wants the mainstream adopters to be engaged with a WIIFM approach (What’s in it for me approach)  “ The technology must have a purpose and meaningful connection to their lives and their students..and not everything at once.” @amanda There need to be programs, mentors, personal learning networks, walk in, walk out times in the computer lab.
@deangroom “Starting in your own classroom puts pressure on the system by the kids.” @barb ‘kids will push other teachers to use the things they have enjoyed in other classes” @tasteach “Teach the tools first and then see how students use it with their work.” Students will drive the show with their excitement and enthusiasm and it does become infectious. Use students to teach students from other classes.  @deangroom “kids are the unpaid but best advocates”.
@bethstill “Play is necessary in order to learn. It is just part of what we do!  Luckily , I have been encouraged to play and blog during planning time! Very nice to work in a supportive environment”. Play may amount to the new research. Set the ‘need’ first with teachers before they play.
@amanda “Play with the technologies and also about ideas of what learning is about too.”
Once staff and students learn the tools, potential directions can be found and a huge resource of applications becomes apparent to improve learning outcomes. Does using pedagogy in conjunction with web2.0 tools allow a potential partnership with leaning and learners? Education must be connected to play. Is knowledge taught or should education be skills based? Are teachers intimidated by the fact that they may no longer be in control of the ‘play’ by children, where students may be learning lots more from their online ‘play’.  Will teachers take on a new role where they now bring to the fore the learning in play?  Playing on the computer is viewed with fear vs playing with something else. Should all learning be for assessment and do the assessment practices cut across the play/learning time. Are assessment practices and accountability at odds with student engagement? @bcdtech puts ‘scratch’ on the computers for playtime and kids love it.
Another of peggyg’s favourite quotes “to teach is to learn twice!”

Using google forms

Google forms have got even easier to use and embed in a blog. It makes for quick and easy surveys, where results are immediately added to the sheet.

Instructions:-

1. Set up the sheet with appropriate titles and column headings and save. (This is an online spreadsheet)
2. Click on the tab ‘form’
3. Select the ‘create form’ link
4. Enter any introductory remarks under the heading
5. At the first question title, choose the appropriate style of response required from the drop down menu eg text, multiple choice, paragraph text etc
6. Proceed to select appropriate answer style for each question
7. Further questions can be added and it will be added to a column heading in the sheet
8. Save when completed
9. Choose recipients
10. Opt to invite people or embed (in top RH corner)
11. Click on drop down menu under embed option. Copy the resultant url
12. Goto your post and paste that url in, and a survey form is embedded.

See sample in my other blog and/or check out Tom Barrett’s blog which has lots of information and hints on how to use google docs in the classroom.

Voicethread in the classroom and beyond

The more I use voicethread, the more I like it. If you havent used it before, it is quite easy to use, the help section is great and there are useful online tutorials for it. It

• caters for multiliteracies
• able to be used at all age levels as long as a child can speak
• boosts confidence in public speaking
• the vast majority of students can speak but many cannot write well
• if voice fails, text can be used or video
• Clarity and understandability is so critical if the VT is to be shared with other countries, so good diction is learnt

 

One of my personal favourite activities was “day in a sentence” when Australia was the first to host this popular activity overseas. Many teachers from around the world shared their week or days either verbally, in text or with a video.

Uses in my classroom have been primarily collaborative projects. Examples include the following:-

• year 7 class completed their ‘camp in a sentence’ using voicethread.
• Another favourite was working with students in grade 6 from England, Bangkok Thailand and our  school where we talked about moving on to the next level of education and usually another school. We were fascinated with the varying accents.
• a project with grade 3 and 4 students from Carolina where each student spoke on favourite topics eg favourite foods, animals, ways I have travelled, hobbies, places I have been etc

If you are registering for voicethread for the first time and are a teacher, make sure that when you logon, choose “go pro” and click on the link that says “K-12educators click here”. Apply for the free use of VT. An activation email will be sent to the school. If you do not apply for this, you are only eligible for 3 free voicethreads and then must pay. Or you can go ed, pay an annual subscription and enjoy complete privacy. However, even the free educational version allows a choice of privacy settings.