A vision of students today??

A vision of students today - What do you think?

Yikes.. It has been a while!

Where has the time gone. I say I am going to be better about posting to my blog and here I am .. 3 months have passed, and I am finally getting here! Well, since that time, a lot has happened, and I have some neat stuff to share. One of my students, Dylan, was featured on the edutopia.org website as part of the Digital Generation Project. What a great honor for Dylan. What a great kid!

I first knew of Dylan three years ago when he was only a 6th grader at my school, Gilbert H. Hood Middle School, in Derry, NH. One of my colleague's taught Dylan in his computer class and showed me the amazing website projects he was working on called the lil MDG's. I was blown away by the sophistication and creativity they displayed at such a young age. The global collaboration he displayed at such a young age is so inspiring to me. What also amazed me was the social conscience Dylan displayed. Truly inspiring! You have got to check out his website!

So, fast forward to January of this year. I was approached by a film producer and an employee of edutopia (Which is funded by the George Lucas Foundation), to be part of the filming with Dylan. I teach HTML website design and Dylan was in my class this trimester. Sure, this would be fun, I thought. What a neat experience! It was a real live movie scene, with lights, screens, and even a sound man holding a "boom"!

Take a look at the video. I think it came out pretty cool if I do say so my self. I can not be happier to be part of such an amazing student's display of humanitarianism and global concern. Dylan is truly a very special boy who is a wonderful role model for young and old alike!

Take a look at the video.

Howard Rheingold Video

Thanks so much Jen for the great blog piece about this video. I love it! A great discussion between the great Will Richardson and Howard Rheingold. I think anyone who wants or "needs" to understand what Web2.0 and new technology is all about, should take the hour to view this video. It really makes a lot of sense to me, and really validates my passion for teaching children using web2.0 tools in main stream education.

Free TV : Ustream

A Wordle A Day

I was reading Kim Cofino's blog today, and noticed she wrote about Wordle. I am considering myself tagged, and will put my wordle in here to show everyone!

I just finished up a great project with my 7th graders. We wrote an "I Am" poem about themselves, and used all of the words from the poem to create a "visual" poem. It was a lot of fun and really engaged the students. Some even told me they went home and used wordle. Now that is what I like to see! Here is my wordle from my diigo account tags.

Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference '08

I attended the Christa McAuliffe Technology conference this year in Nashua, NH. I have attended for the past four years, and I am amazed at the wonderful guest speakers they arrange each year. This year I was so excited to see David Warlick speak. I follow him on twitter as well as keep up with his blog writings. I am a big fan! This year, I convinced my other two colleagues to come with me on the same day, so they could hear David speak as well. They think I am a bit "geeky" because I am constantly updating them with some new article or blog post that I encountered using my PLN! I have to thank Jeff Utecht for this. Had I never taken his class through PSU, I would have never been fortunate to experience the "new world" that exists "out there" for us educators!

David did not disappoint. I sat, close to the front, so I would be able to hear and see everything! I was actually right in front of the video camera. Yikes, I can hear my giggles! Yet another "geeky" move! Here is what David had to say.. Recorded on UStream.

Live Videos by Ustream

I was reading the Free Technology for Teachers blog by Richard Byrne and I agree, being in the audience, almost next to the person who David was talking back and forth with, regarding wikipedia, I enjoyed his response. (I felt somewhat uncomfortable for that poor person!) It is poo-pooed so much not to use wikipedia in schools, but can't it be a jumping off point? I know I let my students use it as one resource. He reinforces that using any of these tools in school are "basic literacy skills".

What struck me as the most important or informational about David's speech, is how we are teaching our kids (teachers standing up and the learners are sitting down) model. We are the keepers of the knowledge and they are the ones with the empty minds we are trying to fill. Are our classrooms Flat? We need to be preparing our students for a future we know nothing about, yet.. The digital divide! I also like when David said, in order to be considered a "21st century educator, we must be a master learner." He also said, "if I could share anything with all of you as teachers, I would tell you to pay attention to your students and ask them about their experiences outside of the classroom with technology."

Watch the video in it's entirety, it is great! Can't wait to see who's coming next year. I only hope I can attend all three days!

Give 1 to Get 1

Hot off the presses: According to an eSchool News article, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has revived their program as of May 20th, and has disclosed plans for a second generation of "XO" computers. If you pay $400.00 , you will purchase one laptop for yourself and then you will provide another laptop to a child in a developing country. The original program was trying to offer the computers to each child for $100.00 each. The price right now is estimated\ at $188.00. So far, over 600,000 of them have been sold and 162,000 were purchased through the "give one get one" program. The second round of the "give one to get one" program will begin sometime this summer and anyone can participate.

I think this is a great opportunity to teach children about global issues our world faces today. What would be better than having some type of fundraiser to raise $400.00 for this program. Why not donate both computers? Just something to think about!

Check out this post from the Open Thinking & Digital Pedagogy blog about the 1:1 initiative and how they might be switching the platform over to microsoft windows!

Some people think that laptops for children may not be a good idea. Read this article. What do you think?

Am I Unoriginal ???

Just a thought for today. I was thinking... and thinking .... and thinking .. of how to put together my capstone project for the final requirement of my M.Ed. at Plymouth State University. I can't stop thinking actually. Everything I think about, I feel like I have seen before, read about on a blog, or experienced it somewhere on the internet already. Am I unoriginal? Am I incapable of producing something original? I am getting nervous.. T-Minus 2 months and counting until it is due, and I have a million things tagged in my diigo folder, duly noted, capstone... but I am not anywhere! Maybe this will help me .. if I put it down on paper.. or computer ... it will help me to realize that I must begin somewhere! Is it bad to use a bunch of other people's things, pull them together (of course with proper credit), and create a compilation of information to share with my fellow educators? The project is - How to incorporate Web2.0 into the Derry School District. Maybe I might think of something on my own during the process! I know there must be something in here (brain don't fail me now)!!

Teaching in a networked world

I can honestly say, I would not want to teach my students any other way than with technology and the Web 2.0 tools I have discovered. (If you can tell by many previous posts) I enjoy using Moodle with my students and would love to venture "outside" of the "walled garden" as some of the online teachers I have met, call it! I want to use wiki's and blogs. I want to use ning and epals to show the kids different cultures that exist beyond their small community. I want to podcast and share the kids voices with others to show them we are really making a lot of progress with 21st century tools. We are collaborating and working well with online learning projects. (PBL - Project Based Learning) All the while we are learning, we are meeting literacy goals, we are working together to accomplish tasks! Wow! Isn't that what we want to teach the youth of today?

What I question at times, is my delivery, my expectations as well as the time I have in my short 12 weeks with my students to create such an atmosphere in the classroom. Where project based learning and teaching is based on such high expectations and organization, which must then be communicated to the students, how is it teachers accomplish these tasks? I guess a lot of this technology is targeted to be used within the core classes. This is what our eportfolio model is based upon here in NH. It is meant to incorporate technology into the core disciplines.

Who is going to teach the teachers and prepare them to bring all of this networked world into the classroom? The teachers (most of them, I have encountered) are not concerned with this 21st century tool kit they are being given. They have a lot of other things on their minds right now.

The networked world as I see it, is vast and filled with endless opportunity for teachers (professional development opportunities) as well as for the students. It all depends on how your administration will allow you to utilize all of those tools within the classroom. Hopefully they are open-minded, but that is not always the case. So, little by little we will introduce the tools and hopefully by showing that the students are meeting educational standards, as well as meeting the technology standards. It is sometimes an uphill battle, and others are fortunate. Why must it be difficult? We are in this for the same reason, putting kids first!

Step by Step - Can I build a web 2.0 classroom?

Step by Step - Building a Web 2.0 Classroom - Drew Murphy

A must watch! This video podcast is wonderful and really goes to show teachers that it is fun to use technology in the classroom... and the kids love it. If you can do 10 things that are outlined in the video, you will be well on your way to creating a web 2.0 class.

There are some simple things that I would have never thought of! The skills are simple and should be taught to the students first in order for them to begin their Web 2.0 journey.

In order to create a simple online research project, there are a few Web 2.0 skills the students must be taught and learn:

- Apply, Explore and Participate
(Web 2.0 tools to know - tab, bookmark, sign up - for youtube, other sharing sites)
- Apply, Deconstruct and Reconstruct
(Web 2.0 tools to know - cut and paste, emphasize text/align, images)
- Apply, Create and Connect
(Web 2.o tools to know - link, slideshow, embed)

Drew uses characters in his day to day online web based classroom. He makes learning fun and unexpected. The kids are collaborating and working together to share their knowledge and opinions on the other students work.

He compares making paper projects in the classroom and displaying them on the walls of the classroom. The students can walk up to them, make some comments out loud to each other and then the comments are lost forever.

If the same project is created and captured in an online environment, the collaboration and commenting can be captured online. In a community online project, the project is on display, it is ready for peer commenting, ready for elaboration and ready for collaboration. What I found most interesting about the online learning project, was the project could always be changed and made better. The creator could take comments from their peers and make changes to fix or improve their work.

Although the format was a little quirky, I really enjoyed this web blog. I think it is an excellent base to begin students with. I would incorporate online responsibility along with the basic skills outlined.