always learning

During my riveting (wink, wink) MAP testing training this week, a middle school colleague asked me a fabulous question brought about by her attendance at the FLNW unConference session the day before. She asked:

Kim, how can I connect my students to other students all around the world?

Ah, the joy of getting to respond to that one question in a room full of teachers! One tactic I’ve found that gets teachers interested in using new technology in the classroom is to give them a chance to “overhear” a conversation with a third party, so they can absorb some information without feeling put on the spot. I shared a few ideas with her and got a conversation going with a few others – all in a day’s work, of course.

That conversation also got me thinking about a comment Miguel Guhlin left on his blog regarding my post “A Step-by-Step Guide to Global Collaborations.” Miguel states that:

A nice follow-up would be how to select which tool to use. There are so many of those available, I find some folks have trouble deciding.

And then, yesterday, I was a guest presenter in Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s graduate class (using Elluminate) where a teacher asked me:

Given the fact that we have state-mandated standards we need to meet, how do you find a technology tool that lets you bring in exciting collaborative elements?

All three of these little moments reminded me of one part of my “Developing the Global Student” presentation at the Teach IT! conference in Singapore last year called The Technology Toolbox.

I like the metaphor of the toolbox for a few reasons:

• There is a specific tool for every job, but you might be able to make a different tool work if you tinker enough.
• You might require several tools to complete a larger task.
• You should always have a small selection of tools at your disposal in case of emergency.
• If a new tool is invented that does the job better/faster/easier, a professional would use that one.
• You only get the full effectiveness out of some tools if use them together (like a hammer and a chisel to carve a sculpture).
• There are more tools than anyone one person could use in a lifetime, but some will become indispensable to your practice.

The thing to remember with any toolbox is that you need to know what you want to accomplish before you choose your tool. I find lots of teachers often try to make one tool fit many purposes because that’s the tool they’re comfortable with, or that’s the tool they hear other teachers talking about. The most important feature of the toolbox is picking the right tool for the job at hand.

Given that there are so many tools available, I made a basic web 2.0 comparison chart to help determine the right tool for the task:

For most readers of this blog, this is old news, but I thought it might be helpful to have everything listed in one place, as an introduction to those new to web 2.0 tools. I’m sure I’m totally reinventing the wheel here, as this most likely exists somewhere else, but with the questions being asked one after another this week, I figured I might as well have a go!

Please keep in mind that this is just a basic starting guide – there are so many new tools added every day, that there’s no way I could even hope to keep up, and there are much better, and far more detailed descriptions of why and how to use these tools in many different books (Will Richardson’s Blogs Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom is my favorite), but here’s my intro list:

Blogging:

The best use of a blog is for an individual seeking feedback – this could be an individual student or an individual teacher. We love blogs because they promote interaction between author and reader, however it is the author that determines the content/discussion focus – not the reader. Therefore, this option works very well when an individual (or even a group of individuals posting to the same blog) are seeking feedback or comments on their ideas and thoughts.

Features of a blog:

• entries posted in consecutive order, newest on top
• comments from readers extend classroom learning
• personal learning journal

Ideas for classroom blogging:

• a teacher blog to share learning with parents and resources with students
• a classroom blog where all students can contribute but there is one blog to maintain
• individual student blogs linked to a teacher blog to allow individual reflection

Wikis:

The best use of a wiki is for collaborative knowledge building. A wiki allows for shared ownership for all members, meaning that together the authors of a wiki determine what information is posted online. Because a wiki is a great place to share and document information, it can be thought of as an easy-to-create collaborative website.

Features of a wiki:

• Easy to create website
• Easy collaboration beyond classroom
• Extend discussion beyond the classroom
• Trackable page edits

Ideas for classroom wikis:

• a resource for all assignments, rubrics, deadlines and resources to increase home-school communication
• a “home-base” for bringing multiple tools together
• a presentation format to demonstrate student learning

Social Networking:

The best use of social networking is for connecting students (and teachers and parents). A social network allows for a variety of tools to be directly embedded within your network (like blogs, podcasts, groups and forums) so it is a great venue for bringing people together and allowing them to select the tool that suits their learning style. Social networks allow users to communicate with all members in a variety of formats.

Features of Social Networks

• Create groups of learners
• Facilitate forum discussions
• Personal reflection space within a community
• Members take ownership of their learning
• Easily upload multimedia

Ideas for classroom social networks:

• to begin a dialogue with differentiated groups of learners
• to private space to connect students
• to help develop independence in leading discussions or planning projects

Collaborative Multimedia:

The best use of collaborative multimedia is to allow for creative representation of ideas. When a blog is too text driven, or a social network is too complex for your needs, or your students would benefit from video or audio presentation, you might want to try a multimedia format. Collaborative multimedia lets you bring together voice, audio, and video into one product and allows others to comment and add on to your work.

Features of multimedia tools

• Integration of multiple media
• Subscription service (podcasts)
• Collaboration on digital storytelling (VoiceThread)

Ideas for collaborative multimedia:

• to add a new dimension to digital storytelling
• to start asynchronous voice conversations around learning topics
• to engage the more creative learners in your class

Voice over Internet Protocol: VoIP

The best use of VoIP is when you want to connect and communicate with your personal learning network on a personal level.

Features of VOIP

• Audio/video e-mail
• Audio/video chat
• Recording discussions

Ideas for VoIP:

• connecting with a primary source
• real-time communication with a partner class
• developing personal connections on a one-on-one basis

What do you think? What else should be added to this list to make it an easy place to start for beginners to web 2.0 tools?

Image from Saffanna

Tags: 21stcentury, learning, global collaborations, step-by-step, guide, PD, web2.0, intro,

Thanks to an invite from Alex Hayes way back in October, ISB hosted 3 amazing educators, John Eyles, Michael Coghlan, and Vance Stevens, on campus this past Wednesday.

John, Michael and Vance are from the Teach and Learn Online (TALO) organization out of Australia/New Zealand and are currently taking part in the Future of Learning in a Networked World unConference here in Thailand. From the wiki:

The Future of Learning In A Networked World is a contentious one. FLNW08 endeavors to build connections, explore new possibilities, expand individuals horizons and network knowledge in travelling open space un-conferences where anything can happen and does without regularity. TALO supports open networked communication and this ensures the conversation remains collaborative. Visit our blog to find out updates from the field, add your name as a participant, and spend some time with us in a range of online and real world spaces and places

FLNW08 will kick off from Bangkok on the 16th January 2008. An itinerary of events outlines all that is happening through out January 2008. A blog is also being used to document progress and an email forum cops the incessant chatter of the participants. The Living Classroom is providing a Moodle as a forum to continue the conversations started during the FLNW 2006 visit to Waiheke around teaching English in a Mobile and Networked World and host new activities with educators in Thailand.

Thanks to their visit, we conducted an unConference session around reading (our organizational goal for the year) and technology (watch the recorded session here). We had around 25 ISB teachers drop in and out throughout the course of the session, along with around 20 educators from around the world via our uStream broadcast.

Not only was it fantastic to have three so well-respected and knowledgeable visitors talk to our teachers in a casual format about their questions, issues and problems, but it was so great to have them reinforce so many of the things Justin, Dennis and I say on a daily basis. There is just something extra special about having visiting experts come in and send the exact same message that we have been pushing from within.

It was great to see our teacher’s eyes light up in amazement when they saw that teachers all over the world were participating from their homes (and so many were awake so late, just to talk to us!). When they realized that everyone in the chat room knew each other already, they were even more amazed. What a fabulous way to welcome them into the world of networked learning!

Even more exciting, for me, is that this Wednesday session kicked off our new Wired Wednesdays PD sessions for ISB staff. Every Wednesday, as part of our new Professional Development program, Justin, Dennis and I will host an after-school PD session on the “whys” of 21st century learning. We will structure the sessions similarly to our parent PD we’ve been running in the Learning Hub all year, and we’ll be broadcasting live via our ISB EduStream from 2 – 3:30 pm (check your local time here) every Wednesday. Join us!

Tags:  21stcentury,  pd, professionaldevelopment, FLNW08, Vance Stephens, John Eyles, Michael Coghlan, Alex Hayes, unconference, future, uStream, network, ISB, TALO, collaboration, technology,