While I Was Sleeping

This morning I woke up bright and early for a Saturday and, after a warm cup of coffee, checked in with Twitter. People from all over the glove had been busy sharing news, websites and blog entries with anyone who happened to be tapped into Twitter while I was sleeping.

Part of my morning routine is to spend about five to ten minutes quickly reviewing old tweets and click on links that catch my eye so I can check them out later. Remember, the subjects of my tweets are specific to the people I follow. Your tweets can be as well.

I've listed a sampling of sites noted to give readers a taste of the richness of resources shared on Twitter.

Local Educators Study Promising Japanese Teaching Method

• An article from the Washington Post discussing a new form of Professional Development that made me think of our recent Tech Fair and what Tech Tuesday's is all about.

Classics Illustrated Comic Books

• This site has many classic books in comic book form. I can imagine how much fun it would be for kids to check out this site either before, after, or instead of reading one of the great classics. Options are endless, titles are plentiful.

A Library to Last Forever

• Another New York Times article written by Google co-founder Sergey Brin defending the Google Books Project, one of Google's newer projects attempting to digitize the world's books. I support Google's efforts which is what caused this tweet to catch my eye. If you haven't checked out Google Books, it's worth some sniffing around time.

50 Years of Space Exploration

• This tweet was a surprise because I was expecting a video or a blog entry and not the image that showed up when I went to the site. I kept thinking about th emany possibilities of using this image for independent research when I was teaching Astronomy.

President Obama On Being Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

• The space news agency reporting on Obama's letter of acceptance.

10 Rare HTML Tags You Really Should Know

• Now that I'm working with sixth graders on wikis and blogs I have the chance to introduce HTML code to them so they can design their pages to look like they want.

Quick Trick for Downlading YouTube videos without a 3rd Party Service

• Who doesn't want to easily download those YouTube videos when you find them so you can show them multiple times. YouTube videos aren't on YouTube forever.

Edublogs and How to Use Them

• Great explanation supporting blogging in a classroom. Edublogs use a WordPress environment but allow the teacher to have a bit more control of the blogging environment. Edublogs also allows users under 13 to participate. This blog is written using Blogger.

Improvements in Google Squared

• A Google blog entry about the number of improvements to the amount and quality of information you can find with Google Squared, as well as new tools to sort and export the data.

Thoughts on Setting Up a Student Centered Wiki

• A few days ago an I read an article by Ruth Reynard in The Journal ” More Challenges with Wikis: 4 Ways to Move Students from Passive to Active.” I use a wiki in my classroom now and it is largely teacher driven. I'm trying to change that by having the students become authors of pages themselves, editing the How-To pages, etc.... But, at the end of the day, the wiki is primarily teacher driven. Any time I can read about the like struggles of other teachers and how they are compensating for them I'm interested.

Interactive WhiteBoards

• I'm always interested in what users of these boards have to say about them, especially in classrooms. This site was a double bonus because this teacher has a large number of other resources on her wiki - definitely a keeper.

Computer Lab Classrooms

• Just a ton of links related to computer labs and technology. Nice find.

Digital Storytelling

• Larry Ferlazzo's latest blog entry has amassed a great number of resources related to digital storytelling. In addition, several comments also point to further resources. Just in time!

Well, in the time it took me to write this at least 20 more tweets came in with more information to sift through. I'll never have time to sift through it all, but that's not the point. You take what you can, when you can. If I have 15 minutes to look, I do. It's always better to be walking.

Tech Tuesdays - Back in Action

The first quarter of the school year is just about ready to come to a halt. How does time ever pass so fast? I feel like just yesterday we were all unpacking our summer boxes and preparing for a new round of students to stream through the doors.

I'd like to kick off a new round of Tech Tuesday meetings at the start of the second quarter. Tech Tuesday's will continue to be a time to get together as a staff to "talk tech." I'm becoming more and more of a believer that to really understand technology integration in the classroom you have to spend time in the environment and play. Talk Tech is an informal yet informative time to grow together as avid users and integrators of technology in the classroom.

Just a few weeks ago Edutopia launched their Top Ten Tips for Teaching with New Media download. I thought this list would be a great place to start our discussion in Talk Tech. Each week we can delve into the topic just a bit deeper. I thought these 10 Tips would be a good focus for Tech Tuesday's. And, should you feel the need to focus on a tool other than what I'm proposing below because you want to discuss something specific to you, no worries. This is a start and by no means is it a permanent list. Suggestions are always encouraged and appreciated.

• Break the Digital Ice
• Find Your Classroom Experts
• Get Off to a Good Start
• Think Globally
• Find What You Need
• Make Meaning from Word Clouds
• Work Better, Together
• Open a Back Channel
• Make It Visual
• Use the Buddy System

So, we'll meet in Shaunda's room at 7:30 each Tuesday. 20 - 25 minutes of tech talk. What could be more fun?

Online Communities

Today I spent some time with authors Leland Anderson, Visiting Research Fellow; and Michael B. Horn, Executive Director, Education; of Innosight Institute. They have authored Alpine Online School - A Utah School District’s Move into K–8 Online Education - An Education Case Study. Some well know names were in the room, Bernie Dodge and Steve Hargadon to name a few, asking questions right along side of me; a classroom teacher in Colorado. How did I get so lucky?

Online learning communities such as Classroom 2.0 are social networks for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. I happen to be a member and that's how I was able to spend an hour with the authors of the above mentioned case study as well as many more fascinating people over the past two years.

Membership is Classroom 2.0 is free. Live events like the examples listed above occur on a weekly if not daily basis. Each week I get an email of those events. Here is a sampling of this week's events. I think you'll see there is something for every teacher.

• Tues, Sept 15th, 11am Pacific Daylight Time (US): I interview Anne Gilleran, the coordinator of the European School Leadership Network, who will give us a tour of their 60,000-school eTwinning program. http://www.futureofeducation.com/forum/topics/anne-gilleran-on-the-etwinning
• Wed, Sept 16th, 1pm Pacific Daylight Time (US): The weekly MSP2 Tech Talk with Todd Williamson on "Interactive Whiteboards." At LearnCentral.org: http://www.learncentral.org/event/19505
• Wed, Sept 16th, 5pm Pacific Daylight Time (US): The Classroom 2.0 LIVE Beginner Series with Sue Waters on "RSS Widgets and Personalized Home Pages." http://live.classroom20.com/classroom-20-beginner-series.html
• Wed, Sept 16th, 6pm Pacific Daylight Time (US): Maria Droujkova convenes the Math 2.0 weekly meeting, this week's guest is Troy Peterson, the creator of Nibipedia. At LearnCentral: http://www.learncentral.org/event/21595
• Thurs, Sept 17th, 3pm Pacific Daylight Time (US): I interview Michael Horn (Disrupting Class) and Leland Anderson about the new Innosight report on a small district's use of online learning to reach underserved students. http://www.futureofeducation.com/forum/topics/michael-hornan-innosight
• Sat, Sept 19th, 9am Pacific Daylight Time (US): The weekly Classroom 2.0 LIVE show. This week: Dr. Helen Barrett the creator of ElectronicPortfolios.org, shares the electronic portfolio tools that can be used in the classroom. http://live.classroom20.com/index.html
• Sun, Sept 20th, 8am Pacific Daylight Time (US): The world-wide meetup for those with Vitiligo and their frends and families, special guest this week: Emmy-award winning journalist Lee Thomas, author of the book Turning White. LearnCentral Link: http://www.vitiligofriends.org/forum/topics/our-fifth-worldwide-vitiligo

Something to Write About

This evening I came across a suggested link on Twitter that pointed to a Flickr Page dealing with Great Quotes on Learning and Change. The images, along with the quotes, were very thought provoking. These images and the accompanying quotes could easily be used a blog prompts and conversation pieces. Some may be agreeable to all but most, I suspect, would stir controversy and debate; something every good blog post needs. Of course, Flickr is blocked in most school districts so most of you will need to copy and paste the photoquotes you like onto your own wikis or blogs in order for students to view and comment.

For instance, take the image from Scott McLeod, an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University. Teachers better be talking about the future of technology in a school district or others are going to decide it for us. If you haven't gotten in on the conversation, join in. Do some research. There are lots of visions for what Technology and Technology Integration will look like in year 2010, 2015, 2020 and the best part is that teachers can be active in the design if they jump on board.

MSSD Tech Fair: Keeping Current - Growing Your PLN

Personal Learning Networks are virtual spaces that employ aspects of social networking and blogging. They allow us to connect with others in our field and learn with and from them. They provide a safe and convenient place to ask questions whether we're in the information stage of gathering new ideas or in the implementation phase of new methods. PLN's allow people to keep up with current happenings in their fields.

To start growing your PLN there are a few handy tools to set in place.

1. Google Account and iGoogle Homepage
2. Twitter Account
3. Diigo Account
4. Subscribe to blogs
5. Ning Community (Classroom 2.0)

Sue Waters has a terrific set of instructions on her Grow Yourself Wikispace. We'll be using this wiki for a majority of our activities today.

Step 1
In order to subscribe to blogs you have to set up some sort of way to view updates in a convenient location. We'll do that by creating a gmail and iGoogle Account. You can take it one step further by signing up for Google Reader at a later date.

After you have set up your iGoogle Account, visit a few of these blogs and add them to your iGoogle homepage. By no means are these the only blogs to follow, they represent a small sampling so you can a feel for subscribing to them.
Edublogger
Cool Cat Teacher
Always Learning
You'll be able to follow any blog you visit by subscribing to the RSS feed.

Step 2
Set up a Twitter Account. Follow these simple directions. When you create your account name, make it personal. Mine is lisettecasey. This lets others easily find and relate to me. Edit your profile and put information in describing who you are and what you do. This helps others to see what you may have in common. Once you've set up a twitter account you'll need to find people to follow. View my recent post for some terrific tools to accomplish this effeciently. To learn more about other tools to utilize Twitter check out this wikispace.

Step 3
Set up and use social bookmarking like Diigo. Join groups (EdTechTalk, Discovery Network, Science Teachers to name a few) and enjoy the many benefits of a global community. I use the same username as in Twitter to make life easy.

Then start off your mornings with a dose of growing your PLN.

Exactly what does my Personal Learning Network (PLN) look like? Here’s a sample of how I spend the first half hour of every morning learning before I go to work:

1. Check my email.
2. Check in with Twitter and Classroom 2.0 to see what people are saying, blogging, what websites are being referenced, or what webinars may be available later in the day.
3. Visit interesting bookmarks shared through the Diigo groups I belong.
4. Check Facebook to see what friends and relatives, some personal some professional, are up to this day. (I can do this through TweetDeck - a Twitter platform)
   
5. I’ll check my school and student email. (Students use a unique email to access me.)
6. I’ll check my blog to see if I need to respond to anyone or perhaps I’ll add a new post.
7. I’ll review the new posts of the many blogs I follow.
8. Whatever new comes my way that day, I’ll click and check it out.

Using Twitter and Finding People to Follow

People are always asking me why and how they should use Twitter. They've read about Twitter in the news and don't see anything worthwhile about learning what Brittany Spears or Oprah Winfrey are doing. To everyone I reply, "There is so much more."

Twitter helps grow your personal learning network. Personal learning networks are virtual spaces that employ aspects of social networking and blogging. They allow us to connect with others in our field and learn with and from them. They provide a safe and convenient place to ask questions whether we're in the information stage of gathering new ideas or in the implementation phase of new methods. Sue Waters does a nice job of detailing how to grow your PLN on her PLN Yourself Wiki.

Once you've created a Twitter account you'll need to find people to follow. There a few easy sites that help you do this very efficiently.

Mr. Tweet helps you identify relevant followers on Twitter, providing the reader with a glance at each person's profile and latest tweets.

Twellow works like yellow pages and allows you to find people to follow by occupation.

Twitter4Teachers is a wiki that lists teachers by content. It's a great resource all in one place. You'll even be able to add your name to the list if you join the wiki.

You can always do a simple Twitter Search to find people tweeting about a subject of interest. If you like what they have to say, start to follow them. I recently did this with the latest shuttle mission and ended up following one of the astronauts, Mike Massimino, while he was in space.

Finally, once you arrive at a person you'd like to follow, see who they follow. You'll never know who you might end up connecting with. Start with me if you'd like. This is the beauty of Twitter. Twitter is a global community sharing common interests and ideas of which you can instantly belong.

Science Inquiry to Technology

I'm in the process of finishing up a terrific course at Colorado College about Scientific Inquiry as it relates to Physical Science. The course offered tidbits of information regarding Physics, Reading in the Content Area, Assessment, and Scientific Inquiry. In addition, I was very fortunate to have Dr. Steve Getty from BSCS join me in my classroom for a week of hands-on, authentic scientific inquiry as he field tested new curriculum for 8th graders.

As I leave the science classroom for a position in educational technology next year, I couldn't help but reflect how I would take these lessons and experiences with me to my new position. Next year holds new challenges for me. After 16 years of teaching Science I will shift to teaching Educational Technology. I’ll have the opportunity to design new curriculum and will keep the models of inquiry at the forefront in this design. Part of my responsibilities will be to work with classroom teachers directly involving the integration of technology. I see implementation of the 5E Model during this integration as a key piece to keeping technology relevant and authentic to students. By involving students in engaging activities that can serve as meaningful preassessments, I will be able to gather pertinent information relating to student skill sets related to technology. By integrating these engaging activities toward academic disciplines, technology will be able to enhance the learning in the core classrooms. My ability to communicate with teachers regarding formative assessments within these phases will be essential to the implementation of true technology integration. Various activities emphasizing technology applications can be used as explorations into both content area instruction and technology application.

I'm so excited and fortunate to have a new, open door in front of me.