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.