What part of connected learning do we do well?

Blogging: What would your day look like?

The inaugural Web 2.0 Foundations blog posts are due this weekend.  After participants looked over detailed directions and had some face to face collaborative planning time about blog basics we have moved on to understand blogs in a more conceptual sense while using blogs in learning context.  We use a comprehensive Blogging design sheet for our weekly reflection blog assignment:


At first I will give participants prompts, but in weeks to come their self organized research topics will guide blog posts:

Prompt 1 was given at the beginning of Week 2:

After viewing and commenting on the post above (http://whsii.blogspot.com/2012/02/networked-student.html) answer the following question in a new post on your blog "If you could get credit for school learning anyway you wished what would your day look like"? Remember to follow the Web 2.0 Blogging Assignment carefully and add images and or video in your post.

To scaffold this learning we devoted time to brainstorming dream designs and experiences for learning.... and had our first Mobile Learning experience with a short "walking" tour of the science wing to ideate on the potentials of WHS architecturally. More discussion in class.... I have students take group notes via Google Docs with one volunteer scribe to capture the big ideas.... Now its up to them. A few examples of divergent and very successful learning environments will follow in the next posts for participants all.

Targets Met (Week One and Two) *:

The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•S)

and Performance Indicators for Students

1. Creativity and Innovation  

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:

a.apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.*

b.create original works as a means of personal or group expression.*

c.use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.*

d.identify trends and forecast possibilities.*

2. Communication and Collaboration  

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

a.interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. (Partial)

b.communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

c.develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.

d.contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.*

3. Research and Information Fluency  

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

a.plan strategies to guide inquiry.*

b.locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.*

c.evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.*

d.process data and report results.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making  

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:

a.identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation. (Partial)

b.plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.*

c.collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.*

d.use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions. (Partial)

5. Digital Citizenship   Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:  

a.advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.*

b.exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.*

c.demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning. (Emerging)

d.exhibit leadership for digital citizenship. (Emerging)

6. Technology Operations and Concepts   Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:  

a.understand and use technology systems.*

b.select and use applications effectively and productively.*

c.troubleshoot systems and applications.*

d.transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.*

The Networked Student

Over this term you will be completing a Personal Learning Network (PLN). Being a networked student is vital for success in the 21st century. Please view the following video and read the basics of our assignment below. What are you looking forward to and what may be difficult? What will be your first topic of research?

   

Creating a PLN (Networked Learning Project)
Objective: develop and use networked learning to create a personal learning environment/network for 21st century research and design.

Preparation

• Each learner selects his or her topic of study, (what you know, what you want to know), and establishes a research question.

• Acceptable/Responsible Fair Use policy is discussed.

The project is positioned within the following perspective.

What if your teachers disappeared and you had to learn on your own? Would you give up on learning? Where would you begin? Why would learning be important? You are an empowered learner. You have the power to learn anything. How much you learn is up to you. How you manage your learning is up to you. How you manage your time is up to you. A big part of your success will depend on how well you are organized.

Introduction of Tools

Web applications are introduced one at a time to give participants the chance to master the tool within the context of the study topic. Digital literacy is integrated into these lessons as needed. The essential questions of digital literacy are presented.

• Where can you go for good information?
• How do you know if you can trust what you find?
• How will you find subject matter experts you can trust to help you learn?
• Why is reflection important when you are learning something new?
• Why is it important to share what you’ve learned? How will you share?

Web Application (Components of the Networked Learning Environment for Research)

Social Bookmarking (RSS) "Delicious"and/or "Pinboard"

• http://delicious.com/

• http://https://pinboard.in/

• Explain Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and evaluation of Websites

• Set up the account

• Subscribe to each others accounts

• Bookmark, read and annotate at least 5 reliable websites per week that reflect the content of chosen topic

• Add, annotate and read at least 3 additional sites each week.

Note Taking (Information Management) "Evernote"

• http://www.evernote.com

• Create Evernote account

• Begin content collection

News and Blog Alert (RSS)"Google Alert"

• http://www.google.com/alerts"

• Create a Google Alert of keywords associated with selected topic

• Read news and blogs on that topic that are delivered via email daily

• Subscribe to appropriate blogs in reader

Personal Web Aggregator (RSS, Information Management) "Google Everything", "Symbaloo" and "Netvibes"

• http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/index.html

• http://www.symbaloo.com/

• http://http://www.netvibes.com/en

• Introduction to Google, Netvibes and Symbaloo for Learning

• Customize choice

• Start by creating a Homepage

• This will build as participants learn new tools

News and Blog Reader (RSS) Google Reader, Reeder RSS Feeds

• http://www.google.com/reader/, http://madeatgloria.com/brewery/silvio/reeder

• Search for blogs and newsfeeds devoted to chosen topic

• Subscribe to blogs and newsfeeds to keep track of updates.

• Set up gadgets in Symbaloo

Personal Blog(RSS)/Mobile Blog "Blogger"

• Create a personal blog

• Blogger

• Post a personal reflection each day of the content found and experiences related to the use of Networked Learning Research Environment pertaining to project topics

• Find bloggers with similar topics subscribe to blogs in reader

Internet Search (Information Management, Contacts, and Synchronous Communication)"Google Scholar"

• http://scholar.google.com/

• Conduct searches in Google Scholar and Fogler library databases for scholarly works.

• Bookmark appropriate sites

• Consider making contact with expert for video conference"

Video (Research, Fun) "Vimeo"

• http://www.vimeo.com/

• Create and Account.
• Create a Channel.

Photo Sharing "Flikr or Picassa"

• http://www.flickr.com/
• http://picasa.google.com/

• Create and Account.
• Upload Photos.
• Share Photos.

• Interest of Participants

Video Conferencing (Contacts and Synchronous Communication) "Skype"

• http://www.skype.com

• Identify at least one subject matter expert to invite to Skype with you, group, family, community for your project.

Daily research, reflection, sharing (Ongoing during project)

Once the personal learning environment is constructed, the learner will continue to conduct research and navigate new content on a daily basis. Activities will be divided between introducing a tip or offering a research theme for the day, actual time spent conducting research will vary.
Synthesis- (Suggested at 1 to 2 weeks) "Google Site or Blog Page"

• Craft a final synthesis of your work.

Other Networks

Covered with time remaining or interest.

Podcasts (RSS) "iTunesU" "Academic Earth"

• http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/ or http://academicearth.org/

• Search iTunesU or Academic Earth for podcasts related to topic

• Listen or view to at least 4-10 podcasts or lectures

Microblogging "Twitter"

• http://twitter.com/

• Create and Account

• Follow 10 Individuals or organizations you found during research.

• Advanced use as interested

References|Attribution

• Steele-Maley, T (2010). Networked Project Design
• Drexler, W. (2008). YouTube - Networked Student. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved February 24, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA

• Portions of this Project Design have been adapted from the work of Dr. Wendy Drexler with permission. 

To be a programmer.... Web2.0found

So glad to see the introductory forum posts in OpenClass.  I will respond to a few in the next couple of posts by feeding forward information.   It's amazing to know that one of your classmates aspires to become a computer programmer!  There is so much out there and I have worked with some amazing professionals in the field of programming.  They all say, if you want to program you better know how the internet works.

(n.d.). Internet map. [Web Map]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1024.jpg

 
A good place to start might be Wikipedia's entry on the Internet (It is really quite amazing)....

You may want to jump right in. Besides HTML (which you will need to learn at some point), you might enjoy hacking on the programming language Ruby on Rails right now. You can Access Rails for Zombies here http://railsforzombies.org/  Rails for Zombies is an excellent and eccentric tutorial from Code School....a place you might want to join later. User beware there are zombies, buring things and a smidgen of poor language in the video.

ROR. (creation). (NA). Retrieved from http://railsforzombies.org/

And....If you do not know Scratch and you like gaming check it out!

(n.d.). Scratch icon. [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://scratch.mit.edu/

Web 2.0 Foundations: A Course in Participatory Technology

"So the coin of the realm is not memorizing the facts and figures their going to need for the rest of their lives; the coin of the realm will be, do you know how to find, validate and leverage information; do you know how to analyze and synthesize that information; and can you problem solve, collaborate and communicate with it...." - Ken Kay [1]

Hello all,

Web 2.0 Foundations: A Course in Participatory Technology

An Opening Vignette:

Technology is a word we often confuse with computers, programs, and myriad gadgets only.  If you dig deeper I think you would agree that humans have utilized technology in very innovative ways since the Middle Paleolithic (or for those numbers folks out there c. 200,000 years ago+-).  Be it friction fire, basketmaking, agriculture, irrigation, warfare, in-door plumbing, radio's or iPads there has always been a human driving the social use of these tools.  Elders, leaders, wise people....yes teachers have always enabled and proliferated technology at the core of cultures.  We need to never loose site that the young people before us are entering a radically different world than the one we came from.  Though pockets of traditional life ways exist (and may proliferate in terms of localization of food and economies), the connections young people have to the world and what the world needs are fundamentally shifting the narrative of their futures. We need a learning design that helps young people prepare for a world without borders.   So how are we responding? In 2008, Pearson put together this short video to make a few suggestions:



"We have to develop a narrative that sustains 21st century learning."

The 21st century imperatives for learning deal with information.  Do we enable our students to find, validate, leverage, analyze, synthesize , problem solve and collaborate with information on a regular basis?  What does this look like? 

Web 2.0 Foundations is designed to be a participatory venture between our school, teachers, learners and the community that moves students into spaces of dynamic individualized learning with new technologies while also helping the whole faculty move toward creating spaces (mental, physical and online) that enable these 21st century learners.

Over the semester I will post my designs for Web 2.0 Foundations: setting up an Learning Management System and expectations for networked learning, designs for extensive networked research, mLearning (Mobile Learning), project based learning, 360 degree assessment and more.  You will also see and be asked to view and give feedback on  student research and online creation.  In the end, via a capstone project I will ask students to take an assignment (two....) from a teachers class and transform it using Web 2.0 Foundations.  This experience is meant to make learning at WHS ubiquitous for the participants of the course and our school community. I look forward to working with you all and look forward to your comments and support!  Before the course "officially" starts here are a few important organizational tips for following this process.

We will tag everything we create with the following:

web2.0found (Social Bookmarking, this blog (Called Labels), student blogs (Called Lables))
#web2.0found (Twitter Hashtag)
web2.0foundtools (for specific tech tools used in the experience)
web2.0foundreading (for specific readings and research findings we like)

More on how to follow this tag stream soon!

I look forward to participating with you all in network!

Coming soon:

Step one: can our students find a syllabus, schedule, updates, discussions and expectations in asynchronous spaces online?.....

Google In Education: A New and Open World for Learning

Please  view and download this document.  It is worth your time.

The Data Frame Map

The Data Frame: We live in a world clothed in data, and as we interact with it, we create more. Welcome to the 2011 edition of the Web 2.0 Map. This map showcases the incumbents and upstarts in our network economy, gathered around various territories that represent the Web 2.0's Points of Control.- The Web 2.0 Summit Map - The Data Frame. (n.d.). Retrieved January 02, 2012, from http://map.web2summit.com/

Go to http://map.web2summit.com/ to see the interactive version!

Technology Integration Matrix

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells as illustrated below. - Florida Center for Instructional Technology. (2009). The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM). Retrieved from http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/matrix.php

I encourage you all to peruse the TIM site and start a comment discussion. Where are we on this continuum? What is interesting? What seems impossible? What seems vital to address?

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to an amazing Administration, Faculty and Staff.  I appreciate my welcome to WHS and look forward to an amazing new year with you all!

My gift to you is an eBook curated by Seth Godin called What Matters.  First released two years ago, this work deserves our attention.  The central focus is on big thoughts and small actions to transform ourselves and the world.

Directions: Click on the Image and the eBook will appear in Google Docs format. You will have the option to download when open.

Warm wishes,

Thomas

Google Zeitgeist 2011

ePortfolio with Google Apps Series: Introduction

Google Apps ePortfolio Step-by-Step Process

In this post you will find a basic introduction to the ePortfolio process using Google Docs.  The hard work WHS has done in designing Portfolio assessment will have an easy and effective framework to use through this process.  This first post is the conventional view of ePortfolio development.  How we choose as a community to add to this process is up to us.  I will be offering a series of these posts with each step picked apart for training purposes.  In each of those posts I will give live examples from our ePortfolio Template for 2011-2012.

We all acknowledge that there are serious competing interests for our time this year.  That said, this is attainable! The hard work is done.... as a community you have aknowledged that Portfolio assessment is an integral part of learning at WHS.  Framing portfolios as ePortfolios takes accepting that 21st century skills are a cornerstone to our mission at WHS and some effort.  We are an amazing and versatile faculty and administration that has talents in technology that far surpass so many in Maine. Using this community, asking questions and supporting the young people we teach and learn with is second nature here.  I will work hard to support the progression to uniform digital ePortfolios with my all and am looking forward to it! 

Glossary: Primary Responsibility for ePortfolio Component 

All School (AS)

Teacher (T)

Student (S)

Advisor (A)

Steps for using GoogleApps throughout the Portfolio Development Process

1. (AS) Purpose. Decide on the purpose for the portfolio. What are you trying to show with this portfolio? Are there outcomes, goals, or standards that are being demonstrated with this portfolio? In this example, steps 2-4 represent an interative process, using a blog to provide formative feedback on student work on a regular basis.
   • Teachers, Admin and (eventually) Students: Set up templates for student work in GoogleDocs organized around outcomes, goals and standards?
   • Students: Customize a Google Sites page that will serve as the opening page/Introduction to the portfolio and to the portfolio developer (see Section 6 below). This page will include a section entitled, "All About Me."
   •  Students create a Google Sites Announcements page type, to use as a reflective journal (blog). Call the page "Journal" or "Blog." Create a first post that describes the purpose for developing this portfolio.
     OR: Students create a blog in Blogger (included under the GoogleApps domain)

2. ---

   (S) Collection/Classification. What artifacts will you include in your portfolio? How will you classify these entries?
   
   • Students: Create a digital archive of work Using GoogleDocs. Offline, this archive would be on a hard drive, flash drive, iPod or local area network server.
   • Students: (Optional) Use a simple table or GoogleDocs Spreadsheet to list the artifacts, and assign (classify) each one to the outcome/goal/standard that the artifact will demonstrate. Use the table to keep track of artifacts that might be stored on one of the many Web 2.0 sites that you could use to store your work. See Dr. Barrett’s portfolio for an example (Artifacts in GoogleDocs Spreadsheet).
     
     Students will: convert all attached artifacts into web-compatible formats (JPEG or PDF) so that the potential reader will not need to own the original software in order to read it (i.e., Microsoft Office, Publisher, Inspiration documents could easily be converted into PDF and attached to a blog entry, or link to GoogleDocs).
     Web 2.0 storage: Video files can be saved on one of the video sharing sites, and use the Hyperlink or Embed code to include in your blog entry. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files could be uploaded into GoogleDocs. Other free websites that allow you to store documents: SlideShare, Scribd. Most of these Web 2.0 sites use an email address as the log-in name, so it will be easy to remember.

3. ---

   (S, T, A)Reflection. Reflection is the heart and soul of a portfolio. Reflection provides the rationale for why these artifacts represent achievement of a particular outcome, goal or standard. Blog entries provide an opportunity for reflection "in the present tense" or "reflection in action."
   
   • Teachers: Provide students with resources to support their reflection activities. For each learning activity or artifact, what should be the focus of the students' reflections? (See Dr. Barrett's Google Site on Reflection for Learning)
   • Students: Write a blog entry (using Journal set up using GoogleSites Announcements page type, or in Blogger--Step #1 above) with a reflection on each learning activity or artifact (what is the context in which this artifact was developed? What did you learn?).
   • Students: Add your own classification using Tags
   • Students: Add appropriate artifacts (through hyperlinks) or as an attachment to the journal entry.
     
     Privacy Features: Students can limit who can read the Google Site through the More Actions ->Share this Site menu item.

4. ---

   (AS) Connection/Interaction/Dialogue/Feedback. This stage provides an opportunity for interaction and feedback on the work posted in the portfolio. This is where the power of Web 2.0 interactive tools becomes apparent.
   • Teachers and Peers:  Use the feedback features of Google Sites or GoogleDocs, such as comments, to provide feedback on the work posted in the ePortfolio/blog entries. Guidelines should be provided to support more effective feedback.
   • Teachers often provide exemplars for different levels of achievement, and provide a rubric for evaluation.
   • Students should be given the option of updating the work, based on the feedback and the rubric.
     
     REPEAT steps 3-4 for each learning activity or artifact.

5. ---

   Summative Reflection/Selection/Evaluation. At the end of a course (or program), students would write a reflection that looks back over the course (or program) and provides a meta-analysis of the learning experience as represented in the reflections stored in the blog/journal entries.
• Students: Review the blog/journal entries for that category, and write a last "retrospective reflection" about the learning represented in the artifacts, selecting one or two examples that best represent achievement. This self-assessment should be the first part of a page set up in Google Sites.
• Students:  Prepare a GoogleSites Page for each Outcome, Goal or Standard, and link to the selected "best" blog entries, writing a reflection on each page (by outcome/goal/standard) which should also have the artifact attached or linked.
• Teacher/Advisor: Provide feedback and/or evaluation of the selection of work and rationale, using a WHS rubric.

6. ---

   Presentation/Publishing. The portfolio developer decides what parts of the portfolio are to be made public.
   • Student: Create a set of pages that highlight the best components of the portfolio, linking to specific entries in the blog. Add the evidence (through hyperlinks to blog entries or artifacts) to the appropriate sub-pages in the portfolio.
   • Students: Customize your Introduction page, which should contain an overview of the portfolio. It serves as a “letter to the reader” and provides an explanation of the overall goals of the portfolio. Provide links to other pages developed in the portfolio. Advertise this Introduction page as the initial access point in your portfolio.
   • Students: Create a page with Future Learning Goals (reflection in the future tense).
   • Teacher: When used for summative assessment, submit final evaluation of portfolio (assessed using a quantitative analytic rubric or a holistic rubric).
   
   Adapted under Free and Cultural Works with attribution to: Dr. Helen Barrett

ePortfolio Series

One of the things that makes WHS amazing is the work done already to integrate Portfolio assessment into the school culture and curriculum.  The work towards shifting portfolio assessment to ePortfolio assessment is not that difficult once the hard part of integration is understood.  In the next series of posts I will outline the ePortfolio process using our Google Apps instance.

Most of our work ahead in ePortfolio development is based on the deep research of Helen Barrett.  Dr. Barrett's work on  ePortfolios span two decades and she has become the preeminent voice in using Google Apps for ePortfolio development.  Many of the frameworks used before my time and those that I have built since are rooted in Dr. Barrett's thought. I will credit her many times over our time of integration.

In the next series of posts, I will start to outline the Google Apps ePortfolio Framework we hope to employ here.  Some of the posts will be big picture and some proscriptive and I hope all will be useful As always, please ask questions via comment here, in email or stop by 107 any afternoon for a f2f discussion.  

Musical Theater at WHS!

An amazing final product was released today in Molly Winchenbach's  Music Theater class! Molly and the students in her course worked hard over the last week as editors, critics, and technologists to realize this final product.

Dancing Robots, Do it Yourself Devices and Community Storytelling

Shalimar asked what I thought was new in tech and the arts.  I pointed her first to what I think is the most cutting edge work out there for High School aged students- Design and Innovation wrapped around interdisciplinary studies.....NuVu Studio. 

A Day in NuVu from NuVu Studio on Vimeo.

NuVu Studio’s pedagogy is informed by the architectural design studio where a coach guides students in hands-on problem-solving to solve complex, comprehensive problems. The studio uses exercises to build skills and integrates students’ knowledge in a final project. A studio coach mentors students to develop their project through an iterative process over the course of the studio. Students confront the small and large contexts within problems as they are exposed to complex, ‘messy’ situations.
This multidisciplinary studio environment allows students to explore problems rigorously by focusing on one project for 2-weeks. The NuVu team continuously evaluates students through deskcrits and final reviews.
Our goal is for students to explore and learn mindfully in hopes of fostering a more creative generation, better prepared to solve today’s complex problems.

I see so many ways we could integrate the arts, literacy and the everyday things we take for granted in Maine to help students create DIY Devices, move through our neighborhoods and rural roads gathering "Community Storytelling" episodes, and "Narrative Photography".  When we think of Tech Integration what do we mean?  What captures your fascination about learning, technology and innovation. What are the barriers to realizing it if you aren't already?

What will the workers we teach and learn with need?