Session 1 — Shifting Literacies

asmith@lps.k12.co.us — Anne Smith

kleclaire@lps.k12.co.us–Kristin Claire

What changes have we made in our classrooms and why? Cultural changes. Permission to change, try new things, push the boundaries. Focus on BIG QUESTIONS –constructivist teaching methodology. Kids have power and control over their learning.

Less of us teaching and more of the kids learning. Empower the kids in the classroom. Learn SKILLS rather than just CONTENT. Critical thinkers, collaborators, problem solvers.

Staff development and (technology) is KEY to success. Collaborate, pedogogy behind the methods.

reading/writing/speaking/listening have to look different in a 21st century classroom. NCTE–new literacies.

BLOGS

Transparent learning environment–invite the world in. Blogs have varying levels of privacy. Blogs archive the kids’ work over their high school careers–show that for college applications, etc. Portfolio of work. Synchronous and asynchronous learning. Clock and walls don’t matter. Anytime, anywhere learning.

Blogging guidelines–what is good? What is bad? Have the kids generate the guidelines. They hold each other accountable. Fishbowl with live blogging (inner circle/outer circle). Kids who don’t normally speak up are empowered to “speak up” on a blog.

Cover it live–live blogging, check this out. Clear expectations, hold them accountable.

Blogging as a reflective piece–metacognition. Slow down and think about what you’re doing.

Scribe posting–students take notes for the class. Absent students can read, review. Kids lead that.

Podcasts–This I Believe–embeddable players.

Personal Learning Networks. Google reader, subscribe to newspapers & blogs. Kids read and respond on their own personal blogs. What mattered? How does it relate to me? How does it relate to this class? How does it relate to the world around us? AUTHENTiC. Present the PLN entries to class.

How is my classroom organized?

Personal philosophy statement. Write their own statement. Everything else goes through that “lens.” Give broad, philosophical questions, quotes to brainstorm. Respond to all literature, etc. through that lens.

Using wikis– Help them articulate their own interest and passion rather than giving the question to them.  Give examples and let them go. Welcome page must have their personal philosophy statement. Wikis can include multimedia (music, video, photo, links). It’s a living, breathing document. This portfolio of learning can include all of their classes and continue over the years.

Session 2–Powering Up the Writer’s Workshop

Mike Porter and Mary Vedra

Notes taken on PowerPoint–need more upload space.

Roundtable Discussion

Voicethread.com (comment on pictures, see K12OnlineConference 2008)

Creative Commons (copyright) Yahoo search, Flickr creative commons

e-magazines (openzine.com)

Okay, so let me start by saying that I LOVE this cool (and FREE) tool called Jing. You can download it here. Did I mention that it’s free? Choose your OS, Mac or Windows. It’s super-easy to install. While you’re getting it set up, be sure to register for free accounts on Flickr.com and Screencast.com if you don’t already have them.

Let’s start with a simple “how to get started” training, shall we?

Here’s an incredibly cool way to enhance your Jing screencasts–allow viewers to add comments! This video shows you how.

Here’s a helpful blog with instructions to embed your Jing screencast into a blog entry.

And here’s a short screencast showing how to use the text tool on still images.

Time to play…..what can you Jing today?

Fellow educators, if you haven’t seen this video yet, please take a few minutes to watch. A few of the facts are from Karl Fisch’s Did You Know? presentation, but this takes that conversation quite a bit farther.

Pay Attention!

Technorati Tags: 21st_Century Education KarlFisch T4JordanDistrict DidYouKnow? PayAttention!

This is a great video about using technology tools in the classroom. I found it online at the T4-Jordan School District. I haven’t explored the whole site yet, but what I’ve seen so far looks like a pretty amazing pool of resources. Thanks very much to those in charge of organizing and sharing this site.

Technorati Tags: PayAttention T4JordanSchool Education Technology 21stCenturyLearning

I got to attend my first “webinar” this afternoon. Way cool! David Warlick presented about Flat Classrooms. Here’s the link to the slides David showed. The webinar is supposed to be archived, but I haven’t found that link yet. I hope that it will include David’s talk, video of the slides, and the text of the chat that was going on concurrently.
The basis for much of the discussion comes from Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat.

One interesting idea was that we no longer need to teach kids facts. We need to teach them how to manage the facts. We need to teach them how to process and use information, not just memorize facts of information. I need to teach them to learn how to learn, how to teach themselves, how to be life-long learners. How else can they thrive in the 21st century? How could I possibly think of myself as a responsible educator if I fail to teach my students that?

Okay, well obviously I need to add more to this, but it will have to be a bit later.

Technorati Tags: flat classroom warlick webinar ThomasFriedman WorldisFlat

These links to some of the presentations from the K12 Online Conference will give you more information about all the cool things you can do with Flickr.

Check out this one from Alan Levine. Click on the various “hot spots” to learn more about the cool things you can do (very easily, btw) with Flickr. Really fun!

This video by Jeff Utecht will show you even more–enjoy! Can I embed this puppy? Okay, well, that worked, but I had no controls over the video. It started playing automatically, and I couldn’t stop, pause, etc. so I removed the link to the .swf video file.

Technorati Tags: K12Online Flickr AlanLevine JeffUtecht

This PowerPoint is from notes I took while watching Clarence Fisher’s presentation, Global Literacy, at the K12 Online Conference.

global-literacy.ppt