Taste of Tech

When I taught middle school, I would explain to my students that the Internet has three uses. It can be used as a resource, for retrieving information. It can be used as a dissemination tool, to publish information for a global audience. And, it can be used to interact with others. My classes were spending about 75% of their Internet time retrieving information, 24% of their time publishing information (I taught the kids to create web pages with a text editor), and 1% of the time interacting online. I thought this was pretty forward-thinking because everyone else seemed to be using the “giant digital library” and “information superhighway” metaphors. At least we were publishing content, too.

As I look back at the resources and activities I’ve covered over the last ten weeks, it’s striking how much has changed since then. Sure, the bulk of Internet activity is still focused on retrieving information. But the new tools help us filter that information, finding what’s relevant and valuable. David Weinberger put it pretty well, and Wil Richardson picked up on his comment:

Open up The Britannica at random and you’re far more likely to find reliable knowledge than if you were to open up the Web at random. That’s why we don’t open up the Web at random.

Information literacy is one of the key 21st century skills. Not only are we getting better at finding reliable, relevant information, we’re also getting better tools to help us.

Interactivity is where the big change is. Nearly half of the things I’ve written about this summer allow users to interact with one another in some way. Whether you’re commenting on someone’s blog (or allowing them to comment on yours), interacting with a community like EdTechTalk or Tapped In, conducting discussions with Skype, or sharing links in Delicious, it’s much easier to connect with people online than it has ever been before. I’m still amazed that I can talk to, text chat with, and share ideas and resources with teachers from all over the world. I do it all the time, and it’s not a big deal. What time is it where you are? The sunrise is beautiful today. Wait until you see it. So when we’re connecting with people in Canada, Brazil, Germany, Australia, Korea, and the United States, we’re learning more about this global age we’re in. We’re gaining a better understanding of global cultures, and we’re connecting with real people in these places. That’s another 21st century skill.

What happens when you build one of these communities? When you get a bunch of people in the same (virtual) place with common interests and common challenges, what do they do? They start to work together to meet those challenges. They raise questions and provide insights and find better ways to do things. They’re collaborating and applying problem solving and innovative thinking skills. Yep, more 21st century skills.

Over the last couple years, these tools have played a big role in how I learn. I have built my own professional learning community. I rely on that community when I need to learn something, and I try to provide help when someone else needs it. It’s a very individualized, personal way to approach staff development. Everyone is a student, and everyone is a teacher, and everyone has an individualized education plan. Everyone grows professionally, and everyone benefits from the experience.

Hopefully, you have too.

Summer’s a great time for reading. Actually, any time is a great time for reading. A lot of people like to take a few good books on vacation, or spend warm summer evenings at home with a book. I had a high school teacher who implored us to always be reading something. It doesn’t have to be academic or career-related. It doesn’t need to be literature (whatever that is). You don’t have to make weekly trips to the library. But you should always be reading something. I think that’s a good rule to follow. There’s no pressure, no deadlines. But there’s always something there on the nightstand.

This is the part of the post where I’m supposed to recommend some things for you to read. But you already have your own list. You don’t need me to add to it. I have to admit that I haven’t read any educational technology books this summer. I read strange, eclectic things. This summer, I re-read Orwell’s 1984. I also read The Hungry War: An Account of the American Revolution, a 45-year-old book that our school library was throwing away. I read a little Vonnegut, and some beer books, and that new book about the wizard. Like I said, you don’t want recommendations from me.

There’s no shortage of educational technology books out there. You could read David’s, or Will’s, or Alan’s, or Jen’s, or one of the countless others out there. But I find that I’d rather read their blogs and listen to their podcasts than read the books.

If you find that your bookshelf is overstuffed with volumes that you’re never going to read again, you may be interested in one of the online book trading sites. Essentially, you agree to trade your used books for other people’s. You’re not selling them online, you’re just swapping them for something you haven’t read yet. There are several sites that do this, including BookMooch, PaperBack Swap, Bookins, and Frugal Reader. In most cases, you just have to pay postage.

Assignment: Go read something that’s longer than a Reader’s Digest article that doesn’t involve horcruxes.

This is an easy one, but it may take some time. It’s one of those things you’ve been meaning to do when you have more time. That time is now.

The web has all kinds of great resources to enhance your teaching. Back in April, I mentioned several sources of great instructional materials, including these two:

I was looking at the Open Educational Resources site… It looks like it’s a shared resource for all subjects and all grade levels. Teachers can use it to look for activities targetted to specific learning objectives at specific grade levels. They can also contribute their own ideas, links, and resources so others can use them. Very cool.

Then, there’s the Ohio Treasure Chest of Technology Resources. North Canton’s technology integration guru, Eric Curts, has created this site and its accompanying blog and podcast to showcase valuable resources that correlate with Ohio’s academic content standards. The site has thousands of resources, and all of them have been reviewed and submitted by teachers.

My original post about these lamented that there’s never enough time to really dig into these kinds of sites and find the valuable gems. But it’s summer. It’s August, even. You’re starting to think about school already. Even if you won’t admit it to anyone but yourself, you’re starting to plan for the coming year. Now’s the perfect time to dig into these sites.

Assignment: Go to both of the web sites listed above, and find at least one resource that relates to something you teach. Do you know of better resources than these? Post a comment and let us know about it.

I know. The National Educational Computing Conference was a month ago. Educators and educational technologists gathered from all over the country (and beyond) to discuss best practices and new innovations and better ideas for using technology in education. There were 17,000 people there. I wasn’t one of them.

For me to go to NECC, the stars have to align correctly. It’s always the last week of June or the first week of July. Since I have to be home for my daughter’s birthday on June 25, and I have to be in Boston for July 4, it doesn’t leave much time for a quick trip to NECC.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t go. This year’s NECC was the most connected in history. Everyone I’ve talked to about it has said that the best part was the Blogger’s Cafe, which was a space reserved for people to have informal discussions about the presentations, products, and ideas they were seeing. Guess what else they were doing? They were blogging about it. And, of course, those blog posts are all still online. In fact, each session had its own tag, so you can search the web for blog posts about a specific session, not just about NECC in general.

Then, there are the podcasts. The official podcast channel for NECC 2007 is hosted by Apple Learning Interchange. They have podcasts of 36 of the NECC sessions online. You could subscribe to the feed, listen to one a week, and have enough to last you until next spring.

Would you rather have video? Here are 27 presentations that were broadcast live over the Internet, and are available on demand through June, 2008.

I’ve been at a lot of conferences where people walk into the breakout sessions just to pick up the handouts. Sometimes, they stay for a few minutes, but they have no intention of watching the whole presentation. I don’t necessarily blame them — there are a lot of things to do at conferences, and sometimes there are multiple really cool things happening at the same time. But you can pick up your own handouts and print them yourself (or just read them online).

Nothing replaces the personal interaction or the excitement of being at the live event. But much of the best content is available online and the conversatios are continuing.

Assignment: Find at least two resources from NECC and read/listen to/watch them.

If you’ve been following along so far, you have encountered a lot of resources, and have learned a lot, and probably have opinions, ideas, and comments about what you’ve been finding. You can certainly leave comments here on my blog, and there are lots of places on the read/write/web where you can make your opinions known.

But at some point, it’s time to start your own blog. If you have something to say, blogs are one of the easiest ways to say it. Consider these potential blogging applications for teachers:

• Replace the class web page: A lot of teachers have web sites, and use various tools to maintain them. My contention is that teachers want to be teachers, not web designers. They want to focus on kids instead of CSS. They don’t have time to learn Dreamweaver. They just want to get their homework assignments online. Blogging is a great way to do that.
• Replace the weekly newsletter: Nearly every elementary teacher I know sends home a weekly newsletter. Instead of doing that, post each item to your blog. These can be short, simple posts. “Next week, please bring in an empty egg carton for the art project we’re going to do.” A few of your parents will grab your RSS feed and will get instant updates. A few more will sign up for email notification, so they get notified via email automatically when there are new posts. Others will just check your web site weekly to read the “newsletter” online. For the few that don’t have Internet access, print out the week’s blog posts every Friday, and send it home kidmail.
• Post student work: Everyone who has studied it has concluded that kids do better work when they have an authentic audience. If they’re creating something that is on the Internet, that Grandma can read in Florida, they’re going to work harder on it and produce a better product.
• Engage the professional community: You’ve been reading blogs at least since “Summer Renewal 2.” You’re reading one right now. Use your blog to document your own professional growth. Highlight neat things you’re doing with your classes. Discuss the challenges you’re facing. Other people will find your comments valuable.

How do you set up a blog? That’s actually the easy part. If you work for the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Schools, you can set one up on our server by logging in to the user management system, and selecting “Make Me a Blog.” If you don’t work for my district, or you would rather not have your blog hosted on the school’s server, consider Edublogs. James Farmer does an excellent job providing free blogging space for educators and students. He uses the same Wordpress blogging software that we use here at BBHCSD. If you’d rather go with something that doesn’t have to be education-related, try Wordpress.Com. They host free Wordpress-based blogs, too.

If you need help with Wordpress, check out my Wordpress Getting Started Guide. You can also check out the official Wordpress documentation, but you may find that it’s a little more technically oriented than it needs to be.

Assignment: Go set up a blog and say something.