Teaching 2.0

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Permalink Reply by Guillermo Lutzky on April 22, 2007 at 8:33am

Believe or not, here in Argentina I am starting a very similar project, (to 20 very motivated teachers from Buenos Aires) and I wanted to share with the community the approach that I will try to adopt.

I will use all kind of Web 2.0 tools to make the class a project on itself. We will have a few group classes, some one-to-one meetings, and a lot of virtual support.

I want to give the project a Web 2.0 focus form the start to emphasize the collective strenght of the diverse and multitalented group of people that I am going to work with.

Some ideas and tools we are going to use:

- Obviously, a blog to document the experience. A set of tags will be set up to annotate the content.
- a "tag" for the group to uplooad photos to Flickr, video to Youtube, docs to "Scribd", diagrams to Gliffy, etc.
- a OPML file with RSS feeds of individual productions to be shared to group, including del.icio.us bookmarks, Flickr feeds, etc. A Netvibes or Google Personalizes Home Page will be our aggregator.
- a Feevy set-up to include the blogs of the participants of the class.
- a wiki to record the teacher's projects and activities triggered by the class, and also the productions of their students.

In a nutshell, I am trying to create a community of motivated teachers, give them the tools to enrich themselves, and document the products and the process.

Any comments and suggestions will be very welcomed

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on April 22, 2007 at 8:41am

Yes - I have similar goals. What I'm thinking about now is order - what to start with? Where to go next. I also don't want to overwhelm. I can't do everything - I have to prioritize.

I am definitley going to have them set up an aggragator. I've been trying to think about which one. I use google reader - but I have a gmail account, so I think it makes the most sense for me. But maybe that isn't the best one to show people.

OK - what is a feevy?

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Permalink Reply by Guillermo Lutzky on April 22, 2007 at 9:53am

Elizabeth:

As an agreggator I prefer Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com). It seems to me more user friendly, and has a desktop metaphor.

Regarding feevy (http://www.feevy.com/), it is another aggregation product. Some people are calling these products "web 2.1", because of their "We do" philosophy (a social construction), replacing the "I think" idea that the blog originally represents.

From the Feevy homepage:

How feevy works

You tell us your favorite blogs (or any source with a RSS fe ed). We give you a personalized feevy tag. Just place the tag in your blog template and... bang ! Your friends will appear in your blog! Feevy shows the latest posts from your favorite blogs in one column putting them in order according to the latest updates, which will appear on top.



Hope this helps
Regards

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on April 22, 2007 at 10:32am

Definitely does. I added it to my school blog . Very cool. I'll check out netvibes too.
Thanks.
-Elizabeth

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Permalink Reply by J Guadalupe Salcido N on April 22, 2007 at 2:26pm

My advice is to prepare your sessions and start your first class explaining to teacher the basic concepts and manipulate the Web.2.0.

good luck

J G. Salcido

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Permalink Reply by ursula accumanno on April 22, 2007 at 4:36pm

Hi Elizabeth!
It sounds like its going to be a great class. Are you talking about what level your fellow teachers are at currently in terms of technology? If so, there are several online assessments they can take to determine where they are. LoTi Lounge(Levels of technolgy integration) is one.

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on April 23, 2007 at 6:12pm

Thanks everyone for all of your suggestions. With your help these are the questions I've come up with. If I've left anything essential out please let me know. I'm going to start talking to people tomorrow.

How do you use technology for your own personal productivity?
How do you use technology with your students?
How would/can you define "Web 2.0?"
Do you use any Web 2.0 tools right now - Del.icio.us, flickr, bloggs, wikis, podcasts, aggregators, youtube -for your own use or with students?
What educational topics interest you the most, ie - achievement gap, writing process, special education issues, technology integraton.....
What non-educational topics are you interested in reading about, ie - sports, knitting, theater, dance, women's issues, politics...
What do you want to get out of this class?
What do you think you bring to this class?

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Brisson on May 15, 2007 at 11:18am

Elizabeth
I do a lot of training with teachers and they are always especially interested in how the activities created will align with their state curriculum framewoks. They like to hear about new technologies, but to get them truly invested in them they must see a way that it can be adapted to their immediate teaching situation.
To achieve this goal in your course I would make sure that I know what subject/grade level that they teach. I usually ask teachers to tell me a little about the most successful way they have used technology personally and also with their students. This way you get to hear about the technology they are comfortable with and the way they see technology being used effectively (by their definition) in the classroom.
I also ask wha the technology configuration is in their own classroom and school - e.g. number of computers in classroom, color printer, smartboard, mobile carts, computer labs. etc.
This way you can structure some of your discussions around ways to use the technology within a varity of scenarios, whole class, center approach, one on one.
Hope this is helpful.
Maureen

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Permalink Reply by Kristian Still on May 15, 2007 at 11:42am

Good evening Elizabeth, I have read the information posted here with growing interest. The students I teach also begin their academic lives with a 'welcome task,' as proposed by Kevin H. 'In the time it takes to boil an egg, what are YOUR expectations of YOUR learning experience.' Our learning assistant proposed the idea and we are forever thankful to her. We were advised to allow the learners to communicate in what ever medium they felt most skilled. Some simply wrote a biography in word or presented in ppt, two recorded an interview, one student created a collage of photos in www.slide.com. It was great to know what their expectations were rather than what I thought the course should be. In their course reviews, three or four recalled their first week experiences as a reason for fulfiling the course.

An apps worth looking up, www.voicethread.com.
Idea borrowed from an old UK tv show. Skills SWAPSHOP. What skills do you have to swop? I have blogging skills..... would like to learn multimedia skills?

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Permalink Reply by Sue Collins on May 15, 2007 at 7:19pm

I like to start a class by having teachers read "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants". I ask them if they are a native or an immigrant and to explain why. It definitely creates a comfort level, and explains the gap many teachers feel between themselves and their students. Even if they've already read it, it starts a conversation within a context.
Have a ball with your class!

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Permalink Reply by William Bishop on May 15, 2007 at 7:53pm

We are going to do a Technology fair in my system to highlight 2.0 activities for our teachers in the fall. You would be shocked as to how many teachers don't even know about blogs and wikis. Most have heard of podcasting, but not the aforementioned. There is a lot of good information at http://abpc.wikispaces.com

Regards,

William Bishop (Bill)

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Betts on May 17, 2007 at 3:52pm

Elizabeth - I have taught a similar "course". I would make a list of things that you feel are important for intro. to 2.0 (blog, wiki, forum, RSS etc.) - ask them to respond to each with Never heard of it, heard - but never used, used - but want more, got it. I would also ask them if they have any ideas or wishes for the sessions.

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