LISD Ed Tech Connection

The video titled A Vision of K-12 Students Today by B. Nesbitt has been floating around the Internet for some time now. In case you have not seen it, it is embedded below. Any thoughts, reactions, comments?

Blogging is starting to get a foothold in some Lenawee County schools and classrooms. Check out some of the local blogs below; some feature interesting media posted by students, while others have information written by educators. To harness the power of interaction that blogs allow, consider leaving a comment on one or two of the blogs.

LISD TECH Center Principal’s Blog, Lenawee ISD

Mr. Musolf’s Mathematics Blog, Britton-Macon Area School

Mrs. Spohn – Third Grade, Onsted Elementary

Room 14 Third Graders, Adrian Michener Elementary

TMS News, Tecumseh Middle School

The list above is not exhaustive. Please send links or leave a comment pointing to other blogs from Lenawee schools.

In a time when many educators are recognizing the benefits of using technology to connect and collaborate with others around the world to explore relevant content and concepts, the Youth Media Exchange (ymex) provides a platform to do just that. Ymex is an online social networking site created by Taking It Global and Global Kids “for youth interested in using digital media tools to share information on major global issues.” Below is a quote from the “About” web page:

We believe that online social networking is a powerful tool for learning and positive action worldwide. A platform that is both self-guided and collaborative, both easily accessible and inherently complex, online social networking, in theory, enables action along a wide spectrum of skills and engagement. Empowered by technology to create, share, and connect online, individuals who have collaborated to take action via social networking have produced significant, unexpected achievements in political, social, and cultural spheres—from uncovering inaccuracies in network news reporting to coordinating humanitarian assistance in response to events such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

And yet, social networking has come under fire from parents, schools, and authorities, who aim to limit young people’s access to these tools. Although these are valid claims in some cases, social networking and other forms of digital media engagement have the potential to enable new kinds of learning, empowering youth to become a driving force in creating and shaping a shared future in an increasingly interconnected world. By keeping the spirit of ymex.org focused on positive social change and cross-cultural exchange, we envision ymex.org to be a space where this can happen.

It is important for researchers, practitioners, parents, educators, and policy-makers to understand how young people around the world are currently using and thinking about social networking and digital media, as well as how social networking and digital media can best be used as an instrument for education and social engagement on a global scale. This is a long-term, overarching goal for the field of digital media & learning at-large, but we hope ymex.org can contribute in substantial ways.

The site includes embedded video and audio, external links to media, digital photos, comments, discussion boards, online groups and more. One point of care/concern is proper citation or copyright of media that has not be created by users. Read the guidelines for using the site.

Two innovative chemistry teachers in Woodland Park, CO are using videocasts (aka vodcasts) to redefine lecturing, homework, and how time is spent in their classrooms. The teachers have data showing that student achievement in their classes has increased because their students watch video-lectures as homework then come into class prepared to ask questions, engage in hands-on work and solve problems. This is in contrast to what happens in many other classrooms where much time is spent sitting and listening to lectures, which leaves less time for hands-on work and more paper-based practice at home where students are often stumped.

The teachers, Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, have created a web site to teach other educators about their methodology: http://educationalvodcasting.com/

A page of their site includes a narrated slideshow from Bergmann and Sams detailed their teaching methods and achievement data. The page, In the News, includes a TV newscast about the teachers and the process as well as other links to press.

PBS Frontline just aired an important episode called Growing Up Online.  It explores how the Internet is “transforming the experience of childhood” for some youths.  If you missed it, you can view the entire program online (high bandwidth needed) at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/
In addition to the episode, the site also offers extended interviews with experts, links to helpful resources, a chance for viewers to post their ideas to a discussion board (a fascinating read) and more.  The Growing Up Online Teachers’ Guide should be ready for people to access in February.

What are the implications of the topics explored in the episode for Lenawee County residents?

Last week the Library of Congress announced on its blog that it has joined the Web 2.0 shift with a pilot project that resulted in uploading to the photo-sharing site Flickr more than 3,000 photos from two collections of its vast holdings (over “14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials”). The historic images, in both black and white and color, are from the 1910s, 1930s, and 1940s and include a huge variety of subjects from agriculture to World War II to sports.

 
Delano, J. Going to town on Saturday afternoon, Greene Co., Ga.  Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 1941.

What does this mean to the average person? LoC sees this project as leading to increased access to their informative collections. “No copyright restrictions are known to exist.” This is good news for education, but users still need to cite sources when downloading or linking to the photos. Folks with Flickr accounts can help tag the images with meaningful words or phrases. They can also leave comments about the images or add notes, opening the door to knowledge sharing or questions and answers. Many images already contain many comments, tags and notes.  People can also subscribe to a feed that automatically announces when LoC posts new photos.

Library of Congress Blog:  http://www.loc.gov/blog/?p=233

The free K12 Online Conference started on Monday, Oct. 8th and is now in full swing. According to conference organizers, “This is a conference by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. A goal of the conference is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape.”

It is not too late to get things streaming. Some sessions are live. All sessions are archived. Check out the conference schedule here. First time attendees will find this section of the conference wiki helpful.

The latest edition of Smithsonian Magazine contained a 1-page write up about a new initiative that the Smithsonian is partnering with other organizations on called the Encyclopedia of Life. The project is unique in many ways, some of which are briefly outlined below:

• The goal of the Encyclopedia of Life is to document all known species (some 1.8 million!) each on a media-rich web page including still images, maps, video, text, sound recordings and so forth.  According to the current web site of the Encyclopedia of Life, it has been estimated that the project will take roughly 10 years to complete.  Dynamic content will be authenticated by a team of scientists from various organizations around the world.  Page development started in 2007.  Some parts of the Encyclopedia of Life may be available to the public in mid-2008.

• The site will be interactive. There will be a chat feature and access to experts.  It will feature an interactive classification map of species.  And, importantly, users will be able to contribute content.  Think of the possibilities for classroom studies and projects!

• The Encyclopedia of Life will allow for personalization and customizable browsing. Users will be able to change the level of complexity of the text (think differentiation).  And people who create accounts will be able to bookmark pages, make tags, and take notes.

For an intriguing video, previews of a few species’ pages and more info, see the current web site: Encyclopedia of Life
( http://www.eol.org )

The National Educational Computing Conference put together each year by ISTE recently took place in Atlanta, GA. ISTE has posted tons of great media online from NECC 2007 that you can access for free. Check out the wealth of info and share with other educators:

Video webcasts of various sessions
Highly recommend if you only have time for 1 or 2:

• Thinkfinity (formerly MarcoPolo) overview of free interactive web resources
• Closing keynote w/ Dr. Tim Tyson and students from Mabry Middle School, GA (start at 8:00 min.)

Podcasts
(When I try to play these audio files through the Apple Learning web site, they are making my browsers, Firefox and IE, crash. Try accessing them from iTunes > search: conference connections) Highly recommended: Ian Jukes, Mitchel Resnick

Links to people who blogged NECC 2007

Lastly, you can search for presenters’ handouts

Enjoy! ~ Greg

Dates have been posted for the K-12 Online Conference 2007. This is the second occurrence of this innovative conference. It will happen during the weeks of Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, 2007. Virtual presenters will include very credible educators like David Warlick, Alan Levine, Clarence Fisher, Brian Lamb, D’Arcy Norman, Derek Wenmouth, and Brian Cosby. For more info, go to http://k12onlineconference.org/.