Summertime.YourTime.FunTime

Summer time is your time for learning fun.  All year long it’s about the students – student learning this, student engagement that.  Am I right or am I right?  Now it’s your time.  Let us worry about the learning and engagement. All you need to do is enroll.

Here’s what we have going on this summer

For a full list of Eighth Floor classes, visit our website, http://eighthfloor.org/schedule.html . 

For a print version of our schedule, http://eighthfloor.org/SchedulePDF/SUMMER13_8thFloor_16pgs.pdf .

Stuff of Note!

SOL Training – The Eighth Floor's much cooler version of a webinar.  Less than an hour of hands free learning fun:

• Digital Collections
• Google Accounts – How They Work and Why You Need One
• Web 2.0 Tools for Engaging and Collaboration
• Evaluating Web Resources
• Trends in Technology in Education in The Classroom
• Promethean Topics
• 21^st Century Classroom Project Presentation – Project Classroom
• Smart Topics #1
• Smart Topics #2
• Things That Make You Go “Aahhhh”
• More info: http://eighthfloor.org/special.html#SOL

Now What?  . . . Mastering Technology Skills for Teaching and Learning

Featured program this summer is Project Classroom

This is a two week, blended course designed for educators who have taken classes at The Eighth Floor or already have some technology skills and are ready for classroom integration.  Your goal is to employ technology in a way that benefits student learning and/or your professional development.  Week #1 is fully online.  Week #2 if face-to-face.

For more on this program:   http://eighthfloor.org/special.html#now.

Other NEW classes include

• QR Codes for the Classroom
• Publisher 2010: Making a Calendar
• InDesign CS5: Making Calendars
• Promethean Level 3
• Promethean Marathon

Online Teaching and Learning Series

Summer is a great time to take this more extended blended course.  If you are thinking about teaching online, either fully or in a blended format, you will benefit from this class. If you have questions about the Online Series, contact Lee Anne Morris at lee.anne.morris@tulsacc.edu

Regular Online Courses

Don’t forget we have a handful of regular courses in a short, fully online format:

• Social Networking Tools for Educators
• Cyber Bullying
• Differentiated Instruction and the Technology Classroom
• Time Management Tools for Educators
• Crash Course in Copyright
• Grant Writing 2

If you have questions about enrollment, please contact katy.hoppa@tulsatech.edu. 

Just Sharin'
Lee Anne

Rhizonomy and Learning 3.0

I learned a new word today!  Actually, I still wrapping my head around it and what it could mean for teaching, learning, the classroom, educator professional development, my job . . . you get the idea.  The word that could be changing my life is Rhizonomy. It is so new it's not even in Wikipedia yet. Imagine that. 

 

Steven Wheeler

I am discovering that this is what is behind the idea of learning analytics (see previous post) .  I think we are all familiar with the idea of a taxonomy - organizing, classifying information.  A term that came along with the web, and more specifically Web 2.0, is folksonomy.  A folksonomy falls out from a collective or collaborative method of classifying information on the web. It's more organic, in a way. You may have heard the term used in relation to the practice of tagging information on the web. Tagging is a way of developing a shared understanding or use of something. Am I being too vague? 

    Okay, so, think . . . 

    Taxonomy = Learning 1.0
    Folksonomy = Learning 2.0
    Rhizonomy = Learning 3.0

Shared from Steve Wheeler's blog post on Next Generation Learning  

Rhizonomy = Learning 3.0?  What does that mean? I found a blog post that may help us with this: Next Generation Learning by Steve Wheeler.  I like this paragraph: 

Learning 3.0 will be user and machine generated, and will in all respects be represented in what I will call  'rhizonomies'. The rhizonomic organisation of content will emerge from chaotic, multi-dimensional and multi-nodal organisation of content, giving rise to an infinite number of possibilities and choices for learners. As learners choose their own self determined routes through the content, so context will change and new nodes and connections will be created in what will become a massive, dynamic, synthetic 'hive mind'. Here I do not refer to any strong artificial intelligence model of computation, but rather a description of the manner in which networked, intelligent systems respond to the needs of individual learners within vast, ever expanding communities of practice. Each learner will become a nexus of knowledge, and a node of content production. Extending the rhizome metaphor further, learners will act as the reproduction mechanisms that sustain the growth of the semantic web, but will also in turn be nurtured by it. Learning 3.0 will be a facet of an ongoing, limitless symbiotic relationship between human and machine.

  

I kind of like the idea that not only do we sustain the growth of the web as users, but we also become nurtured by it. 

Do you think this is possible? 

Just Wonderin'
Lee Anne

What’s Your Geek IQ – Eighth Floor Quiz

Here's your chance to find out your Geek Quotient. Are you a perfect candidate for Eighth Floor Classes? 

Who invented the internet?

1.   Ward Cunningham
2.   Al Gore
3.   Seriously? Check Wikipedia, you dweeb
4.   A company called the Pony Interpress

When you book a hotel, you are most concerned about  . . .

1.   The breakfast buffet
2.   Sites and restaurants in the area
3.   Free WiFi
4.   The closest public transport

If you were a technology device, which would you be?

1.   PC/Mac
2.   iPad
3.   Cellphone - Android, of course
4.   Laptop

When you set the table for dinner, how do you arrange the utensils around your plate?

1.   Spoon, fork, knife
2.   Fork, knife, spoon, cellphone
3.   Knife, spoon, fork, cellphone never leaves your hand
4.   Phones aren’t allowed at the table

Your best friend just got a brand new iPhone 3.  You . . .

1.   Show her your old flip phone and tell her you are worried people will listen in on your calls with a phone like hers. 
2.   Are impressed she is starting to catch on to the whole “phone thing.”
3.   Tweet – Instagram – Facebook about it because that’s just too funny.
4.   You compare it to your original iPhone and think about updating

Your best friend just got a new iPad.  What app do you recommend first?

1.   eHarmony – JDate – Match.com– it’s a toss up
2.   FlipBook
3.   Your favorite JailBreak or QR code
4.   Angry Birds

When you share a document with someone, your preferred technique is . . .

1.   Print it out for them
2.   Email
3.   DropBox or Google Drive – just depends
4.   One of those sticks you put in the hole - what are they called again? 

When you can’t figure out how to do something in a program or application, you

1.   Just give up – you don’t have time for this.
2.   Ask the techie type person at work
3.   Click on the help button or Google/YouTube the information
4.   You phone the application at home.

You use your phone most for . . .

1.   Phone calls
2.   Checking your Facebook
3.   My phone makes calls?
4.   The clock – it’s huge and you don’t have to put your reading glasses on to tell time.

How many Eighth Floor classes have you taken in the last few year

1.   0
2.   1-5
3.   6 or above
4.   I sign up but never show up – so I am now afraid to show my face there.

Add up your points!

For each #1 answer give yourself 1 point

For each #2 answer give yourself 2 points

For each #3 answer give yourself 3 points

For each #4 answer give yourself 0 points.

0-9 points - Egghead

Technology is just not your thing, is it.  You never hear from your kids or younger relatives because you don’t know if your phone can text. You keep deleting your contacts from your computer and you don’t know how you to it. You better be enrolled in several Eighth Floor classes.  You need us!

10 – 19 points - Dweeb/Nerd

It’s not all bad – you have some game. Your kids have made sure of that. You can conduct a little business, but beyond that it’s a phone and it’s made for calling people. After all, when was the last time you saw an actual payphone? You use your computer at work, but only for those things that must happen on the computer. Oh, and also to check your Facebook and Pintrest, of course! You need to take your sprouting technology skills and help them grow by taking classes at The Eighth Floor

20-30 points - Techie/Super Geek

Look out Lewis Skolnick and Gilbert Lowell!  There’s nothing nerdy about you, and you feel no need for revenge.  Technology just dances for you. Your only drawback is that you have no tolerance for eggheads and just don’t get dweebs.  You also know too much about technology to suffer integrating it into your classroom. You need to take classes at The Eighth Floor to get over your own self.  Just sayin’. 

Ten Apps for the Classroom iPad Cart

Shawn Beard is our next guest blogger.  Shawn has taught for The Eighth Floor for a number of years. 

Shawn Beard, M.Ed.
Virtual School Director
Sand Springs Virtual Academy

Sand Springs Public Schools

Recently, our school purchased iPad Carts for use in our schools. The idea was to provide iPads for use in the classroom, but purchasing them on a large scale was too much. So, by providing a cart for each building, the cart could be checked out by teachers to use as a mobile computing classroom. iPads provide the ability to access apps for practice, web 2.0 resources, and sites for classroom research.

Being an iPad user, as I investigated different apps I already had an idea of what I would want on the iPads. But as these were going to be used by different teachers on a larger scale, the thought process was a little different.

Here are a few apps that I found to be crucial the the classroom iPad Cart:

• Educreations - Like having an interactive whiteboard (IWB) on your iPad, this app, when used with a HDMI cable or Apple TV, allows you to use tools familiar to IWB users. Features include a pen tool, ability to erase, add pictures, text, and most of all, the ability to record. By being able to record what you present, you can save it for later, and even share your presentation with others. 

• Puffin Free - iPads aren't Flash friendly, so if you're going to show certain web content that is built on Flash, it can be difficult when using the Safari browser. This app (available for free with ads, and for a price to remove ads) gives users the ability to view and interact with Flash content.

• Free Graphing Calculator - Math teachers will appreciate the ability to use the iPad as a graphing calculator. There are several free calculators available, this is just one of them.

• iTunesU - The iPad will prompt new users to download this app and it is well worth it. With the ability to download free course content from K-12 institutions, as well as colleges and Universities, this app gives teachers the ability to connect students with content covering thousands of subject areas. Professional Development courses are available through iTunesU too!

• iBooks - This app may not seem like a teaching tool to some, but many teachers have found that the ability to bookmark, highlight, and add notes to the margins makes the use of this app very handy. For English classes, teachers can download epub files for classic novels from sites such as http://www.gutenberg.org/. eTextbooks can be purchased from many educational textbook publishers, through the iBooks store. 

• Bubble Sheet - Join Mastery Connect for free and use this app to deliver assessments using bubble sheet style questions.

•  Socrative - Download Socrative Teacher and Socrative Student and use the iPad as a Student Response System. Create your own assessment questions and deploy them over classroom WiFi.

• PenUltimate - This note taking tool allows students to take notes in their own "fingerwriting". Keep notebooks by subject area - all for free.

• Dropbox - download this cloud storage app and create a classroom account that will allow students to upload/store assignments in the cloud.

• iWork - This bundle of apps from Apple may cost a little ($9.99 for each app; less on the Volume Purchase Program if you buy more than 10), but its worth it. Keynote is a presentation tool similar to PowerPoint that allows you to create and view slideshows. Pages is a word processing app that allows you to create documents. Numbers is a spreadsheet app.

Obviously this is not an all encompassing list of everything you would need, but it is a great place to start. The capabilities of tablets in the classroom are so great that you will discover more as you use them. The camera and built-in microphone make iPads great for creating audio and video projects as well. As you become more advanced in using them, investigate and explore the web for more options. And enjoy!

Lose Weight without Even Trying

Renowned scientists have found a previously unfound cure for obesity. Hitherto, it was thought to be a cure, but now it is proven to be a more globally effective antidote to a festering plague.  No personal effort what-so-ever is required.

You clicked on it?  Seriously?   It’s okay, it’s okay.  You just shared your human side.   Man, what I wouldn't give for a previously hitherto unfound cure – not gonna lie.

I have been working on the beginning blogging class I am teaching tonight – looking for some new stuff.  I like to keep things a little fresh, ya know.  What I have noticed is the blogging movement is really picking up speed lately.  Not just what I see online, but I see it in our enrollments. Why?  I have my theories, but what do I know?

I am all for blogging and can think of a million reasons why I would do this both professionally and personally.  On top of that, I don’t know what I would do if the people I am learning from quit blogging.  Yikes!  Would I have to read musty books on what would then be stale information?  (Please don’t translate that into a distain for books – I LOVE BOOKS! --- but there are times when blogs are more appropriate.)

I’m sincerely curious what people are looking for when they start blogging?  I’m pretty sure it’s not a previously unfound cure that was hitherto global.  An infinitive or two would be helpful for me.  Is it to learn, to teach, to promote, to create, to meet Common Core standards, to lose weight by blogging . . . to what?

Just Wonderin’
Lee Anne

p.s. There are still some spots left in the Getting Started with Blogs class.  Just sayin’

Learning Analytics - Imagine the Possibilities

Several years ago I ran across a phrase that intrigued me: Learning Concierge.  I wrote it on a tiny post-it and it has been stuck to my monitor for quite some time now.  It spoke to me. I think the teacher’s role is going to morph – if not happening already – into something more akin to a learning expediter, information manager, a learning concierge.  Yes, we already do that, but this is different. The student is a little more in charge. Think about what a hotel concierge does . . .  makes your experience excellent and totally worth your while. That person has access to information and resources that the average person does not. The concierge in a good hotel knows stuff that improves the customer’s (student’s) experience.

Twice now, today, I have run across the term learning analytics in respect to future trends.  Learning analytics takes the idea of a learning concierge to a whole new level.  Stay with me here – this is pretty cool. It’s like personal demographics on steroids.

Wikipedia defines analytics as

“Analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data. Especially valuable in areas rich with recorded information, analytics relies on the simultaneous application of statistics, computer programming and operations research to quantify performance. Analytics often favors data visualization to communicate insight.”

Imagine if there were a record of all the information you have researched, learned, seen, shared, created, communities you have influenced or have influenced you, essentially every keystroke – all in one place and it was analyzed for  patterns.  Imagine the patterns: thought, strengths, weaknesses, learning styles, you name it .  Imagine if schools could capture every action of every user and provide real time data on that student - prescribe learning. 

Will Richardson discusses this idea well in his blog post, Future of Learning (?).  It’s the idea of a “learning assistant.”

“As students age, data-driven, virtual “learning assistants” take on much of the job of providing resources and content based on individual interests, and needs, throughout school and beyond. As learners begin to explore topics through searches, these “assistants”, working off of a life’s worth of keystrokes, deliver the most “appropriate” content and connections within a few moments. If asked, they instantly plan a “curriculum” to learn whatever the student is interested in learning, and suggest the most relevant communities to join and experts to interact with. These virtual assistants are networked as well, easily able to find other leaners with similar interests or needs from anywhere to connect them and create spaces for collaboration and further study. Throughout the process, students earn badges of expertise and automatically publish an online, transparent portfolio of artifacts and contributions in order to earn their influence as experts.”

I am just fascinated by this possibility. Do you think this is the way education is going?

Just thinkin’
Lee Anne

Minor’s Favorite Web 2.0 Tools---For Now!

Dorothy Minor is our latest guest blogger on The Eighth Floor.  She has been working with Web 2.0 tools for quite some time and has real experience at practical application. 

Dorothy Minor
Associate Professor, English

Tulsa Community College

Dorothy.minor@tulsacc.edu 

http://parkdalear.hubpages.com/hubs/latest

After using a variety of Web 2.0 tools over the last few semesters, I have developed some favorites. The Web 2.0 tools I currently like the best are those with the following qualities: free, easy to use, student/teacher-friendly, useful in learning/teaching. I have found a wide variety and number of Web 2.0 tools which fit the criteria listed above. However, I would like to focus on three that fit the criteria and add a bonus item: fun to use: Jogtheweb, www.jogtheweb.com; Bighughelabs, www.bighugelabs.com; and Themeefy, www.themeefy.com.

After creating a free account at jogtheweb, students and teachers can collect Web sites on a particular topic, add comments, and create a title page complete with questions or directions for using the collected sites. This semester, I required my Comp I students to create their own Jogtheweb accounts and collect sources for their research papers in the jog. They then posted their jog links in a wiki I created for that purpose in Blackboard. I had access to the sites the students were using through the links. I also created a jog which I used with students to help them evaluate Web sites. I chose sites that can fool the casual observer into thinking the sites are legitimate when they are not. Interspersed with the bogus sites, I included reliable sites. Students had to investigate all the sites and write a short paper explaining which sites were legitimate and which were bogus along with their reasons for identifying the sites as legitimate or bogus.  For a class reading Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” I assembled sites on O’Brien, the Vietnam War, Native American Vietnam veterans’ accounts of their experience in the war, and other accounts of the Vietnam War. On the title page, I included specific questions to guide the students through the sites prior to our classroom discussions of the story. Jogtheweb offers a variety of ways to engage students with material.

Bighugelabs is fun to use because we can use the site to create a poster, magazine cover, movie poster, jigsaw puzzle, and trading cards. After my students read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, they made magazine covers to advertise the story. While the students had fun in developing their magazine covers, they also had to think about the story they had read and incorporate certain elements which I required. The assignment allowed the students to be inventive and resourceful. They showed their finished products to the rest of the class. One student put the price of his magazine as “an arm and a leg.” I thought that was clever in view of the story we had read: Frankenstien. Bighugelabs provides an opportunity for teachers and students to be creative and use the site to showcase ideas they have or to reflect upon readings. Cindy Brock, technology coordinator at Presbyterian Day School, Memphis, TN, offers more ideas for using Bighugelabs on her blog: http://itscindybrock.blogspot.com/2011/03/big-huge-labs.html .

The third Web 2.0 tool to investigate is Themeefy. With a free account, we can produce an online magazine consisting of Web sites, videos, images, and our own text.  The uses for this tool are emerging rapidly. This semester, I developed an assignment for my Honors Comp I students to curate a magazine on topics they had been studying about Japan, our focus in the honors class.  They started by brainstorming on the subjects they wished to include. The assignment had specific requirements such as the number of Web sites, videos, and topics to include. Students were then free to add other material as they saw fit; they included additional videos or images to illustrate the points they wished to make.  Then they presented their findings to the rest of the class.  As with JogtheWeb, we can collect Web sites for students to evaluate, mixing in legitimate sites with bogus ones. We can also assemble sites on a particular subject so that students have the material in one place for further study.  We can take screen shots of the computer and documents and load them into a Themeefy magazine. For an online class, the possibilities are intriguing for including our syllabus, sample papers, videos of important content, and other materials. Themeefy offers a variety of uses for both students and teachers.

Jogtheweb, Bighughelabs, and Themeefy open up new worlds for students and teachers alike. They give us the opportunity to be creative while we use technology to enhance our learning and teaching. If you have not seen these tools, give them a test drive. We can have fun sharing ideas on how to incorporate these Web 2.0 tools into our courses. Enjoy the ride!

Dorothy Minor

If you are interested in guest blogging for The Eighth Floor, let's talk!

lee.anne.morris@tulsacc.edu  - Thanks, Lee Anne

Enrollment is Open for Spring Classes on The Eighth Floor

Yep.  It's true.  
You can enroll for spring classes.  All the information you need is on our website. http://eighthfloor.org/ .  

You will find a list of our classes with times and dates here http://eighthfloor.org/schedule.html.  and a PDF of our soon to be printed schedule here http://eighthfloor.org/SchedulePDF/SPRING13_8thFloor_16pgs.pdf. 

Here are some new things for spring: 

• SOL Training!  Synchronous Online Learning . . . Training. (Don Cornelius would be proud!)  These are short classes on hot topics held online - lasting about 30 minutes or so. If nothing else, the entertainment value of watching us fumble through the first few of these sessions will be worth the time. Just sayin'. 
• More classes after school/evenings and weekends
• We have moved 3 of our regular F2F classes online: Social Networking Tools for Educators, Time Management Tools, and Differentiated Learning. 
• New class - next level of Tech integration with the Common Core Standards - classroom application
• This is not new, but so many people don't know that you can take as many classes as you like at no charge to you personally. 

FYI - We will be closed for the holiday Dec 21 - Jan 7th.  If you enroll in a class, you will get a confirmation after Jan 7th. 

If you know what you want to take, we recommend you enroll early to ensure a spot. Did you know that The Eighth Floor has approximately 70 consortium members? Teachers alone, we have over 13,000 members - not even including support staff, part-time instructors, and administrators.  Crazy stupid numbers.  

Is anyone else just a little concerned that Scott, Linda, and I are influencing that many people, that are influencing that many more people? Just gonna leave you with that thought.

Best wishes from The Eighth Floor and a peaceful holiday season. 
Lee Anne   

What Would You Tell High School Students About College?

I have been hanging out with Ms. Beeson and a class of 10^th graders at Webster High School as a career coach. My purpose is to just be there and to “advise” about both career and college.  It’s part of the CareerAccess College Readiness program.  They are pretty cool, so far. Will it surprise anyone if I say that with this group I have no credibility when it comes to the topic of college?  I just want to say, are you kidding me?  But it is what it is. 

I was shaking my head over this ridiculousness as I was preparing the final for my Writing 1 students, and that’s when it occurred to me that the answer is right in front of me – literally.  They may not believe me, but they will believe a first year college student, right?  

So I told my class about the folks at Webster, and they were all too happy to give them their very best advice.  I have to say, they done me proud!  Here is some of what these TCC college students had to tell those Webster high school students. 

Did you assume you would go right to college after graduation or did you have another plan?

• Yes, and I did. 
• Yes, but I didn’t do it until almost ten years later and now I regret not getting started sooner.
• No, but I knew if I wanted to have a future, I needed to get myself in college. 
• I went to pursue my basics
• Yes, I went straight into college
• No, but now I have a plan, after wasting six years telling myself I couldn’t do it.
• I went right to college for a year but realized I didn’t want to be a doctor and dropped out. So my plan has changed.
• Yes, I knew I would go to college, and I was preparing for it all through high school .
• I always knew I would go to college. Never had another option.
• I was already packing my bags.

As a college student, what would you tell a HS student to help him or her make better decisions about college?

• Go to college after you graduate while it is still fresh on the brain.  Do not put it off. You need the education to get a better job.
• Look at tuition first.
• Get started as soon as you get out and get on with it. It’s really not hard if you apply yourself.
• Do not slack off !!  Your college teachers won’t be there to help you make the better grade. It’s all you. 
• Always study
• Study Study Study!!!  Don’t be lazy.  Do all your work. Go to all your classes.
• Figure out a major before you start college. It’s easier than you think.
• Make sure you do your research on the degree field you want. You may start and realize that you hate it and have to start over.
• Prepare while you are high school and take college seriously. Push yourself. Don’t let anyone stop you. It will be harder if you wait. Get your degree now while you can. The world is waiting on you! (Is it wrong to love it when I hear my words come out of their mouths . . . or pens?)
• Don’t waste such a good opportunity that you have for free. Actually make goals for yourself and achieve them with your heart and mind open.
• College is fun, but you need to go to class all the time.

What is your best tip or trick for getting by that you have learned as a college student so far?

• Take notes, ask questions. But most of all you have to be present. Not being there can mess you up so bad.
• Study and apply yourself. Don’t wait until the last minute.  It’s not helping you at all.  To be good at something, you have to go above and beyond and push yourself even when you don’t want to. The outcome will be awesome.
• Study and prepare in all your free seconds.
• Consider your weekends over and devote them to study and homework.
• Get your work done before the due date.
• Look over stuff before class.
• It took some time for me to figure out how to balance work and study time for college.

Anything else you want to share?

• Follow your dreams and don’t let anything get in your way.
• You will land better jobs and make more money with a college degree
• I found that when I really understood what I had learned in class, the effort of studying paid off.
• Try college as a chance to become something better.
• At least try it.  TCC is cheap and easy to enroll in. Don’t get a degree just to have one. Get one that can actually help you get a job.
• Remember that school is your money and your time and it’s a waste of money and time to not pay attention and turn in assignments.
• Without an education you are seriously lost in this world.
• Good Luck!

I call this sage advice. 

Just Sayin'
Lee Anne

Kitten Kapture Captures Kids!

By:  Renata Copsey, Computer Teacher

Guest Blogger for 

The Eighth Floor Blog

November, 2012

All Saints Catholic School

Broken Arrow, OK

www.kittenkapture.blogspot.com

Wanting to capture the minds of my young students on the first week of school, I decided to create a blog about the new kitten we brought home from Indiana.  

Dusty’s story was adorable and I took many photographs to document his start in life. I began my first back-to-school lesson with what I did over the summer.  Dusty’s first post about his broken tail was being projected in large view on my Promethean board.  My students were engaged as soon as they walked into the computer lab. It was a fun week using Dusty’s blog as a way to welcome the students to the lab.  

But what happened after that was the real surprise to me.  The next week, when students entered the lab, they begged to see more about Dusty.  They told me stories of how they asked their mom to find Dusty’s blog online and find his YouTube channel.  He was becoming quite famous and that wasn’t the end of the surprise.  In class when my students completed their computer assignments, I began to see Dusty’s cute little face pop up on screen after screen in the lab.  The students would be scrolling up and down reading and looking at the photos of Dusty.  

I began to post more about Dusty and compose my posts to appeal to early readers.  I began to see this as a valuable tool for the classroom.  The students couldn’t wait to read more about Dusty.  One first grader was so inspired, he asked his mom to start a blog about their kitten. Not only was Dusty our special kitten at home, but he was quickly becoming a special kitten at school, reinforcing literacy and technology skills.  All of this was possible because of a simple little blog.  

Thank you, Dusty and Blogger.

Taking your Blog to the Next Level – What is that exactly?

No. Seriously. I need to know.

No. Really. I got talked into, flattered into, agreed to, felt just crazy enough to do a next level blogging class this semester.  Each time I end the beginning class, What About Blogs?, many want to know when the next class is.  I have to be honest, I have hesitated.  The first class is challenging enough because each person comes to class with his and her very own expectation or idea of what that class will be about. It really is one of the more challenging classes I teach for this very reason. There is a blog for every shade in the rainbow out there.  Every class has bloggers from all over that rainbow. Somehow, we manage to stay a little focused.  And, well, the class is just fun.

For this “next level” class, I am going crazy trying to anticipate what the majority of participants will want to know.  Will they still be beginner bloggers? Are they still trying to figure out what they want to do with their blog?  Have they been blogging for years and are perhaps looking for tips to freshen up? Do they want to know about the brand, the writing, the technology, the expansion of readership, the tricks and tips of layout? What?  I could spend 3 hours on a list of 100 tips. I could ask everyone to throw their top two “want to knows” in a hat and figure out how to answer them.  I could PowerPoint my way through the class and dodge questions.  I got this!

I have been learning about and teaching blogging for years.  I know a lot about it, but - and here is the most wonderfully ironic part - I don’t always do those things that traditionally make a blog successful. I’m not sure I would even call our Eighth Floor Blog successful!! 

Like I said, I know what to do; I just haven’t done a lot of it. My primary goal has always been to have a blog that was solid enough to teach a beginning class on blogging.  That’s all.  But now look at what I have done.  Now I have to have a blog that has been “taken to the next level” . . . by next week.  I know.  In teacher time, that’s tons ‘o time. Oh, and Thanksgiving is at my house this year.

Just laughin’
Lee Anne

Infographics – communication going backwards or forwards?

When I was in high school I worked after school in our elementary library.  While shelving books, I took the opportunity to read many of them.  I was especially drawn to the fables, but I also developed an appreciation for story books.  Why?  It’s not that the stories were so great – like a fable.  There is rarely a moral to the story in a picture book or tragic characters like there are in fables. I am guessing it was the pictures . . . ya think? In many books the art work was fantastic.  I was also intrigued by how they could tell the story with both pictures and words – often the pictures said more.  Let’s keep in mind this was a few decades ago – no internet or digital clipart. So, we are talking old school picture books.

Fast forward to now.  I am sure there are still picture books, but story telling has gone digital, as has the presentation of most information. The big thing right now in digital communication is the infographic..  Have you seen them? (Infographics on Google) They are certainly visually stimulating.  Infographics are a graphic or visual representation of information – beyond the pie chart or PowerPoint or Prezi. They are an iteration of our visual language.  Cool, right?  Professionals who create these are called information architects – a phrase coined by Richard Saul Wuman, co-founder of TED.

I look at these and think how fun they would be to make.  I think my students would love to do this instead of an essay or a book report, any day of the week.  And then I think . . . what a clever little trick that would be.  Students would be working ten times harder to share the same information.  Have you tried putting one of these together?  Holy cannoli!  They may look cool, but that is a whole lot of work for something that is meant to be consumed quickly. There are web tools out there that walk you through the process, but none of them help you make infographics that look as awesome as the information architects make them look.

I haven’t tried all the tools that are out there, but the ones I have tried, I am not all that impressed with.  One tool that I see referred to a lot is http://piktochart.com/ . Not hard to use, but again, not super dynamic looking.  Now, there is the pay version – maybe that’s where they keep all the gold.

Bottom line – they are cool.  I like the ones that have a bit of humor to them.  I can’t help thinking they are basically one page picture books. Is that a bad thing?

Just thinkin’
Lee Anne

How is Technology Changing Teaching?

A concern that often comes up in classes is the future of the teaching profession – how is technology changing it?  I have my theories based on what I read and what I see.  Clearly the most empirical evidence ever!  

But seriously, I think we are all clear that automated instruction is not the teacher of the future. Self-paced, solitary learning is not the answer to specialized instruction.  Instead of taking over the classroom, technology is just another tool for engagement.  You can choose to make it dance for you, or you can just keep banging your head on the wall . . . you choose.

I often share a dream/prediction with my classes that in the near future we will no longer call it blended learning.  We will just call it learning. I hope that the people who choose to use technology in their classroom can do so without obstacles and those that choose not to use technology don’t feel like they are crappy teachers. They are not. 

So, what will teaching look like in the near future - IMHO?  In many ways, there will be no change.  In more ways, there will be big, juicy changes – but I think you are going to like them. I also think that some of the more recent approaches to the classroom are going to help with teacher burn out. I recently read this article from The Journal.  It says so much of what I want to say.

Teachers are going to need more training for small group facilitation and individual tutoring than they are for whole class lesson planning.  Yep. They speak directly to this in the article. Facilitation is a great word.  Teachers are becoming more facilitators or managers of learning, a concierge if you will – which is much more appropriate than perpetuating the idea the teachers “teach” and that’s how we learn.  This notion assumes we drop knowledge into brains and voila!  The magic happens.

Teachers are going to need to change their idea of what is cheating. This is a world, now, where in mere seconds students can get all the information they want and they don’t need no stinkin’ teacher to get it. Thing is, they may have access to all the information, but do they know if it is good information? See . . . they need us. They really, really need us!

There’s more to this whole idea of what is cheating.  Teachers are going to need to change their definition of chaos. (Chaos, your "in-class name" will now be Collaboration and Construction. You can still wear your monogramed sweaters.) Students need practice taking on the many roles of group collaboration.  We can help them understand what those roles are so that they don’t flounder when put in a circle – they will know their job. This takes us back to knowing more about small group facilitation. 

Even our jobs on The Eighth Floor are changing.  Teachers don’t need us to teach you the points and clicks of technology so much anymore, sometimes, but not as much.  You have a growing technology literacy – the more you use it, the more and better you speak it or vice versa.  Scott, Linda, and I are making an effort to have a strong big picture skill set when it comes to technology. That’s not easy.  Technology is a kooky little mutating monster.  We have definitely had to become more specialized in the areas we teach.  We just can’t be all things to all types of technology integration. We have learned to collaborate by pulling on others’ strengths – some might call it cheating.

All teachers are going to need to be able to teach both online and fact-to-face. OOPS!  There, I said it. Remember – we won’t be calling it blended learning anymore.  It’s just learning.  It will be like saying all teachers will need to be able to teach in both the morning and the afternoon.  Both the good news and, for some, the bad news is that teaching online and F2F are not the same thing.  This is one area where we can really take a bite out of teacher burnout.  Variety. Options.  I’m telling you.  Teachers need to be stimulated and engaged, too.  

I can go on, but I won’t – right now.  It is exciting to see teachers getting excited about teaching when they take classes at The Eighth Floor.  When is that not the best job ever?

Just pontificatin’
Lee Anne