Thursday, November 30, 2006

Are you a PowerPoint User or Loser

I was reading one of my favorite "teacher" blogs, TeachingHacks.com, and came across this post, PowerPoint Extreme Makeover. I hear so many educators say they hate PowerPoint but that they use it anyway. Okay, can't say I don't agree. Here's some help:

Dean Shareski has posted a great little PD [professional development] video in the K12 Education YouTube group on a few power-pointers that anyone who does presentations would find useful.
This is a short (20 minutes?) video that has some worthwhile advise on design and technique. If nothing else, it's a great review.

FYI - we offer several two hour courses on creating your own templates and master slides, as well as using animation and hyperlinks to make PPT more interactive. The spring schedule will be available shortly!

If you know of similar resources, please share.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Monday, November 27, 2006

School Newspapers are Moving Online!

Here's an interesting article from eSchool News Online: As with so many of our other modes of communication, it looks like more and more schools are moving the publication of their newspaper online. It's quite inexpensive, according to the article, and shouldn't we be teaching kids to communicate in an online evironment anyway?

What does this mean for print journalism?

Just Askin'
Lee Anne

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Wiki Classes on the Eighth Floor

Want to create a website for your classroom? Nothing is easier than a wiki.
We have two classes on Wikis in November.

Nov 15, 8:30 - 11:30 pm
Nov 28, 4:00 - 7:00 pm

We have created an Eighth Floor Professional Develoment Wiki.

Click on the WikiSpaces button below.

Wikispaces

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Want to Make Something of Your Blog?

I ran across this article: 21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch. Now, the intended audience here is people who want to be out in the blog world - sell something, become famous, stuff like that. However, I thought these were good tips. Not all of them are useful in an educational setting, sure, but many are. What's important here is if you are teaching using blogs or are allowing your students to reference blogs, you need to know what's going on behind the scenes. So here your go.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Friday, October 27, 2006

FREE Resources - But They are Wikis!

Looking for free resources for you classroom - or yourself? Check out this site Scott found called Wikimedia.org. It is a repository for several pop culture and free content wikis. Free books, free content, free a lot of stuff. Wikimedia is perfect if you are teaching a foreign language since it is published in most any language you might be speaking. Also, great for looking up what something means or what "the kids are calling it these days."

Monday, October 16, 2006

What About Blogs? - October 2006

Welcome to the Eighth Floor class, "What About Blogs."

We thought you might be interested in looking at a few of the blogs we find particularly relevant to education and technology integration.

There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there. You will find blogs on any topic from pet grooming to dissertation research. People of all ages are drawn to blogging as a form of social networking.

As a collaboration and communication tool, blogs are finding their place in education. Many teachers use them for professional.

Check out the following education/professional development focused blogs:
Webblogg-ed
Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Teachers Teaching Teachers
Blog of Proximal Development
2 Cents Worth

Several teachers are using blogs in the classroom as a tool for collaboration and communication. They find that blogging results in much more authentic learning for students.

Check out the following education/classroom use blogs:
Mrs. Watts Second Grade Computer Classroom
SAS China
AP English Literature and Composition
English 12
Maybry Online.org - Classroom and Teacher blogs
Applied Science Research Blogs
Alan November - Examples in Education

Check out the following education/safety focused postings and articles:
MySpace Education
Change Agency

Blogging Tips and Tricks:
Blogs - Anatomy
Blogs for Learning
Evaluating Blogging
Blogging Best Practices

Being as this is a class about blogging, we think you ought to do a little, well, blogging. (Those of you reading this who are not enrolled in the class, please jump in!) We’d like you to share some of your thoughts or concerns about setting up and using blogs either professionally or in the classroom.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some questions to get you started thinking:
- What do you want to know about blogs?
- What do you already know about blogs?
- How do you think you can use blogs?- How do you see others using blogs?
- What are you concerned about when it comes to blogs?
- What experiences (good or bad) have you already had with blogs?
- How important is digital literacy for our students?
- OR anything else you would like to blog about.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Come up with at least one idea for using or creating a blog - it doesn't even have to be "school" related, and post a comments. Share any other thoughts you might have.

Post comments by clicking on the “comments” hyperlink at the bottom of this posting. You can contribute as “other.” Be sure to include your name somewhere. Read others’ comments and feel free to comment on their comments.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Thursday, October 12, 2006

FREE - K12 Online Conference 2006

Don't let the word "free" throw you. Free doesn't mean it's worthless! Although this online conference won't cost you a penny, it's worth "it." (Whatever "it" is for you.) Not only is it worth a million dollars (tax $$, at that), but it is worth your time - a much more valuable commodity. This is a wonderful example of open content and open resource - kind of what the Web 2.0 is all about. These folks are walking their talk and talking their walk.

Do some investigating. I insist
Go to the website K12 Online Conference 2006.
Listen to a podcast about it: Open Content, Open Conference by Wesley Fryer on the School Library Journal website.

I went to a VERY worthwhile conference last summer that featured most of the geniouses featured in (and running) this free online conference. I traveled by plane, gave up weekends, stayed in a hotel, rode busses (w/o air conditioning) and all the junk that goes along with going to conferences. I suffered! I suffered in order to tell you that this is worth your time and is presented to you as the best possible senario - it's free, it's online, and it's at your convenience. I plan on "being there." Why wouldn't I - it's free.

I'm just sayin'
Lee Anne



Technorati Tags:

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

What Happened When I Jumped off the Bridge

I wanted to let you know how my wiki adventure went. Pretty darn good! They are doing a fabulous job, and I am quite impressed with their efforts.

We invite you to have a look at our Comp I class wiki.
CompOneTCC

(Remember that it is a work in progress - they are in the process of creating their pages.)


Thanks!
Lee Anne

Why Would'ya Wiki?

Have you discovered the power of wikis yet? We have a couple of classes coming up on the Eighth Floor about creating and using wikis in the classroom.

Wiki When You Wanna!
Wed - Nov 15 - 8:30 - 11:30 am
Tues - Nov 28 - 4:00 - 7:00 pm


Need to know a little bit more about them before you commit?
Of course you do.
Listen to our Eighth Floor Podcast on Wikis.


Also, check out Will Richardson's wiki and his page about wikis:
http://webloggedlinks.pbwiki.com/Wikis.

Friday, September 29, 2006

You'll be Jumping off Bridges in no Time, Too.

As you all probably know, Will Richardson is giving a special workshop on the Eighth Floor next week. I'm ever so excited. I know - you all wish I would shut up about him already. But I can't! If you are lucky enough to be enrolled in the class, you'll see what I mean - I'm just sayin'. If you are not lucky enough to be enrolled in the class, I have a consolation prize for you. Will has an article in the October Edition of Edutopia that is pretty darn interesting.

Yep, if he jumped off a bridge, I'd probably jump off right behind him. W A I T, I think that's exactly what I did in my Monday night Comp 1 class last week. We had class in a computer equipped class room that night because we were going to end with an in-class writing. First, however, we had some very, really, always important stuff to talk about - stories we'd read from the reader that sould teach us about narration and description and extremely important information we gleaned from several titillating chapters of our handbook. Honestly, I was as bored as they were, and I'm not a super boring teacher (well, I don't think so, usually). They could not keep their hands of the computers that were in front of them - don't blame'em. So in an effort to keep their attention and interest them in the material, I started dancing faster and faster - spinning to the point of nearly losing consciousness. At least that's the only explanation I have for what happened next. I heard the words come out of my mouth, "Next week, we are going to build a wiki and you guys are going to teach each other this stuff. How many of you know what a wiki is? Your job this week is to find out - what do they look like, how do they work, etc." At the same time I'm laughing (howling!) at myself because, guess what, I have to learn those things too, double quick. Actually, it's not that desperate. I've played with them quite a bit. I'm still laughing on the inside. It's better than crying - that'll be Sunday night before class on Monday.

I'm optimistic! I had their attention instantly. They were asking questions about wikis left and right - I told them enough to make them go look for more. I put links on BlackBoard about wikis, and 90% of them have been on there every day - EVERY DAY! They are going to have to explain and define and teach us all about writing stuff - you know, that titillating stuff. When I told them that they would be published on the web and I'd be telling people about this, they got serious. They wanted to know who was going to check to make sure they didn't look like fools. I told them they were. HA!

What better way to learn than to teach, right? I'll let you know how it goes.

Lee Anne

Monday, September 25, 2006

Why do Students Blog?

I am always asked, and I am always curious. Why? How? Who?

I ran across this blog post by Joan Vinall-Cox in her blog, Elgg - Learning Landscape. I thought you might be interested.

Check it out.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Friday, September 08, 2006

K12 Online Conference 2006

These people are great. Check it out. AND, might I remind you that Will Richardson will be on the Eighth Floor October 3rd with a day long, hands-on class, Blogs, Wikis, Podcast, and More.

K12 Online 2006 Conference…
Announcing the first annual “K12 Online 2006″ convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme “Unleashing the Potential.” A call for proposals is below.


There will be four “conference strands”– two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday - Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in podcast or screencast format and released via the conference blog (URL: TBA) and archived for posterity.

THE FOUR STRANDS ARE:
Week 1
Strand A: A Week In The ClassroomThese presentations will focus on the practical pedagogical uses of online social tools (Web 2.0) giving concrete examples of how teachers are using the tools in their classes. They will also show how teachers plan for using these tools in the delivery of their curricular objectives.

Strand B: Basic/Advanced Training (one of each per day)Basic training is “how to” information on tool use in an educational setting, especially for newcomers.Advanced training is for teachers who have already started using Web 2.0 tools in their classes and are looking for: (a) advanced technology training (eg. how to write your own blog template or hack existing ones), (b) new tools they can make use of in their classes, (c) teaching ideas on how to mash tools together to create “something new,” (d) a pedagogical understanding of how technologies such as Weblogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking sites, RSS feeds and others can deepen learning and increase student achievement, or (e) use of assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of Read/Write Web technologies in their personal practice and with their students.

Week 2
Strand A: Personal Professional DevelopmentTips, ideas and resources on how to orchestrate your own professional development online; the tools that support Professional Learning Environments (PLEs); how to create opportunities to bring these technologies to the larger school community; how to effectively incorporate the tools into your personal or professional practice; or how to create a supportive, reflective virtual professional community around school-based goals.


Strand B: Overcoming ObstaclesTips, ideas and resources on how to deal with issues like: lack of access to tools/computers, filtering, parental/district concerns for online safety, and other IT concerns while trying to focus on best practice in the use of Web 2.0 tools.
CONVENORS & KEYNOTESFor organization purposes, each strand is overseen by a conference convenor who will assist and coordinate presenters in their strand. The first presentation in each strand will kick off with a keynote by a well known educator who has distinguished his/herself and is knowledgeable in the context of each topic. This year’s convenors and keynote presenters are:

A Week In The Classroom
Convenor: Darren Kuropatwa
Keynote:
Bud Hunt
Bud Hunt teaches high school language arts and journalism at Olde Columbine High School in Longmont, Colorado. He is a teacher-consultant with and the Tech Liaison for the Colorado State University Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project, a group working to improve the teaching of writing in schools via regular and meaningful professional development. Bud is also the co-editor of the New Voices column of English Journal, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. A consumer of copious amounts of New Media, Bud blogs and podcasts about his practice and larger educational issues at http://www.budtheteacher.com.

Basic/Advanced Training
Convenor: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Keynote: TBA
Personal Professional DevelopmentConvenor: Will RichardsonKeynote:
Ewan McIntosh
Ewan McIntosh is an educational technologist and teacher of French and German. Based in the Edinburgh area of Scotland he frequently works around the UK and Europe, leading student and teacher workshops and conferences. He is an experienced workshop facilitator in the area of Web 2.0 technologies in education across stages and curricular areas. Ewan blogs at http://edu.blogs.com

Overcoming Obstacles
Convener: TBA
Keynote:
Anne Davis
Anne is known for seeing the educational possibilities in the use ofweblogs with students in classrooms, having implemented wonderful ideasand weblog projects with students and teachers in K-12 classrooms and atthe university level. She currently works at Georgia State University inthe Instructional Technology Center in the College of Education as anInformation Systems Training Specialist. Her weblog, EduBlog Insightsis a co-winner of the Best Teacher Blog inthe second international Edublog Awards, a web based event thatrecognizes the many diverse and imaginative ways in which weblogs arebeing used within education.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
We’d like to invite you to submit a proposal to present at the conference. If you have something you’d like to share with the community, both people who are new to blogs and/or experienced bloggers please email the appropriate conference convenor above with your ideas. The deadline to submit a proposal (just the proposal, not the finished product) is September 30, 2006. One of us will contact you to finalize the date of your presentation. Your presentation may be delivered in any web-based medium (including but not limited to…podcasts, PowerPoint files, blogs, websites, wikis, screencasts, etc.) and must be emailed to your assigned conference convenor one week before it goes live, (see above strands) so that it can be uploaded to the server.

The conference organizers are:
Darren Kuropatwa
Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of Mathematics at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his pedagogical practice and for “child safe” blogging practices. He has more than 20 years experience in both formal and informal education and 13 years experience in team building and leadership training. Darren has been facilitating workshops for educators in groups of 4 to 300 for the last 10 years. Darren’s professional blog is called A Difference ( http://adifference.blogspot.com).

Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach
Sheryl is a technology/education consultant for the National Education Association (NEA), the Center for Teaching Quality, SRI International, the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia Department of Education, the Miami-Dade Public Schools, and the Alabama Best Practices Center. She has had several journal articles and book chapters published, been featured on public broadcasting television and radio shows, and is a regular presenter at local, state, and national conferences speaking on topics of homelessness, teacher leadership, virtual community building, and 21st Century learning initiatives. Sheryl blogs at 21st Century Collaborative ( http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/).

Will Richardson
Will Richardson is known internationally for his work with educators and students to understand and implement instructional technologies and, more specifically, the tools of the Read/Write Web into their schools, classrooms and communities. A public school educator for 22 years, Will’s own Weblog ( Weblogg-ed.com) is a primary resource for the creation and implementation of Weblog technologies on the K-12 level and is a leading voice for school reform in the context of the fundamental changes these new technologies are bringing to all aspects of life. Will is the critically acclaimed authour of the best-selling book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms (March 2006, Corwin Press).

If you have any questions about any part of this, email one of us:
Darren Kuropatwa
Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach
Will Richardson

Please duplicate this post and distribute it far and wide across the blogosphere. Feel free to republish it on your own blog (actually, we’d really like people to do that ) or link back to this post (published simultaneously on all our blogs). Please tag all related posts with k12online06.

Monday, July 31, 2006

Will the Real Bloggers Please Step Forward?

In my very, very humble opinion, the media has given blogging a pretty bad name. I TOTALLY understand educators' concerns based on the information we get from our average media resources - newspapers, TV, etc. Anymore, when people hear the word blog, they think pedofile. When that's all the information we get, what are we supposed to think - right?

Here's the good news. These scary, nasty people are not the real bloggers (or at least not ALL of them). There are still some good, interesting people in the world.


I wanted to share this "bright spot" in my day! I ran across a study (thanks to Wesley Fryer's article on the MTI2006 wiki) by Pew Internet and American Life Project titled Bloggers: A portrait of the internet's new storytellers, published on 7/19/06.

Here's a taste of what they have to say. Read the rest by clicking on the title above:
Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world.

A telephone survey of a nationally-representative sample of bloggers has found that blogging is inspiring a new group of writers and creators to share their voices with the world. Some 54% of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44% say they have published elsewhere. While generally youthful, these writers otherwise represent a broad demographic spectrum of people who cite a variety of topics and motives for their blogging.
Eight percent of internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Thirty-nine percent of internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs – a significant increase since the fall of 2005.

Just sharin' - comments?
Thanks!
Lee Anne

Monday, July 17, 2006

New Podcast

Lee Anne Morris is in Boston learning all kinds of new technologies to incorporate into classes on The Eighth Floor. Way to go, Lee Anne!

One of the technologies we are interested in because of the classroom application is podcasting. This is a test of an online podcast website and the result.

Take a listen then check out the website (odeo.com) for yourself:

powered by ODEO

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

What About Blogs? July 2006

Hello fellow bloggers!

Now that you have had an opportunity to look at several different types of blogs out there, what do you think?

Create a comment on this posting that discusses what you may have discovered, new ideas you now have, a blog you thought was particularly great, or questions you may still have.

Be sure to read other posts and make comments to them if you'd like.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Monday, July 10, 2006

Made for Classroom Blogging

Classblogmeister is a free blog host that was designed by a teacher (David Warlick) for teachers. http://classblogmeister.com/

You might also be interested in David's blog for educators 2 Cents Worth.

What Mark Ahlness said in his blog edtechblog about Classblogmieister:
So here's my testimonial, my sales pitch for Classblogmeister. First, it's not blocked. Next, it offers TOTAL teacher approval before any student post or comment on a student post (take that, MySpace fear mongers). Teachers can leave online feedback for students to improve their writing (like if they want to get it published) that is hidden from public view. Next, it's free (thanks to David W's generosity). It also has a very active list on Yahoo! Groups for sharing and problem solving. Last, I have never, in 25 years of teaching, seen a more powerful classroom tool for motivating students to write. Nothing else even comes close. It is the perfect blogging tool for teachers.

Friday, July 07, 2006

When is Blogging Learning??????

I just read a blog entry by Konrad Glogowski in his Blog of Proximal Development. He shares some great observations about his 8th grade bloggers. He describes their development and how they became true learners in their own blogging community.

The students became involved in what Carl Bereiter has termed progressive discourse (1994). Sharing, questioning, and revising of opinions helped students develop a strong understanding of the given topic. They were engaged in intentional learning(Scardamalia and Bereiter, 1994), an active, purposeful search for meaning.

Textbooky words, but exactly the magic we WORK to make happen. It is still an amazement to me (should I admit this?) how learning happens. I love it when it suddenly happens, when it is authentic. Even though I've put a lot of time and effort into the learning stuff, I am still surprised when my students engage. (I love that about my job - it's like knocking on a door for hours and being surprised when someone opens it.) So, as a teacher I often feel like both the magician and the audience. NO, I don't mean I'm impressed by my own classroom tricks, I'm oooohing and awing at what students will sometimes pull out of their hats. Konrad describes in his posting how and when and why this kind of learning happened with his students. What I like is that he shares the MANY steps and contributions he made to make this magic learning happen.
But then, about two months ago, there was a sudden shift. The community took on a life of its own. Imagine a place where students start with a literary text and then, rather than spend most of their time responding to literature, they are given opportunities to explore the relevance of this text in the world around them. . . . Granted, it did not happen automatically. I did quite a bit of facilitating and guiding. I wrote about some of these topics on my own teacher blog within the class blogosphere. I took time to talk to each individual writer. I commented extensively on their work. I used my own blog to link to many entries, to show my students the connections between many individual posts. I suggested electronic and print resources. I talked about their work in class. We discussed individual entries.
Check out the entire posting and the comments that follow.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Podcasting Tutorials

This list of podcasting tutorials is a product of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. If you are interested in podcasting, you'll be interested in this list.

AND . . . if you are intersted in podcasting, you'll be interested in the class we offer on the Eighth Floor, Podcasting: Hype or Help?

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

What About Blogs - June 2006

We thought the participants in our June course, What About Blogs? might be interested in looking at a few of the blogs we find particularly relevant to education and technology integration. There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there. You will find blogs on any topic from pet grooming to dissertation research. People of all ages are drawn to blogging as a form of social networking.

As a collaboration and communication tool, blogs are finding their place in education. Many teachers use them on a professional level. Two that I read on a regular basis are, first, Will Richardson’s blog
Webblogg-ed . We like Will’s blog so much, and the book he just released, that we have invited him to do a workshop on blogs, wikis, and other cool tools for the Eighth Floor this coming October. You really won’t want to miss this. The second blog I read often is Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer. Good news! Wesley Fryer just took a position in OKC, and since he will be "local," we hope to invite him to the Eighth Floor as well - stay tuned. There are many, many others. Although it is impossible to read them all, you will probably find a few you go to over and over.

Several teachers are using blogs in the classroom as a tool for collaboration and communication. They find that blogging results in much more authentic learning for students. A couple of classroom blogs might want to look at are
Mrs. Watts Second Grade Computer Classroom . You have to check out the journals on the Oregon Trail. Also, take a look at SAS China . This is a website at an overseas American school that is run by two instructors in different disciplines, and their blog is part of their website. The work the students do in both classes is quite impressive and sometimes pretty funny.

There has been much discussion lately regarding the safety of student blogs. Internet safety is an important issue that we should all be helping our students understand and deal with. A couple of blog posts you will find interesting on this topic are
MySpace Education, on Wesley Fryer’s blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity and Stephanie Sandifer’s blog Change Agency .

Being as this is a class about blogging, we think you ought to do a little, well, blogging. (Those of you reading this who are not enrolled in the class, please jump in!) We’d like you to share some of your thoughts or concerns about setting up and using blogs either professionally or in the classroom.

Here are some questions to get you started thinking:
- What do you want to know about blogs?
- What do you already know about blogs?
- How do you think you can use blogs?
- How do you see others using blogs?
- What are you concerned about when it comes to blogs?
- What experiences (good or bad) have you already had with blogs?
- How important is digital literacy for our students?
- OR anything else you would like to blog about.

Post comments by clicking on the “comments” hyperlink at the bottom of this posting. You can contribute as “other.” Be sure to include your name. Read others’ comments and feel free to comment on their comments.

Thanks!
Lee Anne


If you are interested, check out the February 17th posting on the 8th Floor Blog called “
What About Blogs?” and read some of the comments made by the last class.

Monday, May 08, 2006

FREE Software - ThinkFree.com Provides Free "Office-like" Web Services

If you are in the market for free software, you may already know about this site. Just in case, I thought I'd pass this information along. In Wesley Fryer's blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity, he discusses the ThinkFree software and provides links to several articles and reviews. Check out his post, ThinkFree Challengs MS Office Dominance.

If you have anything to share regarding this software or others, please do.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Friday, May 05, 2006

"What About Blogs?" - May 2006

We thought the participants in our May course, What About Blogs? might be interested in looking at a few of the blogs we find particularly relevant to education and technology integration. There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there. You will find blogs on any topic from pet grooming to dissertation research. People of all ages are drawn to blogging as a form of social networking.

As a collaboration and communication tool, blogs are finding their place in education. Many teachers use them on a professional level. Two that I read on a regular basis are, first, Will Richardson’s blog
Webblogg-ed . We like Will’s blog so much, and the book he just released, that we have invited him to do a workshop on blogs, wikis, and other cool tools for the Eighth Floor this coming October. You really won’t want to miss this. The second blog I read often is Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer. There are many, many others. Although it is impossible to read them all, you will probably find a few you go to over and over.

Several teachers are using blogs in the classroom as a tool for collaboration and communication. They find that blogging results in much more authentic learning for students. You might want to look at are
Mrs. Watts Second Grade Computer Classroom . You have to check out the journals on the Oregon Trail. Also, take a look at SAS China . This is a website at an overseas American school that is run by two instructors in different disciplines, and their blog is part of their website. The work the students do in both classes is quite impressive.

There has been much discussion lately regarding the safety of student blogs. Internet safety is an important issue that we should all be helping our students understand and deal with. A couple of blog posts you might find interesting on this topic are
MySpace Education, on Wesley Fryer’s blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity and Stephanie Sandifer’s blog Change Agency .

Being as this is a class about blogging, we think you ought to do a little, well, blogging. (Those of you reading this who are not enrolled in the class, please jump in!) We’d like you to share some of your thoughts or concerns about setting up and using blogs either professionally or in the classroom. Here are some questions to get you started thinking:

- What do you want to know about blogs?
- What do you already know about blogs?
- How do you think you can use blogs?
- How do you see others using blogs?
- What are you concerned about when it comes to blogs?
- What experiences (good or bad) have you already had with blogs?
- How important is digital literacy for our students?
- OR anything else you would like to blog about.

Post comments by clicking on the “comments” hyperlink at the bottom of this posting. You can contribute as “other.” Be sure to include your name. Read others’ comments and feel free to comment on their comments.

Thanks!
Lee Anne


If you are interested, check out the February 17th posting on the 8th Floor Blog called “
What About Blogs?” and read some of the comments made by the last class.

Monday, May 01, 2006

The Eighth Floor's Podcast about Blogs

Over the next several months, we will be "broadcasting" podcasts that highlight new technologies for the classroom. The first podcast looks at blogs: what they are, how difficult (or simple) the technology is and how blogs are used in the classroom.
Check it out by clicking on the link below!
Pam Vreeland


8th Floor Podcast-Blogs


The music is thanks to Internet Archives, an internet website publishing open source music, and Korhan Kaya, the artist making the music available.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Libraries have issues - did you know?

"Many of the current issues facing libraries revolve around the central theme of technology. Technology affects what we do, how we do things, and what our users expect from us as gateways to information. Two labels that arise in this discussion are Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. . . ."

This is a post I found in the HigherEd Blog, April 13th. Kind of interesting.

Still Sharin'
Lee Anne

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works.

Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. They have built upon the "all rights reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights reserved" approach. They're a nonprofit organization. All of their tools are free.

I have not explored it fully, but it looks pretty cool.

Just sharin'
Lee Anne

Friday, April 07, 2006

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

How to Use Blogs in the Classroom

Wow! You have to check this out. Exploring our Dynamic Earth - Using Blogs to Learn. I'm impressed by the creative and collaborative design of this site. Instructors are always asking how in the world would they ever use a blog for learning. Well, here's their answer. The blog is just one component of this venture.

Want to know more about blogs and the classroom? Check out Weblogg-ed - the read/write web in the classroom.

Kudos to both instructors.

Lee Anne

Friday, March 31, 2006

Understanding/Making an RSS Feed

I don't know about the rest of you, but I find this RSS Feed stuff a little confusing. I understand it is vital if you want your blog read, but how it all works is a bit mysterious - a bit. I generally manage to stumble through it, somehow.

I ran across an article that might help it make sense to you. There are several suggestions and a lot of explanation. Check it out.

Have fun!
Lee Anne

Friday, March 24, 2006

Are Blogs Really What is Meant by "Digital Literacy"?

I ran across a blog post that intrigued me. Wesley Fryer, the author of the post, speaks of President Bush's reference to blogs - more precisely, milblogs - as a primary source for information about what is happening in Iraq - a broader civil perspective.

Fryer used Bush's comments as a springboard into NCLB issues. His question is, are students getting the [digital] literacy skills they need for the 21st Century? Are students getting skills that will help them solve the real problems, the problems that are not prefabricated and solvable by rote? Fryer does not feel NCLB is properly preparing students for anything important, especially not for the digital age.

I'm gonna let that whole NCLB discussion sit - interesting article.

Here's my question: Are blogs really what is meant by "digital literacy"? Or, are blogs nothing more than open text messaging or IMing? I have heard countless teachers and parents condemn blogs. Faith in them as scholarly or righteous modes of communication is not wide spread. I completely understand why they feel that way. Blogs have certainly had a lot of bad press these days. On the other hand, I can't help think that there are blogs out there that ARE scholarly or righteous. There must exist some that are credible primary resources. One or two must be fine examples of citizen journalism? No?

Okay. If you had a student working on a project on current civil issues in Iraq, would you allow him or her to use an American military blog as a credible primary source? Sure, sure - it depends on the topic and the perspective. That aside, do YOU trust the resource? How would you discuss this with your student? How do you help your students solve the problem of evaluating credible vs. not in the world of blogs? Is this a skill that is important?

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this post.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Student Decision Making - Digital Citizenship

I recently ran across this web page. It is chuck full of articles - some more interesting than others - but certainly a lot to think about.

Summary: Welcome to the Digital Citizenship Website
Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps teachers and technology leaders understand what students should know to use technology appropriately. But Digital Citizenship is more that just a teaching tool, it is a way to prepare students for a society full of technology. Too often we are seeing students as well as adults misusing and abusing technology. The issue is more than what the users do not know but instead what is considered appropriate technology usage.


Digital Citizenship Today
Now is the time for educators as well as other adults to begin to evaluate how they are using technology. Within this website are many examples of how educators can begin the process of teaching their students how to use technology more appropriately. These resources can be used by any adults who are interested in helping students better understand appropriate technology use.


If you find an article particularly helpful or informative, please post a comment by clicking on "comments" at the bottom of this post.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Megan's Blog Desk

I wanted to share a site that I found worthwhile - in a non-overly-technical sense. It is called Megan's Blog Desk (http://megansblogdesk.blogspot.com/). Megan, or Mrs. Perry, left a comment on the Eighth Floor blog (see "What About Blogs?"). Megan is an elementary teacher in Maryland and a graduate student working on an MA in Teaching and Learning with Technology. She is interested in preparing her students and other teachers for our changing global community.

I checked out several of her links -- they're good. She has everything from research articles on blogs in education to blogging resources to classroom blogs of all colors. In addition, she has several posts that clearly discuss setting up blogs, etc.

If you run across anything you find particularly useful, please share! You can comment by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of this post.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Thursday, February 23, 2006

What About Blogs - the Aftermath

Thank you all for your excellent contributions and questions in class Wednesday night. You definately made it an interesting and informative class. AND! Thanks for being the first class - sometimes risky, you know. :-D

Clearly, we ran out of time to answer all of your questions. If you have more, please feel free to leave a comment. I'm sure if you have a question, the same question is hopping around in someone else's mind.

Scott will post links to the tools he was talking about, so watch for those.

Question for you: What information did you find most useful from the class or would like to know more about?

Post by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of this post.

Thanks!
Lee Anne & Scott

Friday, February 17, 2006

What About Blogs?

We are offering a course on blogs through the Eighth Floor – you already know this. When we first started talking about the idea as an actual class, I struggled a little with its worthiness. What, exactly, were we going to share with participants in the class? “Do it, you’ll love it, here’s how?”

As a college English instructor, I have a gadzillion reasons to jump into blogging with my students. Clearly, a blog offers them more opportunity to write, more opportunity to get feedback from me, peers, or anyone for that matter. (Much depends on how you set up your blog.) A blog puts them “out there” on the web – makes them feel they are writing for a reason more significant than a grade. College students love blogs. Seriously, once they get the hang of it and buy into the collaborative nature of it, they are pretty good at it. Well, most of them – we ARE talking about teenagers still.

Blogs are more interesting to read than essays. It’s okay; we can admit that. It is one thing to know/observe a student in the classroom or via essay writing, but a whole new, more sincere, and often mature, persona comes out in the blog medium. BINGO! (Persona is the “bingo” word here.) Blogs are a fantastic way to demonstrate differences in voice, tone, credibility – persona. It’s not an easy concept for some – we ARE talking about teenagers still.

I can go on, really, and on about the beauty of blogs. However, even the most beautiful creatures have flaws. Alas blogs, like frogs, have flaws. (That one was just for me.) To avoid a lot of alliteration, I’ll call them warts. The most stubborn wart I deal with is getting students to write in a blog with the same high standards as an essay. They are quick to use slang, fragments, poor organization, and a bevy of other composition sins. My personal favorite is when they do an entire blog using text messaging script. Please! It’s not like we didn’t just have conversations, demonstrations, and regurgitations about my expectations (again, just for me) – but we ARE talking about teenagers still.

Anyway, so back to what do people do with blogs. I did some research. Actually, I did a lot of research, and I found some amazingly creative classroom blogs out there. I also found some that just didn’t bounce. I found several blogs that elementary classes were doing. One was very cute – a class of 3rd graders had gone to see a musical (maybe Beauty and the Beast?) and the kids blogged about their experience. I ran across a high school math class that blogged about things I completely didn’t understand (English teacher, remember), but I did get that it was math and the kids were into it.

I found classroom blogs dealing with everything you can imagine. I found blogs on blogs and blogs that linked to other blogs and blogs that blogged about bloggers who blogged about blogs and, well, you get the idea. I found that there is a whole lot of blogging going on out there. Is it all good? Errrr, nope. Is it worth investigating as another tool we as educators can use? Ahhhh, yep! And there you have it - the birth of a class on the Eighth Floor.

Being as this is a class about blogging, we think you ought to do a little, well, blogging. (Those of you reading this who are not enrolled in the class, please jump in!) We’d like for you to share some of your thoughts or concerns about setting up and using blogs:

- What do you want to know about blogs?
- What do you already know about blogs?
- How do you think you can use blogs?
- How do you see others using blogs?
- What are you concerned about when it comes to blogs?
- What experiences (good or bad) have you already had with blogs?
- OR anything else you would like to blog about.

Post your comments by clicking on the “comments” hyperlink at the bottom of this post. You can contribute as “other.” Be sure to include your name, and read others’ comments and please comment on their comments. Honestly, I don’t always talk in circles like this – not always.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Podcasting Demo

This demo was created in prep for a new class on The Eighth Floor, Podcasting: Help or Hype. Coming this June to a floor near you!

Don't miss it!
Pam

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Pam's test

This is just a test of a web-based word processor called Writely. Located at www.writely.com. Files can be shared, printed, saved, copied, etc. You can insert images. With one click, you can then post your document to a blog. One stop computing!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

The Eighth Floor

The Eighth Floor
I wanted to share with you how to add an audio file to a blog. Great way to get students involved in blogging via their cell phones AND it's free.

You first create a free account at http://www.audioblogger.com. In this process you set up a primary phone number and PIN number for access purposes. The site assumes you already have an account with blogger.com and asks you for the address of your blog.

Next you call audioblogger's telephone number, enter your phone number and PIN, record your audio (up to 5 minutes!). The file is automatically converted into the proper file format and saved on audiobloggers server. A link to the file is put in a posting on your blog.

Bottomline... you make a phone call and audioblogger does the rest! Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think!
Pam
this is an audio post - click to play

Friday, January 13, 2006

Blogs in Education

Blogs in Education is designed to provide some resources if you want to get started or expand using blogs for yourself or with your students. The site is done by the University of Houston. From what I can tell, they link to many of the good/useful sites I've run across.

The use of blogs in instructional settings is limited only by your imagination. Here are some suggestions from this site.

Options for instructors using blogs:
Content-related blog as professional practice
Networking and personal knowledge sharing
Instructional tips for students
Course announcements and readings
Annotated links
Knowledge management


Options for students using blogs in your courses include:
Reflective or writing journals
Knowledge management
Assignment submission and review
Dialogue for groupwork
E-portfolios
Share course-related resources


I'd really like to know about other sites or what you think of this one. Share!

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Vocation Information Center - Love this Site!

I recently ran across a web site that can keep me busy (obsessed) for hours. True, one of my "jobs" is to explore web sites; however, there is a reasonable limit to how much time one should spend exploring, I suppose. Every click of the mouse is a usable resource or link to another resource.

Vocational Information Center is full of academic resources designed to facilitate integration with vocational curriculum. These resources include links to general academic directories, English, language arts and literature, math, science, history, geography, social studies, inventions, biographies, and so very much more.

That's just where it starts! You will find links to reputable sites for everything K-College. My last spiral into this site was all about linguistics. I found some great resources for my writing classes -- fun stuff. Fair enough, linguistics may not sound like fun, but I found a Linguistics Fun Page -- clearly a sound and valid argument that linguistics is, in fact, fun. What more can you ask for?

Take a 5 minute break and jump in. Please feel free to share cool stuff you find.

I mention this site in The Eighth Floor eNewsletter, along with a variety of other sites. If you don't get our eNewsletter and you would like to, email Phyllis at plawson@eighthfloor.org. She will make sure it happens.