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.



Thanks!
Lee Anne

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

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."

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.
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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.
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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

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: k12online06 k12online

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.

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

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

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.