Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation

Again, Karl Fisch has taken the lead in Colorado by initiating and organizing a one-day conference on Learning 2.0. As Karl describes,

Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation is a one day conference/meetup for teachers, administrators, students, school board members, parents and anyone who is interested in education. It will be held on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008, from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, USA.

The future of education does not exist in the isolated world of theory and abstract conference sessions. Instead, it exists in conversations. It exists in creating a robust learning network that is ever-expanding and just-in-time. Learning 2.0 is not the beginning of this conversation. It is merely a stopping point, a time to talk about the visible difference that we all seek.

Karl has asked me to give a brief presentation and to lead a discussion about professional development and learning communities. Following the theme of the conference, the emphasis will be on discussion. I encourage anyone that follows my blog to attend the conference and join the conversation. You can register on the conference wiki.

Reaction videos - "Did You Know" and Barry Bachenheimer's assignment...

Following up on Barry Bachenheimer's assignment that asked graduate students to...

Thinking about Friedman, Pink, Fisch, and the other authors and ideas you've been exposed to in class this week, create your own "mash up" video in the form of "Did You Know". The video has no set length but should question, ponder, expose, consider, inform any of the ideas from this class that you would want to share. You can select who your "audience" would be; a colleague, your department, your school, your principal, this class, the world. etc.

I have directed my students (undergraduates at Colorado State University) to watch the videos produced by Bachenheimer's students and then produce their own "mash up" videos about something that they have a passion about (related to education).

Here are the videos that my students produced. Several are on TeacherTube and the rest are on YouTube. I have included links to all and I have embedded two. I want to say thank you to my students! Great work! And thank you for sharing your insights into our shifting world.


Did you know...
Did you know: Accessing technology
Did you know the value of a dollar?
Facebook is always watching
How will your kids play?
Our World: Version 2.0



The importance of foreign language - Did you know



The transitioning teacher
Waste
Wealth of useless information
What's next?

Google outdone? Naver...

Interested in the Korean internet search rival Naver - I searched for relevant online articles on Google. Here is an article titled, "To outdo Google, Naver taps into Korea's collective wisdom." It is interesting to note (as describe in this article) Naver.com handles 77 percent of all web searches in Korea, while Google handles well under two percent.

As is described in this article, the success has to do with language (use of native language) and because of the, "...South Korean inclination to help one another on the Web has made Naver.com the undisputed leader of Internet search in the country."

Again, I have many more questions than answers. Are some cultures more inclined to assist strangers? And if so, are some cultures more apt to build collective wisdom and exploit it? And again, if some cultures build collective wisdom (and educate people to exploit it) will cultures that do not fall behind?

What is the world telling us?

David Warlick just directed me to a Will Richardson's post titled Open Texting and Open Phone Tests. Will's post discusses a CNN article titled, A day in the (digital) life of a South Korean boy both Will's post and the CNN article are worth reading as they point to many changes or shifts the knowledge world is facing.

Insoo (a 14-year old Korean boy) doesn't even have to take the phone out of his pocket to send an SMS. He knows how to slide it open, which buttons to push how many times to reach the "Send SMS" menu option, compose the entire text message, and hit the send button -- all without even looking at the phone.

Furthermore,

The first thing Insoo does after Hakwon (school) is, of course, turn on the PC. Insoo has a difficult math problem as homework. He posts it up on Naver Knowledge iN, a popular online Q&A service with some 70 million entries.

Within about 10 minutes of posting, someone chimes in with a good answer, and Insoo awards him with some "Knowledge Power" points -- knowledge-based economy in action among 14-year-olds.

These concepts raise many questions and highlight the significance of new media communications and changes brought about by these technologies. First, do you consider what Insoo is doing as wrong? If Insoo is tapping into his knowledge community to obtain answers is this cheating? Is Insoo learning? And, if so what is he learning? If some societies accept the power of distributed knowledge and collaborative intelligence (and begin to teach their youth to exploit it) and other societies do not, will those that do not fall behind?

Flickr Assignment

This is an interesting use of Flickr. It appears that a classroom assignment has been given to enter Flickr and add comments to the artwork being discussed. It is interesting to examine everyone's comments, some include URLs to references about the painting.

$10 million prize from Google

According to the Technology Review Google is offering $10 million in prize money to developers who create the most innovative software for its upcoming cellphone operating system. The hope is to create innovative new uses for smart phones and allow users to connect with content via the Web using their phones. Innovation in smart phones is getting very interesting and should open up many opportunities for education and training. I am currently using a iphone... I love it... but I can't wait to see what comes next.

Exercise your vocal cords...

Larry Lessig produced a nice 20 minute presentation for the TED conference that talks about the shift in our culture from consumers to remix producers. I like his ideas that we are returning to a culture where everyone can exercise their vocal cords, everyone has a voice.

Wesley Fryer's Insights: Changing Education

I enjoyed watching this video by Wesley Fryer. He has some nice insights into the shift that is taking place and what must change within education. Although he talks about the use of visuals as important to learning... his "talking head" production is less than desirable. I recommend that you download his PowerPoint presentation and follow along. His pictures of Shanghai are very interesting.

Voicethread: Improved look

Voicethread.com keeps getting better. I love its new look. Here is an example report from a second grade classroom. What a great tool.

Job Trends: Shifting

clipped from www.careerjournal.com

The David Wessel wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal about job market trends in the United States. Globalization is creating great demand for the most educated workers, those that can work with abstractions and high order concepts. These highly paid workers create a market for lower level workers that take care of their personal services. However, work in the middle is being eroded and outsourced to lower wage countries.

What does David Wessel suggest that we do about this concerning trend?

"That's a harder question.

Economists warn that shoring up the middle by shielding manufacturing industries from imports or otherwise meddling with the market would cost consumers heavily. Some, certainly not all, suggest letting the market be, and using the tax code to transfer money from the biggest winners. Others suggest "professionalizing" personal-service jobs, perhaps encouraging unionization, to boost wages. Unlike factory jobs, advocates reason, these jobs can't be moved offshore or automated if employers have to pay more.

The more popular solution -- at least among economists -- is a familiar one: Educate all workers so they are better at interpersonal or abstract skills (the jobs of the future) as opposed to dial-turning or keyboard-pounding (rapidly disappearing jobs of the past)."

Changing a System: K12 Online Presentation

My presentation titled "Changing a System: Network Centric Learning Communities" is now live on the K12 Online Site. For those of you interested you can view the video podcasts through that site by clicking here. I have also posted my three part video podcast on Youtube and embedded them below. I used a Pecha-kucha format. I receive the idea for the Pecha-kucha format from a blog post that Daniel Pink (author of A Whole new Mind) titled, Got Pecha-Kucha? It was a challenge to generate a presentation following a strict format of 20 slides automatically timed at 20 seconds per slide.

It forced me to be direct and attempt to write a provocative story while minimizing pontification. As I was producing these video podcasts, I realized that the stories that make me think, are often the ones that don't attempt to fill in all the details. They let me connect some of the dots and react.

Note that I have three segments (three Pecha-Kuchas) to my story The Setting, The Characters, and Collaboration (a solution). I didn't get my entire story in one Pecha-Kucha - I felt that I needed to provide 20 minutes worth of presentation. I know old habits are hard to break... I still think about time allotted for the presentation.

Also note that, each Pecha-Kucha (each segment) begins the story with the same introductory slides...

Anyway, I would appreciate any and all feedback on these presentations.

Part 1: The Setting


Part 2: The Characters


Part 3: Collaboration (a solution)

Who’s being educated? ME!

I teach a course on educational technology at Colorado State University within the teacher licensure program. We are eight weeks into the semester and it has been a very interesting ride so far. I must admit that I entered the class somewhat naively, thinking that my students, being “digital aboriginals” would embrace technology, embrace a more collaborative approach to teaching, how wrong I was…

Here are some of my reflections so far…

Entering the class I believed that “digital aboriginals” were students that were creating their own connections and building knowledge, but what I find is that the majority of my students are “digital facebook users” connecting to friends for social engagement. When I created a Ning site for the class they were more than capable of building a profile but getting them to engage in a community (either in Ning or in class) to build knowledge collectively has been a challenge.

I have spent many hours reflecting on how pervasive our current education system is and how difficult it will be to change the course of that system. I love Sir Ken Robinson’s TED presentation; he talked about how our education system models the university, placing university professors, many that don’t work well with others, at the top. This model runs all the way through our education system, as teachers leave their university preparation programs and model “expert” behavior, they act as experts of their classrooms. And why not, for the last 16 years they have been rewarded by a system that is built on “experts” and their existence and sense of self is based on these rewards.

Obviously, the importance placed on standardized testing only fuels this system. Students are rewarded for obtaining the correct answer, and these are the students that end up in my class. For the majority, when I give them an assignment that requires a solution (with no correct answer) they become uncomfortable. In fact, many get mad. I know I am writing this dialog to colleagues but everyone knows that we can’t produce another student that only feels comfortable spitting out correct answers. The “correct answer” skills are outsourced or automated. The system must change.

I am having my students respond by producing “reaction videos" to Karl Fisch’s “Did you know.” I also had my students watch the video “A vision of students today” produced by Kansas State University students within the Digital Ethnography program.

Little or no reaction! What is going on? I think I know…

It is like pulling teeth to get them to feel, to get them to react! It is like they are void of feelings or original thought. And, many of them revert back to what they know and where they are comfortable… their content area “expertise.” Those that get most agitated, “push back” in class and have said things like, ‘I would never use video in my classroom’, and ‘most of us are experts in our content area’ (indicating that changing their model of classroom delivery is not something they are contemplating)… they say these things with distain… I have touched a nerve… I am upsetting their system… a system that has rewarded them for years.

Furthermore, many appear to be afraid to create anything that is original, afraid to share their original ideas.

Wow, I am getting a great education out of this class.

More to follow…

Response videos to "Did They Know"

Following up on Barry Bachenheimer's assignment that asked graduate students to...

Thinking about Friedman, Pink, Fisch, and the other authors and ideas you've been exposed to in class this week, create your own "mash up" video in the form of "Did You Know". The video has no set length but should question, ponder, expose, consider, inform any of the ideas from this class that you would want to share. You can select who your "audience" would be; a colleague, your department, your school, your principal, this class, the world. etc.

I have directed my students to watch the videos produced by Bachenheimer's students and then produce their own "mash up" videos about something that they have a passion about (related to education). After they complete their videos I will post them her on switchspace.

Download YouTube Videos

Here are three online (no download required) tools that you can use to download YouTube Videos so that you can show them wherever and whenever you want. Click on the image above to link to each online tool.

Academia 2.0

This YouTube Video talks about how university professors can connect with 21st century students by embracing the use of technology. Kansas State University is providing a great service by opening a dialog about young learner and how they are shifting and different. My question is... are they fundamentally different? I remember sitting in class as an undergraduate listening to what I thought was irrelevant information. I was disengaged in many of my classes. The difference is that students today have an option. An option, to learn on their own through extensive online learning communities.

A Vision of Students Today

Here is an interesting thought provocative video that was produced by students in a University program. It is a simple but creative way to deliver their message.

Here is a mapping site (CommunityWalk) that you can use to map your local, national and international discoveries. It is free and very easy to use. There were several teachers talking about using this mapping tool within the classroom (Classroom 2.0). You can see this discussion by clicking here.

Open Minds Conference.

DSCN2126.JPG
Originally uploaded by SteveHargadon

I have been listening to Steve Hargadon about open source software and the future within education. An international group of influential gurus got together yesterday and worked on concepts and a road map for the future. Here is one of their note pages. You can see the other notes and ideas @ K12openminds Wiki.

He talked about how everyone who has success implementing open source in schools has done so not by promoting the benefits of "openness" but by promoting it as a practical solution, e.g., saving money.

Sketchcast: A whole new mind

Daniel Pink, in his book A Whole New Mind, talks about the increasing importance of creativity and talent. He suggests that we all need to strengthen the right side of our brain by engaging in creative processes. Here is a great tool to do just that. Using Sketchcast, you can create presentations and stories using sketches.

Here is one that I enjoyed watching.

Glogowski's insites on Classrooms as Third Places

Konrad Glogowski wrote a very insightful and provocative blog post about creating Classrooms as Third Places. He borrowed the title and concept of Third Places from American Urban Sociologist Ray Oldenburg. I truly appreciate the work and research that Konrad is doing to create spaces for classroom communities to thrive. For those interested in these ideas please take the time to watch his SlideShare presentation (see below).

How do I...?

This customized Google search engine looks to be incredibly valuable for education professionals. It is a quick way of searching multiple video sites to find video on how to do what you want to do. Click here to visit this site.

Martin Weller posted about this site on his blog The Ed Techie. He stated,

"Tony Hirst has created a neat little search interface using Google's Coop customizable search engine. It searches a number of video archives to find instructional videos - he seeds it with the phrase 'How do I?' He explains it here, so I won't bother, and thus save myself potential embarrassment by getting it wrong."

How to suck and egg...

Take a look at this video from videojug. There are many more educational videos on this search based and indexed video site. Enjoy.



VideoJug: How To Suck An Egg Into A Bottle

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson talks about education and creativity. This 20 minute video is well worth watching. Here is an brief description from the TED website.

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now."

Teacher TV

Here is another site... Teacher TV.

ArcWeb Explorer: Learning through visualization

I am at the Future Visions Conference and I just learned about a tool. It is a mapping tool with a ton of power. It is called ArcWeb Explorer. Take a look. Joseph J. Kerski calls it teaching the Whys of Where. Connecting data to maps to understand and solve problems. He also points out that students can start with basics of topographic maps (low tech).

Love to read... do the Library Thing

Here is another site. The Library Thing... what they call the largest book club on the planet. This site is complete with metadata and syndication, connecting those who love to read. Note, there is a large group of graduate students learning on this site.

Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources (OER) is an Internet empowered worldwide community effort to create an education commons. The Hewlett foundation is working with Creative Commons (CC) to create a search portal for educational CC resources. This project is under development - you can read about the initiative @ Wikipedia, Creative Commons, or O'Reilly Radar. This will be an interesting one to keep eyes on.

In the meantime here are some active open-source educational sites:

Things come to me: Instructables

I gave a presentation about Web 2.0 technology and community to a group of graduate students in ED 709 Educational Leadership. I was telling them that Web 2.0 has connected me to a invaluable network of resources that push information to me and that I vary rarely search (the Internet) anymore. If I did search, I may find interesting things out there... but I get all the interesting information that I can handle form my network (no time to look for more). To me this is a great problem to have. I spend more time looking at things that others like me have found to be interesting. This is much more focused and productive (be careful... it is also additive).

Here is a Web 2.0 tool that was pushed to me (through my) this morning! I hope you like it too... If not, don't keep me (or put me) in your network. Build a network that fits your needs and that sends your stuff that makes you crave for more.

Click on the image to find about about instructables a site with step-by-step instructions. Together, what can we learn next?

Screencast-o-Matic

Here is a new tool for capturing screen movements in a movie format called Screencast-o-Matic. This is a great application because it is free and there is no need to download and install software.

Does your learning style fit the future?

I serve as an executive member for the Information Science and Technology Center (ISTeC) at Colorado State University (CSU). I have been promoting Web 2.0 / Classroom 2.0 ideas to the executive leadership informing them about how collaborative technologies will continue to change how we work and learn. Within the ISTeC leadership group these ideas are beginning to gain ground. Hunt Lambert, Associate Vice President, Economic Development (an ISTeC executive member) just sent me a link to the following article in Educause Quarterly. It is very exciting to see that these ideas are gaining support on many levels within CSU and within peer-reviewed journals such as EQ.

So my question is does your learning style fit the future?

Planning for Neomillennial Learning Styles: Shifts in students’ learning style will prompt a shift to active construction of knowledge through mediated immersion.

Google Mars - they do intersting things again & again

Google used image data to create a map of mars, the moon and now they plan to map the sky. You can read more about these projects on MIT's Technology Review site here. These sites provide awesome high resolution images of these celestial bodies. You can visit these celestial images at GoogleMars and GoogleMoon.

Interested in starting your own blog in blogger?

Interested in creating your own blog? If so I found this short video on TeacherTube that will get you started. After creating your blog it may be helpful to review the slide show that I re-posted on SwitchSpace that describes 25 types of blogs / blog posts.

Resources for teachers!

I was reading one of my RSS feeds this morning and found this web link to Resources for Teachers -blog. Notice that this blog has an RSS feed so you can subscribe if you like. For those of you in ED331 the first three students that submit a comment to this blog post (see below) will receive three bonus points in the class.

Types of blogs: Many different styles

Here is a slide show that provides a brief explanation about the different types of blogs and posts. There is a wide variety of posts that serve different purposes.

The new social literacy

This is a very interesting interview by Howard Rheingold about the future of literacy.

Click To Play

Second Life - Funny...

For those of you that have an avatar in SecondLife (SL) here is a riotous video on what it is like in this virtual world for the "first timer." This is a must watch.

Zentation: Video & Presentation Mashup

Zentation allows you to combine your video and presentation material to create a synchronized experience for your audience. This is an interesting site because it allows you to bring video from Google video and Slides from SlideShare and sync them into a professional looking environment.

clipped from www.zentation.com

SlickTracks: Music for your projects

Slicktracks has royalty free music downloads that you can use within your projects. The search tool is nice... allowing you to search by style, instrument, and mood.

clipped from www.slicktracks.com

Photoshop: Working with images

A quick tutorial on how to resize an image using Photoshop.

CC: As big as the Big C

This short video is well worth watching. It not only explains what creative commons licensing is but provides some great examples of what creative people are doing with it all around the world. This is only the beginning! Furthermore, how creative are the individuals who put this video together? Very I say.

Why Google Reader?

Here is a short video on why you would want to use a RSS feed reader like Google Reader. This video was produced by Google.

Bubble.us - Amazing Tool!

Bubbl.us is an amazing tool. You can create collaborative diagrams (mind maps), share them and embed them into your website. For example, I created the following template that I plan to have my students use to develop their WebQuest ideas. I will then have them share and comment on the ideas. Also, I plan to have them develop their WebQuest in PowerPoint and share them on SlideShare. You can see more about this template by visiting my previous post titled, "SlideShare and Webquest"

SlideShare & WebQuest

I created a WebQuest template in PowerPoint working with the idea that PowerPoint is easy for students to work within and it supports hyperlinks. I was also interested in sharing webquests using a Web2.0 tool and SlideShare allows me to do this. So I uploaded the template onto SlideShare for others to use (follow the link here). If you would like the template please let me know and I can send it to you directly.

RSS feed: ED331

Posting for my course.

Spread your Virus: History, Art, Technorati, RSS

I was searching Technorati and found this wonderful video depicting 500 years of women in art. It was syndicated on a blog titled "History is Elementary" and was developed by Philip Johnson and can be found on his MySpace page here. To me this demonstrates the power of RSS feeds and syndication. It also demonstrates the power of Technorati as a way of finding interesting syndicated content. Now, as you can see, this content is part of my syndicated blog "switchspace." Syndication allows ideas and content to spread like a virus.

Have you been paying attention!

If you liked "Shift Happens" you will like "Pay Attention." I used this video / PowerPoint in my interview for my current position within the School of Education. It generated great discussion.



TeacherTube Link

Shift Happens: Many Lessons

For those of you who haven't seen Karl Fisch's video titled, "Shift Happens" you should take a look. It has received wide spread recognition and has propelled Karl's blog (The Fischbowl) to record readership. An interesting fact about Karl is that he is technology specialist here in Colorado at Arapaho High School.

Another interesting note is that Karl's video was made using PowerPoint (see his post and comments on Shift Happens). A very simple way to deliver a powerful message. Karl gave the presentation an attribution creative commons license which allowed others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon his work as long as they credited him with the original creation. There are now many versions of this presentation on YouTube and Teacher Tube. I have embedded a Teacher Tube version below.

I have also embedded the 2.0 version that contains images and graphics. Personally, I prefer the original version.



Original Version: TeacherTube Link



2.0 Version: TeacherTube Link

StatCounter.com

StatCounter.com is a great site that provides a variety of statistics about your website / blog. For example, the site will provide data on total page loads, unique visitors, returning visitors and even provide a map that locates the visitors by worldwide location. The basic subscription is free of change.

clipped from my9.statcounter.com

In my living room: social rules

I have been working to establish acceptable behaviors or use policy for several social networks that I am involved with. I came across this post by Shel Israel on the blog Global Neighborhoods. He enforces very similar rules as if those posting comments were in his living room. He states that,

"If you came into my home and were rude to another guest, I would ask you to stop. If you continued to be rude, I would ask you to leave. From this point forward, this is what I will do. If I feel you are being abusive, hogging the conversation or otherwise discouraging the open exchange of legitimate points of view. I will ask you to be more polite. If you ignore the request, I will ban you from further Comments. I call the the Living Room rule and I will enforce it subjectively."

He also sets a hard rule on anonomous comments / postings. He does not allow them.

SharkRunners - Game

The SharkRunners (Discovery Channel) game is an amazing example of how real time sensor data can be integrated into an educational game. You get to create a virtual SharkRunner boat (my boat is the Pelican Pat) and use it to track down real sharks! The boat is virtual, the sharks are real. When you find a shark you earn rewards. You can also compete against other SharkRunners that you know. This is a great game for showing how sharks move around the ocean and what it would be like to be a scientist tracking and studying these wonderful creatures.

Sites Alive: with history for example

Sites Alive, connects students to learning adventures on land and at sea around the world! Live programs include the following: math live, oceans challenge live, US history live, rain forests live. See this interesting site for more live programs.

How to use Google Reader

Here is a five minute video on how to use Google Reader to subscribe to RSS syndicated websites and RSS feed content.

Ning! - Classroom 2.0

Steve Hargadon has created a Ning social networking site (Classroom 2.0) that is exploding! This site now has over 2000 members sharing ideas about the use of web 2.0 technology to improve education. There is much discussion on this site about collaboration and the constructivist model of learning. Join in the group and learn.

To join simply click on this Classroom 2.0 link and then select "Join Classroom 2.0 Now."

A White Paper: Podcasting & Vodcasting

This White paper titled Podcasting & Vodcasting prepared by Peter Meng from the University of Missouri does an outstanding job describing how to become a producer of both podcasts and vodcasts.

The Education Podcast Network

This site brings together a wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers looking for content.

clipped from www.epnweb.org

7 Things you should know about podcasts.

The following article published by the Educause Learning Initiative provides seven things that you should know about educational podcasts. Including what it is, who is doing it, and how it works. Check it out at 7 things you should know about podcasting.

Who's using podcasting in education and how?

A useful site maintained by the Fordham University RETC Center for Professional Development

clipped from www.podcastforteachers.org

The Transforming Web

This is an interesting article about how the new collaborative paradigm obliterates the distinction between information providers and consumers.

clipped from www.masternewmedia.org