This is the reflective (mostly) blog of Adam Sutcliffe, a teacher of Modern Languages at The Gordon Schools in Huntly, Aberdeenshire.
All opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own. Any complaints should be expressed directly to the author.
May I be so bold as to suggest that if you are reading this you are probably a networked teacher, or on the way to becoming one. I find myself more and more a networked type and I have to say it suits me down to the ground. I have never thought so much about my job (vocation?) ever, and have never had so much contact with fellows world wide; at this particular point in my life when due to my ruptured discs I am not in my "Typical Teacher Network" it is really quite comforting and stopping me wallowing in too much of my own pity. For example I was ironing a few clothes on Sunday ( I can still do a bit of work) with Twitteriffic chirruping in the background and Ewan wanted some contributions for a piece he was in the course of writing. I had a few thoughts and so did a few of our mutual followers. You never know I might vaguely recognise something he writes in The Economist. Yesterday I caught a tweet from Lucy Gray asking for examples of presentations showing good practice in Global Ed. I sent her a link to one I did for our Welwitschia Partnership...lo and behold I discovered she has set up a whole network dedicated to Global Education.Fantastic. One BUT though. I put out a tweet for any GLOW monitors to ask about their role. Nary a tickle. Glass half full version, non of them are online tonight. Glass half empty version...they don't know about Twitter...oh dear, better not utter my true thoughts.
How creative are you? Thanks to David Warlick for drawing my attention to a recent survey of teenagers in the US, by PEW Internet.
Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online
teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content
creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004.
How much longer can the vast majority of educators continue to ignore the fact that a huge number of the youngsters they teach each day are connected and online AND being creative. How many educators can seriously say they have actually created something recently. (I can. I can.)
Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35%
of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of
wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. Boys,
however, do dominate one area – posting of video content online –
online teen boys are nearly twice as likely as online girls (19% vs.
10%) to have posted a video online somewhere where someone else could
see it.
Interesting that girls are dominating the blogging side whilst boys dominate the posting of video online. Could we learn from this fact. Do we need more visual ways of educating to bring more boys on board?
Another thing that comes out from the survey is that teens appear to be inveterate commenters:
89% of those teens who post photos say that people comment on the
images at least "some of the time." Teens who post videos report a
similarly large incidence of feedback, with nearly three quarters (72%)
of video posters receiving comments on their videos.
Now we all know that at times these comments can be insulkting and appropriate but there are times when these comments can be useful critiques and show a level of thought and dare I say it a kind of Peer Assessment.
For me the "killer" info in this survey is this:
For many teens they are now an integral part of the system of
communication that they use to conduct the work of their lives. Fully
41% of the teens who use MySpace, Facebook or other social network
sites say they send messages to friends via those sites every day.
If just under half of all teens are using social networking sites to communicate educators must get involved in this (r)evolution at some time, otherwise we are going to lose all contact with those we are charged with educating.
Tellingly, even more so than internet stuff, mobile phones are THE preferred method of communication:
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of teens now have a cell phone and for teens
who have them, they are the premier communication method for talking
with friends.
Why? Well they are relatively cheap, easy to use and many can do most of what kids want them to do (and they don't have to share access with parents????). Although it pains me to say it I think these things are going to overtake computers as the primary net access source, so rather than banning them in schools we need to educate about appropriate use and harness their power and omnipresence.
What do you think?
All quotes taken from PEW Internet and American Life Project Press Release (19 Dec 2007)
Welcome to the first in a short series of mega posts. More for personal reasons I decided to audit the different web / ict resources I use, have used or intend to use. This list is those web-based resources I have used in class or for other professional reasons. I have tried to give examples (where appropriate), along with a screenshot. So here goes.
great free open source web browser, built to work with RSS technology. Lots of add-ons (foxy tunes links directly to your computer's media player and allows you to control media player from browser) and customisability. Blocks pop ups, links easily with different google apps and as with most open source stuff safe because those in the know work to protect it. Cross platform usage (windows, mac, linux etc)
flock specialised social networking browser. Just out of beta. Links all your social networks together in one browser. I use it for uploading to flickr (great resource for this puprpose..multiple uploads easy batch tagging). Just seems to have too much going on at one time for me. I like to ...browse with my browser.
animoto great way of putting together slideshow. Free for 30 second videos. Upload copyright free music to go with photos. Quick way of putting together an exciting slideshow to include in a presentation. There is a pro version which allows you to produce full length videos, about $30 I think for one year.
bubbleshare Nice way of presenting photos in a slideshow
slideshare / slidecast Used it for publishing my own slides from presentations, but have used slidecast to produce vocab learning resources. Could be used to promote pupil produced resources. Slidecasts are quite easy to produce and synchronise but you need to have a url for a voice file, I just uploaded to my blog and used the post's url. Would be great if you could upload sound file direct.
zamzar Great little resource to convert all kinds of file. etc into other formats. Have used it to convert my .mov files to .wav files and vice versa. All conversions carried out on zamzar servers. They then send email of link where to download converted file. Simple and efficient.
pbwiki Wiki for collaborative work - collaboration depends on collaborators getting on board, but this is very simple. As easy as a Peanut Butter sandwich. If you can email or word process you can use this. I am currently using it to promote our activities in our Connecting Classroom partnership. You can upload files (limited file space if you have a free account) or you can embed using the plugin menus...I find this a great way to post videos without using too much space.
I want to get into using it with students as a way of helping improve writing skills and helping them build a portfolio of work.
wikispaces as above but above but I prefer look and feel of pbwiki.
google docs as I am disorganised with paper this is a great way for me to keep documents. No need to worry about school server packing up. However not as feature filled as office and I some times find it a bit frustrating...although I hear microsoft are coming up with a web based version of their office suite to rival it. Includes word, xl, powerpoint equivalents. The ace thing about these docs is that there is a share/collaborate tool which allows you to work together on a document.
gmail great easy to use unlimted webspace email. just about impossible to fill up inbox. Also creates conversations with mails exchanged between same people. The search facility is fantastic as well. A million times better than the new yahoo mail where I also have an account. (Compare these figures, in the last week my yahoo account had over 100 spam mails, gmail account had 2 so there is very good spam protection.) I am considering whether to start an experiment with a class where each student sets up a gmail account. I can then link them all to their own blog / wiki or whatever, but there is also an IM chat facility so I could specify a time online where difficulties with homework could be rsolved away from class... WHAT DO YOU THINK?
feedburner creates feeds...don't ask me to explain how it works or what it does but it works. Basically if you create sound files or write blogs you can ensure that potential subscribers can follow your every outpouring...you can probably tell I don't fully understand it but it works.
typepad blogging platform, paid but comes with all the whizz bangs necessary. You can link text, embed videos slideshows...as you can see from this very post. Extremely simple to use.
flickr photo sharing website. Great for photo blogging etc. I have used the creative commons search facility to find photos for use in class. It can be used to share photos from class trips or school events etc. There are loads of "toys" that can be used with your flickr photos (motivational posters etc.). Try flickrvision for a few minutes, its mesmerising.
flickrslidr produces embeddable slideshows from your flickr photos
skitch allows sharing of screenshots. These can be annotated. Does lots more that I've not yet discovered. ONLY FOR MAC. I STILL HAVE 2 INVITES AVAILABLE FOR ANYONE WHO LEAVES A COMMENT. See examples on this post.
bloglines This is my feed reader. allows me never to miss what people whose blogs I enjoy reading write. Also does a whole heap more that I've not discovered.
youtube video sharing website. Upload films and share with the world. Embed or link to your blog, social networking site etc.
teacher tube video sharing website specifically aimed at educators. Self moderated
school tube As teacher tube. requires registration via a school based email address and videos are moderated before publication. Doesn't seem to be as easy to use as tt but allows for longer films and are able to identify more specific channels for film. Was excited about it at first but am cooling on it very fast.
delicious Bookmark sharing. Great way of helping students find web-based resources also enables you to bookmark interesting sites on whatever computer you are using. Here are my own favourites.
vixy.net "record" videos from you tube etc to your own hard drive. In other words allows you to convert youtube files to files viewable on PC, iPod, PSP etc. Great when school network doesn't let you see you tube
rss really simple syndication. aggregates everything that interests you on the web. rather than you going out to look at something all the time this is the technology that brings it to you, via bloglines in my case. Look out for the little orange logo in your browser address bar which lets you know you can subscribe to the site via an aggregator (eg bloglines, netvibes, my yahoo, google reader etc.)
Talking avatars. Create cartoon type characters from the available types then record, text or upload voice file (max 30 secs). Great way of encouraging kids to speak without having see themselves, good amusement factor as well.
flashmeeting open university hosted free web based video conferencing. can chat in back channel, exchange urls etc. All conferences are also recorded and available afterwards, including all chat. This links to the recording of a flashmeeting organised by Joe Dale.
That's it for now. Hope this wasn't too long. Maybe I should have written a separate post for each application...hmm! Uploaded with Skitch!
Have spent most of the day doing CPD on the lounge floor whilst kids played out in the sun. Last night I subscribed to the video podcast channel for the K12 Online Conference 2007. I didn't know it existed last year and found out about this years via Vicky Davis' Cool Cat Teacher Blog. So (in a Fast Show stylee) today I have been mostly watching David Warlick. Now I'm sure that for most of you who read this David Warlick is not a new name, but if he is click his name to find out more. Anyway his keynote was entitled Inventing New Boundaries and dealt with how teachers are in the strange position of trying to educate students for a future we are unable to describe...scary isn't it, but so true. Most students have very little idea about how they will make a living once they leave school.
The real crux (for me) of David's presentation came towards the end when he talked about the gulf of knowledge about using new technologies between students and their teachers. Apparently 57% of US students have produced original digital content and as a result communicate directly with their audience. To my mind too many teachers are stuck in their traditional ways with little desire to shift out of their comfort zone...there ought not to be a comfort zone anymore, things move so fast. There are a surprising number for whom email is still an alien force with a mind of its own. More importantly there often seems to be a total resistance to change within our profession, in other words " i have been doing the same lessons the same way for years and I'm not going to change my lesson plan for nobody..." that kind of thing.
I am not saying every teacher must blog, podcast and spend hours, like me, checking out things on the web but surely every teacher must now start to make some kind of effort to get near the kind of learning landscape which our students inhabit. Did they all have lessons on how to Bebo? Who gave the YouTube homework? What was the Facebook NAB like? See what my point is? We all need to be pro-active in using new info and finding out about it.
I'm nowhere near as eloquent as David so let me quote his blog:
One question that I consistently get is, “How do we train teachers
to work with today’s information and communications technologies?” I
don’t quite understand this. It’s probably my own very unique
perspective, my outside the box mentality, my own success as a learner,
and less success as a student. But this just doesn’t seem like such a
big problem to me.
It’s completely understandable that educators, with the
institutional culture that we work in, would attack the problem by
asking, “How are we going to teach this to teachers?” But yesterday, I
asked the audience, of almost 300, to raise their hands if they could
say that they learned at least half of what they do with technology by
teaching themselves — and almost every hand went up.
The thing I am finding with much of this web 2.0 stuff as i go along is that it gets far easier to pick up the more you look into it and ideas for using the things come quicker...the big thing though is making sure there is educational value in using your chosen technology. As Ewan says
A film of an event which perfectly (in my mind any way) encapsulates the ideals of ACfE.
As part of our connecting classrooms visit the pupils of TGS, Gordon Primary and Rhynie Primary put on an evening of Scottish entertainment for our guests from Namibia and Ethiopia. The result was a fantastic evening highlighting not only our students' talents but their willingness and confidence to go onstage and show off their own culture.
successful learners - each one had to learn something and perform it under the most stressful of circumstances
confident individuals - each student strode onto stage as if they were seasoned performers (which many actually are)
responsible citizens - students were asked to take part in their own time for the benefit of their schools and the partnership
effective contributors - how much more effective could they have been, not only in their performance but also in the delivery of various aspects of their own cultural heritage.
This event was also a very physical representation of multi-establishment co-operation between two of our feeder primaries and ourselves and it showed the encouragement of leadership coming from the students.
Thanks to Jane Knight bringing to my (and everone who reads her) attention the existence of SchoolTube. It puports to be a safe environment for students and educators to upload videos. On initial inspection there are more appropriate categories for your videos than on TeacherTube. I am quite looking forward to using it.
Amazing how staffroom conversations can be repeated throughout the land. A Colleague today mentioned the programme on recently about a group of old folk making a video of their version of The Who's "My Generation". This reminded me of one of the most wonderful pieces of TV I have ever seen. The documentary about the Young@Heart Chorus and it brought to mind their moving version of Coldplay's "Fix Me" ( which I'd never even heard until then). On getting home I looked up Young@Heart and found I could download the song for a mere $3...so I did. Then I went to My Yahoo to check my reading and lo and behold I find Ewan's post about The Zimmers and a comment about Young@Heart. Amazing.
I love things for free... but I love the idea of sharing my good fortune. Thanks to ewan I have just found out about fon, free wifi access, as long as you share your connection with those around you. Rather than me trying to explain what I only vaguely understand click on the fon link to find out more. Here's a little tip as well, until 31st March they have 2500 free wifi routers to give away. Find out more via the english blog. I have signed up but will have to wait 3 weeks now to become wifi.
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