So Much to Learn...So Little Time

Get Up and GLOW

Anyone else noticed that there are more and more blog posts referencing GLOW . There's a movement afoot. It is starting to catch hold?

As I have stated before I think GLOW is so exciting. Scottish education is going to be a torch bearer for the world...and we don't need any blue tracksuited guards to protect us.

I have just spent 2 days mucking around on GLOW in my capacity as GLOW Champion for TGS. My impressions are that it is a wee bit "clunky" I can do most of the sort of things on it that I do on my blog (embeddding, hyperlinking etc) but in a slightly different way. And somethings are not all that easy to do, but nevermind.
There are many out there who will say, and who have said, that all the various functions of GLOW are already out there on the web so why replicate them. I say yes indeed they are, but they are not under one umbrella AND they are not as secure as GLOW.
Glow is a safe and secure environment to help teachers teach, learners learn and, hopefully, parents parent (not sure about the last one but I wanted to keep the double alliteration.) I am getting to grips with GROUPS. I already love MEET, not too fussed about MESSENGER but willing to be persuaded, PORTAL is a potentially superb source of info and a timesaver. LEARN is not yet up and running here in the 'shire but it could obviously be awesome.

Those are the things that ROCK, now for a couple of things that SUCK(ish). I am sure that being champion of GLOW is going to be a lot of work (consequently I will get 2 days cover a term for the next year to work on GLOW stuff) but I don't get a laptop, the mentor does (as well as getting paid to lead twilight sessions.) I have accepted all this in taking on the role but it got me to thinking how in this aspect the education system in Scotland lags behind my homeland (England). Doon sooth I would be paid extra for taking on a role such as this as a form of encouragement, here we do it because we want to and in the hope that if it goes well this will reflect well on our cv when wanting promotion at a later date. Yes I know we get paid slightly more than our colleagues in England but the promotion opportunities are few and far between now (especially with the advent of the F-word (faculties)).

But anyway, incoherent and slightly irrelevant to the post grumble over.

Here is my clarion call to Scotland's teachers.

What Kind of Teacher are You?

Are you this kind of teacher?

Or are you this kind?

Images courtesy of Alec Couros from his Doctoral Thesis, Examining The Open Movement: Possiblities and Implications for Education, and were originally uploaded to Flickr by Alec. 
Thanks to Mr W. for bringing them to my attention.

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.

All hail the network.

Technorati Tags: Aleccouros, networkedteacher, network, adamsutcliffe,

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2 Big Questions

Over the recent 2 week October holidays we have here in Scotland I spent an inordinate amount of time watching and listening to various presentations from the K12 Online 2007 Conference.

The last day of the conference was devoted to a marathon 24hr live online discussion via elluminate which I was lucky enough to visit on 2 occasions; quite early on when I "met" Joe had a first verbal contact with Paul Harrington. I was enjoyable but there were too few participants to ensure a wide ranging discussion. I also joined later with about and hour to go and it was fascinating. There were educators from all over the world, all kinds of time zones, all talking about the wonderful world of the web.
This was great and I feel happy about my contributions...and shhhh maybe I'll get a few more readers.
However it really brought to mind a couple of big questions that have been turning around my head for a while. Questions to which I have my own ideas for answers but questions which I feel we should all be asking of ourselves and others.

1.    I love web 2.0 stuff and can see the advantages it can bring to education but how can I persuade the 30 year career teacher that it might be worthwhile (for the kids sake) to take a step out of the worksheet comfort zone  and take on the risk on potential failure in the classroom by trying something new?
The thing that just kept leaping into my mind whilst enjoying K12 was that whilst it is great to find same-minded people across the globe, where were the doubters, those that would force us to counter their arguments to help us prove our point. I think that the answer to this conundrum lies in Derek Wenmoth's presentation Holding a Mirror to Professional Practice. The persuasion will come I am sure when more and more of us seriously evaluate the work we are doing and prove to the doubters that this is not just another passing educational fad...like non-competitive sport.

2. When you look at the cluster maps posted on blogs you see swathes of red dots over North America, Europe, Australia/NZ and parts of Asia. The world is often still green across Africa, South America and large parts of Asia...Hmmmm I wonder why? Could this be the developing world? Not only do these parts of the world often miss out on even basic educational (and health) needs how far behind us are they going to be in the wonderful world of the web. (I have often thought about trying to help my brother-in-law in Cameroon set up a cyber cafe, but as he says there's no point, they only get electricity every other day...30km away from the capital city.)
How can our use of web 2.0 technologies help my little nephews and nieces "au village"?
Yes you all cry there's the One Laptop Per Child Initiative, which is a fantastic idea, but they are relying on governments, who struggle to ensure a simple basic level of education for all children, to purchase a huge number of units. If there is intermittent electricity there is hardly likely to be the capacity to create large bandwidth.
The thing I find most frustrating is that at the moment I don't think there is all that much we can do to help. Our governments and big multi-national corporations need to get serious...more serious. STOP ENFORCING ALL DEBT REPAYMENTS, STOP STEALING MINERAL RESOURCES, STOP BRIBING EASILY ENCOURAGED OFFICIALS. Then maybe individuals like myself and many of you out there in blogger world can kick in.

This article from the BBC shows people are starting to think abpout how to address this issue. But where will we be in comparison by 2012?

Let me know what you think.

Mailplane...the email client for Gmail and Mac users

I am currently trying a new email client called Mailplane and have 5 invites to give away to first 5 commenters leaving their names and email addresses.

Mailplane links your Gmail account to your Mac (only for mac users) and it appears to do various bits of useful stuff

• drag and drop files as attachments
• send photos via email as it has a default iPhoto plugin

Here's a review of it. I have not yet formed any opinions because I've not used it much yet. But get it while it's free.
First 2 readers to leave a comment etc also get a skitch invite because I have 2 left as well. (Also MAC only application.)
 

Web tools I use

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.

firefox

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

BubbleShare: Share photos - Here comes Halloween!

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.

| View | Upload your own

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.

Uploaded with Skitch!

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.

Uploaded with Skitch!

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.

Uploaded with Skitch!

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?

Uploaded with Skitch!

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.

Uploaded with Skitch!

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

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

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.

Uploaded with Skitch!

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.

Uploaded with Skitch!

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

Uploaded with Skitch!

miro
A bit like itunes specifically set up to search video sharing websites

Uploaded with Skitch!

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.)

voki

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.

Get a Voki now!

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!

K12 Online 2007 - David Warlick

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

its the teach not the tech.

School Tube

SchoolTube now online.

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.

Technology Gap part2

A worrying picture.

I've blogged previously about how I have a constant niggle in my mind whilst I'm accessing all this wondrous web 2.0 stuff on the net that there are huge areas of the world which are now lagging further and further behind.

This map from Martin Varsavsky's blog (he's the chap who invented the Fon social wifi router) just illustrates my point perfectly. It's to do with the popularity of the various social networking sites around the world. Almost a whole continent (Africa) is missing out and even China with its huge push for modernisation is barely touched.

I find it all quite sobering.

UPDATE: but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Check this bbc article

Technology Gap

Is there now a technology chasm between the developed and the developing worlds?

For a while now something has been bugging me about all this wonderful web-based technology and these fantastic, new, freely available whizz-bang applications which could have an amazing effect on the education of our children. Don't get me wrong all these ideas really are superb, and there is a serious amount of work being put in to analyse the effect web 2.0 etc can have. BUT I am worried that all this stuff is being done for a generation for whom education is no-longer seen as a right with the accompanying responsibilities but as a mere disruption for 5 days a week; a generation to whom huge amounts are given yet relatively little is asked (that should be DEMANDED) in return.
Turn that around, what effect could all these resources, technology have on kids in the developing world, for some of whom school is an unattainable goal. Why shouldn't they be able to download free resources off the net to help them learn. Imagine if they could freely access learning resources instead of buying pre-loved text books (at close to brand new price). I, and many other fortunate people in this country, have experienced African children's desire to learn...over 200 students used to turn up to my Saturday morning classes.
If we could get this content to them the educational gaps which currently exist would surely shrink along with cultural misunderstandings. But here's the rub, HOW? I really wish I had an idea how something like this would work but I don't. Would pre-loaded mp3/4 players be an idea (a la DoBe)? How can countries whose telephone network barely functions bring it up to the necessary quality to enable high speed broadband...at an affordable price?
To be honest I would think using landline technology in somewhere like Cameroon would not work. But what about mobiles. Africa is the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Mobiles have completely changed how Africa communicates with itself. Would mobile phone companies allow for example educational resources to be placed on their portals and to be freely accessed by subscribers? Obviously requiring the necessary capacity on their networks? But then that would bring in the old chestnut of censorship...SMS has been disabled on the Ethiopian networks because anti-government protesters organised themselves via text during the last elections!!! Unfortunately I don't know the answers to these questions, but I am sure there are folk out there who do...and who will probably make a fortune out of the poor as usual.
Lets hope Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child idea manages to work out and overcome Intels Classmate.

WI FI Frustration

Sitting in the bloody airport and can't get the hang of wifi. Driving me nuts.