So Much to Learn...So Little Time

Response to Derek Wenmouth's k12 Online 2007 Questions

More from me on K12 Online 2007.
I am so glad this conference has been taking place during our half term holidays because it has meant that I have given myself time to watch / listen to some of the presentations. I've got through about half of them so far and am still interested.
For the purposes of this post however I wanted to respond to the questions posed by Derek Wenmouth at the end of his presentation entitled: "Holding a Mirror to our Professional Practice".
This keynote looks at the issues surrounding the use of emerging technologies in the classroom, and ways of trying to make the use thereof as invisible as possible, but he looks particularly at how we should reflect on our use of these technologies.
It is all well and good trying to use blogs, podcasts, wikis etc but the outcome must be that students learn what they are supposed to learn, which is usually dictated by a curriculum.
At the end of his presentation Derek leaves us with a series of questions to enable us to reflect on our own practice. He asks us to chose the one question most appropraite to ourselves...I'm a swot and have answered most of them.

    •    What are the mirrors I am holding to my practice?

not enough at the moment. I think the time is approaching when I need to stop looking forward all the time and just take stock of some of the things I have done in class recently and try to analyse how effective I have been and how much the students have learned.

    •    Who are my mentors WHO I RELATE TO REGULARLY?

I suppose my mentors are my colleague language teachers when it comes to the actual teaching of the languages, however i feel as though there are few, if any, colleagues in school who could sufficiently mentor and coach me on how to integrate emerging technologies in the classroom. There appears to be very little discussion on, or use of these technologies in my school. Every one is waiting for an INSET on them...I am not a "dIgital native" as the generation we teach are supposed to be. I only started to use computers in 1995 when I started teacher training (but it wasn't part of the course). I have learned and developed through my own interest. No INSET or course can provide you with the training you need because the training as we know it doesn't exist. Most of my training and mentoring comes from my blog reading and comment writing and TRYING STUFF OUT...AND FAILING

What is my professional reading?

        Blogs, blogs and more blogs. I have to admit I was never a good reader of academic material...not enough crime or horror in it for my reading tastes, but since my discovery of blogs I have never felt more up to date and in tune with educational thinking. Blogs are immediate and I can, if I wish, comment on what is written. Until just over a year ago I honestly only really spent time reflecting on my practice when Annual CPD review time came about. Now I'm doing it all the time.

What communities of practice do I belong to?
The blogosphere I suppose


DO I HAVE A BLOG?
You're reading it

What about my rss feeds?
Numbers growing on a weekly basis as reading leads me to new people.

When was the last time I observed a lesson?
I have not done this in a formal sense in along time but I often observe my MFL colleagues at work  if I need to visit their classroom.

When was my last presentation?

Done 2 main presentations in last 8 months Communicate.07 and 'shire and city In-service. Really enjoyed doing them and actually felt I was contributing to other colleagues development (thanks to feedback received), but actually done lots of assemblies and such like recently.

Well that wasn't too bad. All of this reflection leads me to the idea that I should really get myself together and go for Professional Recognition with GTCS.

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!

First foray into stop motion animation

Due to rubbish weather I decided to try out I Can Animate today mainly for something to do with my kids.
..that was until I couldn't find the registration key. My daughter had been mucking around with the disc case and did something with the reg. certificate.
So to the web.
I downloaded Frame Thief which seems alright but for some reason it wouldn't recognise the panasonic dv camcorder, luckily I had my own jvc one which worked fine. It seems ok, just not that sexy to look at, and this is what I produced...kids had got brassed of with me trying to sort everything out and were busy mucking around in the garden by now...a much healthier pursuit.

Tomorrow I am going to try out Boinx's iStopmotion (5 day free trial)

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.

A Curriculum for Excellence Encapsulated

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.

Forget "Stop Making Sense", Sign O' The Times, or "Elvis : That's The Way It Is" this is the best concert film of all time. Courtesy of schooltube.

Sorry, had to take the film off line as permission to film didn't specifically mention posting to internet.

Mucking around

Sein-rap.

Going over sein and haben with my S2's and was wondering if I could make the chant a bit more interesting. So I mucked about with Garageband.

What do you think?

Seinrap

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.

German Slidecast 2

Here's a German vocab slidecast with a lovely piano ballad in the background. Does it work for you?

Re first slidecast

Told my S2 French class about the slidecast to help them with their revision and played it in class and had them drill the words....they loved it.
Every single pupil in the class listened and repeated the words in unison. WHY?

Any answers?

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