Week 4: Reflection of Will Richardson Article

"Our ability to learn whatever we want, whenever we want, from whomever we want is rendering the linear, age-grouped, teacher-guided curriculum less and less relevant."

How true is this statement? Weather its a college course, PBS Class, or Professional Development Conference, I am able to learn what I want when it is convenient for me. Convenience for me is at 11:00 pm when no one is up to bother me. Convenience for me is when I can sit here and not worry about "getting ready."

As I was reading through the Connection Meets Content section, my brain was racing with ideas on how I can incorporate group projects with students from other schools. Can I utilize our Video Conferencing Systems to have guest teachers, or sit in on a similar lesson delivered from another teacher from another school.

Finally, the section on Opportunity Cost got me thinking; There are school that CAN afford to move ahead and are not; there are are schools that CANNOT afford to but want to; and there are a school that CAN afford to and are moving ahead. How do we as interested Web2.0 teachers get our schools or continue to move our school ahead both financially and physically?

Week 5: Thoughts on Podcasts

The first time I heard a podcast was during my student teaching at South Meadow Middle School when the Principal at the time Mr. Dunning, would post weekly podcasts of the "Happenings at SMS."

What I think is great about Podcasting, is that when posted, you don't have to actually be sitting in front of the computer or be 100% focused to listen. You can be exercising, cooking, cleaning, etc and have it playing in the background. Own an iPod? You can download podcast that, and take it with you. Since begining this week, I have found great free subscriptions such as World New for Children, The Tech Teachers, & Teacher 2.0. There is an entire section on iTunes for Technology Education Podcasts.

I would like to incorporate Podcast into the coming school year by having students do somehting simiar to what was done by Mr. Dunning. I would like to have a weekly pocast of what went on in class, assignemtns that were givin, upcoming projects or assessment. Each week two or three students would be responible for producing it.

Week 5: Topic of My Choice - Creating Your Own Smartboard.

I am sure we have all seen the videos posted on youtube on how to create your own smarthboard with a Wii Controlor and some other materials for less than $50 bucks. I have posted two videos below of students creating Smartboards as well as the Jonny Lee video, inventor of the Wii Smart Board.







I think Smart boards are a great tool for the classroom. I use it as much as I can, but being that we are limited, I don't get it in as often as I would. Another Math teacher received a grant for a Smart Board and used it in his class daily. All of the notes for the class could be then saved and printed for an absent student or posted on Moodle for all students as needed. I noticed that when using the Smart Board in class, students generally stayed more focus and had a higher participation rate.

If student's can build these, then I think so can we as adults? My project this summer is to try and make one. I'll keep you all posted.

Week 4: Wikis in the Classroom

So I began this assignment by simply running a yahoo search for "Educational Wikis." The very first site was found in wikispaces and was a wiki itself listing educational wiki. The page contains about 50 or so different types of educational wikis. From 2nd Grade Class Wiki's to ahsmedia an online media center for Apalachee High School in Winder, GA this wiki list it all. What is unique about this site is that since it is an open wiki itself, anyone add educational wikis or personal wikis with a click of the mouse.



One of the websites I liked was a web2.0 wiki in which it appears to be a centralized location for different web2.0 tool as well as tutorials to assist in using or explain each web 2.0 tool. Ever wonder how to use cell phones in the classroom? This appears to still be a work in progress, but seems like it could be extremely beneficial for new teachers and introducing these tools to veteran teachers.


What I like most about wikis is the safe guards behind them. Who has modified a page? Who is logged in? Who has deleted a page? Now we can get that page back! Students, parents, and teachers can feel good about allowing student to use wikis, since these type of safe guards are in place.


Another great thing about wikis is they can be easily accessed by parents. Currently our district sau16 uses Moodle. Within Moodle are wikis, blogs, discussions, etc but requires students to log in with user names and passwords. Parents either need the guest code, or their son or daughters user name and password. With wikis, certain information can be posted such as HW, upcoming events, class happenings etc. that are not so private and require students/parents to be logged in. I do use Moodle for journal entries, quizzes, file-keep etc. but a classroom wiki seems more manageable for certain aspect of the classroom. Most of all, students can be in charge of updating the information!

Week 4: Topic of My Choice - Calander Sharing Programs

So here it is 12:00am and I finally figured out what I can blog about for my "Topic of Choice." I found myself at Staples today purchasing a nice spiral bound calender book to use for the upcoming year and to help keep myself organized. I began writing in all of the information I had scattered over multiple pieces of paper only to ask myself, what am I doing? Am I better off going to a web-based calender provided free with my Google account? I searched for a video to better explain web-based calendars and found this one:



After exploring Google Calender, I began to search for other programs such as Yahoo Calender, Airset Cloud Computers, Keep and Share, and Mail.Com. What I find so amazing is the number of program that are out there FREE to use. Each site is different in its own way, but the idea is the same, posting events and having all of the important dates in one place, with out lugging around a date book. :)

From an educational standpoint, this can be used for HW assignments, project due dates, upcoming school events, etc. I love how Web 2.0 is making task simpler, the problem is there is just too much. Which is the best? Personal preference I guess.

If you use an online calender, which program do you use and why?

Week 3: Thoughts on Media Sharing

Media Sharing is great if you can convince your Technology Coordinator to not block it. Sites such as Youtube, Facebook, Google Video, Photobucket, and Animoto are all blocked. Thankfully, my Tech Coord. is very willing to open most of these sites up, most recently Yahoo Video. Every once in a while, I'll see a video that relates to class or I feel will impact my students and will show them. It is amazing to see the conversations that can be generated through Media.

I have my own Facebook account for me personally, however I have been thinking of creating one called Mr. Durant's Math Page. Post links, video, and images relating to Math. I cannot tell you how many of my students friend request me. [I decline them all! :)] But it does show me just how many of our students have facebook accounts. I could pass on so much information through the site that is meaningful and and useful. I have passed the idea to several teachers I work with, and have hear "great idea" to "be careful". In searching for videos for using facebook in the classroom I found this interested one, that shows how to circumvent the system.



I believe that any way we can reach out to students should be a option. If we look back at the map from the School 2.0, that's how we should be creating classrooms, schools, and districts.

Week 3: Thoughts on RSS Feeds

Ah, the days of going to my favorite sites and seeing if new articles, updates, "news", or important information was posted are over. Well they are not over, they are just shorter! Before I use to open my browser type in the website or click on my bookmarks and read the site over most of the time to find out no updates had been made since my last visit. With Google Reader I can now log into one site and see which of my favorite sites have been updates. I can even read the updated without actually visiting the site!



I also can like that fact that I can group together the different sites. For example I have my class grouped in one folder and Hockey updates in another. Since this is new to me, I am still updating and creating my Google Reader.

Week 3: Thoughts on Social Bookmarking

So I created my second bookmarking account using Diigo, to use along with my current site Delicious. I like the idea of being able to update each of them, in the event one crashes. Thanks for the idea Kim! As I was watching the video on Social Bookmarking



I realized just how many resources there are out there for me to use in my classroom. The idea of Social Bookmarking is awesome! I would like to return to school and get the other 4 Math teachers to create Diigo accounts so that throughout our search of great websites we can instantly share them with each other. In searching for a video to help them understand and use Diigo, I found the following video.



In spending the last hour or so searching through Diigo I have found so many useful websites that I can use in my classroom and introduce as resources to parents and students. What I enjoy most, is that if I search for Math in yahoo, I get a variety of sites, some of which are pointless, not usefully, or hard to navigate. If I search in Diigo, I found so far, only useful and resourceful sites.

Finally, I like the idea of being at ANY computer and still having all of my bookmarks. I can remember bookmarking a ton of site in college on the library comp, and not having any of them when I got back to my dorm room. I wish I had know about this 8 years ago!

Week 2: First Thoughts

We are indeed two weeks into this class and already have tossed around web 2.0 tools that I have and haven't heard of. Skype, Jing, Animoto, Google Reader, to name just a few. This course is roughly 7 weeks long and to think that there is so much more out there is that enough time? My hope is to learn as many tools available and my fear is that there is not enough time or money.

While I am excited to learn all I can, I don't want to learn all that is available, and not learn how to use it. That is what leads me to a possible project for our class. If we all pick one tool that we can explore, learn, and create a artifact for; we could then create a "How-To" video/pod cast of it. Just an Idea.

Another fear for me with these tools is money. Don't get me wrong most of the sites are free or have educator discounts, but seem to have restrictions. To get the most of it, it seems as though I or my district would have to pay for it... For example Kim introduced me to the tool Elluminate. It allows for multi-people conferencing with additional features I am sure how to use (good project tool :). There is a free version but only allows 3 people to conference. Great tool, but has a cost associated to it.

Overall I am excited and ready to learn what Web 2.0 has to offer and how I can use to enhance learning and engage my students!

Week 2: Initial Thoughts of School 2.0

I first began by looking at the Ecosystem Map. With all of the technology and gadgets out there, none of the "captions" seemed out of reach. From the "Can you sign and submit my online permission slip" to "there's a virtual frog dissection now", it all seems so easy. The problem I see, is that schools are only using portions of the map, for different reasons. Reasons that can and cannot be controlled by a district.

For instance, many school are opting to forgo textbooks as seen in the map, and purchase technological resources that will capture and engage more students, and enhance the classroom environment. As a school principal, I could bring this idea forward, but in my particular school would see lots of headache. Many teachers believe that the textbook is the curriculum, and would not be willing to give up a textbook, to learn new technology themselves.

In browsing more, I was intrigued by the section that shows and explains how each piece of the "map" is used or its purpose. i.e what do the stakeholders get out of a school 2.0, how does each of the pieces effect assessment, communication etc.

As I browsed the other sections I read about the eToolkit and that its helps create the vision. As a teacher, what is my vision? As a faculty, what is our vision? As a district, what is our vision? I wondered about this as I moved forward exploring the site. As I continued to explore the site I was more and more aware of just how important the idea of a vision is. To bring all these tools and not know why or to use them, makes no sense.

I believe that to effectively use the tools of web 2.0 and create the school 2.0, everyone needs to share a vision, the same vision. It must be embraced by the administration, faculty, staff, and students.

Funny Video

I show this to my students each year at the beginning of the year. It is very interesting to see what students think the actual correct answer is.