21st Century Skills

I was intrigued by this site I found that outlines educational response to 21st century skills, Route 21. I love the logo (a highway marker 21) and the idea of collecting resources to help teachers target specific needs of a changing world. NWEA also has an excellent page that asks questions of online policy makers, teachers, and students about online course objectives that prepare learners for 21st century skills. Their Guide to Online High School Courses is here for download. If online courses kept these skills in mind, we could give our students valuable skills for life later on. :) Dabareh

Transforming Students with Internet Freedom Writing

Transformational leaders provide learning opportunities to empower others and stimulate innovation. Their charisma inspires others to overcome resistance to change and they give individual attention to encourage and motivate others. Nahavandi (2000). "Envisioning,enabling and empowering are central to transformational leadership” (Bass, 1997, p 134). Teachers are leaders empowering their students to reach a potential they never dared to dream alone. The movie Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank portrayed a first year teacher in the middle of a newly integrated school riddled with gang violence and prejudice. She created community in her class through making the various minorities realize that prejudice hurts everyone. Students wrote in journals about their personal pain and published a book of their writings called the Freedom Writers after the civil rights Freedom Riders they studied. She raised reading and writing scores and got them interested in reading Anne Frank after taking them to a Holocaust museum. Virtual education allows e-teachers to take students on virtual field trips. There is a poetry and literature world in Active Worlds (free virtual world) for teens that stretches the imagination with renaissance costumes, an opera theater and colorful flower gardens, carousel and poems scripted on parchment billboards. Students can blog about their life and reading experiences in online journals. Relating reading to life experience is one of the traits of good readers. A good reader “makes connections, asks questions, identifies confusions agrees or disagrees with ideas” (Tovani, 2004, p.63). The anonymity of the internet encourages students to share without fear of personal reprisal. Lowering the risk level students can partake in poetry nights or Shakespeare readings in an e-conference and write in blogs sharing writings and life changing experiences from reading. E-teaching can publish student works on websites increasing student pride by sharing their work with the world. E-teachers have potent tools to stretch students’ imaginations transforming and empowering them to potentials they never knew existed. References Bass, B.M. (1960). Leadership, psychology, and organizational behavior. New York: Harper & Brothers. Nahavandi, A. (2006). The art and science of leadership (4th Ed.) [Electronic Version]. Upper Saddle River: Pearson. Tovani, C. (2004). Do I really have to Teach Reading? Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Online Free Speeches

What a resource for history, literature, and cultural studies. Check out the American Rhetoric site for hundreds of free video clips and speeches. If you haven't watched "Who's on First" by Abbott and Costello lately, treat yourself!

Teach Collaborative Revision with Google Docs

Revision is a critical piece of the writing process—and of your classroom curriculum. Now, Google Docs has partnered with Weekly Reader’s Writing for Teens magazine to help you teach it in a meaningful and practical way.

The sharing features of Google Docs enable you and your students to decide exactly who can access and edit documents. You’ll find that Google Docs helps promote group work and peer editing skills, and that it helps to fulfill the stated goal of The National Council of Teachers of English, which espouses writing as a process and encourages multiple revisions and peer editing.

Get the rest of the story including a lesson plan and lots of great resources at:
http://www.google.com/educators/weeklyreader.html

Free online classroom resources

Thank you Susie for this resource!

A very user friendly resource for educators and a little something for everyone! =;->  

Free Web Tools Blog
http://freewebtools.wordpress.com/

Here is a sampling under the Creativity Tools section.
Toondoo- free comic strips and comic books creation tool.
Animoto-free music video creation site for 30 second spots. Then it costs $3.00/video for longer videos/
Flickr-free photo sharing website and online community platform.
Picnik.com-free photo editing online and integrates with Flickr.

Flat Classroom Wiki Project

Thank you Bethany for sharing this cool wiki project 
http://flatclassroomproject2006.wikispaces.com/  
:)
~julz

On-demand webinar: Building better Moodle rooms

Building better Moodle rooms: Online strategies and best practices
Sponsored by: Moodlerooms

Original broadcast date: December 4, 2007
Expiration date: March 3, 2008
Audience link:

http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=94646&s=1&k=9B7400E6E6534B9DD4FC267D25E2CF8E&partn
erref=opn24

This event is now available on demand. The archived webinar will be
available for viewing through the expiration date listed above.

To view this Webcast you will need to have Real Player or Windows Media
Player. You may download either of these at
http://webcast.on24.com/clients/help/.

2007 VSS Resources now available

The North American Council for Online Learning is pleased to announce that the 2007 VSS Resources page is now available online at http://www.virtualschoolsymposium.org/resources.php. On this page, you will find links to webcasts, vodcasts, articles, PowerPoint presentations, photos, etc. from many of the presentations offered at last month's Virtual School Symposium.

Don't forget to mark your calendar for next year's VSS: 2008 Virtual School Symposium, October 26-28, 2008 in Phoenix, AZ. It is sure to be even more exciting and innovative than ever!

Video sites make science more accessible

Inspired by YouTube's success, several new science video web sites have sprung up online
From eSchool News staff and wire service reports

Haim Weizman is a chemist by trade and an internet movie maker on the side. In his first video, a telegenic narrator in a lab coat swirls a flask as electronic music plays in the background. Created by four science and film students at the University of California, San Diego, the video shows a typical recrystallization experiment straight out of Chemistry 101.

The six-minute epic, complete with bloopers, got 1,205 views on Google Inc.’s YouTube, but the number increased fourfold when the video was posted to SciVee, one of a number of online video-sharing startups designed to let scientists broadcast themselves toiling in the laboratory or delivering lectures.

Read the rest of the story at http://snipurl.com/1uuxi
:)
~julz

Synchronous vs Asynchronous

It seems to go without saying that e-courses will need a combination of synchronous and asynchronous activities. It is the nature of personalities that some students will be masters of synchronous online chat and response, while other "wall flowers" will need time to process and then form a response in private. As good e-teachers, we will need to provide a good mix of both kind of interactions so that all of our students will have an equal chance to respond and receive "credit" for participation. One of the most difficult tasks will be to perfect the pose of the "guide from the side" and let live discussions and threaded chats flow without being stirred with the teacher stick.

Free MIT high school content

Check out http://snipurl.com/1ukkz

MIT is offering free content on their OpenCourseWare site for high school teachers and students in just about every subject. There are videos, learning objects, demonstrations on video, and online learning labs (check out the toolbar to the left).

These would be great resources for online courses.

WOW!

Dabareh

Tech Update and Introduction

First Let me introduce myself.  I am your friendly neighborhood Tech Guy.  My name is Jason Wolfe, and I am the Project Specialist for the New Mexico Learning Network, which supports the IDEAL-NM initiative.  my email is jwolfe@nmsu.edu my office phone number is (575) 646-6075.

Now to give you a quick Technology update.  We are in final contract negotiations with the vendor that will be supplying the state wide LMS, and we are hoping to be able to announce who was chosen by the second week in December.  The IDEAL-NM eLearning Service Center just received their new computers, and they are working great (I know cause I installed them).  APS recently purchased the Blog and Wiki tools for BlackBoard, and we are being given access to them for the spring semester.  I will provide more information on this topic coon.  Sorry this has to be short, but I've got circuit boards sparking at me.  Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving, and a great rest of the week.

JW:)

Learning 2007

I really wanted to go to Elliot Masie's Learning 2007 Conference, but
here's the next best thing - they are wikifying much of the good
stuff. They have added hours of video and
audio content including keynotes from Dan Pink, Jenny Zhu, Bobby Flay,
Wharton Faculty and Ken Blanchard. Check it out at
http://www.learningwiki.com

:)
~julz

Threaded Discussions (rubric)

I enjoyed Edelstein and Edwards article on threaded discussions. Specifically the need for a robust rubric for instructors to use that is also "facilitator" friendly. The authors give examples of two different rubrics and then "test" the second rubric using examples of three different students responses. Intially, I thought that the rubric was robust, but had the potential to not be facilitator friendly. How much time can an instructor devote to each thread of each discussion for each student? Upon review of the student "c"'s response I was amazed that the studen recieved any points at all. Yes the student did respond, and did participate, but did he collaborate or even contribute? Perhaps future rubrics need to put more emphasis on not just participation, but active participation. Participation that shows evidence of growth or learning in the individual or the group as a whole. Sed Keller

Collaboration and Cooperation

While I value the learning achieved through both, I also know the energy level required by the teacher to set up a successful project and keep the groups going. Panitz did a good job of differentiating the two, and I can see that collaboration can be an effective tool for online communities. However, knowing that I need to create carefully crafted collaborative projects as well as ensuring that content is provided, students' learning styles and other needs are met, a community is established, and students/parents/ facilitators are kept informed, sounds like it would take a super-human effort! No wonder the Star Wars theme is appropriate! The one bright spot, however, is that collaboration on projects among students may well create the community, allow others to meet various students' needs, and encourage additional communication/peer teaching to somewhat reduce the load on the instructor of the OLC. (After all, while in a face to face class, everyone may hear a question and answer, or it may be discussed more than once allowing multiple opportunities for success, whereas the online teacher may not be able to provide as many repetitions for all students. Having the record in a threaded discussion, or having other members of a group available to explain may promote more learning.) Of necessity, it seems, teachers of online classes may have to give up the complete control of a cooperative learning experience in a face to face class with a more collaborative approach for online classes.

Collaboration and Problem based learning

Cooperative and collaborative learning are very similar and for the most part can be seen as synonymous. Upon closer examination, cooperative learning focuses more upon a group of students working toward a specific end product, while collaborative learning seems to be concerned with the process a group uses to arrive at a solution. In the first approach, goals and objectives for the lesson come from the teacher, while in the second approach, the group takes a situation and devises a plan for reaching a solution. The collaborative approach often fits best within the structure of problem-based learning. This learning is a method based on carefully chosen problems that require the learner to use critical thinking and problem solving skills, self-directed learning and collaboration. This approach to learning is more open ended as students take an active role in the learning process. Teachers step into a position of facilitator rather than leader in the process. A group of students work together on a question or problem posed by the teacher to arrive at the best possible solution(s). Collaboratively, students often take a greater responsibility in the learning process. They move away from a view of education as something that is done to them toward the perception that they can be both learner and educator. Problem based learning goes beyond the traditional approach of acquiring a body of facts and recalling those disjointed facts on an exam. It forces students to take the information and experience that students already possess and synthesize that into solving an “ill structured” problem. Teachers work to encourage participation, provide the necessary information to keep students on track and coach positive responses. Students and teachers both benefit from the sharing and dividing of tasks in a larger, more complex problem. Roles are taken that both enhance and challenge each individual’s abilities. In this way, problem based learning simulates real life situations where professionals and employees work together on complex and immense projects. Students develop the skills necessary for success in the 21st century workplace.

cooperative learning

Cooperative learning should be used in conjunction with effective instructional strategies that take into account the individual needs and learning styles of each student. In cooperative learning groups, individuals work together to reach common goals. Some of the skills taught in elementary grades include staying with the group, sharing materials, taking turns, encouraging one another, and speaking in quiet voices. One of the best times for students to learn and practice social skills is in cooperative group situations. Collaboration can achieve collective results that the participants would be incapable of accomplishing working alone. Using these two strategies online will create a challenge for the student. It is more difficult to coordinate activities of a virtual group that must work remotely and asynchronously to achieve collaboration, but not impossible. Raynee

Threaded discussions

The articles on threaded discussions state that they can be an excellant tool for the teacher to use in their online courses. This method can be used to set up interaction between teachers and students. However, the articles do stress that teachers must participate to make sure that the students have a positive experience with the discussions. This is done by wording of the topic, posting responses, offering encouragment, and redirection if necessary. These are things that teachers also do in a regular classroom. I understand that it will take practice and trial and error for me as a teacher to learn to make threaded discussion a successful tool for my students. Ruth Shields

Collaborative vs Cooperative Connundrum

Before reading the articles for this week's module, I pretty much thought that the words 'collaborative' and 'cooperative' were about the same and interchangable. It is interesting that they really are not. The biggies that came out to me in Panitz's article were these: Cooperative: Students do the work together over material being covered, but the teacher is still the one in 'control'. Often the 'stepping stone' to collaborative learning... i.e., used in earlier phases of education (whether 'age' wise, or ability-wise). Cooperation stresses the 'product' of the work. Often also deals with 'traditional knowledge'. Collaborative: Students work together in a more 'open ended' setting trying to reach a goal for which they are responsible in achieving, not the teacher. More of a 'personal philosophy' as opposed to a 'classroom technique'. Stresses the 'process' of working together. Collaboration 'ties into the social constructivist movement'. I liked the quote that Panitz included which came from Rocky Rockwood: "...cooperative represents the best means to approach mastery of foundational knowledge. Once students become reasonably conversant, they are ready for collabaorative, ready to discuss and assess..." In the OLC, we will have to evaluate at what level(s) our students are in so that we can assertain whether cooperative learning or collaborative learning would be the best medium for students to work in on various assignments. If they are at a lower level of knowledge, we would be asking for failure from the beginning if we wanted them to 'collaborate' when they had no idea where to start... at the same time, if we are dealing w/ a higher level class, some collaboration would be appripo.

Reflection on Panitz’s

"…Nature of Interactive Learning" by Rebecca Sharpe

Panitz makes an interesting revelation in his study of the nature of interactive learning with his connections between methods and age group appropriateness. Having worked both elementary and secondary levels and having experimented with the capacities and behaviors of these students in relation to cooperative and collaborative learning methods gives me personal insights to the valid points he makes. Cooperative learning best suits the foundational level of students in the early grades, giving them opportunity to solve known problems with predictable outcomes. Collaborative learning best suits older students or at least experienced students who have a capacity to tackle problems with unpredictable, open-ended outcomes.

2 Things 2 Know 2day

ONE – National Distance Learning Week http://ndlw.org starts 2day and NMSU College of Extended Learning is working hard to do its part http://nmsu.pbwiki.com

TWO – The XO Laptop, Give 1 Get 1 started 2day http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php I just bought mine; my son, Jon and I, will be having fun with these over Christmas and two children somewhere in the world will have the opportunity to access knowledge and tools in a way they’ve never had before. Here’s a great vodcast featuring the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) team:

It’s a FABULOUS day! ;) ~julz

Online Collaborative Learning

The vehicle of online learning provides an excellent opportunity to foster collaborative learning. Since the online class cannot participate in a physical group, the learning experience moves away from the cooperative group in which tasks to complete the final project are dictated, divided, and assigned by the teacher to a true collaborative effort in which ideas are shared and discussed by group individuals who take personal responsibility for how much each will contribute to the learning process. In this collaborative effort, it is the members of the online group, not the instructor, that determine how the learning takes place and how the assignment tasks are divided and conquered. The members of the group will set deadlines, assign tasks, and monitor participation. Effective cooperative group work in the early (elementary/middle school) stages of the educational experience will provide the foundation and tools that will prepare the more mature student to be an effective member of a collaborative group.

Vocabulary Voki

Other geometry teachers at PVHS are creating word walls in their classrooms in order to help students retain the meanings of the different terms. My class is trying out the Voki character options for creating an electronic word window. If you would like to watch our progress, please visit us. In the words of a student as he expressed his desire to begin this project, "I am pumped!" I think it is going to be great.

National Distance Learning week Nov. 12-16

The NMSU Office of Distance Education and the RETA Project within the College of Extended Learning (CEL) will host webinars, blogs, chats, an online Moodle open house and other events in honor of the 2007 National Distance Learning Week (NDLW) Nov. 12 -16, http://ndlw.org

The NDLW Webinars http://www.ndlw.org/learners.html will be hosted throughout the week from 9 to 10 a.m. and from noon to 1 p.m. in Milton Hall, Room 185, La Academia.

CEL and RETA offerings are viewable BUT still under construction at:
http://nmsu.pbwiki.com/

Later in the day (today is Friday, November 9, 2007), we will be extending the invitation to our eLearning friends (RETAzens, OTLOzens, eTeachers,
OTLCers, etc.) to join us in a variety of ways. Contributors and attendees will be entered into a drawing at the end of the week.

Online Underwater First! Project SeaCAMEL: Live Broadcasts November 12 - 14

Online Underwater First! Project SeaCAMEL: Live Broadcasts November 12 - 14 Marine Science Classes from the Aquarius Habitat KEY LARGO, Fla., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Distance learning goes to the extreme November 12 - 14, when Project SeaCAMEL aquanauts go live with high tech marine science classes broadcast from Aquarius, the world's only undersea research station. Live action coral reef science will be a click away for students and ocean enthusiasts around the world via satellite and the Internet from Conch Reef, located 4 miles off Key Largo and 60-feet beneath the sea in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The mission is the first in a series of online sea-to-shore educational programs sponsored by the Maryland-based Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (http://www.seacamel.livingoceansfoundation.org ), a non-profit organization focusing on ocean research and conservation. The university-level science experiments using high-tech undersea tools to collect data will also have broad appeal to younger audiences. Numerous schools, museums, and aquariums across the country, in Mexico and Great Britain are expected to participate. A curriculum for 8th-12th-graders is also available online from project partner Immersion Presents http://www.immersionpresents.org Related Links: http://www.vims.edu/events/ http://www.livingoceansfoundation.org/ http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius/ Project SeaCAMEL Goes Live November 12-14! http://www.seacamel.livingoceansfoundation.org

Let's help change the world, here's one way...

You are receiving this update because I requested a reminder from One Laptop per Child about the limited-time "Give One Get One" program. Starting Monday, November 12 at 6:00am EST, you will be able to donate one XO laptop to a child in the developing world and also receive a laptop for the child in your life, by visiting www.laptopgiving.org or calling toll-free 1-877-70-LAPTOP.

"Give One Get One" is the only time they are making the revolutionary XO laptop available to the public. For a donation of just $399 ($200 of which is tax-deductable), you will be giving the gift of education. Additionally, T-Mobile is offering donors one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot locations throughout the United States, which can be used from any Wi-Fi-capable device, including the XO laptop.

I will send another update when the program begins on November 12. I hope
you'll join the mission to bring education and connection to children in even the most remote regions of the globe.

I'm thinking of doing this myself and sharing a laptop with my teen. The free T-Mobile HotSpot and portable, somewhat indestructible mobile device is totally worth it.

Let's spread the word!
:)
~julz

SLOAN-C International Symposium

Are you using technology in cool ways for teaching and learning (think blogs, wikis, moodle, audio/video, etc.) - please submit an abstract to the SLOAN-C International Symposium. SLOAN has traditionally been focused on higher education but now they have said they'd love to see what K12 folks are doing. The upcoming conference is May 7-9, 2008 and is close by in Carefree, Arizona. I'm sure some fun caravanning could be arranged!

Also, check out the social network that SLOAN is working on.

http://www.emergingonlinelearningtechnology.org/

:)
~julz

A Web Event for K12 eTeachers

Thanks to Bethany for this resource. I have attended a Cider event and they do an excellent job with the research. K12ers, let's attend.
:)
~julz

CIDER has the following eLuminate presentation coming up. It's free - all you have to do is become a member of CIDER community (also free). See

http://cider.athabascau.ca/CIDERSessions/

Research Results from BC's Connected Learner's Technology Projects Institution: BCEd Online Date and time: Nov 16, 2007 11:00 AM

What factors help to create effective online learning environments in K-12? In this session, Dr. Elizabeth Childs and Lara Jongedijk will report on the final data from nine provincial Connected Learner's Technology Grant Projects that ran across 18 months and involved 14 school districts in British Columbia. The technologies used in the projects included: webcasting, web-conferencing, synchronous courses using Elluminate Live, use of Smartboards, online tutoring and data archiving. Lessons learned will be discussed and recommendations for making informed decisions when planning and implementing similar technology projects will be shared.

NACOL VSS Conference

Hi Everyone,
Reporting live from Louisville, Kentucky and the VSS Conference. I wanted to let you know that you should visit the NACOL site at http://nacol.org because a lot of cool NEW stuff is being posted, like the updated Keeping Pace report by John Watson. AND I'm not sure if you noticed because I didn't until just now, that some of the events going on are being webcast LIVE using Elluminate! Also, I noticed that last year's webcasts are all there now too.

And I have tried emailing all my groups but the Internet has been up and down so I'm not sure they all went out, so here is my information again. I am blogging to http://juliaparra.blogspot.com and
microblogging at http://twitter.com/desertjul

My friend, Holly is also blogging and she takes better pictures than I do, http://technologyadventures.blogspot.com

Enjoy and Have a FABULOUS day!
:)
~julz

Student e-mail

Hey all- What is your take on student e-mail? Do you use it in your classes? How do you use it in your class? Which e-mail providers do you use/prefer for student use? Doug Byers

Cool Volunteer Site

My friend, Bethany, was telling us about a wonderful site that helps people volunteer at the global level. The site is called Global Vision
International:
http://www.gvi.co.uk/

:)
~julz

The World of Possiblilites

This is the first time since I began teaching that I feel I may be on the cutting edge of discovery. I remember when the internet first became accessible to the general public. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Finally we had information at the tip of our fingers. We could access both valid resources as well as bogus information. To be able to search night or day for information and not be confined to the hours of library is still a very satisfying experience. Now we've improved the internet and can communicate in real time to people all over the world. Talk via our computers, download songs, no longer do we have to buy records (okay I'm dating myself), cd's etc. , we can load them onto our ipods etc. We can use the new technologies to simulate labs, podcast lessons, talk to students via the computer, students that you may or may not meet. I can't help but feel right now, that this is almost as exciting as the first successful mission to the moon. (Okay maybe I'm stretching it but from my standpoint its pretty exciting). The world of possiblities keeps getting better every day Pamela Nuttall

Teachers can use Lijit

I went to the LIjit site and couldn't open up the u-tube videos. The idea of having a one stop shopping for your students to access without the fear of logging into taboo areas would be great. Also, narrowing down the search would really help our students with their research. This seems like it will be a good site so, I plan on checking it out from time to time. Pam I'm still trying to figure out the coolness of Lijit. My new friend Kevin, at Lijit told me the following:

--- a good point to remember about Lijit is that we provide a controllable search engine that lets teachers uniquely build sites students can search (as I mentioned before), instead of the entire web.

Here is an example educator site using the Lijit Search: Global Learners http://principianteglobal.blogspot.com/

On Classroom 2.0: Breaking News: Ning announces ad-free networks for K-12 educators

This is very cool!
:)
~julz

From Steve Hargadon:

“Will post more on this at http://www.classroom20.com and http://education.ning.com later today, but for now details at http://www.stevehargadon.com/2007/11/big-news-from-ning-ad-free-student.html.

Have a great day!  Huge thanks to Ning!

Steve

About Classroom 2.0
The social network for educators using collaborative technologies!

Click here to visit Classroom 2.0!
http://classroom20.ning.com”

Cool Links

My friend, the Lone Eagle shared the following links with me and I thought I'd share them with you: Open Educational Resources - OER Commons And within there: EduForge Happy Day Everyone! :) ~julz

ISTE in Second Life

Thanks to my friend Larry Jeffryes for the following notice:

ISTE's Second Life social occurs on Thursdays at 6 PM (Pacific Time). The
ISTE SL docents are very helpful.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents.
Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today
is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe. Read more
at http://secondlife.com/whatis/

To explore ISTE's Second Life headquarters, visit
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/93/83/30
If you don't have an account and avatar in Second Life, you'll be
prompted to create one (they're free!). If you already have an account,
you'll need to log in first. The above link will display a map to
ISTE's Island just select "teleport" and you'll be transported
directly there. (You'll need to download and install SecondLife
software.)

I found SecondLife to have a much bigger world than just ISTE. As I
explored the SecondLife world, I teleported to some very interesting
and some very strange virtual worlds. I'm still learning the interface
and a bit confused by this and that at times.

Larry Jeffryes
Los Alamos, NM

USDLA Launches National Distance Learning Week to Increase the Awareness of Distance Learning

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) September 19, 2007 -- The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) will hold the 2007 National Distance Learning Week (NDLW), November 12 -16, 2007. Read all about it! And of course, we plan to have some fun activities for you all! :) ~julz

Did You Know 2.0? Join the Conversation!

For when you have time... 8 minutes on the case for web 2.0 education.

Upcoming NM eTeacher Workshop!

Hi Everyone,
The upcoming NM eTeacher Preparation Workshop is THIS weekend in Albuquerque! Remember that the basic information with directions is here at your blog at:

http://nmeteachers.blogspot.com/2007/09/upcoming-nm-eteacher-event.html

We are looking into whether or not, you should bring your laptops to the workshop site. There are labs, so you don’t have to bring them.

Please let us know of any changes in your plans, especially if something prevents you from joining us. We will be worried.

If you have ANY questions, let us know right away.

These are exciting times and we look forward to this weekend’s activities!
:)
~julz

It's Official

If you teach it, they will come! So, Google Docs and Spreadsheets are now officialized by a tutorial created by Atomic Learning. Finally, the serious G-Doc lover can point newbies to a resource. Having just used Google Spreadsheets for the first time (yes, there are limitations, but it's still cool that you can copy and paste cells directly from Excel), I am ready to get my students involved in some collaborative (and cooperative) writing and recordkeeping.

Twitter + Second Life = Spontaneous Web Meetspace

Tech Crunch provides an article about using Twitter and SecondLife to conduct web meetings...
Read the article at
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/11/twitter-second-life-spontaneous-web-meetspace/
:)
~julz

A New Model of Education: Designing Virtual Communities for Creativity and Learning

Check out the Edutopia article - A New Model of Education: Designing Virtual Communities for Creativity and Learning: The boundaries that define various school stakeholders are breaking down. by Ted Kahn

Cool Resource

elearnspace looks like an excellent resource, comment on what you think... :) ~julz

The Three C's

I have become familiar with constructivist epistemology and how both cooperation and collaboration support it. I had not, previous to reading the article by Panitz, distinguished between the two models. The difference is defined as largely a matter of how "teachers tend to make different assumptions about the nature and authority of knowledge" (Bruffee 1995 p. 12). The teacher's judgment about the students' expertise with material would dictate which was used; cooperation or collaboration. I had not considered the two in linear structure (cooperative first, then collaborative), one building upon the other. If Brufee is correct, foundational knowledge is the beginning point-learning the jargon and basic concepts-- and nonfoundational knowledge is dealing with the "dubious or ambiguous answers" which are arrived at by judgment based on knowledge. Maybe one reason some collaborative projects (calling for reasoning and questioning) fail is that the underlying knowledge is not yet established (the cooperative job of building vocabulary and basic precepts). Students cannot be expected to participate in full collaboration (creating a product) until the bridge to foundational knowledge is established through cooperation (learning to work together and communicate). I also appreciated the discussion (Rockwood 1995) about the authority for validity. In collaboration, the product is checked against the small group, the whole group, and the existing knowledge of the wider community. This view parallels "real-world" work more than a central authority like a teacher (autonomous and alone) determining the validity of group process. Many of the elements of cooperative learning (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec) like interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, interpersonal skills, and group processing could also be applied to collaboration. The question of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic) is answered only be examining the classroom environment, teacher belief, and the reward system in place. The use of cooperation and then collaboration should build student autonomy and intrinsic reward in learning, a shift from knowledge transmission (knowledge flowing from the teacher) to knowledge construction (Lee 1997). Bruffee, K. (1995). "Sharing our toys-Cooperative learning versus collaborative learning." Change, Jan/Feb, 1995 (pp 12-18). Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., Holubec, E.J. (1991). Cooperation in the Classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Co. Lee, G.S. (1997). Internet communication. Institute for Distance Education: Universiti Pertanian Malaysia. Panitz, T. "Collaborative versus cooperative learning- A comparison of the two concepts which will help us understand the underlying nature of interactive learning." Ted's Cooperative Learning E-Book. (Chapter 2) http://home.capecod.net/~tpanitz/ebook/contents.html Rockwood, R. (1995). National Teaching and Learning Forum (4)6.

Joey's Reflection on Interaction/Interactivity

Reflection on Interaction: to engage in Interactivity. Terry Anderson http://it.coe.uga.edu/itform/paper63/paper63.htm Highlights: -Interaction is the number one debated topic among educators, most important to education. -The likelihood of finding a perfect mix of interaction is low. -Collaboration is key component of all forms of education both process and context -Definition: Wagner’s (1994). Reciprocal events that require at least two objects and two actions. -Functions of; learners control, facility, program adaptations based on learner input, various forms of participation communication. -Interactivity key to formation of Leaning Communities and part of constructive learning theory. -1916 John Dewey stated interaction is the defining component when information is passed from one student to another, resulting in construction of information. 6 types of interaction 1) Teacher-Teacher 2) Teach-Content 3) Content-Content 4) Student-Student 5) Student-Teacher 6) Student-Content -No single media supports the educational experience in a manner that is superior in all ways to that supported via other media. -Conclusions from informal surveys of students: wide range of needs preferences paces, synchronous asynchronous act, desire for exposure, differing modes of activities and provisions Equivalency theorem: 1) Student-Teacher 2) Student-Student 3) Student-Content Interaction above can be substituted with little loss of effectiveness - Student Interaction: Teacher interaction currently has the highest perceived value amongst students and thus commands highest market value. - Teacher Interaction: Some teacher interaction can be substantiated into learning objects (videos, animations, assessment programs etc.) thus migrating student-teacher interaction to student-content interaction. - Content Interaction: The value of the content is dependent on the extent to which it engages students or teachers in interaction, leading to relevant knowledge construction –There is also a direct relationship between this capacity for interaction and resulting engagement mindfulness and motivation. Classroom Delivery: 1) Low Level of student- student interaction 2) Medium Level student-content - Distance Education Email- text allows for high levels of student content interaction. - Web Based; Audio Video, Centra, ELuminate, have the same technical and pedagogical pluses and minuses of earlier video and audio graphic systems. Conclusion- Author hopes people will engage in dialogue about interaction, think critically about the role of human interaction with non human entities. Interactivity, Joey

Collaberative vs Cooperative Cont...Lisa's notes

I never have given too much thought to the differences/similarities to collaberative and cooperative learning. I found it interesting to read Panitz's detailed article about the topic. In a nutshell, collaboration "focuses on the process of working together" while cooperation "stresses the product of such work". Cooperative learning uses quantiative methods to measure achievement (the product). This method is more 'teacher-centered'. On the other hand, collaborative learning is more qualitative (analyzing student responses). This approach is more 'student-centered'. It is designed to pick up where cooperative leaves off. The constructivist theory lays the foundation for both methods of learning, so there are many paralells. They both use groups, assign specific tasks, and share their findings. The major difference is that cooperative deals exclusively with traditional (canoniacal) knowledge while collaborative learning deals with nonfoundational knowledge (reasoning and questioning). Cooperative learning is great to start with, but as educators we should be striving for the collaborative learning with our teaching methodology. We want our students to think on their own and question their experiences.

Collaborative vs. Cooperative le...

Rose's take ...

 

Finally! Panitz's comparison of Collaborative versus Cooperative learning, including the addition of a third type of learning, is clearly outlined so I can see the similarities & differences. In a nutshell: 

 

In the collaborative model groups would assume almost total responsibility for answering the question. Collaborative learning is based upon the following principles:  

 1.          Working together results in a greater understanding than would likely have occurred if one had worked independently.  

 2.          Spoken and written interactions contribute to this increased understanding.  

 3.          Opportunity exists to become aware, through classroom experiences, of relationships between social interactions and increased understanding.  

 4.          Some elements of this increased understanding are idiosyncratic and unpredictable. 

 5.          Participation is voluntary and must be freely entered into. 

 

Cooperative Learning is very similar except that it introduces a more structured setting with the teacher in total control of the learning environment ... even though the students work in groups to accomplish a goal of a course.  Many of the elements of cooperative learning may be used in collaborative situations... The approaches diverge in the amount of freedom allowed the participants; collaborative learning strategies are the most open.

 

Interactive learning relies on the application of computer technology as the collaborative medium between student and teacher ... all three learning approaches recognize that learning is indeed a two-way street with teaching and learning being two components of the same educational system.

 

In our online classes, we should share Panitz's goal. "In my classes, I view student-teacher and student-student collaboration as essential to successful learning. Thus, I will seek every opportunity to encourage collaborative experiences...students will experience a variety of instructional methods and they will be actively involved in the learning experience." 

NM TIE Podcasting Workshop

I'm helping Bethany today at the NM TIE conference with her podcasting workshop. We started by investigating iTunes and EPN - http://epnweb.org.

Right away, some folks found a couple of very cool things:

• Tamara found Willow Web, an elementary podcast show at EPN and she said she listened to elementary students expressing their knowledge about the constitution in authentic way to an audience of their peers (and a global audience).
• Jim noted that the second language podcasts, specifically the French ones, at EPN were just like taking a class.
• Gail noted that in the general topics of EPN, there were 137 podcasts for English and 9 for math...

Then they came up with some great ideas for uses of podcasts!

• Have students record and edit movies and broadcast via podcast - moviecasting!
• Creating tech instructional podcast on how to do various tasks like email
• Opportunities for training on district-wide systems
• Have students do podcast presentations, thereby addressing the issues of time where you can't get everyone up in front of the class. An immediate win is that students don't often get the opportunity to hear themselves and self-critique until college.
• Virtual campus/school tours
• Audio quiz/audio answers
• Library could do weekly/monthly podcast on new or featured books, bibliographic or library use
• Enhancement to lessons
• Students in the hospital never gets the full class experience, could get more of an experience with a vodcast
• This workshop could have been podcast
• Coaches created podcasts of the team plays and the team listened and learned on the bus

Some advantages were brought up:

• Focused, what you want when you want, just-in-time learning, segmenting, smaller files
• Addressing different learners
• Reaching more students
• Achieving hard to achieve educational goals
• 21st Century Skills addressed

Next everyone is going to use the following to create podcasts right here, right now.

• Gcast - http://www.gcast.com/
• PodcastPeople - http://www.podcastpeople.com/

Lots of fun was had. Wish you'd been here ;)
~julz

Webinar

Register Now to Attend: Beyond the Collaborative Project: Student-Created Content

On October 3 at 11am Eastern, Alan November, a long-time leader and visionary in the area of Education Technology, joins Jan Zanetis, Market Manager for Education at TANDBERG, to discuss the power of students as content creators. To read more about it and register, click here.

New Mexico forming an ISTE Affiliate :)

Today, New Mexico started the process to form an ISTE affiliate. For further information check out http://nmste.org/

:)
~julia

Upcoming NM eTeacher Event!

Hello NM eTeachers,

The required upcoming eTeacher workshop is happening soon, hopefully you all have your calendars marked for:

• Saturday, October 20 – all day (8:30-5:00)
• Sunday, October 21 – all day (8:30-5:00)
  

Lunch and a Hospitality Table will be provided both days.

You will be paid:

• $200 to attend the 2 days of training
• $150 per diem for the training days if your participation requires a hotel stay
• 40.5 cents per mile for travel (If you carpool then only the driver receives the mileage)
  

Make your Reservations Now! Room Rates are good through Sunday, September 30th.

Request the NMCA RETA eTeacher room rate of: $65/single and $70/double
Email suceppib@nmsu.edu to request a roommate.

ClubHouse  Inn & Suites Albuquerque
1315 Menaul Blvd. Northeast • Albuquerque, New Mexico 87107
Phone: (505) 345-0010 • Fax: (505) 344-3911
Toll Free: (866) 345-0010 CALL FOR RESERVATIONS

Full hot breakfast and Happy Hour (5-7 PM) included
Free Wireless Internet

Where are we meeting? Glad you asked!
Desert Ridge Middle School
8400 Barstow NE
Please park in back of the school

Exit Paseo Del Norte
Go East on Paseo Del Norte
Turn left onto Barstow
School is 3 blocks down on right

Brief Agenda
Saturday, October 20
8-8:30 Registration and Hospitality Table
8:30-4:30 Lunch provided onsite

Sunday, October 21
8-8:30    Hospitality Table and Socializing
8:30-2:30 Lunch provided onsite

We look forward to seeing you all! And please note that this information is being sent to your blog as well. If you need a principal or superintendent to be informed, you can give them the blog address. You should bookmark it as well.

:)
Sincerely,
Susie Bussmann and Julia Parra
Regional Educational Technology Assistance
http://reta.nmsu.edu
toll free: 1.800.821.1574
office: 505.646.3524
cell: 505.571.5430
fax: 505.646.2044
suceppib@nmsu.edu
juparra@nmsu.edu

Interwrite Learning & TeacherTube Classroom Makeover Contest

TeacherTube \"Teach the World\"®

We at TeacherTube wanted to make sure our community members were aware of a great opportunity to win an interactive classroom makeover worth over $15,000.00. That\'s right-- $15,000.00! Interwrite Learning and TeacherTube are partnering to bring this contest to classroom teachers.

Check out all the details at http://www.teachertube.com/makeover. Your video submission could be the big winner!

Bethany

NACOL Standards of Quality for Online Courses

Here it is friends, hot off the press!

The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) has released a new publication, the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses. NACOL adopted the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Standards for Quality Online Courses and included a standard to include 21st Century Skills.

The National Standards of Quality for Online Courses can be found at the NACOL website at:
http://www.nacol.org/nationalstandards/

:)
~julz

For my Skype users

Though we love Skype, you should be aware that like everything else, there are security issues. Do not accept strange messages, files, etc. Remember to set those preference that I told you about.

On PC
1. Go to the Menu bar, select Tools > Options > Privacy.
2. Select Show Advanced Options
3. Make sure all of the right things are selected, i.e. Allow calls from: Only people in my Contacts list.

On Mac
1.Go to the Menu bar, select Skype > Preferences > Privacy.
2. Make sure all of the right things are selected, i.e. Allow calls from: Only people whom I have authorized, or Allow SkypeIn calls from Only people from my Contacts.

Here is an article about the current Skype security issue:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2181764,00.asp

Safe Computing!
:)
~julz

Me-Publishing

We need to keep K12 online students and teachers in mind as well when we read stories like the following. At RETA, we are experimenting with technologies that allow teachers collaborative, co-creation opportunities and the ability to me-publish. Current tools for experimentation: RETA Blog RETA Wiki Julz wiki - Let's Change the World NM eTeacher Blog - you're here NM eTeacher Wiki The following story is from Elliot Masie's Learning Trends. To subscribe go to http://www.masie.com/masie/default.cfm?page=techlearntrends "Me-Publishing" Imperatives: Your employees want an opportunity to"me-publish" their profiles and perspectives at work! Let me share an interesting story from a young employee that I met on an airplane: This young man had been recently hired by a Fortune 100 company to work in their procurement office. On his first day of work, he asked the HR person conducting orientation where he could publish his profile. This was a perplexing question to the facilitator who responded that his profile was already in their HR system. The new employee replied: "But, where do I post my profile so that everyone else in the company can see what I am about?" He kept his profile on Facebook and MySpaces up to date and used these social networking systems every day. So, he just assumed that a big corporation would have a similar system. He wanted to be able to see who had graduated from his college, who shared some of his same interests, even who already knew the massive system he was about to learn. His model of learning and "belonging" involved a degree of "me-publishing" and social networking. He was amazed that people could work for a 50,000 person company and not be able to self-publish their profiles and experiences. The HR orientation leader told him he should get used to the fact that big companies didn't foster that type of networking and it could be used to help recruit away some of their best talent. Actually, her response had the same effect. One week later, he resigned and went to a company that gave him the tools and permissions to keep a daily work blog and access to an internally secure social networking system. By the way, he took a 15% reduction in salary in order to be in a better topography of knowledge sharing. Don't do this just for your NextGen employees. The age of me-publishing and social networking is upon us and will be leveraged by every generation of our workforce. We can create models that protect the company's interests while deeply fostering the power of the network and the wisdom of crowds."

Online Identity

This was a post I created for the students in our Online Teaching and Learning Graduate Certificate program and I thought it might be relevant here as well. At least it's something to consider:: Branding vs. Pseudonymity When you decide to take your courses and your presence online, you start developing an online identity and an online persona. Some people don't mind a public or even branded online identity/persona. In fact, they foster it: See http://juliaparra.com It's important to have an online presence and an online persona in order to develop a thriving learning community and feel successful as a student and as a teacher.However, many people do not feel comfortable with their pictures and real identity being freely available on the web. Thus, it's a good time to reflect on how public you want your online identity/persona to be. My friend, Bethany is fostering a near-pseudo identity with her TekTrekker moniker. I say near-pseudo because her first name is scattered throughout the blog. So, depending on your attitude about the Internet, we recommend that you consider your online identity. If you want to brand yourself, use your real name. If you do not trust the Internet, consider a pseudo-identity, a way to interact with us and each other online yet remain somewhat anonymous. Creating Your Pseudo-Identity First, ponder a fake name that is unique and doesn't identify you. For example, a pseudo-identity that I might have considered is desertjewel. Second, set up your pseudonym email account. Gmail is our recommendation as they no longer require a secondary email account. Hopefully, your pseudonym idea hasn't been used by someone else. This is where you might have to make adjustments to your chosen pseudonym. Third, create an avatar for your online picture. Yahoo Avatars is a fun still image avatar. Voki is great for your audio/video avatar. If you have a Second Life character, you can take a picture of yourself in Second Life and use that. More about avatars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(virtual_reality) Last, use your pseudonym and avatar image whenever you are asked to post something online. Resources for Further Exploration Why You May Need an Online Persona Your Online Persona Developing Your Online Persona Taking Care of Your Internet Persona Managing Your Online Persona Becomes a Key Career Skill Online Identity The Brand Called You Personal Branding What do you think about your online identity?